Volume 4 Chapter 10 The Absolute Defense of the Mana Shell
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The massive forms of the trolls crumbled under the searing heat of the Crimson Lotus, turning to ash that scattered across the landscape like a sudden flurry of wind-blown snow. Even monsters blessed with hyper-regeneration couldn’t piece themselves back together when not a single cell, let alone their core heart, remained.
Silence returned to the snow-covered plains. I let out a long, heavy breath.
The battle was won. But just as I prepared to set off again, I froze.
”Lord Spirit King? I wonder, is something the matter?” Sylvia asked, tilting her head with a look of polite confusion.
A faint, crimson aura still shimmered around her body. It wasn’t a careless leak of mana; it was a rhythmic wave of raw power, bound and controlled by an explicit act of will.
”Sylvia. That red light cloaking your body… is that the secret to your strength?” I asked.
”Yes, indeed,” Sylvia replied, drawing her longsword just enough to expose a flash of steel. “This is an advanced technique passed down among the elves known as the ‘Spirit Shroud.’ By borrowing the power of the spirits, we can explosively amplify our physical capabilities, skyrocketing our offensive and defensive power simultaneously.”
As she spoke, the crimson aura welling from her core1 surged down her arm and poured into the blade. The entire sword began to glow white-hot, radiating an intense heat.
”By channeling it through a weapon in this manner, its sharpness and durability increase exponentially,” Sylvia explained. “In this state, I can slice right through a troll’s hide-which is harder than iron armor-as if it were warm butter.”
”I see. A dual-purpose reinforcement skill,” I muttered.
I rested my chin in my hand, my mind racing. I had won the encounter with the trolls by simply overwhelming them with sheer magical firepower. But what if I had been blindsided? What if a stray blow had connected? Compared to the monsters of this world, my flesh-and-blood body was incredibly fragile. It didn’t matter how high my attack power was if my defensive stats were non-existent.
The risk-management reflexes pounded into me during my corporate salaryman days screamed an alarm. (Safety first.) Right now, I lacked the one thing that mattered most in a crisis: physical defensive capability.
(Could I adapt Sylvia’s technique?)
She was utilizing spirit energy as a shroud to enhance herself. If that was the case, what would happen if I took my own massive reserves of mana, compressed them to their absolute limit, and bound them directly to the surface of my skin?
I didn’t picture a heavy, cumbersome suit of armor. I imagined something ultra-thin, absolute, and utterly impenetrable-a wall of total rejection between myself and the outside world. Like a perfectly sealed spacesuit, or the walls of a high-tech cleanroom engineered to bar even a single virus from entry.
”Let me try something quickly,” I said.
I turned my focus inward, kneading and shaping the mana swirling within me. If Sylvia’s Shroud was an explosive force akin to an internal combustion engine, then what I was building was a barrier of absolute stillness. I layered the mana over itself, mere millimeters above my skin, creating a high-density coating.
(Circulate. Become a shell of absolute rejection, letting nothing pass.)
A low, resonant hum vibrated from deep within my chest, slightly warping the air around me. A micro-thin, golden film-resembling a shimmer of heat haze-settled tightly across my entire body, locking into place.
”Phew… Not bad for a first attempt,” I murmured to myself. “Once I get used to the feel of it, I should be able to increase the density even further.”
”M-my Lord Spirit King…?” Sylvia gasped, her eyes widening in absolute astonishment. “Is it truly possible that you have mastered the Shroud on the fly, simply by observing my form? Furthermore, the density of your power… it is orders of magnitude purer than my own.”
She was staring at me in absolute shock. With her elven sight, she could undoubtedly see my mana clinging to me like an impenetrable, crystalline barrier.
”Once you understand the underlying principles, it’s just a matter of application,” I said, looking down at my hands and flexing my fingers. “Let’s call it the Mana Shell.”
This technique wasn’t just a rigid wall. I had engineered it to act as a dampener, designed to disperse and neutralize external kinetic energy.
To test it, I walked over to a nearby boulder and gave it a casual, light punch.
Crack.
The rock fractured instantly, lines of white dust spider-webbing across its surface. I didn’t feel even a twinge of discomfort in my knuckles. The kinetic backlash had been perfectly absorbed.
Next, I pointed my opposite hand at my arm and discharged a low-output Air Hammer.
Thump!
The air detonated against my forearm, but it registered as nothing more than a gentle breeze brushing past my skin.
”All right, total mitigation of both physical and magical forces confirmed,” I noted.
But the true value of this shell went far beyond basic combat defense. By completely isolating myself from the external atmosphere, I had essentially created an invisible spacesuit. If I ever encountered an environment saturated with invisible poison gas or unknown, lethal pathogens, I would remain entirely unaffected.
I had been told that the deepest regions of the forest ahead were known as the Rotten Sea. There was no telling what kind of toxic miasma or bizarre diseases lurked within those woods. This absolute defense would undoubtedly become the ultimate trump card to keep me alive.
”Incredible…” Sylvia breathed, her voice filled with profound reverence. “You are a true prodigy of the magical arts, Lord Spirit King.”
I shrugged, trying to hide my embarrassment.
”I’m no genius. I’m just a coward. Come on, let’s move out. Our safety margin has been secured,” I said.
We resumed our march, pushing deeper into the frozen wilderness toward our ultimate destination: the elven homeland. Sylvia’s platinum hair whipped beautifully against the backdrop of the stark white snow. No matter what perils awaited us in the dark ahead, I would use this power to protect her and carve a path through. With that vow locked in my heart, I stepped firmly into the snow.
”I shall take the lead from this point forward,” Sylvia called out, stepping ahead of me. “The deeper regions of this forest operate under an entirely different set of rules, you see.”
I followed closely behind her, completely unaware that the path ahead was leading us straight into the jaws of the Rotten Sea-a realm thick with the stench of decay and death.
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Summary:
Marching across a silent snowfield, the protagonist successfully reconstructs a high-density magical barrier after observing his elven companion’s ancestral martial arts technique. Testing confirms that this customized defensive shroud successfully neutralizes kinetic force alongside structural energy impacts. Sylvia takes point as the two travelers advance further into the wilderness, approaching an unpredictable regional border defined by structural toxicity.
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Trivia:
Trolls possess a biological cell-based hyper-regeneration ability that requires complete cellular vaporization to bypass permanently.
The elven Spirit Shroud relies directly on the traditional localized concept of the dantian as the vital physical center for channelizing energy.
The protagonist’s custom barrier features internal structural dampening properties to deliberately offset defensive physical backlash.
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Translation Notes:
Notes:
• Sylvia – Sylvia is a beautiful, voluptuous elf with hidden pointed ears and platinum hair. A formidable Silver-rank adventurer known as “Crimson Lotus,” she is a loyal warrior and subordinate to the Spirit King, trained in the Spirit Shroud. Wielding a longsword and bow in a hooded green coat, she is straightforward yet loyal, tutoring John, working with Nier, and traveling as a servant to Ryu.
• Man – A roughneck wearing a hat who participated in a group assault. He suffers the loss of his right arm and later his left arm during an experiment by the protagonist before being stored.
• Troll – A giant monster with regeneration capabilities that is defeated and incinerated.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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