The First Dantian

I checked the skill information, and a satisfied smile spread across my face on its own.

Skills related to mana existed, but ones that boosted recovery speed were rare.

At best, there's Mana Charge.

Even Mana Charge, a B-rank skill, only raised mana recovery speed by 50 percent. But the Taehyeosimbeop offered that on top of an increase to maximum mana as well.

Jackpot.

Just then, a new message appeared before my eyes.

The moment the message appeared, the mana inside my body began to move violently.

The mana that should have been resting in my heart started coursing through my blood vessels.

"Kgh."

A groan escaped me without my willing it. Every time the mana moved, it felt like my veins were being torn apart.

Why on earth is this happening….

I tried to wrest back control of the mana that had slipped free and was running wild through me. Instead, it only grew more lawless, moving as if to say don't hold me back.

After reading the message, I gave up on controlling it. If the system itself was announcing it, there was no point in worrying.

"Ugh."

Gritting my teeth against the surging pain, I traced the flow of the mana. It began at the heart, traveled through my blood vessels to my right arm, then my right leg, my left leg, and finally my left arm — and came to a stop in my lower abdomen.

The lower abdomen?

In every martial arts novel, the dantian sits in the lower belly. And the skill I had just acquired was a cultivation method — a simbeop.

It's building a dantian?

As if answering my guess, a system message rose before my eyes.

Reading the message, I clenched my fist. Just from having a dantian, I could feel myself growing stronger.

The instant I confirmed the messages, I pulled up my status window.

Checking my increased stats, I nearly fell over in shock. Strength, agility, and vitality had each risen by six. On top of that, mana had climbed by ten, and even my Divinity stat — whose uses I didn't even know — had gone up by four.

"Ha."

At this level, I wouldn't be pushed back at all even fighting an E-rank Awakener near level 100.

Having confirmed the stat gains, I immediately began circulating my mana. It moved faster than before through the freshly opened channels.

I've gained something enormous.

Choosing the Taehyeosimbeop had been a whim of mine, but the results were beyond anything I'd hoped.

I stepped outside the ruined building and set my footwork in motion.

Basic Footwork — Sok (Swift).

With the mana flowing better, the effect showed itself in the footwork at once. Sok now allowed me fine control over my speed.

Basic Footwork — Hwan (Illusion).

The illusory power of Hwan had grown stronger.

Basic Footwork — Pa (Break).

Pa struck with greater destructive force.

Basic Footwork — Am (Shadow).

Am had all but erased my presence entirely.

So it's an across-the-board enhancement?

Every branch of the footwork had improved. All I had to do now was keep growing stronger from this state.

All that's left is I (Different)….

I didn't even dare try I here. I'll save that one for the third floor.

And with that, I left the ruined clearing behind, returned to my lodgings, and went to sleep.

After a deep night's sleep, I headed straight for the third floor.

A sigh escaped me the moment I read the quest.

So after a monster wave, it's labyrinth-clearing?

Clicking my tongue at the Black Door's difficulty, I scanned my surroundings. Stone walls rose on every side, stacked so high that their tops were lost from view.

"A maze-type, huh."

A labyrinth is a kind of dungeon that spills out of gates, and it comes in three varieties: maze, extermination, and puzzle. Of the three, the maze takes the longest to clear.

The one mercy is that there's no time limit.

If there had been a time limit, this would have been an impossible quest.

First things first — the most important thing was to learn the maze's size.

Might as well give it a try after all this time.

Normally I couldn't have even attempted this before my mana passed 100, but now that I had a dantian, it seemed possible.

Slowly….

I closed my eyes and gently drew the mana pooled inside me outward. Even that alone brought a sweat to my brow.

Thin.

I spread the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mana paper-thin, like a thread, and stretched it wide. The expanding mana crept farther and farther out — until, at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠some point, it stopped.

"So this is my limit for now?"

I retracted the mana I had spread out. When I'd drawn every last thread back in, a message appeared before my eyes.

Area Detection was a skill I'd carried even before my regression. Once it climbed to S-rank later on, all of Korea would fit within its range.

Detection skills are good ones to have.

Ordinary detection skills were common — plenty of thieves carried them. But Area Detection belonged to only a tiny handful of Awakeners.

"Area Detection."

The moment I activated the skill, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mana rippled outward from me and the surroundings came into view. A fifty-meter radius was a considerable expanse.

My head hurts.

Fifty meters was more than a human brain was built to process. It would get better as I adapted, in time.

Let's push it as far as I can.

Basic Footwork — Sok (Swift).

I set my footwork in motion and walked down the passage stretching out ahead of me. The best method for conquering a maze.

The right-hand rule.

In a maze, the right-hand rule is gospel.

Should I rest here for today?

Seven hours since I'd entered the maze. I'd been running nearly nonstop, with hardly a moment to rest. About half my mana remained.

Even while running my mana footwork, my mana had kept steadily replenishing itself. But mana aside, my mind was already running on empty.

I'm hungry, too.

Grrrooowl!

My stomach roared. I pulled a camping set out of my inventory.

"Korea really does frozen food right."

Before my regression I'd traveled through country after country, sampling frozen meals everywhere I went, and nothing came close to Korea's.

I took out a pack of kimchi fried rice and fed mana into it. The bowl heated up and began warming the rice.

Time to eat.

After about three minutes, the kimchi fried rice was fully heated. I picked up my spoon — and the instant I raised it, something snagged on my Area Detection.

A monster?

There couldn't be any people inside the Tower of Trials' Black Door. Which meant the only thing I could expect was a monster.

Setting the kimchi fried rice down on my seat, I headed toward where I'd sensed the presence.

Shring!

I drew the sword at my hip and began to walk forward slowly.

"Uuuuaaagh."

At the ghoul-like voice, I immediately circulated my mana and set my footwork in motion.

Basic Footwork — Am (Shadow).

Let me eat in peace, will you.

Muttering under my breath, I closed in on the monster and raised my sword to swing —

and that was when the monster spoke.

"Could you not spare me some of that meal?"

"…What?"

Monsters cannot speak. To be precise, they speak a language we have no way of interpreting. But the monster before me had just uttered words I could understand, clear as day.

"Feed me, and I shall see that you are rewarded."

"……"

I deliberated for a moment, then led him back to my makeshift camp.

"It's gone a little cold, but please, eat."

"Oh! It smells delicious!"

So saying, the man fell upon the kimchi fried rice, shoveling it into his mouth.

"Delicious!"

The way he shouted as he ate, he looked like a man who hadn't touched food in days.

Who on earth is he?

From the moment we'd met, the man had been covered head to toe in ragged cloth. There was no way to know why he was in this labyrinth, or why he looked like this.

I figured once he had a meal, he'd take those rags off….

But even as he ate, he kept the rags firmly in place.

Before long, the man had scraped the kimchi fried rice clean and looked up at me.

"You wouldn't happen to have another bowl?"

"Ha."

The man's question left me dumbfounded, but I pulled two more packs of fried rice from my inventory.

"Oooh!"

"One of these is mine, by the way."

So saying, I fed mana into one of the packs. Three minutes later, the finished fried rice was vanishing down the man's throat in great hurried bites.

What am I even doing right now….

I couldn't quite make sense of my own behavior. Handing over my first meal had been a way to learn about the man. But giving him more just now hadn't really been my own choice — it had felt less like a decision and more like something I simply had to do.

If I hadn't, it felt like I might have died.

It wasn't that the man had radiated killing intent, or issued any threat. And yet it seemed as though defying his words was not an option.

What in the world is he?

While I was still turning it over, the man polished off the last of the rice.

"That was a fine meal."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

With that, I burned the trash to ash. Then the man spoke up.

"You fed me, so I shall reward you properly."

The instant the man finished speaking, a message rose before my eyes.

A hidden quest?

I'd heard hidden quests were both hard to find and hard to clear. Before my regression, the only hidden quest I'd ever obtained had been Slay Pride.

That's the kind of bar they set.

Honestly, this time I could only call it a fluke.

"As your reward, take this."

So saying, the man held something out to me.

Paper?

What the man offered was a sheet of jet-black paper.

"Huh?"

Reading the message, I froze. The fifth floor of the Tower existed for the sake of knowledge, and the shop there demanded an enormous hoard of Tower Coins.

"Judging by your face, my reward does not please you."

"Who exactly are you…?"

"That is a secret."

With those words, the man vanished — as if he had never existed at all.

"Well. I suppose it doesn't matter."

I gave up on wondering and picked my fried rice back up.

"It's gone completely cold."

Resigned, I put the cold fried rice in my mouth.