TRPM 18

CHAPTER 18

I was suddenly struck with inspiration—I wanted to cut through space itself.

The trigger was the function of the Harmony Divine Art that I discovered after completing it.

[… To think it can interfere with time and space….]

Perhaps it was because of my experience of regressing by reversing time. The Harmony Divine Art, which condensed everything I had seen, heard, and experienced, could interfere with time and space. And once I realized that, a possibility occurred to me.

‘If it’s me right now, wouldn’t it be possible to literally slice through space-time itself?’

Of course, it was only a possibility. But the idea of being able to interfere with space-time also meant being able to perceive its flow and changes.

Space-time was something invisible to the eye, inaudible to the ear, intangible to the skin—an unknown domain.

But I had already pioneered another unknown before.

‘Samādhi of the True Fire of Samādhi (三昧眞火).’

The ability to perceive the essence of things.

Through that, I had been able to observe various immaterial existences.
Not just energies like mana or aura, nor merely invisible waves like electromagnetic fields.
But something more fundamental—

‘Souls, thoughts, concepts….’

I could observe those kinds of existences that are generally impossible to sense, and even harder to define precisely.

Space-time was the same.
No, in fact, compared to such nebulous things, it was a much more intuitive concept—so I thought it would be easier.

And the result of that attempt was what I had just done.

“… If I wasn’t seeing things… it looked like space itself shattered. Could you explain what just happened?”

Yeon Mirae was a genius.

She wasn’t a woman who had managed to achieve rebirth despite having a body that couldn’t handle inner energy for nothing.

From the sight of orcs and terrain breaking apart together, she deduced that I had shattered space itself.

“You saw correctly. I swung my sword and interfered with space. As a result, I unleashed an unavoidable attack—one that no one can defend against unless they too have the ability to manipulate space.”

In truth, the shattering of space wasn’t my intention.

My goal had simply been to slice space, not to break it apart. But since I wasn’t yet accustomed to interfering with space, my energy didn’t condense properly, spread out, and caused an accident.

In other words, it was still an unfinished technique.

‘Which also means I still have room to grow.’

Interfering with space was difficult even for me, someone who had spent a lifetime mastering the control of energy.

On the other hand, if I managed to manipulate space at will… just how much stronger would I become?

The thought actually thrilled me.

“… Forgive me, but—you are human, right?”

“If you know it’s rude, don’t ask.”

That was my answer to Yeon Mirae’s question.

I may have transcended humanity in many ways, but at my core, I was still human.

Anyway—

“Don’t go thinking about killing yourself. Like I said earlier, in this dungeon you’re safer than anyone else.”

“… Yes.”

She nodded.

She understood that staying with me gave her the best chance of survival—no, that with me, her survival was assured.

Still…

“… It’d be impossible to harvest materials from those corpses, right?”

“… Impossible. If they’d only been slashed, maybe. But when they’re blown apart into fragments like that, any material we collect would be in terrible condition.”

I figured as much.

They weren’t simply cut down—they were obliterated along with space itself, leaving them in the worst possible state. Even stuffing explosives inside their bodies wouldn’t have made such a mess.

‘Then this technique needs to be sealed away until I can control it properly.’

If killing monsters was the only goal, it wouldn’t matter. But in our current situation, where we needed intact materials to sell for Yeon Mirae’s sake, it was unsuitable.

Not that most swords could even endure this technique anyway.

With that thought, I walked over to the orcs I had cut down right after entering the dungeon.

“These ones are intact. I’ll start dismantling them.”

The orcs that had died first were slain before space had shattered, so their corpses were clean.

Yeon Mirae, who had only recently drawn her dagger intending to end her own life, now used that same blade to start butchering an orc’s corpse.

Of course—

“… Hrrk…!”

Cutting through the tough hide of an orc with a dagger lacking aura wasn’t easy.

“Wait.”

Seeing her struggle, I approached, infused my inner energy into her dagger, and formed a sword aura.

Then I handed it back to her.

Even though it had left my hand, the aura remained. It was a technique that borrowed a principle from sword-controlling arts—but I couldn’t be bothered to explain further.

“It’ll hold for about ten minutes. Use that.”

“… You don’t seem surprised that I don’t use aura.”

Are you perhaps aware of my condition?

She asked that, watching my actions.

I answered:

“That you’re incapable of using aura? I don’t really care. What I needed was a porter to carry things for me, not an aura user.”

Not that I had actually expected any great porter abilities from her either.

“… Did you know beforehand?”

“No. I just saw you had heart issues and blocked meridians, so I figured.”

I lied.

But recalling the martial skill I had just displayed, she lowered her head and muttered:

“… Right. Someone like you would have no reason to lie to someone like me.”

With that, she began dismantling the orc using the aura-imbued dagger.

She skillfully carved out the valuable parts, drained the blood, and packed them into her backpack.

The fluidity of her movements proved this wasn’t her first time doing such work.

And more than that—

‘Her dagger work is actually quite impressive….’

Well, it made sense. If she had been butchering monsters with such a blade all this time, she would’ve needed to refine her technique just to avoid breaking it.

Otherwise, the edge would’ve chipped—or the dagger itself snapped—countless times.

And if that had happened, all her hard-earned porter wages would’ve gone to buying or repairing daggers.

“This should do. The rest either won’t fetch much or will spoil quickly.”

As I was thinking this, she finished her work and spoke.

“Then let’s move.”

I said, turning toward one side of the dungeon.

Toward the direction of the boss.

The legion-commander-class unit.

“They’re coming.”

“… What?”

The moment I said that, the ground began to tremble.

Rumble…

The vibrations grew nearer. Realizing what was causing it, Yeon Mirae’s face hardened as she moved behind me.

“… How many?”

“My senses pick up about 250 to 300.”

“At that number, it’s not the whole horde… Ah, right. You said there’s a legion-commander-class leader here. Then this isn’t the main force—it’s just a squad sent to investigate the disturbance.”

True enough. That racket we made would certainly draw attention.

“Exactly.”

Normally, in an orc dungeon, hundreds of orcs would already be considered an entire army.

But here, their numbers weren’t limited to mere hundreds.

Why were commander units above orc chieftains called “legion commanders”?

Because dungeons containing them always held orc numbers great enough to be called legions.

At least in the thousands—sometimes tens of thousands.

‘That’s why you need large-scale raiding parties to clear them.’

Orcs empowered by their commander’s leadership?
At the end of the day, they were still orcs.

Veteran awakeners equipped specifically to fight them could sweep away dozens with a small strike team.

But against hundreds or thousands, that didn’t work.

Not because killing them was so hard, but because of the stamina drain on the awakeners.

That’s why raids formed large forces and prepared for long campaigns.

Typically, they would besiege the dungeon entrance for one to four weeks, gradually whittling down the horde.

Of course—

‘We don’t really need to bother with all that.’

As I thought this, the orcs reached visible range.

“Shrieek!”
“Kyiiik!”

They spotted us.

And then they noticed the dismantled corpses at our feet… and the countless shattered orc fragments.

“… Kiiik?”

Most reacted in confusion, not understanding what they were seeing. But a few sensed the culprit was either me or Yeon Mirae, and raised their weapons toward us.

‘Not that it matters—if I swing my sword once, they’ll all be sent flying.’

With that thought, I picked up a sword lying on the ground.

It was the weapon of the orc I had slain when we first entered. Its quality was worse than the blade I had just broken, but it would do for now.

“Well then….”

I prepared to swing and wipe them out—

“……”

Until I caught sight of Yeon Mirae’s eyes moving swiftly.

‘… Is she instinctively analyzing their strength?’

When our eyes met, her gaze held a desperate hunger.

I asked her:

“Want to try?”

Since things had come to this, I decided to test her.

To see what she could do in her current state.

“… Me? But as you know, I don’t have aura….”

Without aura, she couldn’t cut through an orc’s tough flesh.

But conversely—

“If I lend you aura… what then?”

“… You’d lend me aura?”

With that, her attacks could actually land.

“… Wait. Do you mean, like earlier, when you formed an aura blade on my dagger?”

Well, it wasn’t aura—it was sword energy—but from her perspective it would look like aura. So I let it slide.

“Yeah. If I did that much for you…”

Could you cut down all those orcs?

“Of course, if it gets dangerous, I’ll step in. Don’t worry too much.”

“……”

She closed her eyes, thinking. Then shook her head.

“It’s impossible. No matter how good the blade is, my physical ability is too low….”

“What if I strengthened your body too?”

I cut her off and asked again.

“In that case… could you kill them all?”

She fell silent.

Then—

“… Yes. I could.”

She nodded.

Satisfied, I placed my hand on her shoulder and poured inner energy into her body.

Her meridians were blocked, so I couldn’t channel energy through them. Instead, I spread my power directly throughout her body.

Her very cells were strengthened.

“…!”

Yeon Mirae widened her eyes in shock at the change she felt in her body.

I then gripped her dagger, infused it with my energy, and formed sword aura before handing it back.

“With the aura I’ve given you, that state will last for about thirty minutes.”

So—what will you do now?

“……”

At my words, she smiled.

Like a child who had just been given a new toy.

“I’ll go kill them all.”

And then she moved.

At that moment—flowers bloomed.

Orc blood scattered, blossoming into a beautiful field of flowers.