Chapter 2 · 9 min

Chapter 2

Mana Thread

[You have cleared the 1st floor of the tower]

[Returning to the lobby]

Flash!

The chilly air vanished, and the somewhat warm air of the lobby pushed in.

Instead of the burned goblin, the figures of hunters appeared.

[11 points have been given]

11 points given as the reward for clearing the 1st floor of the tower.

Not that many points.

I should check what I can buy.

Oh, right.

Before that, check the status window first.

[Name: Lee Hansung]

[Level: 20]

[Trait: Transcendence (EX)]

[Skills]

└Flame - Fireball (LV20)

It was real.

Achieving level 20 by catching one goblin.

Even the Fireball skill level is 20.

‘Does this even make sense?’

Since I'm going to die anyway, isn't it pushing me too hard.

At this rate, I might become a flame attribute master before I die from bedsores···.

“Huh?”

I paused for a moment.

I quickly calculated the series in my head.

First, master the Fire attribute.

Then master Water, Earth, Wind, and Ice series in order.

If I succeed up to here, I will have mastered attribute magic.

And once I master attribute magic.

It also becomes possible to learn completely new skill series.

‘Then I should be able to acquire Holy series abilities too.’

If that happens, I might be able to heal my body.

No, I will be able to heal it.

With this kind of broken skill acquisition ability.

“Well···I'll 100% die before that though.”

Logically it's possible, but the possibility of realizing it is zero.

Midsummer, a stuffy room without the air conditioner even turned on.

The body on the bed is probably already rotting away.

“...Huu.”

In the end, disappointed at the reality that won't change.

I approached the skill merchant.

[Held points: 11]

[Obtainable series: [Common]]

[Obtainable skills: [Mana Thread (10)]]

Fortunately, there's a skill I can buy with 10 points.

Mana Thread.

A skill I've heard of a few times.

As I recall, the evaluation was extremely poor.

Trash skill.

A lump of filth not even worth learning.

A bug skill where even 10 points is a waste.

Some hunters didn't hesitate to say it dirties the status window.

Still, I learned it.

What's the point of saving it.

I'm going to die anyway.

[Common Magic - Mana Thread (LV1) skill has been acquired]

I checked the skill.

[Mana Thread (LV1)]

-Creates threads of mana.

Then, the moment I raised my hand to use the Mana Thread skill.

My vision flickered.

[Exiting the tower]

The lobby stay time was over.

It was time to return to reality.

As soon as I got back, I tried moving my body.

As expected, it didn't budge at all.

Well, it was an absurd idea from the start.

Awakening isn't some absolute healing ability.

Bzzzzzzzz!!!

Anyway, flies have already gathered.

The smell of rotting meat was starting to waft.

It was definitely coming from Lee Heeja's dead body.

I remember her venomous face that habitually spat curses at me.

I can't even understand why she did that.

A woman with no particular ability received nearly 10 million won every month just for taking care of me.

Shouldn't she have been bowing her head in gratitude.

‘Well, she probably did the bowing to Lee Taesik.’

Thinking about it again, I understood.

The one giving the money was my uncle Lee Taesik, and I was just a lump of meat.

How disgusting.

Bzzzzzzzz!!!

Fortunately, the backrest of the folding bed was raised, so it wasn't just the ceiling visible.

It was a bit less stuffy.

The dead Lee Heeja was visible, the hardened blood was visible.

The flying flies were visible too.

It's noisy.

Flies.

‘Can I drive them away with Mana Thread?’

Since it's such a shitty skill, I didn't have much expectation.

Still, maybe I can at least drive away flies.

Thinking that, I recalled the skill.

Presumably, threads wriggled up from the direction where my palm was.

The threads were extremely thin.

The bluish reason was probably because of mana.

It looked so weak that it was perfect for chasing flies.

I launched the Mana Thread with will alone.

The Mana Thread stretched out.

Crunch!

···Huh?

But an unexpected result occurred.

The Mana Thread that flew in.

It didn't chase the fly, it crushed it.

The reason was simple.

The fly that didn't recognize the Mana Thread.

Even though it wasn't flying at high speed, it was pressed by the Mana Thread and burst and died.

‘It's invisible.’

It's only visible to my eyes.

Hunters who handle mana might see it, but.

Ordinary beings cannot discover the Mana Thread.

That was when it happened.

[You have defeated an enemy with the Mana Thread (LV1) skill]

[[Transcendence (EX) ability manifests]

[Experience points gained increase by 1,000,000 times]

[The skill level of Mana Thread (LV1) increases]

[The skill level of Mana Thread (LV2) increases]

[The skill level of Mana Thread (LV3) increases]

···

[Mana Thread (LV20) skill has reached the maximum level]

Uh···that's right.

Thinking about it, Mana Thread is clearly a skill too.

It was only natural for the Transcendence trait to apply.

So.

What kind of change happens when it reaches level 20?

I pulled out the Mana Thread.

Swish!

A sound like pulling something out.

At the same time, five strands of Mana Thread extended before my eyes.

I chuckled.

Five strands.

I can kill five flies at a time.

But soon I flinched in surprise.

Additional blue threads wriggled up from the lower part of my vision.

It wasn't five, but hundreds.

Thin Mana Threads like jellyfish tentacles wriggled in the empty air before my eyes.

As if waiting for a command.

‘My god···.’

I had to see the exact appearance.

I wrapped my arm with the tentacles and carefully lifted it.

The scene that soon appeared was severely shocking.

Hundreds of Mana Thread strands rooted in the palm.

At least around 200 strands.

If I add the other hand, easily 400 strands.

Moreover, there was something even more bizarre.

‘I can feel it.’

After the accident.

A sensation of something touching the skin that I hadn't felt even once in the past 8 years.

It was felt intact through the Mana Thread.

I'm certain.

Amazingly, the Mana Thread was operating with a completely different mechanism from the severed nerves.

My heart pounded with expectation.

It wasn't just because I felt sensation for the first time in a long while.

Was it because the skill level reached 20.

Contrary to the community's opinion, the performance of Mana Thread was far superior than expected.

If used well, maybe.

‘I might not die···?’

I thought I would die helplessly lying on the bed.

But that wasn't the case.

Of course, I still need to observe the situation a bit more.

But if I utilize Mana Thread well, the probability of surviving looked quite high.

I need to test it.

The LV20 Mana Thread that has been ignored as a trash skill, and has probably never existed even once in history.

How perfectly I can handle it.

A detached house located deep in the forest.

Whoosh!

Flames rose.

Mana Thread threw Lee Heeja's corpse into the fire pit.

The flames swallowed the dirty body with crimson tongues.

Soon, the body of the sinner that turned to powder scattered somewhere on the wind and disappeared.

‘Fall to hell.’

I spat a curse in my heart once and decided to forget it.

There was a little room to be grateful.

If that woman hadn't collapsed from a concussion, I wouldn't have awakened.

Even if I had, I wouldn't have obtained such a monstrous ability to this extent.

She lived like trash.

But at least when she died, she did a good deed.

Whoosh!

Gazing at the burning flames, I fell into thought.

There were quite a few pieces of good news.

First, I cleanly burned Lee Heeja's body before it rotted and decayed.

Second, thanks to LV20 Mana Thread, I became able to prolong my life.

Finally.

The third piece of good news was that the physical enhancement from leveling up applied intact to my body.

The moment I groped my body with Mana Thread.

I could feel it right away.

Even though the nerves were severed, the body itself was the sturdy body of an awakener.

Creak!

Thanks to that, the place I'm currently sitting is the rocking chair placed in the yard.

If I hadn't awakened, I couldn't have even thought of sitting there.

But there's no particular problem with the body.

I could even raise my body and walk with Mana Thread.

If I completely wrap my body with Mana Thread, even the sensation felt becomes somewhat similar to reality to a certain extent.

Of course, I staggered like a person with physical discomfort.

But still, being able to walk is something.

I lived confined in a room for a full 8 years.

This alone was sufficiently moving for me.

‘First, let's look around the house a bit.’

A detached house surrounded on all sides by dense forest.

The outside is not visible at all.

There's a path barely wide enough for one car to pass.

The interior of the building is roughly about 50 pyeong.

Quite a large scale for two people to live in.

There were a total of four rooms, and each one was large.

My room with the bed was the largest.

Right next to it was Lee Heeja's bedroom.

Whoosh!

I burned all of the disgusting Lee Heeja's belongings.

Grab them with Mana Thread and throw them, and it's over.

The flames ignited by Fireball were completely different from ordinary flames.

The firepower was so strong it even melted glass.

Nothing remained.

The third room was the bathroom.

A super-large bathtub and even a dry sauna.

It was ridiculous.

They treated me like a bug, but right next door they were living in luxury.

The fourth room was a kind of dressing room.

There were tons of clothes and cosmetics.

As expected, I grabbed them all with Mana Thread and burned them.

In the warehouse outside the house, there were plenty of daily necessities.

As expected, anything that looked like Lee Heeja's was burned.

I only left what was necessary.

Creak.

I opened the door with Mana Thread and returned to the bed.

The bedroom that became pleasant after even the bloodstains were cleanly wiped away.

Now it really sinks in.

The fact that in this wide house, there's only me.

‘Now what should I do?’

Suddenly the thought I had just before came to mind.

Master all attribute magic.

After that, I can acquire Holy series abilities.

There might be a skill that can regenerate nerves.

Of course, a lot of points will be needed.

Maybe not the common skill books sold at the skill shop, but rare skill books that can only be obtained from specific monsters might be needed.

As long as I don't die, it will be possible someday.

If only that happens.

If I become able to move my body again···.

Lee Taesik.

That person who betrayed my father and threw me into the gutter.

I might be able to take revenge with my own hands.

‘Let's do it.’

At least it's much better than before awakening, when I didn't even have the right to die.

If I die to a tower monster, I'll actually lose my life.

Now I at least have the right to die.

Thinking that, I immediately started on the next thing I had to do.

The only attack magic.

It was time to thoroughly explore the Fireball skill shining at LV20.