“Ow, ow, ow!”
Zeldryn instinctively tilted his head in the direction Kera was pulling.
His ear felt hot and painful.
“S-sorry, damn it!”
Zeldryn blurted it out while trying to ease the pain in his ear.
But when he turned and saw Kera’s face up close...
!!??
‘Shit.’
The man was genuinely annoyed.
The strange smile that was usually plastered across his face was completely gone.
Kera’s gaze was also very different from usual.
‘He’s actually mad just because I ignored him?’
Kera kept twisting his ear for a few more moments before finally sighing.
“Good grief...”
“I’ll forgive you this time.”
Zeldryn barely had time to feel relieved before Kera continued,
“If it happens again...”
Kera kept his eyes fixed on him.
“Your ear won’t be the only thing I twist.”
“...”
After saying that, Kera finally let go.
Zeldryn immediately pulled his head away.
“Ow...”
His hand instinctively went to the ear Kera had just released.
It still felt hot.
‘Bastard, that actually hurt.’
Meanwhile, Kera turned around and started walking a few steps forward.
Zeldryn remained where he was, rubbing his ear.
His gaze followed the man’s back.
But...
A few seconds later, Zeldryn’s eyes dropped toward Kera’s hands.
“...?”
He frowned.
!!??
‘Huh?’
Only now did Zeldryn notice something.
Both of Kera’s hands were empty.
But earlier that morning, when he had been in Zeldryn’s room...
Kera had been carrying a staff in one hand.
Now, however, the staff was nowhere to be seen.
Even when he had explained the analogy about the glass and the Mana Hole earlier, Kera had freely used both hands.
‘Where did the staff he was carrying earlier go?’
Curious, Zeldryn immediately asked,
“Kera.”
Kera stopped walking.
“What now?”
Zeldryn looked at both of his hands.
“Where’s the staff you were carrying this morning?”
Kera fell silent for a moment.
Then he glanced slightly behind him.
“Do I really have to explain every single thing you ask me, damn it?”
“...”
Zeldryn clicked his tongue.
“Tch.”
‘I was just asking.’
Kera faced forward again.
“Instead of asking pointless questions...”
He raised his hand and pointed toward the tree they had been using as a target.
The trunk already had several black marks from Zeldryn’s explosions.
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“You’d better practice what I told you.”
Zeldryn looked at the tree.
“Make an even bigger explosion.”
Kera kept pointing at the trunk.
“And blow up that tree.”
“...”
Zeldryn didn’t immediately do it.
He stared at the tree for a few moments.
But his thoughts instead returned to his Mana Hole.
‘Hmm...’
Zeldryn tried to feel the area beneath his abdomen.
The thirst that had bothered him so much earlier was gone.
That empty and dry sensation had disappeared as well.
‘My Mana Hole doesn’t feel thirsty anymore.’
After absorbing mana earlier, that part of his body felt much more normal.
But actually...
Zeldryn still had many questions.
Especially about what happened the night before.
‘If what Kera said is true...’
There was some kind of gate on the Mana Hole.
That gate could be opened to receive mana.
And closed to stop the absorption.
Zeldryn had even just managed to close it himself.
But precisely because he succeeded...
Another question appeared.
‘Didn’t I want to stop that night too?’
Zeldryn frowned.
He still remembered the pain.
The pain that kept getting worse.
Until eventually, he lost consciousness.
In that condition...
Of course he wanted it to stop.
‘I was in fucking agony back then.’
‘Obviously I didn’t want to absorb any more mana.’
But...
Zeldryn suddenly fell silent.
“...”
‘Wait.’
Back then, did I really want to close the Mana Hole?
Or...
did I only want the pain to stop?
‘I was only thinking that I didn’t want to absorb mana anymore.’
‘I wanted the pain to stop.’
But...
Wasn’t that the same thing?
If he didn’t want to absorb mana anymore, then his Mana Hole had to stop accepting mana.
And to make it stop...
The gate had to close.
‘Not wanting the pain to continue means stopping the mana absorption.’
‘Stopping the mana absorption means closing the gate.’
They should be the same.
But there was one problem.
During what happened that night...
Zeldryn didn’t understand the Mana Hole nearly as deeply as he did now.
He did know the term Mana Hole from the novel Life Really Is Happy, Right?
But only to the extent that Manholers possessed one and used it to absorb mana.
He didn’t know what it looked like.
He didn’t understand how it worked.
He didn’t know about the gate.
He didn’t know how to open it.
Much less how to close it.
In fact...
Zeldryn remembered his very first attempt.
‘Wait.’
He didn’t even know why mana had been absorbed back then.
Zeldryn had simply closed his eyes.
Focused his mind on mana.
Then the particles appeared inside his mind.
After that...
He let them.
And the mana entered.
“...”
Zeldryn frowned even more.
‘Why?’
Back then, he couldn’t consciously move mana particles yet.
He had only discovered that ability this morning after being tortured by Kera.
Which meant that night...
He hadn’t moved the mana particles toward his Mana Hole.
Yet the particles were still absorbed.
‘Does the Mana Hole absorb mana automatically?’
No.
Zeldryn immediately felt that something was wrong with that idea.
If a Mana Hole automatically kept absorbing mana...
Wouldn’t everyone with a Mana Hole constantly absorb mana without realizing it?
While walking.
While eating.
While sleeping.
All the time.
Eventually, all of them would take in too much mana.
‘That doesn’t make sense.’
Which meant something had to trigger the Mana Hole to begin absorbing.
But what?
Zeldryn stared at the tree in front of him without really seeing it.
‘Why?’
‘Why was mana able to enter back then?’
He tried replaying what happened that night in his head.
At the time...
Zeldryn had indeed been sitting down with the intention of trying mana.
He focused on the particles.
Then...
!!
‘Wait.’
Zeldryn froze.
There was one thing that had been obvious from the very beginning.
He wanted to absorb mana.
That was his goal.
He didn’t know how to do it.
He didn’t understand the mechanism.
He didn’t know anything about the Mana Hole’s gate.
But deep inside his mind...
He genuinely wanted that mana to enter.
‘So...’
Zeldryn began arriving at a much more reasonable possibility.
‘The mana wasn’t absorbed by coincidence.’
‘I opened the Mana Hole’s gate without realizing it.’
Zeldryn didn’t know how to consciously open it like he did now.
But perhaps his desire to absorb mana had been enough to make it open instinctively.
That was why the mana began entering.
‘Yeah.’
Zeldryn slowly nodded to himself.
‘That’s the most reasonable possibility.’
Which meant that when he first successfully absorbed mana...
It hadn’t been luck.
Nor had it happened because the Mana Hole automatically absorbed everything.
Zeldryn really had opened the gate.
He simply hadn’t realized he was doing it.
‘It’s becoming clearer.’
But only a few seconds after Zeldryn felt like he had found the answer...
His thoughts stopped again.
“...”
‘Huh?’
If that was the case...
Why didn’t the gate close when he wanted to stop?
Zeldryn immediately returned to the original problem.
When the pain appeared that night...
He clearly didn’t want to absorb mana anymore.
He was no longer focusing on the absorption process.
The only thing on his mind was how to make the pain stop.
But the mana kept entering.
And the pain kept increasing until he lost consciousness.
‘Why?’
Zeldryn became even more confused.
‘If my desire to absorb mana could open the gate without me realizing it...’
‘Shouldn’t my desire to stop also have closed it without me realizing it?’
“...”
Zeldryn held his chin.
‘But wait.’
At the time, he really didn’t want to absorb mana anymore.
But was not wanting to absorb the same as consciously wanting to close the gate?
‘They should be the same, right?’
Not wanting to absorb meant stopping the flow.
Stopping the flow meant closing the Mana Hole.
But...
Back then, he didn’t even know the concept of a gate existed.
‘But I didn’t know about the gate when I opened it either!’
“...”
Zeldryn felt his thoughts beginning to spin.
‘So why could I open it unconsciously...’
‘But not close it?’
‘Do opening and closing require different kinds of understanding?’
‘Or was my intention wrong back then?’
‘Or is there still something I don’t understand?’
‘But if it really is only based on intention...’
‘Why didn’t it stop when I wanted it to stop?’
“...”
The more he thought about it...
The messier it became.
Every time one piece began to make sense, another question immediately crashed into it.
Zeldryn grabbed his head.
‘AAARGH, DAMN IT!’
‘My head’s going to explode.’
The concept of mana, which had seemed simple at first, only became more complicated the deeper he went.
Seeing mana.
Absorbing mana.
Moving mana.
Using mana.
Opening the Mana Hole.
Closing the Mana Hole.
And who knew what else would come after this.
‘What the hell even is this mana system?’
‘It’s such a damn mess.’
In the end...
Zeldryn raised his head.
His gaze returned to Kera.
The man was a Level 3 Manholer.
He obviously knew far more about mana than Zeldryn did.
And unfortunately...
For now, there was only one person Zeldryn could ask.
‘Shit.’
Zeldryn sighed.
‘I really have no choice but to ask that four-eyed bastard again.’
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