Ascension Through Skills
chapter-254

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

Taesan accepted. Anetsha joyfully began to explain.

“As you might have felt while using it, black magic is the power that summons the power of demons.”

Anetsha waved her hand. Seir’s Black Wind formed in her hand.

The black wind gathered and gathered, forming the shape of a bird. Anetsha gently extended her hand. The bird made of wind flew into the sky as if it were alive.

“Do you know what kind of beings demons are?”

“I have a rough idea.”

He had heard about it from the ghost before. They were beings much weaker than gods but still strong from birth. They were under the demon god and lent their power through black magic, but they were not docile beings.

“Yes, we summon part of the power that demons handle. The more demonic energy we consume, the stronger the power becomes, but its limits are clear with just that. Taesan, could you tell me one of the black magic spells you possess?”

“Decarabia’s Distorted Vegetation.”

Taesan mentioned one black magic spell. Anetsha admired it.

“Distorted Vegetation… Only a few among the guardians of the royal castle have that black magic… You possess it. Have you ever used it with the maximum demonic energy?”

Taesan nodded. Distorted Vegetation was a black magic spell he used frequently.

“How was its power?”

“It was decent.”

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that great either. At Taesan’s level, he could break and crush through.

“The fact that you call it decent means you haven’t drawn out the true power of black magic. If you handle it properly… even you wouldn’t be able to stop it easily.”

“Oh?”

Taesan’s eyes sparkled.

If what she said was true, it meant the power would increase tremendously.

“What is the concept?”

“Most black magic is summoning-type. We create a passage to summon the power of the demon. However, the passages we create are too weak and inadequate for the demon’s power to pass through, so we can only summon fragments.”

Thinking about it, there was such a description in the Distorted Vegetation spell.

[Summons the vegetation handled by the demon Decarabia. It seems only the fragments of the root that swallowed stars can be summoned.]

Only fragments of the root that swallowed stars could be summoned. He thought it was a matter of increasing proficiency, but it seemed to be a fundamental issue.

“So, we strengthen the passage itself with demonic energy. We weave it densely and implement it firmly to summon the power handled by the demon as closely as possible.”

“The passage itself?”

“Yes, it’s not difficult.”

Anetsha waved her hand. Black wind rose. Its color and strength were deeper than what Taesan handled.

“Like this.”

A complicated magic formula of demonic energy appeared where the wind arose.

“Try it. You can do it, Taesan.”

Handling demonic energy.

But Taesan couldn’t do it.

“How do you handle demonic energy?”

“Huh?”

Anetsha was puzzled.

“Haven’t you been handling black magic all this time? Think of it like that.”

“I don’t know. I just used it by consuming demonic energy.”

“…Is that possible?”

Anetsha didn’t understand Taesan’s words. It meant there was a fundamental difference between them.

Quaned, who had been quietly watching, intervened.

“An explanation is needed. Princess. The author and I descended into a place called the labyrinth created by the gods. And there, the concept of a system is applied.”

“System?”

“Yes. If you obtain power in the form of skills, you can naturally use it even if you don’t know the usage method and rules. When I drove out the monster attacking the village, I used a strange skill. Think of it like that.”

“…That’s very interesting.”

Using power without understanding it.

Anetsha couldn’t easily accept it. Quaned turned his gaze to Taesan.

“It’s faster if I explain. Can you use magic?”

“Yes.”

“In the case of magic, it’s fine if you don’t understand. The system of the labyrinth has set a precise usage method. The skills you handled are similar.”

Skills and magic. Both had precise effects. The timing of their use was important.

“But black magic is different.”

Unlike magic, black magic was a form of summoning the power of demons. It was necessary to learn how to create the passage itself.

To do that, one had to control demonic energy perfectly.

Taesan, summarizing his words, closed his eyes.

He contemplated internally to feel the power embedded deep down.

But he couldn’t feel anything special. He knew something was embedded deep inside, but that was it. He didn’t know how to handle it.

Explaining this, Quaned scratched his cheek.

“You must be human.”

Wings were for birds. Even if humans suddenly gained wings, they couldn’t fly without knowing how to use them.

Even if they somehow learned how to use them, nothing would change. The human body was specialized for walking and running. Structurally, it couldn’t glide in the sky.

Magical energy was the same. Magical energy was for demons. Although Taesan gained strength with the help of the labyrinth, using it was a separate matter.

“We need to forcefully open the path.”

Then the structure should be changed to handle magical energy.

“Princess.”

“Huh. I didn’t understand well, but should we do it like we do with the kids?”

Anetsha and Quaned approached Taesan and placed their hands on his back.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Very rarely, there are kids among the demons who can’t handle magical energy. In such cases, adults usually raise the magical energy and forcefully open the path.”

Quaned said with a serious face.

“I don’t know how it will work since you’re human, but let’s try it. Close your mouth and focus internally.”

Taesan closed his eyes.

Anetsha and Quaned raised their magical energy.

Boom!

“Ugh…”

Their magical energy entered Taesan.

It was a strange feeling to have someone else’s power enter his body. The magical energy stirred inside and began to descend to the depths.

“Huh?”

Anetsha and Quaned’s faces stiffened.

They inserted their magical energy into Taesan, trying to create a path toward his magical energy.

Various abilities Taesan possessed were each settled within his body.

The magical energy was located at the lowest and deepest place.

As they descended to find the path, they could feel the powers Taesan possessed overall.

The sensation they felt was immense.

Their magical energy was merely a drifting small boat in a vast ocean. It was an immeasurable gap.

‘This is…’

Anetsha was astonished.

It was beyond the realm of mortals.

Quaned bit his lip. Creating a path was usually not difficult. A demon of Quaned’s level could create thousands in a day.

But this was too vast.

Even creating just one path in this immense place was daunting.

Anetsha and Quaned gritted their teeth and inserted their magical energy. Meanwhile, Taesan closed his eyes and focused on the deep magical energy.

He felt their magical energy penetrating inward.

It was a faint power, but it certainly descended towards the inside of Taesan.

But it was insufficient.

With that amount of power, it would dissipate before reaching Taesan’s magical energy.

So Taesan assisted.

The magical energy was stuck deep inside like a sticky fluid.

Taesan began to touch it.

Little by little, but surely, he spread the waves as if tapping the water surface with a spoon.

The sticky magical energy started to loosen bit by bit.

At that moment, Taesan gathered his internal power and struck the magical energy.

The magical energy exploded and surged upward. What was deep at the bottom rose up.

“Oh!”

Anetsha involuntarily gasped.

The massive magical energy tried to engulf her power like a tidal wave.

She instinctively tried to escape in fear but controlled her mind and connected to the magical energy.

A faint but definite path was formed.

[Black Magic proficiency increased by 1%.] [You have acquired Path Implementation.]

Simultaneously, Anetsha and Quaned stepped back.

“Gasp!”

“Gasp, gasp.”

Quaned coughed up blood. Anetsha’s face turned pale, and her hands trembled.

“Are you okay?”

“Not really.”

Anetsha smiled bitterly.

“Taesan… you’re truly a monster.”

Feeling sorry for overburdening them, Taesan handed over a stamina potion.

“Oh, it’s been a while.”

Quaned drank the potion with a pleased face. His complexion slightly recovered.

[You have activated the Domain of Regeneration.]

“Take some rest. I’ll handle the carriage.”

Although he couldn’t control it earlier, he now knew how to operate the carriage.

After finishing the meal, Taesan got on the carriage, placed his hand on its wall, and injected magical energy.

The carriage began to move swiftly.

Remembering the sensation from before, Taesan opened the skill window.

[Black Magic] [Proficiency: 40%] [You can handle the magic of the demon god. By consuming magical energy, you can use black magic. Depending on the consumed magical energy, the effect of black magic can be somewhat drawn out. It is a state where you can handle the true power of black magic.]

The proficiency of black magic reached 40%.

It seemed that opening the path in this way was the condition to reach 40%.

At the same time, like with magic, he gained several auxiliary skills.

[Path Implementation] [Proficiency: 1%] [Implements a path to pass the power of demons using magical energy. It seems it still can’t create a proper path.]

Seeing was believing, so Taesan immediately tried using magical energy.

Wooong.

Magical energy materialized above Taesan’s hand.

It was a completely different and new sensation compared to mana.

Taesan recalled how Anetsha handled magical energy. He followed the implementation sequence and handled the magical energy to open the path.

A different ominous sensation emanated from beyond the path.

It was looking at Taesan.

At the same time, the power of the demon sprang forth.

[You have activated Leraje’s Territory Detection.]

Territory Detection.

A black magic that read everything and informed it within a certain range.

The range was decent, but the information provided was too insufficient. It was black magic that he didn’t use, overshadowed by Insight and Essence Grasp.

But this time was different.

He could feel the swaying of the grass and its scent. The bloodthirsty battle where monsters trampled and bit each other. The direction and roughness of the gusting wind.

It was as if he could see everything within the territory detection.

It felt as if he were observing the entire world.

“This is…”

It was a new sensation. Taesan, with a groan, once again implemented the path.

The presence beyond the path recognized Taesan, and power sprang forth.

[You have activated Decarabia’s Distorted Vegetation.]

Boom!

Decarabia’s vegetation used to be a skill that filled the surrounding space with various roots.

But this time it was different.

A single massive root rose.

A root as large as if it were embedded in the center of a planet shot up into the sky.

Anetsha was astonished.

“Huh? So massive?”

Anetsha had seen demons handling Decarabia’s Distorted Vegetation. They could also create paths like Taesan.

But neither the size nor the power came close to half of Taesan’s.

“At this size…”

It wasn’t just a part of the root.

It could have been the core root itself summoned.

Taesan touched the root.

It was solid.

Certainly, it was hard enough that even his power couldn’t easily break it.

“Good.”

Taesan smiled.

The new power of black magic he had gained was strong.

In terms of sheer power, nothing could match it except high-level magic.

But its drawbacks were also clear.

“It consumes more magical energy than I thought.”

Too much magical energy was consumed in implementing the path. He had used only two black magic spells, yet his magical energy was almost depleted.

‘And the delay is long too.’

Whether it was because Taesan wasn’t familiar with it or because it originally took that long, the implementation of the path itself took quite some time.

Using it in the middle of a battle would be quite difficult.

Moreover, it required significant concentration, which normally would make it hard to implement during a fight, but it wasn’t a problem for Taesan.

[Special Passive Skill: Mental Division] [Proficiency: 4%] [You can see, act, and think about many things at once. The limit on the number of tasks is still defined.]

Thanks to Mental Division, which allowed him to do many things simultaneously, he could implement the path even while doing other things.

But that too had its limits.

When facing an enemy with whom he had to fight for his life, he wouldn’t have the leisure to create a path during battle.

‘And then…’

The gaze that focused on Taesan when he opened the path with black magic.

It was probably the gaze of a demon. Until now, he couldn’t feel it because he only summoned fragments, but now he was handling the full power of a demon.

They began to recognize Taesan.

Though they were beings under the demon god, the ghost had said they weren’t gentle. Drawing their attention wasn’t a good thing.

But it was a significant enough change even with such risks. He was curious about how Marbas’ Pitch-Black Wave had changed.

Aside from meal and rest times, Taesan continuously practiced implementing the path. His magical energy rapidly decreased, but since they were in the Demon World, the recovery rate was equally fast, so there was no problem with practice.

“I should have taught him later…”

Anetsha, who couldn’t talk much with Taesan because of it, murmured.

Quaned spoke reluctantly.

“Just approach and talk to him.”

“No. That would be disturbing him.”

“Princess, you’re quite troublesome.”

“Shut up.”

The carriage advanced silently.

And they arrived at the Demon King’s castle.