Chapter 1095 – 1095. Dark Moon
“What are you doing? Concentrate. Mana backflow is important to deal with. If you don’t handle it cleanly, there will be aftereffects on your mana pathways.”
A man, presumably a doctor, said irritably.
I pushed aside my confused thoughts. There was nothing wrong with what he said. It was a setting that also appeared in the game.
‘Mana backflow needs to be treated in time to avoid suffering later. What’s urgent isn’t my memories, but my current body.’
The mana breathing technique I learned a few years ago came to mind.
‘That breathing technique won’t work. I’ll lose more than 70% of the mana in my body.’
This was also a small stroke of luck. It was too precious to give up 70%. Such a stroke of luck might never come again.
Then, my mind flashed. As if scattered pieces were automatically fitting together, knowledge about the mana breathing technique came to mind.
‘If I slightly modify the breathing technique, I think I can reduce the loss rate to 30%….’
The mana breathing technique, Raytal Style, was complete in itself. Even though it was only a second-grade mana breathing technique, recklessly tampering with it could lead to irreversible consequences. Ironically, I could die as soon as I entered the game.
‘…But it’s hard to ignore these things that are coming to mind. It’s giving me the answer, so why should I ignore it?’
The more I pondered, the more confident I became in the knowledge. I decided to accept this knowledge.
I opened the astral, known as the mage’s mind. The mana pathways in my body became clear. Mana flowed through the pathways like a train speeding along rails. There were a total of three mana pathways connected to the astral. The average for a first-grade mage.
‘Not enough. There’s too much mana for three mana pathways to handle.’
After some thought, I attempted to expand my astral. I was planning to stop immediately if something went wrong, but surprisingly, I instinctively felt the limit of my astral.
‘It’s impossible to expand my astral enough to reach the second grade for now.’
My astral was currently empty. In game terms, it meant I had no experience points. I needed something to fill the astral, whether it was magic formulas or combat experience. Of course, my body wasn’t ready either.
Two mana pathways extended from the astral. All five mana pathways obeyed my will. The mana that had filled my body began to circulate as it was organized. I watched the circulation route. I had slightly altered the original route, so I planned to take immediate action if any problems arose. However, there were no problems. The five mana pathways were stable.
I opened my eyes.
The doctor stared at me with emotionless eyes.
“Your mana is stable. You seem fine, so go back.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I gave a greeting that contained not a shred of sincerity. I instinctively knew that it wouldn’t do me any good to provoke the doctor.
The doctor waved his hand dismissively. I got off the bed, put on my shoes, and left the infirmary.
Outside the door was a hallway.
Gray concrete walls and floors stretched out. Memories came back. I headed to the right. I organized my memories as I walked.
‘I am Sung Yu-jin. A F-grade hunter from South Korea. I’m 21 years old. No girlfriend. My ability as a hunter is nonexistent. I’m a special case who only awakened physical abilities without any powers.’
As I delved into my memories, I frowned. I remembered the names of my university and high school, but I didn’t remember anything that happened there. I didn’t know my parents’ faces either. My memories were like a net with holes in it.
On the other hand, the memories of being number 211 and the Dark Moon game were clear.
‘I was born to slave parents. Naturally, I became a slave. After my parents died, my owner sold me to the Freesel Kingdom. I grew up without any shortages until I was 10 years old. Food, clothes, and a place to sleep were all provided by the kingdom. The problem is that it was all for the Battle Mage Project.’
The Battle Mage Project.
It was the Freesel Kingdom’s plan to secretly gather children with first-grade mana affinity and train them as battle mages.
It was called training, but in reality, it was closer to experimentation. To become a battle mage, one needed a talent of third-grade or higher mana affinity.
The reality of the project was an experiment to forcibly raise first-grade mana affinity to third-grade mana affinity.
‘And this experiment has already succeeded. The problem is that the success rate is only about 5%.’
The Freesel Kingdom was satisfied with the results of the project and continued it. If 5 out of 100 children with first-grade mana affinity became battle mages, it was still a profit for them.
‘Number 211. It’s the name given to me, but… do they think I’ll accept such a name? My name is Yu-jin.’
The organization of my memories was almost complete. There were no significant memories in the life of number 211.
‘My ego is Sung Yu-jin. The memories of number 211 feel like I’m reading something.’
I saw a glass window in the hallway. The glass, behind iron bars, reflected Sung Yu-jin’s face. Black hair, black eyes. Except for being a little younger, it was definitely me, Sung Yu-jin.
I turned away from the window and headed to my dormitory in my memories.
Dormitory 11.
When I opened the heavy-looking door, I saw a place that resembled an old South Korean military dormitory. It wasn’t strange. The place where the Battle Mage Project was being conducted was the Freesel Kingdom army.
Inside the dormitory, there were 17 children of similar age to me. Including me, there were a total of 18. It was a mixed-gender group. 8 were girls, and 10 were boys. In this world, human rights were a mess, but surprisingly, gender was relatively equal.
‘Everyone’s here.’
Two had died two months ago after failing to defeat goblins in a one-on-one battle.
The children were all doing their own things. Some were giggling with their close friends, some were sleeping, and some were reading books.
“Number 211. I heard you fainted from mana backflow during mana breathing training? Are you okay?”
A skinny boy smiled and spoke to me. Number 205. He was the dormitory leader and squad leader of dormitory 11. He had a strong sense of responsibility as a squad leader. In my memories, he was a good guy, although a bit nosy.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“If you weren’t okay, you would have been disposed of.”
A sarcastic voice was heard.
A sturdy boy leaning against a locker said. Number 202. His left eye was crossed. Unlike number 205, his personality was not good at all.
“Well, if it were you, you would have been disposed of due to mana backflow. You’re not good at handling mana.”
“…Are you trying to start something?”
“Try it.”
I laughed at number 202. He couldn’t do anything anyway. If he caused an accident here, only annoying torture awaited him.
Knowing that, number 205 didn’t stop us either.
“Tsk. We’ll see later.”
Number 202 clicked his tongue and then lay down on the floor and closed his eyes.
I shrugged once and went to my spot. It was next to the wall, which I quite liked.
“What happened?”
A girl sitting next to me spoke. She had short brown hair. Number 212. She was an ordinary girl. I reflexively scanned her body before fixing my gaze on her eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“Mana backflow. Number 177 died from his organs rupturing due to mana backflow.”
I remembered. About three weeks ago, he was the guy who died from mana backflow after failing to withstand the mana essence injected into his body.
“Number 177 and I are different cases. I only experienced mana backflow during mana breathing training.”
“The fact that mana backflow occurred is the same.”
“The situation is different. As you know, I’m sluggish. It hasn’t been long since I became a first-grade mage. The amount of mana that backflowed wasn’t much. You could say I was lucky.”
I was really lucky.
The mana that filled my body through the mana backflow was at a level I could handle, and the doctor didn’t do anything. If the quack doctor had touched me carelessly, the situation could have worsened.
“Is it really all luck? Is there something… like a special secret technique?”
Number 212’s eyes sparkled. Was this her real purpose? I let out a hollow laugh.
“There’s no way a slave would have something like that.”
“I heard number 31 has a secret magic?”
“…That’s because he’s special. There’s a rumor that he’s from a noble family.”
Number 31.
There was a rumor that he was a nobleman’s illegitimate child. Even the managers of the battle project showed a difficult expression when dealing with number 31. He was receiving special treatment in many ways.
“Was it really just luck? I’m glad you’re safe. Congratulations.”
Number 212 said with a smile. Her mouth was smiling, but the corners of her eyes were trembling. Her voice was also quite fake.
‘I wouldn’t have acted like that.’
I decided to ignore her and focused on my complicated thoughts. I needed to organize the information about the game Dark Moon.
After 10 minutes, a deep male voice came from the speaker on the ceiling.
“Evening roll call will begin in 5 minutes.”
I woke up from my thoughts and smiled bitterly. I was a slave, a soldier, and a test subject. Three similar words adorned me, making me feel inexplicably sad.
The evening roll call, which felt familiar, ended, and I lay down on my bed. I closed my eyes, but I couldn’t fall asleep. As the surroundings became quiet, I realized the reality I was in.
‘……What should I do now? Will I return to reality when I open my eyes?’
That wouldn’t happen.
I had confirmed several times that this place was not a dream.
I didn’t know why I had entered the game, but I had to live in this world. Even if this world was terrible, it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t live in it.
‘Even if I don’t know anything else, the information about Dark Moon is clear. I know that there is no player in my memories.’
In Dark Moon, players could choose their starting point. The fact that I wasn’t there meant that either the player didn’t exist or was somewhere else. I thought it was the former. Because there was a possibility that I was the player.
‘The player in Dark Moon could freely develop by allocating stats and skill trees. Then maybe….’
I muttered in my mind.
‘Status window.’
Nothing happened.
“……Status window.”
Maybe I had to say it out loud. I muttered in a very small voice.
Nothing happened.
I swallowed the sigh that was about to come out and got rid of useless thoughts and thought about what to do in the future.
‘I have no intention of staying in the military. I’ll escape when I get the chance. I want freedom. I don’t want to live as a slave for the rest of my life.’
I touched my right forearm.
A strange mark made up of seven triangles was drawn there.
It was the Freesel Kingdom’s upper-class slave seal.
This seal could easily kill slaves and track escaped slaves.
‘My life is in the hands of others…. How terrible.’
To get out of here, I had to get rid of this seal first.
Several methods came to mind. In less than 3 minutes, 5 methods came to mind.
‘Was my memory this good?’
Even now, a sixth method was coming to mind. Judging the probability of success was for later. First, I would think of methods, eliminate those with low success rates, and then make a plan.
I fell asleep after midnight.
