Chapter 134
Whoosh-.
A single streak of light weaving through a horde of monsters with only an old iron sword in hand.
There was not a shred of hesitation or fear in that movement charging toward the enemy.
Scrape-.
“Squeeeal-!”
Simply cutting down anything that appeared before her eyes.
Before long, a pack of orcs lay scattered on the ground, their necks and heads separated from their bodies.
“Haa. Haa.”
Se-yeon stood among them, breathing so roughly that her entire body heaved.
Though covered in green blood, she didn’t seem to care at all, her eyes gleaming like those of a wild beast.
Clap-. Clap-.
Seeing this, Hyeon-wol applauded and praised Se-yeon.
“Good, very good! As expected of a prodigy. There’s a reason Talis chose you.”
This girl wasn’t relying on the system’s blessing at all from the start.
Following pure instinct alone to discern the optimal sword path, she looked like a living, breathing combat machine.
The Blood Lineage Sword Energy skill she possessed was merely one means to assist and maximize that beast-like talent.
Even outside the tower, the girl would likely fight similarly to now.
Of course, if she had moved relying only on instinct as in the past, she would have quickly tired and fallen to the orcs’ coordinated attacks.
But she had reached the level of controlling even her inner beast nature under Talis’s guidance.
That appearance of strength and flexibility in perfect harmony was truly like a well-forged sword itself, and at least in Hyeon-wol’s view, there seemed nothing more to teach.
“……Thank you.”
“Did you all see that well? This is how you do it. Like this!”
But Nam-gung Cheon only tilted his head at Hyeon-wol’s high praise.
“What are you telling us to imitate? That’s just the realm of beasts. It’s not something you can do just because you want to.”
“Geez…… Are those eyes just for decoration? I’m not telling you to mimic the movements. I mean to judge for yourself the emission and gathering of energy, and the execution of techniques according to the right time and place!”
“Hey, I can already control that much.”
Nam-gung Cheon answered thus while injecting energy into his sword.
Whooom-.
Though his current mana was greatly reduced making fine control difficult, he could both form sharp sword energy at the blade’s tip and spread mana throughout the entire sword to strengthen the blade itself.
But Hyeon-wol shook her head.
“That’s only superior compared to ordinary climbers, but you haven’t truly made the energy your own.”
Since he learned under Divine Spear, basic mana manipulation was possible without system correction, but more detailed manipulation beyond that was impossible.
In Hyeon-wol’s view, he was still far off.
The use of techniques was the same.
She didn’t expect him to create martial arts on his own like Seo-jin.
At least he should perfectly analyze his own martial arts and fully master them.
Hyeon-wol crossed her arms and advised.
“I’m not telling you to start over from the beginning. Even if you received system correction, all the actions you’ve taken so far should be engraved in that body. Just stepping slightly outside the framework of the system could achieve considerable progress.”
If he couldn’t manage that level of application, he’d have to go to the stage of Forget Self.
He’d have to forget everything he’d learned so far and start over from the beginning.
Still, that guy didn’t seem to be that much of a blockhead, so let’s try teaching him a bit more for now.
“You, come sit here too.”
Hyeon-wol called Francesca over as well, had her sit next to Nam-gung Cheon, and began a lengthy speech.
“Whether martial arts or techniques, if you grasp their principles, you can use them anytime without borrowing the form of skills or receiving system correction. The same goes for more detailed energy distribution and usage……”
While Hyeon-wol was chattering away like that.
Scrape- Scrape-.
Se-yeon was casually chopping off the heads of monsters drawn by the smell of blood.
“Um, is there nothing for me?”
So-yul, who was actually the mage, was floating awkwardly between the three blade wielders and the ghost.
Hyeon-wol’s advice was certainly helpful from a broad perspective, but it didn’t have a direct connection to magic after all.
As So-yul hesitated, Hyeon-wol paused her words and recalled the advice Seo-jin had left.
“You should continue the training you’ve been doing. He said you’re doing well.”
“Is, is that so?”
As those words suggested, So-yul had been concentrating on mana manipulation training following Circe and Seo-jin’s teachings from before.
So-yul’s face brightened at the praise she heard through Hyeon-wol.
There was nothing more to learn. The stage of acquisition was training by understanding and repeating on one’s own.
Just continue as she was doing now.
“Then, then I’ll help Se-yeon.”
So-yul gripped her staff tightly and ran toward Se-yeon, who was engaged in bloody combat with monsters.
***
Meanwhile, Seo-jin’s team……
“Mmmph.”
Siegfried, Austin, and Nam-gung Rin sat cross-legged in front of Circe.
The three were making groaning sounds with furrowed brows, as if things weren’t going well.
And for good reason, as the three had achieved no notable progress regarding the utilization of the upper energy center.
This was because the power of the upper energy center was originally difficult to train, and it wasn’t a field where achievements became clearly apparent just from learning from others.
Facing these three people, Circe continued her explanation.
“The power of the upper energy center isn’t greatly different from mana. It’s just that the source, nature, and form of the fuel used are different.”
If general magic was about absorbing natural mana and reprocessing it, the upper energy center focused on connection with other beings.
Connection with gods based on faith, power provided through bonds with spirits.
Due to such nature, the process involved raising the soul’s rank rather than training the body or mind.
“Though the source and form of power differ, the method of manifesting it in the world is the same.”
Once you completely grasped and mastered that principle, you could achieve improvement incomparably greater than before in terms of efficiency.
It was a realm experienced once before, after all.
For example, even at level 1, you should be able to summon a spirit you’ve contracted once.
The mana consumed and physical burden in that process were secondary issues.
Just like how Seo-jin used black magic that he normally couldn’t use on the tutorial floor.
Though he had to endure considerable physical strain in the process of maximally drawing out mana efficiency.
But this was something even Seo-jin couldn’t teach.
The upper energy center wasn’t Seo-jin’s area of expertise in the first place, so he had asked Circe for help in teaching this to the three.
Though Seo-jin did use the power of the upper energy center, he used separate means rather than contracts with higher beings.
Circe said.
“The power of the upper energy center originates from soul connection. Though the forms are varied, its essence is the power of causation. The methods of weaving power differ, but the essence is like an unbreakable ‘contract’. If you examine the structure of that contract, grasping the principle is never difficult.”
Circe’s explanation continued.
As her explanation suggested, spirit arts and divine magic were acts of manifesting power borrowed from gods and spirits through causation.
But that explanation didn’t quite resonate with Nam-gung Rin.
The Taoist Arts she had learned differed from typical upper energy center power.
‘Taoist Arts isn’t power borrowed from other beings, but power built up step by step like martial arts……’
Based on a warrior’s breathing method, it accumulated spiritual energy in the upper energy center and converted it to magical power or Taoist power.
Moreover, since it required much innate talent called spiritual roots, it wasn’t something you could learn just because you wanted to, and it was a greatly difficult field to master.
Instead, befitting that acquisition difficulty, it possessed peculiar abilities that differed from ordinary martial arts or skills.
The ability to manipulate people’s minds and memories without notable cost or side effects was hard to find except in Taoist arts.
Even Hyeon-wol only knew the basics about Taoist Arts, so there was nothing she could teach Nam-gung Rin at this point.
The best way to quickly raise one’s level was to recite appropriate incantations, form hand seals, and consume elixirs that would help with energy absorption and release.
While Circe taught the groaning Siegfried and Austin with closed eyes.
Seo-jin tapped Nam-gung Rin’s shoulder, quietly drawing her aside.
“Why, why are you doing this?”
“You look like you won’t make much progress just groaning there. Unfortunately, I too find it difficult to teach you anything.”
“I thought so……”
Nam-gung Rin immediately accepted Seo-jin’s words.
She couldn’t find a suitable master even on the 12th floor in the past.
This was because no great being who had learned Taoist Arts appeared in that cycle.
“But it’s not like there’s no method.”
Taoist Arts was a skill that greatly relied on talent, so not everyone could learn it just because there was system correction.
This meant that all the techniques Nam-gung Rin currently used were learned regardless of system correction.
It was a similar situation to Se-yeon, who was free from system correction due to her innate senses.
So there was no need to go back to the starting point and learn principles from scratch.
“This is a Spirit Stone I obtained.”
Seo-jin took out something like a pure white orb from his chest and handed it to Nam-gung Rin.
“This, this is surely……”
While ordinary monsters left mana stones when they died, some monsters with spirit beast-like nature left Spirit Stones.
Somewhere in the tower, there were even red Spirit Stones made by grinding up natives, but he didn’t want to use such things.
“If you absorb the energy well, it should help raise your level.”
Originally, item use was prohibited in this test, but Circe had permitted this due to the special nature of Nam-gung Rin’s talent.
“Th, thank you. Such a precious thing……”
Spirit Stones were items you couldn’t easily obtain even with money.
Nam-gung Rin bowed her head repeatedly, expressing her gratitude.
“Then go back over there and sit cross-legged. You need to absorb the energy.”
“……Yes.”
Seo-jin watched Nam-gung Rin’s retreating figure walking away, then suddenly looked up at the sky.
The barrier swayed faintly.
It seemed someone had entered the barrier Artovice had set up.
‘As planned.’
He didn’t know how many of them would receive Artovice’s permission to participate in the test.
‘I’ll settle things with them here.’
Those flies who had been chasing and bothering him for the past several months.
He would end it here.
***
“I see. So this is the kind of test it is.”
Crack-.
The Director broke the wolf’s neck with his hand.
The gray wolf collapsed limply to the ground, strength drained.
Even if his level had been reset, the killing techniques he’d learned didn’t disappear.
He had mastered all kinds of martial arts and assassination techniques since before the tower came into being.
The tower’s blessing and mana were merely catalysts that amplified his sharply honed skills.
Losing mana didn’t mean his techniques would rust away.
“This is an administrator’s test? Easy.”
Stab-.
One of the hunting dogs who pulled his dagger from the wolf’s nape said.
He was Hanseong’s assassin directly raised by the Director and his direct subordinate.
He licked the blood on his blade with his tongue and smiled.
“Under the same conditions, there’s no way we’d lose to climbers.”
Assassins who made killing their profession versus climbers who only raised their levels with a gaming mindset.
If those two fought under the same conditions, the result was obvious as fire.
It wasn’t a matter of talent or effort.
The way of life itself created an absolute gap in life-or-death combat.
The Director’s eyes gleamed in the darkness.
“That’s right. This test is the perfect opportunity to eliminate them.”
Sorry to the young lady, but he would die here.
