Chapter 10: The World Becomes a Dungeon (3)

[Choose your reward.]

[1. Deific Manifestation Magic Book]

"Agh, I'm getting dizzy."

"Can't the messages come slower?" I asked the message noona I had grown rather accustomed to as I checked the message log.

Let's see... mm, a Grand Accomplishment. Just as I was thinking it only sounded grand and gave no rewards, I saw that I had gotten a title. Not to mention, it raised all of my stats by 1. I didn't think my stats would increase again.

And the special reward, the Orc Lord's Pauldron... I see it's for my shoulders. Now that I thought about it, I had never seen the Orc Lord's Pauldron before. That could only mean that it only dropped when you defeated the Orc Lord alone. In other words, it was impossible to collect all of the Orc Lord's equipment until you defeated it alone.

... There was no equipment set this hard to collect in any game that I've played.

"Here it is. Wow, it looks amazing."

I opened my inventory and equipped the Orc Lord's Pauldron. My body was now entirely covered with the Orc Lord's leather armor.

I had lasted until the 5th floor with just training clothes, but now that I thought about it, I might as well have been naked. I didn't understand how I even thought of going into the dungeon like that. Even though you couldn't re-enter the dungeon for a week if you died, I had only thought that they were easy to move in. Not to mention, I was also using my wooden spear... Thinking about those days, I couldn't help but sigh in embarrassment.

As I was standing still in reminiscence, another message was heard.

[You equipped the Orc Lord Set. Your strength and constitution increases by 5. When the Orc Lord Set is equipped, you can use 'Orc Lord's Warcry' once per day.]

"Ah!"

No way, it went up again! Although it seemed a little small compared to how hard it was to gather the full set, upon more careful consideration, 2 levels worth of stat points seemed fairly big. Not to mention, it would be weird if something from just the 5th floor was even better than this.

Although completing the Orc Lord Set or consuming compressing elixirs wasn't what I had planned from the very beginning, now that I had experienced it, I thought that perhaps this was the result that the one who led explorers into the dungeon had planned.

Checking how I looked in the full Orc Lord Set, I nodded my head with satisfaction and read the next line in the message log. 1000 gold. This was to be expected. The Orc Lord always gave 1,000 gold when defeated. The next was choosing my reward... but because I defeated the Orc Lord alone, there was only one reward on the list.

'There's no choice here! Looks like message noona has to level up and raise her intelligence!' Only thinking about such things and not letting it out of my mouth, I looked at the reward.

[1. Deific Manifestation Magic book]

"..."

'What's... this?' I never expected to see a magic named after me1. Was it just created? What was it for? Was it something only I could use?

Although I had numerous questions, I held myself back. Because of my lack of mana, I couldn't use magic anyways. Just as I was thinking that...

[You have obtained the Deific Manifestation Magic. You can use all of your MP and half of your HP to call upon a soul connected deeply to your roots. The duration of manifestation will depend on the amount of MP and HP you use. You can only manifest someone of the Legendary rank or above, and you cannot use this skill again if you fail. On success, the skill has a cooldown time of one month. This magic has no skill level.]

"..."

It felt like someone was playing a trick on me. Come to think of it, a lot of people use to do that when I was little, though it stopped as I became abnormally big...

This Deific Manifestation Magic. For a second, it reminded me of psychics. .

Of course, this magic would be useless on me. After all, I had no MP. There was no way I could use this skill. I let out a sign. To think something I worked so hard to get would be of no use...

"Agh! Deific Manifestation, Deific Manifestation!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Although I knew nothing would happen, I poured my heart out as I shouted. I will admit, I was slightly worried that I may have looked a little crazy shouting out my own name. But...

[All of your MP has been consumed.]

[Half of your HP has been consumed.]

[You used 20 MP and 1,020 HP. For 1 minute and 40 seconds, you summon the Mythical Heroic Spirit, Peruta Rello Vatifoa.]

"... Eh?"

'What? Did I see that right? 20? I thought I didn't have a single MP?' As I looked puzzled, I suddenly began to feel that my body wasn't mine anymore. It was like I was wearing hundreds of clothes and could not move my body like I wanted.

Then, a voice rang out inside me.

[Oh, what is this boy? What a talent he possesses. Yet, he has no mana. Strange, very strange.]

"W-Who are you?"

I didn't look around like an idiot. I had already done so the first time I entered the dungeon.

[You were the one who called me. I am Peruta Rello Vatifoa, a spearman now long forgotten.]

"A spearman? You're a spearman? Wow! I use a spear too!"

[Hm? Hahaha! That's what I thought! Someone who can call me should no doubt use a spear! But this is concerning. Because of your lack of mana, I cannot stay for too long.]

"But I have no mana at all..."

[That's what I thought, but it turns out you have an extremely tiny amount! By the looks of things, I would guess you don't have a mana cultivation method. Am I correct?]

"Yeah, I have none. Sorry."

[No need to be sorry. Since fate has connected us together, I will help... kuk, I already have to go back. Next time, I'll first teach you a mana cultivation method!]

"Y-Yes! Take care!"

Not knowing where exactly he was going, I shouted. When the stuffy feeling disappeared, I no longer heard any voices. At the same time, I felt my body go limp and became devoid of energy. Even after realizing Peruta disappeared, I remained still. I could not quite understand what had just happened.

"I thought I didn't have mana? What happened...? Status!"

[Name: Kang Shin Race: Human Sex: Male

Class: None Title: Orc Lord Slayer Rank: Bronze 6

Level: 6

HP - 1,010/2,240 MP - 1/20

Strength - 34(+8) Dexterity - 30(+1) Constitution - 39(+6)

Intelligence - 20(+1) Magic - 0(+1) Charm - 16(+1) Luck - 10(+1)

Skill - Low-rank Martial Arts (Master), Low-rank Spear Technique (Master), Mid-rank Spear Technique (Master), Deific Manifestation]

"... Ha... Haha..."

I see, that was it! It was an extremely simple reason. 20 mana. I understood where this small amount came from.

When I earned the title Orc Lord Slayer, all my stats had gone up up by 1. Naturally, my magic went up as well!

I could not distribute points into it with the points I gained from leveling up, but it seemed that this was fine. This had to be a bug!

Of course, I had no intention of reporting it to a GM like I would in an online game. Well, not that I knew how to contact one anyways. In truth, I didn't know for sure whether this was a bug or not. What was important was that I finally had mana!

Excited, I couldn't help but dance.

'YES! I finally have mana! I can learn a mana cultivation method from Peruta too! I can have qi! I can learn the high-rank spear technique!'

Just like that, on the winter break of my senior year of high school, I found a solution to my goal of obtaining qi.

Of course, it took another month before I could meet Peruta again. He seemed prepared as the first thing he did upon being summoned was to imprint his mana cultivation method in my body.

Because of the pain where it felt like liquid iron was poured into my body, I couldn't stop my tears from streaming down. However, tenacious to impart everything onto me, Peruta gave little care for the pain I was experiencing. After finishing his work in just 1 minute and 7 seconds, Peruta disappeared, saying,

[If you guide and circulate your mana through the pathway I left in your body, mana will naturally grow inside you.]

I stood still, looking like a woman who had just been raped by her trusted lover. What was more irritating was that Peruta was right. At first, it was hard to control the mana in my body, but as I moved it through the pathway he left, I became more relaxed and I could feel my body start to gather mana.

The only weird part was that cultivating mana became noticeably slower outside the dungeon. As such, I had to increase the time I spent inside the dungeon. I worked diligently to increase my mana. It was because Peruta said he would teach me spearmanship in a month. Although I heard that my family had an explosive spear technique that made use of qi, it was a story from long ago. Just when I thought I would have to learn the high-rank spear technique on my own, I had come across the perfect teacher, Peruta.

When I could wield the high-rank spear technique to a certain level, I could finally conquer the 6th floor filled with those damned ghosts. It would have been well past 3 years and 2 months!

It had been a while, so I contacted Ellos and told him about what had happened. Surprised, Ellos shouted,

[Did you just say Peruta Rello Vatifoa!?]

"Yep. He said he was a spearman. You know him?"

As we had exchanged messages for 3 years, we had long since become friends.

[I more than just know him. He's from my continent. Well, even if I say that, he's... from my continent's myth.]

"Myth?"

Now that he mentioned it, I did seem to remember message noona saying something about a myth when I first summoned him.

[Yep, the creation myth at that. One sword, one spear, one shield, and one light. They laid a foundation in darkness and spread light into the world. Peruta Rello Vatifoa is the spear from that story. I thought it was just a myth, but you said you summoned him!?]

"... Since you say that, I'm starting to think it's not the same guy. He might be a fake."

[There is power behind names. Even if he isn't the same one from the myth, someone with the name Peruta Rello Vatifoa shouldn't be ordinary. How much mana did you say you had?]

"Ah, it's just over 700 now."

[You... didn't you say you started cultivating mana a month ago? That speed of growth isn't normal. It can't be an ordinary mana cultivation method.]

"R-Really?"

[Haha. You really know how to surpass my expectations. Alright, let's beat the 25th Floor Master together.]

"That's asking for too much."

[Hahahaha.]

"Haha."

I also tried contacting Palludia, but she didn't pick up. Now that I thought about it, a year and a half had passed since she told me to contact her. It was when I was infatuated with compressing elixirs. Ah...

Because Ellos always contacted me first, I had naturally spent a lot of time talking to him. But Palludia had never contacted me since then. This was my fault. If she was mad, I couldn't do anything about it. In the end, I left her a message and called it quits. In truth, I didn't regret it at all!

1. The MC's name, Kang Shin, directly translates to Deific Manifestation, the name of this skill (so he's confused)