Chapter 28

[KRRRRAAAAK!!!]

[KRRAAK!!!]

"Khan!!!"

Irurin's shout reached his ears.

"Stay back! Not yet!!"

Woojin shouted as he plunged into the corpses surging toward him like a tide, swinging his sword.

'A little more...! Just a little more...!!'

Ratan still had his back turned, showing no interest in him. It wasn't enough yet. If Irurin unleashed her magic now, the monster would most likely go after her.

CRUNCH!!

A corpse lunged forward and bit his arm.

"Aaaaargh!!!"

Unspeakable pain assailed him, but Woojin bit his lip and endured it.

'I can't die from something like this...!!'

BZZZZT...!!

Faint electricity erupted from his blade. Arcs scattered along its edge, briefly lighting the dark laboratory.

["... Grrrgh!!!"]

The corpses his blade touched shuddered as though electrocuted and were flung away.

"Hah... hah...!"

His heart felt ready to burst.

'Was it always this exhausting?'

PTUI.

Woojin spat out the saliva pooling in his mouth and caught his breath.

"The game was better. Fuck. This goddamn reality..."

Would it kill anyone to make things a little easier? He already knew this wasn't like the game.

It was just...

He couldn't stop swearing.

Activating Wielding Heaven just once had made his sword feel impossibly heavy. He was sleepy. He felt as though he might fall asleep at any moment.

"This is insane."

This was only his second time here. Who knew how many more times he would have to return?

'And you think you can conquer the Labyrinth Tower like this?'

No one else could shore up his faltering resolve. He alone had to hold on to it.

"Aaaaaaah!!"

As Woojin roared as though to shake off his fear, a faint light flowed from his armor.

It was strange. Was this the effect of [Valor] in the [Magic-Infused Ancient Leather Armor] he wore? Somehow, his pounding heart seemed to settle. His vision cleared.

Yet, astonishingly, everything came to mind: all the skills he knew, and even what he had to do to use them.

BOOOOM!!

Woojin vanished, leaving a blurred afterimage. Activating the warrior skill [Sprint] and his title's [Acceleration] effect simultaneously, he broke through the surrounding corpses in an instant and charged toward Ratan.

'I can do this.'

His whole body was telling him so.

"Haaaaah!!!!"

He drove his sword with all his strength toward the monster, whose back was still turned.

CRACK...!

"...!!"

At that moment, unbelievably, Ratan's back split open, and an enormous fist shot out.

THWACK!!!

The fist swung like a hammer, folding Woojin's body at a right angle and sending him crashing to the floor.

"... Cough!!"

A mouthful of dark blood surged up his throat and spurted from his mouth.

["Heh heh."]

Ratan clicked his tongue as he looked down at him. His split back slowly closed, the protruding fist disappeared, and he rose to his feet.

["You've become drunk on your armor's power, foolish human."]

"... You monstrous bastard. How much have you stuffed down your throat? You're looking positively healthy."

He wasn't joking. Ridiculous as it was to say this about a corpse, Ratan looked far more alive than when they had first found him. Even his halting speech had changed. It was like seeing him as he had been in life.

["I've seen many like you. Those who lack ability and rely on the power of their equipment."]

THUD. THUD.

For the first time, Ratan began to walk.

["They came to capture us, but every last one ended up like those over there."]

He grinned at Woojin.

["Count yourself fortunate. You won't become a corpse."]

CRACK...! CRRRAAACK...!!

This time, Ratan's chest split vertically.

HISSSSS!!

Long tentacles sprang from the wound, which gaped like a mouth.

["Because I'm going to eat you now."]

CLANG! CLANG!!!

Woojin knocked aside the long tentacles and rushed at Ratan.

"You crazy fuck. I thought you couldn't eat anything alive?"

SWOOOSH!!

Dropping low, Woojin narrowly dodged a tentacle and closed in on Ratan.

SHUNK!!

His sword sank into Ratan's waist.

"... He did it!!"

Goun cried out involuntarily at the sight.

'Damn it.'

Despite landing the attack, Woojin looked grim. Something was wrong. So many tentacles had attacked him, yet not a single one had struck him. Had his skills improved in that brief span? Impossible.

'He deliberately avoided hitting me.'

["Heh heh..."]

SWAAASH!!

As though they had been waiting for this, the tentacles protruding from Ratan's chest wrapped around Woojin in an embrace.

["I never said I would eat you alive."]

"... Gah!!!!"

Sharp thorns sprouted from the tentacles and pierced Woojin all over. They punched through his armor as though it were nothing and stabbed into his flesh.

"Aaaaaaargh!!!"

The pain was beyond anything he had felt moments before. Every time the embedded thorns pulsed, it felt as though they were sucking all the blood from his body. The agony blanked his mind.

His consciousness was fading.

Was he really... going to die?

["...?"]

Then it happened. Just before he lost consciousness, black mist enveloped Woojin's body, and he vanished.

CRUNCH!!

With his body gone, the thorns surrounding him tangled together, deprived of their prey.

["Grrh?"]

Ratan tilted his head with a monstrous growl, seemingly unable to understand what had happened.

["You little rat...!!"]

Ratan looked around for Woojin.

"Hah... hah..."

'It feels like I'm underwater. Did one hit from those tentacles wipe out half my health?'

Woojin grimaced as he recalled the activation condition for [Black Guardian]. He steadied his breathing, watching Ratan lash his tentacles in every direction through vision so blurred it seemed to ripple.

["Where are you?! Where are you hiding?!!!"]

'I can't just stay here and recover.'

If the monster couldn't find him, it would attack the others. Woojin focused his mind.

Unlike before, when he hadn't had the slightest idea how to use them, every skill now came to mind. That didn't mean he could use them immediately. Knowing something and doing it were different things. Unlike in the game, using skills in reality required extensive practice.

'Practice, my ass... If you can't do it, you're dead, Kim Woojin!'

Of course, he had no time for that.

RIIING!!

A piercing metallic sound rang inside his head. His cheek twitched from the sharp pain.

GRIND!!

Woojin clenched his teeth and concentrated even harder.

At that moment, although his eyes were closed, his darkened vision brightened. A target entered his obscured field of view, and the instant Ratan's face appeared—

FWOOSH!!!

Black smoke began rising from the monster's forehead as though it had been seared with fire.

It was [Hungry Brand].

["Gah?!"]

'It worked.'

While Ratan stood bewildered, the smoke rising from his body began seeping into Woojin.

'... What is this?'

It was a power he had never felt before. A tingling sensation ran through him, enveloping his entire body.

'Is this...?'

When the power coursing through every corner of his body traveled along his blood vessels and reached his head, Woojin realized what it was.

Mana.

Perhaps it was only natural. Ratan might have become undead, but he had been an archmage in life. He still possessed an immense amount of mana.

'How is this...?'

Then Irurin's words came back to him.

["Everyone has mana. The only difference is the capacity of the vessel that holds it. Anyone who can sense mana can use magic."]

'Sense mana. Could it be?'

Perhaps his first use of [Hungry Brand] on Sig Elric had been the trigger. Although he had lacked mana and hadn't been able to do anything, that was when he had first become aware of its existence.

And this was the second time. Things were different now. Perhaps this was possible precisely because it was reality.

["There you are!!"]

As though he had traced the flow of his escaping mana, Ratan thrust a sharp tentacle toward Woojin behind the black mist.

"Urgh!!"

The attack dispelled the mist. Woojin barely deflected the tentacle with his sword, but the impact rocked his body and drove him backward.

'I'd have been better off stealing something like health.'

Sensing mana was all well and good. But what use was it? Even with mana, he didn't know any spells.

'I haven't even read a spellbook...'

Then a memory flashed through his mind, and his expression stiffened involuntarily.

'Yes, I have.'

The third-grade spellbook in Sig Elric's room.

Here, where using even a single skill required his utmost effort, none of the game's conveniences existed. But that also meant there were no class or level restrictions.

'... Will it work?'

Better to try than waste time wondering.

Woojin thrust out his hand with all his might.

'The activation phrase was... I think... '

"Fos Nara."

He felt something being drawn out from deep in his lower abdomen. Then, astonishingly, complex formulas began etching themselves into his mind, filling it to the brim.

'I see...'

It might have been impossible for an ordinary mage. But the mana he had stolen belonged to an archmage once called the strongest on the continent. Though its owner was dead, that mana, purer than anyone else's, brought boundless clarity to his mind.

And that mana...

"...!!!"

Produced an extraordinary result.

KRRRROOOOOM!!!!!

Brilliant white light filled the laboratory.

"Cough... cough..."

Once the light faded, acrid smoke carrying the stench of burning flesh stung his nose.

"I'm not doing that twice..."

The power had been fearsome, but its aftermath left Woojin struggling to stand through agony that felt as though his entire body were crumbling.

'Well, I don't have enough mana to do it twice anyway.'

The mana that had filled his body had been exhausted in an instant, leaving him empty. The strange thing was that he could feel the space it had left, as though there were a vessel inside him.

"Wh-what was that just now?"

Irurin asked him, her face blackened with soot.

"What else? Magic. There's no one in the world who can't use it. You're the one who said that, remember?"

"Good heavens. Even so, who starts with third-grade magic?"

Woojin chuckled at her words.

["Grr... grrgh... You... bastard...!!"]

Clutching his half-burned face, Ratan glared murderously at Woojin.

"Damn it. Even that wasn't enough?"

Then again, this monster had survived a direct hit from Arcane Arrow, a master skill.

"At least I've definitely drawn aggro."

["S-stop right there!!!! I'll kill you!!!"]

Woojin casually flipped him off, then ran as hard as he could without looking back.

"I can't hold out for long."

As he passed Ruen, Woojin gave her a meaningful glance.

* * *

BOOOOM!!!

An explosion erupted at the dungeon entrance. Caught in the blast, Woojin was lifted into the air and slammed into the ground.

"... Cough!!"

He rolled across the ground, coughing up blood, then sprawled on his back.

["No more scurrying away like a rat."]

Ratan growled at Woojin as he walked out of the lake.

"A boss mob coming out of its dungeon... That would never happen in the game."

["What are you talking about?"]

Seeing Ratan's expression—there was no way he could understand—Woojin gave a self-mocking smile.

"Nothing much. Just saying it's a good thing this is reality. It let me escape out here, after all."

Now that the monster had come out of the lake, he could buy time until Ruen finished healing.

He exhaled, wiped the blood smeared around his mouth, and gripped his sword.

["Let me ask you one thing. What became of Zion Muren?"]

"That dark mage? What do you think? He's fucking dead."

["Heh heh... Wonderful news. The bastard who betrayed me..."]

Woojin sneered at Ratan in disbelief.

"What are you grinning about? You're already fucking dead yourself."

CRUNCH!!!

Then, with all his strength, he crushed the [Philosopher’s Stone].