Mana Training
The effects usually start showing after about two days. At that point, you might feel some stiffness in a part of your body or discomfort somewhere. Make a mental note of that spot and get it checked at the hospital later. They say it points to the weakest area in your system.
“What’s with those faces? Even famous rich people can’t always get their hands on this stuff. Just say thank you and be grateful.”
The second son, who had been defending his older brother’s spending from the side, then noticed the potion bottles the eldest had placed on the table. They were slightly smaller than the previous two and contained a somewhat thinner liquid. Worried they might tip over and break, he leaned forward and carefully stood each one upright.
“These are mid-grade. You bought ten of them?”
“Yeah. You two should each drink one. You too, Yuri.”
“Me? I’m still young, though.”
“Age has nothing to do with it.”
“Even at your age, a mid-grade potion would make you healthier and improve your skin… Are you even listening!”
Kang Han-sung had been speaking right after their older brother when he suddenly shouted. He shook his head at the sight of his younger sister eagerly licking the inside of the bottle after hearing it was good for the skin.
“Women, I swear.”
“I’ll drink it properly, big brother.”
“Good.”
The youngest didn’t refuse either. He emptied one bottle on the spot.
When only two or three drops remained, he subtly turned his body, lifted his eyepatch, and let the liquid fall into his left eye like eye drops.
“Just in case.”
“Hmm.”
He had tried something similar before with potions. Kang Han-sung remembered that it hadn’t improved much back then, but he didn’t bring it up. He simply turned his head and drank a bottle himself.
“It really does heal.”
“The effects haven’t even kicked in yet.”
“That’s just how I feel. The vibe.”
“Should we refrigerate the rest?”
When Kang Tae-sung spoke to the second and youngest sons who were bickering, the second son glanced at the seven remaining mid-grade potions on the table.
“The fridge? That feels too cheap. Shouldn’t we buy a safe or something?”
“Right, brother. No matter what, mid-grade potions deserve to be kept in a safe. I’ll go buy a decent one tomorrow.”
“Then let’s just put them in the fridge for today.”
When they heard that each of the potions they had tucked away in a corner of the fridge cost around seventy million won, their parents’ expressions, which had just begun to settle, clouded over with burden once again.
“You’ll have to get used to it.”
But after the eldest son’s words, the second son chimed in agreement and the youngest nodded slightly from behind. In the end, their parents could only nod along with them.
“I never thought I’d live to enjoy my children’s success at this age…”
“It really is a blessing.”
“I-I’ll spoil you too!”
Feeling somewhat left out, Kang Yu-ri shouted.
“So mana is really that important.”
“First time hearing about it.”
The next day. Kang Han-sung, who had the weekend off, and the youngest, who was already resting, came out at their older brother’s call and listened to him speak. The eldest’s brief explanation was about mana, and since it was new information to both of them, they listened with great interest.
They had known mana existed. After all, you had to consume it to use skills. But the idea that you could actively manipulate mana itself was something they were hearing for the first time from Kang Tae-sung.
“You inject it into weapons?”
“Think of it like applying a coating. If you have enough, you can fill the inside completely, but in today’s world that would be a huge waste.”
“So basically, hitting monsters with mana-coated weapons can disable their reinforced state faster. That’s pretty good.”
Kang Han-sung understood it that way. Kang Yeon-sung nodded beside him in agreement.
But even after hearing that they could move mana directly and infuse it into weapons, it didn’t feel real to them yet.
“It’s less about injecting and more about releasing it. If you’re holding something in your hand in that state, the mana will naturally flow into it through the point of contact.”
Kang Tae-sung explained that if one could manipulate mana more freely, it could be released through any part of the body. However, the easiest points of communication were generally the hands and feet.
“First, the priority is to completely exhaust the mana you currently have.”
Kang Tae-sung then said he would teach them a training method that would make it easier to sense mana’s flow. The two younger brothers looked a bit dazed, but since he wasn’t the type to speak empty words, they quietly followed along.
They activated the Targeting skill Kang Tae-sung had given them yesterday to burn through their mana. The youngest took longer to deplete his than the second son because when he had reached Level 2, his random stat points had gone into mental strength. When he hit Level 3, he had invested some points directly into mental strength, giving him a considerable amount of mana.
On top of that, the Targeting skill book Kang Tae-sung had given him yesterday had strengthened his existing Targeting skill, which slightly reduced the mana consumption rate for the same duration.
“I’m done.”
After some time had passed, Kang Han-sung spoke up.
Kang Tae-sung turned toward a large basin he had prepared in advance, filled with water.
“Put one hand in the water. Keep the other hand outside. Just one hand.”
“Okay.”
Not entirely sure what was happening, Kang Han-sung followed the instructions and focused on what his older brother said next.
“Water has a higher mana density than air. And mana has the property of flowing around like water or air. So if you artificially deplete the mana inside your body and then submerge part of it in water like this, the mana in the water will seep into you through that point.”
Kang Tae-sung added that it was similar to the principle of osmosis. Of course it wasn’t exactly the same, but the principle was comparable. If one focused on the sensation in the part of the body acting as the intermediary—the skin—while mana from the water seeped into the depleted body, they would eventually recognize the flow of mana. From there, they simply had to concentrate on it and train.
“I don’t really get it…”
“This isn’t something that happens overnight. You have to keep at it.”
Kang Tae-sung continued, saying that the current training was more advantageous for those with larger mana pools. When someone with a large mana reserve completely exhausted their mana, a powerful temporary mana absorption force would occur. Performing this training during that window produced very good results.
“Right now there’s no real problem, but if you plan to keep hunting monsters, you need to learn things others can’t do, and learn them faster and in greater quantity. There are monsters that can eventually be killed with ordinary swords given enough time, but there are definitely others that ordinary weapons can’t even scratch.”
At the mention of monsters that couldn’t even be scratched without using mana, both younger brothers grew more serious. Even Kang Han-sung, who had little interest in hunting monsters himself, trained with genuine focus.
The small amount of mana recovered through normal breathing was repeatedly consumed by using skills to maintain the depleted state. With one arm submerged in water, they focused on sensing the feeling of mana seeping in.
In truth, this training method would have been far more effective if they had used a liquid with a much higher mana concentration, like a potion. However, training with potions dulled the senses to the point that one would need to keep using potions for future training. Using ordinary water was better in the long run.
Submerging only one hand was to help them feel the difference compared to the other. The contrast between the hand in water and the one exposed to air. The hand in water would absorb mana through the liquid, while the other hand—unless one had reached a level where they could freely circulate mana throughout the entire body—could not properly sense or communicate with the mana in the air. It remained blocked for now.
Once they recognized that difference, sensing the flow of mana became much easier. This training method had not been created by Kang Tae-sung. It had come from one of his old comrades, who had died on the battlefield.
Suddenly, memories related to that friend surfaced. Kang Tae-sung’s cheek twitched slightly before he told his two younger brothers to practice this method whenever they had time, then headed back into the house.
“Do you feel anything yet?”
“Not at all. What about you, brother?”
After Kang Tae-sung went inside, the second and youngest sons were left alone. They glanced at each other and asked, but it seemed the saying that this wasn’t something that happened overnight was true. They still felt nothing.
“Big brother wouldn’t make us do something pointless.”
“That’s true.”
“By the way, do you want to move together with him?”
At Kang Han-sung’s question, the youngest raised an eyebrow and asked back.
“What about you? You said we should do it together after you finish your work.”
“That was just in case. I was worried Tae-sung hyung might not want to hunt. But it looks like that’s not the case.”
“Ah.”
“Honestly, monster hunting isn’t really my thing. A friend recently asked me to start a business with him, so I’m looking into it.”
“A business?”
“He says there’s some amazing item.”
“Isn’t that usually the line they use to scam suckers out of their money?”
“Do I look like a sucker to you? I’m planning to at least hear him out. He’s not usually like this, but he seemed strangely restless, like something was chasing him.”
“Maybe he’s being chased by loan sharks.”
“Hey. Have you ever seen an awakened use loan sharks?”
“Ah. So he’s an awakened.”
“Exactly. If you’re thinking about the family, you can leave it to me just like big brother and go on expeditions. I’ll be here.”
“What thoughts do I have? I just want to move with people I can trust. That’s it.”
When the youngest said he hadn’t asked their older brother because he was worried about being a nuisance, Kang Han-sung pulled his hand out of the water and nodded.
“That makes sense. I haven’t asked him directly, but… don’t you get that feeling from our brother?”
“Disaster survivor?”
“Yeah. That. The feeling that everyone else died and he was the only one who survived. He gives off that vibe sometimes. I wonder what he went through.”
“He doesn’t seem to want to talk about it.”
“Yeah. I don’t really want to pry either… but when I think about how he used to be, it’s amazing he hasn’t broken down. A person’s personality doesn’t change that easily. Remember what he was like before?”
“Yes. He was quiet. Just being next to him would drag my mood down too.”
He was still somewhat quiet now, but it was more the difference between silence and weight. If the old Kang Tae-sung had been stillness itself, the current one felt more like someone forcibly silenced.
At least around family, the current version of their brother smiled and talked well. More than in the past, even. That actually made them uncomfortable. It felt forced, like he was smiling on purpose.
“The current brother should probably be seen as a beast of prey. You can’t keep a beast of prey in a cage. Whether that cage is us or ‘us.’”
“……”
“Wasn’t that a pretty decent play on words?”
“It loses impact when you explain it yourself…”
“When have I ever had any dignity to begin with? Let’s head inside too. Do you have somewhere to go today?”
“No. The only reason I was going to the gym was in case big brother came back.”
“Then it’s settled. I have to go out again today, so stay home. If big brother needs anything, help him out.”
“Yes.”
“By the way, how much allowance did Yuri say she got? It looked like big brother wired it to her account.”
He had found out this morning how much their older brother had spent yesterday. He wondered if their brother had lost all sense of money, and he was slightly worried that the allowance given to their sister had been too much.
“No matter how good the situation is, if you don’t know how scary money can be, it’ll cause big problems.”
“Big brother?”
“No. Yuri.”
“I think he gave her about a million won.”
“Hmm. That much… should be fine, I guess.”
Kang Han-sung nodded slightly, went inside to change clothes, and left. The youngest wiped the water off his hand and was about to head to his room when Kang Tae-sung, who had been touching a tablet in the living room, called him over. He went and sat down.
“Is the usual hunting party composition like this?”
Kang Tae-sung was looking through data on hunter hunting team formations and combat methods. There were also flash videos that appeared to have been recorded by individuals.
“Yes. It varies depending on the number of people, but the standard ratios are usually 1:4 or 1:3:1.”
“One being the defender.”
“1:4 means one tank and four damage dealers. 1:3:1 is when a healer is added at the back. That’s the base formation, and when the number of people increases, they adjust the ratio accordingly. But it’s usually 1:4. There are almost no healers.”
“What about where you used to hunt?”
“My team? Ah. The numbers varied each time, but usually around twenty people. Sometimes up to fifty. With that many, instead of just defending from the front, four or more tanks would surround and block all four sides—front, back, left, and right. The damage dealers would attack from between them, while long-range dealers and healers provided support from the outside. That’s how it worked.”
“What’s the difference between a tank and a shielder?”
“You can think of a shielder as a subcategory of tank.”
The youngest thought for a moment, then raised both hands to gesture as he explained.
Tanking was literally the act of drawing and holding a monster’s attention. It was about making the monster look only at you instead of the other hunters who were attacking.
“There are tanks that endure by defending, and there are tanks that keep drawing attention while attacking alongside the damage dealers. There are also tanks that dodge while blocking instead of defending. They’re sometimes shortened to ‘attack tanks’ or ‘evasion tanks.’”
So, the ones who took on the monster’s attacks as their main role were tanks. Below them were various types of tanks. A shielder, the youngest explained, was the type among defensive tanks that held out using only a shield instead of a weapon.
“You used a bow, right?”
“Yes. Thanks to the Targeting skill, hunting was very comfortable. My accuracy improved over time… but long-range dealers get a lower distribution rate after hunts. It can’t be helped since they’re not in danger.”
“Is the distribution rate something the system decides?”
“Experience and points come in automatically so there’s no choice there, but for monster byproducts, the principle is to distribute them according to prior agreements. Usually, if the byproduct value is 100, the tank gets 30 percent and the damage dealers get 50 percent. It’s divided according to the numbers.”
“What about the remaining 20 percent?”
“The team leader.”
“……?”
“Team leader, team captain… same thing. Most of them are people trying to gather funds to create guilds or clans. Gathering people is the leader’s job, and they often use their share to recruit decent tanks or other things. A leader who takes everything for themselves and acts like nothing happened won’t last long.”
“I see.”
“To create a clan or guild, you have to register officially and pay a fee, and it’s no joke. They set the bar with formation costs under the justification that they can’t allow armed groups to be created recklessly.”
“How much?”
“1,000 points. In cash, that’s two billion won.”
“Hmm.”
“It’s ambiguous. Expensive if you think it is, not if you don’t… but for people starting with nothing, gathering that money isn’t easy. Unless they hit the jackpot.”
He added that forming a clan or guild didn’t end with taxes. There were personnel limits, and if they wanted to grow beyond that, they had to apply for upgrades with the state step by step and receive approval. The costs involved in that process were also significant.
“Official clans and guilds have to keep books. They have to calculate income, pay proper income taxes… you can think of them as corporations.”
“So in the end, it all goes into the country’s pockets.”
“Can’t be helped. That money is used for things like urban reconstruction projects. Police and firefighter salaries ultimately come from taxes too. Everyone complains, but they don’t refuse. On the contrary, already established clans sometimes petition to raise the formation costs because they find new clans annoying. They cite inflation adjustments.”
“Pathetic.”
“In the early days, they even tried to take some byproducts directly as tax right after hunts… but unless they followed every hunting party around to monitor them, there was no way to know how much each group hunted or earned. So it changed to an indirect tax applied when byproducts are traded.”
“That makes sense. Chasing everyone around would cost money on its own.”
“Are you going to hunt too, big brother?”
“I’ll have to. But not like this.”
When Kang Tae-sung said “like this,” he was referring to the ordinary way hunters hunted these days. The tone might have sounded incredibly arrogant to some, but even if they weren’t family, Kang Yeon-sung didn’t find his older brother’s words unpleasant. He already knew it wasn’t bragging.
Thank you.
See you next time…
*I changed the ratio symbol from . to : after feedback that it looked awkward.
Thank you for the advice.