Magic Engineering.
As a new erging field of technology for the Order, created by combining the engineering of the Lower-Dinsional Plane with the magic of the Upper Plane.
Magic Engineering was developing at an overwhelmingly faster rate compared to other technical fields that began research around the sa ti, and it was a field producing such unique results that its degree of innovation was praised as ‘second to none.’
In particular, its greatest advantage, which everyone acknowledged, was that it brought ‘magic’—a field with a high barrier to entry and a difficulty so high that only Priests who had trained and studied for years or even decades could use it—into the realm of ‘machines’.
This allowed even those who didn't particularly understand the principles of magic to use its powerful abilities.
Therefore, the excellence of Magic Engineering lay in its convenience, striking a balance between the ease of machines and the complexity of magic, making it easy for even ordinary people who did not understand the principles of magic to use.
And the device that best demonstrated this excellence to date was none other than the ‘Mana Restraints’.
This was because while exhibiting the incredible ability to suppress the target's Mana Circuit operation, it had a thod of use so simple that anyone seeing it for the first ti could use it.
Of course, it wasn't as if even the outstanding Mana Restraints didn't have their limits.
Against subjects of 3-Star or higher, whose control over their Mana Circuit could be considered sowhat mature, it couldn't exert complete suppression and only managed to interfere with its operation.
Furthermore, against subjects of 4-Star or higher, the suppression effect wouldn't activate at all.
It wasn't a perfect item that could restrain anyone's mana.
But that limit wasn't particularly important.
The vast majority of subjects who wore the Mana Restraints were those who hadn't even reached 2-Star, let alone 3-Star, being at the level of 1-Star Heroes or candidates.
And since the Order already had separate managent asures for subjects of 3-Star or higher, they were not the intended targets when the Mana Restraints were mass-produced in the first place.
What was important was that it possessed a 100% suppression rate, having never once failed to activate its effect on the intended target subjects of 2-Star and below.
Chwareureureuk-
That is.
…It was only ‘until now’.
Grasp-
“Wh-what is this!!!”
A Mana Chain shot out from my fingertips and wrapped around the ankle of the man who was charging at the very front with a stone axe.
Thud-
Perhaps due to the sudden attack on his lower body, his strength gave out and he fell, dropping the stone axe in the process.
The dropped axe flew and embedded itself in the head of a woman charging from the opposite side.
Kwaduk-
The angle must have been terrible, as a grueso sound ca from her head and a spray of blood and flesh burst out.
A fragnt of bone was stuck to the stone axe as it fell after crushing her skull.
As if that grotesque scene was quite a shock, the silence that had fallen with the activation of the Mana Chain was filled by a piercing scream.
- Kyaaaaaaak!!!
“You son of a bitch!!!”
“No, more importantly, what the hell is going on-.”
“Hey!!! Get him!!!”
Panic, fear, anger, astonishnt.
A mix of various emotions in the form of curses was directed at , and I systematically cleared away those who rushed at , spewing profanities.
“Kuaaaack!!!”
“His legs! Attack his legs!!!”
It wasn't a difficult task.
If I had to point out a difficult part, it was the act of using force against ordinary people itself.
‘…There’s no need.’
There seed to be no need to consider the circumstances of these low-level followers who had committed cris and been thrown in here.
Ggudeudeudeuk-
As I swung both hands, restraints and all, at those rushing , two people caught in the trajectory were sent helplessly flying.
With the sound of crushing bones, they flew through the air—*whoosh*—and collapsed onto the ground without a twitch.
‘Are they dead?’
The thought crossed my mind, but it didn't last long.
It wasn't important.
I didn't necessarily intend to kill them, but I had no intention of trying to save them either.
…That was enough.
* * *
The Village Chief, unable to close his mouth at the carnage that had unfolded before his eyes, looked at with an expression of utter disbelief and asked.
“H-how on earth can you use mana with that on…”
Pfft-
“…Is this the first ti you’ve seen it? Soone using mana while wearing Mana Restraints?”
“……”
“Why are you so surprised?”
I returned his earlier mocking tone, but.
Of course, from his perspective, it had to be the first ti.
In the first place, I was the only one who could disable it like this.
“Hey, you.”
“…Huh?”
I spoke while looking at the man nad ‘Gilbert’ who had guided here. He made a dumbfounded sound sowhere between a ‘yes’ and a ‘yeah’ and his eyes went wide.
Clank-
“Take this off.”
“…How can I…”
Ssk-
“The key should be in that person's pocket, the one called the Village Chief.”
Chwareureuk-
I gestured towards the Village Chief with my chin and released the Mana Chain's restraint.
He flinched in surprise, got up, and cautiously approached the Village Chief.
“…I’m saying this just in case, but don't even think about resisting or running away. As you can see, to , this is just a heavy lump of scrap tal.”
Flinch-
As if the thought had indeed crossed his mind, he flinched and hunched his shoulders, slowly nodding his head before rummaging through the Village Chief’s clothes.
- Keuheuk…….
- What in the world is this…….
One-third were maid and unable to fight.
One-third were dead.
The rest were sitting in place, terrified, just watching the situation unfold.
I didn't feel any particular guilt.
The option of reaching an amicable agreent never existed in the first place.
Rummage, rummage-
The emotion in the eyes of the Village Chief, who was watching Gilbert’s hands rummage through his pockets, seed surprisingly closer to bewildernt than fear.
Well.
It was an understandable emotion.
From his perspective, the neutralization of the Mana Restraints was sothing he had never experienced and was a completely unexpected turn of events.
He might have had a plan for failing to put the Mana Restraints on, or for soone resisting with their physical strength while wearing them, but the restraints themselves having no effect at all had to be beyond his expectations.
Pfft-
‘Mana Restraints aren’t enough…’
To get straight to the point, the reason I could escape the suppression of the Mana Restraints was simple.
Compatibility.
It was because the compatibility between the Mana Restraints and my Mana Circuit was so bad it could be called the absolute worst.
The operating chanism of the Mana Restraints was to analyze the unique structure and activation pattern of the target's Mana Circuit and then add a reverse rotation of mana to break the pattern formation.
That was precisely the problem.
The Mana Circuit I possessed was one whose variability was maximized to the point where I could change its structure and activation pattern in real-ti if I wished.
Its fluidity and range were so vast that a re machine could not possibly comprehend it all.
It wasn't that I could easily overco it simply because I had experienced it in the 1st Regression; from the very beginning, the compatibility between and these Mana Restraints was poor.
Besides.
‘…Especially not with the Alpha (α).’
…To the people of this ti, it was naturally a story from an unknown realm, but.
This was not the finished product.
It was closer to an experintal prototype created in the process of a certain genius—who single-handedly accelerated the developnt of Magic Engineering and created its current renaissance—making the final version he envisioned in his head.
Simply put, it was an incomplete product that had not yet implented all the performance features envisioned in the planning stage.
‘Fuaah… why the hell is it doing this….’
‘Did you make it wrong? A miscalculation or sothing.’
‘Your body is what’s made wrong. I’ve never made a miscalculation in my life….’
Of course, that wasn't to say that the performance of these Mana Restraints was poor.
As they were being actively used by the Order, their safety and efficacy were already proven, and among the mass-produced Magic Engineering inventions to date, it was the only item being supplied to the Order.
‘…I think I’m going crazy. Why the hell isn’t this working.’
…However, when the subject was limited to .
Not only the Alpha, but also the nurous successors he created after this, such as the Beta, Gamma, and Delta, were incapable of restraining my Mana Circuit.
It was absurd to think that the Alpha, which could be called the initial model, could restrain .
I could easily overco this level of restraint just by activating my Mana Circuit in a few different ways.
‘…It might be a different story with the Oga.’
Well… according to his last words, which were sothing like a will, the final version nad Oga (ω) did supposedly contain the complete principle to block even my Mana Circuit, but.
…That was sothing that only ever existed in his head.
The guy who boasted he would finally create a perfect masterpiece this ti had his head cut off by so Demon race baron whose na I can't even rember, so the final version he bragged about never saw the light of day.
In other words, from the start, throughout the previous regression and this one, a Magic Engineering restraint capable of suppressing my Mana Circuit had never been made.
‘…Is he still in the Magic Engineering City right now?’
Suddenly, thoughts of him surfaced in my mind.
But it wasn't important at the mont, so I pushed the thoughts aside.
“H-h-h-here…”
“Unlock it.”
Gilbert, having apparently found the key on the Village Chief's body, approached . I held out the Mana Restraints and asked him to remove them.
Clank-
Pshiii-
The Mana Restraints, which were already crackling in their disabled state, disassembled with a deflating sound as soon as the key was inserted and turned.
Thump-
As soon as he unlocked it, Gilbert, with a terrified expression, collapsed to the ground and prostrated himself.
“P-please spare my life.”
“……”
I didn't bother to reply.
I had no intention of killing him anyway, and now that I realized that the Darkest Dungeon hadn't changed much between then and now, it felt like a waste of ti to spend any more of it in the Forest of Beginnings.
Instead, I asked sothing else.
Hoo-
“…By any chance, have you seen a Mad Dog around here?”
.
.
.
Sarak-
[Bucket List #12]
『Recruit Party mber - Tom. L. Hardist.』
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