Even if it was not a magical beast, I could not let my guard down.
After all, the enemies of Heroes were not limited to beings that had become monsters under the influence of magical beasts.
Perhaps they had deployed personnel reminiscent of groups like Demonic worshippers.
‘There’s definitely some kind of scheme here.’
Even if I was only seventeen years old, I had lived inside lies.
There was no way I would fail to read this strange current that made it feel as if I were being toyed with on someone’s palm.
‘Thinking about it, this could get even harder.’
I decided that I should find Jio first.
KABOOOM!
Just as I was about to take action, a powerful explosion roared from somewhere.
Even that sound bounced this way and that through the labyrinth, lost its way, and reached me.
Not only could I not find the source of the explosion, it was difficult even to guess its general direction.
‘What is this place made of?’
Thinking I might be able to find a clue, I activated the Heavenly Hound’s special ability, but.
‘......What did I just see?’
It was only a concrete structure containing a tiny amount of mana. It was no different from a labyrinth that one truly could neither hear nor see through.
‘This makes me feel like I really became a hero from myth.’
Should I say I understood how Theseus must have felt when he subjugated the Minotaur in Greek mythology?
KABOOOM!
An even stronger explosion rang out in succession. It was not immediately threatening to me, but I was not the only one here.
‘Right. Nothing will change if I just stay still.’
And the special ability I had activated was still only the Heavenly Hound’s eyes. Of course, in this situation, I could not carelessly kindle the flames of Samadhi True Fire.
So the special ability I chose was Kubanda’s mana absorption.
One might ask how a special ability that simply absorbed mana could become a way out here.
However, even if he had laundered his identity, Kubanda’s roots were as a magical beast. Thus, secretive demonic energy and an ominous aura were engraved into it like scars.
If my mana reserves were exhausted, the special ability engraved with the scar of a magical beast would try to restore my body somehow.
‘And I happen to have a suitable method.’
I was confident I could not merely exhaust my mana reserves, but empty my lower dantian entirely.
In a low voice, I expressed my will to kindle flame through words.
“Samadhi True Fire, Banked Flame.”
My calm tone lingered in the air, then vanished. However, my will alone did not disappear. In accordance with it, the mana that had been divided into two was forcibly combined.
VMMMM!
At the violent collision of mana, my bones tingled, and it felt as if my muscles were tearing apart.
My vision was dyed crimson, and my internal temperature rose sharply as if my blood were boiling.
It was fine. It was my power now. And if that was the case, I must not be swayed even more by the preparation to kindle flame.
HISSSSS-!
‘Slowly. Just a little more slowly.’
I could see it clearly. If I let go of the thread of tension even now, the boiling heat would immediately become flame.
In the midst of that tautness, strangely enough, words came out on their own.
“This is kind of ridiculous.”
There was even laughter mixed in.
After all, right now, I looked like someone whose own power was too strong, suppressing it myself.
That absurd laugh restored my composure, and the pain also slowly dulled.
***
What was heavier than my eyelids was my body. At this point, I was gaining confidence that I could sleep while standing.
‘This is what they call mana exhaustion, right?’
If I genuinely knocked on my lower dantian, I felt as if a clear ringing sound would come out.
“What did I come here to do again?”
Under the primal instinct that longed for rest, even the purpose inside my mind began to fade.
CLINK-!
“Right. That’s what it was.”
However, with the weight of the Golden Headband I felt on my wrist, I regained my purpose once more.
“......Reclaim.”
Even that single word made my breathing grow rough. My arm, barely extended, felt as if it would fall off.
Even so, the formless hand, carrying the single-minded will to preserve its master’s body, raced through the labyrinth without hesitation.
***
“This makes it feel like I’m the one being evaluated.”
The owner of the voice was a third party, excluding Wonwoo and Jio.
She sounded irritated, but her voice was sly and alluring, and mostly clean.
The only unfortunate part was that the voice was flowing out from a bull-human form that looked exactly like a Minotaur.
“But what did he shoot?”
She stared at the gigantic arrow embedded not far from her.
Giselle Arienne, Wagner’s acquaintance and the evaluation proxy for this test.
VMMMM!
Suddenly, golden waves of mana rippled toward her like the sea.
“......!”
A strange color settled into Giselle’s eyes as she faced the brilliantly rippling golden waves.
The wave that had stretched out over a wide area returned again from behind Giselle like an ebb tide.
“Now that I look, I was in charge of a precious young master, wasn’t I?”
The Muscleman Guild leader’s innate technique, Wave Detection Art. In other words, it meant the Muscleman heir was inside the shopping arcade.
Giselle suddenly recalled what Wagner had said.
-My days have been monotonous, so I’m trying to have some fun. If you refuse, be prepared. If you do it half-heartedly, be prepared too. No, never mind. Just be prepared.
No matter how kindly she tried to see it, that had not been a request. Since he always kept the words he spat out, goosebumps rose over her from fear.
In any case...... she made up her mind. She would do her best.
“I’m not doing this because you told me to. I’m doing it because I want to.”
The moment Giselle began baring her fangs in earnest toward the evaluation targets.
“W-Wait...... Urgh?!”
A chilling aura began to coil around the small of her back.
***
What was supposed to be conveyed to me was mana that, as befitting a muscle fanatic, would possess solid faith.
‘I think I found something?’
However, the mana I felt was extremely suggestive.
“Well, I’ll know when I see it.”
Like Theseus, the hero of Greek mythology, I used Kubanda’s special ability as my “silk thread” and walked through the labyrinth.
However, I was clearly different from Theseus. I was not using the silk thread to escape the labyrinth, but to approach the enemy.
‘I’ll see it soon.’
The place I reached felt like the fifth floor, but it was marked 3F.
‘......It really was a Minotaur.’
At the end of it was the master of the labyrinth, the Minotaur.
Even with the Minotaur’s smallest movement, the mana drifting nearby seemed to tremble in fright.
The coarse hair and an overwhelming stench that could not be described made me naturally frown.
Of course, to me, who had the Heavenly Hound’s eyes.
‘The gap is huge.’
I saw a woman with bobbed hair that fell sharply along her jawline, hidden beneath the exterior.
‘Right. I knew it.’
It seemed this was the instructor’s scheme. Soon, I was reflected in the bull head’s yellow, murky eyes.
......The eyes were kind.
‘So this is why people say cows have pretty eyes.’
Whether she was trying to instill pressure in me or not, she lowered her upper body and pointed her two horns toward me.
The moment white steam visible to the naked eye burst roughly to the left and right, she charged toward me.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
I did not dodge. More precisely, there was no need to.
“Reclaim.”
Kubanda’s special ability was already connected, so all I had to do was raise the output.
Suuuuuu-.
‘It really is selfish.’
I could see the bull head’s speed rapidly decrease and her movements become uncomfortable.
In contrast, my empty lower dantian grew full, and I felt refreshed as if I had just woken from sleep.
Suddenly, a voice unbelievably alluring leaked from the bull head.
“Seriously, who’s evaluating whom here?”
CRACKLE!
In an instant, the bones throughout the bull head’s body twisted, and a chilling sound rang out, as if muscles were splitting and tearing.
The two horns were crushed inward into her forehead, and her gigantic arms shrank as if chunks of them had been cut away.
Now, instead of yellow, murky eyes split horizontally, purple eyes observed me slyly.
“My, aren’t you too selfish?”
She had undone her transformation and returned to her true form.
‘Why did the special ability come undone?’
I did not know if it was because my concentration fell, but the moment she transformed, Kubanda’s special ability was cut off.
“Why are you so surprised? Is this your first time seeing something like this? It’s my first time seeing a kid like you too! To think you can absorb mana...... But what does it feel like?”
Since I had known from the start that she was transformed, it was not something to be particularly surprised about. I was only standing still because I was curious why my special ability had been released.
‘That special ability doesn’t seem ordinary either.’
Rather than merely changing her appearance, it was as if she changed her very essence.
“Judging by your build, you can’t be the Muscleman heir. Then you must be the other one, right?”
This was the first time I felt a person herself was burdensome. She was like a sly old snake that bewitched people.
CRACKLE!
“Your face is cute enough that I’d like to play with you, but I have dinner plans, so instead...... I’ll end this quickly, okay?”
At the same time as her words, her legs began partially transforming.
‘So she can partially transform too.’
No matter how I looked at them, they were not human legs.
‘She looks fast.’
If I saw the whole thing, I might know, but since it was partial, for now, they only looked like “ostrich” legs.
It was obvious her speed would be fast, so using Kubanda’s mana absorption from a distance was not the best move.
‘I think I’m starting to understand a little.’
When I previously reclaimed Elena’s mana, I thought my body had simply grown tired because of the backlash from the special ability.
When I reclaimed the mana from Teacher Kwon’s magic circles, I thought I had grown tired because my mind was worn down.
However, perhaps because I had absorbed from zero to one hundred, now I could understand it more concretely.
‘If there is such a thing as the soul.’
For example, spiritual power consumption.
So I had to grasp a certain opportunity.
‘I should be able to do it about twice more.’
In order to keep her from avoiding mana absorption, my hand would have to touch her body directly.
I could feel it instinctively. The force of the special ability would also be incomparable to when used at range.
“You’re cute. Seeing you wait, you must like being taken?”
“......Taken?”
Taken by what? From my perspective, she kept saying things I could not understand.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Skillfully handling legs that were not her own, she charged toward me at high speed.
‘Just a little more.’
Even so, I only waited.
Just as we were about to collide, she suddenly retreated backward at high speed and opened distance.
“You......?”
I had thought she was nothing but a pervert, but it seemed her instincts were sharp.
“You still have something left, don’t you?”
Even if my mana and stamina were intact, I did not know whether I could chase her.
Therefore, in order to seize a single opportunity, I spent one of my two remaining chances on an application.
“Release Attraction.”
Starting from my outstretched hand, a net of Attraction spread toward her as if I had cast a net.
‘Just a little more.’
Tap!
Unlike before, I kicked off the ground and rushed toward her.
And then the final one.
“......!”
At that moment.
“Oh my, you touched me......?”
Her eyes resembled a bright full moon. The flush on her heated cheeks was truly embarrassing and extremely burdensome.
***
“It’s fascinating. To think there’s someone Instructor is on good terms with.”
A gentle voice, unlike the rough expression on the woman’s face, flowed from the bench.
The one who asked was Choi Seoyeon, Instructor Wagner’s assistant.
“She probably hates me. Still, she did readily accept my request.”
“......She readily accepted a request from someone she hates? Just in case, you didn’t threaten her, did you?”
Choi Seoyeon’s face was stained with pure suspicion.
“I don’t remember very well, but I think I said I’d bury her in the ground.”
“......You really are amazing in all sorts of ways!”
Wagner pulled a cigarette from his coat and put it in his mouth. At that moment, Wagner’s personal notebook entered Choi Seoyeon’s eyes.
As far as Choi Seoyeon knew, that notebook was the culmination of information Wagner had personally written.
“Wait, give me that.”
Whoosh!
“......Bring your master here. What kind of manners are these?”
She had said “give me,” but it was no different from taking it by force.
“He’s beside me.”
“So he is?”
Since Wagner was originally a person with many secrets, Choi Seoyeon also did not know the information on the person he had personally recruited.
Because she sensed something strangely odd, only now did she think to check.
‘Why is there so much miscellaneous stuff......!’
Ah, here it is.
[Giselle Arienne]
‘She isn’t affiliated with the Association......’
Wagner and Choi Seoyeon’s eyes met. Wagner avoided her gaze and said,
“She’s got sticky fingers, but she’s a good kid.”
“......”
Choi Seoyeon lost her words and read the next part.
‘She’s more ordinary than I thought?’
Surprisingly, Giselle’s physical abilities were at the level of an ordinary person. Since this was the first time she had seen someone this ordinary among Wagner’s acquaintances, she was somewhat flustered.
Slide.
However, the more she turned to the next page, the more her palms sweated, to the point that the ink faintly blurred.
At the place where Choi Seoyeon’s gaze stopped, this was written.
-She can transform into a target she has made physical contact with. Depending on the amount of mana, if the target is a “person,” I judge that she can use not only their physical abilities, but also a portion of their unique special ability...... Of course, before that, I beat her down.
A method of resolution very much like Wagner was written there as well.
-It is close to impossible to see through the transformation unless one can see through the inside of the body. Still, if you beat her, she eventually confesses, so that is enough.
“The evaluation difficulty......”
Regardless of what Choi Seoyeon said, Wagner had his fingers laced behind his head peacefully.
“If it ends too easily, should I go in then? Hmm...... That would be fun.”
***
At that moment, unbelievably, Wonwoo was pressing his palm against another palm the same size as his own.
“This is quite unpleasant.”