Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Main Scenario (1)
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Right now, the funds I had available amounted to 21,263 mana.
Including the 3,000 needed for level 3 entry, that pushed it over 24,000.
“…….”
Separate from the joy it brought, it was also a number that felt utterly unreal.
The spending unit had jumped straight from hundreds and thousands to tens of thousands, after all. It was only natural.
That didn’t mean I wouldn’t use it just because it lacked a sense of reality.
‘Should I buy the skill as planned?’
When I’d first entered level 3, a fireball had been my top priority purchase.
Among the skills with words like explosion, impact, radius, and fixed range in their descriptions, it was the cheapest.
But now, I had more than enough budget left over even after buying a fireball.
So, my eyes naturally drifted toward skills in a higher price bracket.
[Hellfire (19,113 mana)]
• Classification: Permanent skill
• Description: Sets everything within the caster’s radius ablaze. The scale and power of the skill vary depending on the amount of mana used in its manifestation.
I crossed my arms as I read the description.
According to Ahel, each skill required compatible attributes.
Yet this damn system omitted any such explanation entirely.
‘The players who wasted mana on it are the pitiful ones.’
What crime had they committed, buying skills with hard-earned mana only to be unable to use them?
And what about me, agonizing over it before even buying a new one?
‘Looks like a fire-type skill, so maybe I can use it with my attributes?’
What if it required advanced attributes?
I had all four basic elements stacked, but no advanced ones.
If this skill needed advanced element mana, I’d be blowing nearly 20,000 mana.
“Ugh.”
In the past, I would’ve just bought it outright, but now I worried it might go to waste.
They say ignorance breeds courage, and here I was, the perfect example.
Plus, even though it was earned mana, it was too much to gamble away on a whim.
‘Let’s hold off.’
Being bold and being reckless were two different things.
I couldn’t play the gambler’s hand with unreliable information.
‘Maybe armor would be better instead.’
At least that wouldn’t fail.
‘I do need equipment anyway.’
I’d been bitten dozens of times by those crocodiles.
The potions I’d used for those injuries weren’t cheap either.
It was best to minimize mana spent on consumables.
Using cheaper ones more often would just lead to bigger losses in the long run.
As I sorted through my thoughts step by step, my inclination shifted from new skills toward armor.
With that decided, I moved past the skill tab and opened the equipment tab.
‘Let’s see…….’
I’d browsed the equipment tab plenty of times before, but I’d never actually bought anything.
‘The prices were always too high.’
Weapons had surprisingly low hurdles.
A dagger identical to the tutorial one went for around 300 to 400 mana.
Longswords and spears jumped to 1,000 to 2,000 each.
But armor started at a minimum of 1,000 mana.
Even that barely got you gloves or greaves—nothing like proper plate armor or shields.
Shields required at least 3,000, and armor pieces only appeared past 5,000.
That was part of why I’d ignored it early on.
‘Might as well get something proper now that things have come to this…….’
Greaves and breastplates—were they different?
‘I’d know if I’d ever worn armor like that.’
It’d be nice if they attached images. All this dense text was suffocating.
But I wasn’t angry about it.
My expectations of the system had already hit rock bottom.
I didn’t even have time to waste on getting mad.
So I diligently scrolled through the equipment tab, checking out the armor.
After a fairly long shopping session, just as I found something I liked.
A persistent gaze suddenly wrapped around me like a noose.
“Gasp!”
I whipped my head around to see golden eyes glowing with an eerie light fixed on me.
Rashar had crept up close without a sound.
She wore a cold expression, her hand resting on her sword’s hilt.
A faint shimmer pooled in her eyes.
‘This…….’
It was just like when I first met Rashar.
That sensation of something—an unfamiliar gaze—watching me.
I didn’t know why, but it was chilling and terrifying.
Right after, a massive wave of killing intent swallowed me whole.
‘Why all of a sudden?’
I shot to my feet and backed away, only for the shoelace at my waist to snap.
The rusted iron shield clattered to the ground with a loud clang.
Rashar’s golden eyes followed the noise.
Gulp.
No sooner had I swallowed than the oppressive pressure vanished.
Rashar, fiddling with the sword at her waist while eyeing the fallen shield, spoke in a calm tone.
“If I startled you, I apologize.”
“……Not really.”
I crouched down to retrieve the shield, feigning composure while reining in my trembling body.
If I could’ve, I would’ve checked my neck right then.
I wasn’t even sure my head was still attached.
The only reason I was alive was that she hadn’t drawn her sword.
If she had pulled it and swung.
‘I’d be dead.’
Not even a chance to fight back.
As I retied the shield to my waist, visibly tense, Rashar let out a shallow sigh.
“I didn’t mean to test you like that.”
“…….”
“I’m sorry to you, but this is a highly sensitive issue for us. I hope you can understand why I had no choice.”
She’d come out of nowhere radiating killing intent, and now what was this?
‘Sensitive issue means it’s okay to try killing someone?’
Before I could voice my doubt, Rashar brushed her face with her left hand.
Fatigue clung thickly to her fleeting expression and eyes.
“Personally, I don’t think you’re a bad person.”
Even so, her hand still gripped the sword hilt tightly.
“That’s exactly why I must confirm it before we return to base.”
Rashar exhaled long and slow, her face draining of any warmth.
“The mana I sense from you has grown since we first met. Like an evolved beast.”
Only then did the nagging mystery click into place.
“Could I get an explanation?”
I’d wondered why she was acting so prickly all of a sudden.
It was because my mana had increased.
“……Does that mean I’m a monster?”
“If not, how do you explain your mana growing while carrying a Meseo?”
“Flip the question: What if I am a monster? Then what?”
Rashar answered by drawing her sword.
“Tch.”
She was dead serious. If I didn’t explain properly, she’d kill me right here.
Of course I didn’t want to die. Nor could I destroy the medium and run.
‘After coming this far, I can’t just leave.’
To uncover the truth about this hellish game, I had to reach the temple.
She’d called me an outsider from the oracle, so there had to be some link between the game and this strange world.
To find out, I needed to stick to Rashar all the way to base!
‘The system conversation is dangling as a reward too.’
I racked my brain for a way to dispel Rashar’s suspicions.
“K, I need an explanation.”
At her urging, I clenched and unclenched my anxious fists.
That’s when, beyond the floating shop window in front of me, my eyes met Ahel’s—he was staring intently.
His earlier image of rolling on the ground flickered in my mind.
“Ah.”
Seeing is believing over hearing a hundred times. A good idea struck.
The reason Rashar drew her sword was the ambiguity: was I a monster or not?
My mana had grown while carrying the medium.
But I didn’t need to explain my connection to the medium itself.
‘I just need to show I’m different from monsters.’
Whether she used mana detection or not, Rashar could sense others’ mana.
Meaning she could confirm if mine decreased.
That should be enough to clear her doubts without much trouble.
“You can see for yourself and judge.”
With those words, I pressed the purchase button in front of me.
* * *
Even when K emerged from the barrier magic’s manifestation site, Rashar had suspected him.
The fact that he’d saved her subordinates’ lives was reason for gratitude, not trust.
She’d been through too much to let a life-debt translate to blind faith.
But K had mocked her suspicions by wielding Phinelpenia’s divine power.
Her doubts and wariness crumbled in an instant.
The Seven Gods would never grant their power to enemies.
So Rashar naturally accepted K as the outsider foretold by the oracle.
That was why he’d volunteered to guide them to the temple despite carrying a Meseo.
Her faith in the divine power and the Seven Gods was that unshakable.
Yet now, with Ahel awakened and their return to base possible, that faith wavered.
‘Absorbing others’ mana to grow stronger is their hallmark.’
Sometimes through Meseo, sometimes by devouring other lives.
How many times had she despaired facing enemies who grew stronger with every absorption?
Mana was fixed from birth by nature.
Some were born with average amounts, others with vast reserves.
It was an absolute rule, an undeniable truth.
Just as one was born with their own body, so too with mana.
Defying it by absorbing foreign mana only led to greed for more power.
In the end, they devolved into mindless, corrupted monsters.
That was why black mages who stole others’ mana had been exterminated throughout history.
So it was inevitable that K’s growing mana put her on edge.
What if she was personally escorting an enemy to base? The anxiety gnawed at her.
K’s mana shift—starting from yesterday afternoon—had tormented Rashar for nearly a day.
‘Was I too hasty?’
Had he stolen the divine power rather than receiving it?
Was Phinelpenia colluding with the enemy?
What if K wasn’t an outsider but an imposter mimicking one?
Were all his actions a ploy to extract information?
‘If not, how else to explain the mana growth?’
The seed of doubt sprouted and branched endlessly without rest.
What if K was an enemy who’d deliberately disguised himself in human flesh to approach?
‘Then saving the squad was just a calculated move too.’
The farm infiltration had been discovered far too quickly anyway.
Maybe it was a scheme to slip K inside.
It all fit too perfectly once she thought that way.
She couldn’t take K back to base in this state.
Rashar gritted her teeth.
‘If I judge him dangerous, I kill him.’
But she couldn’t bring herself to.
‘What if he’s not?’
What if he truly was the oracle’s outsider?
It would mean snuffing out hard-won hope with her own hands.
K was maintaining his reason despite the mana growth.
No signs of violence either.
Rashar mulled over how rationally he’d acted so far.
But just as she leaned toward believing him an outsider, doubt resurfaced.
‘What if I’m wrong?’
Truth be told, she personally liked the man.
He expressed himself clearly and stayed composed even when she suspected him, opting for calm responses over anger.
That only fueled more suspicion.
Was even that personality a scheme to win her favor?
If she let personal feelings cloud her judgment, leading to harm at base.
If her one choice crippled the resistance beyond recovery.
Rashar clenched her teeth imperceptibly.
The future her decision might bring terrified her.
That was why she wavered so pathetically.
Fear of the outcome awaiting at the end of all these thoughts.
Rashar couldn’t bring herself to kill K—or spare him.
“K, I need an explanation.”
She could only urge an answer from her restless heart.
“You can see for yourself and judge.”
Before she could comprehend the response, the mana emanating from K diminished.
Damn system