Trial of Mana (Part 3)

—Krrroooaaar!

Taking to the skies atop Yongyong, the very first thing Choi Cheol-gi did was unleash a deafening draconic roar across the battlefield.

The display instantly seized the undivided attention of every mage stationed upon the magic tower.

"A dragon! It's a dragon!"

"Target that beast!"

The maneuver yielded immediate results. The overwhelming magical bombardment cascading from the upper reaches of the tower abruptly shifted, converging entirely upon Choi Cheol-gi and his draconic mount.

Yet, because Cheol-gi's primary objective from the outset was simply to draw their gaze, the spells never found their mark. He banked and wheeled through the sky, darting close enough to provoke them before sweeping safely out of reach.

"Now! Fire again!"

With the mages distracted, the sheer volume of magical fire raining down upon the allied vanguard plummeted. Relieved of that crushing pressure, the coalition's ground assault surged toward the base of the tower with redoubled fury.

Most importantly, it provided Han Hye with the perfect window to covertly scale the tower.

He's got them completely hooked.

Seizing on the chaos centered around Choi Cheol-gi, Han Hye triggered Leap to blink toward the rear face of the structure—a blind spot the mages could hardly monitor.

From there, he began rapidly scaling the sheer spire. Although its polished masonry offered no handholds whatsoever, the climb posed no real danger. By opening miniature apertures of his subspace to serve as stepping stones and chaining them with Leap, the risk of falling was nonexistent.

—Krrroooaaar!

Even as Han Hye ascended, Choi Cheol-gi played the role of decoy to perfection. Circling at a predictable distance would eventually clue the mages in that something was amiss. Well aware of this, Cheol-gi deliberately mixed up his tempo, using his mounted coordination to feign headlong dives toward the tower and keeping the defenders in a perpetual state of panic.

One on the left.

Thanks to his keen spatial awareness, Han Hye easily detected the mages patrolling the vicinity of his upward path. He bypassed them without raising so much as a ripple of suspicion.

The climb was over in mere moments.

Just as Choi Cheol-gi feigned his second headlong plunge, Han Hye reached the pinnacle of the magic tower.

Chunbae. Can I stash that thing away?

A flicker of ambition stirred within him as his eyes fell upon the Mana Core. While not truly inexhaustible, it served as a battery providing a virtually bottomless reservoir of magical energy. Stowing it away inside his subspace seemed like something that could prove invaluable down the line. If he handed it to an elemental mage like Seo Minjae, for instance, Minjae could bombard battlefields with endless spells just like the mages here.

—Negative. That object is essentially an aggregated mass of mana pooled together by the continental magic circle encompassing this tower's perimeter.

So it's useless to take?

—The moment it enters the subspace, it will lose its cohesive integrity. It is merely a terminal device continuously gathering mana from the surrounding environment.

Like a portable power bank that only works while plugged into a wall outlet?

Han Hye nodded in understanding. If its entire structure depended on the ambient magic circle, plucking the core alone was pointless.

Then should I smash it right away before it can regenerate?

—No. A Mana Core is not something that can be reconstituted in a short span of time.

Well, in that case... I can just stab it, right?

—It is feasible, but you must exercise extreme caution. It is an immense concentration of raw mana; you must account for the destructive shockwave when it ruptures.

Han Hye nodded and drew the Sword of the Sky from his subspace. A familiar surge of vigor coursed through his limbs the moment his fingers wrapped around the hilt. Just as he prepared to manifest a subspace barrier to shield himself from the impending blast, a different thought crossed his mind.

Wait a second.

Come to think of it, why take the risk of stabbing it at close range? Hadn't he recently acquired the Incineration skill?

An S-rank flame capable of consuming mana itself.

Granted, it was only Level 1, so he wasn't certain if it could devour such a colossal sphere of condensed mana, but it was certainly far safer than driving a sword into it.

—Fwoosh!

Han Hye immediately unleashed Incineration upon the Mana Core. A wisp of flame no larger than a clenched fist flared to life against the glowing sphere.

In the blink of an eye, it began hungrily devouring the Mana Core. A fire fueled purely by magical energy.

"Wait, what?!"

"Huh?!"

As the ambient mana current stuttered and fractured, panic rippled through the mages across the tower. The endless flow of power that had been sustaining their spells was abruptly withering away.

Holy crap.

Yet Han Hye was hardly having an easy time of it either.

Incineration.

True to its S-rank designation, its mana consumption was monstrous—and sustaining it against such a colossal mass of condensed mana taxed his reserves even more severely. In direct proportion to how greedily the flame consumed the core, Han Hye's own mana drained away like an ebbing tide.

At this rate, collapsing from complete mana exhaustion in a matter of seconds wouldn't be a surprise.

Had I ever burned through my mana so recklessly? Normally, after expending a bit, I would slip into the subspace to rest, so I had never pushed my reserves to the brink like this. To make matters worse, the mana vanished in the span of mere heartbeats.

—At this rate, you will suffer mana exhaustion. You must invest points into your Mana stat immediately.

Snapping out of my daze at Chunbae's urgent counsel, I called up my status window on the spot.

Right before bottoming out, I dumped points straight into Mana. Unforeseen crises like this were precisely why I always held unallocated points in reserve.

I pumped 10 points directly into my Mana stat. If I hadn't stockpiled those points upon leveling up and had spent them blindly, I would have been in deep trouble.

—Fwwwoooosh!

The moment the points registered, the Mana Core was completely devoured by Incineration, vanishing into thin air.

The blaze that had started out the size of a fist was now larger than my entire body. Thanks to Fire Resistance, it felt like gentle warmth rather than scorching heat, but terrified by the catastrophic mana drain, I hastily extinguished the flames.

It happened in an instant.

"For real?"

I stared at the floating prompts, thoroughly awestruck.

Back when I awakened in that Level 90+ gate and drove my blade into the dragon's eye, my Stamina and Mana had each increased by 10. And now, simply for shattering a Mana Core, my Mana stat jumped by another 10 points! Just as Chunbae had said, the rewards of this gate were truly extraordinary.

Of course, my Mana stat was already absurdly high, but...

Considering Incineration's appetite, this is an absolute jackpot.

I had felt it during the fight, but Incineration swallowed mana like a bottomless pit. In the past, having such a towering Mana stat felt somewhat redundant, but now that I wielded Incineration, every single point was precious.

"Now! Their spells have stopped!"

A thunderous shout echoed from down below. Come to think of it, the constant earth-shaking detonations had died away. With the Mana Core obliterated, the tower mages could no longer rain down endless spells.

—They had likely exhausted their own personal reserves long ago, fighting purely on the power channeled through the core.

Makes sense. A mage stripped of mana is no different from an ordinary person.

From that moment on, the battle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠turned into a rout.

Not long after the core was destroyed, the magic tower fell.

"Waaaah!"

Amidst the cheering Gate soldiers, the raid team welcomed me back, their faces lined with sheer exhaustion.

And understandably so. The vanguard had braved a hail of artillery magic to breach the lines, while our mages fired at maximum capacity to suppress them. The healers had spent virtually all their mana keeping the frontline alive.

Still, having successfully conquered the gate, broad smiles broke across everyone's faces.

"How on earth did you pull that off?"

"If it weren't for you, Han Hye-ssi, we would've never cleared this."

"No, not at all. It was only because Cheol-gi ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ahjussi backed me up that I could make the climb."

"Ah, that's true! Things were brutal down there. If Dinosaur Guild hadn't stepped up, we would've been in serious trouble."

As the praise spilled over toward him, Cheol-gi ahjussi scratched the back of his head and chuckled with a sheepish grin, looking happier than I'd ever seen him. It was heartwarming to watch. After all, this was ahjussi's first time participating in a major raid of this scale.

He must have dreamed of being acknowledged like this for a long time.

So, I deliberately hyped him up even more.

"Without ahjussi, I never would've made it up there. I almost got spotted halfway up, but he charged right in and drew their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fire."

"Ayy, nonsense! You're the one who climbed like a ghost."

"Credit goes to both of you. Honestly, we fought like dogs down there... but if it weren't for Dinosaur, we would've had to tear our Escape Scrolls."

At those words, everyone nodded in solemn agreement. I felt the same way. In the first place, if we hadn't battered down the outer walls, storming the fortress would have been an impossible bloodbath. And by dismantling the left tower earlier, I had drastically cut their bombardment.

Honestly, makes you wonder if this gate was even designed to be cleared.

—Strictly speaking, these realms were not designed for ordinary subjugation.

It was that bad?

—In the worlds of both the pre-predecessor and the previous Lord of Space, numerous Gate Breaks occurred because hunters failed to clear Trial Gates.

Chunbae's sudden revelation caught me completely off guard.

Hey, you didn't say anything ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like that before we came in.

—I possessed complete faith that Master Han Hye would succeed. Are you not that powerful?

Hmm. Did that mean I had finally earned Chunbae's full approval? Another thought crossed my mind.

So... have I earned your recognition now?

—.......

Chunbae fell silent for a beat, as if calculating something.

—Not quite yet.

I decided not to press him. I could piece together the gist of it anyway, and I had already felt a genuine trace of his trust. Seeing how tightly he guarded his secrets, it was likely that the pre-predecessor had placed restrictions on him. Beyond the Lord's own readiness, there were probably minimum level requirements or thresholds for Subspace skill mastery. At this rate, I wouldn't have to wait long before Chunbae laid it all bare.

The moment the notifications surfaced, the entire raid party erupted in disbelief.

"Wait, what?!"

"Is this for real?!"

"Whoooaaa!"

"Are you insane?! Ten points to Mana?!"

My earlier reaction hadn't been an exaggeration. Across this single gate, my Mana stat had shot up by twenty points in total. Ten from destroying the core, and now another massive surge upon conquering the gate.

Even if the raw experience points are on the lower side, the stat rewards are completely absurd.

Consuming three A-rank elixirs would barely net ten stat points. Yet every single person in the raid party just received a flat boost of ten to Mana. It was no wonder everyone went wild.

"Dae Han Hye!"

"Dae Han Hye!"

"All hail the dragon!"

"The dragon?!"

"All hail the Dragon Knight!"

They were so ecstatic that several hunters began shouting whatever nonsense crossed their minds.

Just as Chunbae had stated, every Trial Gate of Mana that had manifested across the globe dissolved the exact instant we stepped outside.

China had dispatched their second strike team shortly after ours, but the moment we cleared the gate, they were unceremoniously kicked out.

Having conquered it in under twenty minutes from the time China's second team entered, the Chinese hunters looked completely hollowed out and dumbfounded on camera.

Well, to be blunt, I didn't think they could have cleared that Trial Gate anyway.

What good is S-rank swordsmanship when you have no way of reaching the top of that tower?

Or had assembling a second strike team given them some measure of confidence?

Well, it wasn't my concern. We were simply faster.

"Hye-ya, take a look at this article."

However, it wasn't long before an utterly shameless headline surfaced on the feeds.

Pure, unadulterated bullshit.