23 – 5 – Captured All by Himself – 4

Just because he learned the Mana Circuit did not mean the tutorial was over.

After getting somewhat used to sitting still and circulating mana, Gi-jun had to enter the ordeal of sparring with the Demon King at the same time.

Moving his body, using skills, and utilizing spirit arts while letting mana radiate freely was an absurdly difficult task, so despite showing a fairly decent performance against the Demon King recently, he had to roll around on the floor again, making his past progress pale in comparison.

‘Ah…’

As he was rolling around on the floor like that today as well, he attained a realization.

It was none other than the more active utilization of spiritual power.

Originally, he used to boost Lucy’s strength with spiritual power and handle the spirit power obtained from her by combining it with his light mana.

In other words, it was a fuel for the spirit, a medium to handle spirit power.

But now that his mana was out of control, what if he used spiritual power directly himself?

‘Wait… why am I only thinking of this now?’

Spiritual power was the power of the soul.

Unlike mana, which actually flowed through the body, it merely flowed out from somewhere inside him, and was a force that flowed directly out of the body according to his will without circulating.

He had never used it directly before—but since even Lucy utilized it as energy, there was no reason he could not do the same!

—Contractor?

“Let’s try it… Kuhak!”

However, he soon realized on his own why he had not been able to come up with such an idea until now.

That was because spiritual power was not a very intuitive force.

It was a completely different branch from mana, which strengthened everything.

Spiritual power interacted upon meeting a soul.

It interacted when meeting a strong will.

It was a power that was far from simply strengthening his weapon or hardening his fist.

‘Wait… will?’

However, his thoughts branched out in a completely different direction from there.

According to the Demon King, was the light mana currently running wild in his body not moving to find the path closest to the truth based on the inherent will engraved in the mana itself?

Yes, mana had a will.

If so, would it not be possible to embrace, assimilate, and interact with this light mana using his own spiritual power?

“Hero?”

The Demon King looked with a worried expression at Gi-jun, who was stretched out on the floor and not moving after being struck by her straight punch.

Could he have fainted because the regeneration skill failed to activate properly due to the Mana Circuit?

Of course, since protecting the master was directly related to the will of mana, such a thing would never happen.

It was not for nothing that the Demon King had been beating him up while he was operating the Mana Circuit.

“Hold on, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I think I’m okay.”

Gi-jun, who had organized his thoughts, sprang up and replied to the Demon King.

Of course, the wound in his abdomen, which had been pierced from being hit by the Demon King, was already completely healed.

Over his body, which was emitting a faint golden glow as the light mana throughout his entire body went wild, something like a whitish smoke soon settled.

The Demon King, who possessed no spiritual power, could not make it out clearly—but she noticed that his momentum had slightly changed.

—It seems the contractor has figured out how to utilize spiritual power on his own!

Lucy shouted in an extremely joyful voice.

The Demon King blinked her eyes at the unimaginable words.

“Ah, is there a use for spiritual power other than spells or spirit arts?”

—Hmph, we’ll show you from now on! Let’s go, contractor!

“Fuu… Hup!”

Of course, he had to get beaten up and roll on the floor for a long time after that as well.

Because he had only come up with the idea, he still had a long way to go before he could completely assimilate spiritual power with mana, directly interpret its will, and even boost it.

Still, his movements were definitely better than before, and as proof of his efforts to understand mana, the mana rampage in his body had lessened considerably.

“Ngh…!”

“No… you’re too fast, still.”

Muttering grumpily at Gi-jun’s growth less than a day after they began sparring directly, the Demon King chuckled and helped up Gi-jun, who was lying face down on the floor, having exhausted all his energy and physical strength.

“Let’s rest a bit and do it again. You can do it, right?”

“Huff, of course… huff, I can.”

Time passed.

A day or a week was not enough.

Two weeks, three weeks. The rampage had decreased, but the path to completing the Mana Circuit was still long.

When a full month had passed like that, for the first time, Gi-jun managed to accomplish what could be called mana circulation during a fierce battle.

—Boom!

It was a fluke, but it was much faster than the Demon King had expected, and the strike of Moonlight Fangs created with the circulated mana was great enough to make even the Demon King admire it for a moment.

“Its performance is definitely solid! But this is a bit different from the mana circulation I taught you, isn’t it?”

—Right?

For some reason, Lucy acted proud on Gi-jun’s behalf.

Realizing that it was by no means a degraded result of her own Mana Circuit, the Demon King was pleased.

“They say a true genius reconstructs the Mana Circuit from the moment they learn it.”

—The contractor added spiritual power. He figured out how to harmonize spiritual power and mana. Thanks to that, it’s also easier to pour my spirit power into it!

“Do all spirit contractors learn the Mana Circuit this way?”

—What do you think?

If the Demon King and Lucy had one thing in common, it was that they both hated saying they did not know and would talk in circles instead.

The Demon King snorted and gestured with her hand.

“Keep coming at me. Show me it wasn’t a fluke!”

—Alright. Let’s go, contractor!

Lucy’s constant praise and the Demon King’s admiration continued.

Unable to say it was a fluke at this point, Gi-jun gritted his teeth and strove to complete the Mana Circuit, and finally, when two more months passed, he succeeded in achieving complete communion between his spiritual power and light mana.

—An amazing realization. Having listened to the voices of the elements that make up your inner self, you have become able to communicate with the outside world with a firmer sense of self. Spiritual Power (U) has increased by 3 to become 86. Light Mana (U) has increased by 5 to become 27.

—An amazing realization. Having listened to the voices of the elements that make up your inner self, you have become able to communicate with the outside world with a firmer sense of self. Spiritual Power (U) has increased by 3 to become 86. Light Mana (U) has increased by 5 to become 27.

From then on, it did not take long to complete the Mana Circuit.

Once he deeply understood his own mana through his spiritual power, the path the mana wanted to take also became clearly visible.

After only three days and minor trial and error, he finally completed his own mana circulation method.

—By interpreting great knowledge in a way that suits you and developing it independently, you have founded a legendary mana circulation method. You have learned the Legendary-grade skill [Salutaris (Savior)]! The effect is amplified by 20% due to the effect of the title ‘Skill Creator’.

—Having created a Legendary-grade skill, a highly positive modifier is applied to [Skill Creator]. Potential for title growth is visible.

—Your dexterity in handling the body and mana has formed a solid, unique domain. The Dexterity (R) status has surpassed the limit and grown to Unique grade! Dexterity (U) has become 1!

—By interpreting great knowledge in a way that suits you and developing it independently, you have founded a legendary mana circulation method. You have learned the Legendary-grade skill [Salutaris (Savior)]! The effect is amplified by 20% due to the effect of the title ‘Skill Creator’.

—Having created a Legendary-grade skill, a highly positive modifier is applied to [Skill Creator]. Potential for title growth is visible.

—Your dexterity in handling the body and mana has formed a solid, unique domain. The Dexterity (R) status has surpassed the limit and grown to Unique grade! Dexterity (U) has become 1!

“No, this.”

Waving away the system messages before his eyes with his two shields enveloped in brilliant light, Gi-jun wore a dumbfounded expression.

It was surprising enough that the Mana Circuit he was inheriting from the Demon King was recognized as a creation just because he had mixed in some spiritual power and improved it, changing its name and receiving the effect of the Skill Creator title.

It was also surprising that Dexterity, which he had thought was a purely physical stat, was influenced by this and grew to Unique grade.

‘Indeed, Dexterity isn’t just about moving the body, but it also influences skill sense, and even Ji-hye, who handled magic, did mention needing the Dexterity stat…’

What was she up to now? She must have learned the Mana Circuit by now.

What about Uncle Su and Shin? Had that love triangle, which was enough to drive onlookers crazy, improved at all…?

“Whoa!”

“Ack?!”

Gi-jun, who had been lost in thought for a moment, startled and backed away upon discovering the Demon King standing right before his eyes, staring intently at him.

“Hero, is obtaining the Mana Circuit that shocking?”

Seeing his two shields emit a bright light like never before, the Demon King, who had stopped moving after guessing his growth, said so teasingly.

“No, it’s just that the name of the Mana Circuit changed.”

“I expected that from the moment you mixed in spiritual power. What is it called? Let me hear it.”

The Demon King closed her eyes and waited for his words.

Perhaps it held a special meaning for the Demon King.

Come to think of it, who was the person who taught the Demon King the Mana Circuit, Libertas?

Having such thoughts that were completely meaningless now, Gi-jun quietly declared the name of his skill.

“Salutaris.”

“Savior? Nice. At least it saves face by showing it’s of the same lineage.”

Suddenly, Gi-jun wanted to ask the Demon King how she knew Latin from Earth, but it was too out of the blue to ask now.

Perhaps in this world, the languages of various civilizations were integrated by some standard he did not know.

“Hero, it’s about time you came out.”

Seeing him like that, the Demon King chuckled and spoke.

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you overthinking because you’ve been cooped up inside here all this time, fussing over the Mana Circuit and whatnot?”

Poking Gi-jun’s chest playfully, the Demon King took a step back and glanced sideways at him.

“Today is a party to celebrate the completion of your Mana Circuit. Let’s just enjoy it without thinking about anything.”

—Party—!

“What do you mean, not think about anything?”

Gi-jun let out a wry laugh at those words.

“After all, I’m the one who has to prepare the food.”

“Of course! A full set of sparkling ones!”

—I’ve been looking forward to this moment for months!

In that case, it could not be helped.

Gi-jun decided to roll up his sleeves for the first time in a while and prepare some proper party food.

A cake could not be left out, and since he had made plenty of cake batter last time and stored it in his inventory, he took it out, poured it into a cake pan, and baked it in the oven.

If one were to ask why he had not stored it as a pre-baked cake, it was naturally to taste the excitement of a freshly baked cake.

While he was whipping up fresh cream to decorate once the sponge cake was finished, the Demon King quietly approached and whispered in his ear.

“I think that one we had last time would be good—strawberry.”

Then, not wanting to be outdone, Lucy came rushing through the air and asserted.

—Chocolate! Bittersweet chocolate is the best!

“What nonsense! Adding chocolate to an already sweet cake is absurd! Only sweet and sour strawberries are a fit!”

Was the strawberry versus chocolate dispute breaking out here again?

Thinking of ‘Do you like strawberry milk or chocolate milk?’ which had troubled him as much as the question ‘Do you like Mom or Dad?’, Gi-jun opened his mouth.

“I’ll make chocolate properly next time, starting from a new sheet. Let’s have strawberry today.”

—If the contractor says so, it can’t be helped…

To comfort Lucy, who dropped her head in disappointment despite understanding, he decided to make noodles for the other dish.

After putting the fresh cream and trimmed strawberries into his inventory, he boiled the wide fettuccine noodles that Lucy liked and made a spicy arrabbiata pasta sauce by adding chili peppers to tomatoes, all while feeling the Demon King’s gaze staring intently at his profile.

Unable to resist the silent demand, Gi-jun finally opened his mouth.

“Should I make… chicken?”

“Chicken!”

—Ah, chicken!

Despite having just fought over strawberry versus chocolate, the Demon King and Lucy ended up completely united under chicken.

Gi-jun prepared the chicken with all his heart and coated it in batter for them.

Wielding Cooking of Light usually featured operating light mana, but now that he had completed the circuit, a tiny amount of spiritual power was naturally mixed in as well.

Gi-jun, who realized that fact right as he was putting the battered chicken into the pot of boiling oil, was startled for a moment, but thinking that spiritual power could not possibly be bad for the body, he fried the chicken without hesitation.

And then.

—The Rare-grade [Cooking of Light] skill has been influenced by [Salutaris] and grown to the Unique-grade skill [Soul Cooking]! A dish containing both light and spiritual power that embraces the soul and boosts energy! A dish infused with spiritual power will heal the soul of the eater, replenish vitality and mana, and bring forth the power to repel corrupt existences!

—One who possesses a great soul is bound to know how to look after other souls. You realize how to soothe other souls with your own spiritual power. Spiritual Power (U) has increased by 1 to become 87.

—The Rare-grade [Cooking of Light] skill has been influenced by [Salutaris] and grown to the Unique-grade skill [Soul Cooking]! A dish containing both light and spiritual power that embraces the soul and boosts energy! A dish infused with spiritual power will heal the soul of the eater, replenish vitality and mana, and bring forth the power to repel corrupt existences!

—One who possesses a great soul is bound to know how to look after other souls. You realize how to soothe other souls with your own spiritual power. Spiritual Power (U) has increased by 1 to become 87.

No, why this?

How?

“Mmm?! The flavor is much more intense today…!”

—Contractor, give me more of this…!

That day.

The Demon King and Lucy worked together to devour as many as three chickens, polished off two servings of pasta each, and finally demolished the strawberry fresh cream cake before falling asleep in satisfaction.

—A charm that makes others unable to stop falling for you even when knowing they are running toward ruin. You have somehow become a homme fatale. Charm (U) has increased by 1 to become 83.

—A charm that makes others unable to stop falling for you even when knowing they are running toward ruin. You have somehow become a homme fatale. Charm (U) has increased by 1 to become 83.

Ah, yes, yes. I get it.