02
The contents of the hologram were very simple.
[Trait: Druid]
[Rank: F-]
No stats such as Strength, Agility, or skills were displayed.
The only thing that divided the Awakened by grade was their Grade!
And that Grade was determined through some kind of System in this world, and in most cases, combat power naturally lined up according to that Grade.
Grades were divided into a total of seven levels, from S Grade to F Grade.
Within those, they were further subdivided into three grades total: +, 0, and -. So if one wanted to be precise, there were twenty-one grades.
“They said S+ Grade hasn’t appeared in the world yet, so should I say there are twenty grades?”
In any case, he was F- Grade. It seemed he would be starting from the very bottom even among the Awakened.
And apparently, his Trait was “Druid.”
However,
“Druid is a job you earn, not a Trait, you know?”
Was it because of the pride from his previous life, when he had worked tirelessly to reach the peak as a druid? The System’s judgment, displaying it as a Trait rather than a job, strangely grated on Ki Ja-hyeon’s nerves.
It made it seem like an ability he had been born with, did it not?
“Seriously, do you have any idea how hard I worked in my previous life to become a druid?”
The hardships of his previous life brushed through his mind.
The days when he had tried to speak with animals.
The days when he had gone through all kinds of trouble to hear the stories of plants swaying in the wind....
It would have been better if it had only been physical hardship.
How many times had he wasted five years, ten years, with only a goal and not even a clue, struggling to grasp an enlightenment that seemed within reach yet never quite came?
That was why he had been so happy he could have leaped for joy when the Empire acknowledged him as a druid.
But now that very title had been lumped in as a Trait, not a job?
“...Hmm. I suffered like a dog to learn it in my previous life, but in this life it really was given to me from birth, so that makes it a Trait?”
It was not as though the authorities of his past would return exactly as they were, right?
“Right, Cloud?”
As if out of habit, Ki Ja-hyeon asked Cloud, whom he was holding.
Cloud, who had been staring at him, blinked.
Mrrrow.
A negative cry.
It probably meant it wanted to be put down.
It was a strange creature that had jumped into his arms of its own accord, only to feel stifled after satisfying its own selfish desires(?).
In truth, that was the charm of cats.
So under normal circumstances, he would have put it down immediately.
But he could not, because he sensed something behind that cry.
Mrrrow.... (Stifled....)
“...Huh?”
Meow! (Uncomfortable!)
Ki Ja-hyeon’s eyes widened.
As he stared blankly at Cloud in shock, Cloud’s eyes also settled coldly.
Grrrr... (Challenge?)
Meow! (Attack!)
Whoosh.
A cat punch soon flew at him.
“You little thing?”
Ki Ja-hyeon lightly avoided it and tapped the bridge of the creature’s nose.
Myaak! (Pain)
Myaaak! (Anger)
Hisssss! (Certain retaliation!)
Cloud hissed, then bolted away at once.
It was the same as always, attacking Ki Ja-hyeon and running away, but this time the details were completely different.
“I can hear its emotions?”
It was a sensation he was not used to in this life, but one he had been extremely familiar with in his previous life.
All of this had happened after he Awakened.
While he was at it, he looked for Thunder as well.
Thunder, too, happened to be approaching Ki Ja-hyeon just then, and it set down something it had been holding in its mouth.
It was a bowl.
Woof. (Food)
Woof, woof. (Lots of food)
“Uh. I’ll give you some?”
When he filled the bowl with feed, Thunder slowly pushed its nose into it and began to eat slowly.
But soon, the speed of its eating began to increase.
Because Cloud was approaching.
Grrrrrr. (Go away.)
Meeeow! (Refusal!)
Grrrrrrrrr! (Attack?)
...Mrrrrow! (...Certain retaliation!)
Cloud reluctantly fled, then came back toward him.
Meow. Meow. (You. Forgiven.)
Meow! (Food!)
“So these kinds of details were hidden in the same everyday life as always?”
Ki Ja-hyeon felt good.
After all, he could already communicate in a way that he had only barely realized in his previous life after pouring in thirty years and wandering in confusion.
“In that case, maybe...?”
While he was at it, he went out to the vegetable garden.
A smile bloomed across his face on its own.
Around the plants growing in the vegetable garden, an energy he had missed dearly, an energy he had not been able to see until now, was rippling!
“Ooooooh...!”
It was barely visible. But it was definitely a haze glowing blue-green!
When he brought his hand toward it, the natural mana emitted by the plants was sucked into Ki Ja-hyeon as if bewitched.
Whoooosh!
The ticklish sensation on his fingertips felt like stroking silk, so a smile naturally leaked out.
And then,
[You have gained 1 natural mana.]
“That’s it?”
If that was the case, he was a little disappointed.
That was because, with a vegetable garden of this size, he thought he should have obtained far, far more natural mana.
But he soon accepted it.
“It’s because I’m low level.”
It could be because his Rank was low, or because this world was that lacking in harmony... In any case, compared to his previous life, it was only natural that the efficiency was much worse.
The same was true of his conversations with Thunder and Cloud!
Communication explained only in broad, lumped-together words.
That was the same level of proficiency Ki Ja-hyeon had had in his previous life when he was a novice druid.
“Will it get easier when my Rank goes up?”
He would find out soon enough.
A smile spread across his lips!
“This’ll lower the difficulty of my life, won’t it?”
Naturally, he had not the slightest intention of letting his newly gained ability go to waste.
Living in this damned post-apocalyptic world, where anyone who did not work hard would fall below average and be left behind, the desireless druid of his previous life had been thoroughly dyed by society.
“I need to eat better and live better!”
To do that, registering as an Awakened was essential.
The Awakened Registration Center operated twenty-four hours a day.
He sprang to his feet and headed for the Area 4 Awakened Center.
His tired body felt light as a lie!
“Heh heh heh!”
There was so much he could do as a druid.
Even if he only became half as capable as he had been in his previous life. No, even if he only became half of half of half as capable, he would live a completely different life from now!
“How much will this world recognize me?”
From the rumors floating around, someone in a similar line as him, a “Beast Master,” had been moved to a residence in Area 2 as soon as he Awakened, had he not?
“What do I do if they say they’ll move me to Area 1 too? I don’t really like that...?”
He wanted to earn a lot of money, but he had no interest in a life controlled by the state.
Thinking that if that was the case, his current life would be better, the former druid Ki Ja-hyeon moved with light steps.
All while getting ahead of himself over how brightly the efforts of his previous life would shine in this life—drinking kimchi soup before the meal, and a whole lot of it.
***
And so, he arrived at the Awakened Center.
“It is F- Grade.”
“Huh...!”
Rubbing his eyes thanks to a guest who had come at eleven at night, the officer stared blankly at Ki Ja-hyeon.
“Is there any problem?”
“Hmm. There is no problem, but....”
There was certainly no problem.
He really was F- Grade, and so he was being treated as F- Grade.
However,
“D-Don’t Traits come with benefits depending on the Trait? My Trait seemed different from other people’s Traits.”
“...Your Trait is different? No matter how different it is......”
The form the officer had handed to Ki Ja-hyeon.
Unless the handwriting was truly atrocious, what was written there was not something likely to produce a typo or transcription error.
It would be registered as written, slipped neatly into a category, and the Grade would be decided accordingly.
But the “Trait” field that should have been filled in was blank.
It was a case where the Awakened’s Trait did not exist in the Trait category.
Only then did the officer examine the form that the Awakened had filled out.
The phrase written in bold, masculine handwriting was...?
“Druwa...?”
“...It’s Druid.”
The administrator tilted his head again and again.
Then he searched through the computer system to see if that Trait truly did not exist.
“It’s not in the category. Your stat window really said Druid, right?”
“Yes. It was definitely Druid!”
“Then you have a Unique Trait.”
“So I was right?”
A Unique Trait!
As the words implied, it meant a Trait that was the only one in the entire world.
A Trait that only one person had, apart from the individual in question!
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never heard of a Trait called Druid in any form of media.’
As a former druid, Ki Ja-hyeon had searched to see if there were any druids in this life as well. But he had not been able to find any Awakened with the same “Druid” Trait as Ki Ja-hyeon.
At most, there was “Monster Tamer,” the Trait of the “Beast Master.”
He knew that was also a Unique Trait.
And Druid was a Unique Trait as well.
“It happens around ten-something times a year. You are the third in our Area 4.”
“...That’s fairly frequent.”
“The System cannot be defined by any single tendency, after all. In any case, if you have a Unique Trait, verification for that will be necessary... Hmm, one moment please.”
The officer yawned wide and called somewhere.
He called, it rang for a long while, he held a quiet conversation, the person on the other end asked whether he had really checked properly, and the officer answered in an irritated voice, saying of course he had....
Ki Ja-hyeon’s confident expression turned awkward.
“I came too late at night, didn’t I?”
“Many people do. Awakening is a very happy thing for the person involved, after all.”
‘Then could you at least look happy for me....’
How much time had passed like that?
The door opened, and someone appeared.
“Hello. I’m Team Leader Lee Yeong-ju of the Trait Classification Department. Please follow me from here.”
“Ah, yes.”
Ki Ja-hyeon followed Lee Yeong-ju up to the fifth floor.
Even after arriving on the fifth floor, they walked down the corridor for quite some time.
Click-clack, click-clack. Only the sound of her high heels leading the way could be heard.
Was it because the silence felt awkward? She glanced at Ki Ja-hyeon, who was wearing an expectant smile, and opened her mouth.
“A Unique Trait is not always a good thing. It only has meaning if the Trait itself is strong.”
Rarity did not mean strength.
On the contrary, if it was merely rare, then because there was no sample group, one had to go through every trial and error alone. In fact, in the case of the most common Trait, “Gladiator,” there were many high-level rankers with that Trait, so there was plenty of information, and that reduced the trial and error at the beginning.
“If it is a strong Trait, that would be good, but if not, there will be many trials and errors.”
“I see?”
“You looked too happy... The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment, right?”
“That’s true, that’s true.”
It was a reasonable thing to say, but it did not apply to Ki Ja-hyeon, who had been the greatest druid of his previous life.
Druid was such an incredible job!
Soon, the department door opened.
There was a wide corridor, with cubicles made of glass walls packed closely together.
Inside the glass were all sorts of machines used to verify abilities, and just then, there was a hunter having his ability verified.
A man whose entire right arm had been replaced with a steel implant.
Strange flames burst from the man’s shoulder, elbow, and wrist, carrying his entire body toward the impact point.
And then his fist shot out!
......!
There should have been a tremendous impact, yet no sound reached them.
The soundproofing design seemed incredible.
The result that immediately appeared on the electric display board was B- Grade!
The person who confirmed it rejoiced as if he might leap into the air.
“Oooooh....”
Ki Ja-hyeon applauded at the sight and thought,
‘Will I be measured with a cutting-edge machine like that too?’
Even the measurement of combat power was that cutting-edge.
In that case, an even more cutting-edge method would be used to measure a Unique Trait like his.
‘What kind of machine will they measure me with?’
As he was thinking that, Lee Yeong-ju sat at her desk and casually asked him,
“So, what kind of Trait is Druid, specifically?”
At Lee Yeong-ju’s question, Ki Ja-hyeon smiled broadly.
“Heh heh... How should I explain this...?”
What a great druid could do was limitless.
Move the earth, part the sea...! Stand atop a dragon’s head and fly through the sky, or make a whole city small enough to place on one’s palm!
Every last one was something Ki Ja-hyeon had done in his previous life!
But he had no intention of attaching such lengthy embellishments.
If he were to express the job called druid,
one sentence was enough!
“It’s a Trait that allows me to communicate with nature.”
“So what kind of Trait is it exactly? Can you show me?”
“...I can’t yet?”
“...Then how are we supposed to verify your Trait?”
“Uh...?”
In that instant, Ki Ja-hyeon realized.
There was no measuring device that measured Traits.
He had to prove his own Trait himself....
“Is there anything you can do right now?”
“Uh...not yet...?”
“...Then we cannot classify your Trait.”
“Uh...!”
Crack.
A fracture appeared in Ki Ja-hyeon’s confident expression.
“Then what should I do?”
“You can still be registered as an Awakened for now, but you will be registered as Unclassified.”
“If I’m registered as Unclassified...?”
“Many benefits for the Awakened will be excluded.”
“Hmm....”
“Are there really no unique points at all? That should not be the case....”
Normally, there were unique points granted as soon as one Awakened.
For example, one’s strength became greater than before Awakening, one’s movements became faster, one became better at hitting distant targets, and so on.
Therefore, if Ki Ja-hyeon, who called himself a druid, had Awakened, he should have had at least one unique point.
“How was it in the case of the Beast Master?”
“I heard that he tamed an E Grade monster as soon as he Awakened.”
“Ah. If it’s something like that, I have one!”
A smile spread across Ki Ja-hyeon’s lips.
At the same time, the same smile spread across Lee Yeong-ju’s lips.
“Yes. You just need to show me that.”
“Ahem, hem....”
Clearing his throat, Ki Ja-hyeon suddenly walked toward the window.
His steps were full of confidence.
At the end of them, orchids raised by the department’s team leader were lined up.
Ki Ja-hyeon stroked an orchid’s leaf and said affectionately,
“Live long and prosper.”
“......”