<628 – Theme Park of Oknodie (3)>
In a hideout on the outskirts of the world, away from human territories, a Destroyer prepared for the potential crisis of dark mana runaway due to mana control failure and mana disaster.
Every moment he lived, he felt the value of life in every breath.
“Was breathing, was time so precious?”
He didn’t know during the desperate times of survival. He didn’t know during the times when he dreamed solely of revenge. Only after all those years did he start to see the beauty of the world, the beauty of life.
“A peace too much for me.”
He had lost many things. The precious childhood friend who should have enjoyed this peace beside him was already dead. After leaving his will to his needy apprentice, all that remained was mental preparation.
The last moment that might come anytime. Embracing the dark mana accumulated in this sinful body, he would quietly end his life in a way that caused as little damage as possible to the world. This was the way the Destroyer decided to tie up the end of his life.
“You picked an unnecessarily pretty place, Myung Ho.”
A field full of white tulips. Small, fragile butterflies fluttering around like a child’s messy scribbles.
All this scenery was too beautiful to make his companion on the road to the netherworld or to erase.
A parched wasteland. A daunting cliff. A place hard to distinguish from a pit of hell.
Such may befit his final moments. Yet he accepted it as Myung Ho’s own respect dedicated to the last of an era’s hero, even if it felt burdensome.
Revenge against the academy he couldn’t achieve, the dark matter he couldn’t dispose of, the wandering Thief Guild that lost its center, and the child of Professor Bronze who stole the seeds of the warrior.
All of this was a messenger to deliver to Oknodie.
They wouldn’t listen even if he protested. Nonetheless, his end came together in a form softer and gentler than he had imagined.
The air was fresh. The wind was cool. The sounds were clear.
The Destroyer, who closed his eyes feeling as if he was in paradise, suddenly heard a strange noise in his ears.
“Has a dimensional beast from the border of the world appeared?”
He could feel the aftermath of a dimensional gate generation spell that hurriedly connected space between dimensions and pulled a path. The atmosphere trembled like a scream, and the nature mana was shaking urgently.
“So, there really is a great monster hiding in the borderlands.”
It would be hard to gauge how many people would die if such a creature were released into the world. There would be more disaster than the troublesome Drake left by Ni’alatotep in the plains of the Deutsche Kingdom of the Western Three Kingdoms.
“Yeah, where’s the fortunate death of a warrior?”
A person like him should die fighting.
“Should I do something warrior-like one last time?”
With too much dark mana overwhelming him, his body couldn’t secure even the minimum life mana needed to move. Instead of moving his unmoving feet, he used his left hand on a crutch to stand, twisting his neck with his right hand to fix it at the window.
[Dark Death Ray]
The final life he ignites unleashes a power that destroys both the enemy and his own body simultaneously. A self-destruction that annihilates both himself and the enemy to prevent physical regeneration even if the dark mana contaminates his marrow.
Just as the most heroic technique was about to manifest, seeing the hand that suddenly burst out from the opened dimensional gate, the Destroyer hurriedly scattered the dark mana.
Cough.
He felt congested for a moment, but he couldn’t unleash this power.
A child who should never come here.
Oknodie had appeared.
“Myung Ho. Did you break your promise…!”
“It’s the professor who broke the promise! You said you’d come back after the ritual, yet you died on your own! I don’t need this inheritance!”
“Oknodie. My lifespan is already short. I don’t know that this will only make it harder for us both…”
“Hmph! Sign the contract!”
“…Contract?”
Oknodie came with a pile of papers. The papers spilling out of the overstuffed bag were ownership acquisition contracts.
Ding ding.
The mana board he carried automatically interpreted the spells contained in the contracts and informed him of the list of contracts presented to him.
━━━
[Contract List]
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Weapon Set
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Armor Set
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Accessory Set
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Male Seasonal Set
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Female Seasonal Set
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Children’s Male Set
Ownership of Basic Comprehensive Children’s Female Set
…
…
Plus a total of 1985 Ownership of Other Basic Comprehensive Sets
━━━
That’s a lot. He had no idea why Oknodie carried these around, but it didn’t look like a joke.
“If you don’t sign this, I won’t move a single step from here!”
The Destroyer’s right fist came crashing down on Oknodie’s head.
“Ouch!”
“Is this still okay?”
“Sigh. Against violence!”
It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing to be said by someone who was pushing the quantity of a violent contract, but Oknodie being peculiar was nothing new. Reluctantly, the Destroyer grasped the pen and signed the contracts, feeling a bit lighter as if he indulged the last regrets of his apprentice.
“It must just be my imagination, but it means I cherished this child as my apprentice.”
Anyway, it’s the road to the netherworld. What use is there in having more? After death, everything would become ownerless items and return to Oknodie.
The more his heart lightened, the lighter his body felt.
“One shoulder sure is heavy.”
Having signed so much that he got exhausted, he set aside the crutch and relaxed his neck while gently stretching his shoulders.
“Hmm?”
That was quite strange. Just a moment ago, his body had been paralyzed under the heavy dark mana pressing on his organs. Now, upon standing without the crutch, his legs stood firmly on the ground.
He wasn’t swaying. He felt no numbness.
One turn left, one turn right. His head turned just fine.
“What on earth…?”
“Hmph. We’re still far from done, you know? Hurry up and sign these you lousy professor!”
━━━
Ownership of Beginner Comprehensive Set 355
━━━
As he signed for the Beginner Comprehensive Set, the Destroyer recalled memories of long ago.
The times when he clumsily set out as a warrior with Ni’alatotep, feeling the strange ‘ascension’ each time he acquired and handled new equipment.
That fresh sensation came back once more.
━━━
Ownership of Intermediate Comprehensive Set 27
━━━
As he signed for the Intermediate Comprehensive Set, the Destroyer remembered the rewards he received from defeating strong enemies.
Some rewards made him feel powerful just by obtaining them, strengthening him as a human.
The excitement of signing contracts felt similar to that.
━━━
Ownership of Advanced Comprehensive Set 2
━━━
As he signed for the two Advanced Comprehensive Set ownerships, the Destroyer felt the unforgettable thrill of acquiring powerful magical tools once again.
The release of breaking through long-stagnated barriers and stepping into a different realm washed over him.
Whoosh!
It wasn’t just an illusion of sensation. The life mana, which had barely maintained a pulse at the low end, was now starting to push out the dark mana thanks to some unexpected reinforcements.
The appearance of extremely pure Nature Mana that had not been tainted by any dark mana at all!
“Is it divine luck?”
Instinctively, the Destroyer began to enter the Mana Flow Technique right there, reclaiming his vital organs taken by the dark mana and gradually building his strength.
He mixed the excessively contaminated life mana with pure nature mana and whirled rapidly like a centrifuge, separating the dark mana based on weight.
[Bestowal]
The Destroyer began to expel the impurities from everything he touched.
Realizing his condition, Oknodie quickly handed him a sword.
There was plenty of dark mana. He could control and expel the amount of this evil power within manageable limits.
Most ordinary objects couldn’t hold that power, contaminating the earth, spoiling the air, and turning nature itself hostile.
However, the item Oknodie handed was no ordinary object.
A blessed holy sword.
The divine power infused into this artifact began purifying the inferior dark mana in real-time.
Gaining confidence, the Destroyer expelled even more dark mana, restoring his body’s mana balance, and the quantity expelled increased at once.
A virtuous cycle stemming from the continuous restoration of his body and decreased internal ratio of dark mana began.
Chiiiiiiii!
As the divine power of the holy sword became dangerously tainted, the Destroyer opened his eyes.
The long-lost seven-colored brilliance, the seven attribute Nature Mana began to rise like stars in his eyes, transitioning to the vital organs previously plagued by dark mana.
With the increased amount of mana, the swollen organs could now hold even more mana than before.
This led to an increase in mana capacity.
Enhanced mana control technique from the long battle against dark mana surpassed the moment he first set foot in the Gift Academy.
More mana than he had in the pure body he had after finishing a warrior journey with Ni’alatotep.
With those two variables combining, the Destroyer began accepting and compressing a massive amount of Nature Mana into his body to the extent it could be called a tide of mana.
The realm of dreams that martial artists commonly speak of.
Using pure intelligence to cleanse the impure body of the mortal world.
A divine transformation opportunity descended upon him.
