章節 23: Ki
[ Hades frowns upon you ]
Noah ignored the window alert for the moment and spoke, "Ki? What is that?"
{Ki allows one to ignore the opponent's defense and resistances. It is the reason why our Holy kingdom isn't weak even though the majority of our people have Divinity cores.}
Noah's eyes widened. Wasn't this the perfect solution for defeating Achilles?
{…sigh, explain the principle behind 'Ki' to the child, Cecilia.}
Hepius spoke wearily. If possible he didn't want Noah to know about 'Ki' as it would only hurt Noah.
But that didn't seem possible anymore.
Cecilia felt the awkwardness in the room and explained.
{'Ki' is a compressed form of mana that carries the 'intent' to kill. For comparison Divinity carries the 'intent' to 'protect', 'heal', 'nourish' and other similar intents. But Ki is created with the sole intent to 'kill'.}
"And what is intent? No, can you also explain what mana is?"
Noah felt if he could increase his understanding he might be able to increase his strength further. He listened carefully.
{Mana is alive.}
{It listens to our requests and helps us use skills, techniques and magic by serving as fuel for them. However, not every request is the same….}
{Cecilia, I shall take over from here. The child has not yet been educated about mana, and your explanation may not be comprehensible to him.} Hepius interjected.
{Ah, I… I'm sorry.} She answered dispiritedly.
{Ah, Cecilia, thou misunderstandest me. Thy method of teaching is not deficient; it is the child's comprehension that is lacking.}
To roughly compare, Noah's level was that of a kindergarten schooler and the Saintess was trying to teach him about the formation of atoms. It was obvious Noah wouldn't understand Cecilia's explanation when he didn't know M of Mana.
Hepius thought, 'She has deep knowledge about mana and Divinity. Is she really the Saintess? But why will she drink Better Half potion? It should be a prohibited item for a Saintess.'
Hepius erased those thoughts and spoke to Noah, {Brat, Mana can be refined for different purposes. Should you attempt to employ fire-type refined mana for water magic, you shall meet with utter failure. It would necessitate an immense quantity of fire-type mana, and yet, you may not even succeed in conjuring a fist-sized water ball.
{On the other hand, when creating a fire lance only a miniscule amount of fire-mana is necessary.
{By applying restrictions on mana, one can increase its prowess.
{This is why 'Divinity' can only heal. It is a refined-mana type to protect. Of course, the nature of Divinity is not so straightforward, but these are its fundamental principles.}
Suddenly, Hepius took a deep breath.
{As for Ki, it is the mana with the sole purpose to kill. It has the ability to ignore defense and resistances. Achilles' skill bolsters his defense and magic resistances, yet he remains vulnerable to 'Ki'-based attacks.}
"And?"
{Until thou art able to create a Ki core, the Ki thou dost create shall be classified as the skill 'Ki creation' rather than a stat.}
"Huh? I have Divinity stat from the beginning even without a mana core though."
{Indeed, this is because thou were blessed by God of Divinity. It's the same for others who have a specific mana affinity from birth. Those blessed by God of Fire will have Fire-type mana and those favored by god of death will have 'Death mana'. However, thou can still utilize other mana types, albeit only after creating the core for each respective affinity.}
"Get to the point. From the way you are talking, I can understand that I don't have compatibility with Ki. I'm asking why?"
{Ki is for killing, and until the core's creation, it will be a skill. What type of skill dost thou think 'Ki creation' is counted as?}
"...Attack-type."
Noah cursed under his breath as he understood the meaning behind Hepius' words.
"Wait, what if I'm blessed by God of Ki? Can't I gain Ki stat with that method?"
{Under normal circumstances, the method would have proven effective. Through the blessing of God of Ki, thou would have directly acquired the 'Ki' stat.}
"And my circumstances aren't normal?" Noah winced, praying that Hepius answered otherwise.
{....God of Ki hath perished. None are born with Ki affinity anymore. It is no longer feasible to possess the Ki stat without creating the core.}
Noah covered his face. The easy way out just disappeared.
Listening to the two of them, Cecilia mustered her courage and questioned. {Why can't Priest Noah create a Ki core? Is there any problem with attack skills?}
Noah and Hepius stared at each other. They gave a short nod to each other.
After that, Noah explained how his class didn't allow him to learn any attack skill. Naturally, Cecilia didn't believe him at first. Noah had defeated a lot of high-level enemies after all. But she had to acknowledge his words when Hepius backed Noah's claim.
{I'm sorry, my advice was unnecessary. It must've made Priest Noah uncomfortable.}
"No, don't mind it. Unlike a certain someone, you at least told me about Ki. I would rather know of a missed opportunity than remain in the dark."
Most people would disagree with Noah's words. However, Noah strictly believed the motto 'Knowledge is power'.
If he had known about the conditions to achieve the 'Great Hero' title, Noah would have avoided thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Hepius coughed at Noah's remark and avoided his gaze.
{If you can learn any non-attack type skill, why aren't you learning other skills from Saint Hepius?}
Hepius almost puked blood at the gut punch of ignorant Cecilia.
In truth, Noah's class was created by fusing Hepius' knowledge into it. Hepius only remembered skills from his past life when they were unlocked by Noah.
Skills like Menzen were a rare example and most of them needed Noah to be much stronger than his current self for him to even practice them.
While Noah was making fun of Hepius by calling him incompetent Sage, Cecilia added, {In that case, is it okay if I teach skills to Priest Noah?}
"Eh?"
{Huh?}
Noah and Hepius stopped bickering.
They finally recalled that Cecilia called herself Saintess, the highest authority of the Holy Kingdom. Wouldn't she have access to extremely rare skills?
Cecilia took their silence as confirmation and continued, {Let's see. Priest Noah is planning to escape in three weeks, a few days before his execution. A useful skill that he can learn in that time frame and is also versatile… is gravity manipulation, okay?}
Clank!
The trio was suddenly interrupted by the janitor who pushed the food into Noah's cellar.
Noah, like usual, ignored the food. His diet was strictly blood as he couldn't eat anything else.
He could sustain himself for a few weeks with blood and he had consumed blood before entering stage-2.
Noah ignored the janitor until he realized that the janitor wasn't leaving.
A familiar voice rang, "Why aren't you eating? Do you want to die from hunger?"
The janitor removed the robe and revealed herself. Only then did Noah notice that there were no guards inside the prison today.
"Why are you ignoring me?" Helen asked Noah.
Noah felt she wouldn't leave anytime soon and he had his own questions. So, he decided to speak.
"I was pondering over the reason I ended up here."
"Oh, that? Isn't that simple?" Helen forced herself to remain calm at his nonchalant attitude and spoke with a smile.
"Paris, that fool disappeared suddenly. With no outlet, Karnok would've punished me for escaping. But after pinning the blame on you, I'm free.
"With his sadistic personality, Karnork will kill you and force me to live so that I wallow in 'pain' of losing my lover. He is infatuated with my beauty too much and you'll become his excuse of punishing me without harming me."
"I see"
Helen was grinning until she received an indifferent answer. Her patience finally broke.
" 'I see'? Only that…? Why aren't you angry!? You coward! Are you afraid your punishment will worsen if you spoke rudely!? Like always…!"
She clenched her fists and her nails dug into her skin, allowing the blood to drip. With a final glare, she left. "I was a fool for expecting anything from you."
Soon Hepius spoke. {'Tis weird.}
"Yeah."
The reason Noah didn't answer much was the system window floating in front of him,
—
[ Helen Nelio ] Dungeon Boss
Rating: Elite
Level: 7
HP: 5,000/5,000
Weakness: Has been inflicted with a curse.
—
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