Mana Punch (3)

The martial artist Tou.

He had been Julian’s very first master.

His appearance was distinctly East Asian, which made him feel a little closer to Julian than the others. But that was where the warmth ended.

He was blunt, curt, and never minced words.

Especially toward Julian.

After all, the Julian of the first round had been nothing short of below average.

“Hero. Your sword only shows its true power once mana is infused into it. Do you know that?”

He never even called Julian by name.

Just “Hero.”

“I know! Of course I know! You think I’m not doing it on purpose?!”

Julian hadn’t exactly been polite to him either.

This was probably ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠born of inferiority.

Tou was a martial artist who could freely channel mana through his body in combat.

Meanwhile, Julian was the so-called “chosen” hero who could barely even sense mana.

Damn it.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

No matter how hard he swung his sword, it refused to unleash its full strength.

“…Hmph. I still can’t understand how someone like you became the hero.”

“Yeah~ If you don’t get it, just leave.”

Even as Tou said that, he would always watch Julian from the shade whenever the boy practiced.

At first, Julian thought he was just there to mock him.

Ugh. What a pain in the ass.

Then one day.

It had been a miserable, soggy afternoon spent struggling against a giant swamp slime. Rain fell in a steady drizzle, and no one wanted to step outside.

Yet Julian was out there swinging his sword anyway.

Whoong!

Whoong!

“Hero. Infusing mana into a sword isn’t easy. First you must learn to feel mana in your own body.”

Tou suddenly offered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠those words.

“…”

Is a dog barking somewhere?

Julian didn’t answer. He simply kept swinging his sword.

Come on… Please, just work already!

They would soon enter the Demon King’s direct sphere of influence. If the hero himself couldn’t freely wield mana, the entire hero party was as good as dead.

Whoong! Whoong!

He swung desperately in the pouring rain. His palms split open and bled, but the blood was instantly washed away by the rain, and he didn’t even notice the wounds.

That was when it happened.

“Drop the sword, Hero.”

Tou made a shocking suggestion.

“…What?”

Julian finally reacted, thinking he’d heard wrong. It sounded like Tou was telling him to quit being a hero.

“From what I’ve observed, you still can’t properly sense mana.”

“…”

“You’ve been relying purely on instinct in emergencies, pulling on mana without even knowing how. That won’t work anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

Step. Step.

Tou walked out from the shade into the rain.

He placed his fist lightly against Julian’s chest.

Tap.

“If you want to feel mana, start with the fist.”

Shaaaaaaa—!

The rain suddenly grew heavier.

“Release.”

Tou murmured the word and stamped his foot on the ground.

Splash—

Rainwater exploded outward as an overwhelming force slammed into Julian’s chest.

“Gah?!”

Julian’s body shot backward nearly five meters.

And Tou hadn’t even thrown a punch?

Damn it… The gap is too big.

Julian lay sprawled in the rain, head lowered. Tou approached him again.

“That is the first realm one aims for in martial arts. To ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠generate punching force using only mana, almost without swinging the fist. Set that as your goal. I will teach you.”

“…You’ll teach me?”

Julian asked again, wondering if he’d misheard. The Tou he knew had never been the type to kindly offer instruction.

Tou’s answer was simple.

“Get up.”

Julian used his sword to push himself to his feet.

“Drop the sword.”

Boom!

Julian went flying again.

“Gah!”

After that, he was beaten half to death by Tou’s mana strikes in the pouring rain.

Did this bastard just say he’d teach me so he could beat the crap out of me?!

The thought had definitely crossed his mind.

Clang…

“F-fine. I’ll drop the sword.”

Realizing for the first time that he actually had a master, Julian set down the Hero’s Sword and stood before Tou with bare fists.

From then on, Tou taught him with surprising detail.

“Feel the mana in the air. Once it circulates through your body like blood, decide where to send that power. For us, it’s the fist. Especially the surface that makes contact with the enemy…”

The next day.

“Release!”

Thud!

Julian struck a tree exactly as he’d been taught. A dent formed in the bark, and mana rose from it like haze.

Tou walked over, examined the mark, and spoke.

“Mana is leaking. It must be contained entirely within the surface of your fist without a single drop wasted.”

The haze was proof that mana was escaping.

Julian nodded and began striking again.

The next day. And the day after that.

He hadn’t expected to master it in a single moment, but…

“Release!”

Thump!

“Release! Release!”

Thud…

It was still similar.

The day after that, and the day after that, the results were nearly the same.

Am I even improving at all?

Julian gradually grew doubtful.

“Hey. Julian.”

One morning.

Meyrin appeared, yawning sleepily.

“Can you stop yelling ‘release’ or ‘erection’ or whatever it is from dawn till dusk?”

“It’s not working, that’s why…”

In this world, shouting technique names actually helped quite a bit.

“There’s no way it wouldn’t work.”

“What?”

“I said there’s no way it wouldn’t work.”

She pointed straight at him and spoke clearly.

“Julian. You’re the hero.”

“…”

At that moment, Julian remembered how Tou had always addressed him.

Hey, hero.

Hero.

You damn hero…

Hero.

The word he had heard as if it were the most natural thing in the world ever since arriving here… sounded different when Meyrin said it.

“You are the standard itself. So stop trying to copy Tou’s fancy, difficult methods like ‘release.’ Do it your own way, Julian-style.”

“I’m… the standard?”

“You don’t need some grand technique. Just think of it as soaking your fist in mana and smashing it down. You have an absurdly large amount of mana to draw from, after all… Hmm…”

Come to think of it, she was a mage.

The method was different, but she was a true expert on mana.

She knew the theory behind every possible way to use it.

And now she was suggesting a new name befitting a new technique.

“Hmm… Mana… Mana…”

* * *

A blue spark flashed in Junil’s eyes.

“Mana Punch!”

The mana contained in his fist erupted violently, shoving away the being that should never have been touched.

But it didn’t stop at shoving.

“Krrraaah?!”

Kwaaaaaaaaang!

Blue sparks exploded outward as a hole was punched straight through.

A massive cavity opened in the demon’s torso, which burned with black flames.

The power was so overwhelming that even the Constellations who had been cheering for Junil began spamming question marks.

“…W-what the…?”

The demon stared down at the gaping hole in its own body. Its shock needed no explanation.

Its mind must have been filled with nothing but question marks.

“H-how… already… this kind of power?”

The demon muttered in disbelief.

“T-this isn’t part of the contract. This power… this strength…”

It seemed to recognize the source of that power.

But the wound inflicted on it was already too massive.

The Demon of Gluttony could not even feed properly.

It no longer had the strength to close that enormous hole.

In the end, it was forced to return to the place it had come from.

Knowing this, Junil simply adjusted his black cat mask.

I can’t let this thing fall off. That was way too close.

The demon glared at his nonchalant attitude.

“You… Who the hell are you? I will definitely—definitely come back and devour you!”

Rumble…!

Whether it liked it or not, the hellish portal that would take it away had already formed above its head.

“Answer me! Who are you?!”

The Constellations answered in his place.

Of course, they weren’t actually responding to the demon’s question.

It was simply a flood of admiration.

“Then who are you?”

Junil asked the demon instead.

“What… did you say?”

Uwaaaaaahahahaha!

The demon laughed.

Even with a hole in its stomach.

After all, this wasn’t its real body.

“You’re getting cocky just because you defeated a mere shell like this? You dare ask my name?”

The names and identities of demons were directly tied to their extermination activities.

They only revealed them when forming contracts, declaring dominion, or demanding obedience.

Same as always.

After testing by asking its name, the result was identical to the world Fam had sent him to.

“Well… looks like you’ve got your reasons. I’ll tell you mine.”

Junil gave his final greeting.

“What is it?!”

The demon glared furiously even as its body was gradually sucked into the portal.

“My name is Gluttony.”

“Gluttony… that’s a nice name…”

The demon’s grinning face suddenly twisted in rage.

“T-that’s my name, you bastard!”

Whoosh!

With that, the demon vanished.

The portal had swallowed it whole.

“He kept saying he was going to eat everything. I just guessed.”

Junil casually lied, dispelling the Constellations’ questions.

So it really was one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

The “I just guessed” part wasn’t entirely false.

There were many demons that loved to eat.

He had simply named the most insignificant one among them.

The ones who ruled over the Seven Deadly Sins of the human world.

The further removed a demon was from human understanding, the stronger it became.

Those who ruled over easy-to-understand names, easy-to-understand forms, and easy-to-understand sins were weak.

Gluttony, the ruler of gluttony?

In modern society where dieting was a lifelong struggle, there probably wasn’t a weaker demon than that.

Most people didn’t even recognize it as a sin anymore.

Still, a demon is a demon.

Hsssss…

Junil looked down at his smoking fist.

A little blood was flowing.

If he hadn’t gone over 1% power, he wouldn’t have been able to deal with it so easily.

Good thing so many Constellations gathered.

Junil’s future path looked smooth.

The number of Constellations had increased significantly.

It was probably thanks to the performance just now.

The legacy had advanced further and was now approaching 2%.

Not bad.

Junil clenched and unclenched the hand he had used for the Mana Punch moments ago.

It’s been a really long time since I used that.

It was a crude, brute-force technique he had only used back in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the first round.

He wasn’t sure why that memory had suddenly surfaced, but without realizing it, he had thrown away the utility knife and decided a fist would be better.

Why did I…

That was when it happened.

So that was why the memory from the first round had suddenly resurfaced.

Huh?

It seemed that once legacy progress increased, this kind of function was unlocked.

A skill had been created through the legacy.

An F-rank shouldn’t be able to gain skills no matter how much they leveled up.

So I’m inheriting the techniques Julian used back then.

He had inherited them through Julian’s memories.

Junil opened the description.

The explanation was extremely lazy, but he didn’t mind.

Potential C+…!

It was the highest letter grade he had received since the world changed, and it made him feel good.

“Oh. C-plus~”

He never thought the day would come when he’d be happy about getting a C+.

* * *

On the other hand, there were those whose moods were far from good.

“Wh-what?!”

The monitoring room of Fairy Corporation.

It was Ram.

She had grabbed Sam by the throat and lifted him into the air.

“Hey! You son of a bitch! You said he’d win!”

“…Guhhhk…!?”

“You said he’d win!”

“Th-this is… hack…!”

On the monitor behind the lifted Sam, the Constellations’ reactions were scrolling past.

The reactions were terrible.

Ram could understand why her eyes had rolled back in fury.

“Hae-il was supposed to catch that thing, but this bastard stole it! What are you going to do about it?!”

This had been the debut stage she had poured her heart and soul into for her protagonist.

And the entire stage had been stolen by some random nobody.

Meanwhile, completely unaware, Kang Hae-il was only now belatedly heading toward that very stage.