Chapter 17 :Transformation

Crack!

The life vessel shattered.

Black smoke swoosh.

The skeletal body, held together by magic, began to crumble.

[Th-This is… impossible. How could you see through the source of life I had hidden so easily…!]

!!!

I could see the guy’s thoughts.

I didn’t answer.

He’s going to die anyway.

There’s no need to answer.

But.

Crumble-

Even while collapsing, the lich shouted.

[Kuaaaaah!]

Tenaciously, fiercely.

And with that.

The lich’s spirit surged.

Thump.

At first, a faint pulsation.

But soon, it became huge.

‘Ideation?’

I opened my eyes wide.

It was the boss’s Ideation.

Formless Ideation manifested and became a real curse.

It was the implementation of the narrative that the lich possessed.

‘Monsters can also handle Ideation?’

At the same time.

Whoosh-!

The undead monsters of waves 1-6.

Black mist spewed from their bodies.

The echo of death.

I saw through it, but there’s no way to stop it.

“Curse. Curse. Curse.”

(Curse, curse, curse.)

Countless specters opened their mouths.

It covered the space, invaded reality, and eventually reached me.

[You have cleared Saturday’s Dungeon of Despair.]

[You have acquired Saturday’s Elixir as a first-clear reward.]

[You have acquired a Skill Enhancement Scroll.]

The problem was that with that, my senses of touch, taste, hearing, and smell returned.

There was no time to feel joy.

“…Ugh.”

A groan escaped.

My body collapsed.

Black energy spread through my blood vessels.

My skin cracked, and my fingertips lost sensation.

It felt like even my bones were decaying.

It was the curse poured out by 666 undead in exchange for their death.

The cerebral cortex (occipital lobe) and neural circuits associated with visual information are consuming neurotransmitters…

“Damn it…………… Is this what self-destruction is? If you’re going to die, die quietly. How did I get this second life?”

I try to strengthen my gaze.

But.

My vision blurred.

How hard it is to keep a tiny thread of life going.

I just.

I just wanted to look at the world straight with my eyes.

Was that too much to ask?

Anger welled up in my chest.

“Urgh…………..!”

My heart felt cold and constricted, and I swallowed my breath.

Oxygen came in, but it didn’t go out.

Carbon dioxide built up.

My blood turned black.

I could see the blood vessels in my extremities constricting.

My fingertips turned black.

Necrosis spread.

My peripheral nerves die.

My pupils lost their light reflex.

My heart rate dropped.

At this rate.

It’s over.

This is, I’m really going to die.

‘Damn it, I’ve already eaten all the potions.’

My mind was fading.

Even if my eyes are good.

I have no countermeasures against status ailments, including curses.

Cardiac arrest was imminent.

The purple spirituality held in my pupils slowly disappeared.

At that moment.

The day changed.

[Today is Sunday of Creation.]

[The power of all days of the week awakens, and a special opportunity has come.]

[All the essences of the days of the week have gathered in one place.]

[Harmony of the Seven Luminaries ]

[When the cycle of the days of the week is completed, a new possibility is born..

[Monday’s Elixir] – Essence soaked in tears of tenacity.
[Tuesday’s Elixir] – Essence where flames of courage burn.
[Wednesday’s Elixir] – Essence imbued with the tears of tenacity.
[Thursday’s Elixir] – Essence containing the green of life.
[Friday’s Elixir] – Essence imbued with the energy of abundance.
[Saturday’s Elixir] – Essence that bloomed in despair.

[The six essences are ready to be fused into one.]

[The secret art of creation is activated.]

[Will you start creation now?]

[Yes] [No]

Death was near.

There was no reason to hesitate.

A rainbow-colored elixir appeared on my palm.

[Seven Days Elixir has been created.]

Seven Days Elixir.

My last hope.

There was no time to appraise.

I have to live, first!

Gulp.

The moment it went down my throat.

Seven colors of red, blue, and gold began to boil from deep within my body.

With an inhale, my consciousness sank.

Like wind swirling through a deep mountain valley, my spirit seeped into a quiet abyss.

While taking control of my body with Ideation, I went deep.

‘I took the elixir without proper preparation. I have to keep my mind straight.’

With thought.

Blue lightning pierced through my brain.

Blood boiled in my body.

My heart pounded like a drum.

Yang and Yin, and the seven different energies collided as if trying to devour each other.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

“Ugh…”

It felt like a fire was starting in my stomach, and cold air was crawling under my skin.

In that extreme confrontation, it felt like my insides were being twisted.

Suddenly, my heart swelled up like a bug-bitten fruit.

‘It’s going to burst. My heart is going to burst!’

My eyes rolled back.

All the blood vessels in my body swelled up as if they were going to pop out, and the energy rising through my brain made my hair stand on end.

Crack. Sizzle!

The sound of my skin cracking and my muscles tearing rang in my ears.

I tried to suppress the energy, but there was no way to overcome the torrent that was rushing like a landslide.

“Aaaaargh-!”

A scream burst out. I writhed on the floor.

My fingernails scraped against the stone floor and broke.

If you accept the energy of the seven luminaries as simple mana, your body cannot withstand it.

‘This is……………. an elixir that humans can’t handle.’

The energy contained in the elixir is seven.

Although it looks like it’s fused into one, the reality was completely different.

The Seven Luminaries .

They were orbiting in different orbits, like seven celestial bodies.

The Moon is lonely, the Fire  burns, the Water sinks, the Wood spreads, the Gold  is tempered, the Earth holds the center, and the Sun  shines alone.

The Dantian was still empty.

Instead, it raged wildly.

As if to tear, break, and devour my whole body.

It was impossible to control this huge amount of mana with my weak Ideation.

‘If the Seven Luminaries are not in harmony, they will tear my body apart.’

But.

How do I do that, exactly?

I’m a fledgling.

A newbie who hasn’t even stepped foot in the academy yet.

The method of handling mana is called the inner cultivation method.

But.

Soon I calmed my mind.

The efficacy of the C-rank skill, Calm.

‘Truth doesn’t necessarily flow only from the teacher’s mouth.’

Newton discovering gravity under an apple tree wasn’t something he learned from someone else.

Everything depends on insight.

As long as I have my covetous eyes, my knowledge is already wide and deep.

Then.

I must gather everything I have seen in this place and condense it.

The seven energies entangled with each other, twisted, and collided.

Balance has been lost, and harmony has long been broken.

The Seven Luminaries were still trying to devour me.

So?

Thump-

In an extreme situation, the body of Geomryong came to mind.

Cheonmujiche.

It was as inspiration.

‘I didn’t forcibly try to control the mana. If you don’t lean, all principles will find their place on their own. I leave it as it is, and observe with Ideation.’

Heaven and earth are bound to find balance on their own.

I had to do the same.

It was better.

The Seven Luminaries  flow on their own, saving me.

It seemed that even the Seven Luminaries did not want this weak life, which was about to be extinguished, to die.

So I knew.

Something was dwelling even in my body.

But.

It hurts like hell, that’s the problem.

‘If I go on like this, my whole body will explode and I’ll die anyway.’

I needed the last piece to refine the seven energies into one.

Me.

But it was lacking.

I can’t handle it.

The 12-year-old girl was weak and fragile.

The Ideation I possessed cannot control too much energy at once.

I swallowed the curse of the lich, and the thoughts of the 666 undead.

I swallowed all the despair and darkness.

It wasn’t that the curse devoured me, but that I swallowed the curse.

I didn’t resist.

Whoosh-

Black energy rapidly covered my whole body.

The momentum is fierce.

It flowed through the blood vessels, penetrated the muscles, and gnawed at the joints.

‘I’m really going to die.’

As a result-

All the organs of the body were corroded black.

Even the Dantian was eroded by the curse.

Boom boom boom!!

At that moment, I almost had a heart attack.

My eyes went black.

All my senses were cut off.

Only, I forcibly grabbed my heart with Ideation.

‘Move. Move. Move.’

If I just opened my eyes, I could have used that terrible spectacle, which I used to see as a matter of course, as a reference.

I squeezed my Ideation and consciously imitated that flow.

I adjusted the electrolyte balance in my blood, artificially sent nerve potentials, and tightened muscle fibers.

At the same time, I infused the energy of the Seven Luminaries into the curse.

The rainbow-colored energies collided violently.

‘If you mix all the colors, you get black.’

There was resistance, but it was useless.

The lights devoured each other and were painfully torn apart.

What sank and remained was a dark magic energy .

‘Now I just have to control the energy that has become one!’

At that moment-

The magic energy condensed in the fine veins resonated with the Dantian, and my whole body trembled.

Sweat was pouring out.

Explosive power condensed in the Dantian, then struck the surrounding blood vessels violently.

It felt like every piece of flesh was burning.

“Ugh!”

Why?

I created the magic energy, but it brought me to a deeper abyss rather than saving me.

It ran wild and openly gnawed at my life, and not only did it not complete a single cycle, but even my Dantian was on the verge of collapse.

‘Cheonmujiche does it like this. Isn’t this how energy is handled?’

I tried to circulate the energy  again.

I sent the energy that started from the Dantian down to the Miryeohyeol .

But the magic energy did not respond.

No, it rather refused.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

Magic energy also has a will.

I read the guy’s thoughts.

‘……You want to go in reverse?’

I went against the flow.

Yeokcheon .

It’s not going against the sky, it’s making it flow backward.

If even flowing backward gains momentum, even that will become a flow.

My consciousness turned white and faded.

Tremendous pain came.

I had to endure all of this.

With my mind straight, I had to forcibly piece together my body.

I overturned the fine veins.

I reopened the acupoints.

I tore and rearranged the muscles.

The Dantian screamed.

The energy flowed backward.

But I didn’t waver.

That supported me.

I grabbed the scattered energy.

I held onto the shaking body.

‘Cheonmujiche is useless. There’s no way to live without this.’

The reverse order of Cheonmujiche.

Based on that, this body must be reborn.

It must become a body that walks with magic energy.

And, finally-

Each context was perfectly misaligned.

Woong!

The energy that was boiling in the Dantian soared up my spine.

The conception vessel and the governor vessel vibrated simultaneously.

Hoeum―Gwanwon-Gihae―Jungwan―Danjung…

And Baekhoe.

All these acupoints were heated with magic energy.

Strand by strand, nerves were re-woven.

A new flow, a new bloodline, was creating a new me.

It was instantaneous.

All principles were intertwined and condensed into one point.

Complete convergence.

Flash!

Against the existing laws, a flexible and unobstructed flow was created.

Now the magic energy flows backward on its own, and I was the master of that flow.

A long time later.

I opened my eyes.

I looked around.

Two fingernails that were torn out while scratching the floor in pain.

Yellow sweat and blood all over my body.

Dried blood and tears.

But, none of that mattered anymore.

I slowly inhaled.

And exhaled.

Mist rose like smoke from my whole body.

“I survived this.”

I slowly gathered myself and stood up.

Rather.

I felt a power in my limbs that I had never felt before.

“Oh.”

A body that will never be found again in the world.

The completion of Cheonmajiche .

The 44th Academy Entrance Ceremony.

Everyone said in unison.

“This exam was truly hell.”

Most of those who passed such an exam were additional successful applicants.

Those who were lucky, narrowly, and barely dragged in.

That means.

Those who passed with flying colors at once were truly great beings.

For example, Jeong Chaemin.

She was sitting in her seat, looking around and laughing softly.

I felt a little smug.

I wondered if I would become a national-power-level hunter like the God of War.

As I was spreading my wings of imagination, giggle.

But.

There were several targets that even she was concerned about.

The faces of the new students are unusual.

‘Wow, this class is the best ever. They’re all very famous faces.’

The disciple of Man-sin.

The child who survived in the North.

The successor of Hell Hounds.

The child loved by the spirits.

The 4th generation of the Jesperance family, etc.

These are people who would normally have become the representative of the new students.

‘Of course, our El is not lacking anywhere………….’

Jeong Chaemin muttered and thought of Ernian, who took first place in the entrance exam.

“Hehe. So cute

I was surprised by the sound that came out of my mouth.

Is this, my voice?

A high-pitched tone that hasn’t subsided.

Suddenly, I met the eyes of the student next to me.

That student was looking at Jeong Chaemin with a strange expression.

“Ahem. Ah, maybe it’s because it’s the change of seasons. My throat is very hoarse.”

I quickly covered it up with a fake cough.

I slowly turned my gaze, maintaining a calm face as if nothing had happened.

But the inside was already a mess.

This…………… It’s so cute, it’s a problem.

My concept is shaking.

It’s not just cute. Its very existence is deadly.

Small, white, and a face that stimulates the protective instinct.

She often tilts her head like a small bird in front of the common sense of the world.

“Heh.”

She clenched her mouth shut.

It felt like a feminine reaction, which she would never normally do and which she had to hide thoroughly, would burst out again.

‘I have to be careful. By the way. Where the heck is El?’

All of Jeong Chaemin’s nerves were focused on one place.

New student representative oath.

So soon, I’ll be able to see her walking up to that platform.

“……How cute would that be?!”

Her golden hair will sway, she’ll put her small hands together, and she’ll recite the oath clearly with a slightly nervous face.

How lovely will it be to see her do well even though she can’t see?

Jeong Chaemin took out the camera she had prepared, full of anticipation.

A state-of-the-art, high-performance camera from the Cheonryong Group.

Optical zoom? High-speed shooting? AI auto-correction? All supported.

‘I must take a picture.’

Time passed, but El did not appear.

The host, seemingly a little flustered, carefully checked again.

“Freshman representative, Ernian Ludwig. Are you not present?”

Murmurs spread.

It was unprecedented for the freshman representative not to appear on time at the academy entrance ceremony.

The professors also looked at each other and whispered.

‘What, where did she go? Did she get lost?’

Just as Jeong Chaemin was anxiously looking around-

“……”

Jeong Chaemin’s breath caught.

‘What, when did she grow so much?!’