The Heavenly Attribute
The man who had checked the duty orb at the entrance of the magic city hurriedly pulled another bead from his pocket and shouted into it.
His excited shouts ended abruptly. The moment the words Heavenly Attribute were spoken, everything changed.
According to what Leon had read in his introductory mana book, constitutions possessing the Light and Darkness attributes were called Heavenly Attributes. They were considered to hold even greater talent than those with all six elements. An attribute constitution didn't simply indicate what kind of power one could wield—it revealed the very essence of one's talent for mana itself. That made it far more significant.
It was already well-established through countless studies that dual-attribute constitutions were superior to single-attribute ones when it came to comprehending mana and advancing through the stages of magic. So the fact that someone possessed the Light attribute—known as a Heavenly Attribute—meant they had been born with near-top-tier talent.
Soon, a mage came rushing down from the sky.
"It's this child… I mean, this person right here."
The bald man approached Lia, checked the crystal orb, and drew in a sharp breath.
The bald man said a few quick words to her, then lifted her into the air and vanished into the distance. The last image Leon saw of Lia was her wistful expression as she looked back at him from the sky.
Leon stood there, completely stunned. Too many things had happened in a single moment. He felt a brief flicker of worry for Lia as she was whisked away, but judging from their reaction, it didn't seem like they would mistreat her. Besides, Lia had never shown a complete lack of interest in magic.
Suddenly, he remembered the long lecture he'd given her about magic back at the orphanage.
I guess I was showing off in front of someone who might become a grand mage someday…
Now alone again, the man checked the attributes of the remaining five children, including Leon. The hopeful look on his face quickly returned to its usual indifference. They were all single-attribute constitutions.
"Don't be too disappointed. If you accumulate enough merit points or wait a full year, you'll have plenty of chances to become mages."
He led the remaining children into the city, introducing them to various places one by one and handing them off to their respective supervisors before leaving.
The place where Leon was left behind was the library. He'd been told it was called the Old Magic Library, where they organized lower-grade magic books.
The person in charge of the library was an elderly man with graying hair. The old man with the gentle expression showed little interest in Leon. Though his tone was soft, it lacked any real inflection as he explained Leon's duties.
"This is the Old Magic Library. The newer magic books are managed elsewhere. This place keeps the outdated ones that were pushed out of the main collection—too valuable to simply throw away."
He told Leon what his responsibilities would be.
"Your job is to clean the first floor, organize the lending records, and occasionally tidy up the stacks. The few people who come here usually find their own books and put them back where they belong. Oh, and don't go up to the second floor. Managing the first floor is more than enough."
Looking at the tasks he'd been assigned, Leon thought it wasn't bad at all. Beyond the work itself, his overall impression of the situation had shifted. Being forcibly taken had been unpleasant, but at least he wasn't being subjected to the human experimentation he'd feared in the worst-case scenario. This was actually an excellent environment for learning magic.
In fact, it seemed like he'd be able to focus on training even better than he had at the orphanage. The fact that his assigned duties left him with almost nothing to do was particularly appealing.
The quest he'd been given was to study the introductory book. All he had to do was sit and read, which paired perfectly with his library duties. From the looks of it, not many people would visit a place that stored outdated magic texts.
After quickly learning the basics of his job, Leon headed to the dormitory he'd been told about earlier. The dormitory had better facilities than the orphanage beds, but the fact that everyone slept in a shared room remained the same.
There, he ran into the orphanage kids he'd been separated from—everyone except Lia, of course. The children all looked cheerful, apparently satisfied with their assigned work. More than anything, their childlike wonder seemed to have been sparked by finally being able to witness real magic up close. They began chattering noisily among themselves.
Working at the library might actually be the best option.
Leon wondered whether he could earn a private room with merit points.
Several days passed.
Just as the old man had said, there was almost nothing to do if he simply sat at the library entrance. The mages who occasionally stopped by would search for something using the artifact placed at the front, quickly find their book, read it, and leave it back in its place before disappearing.
Very rarely, someone would want to borrow a book or make a copy. Lending required taking payment and recording it in the ledger. Copying involved charging even more and using an artifact to duplicate the text. The copying artifact didn't even require mana—it ran on an embedded power core.
The old man never spoke to Leon or gave him extra tasks. He would always grab a single book and disappear somewhere, not emerging again. It was perfect. Leon sometimes felt like the old man's lifestyle was exactly what he'd always dreamed of.
In any case, Leon's pure study time increased dramatically. His library duties ran from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon, with a lunch break in between. After subtracting morning cleaning, organizing time, lunch, and afternoon tidying, he had roughly five hours he could devote entirely to studying the introductory book.
Once work ended, he would return to the dormitory and spend another two hours studying alone. By then, the other children who had finished their tasks would start returning. At that point, Leon would wash up, lay out his bedding, and sleep by himself—resting during the time when the kids were most energetic.
He would wake at nine, have a simple late dinner of bread, and then read the introductory book again from around ten—when the children went to sleep—until one in the morning. That gave him a total of ten hours of pure study time each day.
This schedule allowed him to claim his daily rewards consistently.
Maybe I should call it the Leon Sleep Method instead of the Napoleon Sleep Method?
After the initial adjustment period, he completed three quests over five days. The quest content hadn't changed during that time… and neither had the rewards. It seemed that, like in some gacha game, higher-attribute constitutions had lower drop rates.
Of course, what truly mattered to Leon was the knowledge about magic he'd gained from reading the introductory book. To be precise, the middle and later sections he'd been reading focused mainly on the origins of mana and the fundamental principles of magic.
The concepts of mana quality and attribute constitutions—the most basic talents required to learn magic. Knowledge about the stages of magic. Scholarly explanations of mana. And methods for comprehending mana. Those were the main topics.
After reading carefully for five days, much of the content had settled in his mind. The remaining latter portion contained basic explanations of elemental magic.
And then—
General Quest ▶ Mana Awareness Training (0/10)
I'm screwed.
After checking the quest details, Leon scratched his head in frustration. The reason he'd been putting off Mana Awareness Training wasn't just because the quest had been locked to studying the introductory book. It was because performing Mana Awareness Training required a location rich in mana.
The only places he currently had access to were the dormitory and the Old Magic Library. The dormitory? There was no way it would have abundant mana. The library was the same. If it had been rich in mana, it wouldn't be a place for ordinary people doing odd jobs—it would be a training ground used by mages.
This was the first time Leon headed to the merit exchange center. When he entered the building—which was about the same size as the Old Magic Library where he worked—several people were already there. They were all ordinary people like him.
Leon examined the exchange list that covered the entire wall behind the receptionist. What he was looking for was a place where he could train with mana.
He soon found it.
"Ah…"
Leon couldn't hold back the regretful sigh that escaped him. The merit points he could earn in a month were only ten. That meant he'd have to work five months just to use the Mana Concentration Room.
After spending a few days adapting to this place, Leon had already come to understand just how difficult it was for someone judged as a single-attribute constitution to become a mage. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people stuck doing odd jobs in the buildings around the city's entrance instead of entering its central district.
They had been given a chance. But the door to that chance was as narrow as the eye of a needle. It seemed they had already determined one's limits based on talent alone. That wasn't strange. Countless studies had already proven it—talent was everything to a mage.
Dejected, Leon returned to the dormitory. His roommates would be arriving soon, so he couldn't continue with any more quests. He took out the black orb he'd been hiding.
The number floating on the orb's surface read 40. It increased every time he completed a quest, but he still couldn't figure out how to use it. He'd once thought it might be an artifact that required mana. But after confirming that the library's artifacts worked without mana, he'd already tried various other methods.
He'd attempted every bizarre idea he could think of. He'd even considered swallowing the large orb whole.
Leon stared at the orb in front of him, lost in thought.
If it really doesn't activate by injecting mana…
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.
Why haven't I tried this before?
Leon bit down on his thumb. After a sharp sting, a drop of blood welled up on his fingertip. He let it fall onto the orb.
The orb began to hum and vibrate. Sensing that something was about to happen, Leon quickly picked it up. He stared at it intently for several minutes. The vibration traveling through his palm gradually stopped, and then Leon's consciousness was pulled away, as if being sucked into somewhere far beyond.