Published: January 22, 2026
“Ugh...!”
My left shoulder felt like it was burning with intense heat.
I somehow managed to avoid hitting a vital spot, but the mana fluid thorn had pierced through my shoulder.
The mana around me vanished.
I was enduring the pain, which made me want to scream and cry immediately, but gradually my vision blurred with tears.
Yet, in exchange for the excruciating pain, I obtained the last crucial piece of information I needed.
As I thought, her [Mana Eater] ability was incomplete.
“Got you!”
I heard Due’s lively voice from behind.
Turning just my neck, I caught Due in my sight; the ground where she stood was cracked in several places.
She must have flowed mana fluid from those cracks, moved it to the wall, and then shaped it into thorns.
So earlier, when she was stomping her feet, it wasn’t just out of frustration.
If it weren’t for the [Mana Eater], even if I had missed it, Titania would never have overlooked it.
Truly troublesome to the extreme.
Just like when I was initially caught, Titania released wind blades toward the ceiling through me, but the highly viscous mana fluid stuck to the ceiling, nullifying the wind blades.
“Ahahaha! That same trick won’t work! Then die! Silver Hair!”
Due transformed her left arm into a sharp blade again and charged fiercely, closing the distance.
“Not gonna die here...!”
Since the thorn had stopped after piercing me, I moved backward and forcibly pulled it out.
Tremendous pain surged through my left shoulder, more than ever before, but I ignored it and tried to swing the staff held in my right hand as I turned around.
However, Due had already gotten inside the staff’s range, and the tip of the blade on her left arm was closing in.
At that moment, her expression showed complete confidence in victory.
“You got careless. Your finishing move was sloppy!”
Before the tip of the blade reached me, I deflected it by striking the side of the approaching blade with a dagger I had switched to from the staff.
“Huh?”
Smoothly, as we passed each other, I slashed the dagger from Due’s abdomen to her right shoulder.
This was the dagger technique personally taught by Telshe, who was most skilled with daggers.
Although I couldn’t match those specialized in close combat, I could at least do this much.
I quickly escaped the influence of [Mana Eater] and used [Time Reversal] to revert my left shoulder to the state before it was pierced.
Though the physical fact of my shoulder being pierced was gone, the sensation of pain remained.
Phantom pain, so to speak, still lingered, but that was unavoidable.
Compared to before, it was a pain I could definitely endure.
“Why... why!? You were holding a staff just a moment ago! Why did it change to a dagger!?”
Despite having received what should have been a fatal attack, Due showed no sign of pain, instead hysterically shouting in disbelief that I had counterattacked.
“Well, I’m not going to answer that.”
But there’s no trick to it.
My storage magical tool is a special model made by that genius magical tool artisan.
It was designed so it can be used even in the boss areas of the Great Northern and Great Southern Labyrinth’s hundred layers.
Simply put, I just stored the staff and brought out the dagger.
“You’re kidding me!”
“I’m not kidding. Now that I have all the necessary information, this is no longer a fight to the death. It’s a one-sided annihilation.”
“Don’t get cocky just because you barely survived!”
When Due flew into a rage, her hair began to flicker, and the large bundle transformed into mana fluid and attacked.
“Titania, I have a favor to ask.”
Switching from dagger back to staff, I spoke to Titania while weaving a spell in my mind.
“…If it’s something I can do, I’ll cooperate.”
“Thanks. Then please gather as many ice spirits and the mana that could possibly become them as you can from outside this place.”
“I’d like to ask what you’re planning, but we don’t have time. Where should I gather them?”
“Right above here, on the surface. Also, prepare so we can teleport between the second layer and the surface whenever needed.”