I got the answer I was hoping for from him.
『…If you can, do it that way. It doesn't seem like the wrong direction.』
Pfft-
On the surface, it was an unremarkable mumble that didn't seem much different from ‘do whatever you want’.
But what was important was that the one who said it was ‘Tom Hardist’.
His pride in the Lycan Clan's traditional specialty, ‘Beastkin Baktusul’, wasn't just at the level of thinking it was superior to others.
Moreover, in my past life, when I demonstrated the fighting thods I learned from Gat Ajae in front of him.
『Fighting thods?』
Pfft-
『Don't make laugh. Calling those trash-like movents ‘fighting thods’ is a waste of the term.』
He had scoffed, refusing to even acknowledge most of the fighting thods I showed him as a martial art.
So, his current reaction of ‘it doesn't seem like the wrong direction’ was tantamount to the highest praise he could offer.
Pfft-
Well, in a way, it was to be expected.
It was thanks to these unique fighting thods that I, a re grunt in the Suicide Squad during my 1st Regression, was able to survive to the end, accumulate combat experience, and grow.
After all, my fighting style was based on his Beastkin Baktusul.
‘…….’
Of course, he couldn't have grasped everything from a single motion.
What I had shown was, at best, a single punch.
But even so, he must have gotten a rough idea.
That the path I was trying to take was not a field he could advise on lightly.
…Besides.
That look of incomprehension in his eyes.
Looking at it, it also seed that the fact that this place was the ‘Darkest Dungeon’ played a role in raising his evaluation.
“Hey…….”
“Hm?”
“…Did you not feel your Mana being interfered with?”
As if to prove my prediction correct, he threw an out-of-the-blue question at .
“Uh, well. Not really.”
“Strange…….”
When I shrugged and shook my head, he said with his habitual growl.
“…If this was truly your first ti, you should have struggled to adapt.”
The reason he reacted as if it were strange was simple.
As different as the environnt of the Darkest Dungeon was.
Handling Mana inside here had a different aning than handling it outside the dungeon.
“It would be one thing in the Forest of Beginnings. But this is definitely a zone affected by the Mana Turbulence Phenonon.”
“……”
Mana Turbulence Phenonon.
A unique anomaly where Mana deviates from its normal, proper movent and exhibits abnormal, chaotic behavior.
Outside the dungeon, it was a rare phenonon that occurred only temporarily when specific conditions were t, but within this Darkest Dungeon, the ‘Mana Turbulence Phenonon’ was maintained 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
“Mana Turbulence Phenonon?”
When I feigned ignorance and asked him back, Tom gave a simple explanation.
“Here, Mana flows however it pleases.”
“……”
“It's a place where if you try to light a fire with magic, water cos out, and if you try to flow Mana to the left, it goes up to the right instead.”
“……”
“To put it simply, it ans that the existing laws of Mana completely lose their aning.”
The reason he reacted with such bewildernt was ultimately because of this.
Anyone experiencing the Mana Turbulence Phenonon for the first ti was bound to fail at Mana control.
Even if it was a distortion, there were so rules to it, so it wasn't completely impossible to adapt, but it was natural for soone experiencing this phenonon for the first ti to either fail at using Mana or run into trouble due to a reverse reaction.
What's more, the Mana Turbulence Phenonon tended to grow stronger the further one went from the Forest of Beginnings toward the outer regions.
And since we had called out a Howling and moved further into the outer regions to find Magical Beasts, we were now deep enough in the outskirts that the excuse of being close to the Forest of Beginnings was no longer viable.
“Have you experienced the ‘Mana Turbulence Phenonon’ before?”
Unable to understand no matter how much he thought about it, Tom asked once more.
It seed he was asking if I had experienced the Mana Turbulence Phenonon before and had thus already learned how to adapt to it.
Although it was a very rare case, the Mana Turbulence Phenonon did exist outside as well.
After all, that was probably the only possibility in his mind that could explain the current situation.
Shrug-
I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head at his question.
“No.”
aning I had never experienced the Mana Turbulence Phenonon, not even outside.
In other words, this was my first ti experiencing it.
And despite it being my first ti, I had overco the Mana distortion with talent alone.
Well, of course.
“How bizarre…….”
Shrug-
It was a lie.
***
As if he couldn't believe it no matter how many tis he asked.
The man who had operate my Mana several more tis.
Only after checking it himself three or four more tis did he co to the conclusion of a ‘unique constitution’.
Of course, looking at his eyes, it wasn't that he was completely convinced, but it was too awkward to keep probing and confirming, so it seed he decided to ask and move on for now.
Huuup-
Hooo-
“…So. What are you going to do?”
“About what?”
“I have to repay the debt for the cigar. Originally, I was supposed to give you a power-leveling? as you requested, but it seems that has beco difficult.”
“……”
“Is there sothing else you want?”
It was a point he could have subtly just let slide.
But as soon as the matter of the Mana Turbulence Phenonon was settled, the first thing he brought up was the ambiguously unresolved matter of his ‘debt’.
Pfft-
‘…He’s the sa as ever.’
It was due to his unnecessarily rigid personality.
His peculiar nature of having to repay whatever he received was far simpler and more uniform than what most people would think.
If it were , I would have just considered it even since I had at least told him he wasn't on the wrong path, but with his personality, that was impossible.
What was repaid was repaid.
What was not repaid was not repaid.
And the only one who could judge that was his own heart.
According to him, no matter how much he told himself he had ‘repaid’ it, if he hadn't truly repaid it, the debt in his heart would not be erased on its own.
Of course, his way of thinking couldn't be simply dismissed as ‘stubbornness’.
It was less a personal trait and more a kind of ‘innate legacy’ shared by the entire Lycan Clan.
It was just that among them, he had been born with a particularly strong disposition for it.
Besides.
Such persistence didn't just affect the Lycan Clan's lifestyle and way of thinking; it ultimately influenced the strength they possessed.
『…Our clan becos physically fully mature upon reaching adulthood. Of course, that doesn't an training becos completely aningless once you beco an adult.』
『…….』
『But as ti passes, physical training loses its aning. That's because the physical level of an adult of our clan is already near its peak.』
『…….』
『From then on, what's important is the training of the soul. When the body's growth reaches its limit, what determines strength from that point on is the hesitation mixed in at your fingertips.』
They were the Lycan Clan, who boasted overwhelming durability even among the Beastkin, whose main specialty was physical strength.
Therefore, the legacy his clan emphasized was a strong conviction.
Just as even the best vessel becos a trash can if you fill it with trash.
For the Lycan Clan, born with the best bodies, nothing was more important than ‘what you fill it with’.
『A transparent soul pierces a thousand-year wall.』
The Lycan Clan's maxim, which he often uttered like a habit, was a phrase that best captured the clan's disposition that ‘the growth of the soul is strength itself’.
‘…….’
And in reality, that saying wasn't entirely nonsensical.
Everything made of Mana was bound to resemble the properties of Mana.
And Mana responded to a strong will.
In the Lower-Dinsional Plane, which was based on physical order, it might sound like so absurd line for dramatic effect from a third-rate martial arts novel, but at least in the Upper Plane, it had been proven many tis that the growth of the soul directly translated to the growth of one's skill.
Of course, that didn't an it was a common occurrence here either.
A person ‘born from birth’ with a Mana Sensitivity so extraordinary that they could be called a ‘transparent soul’ was a rare occurrence, with maybe one or two appearing per century.
But it was certain that a few who were born with transcendent Mana Sensitivity could draw more output from the sa amount of Mana.
They could even cause fluctuations in the Mana of others.
…Well.
Until The Order officially researched and proved that fact, those who possessed such overwhelming Mana Sensitivity were defined as ‘witches’.
And they had been killed under the pretext of witch hunts.
So at this point in ti, they were hiding their existence and not revealing themselves, but.
Even now on the continent, there were certainly people who could prove that fact.
“…Sothing I want, huh.”
As I broke from my thoughts, rested my chin on my hand, and muttered so, he quietly urged on.
He seed quite impatient.
“…Say anything. It's a rather important matter to .”
“……”
Pfft-
Well.
It wasn't that I didn't understand how he felt.
If what I knew was correct, his soul should have been in a state of stagnation ever since he entered the Darkest Dungeon.
He would have spent decades without a single inch of growth due to the stone lodged in his heart.
He must have thought that if he let another debt pile up on top of an already heavy burden, his growth might not just stop but even regress.
Snap-
I snapped my fingers and said to him.
“Then that'll do.”
“…What will?”
“Help go get sothing. I said I ca for a power-leveling, but that's not the only reason I'm here. There's sothing I need to get before I can leave.”
“……?”
He tilted his head.
“Leave?”
“Yeah.”
“……”
He had a look of incomprehension, but perhaps thinking it wasn't important, he just nodded and asked.
“What item are you talking about? There isn't really anything here that would be useful outside-.”
“The Madman's Mine. Do you know it?”
At the words I threw out, his brow furrowed.
“The Madman's Mine… you an you ca in here to get those red stones.”
Nod-
“Well, I'm not sure if ‘red stones’ is exactly right, but if what you're talking about is a scalene polyhedron-shaped gem that gives off a red light……”
“……”
“That's right. I ca to get that.”
“…Full of questions. To co all this way for sothing like that.”
He still had a look of incomprehension.
“…Let's go. I know the way.”
A hint of relief washed over the face of the man as he turned.
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