The smoky and dusty air cleared, and the broken fragments of the spell disappeared. In the special training hall of Yeonhwa Guild, a strange silence fell.
The first to speak was Yoo Sung-Eun.
“Copying skills and destroying spells…… how much more are you hiding?”
“There’s no more. I’ve shown all my cards.”
At JaeHyun’s words, Yoo Sung-Eun smiled. Then, not missing the chance, JaeHyun quickly counterattacked.
Swwiiiish!
This time, a chain rapidly rose up from the ground. Cold sweat flowed down Yoo Sung-Eun’s back.
Yoo Sung-Eun observed the chain rushing toward her with a little bewilderment.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
A bluish forcefield appeared in her hand and blocked all of JaeHyun’s chains. As the 《 Lightning Chain 》 clashed with the forcefield, a loud and explosive sound was created.
‘It’s unbelievable that this power is coming from an untrained child. This level of skill can be used in a high-level dungeon right away.’
The amount of magic that JaeHyun used against her was difficult for an ordinary magician to use. It was magic that would take at least a B-rank raider to use.
But Yoo Sung-Eun was an S-rank raider. There was no reason to struggle with an attack like this.
But even so, Yoo Sung-Eun was feeling flustered for some unknown reason. And she soon realized the reason for it.
Crash! Baaang! Crash!
‘What’s this? How on earth……
That kid. He’s using spells without casting.’
It was something she couldn’t understand. Incanting was something that accompanied a magician as a rule.
Of course, it was possible for high-level magicians to say the incantation internally and cast the spell, but JaeHyun was still a beginner in magic.
In addition, the rank of the spell he was casting was A.
‘It’s not a spell one can cast again and again without incanting. Then that means……
Don’t tell me.’
Yoo Sung-Eun’s eyes shone with interest.
On the other hand, JaeHyun had almost used up all his mana by casting Lightning Chain so many times. Only 100 MP was remaining. It was only enough to cast 《 Lightning Chain 》 two more times.
‘Damn. I don’t have much mana left. I thought I could at least match up to her since she’s a healer, but she’s a total monster.’
Without a choice, JaeHyun diffused his mana and took a few steps back. It was to recover mana.
After putting away the protective forcefield, Yoo Sung-Eun started to slowly walk towards JaeHyun.
“You’re really a kid with surprising talent. However — you’re still too young.”
Boom!
“Huh?!”
As his sight spun around, his body turned a full circle in the air. His whole body was covered in goosebumps. In the very short time it took to blink, JaeHyun’s body was already rolling on the ground.
‘What… just happened?’
With his face stuck to the floor, JaeHyun concentrated on Yoo Sung-Eun’s words. Smiling brightly, Yoo Sung-Eun stretched a hand out to JaeHyun.
“You didn’t think you’d win, did you?”
***
At a construction site located near Yeonhwa Guild, Yoo SunJae and a few young men wearing black clothes were having a conversation.
“So. What you mean to say is, we just need to scold that little brat?”
A guy who looked to have a high position among the men asked while approaching. At his question, Yoo SunJae answered while lighting up a cigarette.
“Yeah. If you complete the job well, I’ll give you guys 500 each. By the way, be careful. That punk seems to be training to be a raider.”
“Haha. Why are you worrying about something like that? He’s still a bag of blood. If the lot of us attack together, we’ll finish him off quickly.”
The man in black clothes said in a voice full of confidence. Yoo SunJae nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Good. I’ll give you a bit more incentive. After you’re done, I’ll add 100 each. So take care of it perfectly. Understood?”
“Thank you, hyungnim. Don’t worry. We won’t let you down.”
A breeze mixed with dust remained in the construction site for a moment before dissipating. Yoo SunJae mumbled after stepping on the cigarette butt he had thrown on the floor.
“I’ll clearly show that shitty little bastard… what happens when someone acts impudently in front of me.”
***
“Are you feeling okay now?”
“Yes. I’m fine now.”
JaeHyun had a dazed expression, but he was slowly returning to his senses.
A few moments ago, he passed out on the floor after receiving Yoo Sung-Eun’s attack. In a very short instant, Yoo Sung-Eun’s movement had hit him without him being able to read it at all, and then he promptly rolled on the floor.
While drinking some water, JaeHyun looked at Yoo Sung-Eun who stood beside him. Not looking tired at all and without a drop of sweat on her, Yoo Sung-Eun was indeed a marvelous and skillful person.
He pressed his lips into a line.
‘This is the distance between me and a real raider.’
JaeHyun took a rough breath in and calmed down his still-shaking body. Seeing him like that, Yoo Sung-Eun put her hand on JaeHyun’s head.
“By the way, I was surprised. Suddenly using an A-rank skill, and even destroying a spell. As expected, you’re an interesting kid.”
“That’s a compliment, right?”
At JaeHyun’s question, Yoo Sung-Eun quickly affirmed.
“Of course. However—about what you did a while ago. You cast spells without incanting, right? How on earth did you do it?”
“That’s… Honestly, it’s because of my skill. Saying it in more detail is a bit……”
“Well, if it’s like that, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Yoo Sung-Eun seemed a bit unsatisfied at JaeHyun’s evasive answer but still nodded her head.
Different from a warrior who demonstrated their worth through physical talents and protective skills, a magic raider should not spread the spells they know and their unique skills.
This was because spells had their own characteristics and traits, and they could expose a magician’s abiilities.
Their ranks might have a difference of heaven and earth, but Yoo Sung-Eun was still a magic raider. Yoo Sung-Eun fully understood the reason why JaeHyun would hide his skills.
Yoo Sung-Eun thought for a moment and spoke.
“A while ago, while looking at your fighting style, I had a thought.”
“A thought?”
“Yeah. I’ve thought about it theoretically before, but it’s a fighting style that not a single person was able to achieve in reality. What do you think? Don’t you think it’s interesting?”
JaeHyun tilted his head.
“Is there actually a style like that?”
“Yes. A fighting style that only you can use. From now on, I plan to teach you about it.”
“Something only I can do? What on earth…….”
JaeHyun asked while blinking his eyes. Yoo Sung-Eun crossed her arms with a triumphant look.
“Call me ‘Teacher’ from now on. And… congratulations on becoming my first disciple.”
He had rejected Yoo Sung-Eun’s offer of calling a luxury taxi this time.
It was because there was a place he had to stop by.
“I think it was around here somewhere…”
The place JaeHyun got off at was Yongsan Station.
In the past, it was famous as a place where shops selling electronic devices gathered, but at present, it was a place more famous for selling magic tools and equipment.
From the mana blade used by most raiders to robes with resistance properties or items taken from dungeons, it was filled with things that any raider would go crazy over.
“Let’s see. What I need…”
JaeHyun muttered as he looked through the list he had made on his smartphone.
“A copy of 《 Defense Vector Field Magic Book 》, one of 《 Basic Mana Training 》, the horn of a mandragora, spring water from Jotunheim, the wing of an intermediate elf, and robes with darkness-resistance properties…… is that roughly it?”
After checking over the whole list, JaeHyun looked around with a determined face.
“I don’t know if I can buy everything with the money I have… But if not, I can probably remove 《 Basic Mana Training 》. I can just borrow it from Kim YooJung later. Yeonhwa Guild might provide one too.”
Making up his mind, he put his smartphone back in his pocket. JaeHyun looked at all the stores and alleys with his arms crossed.
“The first thing I should buy are probably the ingredients for the《 Mana Enhancement Potion 》.”
《 Mana Enhancement Potion 》
Like its name suggested, it increased the mana of the Awakened who drank it. For a magic raider, it was an effective medicine and an essential item that made them appear as one with fire in their eyes.
However—
‘November 2020. No one knew how to manufacture 《 Mana Enhancement Potion 》 yet.’
JaeHyun smirked. The recipe for 《 Mana Enhancement Potion 》was something that would only be shared in about 5 years. So that meant that right now, the only person who knew the recipe was JaeHyun.
Before returning to the past,
the potion’s recipe was shared free of charge by a world-class researcher hired by the country.
While watching TV, JaeHyun had learned about the recipe of the potion by chance, but looking into it, he remembered that the person who shared the recipe was the youngest son of the Lees, a prestigious raider family.
As he shared the recipe free of charge, he said these words.
[I hope to be of great help to the numerous raiders around the world.]
As JaeHyun watched that interview, he scoffed.
‘If it were me, I would never have shared the recipe without charge. I don’t know if I should consider him to be great or stupid……’
Of course, he was working as a combat raider at the time, and the ingredients of the potion were so expensive that he couldn’t even give it a try.
‘It’s different now. Magicians haven’t risen in reputation, and I’m the only one who knows the recipe. And if I’m buying them now, the ingredients shouldn’t be that expensive either.’
After buying the potion’s ingredients first and brewing the potion, JaeHyun planned to take regular doses and increase his mana capacity permanently.
Although most magically-engineered items or potions increased mana at the moment, they did not do so permanently. As a result, the asking price of items with permanent effects was easily in the hundreds of billions.
So JaeHyun wanted to ingest 《 Mana Enhancement Potion 》a moment sooner.
‘If drinking it can increase mana, I should drink whatever it is.’
Recalling the recipe, JaeHyun organized what he had to buy and roamed the whole area around Yongsan Station.
Fortunately, he could easily find the mandragora horn, Jotunheim’s spring water, and the intermediate elf’s wing.
Unsurprisingly—
Balance: 80,000,000
“I’ve already used up 30 million won…… as expected, even though it’s not yet the world of magicians, high-grade items are expensive.”
Of course, if he had tried to buy those 3 items before returning to the past, he would have had to add another 0 at the end.
Even if he did so, he might not be able to get any from piled up orders, as they weren’t things ordinary people like JaeHyun could think about.
Thinking about it like that, he felt better about the money he just spent. Although it still stung, JaeHyun wasn’t the type to save money when buying things like these.
“Then next is the darkness-resistance robes…… I don’t know if there’s a place that sells them.”
One of the essential items for a magician, robes. Among them, robes with darkness-resistance were not easy to find.
Ordinarily, robes with a resistance against the 4 elements were common, but resistance against special attributes like darkness or light was difficult to find.
Having gone through several shops selling robes, JaeHyun was unable to find robes with a resistance against darkness. It was either that the price was too high or the resistance was too low.
“I need to prepare as much as possible before I can destroy the Night Shade.”
A Night Shade’s attribute was darkness. If he didn’t have an item that would provide resistance against its attribute, fighting with it would be quite difficult.
But even so, finding an item in the normal shops was too expensive. For borrowing from Yeonhwa Guild, he had heard that since there weren’t any robes with attribute resistance properties, it would take some time to get.
JaeHyun sighed as he scratched his head.
But at that moment—
A shop that was piled with antiques entered JaeHyun’s eyes.
“……that’s…?”
The building that got JaeHyun’s attention was 《 Re-Enew 》.
That place was where items that were not appraised and items with unsure effects were sold. It was an extremely speculative shop, where one could gamble and get B-C rank items every once in a while.
Even A-rank items could be bought for a cheap price, but most were items that were not worth it.
JaeHyun’s eyes shone brightly for a moment before they dimmed.
“Hoping to get a great item for cheap from Re-Enew is probably hopeless, huh…”
The probability of getting an item ranked higher than C among unappraised items was about 6%. It was realistic to think that it was impossible to do so after buying one or two things.
In the end, as JaeHyun was about to turn around,
the clear sound from the system entered his ears.
一 Passive Skill 《Absolute Eye of God》 pierces through false illusions and judges the truth.
一 Passive Skill 《Absolute Eye of God》’s first low-rank skill has been opened.
一 Skill 《Detection》 has been obtained.
[Active Skill]
Name: Detection
Rank: EX
Mana Consumed: 100
A face-splitting grin appeared on JaeHyun’s face.
Right, that’s how it was.
《 Absolute Eye of God 》 was an EX-ranked passive skill he had earned just before regression, but it was one he was unable to use due to the confusing and difficult explanation.
To think it would provide a secondary low-ranked skill.
With a grin, JaeHyun stood in front of the store piled with antiques.
“Welcome!”
Together with the shopkeeper’s greeting, JaeHyun entered the shop.
Inside, he could see rusty and discolored swords, armor, and various equipment. Among them, there were also a few robes like JaeHyun wanted.
The shopkeeper who approached JaeHyun then had a smile on his face.
“As you can see, this shop sells unappraised items. What do you think? Would you like to test your luck?”