The Grand Opening of the Black Mane Grand Hot Springs
Below the eastern cliff of the Black Mane Mountain Stronghold, the area that had been cordoned off with red fabric and declared strictly off-limits finally shed its veil. A colossal stone bathing complex rose into view, white steam billowing upward in thick clouds like a dragon’s breath. Its scale was so overwhelming that even the most luxurious imperial villas across the continent would have struggled to compete. Bathtubs carved from the finest marble, fixtures crafted from century-old cypress that released a faint, soothing aroma—nothing about the scene suggested it was merely the backyard of a bandit camp.
“Everyone, attention please! Today marks the grand opening of our Black Mane territory’s most ambitious project yet—the Black Mane Grand Hot Springs!”
Veronica swept forward in a dazzling dress, golden scissors raised high. Her eyes already gleamed with the vision of countless platinum coins pouring in. Snip—! The moment the silk ribbon fell away, Dagan, Gil, and the rest of the bandits let out thunderous cheers, jaws hanging open in awe.
“Whoa! Sister-in-law! Can we actually drink that water? Smells like some kind of tonic!”
“It’s far more than a tonic, Dagan. That is premium mana-rich spring water drawn straight from a mana vein two thousand meters underground!”
Veronica lifted her chin with pride. Her business acumen had already transformed the old bandit lair into something resembling a high-end wellness resort. Yet among all the excitement, only one person’s expression had soured completely.
“Hey… Princess. Have you completely lost your mind?” Rodin grumbled, scratching the back of his head in clear annoyance. “We could’ve just splashed around in the stream like normal people. Why the hell did you dump a fortune into this? That money could’ve bought us mountains of fertilizer with plenty left over.”
In Rodin’s eyes, the extravagant marble simply looked like oversized rocks that would only get in the way of his cabbage fields.
“This isn’t waste, Rodin. This is our stronghold’s new growth engine—a mana spa! Every wealthy merchant guild on the continent will be lining up to make reservations.”
“Merchant guild leaders? Why would they come to a bandit hideout?”
“Do not underestimate my marketing. I’ve already distributed flyers calling it ‘The Fountain of Youth that even the Legendary Mercenary King couldn’t resist!’”
“……Who gave you permission to do that?”
Even under Rodin’s icy stare, Veronica remained unfazed. If anything, Dagan and Gil grew even more excited.
“Boss! If I soak in there, will my stinky feet become holy too? Sister-in-law, can’t you give me a day pass? Just one day!”
“Me too! That water looks like melted blue jewels!”
While the entire stronghold buzzed with excitement, Rodin let out a deep sigh. It seemed his peaceful daily life was once again being swept up in Veronica’s grand ambitions.
“Ugh, what a pain in the ass…”
Unable to resist Veronica’s insistent pushing—and her threat that he would only get grass for dinner if he refused—Rodin eventually stepped into the hot spring. He grumbled as he stripped off his clothes, revealing the countless battle scars etched across his powerful frame. Carefully, he lowered himself into the steaming water.
“……Ugh.”
The instant the hot water touched his skin, a suppressed groan escaped Rodin’s lips. This was no ordinary heat. Everywhere the water made contact, it felt as though thousands of tiny mana needles were racing through his veins. The chronically knotted trapezius and erector spinae muscles melted away like butter. The bone-deep fatigue he had accumulated from “handling” five hundred knights with nothing but a pickaxe, along with the blood-soaked nightmares of the battlefield, seemed to be forcibly washed away by the blue currents.
“Haa… This is insane.”
Rodin leaned his head back and closed his eyes. His brain, long tormented by terrible insomnia, was surrendering to a level of comfort it had never known. Then something strange happened.
As Rodin unconsciously released his mana, the water in the bath began to vibrate faintly. The blue currents responded to his will, swirling around his body and embracing him.
“What the—? It’s not just making my body feel lighter… the mana is actually filling me up on its own?”
Rodin stirred the water with his hand. The massive mana vein drawn up from deep underground was resonating with the enormous vessel that was Rodin. Each time he drew a breath, the mana density inside the bath thickened and the very space around him shimmered. This was no mere soak. It resembled a sacred ritual in which a legendary sword master immersed himself in a sea of mana to temper his very being.
“Make way, Lady Veronica! The sacred waves of divine mana I feel from those waters… This is undoubtedly the grand meat broth the Lord has bestowed upon us!”
Ivona charged toward the bath entrance with a single towel perched on her head. Her eyes burned with both religious fervor for a “holy hot spring bath” and an unmistakable gluttonous desire to taste the mana-rich water.
“Absolutely not! Saintess, Rodin is in there alone right now! Mixed bathing is strictly forbidden!”
Veronica spread both arms to block Ivona’s path.
“What does gender matter before the divine! Washing the weary back of our cult leader is the sacred duty of this humble priestess… Ahhh, the rich aroma of concentrated meat broth wafting from within… No, the fragrance of mana is calling to me!”
“It is not meat broth! And I’ll be the one washing his back, so go away, you gluttonous saintess! If you get in there you’ll drink the entire spring dry!”
“Slander! I merely wish to absorb the Lord’s grace through my skin…!”
The two women continued their fierce argument outside the door, completely unaware that inside the bath Rodin’s mind was growing pleasantly hazy.
A low rumble—.
Several hours after the hot springs had opened, the entire stronghold began to tremble faintly.
“Huh? Rodin? Why is the ground shaking?”
Veronica, who had been facing off with Ivona at the entrance, looked down in alarm. That was when it happened.
Kwaaaaang—!
A massive column of blue light erupted from the center of the hot spring like an explosion. The beam pierced the roof of the stronghold and shot straight into the night sky. The pitch-black night over Black Mane Mountain instantly turned as bright as midday. The mana density in the air skyrocketed until even the ordinary bandits were gasping for breath.
“Hey, Princess… What exactly did you poke underground?”
Rodin emerged from the bath, sweeping back his wet hair. A blue aura rose from his body like heat haze.
“I-I don’t know! I only stimulated the mana vein a little to make sure the hot water flowed properly… There was nothing like this in the blueprints!”
“This isn’t staging. This is an outright eruption. Instead of the smell of fertilizer, the whole mountain reeks of the kind of power that drives mages insane.”
Rodin’s intuition was spot on. The mana wave that had shot into the sky had become an invisible tidal wave, spreading in every direction across the continent on the winds. It was the clearest invitation imaginable to every mana-sensitive being in the world.
At the northernmost edge of the continent, atop the clouds, lay the heart of the empire—the Magic Tower. The usual solemn silence of the place had been shattered in an instant, replaced by utter chaos.
Beeeeep—!
The enormous mana-measuring crystal orb at the tower’s core let out a scream as cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. Red warning lights flashed madly while veteran mages ran about, dropping armfuls of documents.
“What is going on? Has the northern barrier collapsed?”
Tower Master Gerard burst through the doors, his silver staff trembling in response to the waves of power.
“No, Tower Master! From the south… near the empire’s border, in the Black Mane Mountain range, we’ve detected an unmeasurable ‘mana burst’!”
“Unmeasurable? Wasn’t that just a barren wasteland occupied by some abandoned bandit camp?”
“According to our mana radar, an S-rank mana source has fully awakened! At this density, even eighth-circle forbidden spells could be cast without any restrictions!”
Gerard’s eyes widened. An S-rank mana source—there were only a handful of such heavenly strategic points on the entire continent.
“Dispatch an investigation team immediately. We must move before the imperial family. Whoever claims that land will dominate the magic of this continent for the next thousand years!”
Rodin finished his bath and sprawled out on a wooden platform in the stronghold. The sky still glowed with the lingering blue afterimage of mana, and the air felt refreshingly crisp. His body had never felt lighter, yet his heart weighed a thousand tons.
“Hey, Princess. Can’t I just fill that hot spring back up?”
Veronica, who had been humming happily while tallying the day’s reservation fees, nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Absolutely not! That will be our territory’s core revenue model and its greatest landmark! Why? Is something uncomfortable?”
“No… it’s too refreshing. I was finally thinking I might get some sleep, but now it looks like a swarm of flies is about to descend like a cloud.”
Rodin narrowed his eyes and gazed into the distance. His senses had already picked up the countless foreign magical presences flickering beyond the mountain range.
“Don’t worry. We won’t turn anyone away. We’ll turn every visitor into profit. If mages come, we’ll charge double for mana charging fees!”
“You make it sound so simple. Those guys aren’t going to pay up and peacefully take a bath.”
Rodin smiled bitterly and picked up the old, rusty pickaxe he had left beside the platform.
“Guess I’d better sharpen the blade. Looks like the weeds this time are going to be pretty noisy.”
The moment Rodin closed his eyes with a sigh, the space at the foot of the distant mountain warped, and the faint ripple of mages’ teleportation portals began to drift through the dawn mist.