Chapter 2: Obtaining the Power (2)     

-Tak!

My teacher's pool cue whacks my head .

At that moment, I regain consciousness .

"Hey Min-Cheol, just because Jae-Hyuk is sleeping, you're sleeping too?"

"Sorry . . . "

"You want to get into university, right? Pay attention . "

With my mind still hazy, I try to analyze what happened . It seems that this bastard Hwang Jae-Hyuk, even when he knew I fainted, didn't take me to the hospital . . . Not even the infirmary! I think he just left me lying down like I was sleeping .

Whether to hit him to death, or to hammer him to death, or to use a fingernail clipper to shred him to death . . .

While I'm thinking about such impossible things, I put my hand into my pocket to ensure that my 1000 Won notes were still ok .

Thankfully the money is still there .

I feel embarrassed, submissive and angry . This situation is so disgusting that I could throw up .

Over these two fucking pieces of paper . . . Why, to a guy like me who has no abilities . . .

Eh? What's this?

In the upper-right corner of my vision, I can see a small icon like a smartphone application notification .

'Did I hit my eyes hard with a handphone?' As I wonder this, a hologram-like status bar appears in front of the teacher, who is currently busy teaching .

Kim-Min-Cheol

Level: 1

Exp: [0/100]

Class: Magician

Special Ability: Mana doesn't run out .

Strength: 10

Mana: ∞

Agility: 10

Vitality: 10

Unspent points: 0

Possessed Skills

Arcane Orb Lv . 1 [0/100]

'Wow . . . So I died and came back to life and now I'm seeing hallucinations . . . '

Wait! I can faintly remember what happened just before I lost consciousness .

-Your body has Awakened .

No! I remember it clearly . This is reality .

Ding-Dong-Dang-Dong~

The bell which signified the end of 7th period rang .

"Freak~ I thought you died but guess not? Well, just don't rebel like that and just follow my orders~ Who knows? Because you're a dog that listens well, maybe someone will make you an Awakened manager?"

Hwang-Jae-Hyuk, who woke up like a ghost, spoke to me sarcastically as he prepared to go home .

Yeah! It's confirmed .

Hwang-Jae-Hyuk, you bastard, you're going to die by fingernail clipper!

I made a mortified smile and wished him well on his way back home .

Fucking jerk, I had to say that like a fool with a smile .

I go back home feeling excited and sit down in front of the computer .

As always, mother is out working at the diner .

She always, without missing a day, prepares breakfast and then goes to work at the break of dawn .

From the time the diner opens to the time it closes . . . She spends 16 hours a day at the diner .

All the money that she earns working like a dog every day goes to the loan sharks .

It's a reality that allows me to remember . . . no, remember the human who called himself my 'father' .

TLN: In Korean, the first 'remember' is said in a respectful way . Obviously, MC holds disgust for his father, so he switches it to a less respectful way .

If only she didn't have a useless son like this, she probably would've suffered less .

Usually, I would use some powerful videos to comfort myself and then study, but today is different!

I feelboth hunger and excitement I never felt in my life before .

I open an internet browser and search up details on my Awakening and my passive skill .

-Awakened Rookie Forums-

I look around here and see a lot of information saying that you normally hear a narration about becoming an Awakened and see a status screen at the right-hand side of your vision .

I have confidence .

That this is an opportunity that God has given me, that I am now what I always envied, an 'Awakened'!

I'm not sure if it's good to be having these kind of thoughts already, but I imagine my mother going to the markets to go buy tofu in an imported car with a chauffeur .

I can't even imagine getting a housekeeper in the reality I am living in right now .

I'll just let my mother have a wonderfully comfortable life!

I try to calm down; my heart is leaping up and down about to explode . Then I go on the forums again .

I saw many situations where even when people Awoke they got classes and passives that weren't even enough to make a living, so I searched up my passive ability which allows me to have infinite mana .

-Red Desert mana doesn't run out infinite walkthrough!

-Blessyou magician infinite mana system tree (beginner's usage)

"Fucking game addicts"

Only useless game guides pop up .

I try the Magician Line Awakened cafe, but the results are basically the same .

There is a skill called 'Mana Regen' .

But it's an active skill, not a passive one, and it only regains 15% of the user's mana .

Of course, the casting time would be different as your proficiency went up, but the cooldown seems to be approximately 30 minutes .

The Skill Book price seems to have so many zeroes that I stopped counting at 10 million .

My brain is working at a seriously fast pace at this point .

"Wait… This… Ha~ This really . . . "

Without me knowing, laughter came out .

It's like winning the top prize in the lottery, I feel nervous but excited .

Right out, the Skill Book regenerates 15% of your mana on a 30-minute cooldown is worth millions . . .

My ability is a passive skill, and it gives me infinite mana . . . ?

I quickly run out of the house and go to a playground where there were no people .

I want to see my ability with my own eyes .

I already know about how to use skills thanks to my searches .

The skill that is automatically given to an Lv1 Magician Awakened, 'Arcane Orb' .

Like in games, when starting out as a Magician levelling up is very hard .

Of course, to rich Awakened it's a different story .

They can easily obtain advanced Skill Books and can level up with high-levelled servants .

It's abnormally unfair .

This is why the Magician class is hard .

You get 10 points of stats like the Warrior class branch, but Lv1 skills use up a lot of mana .

So, at low levels, instead of physical abilities, using skills to hunt is the correct way for Magicians to level up .

In my mind, I think of the skill name 'Arcane Orb' .

Like the video I saw online, blue spheres that about the size of a baseball float up on top of my hands .

"Ah, I'm getting goosebumps!" Unconsciously, I said it with a loud voice .

'Kueg' a laugh came out .

Like a kid who tasted candy for the first time, I can't resist this excitement .

I stretch my hand to the beer can that was on a bench .

-Dalgeurak! Tudududug!

The orbs hit the can without any sound or shaky movements .

When I check carefully, the first orb seems to have frozen the can and the second one seems to have torn the can to pieces, like it was paper .

Even when I see it with my own eyes I can't believe it .

I silently stare at my hands and say 'Arcane Orb' at the ground .

The ground turns into a sheet of ice and the sound of hard ice rings out in the quiet playground .

It said in the video that it's hard for an Lv1 Awakened to cast 'Arcane Orb' more than five times .

Although you couldn't see their mana gauge through the video, many Magician Awakened commented that they felt the same way .

But I can't see my mana gauge . I looked at the beginners 'Awakened Guide' which explained things with pictures so it was easy to understand, their status bar was different from mine .

You can say that I don't have a mana pool, and was Awoken to be able to infinitely use mana .

So, I can easily ignore trivial things like mana management!

If I could learn a skill then I can use that skill without any restrictions .

"Nyunnyu nyannya screw everything and get Skillbook~bookbookbook~galeugebgeb bookbookbook~"

TLN: I have no idea what he's saying either . I don't keep up with slang, dammit! Basically, he seems to be just singing about how he loves skillbooks .

I start singing without thinking .

Back at home, I look at Skill Book prices .

The Skill Books I saw at the cafe auction seem to have widely varied prices depending on which classes they're for .

Especially Magicians, their Skill Books were astronomically high price .

It's probably because even when hunting in parties there's low risk in using them and they can destroy multiple monsters with powerful, long-ranged attacks .

-drrrck drrrck

The mouse wheel keeps scrolling like a god .

TLN: probably means it's working really well

"What I need right now is information… Information . . . "

I don't feel anything like hunger at this point .

-ttirik ttik ttik ttik ttik ttirororong~

I heard the sound of the front door opening .

"Son~ Mom's here~"

"You're back?"

"Yeah, have you eaten?"

Seeing my mother's face, I finally begin to feel hungry .

With the hunger, I feel a wave of unfamiliar emotions, and my eyes are filled with tears .

This fucking poverty and debt, mother working at the diner, I can say goodbye to all of it now . Seriously, goodbye! Say goodbye!

"I haven't eaten, Ms . Park~ I have something to say~ let's eat together"

I say to my mother with a cutesy expression .

As she cleans up after dinner, I say one sentence .

"Mother, I'll protect you from now on . . . "

I can keep at least this one promise, right?