༺ Delinquent Saintess (2) ༻
It didn’t take long for Daesik, the previous elder of the Green Cult, to refine the Korean Ginseng.
“This ginseng… is an unprecedented energy amplifier. It boils the internal energy endlessly and expands their total capacity depending on the amount consumed.”
『Korean Ginseng』
An extraordinary elixir that absorbed energy from leylines for ten thousand years.
-Boiling it into a concoction will expand your Aura.
-Consuming it raw will expand your Mana.
-The maximum expansion will depend on the energy consumed. (10:1)
-Consuming the ginseng will put you in an abnormal state and you will not be able to move. This will continue until your energy is exhausted.
Simply put, it meant that I would be put under an abnormal state the moment I consumed the ginseng, and either my aura or mana would dry up until it reached 0.
My Aura and Mana Capacity were roughly 15,000 and 13,000 respectively. Boiling the ginseng into a concoction, for example, would increase my aura by 1,500.
Not much for the oldest herb in the world, you say?
Actually, there’s more to it.
“After consuming the ginseng, you must finish absorbing it within 3 days.”
“Oi, Mr. Daesik. Anything you missed out on?”
“Sorry?”
He immediately became nervous after hearing that, but there was still an undisguisable light of hostility in his eyes. His time at the salt mines must have made him quite spiteful.
“Daesik?”
Marie called him from behind with a chilling voice and that immediately replaced the hostility in his eyes into fear.
…What did they do to this elder-level mage to make him so afraid just by hearing her voice?
“Were you… hiding something just because I didn’t ‘command’ you?”
“N, no Master…! I, I was about to say it now!”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})“Behave yourself… I even gave you a 3-square-meter room because I liked your work ethic. Or did you want to return to the group bedrooms?”
“Hiik…! H, how could I possibly forget your heavenly grace! Please have mercy…!”
3 square meters? Mr. Daesik… What have you been going through…?
“L, let me add to it now, Duke Consort!”
“Duke Consort?”
“Ahaha~. Daesik must have misunderstood something! Ehehe…”
Marie said while throwing glances at my face. It was easy to tell that she was hiding something but… regardless, I listened to Daesik’s further explanation.
“While you are absorbing the energy from the herb, any external energy can also affect the expansion! We have no data on the 10,000-year-old ginseng, but we have tested it using 1,000-year-old ginsengs, so there shouldn’t be any falsehood in that!”
Right. That is the reason why the 10,000-year-old ginseng is an overpowered elixir.
An endless consumption of energy? But what if you replenished it with external sources?
Whether it be potions or AOE buffs to increase regeneration… or even the help of other allies.
The most efficient use of the Korean Ginseng in ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱ was as follows.
Firstly, acquire the Yellow Gold Mandrake and keep it for the future. Secondly, the player had to increase either their Aura or Mana Capacity diligently before acquiring the Korean Ginseng, and the third piece of the puzzle was to raise as many party members with a large energy capacity.
One of the examples was the unsealed Heavenly Yaksha, Hua Ran, and in terms of mana, there was Senior Professor Josephine Clara.
Using the Yellow Gold Mandrake, we could create an energy regeneration field, drink potions, and receive the help of up to five party members in the game to replenish the loss in energy.
In the game, there was a limit because of balancing issues, but in real life…?
…Yes, there are none.
One of the fundamental reasons why Park Sihu was widely known as the God of Magic, was thanks to this. By consuming this Korean Ginseng and absorbing an endless supply of mana, he increased his capacity by a crazy amount.
Park Sihu, thanks to his rising fame as the hero, was able to receive the full support of the Kingdom as well as Lady Josephine’s help to rally 158 mages.
He received a national level of support.
“You would have to choose between aura and mana then,” said Marie.
“Hmm…”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Honestly, I still wasn’t sure what to go with.
Should I go with aura or mana?
Fundamentally, I was a knight. Most of my skills ate up aura and Shura, out of all the skills, was one hell of a drainer.
My current Aura Capacity was 15,000 and there were 12,000 aura stored up in my three Aura Cores, which added up to 27,000 in total.
Increasing this by a dramatic amount would mean that I would never run out of aura until the end of the world.
“Mana… I think I should go with mana.”
“Alright. Is it because of Claiomh Solais?”
But in the end, I decided to go with mana.
Of course, my current Mana Capacity was nothing to scoff at – 13,000 was more than what most Grade 1 mages had in their arsenal.
However, Claoimh Solais had a ridiculous and illogical mana consumption rate. In spite of the 200% mana increase set effect of Claiomh Solais and Airgetlam, the silver arm, that still wasn’t enough to let me use Sun Compression for a long period of time.
It reminded me once again how only a monster like Eochaid Bres would be able to make full use of the Sun. Considering how Park Sihu, who had less mana than him, had 410,000… It was to be expected of a monster.
“Good choice. There is a limitation to aura after all.”
Using my connection with Alicia, Hua Ran, Master Erin, Miss Lunia, and all sorts of other renowned knights, I might be able to receive the help of dozens of knights but…
“There is practically no limit to mana, right?”
First off, we went to Lady Josephine.
***
The salt mines in possession of the Dunareff were notorious for their merciless amount of labor and their harsh environment.
It was constructed to brutally harass the prisoners instead of aiming for profit and was essentially a place that incited the life-imprisoned prisoners to die there.
However, recently added to the list of prisoners here were ghouls, who would never die as long as they didn’t run out of mana. They used to be promising mages of the Tower but were now nothing more than convicts imprisoned for life in the salt mines.
These ghouls weren’t even given free time like the rest of the prisoners.
Under the scorching sun and after treading through the boiling seawater underneath, the mages of the Tower poured saltwater onto another piece of land.
“A, ahht…!”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Zollin, who had been blankly pouring saltwater, spotted movement inside the water and widened his eyes.
“J, jackpot!”
“Jackpot? What…! That’s… a crab!”
“H, hold up Zollin! You are not thinking of having that by yourself, are you? Boil it into a soup and many more would be able to enjoy it!”
Sometimes, during the process of moving seawater, the prisoners would come across either fish or crabs and that was a blissful moment for them. It was because the rare source of protein helped awaken their long-lost sense of taste, in this harsh prison that gave potatoes, potatoes, and potatoes.
Even if the dish they made was a plain soup made with water and some random seaweed, that was always better than nothing for them.
As such, anyone finding a crab or a fish inside the salt mines tended to call out, ‘Jackpot!’
“H, hands off! I caught this myself!”
“You can’t do this to me, Zollin! Do you not remember me helping you with your essay when you first came to the 6th floor?!”
“P, Professor Zollin! No, Master! Look at me; I’m your disciple Mandel, who studied under you for 27 years!”
All sorts of hyenas tried to use past connections but Zollin had no plans of sharing this crab with anyone. It had been half a year since he had any meat and his personal cravings were too strong to share the joy with someone else.
-BEEEEEEEEEEP!!
It was then. Mark, the Chief Officer of the Dunareff salt mine, called everyone to gather.
“All prisoners are to gather immediately! Look at yourselves! Move your damn asses!”
The irritated screams of the nearby officers were enough to immediately send the prisoners into a hurry. While carefully holding onto the little crab in his hands, Zollin raced towards the assembly area.
“Hello everyone~. Have you been working hard?”
““Welcome, Lady Marie!!””
In one voice, the prisoners shouted out loud like underlings greeting their mafia boss.
Honestly, however, the status of being the oldest daughter of the Dunareff Dukedom was something mafia bosses couldn’t even dare compare to. She was the future empress of the Potato Empire and was a person who could make any mafia boss stand on their hands with one sentence.
“Uncle Mark! Are the prisoners I sent in working well?”
“Haha, of course. Even if they weren’t good workers originally, inside this place they would have no choice but to be.”
There was truth in his words because despite being from the Tower, all the mages were now expert salt miners. They were bashed up until they became one, and in the end, all of them had become veterans.
“Hmm, actually I was thinking of giving vacation to our little friends.”
“V, vacation?”
“Did she say vacation??”
The 400 mages immediately became restless the moment they heard that. Ever since they were forced into this place, they had never received a vacation – in fact, they didn’t even get to rest.
Pouring salt water, again and again, they had to fill up tubs before moving the salt that they acquired from the water into a distant storeroom.
Even on days when their work ended ahead of schedule, just a single mutter from the officer, ‘Maybe we should pick up some vegetables from the rear mountain,’ meant that the 400 mages had to bend their backs and climb the mountain.
“For three days,” Marie added.
“Three days!”
“Three days?!”
Three days? What a joyous period of three days that would be!
“And enjoy some nice food.”
“Nice food?”
“Not potatoes?!”
Was she providing them with a meal? A proper dish instead of potatoes?!
O the merciful Dunareff!
“We need a place to sleep after work so please rent out a decent hotel.”
She was even promising them time off after work? How could this be real? How merciful could she be?! O, Your Highness!!!
“But I only need around 200.”
………………………
………………………
………………………
The air suddenly turned cold. People turned around, feeling the chilling glares from left and right, and they all looked at each other while gritting their teeth.
Who will it be? Who will be put off and who will be going after Master Marie?
After Marie was finished with her sentence, the officer grinned before turning towards them.
“You heard that right. Now’s your time to fight.”
Only half of you shall be redeemed.
………
……
…
Three days went by.
As a result of sucking out the mana of 200 free mages, the community center that we rented out was filled with exhausted mages.
『You have fully consumed the Korean Ginseng.』
-A total of 375,644 mana has been exhausted.
-Your Mana Capacity has increased by 37,564.
-Your Mana Rank has gone up from Very High to Lower Unique.
“…This is insane.”
I was lost for words upon seeing the message floating in front of my eyes.
Yes. I did know theoretically about the effects of the Korean Ginseng. Even Park Sihu in the last iteration acquired a tremendous amount of mana through this method so there was no way I wouldn’t know about it.
By the way, Park Sihu’s final Mana Rank was Upper Unique, with his Mana Capacity reaching 430,000, thanks to all of his other amplifiers and buffs. He truly was a monster among monsters.
With this, my mana went over 50,000.
Of course, it was nothing compared to Park Sihu or the final bosses like Eochaid Bres and Tates Valtazar, but I had some amplifiers myself.
The Precept and Airgetlam.
Any battle related to the salvation of the world, due to my Precept of ‘I will save the world,’ would increase my stat by 100%.
On top of that was the set effect of Airgetlam.
-Equipping Airgetlam along with the Sun, Claiomh Solais, increases your mana by 200%
With those two, my mana would be amplified by more than 4 times, giving me a shocking amount of 200,000.
‘Fuu… I’m becoming an actual monster now.’
Having 50,000 was already enough to be called a monster and yet 200,000… Well, the only way for me to use mana was through the Sun and Rune Magic though.
‘Honestly, I wasn’t sure beforehand, but with this, that should also be possible.’
I was certain that this would serve a very important role in the battle that I had been preparing for.
“Congratulations. That’s… truly a shocking amount of mana.”
Lady Josephine, who carried us to and from the salt mines of the South, commented in awe while seeing how different I was in terms of mana.
It was a great accomplishment that even a great mage like herself acknowledged.
“Korin is amazing, right!? Mana is one thing, but it’s also amazing how he’s not losing a single bit of it!”
“My Mana Rank also went up, you see. Even though I can’t even use anything apart from Rune Magic.”
Any mage with the same level of rank and capacity as me would have become a legendary great mage.
Unfortunately, I was terrible at Math. I had long forgotten differentiation and integration already, and reading complex magical structures was already incredibly difficult.
‘Park Sihu was in the Maths Department of Yonsei University if I remember correctly.’
I suppose someone like me, who was from the Physical Education Department was just more suited to moving my own body.
“Student Korin.”
“What is it, Professor?”
“At the end of this semester, we will be applying for a grading test. For ‘Limitless Evaluation’.”
“…”
Limitless Evaluation.
It was an official evaluating system of the Guardian Alliance that the player only had access to in the latter portions of the game. Through this test, the player would be tested on whether they were semi-Unique or Unique Grade.
There was a massive difference in treatment between semi-Unique Grades and Unique Grades. Even Marie; although she had combat prowess on the level of a Unique Grade demi-human, it would be difficult for her to be officially acknowledged by the Alliance as a Unique Grade Guardian.
The word ‘Unique Grade Guardian’ was the same as saying that they were the strongest of the generation, who could hunt down a Unique Grade demon by themselves.
Spear Saint, Tates Valtazar.
Sword Emperor, Garrand Arden.
This could be seen from how these two were the only Unique Grade Guardians alive to this date.
Besides, the Alliance usually only gave up to semi-Unique Grade and were quite hesitant to label someone as a Unique Grade Guardian.
Just like how there was a big gap between the rights of a Grade 1 and a semi-Unique Grade guardian, there was also a huge gap in authority and rights between semi-Unique and Unique.
It was only when a guardian had everything including strength, background, and a record that they rarely gave their verdict.
In ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱, the final happy ending was only possible when the player reached Unique Grade, so I had to obtain that title in this Limitless Evaluation.
“Well, I’m sure it will be fine.”
By then, both the Kingdom and the Alliance would be going through a rapid change after all.
***
On the main streets of the Academy, after the holiday came to an end, Miruam was walking alone through the campus for the first time in a month.
She was someone who was always on the receiving end of attention.
The 2nd Princess of the dominant country of the continent, the El Rath Kingdom; and the only rightful heir to the throne.
As the daughter born from the previous Queen and not the current one, who used to be a concubine, she was the only legitimate heir to many nobles who fussed over such details. That was one of the reasons why she received their support.
However, the daughter of the current Queen, Estelle, was a strong competitor who even had the title of being the Saintess. Even though Miruam had zero interest in the throne, considering how the New Faith would interfere with her lifelong desire, she had to form allies with those opposing them.
That was why she allied herself with the Tower of Mages and collaborated with the Old Faith.
The world was going to end anyway, and even if it didn’t, she had no doubt that their support would be extremely helpful for her achieving her goal.
‘But it half crumbled into pieces because of that man, Korin Lork.’
The living jiangshi plan of the Old Faith ended up a failure, and the Tower of Mages was practically rooted out. She knew how Korin Lork had been at the basis of all that.
However, she couldn’t hate him for it – in fact, she found him all the more endearing.
“…”
Miruam gazed at the gem in her hands – the Stone of Destiny with its dreamy radiance. One of the four great treasures of the Danann and the Stone of Coronation, which served to pick the next God King, was in her hands.
『Keep that for yourself until this is over. This is the proof of our alliance.』
『This… Is that okay with you?』
『It doesn’t really matter. When the time comes, the treasures will all attract each other into one place anyway.』
The Stone of Destiny should be an incredible treasure in itself already though…
Although Miruam was suspicious about Tates’ intention, he simply looked back at her with a smile.
『Carry on with your struggle. Good luck changing your fate.』
As if he was aware of something, he nonchalantly gave up on the Stone of Destiny as if it was nothing.
“What a difficult person to understand.”
He was just like that person.
‘Korin Lork.’
My prince.
My destined knight.
The one who would be fulfilling her desire, which had been lying inside her for 10 long years.
She had to buy his goodwill for that to happen.
If he took her for himself, violated her, and raped her to the point that she even bore a child, that would be the best-case scenario for her, because considering his actions until now, it was highly unlikely that he would discard his wife.
As long as he could help her achieve her dreams, she was willing to pour out all her love upon him. She could give him everything for an eternity.
‘I have remembered what he does during the day over the 1st semester. First, I should head to the training room to make contact and…’
She was wondering how to enchant him when the walking stick that helped her walk accidentally poked into a hole in the ground.
“Uht…?!”
Losing her balance, Miruam started to fall forward. It was something that happened very often after she lost one of her legs, so she prepared for the shock and calmly closed her eyes but—
-Thud!
Something stopped her before she fell onto the ground.
It felt like she landed on a piece of rock, but it only took her a moment to realize that she was leaning on the big and tough yet warm chest of someone. It must have been a passerby that helped her. She was about to say thanks but…
“Got ya.”
The voice that reached her ears was very familiar – it was the voice of destiny that she couldn’t possibly forget.
“Knight… Korin?”
“We are in the Academy, so please call me Senior. Junior.”
As she rested on his chest, he gazed down at her with an oddly emotional smile on his face.
