[Choose your reward.]

[1. Deific Manifestation Magic Book]

“Agh, I’m getting dizzy.”

“Can you make the messages come at a slower pace?” I plaintively asked the message noona that I had grown rather accustomed to as I checked the message log.

Let’s see…mm, a Grand Accomplishment. Just as thought ran across my mind that it only sounded grand and gave no rewards, I noticed that I had gotten a title. Not to mention, it had raised all of my stats by 1. I didn’t think my stats would increase again.

And the special reward was the Orc Lord’s Pauldron…I see it’s for my shoulders. Now that I thought about it, I had never seen the Orc Lord’s Pauldron before. That could only mean that it only dropped when an explorer defeated the Orc Lord alone. In other words, it was impossible to collect all of the Orc Lord’s equipment until a person defeated it alone.

…There was no equipment set this hard to collect in any game that I have played before.

“Here it is. Wow, it looks amazing.”

I opened my inventory and equipped the Orc Lord’s Pauldron. My body was now entirely covered with the Orc Lord’s leather armor.

In the past, I had fought through the dungeons with training clothes alone until I reached the 5th floor. Looking back, I might as well have been naked. I didn’t understand how I even thought of going into the dungeon like that. Even though I couldn’t re-enter the dungeon for a week if I died, the only thoughts I had at the time were that training clothes were easy to move in. Not to mention, I was also using my wooden spear…Thinking about those days, I couldn’t help but sigh in embarrassment.

As I was standing still in reminiscence, another message popped into my notification screen.

[You equipped the Orc Lord Set. Your strength and constitution increases by 5. When the Orc Lord Set is equipped, you can use ‘Orc Lord’s Warcry’ once per day.]

“Ah!”

No way, it went up again! Although the stat increase seemed a little small compared to how hard it was to gather the full set, 2 levels worth of stat points seemed fairly big upon more careful consideration. Not to mention, it would be weird if something from just the 5th floor was even better than this.

Although completing the Orc Lord Set or consuming compressing elixirs wasn’t what I had planned from the very beginning, now that I had experienced it, I thought that perhaps this was what the person who made this dungeon had wanted in the first place.

After I checked how I looked in the full Orc Lord Set, I nodded with satisfaction and read the next line in the message log. 1000 gold. This was to be expected. The Orc Lord always gave 1,000 gold when defeated. The next was choosing my reward…but because I defeated the Orc Lord alone, there was only one reward on the list.

There’s no choice here! Looks like message noona has to level up and raise her intelligence! I looked at the one available drop as I silently roasted the notification system in my head. 

[1. Deific Manifestation Magic book]

“…”

What’s… this? I never expected to see a magic named after me[1]. Was it just created? What was it for? Was it something only I could use?

Although I had numerous questions, I held my tongue. Since I had no mana, I couldn’t use magic anyways. Just as the thought ran across my mind…

[You have obtained Deific Manifestation Magic. You can use all of your MP and half of your HP to call upon a soul connected deeply to your roots. The duration of manifestation will depend on the amount of MP and HP you use. You can only manifest someone of the Legendary rank or above, and you cannot use this skill again if you fail. On success, the skill has a cooldown time of one month. This magic has no skill level.]

“…”

It felt like someone was playing a trick on me. Come to think of it, a lot of people used to do that when I was little, though they stopped as I became abnormally big…

Deific Manifestation Magic. For a second, the name and description reminded me of psychics summoning the spirits of dead people.

Of course, this magic was useless for me. After all, I had no MP. There was no way I could use this skill. I let out a sigh. To think something I worked so hard to get would be of no use…

“Agh! Deific Manifestation, Deific Manifestation!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. Although I knew nothing would happen, I shouted with all my heart. To be honest, I was slightly worried that I may have looked a little crazy shouting out my own name. But…

[All of your MP has been consumed.]

[Half of your HP has been consumed.]

[You used 20 MP and 1,020 HP. For 1 minute and 40 seconds, you summon the Mythical Heroic Spirit, Peruta Rello Vatifoa.]

“… Eh?”

What? Did I see that right? 20 MP? I thought I didn’t have a single MP? As I looked around in a puzzled manner, I suddenly began to feel that my body wasn’t under my sole control anymore. It was as if I was wearing hundreds of layers and could not move my body like I wanted.

Then, a voice rang out inside me.

[Oh, what is this boy? What a talent he possesses. Yet, he has no mana. Strange, very strange.]

“W-Who are you?”

I didn’t look around like an idiot. I had already done so the first time I entered the dungeon.

[You were the one who called me. I am Peruta Rello Vatifoa, a spearman now long forgotten.]

“A spearman? You’re a spearman? Wow! I use a spear too!”

[Hm? Hahaha! That’s what I thought! Someone who can call me should no doubt use a spear! But this is concerning. Because of your lack of mana, I cannot stay for too long.]

“But I have no mana at all…”

[That’s what I thought, but it turns out you have an extremely tiny amount! By the looks of things, I would guess you don’t have a mana cultivation method. Am I correct?]

“Yeah, I have none. Sorry.”

[No need to be sorry. Since fate has connected us together, I will help…ugh, I already have to go back. Next time, I’ll first teach you a mana cultivation method!]

“Y-Yes! Take care!”

Since I had no idea where he was going I shouted my farewell to him. When the stuffy feeling disappeared, I no longer heard any voices in my head. At the same time, I felt my body go limp and become devoid of energy. Even after I realized that Peruta had disappeared, I remained still. I could not quite understand what had just happened.

“I thought I didn’t have mana? What happened…? Status!”

[Name: Kang Shin     

Race: Human     

Sex: Male

Class: None     

Title: Orc Lord Slayer     

Rank: Bronze 6

Level: 6

HP – 1,010/2,240     

MP – 1/20

Strength – 34(+8)     

Dexterity – 30(+1)     

Constitution – 39(+6)

Intelligence – 20(+1)     

Magic – 0(+1)     

Charm – 16(+1)     

Luck – 10(+1)

Skill – Low-rank Martial Arts (Master), Low-rank Spear Technique (Master), Mid-rank Spear Technique (Master), Deific Manifestation]

“… Ha… Haha…”

I see, that was it! There was an extremely simple reason why the system said I used 20 mana. I now understood where this small amount of mana came from.

When I earned the title Orc Lord Slayer, all my stats had gone up by 1. Naturally, my magic went up as well!

Since I started out with none, I could not distribute points into it with the points I gained from leveling up, but it seemed that gaining bonus points still worked. This had to be a bug!

Of course, I had no intention of reporting it to a GM[2] like I would in an online game. Well, not that I knew how to contact one anyways. In truth, I didn’t know for sure whether this was a bug or not. What was important was that I finally had mana!

Excited, I couldn’t help but dance.

YES! I finally have mana! I can learn a mana cultivation method from Peruta too! I can have qi! I can learn the high-rank spear technique!

Just like that, during my winter break of my senior year of high school, I had stumbled across a solution to my problem of obtaining qi.

Of course, it took another month before I could meet Peruta again. He seemed prepared as the first thing he did upon being summoned was to imprint his mana cultivation method in my body.

This wasn’t without any cost. The pain of getting his method imprinted resembled molten iron pouring into my veins and arteries. Despite my efforts, tears streamed down my face during the whole process. However, Peruta was determined to impart everything to me, so he ignored my gasps. After finishing his work in just 1 minute and 7 seconds, Peruta disappeared with one last reminder for me:

[If you guide and circulate your mana through the pathway I left in your body, mana will naturally grow inside you.]

I stood still, resembling a woman who had just been raped by her trusted lover. What was more irritating was that Peruta was right. At first, it was hard to control the mana in my body, but as I moved it through the pathway he left, I became more relaxed and I could feel my body start to gather mana.

The only weird part was that cultivating mana became noticeably slower outside the dungeon. As such, I had to increase the time I spent inside the dungeon. I worked diligently to increase my mana as Peruta had said he would teach me spearmanship in a month. Although I heard that my family had an explosive spear technique that made use of qi, I wasn’t sure if it still existed as it had come from a story passed down through the ages. Just when I thought I would have to learn the high-rank spear technique on my own, I had come across the perfect teacher, Peruta.

After training my mana, learning the high-rank spear technique and getting to a certain level, I was finally able to conquer the 6th floor filled with those damned ghosts. It had taken me 3 years and 2 months to reach this point!

It had been a while, so I contacted Ellos and told him about what had happened. Surprised, Ellos shouted,

[Did you just say Peruta Rello Vatifoa!?]

“Yep. He said he was a spearman. You know him?”

Throughout the past three years, we had exchanged messages back and forth, so we had naturally become friends.

[I more than just know him. He’s from my continent. Well, even if I say that, he’s…from my continent’s myth.]

“Myth?”

Now that he mentioned it, I vaguely remembered the message noona saying something about a myth when I first summoned him.

[Yep, the creation myth at that. One sword, one spear, one shield, and one light. They laid a foundation in darkness and spread light into the world. Peruta Rello Vatifoa is the spear from that story. I thought it was just a myth, but you said you summoned him!?]

“…Since you say that, I’m starting to think it’s not the same guy. He might be a fake.”

[There is power behind names. Even if he isn’t the same one from the myth, someone with the name Peruta Rello Vatifoa shouldn’t be ordinary. How much mana did you say you had?]

“Ah, it’s just over 700 now.”

[You…didn’t you mention you started cultivating mana a month ago? That speed of growth isn’t normal. It can’t be an ordinary mana cultivation method.]

“R-Really?”

[Haha. You really know how to surpass my expectations. Alright, let’s beat the 25th Floor Master together.]

“That’s asking for too much.”

[Hahahaha.]

“Haha.”

I also tried contacting Palludia, but she didn’t pick up. Now that I thought about it, a year and a half had passed since she told me to contact her. That was during the time when I was infatuated with obtaining compressing elixirs. Ah…

Because Ellos always contacted me first, I had naturally spent a lot of time talking to him. But Palludia had never contacted me since that one time. This was my fault. If she was mad, I couldn’t do anything about it. In the end, I left her a message and called it quits. In truth, I didn’t regret it at all!