This was the first time Yun Jin had ever faced a true spirit-type monster.

  Even Selene, who was a phantom, still had a body. These things didn’t.

  They moved without weight, without breath, without presence—and that made it almost impossible to land a blow.

  Mana Eyes can’t see them. Was it because of its skill?

  He didn’t have time to find the answer.

  A sound struck from behind. Heavy and warped, like a scream coiled inside the air.

  But Yun Jin had already prepared. His body was under [Aura Surge], and his reflexes followed through without hesitation. He moved.

  Arc Lightning.

  His fastest form carried him through the space. The blade swung forward as he closed the gap.

  It met nothing.

  He stopped.

  The next scream didn’t come from behind.

  It came from both sides.

  AHHH!

  The pressure cracked across his body like glass under stress. His ears went deaf. Blood streamed down the side of his face. His organs clenched, and his vision blurred under the force.

  There are two!?

  His head throbbed. A pulse rang in his skull like it was about to split. But he stayed standing.

  Yun Jin didn’t know how lucky he was.

  This scream did more than harm the body. It struck the soul. Most fighters would have fallen before they even understood what was happening.

  If I can't find where you are...

  He calmed his breath and stopped searching for a shape.

  Then I will find where you are not!

  Yun Jin exhaled, releasing his mana into an ice mist that spread from his body. The air filled with a thin layer of white fog. It was not truly cold and had no effect on even the grass.

  But what it revealed was the void, the empty space where the invisible banshee hovered.

  There you are!

  His form vanished.

  The first banshee twisted its head, searching for the source. But its search ended in silence.

  It was already dead.

  Split cleanly in two.

  It didn’t even know what killed it.

  The second banshee opened its mouth. A sound began to form in the back of its throat.

  An ice blade struck first.

  It didn’t stop the attack, but it threw the creature off balance. Its mouth opened wide, and the scream ripped free, but Yun Jin had already seen the motion.

  He stepped away from the blast.

  Arc Lightning.

  The banshee vanished like mist torn apart by wind.

  “Demons sure are troublesome,” Yun Jin muttered, exhaling slowly.

  He steadied his breath and let the Qi flow through his body. The damage from the scream started to mend.

  He remembered something from Ardent’s books.

  Demons are the most dangerous enemies you can face. Especially spirit-class.

  He didn’t know much beyond that, but the fight proved enough.

  If he hadn’t been fast enough or if he didn’t have the right tools, he would have gone down.

  Yun Jin kept his gaze fixed ahead. He had only cleared the garden inside the gate.

  Beyond him lay the shattered remains of an ancient altar—pillars broken in half, carved slabs overturned, rubble scattered like the bones of giant palace.

  Imps prowled among the ruins, and gargoyles perched on toppled columns, utterly unaware of the havoc he had wrought.

  Where are the banshees?

  He would not advance until he could target them. If they joined the demons here, even he could be overwhelmed.

  He stood in silence, listening for the slightest whisper of movement. Then the earth trembled under a distant thud. The tremor grew into a low rumble.

  Little by little the noise grew until the ground trembled beneath Yun Jin’s boots. He planted his sword in the earth, ready for the rift’s boss monster. His eyes narrowed as the source of the tremor came into view.

  At first, he thought it was a boulder. Then he realized it was a leg, thick as a tree trunk and coated in stone and dirt.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Yun Jin saw Merlin astride the creature’s shoulder, staff raised high and a grin on his face.

  “Earth golem version 1, I hereby command you. SMASH!” Merlin shouted, his staff thrust forward!

  ---

  Outside the rift, before Yun Jin had finished clearing the outskirts of the altar, Merlin stood in silence.

  He gripped his staff like a brush and drew a perfect circle into the dirt. Then he pointed to the center.

  The ground shifted.

  From a single point, the earth rose like the base of a tree. The circle he drew became the foundation, the circuit. Roots spread outward from it—into mud, into stone, into packed dirt. The network expanded in a perfect radius nearly thirty meters wide.

  I should be able to sustain this size.

  Merlin smiled to himself. His control had grown.

  Due to his condition, casting high-level spells was always a risk. A single miscalculation could carve chunks out of his life force. Spells that would drain normal mages might kill him outright, since everything he cast demanded triple the mana cost.

  The only exception was summoning.

  Even then, the price remained steep. While the cost to summon remained the same—or just slightly higher—the upkeep was multiplied. Each second drained mana at three times the usual rate.

  But there was a catch.

  The summoned creature also received three times the mana it would normally need. In turn, it became three times as powerful—same body, same form, exponentially greater force.

  The problem was longevity.

  He couldn’t keep them around long enough to matter.

  That had changed.

  After learning Qi breathing from Yun Jin, and blending it with his own approach to magical control—plus a few secrets left behind in his grandfather’s records—Merlin had developed a new method.

  His theory: golem crafting.

  Instead of channeling mana through a summoning link, what if I follow Qi flow principles? If I bind it directly to myself, no mana is lost in transfer. Zero waste.

  He thrust his staff forward. Five spell circles expanded outward, one after another. They spun across the surface of the circuit, locking into place.

  “Activate!”

  The ground lit up.

  The spell stamped down, pulsing into the dirt. Light surged across the lines, and the circle began to float. At its center, soil, stone, and mud began to rise—breaking apart, condensing, and slamming into a forming core.

  “It works!”

  Merlin grinned and rushed toward the rift, the glowing [Core] following close behind.

  As he stepped through, the materials followed. Inside the rift, the pieces pulled together faster. Arms took shape. Legs. A torso. A head formed last as Merlin leapt up and landed on its back.

  The creature stopped growing once it reached fifteen meters tall.

  A complete giant.

  But it wasn’t shaped like a regular summon. The mana inside did not flow through a shared link. It did not rely on Merlin’s control at a distance.

  This one was different.

  The golem’s energy was now directly connected to his own mana stream. He had to stay in contact with it to maintain the bond, but that was the tradeoff.

  Because with this trick, he had reduced the cost of sustaining the summon to half.

  And with Qi breathing, he could now regenerate mana fast enough to keep up with its needs.

  In short, he could keep the golem active indefinitely.

  This was his own work.

  His new trump card.

  Golemancy!

  --

  Yun Jin stared at the battlefield; eyes fixed on the massive golem stomping through the altar grounds.

  He knew Merlin was talented.

  But this was beyond anything he imagined.

  I never knew he could do something like that.

  He activated [Mana Eyes].

  What he saw confirmed it. The golem’s core wasn’t controlled from afar. It was directly bonded with Merlin. The flow of mana mirrored Qi circulation, not spellcasting. The entire structure functioned like a limb.

  To think you managed to create a bond between you and your weapon on your own... I underestimated you.

  Yun Jin felt it clearly.

  Pride of a teacher.

  Back when he refused to teach Merlin sword techniques, he did so out of fear. Qi strikes had no cost ceiling. Unlike spells, which consumed fixed mana per cast, a blade technique could draw on everything the user had.

  In someone like Merlin—whose power output tripled due to his condition—a single uncontrolled form could tear him apart.

  He wanted to protect the boy.

  But Merlin had found his own path. He studied Yun Jin’s flow and built his own framework. He copied the structure, then re-engineered it using spell mechanics as a limiter.

  He embraced the fixed cost of summoning magic, then used Qi breathing to offset the mana upkeep. What should have been a weakness became a system of precision.

  A fully integrated circuit. No delay. No waste.

  Now I understand why you were so confident, Yun Jin thought.

  BOOM!

  The golem’s fist slammed into the altar ruins.

  The impact sent a shockwave across the field, flattening what little structure remained. What once looked like a crumbling ruin was now a wide, level field of shattered stone.

  On the golem’s shoulder, Merlin stood with his staff raised like a flag.

  Imps tried climbing its legs but couldn’t hold on—the golem’s skin was smooth stone, with no footholds.

  The gargoyles in the air were shot down one after another by blazing fire arrows that danced on their own. The summoned spell flew like it had thought, weaving and correcting its aim midair.

  The banshees didn’t stand a chance. Whatever trick they used to vanish, Merlin seemed unaffected. He located them with ease, striking them down before they could scream.

  The giant cut through the monsters with no resistance, arms smashing down like hammers. What remained of the altar crumbled beneath its steps.

  Then came the voice.

  “Muhahahaha!! Face me now, boss monster! I’m Merlin!”

  Even from a distance, Yun Jin could hear the laugh.

  For so long, Merlin had been trapped in his own limits. His body rejected the magic he admired. He had watched others cast spells he could never touch. He had studied circuits he dared not perform.

  But now, standing atop a fifteen-meter golem with spell circles flaring and fire bursting through the sky—

  He had taken that step.

  The one he always dreamed of.

  Yun Jin jumped up onto a nearby tree to watch more clearly, a faint smile rising as the battlefield cleared.

  This time, you win.

  [System Alert: The objective has been destroyed.]

  [Dungeon cleared.]

  [Merlin: 72%]

  [Yun Jin: 28%]

  New name!