abcnovels
Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Chapter 43
Returning to Luize’s hospital room the next day, Se-Hoon presented her with a black plastic bag.
“Here.”
“What’s this?”
“The training equipment we’ll use today.”
“Huh...”
Although she initially felt indifferent upon hearing his dry explanation, she tensed up when she was about to receive the bag. After all, the bag held training equipment that would enable her to use magic despite her mana impairment—in other words, it held her lifeline.
“What are you waiting for? Hurry up and take it.”
“Ah, okay.”
Swallowing nervously, she cautiously took the plastic bag and glanced inside.
“...What are these?”
And made an incredulous expression upon seeing the glossy cherries.
“These are cherries,” she added, answering her own question.
“To be precise, they’re Jason cherries. They’re actually quite expensive due to their calming effects and high sugar content—”
“Forget that. Where’s the actual training equipment?”
Pointing to the cherries inside the bag, Se-Hoon nonchalantly responded, “Right there. That’s the training equipment.”
“...”
She gave him a cold look, making it clear that she thought he was insane. Seeing it, Se-Hoon gestured inside the room with his chin.
“I’ll explain, so just go in and sit down first.”
“...Alright.”
Though his words and actions weren’t entirely reassuring, this was the path she had chosen. Thinking such, she firmly suppressed her doubts and entered the room with Se-Hoon.
Inside the room, a whiteboard, desk, and chairs starkly furnished the room, making it resemble a modest classroom. The sight made him smile.
She’s always enjoyed these kinds of things.
Luize had always valued and considered the environment and atmosphere for learning and teaching, unlike his master, who would impart lessons spontaneously, even during meals.
He would always throw a fit if I didn’t learn as much as the effort he put in...
While he reminisced about how he once endured thirty-four hours of continuous lessons, Luize took her seat and started glaring at him.
“What are you doing? Let’s start quickly.”
“Alright, alright.”
He approached the whiteboard and picked up a marker.
“Before we dive into training, let’s revisit your throat condition.”
With a swift movement of his hand, an illustration of the throat and its intertwined mana circuits appeared on the whiteboard.
“Basically, mana impairment refers to a state where the original path of a circuit was changed due to an injury and it healed in that state. Its symptom is severe pain when using mana.”
“...”
“Now, the important part is...”
He circled the misaligned mana circuits and looked at Luize.
“The mana that causes pain due to the mana impairment—what kind of mana is it?”
“Refined mana, duh.”
To use mana properly, it had to first go through a specific refinement process via mana circuits. And luckily, that process was a reflexive bodily function that even young kids could naturally perform.
“Right. Mana impairment only reacts to refined mana, not to ordinary mana. That’s why you don’t feel pain despite mana circulating your body right now.”
Summarizing what they discussed on the whiteboard, looked at her with a grin.
“So, the question is, how do we use mana without triggering the pain caused by mana impairment? It’s simple.”
Tap. Tap.
“Just refine the mana here.”
“...”
Staring at Se-Hoon tapping the mouth he added to his drawing of the throat with the tip of the marker, Luize couldn’t help but make an expression of disbelief.
“Do you genuinely think that’s going to work?”
The output of one’s mana directly correlated with the rounds of refinement it went through, so when it came to spellcasting, the number of rounds naturally made an immense difference. Intermediate spells, which any student of the Department of Elements could cast, required mana that had to be refined at least four times by mana circuits throughout the body. Even basic spells required mana that was refined at least once.
Yet here Se-Hoon was, suggesting that she should do all of those rounds with just the mana circuits in the mouth. He was practically asking her to shoot a missile with a handgun.
“Ha... it’s just as I thought. I shouldn’t have expected much—”
“It might not work for others,” Se-Hoon said, cutting off her words.
He then looked at her calmly.
“But you can do it.”
She was Luize Valente, the Blast Dog. She had been the most feared terrorist in the world, gaining infamy as the bane of mages. Regardless of whether the mage was a hero or a demon, she killed and killed; she had killed an uncountable number of them.
That dreadful talent of hers could turn even the inefficient methods Se-Hoon was about to teach her into weapons of her own.
“...Ahem.”
Embarrassed by the confidence in his words, she turned away.
“Well, I’ll hear you out for now. What should I do?”
“We’ll start by training the mana circuits in your mouth. Since they aren’t heavily used when casting spells, they’re relatively dull.”
“Hm. By mouth... you mean the tongue?”
She rolled her tongue inside her mouth, a curious expression on her face.
Given that the tongue was at the periphery of the body, its mana circuits were almost negligible. How could they possibly handle all the refining that her entire body used to do?
I doubt I can even cast any spells.
Pressing her cheek with her tongue, her gaze suddenly shifted toward the cherries.
“So, what are the cherries for?”
“Like I said before, they’re for training. Let’s start using them now.”
“We’re actually using these?” she puzzledly asked.
She couldn’t even imagine how the cherries could be used to train the mana circuits in the mouth.
As she was at a loss, Se-Hoon extended his hand toward her.
“Toss me a cherry.”
“Ah, okay.”
Lightly catching the cherry she tossed, Se-Hoon popped it into his mouth and chewed.
A while later, he stuck out his tongue.
“Huh?”
The stem of the cherry had been perfectly tied in a diamond shape.
“This is just the basics. You can easily make it by precisely manipulating the mana circuits in your tongue.”
“...”
“With some practice, you should be able to use mana generated within your mouth to assist, but since it might be difficult for you initially, just use your teeth for now. And...”
As Se-Hoon nonchalantly continued to explain while drawing the method to move the tongue on the whiteboard, Luize closed her eyes tightly.
I must be crazy.
She realized that it was not a genius that she had gotten involved with—she had gotten involved with an absolute madman.
***
After imparting the cherry knot training method to her, he introduced several more exercises.
“She sixth sells sick sea sheik’s shells by sixth the sheep’s sea sick sh—geh.”
“Put more force into it!”
“Stop making me do weird stuff, you lunatic!!!”
She was currently training with a method that forced her to read a combination of two tongue twisters aloud while embedding both mana and emotion into her words.
“Your pronunciation has to be clear.”
“Juss kee me.”
And all while bitting down on a rod designed to twist her pronunciation. To an outsider, the training methods might seem absurd, but Se-Hoon had taught her them with the utmost seriousness. As such, although Luize was always complaining, she obediently went along.
“It’s too sweet...”
“At least it’s not bitter. Just eat it.”
Since she had been consuming over a hundred Jason cherries a day, each costing 1,000 won, her tongue and lips had become perpetually bitten and sore. And on top of that, her voice had become hoarse due to how much she had been using her throat nowadays.
Yet, despite it all, she continued to relentlessly train day and night. Soon, a week passed.
“I did it...!”
She had finally succeeded in tying the cherry stem into a perfect hexagonal shape, which Se-Hoon had recently taught her, in her mouth.
Seeing how firm and undistorted the knot was, Se-Hoon applauded. “Wow. You actually did it. Impressive.”
“I told you. This is nothing for me!”
“Hm. Excellent.”
He was genuinely amazed that she had managed to achieve the hexagonal shape, which he had expected to take at least a month, in just one week.
Maybe it’s because she made this training method. She got it down so quickly.
He had been worried about how much he would be able to teach her in two weeks, but with this rate of progress, it seemed teaching her everything was entirely feasible.
He looked at her was a face full of satisfaction.
“Aaaagh!!”
Suddenly, Luize, who had been happily laughing at the knot she had made, started scratching her head furiously and screaming.
“What’s wrong? Why are you acting like that?”
“Why? Because all I’ve learned for the past week is how to tie a stupid knot!”
She had become adept at moving her tongue delicately, and she could say complex sentences smoothly without stumbling. Moreover, her vocalization and pronunciation had improved remarkably, to the point where one might think she was a show host if they listened to her recorded voice.
Considering she had done all of that in just a week, it was an incredible achievement.
What was the point?! How does any of this relate to magic?!
All of it seemed completely unrelated to treating her mana impairment. Frustrated at how she had focused so much on the seemingly useless training, she began loathing herself for displaying tremendous talent in such futile endeavors.
“Ughhhhh!!”
Overwhelmed by her sudden emotions, she clenched the perfect hexagonal knot tightly in her hand, ready to throw it on the ground.
But, after fuming for a bit, she sighed deeply and lowered her hand.
“Haaa...”
What was the point in taking out her anger on a knot she had worked so hard, biting her tongue countless times in the process, to make? Defeated, she slumped down in her chair.
“I’m sorry... my mind has been a bit scattered lately.”
“Well, that happens.”
“Let’s continue the training. What knot do I have to make next?” she said, already chewing on a cherry with a resigned look on her face.
Se-Hoon smirked slightly.
“The next training is focused on refining mana for Incantation Magic.”
“Right. Incantat—wait, Incantation Magic?”
Hearing something totally different from what she expected, her eyes widened in surprise. Se-Hoon began to gather his mana.
“I'll show you how it’s done, so watch closely.”
Unrefined mana gathered in his mouth, and once he felt like he had gathered enough, he awakened the mana circuits in his tongue and lightly flicked it.
Swoosh-
Bouncing off his tongue, the gathered mana coalesced in various directions.
She had thought that the mana circuits in her mouth would only be used for mana refinement, but it turned out they were used completely differently in practice.
To use Incantation Magic, one had to have two things. The first was a minimal amount of mana to serve as the focal point for the incantation. The second was a strong imagination that allowed one to manifest the image of the spell as magic; in other words, one essentially needed to create a synesthetic mindscape.
And if the caster was able to make the image of their spell more accurate and vivid, the Incantation Magic would become exponentially stronger.
First, I need a good demonstration... a sphere should do.
The moment his synesthetic mindscape was perfected, the mana that had been coalescing in his mouth transformed into a spell pattern, drawing the raw mana in his body toward it.
Confirming that the spell was ready, he lightly opened his mouth.
“Sphere.”
The spell shot out, materializing in the air by drawing in the surrounding mana, and formed a neat sphere that was the size of a fist.
Though the sphere had no special effects, it was special since it was cast using only the mana circuits in his mouth.
“...” Speechless, Luize stared blankly at the sphere.
She had half-doubted him, but right before her eyes was proof that there was a way that allowed her to use magic despite her mana impairment. Facing the sight that she could hardly believe, she stood there flabbergasted.
Se-Hoon smiled slightly at the sphere.
My condition is good today.
Before the regression, six out of ten attempts at creating a sphere with this method would fail and end up misshapen. However, today, for some reason, it came out smooth on his first try.
It was so smooth that if it was before the regression, even the Blast Dog, who was famed for this, would have admitted that it was impressive. With that thought in mind, he glanced at Luize, who was still staring blankly.
Maybe I should demonstrate a bit more, seeing as how it’s going so well.
Considering her talent, it was guaranteed that she would surpass him soon, so to ensure that she would trust him unconditionally later, he needed to impress her as much as possible now.
Looking at the sphere floating before him, he decided to use Incantation Magic to cast a more complicated spell.
“Transform.”
The sphere twisted, then stretched out into a thin, spiral lance. The new form was just as flawless as the sphere. His lips curled up slightly at the sight.
Not bad.
Usually, eight out of ten attempts with this spell would result in a slightly unstable form, but it came out perfectly this time.
Feeling lucky, he boldly performed more spells with Incantation Magic.
“Attribute Element.”
Flames burst forth from the spiral lance.
“Attribute Rotation.”
The lance spun furiously, buzzing like a hornet.
As the menacing result took shape before his eyes, he realized something was a bit off.
Why is everything going so well?
He had already succeeded with a forty percent success rate, a thirty percent success rate, then a ten percent success rate, and even a five percent success rate. He had been planning to cancel the spell once he failed, but the spell just continued to evolve.
The fearsome, flaming lance spun wildly, causing the air to tremble.
Observing the spell, he decided to open the window of the hospital room and direct the lance toward the sky just in case.
“Attribute Acceleration.”
Thwoong-!
The flaming lance shot out and soared toward the sky with terrifying momentum, shining ominously as if it could shatter the sky at any moment.
Realizing the possibility of a massive explosion, he quickly uttered one last spell.
“Dispel.”
Pew- Bang!
Thankfully, it had become a small firework that burst harmlessly in the air.
“What was that?”
“I don’t know. Was it from the training rooms?”
The explosion was so insignificant that only the people walking outside would notice it, but Se-Hoon was shocked because the force was so pathetic.
H-How did I...?
He had somehow stopped a truck running at 300 kilometers per hour, but it wasn’t by hitting the brakes; he had somehow disassembled the entire truck on the spot to stop it. Before the regression, he had never successfully performed such a spell with Incantation Magic.
This time, it was Se-Hoon’s turn to stare blankly. He reflected on his achievement as he looked blankly up at the sky.
[Skill ‘Incantation Attribute (C)’ has been acquired.]
He had somehow restored another one of his skills from before the regression.
Kyokon: Well, at least I don’t think the cherry knot training method is entirely useless.
Sigh: Did he just... train her tongue...?