Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 22: Skill In the Real World (I)
There was a possibility that came to me.
‘Perhaps the Jewel of Creation?’
I earned a Jewel of Creation while hunting Deathworm. It wasn’t that useful, but since it was the first jewel I earned, I put it in my bag.
It was the only jewel I had.
I hurriedly clicked the Jewel Box.
Once I clicked it, I was able to see an inventory. It was split into a total of five slots, and there was a shiny jewel in one of those slots.
Next to the jewel, they were nice and listed the jewel’s name and quantity.
[Jewel of Creation: 1]
How is this possible?! I can see this even in the real world? I wonder if I could also use it.
I felt like it would be possible.
I threw all sorts of things in my bag in Royal Reader. Rye Bread, bentos, minerals, etc. However, out of all those things, the only thing that had been visible in the real world was the money. And that money was usable.
This time, it was the Jewel of Creation.
I didn’t need to ponder about an answer that won’t reveal itself. If I try using it, I would get my answer easily.
But how do I try it? Is this how I use it?
I clicked the Jewel of Creation with my finger and tried to drag it outside the inventory. When I did that, a notification window and a selection window popped open.
[Jewel of Creation: Creation Index 72
Will you make a skill?]
[YES / NO]
‘Oh! It works!’
This was like hitting the jackpot! It was just as shocking as when I learned that I could move money to my bank account through Virtual Accounting.
In Royal Roader, the Jewel of Creation is pretty much useless. It can only create skills based on abilities that I possess.
Maybe if I was an expert in some aspect it might be useful, but without skills like that, what would be the point of creating skills?
It was much better to buy some skill textbooks and learn it. There was also the method of earning skills through Occupation quests.
That is why miners didn’t really care about the Jewel of Creation.
However, in the real world, the situation is completely different.
A skill helps you remember a specific way of doing something. In the real world, that in itself could become a tremendous skill. Especially when it comes to sports.
Let’s take golf as an example.
What if you could hit the exact same shot each time? If you made 50 different swings each into a skill, then it would not be a dream to win the Pro tour.
Of course, I had no desires to become an athlete. There wasn’t a reason for me to do so. Why should I put myself through all that trouble when I could make enough money with just Royal Roader?
This could be used for ‘fun.’ If you could feel the taste of victory frequently, there is nothing more fun that sports.
If I was to become an athlete, that would be in the level of fun as well.
‘With this, I could even become a super athlete in every sport!’
That’s that.
But the important thing right now wasn’t the ‘Jewel of Creation.’
There were 5 inventory slots in the Jewel Box!
That should mean that in addition to the Jewel of Creation, all of the five-colored jewels, including the Jewel of Luck, should be usable in the real world.
This is something that transcends the level of fun. If I use the five-colored jewels properly, I could become an omnipotent presence in the real world as well.
Just thinking about it gets my blood boiling! (TL: Now this is becoming The Gamer)
Let’s try using the Jewel of Creation first. I need to figure out how to properly use the jewels so that I don’t make any mistakes when I manage to get the other jewels.
Today is time for swimming lessons! The lesson starts at 5:30pm.
I called my swimming instructor.
“Is it possible to get 1:1 lessons?”
No need for excuses. It’s basically about money.
Just get to the point!
“How much is it?”
100,000 won an hour.
If it was the old me, I would be thinking ‘Wow! So expensive!’ but now, I didn’t have any issues with it. I made an appointment without a second of hesitation.
“Before the lesson today, I would like 2 hours please. When are you available? I’m free all day today.”
“I understand.”
As soon as the call ended, I left the house.
Wearing a fancy suit!
It was the first thing I bought when I made some money. I changed my hairstyle and bought some fancy casual wear and even had the latest sleek smartwatch as well.
Of course I didn’t only get them for myself. When I escorted my mom to Seoul for her comprehensive examination, I took her to the Department Store with my sister Minji, and gave them a complete transformation from head to toe.
While we were at it, we also shopped for a car.
I tried to buy Minji a pretty Mini Cooper, but she was stubborn and said that ‘the first car needs to be a domestic used car’ so we bought her a used red morning. (TL: Name of a Kia car?)
I picked the Land Rover Discovery that I’ve wanted for a long time. However, I haven’t even been able to sit in it yet. They were backordered so I still need to wait about 3 months. I paid for all of it with a bank transfer.
I also finally escaped from that cheap goshiwon. A clean one bedroom is my place in Seoul now.
We also finished moving to an apartment in Daejeon. However, it is a month-to-month lease. As soon as we find a house with a front yard, we need to move again.
I stopped for a second to look at my reflection in a large glass door.
The instructor was shocked after hearing what I had to say.
“You want to learn the butterfly stroke? It is still too early!”
That is why I picked the butterfly stroke. I felt like I needed to start with a blank slate to really feel the effect of the Jewel of Creation and the created skill.
“There is an important reason for me to learn it today. Please.”
The instructor had a complicated expression. However, once I transferred 300,000 won to his account, he ended up nodding his head.
“I understand. However, please don’t curse me even if you show no results from this lesson.”
Must you add a qualifier like that? Just saying you would try your best would have been enough. I used the jewel before starting the lesson. I dragged the Jewel of Creation out of the inventory.
[Jewel of Creation: Creation Index 72
Will you make a skill?]
[YES / NO]
I pressed ‘YES’ with the tip of my finger.
[Please enter the name of the skill.]
>Butterfly Stroke
[Starting now, the butterfly stroke skill will be created based on Kang Hwi Ram-nim’s will. The duration is 1 hour.]
I guess there is a time limit of 1 hour.
“Then let’s start with the basic movement……”
The lesson started.
First, how to move your body like a wave, how to kick, the proper arm movement. I learned each of these movements individually.
“The most important aspect of the butterfly stroke is the wave. You need to relax and let it flow for your form to look cool and for your speed to be fast.”
I followed the instructor and tried to move my body in a wave while standing upright.
I’ve tried it for fun while watching TV, but I had never learned it properly. Of course my movement was a mess. Even I could tell that my wave was extremely terrible.
But that only lasted for a while.
As I continued to follow the instructor, I had a feeling of ‘Ah! This is it!’
Along with that, the wave movement was completely mine.
As I smoothly waved my body, even the instructor started to praise me.
“Yes, just like that! Now you got it! Oh! Great! Have you learned butterfly stroke before?”
How could I? How could someone like me, who was having a hard time to even survive, learn something like the butterfly stroke?
It is because of ‘skill.’ The moment I felt like ‘this is it!’ The skill helped me remember the movement and the feeling.
Once that is registered, I just have to follow the movement of the skill.
“Wow, it is very stable. I think you learned it perfectly. Then shall we move to the next movement?”
None of the movements were easy.
However, only the beginning was hard. As I follow the instructor, at some point, I have the ‘this is it!’ type of feeling.
Then the skill remembers the movement and then I can perfectly repeat the movement.
Of course the ‘perfectly’ is for my level. If an expert was to look at it, it’ll be full of issues.
After 30 minutes, I managed to master all of the basic movements. The skill is just called ‘butterfly stroke,’ but there are so many different foundational movements that I have now learned.
The instructor’s jaws dropped.
“Wow! Are you a prodigy? The butterfly stroke is not such an easy form to learn.”
“It’s because you taught me well. Then can we start connecting the movements now? If possible, I want to try perfecting that part within an hour as well.”
“Sure, let’s try it. I think you’ll be able to do it.”
The instructor started to teach me how to connect the moments.
About 20 minutes later, I was able to remember everything under the umbrella of the ‘butterfly stroke’ skill.
With that, the hour came to an end.
“Is this really your first time learning? I’ve never seen anybody master the butterfly stroke in one hour! With intuition like that, you could even become a professional swimmer. You should have started swimming earlier in your life.”
I was also satisfied. I could now complete a lap in a 25m pool just using the butterfly stroke. Of course it was still a bit off. How do I describe it? It felt like the skill was forcing my body, which was still not used to it, to move in the correct way.
I verified my skill information through my smartphone.
[Kang Hwi Ram]
Dexterity: Advanced, Level 1, 5%
Strength: 131 (+9)
Agility: 114 (+10)
Stamina: 141 (+6)
Intuition: 107 (+3)
Mana: – (+12)
HP: 119 (+25)
[Jewel Box]
[Skill]
‘Oh! It was created!’
Under the Jewel Box in my information, a new window called ‘skill’ appeared.
When I clicked the skill window, I could see the skill information.