Teenage students always tend to make plans as soon as summer vacation begins.
While most students fail to stick to their plans, Stella was surprisingly good at following through with hers. However, Baek Yu-Seol was quite the opposite.
'Oh, right. I was planning to do strength training this evening.'
Baek Yu-Seol, who was swinging a wooden sword in the training hall, suddenly remembered that he hadn't been properly working out for the past few days.
He had intended to dedicate at least two hours every evening.
Only recently did he realize that once the body grows beyond a certain level, it inevitably hits a limit. Humans simply cannot possess strength that exceeds the boundaries of their physical form.
In the end, the key was mana.
How to manipulate mana.
The circulation rate of mana and the ability to control it determined one's strength. Of course, there were still limits to this as well.
No matter how much one trained their mana, feats like lifting an entire building with bare hands or jumping 10 kilometers with leg strength alone remained impossible.
These were physical and physiological limitations.
Perhaps… Even Ha Tae-Ryeong in the past faced the same limitations.
No matter how fast his sprint was, at best, it might have been comparable to a cheetah.
His strength might have been enough to crush steel, but it would never have matched the destructive power of a mage who could summon Hellfire with their bare hands.
In other words, the destructive power of a swordsman… Was predetermined by birth.
While a swordsman might be able to kill a mage, they could never match the mage's unique destructive force.
Baek Yu-Seol already knew this.
After all, that's how it was in the game.
Yet, accepting this fact not just with his mind but with his entire body and heart left him feeling complicated.
Limitations.
What a suffocating word.
No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much effort he put in now, he could never reach the destructive power wielded by 18-year-old Hong Bi-Yeon.
A tackle enhanced by teleportation?
It wasn't like he had never thought about such ideas before.
In the game, he even tried wrapping himself in layers of armor and mastering the Blessing of Golden Solstice Moon.
But in the end, even that level of destructive power was nothing compared to Class 7 magic.
The character's attack power had a clear limit.
Over the past few days, while training with Scarlet, Baek Yu-Seol heard bits and pieces about Ha Tae-Ryeong.
Even the legendary Ha Tae-Ryeong of the past had never performed grand feats like splitting an entire waterfall in half.
Scarlet firmly stated that cutting down enemies dozens of meters away with sword qi was more fantastical than magic itself.
"Hooh…"
Baek Yu-Seol's arms were starting to feel numb.
He couldn't even remember how many hours henhad been swinging his sword.
Today's training session with Scarlet had been canceled because she had other plans, so he was left to practice alone with wooden targets.
The efficiency wasn't great.
As expected, the best results came from sparring seriously with Scarlet.
It must have been about a week ago.
Baek Yu-Seol vividly recalled analyzing and diving into Scarlet's unique form of magic without the help of the Sentient Spec.
That sensation came rushing back.
'...It was similar to the state of Harmony of Heavenly Qi.'
Even though he hadn't activated [Harmony of Heavenly Qi] at the time, his body felt as light as if it had become one with mana.
Baek Yu-Seol still didn't understand why it had happened.
However, ever since that moment, his body had felt astonishingly light, allowing him to hold his ground against Scarlet's Class 6 magic even without using Flash.
'If I added Flash to the mix, I'd be at a fairly decent level, but...'
It wasn't enough.
Baek Yu-Seol's combat instincts were improving day by day, yet he still lacked a decisive finishing blow.
He recalled how the in-game version of Baek Yu-Seol had defeated the boss, Thirteenth Onyx Moon.
Like slowly soaking clothes in a drizzle, he had chipped away at it with his sword for hours, little by little, until it finally fell.
When he finally killed Thirteenth Onyx Moon, it had felt incredibly rewarding and enjoyable in the game.
But could he do the same in real life?
Unlike a game character, Baek Yu-Seol's stamina was limited, and his mental strength was undoubtedly weaker.
Moreover, the battle against Thirteenth Onyx Moon spanned across entire nations, turning the whole world into its stage. If such a long fight were to occur in reality, the world would undoubtedly face destruction.
At that moment, a sudden thought crossed my mind.
'…Come to think of it, where did Thirteenth Onyx Moon first appear?'
He knew it would appear when certain conditions were met.
And it wasn't hard to guess that the Twelve Divine Moons were one of those conditions.
Then what if… Baek Yu-Seol could somehow prevent Thirteenth Onyx Moon from appearing at all?
'That's a tough idea.'
Even now, the world was likely moving toward unsealing Thirteenth Onyx Moon.
It wasn't something he could stop just by knowing about it in advance.
Dark mages hiding in every corner of the world were already working toward that goal.
The first sign was the Persona Gate.
When it began encroaching upon reality, the foundational power that held the world together weakened.
And after that, the Twelve Divine Moons all…
'…I can't remember.'
It wasn't because he hadn't paid attention to the story.
Even though he had played the game with considerable focus, some event had occurred without being revealed to the player, leaving him in the dark.
Apparently, Baek Yu-Seol wasn't the only one who didn't know.
Even Sentient Spec didn't have any records of what happened afterward.
"Ugh, I don't know anymore."
If only he could increase my destructive power, he wouldn't have to worry so much about this.
With that thought, Baek Yu-Seol closed his eyes.
More important than physical training was his meditation time.
During this period, he focused on refining the abilities of Natural Harmony of Heavenly Qi and controlling the energy of Silver Autumn Moon.
He had discovered that the energy of Silver Autumn Moon was closely tied to Flash, so there was no way he could neglect training it.
'…Wait a second.'
Then, a sudden thought struck him.
"Silver Autumn Moon, are you there?"
— I am here. Speak.
Though he couldn't see him, his voice echoed in his mind through a mental connection.
"Can you also use magic similar to Flash?"
— I told you before, didn't I? Of course, I can.
"Not just that kind of feeling… I mean, can you completely control Flash?"
— Control? What do you mean?
"For example, adjusting the speed of Flash… Though I suppose that's probably difficult."
— Difficult? What nonsense are you saying? The Flash I use is a form of time acceleration. Naturally, I can control its speed. After all, isn't Flash a manipulation of space?
"...!"
At that moment, Baek Yu-Seol realized just how foolish his assumptions had been.
Why did he never believe that Flash's speed was fixed?
Thinking back, it made sense.
When Baek Yu-Seol first learned Flash, the maximum range was 9 meters, and the travel time was 0.1 seconds.
Later, as he improved, the maximum range increased to 12 meters, but the travel time remained 0.1 seconds.
In other words, it wasn't just that the range of Flash had increased—it was the movement speed itself that had improved.
From 90 m/s to 120 m/s—a significant leap.
A mere 3-meter increase might seem small, but it actually represented a difference of 30 m/s in speed.
And now?
Flash had advanced to Class 6, allowing a maximum leap of 24 meters and the ability to store six charges at once.
Even without activating Harmony of Heavenly Qi, he could use Flash almost without delay.
Of course, the 0.3-second gap that occurred between consecutive uses and the recharge time afterward still kept his combat patterns from changing drastically.
'But if you think about it, Flash's speed is already 2.5 times faster than when I first learned it.'
If Baek Yu-Seol could train to further increase Flash's speed and control its range freely…
Right now, he could already move anywhere between 1 meter and 24 meters at will.
'What if, instead of focusing on the distance, I could control the speed itself?'
Faster.
What if it were possible to teleport even faster than now?
'…I might be able to make up for the destructive power that Ha Tae-Ryeong lacked.'
The experiment began immediately.
The space was wide enough for Flash tests, and there were no obstacles in the way.
First, he analyzed the differences between a 5-meter Flash and a 20-meter Flash.
About 30 minutes later…
"I don't get it at all."
Baek Yu-Seol was certain that Flash used the same kind of temporal energy as the power of Silver Autumn Moon, but he wasn't skilled enough yet to perceive it in fine detail.
Still, that didn't mean there were no results.
After all, he had the best teacher observing me at this very moment.
— Oh-ho, I see now.
"What do you think?"
— When you travel longer distances, the flow of time mana becomes far more turbulent. You might not feel it, but your accuracy decreases the farther you go.
"Accuracy…?"
Precise teleportation was one of his specialties.
— It's an extremely subtle difference—about 0.1mm—but it's definitely there. The fluctuations in temporal energy are out of your control, and that's what's causing it.
"But there's no such issue with a 5-meter Flash, right?"
— Exactly. At shorter distances, the margin of error shrinks to around 0.001mm, which is nearly 99% accurate.
"Then…"
A realization hit Baek Yu-Seol like lightning.
"When I Flash short distances, I'm instinctively controlling the flow of temporal energy…?"
— Ah… I see now! That's it! If that's the case, then it's possible.
Baek Yu-Seol clenched his fists tightly.
'I can do this.'
Completely mastering Flash might be impossible.
But if he could modify it and use it in his own unique way…
'I can surpass my limits in a different direction than the in-game Baek Yu-Seol.'
With that thought, he closed his eyes and tried to focus, but a headache started creeping in.
— Why don't you take a break?
"Hooh…"
Baek Yu-Seol had been pushing himself, training relentlessly for days with almost no sleep.
It was only natural that his body was starting to reach its limits.
"The others are out on dispatch missions, struggling to grow stronger. I can't just sit back and rest."
Baek Yu-Seol closed his eyes again, but his thoughts kept wandering.
It was clear that even his focus was reaching its limits.
'…Dispatch missions.'
It had already been nearly two weeks since the three girls had set out on their missions.
Suddenly, a wave of concern hit him.
Hong Bi-Yeon.
She was still struggling to handle the energy of Scarlet Summer Moon and could experience sudden surges in temperatures, causing unpredictable side effects.
Before she left, he did his best to stabilize her energy.
The memory of that moment was so embarrassing that he had been trying to avoid thinking about it.
But now that so much time had passed, it was becoming harder to push those thoughts away.
Baek Yu-Seol hadn't expected Flame's group to be gone for as long as two weeks.
'Hong Bi-Yeon… I wonder if she's doing okay.'
***
Two weeks had passed since the start of summer vacation.
And now…
Flame was starting to regret her decisions.
"…I made the schedule way too tight."
Even though their abilities had grown significantly, barely reaching the threshold of Class 6, sending them out on back-to-back risk level 5 missions was something even veteran magic warriors wouldn't dare to attempt.
"..."
"I feel like I'm going to die..."
Both Hong Bi-Yeon and Eisel slumped into the seats of the carriage, looking utterly exhausted.
Hong Bi-Yeon, in particular, seemed to be in serious condition.
Her flushed face was an obvious sign that the side effects had kicked in again.
Ever since a certain incident earlier this summer, Hong Bi-Yeon had been experiencing frequent episodes of burning heat.
The only person who could stabilize her condition was Baek Yu-Seol, so this long-term dispatch mission was proving to be extremely taxing for her.
"Hold on."
With no other choice, Flame dragged her tired body up and poured every ounce of her strength into healing magic for Hong Bi-Yeon.
While ordinary cooling spells weren't enough to fully counteract her side effects, it seemed to provide at least some relief.
'How the heck does Baek Yu-Seol manage to calm her down so easily?'
Baek Yu-Seol didn't even have any healing abilities, yet he could soothe Hong Bi-Yeon's heat without any trouble.
Flame had never seen it happen firsthand, and Hong Bi-Yeon herself avoided talking about it, leaving Flame completely clueless about the method.
"There are still two more missions left. Are you sure you're okay?"
Despite her flushed face, Hong Bi-Yeon forced a smile and nodded.
And it wasn't just bravado.
"I'm fine… Even if it hurts more."
The worse her symptoms got, the longer she would need Baek Yu-Seol's treatment.
Hong Bi-Yeon tried to deny any ulterior motives, but her instincts betrayed her.
"Really?"
Nod.
Without another word, Hong Bi-Yeon gave a slight nod and closed her eyes.
Seeing that, Flame collapsed back into her seat, letting her body rest.
'What does she mean, even if it hurts more?'
Unable to shake her curiosity, Flame made a mental note to ask Baek Yu-Seol about his treatment methods as soon as they got back.