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Chapter : 07. After Ending Sword Life, I Start My Life (5)
After confirming that the battle had ended with the creation of the escape portal, I walked into the boss room.
Compared to before the fight, the atmosphere felt much more lively, indicating that no one on the team had been injured.
“Mr. Hyunwoo.”
Kang Donghyuk noticed me entering the boss room and raised his hand.
Lee Jina, who had been talking with Kang Donghyuk, also turned around and smiled at me.
“I’ll get started right away.”
My mind was already filled with thoughts about mana and assimilation rate, so I hurried to begin my work.
How to make use of the opportunity given to me pushed even the safety of the subjugation team into the back of my mind.
‘Soul Devouring Conversion.’
When I activated the sword’s authority, a pulling force erupted from my body, sucking in the surrounding souls.
Ding.
[You have absorbed the monster soul: Boss Rozo (E).]
[Magic power has slightly increased.]
[Assimilation rate has slightly increased.]
[Current assimilation rate: 8.5%.]
[Due to the increase in assimilation rate, your body has been slightly strengthened.]
The boss Rozo’s soul was different from the minions.
As the system voice had informed, both magic power and assimilation rate increased—not just slightly, but noticeably.
Of course, I couldn’t measure exactly how much it was, but if it followed the system structure of Devil Maker, then a meaningful change would occur around 10% assimilation.
Since I had also divided contractors into 10 tiers and granted special powers at each breakthrough, I was fairly certain of it.
‘Well, I’ll find out when the time comes.’
The work took some time.
The boss’s skin was on an entirely different level of toughness compared to the minions, so removing claws, cutting off the tail, and extracting the heart required considerable effort.
Fortunately, since collecting the boss’s mana stone—the most important dungeon byproduct—was included, the attack team also helped with the process.
After a long effort, we finally finished collecting even the white mana stone, about the size of a child’s fist, and crossed through the escape portal.
Outside, the area was bustling with people handling post-clear dungeon procedures.
“Were there any accidents?”
An official from the Dungeon Management Administration Control Bureau, who had assisted with dungeon entry, approached and asked.
“What kind of monsters were they?”
“Big Fox pack. It was a cave-type dungeon,” Kang Donghyuk replied with a smile.
“Please submit the details in a subjugation report via the K.D.M.A app. You are aware that failure to register will result in penalties.”
“Of course. If we cleared the dungeon, submitting the report is only natural. Don’t worry.”
So that’s Kang Donghyuk’s ‘social skills.’
Now that I think about it, even his smile looked somewhat artificial. The helplessness of an E-rank attack team dealing with powerful officials could be felt.
After the inspector left, the team headed toward a truck parked near the entrance gate.
It was a 1.5-ton truck modified with armored plating for transport, with the letters “K.R.I” and a tiger-emblazoned kite shield logo on the cargo bed.
“We’re going to the Hunter Association byproduct purchase team,” Kang Donghyuk said, walking beside me.
He must have noticed my confusion about the team’s next destination.
“The fact that we can sell dungeon loot immediately upon clearing is really a convenient service.”
Come to think of it, I had seen something like this in Hunting Mate.
The organization officially called the Korean Awakened Association—commonly referred to as the Hunter Association—handled rank evaluation, training, attack team matching, and byproduct distribution on behalf of the government.
Since it received massive government subsidies, the quality of its services was quite high, and even dungeon dispatch purchasing was part of that service.
“The purchase officer from the Dungeon Management Bureau will probably be there too. With mana stones becoming an alternative energy source, the government is all-in on securing them.”
Without saying anything, I listened as we arrived at the Hunter Association truck and handed over the bag of byproducts to the staff.
“Big Fox claws: 560, tails: 35, boss claws: 16, teeth: 40, one tail and one heart. Correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The staff quickly counted and verified the items, then entered the data into a tablet.
The rapid work using a management app showed just how seriously both the government and the association treated dungeons.
“After deducting the 20% dungeon management tax, the total is 8,224,000 won. We’ll transfer it directly to the team leader’s account.”
From selling E-rank dungeon byproducts alone, we earned over 8 million won—and that wasn’t the end.
“Donghyuk, long time no see.”
“Hello, Purchase Officer. Since we don’t leave Gangdong District, we end up seeing you quite often.”
A woman wearing a suit and black-rimmed glasses approached and greeted Kang Donghyuk. He seemed to know her and responded warmly.
“You did retrieve the mana stone, right? Don’t bother selling it elsewhere—just give it to me. You know the 20% tax here is cheaper than exchange fees, right? Low-grade mana stones are hard to auction anyway.”
The purchase officer urged him to sell the White Ether to the government.
Her confident attitude suggested she was certain Kang Donghyuk would comply.
“Of course. Isn’t selling mana stones to the government the shortcut to patriotism? Hahaha.”
As she expected, Kang Donghyuk chose to sell the ether to the Dungeon Management Administration, and the payment was processed on the spot.
“The current price of a low-grade mana stone is 10 million won. After tax, 8 million will be deposited. Good trade.”
“Thank you as always, Purchase Officer.”
Kang Donghyuk handed over the 10-million-won low-grade mana stone.
The unexpectedly high value of dungeon byproducts made my desire for growth burn even stronger.
“Mr. Hyunwoo. Good work. I’ll transfer your part-time pay right away.”
After the purchase officer left with the mana stone in hand, smiling, we immediately received our payment.
Buzz.
A notification appeared on my smartphone confirming that 500,000 won had been deposited, marking the end of the E-rank dungeon raid with Kangdong Team.
After returning home, I couldn’t help but sink into thought, forgetting even the exhaustion of hard labor.
In my hand was the White Ether obtained from the sealed object.
The common belief was that awakened individuals had no way to increase their mana except under special circumstances after awakening.
Thus, rank increases were extremely rare worldwide, and those who achieved reawakening were reborn as powerful hunters of at least B-rank.
‘If absorbing monster souls increases mana… then not just reawakening, but even third or fourth awakenings are possible. Maybe even S-rank—the strongest hunters of this era.’
I couldn’t be certain yet, but if the sword’s authority granted by assimilation rate followed Devil Maker, then the path of growth was already decided.
‘Magic is the answer.’
The reason it is called a magic sword.
It’s because it is a cursed blade that tempts humans and devours their lives—but also because of the magical abilities cast through the mana within the sword.
Looking at previous contractors of the magic sword, they had harvested countless souls using magic based on elemental properties.
‘The problem is how to use magic…’
I had hit a wall right at the first step of my plan to grow stronger.
I considered myself fairly knowledgeable in magic, but now I realized it was all theory.
The previous Min Woo-hyuk had been an ordinary human, and the magic sword Veradion was not even human.
That meant I had never once cast magic with a human body.
‘If it’s knowledge in my head, I’ll make it work somehow.’
At this point, I had no choice but to believe in myself.
It was magic researched over hundreds of years within the sealed sword, so I believed I could find a way.
‘Hyunwoo Shin’s body is human. So how do humans use magic…?’
There were many theories about how humans came to use magic.
Some said it originated from dragons, others said it was a gift from gods, or that spirits had infused it into humans.
‘All nonsense.’
Dragons were a race that used dragon tongue magic through the power of spoken command.
It was not a matter of possibility or impossibility for humans to replicate such power through speech.
And gods were indifferent to human affairs.
Such beings were too transcendent to fulfill the desires of individual humans, only occasionally granting divine power to priests instead of magic.
Spirits were also beings that used inherent elemental affinity, lacking even physical bodies, making it impossible for them to teach magic to humans.
Contrary to all theories, the ones who brought magic to humanity were demons—the demon race.
Human desire was endless, and humans never hesitated to form contracts with demons to fulfill it.
Some desired fire in their hands or ice arrows, obtaining fragments of that power in exchange for their souls.
But using demon power in a human body was impossible.
Humans lacked the core that demons possessed—the mana heart.
Demons stored mana in their hearts and manifested phenomena through will and intent.
Humans, unable to form such a core, were fundamentally different beings.
Thus, even knowledge gained through sacrificed souls was nothing more than a mirage.
An unbreakable boundary between species.
Yet humans, unlike lazy demons born with superior bodies, possessed endless effort and obsession to fulfill their desires—and in the end, they succeeded.
Eritaratus.
A human who, thousands of years ago, was called the “Archdemon of Greed.”
A demon among demons who conducted unethical experiments on humans driven by endless desire for magic.
His book “Mana Storage Method Using the Human Heart” contained the answer.
He chose the heart as a substitute for the mana core.
The organ that pumps blood through the human body—the source of life itself.
He stored mana there.
And he even created a substitute for demon will and intent.
In his other book “Study on Mana Amplification of the Human Heart,” he described the formation and operation of mana circles.
The mana circle stored mana to prevent overload on the heart, and when casting magic, it rotated to amplify mana.
The amplified mana was materialized through incantations, allowing humans to finally cast magic.
That became the origin of human magic across otherworldly continents.
Of course, in the present, only the method of creating mana circles remains, while the method of converting the heart into a mana core is said to have been lost—suppressed by demons who felt threatened.
‘Since I have a human body, I can create a circle—but I can’t abandon the core either.’
The choice was already made.
The only way for Hyunwoo Shin to use magic.
To create the mana circle.
Because I had access to the previous vessel’s memories sealed within the sword, I could do this.
‘I’ll turn the heart into a core and also create the circle.’
Not using knowledge you possess is foolish, so I intended to use everything I had.
But creating the core required preparation, so first I needed to check whether I could form a circle at all.
Sitting in a cross-legged position on the floor, I sensed the mana within my body.
‘Not even close to enough to form a single circle.’
The result of examining Hyunwoo Shin’s body was disastrous.
So this was why I was an F-rank hunter.
There wasn’t even enough mana to form a single circle.
‘What’s wrong with this body?’
Hyunwoo Shin had only awakened two years ago, and although he had worked as a helper, labor and training used different muscles entirely—so there had been no real development.
