Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Obtaining Mana

I exhaled and opened my eyes.

‘Is this right?’

For now, I had tried copying what I had seen with Evil Eye.

But I was not sure whether I had properly done this thing called Qi Circulation Breathing.

At that moment.

DING!

[You have awakened a power that had been sleeping inside your body for a long time!]

[It was a power you originally would not have noticed until death!]

[The inactive second heart begins beating!]

[The second heart is a place called the dantian or core! From this place, you can generate and use the resource called ki or mana!]

[Name standardization is required to add the stat! Please choose one!]

‘Mana.’

[The new stat ‘Mana’ is added to the Status Window of the Class Gambler, Player Ryu Jin!]

[The names of related Unique Traits and Unique Skills will be standardized according to your name selection!]

[You have acquired the Unique Trait ‘Mana Cultivation - Plum Blossom True Origin Style LV1’!]

It is a cultivation method specialized for the sword!

You can cloak a sword in the mana of Plum Blossom True Origin Style!

When the level rises, you can acquire higher techniques of Plum Blossom True Origin Sword!

When the level rises, maximum mana increases!

‘This actually works.’

To be honest, I was a little dazed.

Jin Hwayeon had said I would absolutely be unable to acquire it because I was already older.

She was not the type to scare someone for no reason, so I had tried it with a mindset of, Whatever happens, happens.

But I felt something, grabbed it, and spun it, and then I really acquired it.

‘Mm... Anyway, nice.’

I threw a small uppercut into the air.

I had learned it, so it was fine.

“Jin.”

Startled, I looked at Jin Hwayeon.

She always called me “brat,” so for her to suddenly call me Jin.

A chill ran down my spine.

It was similar to the feeling I had once had when Oh Deok-man called me only by my given name without the surname.

“What is that expression? Do you dislike being called by your name?”

“No. I like it.”

Jin Hwayeon approached and stared intently at my face.

“You are not being cheeky.”

“Should I have been?”

“Since you have a talent for irritating people, I thought you would. Something like, ‘You boasted it could not be done, yet it worked? Were you actually unable to do Qi Circulation Breathing?’”

“I’ll prepare something next time. I really didn’t expect it to work today either.”

“What?”

Jin Hwayeon’s eyebrow twitched.

Had I made a slip of the tongue?

“Surely you are not trying to say you simply tried it once and it worked?”

A brief silence flowed.

“Hah.”

Jin Hwayeon let out a hollow laugh and raised her smoking pipe.

She looked ready to strike my head at any moment.

When I blocked with both hands and made a questioning expression, she let out a deep sigh.

“Looking at that foolish expression, I nearly struck you without realizing it. To be honest, it is hateful, and I am jealous. To think you obtained what this Exalted One struggled so greatly to obtain in such a way.”

The faces of countless people flashed through Jin Hwayeon’s mind.

Perhaps because their positions were now reversed, she seemed to finally understand a little.

Why those people had looked at her with such expressions, and why they had envied and resented her so much.

“Where did it get blocked during Qi Circulation Breathing?”

“I’ll try it once more.”

I quickly sat cross-legged and closed my eyes.

There had definitely been places where it caught while I spun the ki round and round.

“There is no need to force yourself. It is not easy for someone who has only just begun circulation to identify such fine details.”

I exhaled and focused my mind on my core.

At that instant, Poporu’s Unique Trait, ‘Understanding of the Body,’ manifested.

The sense of mana and flow quickly became clearer.

After spinning the mana around three or four times, I opened my eyes.

“There are about thirty-two places. Here, and here, and over there...”

At the briefing that followed, Jin Hwayeon looked dumbfounded.

Then, before long, she shook her head and thought.

Let us stop being surprised today.

She had been surprised too many times, and it was tiring.

She waved her hand dismissively and opened her mouth.

“Take it off.”

“Pardon?”

When Ryu Jin recoiled in horror, she raised her smoking pipe once again.

She did not know why she wanted to hit him so badly today.

“I need to open your acupoints. Are you telling me to do that over your clothes? The moment I strike the wrong place, you will be crippled.”

“I see.”

While I quickly took off my upper garment, Jin Hwayeon continued speaking.

“Consider it an honor that this Exalted One is here. Even in the martial world, there are only a handful of people who can do this.”

“Thank you.”

“As long as you know. Try Qi Circulation Breathing again.”

Jin Hwayeon went behind my back and gathered ki into her fingertips.

“Hold your breath.”

In an instant, Jin Hwayeon made her move and tapped every acupoint Ryu Jin had pointed out.

When she tapped the final point and withdrew her hand, Ryu Jin released the breath he had been holding.

“Guuuh...!”

I immediately collapsed and breathed roughly.

It hurt like madness.

It was incomparable to being hit with a wooden sword.

But the price of that pain was clear.

DING!

[All pathways that had been obstructing mana circulation have been expanded!]

[Mana Cultivation - Plum Blossom True Origin Style leveled up!]

[Mana Cultivation - Plum Blossom True Origin Style leveled up!]

[Mana Cultivation - Plum Blossom True Origin Style leveled up!]

[Mana Cultivation - Plum Blossom True Origin Style leveled up!]

[Mana Cultivation - Plum Blossom True Origin Style reaches Level 5!]

[Maximum mana increases in proportion to the levels gained!]

[Your understanding of Plum Blossom True Origin Style greatly increases! From now on, you can manifest forms with mana!]

Jin Hwayeon smiled.

Such an immediate reaction. It had been worth diligently opening them.

After stretching once, Jin Hwayeon smoothly turned around.

“Now, truly return. Do not forget to perform Qi Circulation Breathing whenever you have time. And.”

She pointed with her smoking pipe at the food piled to one side.

“I do not need to eat anything here. So do not bring any next time.”

Before Ryu Jin could answer, Jin Hwayeon swung her smoking pipe a couple of times.

Entering was entirely up to Ryu Jin, but sending him out was also possible on her side.

Rustle.

Ryu Jin scattered into light and vanished.

Jin Hwayeon, now left alone, put the smoking pipe in her mouth.

‘Dark blue ki.’

Dark, yet not murky. Splendid, yet deeply profound.

For a moment, she imagined it.

Tens of thousands of plum blossoms blooming in dark blue.

Not bad.

She shrugged and walked toward the food Ryu Jin had brought.

She did not especially feel inclined, but she could not exactly throw away what her disciple had brought her.

For the sake of his sincerity, she would at least taste it.

Nom.

Jin Hwayeon’s eyes widened as she chewed indifferently.

What was this? This absurdly delicious thing.

She moved her smoking pipe aside and began reaching for the food in earnest.

At that moment, something began to slowly awaken within her.

The existence called appetite, which she had forgotten after entering seclusion.

---

The situation room of Kronos’s Issue Response Team.

Team Leader Bae Mina examined Labyrinth Site.

“People must have nothing to do. Posting this kind of thing every single day.”

Clicking her tongue, she rolled the mouse wheel downward.

Here was Labyrinth destruction, there was Labyrinth destruction.

The entire site was filled with posts about Labyrinth destruction.

Scroll.

The wheel she had been rolling indifferently stopped.

A post title had caught Bae Mina’s eye.

# Is Labyrinth destruction the signal flare of Kronos’s downfall?

“Look at this bastard.”

If the purpose had been baiting attention, she wanted to tell them they had succeeded for now.

Because her insides had already started boiling before she even read it.

After clicking it, she slowly read down through the post.

“Even in the middle of that, it’s well written again.”

It was not a post written to blindly bash Kronos.

It was a post that realistically pointed out various situations and analyzed them in depth.

With the stolen Labyrinth floors reaching double digits, Kronos must surely be in a state of emergency.

However, separate from that, has meaningful damage been inflicted on Kronos? A question mark remains.

The destroyed Labyrinth floors are merely Floors 1 through 10. This is the extreme early section, already cleared and passed by more than 95 percent of players.

In particular, since these are sections Kronos-affiliated players have no reason to revisit, being affiliated with Kronos does not mean they will suffer Magic Stone losses.

“That’s right. That’s right. Aside from the aggro-bait title, I like it quite a lot. Kronos has no small fries who run those kinds of floors.”

Scroll.

How many seconds passed after she rolled the wheel down once more?

The smile vanished from Bae Mina’s face.

She took back what she had said about liking it.

But what if, by some chance, the 25th floor-and-above range currently being attempted by low-level Kronos players is destroyed?

What if, as a result, Kronos players in that range cannot obtain Magic Stones? The situation will begin to change.

In a direction entirely different from Kronos’s hope that the current incident is nothing more than a simple happening.

“Tsk.”

Bae Mina clicked her tongue and clicked the comment box.

Worry about yourself. Kronos is not stupid, so do you think they will get caught by some guy who has only just reached Floor 10?

She would not say the claim was completely wrong.

But the writer had overlooked one thing.

The difference in floors between the Labyrinth Destroyer and Kronos-affiliated players.

A day might come when that bastard destroyed the 25th floor-and-above range.

So? What about it?

What would change?

Would Kronos just sit there sucking its fingers in the meantime?

If it looked like he might catch up, they could just deploy high-level players and drag the lower-level members upward through Party Play.

On the other hand, that Destroyer bastard’s speed would slow as the Labyrinth became increasingly difficult.

In other words, it was a structure where the gap could only widen as time passed.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

This bastard is a Kronos person. Look at them getting triggered and angry.

Aren’t they at least a team leader or headquarters director? Seems like they got chewed out from above and got pissed lol.

She raised her middle finger toward the monitor.

“Have you bastards ever seen Kronos take a loss?”

It was not empty bluffing.

In reality, after the Regression, Kronos had never once been defeated by someone or suffered a loss.

“Idiots.”

She closed the laptop and stretched.

It bothered her slightly, but she was not worried.

No matter how hard the Labyrinth Destroyer struggled, things would eventually flow according to logic.

Just as they had until now, this time would be the same.

---

[Entering Great Labyrinth Library LV1!]

An enormous number of bookshelves spread out before my eyes.

I shifted my gaze to the area that was still inactive.

What sort of books were placed there?

My vague guess was that they might concern the Deepest Floors or Bottomless Floors.

But for that, there were far too many books.

‘There is no rule saying they must only be about floors.’

Perhaps there was more varied information.

For example, records about demons, the history of the Labyrinth, or absurdly good equipment.

‘Just imagining it is enjoyable.’

The corners of my mouth rose without my realizing it.

I hoped the trait level would rise quickly so I could open them all.

Well, in any case, that was a matter for later.

I reached toward the bookshelf.

[Do you want to draw a book? Upon acceptance, Labyrinth Energy will be consumed!]

‘Accept.’

A cluster of bright light spread into the activated bookshelf.

Before long, one book was pulled out.

DING!

[You have drawn Basement Floor 41 of the Labyrinth, ‘Forgotten Shrine’!]