City of Witches

༺ Prodigy (2) ༻

1.

The huge amount of mana swirled and became a storm in itself.

As she watched the brilliant golden light that scattered around her while listening to the low sound that it produced, Eloa shut her mouth tightly.

Duchess Tiphereth was a witch who was known to hunt for Homunculi with her sword.

Though her achievements earned her enemies here and there, she didn’t have a lack of admirers.

That was why, as she traveled all around the world, many witches came to seek her for her teaching.

Their reasons were varied.

To defend themselves, to advance even further in magic, to become stronger and so on.

As long as they had ambition and a good reason to learn, the Duchess always welcomed them with open arms.

‘I don’t think this suits me.’

‘This training is different than I thought.’

‘Forgive me.’

But, most of them gave up within two weeks.

It wasn’t like they lacked patience or perseverance.

If anything, witches’ obsession and persistence surpassed that of a human to an absurd level. It wouldn’t be strange if normal humans were to associate them with the word ‘crazy’.

The reason why they chose to give up quickly was because that was how long it took for them to calculate what would happen to them in the future.

‘No matter how much effort I put into this, I won’t gain anything much,’ was eventually the conclusion they reached.

After all, Tipereth’s teaching was different compared to that of any ordinary witches’.

That was why, three days after she began training Siwoo…

As soon as she realized that Siwoo didn’t have any talent when it came to martial arts, she immediately thought that he was the same as other witches.

She expected him to come to her and said ‘I quit’ with a hint of disappointment on his face.

And so, she neglected to take a look at him properly.

What kind of talent did he have? And what kind of strength did he possess?

She didn’t even bother to explore the reason why he could survive the arduous battle that he was forced to participate in.

“Should I keep going? It’s getting hard to control all this mana…”

‘Now he said it’s getting hard?’

‘But it doesn’t seem like he’s having trouble at all.’

‘I can’t even see a single drop of sweat on his forehead.’

‘Maybe if he pushes himself he can handle twice, or maybe even four times of the current amount…’

“If you use all that mana to strengthen your body, your body will actually explode.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured… I can’t handle this much.”

As he said that, he made a light gesture and half of the mana instantly dispersed.

Once again, Tiphereth was surprised by his way of handling the mana.

His mana control was just too astounding to see.

“Can you reduce it a little more?”

“Yes…is this enough?”

After she asked him to reduce the mana a few times, she finally declared that the amount of mana was enough for the body enhancement he was about to do.

“This much should be enough for your first time.”

That was when Eloa realized that her voice had become lighter due to anticipation.

“I’ll demonstrate first.”

“Please.”

“Sit down.”

“Okay.”

After Siwoo sat down, crossed-legged, Eloa started her explanation.

“Normally, with body enhancement, you’d start from your brand and run your mana through every nook and cranny of your magic circuit. Your brand is in a different location than normal, so we’d have to do it a little differently than normal.

“I’ll guide you for the first time. Remember the path I took well.

“Of course, I have no intention of harming you or trying to spy on you or anything, so you can rest assured. But, just in case, are you fine with this?”

She said in a cautious tone.

While she always spoke in a rather cautious tone, this time, it was especially the case.

Handing over the control of one’s magic inside one’s body to another person, or accepting another person’s mana into one’s body.

Both of them were extremely dangerous things to do.

A single mistake could cause irreparable damage to one’s circuit, so just a tiny bit of malice from the other person could mess one up really badly.

Eloa herself had seen a lot of witches shaking their heads in refusal when she asked for their permission to do this during their body enhancement lessons.

“Of course I do. I never once thought that you’d harm me.”

However, it wasn’t the case with Siwoo. He obediently nodded his head and waited for her to start.

Even though she had only been teaching him for fifteen days, and she hadn’t even taught him that well, he still willingly entrusted his life to her.

While he only did this because he was unaware of the danger, in Eloa’s view, this was proof of how much he trusted her.

“Duchess?”

“N-Nothing.”

Eloa hesitantly stretched her white hand and placed it on top of his head.

“Stay still.”

“Okay.”

She injected a little bit of her magic into his body.

Like a flowing water, it permeated into his circuits slowly.

In the process, she managed to inspect Siwoo’s circuit.

It stretched from his left eye throughout his whole body.

Eloa injected her magic from the yangbai and baihui¹both are acupuncture points, located on a person’s head point, before spreading it slowly to his whole body.

“…”

“…”

None of them said anything.

Because if their concentration were to break, things could turn south quickly for him.

“There. Could you remember that?”

Body enhancement was trickier than it looked.

One needed to follow a certain order to do it, and if they failed, then the mana could become distorted.

Additionally, one needed to consider their joint movement and muscle mass in their calculation, if they couldn’t appropriately distribute the mana then a catastrophe might occur.

For example, if one were to give ten mana into the fist but only two into the shoulder joint, then a shoulder dislocation was pretty much a certainty.

It was a delicate and intricate technique by its nature.

“I can demonstrate it again, it isn’t exactly an easy process to remember—”

“Ah, I remember everything, I was just thinking about it for a bit.”

“Sorry?”

If it was earlier today, she’d definitely tell him to take a good look again and stop saying nonsense.

But, after seeing the feat that he had done earlier, she couldn’t just dismiss his words as nonsense.

“Show me.”

He stood up, stretched his neck and began to circulate the mana in his body.

With more mana than the amount she used to demonstrate, he accurately distributed the mana to his whole body.

“Woah, this really works…”

“Move your body carefully.”

“Like this?”

“Carefully—!”

-Hup!

What Eloa was trying to do was make him walk slowly, but instead of doing that, he threw a light jab.

Meanwhile, Siwoo was reveling in the sensation that he felt, the same feeling of omnipotence that he felt as when he first wore his armor.

A fist so quick that it couldn’t be seen by a human’s naked eye ripped through the air.

Then, he tried to move his body around even more.

Hopping from side to side, or swinging his arms around, as if he was swinging a sword in his hands.

He kicked the ground lightly, but that was enough to propel his body 20m upwards.

All the techniques Eloa taught him in these fifteen days, the ones that he had been struggling to perform, were executed with ease after the enhancement.

“…”

Watching this sight, Eloa could only open her mouth wide.

She had a complicated feeling in her heart, as if she had seen a baby that she had only taught how to walk, suddenly started to do a windmill.

In any case, he exceeded her expectations and went even beyond that.

“Hah, hah, hah!”

Meanwhile, Siwoo tried to move his body even more vigorously.

He wanted to try doing either shoryuken or konoha senpu, but because the Duchess was still there, he decided to settle with some vague shadow boxing instead.

It was the first time in his life that his body could move this freely without his armor.

1. Think of body movement in advance.

1. Move the armor accordingly.

1. The body would move following the armor.

That was the process he usually went through whenever he had his armor equipped, but with this, the first and second step was omitted and he could immediately move his body to do whatever he wished.

It was a different feeling, just like the difference between clicking an icon on your screen with a mouse and using your own finger to do it.

The sight of him frolicking around threw Eloa into confusion.

When he didn’t use any mana, his movements had been extremely sloppy to the point that she deemed him as hopeless.

He matched the description of ‘someone who couldn’t move their body properly’, the kind of person she had met more than enough time throughout the century.

However, as soon as he enhanced his body with some mana, he started to move freely, as if he had been wearing weights all over his body and had just removed it.

His limbs that had been moving awkwardly became exceptionally sharp.

That was when she noticed.

The fact that he actually could picture everything that she taught in his head perfectly.

He only hadn’t been able to perform them because he wasn’t athletic enough to do so.

Like a bicycle that had lost its speed and began to fall sideways.

However, as soon as he enhanced his body, it could finally keep up with his thoughts and he managed to perform everything that she had taught him perfectly.

In hindsight, it wasn’t really a surprising development since he was a genius in handling his mana, not his body.

Her shock didn’t last very long, as it was soon replaced by curiosity.

“Siwoo.”

“Yes, Duchess? Thank you for teaching me this, it feels good!”

“Why don’t you try this too?”

Eloa took a deep breath.

She pulled one of her feet forward, placing it right ahead of her other one, before enhancing them with her mana.

Then, she bent both of them in a horse-riding position, but she made an extra effort for the foot on the front to stay at the right angle.

Pushing into the ground, she concentrated her power in her legs and turned her waist to accelerate.

Using the force from her back, she rotated while accelerating with mana.

Then, with the strength gathered from her shoulders, elbows, and wrists…

-Bang!

She held her fist vertically toward the air, creating a sound that was similar to a metal being hit.

It wasn’t like she touched anything with her fist in the process.

Before Siwoo realized it, cracks were formed beneath her feet.

This was the application of one of the basics that Eloa implemented in her swordsmanship.

Fa Jin, the ultimate technique to generate a force and unleash it into one single spot.

“W-Wow…”

Seeing her demonstration, Siwoo clapped his hands in admiration.

At the same time, he remembered the time when she beat him down with this technique, and it made his stomach turn. Nevertheless, the technique itself was cool to see.

Eloa’s light pink hair fluttered for a moment before straightening up again. She then let out a low sigh.

“Try it.”

“Huh? You want me to try this…?”

‘No way I can do that!’

‘If it’s just swinging my limbs around, maybe I can try to do it, or at least pretend to do it, but a proper martial arts move like this? There’s no way!’

“It isn’t as hard as it looks. Just relax your body and try to use only the muscles that you need.”

‘Easy for her to say…’

“But don’t move your body.”

“…Don’t move my body?”

“Yes. Instead, simulate the movement by using the mana inside your body. Focus your mana on the circuits that you need and unleash it.”

“…Can you show me how to do it again?”

“Sure. Like I said, it isn’t a particularly hard thing to do.”

Eloa assumed the same posture as before.

To make it easier for him to follow, she used the same gesture, injected the same amount of mana and unleashed the same amount of force.

It might not be a big deal at a first glance, but this was quite a remarkable feat.

Because she managed to replicate her previous move without even a single millimeter of error.

It was like doing a long jump and landing in the exact same place twice, not impossible in theory, but it was a completely different story in practice.

The fact that she was able to do this just showed that her ability to control her body was already beyond that of what a human was capable of.

“Phew… So? Can you do it?”

During the second demonstration, Siwoo watched her closely.

But what he focused on wasn’t her gesture or posture.

Using his left eye, he watched how she distributed her mana, the timing when she did it and how the mana affected her movements.

“I’ll give it a try.”

“Go ahead.”

Under Eloa’s indifferent, yet expectant gaze, Siwoo copied the movements that she had just shown him.

-Booom!

Just like that…

A small crater was created on the rooftop.

Footnotes:

• 1both are acupuncture points, located on a person’s head