[Sire] A young and slightly mechanical female voice sounded, which awoke me from my sleep. [Notice: Your delivery from two weeks ago will be arriving shortly.]

Soon enough, the sound of the buzzer can be heard.

—Bzzzzzz!

However, I was still drowsy from the things that I have done in the past two weeks.

[Sire?] the female voice sounded again.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you, MERLIN. Tell him to wait for a minute.”

[As you wish, sire.]

That female voice belonged to my new AI—MERLIN. Her name stands for... absolutely nothing; no acronym for her this time.

I’ve spent most of my time in the past two weeks configuring MERLIN to be the best possible AI it could be for my current situation.

At face value, she functions exactly like FRIDAY—an AI assistant that will help with my day-to-day tasks—however, her other function would also be her assisting me with everything combat-related like fight and terrain analysis, which would be useful when entering the dungeon. Although her fight analysis function does need more work, since those kinds of things aren’t something that I’ve prioritized back on Earth.

Anyway, she said that my package from two weeks ago has arrived. The only package that I ordered ever was…

The tomes!

I quickly got off my bed and washed myself awake before rushing towards the door and opening it, revealing the deliveryman and my package, which was to his right.

“Mr. Bennett?” the deliveryman asked, to which I nodded in response. “Sign here, please.” He then handed me a paper binder that bound the paper I needed to sign.

After signing, I handed him back the paper, but the man was strangely looking around my house.

I raised my brow at him, to which he noticed as he said, “You live alone? Where are your parents?”

“Dead.” I simply said. It wasn’t something I needed to hide anyway.

“Ohh… I-I’m sorry for your loss. Excuse me, then.” The man gave me a pitying look and then went on his way.

After he disappeared from my view, I looked back at my room, which still had barely any furniture. Maybe I should decorate the place a bit since it does give off the feeling of loneliness.

“Maybe next time.” I shrugged my shoulders.

I brought the package into my room and opened it with a knife, revealing sets of thin light blue blocks about five inches long and three inches wide, with faint scribbles and symbols in its background, which should be runes.

Taking a few of them out, every tome that I ordered was, as expected, pretty much useless.

How I knew that was because the ability that the tomes will give is engraved on the cover. From pure useless tomes like the Tome of Tilting to somewhat better tomes like the Tome of Vulnerability.

However, I’m not worried, since, in my hands, it would become an invaluable treasure.

The only problem now is how I exactly acquire the ability.

In both the description of tomes in my novel and in this world, they were like manuals for your being to gain this feeling of enlightenment before obtaining the ability.

The word ‘being’ is used since the very nature or essence of a human will actually be the one to gain enlightenment. Once enlightened, one’s body and mind should have already acquired the ability.

Mavens can easily acquire the ability since they are already used to that feeling of enlightenment. However, non-Mavens obviously aren’t, which is why those faint scribbles and symbols in the background called runes exist. They are there to help non-Mavens get that feeling of enlightenment easily, at the same time, it also contains the tome’s ability.

So here comes the problem: how the hell do I achieve this enlightenment?

Everything I’ve just said was just textbook knowledge, but actually doing it is another matter.

According to the experiences of others online, all you really have to do is to enter a state of meditation while holding the tome and the enlightenment should occur naturally.

That shouldn’t be hard, right? After all, the runes will be assisting me. So, I took a tome with a simple ability called the ‘Tome of Spinning’ and sat down, cross-legged, before closing my eyes as I begin to meditate.

By meditating, I mean by not thinking of anything but the tome.

Minutes have passed and just when I thought that it wasn’t working, a warm and refreshing feeling coursed throughout my body all at once.

Was that the enlightenment? Opening my eyes, I moved around a bit to see if there were any changes within me, but there were none.

Maybe the changes would be in my spinning abilities?

I grabbed a pen from a drawer and tried spinning it, in which my hands were surprisingly well-coordinated that it was able to make the pen spin smoothly without any trouble, despite it being my first time.

I tried again, but with a few other items, and the same results always came out.

That’s it? I thought the process would be more complicated. Guess I was overthinking it.

Getting my actual first combat ability wouldn’t be out of reach at this rate. I grabbed another tome and started meditating. In a few minutes, that same refreshing feeling happened, then I tested the new ability out and it worked as expected.

I repeated the process a few more times before stopping to rest. It’s not that I don’t want to continue, but absorbing the tomes is taking a toll on my body and mind. If I were to ignore the pain and stubbornly continue on, then I fear it would give me the opposite effects.

Panting heavily, I laid down on the floor. My whole body and mind were aching so badly.

I wonder how much progress I’ve made…

“MERLIN,” I called out.

[Yes, sire?]

“Show me the progress of my acquisition for my final ability.”

MERLIN went silent for a few moments before her voice sounded again. [Notice: You are currently at 21% acquisition of your final ability.]

That’s not bad progress. I turned my head towards the clock, which read that it was nearly noon.

Right now, I don’t have anything to do. The weapon and equipment I ordered wouldn’t appear until after three weeks.

I’ve also put together a few gadgets that will help me once I’m in the dungeon with materials that I could legally buy.

Maybe I should now start acquiring the ability. Maybe gaining it will hasten the progress of my tome ability.

After resting for a few minutes, I got up and went to my bathroom to clean myself from my sweat.

After drying myself, I wore a casual outfit, consisting of a black jacket worn over a white shirt with matching pants and shoes.

I then left my room with my phone, wallet, and earpiece.

*****

***

*

After stepping out of the condo, I took a deep breath. It has been about two weeks since I’ve been here, and I’m already somewhat used to the lifestyle here.

I headed towards the train station.

For me to obtain , then I need to be in a place that is both overflowing with mana and is in a natural setting.

Technically, any ecosystem would do, since they have both factors, except for the overflowing part, since the mana in those environments is evenly dispersed, which is a problem.

The ‘overflowing with mana’ part is a crucial factor in obtaining , after all that ability was catered for non-Mavens specifically, and practicing it in a place overflowing with mana will be highly efficient for an individual as they can feel the mana itself and its flow even as a non-Maven.

[Enter your destination] An emotionless mechanical voice sounded from the ticket machine.

On the screen was a list of locations in the form of a map I could choose from.

After a bit of searching, I chose the station located in the capital of the Republic of Pinediel—Goldwyvern City.

After confirming my destination, it prompted me to pay either by cash or by card, which I paid using the latter method.

After getting my ticket, I walked towards the ticket gate where I inserted my ticket, then made my way to the train platform and began waiting for the train to arrive as I was a few minutes early.

The train platform had a dome structure tinged with a blue accent on its design and window panels on the ceiling that stretched for meters, and covering the train tracks was a transparent arc.

—Ding! Ding! Ding!

Lights above the pillars turned green as a faint sound of an object moving at a high speed can be heard increasing in volume for every second that has passed.

Soon enough, a levitating train was in sight, and a few seconds later it decreased in speed as it slowly comes to a halt at the platform.

Once the train fully stopped, it dropped down to the tracks as the arc folded apart as the doors opened.

I quickly went on the train before it got crowded, then went into a room and sat down on a chair as I waited for the train to depart.

A minute later, the train levitated again and started to move, gaining speed a few seconds later.

With the current technology in Vanteer and its overflowing resources, pretty much every country had a levitating bullet train that could reach up to 1,200 miles per hour, and the best thing is that you wouldn’t be able to feel the kinetic force of the train. So, you could completely relax without having to worry if your cup is going to spill.

I rested my head on the windowpane beside me as the warm sunlight embraced me. As expected, the ride so far has been smooth, and the only complaint I have is that I don’t have time to admire the scenery.

While waiting for the train to arrive at my destination, I started to meditate to prepare my body and mind for what was to come.

—Ding!

About 25 minutes later, an announcement sounded somewhere on the train.

[Arriving at: Goldwyvern City, Pinediel]

The train soon started to slow down as the platform of Goldwyvern City drew close, and in a few seconds, the train stopped at the platform.

As soon as the doors opened, I went out of the train and headed outside.

After stepping out, the view in front of me immediately took me away.

A huge brown towering pillar that reached beyond the sky was in sight, which was the place where I needed to go to obtain the ability—the World Tree!