Chapter 18
The martial artist had an appearance that could be called a perfect example of a well-trained martial artist. Well-developed muscles and sinewy arms, a wooden sword exuding the scent of citron. However, his features somehow looked strange, appearing slightly different from a Korean person.
"Kh-he. Did you come by boat, or is your blood mixed?"
The man didn't answer Jinseong's question, instead gripping his wooden sword with both hands and taking a stance. The man's eyes, shining ominously, were glaring clearly at Jinseong, and a bluish light was slowly forming on the wooden sword.
"Ohh. It's mana, not qi."
Not qi, which belongs to the colorless natural forces, but mana, a fierce power. Although it wasn’t as efficient for training, unlike qi, mana with its blue light had the advantage of being able to grow by stealing others' power. It was also the main energy source used in sorcery combined with taboos.
Jinseong looked at the martial artist with gleaming eyes, as if interested that he was using power related to sorcery. Seeing this, the man shuddered for a moment, then bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
"You, you disgusting demon monk."
The man's speech was quite different from a Korean person's. It was clumsy Korean mixed with a distinctly Japanese accent, and the expressions he used were also ones not commonly used in Korea.
"Kh-he. Demon monk?"
The martial artist shouted, veins bulging in his neck.
"What reason do you have for doing such a thing!"
His face, shouting as if filled with resentment, was deeply tinged with anger and sadness. But Jinseong instead asked him back.
"Is that important?"
What was so important about the reason for attacking or being attacked?
One could be attacked without any reason, and one could attack without any reason. It was annoying and irritating to be attacked for no reason like bugs being attracted to light while camping, but it wasn’t anything special, wasn’t it.
"I'm more interested in the mana. Do you use mana in your swordsmanship? Is there perhaps a magical element in your martial arts?"
Was there mana enhancement using taboos?
How efficient was energy absorption through mana?
Was there a difference in mana manifested through martial arts and sorcery? If the difference was minimal, could martial arts and sorcery be combined using mana as an energy source?
Jinseong continued to ask questions to the martial artist who was barely maintaining his composure.
Crunch.
And while asking questions, slowly.
Slowly, he began to straighten his back.
His bent legs straightened.
His skin, which had settled like white plaster, gradually began to regain vitality.
Cracks formed like a net on his shiny armor.
His severely hunched back, which had protruded like a hump, gradually receded.
And finally, when he had changed from a hunchback to an ordinary person.
Jinseong asked his last question.
"Do you have value as a hostage, as an object of negotiation?"
The martial artist contorted his face at that question and spat out two words as if chewing them.
"Shine (die), bastard!"
Ziiing!
As if resonating with the martial artist's emotions, the mana contained in the wooden sword vibrated, expressing killing intent. The martial artist took a big step and leaped towards Jinseong.
"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
The wooden sword lifted high as if advertising that he would strike down. The appearance of the martial artist approaching at tremendous speed as if running at full power with a scream-like battle cry was truly terrifying.
Jinseong, watching the martial artist charging to split him vertically in half.
"हूँ."
Used space contraction.
* * *
Martial artists were strong.
A martial artist who reached a high level could cut a tank with an ordinary sword, and could shatter even powerful barriers created by mages like glass. Moreover, their reaction speed and muscles trained to the limit allowed them to move by splitting time again and again, and in short-term battles, they could explosively draw out their trained strength. Furthermore, their well-trained bodies allowed them to engage in long battles without strain, truly deserving to be called specialists in combat.
That's right.
Martial artists were strong.
However, only in close combat.
"Om gam ganapataye namaha."
There was nothing as foolish as pitting one's weakness against the opponent's strength.
Martial artists were strong in close combat, and sorcerers were strong at a distance.
"Like begets like. Cat's eye stone resembles a cat's eye, so they will resemble each other."
So Jinseong wisely decided to strike the opponent's weakness with his own strength.
Especially, there was no fight as fun as one where I struck and the opponent was helpless against it.
He used sorcery to connect the cat's eye stone and the cat's eye, allowing him to see from the perspective of the decapitated cat rolling on the ground.
"Where are you! You cowardly demon monk! Why don't you show yourself!"
When he used sorcery while hearing the martial artist shouting loudly in the distance, he saw the scene of the corridor where he had been a little while ago from a very low perspective. In the corridor strewn with headless corpses, the martial artist who was staggering and bleeding from his mouth was raging with a wooden sword, and convinced that Jinseong had hidden himself somewhere using sorcery, he was just shouting loudly without lowering his guard.
And on the opposite side of the martial artist was a muscular man standing with a blank expression as if his soul had been stolen, and seeing the man, Jinseong began to chant an incantation.
"Originally, roots and stems are connected, and even if seeds are scattered, their species remain connected as one. Even if separated, their causality is densely connected."
With the incantation, the magic began to move, transcending space.
The ashes of burned hair that had earlier burrowed into the man's stomach reformed into a single thread, and that thread fused with the Toxoplasma gondii in the man's body and swam on the surface of his skin, wriggling like a snake or a long worm.
This sight was enough to make one's hair stand on end, looking like a shadow snake wriggling on the skin; but unfortunately, Jinseong was the only one witnessing this scene. The man was lost in the illusion created by Toxoplasma gondii, and the martial artist was too focused on being wary of Jinseong to pay much attention to the man standing blankly on the opposite side of the corridor.
In this strange indifference, the shadow snake reached the face.
Seeing this, Jinseong asked a question.
"Fool, you foolish one. Have you realized and come to believe the truth?"
A single question transmitted through the worm that had burrowed into the body, despite sound not reaching.
The shadow snake forcibly moved the mouth of the man who had lost his thoughts, forming three syllables.
"I believe."
With those words, the sorcery that had been cast on the man earlier burst forth.
* * *
Sweat.
White granules formed in the sweat drops the man had shed.
The things that at first glance looked like salt formed as sweat dried appeared on all parts where the man had sweated and increased in size, and eventually, with a sound inaudible to humans, they split and burst revealing numerous insects from within.
Winged creatures.
At first glance resembling mayflies, but much smaller in size, these creatures made a piercing sound with each flap of their wings, all flying up to the corridor ceiling and gathering in swarms to create a black mist.
"Insects will be born from sweat."
As he used the sorcery that had been set in a dormant form, life force drained from Jinseong's body. Life force was consumed in proportion to the number of insects created. However, since it was sorcery that only created insects, it ended with Jinseong's skin becoming dry and his hair becoming rough.
Just creating insects.
But depending on the situation, those insects could achieve the best effect.
For example, when the opponent would die if left alone, there was nothing as efficient as calling a swarm of insects for buying time.
Moreover, it was also suitable for forcing a hellish dilemma on the opponent.
If they ignored it thinking it was just for buying time, he could enchant the swarm of insects to give them lethality.
If I had obtained protozoa like malaria in advance, it would have been perfect.
But unfortunately, he couldn't impart lethality yet. To use the sorcery imparting lethality that he wanted, he needed materials, and those materials could only be obtained by going to remote areas.
Therefore, Jinseong sought to subdue the martial artist by another method.
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."
As Jinseong chanted the incantation, white powder burst out from the body of the decapitated cat as if spewing spores and filled the corridor, and this white powder naturally entered the martial artist's respiratory system, beginning to turn his lungs white.
When the corridor turned white, the martial artist was greatly alarmed and tried to go outside, but the swarm of flying insects bought time by carrying out diversionary tactics such as entering the man's eyes, nose, and mouth, or covering his eyes and obscuring the corridor walls, doors, and windows.
Eventually, the martial artist fell to his knees on the floor.
"You're not a strong martial artist. Tsk tsk, a proper martial artist would easily endure for three days and nights even if infected with all sorts of diseases and magic."
Jinseong quietly watched this scene through the cat's eyes.
Until the moment that the martial artist gasping for breath, unable to breathe properly due to the mold that had turned his entire lungs white.
His muscles convulsing and his eyes rolling back.
Finally lay on the floor and lost consciousness.
Continuously.
He kept watching that scene.