Past Life Returner

Chapter 374

The behavior of Mana could be compared to the effect produced by dropping oil paint into a container of water and placing paper on the surface. This was a technique I had experimented with in my art class back when I went to school. The outcome of the process was always unique, as the shapes and patterns produced by the spreading of the paint were determined by chance.

If I looked closely at the paper, some resembled butterflies while others reminded me of snakes. Some people might recall heavy rain pouring down from the paper.

That was why traditional swordsmanship in this world was named after some natural phenomenon, animals, or objects. Identifying the flow of Mana was their priority, so swinging the weapon was a natural step following that.

Traditional swordsmanship didn’t deviate from that. This was similar to the magic principles that Yeon-Hee explained, and conversely, we could anticipate the trajectory of the opponent’s attack in advance by understanding the flow of their movements.

***

We came back to reality. Yeon-Hee’s real face was finally waiting for me. I had been tired of looking at Seong-Il’s face. Nothing had changed since we had entered Onir’s mental world.

Seong-Il was lying on the ground after having his pain soothed by Mary’s Touch. Meanwhile, Yeon-Hee was taking her hand off Onir's eyes, which she had previously forced open. She nodded with a not-so-contented look on her face. I wasn’t too happy either.

During our two-week-long foray into the introductory course in the mental world, we discovered that the method of Mana usage employed by the warriors in this realm was not suitable for us Awakened. This was due to the fact that they could replenish their depleted Mana from Mother Nature, whereas for us, it could potentially be harmful, akin to poison.

We returned to reality as soon as we finished the introductory course to test it. Yeon-Hee already knew the result as she had gone through the magic apprenticeship process. She had told me a story about it the other day.

Upon returning to reality, I became acutely aware of the mana that permeated this world, having absorbed it into my body through breathing. As the Mana made its way down my respiratory tract and into my lungs, I experienced a sharp and discomforting sensation.

I took more deep breaths out of spite. The unpleasant sensation had become a pain that ticked the tip of my neck. By the time I felt a tingling sensation in my lungs, I tasted blood in my mouth.

Ptooey!

As Yeon-Hee said, the Old One only allowed this world’s species to have his power. If we accepted Mana by force, we would only get injuries. It was impossible for us to absorb more Mana.

It was unfortunate but not a big deal because our purpose from the very beginning was to properly use the source of the superpower we had.

In that sense, Mana could be classified into two categories. One was Mana flowing throughout this world, and it was under the control of the Old One. The other was Mana that had been embedded in the bodies of our world’s Awakened. It was a part of the power that the Old One had handed over to us, which had remained entirely in our possession as the Old One had given us up.

Then, what set apart the techniques employed by the warriors and wizards in this realm, compared to our own, when it came to channeling their powers? The warriors and wizards needed time to recover after depleting their Mana while we had to wait for our cooldown times to pass.

Yeon-Hee looked at the blood-mixed saliva I spat out and asked, “What do you think about Mana inside? All I feel is something like an egg inside me. Yours is so huge that I can’t detect it, and Seong-Il’s is a small one.”

Just as warriors with the same swordsmanship showed the same kinds of movements, so did we. The power was the only difference. On a large scale, about two hundred thousand Awakened would have the same composition of Mana on the surface level.

Whatever Yeon-Hee felt inside her was nothing more than a hollow shell. She couldn’t see through the areas that existed in various sizes and shapes in that eggshell.

I gave her a sign to wait, then moved on to the next experiment.

[You have transformed Devi’s Sword into Kali’s Sword.]

I focused my Sense on the flow of the moving Mana. Unlike my previous state when I couldn’t feel Mana, my Sense was very helpful when it became possible.

Therefore, I could clearly feel the change that took place at that moment as if inward eyes were looking inside me. Within the oval-shaped interior, which Yeon-Hee had likened to an egg, there were a total of seventeen distinct shapes, each varying in size.

Additionally, there were three shapeless regions that occupied space without any movement, bringing the total count to twenty. These areas presumably governed different skills and traits.

Notably, one of the regions had undergone a transformation when Devi’s Sword was converted into Kali’s sword, ranking second-largest in size among the twenty regions. Kali’s Sword was drawing a rough, oval shape trajectory and rotated continuously.

I turned that into the form of Devi’s Sword again.

[You have transformed Kali’s Sword into Devi’s Sword.]

Devi’s Sword was also spinning in a shape like a dagger. Every skill and trait that had cooldown time was rotating like that.

[You have used Devi’s Sword.]

My purpose was to use the skill this time. Devi’s Sword was thrown in a straight line toward the distant sky. The region responsible for Devi’s Sword exhibited a similar rotational movement albeit smaller in size. Over time, it gradually returned to its original size, indicating the cooldown time.

Such a set of compositions was the blueprint that the Old One had created in the Awakened. The source of the natural recharge of Mana, depleted through skill usage, could be attributed to the rotational power within the region. It was a clever yet foolish move by the Old One to implant power plant-like functions within each of us.

***

Onir hadn't completely lost his mind. He was slowly blinking his swollen eye and shaking his fingertips.

I couldn’t help but click my tongue as his youthful face had aged instantly. He was on the verge of death. Now that I looked back, I remembered that his face was never intact in the mental world as Yeon-Hee using Seong-Il’s face had beaten him up every single day.

“He is still alive. Wow, I’m impressed.” Seong-Il said after recovering from his wounds.

Since then, Onir used his remaining energy to shake his whole body. When Seong-Il put his face close to him, Onir was definitely terrified like a mouse in front of a poisonous snake.

Seong-Il was about to tell us something but stopped as I was pulling out a block of Mana. Gaia’s Will was an A-class skill, but it had become useless after the beginning of the Stage of Advent, so its proficiency level was only four, which was inferior to my other skills.

My Sense stat in the Ender section was amazingly helpful. Mana Blade was the exclusive property of the warriors here, but I had no problem releasing the power without their guidance. The energy of Mana Blade began to form at my fingertips.

Srrrr-

Yeon-Hee knew that she shouldn’t disturb me. She opened her mouth after I pulled back the Mana Blade before it activated.

She asked, “Why?”

I explained, “Gaia’s Will will break if I complete the Mana Blade.”

“Why?”

“It will break the initial blueprint, and it will be irreparable.”

I explained to Yeon-Hee about what flows existed in the shell that she felt and how the Old One had designed the Awakened.

“I should reach the Ender section in order to feel that much, right?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

It was unfortunate that Yeon-Hee couldn’t do whatever I could.

The term ‘rebuilding’ was referring to the past where we went through the process of removing skills and traits that had become obsolete and replacing them with more useful ones.

However, the definition of the word was different now from what I recalled. It was not just praying for the desired skill to emerge by acquiring the box, but also the process of reassembling it yourself using internal Mana.

The skill Gaia’s Will, which triggered monsters to become aggressive and absorbed their physical and magical damage to a small extent, and the trait Collector, which lowered the probability of item disappearance upon reinforcement failure, were marked for removal. Also, if I combined Seth’s Nail, Road of the King of Hell, and Hera’s Lunacy, and concentrated their power on the most useful Hanuman’s Tail…

I was confident that its power would surpass Odin’s Wrath. No… I believed that it would reach the power of Odin’s Thunderstorm.

Thud. Thud.

My heart raced with the same exhilaration that I had felt during those old days I had spent hitting jackpots with Jonathan, even though I already knew the outcome. I was more excited as I knew the consequences that would happen.

My battle against Dragorin had taught me that when it came to fighting powerful transcendent beings, having a single, strong main skill was far more effective than possessing a multitude of skills. It was for this reason that I sought to transform the concept of Power into tangible, usable strength.

I came to the conclusion to combine all those skills and decided to look for ways to fill the remaining vacancies later on.

I raised a lump of Mana inside me to the point where the first blueprint was destroyed and formed the Mana into a Mana Blade.

[You have removed Gaia’s Will.]

[You have removed Collector.]

More!

[You have removed Seth’s Nail.]

Mana Blade became thicker and longer. It emitted a dazzling array of colors that illuminated the faces of both Yeon-Hee and Seong-Il as they lifted their heads to gaze upon the blade.

[You have removed Hera’s Lunacy.]

More!

[You have removed the Road of the King of Hell.]

The Sacred Sword that had emerged from the War of New Devil would have appeared like this. A sword that was so vast that I had to tilt my head to glimpse its tip materialized from my fingertips, expanding in width to the point where Yeon-Hee and Seong-Il were forced to quickly distance themselves.

Onir, who had been terrified of Seong-Il, was entranced by the awe-inspiring spectacle before him. The weapon was so mighty that it could merge multiple potent skills upon collection, and when wielded, could slice through time and space. However, it wasn’t reasonable to use it as a one-time weapon.

I was thankful for this now. If this had been possible during the battle against Doom Dejire, then I would have used only a few skills to their maximum potency as I had no idea how the Life Vessel worked at that time.

Soon, Mana Blade, a clump of Mana that I made by pulling the skills to their limit, began to shrink at the rate at which it grew and expanded. Gritting my teeth, I sensed an explosive surge of power building within me. Several beams of light flashed as I focused on collecting the energy and sending it toward Hanuman’s Tail.

The bewildered faces of Yeon-Hee and Seong-Il flashed by the lightning power multiple times, and their voices were cut off by the sound of thunder.

However, I was still concentrating. It was imperative that I consistently infused Mana into the flow comprising Hanuman’s Tail, while simultaneously refraining from disrupting its shape.

When my focus reached its peak and all my Ender Sense was focused only on the flow of Mana…

Swoosh-

I could no longer see or hear anything. It seemed like I had been transported to a realm of pure Mana, a universe separate from reality. It appeared as though I could truly lay hold of the entities present in that space.

Among the entities present were the indomitable Man Who Overcomes Adversity, Devi's Sword constantly evolving despite being in cooldown, the Passion that eagerly awaited the climax, Odin's Wrath capable of tearing everything apart, the Moong Water God's Punishment imbued with healing energy within its swirling waters, the Forerunner exhibiting rapid pendulum-like movements, and the Sensitive with the vertices of its hexagonal star pulsating in and out.

At last, Hanuman’s Tail reached its full size and emanated an unmistakable aura. Its formation was now complete and it appeared to shoot out from the world of concentrated Mana as if it were being propelled back into reality.

Swoosh-!

Messages popped up.

[The skill, Hanuman’s Tail, has been reinforced for an unknown reason.]

[ * It is not a skill that existed in the system under the Old One.]

Then, the next messages appeared.

[Effect: It forms the Wing of Gehenna Flame and three tails.]

[Please name the new skill.]