BFBG 26

Chapter 26

Heneta was staring at the phenomenon unfolding before her eyes, unable to close her mouth.

‘What is this…?’

The Ice Golem.

An artificial monster created over 6,000 years ago—the very year Heneta was born.

‘He’s absorbing mana from the Ice Golem’s core…? How?’

The Magic Kingdom that ruled the world 6,000 years ago.

The Ice Golem was a monster created by the Magic King, the founding king of that kingdom.

Even Heneta had never fully understood the structure of the Ice Golem’s core—it was that complicated.

Yet not only had he perfectly connected with that incomprehensible core, he was even absorbing the pure mana contained within it.

‘At the very least, it’s certain this child possesses eyes capable of reading mana.’

Not only could he read the mana inside monsters.

He possessed eyes capable of reading mana itself.

At this point, Heneta’s ‘suspicion’ disappeared completely.

‘Judging by his eyes alone, they might even be better than mine.’

As said before, Heneta had never fully grasped the structure of the Ice Golem’s core.

On the other hand, Jian succeeded in understanding that structure at a glance.

Considering only this incident, one could say Jian’s eyes were superior.

Of course, they might simply be specialized in analyzing internal structures like this, so further verification of his other abilities would be needed.

Saaaaaa…

The air around Jian and the Ice Golem rapidly cooled.

The chill released by the pure freezing mana transformed the entire colosseum into winter in an instant.

Still, it wasn’t severe enough to be called extreme cold—more like a relatively warm early winter.

‘The mana loss rate is absurdly low. Is he really absorbing all that dense mana completely?’

That meant the amount of mana lost during absorption was extremely small.

If even 10% had leaked out, the temperature would have dropped below -20°C.

Judging purely by temperature, Jian’s mana loss rate was at most 5%.

In other words, he was fully absorbing 95% of the mana.

‘Just where did a monster like this come from… no, wait.’

Heneta had been smiling with satisfaction, impressed by Jian’s shocking abilities and overwhelming talent.

Then she realized this was not the time to be admiring him.

‘There’s no way that tiny body can absorb all that massive amount of mana!’

The mana forming the Ice Golem’s core was not something an ordinary human could contain.

If he absorbed all of it like that, he would trigger mana overload and explode.

“Stop! If you absorb any more, you’ll die!”

Heneta hurried toward Jian and placed a hand on his shoulder.

And just as she was about to forcibly pull him away—

Crackkkk!

The hand touching Jian’s shoulder instantly froze.

‘My mana barrier was broken this easily…?’

It pierced through Heneta’s magical resistance and froze her arm in one strike.

Just how dense was that mana?

‘He’s already half consumed by mana. This won’t do. I’ll have to separate him by force if necessary!’

Heneta melted her frozen arm using mana.

And just as she prepared telekinesis magic to forcibly pull Jian away—

Fiiiiiiiiing!

With a roar like a flashbang exploding,

Cold air began swirling as if a blizzard had erupted.

“…Hoo.”

Then a sound of deep breathing came from within.

As though organizing the mana he had absorbed.

He repeatedly inhaled and exhaled deeply.

As the breathing continued, the blizzard gradually subsided.

And Jian, who had been hidden within the snowstorm, came into view.

“You… absorbed all that mana?”

The Ice Golem Jian had been touching was completely motionless.

Like a dead soldier.

Its arms and legs hung limply while its head drooped downward.

Not a speck of mana remained in the Ice Golem’s core.

Meaning Jian had absorbed every bit of mana composing it.

“Hoooo…”

Jian released one final deep breath.

It sounded like the sigh of winter.

“…I seriously thought I was going to die.”

With that breath, it seemed the process of stabilizing the mana had completely ended.

Jian let out a relieved sigh.

‘No. This makes no sense. There’s no way he could absorb that amount of mana in such a short time.’

Heneta stared intensely at Jian.

Concentrating all her power into her eyes, she observed both his exterior and interior simultaneously.

‘There must be damage somewhere in his body.’

Certain there was some issue, she examined every corner of his body.

‘…He’s perfectly fine?’

Yet surprisingly, Jian’s body looked impossibly healthy.

No matter how talented a mage was, absorbing a huge amount of mana like this would normally worsen one’s condition.

That was because mana vessels became damaged when absorbing external mana…

‘Not only is there no damage—his body has become stronger.’

Jian’s vessels had become tougher instead.

After being force-fed that much mana, they should have been shattered, not strengthened.

‘Impossible.’

This was a phenomenon beyond Heneta’s understanding.

She focused her eyes again and observed more closely, this time specifically his mana vessels.

‘Not only his body, but his mana vessels have become far sturdier than before. Like those of a well-trained swordsman… wait. A well-trained swordsman’s mana vessels…?’

A realization struck Heneta like lightning.

‘Weak mana vessels despite a well-trained body. That’s characteristic of someone born with Severed Veins.’

Severed Veins.

A condition where one is born with weak channels, blocked passages between veins, or other abnormalities in mana circulation.

Heneta classified all such disorders as Severed Veins.

‘And if absorbing highly pure freezing mana strengthened his mana vessels…’

Jian was male.

And males usually possessed strong yang energy.

She couldn’t say for certain without proper examination.

But if Jian’s condition stemmed from being born with exceptionally strong yang energy—

‘Under this hypothesis, absorbing the Ice Golem’s mana strengthening his vessels also makes sense.’

The powerful yin energy of pure freezing mana neutralized Jian’s powerful yang energy.

That would also explain how he absorbed the enormous amount of mana in such a short time.

A massive amount of energy greedily devoured an equally massive opposing energy.

‘If that’s true, then Jian’s Severed Veins are a type of Nine Yang Severed Veins—or a derivative.’

Heneta recalled previous patients with Severed Veins as she organized her thoughts.

“Um… Principal…?”

About three minutes passed while she was lost in thought.

Only after fully stabilizing the absorbed energy did Jian cautiously call out to Heneta.

“I’m sorry. I made the Ice Golem unusable…”

Seeing Heneta’s poor expression, Jian assumed she was upset because he had disabled the Ice Golem.

So he immediately chose to apologize.

Heneta was lenient with mistakes but strict with shameless people.

If he apologized properly, he’d probably be forgiven.

“Principal…?”

“…”

Yet Heneta’s expression didn’t soften.

Whether Jian apologized or not, she remained immersed in deep contemplation with a grave expression.

Naturally.

Heneta wasn’t angry at Jian to begin with.

An apology wouldn’t change her face.

‘If his condition is the kind of Severed Veins I’m thinking of, absorbing the Ice Golem’s mana may cause another issue. I know I had records on this somewhere. Are they in my lair?’

Heneta was so deeply lost in thought she wasn’t even hearing Jian.

‘…Am I screwed?’

Unaware of this, Jian only broke into a cold sweat while watching Heneta’s seemingly foul mood.

‘I’m going somewhere for a bit.’

‘You can leave this as it is.’

‘Take it if you need it!’

‘Ah, and the verification was already sufficient from what just happened. You don’t need to worry about that anymore!’

After rapidly throwing out those words, Heneta left the underground prison.

Left alone, I could only blankly stare at the Ice Golem, now completely stopped after losing all its mana.

‘It wasn’t intentional, but anyway… absorbing mana from the Ice Golem’s core proved my abilities.’

The Ice Golem possessed such a complicated structure that even Heneta and the heads of various magic towers hadn’t fully understood it.

Yet I absorbed the mana powering that core and made it completely my own?

That wasn’t possible without eyes capable of reading mana.

‘This settles the secret vault robbery issue safely.’

Heneta would no longer suspect me of breaking into the vault.

Thank goodness.

I sighed in relief.

‘Now the problem is why Zeiraon’s mana was detected inside the Ice Golem’s core… and how I managed to absorb the Ice Golem’s mana.’

I stared at the Ice Golem, now little more than a shell after losing its mana source.

‘Was this one of Zeiraon’s preparations?’

Because one of Zeiraon’s goals was to “quickly regain power.”

Maybe he had prepared some mechanism allowing mana absorption from the Ice Golem’s core.

‘But does that even make sense?’

The issue was that the Ice Golem had been stored separately inside Heneta’s lair.

Would Zeiraon really take the risk of infiltrating Heneta’s lair just to absorb the mana in the Ice Golem’s core?

‘At best, absorbing the Ice Golem’s mana only raises the mana stat by one rank.’

Infiltrate Heneta’s headquarters just to raise mana by one rank?

The cost-benefit ratio didn’t add up.

‘Was there some reason the Ice Golem had to be destroyed? Or maybe while infiltrating the lair for another purpose, he prepared this as a side project?’

Since his mana had been detected, Zeiraon definitely tampered with something.

But I couldn’t understand why.

Every hypothesis failed because none fit Zeiraon’s personality.

‘Whatever the reason, my mana increased by one rank. So it’s a gain… but…’

Knowing Zeiraon was involved made me uneasy.

Like it might be a poisoned chalice.

‘Anyway, reaching Mana Stat B-rank was my original goal, so I succeeded.’

I opened my status window to check my changed abilities.

Then froze.

‘What is this now?’

[Status]

[Strength: B-]

[Agility: C+]

[Stamina: C]

[Mental: EX]

[Mana: B]

I thought only my mana stat had risen by about one rank.

But unexpectedly—

Every stat had increased by one rank across the board.

‘Why did my physical stats increase?’

Absorbing mana from the Ice Golem’s core should only raise mana by one rank.

Yet not only mana—strength, agility, and stamina all increased.

What kind of situation is this?

‘This makes no sense.’

I’d absorbed pure freezing mana from the Ice Golem’s core dozens of times.

I’d tried every possible method.

Never once had any stat besides mana increased.

‘What happened? Maybe there’s something in the system log?’

To confirm exactly what happened to my body, I checked the system message log.

I opened it hoping there were messages I’d missed while focusing on absorbing the freezing mana.

[Absorbing pure freezing mana.]

[In response to the pure freezing mana, a certain ‘factor’ reacts.]

[A certain ‘factor’ sleeping deep within the body slowly awakens.]

[As this ‘factor’ awakens, the body evolves one stage.]

[All stats increase by one rank.]

‘This…’

The logs contained unimaginable messages.

[A certain ‘factor’ sleeping within the body fully awakens.]

[This factor stabilizes in response to Mental EX-rank.]

[As a new race value is confirmed, the ‘Race’ category in system messages is updated.]

I hurriedly closed the log.

Then reopened my status window.

Specifically, the personal information section above the stats.

Beside the category labeled Race.

Next to the word Dragon, a new term had appeared.

[Race: Dragon, Ancient Spirit, ???]

A new race name—

Ancient Spirit.