Stop, Friendly Fire!

<Chapter 31. Giants' Domain - 1>

Lee Shin Woo was shaken while atop of Jin's back for two days, and when he raised his head from Lee Man Bok's diary, he suddenly realized that...

"This is a bit weird."

"That's a relief, I thought the same."

They were running across a mountainous area. The area was rugged, befitting a level 4 danger zone, and everywhere they looked, they saw mountains, hills, canyons, and cliffs, so they couldn't figure out exactly where they were if they didn't check their minimap.

But it was really strange; when they actually checked their minimap, it seemed like they hadn't budged, even though a few hours had passed!

"We should've gotten out by now."

"Are we lost?"

"No, we're not, considering the fact that we keep seeing things we haven't before. In my opinion, it's just..."

Lee Shin Woo thought 'surely not', stretched out his hand, and sensed the flow of mana. Mm, as he expected, the flow of mana wasn't normal. The inflow rate was too high, causing the remaining mana to feel unusually twisted. Even if they took into account that it was a level 4 danger zone, there was still a tremendous amount of mana concentrated in this area.

"I didn't think it was possible, but... the density of mana is so high that the space is naturally expanding."

"Like the training facility?"

"It's expanding much less than the training facility, but it's still huge. I assume that's why it feels like we're not getting anywhere when we look at the minimap."

"It's not a dungeon or even an artificial facility, yet the environment naturally expanded. The Empire's really no joke..."

If this could happen, then anything was possible in the Empire. Like what they were experiencing right now, where the limited space was expanding and the natural environment thrived within, or space itself was strangely interconnected. If not, then there was space being hidden...

"Maybe the Giants' domain is like that too. Since I've never heard of the Giants' domain from our seniors before..."

"But Shin Woo, shouldn't we be worrying about getting out of this place, not the Giants' domain?"

"Even I don't know how to cut down space as it expands."

"But at this rate, we'll just be wandering around for the next few days. That's fine with me, but won't it throw a wrench in your plans?"

"Mm..."

It was a fair point. Lee Shin Woo shrugged his shoulders and activated his mana. There was something he could fall back on. Mana Bone had leveled up through Bone Reinforcement and Lee Shin Woo had gained the ability to resist spatial magic; he definitely remembered seeing that line.

'It might've formed naturally, but this is still clearly spatial magic. No... the mana's even more primitive.'

He couldn't categorize the mana by element. It just had a unique flow. The mana used for spatial magic wasn't entirely different from this mana. Therefore, it was even more difficult to sense spatial magic and resist it.

'The flow of mana... if I can sense a portion of it and twist it around, then...'

This wasn't something that could be solved by Lee Shin Woo filling the surrounding area with his mana, as he wouldn't be able to entirely affect the vast area. Lee Shin Woo needed to find where the flow of mana was weak. In other words, the part that he could break.

"Almost done?"

"It's not that simple."

"You can do it."

Just hearing Lee Shin Woo say it's hard made Jin completely give up on listening to Lee Shin Woo and went back to his own business. In other words, he left Lee Shin Woo to think and he just continued to run forward.

Jin planned on laughing at him if he were to get them out of here before Lee Shin Woo could come up with something.

"Ah, so that's how it is."

But unfortunately, Lee Shin Woo, who was talented in mana, suddenly realized what 'resisting' meant.

To be exact, he realized that the way he looked at the world and the mana within it had changed, as well as how that was linked to spatial magic.

"Yeah... No matter how overpowering the mana controlling this space is, not all of the mana follows that flow. Moreover, when I look at it from a world view, then this flow is nothing more than a single branch. In other words, I need to see the main current, the original flow of mana."

"Mm, I have no idea what you're saying."

"For example, a checkered coat is extremely popular for a single season, but you have to be able to find the guy who always wears the same plain shirt."

"It makes sense!?"

Lee Shin Woo's explanation caused Jin to shake, and Jin yelled in shock. He just left Jin alone and earnestly began to look for the plain shirt... the original flow of mana.

And he began to understand what it meant to resist the space's mana. After all, this flow of mana, which twisted and manipulated this space, and piled up on top of each other, could only be resisted if he classified and detected it!

"But it's still really hard. Damn...!"

"Hey, you know that old-fashioned people usually stay the course and don't change."

"Who's the one actually looking for the plain shirt right now?"

However, Jin's words were actually helpful. Lee Shin Woo turned his attention from the misleading flow of mana and concentrated on the hidden, yet continuous flow of mana.

"Shin Woo?"

"..."

"Shin Woo, are you ok?"

Of course, it wasn't possible with just sight. He had to feel for the mana with his entire body, and he didn't submit, even though the mana threatened to carry him away; Lee Shin Woo attempted to feel for the other flow of mana that came towards him.

He succeeded, even though it was his first attempt. Lee Shin Woo didn't even know how much time had passed and was able to focus entirely on the flow of mana. Though it did take him a few hours.

"Are you almost done...?"

"...Yeah, I think I'm done."

At some point, Lee Shin Woo, who had been in deep thought, opened his eyes wide open. It seemed like a joke, as it had only been a few hours, but Lee Shin Woo now roughly understood the concept behind the space.

"Run forward, Jin."

"That's what I've been doing."

"No, it'll be different."

Lee Shin Woo placed a hand atop Jin's back and connected their mana together. Lee Shin Woo used this method to borrow mana from Jin when he hadn't had enough mana in the past.

However, he wasn't borrowing mana this time. Instead, he was making their mana as one.

"Alright, now the main current of mana will lead us."

"I'm not really sure what's going on, but I guess I'll just run for now."

Jin replied honestly and ran. Then, the surrounding landscape quickly began to change. Jin was, of course, always this fast, so the passing landscape was a blur, but the scale was different. Within the blink of an eye, they would pass by mountains, rocks, valleys, and cliffs.

"Wait, what's going on...?"

"It doesn't matter how we move in this space. What does matter is which mana flow we follow."

Lee Shin Woo's goblin fire swayed tremendously as he explained this to the shocked Jin. To be honest, he'd just gotten a feel for it himself, so even if he wanted to explain it in detail, he really couldn't.

"I don't get it."

"It's tough for me to explain, so just think of it as us taking a shortcut."

It was roughly similar to the Scar of the Wind (Kaze no Kizu) in Inuyasha, where Inuyasha finds the rift between yokai auras and swings the Tessaiga into that rift, releasing an energy wave. At least, that's what he wanted to say, but it seemed like Jin wouldn't understand the reference, so he decided against it.

"Hoo, I feel a lot better now. The minimap's finally moving."

"We're close to the Giants' domain. We avoided wasting time as you said."

Of course, Lee Shin Woo had checked in the chatting channel and Ethan Cruz hadn't finished formulating his hunting plan. After all, it wasn't easy to find one of the 12 generals and lead him to them.

Still, he was moving more actively towards that goal, and because he didn't know when Ethan Cruz would call for them, he wanted to pursue his task... killing all the undead heroes as quickly as possible.

"Is this the right way?"

"Yeah. Run."

The Giants' domain. It'd be great if he could get what he wanted from there... he thought and raised his head. For a moment, Lee Shin Woo's goblin fire swayed tremendously. There was an incredibly large snow-covered mountain in between their destination and them.

"What's with this all of a sudden...?"

"Should we go another way?"

"Seems like something's inside, right? Let's go a different way."

Normally, Lee Shin Woo would say 'It's a chance to raise my Ice Resistance to high rank' and would tell Jin to charge forward, but the situation was different right now. Regrettably, he thought that avoiding it was the better move.

'Plus, with a mountain that distinctive, the other seniors must've been interested and lured in.'

Lee Shin Woo had that thought, opened a private chat with Prince and asked about the snow-covered mountain in the level 4 danger zone. There was way too much he didn't want to be revealed to Ethan Cruz in the chatting channel.

[Prince Altania: A snow-covered mountain? What snow-covered mountain?]

"You don't know about it?"

[Prince Altania: I've never even heard about it. Moreover, I've never heard about it from my seniors either... Wait a sec, I'll go and ask Lloyd.]

"No, it's fine. I just saw it in passing."

If it were a famous area, then Prince would know what he was talking about. As Lee Shin Woo was concerned that there would be an information leak, he spoke curtly and Prince acted pompous like always.

[Prince Altania: Seriously... now you're calling me for such trivial matters? It seems like you really wanted to hear my voice, but unfortunately, it's not that easy to hear my original voice.]

"I'd really like to hear it when we meet again."

[Prince Altania: Huh!? Keut...!]

Prince was flustered from Lee Shin Woo's response and he took that chance to quickly say 'see you later' before leaving the chatting channel. As expected, she was fun to tease. Lee Shin Woo smiled joyfully and Jin began his 'thorny rodeo' again.

"Hey, stop for a sec."

"I'm not going to stop until you start crying or beg... Huh?"

When Jin, who had been tormenting Lee Shin Woo with Steel Heart, innocently raised his head... there was another snow-covered mountain right before their very eyes, like the one they'd seen before.

"Did I go the wrong way?"

"No, you went the right way. We were definitely trying to go around it."

"Then that means there's something wrong with the space again, right? Why are there so many of these things in the level 4 danger zone!?"

It was quite frustrating to Jin, whose original wish was to run without pause. Lee Shin Woo looked back and gently closed his eyes, but then, looked forward again and shook his head.

"I don't think it's a different mountain. I think it's all part of one mountain."

"One whole mountain? So you're saying that we got here because you solved the puzzle?"

"Yeah, to be exact..."

Lee Shin Woo sensed the flow of mana that led them to the snow-covered mountain. Now, that mana was fused with Jin and Lee Shin Woo's mana and was flowing quite naturally, but even if they were to leave here, the flow of mana would lead them straight back here.

"That place that we passed was designed to hide this snow-covered mountain... If we hadn't followed that flow of mana, then we'd never have even found this place. This area was completely hidden within that complex flow of mana."

"So what do we do now? Should we go through the mountain?"

"That's probably the best choice. ...It seems like that's what we've been looking for."

Lee Shin Woo checked his minimap once more and smiled bitterly, dumbfounded.

He'd expected this to happen. The marks indicating the location of the two final remaining undead heroes were pointing inside the snow-covered mountain.