I Give Up on Conquering the Heroines

22 – Episode 22. Shadow Self-Immortal Art (1)

In the past, the image of mercenaries was bad, but as mercenaries began to take the lead in dungeon raids, their image improved a lot.

Among the mercenaries, there are some who have been officially given titles, so their status has risen considerably.

There is a story behind the protagonist’s change from adventurer to mercenary in the game.

The size of mercenary groups varies, but mercenary groups that are so powerful that their leader attends the mercenary council boasts the size of an army.

A village naturally forms around the base where the mercenary group establishes itself.

In that village, many engineers and specialists gather and develop brilliant technologies.

“······Eugene.”

“Why?”

“······I want to touch that.”

“I’ll let you touch it after it’s processed. Stop pestering me.”

Mijung looks at my bag and whines again.

I’m asking you to let me touch the magic stone.

Why are you so obsessed with magic stones?

Definitely a magic stone is a precious item.

A well-processed magic stone increases the magic power transfer efficiency and volume from two to three times to hundreds of times that of a gemstone.

It is used as a main orb for wizards, and as an aid to stabilize the flow of magic in the body for swordsmen.

Even if you don’t know how to use magic at all, just holding it has the effect of slightly increasing your resistance to magic, so it can be said to be an essential item for mercenaries.

As the usefulness of magic stones increases day by day, magic stone processing is a field that has become a big issue these days.

In particular, the village near here is famous for its magic stone crafts.

Mercenaries come from all over the continent to work on the magic stones, sell the stones, and buy the finished products.

The guy I’m looking for is probably working as an apprentice craftsman in that village right now.

“Get a good night’s sleep. It will take a long time to arrive anyway.”

“······.”

“Ah. You don’t sleep.”

“······Yes.”

“I’m trying to close my eyes. My eyes are dry and bloodshot already.”

“······Oh.”

Inside the carriage heading to the next village.

I put the hat over my face and leaned against the wall.

I glanced to the side and saw that Mijeong had closed her eyes tightly and was maintaining a sedentary posture just as I said.

Of course, we are not the only ones in the carriage.

There are a lot of people trying to go to the next village.

It’s a bit jarring and somewhat uncomfortable, but I feel more at ease this way.

Every time I ride in a neat, luxurious carriage, I think of our main heroines.

Every time I ride a luxury carriage, even though my body feels comfortable, a part of my mind feels uncomfortable.

In addition, the ticket price is dozens of times cheaper here, so there is no reason to pay a lot of money and torture yourself mentally.

“Stick closer to me.”

“······Yes.”

I pull Mijeong closer to me so that she doesn’t touch the person sitting next to her.

If he touches Mi-jeong’s cold body and realizes that she is a blood demon, he will be in trouble.

There is no danger since the fangs have been pulled out, but it would probably be better to cause an uproar saying that there is a blood demon here than for me to explain it.

I just hate troublesome things.

‘Let’s practice magic control.’

It worked out well because the road there was boring.

I need to practice mana control, which I was unable to use while conquering the dungeon.

Like any trait with a level, when you are at a low level, even if you touch it just a little, the level goes up significantly.

You will be much better if you just practice a little during the intermission.

[Attribute: Magic Control (lv.1)]

[Skillfully controls the magic power in the body. Consumes a small amount of magical power to greatly improve physical abilities. Damage occurs when overloaded.]

Close your eyes quietly and try to activate magic control.

It works in the body anyway, so there is no need to worry about getting caught even if you use it in a place where many people use it.

Unless you suddenly overload and become paralyzed.

‘I’ve been playing in the adventurer area for three days, but I’m still at level 1.’

What’s interesting is that while I was having fun raiding the adventurer’s guild, my level didn’t increase at all.

Of course, at that time, it was used haphazardly as a stat-boosting skill to replace Guardian Knight.

As a result, there was a runaway and overload almost every time, and it wasn’t much of a mess.

‘So, you have to write correctly to raise your level.’

This is a quite tricky characteristic.

The point is that you must use it carefully, without causing a runaway or overload, to increase your skill level.

Is driving skills recognized only when you achieve 10 years without an accident?

Just as it is a law that must be learned by hitting the car a little, I wanted to practice by hitting the overload a little.

Well, it doesn’t matter since you can’t overload inside the carriage anyway.

“Phew…”

As I take a deep breath and concentrate, I can feel the flow of magical energy flowing within my body.

I have a strange feeling.

Should I say that it feels as if I can directly feel the blood flow flowing through my body?

It’s a feeling I can’t get used to even after 12 years.

In fact, controlling the magical energy within the body is possible without any special characteristics.

Over the past 12 sessions, I have been able to control it in my own way, even though I was unable to produce enough output to cause overload.

However, the effect of the characteristic magic power control is significant as it clearly states that magic power is ‘skillfully’ controlled.

In the past, my condition could only improve slightly by focusing and exerting as much force as if I was pooping, but now I feel like my body is getting lighter in an instant.

Looking at it like this, I understand.

Why did Yerina emphasize magic control so much?

I also understand why Yerina sighed and said that I had no talent.

This is a skill that originally requires you to become stronger so rapidly, but I wonder how pathetic I must have looked when I was glad to see that my condition had improved.

‘Toward 10 years without accidents. Toward 10 years without accidents.’

I try to control the flow of magic again by focusing on it.

I grab hold of every single one of the magical energy freely running wild through my body and force it to move in one direction.

If concentration is lost even a little, people who break away from the ranks begin to appear here and there.

It is not easy because it is an unfamiliar feeling.

Although the word ‘skillfully’ is specified, it is still difficult for me to feel the overall flow of magical power.

Do I have to say that it feels like lifting a heavy shopping cart with hip muscles that I have never used before?

Even if you focus and put a lot of effort into it, the results are not satisfactory, so it’s frustrating.

‘This is going crazy.’

I think it’s harder on the boat because I’m trying to delicately control the output so as not to overload it.

But as I continue to focus, something is happening.

At first, only a large flow was seen circulating within the body, but now even more subtle flows can be seen.

Branches branching off from the stem extend to the extremities of the entire body.

If control fails in a large flow, the magic power cannot reach the extremities in the first place.

Even if you do well in a large flow, if you fail in a small flow, the delivery efficiency plummets.

‘Oh.’

Just one moment.

All magical energy flows within the body were placed under my control and harmonized.

It didn’t last even a second, but I definitely felt it.

Time suddenly slows down and strength fills my whole body.

It felt like I had entered a completely different world.

‘Crazy. Are you saying you were just recklessly trying to use this?’

Until now, I thought magic control was an ordinary stat skill.

The guardian knight’s stats are intuitively displayed in the stat window as the 5-fold increase, but I was wondering why this was not displayed.

The question has just been answered.

The effect varies greatly depending on skill level and concentration, so there is no way to quantitatively indicate how much a stat increases.

So, this means that superhumans like Yerina are always in a state where this trait is activated.

I always maintain such intense concentration that my whole body goes numb like I do now.

You’re crazy.

[Attribute: Magic Control (lv.2)]

The level has increased by 1.

It seems that the system has finally acknowledged that I am training properly.

Just by raising level 1, cold sweat drips down my forehead and my whole body feels sore.

How long will it take to raise this to level 10…

I am at a loss.

Still, I am satisfied because I learned the true performance of mana control.

Although it only lasted 1 second, I also got a glimpse of the possibility.

The possibility of surpassing the realm of superhumans.

“Are we all getting there now?”

I take a deep breath and open my eyes.

I concentrated so deeply that I could barely hear any surrounding noise.

I think this was probably the moment I concentrated the hardest since the CSAT English listening test.

“Hmm?”

But something is strange.

The moment I opened my eyes, something was thrust in front of my eyes.

Take your head back slightly and try to focus.

It is the tip of the sword.

A man was pointing a sword at me.

“Get off! Can’t you hear me?”

“······.”

Look around and try to understand the situation.

The carriage is already empty except for me and Mi-jeong.

Outside the carriage, passengers are trembling and kneeling with their hands raised.

And surrounding him were men holding large swords.

“Huh.”

I understand the situation.

The carriage was passing through a mountain road when it encountered a group of thieves.

But that wasn’t the part that I found absurd.

“Mijung. You should have woken me up.”

“······Why?”

“Why? It’s a dangerous situation.”

“······Danger? This?”

I was at a loss for words.

Mi-jeong, who is sitting next to me, sits in the same position as before and tilts her head.

Mijeong didn’t even realize that this was a dangerous situation.

I’ve even forgotten my own name, so there’s no way I could have the bare minimum of common sense.

“What are you doing? Stop chatting calmly and get off quickly! Are you going to kill me?”

Actually, Mi-jeong is not entirely wrong.

This is actually not a very dangerous situation.

A sword so large that it is cumbersome.

It looks threatening, but the center of gravity is not at all correct and the blade is not sharp.

Just looking at it, it is a decorative sword.

However, for something like that, the posture is quite stable.

It doesn’t seem to be my first time holding a sword.

Rather than not knowing how to use a sword, he seems to have deliberately used a decorative sword to intimidate ordinary people.

Looking at the many scars on his face and arms, it is clear that he has been stealing for quite some time.

“This is the final warning!”

“Mijung, lie down.”

“······Yes.”

Just the right training partner showed up on his own.

This is a good opportunity to check the results of your magic control training.