DAY 5
50th Step.
Aren had reached exactly the middle of the room, halfway through the path. He was no longer walking; he was practically swimming in an invisible swamp.
Everywhere on his body felt as if it were being cut with a very sharp knife. The sensation of pain was uncomfortable, but compared to the previous 'Reconstruction' process, this pain was nothing.
DAY 8
80th Step.
The Mana Core was now only a few meters away from his face. The feeling of mucus had completely vanished. Because Aren's body had now grown accustomed to mana. However, the sensation of pain was still there.
While his cells were faced with a tremendous amount of mana, they were trying to survive without tearing apart.
Even though his eyes were bloodshot, his gaze was sharp.
"Only two days left." Aren said. His voice came out muffled from exhaustion.
DAY 10
Aren stood up to take the last 10 steps.
His body was very different from its state 10 days ago. He looked thinner, but his muscles were as taut and strong as steel cables.
He took the final step. The Mana Core was right at the tip of his nose. That pinky finger-sized blue light reflected in Aren's pupils.
"It's over." Aren said. No negative feeling remained in his body. At the same time, Aren could now feel the presence of a strange energy.
He slowly reached out his hand. He reached out his hand as if he were calmly taking back something that belonged to him. The moment his fingertips touched the core, the core disappeared.
After Aren said, "Where did it go?" a screen appeared in front of him.
QUEST: OPEN YOUR MERIDIANS BEFORE THE TIME RUNS OUT. (COMPLETED)
DESCRIPTION: Using the pressure of the Mana Core, open your meridians.
TIME LIMIT: 10 DAYS.
REWARD: ADVANCED SWORD MASTERY, BASIC MANA ART, PASSAGE TO THE NEXT ROOM.
PENALTY: DEATH.
Aren had completed the quest, but he did not rush to pass to the next room.
Suddenly, a tremendous amount of information flowed into Aren's brain. However, it gave him less of a headache compared to before.
'Because my Intelligence and Wisdom increased, I don't suffer much pain.' he thought.
"You didn't think you would possess the Mana Core, did you?" Seraphina said, in a mocking voice.
Aren, in a serious yet calm voice, said, "Actually, I thought that would be the case."
Seraphina laughed. "Don't overthink it. Even if you had taken the Core, it would have been of no use to the current you."
"I understand." Aren said, and immediately afterward, he examined the Basic Mana Art that appeared in his mind.
Taking in mana through breathing, refining it, and storing it in the mana pool. "Interesting." Aren said to himself.
"Do not use that trash." Seraphina said suddenly. As her voice echoed in his mind, it wasn't mocking this time, but sharp and serious.
"What do you mean?"
"I will give you something much better." Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of him.
ACCEPT INFORMATION COMING FROM AN UNKNOWN SOURCE?
"Accept it, Aren." Seraphina said.
Aren, who had already decided to trust Seraphina, did not hesitate.
After he accepted it, a flow of information entered his mind. Aren paused for a moment in the face of the information he received.
"The Divine Phoenix Mantra?"
"Yes." Seraphina said.
As her voice echoed in his mind, it carried a seriousness and pride he had never heard before.
"If you truly want to be strong, practice my 'Divine Phoenix Mantra'."
"For now, I have taught you Part 1, Section 1 of the Mantra. As your power increases, I will teach you the rest as well."
The more Aren examined this mantra, the more mystical he thought it was.
"Thank you, Seraphina." Aren said, in a calm voice.
"Don't even mention it. After all, this is a part of the agreement we made. However, learning the mantra theoretically doesn't mean you've comprehended it. The System can easily teach you simple skills, but you can only master exceedingly advanced techniques like the mantra I taught you on your own. Now I want you to make your first attempt." Seraphina said.
"Alright." Aren said.
He sat on the floor and crossed his legs. Aren had begun murmuring the words of the 'Divine Phoenix Mantra', which were in an ancient, different language, in his mind.
As each word echoed in his mind, the atmosphere in the room grew heavy. As the ancient words resonated with the laws of the universe, the free mana particles in the air gravitated toward Aren.
While Aren murmured the mantra in his mind on one hand, he was absorbing the mana around him by applying the special breathing technique of the 'Divine Phoenix Mantra' on the other.
He took a sharp and vacuum-like breath through his nose. His ribcage expanded to its limits. He held the air inside, held it, and then let it out through his teeth in a controlled manner. He was doing all of this with a special rhythm.
Along with this rhythmic breathing, his body temperature suddenly rose.
The mana he drew in was heating up in his lungs, shedding its raw form and transforming into a purer, more searing energy.
'Now for the most critical part.' Aren thought.
The veins on Aren's forehead had swollen as if they were going to burst. Steam was rising from his body.
After the mana circulated through his entire body, all his meridians, and carried Aren's spiritual signature, it headed toward the void below his abdomen, to the 'Mana Pool', as its final stop.
Deep within Aren's mana pool, a tiny, golden-colored fire appeared.
"It's done. This was truly an incredible experience." Aren said, in a tired voice.
"The Divine Phoenix Mantra will not only accelerate your cultivation incredibly but will also grant you an affinity for fire. At the same time, it will strengthen your soul." Seraphina said, struggling to hide the astonishment in her voice.
'How... Even if our souls were similar, such a success should have been impossible. How could he manage to execute the Mantra in one go... Even I, whose talent was seen as limitless, made hundreds of attempts.'
While Seraphina sank into deep thoughts, Aren was checking his stats.
Title: None
Level: 12 Name: Aren Khan
Race: Human
Physique: Flawless Physique
Bloodline: None
Age: 26
Height: 186CM
Weight: 83KG
Vitality: 41
Strength: 46
Agility: 39
Endurance: 51
Intelligence: 21 -> 22
Wisdom: 21 -> 22
Spirit: 110 -> 111
Mana: 12 -> 13
Skills: Bloodlust (Passive), Advanced Sword Mastery (Passive), Ghost Step (Passive), Divine Phoenix Mantra Part 1 (Passive & Active)
"Mana stat increased by 10 points." Aren said, looking at the numbers.
"My Intelligence, Wisdom, and Spirit also increased by 1 point."
"Every time you use the mantra, your mind will sharpen, your soul will toughen. This is a natural process," Seraphina said.
"Good. You adapted better than I expected. For now, practicing the mantra once a day seems to be your limit. And that is thanks to your exceedingly strong soul," she added.
"Seraphina." Aren said. "I have a question I want to ask you." he said in a calm voice. Seraphina, in a serious voice, said, "What is it?"
"Why did my Spirit stat increase so much with your arrival?"
Following a few seconds of waiting, Seraphina said, "Even though I am wounded, even though my soul is shattered, even the tiniest speck of my soul would have been enough to explode that small soul sea of yours. However, your soul and mine are a bit unique. For now, knowing this much is sufficient for you. Do not ask any other questions related to this topic."
Aren, playing to the conscience of Seraphina who introduced herself with an adjective like 'fair', said, "You are the one occupying my body and mind. You owe me an explanation."
"I owe you nothing!" Seraphina snapped. But immediately afterward, she let out a deep, tired sigh. Her voice softened. "Just..."
"Some things must be learned when the time comes."
"Very well." Aren said, dropping the subject.
"So be it." Aren stepped through the white wooden door.
The white quartz room he expected wasn't there. The cave walls he saw when he first entered the dungeon welcomed him.
'Is it over?' Aren thought.
When he turned his head, he saw an opening between the cave walls, just large enough for a person to fit through.
This was the exit of the cave.
Because beyond the opening was dark, he couldn't see.
When Aren stepped out of the cave, he flinched at the harsh and cold wind hitting his face. The air filling his lungs wasn't damp, but metallic and bloody.
The smell of rust was so intense that it left a taste of iron in his mouth. When his eyes adjusted to the dark environment, he saw that he was in an endless, gloomy wasteland. The sky was painted a leaden gray.
There was no sun, only a pale, sickly light seeping from behind the clouds. The ground was cracked black earth. But rising above the earth was not a forest of plants, but of metal.
Countless swords; some rusted, some broken, some left with nothing but their hilts,were thrust into the earth like nameless tombstones. Aren bent down to touch a rusted sword at the base of his foot.
The moment his fingertip touched the metal, the sword crumbled like a pile of sand and mixed into the earth. "Where is this?"
Aren said. As his voice was lost in the howling of the wind, he gripped the white wooden sword in his hand tighter. "A graveyard."
Seraphina said. Aren said, "It seems I'll be going hungry for a while longer."
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of him.
QUEST: FIND THE SWORD.
DESCRIPTION: Sword Saint Aunger created a Sword Graveyard using the swords he took from the enemies he killed. He hid the sword he used in his youth somewhere inside this graveyard.
REWARD: MEETING WITH SWORD SAINT AUNGER.
PENALTY: DEATH.
"Sword?" He fixed his eyes on the endless pile of metal.
Finding that specific sword among countless pieces of rusted metal was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Just as I guessed." Seraphina said, sighing.
"What do you mean?" Aren said, his voice exceedingly calm. In a serious voice, Seraphina said, "This dungeon is way above your level. I was suspicious because of that training dummy you faced when you first entered. Because of your high Soul stat, the 'system' chose you as a 'pioneer'."
Aren't face turned serious. "Pioneer?"
Seraphina sighed. "Very well, I suppose I should explain from the very beginning. In the past, when the 'System' didn't exist, the entire universe was in chaos."
"It was a savage age without rules, where those born inherently strong crushed the weak arbitrarily and enslaved planets. It was nearly impossible for the ordinary ones to cultivate and grow stronger. Then the 'System' came and gave everyone a 'fair' chance to ascend."
"Currently, your planet is going through a complex evolutionary process. It is turning into an incomparably more dangerous planet than before. For the inhabitants of the planet to survive, the System is assisting the 9 people with the highest talent and potential on the planet during the 'Tutorial' phase so they can grow stronger in a short time. Thus, on this savage planet, these 9 people can take on all the hardship and lead the others. However, as the price for this, they have to go through much more difficult quests."
With a thoughtful expression on his face, Aren said, "I understand. There's something I'm curious about. Who created the System?"
In a serious tone of voice, Seraphina said, "No one knows the 'truth'. But according to a legend from where I come from, the first and only 'God Emperor' grew bored of the sickening cruelty of the universe. To give an equal chance to all beings, he sacrificed his mana, his soul, his body, and his essence to create the 'system'. Whether to believe this or not is up to you."
"And do you believe it?" Aren said.
Seraphina chuckled mockingly. "No." she said.
"I see." Aren said as he sank into deep thoughts.
Aren could only guess how powerful Seraphina was. The demeanor and knowledge she displayed showed that she was exceedingly powerful, but he didn't know exactly how powerful she was.
After all, based on the information Seraphina told him, life was not limited to just his own world. And the universe was incredibly vast. There was only one thing Aren was absolutely certain of.
He was weak. Exceedingly weak.
"Then why only 9 people? Wouldn't it be better if all humans grew stronger?" Aren said.
"Resources are not limitless. There are countless planets like your planet. The System is not an omnipotent thing." Seraphina said.
Aren nodded slightly. "I understand. But is this a rule? I mean, am I obligated to help people?" he said.
A melodic laugh echoed in his mind. "Of course not." Seraphina said.
Immediately afterward, Aren added. "Good."