When I opened my eyes, dawn light was streaming through the small window.
“Mmm......”
My entire body ached.
Strangely, though, I felt refreshed.
A faint energy that had never existed before was flowing through my body.
‘Status.’
[Name: Go Cheol-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Stats]
Strength: 5
Vitality: 6
Agility: 5
Mana: 1
[Mana Skills]
Thrust (Lv.1)
[Ability Slot]
0/1
[Trait]
-Additional Information Check.
“It’s real.”
Mana.
The power used by this world’s warriors, mages, and all adventurers.
I had managed to create in half a year an ability that people without talent supposedly could not obtain even after years of training.
‘The basket failed, but this alone is a huge accomplishment.’
I got up with a bitter smile.
Then I noticed the Goblin Basket lying in the corner of the room.
“Ha......”
I remembered half of all my savings.
Just as I reached for the basket to put it away and let go of my lingering attachment,
“Hm?”
A red glow showed through the grain of the bamboo.
Something was different from yesterday.
I rubbed my eyes and checked again.
I had definitely put two inside.
But inside the basket,
only one red Ability Stone remained.
Wondering if it was an illusion, I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but there was unquestionably only one.
‘No way......’
My heart began pounding again.
But.
‘......No way. Did someone steal one?’
My rational mind, afraid that I would get my hopes up only to be disappointed again, searched for a realistic explanation.
Calm down. Calm down.
“Huuup.”
As I took a deep breath to calm myself, a faint energy circulated through my body, settling my mind.
‘No doubt about it. This is mana.’
Slap.
‘This alone is already a good enough result. So...... don’t expect anything.’
I slapped my cheeks, preparing myself not to be disappointed.
Then I carefully opened the basket and picked up the Ability Stone.
[Multiple Spirit Command]
[Strength +9, Vitality +9, Agility +4, Mana +10, Physical Resistance +3, Magic Resistance +4]
‘It worked!’
I fought to keep my hands from trembling and tried not to shout.
‘This works? It really works?’
My heart suddenly started beating three times faster, and I could feel my face growing hot.
So I started by analyzing the numbers to calm myself down.
‘Did it keep only the higher stat values from the two Ability Stones? And the name sounds fairly normal too.’
Still, I could not be certain yet.
‘Additional Information Check.’
HUMMM.
[When two Ability Stones altered by experiments conducted by Klinsmann, the Magic Tower’s eccentric rising star, were synthesized, their abilities merged and their penalties were reduced.]
[You can command four lowest-grade spirits, and your consciousness inhabits those spirits, allowing you to control them perfectly.]
“Yessss!!!!”
I could not hold back my cheer any longer.
“It worked. It worked! Hahahahaha!”
The faint hope I had clung to had come true one hundred percent, and it felt as though something blocked inside me had burst wide open.
It felt as if a brilliant light had suddenly poured into this bleak world and illuminated a path before me.
BANG BANG.
“Char! Is something wrong?!”
If not for Jerik’s voice, I would have rolled around the room enjoying that exhilaration for quite a while.
“Ahem. No, it’s nothing!”
I shouted back first, then carefully examined the Ability Stone again.
‘So the stats are fixed at whichever values were higher between the two, and the abilities merged with one penalty removed from each?’
I felt like I had a rough understanding of how synthesis worked.
It would have been even better if every penalty had disappeared and the spirit grade could be raised, but asking for that much would truly be shameless greed.
‘I’m taking this.’
It looked far more versatile than the ‘Steel Body’ I had originally planned to save up for.
Especially since, among red Ability Stones, which were the lowest grade, its stats were practically top-tier.
The instant I made up my mind, the system addressed me.
[Absorb the Ability Stone?]
‘Yes.’
HUMMM.
[Lowest-grade Ability Stone ‘Multiple Spirit Command’ has been absorbed.]
‘Done.’
The moment I smiled,
CRACK.
‘Urgh!?’
A sharp, tingling pain raced through my entire body.
CRACKLE.
CRUNCH.
‘Ngh.’
It hurt, but after enduring the electric pain for a moment, a refreshing shiver followed behind it.
Even that sensation did not last long.
And soon,
“Wow......”
Even clenching my fist once made power surge through me.
Everything around me registered with crystal clarity, and the mana I had only faintly sensed before seemed to have increased tenfold in an instant.
I suddenly felt as though I could do anything, but I forcibly collected myself.
‘No. Get a grip. Even with this, I’m still only at the level of a novice adventurer who hasn’t even obtained a class.’
The information I had accumulated while struggling through this barbaric world for over a year forcibly suppressed the swelling sense of invincibility.
Even so.
[Name: Go Cheol-woo]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Stats]
Strength: 14
Vitality: 15
Agility: 9
Mana: 11
Physical Resistance: 3
Magic Resistance: 4
[Mana Skills]
Thrust (Lv.1)
[Ability Slot (Full)]
Multiple Spirit Command.
[Trait]
-Additional Information Check.
The numbers were completely different from just one day ago.
I had trained myself half to death for half a year just to raise Vitality and Agility by one each.
Yet a single Ability Stone had multiplied my stats several times over.
Only now did I truly understand the difference between adventurers and ordinary people.
Just then,
BANG BANG BANG!
“Char!”
Jerik’s voice came from outside the door.
“What was that noise just now?”
I hurriedly covered the basket with a cloth and shoved it under the bed.
“It was nothing!”
“Why would someone shout like that over nothing?”
“I had a good dream!”
“You shouted after waking up, did you not?!”
“The afterglow of the dream was still with me!”
A brief silence followed.
“......You are late for work.”
“What?”
I looked at the window and saw not dawn light, but morning sunlight streaming in.
“Damn it!”
I hurriedly got dressed.
When I opened the door, Jerik was standing there with his arms crossed.
“You awaken mana and oversleep on the very first day?”
“Sorry. I was exhausted yesterday......”
As I spoke, Jerik’s eyes narrowed.
His gaze slowly traveled from my face to my shoulders, arms, and legs.
“You.”
Flinch.
“What happened to your body?”
“My body?”
“You became a different person overnight.”
As expected, it was difficult to fool the eyes of a former adventurer.
But I could not tell him about the basket.
I gave him the excuse I had prepared in advance.
Though it was not actually an excuse.
“I absorbed an Ability Stone I had bought.”
“An Ability Stone?”
“Yes.”
“What ability?”
I hesitated briefly, then told him only part of the truth.
“It’s an Ability that lets me command four lowest-grade spirits.”
“Four?”
Jerik’s eyes widened.
“You had enough money to buy an Ability Stone like that?”
“It was cheap because of a side effect.”
“What side effect?”
“According to what I checked, there wasn’t a problem.”
Jerik, who knew about my Trait, soon nodded.
“If you verified it with your own eyes, then it should be trustworthy.”
He patted my shoulder once.
Tap.
It was only a light touch, but unlike before, my body did not sway.
The corner of Jerik’s mouth lifted slightly.
“Even so, work is work.”
“I know.”
“This evening, show me the spirits...... Ah, do you need Spirit Stones?”
Special stones in which attributes congealed in mana-rich places deep within the Labyrinth.
Spirit Stones.
This was Multiple Spirit ‘Command.’
It did not raise affinity and contract with spirits that already existed.
So.
“Yes. I need lowest-grade Spirit Stones.”
“Right. Well, lowest-grade Spirit Stones are lying around everywhere in the deeper floors. I will see if I can get some.”
“......Thank you.”
“And since you are late, run.”
“What?”
“Sprint all the way to the general store.”
“Then I’ll have to work drenched in sweat.”
“You plan to become an adventurer, yet you cannot even handle that much?”
I had no rebuttal.
I ran toward the general store.
But my body felt far lighter than I expected.
With each step, it felt as though the ground itself was being pushed backward.
Even a distance that normally left me gasping for breath passed in no time.
‘So this is why people absorb Ability Stones.’
I felt like I understood why someone who had trained for years still could not stand against an adventurer who had gained even a single Ability.
But at the same time, I steadied myself.
‘Even so, it’s only the lowest grade.’
I had merely earned the right to stand at the entrance of the Labyrinth.
There were more novice adventurers than anyone could count who had entered the Labyrinth drunk on excitement and died.
What I needed now was not to become intoxicated by my strength, but to learn how to use my new power properly.
Even though I told myself that,
for some reason, work at the general store did not feel tedious at all that day.
***
That evening.
“Here. I got them. Spirit Stones.”
Jerik laid stones of four different colors out in front of me, and I immediately bowed my head.
“Thank you, Master. Here’s the money......”
“Forget it. I can do this much for you. It was not that difficult.”
He was not wrong. Lowest-grade Spirit Stones were worthless junk found in the deeper floors.
But they were not something you could even see in a general store in Area 9.
“How did you get them?”
“I got them in exchange for finding some information a junior wanted.”
“A junior? Information?”
“Never mind that. Hurry up and show me that spirit command of yours. I have never seen it either, so I am curious.”
There was no reason to pry into something he had deliberately chosen not to explain.
I only needed to be grateful and show him what he wanted to see.
“......All right. Then.”
The power of my Ability Stone, Multiple Spirit Command, was to ‘command (put to work)’ spirits that already existed. In other words, to make them serve me.
It was not the method used by the small number of spirit masters who formed contracts with the spirits of nature through heightened affinity.
It was an Ability—a monster skill—that forcibly made spirits serve.
And according to the additional information, it did not seem to be ordinary command either.
Even I, trying it for the first time now, could not help feeling a little nervous.
“You know how to do it, right?”
“Yes.”
As I answered, I carefully moved my hands over the four differently colored stones and naturally poured mana into them.
HUMMM.
The instant my non-attribute mana seeped into them, the four stones began glowing, and cracking sounds rang out.
CRACKLE.
Soon, rays of light burst from the fractured stones and gathered into four different colors.
‘Come to me. Obey.’
I reached out and activated the power of my Ability.
At the same time, the lowest-grade spirits that had only just begun taking physical form were instantly sucked into my body.
Then my mana and will overlaid them, changing them before they shot back out of my body.
And the instant they did, my vision spun.
-Huh?
-Oh!
-So this is how it works.
-This is fun.
The spirits, formed from the attributes of fire, water, earth, and wind, had become tiny, two-heads-tall versions of me and were floating in the air.
“Hmm......”
“Oho? Are all four of these your clones?”
“......Well, something like that.”
There was no other way to explain it.
They were clearly cute in form, but because they had my face, calling them cute felt rather strange.
Setting that odd impression aside,
“Urgh......”
The senses and vision experienced by those spirits were shared with me exactly as they were, making me feel slightly motion-sick.
Still, this much was bearable.
‘And the mana consumption seems lower than I expected.’
There were probably many ways to use them in combat, but more importantly,
“Well? Can you use them for scouting the way you expected?”
“Yes. I think they’ll be even better than I expected. It’s like I’m seeing and feeling everything myself.”
“Good. That eases my worries.”
As Jerik and I had discussed beforehand, using them for scouting seemed far more efficient.
“Let us practice a little. Try using them in combat too.”
“Yes.”
A little while later.
The results of the various exercises Jerik and I tried with the spirits were satisfying.
“About fifty meters at most?”
“Yes. Exactly as expected. But I can still see through them from there, so I can actually scout even farther.”
“I originally thought you would be lucky if they were useful for checking side passages in a maze......”
“They seem far more useful than I expected.”
I was satisfied.
The lowest-grade spirits were not much direct help in combat, but having my consciousness projected into them and being able to watch my own fight from completely different angles was huge.
‘Multiple viewpoints. This is the best part.’
It was an excellent ability that could greatly compensate for my lacking martial arts skill.
I had gained an advantage I had never even considered.
“Yes. That is certainly a major weapon. But do not let your guard down.”
“What?”
Jerik’s expression hardened as he looked at my excitement.
“Your stats are respectable for a novice, and you have obtained a fairly good ability, but a novice is still a novice. Overconfidence is poison.”
A warning that the Labyrinth was even more dangerous than I imagined.
“Now that you have mana, learn at least one more Mana Skill before entering the Labyrinth. Kirk will come of age soon as well. If the two of you go together, you will be able to rely on each other as companions.”
Kirk was what you might call Jerik’s prized disciple, the one inheriting all of his secret techniques.
He even looked like Jerik, and if not for the blond hair, no one would have found it strange if they were father and son.
“Kirk...... and me?”
“Yes. Your first trip into the Labyrinth is dangerous, so you should make it as safe as possible.”
There was not a single thing wrong with what he said.
Before, becoming an adventurer had been only a vague goal.
Now it had become a reality directly in front of me.
“Wait three months. Until the day Kirk comes of age. Train hard until then.”
“Yes.”
I did not dislike the idea.
Three months would not feel especially long if I spent them preparing, training, and listening to Jerik explain the various dangers I needed to know about.