Chapter 168 : The Red Crystal

“Ah…”

At Imadi’s point, Muno had no choice but to look down at the jewel embedded in his armor.

The Red Heart.

Just as the black armor had become his exoskeleton, it was a treasure that had literally become another heart for him.

The immense supply of mana that never ran out, no matter how much he used it, had been a great help, knowingly or unknowingly, in his battles so far.

It was also the artifact at the center of the secret technique he developed himself, Brute Strength.

However…

“It seems to be a jewel that gathers spirits of metal. It can also supply mana without end. Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“As I thought. It’s a great artifact, but because of it, the change in your disposition has accelerated. Spirits of metal far exceeding your level are clinging to you in droves.”

“Then are you saying I have to remove this?”

“Yes. For now, the simplest method is to keep that jewel at a distance.”

“Sir Muno…?”

Rauel looked at him with a worried expression, but Muno ignored her gaze and asked Imadi again.

“The drop in combat power would be too much of a waste. And you said the same problem would occur anyway if my level rises, right?”

“That’s right.”

“……Is there another way?”

At that question, Imadi let out a smirk.

“Smart. Very smart. In fact, even if you remove it, it’s only a matter of time before the side effects reappear. Considering your growth rate.”

“I would be grateful if you could tell me the method.”

“Can’t you tell from my condition earlier? I can’t control it perfectly either.”

Although Imadi’s calm expression felt particularly heavy, Muno nodded indifferently.

“Didn’t you say earlier that you would share the results of your efforts? I will repay you more than that. Whatever you wish.”

At those words, Imadi, who had been looking at Muno with a blank expression, finally let out a small laugh.

“I suppose I made it sound more grandiose than it was. Hmm, what to do…”

“If you show me the way, I will surely repay your kindness.”

“For now, the simplest method is to repeatedly meditate while deliberately exposing yourself to an environment where your attuned element is diminished, like I do. That’s the most certain way.”

The solution Imadi proposed was clear.

However.

“Then I…”

“Right. You’d have to take off that armor and try living in a forest for a while. But that wouldn’t work for a knight, would it?”

It was an impossible method for him.

Not because he was a knight, as Imadi said, but because the armor and chains were an inseparable part of his body in the first place.

His expression instantly hardened, but Imadi smiled faintly and added something else.

“However, I have a method I’ve been preparing, at least in my imagination. Seeing you has made me certain of its feasibility. Are you interested in giving it a try?”

In that slight smile, a hint of the madness from a moment ago, when he laughed bizarrely while recalling the past, seemed to emerge.

“So, is that why you followed me right from our first meeting?”

“It was for both reasons. I was still good to you, wasn’t I? Because I thought it might turn out to be a good thing for both of us like this.”

Even to the slightly sharp question, Imadi affirmed it without hesitation.

“And seeing you now, I’ve realized. The answer I had originally thought of was the spirits of the earth, but in truth, it was the spirits of metal.”

And Muno’s cold reason instantly understood what Imadi was saying.

“Don’t tell me…”

“Isn’t it easy to imagine? The way to fix it.”

Rauel tilted her head at the gesture pointing back and forth between himself and Muno, but Muno smiled bitterly.

“So I just need to accept the fire spirits? Was that even possible?”

“It might be simpler than you think.”

“……?”

“You and I, who are element-specialized, cannot accept other elements through normal means. You understand that, right?”

“Yes.”

“I tried to shift my thinking a little there. If the normal way doesn’t work, why not try an abnormal way?”

As Muno tilted his head.

Imadi pointed to the Red Heart again.

“For example, I could either hold that jewel or even swallow it whole to bring the spirits of metal into my body.”

“Hah…”

“So honestly, to be extreme, I want that jewel at any cost. But you have no intention of trading, do you?”

“I don’t know. Wouldn’t it depend on the price?”

“……What?”

Imadi, briefly flustered by Muno’s unexpected answer, soon examined his expressionless face and nodded as if he understood.

“Right. You’ve changed that much. But because of that, you’ll be even more thorough in weighing profit and loss. Unfortunately, I don’t have a treasure worthy of trading for it. If Aslan were mine, I’d want to trade the entire territory for it.”

Rauel’s jaw dropped at the value Imadi placed on the Red Heart.

But Muno’s expression remained unshaken.

“Please tell me the other method, Sir Imadi.”

“Right, I should. The principle is the same. You and I will simply exchange some of our spirits.”

“Pardon?”

Imadi’s words were so fundamental that they surprised Muno.

“The fire spirits that make a Spirit Master’s disposition explosive, and the metal spirits that make it excessively calm. If we exchange a part of them and settle them in each other’s bodies, wouldn’t we see some improvement? I’ve been researching that method for almost 20 years now.”

Imadi looked to be in his 50s, but considering he was a high-ranking Spirit Master, his actual age could be much older.

Hearing that he had a method he had researched for 20 years, Muno couldn’t help but fall into thought again.

Setting aside whether that method was truly feasible.

“……If we do that, I think it will hinder both my and your ability to use Spirit Arts, Sir Imadi?”

“That’s right. In addition to that, the forcibly settled spirits will naturally disappear again over time.”

“Then why on earth…?”

“However, I am hopeful. That with that alone, we can find a way to either temper the change in disposition or return to our original selves.”

“Ah…”

“So, will you try it?”

“It’s not a dangerous method, is it?”

Rauel suddenly interjected, but Muno simply nodded.

Then, Imadi, with a slight smile, rose from his seat.

“Well then, I have something I’ve prepared for this day, so let’s go there.”

The place Imadi led them to was a spacious room inside his residence in Aslan.

It was a space where piles of dirt, a basin of water, a small torch, and what looked like an empty, meaningless lantern were arranged in a regular pattern.

The moment Muno saw it, he felt the cleverly intertwined flow of spirits.

“If Sir Evan hadn’t stepped up, I would have spoken to you. Fortunately, the outcome turned out even better.”

“It turned out better?”

“You’ve come to feel the need for it, so isn’t that certainly a good thing? At least for me.”

“You’re very honest.”

“It’s better for a Spirit Master to be as honest as possible. That way, the spirits will follow you more easily.”

For someone who said that, it seemed Imadi had also been secretly sizing him up.

‘Well, he didn’t deceive me.’

He could feel an orderly flow of spirits even among the outlandish objects that would look randomly arranged to an ordinary person’s eyes.

He felt confident that he could trust Imadi’s method.

“Now. Come here and sit facing me. It won’t take long.”

“My condition isn’t very good right now, will that be alright?”

He was referring to the injuries sustained from the sparring with Evan, but Imadi smiled and nodded.

“It’s actually better. An unstable state is easier to shake, isn’t it?”

That statement was a little unsettling, but having come this far, he could not back down.

Besides, his forcibly calmed mind had already made a firm decision.

‘If I continue in this emotionless state, everything will be meaningless.’

One needs a clear motivation to achieve anything.

‘If I move only out of a sense of duty, am I even human?’

He did not want to live a life like a machine or a robot.

And where else would he find someone who had researched the change in disposition of an element-specialized Spirit Master for decades?

Muno felt a kind of flow of fate in meeting Imadi at this exact moment.

A strange feeling, beyond simple good luck, as if the world was trying to help him.

Strangely enough, his cold reason was advising him to follow that groundless intuition.

To be precise, from the moment he saw the spirit formation Imadi had prepared.

“Sir Muno…”

“It’s fine.”

Therefore, his actions were without hesitation.

“Let’s begin.”

“Good. Place your palms against mine. And move your mana to elicit the spirits’ response.”

“Yes.”

Vwooom.

No sooner had the words been spoken than the mana of fire from Imadi’s body and the mana of metal from Muno’s body began to move.

Fwoosh.

Red flames blazed from Imadi’s body.

On the opposite side, a relatively cool-looking gray flame was enveloping Muno’s body.

And soon, the spirits from all around began to respond.

Vwooooong.

The spirits gathered around the two who had broken the harmonious flow of the room.

‘The voices of the spirits.’

Those spirits were chattering as if trying to convey something to Muno’s and Imadi’s spirits.

And Muno could feel with his skin what that meant.

‘They are persuading them?’

The spirits that had harmoniously filled the room were making a proposition to the spirits that had broken that balance.

‘Not forcing, but persuading. Following the natural order.’

He could feel the characteristic of Spirit Arts, different from magic, even in this moment.

Not long after that.

Muno felt his own spirits begin to scatter a little.

It was a flow that he would have been highly wary of in a battle, but at this very moment, it felt only natural.

And that flow soon extended to Imadi as well.

The fire spirits around him began to scatter.

The moment he thought that quite a few spirits had detached from him.

Swish.

Following Imadi’s sudden hand gesture, Muno’s two hands, facing his, drew a strange pattern in the air.

And some of their respective scattered spirits chose not to join the ‘already harmonious surroundings,’ but to enter the body of the opponent, where the ‘harmony was disturbed.’

Of course, to the individuals involved, it did not feel very natural.

A feeling as if something hot was forcibly digging into and entering his body.

“Kuh!”

A groan escaped him for a moment, but the fire spirits paid no heed to his circumstances.

‘This is…?’

The fire spirits, which were entering endlessly, soon began to disrupt even the balance of his mana.

At that moment.

Vwooooong.

The mana spewed from the Red Heart began to subjugate the rampage of the fire spirits and fill his body once more.

Thanks to that, the pain subsided, but.

‘This shouldn’t be happening.’

The process so far would be for nothing.

The moment that thought occurred, Muno, whose hands began to tremble, lifted his head and looked at Imadi.

Among their spirits being exchanged harmoniously in a one-to-one ratio, the proportion of metal spirits was rapidly increasing.

Fwoooosh.

As if in response, a much stronger flame blazed from Imadi’s body.

“Keuk.”

Blood began to flow from Imadi’s mouth.

Something seemed to have gone terribly wrong.

‘No. Stop!’

Muno forcibly stopped the Red Heart’s operation and began to let the fire spirits into his body again.

But this time, Imadi’s fire spirits, much stronger than before, began to destroy his body.

Vwoooooong.

Fwoooosh.

‘Kugh!’

He could feel his condition worsening as much as Imadi’s complexion was calming.

Even so, he could not reverse this flow again.

If so, then he would drive the fire spirits not into his own body, but somewhere else.

A place where he could gather the spirits without breaking the external harmony or disrupting this flow.

There was only one place where that was possible.

Muno moved his power according to his intuition.

Then.

‘I’m counting on you.’

Vwoong.

‘Blade’, which resonated as if responding to his will, began to suck in the fire spirits.

As a result.

In the center of the part where ‘Blade’s’ blade and guard met, a red crystal began to form.

A bright red crystal, similar to the Red Heart but much smaller.

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