Future Knight

Chapter 18

His heart rate surged, and his breathing grew increasingly ragged.

With his accelerating metabolism, his entire body’s muscles surged as if they were about to run rampant.

As time passed, his body gradually reached its limit.

If he maintained combat mode any longer, his cells would undoubtedly necrotize, causing his body to decay.

But then, it happened.

‘No, what is this?’

He experienced something extraordinary.

Just as his cells were on the verge of collapsing, a faint amount of mana slowly began to flow through his body according to his will, traveling along the mana lines.

As the mana circulated, the time for his cells to begin breaking down had long passed, yet his body remained unchanged.

Astonished by this incredible situation, Kang Chan was at a loss for what to do.

He had only sensed mana before and had no experience in moving it through the mana lines.

Deciding to see it through to the end, he continued rotating the mana without disengaging combat mode.

But that was Kang Chan’s mistake.

As his metabolism accelerated dozens of times, so did the rotation of the mana, pulling in surrounding mana at an increasing rate.

New mana began rushing into his mana hole like a torrent.

‘What is happening? I can’t stop it!’

Inexperienced in handling mana, Kang Chan lacked the ability and stamina to control it.

The rushing mana soon broke free from his control, tearing through his body along the mana lines.

Kang Chan experienced excruciating pain, as if needles were piercing through him due to the wild mana flow.

‘Ugh! Aaaah!’

Overwhelmed by the immense amount of mana threatening to burst him like a balloon, he despaired, and his body, turning purple, was on the brink of explosion.

‘Am I going to die like this?’

The uncontrollable, rampaging mana even reached his biochip.

“Aaaagh!”

Kang Chan screamed in agony from a splitting headache, but his biochip provided an unexpected response.

– A new software has been discovered. Would you like to connect?

“Ye-yes, connect! Aaagh!”

In desperate pain, Kang Chan agreed, grasping at straws. The biochip began to control the rampaging mana.

– Excessive unknown energy detected in the body.

– Attempting to release energy through the hands.

Unlike the inexperienced Kang Chan, the biochip calmly attempted to release the excessive unknown energy accumulated in his body through his hands.

As the computer spoke, Kang Chan instinctively raised his hand to the sky while writhing in pain, and an astonishing event occurred.

A massive beam of light shot out from Kang Chan’s hand.

‘Huh! What is this?’

The beam of light continued to pour out for a while before gradually subsiding, and the wild mana rampaging through his body vanished into the air.

– All energy release completed.

– Disengaging combat mode.

As combat mode disengaged, Kang Chan felt his entire body become heavy like a waterlogged sponge and collapsed on the spot.

“Huff! Huff! Huff! What on earth is this…”

With that one final word, Kang Chan exhausted all his remaining strength and fell into a faint sleep.

“Hey, mister? Are you okay?”

Returning from the village with lunch, Jaina saw Kang Chan collapsed by the waterfall and hurriedly ran over to shake him.

Kang Chan slowly opened his eyes.

“……”

“Mister, what happened? Are you hurt?”

“My… stomach…”

“Stomach? Does your stomach hurt?”

“No, I’m… hungry.”

“What?”

Jaina, with a frustrated expression, threw the lunch she had brought at Kang Chan’s stomach.

“Oh, this is annoying… Now you’re even doing things you didn’t before.”

“……!”

Kang Chan grabbed the lunch box and quickly sat up, looking at Jaina.

“What day is it today?”

“You… Hey! Stop joking around.”

“I’m not joking. How long have I been lying here?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? I saw you in the morning, and it’s lunchtime now!”

Kang Chan couldn’t believe his ears.

“What? Less than a day has passed?”

He had used the fifth stage of combat mode to its limit, yet there were no risks or consequences.

When he woke up, it should have been at least two days later for it to be normal.

Moreover, his body felt much lighter and fresher than before.

‘Computer, how did I wake up in just one day?’

– I do not know the reason, but you are in very healthy condition. The unknown energy was released through your hands, burning away impurities in your body, resulting in excellent blood circulation and metabolism.

‘Very healthy? What on earth happened?’

Kang Chan checked the mana in his mana hole.

He sensed an enormous amount of mana, unlike the faint mana he had before.

‘Whoa! What is all this mana? No way?’

With a sense of disbelief, he took a stance and guided the mana through his mana lines.

Amazingly, the mana followed his guidance, circulating through his body slowly and drawing in surrounding mana as well, not wildly like before.

‘It’s working! It’s moving!’

Kang Chan felt a thrill like electricity coursing through his body.

Watching Kang Chan in his euphoric state, Jaina frowned.

“When did you say you were hungry, and now you’re training again? Hey, aren’t you going to eat?”

Whether Jaina called out or not, Kang Chan, in his ecstatic state, continued to guide mana throughout his body.

After training and returning to the Red Mars, Kang Chan went to the training ground in front of the Red Mars and practiced the mana cultivation method again.

He was so excited to be able to handle mana that he took every opportunity to move mana, feeling a sense of exhilaration.

Then, suddenly, he thought, ‘With this amount of mana, couldn’t I create an aura sword like Keremion?’ He quickly finished his mana cultivation and stood up.

Focusing his mind, he began to concentrate.

‘Send the mana to the sword, send the mana to the sword.’

As he focused all his nerves to send the mana from his mana hole through the mana lines to the portable high-frequency blade in his hand, the mana in his mana hole slowly began to move and seep into the high-frequency blade.

As time passed, when Kang Chan slowly opened his eyes, the area before him was bathed in a bright blue light.

‘Oh, an aura sword!’

His high-frequency blade was now filled with mana, emanating an aura.

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, mesmerized by the radiant blue light of his aura sword.

Then, to test its power, he swung it at a nearby massive tree.

The tree, as wide as an armful, fell effortlessly to the ground.

‘The sharpness is unreal.’

Next, he swung the aura sword at a rock.

Kaang!

Unlike with the tree, the rock didn’t split easily, but it still suffered a deep cut.

Seeing the rock turn red from the heat, Kang Chan realized just how powerful the aura sword was.

‘This is much sharper than the high-frequency blade. Could I use both together?’

When Kang Chan activated the high-frequency blade while it was still enveloped in the aura, the blade turned red, blending with the blue light of the aura to create a beautiful violet hue.

“Beautiful.”

He swung the violet-glowing high-frequency aura sword at the rock again.

Amazingly, it split the rock effortlessly, without the dull sound from before, as if slicing through a radish.

“Well, this is quite useful.”

Satisfied with its performance, Kang Chan swung the high-frequency aura sword at the rock several more times, turning the once massive rock into small chunks.

Unbeknownst to Kang Chan, aura swords grew even stronger with blades that emitted sharp energy. His high-frequency blade, being sharper than any other renowned blade in terms of sharpness, made his high-frequency aura sword twice as sharp as those of others.

With a satisfied expression, Kang Chan retracted the aura and quickly sat down to resume the mana cultivation technique.

He wasn’t ready to be satisfied just yet.

* * *

A month had passed since Kang Chan mastered the aura sword, but he still hadn’t told his master that he could produce an aura sword.

The reason was that Elradian had taken 40 years to achieve an aura sword.

Yet, Kang Chan had reached this level in just about a year and a half, making him reluctant to mention it.

“……”

That day, Kang Chan was again gathering mana while being struck by the waterfall.

At that moment, tremors began to resonate around him.

Boom… Boom… Boom…

‘What is this vibration?’

The gentle but steadily increasing tremors of the earth became more pronounced.

Feeling uneasy, Kang Chan quickly gathered himself and stood up.

The tension of the forest’s flora and fauna was conveyed to him through the natural mana within his body.

‘Something is approaching. Something very massive.’

Kang Chan quietly put on his suit vest and hid behind cover, carefully observing the changes around him.

His movements were more agile than during his Red Mars days.

Just then, a flock of birds took off in a panic simultaneously.

Kang Chan couldn’t believe his eyes.

The trees of the forest were moving by themselves, creating a gigantic path, and through it, dozens of colossal iron giants emerged with a grand presence.

These giants were as enormous as the Zydes and so heavy that each step caused the earth to sink and cry out in agony.

“What, what is that? Are they mechs?”

Kang Chan was greatly shocked, having never imagined seeing such massive mechs on this primitive and uncivilized planet.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The parade of dozens of massive iron giants was a spectacular sight.

“My god…”

Kang Chan couldn’t close his mouth, stunned by the scene before him.

While he stood in a daze, the long line of colossal giants continued.

They were heading towards the direction of the Elf village, worrying Kang Chan about their safety, so he hurriedly followed the iron giants.

“Those cursed dolls are coming, Arteon.”

Arteon nodded silently, her expression dark.

“It’s truly unfortunate that those cursed dolls, created solely for destruction, are entering our Elven forest.”

“For the future of our race, they are essential.”

“Yes. Nowadays, war cannot be fought without those killing machines. I’ve heard that even with countless infantry, a single one of those can render the war itself invalid.”

“I believe that too.”

While they looked disapprovingly at the massive iron giants, the Gigantes continued their procession and began to line up in a large clearing prepared within the village.

Once the long line of Gigantes finished assembling, the shoulder of the leading giant dismantled, revealing a short figure inside.

“I have delivered the promised 50 Gigantes!”

The one who appeared was Lord Gafeld von Crackson of the Dwarves.

“It’s an honor that the Lord himself led the Gigantes here.”

“Hahaha! This is the first military cooperation between our Dwarves and Elves in history. How could I not come myself! Hahaha!”

“It must have been a tight schedule, yet you’ve created such excellent Gigantes. Truly fitting of the Dwarves.”

“Haha! This is nothing! When the craftsmanship of us Dwarves and the magic of the Elves combine, nothing is impossible. Don’t you agree?”

“Indeed.”

“How can you say otherwise?”

“Exactly! Exactly! Ahahaha!”

Lord Crackson laughed heartily, his body bending with laughter at the comments from the surrounding Dwarves.