Let's Learn About Awakened Common Sense

"What kinds of things are there to know about Awakened people?"

I asked Mi-reu without thinking.

At my question, Mi-reu, who had been grading the problems I'd solved, turned to look at me.

"...You're only asking me that now?"

"I just...started wondering after meeting other Awakened people."

"Then why weren't you curious when you met me?"

"I guess you felt like a close older sister? No, wait. Now that you're a woman, should I call you unni?"

Maybe because she felt like a close dragon unni, it hadn't really occurred to me that she was an Awakened person.

"So that's how it was? Well, since your average score on the elementary school equivalency exam is already way above the pass mark, I might as well teach you while we're at it."

"Hmm..."

"And from today on, call me unni."

"? Okay, unni."

I didn't know why she was suddenly acting like this, but since I'd become a woman anyway, I guessed it didn't matter.

"Then why don't we start with your stats?"

-Stats-

Vitality: Life force. HP. It also raises your defense, so the higher it is, the tougher you are and the harder you are to kill. It doesn't eliminate your sense of pain, though, so you'll have to deal with that yourself.

Mana: Your mana pool. MP. This is how much mana an Awakened person has. Be careful to manage it, because if you use it all up, your skills might not activate, or, in the worst case, you could pass out.

Strength: Makes you stronger. Even putting just a few points into it can give you more strength than an ordinary person. Training to control your strength is essential.

Agility: Makes you move faster. If you handle it poorly, you might lose control of your own speed and die suddenly, so you need time to adjust.

Intelligence: Increases the power and efficiency of your skills. It is

'ABSOLUTELY.'

not connected to your own intellectual ability, so be careful.

"So raising Intelligence doesn't make you smarter."

"That's why you sometimes hear about Awakened people who misunderstood and dumped points into Intelligence, only to bomb their college entrance exams."

I hadn't paid much attention to it, so nothing had happened to me, but it was something Awakened people who needed to focus on their studies should be careful about.

I didn't know the details, but apparently bombing an exam could put a dent in your career.

"Oh, right. You've seen numbers with a +something in parentheses appear next to them when you equip something, haven't you?"

"That? They started showing up when I put on the necklace and ring."

"That happens when you equip weapons, armor, or accessories. Just be careful, because your stats will drop when you take the equipment off."

"Yep..."

Was that why my stats had gone up and down when I put on and took off the boots?

-Classes-

"...Warrior, mage, archer, thief, martial artist, alchemist, blacksmith... Why are there so many?"

There were all kinds of things in the list.

"For your information, you can change classes, too."

"Change classes?"

"It means you can advance to a higher-tier class."

Apparently, many people changed classes naturally as they climbed the Tower, but some classes required meeting specific conditions first.

Then what were special classes?

"Hmm... Think of them as classes connected to Constellations."

"So, like the being I talked to before?"

"Well... They're much stronger than ordinary classes, but they come with side effects. Men turn into women, women turn into men, or even their entire species changes. Some, like orcs, change in ways that make their appearance easy to recognize, while others, like me and So-jeong, keep a human form. Well... I was a bit taken aback to learn that futanari exist, too."

"Futanari?"

"Uh... Someone whose body is basically female, but who has male genitalia down there?"

"What is that? That's weird."

"Don't think of it like that. There are even classes that have to lay unfertilized eggs at regular intervals."

Unfertilized eggs? Wasn't that what you called eggs that didn't hatch into chicks?

I'd heard fertilized eggs tasted better than unfertilized ones.

Wait a second...

"How do you know people can lay unfertilized eggs?"

"Changing species can give you weaknesses that cause you trouble, but you'll naturally overcome them as you climb the Tower."

"No, I mean, what are you talking about with unfertilized eggs—"

"Let's move on."

"Hey, wait."

I asked her several times, but Unni Mi-reu didn't seem inclined to tell me.

-Guilds-

"Ah... I've seen those on broadcasts sometimes."

"You don't have to think too hard about them. Just think of them as a kind of gathering for Awakened people."

I thought there were a few of those, but I hadn't bothered to pay attention since I didn't remember their names.

"They have different goals, but that's not the only reason guilds came into being."

...So clearing the Tower wasn't their only purpose?

"Still, you have to be careful when you meet them. Some of them behave properly, but there are also people who bully those weaker than themselves."

At that, I thought of the Awakened party I'd met by the Han River the other day.

-Management Bureau-

"This is where you work as the director, Unni."

"And I have to deal with a flood of paperwork..."

"Want me to help?"

"Don't worry! There are plenty of smart people here, so it's manageable for now."

An organization that controls and manages Awakened people. It operates with the government's support, exists in every country, and is led by someone with a certain level of strength.

Maybe that's why most Bureau directors are special-class Awakened, and people even call it the 'Special-Class Social Club.'

Still, apparently no special-class Awakened who had served as director had ever harbored evil intentions.

-Special Classes-

These are classes that can never be obtained through ordinary means, or people whose entire species has changed.

They have more advantages than ordinary classes, but those whose species has changed also inherit that species' weaknesses, so they have to overcome those as they climb the Tower.

There can be more than one Awakened person with the same special class.

-Constellations-

Beings connected to special classes. They're nicknamed 'the higher-ups.'

Once you've climbed the Tower to a certain point, you can receive messages and equipment they send. When you become a high-ranking climber, you can communicate with them, and after that, you can even meet them in person.

They have to go through all these troublesome steps because they're subject to various restrictions.

"......Are special classes chosen directly by the Constellations?"

"No?"

"...? Then..."

"To be precise... the 'Will of the Tower' reads the aptitude etched into your soul and assigns it directly."

"The Will of the Tower?"

-Jumyeolhoe-

It was originally formed so that people harmed by the Tower incident would have somewhere to vent their pent-up anger.

At first, it was driven by the idea that 'the Tower, the cause of everything, must be destroyed,' but that wasn't enough, and eventually they had to recruit Awakened people, too.

Then they sank so low that they started recruiting even Awakened people with criminal backgrounds. Apparently, they'd completely lost sight of their original purpose, and now only evildoers who carry out terrorist attacks around the world remained.

"These days, they kill more people than monsters do."

"So that's why so many people hated them when you talked about them on the broadcast."

"Anyway, they pop up everywhere like cockroaches, and even high-ranking Awakened show up. They're such a pain~"

-Tower-

Towering buildings that suddenly appeared in every country.

There are Towers with 30, 50, 70, or 100 floors. The more floors a Tower has, the greater its rewards, but the difficulty increases, too. Even if the first floors aren't hard, the difficulty ramp varies from Tower to Tower, so you need to brace yourself before tackling a 100-floor Tower.

If a Tower collapses, monsters pour out. Many countries have suffered damage on a national scale because of this.

With resources that can only be obtained from Towers and all the resources available from 'Gates,' society is gradually recovering and developing.

And there are separate 'Day Towers' and 'Night Towers.'

"What does that mean?"

"I'll tell you once you've cleared a Tower with at least 70 floors~"

"Why...?"

-Gates-

"I've never heard of those before."

"They only appear in places where a certain number of Towers have collapsed, or in places that have been completely destroyed."

If enough Towers collapsed, or an entire country was destroyed, a Gate would appear somewhere.

Usually, they appeared where the Towers had stood, but sometimes they appeared in a country's airspace or territorial waters, too.

If the number of monsters inside a Gate wasn't reduced or its core wasn't destroyed within a certain amount of time, there was a risk that monsters would pour out from inside it.

"Just having monsters pour out of Towers wouldn't be enough to drive plants, animals, or fish to extinction. But if Gates get involved, that's another matter."

"Then..."

"That black whale monster we saw before came through a Gate that appeared in the sea."

Towers themselves only stood on land, so unless they were beast-type or flying-type monsters, aquatic ones would take a long time to reach somewhere with water.

The monster that lived in the Han River had also wandered around for a long time after its Tower fell, attacking people and monsters, before settling in the river.

That was partly because the monster was amphibious.

"Well... At some point, a lot of Awakened people gave up climbing and started going in and out of Gates instead. If they're lucky, there's plenty of valuable stuff inside, so they can make a lot of money."

"Then do I have to go to a Gate, too?"

"Don't worry. All the Gates in South Korea are closed right now. The Gates in North Korea are the problem, though. After you take this equivalency exam, I'll have to lead the guilds on an expedition before long."

"...When will you be back?"

"It's an expedition, and we have to gather resources, too, so it'll take at least a month, even if everything goes as quickly as possible."

"A month..."

...That meant I wouldn't be able to see Unni Mi-reu for at least a month.

"Still, any Awakened person with a record of clearing a Tower with at least 50 floors can take part in the North Korean Gate raids, so don't worry!"

"...Okay."