Chapter 17

A constellation was an absolute being that represented a star. They were considered divine entities on Battle Net.

'Not much was even known about them during my previous life.'

After the Battle Net Tutorial Season ended, a constellation column was added to the players' status windows, but practically no players actually received support from a constellation.

In the end, only those with exceptional abilities who were at least in the Diamond League were chosen by constellations.

'People from Earth couldn't receive sponsorship for a simple reason…'

In 2020, after the Battle Net's Tutorial Season ended, Earth participated in the Space League, and the results the Earthlings achieved there were disastrous.

'They must have thought it was a star destined to be demoted and then doomed.'

Even if someone got support from a constellation, they usually weren't the good ones.

The abilities granted by constellations often came with penalties, so many people suffered greatly from pranks played by the constellations. In the end, support from a constellation was a double-edged sword in every sense, but JiHan was ready to handle one.

The more support he received from a constellation, the better it would be for him.

'There's a constellation I have in mind… but I'll surely be able to buy more slots in the Achievement Shop.'

Considering the items he'd seen in the Achievement Shop at that point, the probability of something like that being present was high.

If that was the case…

Then it was worth aiming for the Shadow Queen's interest.

'However, the conditions are hard.'

The problem was the sheer number of spectators in the Colosseum. It was big, so the majority of spectators were seated sparsely, but there were definitely more than a thousand beings present.

JiHan looked at the elves sitting in the audience.

'The black elves were servants of the white elves.'

The hierarchical relationship was clear on the surface, but the constellation was called 'Shadow Queen', so he imagined there might be a queen hiding among the black elves.

'How do I provoke the elves in the audience?'

There was a powerful barrier at the border of the arena, and breaking through it and provoking the elves in the audience was impossible with the strength of a Bronze.

That restriction also applied to JiHan, who had Martial Power.

"Hmm." JiHan had logged out and returned home, falling into deep thought when…

"Uncle! Congrats on setting a new record!"

His niece, Sae-ah, came out of her room and congratulated him.

"A new record?"

"10 kills in a survival match! It was amazing!" Sae-ah jumped excitedly as if it were her own accomplishment.

"Ah, so you were watching."

"Of course! There were a lot of people. I thought there wouldn't be anyone else, so I wanted to be first, but there were already about a thousand people."

"Really? That's more than I thought."

"Right? The viewers kept increasing. At one point, it was beyond three thousand!"

Three thousand people in a Bronze's stream…

Considering that the average viewership of a Gold player was about two thousand, Yoon Sae-ah making a huge deal out of it was understandable, but JiHan remained calm.

After all, that number was nothing compared to his previous life.

"There were people who wanted to donate GP but couldn't since you completely blocked donations."

"Really?"

He must have changed the broadcast settings out of old habits.

He had a lot of GP in his past life, so he'd turned it off to stop donation messages from popping up during battles.

'But the situation is different now.'

All GP mattered, and he probably wouldn't lose a fight over a few messages popping up in a lower League.

"I need to change the settings."

"Yeah, but we need to ensure donations below ten thousand don't pop up. After all, there's a chance they could distract you. Ah, maybe ten thousand is too low? Or is it too much?" Sae-ah fell into thought.

She'd grown up as the Sword King's daughter and lived without worrying about money, so she only had a vague concept of it.

"10,000 GP… Alright. I'm still Bronze, so it can't be helped." JiHan had a reasonable grasp of money but a skewed sense of other standards.

'To think they'd be able to post donation messages with only 10,000 GP… That's too cheap.'

He knew he was still in Bronze at the moment, but he hadn't let go of the standards from when he was the world's 7th.

"Too many messages can be distracting."

"Then… How about 50,000?"

"No. We're just starting out, so we should be humble."

The uncle and niece were worrying about things they didn't need to worry about.

Sae-ah watched JiHan change his Battle Net channel's settings when she realized something and asked him a question. "Uncle, what were you thinking about earlier?"

"I received a quest that asked me to find a Shadow Queen among the seated elves."

"A quest? Are there things like that in Battle Net?"

"I got it after achieving 10 kills," JiHan naturally replied to his niece's question.

There were still many things that weren't known about Battle Net, so Sae-ah accepted his explanation.

"Hmm~ The Shadow Queen."

"There seemed to be about a thousand elves seated, so I was wondering how to find her."

"Uncle, should I help you? After all, I don't have anything else to do."

"What about school?"

"My homeroom teacher called me and said I could take a week off due to the recent events."

Her dad, Sword King Yoon Sae-jin, going to Japan had shaken up the entire country, so it seemed like her teacher was being considerate of her.

"That would be great."

Rather than being at home doing nothing, it might be better for her to have something to do.

Not expecting much, JiHan accepted his niece's proposal.

"Good. Uncle, if I find the Shadow Queen, listen to one of my requests."

"A request? What is it? I'll grant it to you right away."

"No way. There's no sense of achievement if you do that. Grant it when I find her!"

JiHan wondered what she was planning to ask, but he simply nodded. "Alright. I'll grant you whatever wish you have if you find the Shadow Queen."

"Great. I'll start looking right away!" That being said, she ran back to her room.

'It's good to see her with high spirits.' JiHan chuckled at her energy and returned to his room.

He put off the epic quest, which wasn't something that could easily be solved, for the moment. There was something else he had to do first.

'As for the unique stat…'

He thought of Baron, the former rank 1's unique stat.

He needed to get 'Force'.

The next day…

[You've absorbed Divine Energy from the relic of another world.]

[Your Divine Power has increased to 10.]

[From now on, you can only absorb Divine Power from relics that are C-rank or higher.]

JiHan got up from the pile of relics as a message saying that he could only absorb Divine Power from C-rank relics onward appeared, but it didn't matter because he'd reached a true Divine Power value of 10.

He went to the training room on the penthouse's outskirts; it was the place where Sword King Yoon Sae-jin tested his sword techniques, so the room was made of a special metal that absorbed shocks.

"Fire."

JiHan had never used the basic magic 'Fire' after picking the Mage class, but he used it in real life first instead of in the game.

A small fire, similar to a candle's, rose from the center of his palm.

It was a precarious fire that seemed like it'd flicker out at any moment.

'As expected, I'm not suited to be a Mage.'

His Magic Power was five, and you could only use half of your abilities in real life, so the output of the basic magic was less than that of a lighter.

'Now to add Divine Power to this…'

JiHan recalled Baron's words.

- A certain thought suddenly crossed my mind while I was in Bronze killing zombies: what would happen if I mixed Divine Power with Magic Power?

- That was only possible because it was you.

You could obtain Divine Power by picking the Support class, but Magic Power was something you could use if you were a Mage.

The idea of combining the two was something anyone could think of, but only Baron could turn that thought into reality, and it was thanks to His gift of 'Two Status Windows'.

- Yes. My marvelous Gift 'Two Status Windows' helped me realize the idea. I was victorious in every defense map, and I began distributing my stats equally into Divine Power and Magic Power…

Baron's eyes shone brightly as he spoke, even though he was drunk.

- And the moment my Divine Power reached 10! Oh, my God, I got a new unique stat! Yes… my, 'Baron's', trademark 'Force'!

Force was a unique stat that appeared by combining Magic Power and Divine Power, and it had an absolute power that could dominate 'space'.

Even thinking about it after his regression, Baron's Force was truly impressive.

'If Baron had good control, he might have been able to show something worthy of #1.'

Unfortunately, he was terrible at that.

To make things worse, he easily panicked in emergencies and failed to control his power, which caused harm to his allies.

'Force… Baron, let me show you what I can do with it.'

Force harbored countless possibilities, and JiHan planned to use it along with his Martial Power.

'This isn't easy…'

However, 'Force' didn't come easily to JiHan.

He was using Magic Power mixed with Divine Power as Baron said.

'It doesn't mix well.'

He was good at using Divine Power, but his Magic Power control was clumsy, so the fire kept disappearing whenever he tried to add Divine Power to it, but even when he succeeded, the fire didn't last long and went out—JiHan couldn't maintain the magic.

"Hmm. Should I increase my Magic Power?"

His Magic Power was five, and it seemed like it wasn't properly manifesting since it was the lowest value possible.

He could increase it since his level had increased by two thanks to the game the day before.

'Let's keep trying.'

He could use the unused points when he obtained Force, so he didn't want to use the precious unused stats on Magic Power.

'I won't game today.'

Determined, JiHan kept training.

* * *

"Haa…"

From morning till night, JiHan kept trying to merge Divine Power and Magic Power, but he didn't succeed.

'But there was an unexpected result.'

His Magic Power stat was too low, so he quickly used the Magic Power in his heart and couldn't practice anymore.

- Should I try with Ki?

While waiting for his Magic Power to recover, JiHan fell into thought while drawing Ki from his lower elixir field.

It wasn't something that a Bronze could do, but thanks to JiHan's experience, there were some results—he'd raised Ki from the lower elixir field and changed it to Magic Power in his heart.

'I've lost a lot of Ki, but…'

What mattered at the moment was using Magic Power.

JiHan replenished his Magic Power and kept trying.

"Fire."

He just had to mix in some Divine Power so it wouldn't disperse.

As Divine Power entered it, the fire began shaking again.

'Let's add more Ki one more time.'

He was almost out of Ki, so JiHan decided to explore other methods if he failed again and drew energy from his dantian.

That's how the Ki from the lower elixir field and the Magic Power from his heart mixed with the Divine Power of his head within the fire.

Then…

[You've momentarily combined the energies of the three elixir fields.]

[Divine Power is in the upper elixir field, Magic Power is in the middle elixir field, and Ki is in the lower elixir field. These are three different types of power, but they have the potential to be combined into one.]

An unexpected system message popped up.

[Will you try to combine the three elixir fields?]

[Warning: The player's level is too low, and attempting it could be life-threatening.]

He'd never gotten a warning message during Battle Net's Tutorial phase before.

A smile crept onto JiHan's lips. If it was dangerous enough for a warning message to appear…

'The reward is going to be huge.'

Then, in a firm voice, he said…

"Combine the three elixir fields."