It was back when I, as the Hero, was being trained by the Empire's Weapon Master, Ellichi.
"All energies, mana included, require a purpose."
He told me that with his usual face, one on which no emotion could be read.
"A purpose?"
"Yes. Just as swinging a sword carries the purpose of cutting down an enemy."
"……So if a kitchen knife counts as a sword, then chopping green onions for ramyeon has a purpose too?"
Even at that joke of mine, Ellichi snorted a laugh and nodded.
"I do not know what ramyeon is, but you grasp the purpose itself well enough: that a blade is used in cooking. In the end every tool has its use, and that applies to every energy, mana among them."
Just as a swordsman strengthens his body through mana and clads his blade in that energy to cut down his enemies.
Every energy has a purpose, and there exists a use that fits that purpose.
"If it's every energy, does that include magic power and divine power?"
"It does."
"But magic power is something only Demon Realm natives use."
At that, Ellichi wore a slightly bitter expression.
"There was a time when Middle Realm natives used magic power as well."
What was it he said then?
"As black magic."
Long, long ago. The exclusive possession of a certain kingdom that the Empire and the Holy Nation destroyed.
The thing that fled that destruction down into the Demon Realm, and came back to the Middle Realm in the form of an "invasion."
Perhaps finding that history bitter, Ellichi had closed both eyes as he murmured it.
***
"Black magic, is it. Remodel it and it could be useful."
Beneath a tent made of stiff demonic beast hide.
I skimmed the books I'd carried out of the mansion's underground storeroom, nodding again and again.
Black magic.
Just as Ellichi had said, they were books written by the descendants of the black mages who had fled to the Demon Realm long ago.
In truth, black magic isn't a technique I remember fondly.
Before the regression, I had the worst experience of my Hero life in a city overrun with undead.
Even so.
However I turned it over, this was the only way the current me could make full use of magic power.
"It isn't as if I'm learning it to command undead."
What I wanted was the mechanism of black magic itself.
Whatever else it was, black magic was a supernatural art built around magic power, and if I could absorb that, I'd be able to use magic power in far more varied ways.
"The problem is that I'm a layman when it comes to magic."
I had a rough idea of how magic works, but not the details.
Before the regression I was a close-combat fighter (as Heroes always are).
So I'd been a little worried…….
[Existence Analysis]
Ta-da.
The Grade SSS trait didn't betray my faith after all.
***
A week had already passed since Enoch drove me out of the mansion.
In that time I'd settled on a plain a suitable distance from the mansion and quietly concentrated on reading.
[Sub Quest: Finish reading 'The Unknown Beings Washed into the Demon Realm'!]
[Quest complete.]
[Reward: KP 50 granted.]
"Good, that's the last of them."
Fourteen books in all were stacked neatly beside me.
I set the final volume on top, closed my eyes, and focused inward.
On the Mind Tree that unfolded, leaves I hadn't seen before had grown in thick.
Countless "possibilities" learned through reading.
Every one of them related to black magic.
And there was only one reason they hadn't turned into traits.
Because I was refusing them.
'I have no intention of using black magic itself.'
What I wanted was purely the ability to "use magic power."
So from here I intended to do the preparatory work for it.
'No need to tear apart the domain of incantations. If anything, it will help with controlling magic power.'
I gazed at the leaves fluttering in the wind and sank into thought for a moment.
The ability I was about to obtain was a kind even I had never handled in the game.
Magic power itself was a stat that had never been implemented in the game, so that was only natural.
And there was only one reason I could carry this out regardless.
'My experience.'
In this world, experience doesn't simply mean the process of a body growing accustomed to something.
It means the traces of the road I've walked being carved into the soul itself.
So even for me, who lost every physical ability after the regression, the traces carved into my soul remained vivid.
The countless journeys piled up all the way to driving the Holy Sword into the Demon God's heart.
In other words, having accumulated "rank," I could choose for myself which road the possibilities I held would take.
Pluck.
I tore off a leaf of the possibility I had come to hold.
The black magic possibilities I'd learned through my recent reading.
I plucked them off one by one.
CRACK.
[Beast's Heart (Grade D)]
[Efficient Body (Grade D)]
[Night Vision (Grade E)]
[Pathfinder (Grade E)]
Then I began snapping off the branches too, the traits that had served me so well.
I gathered the branches and leaves together and fed them into [Trait Synthesis].
[Proceed with special trait synthesis? Required KP: 6,000]
"Hmm. I'm a little short on points."
With no other choice, I looked over my other possibilities and traits.
The one that caught my eye was [Steel Hide (Grade C)].
I snapped the branch without hesitation and breathed energy into it.
[Trait Steel Hide (Grade C) is destroyed.]
[KP 1,200 has been recovered.]
As you can see, deleting a trait you don't use and getting a set number of points back is also possible.
It was a trait I'd put to good use, so I did feel a pang of waste, but it would lose all value before the trait I was about to gain, so I shook it off quickly.
I invested every last bit of the KP I'd gathered over about two months, along with the KP I'd just procured, and began the special trait synthesis.
And.
――――!
A fierce light burst from the trait synthesis window, and at the same time a new branch began to stretch out from my Mind Tree.
And its name.
[Magic Arts (Grade F) has been created.]
A trait that would give me the optimal conditions for governing magic power.
***
Magic power, Magic Arts.
I seemed to be drifting further and further from the title of former Hero, but who cares.
Remembering how I absorbed the Demon God's blood serum before the regression just to land one hit on Belios, it was nothing new.
"Ugh. Was I shut up in that tent too long? Moving around for once feels refreshing."
Before I was summoned to another world, I considered holing up in the corner of my room the finest vacation there was. Can a person change this much?
After lamenting that sad fact for a moment, I set the magic power coiling through my body in motion.
"At this level, I'd say I've recovered about ten percent of my pre-regression self."
Not physical ability so much as a judgment of "how much force I can put out" in my current state.
And in fact.
"Hmm."
The many Void parasites sprawled across the ground proved it.
DING!
The quest completion notice, arriving without fail.
Seeing the corpses of nearly a hundred parasites brought a natural satisfaction.
"Blink really is broken."
In a many-against-one fight, unless one side's might is overwhelming, you inevitably end up surrounded and devoured, or swept away.
Because gaps inevitably open between one attack and the next.
The old me would have had real trouble clearing this many parasites.
But the Blink I'd just gained covered those inevitable gaps perfectly.
"The downside is that it eats magic power like crazy."
The sheer amount consumed wasn't a burden.
The volume of magic power I'd built up since my newborn days was truly staggering.
The question was whether my body could handle it.
'Normally, using Blink more than ten times would have put a magic power rampage in sight.'
But as you can see.
I'd used Blink countless times in this fight without much strain on my body.
[Magic Arts (Grade E)]
Thanks to the Magic Arts trait, which had already climbed from F to E.
'Flashing east and west like Enoch is still impossible, but turning Blink into a spell formula improved the consumption rate considerably.'
As you can see, there were still plenty of ways to grow stronger.
And just as many strong enemies waiting.
CLENCH—
I gripped my fist hard enough for the nails to bite into my skin.
Imagining the day I'd smash Belios's face in with this hand.
"Anyway……."
The wind stirred.
When I turned my head in the direction it brushed past my skin, I could see the well-maintained wall far in the distance.
"Guess it's about time I paid a visit."
I had no intention of honestly spending the full month outside the mansion as Enoch had instructed.
Since it was a situation he'd call "dangerous," I'd have to see for myself what was going on.
I'd only stayed out this long because I needed to gather as much strength as possible in case of a crisis.
I packed up the tent roughly and moved.
[Blink]
***
Once I crossed the wall, I felt gazes stabbing into me from here and there.
Among them were fear and dread, and I detected envy and jealousy as well.
'Now isn't the time to worry about that.'
Leaving all of it behind me, I crossed the wall and headed straight for the mansion.
And soon ran into something absurd.
"A barrier……?"
What kind of grand business requires throwing a barrier over the entire mansion?
It was baffling, but one thing was clear.
"This is no ordinary matter."
In the future, for whatever reason, Enoch meets his death.
Whether before that or after, the Enoch who becomes the Demon God would end up walking the ending I lived through, the one already decided.
"Not if I have a say."
FWOOSH—
I gathered magic power into both fists at once.
Whatever else happened, I had to confirm what Enoch was going through inside.
'Surely he won't kill me just for breaking through a barrier?'
A former Hero having to lean on a Demon King's mercy didn't sit well with me, but the current Enoch at least seemed to care about me.
Trusting that, I seized the barrier with both hands.
CRUNCH—
The barrier wasn't meant to defend against intrusion from outside; it was meant to prevent escape from within.
Shaped like a prison for caging a wild beast, you might say.
'The fortunate part is that the caster isn't tending the barrier.'
If the caster had begun to intervene, finding a gap wouldn't have been enough to damage it.
And for whatever reason, the barrier itself seemed to have weakened considerably.
'Staying out for those few days was the right call.'
The me from before Magic Arts could never have torn this barrier.
SCRAPE—SCRRRRAPE—!!!
"Ngh……."
Though it was clearly meant to stop escape from within, it was immensely hard, perhaps because Enoch's magic power was steeped in it.
The skin of the fingers gripping the barrier tore away, and my nails were ground off entirely.
Regeneration was healing the injuries in real time, but…….
'Damn it. Did I delete Steel Hide too hastily?'
No. What good was missing a trait that was already gone?
All I could do was grit my teeth and hold on.
And only after a good deal of struggle…….
RIIIIIP—!
"Got it!"
I finally managed to wrench the barrier open.
The moment I hurried inside, the barrier began closing on its own.
A moment later and I wouldn't have made it in.
But I couldn't spare that fact a single thought.
SLICE—
"Damn it…… what is this now?"
A sharp wind of magic power tore across my forearm.
The same thing spread over my whole body, and though I was drenched in blood in an instant.
I could only forget the pain and stare at the scene before my eyes.
"Why here……?"
I couldn't help it.
I'd believed it would be a very long time before I faced this again.
"Why is there divine power here……?"
Golden divine power spread out as if in confrontation, amid the winds of rampaging magic power.
Enoch's mansion had transformed into a vast battlefield of magic power and divine power.