Quite some time had passed since Ginovan had regained his strength.
Even so, not everything had been wrapped up yet.
A meeting was held to discuss whether they would continue the inspection tour.
Although the situation had been resolved well in the end, both imperial princes had faced near-death experiences.
The imperial family, it seemed, was now debating whether they should return immediately or carry on with the rest of the tour.
Well, that’s for the higher-ups to decide.
Jun only wanted to finish the mission quickly and get authorization to submit his report to the imperial court.
But it wasn’t particularly urgent.
Imperial reports have to be delivered to the surface anyway. We probably won’t see any replies until the season ends.
With that in mind, Jun and his companions decided to spend their sudden free time doing their own thing.
“About last time… I felt really frustrated trying to assist with your magic.”
“Really?”
Eleanor, who usually grumbled whenever she studied magic, was surprisingly the one to bring up the need for more learning.
“That enchantment theory you mentioned the other day….can you lend me some books on that?”
“Sure, I don’t see why not.”
Pleased by her initiative, Jun immediately piled up a mountain of related books for her.
Eleanor’s face soured at the sight, but she carried the books back to her room without complaint.
“S-Senior!”
Later that night, after Eleanor had returned to her room, Aiden suddenly showed up, looking unusually excited.
“What’s going on?”
“Th-The Heavenly Dragon Knights said they want to spar with me!”
“Oh? Really now?”
That was quite a rare thing.
The Heavenly Dragon Knights were famously known as the elite of the elite.
All members of the order had graduated top of their class from the Imperial Academy, and even then, they had to accumulate merit through years of life-threatening service as probationary knights just to be admitted.
That such a knight order would show interest in Aiden who was only a Level 5 mercenary was something straight out of a bard’s tale.
Aiden’s unexpectedly drawing a lot of attention from knights.
Even the commander of the Blackguard Knights Thaerdin had shown a degree of leniency toward Aiden.
After the mission ended, Aiden had continued to get along surprisingly well with the Blackguard Knights.
It must be that his swordsmanship left a clean impression, even in the eyes of the knights.
And with his self-developed technique, Wind Storm, boasting immense destructive power, it would certainly have piqued their interest.
“That’s great news. Since it’s come to this, make sure you steal as much of their swordsmanship as you can.”
“S-Steal?”
“I told you. Techniques are meant to be stolen with your eyes.”
Jun, who had made it this far without a proper teacher, could relate to that sentiment on a bone-deep level.
What could you do? In this world, proper masters were few and far between.
“There’s a lot you can learn. We’ve got plenty of free time coming up, so go ahead and spend it with them.”
“Aah…! Thank you so much!”
Watching Aiden walk off with such spring in his step was truly satisfying.
What would’ve happened if I’d been given an opportunity like that?
Jun was shaking off the thought, a pointless “what if”, when—
“It’s about time for you to show up.”
“…? Leader, are you some kind of fortune-teller?”
“No, dumbass. So? What brings you here?”
“You remember what I asked you back at the Ancient Tower?”
“The World Tree’s essence?”
“Yes.”
Maya, who had shown interest in the principles behind the World Tree’s essence during their climb up the Ancient Tower—
Jun had done his best to explain it clearly, and Maya had taken time afterward to try and fully understand the concept.
“What about it?”
“I tried using the method you taught me on the old spirits.”
The essence of the World Tree allows users to communicate with spirits in accordance with their will.
Ever since the Tower incident, Maya had occasionally asked Jun for more details and had been trying to use that principle to converse with the souls of her ancestors.
“Did you get results?”
“Yes. But… it wasn’t quite what I expected.”
“Where did things go wrong?”
“They don’t stay connected for long. The connection cuts off before I can even exchange a few words. And after that… I get too drained to keep going.”
“Hmm. That’s a textbook case of mana deficiency.”
To be honest, Jun had somewhat expected this.
“Is it because I don’t have enough mana?”
“That’s part of it. The other part is a lack of control.”
“……”
Maya’s sulky reaction made Jun chuckle.
In truth, unlike Aiden, Maya still hadn’t managed to imbue her blade with aura.
Her mastery of physical techniques and body control far exceeded Aiden’s, but in terms of raw destructive power, she lagged behind in most aspects. Well, aside from her Spirit Rampage.
“It’s not that you’re lacking in skill.”
“It’s not?”
“Well… it’s only half true.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Let me explain… First off, you’re not worse than Aiden when it comes to handling mana. But in terms of results, you’re still falling behind.”
“……? What do you mean by that?”
“If your mana control were really inferior to Aiden’s, you wouldn’t have been able to attempt spirit communication with your ancestors in the first place.”
And yet, Maya had succeeded in doing just that, relying only on Jun’s guidance.
Mana isn’t like chopsticks. Just being told how to use it doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly be able to.
Maya clearly had a natural talent for handling mana, and she had worked hard to develop it.
“The problem is… your mana tends to gather here.”
Jun tapped his own forehead as he spoke, and Maya frowned even more.
“Are you saying the issue is that my mana gathers in my head?”
“Yeah. Your heart and abdomen function like pathways for blood or core energy, right?”
“Yes, that’s true.”
“But the head doesn’t. So it’s harder to gather mana there and then release it outward.”
On the flip side, it makes it easier to sense external mana and even spirits.
Which, surprisingly, was a significant advantage.
“Hmm… Then is there a way to speed up the gathering process?”
“There is.”
“What is it?”
Maya’s eyes lit up, and Jun smiled in response.
“Training.”
“Training?”
“Mhmm. Ever heard of brain muscles?”
“There are muscles in the brain?”
No, it doesn’t. The brain is just a cluster of nerve cells. There are no muscles there.
However—
“It grows the more you use it.”
“Then…”
“Use mana. Constantly, without stopping.”
“Do I have to push myself until I’m completely drained?”
“That’d be ideal. But even if not, at least get into the habit of using it regularly.”
You could use it while walking, or while focusing your vision, or if nothing else, you could just keep your detection field expanded around you at all times.
“You’re saying… I should do that every single day…?”
“Mhmm.”
Jun said it casually, but he knew full well how crazy it sounded.
It was like telling someone to consciously control every movement of their legs every time they walked.
The mental strain would be no joke.
On top of that, using mana meant physical fatigue, too.
It was basically hellish training.
“But it’s the most effective method.”
Even in the game, this was sometimes how NPCs who stored mana in their heads underwent special training.
If you keep it up long enough, yeah, it’ll wear down your mental strength a bit, but…
The results were excellent.
Besides, with the World Tree’s energy here, it was unlikely that her mental strength would run out first.
“If you keep at it, your mana control will definitely improve. And your capacity will grow too.”
“Phew… Got it. Thanks.”
Once Maya had left as well,
Jun who was now alone in the room quietly closed his eyes.
“Guess it’s my turn now.”
Sixth Circle.
It was time to start preparing to break through that wall.
***
The truth was, Jun had already figured out how to break through the Sixth Circle.
It was one day, after spending so long watching Shylock and Mashar work side-by-side and being inspired by them day after day.
I think I can do it.
That sense just came to him.
It was one of those moments impossible to explain, just pure instinct.
But Jun had immediately suppressed that instinct.
It’s too soon.
Jumping straight from the Fifth Circle to the Sixth, he felt like there were still too many realizations he hadn’t fully digested.
If he pushed into the Sixth Circle now, those insights wouldn’t settle in properly and they’d come back to haunt him later.
That was the gut feeling he got, and he barely managed to suppress his greed and stay in the Fifth.
“It’s already been months since then…”
And only now were the realizations from back then finally starting to merge naturally with his existing knowledge.
So now, at last, it was time to reach for the threshold of the Sixth Circle.
The problem is… this isn’t something I can just do because I want to.
Jun couldn’t say for certain how Circle growth truly worked, but he knew it required a major catalyst.
Sometimes it came in the form of a personal epiphany.
For others, it might be triggered by encountering a phenomenon they had never seen before.
Or, quite often, it could happen in a life-or-death situation, where extreme mental focus led to a breakthrough.
But even if you tried to artificially recreate such conditions, how effective could it really be?
Normally, growth would come through naturally reaching a realization. But Jun had once deliberately shut himself off from that moment of clarity.
Which meant that even if he reached the same realization again, the impact would be far less.
I didn’t expect it to become such a problem later on.
Still, that didn’t mean he could just sit around doing nothing, waiting for the next opportunity to come on its own.
“Well, since it’s come to this, I might as well polish up the spells I was planning to use.”
He had been working on them for a while but hadn’t focused much on refining enchantment spells specifically.
It was time to start diving deep into the theory behind new spells.
…And just like that, a whole month had passed.
“Already halfway through the season, huh?”
In the meantime, the new commander sent to replace Ginovan arrived at the fortress looking like a dead man walking.
From his point of view, it was no surprise he resented Ginovan. But what could he do?
He’d been politically outmaneuvered and sent here as a result.
Even so, his situation was still one of the better ones.
When a problem arises, being the one to solve it is often the best way to climb back up.
Ginovan had neatly handed over all relevant information during the transition and, after receiving a message from Chloe, had already left for the Black Forest Fortress.
In the meantime, the mine contaminated by poisonous spores still hadn’t been restored.
It would likely remain closed until the next season.
Instead, the miners were either given new jobs through the networks of Dexter and Javier or received compensation.
Even so, their expressions weren’t exactly cheerful but it was still better than being forced to leave with nothing.
“Phew. Now I can finally head to the fourth level.”
Dexter, who had managed to somewhat dispel the imperial family’s insistence on bringing the two princes back to the surface, looked noticeably more relaxed.
“Those old folks… always worrying about something.”
“Haha. Well, it was quite the incident.”
Tobias who was standing beside him replied with a chuckle at Dexter’s grumbling.
“Come to think of it, where’s the Sword Soul?”
“He should be returning soon.”
“For someone who loved being in the field so much, I still don’t get why he retired so early. What a shame.”
“I agree.”
Aden, who was originally supposed to have killed the Poison Master in the mine.
He returned not long after the incident had settled down.
No one knew exactly what had happened, but his body was covered in signs of battle.
Fortunately, the injuries weren’t serious, and he reportedly recovered quickly, getting out of bed the very next morning.
That wasn’t the end of it, either. He had gone back out again, saying he’d track down the one who dragged him to that strange place.
By now, word must have spread that he intended to resume the patrol that had been put on hold, so it was about time for his return.
And sure enough, the next day, Aden emerged from his room looking completely fine.
At last, the day came to head for the fourth level.
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