Chapter 3
Great mages were all trying to recruit me to learn their magic.
What kind of magic should I learn?
Fire magic, with its impressive firepower?
Or water magic, which would keep me hydrated and be useful around the house?
Earth magic had a solid feel to it, too.
Nature magic, which seemed like it would smell of phytoncides.
Even the elves' wind magic didn't sound too bad.
‘What should I pick?’
There were five options.
Wasn't that a little too cruel?
Part of me wanted to go to the head mod and say, ‘I'll take the default,’ then leave.
If I did that, I'd probably get roasted by something like a Fire Breath.
‘Ah, forget it!’
[Air magic it is1!!]
[Author: Hikki]
I'm going to become an air conditioner!
└Illegal: LMAOOOOOOOOO
└Water Spirit: The elves are here!
└Elfprpr: ????
└DisqualifiedElf: Are you serious, damn human?
└DisqualifiedElf: Just so we're clear, we have no intention of teaching you.
└DisqualifiedElf: Teach yourself or do whatever. Figure it out.
└OuchCold: Wait, why air magic of all things?
└Hikki: I was lying.
└Hikki: I don't plan on picking any of you, either. Screw off, screw off.
I should know when to stop. Seriously.
Even though I'm a people-averse, human-hating human.
It still feels bad when you're standing right there calling me a damn human.
I can be the one to insult humans.
Anyway.
└Hikki: Can't I just learn all of them….
└Iron Beard: Kahaha! What spirit, newbie! Of course, there's no reason you can't!
└Iron Beard: You have innate talent, after all!
└BestDryad: You'd have to learn five times as much as everyone else. You sure you're okay with that?
└SuitonSuiton: But we'd need the head mod's approval for that.
Multiple-element magic was supposed to have serious side effects.
I could end up unable to use magic ever again.
Because the magic circuits would get damaged.
So it seemed like I needed guidance and supervision from an authority figure.
└Nyeomnyong: I am concerned. Even if you're fine now, we don't know when side effects might appear.
└Nyeomnyong: I'll ask again. Did you really feel no discomfort at all?
└Hikki: Uh…. It was just like when I drew out mana or made a Fireball.
└Nyeomnyong: Hmm…. All right. For now, try learning several kinds of magic.
└Nyeomnyong: But stop immediately if you feel even the slightest bit off.
Oh, that's amazing.
I got Nyeomnyong's approval more easily than I expected.
Maybe it was because the head mod had given the okay.
Things started to fall into place quickly.
└AngryArtist: Then fire magic gets the first week. Nobody has a problem with that, right?
└SuitonSuiton: Tsk, tsk.
└AngryArtist: What the hell is your problem?
└SuitonSuiton: I'm worried you ignorant fire mages will mess the kid up.
└AngryArtist: You think you're a better teacher than Ice Bat?
└HorsesAreForRiding: No, my newbie's going to be corrupted by water and fire, for fuck's sake.
└Iron Beard: Hoho, I am worried the previous mages might teach you some bad habits!
We decided to rotate the lessons each week, learning a different kind of magic each time.
The first week was fire magic.
Some mages whose turns had been pushed back grumbled, but.
This seemed like a peaceful enough compromise.
└That'sActuallyTrue: Could we teach them illusion magic, too?
└TitanWithSturdyTeeth: Me too. Gravity magic. I'll teach it.
└Woofwoof: The summoning, taming, and transformation magic boom is coming….
└Hikki: Ha, I do want to try learning those kinds of magic, too.
└Nyeomnyong: Don't get greedy. The curriculum is already demanding.
└Nyeomnyong: Learn non-elemental magic later, when you have more time.
Now that I was actually going to learn magic properly.
I was getting more and more excited.
I wanted to learn this, and that, too.
It felt like I was at an all-you-can-eat buffet!
Not that I had any idea what that felt like.
The lessons started right away.
└GoodAtHousework: Ah! But could we finish my lessons first?
That was after GoodAtHousework's lessons on basic theory were over.
A few days of fundamentals training came to an end.
And the real, real elemental magic lessons began.
└AngryArtist: All right, focus. Don't sit there sleeping—get up, you little shits.
└Illegal: An 8th-tier nobody gets to play teacher?
└AngryArtist: I'm 9th tier, damn it.
└Illegal: What's the difference between 8th and 9th tier?
AngryArtist was chosen as my fire magic teacher.
Their tier seemed lower than that of the other gallery members, but.
They were more used to combat.
That pillar of fire I'd seen before had been brutal.
└AngryArtist: Obviously, there won't be any pillars of fire in this lesson.
└Hikki: Aww.
└AngryArtist: Fireball.
└AngryArtist: For the first week, we'll focus entirely on Fireball.
Fireball? I already knew how to use that.
I conjured a sphere on the spot.
This much was easy!
└Hikki: Done!
└AngryArtist: No! That's not a Fireball!
The teacher firmly denied that my Fireball was a Fireball.
Why?
└AngryArtist: Unless you can make it reach a target and explode there!
└AngryArtist: You can't call it a Fireball.
That's strict.
└AngryArtist: You're probably used to conjuring a sphere by now.
└AngryArtist: So the goal is to make it fly in the direction you want.
└AngryArtist: To do that, you have to keep the mana connected between you and the Fireball, right?
GoodAtHousework had given me a foundation in magic, but.
That had only covered theory and mana control.
This time, I needed to build a foundation in combat.
└AngryArtist: Forward and back. Up and down. Straight or in an arc. You need to be able to control this thing however you want.
└AngryArtist: Give it a try and report back.
Hmm.
First, I conjured a will-o'-the-wisp.
Just as I tried to send it straight ahead.
“Huh.”
It stopped.
Wouldn't I wreck the house?
“I can't….”
My precious little studio apartment.
I couldn't even imagine how much it would cost to repair if I slammed a Fireball into it.
I'd have to find the landlady and beg her profusely, too.
A chill ran through me-!
Just imagining it…. Ugh, I really hated that.
An indescribable sense of aversion welled up inside me.
‘Let's make sure that never happens.’
Swish, swish-
I dispersed the mana and extinguished the will-o'-the-wisp.
Flicker-
I sparked a flame the size of a candle flame.
There was no way something this tiny could cause an accident, even if I tried.
At worst, it might scorch the wallpaper a little.
“Hyah!”
Peww-!
I made a tiny flame.
I sent it flying all around the house.
Then stopped it just before it hit the wallpaper.
I repeated this over and over.
I practiced for several days.
And as the first week's lessons were almost over.
Ding-
Ding-
Ding-
An alarm suddenly rang.
My status window was going wild.
What? What was going on?
“Status Window!”
Flash-
[Warning]
[You have not climbed the Tower.]
[If you do not climb within ten days, your Awakening will be automatically revoked.]
[Time remaining until your Awakening is revoked: 24:00:00.]
Oh, right!
I'd gotten so caught up studying magic that I'd forgotten about it.
Awakened people had to climb at least once within ten days.
If I wanted to keep my qualifications, I had to climb at least one floor.
‘Nine days have already passed.’
I explained the situation to the Archmage Gallery.
└BestDryad: You're going into the field sooner than I expected, huh?
└AngryArtist: You confident, newbie?
└Hikki: Of course!
└AngryArtist: Go wreck them all. Fireball explodes, so all you have to do is hit them with it.
└Ice Bat: Don't get hurt or it'll interfere with next week's lessons. Got it?
└GoodAtHousework: Do well, my disciple! I'm sure you'll be great at fighting, too!
The Great Wizards cheered me on with all their might.
I returned their greetings from the corner of my room.
└Hikki: Watch over me!
If this had happened on the first day of my Awakening, I would've been trembling all over.
But now, I was full of confidence.
I was a talent recognized by the head mod, and a disciple adored by Great Wizards!
You can't stop me.
I boldly shouted.
“Enter!”
[Entering Floor 1 of the Tower.]
The shabby corner of my room changed in an instant.
I found myself in a forest.
Inside a translucent protective barrier.
Flash-
The status window appeared automatically.
[The tutorial will continue through Floor 5.]
[After Floor 5, the final entry difficulty will be determined based on the Awakened person's average abilities.]
The tutorial stage could only be entered by first-time climbers.
Your performance here affected the difficulty you were assigned.
Some Awakened people held back to get assigned an easier difficulty, but.
‘Didn't some of them end up dying because of that?’
The tutorial wasn't exactly a walk in the park.
Even giving it your all, it was hard to clear.
[Floor 1 Objective: Defeat 5 Goblins.]
Five goblins right from the very first fight.
I had to fight living monsters to the death.
I had to drive a knife into a beating heart, but.
How was an ordinary person who'd just Awakened supposed to do that?
Even preparing a fish was too much for most people.
‘Thank goodness I'm a mage.’
What if I'd Awakened as a swordsman or spearman?
Ugh, that was almost as terrifying as apologizing to my landlady.
I probably would've given up, gallery and all.
Thank goodness I'm a mage.
[Combat will begin in 5 seconds.]
[5.]
.
.
.
[2.]
[1.]
The protective barrier disappeared.
“Kereuk, kereuk!”
I could see the goblins over there.
They were all bunched together nicely for a Fireball.
I focused.
I flowed mana into my heart.
After heating it enough, I moved it to my finger.
Fwoosh-
A Fireball flared at my fingertip.
I aimed, then set its trajectory.
“Launch!”
Whoooosh─!
The Fireball streaked straight ahead!
But.
Whoooooosh….
“Huh?!”
The flames died out around the halfway point.
“What the hell!”
Even if I'd practiced in the corner of my studio apartment, still.
I hadn't expected its range to be so short…!
I should've started with a more modest shot!
“Kereuk?!”
“Kekekereuk!”
“Kyarrr! Kyar-kya!”
I'm screwed!
The goblins had figured out where I was.
Pat-a-pat-pat-!
Flash-!
The goblins came charging toward me!
This was really bad.
I had to cast another spell, and fast.
‘Will I have enough time?’
No!
What if I don't have enough time?
Hurry, hurry!
Draw mana from my solar plexus.
Flow it to my heart.
Heat it up.
Then send it outside.
I had to use less mana to shorten the time it took to prepare.
Fwoosh!
It was smaller than before. About the size of a will-o'-the-wisp.
I had to hope this would be enough.
“Kereleuk!”
All five were coming together.
At least that was lucky.
I set the trajectory again.
And focused more on maintaining the mana.
“Kekel!”
“Die!”
Whoosh─!
Boom-boom─!!
“I hit them!”
This time, it landed!
“Oh….”
The explosion was far more intense than I'd expected.
‘A Fireball I'd only been learning for a week was this powerful.’
A little later, the smoke cleared.
Goblins were sprawled all around.
Fwoosh-
I finished them off with a small Fireball, then approached.
There was even a little crater where the explosion had hit.
‘It would've been a disaster if I'd fired that at home.’
Once the tension eased, a silly thought came to me.
And then.
“Huuuh….”
I felt a little dizzy.
I sat down on the ground. Had I used too much mana?
That would make sense.
I'd been using mana to practice right up until I entered the Tower.
And I'd fired several large Fireballs here, too.
Just as I finally got my dizziness under control, a system notification appeared.
[Floor 1 Cleared.]
[1 Piece of Growth has been awarded.]
[Enter a nickname to register your first clear.]
I should keep my nickname consistent.
Hikki.
[Score calculation complete.]
.
.
.
[Floor 1]
[You have reached No. 1 in the Korean Hunter Rankings.]
[You have reached No. 1 in the Global Hunter Rankings.]
Wow! First place?!
I hadn't expected to take first place in the global rankings, too.
That was better than I'd hoped.
Then an additional message appeared.
[Hikki]
[3945 points]
[SSS Rank]
[First SSS-rank clear of Floor 1!]
[Bonus rewards will be issued.]
[1 additional Piece of Growth has been awarded.]
[Pieces of Growth held: 2]
[Would you like to use them?]
Pieces of Growth.
Just as the name suggested, they helped Hunters grow.
Use one to raise one of your stats by a point, or.
Collect five and exchange them for a skill.
‘This was where mages really got screwed.’
I remembered a popular post I'd seen in the Hunter Gallery.
[If you're a mage, always use your first 5 Pieces of Growth to get a skill]
You can get through the tutorial by killing things with a sword somehow, but.
There's no future in that.
The difficulty shoots way up after the tutorial. Are you going to keep swinging a sword then, too?
You absolutely need to get at least one attack skill.
└???: Melee fighters seem to get by with their unique traits and raw stats.
└└Then put your points into stats and die on Floor 6, too.
A frail body.
No starting skill.
Because of those two things, mages were at a major disadvantage when it came to their overall combat strength.
That disadvantage snowballed the higher they climbed, but.
That didn't mean I could afford to die.
Trading the first five Pieces of Growth for a skill had become the standard mage build.
‘Should I follow that, too?’
Absolutely not.
I had no intention of doing that at all.
I was learning skills directly from Great Wizards!
Mana control and combat skills.
I was sure they'd all be better than what the Tower could give me.
I manipulated the status window.
“Use 2 Pieces of Growth.”
Naturally, I put them all into Magic Power.
[Strength: 5]
[Agility: 4]
[Magic Power: 9→11] UP!
All that for just five goblins.
My Magic Power had increased by more than 20%.