Chapter 5
The moment I reached out, both skill books were engulfed in a swirl of light.
Flash!
[You have acquired a skill.]
An alert window appeared, and the skill books crumbled into dust and scattered.
"...Is that it?"
It didn't seem like anything had changed.
I looked myself over from head to toe. Nothing was different. I still had the body of a short, squat little girl.
There was no dramatic change, like my whole body being engulfed in light or flames suddenly sparking at my fingertips.
The underwhelming process of learning the skills left me feeling deflated.
"What exactly changed?"
I couldn't feel anything in particular.
It kind of felt like some inexplicable power was welling up inside me. But I'd been overflowing with energy ever since I got this body.
"Status window."
When in doubt, checking the status window was always the quickest way to find out.
[Lee Jian]
[Level] 2
[Class] Heavenly Demon (天魔)
[Traits] Heavenly Demon (天魔), Nine Yin Severed Meridians (九陰絕脈)
[Skills] Lion's Roar (獅子吼), Samadhi True Fire (三昧眞火)
"...What is this?"
Lion's Roar? What the hell is Lion's Roar?
Lion, WHO? Who's this lion, anyway?
'What the hell is this supposed to mean?'
No, to begin with, what do these two words even have to do with each other?
Even if I give it the benefit of the doubt and accept Lion's Roar, what the hell is Samadhi True Fire?
The only four-syllable word I know that starts with 'sam' is ramen with the ham flavor missing.
In the first place...
"Ugh, I can't read hanja."
While everyone else was studying for their Level 6 or Level 5 hanja exams in elementary school, I just sat there breathing. That was me.
Could I really read hanja now, just because someone was shoving it in my face?
Why is this damn status window plastered with hanja? It's not like it's just for Chinese people.
I saw on Reels that even Chinese people these days can only read simplified characters and can't write them.
'I should've read some wuxia when I had the chance.'
These were all words I'd never seen before, so I had no idea what they meant.
"I should look it up."
Sa, ja, hu...
I carefully typed each syllable, one at a time.
Searching in hanja would probably give me more accurate results, but black marks and white space were all I could see, so I'd given up on copying them down a long time ago.
Unless I could copy and paste the text from the status window, anyway.
"Lion's Roar."
According to TreeWiki, it's a Buddhist term meaning a lion's roar. Just as all the beasts submit to a lion's roar, the Buddha's teachings subdue demons...
'Hmm.'
Even after reading it, I still didn't get it. I couldn't understand why the Buddha had suddenly come up.
"So basically, it's like a holy shout or something."
The Buddha's teachings—in other words, holy power.
"It's a cleric skill."
If I looked at it that way, I'd gotten a pretty useful skill.
If there was one thing a mage, whose firepower was second to none, was uniquely lacking in, it was resistance to the undead.
Undead: monsters returned from the dead.
Among the undead were evil spirits, represented by Specters.
Those things were incorporeal ghosts, so they ignored ordinary magic and physical attacks completely. Only attacks made with silver or a cleric's blessing could affect them.
They were the natural enemy of mages.
'I heard the vanguard team got wiped out in a minute when a horde of those evil spirits showed up on the tenth floor.'
The incident, in which the elite vanguard team the U.S. had painstakingly trained got torn to pieces without putting up a fight, sent shock waves around the world.
Fortunately, the world wasn't full of idiots. They noticed that parties with clerics lasted noticeably longer...
And thanks to figuring out that a cleric was essential for clearing the tenth floor, Super managed to beat it.
If they hadn't found the strategy in time, even Super wouldn't have come away with a whole bone.
‘When I think about it that way, even if I don't know how to use it yet, this is a pretty reassuring skill.‘
I wanted to try it out right away, but I held back.
According to TreeWiki, it was a skill that made an incredibly loud noise. It was a very bad choice for this old, poorly soundproofed guesthouse.
The moment I shouted, I'd have to deal with my neighbor angrily pounding on the wall.
'Next up, Samadhi True Fire.'
This one didn't need much explaining.
Since Lion's Roar had turned out to be a jackpot beyond my expectations, I'd secretly hoped Samadhi True Fire would be good, too.
"A skill that uses qi to start a fire? Why would I need something like that?"
My hopes were cruelly betrayed.
A skill that uses qi—in other words, mana—to start a fire. It didn't seem all that meaningful.
"This one's a dud."
Well, if one was a jackpot, the other was bound to be a dud. Still, not a bad haul.
"All right, then."
Now that I'd checked out the skills, it was time to get back to my main business.
[Title: I Rebuke You!]
[Posted by: Cheon,Ma]
Guys, guys, I got Lion's Roar as a skill. Is this any good?
[Comments]
Roombound Archmage: Damn, I jump every time I see this bastard's username.
Warrior Main: Change your damn username already.
ㄴ Cheon,Ma: No.
ㄴ Warrior Main: If you don't want to change it, then don't come back!
"Why are these guys making such a fuss over my username?"
I can name myself whatever I want. It's not like I promised them anything.
I casually ignored their unsolicited advice and turned to the next comment.
Loves Magic: Lion's Roar? That's not magic.
ㄴ Cheon,Ma: It's the Buddha's teachings, apparently.
ㄴ Loves Magic: How'd you learn that?
ㄴ Cheon,Ma: ? I learned it using a skill book.
ㄴ Loves Magic: No, I mean, how'd you learn Lion's Roar as a mage;; Are you a melee monkey or something?
"You bastard."
How could he say something so awful?
It was true I'd smashed apart the first floor with my fists after turning into this body...
But the first thing I used was magic!
Cheon,Ma: Take that back, what you just said...!
ㄴ Loves Magic: I'm asking how you learned it;; Are you actually a melee monkey?
ㄴ Warrior Main: Maybe he's a hybrid type like me.
ㄴ Loves Magic: Real melee monkeys can stay out of it; and how is that hybrid? It's just a mishmash.
ㄴ Warrior Main: Hey, you bastard.
Hybrid.
Magic swordsmen, magic gunners, magic spearmen, and so on.
It's a term for Awakened who handle both magic and close-combat disciplines.
'Of course, in reality, it's usually just a mage running around with a weapon.'
Awakened with traits specialized for hybrid combat were extremely rare.
Most were just mages who'd learned a few close-combat techniques superficially, supposedly for self-defense.
Cheon,Ma: I just used a skill book, and it gave it to me.
ㄴ Loves Magic: Judging by your reaction, I guess you're actually a hybrid.
ㄴ Warrior Main: Welcome, comrade. And why don't you become a hybrid, too?
ㄴ Loves Magic: You can go away.
"Why are they reacting like that?"
What's so strange about getting a close-combat skill from a skill book?
Weren't skill books gambling items that gave you a random skill?
Puzzled, I immediately replied to the comment.
Loves Magic: No, that's not how it works. Skill books only give you skills from your own discipline. Otherwise, you could get a cleric skill as a black mage, which would be a disaster. The system has to prevent that.
ㄴ Cheon,Ma: Why can't that happen?
ㄴ Loves Magic: It'd be a waste if you couldn't use a skill you went through all that trouble to get;;
ㄴ Cheon,Ma: (Can't you just not use it? emote)
ㄴ Loves Magic: You can go away, too.
"Oh."
So mages only get magic skills when they open skill books.
That's to prevent the disaster of their skills and traits clashing.
"If that's the case..."
That meant my trait, Heavenly Demon (天魔), was a hybrid class officially recognized by the system.
One that could handle everything from close combat to magic.
"It's either a huge jackpot or a total flop."
These types were usually slow starters with great potential.
At first, your growth was slower because you had twice as many skills to learn as everyone else. But if you raised one all the way, its potential would explode.
A versatile Awakened who could handle both close and long range alone. That was a hybrid.
"In a way, Super seems similar."
Super, the most famous Awakened, was also versatile enough to handle both long-range and close combat.
Though, if I had to say, Super leaned a bit more toward close combat.
"Ahem. This is great."
I'd cleared the first floor on Nightmare faster than Super, so couldn't I already be considered a finished product?
Of course, getting overconfident in the Tower was a shortcut to death. But who could complain if I enjoyed being smug and basking in my own glory, all alone in my room?
"Oh, right."
As I was basking in my own strength, one thing suddenly struck me as odd.
"Why have these guys been making such a fuss over my username this whole time?"
An Awakened's life was as fragile as a fly's. You never knew when you might die.
That's why most Awakened communities were pretty tolerant about people mentioning each other's usernames.
So that if someone who'd always been chatting away on the gallery suddenly disappeared, everyone could realize right away, 'Ah, that guy's gone.'
Wizard Gallery was no different.
So whether I called myself 'Heavenly Demon' or 'Grandma Kim Bok-ja, 86, Last Dance,' no one had ever cared until now.
"They're giving me a lot more grief than usual today."
There had to be a reason.
"Let's see what happened while this one's been away."
I quickly scrolled back through the gallery, starting to browse the posts from the time I'd been gone.
[Title: ?? What is this?]
[Title: SSS rank lol That's insane]
[Title: And that username, of all things lol]
[Title: But why'd they have to use Heavenly Demon for a username? It overlaps with that guy's and makes things confusing]
No matter how far I scrolled, I couldn't see the end. Dozens of pages were plastered with the name Heavenly Demon.
"Huh."
This much? Maybe I'd become a lot more famous than I expected.