Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Shadow warehouse

"Huk. Huk."

Breathing naturally becomes rough. Fear is heavily contained in the breath.

It was natural to be afraid. What Seo I-hyeon is about to do is something an ordinary person could never do.

There's no way anyone can pull out eyeballs with bare hands.

"Fuck, to think I'd end up doing this with my own hands."

He already has experience pulling out eyeballs. Of course at that time he didn't do it directly like this. There was a person who pulled them out. There were tools too.

Now he has to do it by hand, but it was fully possible. Because Seo I-hyeon is very strong.

He just needs courage and venom.

"Huk. Huk. It's okay. Anyway it'll regenerate in a few seconds. I can endure."

Of course the pain won't be just a few seconds.

"Aaaagh! I don't want to do it!"

After shouting once, he boldly stabbed his hand into the eye.

Crunch!

Extreme pain rushed in with a grotesque sound. But he can't stop here. Seo I-hyeon closed his hand to grasp the eyeball and pulled it out as is.

Squish!

The eyeballs of both eyes came out dangling with optic nerves.

Blood streams from the eyes.

"Aaaagh! Fuck! It really hurts!"

Pain that couldn't be expressed in words rushed in. Seo I-hyeon grasped the place where the eyes had been with both hands and rolled around on the floor.

He roughly threw the pulled-out eyeballs on the floor. Anyway since he had laid the vinyl without gaps, there was no chance of them escaping somewhere. The pouring blood also pooled on the vinyl laid on the floor.

Optic nerves began to grow from the eyes covered by his hands. The optic nerves recovered quickly, and eyeballs were generated at the ends.

Eyes regenerated at a considerable speed.

And the pain of the regeneration process was more intense than when he pulled out the eyeballs earlier.

"Heeek!"

When the pain is severe, even sound doesn't come out well. He can't even breathe.

Seo I-hyeon with his mouth wide open couldn't breathe and twisted his whole body appealing the pain.

Anyway if there's a start there's an end. Soon the eyes perfectly returned to original.

It was a regenerative power beyond imagination.

This was Seo I-hyeon's ability. It was also a phenomenon that occurs because his soul is connected to the sea of mana.

Seo I-hyeon absolutely doesn't die. He just hurts.

"Ughghgh! Fuck. Etherix bastards. I absolutely won't let you go."

Why did this pain come. It's because of the Etherix guys. If it weren't for those guys, Seo I-hyeon could have lived ordinarily.

At least at this moment, Seo I-hyeon thought that.

Seo I-hyeon raised his body and checked the floor.

"Two eyeballs. And blood... seems a bit lacking? Ha, damn. Anyway I have to cut the arms too so I'll have to see again then."

Seo I-hyeon rested while catching his breath for a moment and looked at the chainsaw fitted on the fixing stand with fearful eyes.

"Do I need to cut the arms too? Just two eyeballs should be enough."

He muttered like that, but in fact he knew better than anyone that since he started, it's better to do it thoroughly.

"Ha, life really."

Seo I-hyeon operated the chainsaw.

Brrrr!

With a rough vibration sound, the saw blade rotated fiercely.

Just putting the arm against it doesn't cut it off in one go. Even if it's a chainsaw, it takes time. And during that time it will hurt like hell.

Seo I-hyeon looked at the rotating saw blade with a complicated expression then raised his arm.

And matched the area near the shoulder to the saw blade position.

He tightly closed his eyes and put the arm against the saw blade as is and pressed.

Gagagagak!

"Uaaaaagh!"

A scream came out naturally. The saw blade tore the flesh and muscle and cut even the bone. Because the body's performance was so excellent there was some resistance, but even so it was cut off relatively quickly.

Seo I-hyeon grasped the cut area and rolled around on the floor.

It would be comfortable if he at least fainted, but he couldn't even do that.

Seo I-hyeon's mind is always clear. For a problem to occur in the mind, the sea of mana connected to the soul has to dry up, but that is an impossible thing.

Anyway it was already painful, but there was a moment of even greater pain remaining.

Exactly regeneration.

Seo I-hyeon's arm began to grow. All that process was pain for Seo I-hyeon.

His breath was blocked and he was opening his mouth wide again.

But the regeneration itself was quick. Bone grew, flesh and muscle attached there, and blood vessels grew. Like that an arm was made in an instant, and fingers grew simultaneously with the wrist bone and it became a hand.

All that process was done in the time of blinking eyes a few times. It was truly an astonishing regenerative power.

And massive pain rushed in from all the newly growing parts.

Seo I-hyeon grasped his arm and endured the pain while groaning.

When the arm fully grew, he just flopped down on the floor.

Blood water wet his body but he didn't care.

"Haa. It's over."

Even if it's over, it's not over. Pain doesn't disappear so easily. It will remain like an aftertaste and torment for a while.

He lay like that for a long while then slowly raised his body. He can't rest forever. He has to do what he has to do.

"Still... I just have to do it once. There won't be occasions like this from now on, right?"

When he was in the other world, he had to cut his body frequently. It was a truly harsh time.

One might think that if pain is repeated it becomes familiar. But no. Try experiencing it directly. Is it really like that.

At least Seo I-hyeon wasn't. It was always as painful as the first time experiencing it.

He doesn't lose his mind either. He had to experience all that pain raw.

Anesthesia is useless too. Because anesthesia doesn't work on this cursed body.

Seo I-hyeon raised his body. And while sitting blankly looked down at the floor then stood up from his seat.

The long-cut forearm and the two eyeballs with optic nerves are visible. It was a grotesque and scary scene, but to Seo I-hyeon there's no particular feeling.

Compared to what he had seen and experienced until now, this is nothing.

"Alright, then what shall I try. First I should make the shadow warehouse."

Seo I-hyeon is a black mage. No, more precisely he only knows black magic. Honestly speaking, he has never thought of himself as a mage.

He learned various black magics and tried using them, but he thought that with that alone he couldn't be called a mage.

Seo I-hyeon, even if he was a mage, regarded himself as a half, no, a half of that half mage.

Anyway the magic he is about to use now is the black magic called shadow warehouse.

Literally magic that uses shadows like a warehouse, and to use this magic special materials are needed. Exactly eyeballs with optic nerves.

To make a warehouse in a human's shadow, a human's eyeball is needed, to make a warehouse in a dog's shadow, a dog's eyeball is needed.

It doesn't work with just ordinary eyeballs. It has to be an eyeball pickled in mana.

The quality of the material differs depending on what mana and how long it was pickled.

Originally, the eyeballs of humans born with mana are the best.

So usually the shadow warehouses of vampires boast considerable quality.

In the case of magic that makes something in this way, materials are really important. Especially black magic, materials are even more important.

Seo I-hyeon picked up the eyeball rolling on the floor.

Ordinary black mages would obtain high-quality eyeballs and pickle them in mana to use, but Seo I-hyeon is a bit different.

He can only use eyeballs that came from his own body.

Not only the shadow warehouse, but whatever black magic he uses, he has to use only materials that came from his own body.

This was one of the reasons Seo I-hyeon regards himself as a half mage.

To make the shadow warehouse, besides the eyeball with optic nerve, there has to be a reagent.

Usually mana liquid is used as the reagent. But this quality is also important.

Generally it is made by dissolving mana stone powder in mana solvent, and the quality of the mana solvent and the quality of the mana stone determine the quality of the mana liquid.

The reason the quality of this reagent is important is because it determines the reaction speed and expandability of the shadow warehouse.

The role of the eyeball is to secure the capacity of the shadow warehouse.

Everything that comes out of Seo I-hyeon's body boasts overwhelming quality.

It's not for nothing that the witch hugged Seo I-hyeon as a disciple. How could she let go of being able to infinitely extract and use the ultimate materials.

Ultimate materials. According to the witch, materials better than this can absolutely not be obtained in this world.

What kind of shadow warehouse would come out if using such ultimate eyeballs and reagents.

Seo I-hyeon calmly looked around the floor. Seeing the blood pooled here and there, the amount is sufficient at this level.

Well, if lacking he has to draw blood, but that is much better than cutting arms and legs.

"Alright, shall we start?"

Seo I-hyeon's black magic is a bit different from other black mages.

Usually they draw a complex magic circle, place the materials on it, and assemble the structure of the magic using the black mana they had diligently gathered until then.

That's not the end, when activating the magic a terrifying amount of mental power is required.

Usually that mental power is replaced with something else.

Unholy emotions collected from living beings.

The efficiency is better than expected. The best is one's own mental power, but there are not one or two black mages who go crazy while enduring that. Low-level black magic doesn't matter, but if the level rises even a little, problems occur.

Another method is to borrow mental power through a contract with an unholy existence.

Usually they contract with demons, but sometimes they can be connected to a truly dangerous existence. An absurd unholy existence that is hard to even define.

A truly dangerous existence that can go crazy just by connecting, or whose head can explode just by recognizing.

Of course if only successful, they can obtain absurd efficiency, effect, and performance.

So guys who make such dangerous attempts keep coming out.

Anyway Seo I-hyeon of course uses his own mental power. It is possible because he has a mind that absolutely doesn't collapse.

Of course a terrible headache follows.

"Haa. Fuck. Thinking about it, my body is trembling."

It's a bit better than the physical pain of cutting arms and legs. But the headache that rushes every time he uses magic also makes him go crazy. A different kind of pain, shall we say.

"Huuuu."

Seo I-hyeon blew away the thoughts through deep breathing. Now he has to concentrate.

The reason Seo I-hyeon's black magic is different from other black mages is that he uses materials that came from his own body, and those materials are assimilated with the mana poured out through Seo I-hyeon's soul.

So the magic circle is also very simple, and the structure itself is different from the magic circles other black mages use.

Another one of the reasons Seo I-hyeon regards himself as a half mage is exactly this point.

He can't use other magic circles besides the ones the witch modified for him. Originally he just memorized them in an injection style without foundation.

Wouldn't one be able to research and improve and do something only if knowing the principle.

Seo I-hyeon erased miscellaneous thoughts and drew a magic circle on the floor. Drawing with the reagent is the strongest.

Seo I-hyeon drew a crooked circle and overlapped several shapes inside it.

And placed the eyeball exactly in the center above it, and overlapped his own shadow there.

Now the preparations are finished.

In Seo I-hyeon's black magic, capturing the image well is the most important. So for that he recites a spell. The spell is not fixed. He just spits out matching words that can best capture the image that comes to mind at the time.

Seo I-hyeon raised both hands and directed the palms downward. He positioned them exactly above the magic circle and materials on the floor.

Wriggle.

The mana inside the body wriggles. It is mana always trapped in the body, but when it meets materials that were Seo I-hyeon's body, it wriggles like this and tries to escape outside. No, it eventually escapes.

The mana that popped out like that became a faint line and connected to the materials on the floor.

Then the magic circle sucks in the surrounding blood.

Every time the blood that had pooled in places on the vinyl floor flowed into the magic circle, the lines constituting the magic circle became smooth and the shapes and patterns became elaborate.

Like that a perfect magic circle was completed.

Seo I-hyeon opened his mouth while concentrating his will on the clear mana connected to the magic circle.

"Dense darkness. Vast void. Dark and sticky gluttony. Hard and rigid pitch black. And the eternal darkness that stops the world."

When Seo I-hyeon's spell ended, the magic circle and materials, and the shadow became mushy and clumped into one.

Seo I-hyeon frowned because of the throbbing headache. But he didn't lose concentration and quietly looked down at the collapsing shadow.

"Done."

Seo I-hyeon completed the first magic, the shadow warehouse.

Seo I-hyeon who pressed his temples hard for a moment enduring the headache immediately prepared the second magic.

"First let's clean up."

As soon as he muttered like that, Seo I-hyeon's shadow spread widely. And swallowed all of Seo I-hyeon's remnants that were in the room. The small flesh pieces that came out when slicing the arm with the chainsaw, bone fragments, blood, and even the forearm.

What remained was only one eyeball.

This eyeball is the material to use for the next magic.

Now that he made the shadow warehouse, he could use magic a bit more comfortably.

The shadow rippled and a magic circle made of blood appeared on the vinyl.

He sent out blood in the shape of the magic circle.

The shape wasn't elaborate, but that doesn't matter. Anyway it will be elaborately refined in the process of activating the magic.

The magic circle appeared exactly below the eyeball.

Seo I-hyeon placed his hand above the magic circle. The mana that came out from the hand connected to the magic circle.

"Gaze detection. Darkness beyond the void. Light within the darkness. Observation."

The magic circle and eyeball, and the shadow below it collapsed. And all of that became black mist and seeped into the shadow.

"Huuuu."

Seo I-hyeon pressed his throbbing head hard with his fingers.

This level is fine for now.

The magic he just used was shadow eye, magic that detects the enemy's gaze. And it could also observe other spaces through the shadow.

Because it has to exert this level of performance, the eyeball went in.

Now only the forearm remains. And a bit more blood is needed. Because the regeneration speed was too fast, less blood flowed than expected.

"Haa. Let's draw it while sleeping."

Today ends here.

© Kim Kang-hyeon #12i09