The Cursed Vessel
"I just can't make sense of it, no matter how I think about it." Lumi spoke up while scrubbing the dishes, her mind clearly elsewhere. It was the first thing she’d said since last night—the first time she’d broken her silence after agonizing over the incident with a grave expression.
"There shouldn't have been enough mana to summon a bird of that size..."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's impossible with my mana capacity."
The scale and power of magic are directly proportional to the amount of mana consumed. According to Lumi, the size of the phoenix I summoned yesterday was abnormal.
"Could it be that you have hidden mana, Suhyun?"
"No. Absolutely not."
I could say that with certainty. My stats clearly showed my mana was at zero. There was no such thing as hidden mana.
"Then the only remaining possibility is 'efficiency'."
Mana efficiency. There is an inherent gap in mana capacity between races, and efficiency is the method used to bridge that divide.
"If your efficiency is high, you can maximize the power of your magic even with a small amount of mana."
If what Lumi said was true, it meant I was capable of unleashing destructive magic with only a trace amount of mana.
"Actually, it takes an incredible amount of time to raise mana efficiency. It's something only those at the Elder level among Elves can achieve..."
In short, it was a grind. It was a method that was impossible to even dream of within a human lifespan.
My talent had been unlocked last night.
Magic - Mana - ??? - ??? - ???
The unlocked talent was 'Mana' under the Magic category. I expected it to be related to the efficiency or mana capacity Lumi had described.
[ Required Talent Points: 300,000P ]
It was beyond absurd; it was downright malicious. I was trapped in the Academy, unable to even earn Talent Points. Even the rewards from the occasional challenges were all stat increases. There was no way I could possibly possess 300,000 Talent Points.
"Or maybe you're actually a half-blood..."
Lumi was arguing so passionately her neck had turned bright red. She was a completely different person from the timid girl I’d first met. What bothered me was that her hands had stopped moving.
"Lumi, how long have you been in the Lowest Class?"
"O-one year."
Lumi flinched at the mention of the Lowest Class. Could two people belonging to the lowest rank in the Academy really find an answer by putting their heads together?
"Let's just focus on doing the dishes first."
Living as a student in the Lowest Class at the Academy was more annoying than I’d thought. Setting aside the whispering of other students, the fact that I had to attend supplementary classes once a week was a headache.
"So, you're saying I have to participate once every week?"
"Yes! Until we move up to the next class."
The place we arrived at, following Lumi, was a laboratory bearing a professor's name. A familiar scent wafted through the gap in the closed door. It was an unpleasant smell that anyone who didn't smoke would immediately recognize.
Creak—
As Lumi opened the door, my brow furrowed automatically.
"You're here, bottom-feeders. Or should I say, the bottom-feeders?"
An Elf with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Deep laugh lines etched into his face showed the passage of time. A middle-aged blonde Elf with a cigarette. It was a fresh, if bizarre, combination.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Choi Suhyun."
"Pleasure. I'm Leo, the professor in charge of the Lowest Class."
How much did he smoke? The lab was thick with smoke, and cigarette butts were piled up like a mountain. Even if Elves lived long lives, I wondered if he wasn't going to kick the bucket soon at this rate.
"Just sit somewhere and kill time until you leave."
"Yes!"
Leo stared out the window, puffing on his cigarette. Lumi, meanwhile, took her seat as if she were used to this. It was the complete opposite of the Dwarf instructor who had chased me like he wanted me dead.
"Is it really okay to just be like this?"
"Let's make things easy for each other. If you need a certificate of completion, I can pull you out of the Lowest Class."
The reason participants entered the Academy was to adapt to this other world. They learned the language, grasped the geography, and acquired basic combat instincts. But the situation for the residents was different. A certificate of completion was the minimum requirement for them to be chosen by the participants. For residents without 'special abilities,' the Academy's certificate was essentially a license.
"Or, is there something you want to learn?"
I met Leo's eyes. His gaze was deep. Those unique, ocean-blue Elf eyes seemed to pierce right through me.
"I do."
I had one year. It was a tight schedule, not just to adapt to this world, but to survive against the other participants.
"I want to learn magic."
"Cough!"
Leo dropped his cigarette as he coughed. Then, he looked at me with an expression of pure disbelief.
"Are you serious?"
After looking me over for a long time, Leo spoke again.
"You didn't even know you had no mana, did you?"
"Pardon?"
My heart hammered. This wasn't a good sign. The sound of my rapidly beating heart felt unpleasant.
"Humans generally have low mana capacity because they can't handle it well, but you're the first case like this I've ever seen."
"Are you saying I have no mana?"
"Yes. At least, to my eyes."
My mind went blank from the shock. Perhaps it was because the races I'd met so far were Elves, but I had naturally assumed that I, too, possessed mana.
"That can't be."
The Talent Shop had talents related to mana. Even if I didn't know what they were until I purchased them.
"I'll show you clearly."
Leo tossed his cigarette out the window and approached me.
"Watch closely."
He placed his thick hand on my chest and channeled his mana into me.
"Ugh!"
A pain as if my heart were stopping washed over me. It was a sensation I had experienced before. It was exactly the same as when Ariel's mana had entered me. I had dismissed it as simply being unused to reading the flow of mana, but that wasn't it. My body simply couldn't withstand it.
"Your body is congenitally devoid of mana. Even if there is any, it's a negligible amount."
The mana vessel. It was a known fact that the size of the vessel one is born with cannot be artificially increased. No matter who came along, the mana vessel remained unchanged. The only sad part was that my vessel was much smaller than those of my own kind.
"But there's something strange!"
Lumi, who had been listening quietly, explained the incident from last night. The event where I summoned a fairly large bird with only a trace amount of mana. Having heard the whole story, Leo pulled something from his pocket and tossed it to me.
"A stone?"
It was a stone small enough to fit in one hand. However, it was enveloped in a faint blue light.
◈ A stone containing raw mana.
◈ Contains a small amount of mana.
"Show me once."
Was he interested, or did he just consider it a pastime? Leo sat on the edge of his desk and lit a cigarette. His gaze looked down at me. It was a look I was familiar with, one I had felt from Ariel as well.
"Understood. But I cannot control it."
I gripped the Mana Stone and pictured the bird I had summoned yesterday. The giant wings, the long, trailing tail. The flames covering its entire body. Soon, as the mana escaped my hand, I summoned it again.
"Oh-ho."
Leo watched the creature with an intrigued face. He didn't care at all that embers were falling from its tail and burning the surroundings. If anything, he looked relaxed.
"Interesting."
"As I said, I cannot control it."
Fortunately, the creature only stared at me and made no other moves. The problem was that its mere existence set the surroundings on fire.
"Mana capacity at the bottom, efficiency at the peak... A blessed, no, a cursed body, is it?"
Lumi might be smarter than I thought. Leo shared the same opinion.
"If we leave it any longer, everything will burn."
With the creature's flapping wings, the temperature in the lab soared in an instant.
Whoosh—
As Leo spread his hand wide toward the creature, he sucked it in like a black hole. Even if it took the form of a bird, it was ultimately just mana. As expected of an Elf with deep laugh lines, he controlled the mana with ease.
"If you want to use magic, there's a condition."
Having finished his analysis, Leo extinguished his cigarette and sat in his chair.
"You carry Mana Stones around and use them like you just did. In that case, you'll need a lot of gold."
Stones containing mana. Setting aside the fact that I had no gold, I didn't even know the price of a Mana Stone. It was an impossible condition for me.
"Or."
Leo's gaze shifted to Lumi.
"You use magic while siphoning mana from those around you. For instance, that foolish girl over there."
Even if Lumi had human blood in her, half of her blood was Elven. Furthermore, she clearly possessed much more mana than I, who was below the human average.
"Is there no other way?"
I couldn't be with Lumi forever. Especially not after I left the Academy. No matter how much I trained for a year, there would be a limit to protecting myself.
"None."
Leo answered in a firm voice. Well, I already knew that the size of one's vessel couldn't be changed.
"Well, it's not that there's absolutely no way, but..."
Mana capacity at the bottom, efficiency at the peak. Leo's words kept echoing in my head. If he was right, it meant I couldn't use magic like everyone else.
"Why are you so angry?"
Ever since I returned to the room, I had been lying on the bed, replaying Leo's words over and over. Had I been scowling without realizing it? Lumi leaned in, looking down at me.
"He said having little mana isn't a problem for graduation."
"You said you've been here for a year."
"..."
At my words, Lumi's face began to turn red. She seemed embarrassed by the fact that she had been stuck in the Lowest Class for a year.
"I have a question."
Lumi hesitated.
"D-do you perhaps dislike being with me, or am I being too much of a bother?"
"Ah."
Just as I had been replaying Leo's words, Lumi had been chewing over my response.
"A bother?"
From the moment I stepped into the Academy, I had spent all my time with Lumi. Even while handling menial tasks. Although her skills might be pathetic, given that she'd been in the Lowest Class for a year, she had been helpful so far.
Pfft—
The moment I understood Lumi's behavior, a laugh escaped me.
"What is that laugh for?"
Even as she complained briefly, I could see water pooling behind her glasses.
"I'm actually grateful."
In this other world, the standing of humans was close to that of an outsider. Even if they didn't discriminate openly, I could feel their stinging gazes wherever I went. Yet, Lumi had followed me. No matter what those around us said.
"T-t-then why did you say it like that earlier?"
"Ah, that's..."
I couldn't say, "Because I can't compete with the participants while dragging you along." I had to hide my status as a participant. If I leaked it for no reason, it would have been a waste of the effort the Operator had put into hiding it.
"It's a secret."
"Ah, tell me!"
Finally, the tears she had been holding back spilled over, and Lumi shouted.
"I'll tell you next time."
With that, I pulled the blanket over my head. Knowing that if it were Lumi, she would pester me until I told her the truth, I chose silence.