Chapter 185: The Curse of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (12)

Jinseong gently pushed the bison ring dangling from the tent's ceiling.

The ugly bison ring swung left and right like a pendulum, and Jinseong quietly watched it.

Eventually, when the swinging bison ring began to move in a gentle circle, Jinseong took something out from his chest.

It was a small sphere that fit snugly in his hand.

The sphere, which looked like a lump of clay mixed with chicken feathers, appeared unsightly and even emitted the characteristic musty smell of clay, making it difficult to call it precious even as a white lie.

However, Jinseong handled it carefully as if it were a precious gem and placed it under the bison ring.

A small gap appeared on the top of the sphere, and it began to open gradually in sync with the swinging of the bison ring. Eventually, it split into two pieces with a smooth cross-section as if cut in half by a sharp knife, revealing a blue-glowing stone statue inside.

A statue with an elongated face that looked human but was hard to consider as such.

"Isn't this a Moai?"

It was a Moai statue.

"That's right."

"Eh... This looks like a 100-yen shop keychain..."

Rise couldn't hide her confusion when a cheap keychain from a 100-yen shop popped out of the clay sphere that had been handled as carefully as if it were a phoenix egg.

Terrible finishing.

Cheap material that seemed to be a stone imitation rather than actual stone.

An oddly unpleasant expression that seemed to say, 'This is a keychain. Just a keychain. What do you expect at this price? Be grateful for this quality at 100 yen.'

It was exactly like what she had seen when hanging out with school friends.

"Indeed. There happened to be a lot in stock, so I could buy it for half of 100 yen."

"Not even 100 yen... 50 yen?"

Rise had been expecting something extraordinary to come out.

But when a 50-yen keychain suddenly popped out, she felt the same as when a cheap Chinese toy came out of a gacha-pon vending machine.

"Kannushi-sama. But this keychain seems to be emitting a strange blue light."

However, there was something odd about the keychain.

The keychain, which should have been of trash-like quality not even worthy of expecting a shine, was softly glowing with a blue light as if trying to illuminate the dark tent.

Moreover, if you kept staring at the blue light, it looked like an aurora shimmering, or blue light rippling out in all directions like a mirage. Additionally, when the blue light touched other objects, instead of covering them with its light, it repeatedly brightened and dimmed on the surface of the objects as if trying to enter them.

Jinseong spoke to Rise, who was looking at the keychain with wonder.

"It's Mana."

Mana.

At that word, Rise looked at Jinseong.

"Isn't that from games? MP?"

"Yes, it's often used in games."

MP.

Mana Point.

Games often use 'mana' as a unit to indicate the resource needed to use skills. Because of this, people who have played games even once tend to think of games first, rather than sorcery or martial arts, when they hear the word 'mana'.

"Originally, mana was a supernatural power used around Polynesia. It could be said to be similar to Qi and magic power."

"I think I heard about it once in a textbook."

"However, it's not a power that can be easily seen. It has already declined."

Rise tilted her head as if she didn't understand.

"Isn't it famous?"

"It is famous. But it's not the actual power that's famous, it's famous because it's often used as a virtual material."

Jinseong spoke while looking at the blue light filling the tent.

"Long ago, a work that used the concepts of 'mana' and 'skill' became very popular. And as people started to imitate it, 'skill' soon became the technique used by characters in works, and 'mana' became fixed as the resource needed to use those techniques. Thus, mana became famous in fantasy-related creative works and gained great fame in games."

"I see..."

The blue light spread throughout the tent.

To the bison ring hanging in the air, to the tent fabric, to the soft mat on the floor.

However, despite the mana desperately trying to crawl into objects, it couldn't stay inside and kept bouncing out, and this meaningless action appeared as the light brightening and dimming.

"Perhaps the person who first used 'mana' in games thought that the nature of mana matched well with the image of a constantly growing protagonist. That's why they used this mana as a resource for using skills."

"Nature, you say?"

"Yes. In games, don't protagonists constantly grow through battles? This mana is also a power that grows through battles, so you could say it fits well."

If using Qi, one would have to train repeatedly.

If using magic power, one would have to study and train repeatedly.

But with mana, one could minimize the appearance of training scenes and focus on battle scenes, so in a way, the developer's decision to set 'mana' as a resource could be considered a stroke of genius.

"It's an amazing power. But why did it decline?"

It was not bad to use.

It was not bad to accumulate energy.

Its name was even widely spread.

Looking at it this way, 'mana' seemed to be a power that should have spread widely.

If one only looked at this, that is.

"There are three disadvantages to this mana. And they are very fatal disadvantages."

Jinseong held up three fingers as he spoke.

"One is cannibalism, another is instability, and the last is madness."

Cannibalism.

Instability.

Madness.

Each word was incredibly ominous.

"This mana could be gathered in one's body, just as those who use Qi gather it in their bodies through energy accumulation. However, using such natural and moderate methods to gather it wasn't much more efficient compared to Qi, and the efficiency increased explosively when killing living beings."

"Hunting..."

"That's not the problem. What's wrong with killing beasts and cutting down trees? Moreover, since mana seems to be quite compatible with sorcery, the efficiency of mana accumulation could be increased by cutting off heads, offering sacrifices, and performing rituals."

There was no problem.

Defeating beasts that harm people was the right thing to do.

Cutting down trees to reduce the territory of beasts was also the right thing to do.

But…

What problem arose when the 'beasts' to hunt decreased?

"But as civilization develops, war inevitably follows. Beasts are replaced by easier-to-catch humans, and trees to be cut down are replaced by settlements and crops cultivated by people."

In a way, this might be natural.

Humans who didn't hesitate to clear forests and kill beasts due to conflicting living areas wouldn't hesitate to turn their blades on other humans. They would swing their swords to massacre or incorporate others under their tribe, enslave them, and gradually expand their power.

Wasn't that how villages become cities, and cities become countries?

"And in this process, another characteristic of this mana was discovered. That is, the power called mana inherently has the characteristic of cannibalism."

Ability users craved to efficiently increase their limited resources.

For efficient accumulation of power.

To efficiently accumulate power and go further.

To rise above others and climb higher.

To receive admiration from everyone and gain wealth and honor by wielding their power.

Many ability users, under the name of efficiency and under the pretext of research, often sought methods that violated taboos.

Martial artists devised methods to steal from others instead of training.

This became a disaster known as the Qi Absorption Technique.

Magicians spared no effort in researching ways to store and use magic power beyond its limits.

This became a disaster known as magic power predation research, which could steal and absorb magic power accumulated by others.

Summoners wanted their summons to become stronger, or for their own bodies to become as strong as their summons.

This became the dark history of humanity known as chimera experiments.

But all these experiments ended in failure.

As if divine punishment was being meted out to those who stepped on taboos.

Martial arts that stole Qi accumulated by others created large repulsive reactions when different natures of Qi gathered, turning practitioners into cripples or driving them mad, and in severe cases, causing them to explode like bombs.

The magic power predation research conducted by magicians was also fruitless. When trying to accept it into the body, terrible repulsive reactions occurred, damaging the body itself. When forcibly extracting magic power from other magicians and injecting it into objects for use, it either damaged the object itself or penetrated the researcher's body during the injection process, causing terrible damage to the brain.

The chimera experiments conducted by summoners gave strong power but damaged the body from the genetic level, leading to death, and in the worst cases, made people live in a state worse than death, suffering in agony.

Thus, one cannot simply steal and use the power possessed by others.

But mana was different.

Mana users could absorb mana from other mana users without major side effects.

"Mana users can absorb mana from other mana users. Of course, there are side effects in the process, and energy loss also occurs. But compared to other ability users who lose their lives or power itself, it's almost free of charge."

Instead of accumulating through training, one can accumulate by stealing mana gathered by others.

And it was not even at the cost of one's life, but could be absorbed with just a small price.

What happened after this fact became known?

"Mana was already a power that was good to accumulate through battle, so those who used it were extremely belligerent. And when this fact became known, it was natural for them to engage in deadly fights among themselves. Moreover, when it became known that this mana power was also compatible with sorcery, even greater chaos ensued."

A power capable of cannibalism that was also compatible with sorcery?

Wasn't that perfect for the 'taboos' in sorcery to get involved?

Human sacrifice.

"Human sacrifice in sorcery and cannibalism became involved in the mana absorption process. And when sorcery got involved, the absorption efficiency increased, the cost decreased, and they even created cursed objects by storing some of the inevitably lost mana in accessories made from the corpses of those killed. Thus, this interchangeable, absorption-enabling property of mana is called 'cannibalism'. Because it resulted in humans eating humans, and mana users devouring mana users."

After hearing Jinseong's explanation, Rise felt disgusted by the mana that had seemed so fascinating before.

The mysterious blue light seemed like a predator's ploy to lure and devour people, and the shimmering haze looked like writhing snakes. Even the sight of it trying to penetrate objects and being repelled looked like a parasite failing to burrow in.

"Perhaps it could be called the power most suited for warriors. Where else could you find a better power that increases just by fighting and killing without thinking?"

Jinseong pulled Rise, who was making an uncomfortable expression, towards him.

It wasn't difficult to pull her close since the tent was cramped.

"But you know, what's easily gained is easily lost."

Jinseong smiled as he looked at Rise, who was flustered and stuck right next to him.

Then he lit Samadhi fire in his hand and snapped his fingers.

The Samadhi fire that burned non-material things burst into small sparks, creating a momentary void. And that void moved around and began to fill the bluish space like a stream flowing on the ground.

As if the space itself was cracking.

The cracks that spread like this shattered the blue light, and the shattered light fragments shook around before starting to return to the Moai.

Jinseong caught one of the returning fragments with his finger, hooked it on his fingertip, and drew a circle surrounding himself and Rise. Once the circle was drawn, he flicked his finger as if it was no longer needed, sending it back into the Moai.

The mana that returned to the Moai began to illuminate the tent again with a bluish light as before, but it couldn't invade the circle where Jinseong and Rise were seated.

Thus, Rise was freed from the influence of mana, not in the embrace of the 'uncomfortable and disgusting' mana, but in the void zone created by Jinseong.

Right next to Jinseong.

At a distance so close that they could hear each other's breathing.