Chapter 76 - The Test

It was a dark night. Sitting alone in my room, I took out the necklace I had hidden deep in my desk. It was Mirisa’s necklace, the one I had swapped for Piar’s after removing its jewel. Things had been peaceful, so I hadn’t paid it much attention. But trouble seemed to be on the horizon, and I wanted to examine anything that might become a problem and get rid of it before something happened.

At first glance, the necklace looked ordinary: a simple piece with a small, glasslike jewel set in the center. It wasn’t gold, just a thin metal chain. "Wasn’t it iron? And the jewel doesn’t seem ordinary either." But when I focused mana in my eyes and looked closer, the chain seemed to be an alloy that conducted mana well, not iron. The transparent jewel had been intricately cut into a strange shape. It looked like something a researcher could study for ages, but I wasn’t in a position to do that. I wasn’t examining it to learn how it had been made. I wanted to know what I could do with it. In my previous life, I hadn’t needed to understand how smartphones or cars worked. Knowing how to use them was enough.

According to the man who called himself Piar’s master, the necklace amplified mana and made it run wild. He had said it could also be filled with mana and set to activate later like a timer, though I hadn’t heard the details. It overloaded the mana of an inherited-ability user wearing it until the person exploded. That had sounded horrifying when I first heard it, but fortunately, it came with a long list of limitations. For one thing, it was extremely difficult to make. He had confessed that making two had taken over a year. And apparently, overloading someone wouldn’t make them explode unless they were a buffer-type or amplification-type ability user like Mirisa or Piar, someone who stored a great deal of mana inside their body. Nor could you simply put it on anyone. It seemed to work only if the wearer had keen mana sensitivity or had worn it long enough for mana to circulate freely between the necklace and their body. What’s more, there seemed to be almost no inherited-ability users who could activate it. The so-called master knew of only one besides himself: the female lecturer who had killed herself on the day of the entrance ceremony. He had almost boasted that only unusual ability users with keen mana sensitivity who could skillfully use the mana within their bodies could activate the necklace.

"I can feed mana into it, though."

HUMMM.

The necklace in my hand accepted the mana and began to glow faintly. On a hunch, I had pushed mana into it in a flow similar to the one I’d seen that day, and it had activated. It was a trick possible only because I could see mana—or rather, feel it. "I wish I were the only one who could do this..." I had never seen anyone else sense mana the way I did, but I couldn’t be sure I was unique. Still, it certainly seemed difficult.

"Not that I can do anything with it." I shook my head and set the glowing necklace on the desk. Unlike that so-called master and the lecturer who had killed herself, I couldn’t activate it from a distance. And it wouldn’t work just because I put it on someone. Right now, all I could do was put it back around Piar’s or Mirisa’s neck, touch their neck, and blow them up. "If I can’t detonate it from a distance, I’d be a suicide bomber." In the end, it was useless to me.

"A suicide bomber..." I stared at the necklace on the desk. If I was going to be a suicide bomber, there was no need to put it back on Piar or Mirisa. After a moment’s hesitation, I picked it up and put it around my own neck. "..." Nothing happened. A small laugh escaped me. I’d been nervous for nothing. "Of course nothing would change."

Then I tried moving my mana. It began circulating inside my body. "Moving around just fine." Again, there was no problem. Carefully, I pushed mana toward the necklace. The mana traveling toward my chest passed through it and seeped back into my body. The necklace neither glowed nor stored the mana. "Hmm. So ordinary mana really doesn’t activate it..."

I channeled mana into my hand, shaping it much as I had when I fed mana into the necklace earlier. I could see it rising above my palm. I moved my hand toward the necklace. Twenty centimeters. Ten. Five. One. At the last moment, I stopped just short of it. "This isn’t going to kill me, is it?" By all appearances, the chances were almost nonexistent. Even so, touching the necklace wasn’t easy. "Running an experiment like this on myself is pretty stupid, isn’t it?" I began to lower my hand, then stopped again and sighed. "If I hadn’t come back to life, I’d never do anything like this..." I placed my hand on the necklace.

HUMMMMM.

Mana flowed from my hand, and the necklace began to glow. "Whoa!" It felt as though electricity were pouring out of it. A shiver ran through my body as the necklace sucked in my mana. At the same time, mana several times stronger poured back into me. It circulated wildly. Every bit of mana that had been sitting inside me was drawn into the necklace, gathered into a huge mass, and burst back out. My muscles swelled, and steam rose from my head. My whole body felt full of mana. It seemed as though quite some time had passed, but in fact, only an instant had gone by since I’d touched the necklace.

‘Damn it. I’m not really going to die, am I?’ My body felt ready to burst. ‘I have to get this mana out. There has to be a way...’ I looked around desperately. Perhaps because mana was surging through me, I could see and feel the dust in front of me and even the faintest traces of mana. I felt the breeze touch the fine hairs on my arms, and my mind raced several times faster than usual. ‘Th-the dagger!’ I snatched the dagger from the wardrobe.

CRASH!

I gripped it and poured mana into it.

VWOOM!

Red light shot up from the dagger: an incredibly thick blade of sword aura. ‘It’s going to pierce the ceiling!’ I hurriedly angled it forward.

SHATTER!

The red sword aura broke through the window and stretched outside.

VWOOOOOM!

It extended beyond the window like a laser, then gradually faded.

THUD.

The instant the sword aura vanished, I collapsed to the floor. My head was foggy. Every bit of mana in my body was gone. Mana depletion. "Nnngh..." I trembled and gritted my teeth. My muscles, drained of mana, cramped violently. This was beyond mana depletion—far beyond it. It felt as though I’d wrung out every last drop of mana in my body.

As I lay there shaking, someone knocked on the door. "What happened?" It was Piar. He must have heard the noise from the next room. But I couldn’t let anyone in right now, least of all Piar while I was wearing the necklace. I barely managed to part my trembling lips. "... I made a mistake...practicing with my sword. I’ll be...careful." "... All right. Please be careful." An awkward silence followed my words before he answered. Then I heard him return to his room.

I let out a small breath, drew another, and kept repeating the cycle. But I still couldn’t feel any mana, and the pain continued. Time passed. I had no idea how long, but eventually I began to feel a thread of mana inside me. It stirred. Little by little, mana gathered, and at last I could sigh in relief. Once I could feel it flowing, I was finally able to pay attention to my surroundings. Birds chirped in the distance. I opened my eyes to reddish sunlight streaming through the window. "Is it morning...?" I’d started this just before bed last night, but when I came to my senses, morning had arrived. "I spent the whole night recovering my mana." Even now, it was barely moving. I really had almost died. Thankfully I hadn’t, though I’d spent the night in agony. "I knew I shouldn’t have done it."

Regretting it far too late, I looked around. The room was a mess. The wardrobe was broken, and the window was shattered. The burst of mana must have broken the window. "Did I smash the wardrobe when I grabbed the dagger?" I’d thought I had simply taken it out, but apparently not. I thought back to what had happened when the necklace activated. Mana had surged through my body. I’d become stronger and faster, my senses had sharpened severalfold, and my sword aura had run wild. "My mind was working faster, too. All because my mana was amplified, I suppose?" Just as I’d expected—more or less.

Since the necklace amplified mana or made it run wild, I’d thought that, as long as it didn’t kill me, it might give me the kind of tremendous strength you’d get from a finishing move. Its effect had been even more powerful than I’d expected. But an overload was bound to do damage, and the damage was much worse than I’d imagined. "It’s a finishing move, all right, but that’s one hell of a cooldown. This isn’t some self-sacrifice spell. If one use leaves me wrecked and in agony, I don’t know whether I can use it in a real fight."

I tried moving my body. Every part of it ached. "I suppose I’m lucky to be alive." I took off the necklace and stared at it. I felt as though I’d discovered an incredible use for it, yet I had no desire to try it again. "And it wouldn’t be safe if there are more people like that master." If someone else activated it while I was wearing it, I’d be in serious trouble. "Still, if I reduced its power a little, maybe I could use it in an emergency?" Even as I considered that, I shoved the necklace deep into my bag.

When I dragged my exhausted body to class that day, Valea sat beside me again. "I heard there was a loud bang in the men’s dorm last night. Some people say there was a ghost, and others say a red light shot into the sky." As she spoke, she waved to people around us. No one came near me, but men and women alike cheerfully returned her greeting. Apparently, what I’d said yesterday had been unnecessary. Sitting next to me didn’t mean she’d be shunned too. Then again, with that face and that carefully cultivated personality, there was no way she would be. Tsk. Maybe it was my own shortcomings after all. More importantly, the commotion seemed to have been bigger than I’d realized. It was a wonder Piar had simply gone back to his room. Was that thanks to being shunned? I listened to the lecture with those thoughts on my mind.

When class ended, Valea leaned close and whispered in my ear before we left the lecture hall. "Would you meet me tonight?" Huh? What was that supposed to mean? I stared at her in surprise and saw the corners of her eyes lift slightly. "Please go on a date with me tonight." Her smile and gentle voice were enough to make anyone look forward to the evening. But a chill ran down the back of my neck. "There’s something I want to ask you about my father, young master." She gave me a radiant smile.