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"What do you think magic power is?"
The twelfth floor—known as the final layer of the upper domain.
Because of Ouranos' divine suppression, the will of the Dungeon is especially weak here. There is no floor boss on this level.
For Ronen and Riveria, there was little threat in this zone. Their strength far surpassed the monsters of the upper levels.
Riveria pondered for a moment before replying with the common understanding,
"It's a force that causes supernatural phenomena."
"Is that so?"
Ronen chuckled softly, then extended his hand. A shimmer of mana gathered in his palm.
Riveria's sharp senses felt the shift immediately—the once hazy magic power condensed rapidly, forming several round, glowing orbs.
With a loud boom, the magic bullets shot forward and struck the approaching venomous moths, turning them into ash.
The only thing that remained was a small crystalized magic stone.
Ronen casually flicked his finger, and a formless magical force reached out, lifting the stone into his hand.
"This… was pure mana?" Riveria stared in astonishment.
To her, magic power was simply energy, and magic was the phenomenon that energy produced.
That had always been the accepted understanding.
But they, or rather the people of this world, had overlooked something important.
"You're not wrong—magic power is a force that causes supernatural phenomena," Ronen said gently, "but you missed something a key detail."
"Mana is itself a metaphysical phenomenon."
He smiled faintly. "Chants aren't truly necessary. What really matters is the magical effect you want to produce."
"If you train directly in manipulating mana, you can control it finely enough to ignore chants altogether."
In a way, he explained, chanting was like hand seals in Naruto—a method of forming and shaping techniques, but not inherently required.
"This missing link is why innate-type magic fails to develop in your world."
Adventurers relied on their magic slots—if they didn't have a spell inscribed by a god's blessing, they couldn't use magic.
To them, magic was simply a powerful weapon. They rarely stopped to think about its essence.
Even among magical races, spells had to be chanted with precise incantations to produce effects.
Even professional mages were trained under this principle.
But Ronen, a traveler from another world, had a different foundation and point of view on this...
Whether through rituals or spiritual transmutation—Mind refinement—it was all supernatural to him.
The one thing this world lacked, he realized, was the foundation of all innate magic: mana control.
"Mana control…" Riveria murmured, lost in thought.
In this world, this concept was almost unheard of. Even among magical races, the most they focused on their spell control not mana
The two seemed similar, but in truth, they were vastly different.
Spell control was about managing the effects of the spelling and it's amount of power.
Mana control was about manipulating the very fundamental essence itself—more basic, more versatile and efficient.
Just then, Ronen's gaze turned toward the tunnel ahead.
"Monster incoming… is that a dragon?"
From the shadows emerged a massive figure—four meters long, over one and a half meters tall, covered in amber-colored scales.
A long tail, gleaming claws, and countless sharp teeth.
It was a Infant dragon.
Though it had no wings, its tough, scaly body alone suggested raw power far beyond beastmen.
Infant dragons were rare monsters found only on the eleventh and twelfth floors—usually only four or five per level.
Across all worlds, dragons were always symbols of overwhelming power , even in his previous world.
Even this weak dragon was a genuine floor boss in everything but name.
One of them could wipe out an entire team of beginner adventurers.
Wind Blade Slash.
Three translucent blades of compressed wind energy materialized around Ronen, then rushed toward the dragon.
Unlike before, this time Ronen felt resistance.
The sound of blade against scale rang clear, like steel slicing through iron. Though he broke through its defenses, the attack only left some deep wounds—it wasn't enough to kill it.
"No instant kill, huh…"
Ronen muttered as he continued manipulating the wind blades.
In just three seconds, he'd diced the dragon scales into several pieces—but at great magical cost.
He can just defeated a monster at least two levels above his capabilities. But dragon are known for the defence.
Truth be told, his mana quality wasn't even equal to a Level 1 adventurer's.
But through compression and refined shaping, his magic took on an explosive form—amplifying his strength far beyond the surface numbers.
"Today sure is my lucky day… a tough punching bag show up right on time."
Ronen grinned. "Guess I'll get serious now."
"Vacuum Blade: Sever."
With his index and middle fingers pressed together, invisible magic compressed into a single sharp projectile that flew forward like a slash.
In essence, it worked the same as his magic bullets—both were shaped mana, one focused on piercing, the other on slicing.
All three types of magic consumed about the same energy.
Magic bullets required fire element, needed to explode inside the body to kill the dragon.
Vacuum Blade could kill instantly, but also drained mana fast.
In terms of efficiency, Wind Blade Essence Slash was best—slashing at the neck and bleeding the dragon out.
But it couldn't kill instantly, which meant if a dragon charged from eight meters away, it'd become dangerous very quickly.
"i shall help too!" Riveria said calmly.
With a sharp twang, her arrow pierced clean through a dragon's eye, straight into its brain.
A young dragon—enough to obliterate rookie parties on the eleventh and twelfth floors—were no threat to them.
The cat girl quickly gathered the dropped magic stones after they killed it. As their supporter, that was her role after all
By now, Ronen had used up nearly a quarter of his mana.
If he hadn't been with Riveria, he likely would've turned back already.
He'd tested nearly all of his techniques—except for his mini Rasenshuriken-type spell. That one required all of his mana to cast.
Clearly, it wasn't something he could risk using here in the Dungeon.
"…A pity," he whispered.
"So, just by improving mana control, you can use magic without chants?" Riveria looked at him intently, trying to confirm what she'd seen.
"Yes, but that's not all." Ronen smiled. "Controlling mana is just as important as spell strength. It lets you shape the magic itself more precisely."
"Even without a magic slot, if you have strong enough mana control, you can learn and cast innate magic without chanting."
Once the basics are mastered, understanding magical attributes and elemental changes becomes simple.
After all, mana is just spiritual power—Mind. And for Ronen, manipulating it felt… natural.
"For example—"
Flame Javelin
Several glowing spears of fire and holy light materialized in Ronen's hands.
With a flick of his will, they soared into the air, striking down a large flock of incoming bats mid-flight.
"No incantation…"
Riveria gasped.
Even though she understood this was possible, seeing it in action—especially with a spell so familiar—shook her to the core.
Flame Javelin was a classic light-element spell passed down through the generation.
As a royal elf, Riveria had long since mastered it before get falna.
But even now, as a Level 3 upper-tier adventurer, she couldn't cast it without chanting.
And yet here was Ronen—chantless, instantaneous, and just as powerful.
She couldn't help but once again recognize: he was different.
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