Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 17

“You’re sitting quite naturally for your first time. Usually, people find this posture uncomfortable. Alright, let’s continue. First, sit like this, then use costal breathing to inhale air using your shoulders. Next, strongly condense the air through thoracic breathing via your chest, and then guide the mana within the compressed air down to your abdomen, into a place called the Mana Hole located below your navel. You must perform these three types of breathing in a single breath. Do you understand?”

“Just a moment, what exactly is a Mana Hole?”

“Oh, dear. Such a poor memory. I’m sure I explained it before? I heard rumors that your memorization and comprehension skills were unmatched, but it seems they were just empty words.”

“I apologize, please explain it one more time.”

“Alright. I’ll explain it again. Listen carefully.”

After an hour of detailed explanations and practice regarding basic breathing techniques and the Mana Hole, Elradion moved on to the main topic once Kang Chan became somewhat accustomed to the bizarre breathing method.

“Now you have learned the basic breathing technique. But from now on, it will be a truly difficult process, so don’t rush and take your time.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Mana scattered throughout nature doesn’t stay in one place for long. Therefore, we gather mana in the Mana Hole and create small pathways called Mana Lines, similar to blood vessels, to constantly circulate it throughout the body. Only then will the mana not leave your body and settle within you. This process is like the heart pumping blood to circulate throughout the body; mana is pumped out from the Mana Hole and circulates throughout the body via the Mana Lines.”

Kang Chan couldn’t understand what Elradion was saying, but he decided to just cram it into his head for now and think about it slowly later.

‘Computer, save everything the Master is saying.’

-Yes, understood.

Elradion’s lecture continued while Kang Chan was recording.

“Also, mana has its own unique attributes. These attributes are broadly divided into five: fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning. Two completely different attributes are light and darkness. These are the source of all magic, and since we accept mana into our bodies, we must always keep these things in mind.”

‘What are attributes again?’

Faced with completely unknown theories, Kang Chan had no choice but to fall into contemplation once more.

“The reason I’m mentioning these mana attributes is that while there are attributes of the same type or those that are mutually beneficial, there are also attributes that are antagonistic to each other. If you gather only mutually beneficial attributes in the Mana Hole, like those of the same type or those that enhance each other, they will help each other and exert even greater power. Moreover, mutually beneficial mana has the property of attracting each other, which can further accelerate the increase in the absolute amount of mana. However, if you mistakenly gather antagonistic attributes, terrible things can happen.”

“What kind of terrible things?”

“It means that they can annihilate each other, like fire and water. Therefore, you must keep this in mind when accepting mana in the future, as the mana you accept will definitely have attributes.”

“Then how do I know and separate the attributes to absorb them?”

“I will tell you after you can feel the mana.”

“Understood, Master.”

Elradion, looking at Kang Chan’s slightly disappointed expression, began to wear his wicked smile again.

“Now then, I’ve taught you the basics of mana breathing, so shall we start training again?”

“Already?”

“There’s never enough training.”

“Master, I haven’t even had lunch yet. Can’t we eat something first?”

“In my long experience, mana is felt even better on an empty stomach.”

Elradion’s expression was resolute.

“……”

Kang Chan reluctantly walked towards the waterfall on an empty stomach, feeling like he was being forced to eat mustard while crying [a Korean idiom for being forced to do something unpleasant].

Elradion, watching Kang Chan, wished that Kang Chan would understand his anxious heart. That the time they could spend together like this was running out…….

7. The Approaching Green Shadow

The Carmel Principality, located at the border between the Helious and Mateus mountain ranges, known as the spine of the continent, was the northernmost part of the continent, a frozen wasteland kingdom where it was winter all year round.

They were now in a precarious situation.

An endless wave of green was approaching them across the sea, which had frozen over due to the harsh winter.

The eyes of the Carmel Principality’s infantry were filled with despair as they looked at them.

They could only stare blankly at the overwhelming number of enemies.

Those with green skin filling the endless horizon.

They looked like orcs, but they were not orcs, and the giant green trolls leading the way were not real trolls either.

They looked slightly different, but their faces were surprisingly those of elves.

The Carmel army, having received intelligence from Eskimos [Indigenous people inhabiting arctic regions] hunting seals on the frozen sea in winter, hurriedly mobilized the entire army to set up a defensive line to stop them.

However, they could only despair at the endless number of green elves.

“T, the children of the Green Witch are coming endlessly, Commander!”

“Where on earth did such a large army come from!”

The commander of the Carmel Principality, watching the endless green wave, was left in a daze with a look of helplessness.

The number of them filling the horizon seemed to be at least hundreds of thousands.

“Commander, retreat to the castle quickly, kuek!”

The aide who was assisting him was hit in the head by an arrow and collapsed, and starting with him, a rain of arrows poured down like a shower.

“Protect the Commander! Gigantes [giants], forward! Magic Corps, bombard them!”

Knights armed with shields protected the commander from the rain of arrows and began to retreat to the castle in an orderly manner.

A bloodbath erupted at the forefront, where they encountered the green horde.

Only ten Gigantes, 6-meter-tall steel giants, swung their massive maces and axes, turning dozens of green elves into minced meat at once, but that was only for a moment.

Green elves, 3 meters tall, wearing heavy armor and wielding huge axes, rushed in with overwhelming numbers, and even they gradually turned into pathetic scrap metal rolling on the ground.

The small number of magic corps befitting a small kingdom fired powerful Explosion magic-filled magic bullets at the green elves without rest, but they were instantly turned into hedgehogs and annihilated by the rain of arrows flying in to blot out the sky.

Thus, a huge green horde of nearly 500,000 quickly began to surround the human formation of barely tens of thousands.

A beautiful green woman sat on a silver Pegasus with three horns, watching the collapsing human war situation and sneering.

“500 years of humiliation, I have been waiting for this moment.”

Even as she looked down arrogantly, countless humans were being turned into corpses by the hands of the green elves.

“Starting today, all races on the continent will turn into corpses under the green flag!”

With those words, a merciless attack poured down from her gesture as she flew like a storm over the human formation.

“Wind Buster.”

With a light gesture, a huge vacuum vortex detonated over the heads of the humans.

Hundreds of corpses, as if torn to shreds by razor blades, soared into the sky with desperate screams.

It was not her power, but the power of the silver Pegasus she was riding.

The name of that Pegasus was Ariel, the Spirit King.

He was the master of all the winds in the world.

“I, it’s a witch! The witch has appeared!”

“It’s the Spirit King!”

With that one word, the morale of the soldiers plummeted into the abyss of darkness.

The hope of life was completely extinguished.

Her power, which freely wielded the power of the five Spirit Kings, was unmatched by anyone in this world, even by the so-called dragons.

In just a few seconds, hundreds of lives were snuffed out like ant lives under her light gesture, and the ground became a scene of hell as humans fled from her.

* * *

“Why are your hair and eyes black?”

“Because I’m human.”

“They say there’s no one like you.”

“Then I guess there isn’t.”

“Are people from your planet usually so rude like you?”

“No, I’m just special.”

“I knew you were special.”

As Kang Chan and Jeina were lying under the shade of a tree, exchanging silly stories while looking at each other, Elradion, unable to listen any longer, sounded the alarm.

“Ahem! Ahem! You two there, shouldn’t you get up now?”

“Aww~ Teacher, that’s too much. It hasn’t even been 10 minutes yet.”

Jeina tried to mix in as much coquetry as possible, but it was insufficient from the start.

“It seems like you both still have energy left, seeing as you’re exchanging pointless banter? Stop talking nonsense and start quickly!”

As Elradion’s voice grew louder, Jeina and Kang Chan jumped up and ran towards Elradion.

“Please refrain from doing things like acting cute that don’t even work. It’s causing damage to me.”

“Do you want to die?”

Elradion’s eyebrow twitched.

“Oh, really? You’re both coming at me?”

“No, sir!”

“No!”

It goes without saying that the two received intense training that day to the point of exhaustion.

It had already been a year since Jeina joined and they had been receiving personal guidance from Elradion like this.

The biggest change that came about in the meantime was that Kang Chan was already feeling mana in his body.

The most surprised by this fact were Kang Chan himself and his master, Elradion.

Even his own master had to spend 10 years feeling mana in his youth, but he had graduated from that in just a short time of 1 year.

The help from the waterfall was significant.

The pure mana of nature condensed by the waterfall’s drop was of great help, but even more helpful was the water pressure transmitted by the drop.

The water pressure pounded his whole body, maximizing the senses of his hardened energy channels and his entire body.

At first, he couldn’t even withstand the waterfall for 2 hours, but gradually, as time passed, he became accustomed to it and was trained to the point where he could handle about 4 hours without any difficulty.

After that, Kang Chan spent almost the entire day feeling mana while being hit by the waterfall.

After nearly a year of being hit by the waterfall and striving to feel mana, he suddenly felt a very small and warm energy gathered in his Mana Hole one day.

And he felt those energies stirring freely inside his body.

‘Is this what the Master called mana?’

For Kang Chan, who had lived in a universe where mana was extremely scarce, such small movements of mana were transmitted more sensitively than others, and from that day on, Kang Chan was trying to guide his mana according to the mana cultivation method.

However, moving mana according to one’s will was as difficult as the process of feeling mana.

Kang Chan worked day and night to move the mana, but the firm mana didn’t even think about moving, and as Kang Chan struggled with the mana day after day, he suddenly came up with an idea.

‘Wouldn’t it be possible to control mana as well as control the body through the biochip?’

Unlike others, he had the ability to control his metabolism at will through the biochip implanted in his head.

He decided to learn swordsmanship because he wanted to become stronger with his own strength, but he still didn’t try to bury the advantages of his abilities.

“Let’s try it.”

Kang Chan slowly closed his eyes and recalled the mana lines that Elradion had blown into his body in the past to teach him directly, and ordered the biochip to expand them.

However, the computer could not clearly recognize what mana lines were, so it had no choice but to wander.

Still, Kang Chan continued to concentrate all the nerves and senses of his body on the mana lines in order to make the computer recognize the mana lines that Elradion had told him.

Kang Chan’s whole body turned red and sweat poured down like rain.

But it was not recognized at all.

‘Hoo…… It won’t work. Let’s maximize metabolism.’

Kang Chan decided to maximize his metabolism and raised his combat mode to stage 5 while sitting down.

It was the first time for him to raise his combat mode to stage 5 without facing an enemy.

It was not something that could be easily abused because it was a combat mode that put a physical burden on him to the point where he would fall asleep for at least two days once used.

This was a gamble for him.

-Applying combat mode stage 5.