128. Minotaur's Labyrinth

Unfortunately, there were no more skills I could pick up as easily as the last one. What can you do? If you try to get everything for free, you're bound to fuck up somewhere. From now on, I'd have to grind it out steadily, putting in the time.

A moment later, the sword spirit announced he'd teach me the auras and sword energies I'd been looking forward to.

"Auras and sword energies are actually the same technique. When you create an aura through your sword as the medium, that's sword energy."

I already knew that much, more or less. I'd figured it out watching him wield auras. They were just the same power with different names—essentially identical.

"The reason we distinguish between the two is simple. It's the same technique, but applying it is damn difficult."

The sword spirit said that as he brought up the boss fight in the 14th-floor labyrinth. That time when I'd miscalculated my mana and couldn't fire off any sword energy.

"Even I can fuck it up if I'm not careful. Most swordsmen who can handle auras take over a decade to reach sword energy."

"I get how tough it is. So how the hell do you do it?"

"Good. We'll start with auras. An aura is basically the opposite of Mana Reinforcement. If Mana Reinforcement is about releasing mana, an aura is about compressing it."

For some reason, the sword spirit's attitude had turned surprisingly compliant in that short time, and he began explaining kindly. The theory was tough to grasp straight-up, but he tried his best to make it simple with analogies. He was like a goddamn swordsmanship tutor tailor-made for me. At this point, I was wondering if this old sword spirit had more talent for lecturing than actual swordplay.

Compared to the random bullshit spewed by aura wannabes in the community forums, this was overwhelmingly useful info.

Anyway, it didn't take long to understand the principle behind the technique.

The basic principle of Mana Reinforcement is releasing mana along the body's natural pathways. The mana circulating through those paths boosts physical abilities, and the expelled mana creates repulsive force for a defensive effect.

But auras don't circulate mana through the body. Instead, like when using a skill, you expel it along the shortest path. You control that expelled mana so it doesn't dissipate into the air, compress it to its limit, and coat your weapon with it. Shape that coated mana into a blade and hurl it—that's sword energy.

"Now, watch closely."

Finishing his explanation, the sword spirit picked up a [Steel Straight Sword] and formed an aura around it himself. His control had to be way better than mine with Mana Control, but the amount of mana he could use was probably shit in comparison. Even with those handicaps, he wrapped the sword in aura like it was nothing.

It looked ridiculously easy just watching. Now that I knew the principle, I figured I could do it right away too.

If someone makes the supposedly hard shit look easy, either it's not actually that hard—or that bastard's just fucking amazing.

"Hup!"

Several hours of practice later, I couldn't even spark a fingernail's worth of aura on my sword.

"Hahaha! Did you think you could do it easily just because this Kaleon made it look easy? You're a decade away at least!"

The sword spirit mocked me relentlessly, acting all high and mighty. After hours of this prickly summoned spirit needling me, my mithril wand roared back to life.

Sword Spirit Kaleon, deceased.

I'd always been more of a learn-by-doing guy than a practice-first type. Screw auras for now—I'd just hack away at shit and figure it out in real combat.

With the standard message that always popped up when entering the labyrinth area, I headed deeper in, where minotaurs swarmed.

Right at the entrance, a black-skinned minotaur came into view—an upper variant of the wandering Minotaur Warriors. Black ones had high magic resistance, so frontline warriors usually handled them, or so I'd heard.

Of course, to me, it was just a snack. This time, I'd try taking it down with magic damage instead.

I used the new mana manipulation technique, Lightning Charge, to wrap myself in electricity and closed in barehanded. Even without Haste, the thing's reaction speed couldn't keep up with me.

I casually reached out.

With a crackling zap, lightning surged into it. The electrocuted black minotaur shuddered violently.

"Grk! Groooaaar!"

But only for a moment. As expected from its high magic resistance, this wasn't enough to drop it. Guess plain Lightning Charge without buffs was about this effective.

Not bad, though. It wasn't main-weapon material yet, but if I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could really shoot lightning at range, it'd be pretty damn viable. It didn't one-shot, sure, but it paralyzed for a few seconds—that was a win.

A few seconds paralyzed right in front of me? Might as well be dead.

Slash!

A light swing of my [Steel Straight Sword] cleaved the bullhead in two. Being able to properly coat it in mana definitely bumped the attack power a bit. Not hugely noticeable on trash mobs, though.

Black minotaur down. Checked the drops.

As mentioned, the 16th floor's boss had its own hard mode option. The prep for activating it was these exact items.

Offer up [Minotaur Warrior's Horn Fragment]s—dropped by all minotaurs—on the altar. Ten fragments for normal mode, twenty for hard mode, and so on.

I'd be sticking around here a while to practice auras anyway, so I planned to stockpile a ton. More fragments didn't make the boss stronger, but who knows? Toss in a few hundred extra, and maybe a hidden boss pops out.

Plus, I was in a shit mood right now. Couldn't even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sense auras at all—it was frustrating as hell. Time to vent by hacking these bullheaded fucks to bits.

"Around here, I think."

Clunk!

I deliberately triggered a monster summon trap in the labyrinth and dove into the fight.

On the 16th floor, I'd planned to take my time from the start. A month of holing up, at least, adjusting based on how long auras took to master.

And so a month passed.

I still couldn't wield auras properly.

"Oho, you've improved a lot. Last time it was barely a thread, but now it's mouse-tail sized, eh?"

As the sword spirit mocked, the aura I could form was truly just a pathetic mouse tail at best, and it fizzled out in seconds.

"Not bad for just a month of practice. Of course, compared to this great Sword Spirit Kaleon, you're still light-years away."

I smashed the leering old man's skull with my mithril wand.

Clang!

Sword Spirit Kaleon, deceased.

Now the bastard kept at it no matter how many times I beat him to death. Facing this harsh reality, I had to admit it: With my learning speed, mastering auras solo in the short term was impossible. I'd need way more time—or maybe snag it as a skill mid-climb.

Thanks to stabilized Mana Reinforcement, my overall combat power was up from a month ago, but it felt like I'd hit a plateau.

The sword spirit teased me but also said I was grasping it faster than any normal swordsman.

In the 16th floor's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠environment—minotaurs only— this seemed like my growth limit.

"Time to head up to the 17th."

The treasure chests had yielded nothing but crappy cosmetic items, so I'd farmed them dry. Into the labyrinth area, straight to the boss room.

Flung open the boss room door, and there was the altar for summoning the boss with horn fragments.

I skimmed the system message and touched the altar. Offerable items registered automatically.

Over a thousand fragments I'd gathered slashing minotaurs nonstop for a month—all queued up on the altar. It was a full-course feast. The boss was gonna burst.

Right as I went to activate it, the item registration interface suddenly flashed.

"What the—?"

A few items in my inventory lit up in response, marked [Register].

The unique-grade gear from the big 16th-floor treasure chests—fancy names, useless effects. Was offering these unlocking something new? A hidden within a hidden for real?

Hell yeah, I couldn't pass that up. I slapped the reactive items on the altar and activated it to summon the boss.

Rumble!

What descended—by some wild coincidence—was a gigantic minotaur with lightning crackling through its body.