Chapter 44
Thanks to Kain injecting a sense of urgency into the leisurely processing work, the task progressed very quickly.
Having already had their share cut down to a mere 40%, the mercenaries couldn't afford to lose even the remaining work, so they busily moved their hands.
"Seriously, is that even possible?"
"You can say that again."
The mercenaries shook their heads in disbelief as they hurriedly worked, while also glancing at Kain.
"Where on earth did he learn something like that? I've never heard of a mage being able to imbue mana into a weapon. Their fundamental uses are completely opposite."
A mage filters mana received through their dantian into elemental mana using the circle in their heart, then manifests it as magic through calculations.
On the other hand, warriors such as knights, mercenaries, and martial artists compress and refine the mana in their dantian as is, channeling it towards their entire body and weapons.
In this process, the heart merely acts as a pump.
In other words, the mage uses the dantian as a conduit and the heart as the main organ, while the warrior primarily uses the dantian and the heart as a conduit.
Just as it's difficult to easily write one's own name if told to write the strokes in reverse order, even if both handle mana, the opposite processes inevitably feel awkward.
Furthermore, someone as skilled in Magic as Kain would have ingrained habits in mana manipulation, making it even more difficult for such a person to imbue and maintain mana in a weapon like a mercenary.
Yet, he was continuously maintaining it so stably while processing the carcasses?
It was something that mercenaries who had handled weapons their entire lives found hard to believe.
But as the saying goes, people adapt.
"He probably just learned it from a book. Haven't you been listening to him till now?"
The mercenary leader said with an expression that had already given up on understanding.
-Wow, Kain. How did you know that too?
-It's all written in books.
'I think I've heard that same conversation at least six times since we left the snowy mountains.'
Whether it was true or not, it wasn't surprising anymore.
The mercenary leader felt he could nod even if Kain had caught a live mud lizard with just that one dagger.
"Kain, where did you really learn that kind of stuff? Huh?"
"I-it's amazing..."
"I just read it in a book before and tried doing it."
Just then, the seventh iteration of that conversation was taking place over there.
Doesn't that guy get tired of asking when he gets the same answer every time?
"Can I do it too if I learn?"
"It's not a difficult task once you can use magic as well as I can."
"That's the difficult part! Sigh, I guess I should just focus on the magic I'm already doing."
"That's a good idea."
Kain nodded and swiftly cut off the next lizard tail.
'Whether you can do it if you learn...'
As the mercenary said earlier, the usage is completely opposite, but unlike magic that can't be used without a circle, "mana enchantment," which imbues mana into a weapon, is theoretically possible for mages to use.
'Using "aura enchantment" like a 6-star or higher warrior requires a different process, though...'
Reinforcing a weapon to the extent of cutting through the outer skin like now wasn't difficult for Kain, who had studied mana manipulation in all fields his entire life, regardless of specialization.
'I've even used aura in my past life.'
-I just thought you were crazy when you suddenly barged in asking me to teach you... To think you'd master aura this quickly.
-Your swordsmanship is a bit clumsy, but your basic combat sense itself is so outstanding... You would have achieved great things even if you had become a knight. No, is it just that your talent for handling mana is innate? Haha, I don't even know anymore.
-Anyway, the debt is repaid. Use it however you see fit.
Kain had even sparred with a retired Knight Commander of the Alken Kingdom using aura without using magic.
'This was also one of the countless attempts to unlock the secret of the 10th Circle. Although it failed...'
Kain thought that eliminating wrong answers was also a process of finding the right one, so no attempt was meaningless.
In fact, he was using mana enchantment quite usefully even after his reincarnation.
"What kind of books are even in Kain's study?"
"Y-yeah, right."
"I should go take a look sometime later, huh?"
"......"
Anyway, Kain quickly finished processing the lizards and said to the mercenaries,
"This side is done. If you're all done over there, let's hurry up and load up and leave."
"Are we leaving already? Everyone hasn't even had a proper rest after the fight..."
"Rest in the wagon. We should hurry if we want to get through the central region before it gets dark. I also plan to rest inside."
"......Understood."
As Kain got into the wagon first after saying that, the mercenaries had no choice but to follow.
"We're departing!"
Kain, who had boarded the guard compartment, rested and replenished his mana.
It was low-purity mana that he didn't particularly like, but he planned to carefully select and replenish as much as possible.
They could have stayed at the scene a bit longer and rested before leaving, as the mercenaries had hoped...
'Something feels off.'
He wasn't usually one to trust his gut feelings, but now there was evidence to support that bad feeling.
'When I shot the Flame Spear earlier.'
When he had cast magic at the lizard that was barely breathing and scorched the swamp puddle behind it.
Kain had sensed a faint sense of unease through the Flame Spear that had pierced deep into the ground.
'The state of the mana that had seeped into the soil was very different from the outskirts of the swamp.'
Even though the deeper they went into the swamp, the higher the probability of encountering stronger monsters, the difference in mana concentration permeating the soil was so significant that it was almost unheard of.
'There's another factor at play.'
The reason why this place, which hadn't had many monsters until recently, was now teeming with them might be related to this.
'If that's the case, it's best to get through the center of the swamp before it gets any darker.'
Even during the day, this swamp was dim, and at night, it would be pitch black, with not a single ray of starlight penetrating the canopy.
Fortunately, there hadn't been any major incidents at night so far, but if a battle were to break out in the center at night, their overall combat power would drastically decrease due to limited visibility—a no-brainer.
Relying solely on the light provided by fire magic would likely not be enough for smooth combat.
That's why Kain, even though he had intended to leave the processing to the mercenaries, had drawn his dagger himself to save time.
'There's no time to waste.'
It certainly wasn't to further reduce the share of the mercenaries who had left the lizard half-dead.
'I should also tell the disciples to stop mana-intensive training for the time being until we get through the swamp's center.'
Kain turned to look at the disciples.
"Ugh...! Kain, this is too hard! I have no idea how to do it!"
"......"
Edward had already borrowed a fork from Alice and was struggling to imbue mana into it.
He had said he would focus on magic, but it seemed he couldn't resist trying it.
Naturally, the mana was being used haphazardly, and Kain immediately confiscated the fork and instructed the others, including Edward.
"From now until we pass through the center of the swamp, do not waste mana. Only do training that uses the minimum amount of mana. Just enough to maintain your senses. We don't know when a battle might break out."
"Heeing... Okay. I just wanted to try it once."
"...Tch."
Bolio, who had secretly been trying to take out a chopstick, stopped when he heard Kain's words.
Having no choice, the disciples quietly rested or practiced the training they had learned before, manifesting minimal magic with minimal mana.
Anias also did the mana refinement work that Kain had mentioned before.
The mercenaries were also sprawled out in comfortable positions, resting in turns. The wagon had already entered the center of the swamp.
And.
'...It's quieter than I thought.'
Was he being overly cautious?
Contrary to his expectation that monsters might swarm out of the vicinity at any moment, the journey was very smooth.
In fact, they had been traversing the swamp peacefully, with not a single monster appearing after the mud lizards.
Of course, that didn't mean he was letting his guard down; Kain continuously scanned his surroundings.
"Kain, are you asleep?"
"I'm just resting for a moment."
"You almost drooled? Anyway, can you take a look at this for me?"
However, even for Kain, constantly and keenly receiving information from his expanded senses was tiring, so he occasionally took complete rests and also checked on the disciples' training.
"Look. I was doing it like this, as usual, right? But suddenly it just flickered out. Am I doing something wrong?"
Then Bolio, who had been maintaining a Fire Needle next to him, retorted.
"Of course you're doing something wrong. Look closely. No matter how small I make it... Huh?"
"Pfft."
Anias, who was next to him, chuckled softly as Bolio's Fire Needle also went out.
Kain sighed softly at the sight, and Bolio's face turned red as he made excuses.
"No, this shouldn't be happening..."
"I-it's okay. Mine flickered out once a little while ago too..."
Fohn offered words of comfort.
And with those words, Kain's expression changed.
"Wait. All three of you experienced it flickering out?"
For up to two people, it could be a coincidence.
But if all three had...
Kain immediately expanded his senses to grasp the surrounding environment.
'The humidity is abnormally high.'
He could feel the air, saturated with moisture, entering deep into his lungs with every breath.
Even considering it was a swamp, this level of humidity at this low temperature was unnatural.
'So that's why they couldn't maintain it and it went out.'
Fire magic rarely extinguished due to slightly high humidity, but the training the disciples were doing was maintaining small, flickering spells with literally the 'minimum' amount of mana.
Moreover, in a moving wagon, such an environmental change wouldn't be surprising if it caused them to fail.
'The humidity is still subtly increasing.'
And the cause was.
"Fog... The fog is getting thicker and thicker. I'll move slowly!"
By the time they noticed, it had already enveloped all directions.
'If I had been luckier, I could have noticed it a bit earlier.'
The change had occurred while Kain was resting, which was why the detection was delayed.
'Well, it's not like things will change drastically anyway.'
Rather than trying to avoid it and ending up spending the night in an ambiguous area, it was better for things to happen quickly before that.
"I-it seems the fog is too thick; we should stop for a moment!"
Soon, as the wagon came to a complete stop, complaints erupted among the mercenaries.
"What? We've stopped completely?"
"Is it that bad?"
"Uh... it seems pretty bad."
"Yeah, it is bad."
"But we can't just wait indefinitely for it to clear up."
Perhaps they still thought this fog was just a temporary thickening, as there was a hint of annoyance in the mercenaries' voices.
Only the mercenary leader, having noticed Kain's unusual reaction, approached and asked,
"Master Kain. What should we do? We need to cross the center before nightfall..."
Kain exhaled the deep breath he had taken.
Instead of answering, he calmly walked past the mercenary leader and got out of the guard compartment.
Then, he extended his hand towards the fog that was now completely obscuring the surrounding visibility.
"Flame Spear, Amplify."
Whoooosh—
A fiercely burning spear of fire shot out towards the fog like an explosion.
The Flame Spear, which began to rotate on its axis as it shot forward, wrapped around the fog and devoured it ravenously as it flew in a straight line.
"Kweeeeeek!"
"Kyak!"
It incinerated an entire group of monsters hidden within the fog.
"......"
Amidst the silence of everyone with their mouths agape.
Kain, confirming the temporarily cleared visibility ahead, opened his mouth.
"Fog Mermen. Prepare for battle."
