Ch.143143 – Dark Mana

# Dark Mana

The boulder that Morb had pushed with all his might was carried back onto the bridge by the teaching assistants, who wobbled as they held it in their hands.

“Instructor, is this angle right?”

“You’ve got it backward. Flip it 180 degrees.”

“Oh, please.”

The assistant sighed as he lifted the boulder into the air, adjusting his grip bit by bit to get the angle right.

Seeing their pitiful state, Son Ocheon remarked:

“It suddenly feels like the kids are taking an exam. They’re playing around with something that was so hard to push.”

“For people who are supposedly having fun, they’re sweating quite a lot. It seems they’re not without burden.”

“That’s because they’re juniors! Seniors would be different!”

At Oknodie’s cheerful exclamation, Son Ocheon and Giselle simply accepted it as the way things were.

“Place it down with the red line facing downward.”

“Like this?”

“Good job. Though the exam has been delayed by five minutes.”

“Ah…”

“If you’re late again, I’ll deduct points from your allowance.”

As the assistant returned to the grassy area marked with a sign as the waiting area, Isabelle noticed that the seat of his pants was stained with grass and dirt.

“I will absolutely never become a teaching assistant.”

While she was experiencing the harsh reality of junior life, Isabelle became aware of piercing gazes directed at her.

During her time as a member of an exploration team, she had been exposed to such killing intent before.

Bandits waiting to ambush adventurers and explorers for their wealth in the wilderness.

Highway robbers disguised as merchant caravans encountered on remote mountain roads.

Monsters camouflaged as natural objects, holding their breath, waiting for exploration teams to approach.

Now was no different.

The crystal orbs floating in the air revived her sense of real combat that she had forgotten for a while.

“Giselle, what are those orbs?”

“They’re the professors’ monitoring orbs.”

“…Instead of praising students who helped failing students, they show killing intent? These professors are incomprehensible.”

There’s something strange about this academy.

Much stranger than she had ever felt before.

“If you want to complain, you can do so later. More importantly, it seems the next participant is about to start.”

At Giselle’s words, Isabelle pushed aside her uneasy feelings and turned her gaze toward the bridge.

A longsword slightly longer than an arm’s length.

It seemed like the wrong weapon choice for dealing with a massive boulder.

“Looks like he’s nervous.”

“Or perhaps he’s confident.”

“Mouse ball, what do you think?”

“I see it in 3D!”

“What’s 3D?”

Oknodie suddenly became dejected and hung her head.

“Never mind if you don’t know.”

* *

Her brilliant joke had failed.

She was freshly reminded that she had become a resident of a world different from the one she had lived in until now.

They couldn’t share the same memes, the same humor, the same memories.

Though she knew more than anyone else.

No one knew what she knew.

While feeling the sorrow of being possessed, she noticed an unusual fluctuation of mana emanating from Zaku’s sword at the bridge.

Mana.

The basic material unit for wielding supernatural abilities.

There are various types, but ordinary people can usually only wield one single type of mana.

To handle mana, one must complete a puzzle with mana of the same attribute, like filling one face of a cube with a single color.

The most common attribute that people possess is non-attribute mana, which doesn’t have any specific properties.

‘That’s why they say a swordsman’s sword energy is basically formless and colorless, making it difficult to gauge the distance.’

However, very occasionally, those who grow up in special environments, achieve unique accomplishments, are born with skewed attributes, or undergo special rituals can have colors imbued in their mana.

That’s why natives living in flame zones or snowy mountains can produce sword energy painted red or blue.

Regardless of color, the mere fact of being able to emit sword energy is remarkable.

‘Even Morb doesn’t emit his energy externally but uses it for physical enhancement.’

When people with mana continue extreme training without giving up, they attempt to use mana to reduce the burden on their bodies.

That is the beginning of mana breathing techniques and the foundation of mana manipulation.

It’s the stage where simple sword fights with clashing blades transition into battles between mana practitioners who cut through anything—wood, metal, or stone—that stands in their way.

“Do you see that guy? His energy seems more unusual than that Morb fellow from earlier.”

With the instincts of a wild beastkin, Son Ocheon sensed the difference in power.

Physical enhancement versus sword energy emission.

Though different fields, the latter was undoubtedly stronger.

It couldn’t be weak when concentrating mana meant for the entire body into a single weapon in hand.

However, unlike Morb who had complete control over his power, Zaku’s sword created cracks on the boulder’s surface with terrible ripping sounds.

“When did Zaku get so strong?!”

“Great, break it! Smash it to pieces so there’s nothing left for our turn!”

“Wow, if Zaku destroys it, can we cross the bridge for free?”

“Go Zaku!”

“Zaku, fighting!”

Seemingly deaf to the freshmen’s cheers with their ulterior motives, Zaku swung his sword again and again.

The sword struck relentlessly, the cracks grew larger, and rock dust flew, drawing louder cheers.

Even other spectators in the audience couldn’t hide their excitement and joined in the cheering.

“This is dangerous.”

Someone else had realized the danger that I thought only I would know.

The academy’s flag scammer.

The devil who unleashed the poison of a ceiling-less double gacha.

It was Giselle, the dark merchant.

“You noticed it too?”

“The color of the sword energy is dangerous.”

Blue sword energy indicates a water-attribute swordsman.

One might think they just played in the sea a bit.

Red sword energy indicates a fire-attribute swordsman.

One might think they played near a lava crater.

But “black” was different.

Black, the symbol of all negative energy.

The closer to pitch black, the greater the danger.

Darkness and despair.

Death and emptiness.

It’s not an attribute born from a proper environment.

All black is a color leaning toward evil.

Demon lords’ kin, the demon race.

Demons’ underlings, the demonic humans.

Demonic beasts controlled by demons and demonic humans.

It’s the color symbolizing the source of all wicked power.

If one fails to control it even slightly, it will devour oneself to self-destruction—and a freshman is handling such power.

‘Somehow, it feels nostalgic!’

There was a time when she was obsessed with dark swordsmen, so-called dark knights.

How many times had she unknowingly commanded dark powers only to face terrible destruction?

Yet, as the saying goes, old habits die hard—Zaku was demonstrating why she repeatedly walked the path of the dark swordsman.

“That destructive power is no joke.”

In terms of destructive power, it rivals fire attributes; in penetration, it competes with lightning attributes.

In sustainability, it’s no less than wind attributes; in recovery, it’s no less than water attributes.

A power that even Son Ocheon finds surprising.

Dark attribute mana makes this possible.

Therefore, Zaku’s body must undoubtedly be under tremendous strain right now.

‘A power that devours its user proportionally to usage time. He’s already used it for too long.’

If he had little mana, he would have collapsed and fainted long ago, but for some reason, Zaku showed no signs of running out of mana.

If he lacked aptitude, he would have self-destructed and died, but even that seemed unlikely as his muscles just bulged more aggressively, with no signs of impending death.

“Uncle Son Ocheon, your knowledge is still limited!”

“You little mouse ball, what have you figured out now to act so smug?”

“The loud noise and the boulder continuously breaking is evidence that he can’t properly control his power. If the striking point was well-matched, the force wouldn’t disperse like that.”

Abundant mana.

Sufficient aptitude to endure.

Control that fails to match these.

All three conditions were met.

Instead of the side effect of destroying the body, the dark mana was set to target and destroy the mind first.

“Graaaah!”

With a boom, the massive boulder shattered.

Cheers erupted from the lower-class students.

Dark mana continued to blaze along the drooping sword.

“Examinee Zaku, congratulations on passing the test. You may now withdraw your energy.”

“…”

“Examinee Zaku?”

Zaku’s drooping head creaked as it turned toward the instructor who called his name.

“He did it! Zaku really broke the boulder!”

“Woohoo! With the boulder gone, we get to pass for free!”

“Thank you, Zaku! You’re the hero of the Knight Department!”

The head that had turned toward the instructor suddenly whipped around to face the classmates cheering behind him.

I know what’s about to happen.

Berserk rage.

Mass murder.

Indiscriminate slaughter.

A mild taste of the carnage that would have occurred at the end of the first semester by the hands of chapter boss Hestia.

The beginning of an incident demonstrating the danger of all evil-leaning beings and dark mana.

“Whoa, Zaku! It’s dangerous to emit sword energy toward people!”

“Something seems off about Zaku.”

“His eyes are unfocused. Did he lose consciousness from using too much power?”

“W-wait. He’s not withdrawing his sword energy. Isn’t this dangerous?”

“D-don’t come! Zaku, don’t come this way!”

The students backed away in terror.

Zaku followed their steps.

Everyone retreated in a fan shape to avoid him, then began to flee.

Whoosh!

Burning dark mana even more intensely, Zaku took a sprinting stance as if about to pounce.

“Wait, Oknodie! Where are you going?”

“You little mouse ball, have you lost your mind?!”

“…No, it’s better not to stop her here.”

As expected, Giselle understands.

Unlike my two naive companions, Isabelle and Son Ocheon, Giselle realized my intention and held them back from interfering.

With both teaching assistants and instructors confused by the sudden situation, no one was there to stop me as I jumped down from the audience seats and landed in the testing area.

“Running into me, we’re both lucky!”

I shouted loudly toward Zaku while pointing my sword at him.

Simultaneously, black mana blazed from the tip of my sword.

“That’s… dark mana?!”

“I had a bad feeling about this since the Developing an Eye lecture.”

“So it’s come to this, as expected.”

Zaku turned toward me instead of the lower-class students.

Watching him, Giselle said:

“They say possessors of dark mana are drawn to other possessors of dark mana. Oknodie revealed her power to capture Zaku’s rampage.”

“What? Then isn’t that a good thing? That mouse ball kid isn’t going to get hurt with her skills.”

“It’s not a matter of skill. It’s a matter of perception.”

I wish she hadn’t figured that out too.

With her excessive perceptiveness, Giselle had even anticipated the consequences of revealing my power.

“Even a lower-class student with little power is currently failing to control it and causing problems. What would happen in an emergency if an upper-class student possessed such power?”

Isabelle answered with a trembling voice:

“…A bomb. Like a bomb that could go off at any moment.”

“And a very high-performance one at that. One that might blow away the entire upper class.”

“Then she shouldn’t have stepped forward, right? Why did that idiot step up?”

“Probably because she’s too kind. That’s our little lady’s nature.”