Chapter 1783 – 1783. Fate
As soon as we entered Park Suho’s mansion, we were greeted by a blonde beauty in a white robe, along with maids, butlers, and other employees. They bowed deeply as soon as they saw Park Suho.
“Welcome back, Mayor.”
“Elisha, I told you, you don’t have to do this.”
“It’s only natural to greet the Mayor who has returned after a long time.”
Elisha.
The acting mayor of Veroprin and a mage. She had been with Park Suho since he first awakened to the tattoo world.
“You’ve brought a friend with you today.”
And Elisha was my fuck buddy.
After seeing me for the first time in a while, Elisha’s face flushed slightly, and she avoided my gaze.
I looked around at the employees working at the mansion. Unlike the free atmosphere outside the mansion, they seemed to have a strict code of conduct.
‘Not bad. This is how employees should be.’
Park Suho seemed uncomfortable with the employees’ formal respect.
Park Suho was definitely a moron. The citizens outside ignored Park Suho? I could somehow understand his claim of freedom.
But to be ignored by the employees in his own house? That meant he had no authority. Even if Park Suho wasn’t a formal noble, he was the owner of a neutral city. And now, he had the Republic as his backing.
‘Fortunately, it seems Elisha has a firm grip on the employees.’
The freedom Park Suho offered to the citizens.
It sounded good.
But in this world, in this era, is freedom really that important and good? I don’t think so.
“Will you be staying at the mansion for long?”
At Elisha’s question, Park Suho looked at me.
“Hyung, how many days should we stay to use the mana training ground? Do you have any urgent matters on Earth? If not, let’s stay for about two weeks and use the mana training ground.”
“We don’t have to stay for the whole two weeks, right?”
“Tell me when you want to go back to Earth. I’ll send you back right away.”
“Okay, then. I guess it’s time to focus on training for a while.”
Of course, I also train consistently in the real world. About one to two hours a day. But it’s not serious training. It’s more like training to maintain my combat senses. Since strength varies in each game world, it’s to get used to my strength in the real world.
‘I know my talents well. No matter how much I train in the real world, I won’t get much stronger.’
It’s better to go into a game world and play around during that time. It was a matter of efficiency.
So, I didn’t have much expectation for the mana training ground Park Suho mentioned.
I followed Park Suho down to the basement after saying goodbye to Elisha. The interior of the mansion wasn’t that surprising, probably because I had already seen the exterior.
We arrived at the basement training ground. It was quite spacious, but I didn’t feel anything special about it.
“It looks like a normal training ground?”
“It looks like that on the outside. To use the real mana training ground, you have to activate it using mana stones.”
Park Suho took out a mana stone from a drawer on one side of the training ground. It looked to be about 6cm, so it was a C-grade mana stone. He put the mana stone into a hole at the edge of the training ground. The mana stone glowed. The energy contained in the mana stone was being sucked somewhere.
Wiiiiiiiiing.
The mana training ground activated.
The concentration of mana began to increase rapidly. I could feel the mana entering my body just by breathing lightly. I knew this feeling. It was the same feeling I had when I used the mana cube in the [Savior of the Academy] world.
‘It’s a bit lacking compared to the mana cube.’
Still, it was amazing. It was the perfect place for mana training. Even if you couldn’t feel the mana, just physical training would be a great help. Above all, the probability of awakening mana would also increase.
“This is incredible.”
“Haha. Right? The problem is that it consumes a lot of mana stones, but the training effect is really good. I’ve stored mana stones here, so you can train as much as you want. I have some things to do, so I’ll be going. If you need anything, just tell the employees or Elisha.”
Park Suho left the mana training ground. Left alone, I took out the Hwaryeon Flying Daggers from my inventory.
‘I don’t have high expectations for the training effect, but… let’s try training for now.’
First, I took a stance and swung my sword.
I used various techniques from the Lightning Sky Style. A half-baked version that didn’t use lightning energy. In other words, it was the basics of the Lightning Sky Style.
‘The basics are important in any creation.’
It was no different in reality. The basics were the foundation. If you want to build something, the foundation has to be strong. No matter how good your techniques are, if the foundation is weak, there’s a limit to what you can build.
I trained the basics of the Lightning Sky Style for 10 minutes.
Why 10 minutes? Because the mana training ground turned off after 10 minutes. I put in a mana stone, and the mana training ground activated again.
‘After the basics….’
Combat applications using lightning energy. Using mana in earnest. Since mana was abundant here, I could use it freely and recover quickly. It wouldn’t recover the stamina or mental strength I used, though.
Crackling.
Lightning energy flowed through my body. My physical abilities increased as I began to use mana in earnest. I held the Hwaryeon Flying Daggers and swung them around.
It was hard to concentrate since it had been a while since I had trained seriously. Still, I forced myself to focus and swung my sword.
Lightning Sky Style (雷天流) Lightning Flash (雷光).
A red flash was etched into the air.
Lightning Flash was the technique I used most often among the Lightning Sky Style techniques. Lightning Flash was fast. And concise. Moreover, it was easy to use in conjunction with Instant. A Lightning Flash combined with Instant was hard to block unless you were a skilled fighter.
Lightning Sky Style (雷天流) Swastika Lightning (卍雷).
Lightning gathered and compressed at the tip of my sword, rotating. Swastika Lightning could be detonated like a discharge by compressing lightning, or it could be shot out as lightning. It could be used with the tip of the sword or the fingertips. It was one of the few long-range techniques in the Lightning Sky Style.
I pointed the tip of my sword at the floor and detonated the compressed Swastika Lightning. A chilling blue lightning bolt swept around in a swastika shape.
Lightning Sky Style (雷天流) Void Path (虛道).
I lifted my foot. Just before my foot, which was floating in the air, touched the ground, I created a foothold using lightning energy. Crackling. The current that became the foothold rippled like water and then disappeared.
It was a technique I created after watching Seong Hari from the [Savior of the Academy] world run through the air using a force field.
‘It’s still hard to use skillfully, but… if I master this, I can use techniques without being bound by the ground.’
Lightning Sky Style (雷天流) Thunderclap (雷鳴).
Right hand, left hand. I generated lightning in both hands. The lightning resonated with each other, creating a thunderous sound. I focused and gathered the resonating lightning in one place. A more powerful lightning gathered.
Kwaaang!
The explosion occurred right in front of me as my concentration broke for a moment. I flew backward, rolled across the training ground floor a few times, and then slowly got up.
“Ah, shit, nosebleed.”
My nose seemed to be broken due to the shockwave that occurred at the moment of the explosion. The nosebleed continued. My nose also kept hurting, though I didn’t know if the bone was broken.
[Using Full Recovery.]
The pain disappeared.
‘Since I used Full Recovery, let’s stop training here.’
I could become half-crippled while training with Full Recovery. In the worst case, I could die. There was no need to take such risks in reality. After all, training here wouldn’t make me stronger right away.
I lay down on the floor of the mana training ground, closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing. I liked how abundant the mana was.
I woke up after sleeping for about two hours. I took a few mana stones from the drawer. That way, Park Suho would know that I had trained.
I went up from the training ground.
‘I wonder how good the maids here are at cooking.’
As I came up to the mansion hallway, I stopped when I saw a woman walking towards me from the opposite side.
Golden blonde hair that swayed softly with each step, snow-white skin that looked like it would get dirty if touched, a top and skirt made by mixing clean green fabric and brown leather.
She had a bow on her back and a quiver at her waist. But what caught my eye the most were her ears. White and long ears. An elf, not a human.
‘She has the best beauty among the beautiful elves. She’s clearly not an ordinary elf. Why is she here?’
It wasn’t just her hair that swayed as she walked. The huge mountain peaks wrapped in green clothes. Breasts that were too big to be called a traditional elf were swaying as if seducing a man. What was even more surprising was that something was slightly protruding from the center of her chest, as if she wasn’t wearing a bra.
‘Is this slutty elf trying to seduce me on purpose?’
The elf who was walking suddenly stopped in front of me. Her eyes scanned me up and down. Her eyes were filled with contempt and disregard.
“You’re the Veroprin Mayor’s friend? Hmm, well, you seem strong.”
The elf immediately passed by me. I was a little dumbfounded.
‘What is this arrogant elf?’
She just said what she wanted and passed by. She showed this attitude even though she knew I was Park Suho’s friend?
“Wait a moment. Who are you?”
I asked politely. She was rude, but I decided to tolerate it once since she was pretty.
The elf turned around. Her face was filled with annoyance.
“You don’t need to know.”
Click-clack.
She walked down the hallway and disappeared from my sight.
I stood there as if rooted to the spot, fighting the strong urge to rape that was rising from the depths of my heart.
‘Hold it in, my inner rapist! I can’t do anything openly here. This is where Park Suho’s eyes can reach!’
At least I had to do it after deceiving Park Suho’s eyes.
More than anything, judging by her attitude, she was definitely not weaker than me. She was either similar to me or stronger. She was definitely not at the S-class level. I needed to prepare to subdue her properly.
“Sir, is there something wrong?”
A passing butler spoke to me.
“I was just spacing out because I had something to think about. But it seems there’s an elf with a bad attitude in the mansion. Do you know who she is?”
“Ah. You must be talking about Lady Hanel. She is a guest who came to see the Mayor. She is the next successor of the Psychote Elf Territory in the forest a little ways from Veroprin.”
“……Psychote Elf Territory?”
I couldn’t understand even if he said that. There were too many things I didn’t know in this world.
