Chapter 141

Before starting our training, I suggested that we find the survivors first. Belita, however, strongly opposed the idea.

-I think we should train first.

We had already wasted a fair amount of time just getting the group settled in a safe place, and at this rate, any existing survivors would be wiped out entirely.

-It won’t take long. Besides, anyone who has managed to survive this long won’t meet their end in a brief moment like this. The magical beasts have settled down, and everyone is scattered all over the place, so you won’t run into dangerous situations most of the time. Above all, recovering my original combat strength is an urgent matter.

That was true, too.

Yet it was an argument that, while rational, was cold-hearted to the extreme.

-You agree with me, right? Then, first, find a quiet place where we can focus.

I went into the room I had used earlier, which was a little ways away from the group’s quarters.

Even so, having spent a few days there, it felt more comfortable than the other rooms.

-Mister, have you ever used mana before?

Never.

I don’t even know the first thing about how to use it.

-I see. First, let’s start with sensing mana. It’s actually an absolute must. As your proficiency goes up, the destructive power of your attacks increases, and all your senses become much sharper, too. That way, you’ll be able to sense people’s auras better, making things like searching for survivors a bit easier, right? Now, first, sit back and lean comfortably against the wall. Close your eyes, and take a deep breath.

I faithfully followed what Belita told me to do.

-If you focus on your solar plexus, you’ll feel a sort of tickling sensation.

Focus on the solar plexus…

Focus…

…Just keeping my eyes closed only made me sleepy.

-Can you feel it?

[ “I have no idea.” ]

-Phew. That’s because you lack concentration. You must have been bad at studying back in the day, Mister.

What? Even if I wasn’t a total genius, I had consistently been called a prodigy back then. I could tolerate other things, but that…

-Never mind. Let’s change your posture. Stretch your legs out comfortably. Pour as much concentration into your solar plexus as possible.

‘…….’

Having become an absolute weakling when it came to mana, I decided to obediently follow her instructions…

Let’s try focusing. Doing my absolute best to drain all the tension from my body, I tried pouring my consciousness back into my solar plexus.

-How is it?

…I could only feel the sound of my own heartbeat.

[ “Is this the only way? Telling me out of the blue to feel some tickling sensation is way too abstract.” ]

-Everyone does it this way. I felt it instinctively even though nobody taught me. It’s not actually that difficult.

That was a truly despairing piece of news.

I possessed a Swordmaster’s body, but since I lacked the talent to handle mana, I couldn’t use it properly.

-This won’t do. When you can’t get a feel for it, actual combat is the best. Once your life is threatened, you’ll feel it whether you want to or not, you know?

……?

-Let’s head right outside. I saw a stray magical beast roaming the opposite corridor earlier.

Wait, we’ve barely covered breathing lessons, and I haven’t even mastered that yet, and now you want me to jump straight into live combat?!

Besides, that breathing practice was barely even ten minutes long!

-Just trust me. I’m telling you, there’s no better practice than actual combat!

-Even if you get hurt, just slap some potion on it and you’ll recover right away. There’s no way you’d die to some Level 4 magical beast, right? With my body?

…With my life genuinely threatened, I briefly debated whether I should just turn off the trait.

Is having Belita around actually helping with the walkthrough?

Didn’t I come pretty close to the ending in the first loop even without her? I just picked the wrong person, that’s all.

Magical beasts could just be blocked with holy artifacts anyway. There might not even be any need for me to fight…

-Mister. You need to learn how to handle mana so you can go search for survivors, right? Let’s hurry up and go?

…That’s true. And since I’ve gone to the trouble of possessing a Swordmaster’s body, it would be a total waste not to unleash a single wave of mana.

Besides, aside from such personal reasons, there were countless pressing reasons why being unable to use mana would be problematic.

Since all my fellow spies already knew I was a Swordmaster, if I suddenly avoided fighting or got caught showing stuttering performance mid-fight, it would instantly invite suspicion.

If he thought I was deliberately trying to sabotage the mission, Jeffrey might want to dispose of me right on the spot, especially the moment he suspected that.

Spies whose usefulness has expired are always discarded, after all.

Now that I need to win Jeffrey over, I have to flawlessly execute the missions Jeffrey assigns me.

‘That’s the only way he’ll pay attention to me.’

To do that, I needed to master Belita’s operation manual just a little bit more.

It was so pathetic I could practically cry.

[ “Alright, let’s do this!” ]

-That’s a great mindset, Mister!

Since I’m doing it, I might as well do it right.

Steeling my resolve, I opened up the settings and turned off every single function of the sacred armor except for the magical beast location tracker.

Fighting while taking cheap shots during a stun-locked opening was no different from solving test problems while looking straight at the answer key.

Then, I left the room and headed toward the opposite end of the corridor.

Sure enough, there was a wolf-type magical beast, but– wait a minute. It wasn’t just one, was it?

‘Aaaaaaaahhhhh!’

That’s right, wolves were pack animals!

The moment the beast spotted me, it let out a howl, and right behind it, more wolf-type magical beasts appeared one after another!

-Mister! Fight back! Stop always running away!

[ “You knew, didn’t you! That it wasn’t just one!” ]

-Is that important? Don’t run away!

One I could handle, but how am I supposed not to run away when six of them are chasing me all at once?!

Witnessing their bloodshot eyes and drool dripping between razor-sharp teeth right in front of me made it utterly impossible for me not to bolt!

I immediately spun around and started sprinting.

‘Hah, hah!’

Panicking, I didn’t even know how I was breathing anymore.

I had no idea what kind of state of mind I was in or where I was even running to.

I had run down the stairs purely with the thought of getting as far away from the group as possible, but…

-It’s a dead end up ahead!

‘This is driving me crazy.’

There was no path forward anymore.

When I turned my head, I realized that while running, I must have drawn the aggro of even more magical beasts, because the number of monsters chasing my back had increased.

With my mind in a whirl and just frantically moving my feet, I had somehow reached the very end of the corridor!

-Turn around right now and smash the magical beast with a mana-infused fist! If you hesitate, you’ll die—no, you’ll get seriously hurt! Stay calm, Mister! You can do it!

My morale plummeted at Belita’s uninspired cheering, but perhaps spurred by the raw survival instinct of someone desperate to live. Acting on a reckless “screw it” impulse, I planted my feet firmly and used the momentum of spinning my body to throw a punch.

Bam!

The magical beast that took my punch, along with the surrounding beasts caught in the shockwave, went flying!

-No mana was infused! They’ll get right back up from this.

Belita added that it was hard to take a magical beast’s life with mere physical force unless the attack was backed by mana.

Just as expected, the magical beast that crashed into the wall staggered and picked itself back up…

To make matters worse, two other beasts that hadn’t been caught in my attack leaped straight toward me.

Thud! Bam!

Sending those beasts flying with a one-two punch, I thought to myself:

‘This is wrong.’

Shouting “Time out,” I immediately turned on the aggression-manipulation mode…
Then, without looking back, I ducked into the nearby room.

Bang!

-Sneaking into a room isn’t going to help! What are you doing?

[ “If we just wait it out, they’ll leave.” ]

-No, Mister. Magical beasts are creatures driven purely by aggression toward people, without any real intellect. They saw you go in here, so they’re going to make a fuss until you come out! We can’t stay in here forever, so what are you planning to do?

[ “You’ll see when it happens.” ]

And a moment later.

-They really did. They left.

Belita accepted the situation beyond the quieted door.

She seemed to think it was just pure good luck.

-Well, let’s just call it a blessing. But where is this…?

The musty scent characteristic of old paper.

The dry air rising from the floor made my throat instantly parched.

Raising my head, I saw massive, two-story-high bookshelves lining the walls from top to bottom.

-Looks like a library? Since we’re here, why don’t we read some books. If they’re books from a ducal stronghold, there must be a lot of rare ones.

[ “Right now, all of a sudden?” ]

-There’s a reason for everything.

For now, I complied and looked around the library.

Since I was the only one in the massive space, even my tiny footsteps felt amplified.
Looking closely at the bookshelves, they were sparsely filled.

-Hiter Castle is a major anti-monster fortress with a deep history, even within the ducal house. Back in the past when monster attacks were frequent, the castle lords held high ranks, and they even maintained an independent knight order.

[ “So it was an important stronghold.” ]

-That’s why I said there would be plenty of rare books. You know that privately owned books of noble families are strictly off-limits to anyone outside that family, right?

Hearing the word “books” brought back memories of the first loop.

Thanks to my status as a saintess, I used to frequent the Great Cathedral’s library whenever I pleased.

There must have been plenty of precious books in there, too. Of course, most of the books I looked at in a place like that were romances…

To seduce the protagonist, I really went to every length imaginable.

-Well… most of them seem to have been relocated, though. Still, let’s take a good look around; there might still be something useful. If we’re lucky, we might even find a book on mana.

[ “A book on mana?” ]

-Books on mana are hard to come by unless you’re among the upper class. That’s why commoners usually have to figure it out on their own or learn from a master. But where are we?!

‘…….’

-Right here in the Rubel family’s fortress! Since this is a place where they used to train knight orders directly, there just might be some texts on mana left behind.

Belita’s out-of-nowhere suggestion that we check out books instead of training seemed to stem from this exact reason.

‘Not sure if we’ll actually find any, though. Might as well give it a try.’

Even with a lot of books missing, the study was simply vast.

‘Though, if it takes too long, I’m just going to leave….’

-. This is precisely what you need, Mister.

Wait, I found it right on the third bookshelf.

‘What difference is reading some text going to make?’

I had my doubts, but looking at it couldn’t hurt.

I carefully turned the pages of a book so old and worn that the leather wrapping it was faded and bleached, its stiff pages feeling like they might crumble apart at any second.

‘Relax your body, stand upright, draw in a breath, and focus your attention on your toes. As you exhale, imagine pulling that sensation from your toes all the way up to the top of your head, repeating this process a couple of times. Next, place your hand on your solar plexus and repeat the previous process a couple more times, but this time, focus more intently on the sensation of energy passing through your solar plexus….’

Oh, the process was written with far more detail than Belita’s abstract explanations. It was packed with thin yet practical, bite-sized pro-tips.

-It’s not bad, though it definitely reeks of being written by someone from the old days.

Belita offered a harsh critique, though.

Whether old or new, there’s no need to reject anything if it helps.

Clutching at it like a drowning man grasping a straw, I decided to give it a try just as the book instructed.

Sensing that I was concentrating, Belita didn’t interrupt.

‘……!’

After inhaling and exhaling a few times, I suddenly felt a distinct snag-like sensation right at my solar plexus!

Repeating it further, it even started to feel slightly ticklish.

-Mister, a faint purple aura is starting to leak from your body, right? That’s mana.

It was true.

Looking down at my body, purple shimmering heat waves were rising from all over.

-Let’s hurry and read the next chapter.

Reading every single character as if carving it into my mind, I followed the steps accordingly.

As a result, I managed to pull off reinforcing my fists with mana and transferring mana to a sword, one after the other.

‘Thank you, Ms. Mela Herak! You’re a top-tier instructor!’

Ms. Mela Herak, for your information, was the author of this book.

-You can learn this level of mana manipulation even without something like this, but I suppose it could be necessary for certain people depending on the situation.

Seeing me pull it off on the first try, Belita actually seemed to lose her confidence.

This is why people say geniuses shouldn’t try to be teachers.

They just can’t comprehend why someone else can’t do it…

-You can actually hunt properly this time around, right?

What kind of—

[ “Naturally.” ]

Tring!

What?

-Then let’s head right outside.

‘…….’

-Mister?

[ “Ah… right.” ]

With heavy footsteps, I headed toward the door…