Neo-Joseon Cyberpunk

Chapter 52: Mana Meditation (2)

“Our magic tower’s Mana Meditation?”

“Yeah. I was curious about what kind of technique you use there.”

“Hmm…….”

Betty twisted her blue hair around her finger and spoke.

“That would be a little difficult…….”

“Is it because I’m an outsider?”

“No. It’s not like that……. Well, it’s true that there are things you’re not supposed to teach outsiders. But even setting that aside, our Brain Dragon Magic Tower’s Mana Meditation is a bit unusual.”

Unusual.

Every magic tower possessed Mana Meditation techniques that had been passed down traditionally, depending on the magic they pursued.

I recalled the Baekok Form I had been taught by Kang Da-hee.

A Mana Meditation technique of the White Magic Tower that was said to be especially useful for those compatible with Multiple Mana.

What they valued most was accepting as many possibilities as possible.

That was why they inhaled the mana flowing in the atmosphere not only through the nose and mouth, but also through the brain crown, dantian, and lower abdomen.

‘Learning the Baekok Form first turned out to be an unexpectedly big gain.’

Originally, using two or more Mana Meditation techniques at the same time was extremely dangerous.

That was because each meditation stored mana differently—in other words, the accumulation methods were all different.

It was similar to trying to organize a warehouse using multiple standards: instead of becoming orderly, it would only grow more chaotic.

‘But the Baekok Form makes that possible.’

Because the White Magic Tower pursued Multiple Mana, its accumulation method was extremely unique.

First of all, its greatest feature was that it strictly divided the interior of the mana core into separate compartments. This kind of accumulation method laid the foundation for smoothly accommodating many other meditation techniques.

However, since it divided up a limited space, it was also a technique that could actually be a loss for a mage without sufficient talent.

‘That part isn’t a problem for me.’

The mana core I possessed.

Even now, I couldn’t gauge where my limits truly lay.

‘Anyway, it was an incredibly difficult technique.’

Just inhaling the mana in the air with the Baekok Form wasn’t easy.

Most ordinary mages took several months just to accept mana through mana channels other than their respiratory organs, and it took years of training to finally reach the point of accumulating that inhaled mana in its unique way.

‘That’s for ordinary mages.’

I perfected not only inhalation but also accumulation on the very day I learned the meditation.

Kang Da-hee, who had watched from the side, was extremely shocked.

After that, she said she would teach me other meditations as well, and over several days she taught me various Lightning-type related meditation techniques.

All except one place’s technique—the Brain Dragon Magic Tower’s.

‘It was actually the one I wanted to know the most.’

The Brain Dragon Magic Tower, which stood at the very apex among Lightning-type magic towers.

Even though she knew I used Lightning-type magic, she left out that tower’s meditation.

I wondered if she had some kind of trauma related to the Brain Dragon Magic Tower because of what had happened at the Podvig interview site, but I didn’t press the issue.

Soon, however, I learned why she hadn’t mentioned it.

“Our tower’s meditation isn’t something just anyone can learn.”

“Why?”

“Because…….”

Betty spoke in a small voice.

“To do it, you have to be bathed in the Brain Dragon’s breath.”

“…….”

The Brain Dragon’s breath…….

I recalled that destructive energy I had witnessed in the final Podvig interview room.

The tremendous attack that had blown a massive hole through a Megacorporation skyscraper.

Just recalling it made my body tremble slightly.

I had to take that head-on?

“To use the Brain Dragon Magic Tower’s Mana Meditation—Leowol—you need to have special mana channels opened. And as I said, the only way to do that is to directly receive the Brain Dragon’s breath. Through a method called the ‘Lightning Baptism.’”

“Hmm……”

“That’s why the Brain Dragon Magic Tower tacitly allows the use of other Lightning-type meditations. Putting aside the fact that you could die during the baptism, opportunities to even receive it are rare to begin with. The tower only holds the baptism ceremony once every five years, and only for specially selected heirs.”

As Betty said, enduring the breath was one problem, but the bigger issue was that the Brain Dragon itself had to exhale that breath.

The power called breath, possessed by all dragons, wasn’t infinite—it had a fixed limit to how much could be used.

As I organized my thoughts, I asked,

“Is it that you’re not yet at a level where you can give that baptism, or do you think I wouldn’t be able to endure the breath?”

“Um…… both are true, but the reasons are a bit different.”

“……?”

“For some reason, my breath is especially strong.”

“Strong?”

“Ah, if we’re just talking about raw power, of course it’s much weaker than the elders in my family. What I mean is the ‘energy’ contained in my breath.”

Betty put on a slightly bitter expression.

“A few years ago, I participated in a baptism ceremony in the role of a dragon. But…… the mage who received my baptism suddenly went into mana runaway.”

“Mana runaway…….”

“It’s an extremely dangerous phenomenon where the mana channels flow in reverse. Thankfully, he didn’t die. The elders were nearby. But he ended up with a body that could never use magic again.”

She sighed in a gloomy tone and continued.

“After that day, my dad forbade me from giving baptisms. He said there were very few people who could endure my breath.”

A baptismal breath strong enough to cause mana runaway.

This might actually be an opportunity.

“Tell me in a bit more detail.”

“Huh?”

“What did your father say?”

“Um……. He said my breath contains both the innate power that comes from the Brain Dragon’s blood and the high-output Lightning-type mana I inherited from my dad at the same time. So compared to an ordinary Brain Dragon, the energy contained in my breath is much stronger. To endure it, you’d probably need a vessel on the level of an Archmage.”

“An Archmage…….”

Seeing me sink into thought, Betty asked,

“What is it? Don’t tell me you actually want to become an Archmage?”

“…….”

She let out a small laugh and muttered,

“No matter what, that would be hard even for you, Diesel.”

When my face creased slightly at her words, she hurriedly added,

“Ah, no. I just mean it’s that unbelievably difficult.”

An Archmage.

A title given to those who had mastered all kinds of magic and even reached the stage of creating magic themselves.

In the field of astronomical magic theory, it was explained that only those who possessed the vessel of an Archmage were born when magic-aligned with certain stars.

Whether that was true or not, it meant that innate talent was that important.

‘Then what about me?’

I knew I possessed tremendous potential.

But I still hadn’t confirmed whether I was a vessel fit to become an Archmage.

“Do you really think so?”

“…….”

“That I can’t become an Archmage.”

At that question, Betty looked at me with a slightly flustered expression.

“Well, I mean, it’s hard to tell just by looking……. Uwaah……!”

Suddenly, I grabbed Betty’s wrist.

Then I roughly pulled it to my chest.

“Y-you, what are you doing……?”

“Check it yourself.”

“C-check what……?”

“How big my vessel really is.”

Betty fidgeted helplessly with her hand.

Then she noticed the seriousness on my face and stopped moving.

“Uuuum…….”

Carefully, she placed her hand near my heart.

Soon, the special sense possessed by the dragon race began to sweep through my body.

‘…….’

The first thing she felt was a chilling cold she had never experienced before.

The attribute-awakened cold-type mana called Black Ice brushed against her mind, and her body trembled slightly as if struck by a sudden chill.

“Oh…….”

Then she discovered smooth, lofty mana that stood ready to change in any direction.

Mana this cleanly refined was an extremely rare talent even within magic towers.

When she finally reached the mana core that contained all of it.

Betty made a dumbfounded expression.

“……!”

There were two criteria for determining a mage’s vessel.

One was the quality and volume of mana currently available.

Like water contained within a vessel, this was an indicator that showed the level the mage had presently reached.

The other was the mage’s innate potential.

This could be seen as the size of the vessel itself, a part that could not be filled no matter how much blood-grinding effort was made, nor even with the finest cyberware.

And in the case of the vessel I possessed…….

‘Th-that’s impossible…….’

Betty’s face was covered in shock.

An overwhelming mana potential that would astonish even dragons, a race more familiar with magic than anyone else.

‘Just where…… does it end?’

Like staring into the deep abyss of an oceanic trench, its end could not be seen.

Which meant that if I gradually increased only the amount I could make usable through training, all of this space could be filled with mana.

“How is it?”

“…….”

“Do you see the possibility?”

“You…….”

Even though I had let go of Betty’s wrist, she did not remove her hand.

“I’ll do it. No.”

Then, as if she had made up her mind, she looked straight at me and said,

“You absolutely have to do it.”

A few days later, somewhere on the outskirts of the Gyeonggi region sprawl.

The filthy concrete husks left behind by a city that had expanded recklessly.

I secured an abandoned building in a desolate place where no one lived within a ten-kilometer radius.

There was only one purpose.

To receive the Mana Meditation passed down in the Brain Dragon Magic Tower, ‘Leowol’.

“Are you ready?”

Inside the dark building where not even moonlight reached, the presence of a half-dragon did not hide itself, fully revealing who she was.

Skin where patches of blue scales had sprouted, wings made of thin membranes, horns rising in the shape of lightning, and lastly, a long tail with soft fur at its tip.

Betty looked at the mage in front of her with vertically slit pupils like a reptile’s.

“I’m ready.”

My attire was a little unusual.

The blue cloth outfit that covered me from head to toe was clothing that faithfully imitated the traditional attire of the Brain Dragon Magic Tower.

“As I said, the ‘Lightning Baptism’ will be accompanied by tremendous pain. But you absolutely must not use any means to reduce the pain, like analgesics. You have to fully accept the energy of the breath.”

Betty’s breath was said to possess especially powerful energy even among the breaths exhaled by Brain Dragons.

Then the pain inflicted would also be far from ordinary.

“You can’t stop midway, so steel yourself. Got it?”

When I nodded instead of answering, Betty took her stance.

“Then…… here I go.”

Huuu—she took a deep breath.

Then she opened her mouth.

“……!”

She unleashed a breath of tremendous power.

‘Ghk……!’

Pajijijik……!

Raging lightning swept across my skin.

‘Endure…… this……?’

Energy that felt utterly impossible to withstand.

I desperately leaned my body forward so I wouldn’t be blown back after taking it head-on.

‘This is more than I expected…….’

Crackling sparks burst across my entire skin, and searing pain rushed in.

I clenched my teeth to suppress the scream that threatened to escape.

‘Gngh…… I can’t just stay still…….’

The purpose of this painful baptism was to open mana channels.

Special channels that couldn’t be created by ordinary methods.

‘I have to…… face the breath…… directly…….’

To do that, I had to confront the breath head-on.

Literally open my eyes wide and stare straight at the oncoming energy.

Was it like trying to open one’s eyes in a violent current?

No—rather than water, it felt like a tide of red-hot needles surging in.

In the end, I lifted my head toward the Brain Dragon’s breath.

‘Ugh…….’

Even as the survival instinct latent within me screamed that I should never do this.

I slowly raised eyelids that felt like they could never open.

‘Please……!’

As I clenched my teeth and forced my facial muscles to move anyway.

At last, my eyes opened wide.

At the same time, the Brain Dragon’s breath began to scour every corner of my mana channels.

“Kraaagh……!”

Unable to endure it, I let out a scream.

But I did not turn my head away from the breath I had barely managed to face.

Lightning shooting from my eyes scorched the skin of my face red.

The bloodshot whites of my eyes looked as if they might burst at any moment.

After several seconds that felt like a lifetime passed like that.

The breath exhaled from the half-dragon’s mouth subsided.

At the same time, I collapsed to the floor as if I had blacked out.

“……!”

Betty hurriedly caught my falling body.

“Diesel!”

“…….”

“Wake up!”

Perhaps the half-dragon’s shout got through.

I coughed, sparks flying out with it.

Seeing that, Betty spoke in a highly excited tone.

“Haha! You were a far more incredible mage than I thought, weren’t you?”

“Huff…… huff…… did it work……?”

“Did it work?”

A small bolt of lightning flashed between Betty’s two horns as her emotions surged.

“It was a crazy huge success!”