Chapter 2 – Obtaining The Power (2)

-Tak!

My teacher’s pool cue whacks my head.

At that moment, I regain consciousness.

“Hey Min-Cheol, just because Jae-Hyuk is sleeping, you’re sleeping too?”

“Sorry…”

“You want to get into university, right? Pay attention.”

With my mind still hazy, I try to analyze what happened. It seems that this bastard Hwang Jae-Hyuk, even when he knew I fainted, didn’t take me to the hospital… Not even the infirmary! I think he just left me lying down like I was sleeping.

Whether to hit him to death, or to hammer him to death, or to use a fingernail clipper to shred him to death…

While I’m thinking about such impossible things, I put my hand into my pocket to ensure that my 1000 Won notes were still ok.

Thankfully the money is still there.

I feel embarrassed, submissive and angry. This situation is so disgusting that I could throw up.

Over these two fucking pieces of paper… Why, to a guy like me who has no abilities…

Eh? What’s this?

In the upper-right corner of my vision, I can see a small icon like a smartphone application notification.

‘Did I hit my eyes hard with a handphone?’ As I wonder this, a hologram-like status bar appears in front of the teacher, who is currently busy teaching.

Kim-Min-Cheol

Level: 1

Exp: [0/100]

Class: Magician

Special Ability: Mana doesn’t run out.

Strength: 10

Mana: ∞

Agility: 10

Vitality: 10

Unspent points: 0

Possessed Skills

Frost Orb Lv. 1 [0/100]

‘Wow… So I died and came back to life and now I’m seeing hallucinations…’

Wait! I can faintly remember what happened just before I lost consciousness.

-Your body has Awakened.

No! I remember it clearly. This is reality.

Ding-Dong-Dang-Dong~

The bell which signified the end of 7th period rang.

“Freak~ I thought you died but guess not? Well, just don’t rebel like that and just follow my orders~ Who knows? Because you’re a dog that listens well, maybe someone will make you an Awakened manager?”

Hwang-Jae-Hyuk, who woke up like a ghost, spoke to me sarcastically as he prepared to go home.

Yeah! It’s confirmed.

Hwang-Jae-Hyuk, you bastard, you’re going to die by fingernail clipper!

I made a mortified smile and wished him well on his way back home.

Fucking jerk, I had to say that like a fool with a smile.

I go back home feeling excited and sit down in front of the computer.

As always, mother is out working at the diner.

She always, without missing a day, prepares breakfast and then goes to work at the break of dawn.

From the time the diner opens to the time it closes… She spends 16 hours a day at the diner.

All the money that she earns working like a dog every day goes to the loan sharks.

It’s a reality that allows me to remember… no, remember the human who called himself my ‘father’.

(TLN: In Korean, the first ‘remember’ is said in a respectful way. Obviously, MC holds disgust for his father, so he switches it to a less respectful way.)

If only she didn’t have a useless son like this, she probably would’ve suffered less.

Usually, I would use some powerful videos to comfort myself and then study, but today is different!

I feelboth hunger and excitement I never felt in my life before.

I open an internet browser and search up details on my Awakening and my passive skill.

-Awakened Rookie Forums-

I look around here and see a lot of information saying that you normally hear a narration about becoming an Awakened and see a status screen at the right-hand side of your vision.

I have confidence.

That this is an opportunity that God has given me, that I am now what I always envied, an ‘Awakened’!

I’m not sure if it’s good to be having these kind of thoughts already, but I imagine my mother going to the markets to go buy tofu in an imported car with a chauffeur.

I can’t even imagine getting a housekeeper in the reality I am living in right now.

I’ll just let my mother have a wonderfully comfortable life!

I try to calm down; my heart is leaping up and down about to explode. Then I go on the forums again.

I saw many situations where even when people Awoke they got classes and passives that weren’t even enough to make a living, so I searched up my passive ability which allows me to have infinite mana.

-Red Desert mana doesn’t run out infinite walkthrough!

-Blessyou magician infinite mana system tree (beginner’s usage)

“Fucking game addicts”

Only useless game guides pop up.

I try the Magician Line Awakened cafe, but the results are basically the same.

There is a skill called ‘Mana Regen’.

But it’s an active skill, not a passive one, and it only regains 15% of the user’s mana.

Of course, the casting time would be different as your proficiency went up, but the cooldown seems to be approximately 30 minutes.

The Skill Book price seems to have so many zeroes that I stopped counting at 10 million.

My brain is working at a seriously fast pace at this point.

“Wait… This… Ha~ This really…”

Without me knowing, laughter came out.

It’s like winning the top prize in the lottery, I feel nervous but excited.

Right out, the Skill Book regenerates 15% of your mana on a 30-minute cooldown is worth millions…

My ability is a passive skill, and it gives me infinite mana…?

I quickly run out of the house and go to a playground where there were no people.

I want to see my ability with my own eyes.

I already know about how to use skills thanks to my searches.

The skill that is automatically given to an Lv1 Magician Awakened, ‘Frost Orb’.

Like in games, when starting out as a Magician levelling up is very hard.

Of course, to rich Awakened it’s a different story.

They can easily obtain advanced Skill Books and can level up with high-levelled servants.

It’s abnormally unfair.

This is why the Magician class is hard.

You get 10 points of stats like the Warrior class branch, but Lv1 skills use up a lot of mana.

So, at low levels, instead of physical abilities, using skills to hunt is the correct way for Magicians to level up.

In my mind, I think of the skill name ‘Frost Orb’.

Like the video I saw online, blue spheres that about the size of a baseball float up on top of my hands.

“Ah, I’m getting goosebumps!” Unconsciously, I said it with a loud voice.

‘Kueg’ a laugh came out.

Like a kid who tasted candy for the first time, I can’t resist this excitement.

I stretch my hand to the beer can that was on a bench.

-Dalgeurak! Tudududug!

The orbs hit the can without any sound or shaky movements.

When I check carefully, the first orb seems to have frozen the can and the second one seems to have torn the can to pieces, like it was paper.

Even when I see it with my own eyes I can’t believe it.

I silently stare at my hands and say ‘Frost Orb’ at the ground.

The ground turns into a sheet of ice and the sound of hard ice rings out in the quiet playground.

It said in the video that it’s hard for an Lv1 Awakened to cast ‘Frost Orb’ more than five times.

Although you couldn’t see their mana gauge through the video, many Magician Awakened commented that they felt the same way.

But I can’t see my mana gauge. I looked at the beginners ‘Awakened Guide’ which explained things with pictures so it was easy to understand, their status bar was different from mine.

You can say that I don’t have a mana pool, and was Awoken to be able to infinitely use mana.

So, I can easily ignore trivial things like mana management!

If I could learn a skill then I can use that skill without any restrictions.

“Nyunnyu nyannya screw everything and get Skillbook~bookbookbook~galeugebgeb bookbookbook~”

(TLN: I have no idea what he’s saying either. I don’t keep up with slang, dammit! Basically, he seems to be just singing about how he loves skillbooks.)

I start singing without thinking.

Back at home, I look at Skill Book prices.

The Skill Books I saw at the cafe auction seem to have widely varied prices depending on which classes they’re for.

Especially Magicians, their Skill Books were astronomically high price.

It’s probably because even when hunting in parties there’s low risk in using them and they can destroy multiple monsters with powerful, long-ranged attacks.

-drrrck drrrck

The mouse wheel keeps scrolling like a god.

(TLN: probably means it’s working really well)

“What I need right now is information… Information…”

I don’t feel anything like hunger at this point.

-ttirik ttik ttik ttik ttik ttirororong~

I heard the sound of the front door opening.

“Son~ Mom’s here~”

“You’re back?”

“Yeah, have you eaten?”

Seeing my mother’s face, I finally begin to feel hungry.

With the hunger, I feel a wave of unfamiliar emotions, and my eyes are filled with tears.

This fucking poverty and debt, my mother working at the diner, I can say goodbye to all of it now. Seriously, goodbye! Say goodbye!

“I haven’t eaten, Ms. Park~ I have something to say~ let’s eat together!”

I say to my mother with a cutesy expression.

As she cleans up after dinner, I say one sentence.

“Mother, I’ll protect you from now on…”

I can keep at least this one promise, right?