Chapter 52

Chapter 52.

As I read the community reactions, I tested my newly acquired abilities in various ways.

The moment I absentmindedly released the Deathlord’s Synchronization.

“No!! Ratty!!!”

Ratty, who had been maintained by my dark Mana, lost his strength and crumbled into ordinary bone fragments.

Fortunately, when I synchronized with the Deathlord again, Ratty neatly fitted his bones back together and came back to life.

“It is about time to head out.”

I glanced over the party window.

Lee A-un’s HP had been full for quite a while.

And when I saw that his MP, which had remained unchanged for a long time, had begun to move faintly, I realized it was time to leave.

It meant Lee A-un had regained consciousness and started trying to use magic.

“Come here, Ratty.”

I slipped the cute Ratty into my pocket and stroked his head.

Perhaps because it felt good, Ratty quietly felt my touch.

‘He is so smooth that he feels nice to touch. He is like a smoothly polished Ping-Pong ball.’

[…Me too.]

“Hm?”

[It is nothing.]

I put Snowy, who only ever spouted nonsense, securely around my wrist.

After checking one last time to make sure the camera was properly linked, I headed to Lee A-un’s residence.

***

“I am here.”

“Ah, you are here, Brother.”

Perhaps because I had sent him a whisper beforehand telling him to train, Lee A-un was drenched in sweat.

“What I told you to do was magic training.”

Why had he spent so much stamina on physical training?

“Yes, I did magic training.”

“?”

“…?”

Lee A-un looked down at his own state once, then added with an “Ah.”

“Ahh. This sweat? Well, it came out while I was enduring the pain.”

“It hurts?”

When I asked, Lee A-un answered with an awkward smile on his pale face.

“When I tried to draw up black magic, I mean, the Deathlord’s Mana, inside my body… it felt like black shards of iron were scraping through my blood vessels. It hurt like hell.”

“….”

So that was what it felt like?

“While suppressing that and trying to gather the Mana, my whole body ended up tensing without me realizing it….”

“Try using it once.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lee A-un adjusted his posture and closed his eyes.

Along with the sound of him holding back a groan, Lee A-un’s jaw muscles tightened.

Deep wrinkles furrowed his brow, and the veins at the nape of his neck bulged as if they were about to burst.

Anyone could see that he was enduring extreme pain.

Hssss—

Black mist began to rise from Lee A-un’s body.

“Huff! Huff!”

Lee A-un was panting roughly as he forcibly squeezed out his Mana.

‘…Is it similar to Han Seol-ah?’

Watching him reminded me of Han Seol-ah’s past training.

‘Han Seol-ah also said that in order to handle Frost Type Mana, she had to endure the pain of her Mana Roads bursting apart.’

In order to prevent her body from collapsing, she had to personally calculate and draw an extremely complex magic circle, like a Mandala, inside her body.

Even if she handled her Mana just a little roughly, she had endured the terrible backlash of her Mana Roads being shredded like rags throughout her entire body.

Lee A-un was the same.

No matter how much I had fed him an Elixir, resolved his curse, changed his class to EX-rank, and given him the miraculous talent of a dual class.

In the end, he was a human with a real body.

Only by ‘enduring’ the backlash of magic with his entire body could he manifest his ability.

“Whew… whew. Brother, did you see that?”

Lee A-un barely gathered the energy of the black magic while sweat poured off him like rain.

Even though all he had done was awaken his Mana, Lee A-un was on the verge of collapse.

“What should I do…?”

Lee A-un asked in a gloomy voice.

‘What about me?’

I had no need to understand how to use magic or what its principles were at all.

How to operate Mana, how to gather it, what magic circle to draw—Synchronization handled those dull, pedantic, and complicated things for me.

All I had to do was perform one simple action: put my will into it and recite the Starting Incantation from the skill window.

Then Synchronization performed the overwhelming and perfect calculations in my place, like hundreds of millions of gears interlocking and turning without even a 0.0001 mm margin of error.

While Hunters struggled to control the flow of Mana through bone-shaving agony, I simply had to ‘click’ a button within the perfect interface provided by the system, and that was the end of it.

Complicated incantations and painful backlash that felt as though my blood vessels were being torn apart did not exist for me at all.

Once again, I keenly felt how broken Synchronization was.

“How are you operating Mana right now?”

“I just… do it as it happens….”

I organized my thoughts for a moment.

First… dark Mana was a power that did not exist on Earth, or at least had not yet been discovered.

Han Seol-ah’s Frost Type Mana was already being researched, and even beginner’s guidebooks were well prepared.

Elemental types and martial types were usually like that.

But for dark Mana, there were no reference books or seniors who could teach a training method whatsoever.

Therefore, the only means of passing knowledge on to Lee A-un was me.

‘How should I explain this…?’

Just as I was about to fall into thought.

[My lord.]

“Hm?”

Ratty spoke to me from inside my pocket.

[Would you leave this to me?]

What was he planning to do?

But there was no way the cute Ratty would do anything foolish.

“Go ahead.”

[By your command.]

Boing!

Ratty hopped out of my pocket.

Thwack!

Then he landed in front of Lee A-un in a cool hero pose.

“…? Brother, what is this tiny skeleton doll….”

[Silence!!!!!!!!!!!]

“Hiiik!”

Ratty lifted his toothpick-like sword and pointed it at Lee A-un.

[This instructor is a Death Knight who received the name ‘Ratty’ from my lord. From this moment on, I shall teach you how to handle ‘dark Mana.’]

“…?”

[Answer.]

“Yes, yes.”

STAB!

“Kraaaagh!”

Ratty, who had shot forward like a streak of light, stabbed Lee A-un in the thigh!

Although it was only the size of a toothpick, Ratty was a swordsman who had sliced through a car in an instant.

He had surely controlled his strength enough not to kill him, but Lee A-un screamed and collapsed.

[If your answer is late, I will kill you. Do you understand?]

“Yes, yes, yes!!”

[All answers will be unified as ‘Sir!’ Do you understand?]

“Sir!”

Oof.

He was brutal.

[Dark Mana is also called Necromantic Mana. It is a difference in expression, not in substance. From this instructor’s perspective, I prefer the term ‘dark Mana,’ which my lord named.]

“Sir!”

[Dark Mana is negative energy. Death, despair, pain, darkness and shadow, fear, plague… You may think of it as converting such negative energy into Mana and using it. Do you understand?]

“Yes?”

STAB!

“Aaagh!”

[You will die even if you fail to understand. Thanks to that, I have roughly understood your level of intelligence. Insect. You are equal to or less than one. From now on, you are an insect. Understood?]

“Sir!”

[I shall educate you at a level even an insect can understand. You, here. Here. And up to here.]

Poke. Poke. Poke.

Ratty stabbed and pointed out the key blood channels through which the Mana Roads passed.

[Circulate dark Mana along the places I just pointed out. Begin.]

“Sir!”

Lee A-un gritted his teeth again and operated his dark Mana.

[Wrong. I told you dark Mana is negative energy. And yet, your heart is now full of positive and bright energy. However.]

“Sir!”

[Deep within your heart, I can see the undying flames of revenge and the sticky bloodstains of hatred clinging to it. That means you have talent.]

“….”

Lee A-un’s words caught in his throat.

‘…Lee A-un’s little sister.’

I remembered hearing about it from Lee Hyeong-je’s past.

A child who, despite the difference in age, had been friends with Lee Hyeong-je of Golden Mine.

A child who had been brutally killed by a Demonic Beast because of that goodwill and brightness.

After that, Lee A-un had supposedly been blinded by revenge.

[Be angry and hate. This instructor will assist you.]

Poke! Poke! Stab!

“Sir! Sir! Aaaagh!!!”

[Continue circulating your Mana. Does it hurt when a sword pierces your flesh, or does it hurt when you circulate Mana? Judging by your reaction, it seems the pain of circulating Mana is worse.]

“Aaagh!”

[Now, now. Scream. Circulate your Mana in anger. I am telling you to block the places this instructor stabs with dark Mana. I will stab here.]

‘…Ratty. You are impressive.’

Teaching magic from the ground up.

That was an extremely difficult task for me.

Unlike me, who used magic by ‘clicking.’

Hunters had to manifest magic through Casting.

I had to teach him how to learn that Casting, but….

‘How am I supposed to explain something that just works?’

I do not even do Casting, I am telling you.

Ratty was doing that in my place.

What a relief.

“Ghk.”

Before long, Lee A-un collapsed with a thud.

Ratty carefully examined him to see whether Lee A-un was pretending to be unconscious, and his toothpick sword…

‘Oof, that is damn scary.’

At the horror of that method, I ended up turning my eyes away.

Anyway.

Ratty returned.

[My lord. May I ask to what level you wish that man to handle necromancy?]

“Hm.”

This was important.

“He does not need attack types.”

[Then what remains are defense, summoning, and curse types.]

“Summoning is the most important. After that, curses, and defense last.”

[May I ask how you intend to operate this man?]

“There are many tactics… Before that, how far do you think Lee A-un can grow?”

[If he is accompanied by a master who can clearly set his path, I believe he can reach a level equal to my lord. Or perhaps slightly below it.]

I accepted that.

EX-rank, a superhuman above superhumans.

At that level, it made sense even if he became the strongest person on Earth.

‘If Lee A-un becomes capable of doing as much as I can, my strategic options will become extremely broad.’

“What if the time limit is until tomorrow?”

[He should be capable of low-grade summoning and low-grade curses.]

“Be specific about his summoning capacity.”

Ratty organized his thoughts for a moment.

[…I am aiming for ‘Flesh and Bone,’ the Deathlord’s level 10 beginner magic, but realistically, it is impossible. Therefore, I believe he may be able to reach ‘Skeleton Summon,’ the beginner magic of the Bone Dragon Master.]

“Hm.”

Flesh and Bone was the Deathlord’s beginner magic that combined two corpses and raised one elite undead.

Skeleton Summon was the beginner magic of the lower class ‘Bone Dragon Master,’ which summoned two skeleton soldiers from bones.

The gap between the two was enormous, but…

“That much is enough.”

I would fill in what was lacking.

[As for curses…]

“Ah, develop ‘Thorns.’”

[Thorns… you say? That is Authority magic…]

“Lee A-un already has the aptitude for Thorns.”

I pointed at the tip of Ratty’s sword.

It was an extremely faint trace, but with the Deathlord activated, I could tell.

Dark Mana had smeared onto its tip.

[This is…!]

While Ratty flinched in surprise and examined the tip of his own sword, Lee A-un, who had been unconscious, foamed at the mouth, groaned, and twisted his body.

“He is only at that level because you stabbed him lightly. If you had stabbed him with the intent to kill, your toothp… no, your sword would have broken, and you would have been reverse-summoned too.”

[…How is this possible?]

Ratty looked back and forth between Lee A-un, who was crawling on the floor, and the tip of his own sword as if he could not believe it.

[Thorns is the Curse Mage’s level 99 Ultimate Skill. Even when used through the Deathlord class’s Authority, it is level 40 advanced magic…! How can a beginner who cannot even use Skeleton Summon do this?!]

“The ‘Hunters’ of this world have something called traits.”

The unique trait Lee A-un had possessed from the beginning.

Pure Soul (EX).

It was probably due to its influence.

That mysterious power that had even scratched Nebula, the absolute being, in Lost Honor.

[I shall obey your command.]

“Good. Work hard.”

Snap.

Ratty gave a disciplined salute, then returned to Lee A-un.

STAB!

‘…Oof.’

He stabbed him in an embarrassing spot.

“Kyaaaagh!”

Lee A-un jumped up.

[Come to your senses, insect.]

“Hgh, uuuugh.”

Without a word, I offered Lee A-un a potion.

‘…With this, I do not need to worry about Lee A-un.’

“Aaaagh!”

[Either block it or scream!]

“Aaaaaagh!!!”

[That is it. Be angry!]