Just as he was about to say, “Didn’t you already know how to do that?” another question occurred to him. Farel nodded at his疑问 and said,
“That’s right. You’ve already changed the particle structure of mana. The will possessed by living beings handles mana freely. However.”
“Why?”
That was the problem.
“I don’t know why it’s possible. And if we were to look for humans capable of melting mana, there would be no one but superhumans, and dragging them here to do this would be inefficient.”
If it came to that, there would be no reason to develop this technology in the first place.
Besides, the most important part was this: could they really make only the warhead unstable at the instant the bullet was fired?
“Ah. You’re right.”
“Not bad. You have quite the eye and powers of observation.”
Sinhyeok remained alone in the shooting range, comparing the bullet and the potion as he stared at them.
‘Is there no way?’
No matter how much he thought about it, no clear answer came to mind.
Frustrated, he flopped down onto the floor.
“What is destabilization? Making solidified mana flow.”
‘Making something solid flow, huh?’
He took out the mana potion he had made for Blue’s meals from his subspace.
Slosh.
When he shook it, the blue liquid swayed.
‘They said it was a result of acting on the human body.’
They had said the reason magic herbs were effective on solidified mana was because of the result they produced in the human body.
“What exactly do they act on?”
His curiosity branching endlessly, he took out Elven Herbology and opened it.
Sinhyeok slowly read the book from the beginning.
As he read through the basic potion contents used to make magic herbs, one passage caught his eye.
˹Regardless of color, magic herbs stimulate the innate life force of humans. Red varieties tend to focus on the recovery power of the flesh, while blue varieties stimulate the brain and senses that handle mana, leading to faster mana recovery than usual.˼
Sinhyeok read that passage over and over again.
“The innate life force of humans……”
‘The core of destabilization is using the properties of an energy that stands at the opposite extreme.’
There was only one thing he knew that stood opposite solidified mana.
Flowing mana. An utterly ordinary energy.
“What if that isn’t why mana potions work on me?”
He discovered the part he had missed.
“No way, is it really this sloppy?”
Half in doubt, Sinhyeok tried an experiment.
First, he spammed 1st-circle magic again.
He prepared a Magic Arrow crystal in the shape of an arrow, mixing Fire and Wind into it.
“Damn it, this thing won’t melt for shit!”
After struggling for a long while, he finally managed to make one.
“Phew. When you say life force, it’s blood. There’s no symbol of life more intense than this.”
He dripped a drop of blood onto the crystal he had mixed all sorts of things into.
Drip.
The crystal touched by the drop of blood slowly began to soften.
“It’s changing? It’s changing!”
Excited, he poured on a whole lot of blood.
Tat-tat-tat.
A few minutes later, the Magic Arrow crystal shot forward.
Whoosh.
The area around the target board caught fire briefly, then died out.
“It worked. F*ck, it worked!”
He immediately ran to find Farel.
“What?”
“I found it. Let’s go to the shooting range right now!”
Farel was dragged along with a puzzled expression. Once they reached the shooting range, Sinhyeok repeated the series of actions from earlier.
An hour later, as he watched the Magic Arrow crystal slowly melt, Farel’s expression changed rapidly.
“This is insane!”
He looked at Sinhyeok with a shocked face.
“Life force! Why, why didn’t we know!? It’s the energy standing at the greatest opposite extreme!”
“Blood! Blood……! That damned life force!”
The two stared with madness-tinged eyes at Sinhyeok’s finger, where a drop of blood was flowing.
“Blood, huh.”
Watching the blood flow, Farel soon regained his composure.
“It is effective. However, tissues from living beings, such as blood, lose their energy the fastest in the atmosphere.”
“Ah.”
What a shame.
“However, some are different. Things that are living beings, yet close to spiritual creatures. Their tissues suffer almost no energy loss even in the atmosphere.”
“Spiritual creatures, like dragons?”
“Drakes that breathe breath attacks count as well. There are many kinds.”
But they were all rare just the same.
“Haa, isn’t there some spiritual creature that can shoot a bit of breath lying around?”
Sinhyeok sighed at the assignment that had stopped just short of completion.
Gurgle.
Once his concentration broke, hunger came rushing in.
‘I’m hungry. I should eat something.’
Just then, perhaps hungry as well, Blue came running over, pressing its wobbly feet against the floor with soft pops.
It sat on the floor, wagging its tail vigorously as it stared only at Sinhyeok.
“You want food?”
Nod.
At the clever Blue nodding its head, he immediately took a mana potion out of his subspace and tossed it.
Blue nimbly snatched the potion and sucked it down with a bright expression.
Watching the sight with satisfaction, he thought,
‘It really eats well. Our Blue can shoot breath just as well as a dragon, too.’
As he watched fondly, he saw Farel’s startled expression and felt a strong realization hit him.
“How can a monster like a slime drink a mana potion? Hm? Isn’t this a spiritual creature?”
“A spiritual creature…!”
Sinhyeok fiercely hugged Blue, who was savoring the potion with its whole body.
Huh?
Blue looked at Sinhyeok with an expression full of question marks.
“Blue~ Can I take just one piece of your flesh?”
At those words, Blue stretched out the tip of its front paw.
Then it split off by itself with a plop.
“Thank you.”
[Blue Jjam Tiger’s Flesh][Rare]
=====================================
The flesh of the chimera Blue Jjam Tiger. It contains a high concentration of mana.
=====================================
He immediately sat down and removed the warhead first.
‘If I mix it in and fire, it’ll explode in the barrel. I’ll smear it on the gunpowder so it changes after firing.’
He used a shallow little trick.
He mixed Blue’s flesh into the gunpowder in the cartridge case and fitted in the white flame warhead.
“Phew.”
This time, Farel watched with an expectant face.
“Shoot it. Hurry!”
Sinhyeok loaded the handgun and, with a trembling heart, pulled the trigger.
Bang!
‘It’s different!’
Even the way it flew was different. The line was thick.
Flames wrapped around the line as it stretched forward.
Kwaaang!
When it struck the target board, it released a tremendous impact, punched through the wall, and pierced something beyond it as well.
Thud.
Kwaaaaaang!
A shaking vibration from something rocked the entire 99th Regiment unit.
Sinhyeok stared blankly at the trace left by the solar bullet.
White flames spread like sunlight.
Heat and holiness coexisted as they slowly encroached, then vanished.
Sinhyeok and Farel both stood side by side, unable to close their mouths.
“Insane……”
“Insane……”
The shooting range had been pierced.
The outer wall of the 99th Regiment had been pierced.
And the classified site of the Awakened Army NCO Training Center had been exposed in the open.
“Ah?”
He met eyes with an ordinary soldier marching beyond the wall.
“Uh…… Loy, loyalty?”
At the low salute, Sinhyeok discreetly saluted back.
“Loyalty. Ah, I’m screwed.”
Soon after, the senior instructor and battalion commander came running over.
“Ha, ha, ha?”
Lucien glanced around, then subtly distanced himself from Sinhyeok.
“Trainee! What is the meaning of this!”
“Wow, betrayal.”
Seeing him desperately deny involvement, Sinhyeok felt betrayed.
Captain Kim Chanyeol checked the hole that had been opened.
“Huh-huh.”
Without saying a word, he looked beyond the hole.
Marching soldiers passed by while glancing at the hole.
“Trainee. Bu. Sinhyeok.”
At his low, murderous voice, Sinhyeok got down on the ground on his own.
“No, what on earth did you do?”
He checked here and there.
The battalion commander looked at Lucien with eyes demanding an explanation.
“W-Well, we were conducting a small alchemy experiment. The details are my secret art.”
“Haa. Fine, for now. It wasn’t done with malicious intent, so that’s all right. But from now on, that experiment is completely prohibited.”
The warning came down.
Captain Kim Chanyeol pulled Sinhyeok, who was lying on the ground, back to his feet.
“Get up already, and Trainee Bu Sinhyeok, just go back to your barracks and rest. Please.”
At the sight of him pleading so earnestly, Sinhyeok smiled awkwardly and saluted.
“Yes, sir. Loyalty.”
The battalion commander shook his head and muttered,
“What am I supposed to report this as? Haa, this is driving me crazy.”
The senior instructor looked at the hole and said,
“That got pierced? What did you do?”
“I was just firing a few bullets.”
“Good grief. A bullet pierced that barrier?”
After scolding him for a moment, he gestured at Sinhyeok.
“Go on. Don’t cause any more accidents.”
Having been kicked out, Sinhyeok returned to the lodging and flopped down onto his bed.
“Ugh. Still, I managed to get something out of it.”
He held the solar bullet he had made earlier in his hand.
“It’s beautiful.”
Inside the small warhead was a white, flashing sun.
‘I’m sure I’ll have a use for it soon.’
It would be used to burn those bastards to a crisp.
“I’ve got plenty of time.”
He glanced around.
The atmosphere was quiet.
He quietly got up and took out the live ammunition he had secretly stashed away.
‘If I get caught, I’m fucked.’
He had received permission under the excuse of alchemy, but if he got caught in the current atmosphere, things would become very tedious and annoying.
“This time, shall I make some warheads with 1st-circle spells~”
Since the cost of the solar bullets was too high, he decided to save them and began making warheads with the relatively cheap 1st-circle magic crystals.
“Hm-hm~”
He busied himself for a long while in the corner of the room, making magic bullets mixed with 1st-circle spells.
[You have created a new type of bullet.]
[Please name the result you have made.]
“Hmm……”
Several hours had passed in concentration. There were quite a few messages sent by the system before his eyes.
“Just call it a 1st-circle magic bullet.”
[It will be designated as 1st-Circle Magic Bullet.]
[1st-Circle Magic Bullet (Ice) and 3 other types have been created and stored in your inventory.]
Ice, Wind, Light, Lightning.
He made four more types.
“How satisfying.”
He was fairly pleased with his newly abundant equipment.
‘Good thing I forced myself to learn 1st-circle magic.’
When he was learning it, he had gotten irritated, wondering why he had to learn something he couldn’t even use, but somehow, a use had appeared.
“It’s already night?”
Time had flown by again.
He rested his chin on the window frame and quietly looked outside.
“I’m bored. Isn’t anyone coming?”
Tap, tap.
At the faint sound of footsteps, he looked toward the door.
As he subtly watched the parade ground, the trainees were returning as a group.
“Oh!”
They were trudging in with exhausted expressions.
The instructors who had gone with them shouted energetically,
“You all worked hard! Hurry up, return your equipment, and go rest! Tomorrow, rest well!”
“Yes, sir!”
Everyone rushed off to their respective lodgings.
At the front of them were Baek Arin and Hong Ichan.
“Aaaaaah!”
Hong Ichan came in screaming and immediately dove onto the bed.
Flop.
With his head bent to the side, he closed his eyes.
“Hey, wash up.”
“No.”
“You stink.”
“Just smell it.”
He was firm.
Sinhyeok nudged Ichan with his foot.
“You dead?”
“Half dead. I’m so exhausted right now. I went days without sleeping, fighting monsters tooth and nail, and wow.”
As if words failed him, Ichan shook his head.
“Sure, rest.”
Sinhyeok picked up a pillow and tossed it lightly at the back of Ichan’s head.
Thwack.
Ichan didn’t resist at all and simply accepted it.
“Pfft.”
Bang.
“Ahjussi!”
Baek Arin returned and barged in without even resting.
“Yeah.”
“Now only the final-week practical evaluation is left.”
“Ah? It’s already come to that?”
She looked at him with serious eyes.
“Ahjussi, you were knocked out for a week.”
“Ah……”
“Now it’s really important. If we mess this up, our military lives go down together, so let’s hurry up and have a meeting.”
She was burning with will and passion.
“Okay. Let’s have a meeting together.”
She nudged Ichan, who was sprawled out on the bed like a corpse, with her foot.
“Whyyy.”
“Get up.”
“Don’t wanna.”
Without fail, she began a countdown.
“Three seconds.”
Ichan twitched.
He glanced at Baek Arin’s expression.
“……Two seconds.”
As the time shrank, an intense exchange of looks took place.
“One second.”
Her foot shot up.
Ichan flinched and sat up.
“Thug.”
“What about it? Hurry up and sit.”
Ichan grumbled as he perched on the bed.
“So how does the practical evaluation work?”
She answered simply.
“I think we just choose a Gate and go in.”
“That’s easy.”
“Right. Though that and getting a good score are separate matters.”