Labyrinth Exploration 101 - Chapter 15

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Labyrinth Exploration 101 Episode 015

Gotta Fight(2)

“This. Is it really okay for me to take this?”

I asked, pointing at the Spirit Elixir.

“I brought it planning to give it to one or two people anyway. Think of it as a gift for a diligent mage who studies while everyone else is playing.”

Yoo Yul spoke casually, but I was troubled.

Could it be that she doesn’t know the value of this Spirit Elixir?

Ah, that’s possible. She acquired it as loot from the Labyrinth, but maybe she hasn’t had it appraised yet and is trying to get rid of it carelessly.

The [MoMo] system is ‘for now’ my exclusive privilege. Item appraisal is the same.

If so, how much should I deceive my conscience?

“Getting back to the main point. Attributes are ultimately a matter of circuits, whether acquired or innate. If you lack circuits, attributes won’t form.”

“…Circuits, you say.”

Meanwhile, Yoo Yul resumed her instruction.

“Right. In that regard, your circuits are…”

She traced from my wrist to my shoulder with her blunt finger.

“Not bad. You have enough talent to manifest your attribute. You’ll have to gradually figure out what your attribute is though.”

“…I see.”

I unconsciously straightened my back. It was still because of my worries about the Spirit Elixir.

“However, don’t worry about the number of circuits.”

“…Number, you say.”

Saliva keeps pooling in my mouth.

Should I confess or not that this Spirit Elixir you casually handed me is a rare item worth tens of millions of won?

“Sometimes there are guys who open circuits like spider webs all over their bodies.”

“…Spider webs, you say.”

“Don’t become like those guys.”

“…Those guys, you say.”

“What?”

“Ah, nothing.”

I came to my senses.

Let’s think about the Spirit Elixir later, later. It would be even better if I forget about it during conversation and never bring it up.

“Those guys chose the easy path.”

“Huh? Isn’t having more circuits more difficult?”

The more circuits you have in your body, the higher-grade mage you are. It’s common sense, like having more muscle means you can lift more weight.

“That’s a mistake many people make.”

Yoo Yul shook her head back and forth.

“Refining one core circuit is much more difficult and much more efficient than opening multiple circuits. Think about it. If guys with mana circuits sprawling like spider webs throughout their bodies were more efficient, this world would only have national highways.”

“…Ah.”

It was an analogy I understood immediately.

“Humanity eventually invented expressways.”

I nodded blankly. Just now, she had the feel of a star instructor.

“Then. How should I do refinement?”

“First, try mana breathing.”

“Mana breathing…”

“Right. Try it.”

The star instructor looked at me with ‘try it~’ eyes, but I could only blink.

Because I don’t know how.

Mana breathing is a technique for taking in mana, but I’ve lived a life far removed from such techniques.

“Why aren’t you doing it?”

She tilted her head. I confessed as if embarrassed.

“I don’t know how.”

“…You don’t know?”

Yoo Yul’s brow furrowed.

“Bullshit. Then how did you open your circuits?”

“Just…”

“Just?”

“It just worked when I tried.”

Then Yoo Yul looked at me. More precisely, she glanced at the circuits in my right and left arms.

“And yet you opened circuits like this.”

“…Yes.”

“How many months has it been?”

How many months.

Her eyes asking about time were too serious. For some reason, I felt I shouldn’t say one month.

“Three… and a half? To about four months.”

That’s when it happened.

[ Recognition Level Up! ]

[ Recognition Level: 5 ]

[ An additional 30 days of trial version is granted. ]

I suddenly leveled up.

* * *

I was dragged out of the library. The place Yoo Yul guided me to was a forest with lush vegetation. A place where the air was clear and clean, where just breathing seemed to cleanse my lungs.

I sat down on the grassy ground.

“First, concentrate magic power in your trachea.”

Yoo Yul sat across from me, using a large rock as a chair.

“Trachea, you say.”

“Right. Magic power holds onto mana. If you concentrate magic power in your respiratory tract, the mana you inhale while breathing will stay in your body.”

“Ah. Then by any chance, don’t the lungs matter? The lungs seem more important.”

“…”

A blood vessel slightly bulged at Yoo Yul’s temple.

“If you don’t know, don’t ask. Just accept it thinking ‘I guess that’s how it is.'”

“Yes.”

That actually makes it easier. Chain of command, repeat orders. It’s my specialty.

I moved the magic power in my body and concentrated it in my trachea. Mental Visualization was naturally involved in that process too.

“Mana breathing is more advantageous the better you know the human body.”

Yoo Yul pointed that out as well.

Magic power is Mental Visualization, ultimately a force moved by my imagination. Therefore, the more specific the imagination, the more effective it is, and imagination is assembled more specifically through background knowledge.

“Yes. I understand well.”

The trachea is divided into upper and lower respiratory tracts, with the upper tract including the nose, throat, nasal cavity, pharynx, and larynx. The lower tract includes the trachea and bronchi.

I’ve even seen their actual appearance. Because of a villain who was afflicted with the ‘madness’ of personally creating and exhibiting human anatomical diagrams.

“…Done.”

I extended my mana circuit and concentrated magic power throughout my entire trachea.

“Then take a breath.”

In that state, I took a deep breath.

“As everyone in the world knows, mana exists in the atmosphere.”

Therefore, when we inhale, we naturally take mana into our bodies.

“However, most of the mana escapes with our exhale. So, we concentrate magic power throughout the respiratory tract to catch the mana. To prevent it from escaping.”

Tight. I held it. I held my breath.

Before long, a stinging sensation arose around my throat.

“If you hold your breath and feel discomfort in any way, then it’s a success.”

That meant I had succeeded.

Yoo Yul’s words continued.

“Organs like the lungs have nothing to do with it. The purpose is to increase the amount of mana entering the body and extend the time mana remains in the body. Then your circuit will automatically convert mana into magic power.”

At the moment of inhalation, I catch the mana flowing into my body with the magic power in my bronchi. If I maintain that while holding my breath, my mana circuit naturally dissolves the mana and converts it into magic power.

“Kheueor.”

Did I hold it for about a minute? I exhaled heavily.

“Kueo, hueor.”

“One minute. You held it quite long. Have you practiced holding your breath before?”

I answered while panting.

“…Ten minutes. Underwater.”

I may not look it, but I received magic power training during my military days. Though I had no talent.

“Haa. Haa…”

“Mana breathing is fundamentally difficult. It requires not just talent for magic power, but all physical abilities like stamina, strength, and endurance. That’s why mages are hexagonal.”

I bent over so much that I ended up touching the ground.

I nearly died from just holding my breath for one minute.

“Lift your head.”

Mentor Yoo Yul is quite cold and strict, unlike her warm appearance.

“…Yes.”

I only raised my upper body.

Yoo Yul looked at me and narrowed her eyes. Then she tried to cross her legs but failed. They were like chicken legs so they wouldn’t cross properly, no wait.

“You’re doing well. The magic power is properly attached to your respiratory tract too.”

“You can see that?”

“Yes. But you’ve walked the wrong path for too long. You should have come here from the beginning.”

I understand what she means, but the premise is wrong. If I hadn’t been a soldier, I wouldn’t have obtained [MoMo] either.

“Keep practicing. Mana breathing is the top priority right now. Just master that by next week.”

“…Could you teach me next week too?”

Even as I ask, I feel like my conscience has grown hair. I’m trying to get the Spirit Elixir for free, and now I’m hoping for lessons too.

“It depends on your level of achievement.”

Yoo Yul left like that.

I was left alone in the forest. I touched my throat. It stings and hurts quite a bit, but the joy of learning is greater.

“…She’s a kind person.”

I smiled faintly.

Of course, there were still strange points. It was because of the ghostly energy hovering around her.

Whether it’s the scent of magic power or what. Some indescribable current faintly touches my skin and makes it tingle.

Is it because I’m too skinny?

“Hmm.”

I picked up my smartphone. I searched for the name ‘Yoo Yul’ on the web.

[ World Ranking 3,095th Yoo Yul ]

Her career itself wasn’t long. There were just a few articles about clearing several labyrinths with ‘overwhelming’ skill, even clearing medium-scale labyrinths alone.

She definitely has enough skill to rise to high ranker status.

“…No user wiki either.”

But she doesn’t have a user wiki page that most domestic lower rankers have. When you search for Yoo Yul, it shows [Total 0 results].

How strange.

“…”

From then on, I started surfing without realizing it.

From Yoo Yul to Titanic to unsolved murder cases. After wandering for about 20 minutes, I suddenly searched for ‘Tae Hyeok’.

As user wikis tend to be, there’s no particular reason. You just keep jumping from here to there as you browse.

───────Real Name│Tae Hyeok Nationality│South Korea Birth│October 3, 1915 Death│March 29, 2017 Spouse│Jin Kyung-suk Children│Eldest son Tae-hoon Grandchildren│Tae-woo, Tae-yul───────１. Overview The first mage of early 20th century South Korea and a hero who laid the foundation for magic power and formulas…

While skimming through Tae Hyeok’s page, suddenly.

“…Tae-yul.”

Tae-yul. That name reminded me of Yoo Yul.

Yoo Yul. Tae-yul. Yoo Yul. Tae-yul.

“No way.”

I chuckled.

“…”

Still, just in case, I searched for Tae-yul’s page this time.

１. Overview A mage of South Korean nationality. Became an official mage of the Magic Association at the young age of 21. A mage from a prestigious magic family, evaluated as having one of the finest talents of the current era. ２. Life ２.1. Birth, eldest daughter of a prestigious magic family. Tae-yul was born in 1995 as the eldest daughter of the mage couple Tae-hoon and Woo Yeon-hee.

I skimmed through the life of a talented mage and reached the ‘Trivia’ section.

11. Trivia · She says that disguising her identity is her hobby. Because the identity of Tae-yul is of no help at all in wandering the world and enjoying pleasures. In a way, it’s a very mage-like hobby.

A hobby of disguising her identity.

At that moment, my head went cold. The names from before came to mind again.

Yoo Yul.

Tae-yul.

“No way…”

I let out a hollow laugh and took out the Spirit Elixir from my pocket. The Spirit Elixir wrapped in gold foil paper like a pill. I slowly unwrapped it.

Some Chinese character was faintly stamped on the surface of the Spirit Elixir like a seal.

Tae, meaning great.

My expression hardened. My head churned greatly once, but I soon shook my head.

“…No way, surely not.”

It can’t be.

Even as I muttered, confirmation bias was already forming in one corner of my mind.

The sudden level up.

That might be the evidence.

If Yoo Yul really is Tae-yul, if I made some deep impression on her…

* * *

…In the dark night. At a 5-star hotel overlooking the Han River, ‘someone’ is lost in deep thought. The plump flesh gradually becomes thin, and the short limbs become remarkably long.

[Polymorph] has been released.

“…”

She silently poured red wine. However, her hands didn’t move, and the glass had no substance either. The wine was contained in mid-air.

After taking a sip, she sat on the sofa and picked up her smartphone.

[ TAEWOO_ ]

Tae-woo’s feed was on the first page. She bit her lips.

“…How disgusting.”

They hate each other to the point of grinding their teeth, and would genuinely try to kill each other given the chance, but the only reason they follow each other is purely because of the public.

If they unfollowed each other, the media would make a fuss as if some war had broken out.

She hates Tae-woo. Hates him to death. She quit smoking because he smoked, and she even dyed her hair blue on purpose because she didn’t want to resemble even his hair color.

Throwing her smartphone aside, she wiggled her feet and turned on the TV. She played the level test video from this season’s “Labyrinth Exploration.”

She’s a fan of the “Labyrinth Exploration” series. Though she might not be an ordinary fan. She has a history of receiving an official warning from the Republic of Korea Government for attempting identity theft and computer manipulation to obtain text voting accounts.

So, she decided to watch this season from a closer distance.

“Kang Hyeon.”

Her first pick is Kang Hyeon for now.

A warrior perfect in every aspect, his face and actions quite suit her taste.

Her second pick is Lee Jun-ho. Third pick is Ryu Yeon-hwa.

They’re all men with exceptional external qualities, but even so, she denies being someone who only cares about looks.

Because only when face and skill harmonize does it become beautiful.

But.

“…”

She narrowed her eyes. With her hand propped under her chin, she watched the mage in the video.

Seol Ha-woon.

The mage who passed the level test without being hit even once and without falling into any traps.

Especially that last deception was something even active professionals would have trouble avoiding.

“His age is a flaw.”

Too old.

At 27, he might be fine as a mage, but as a magician, he’s already past the right age. A magician’s potential is determined at least in early to mid-teens, or at the very latest in early twenties.

Still, reaching this level in 4 months shows considerable talent.

His face falls short compared to my other picks, but he’s a gem that’s already been damaged and worn down in many places. A soldier who limps and harbors many secrets. Such uniqueness is hard to find anywhere else.

“Maybe I’ll make him my 4th pick.”

Tae-yul chuckled and gulped down her red wine.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————