A Sword Feels Familiar

"Seriously, what is his problem? He doesn't even know me."

After class had ended, Na Eun-sol was training alone in an empty gymnasium.

More accurately, she was venting under the pretense of training.

"I mean, why does he keep picking on me?"

The wand in her hand wasn't moving at all. Only her mouth was working overtime.

"I genuinely respected him…"

Cheon Hae-beom.

When she'd first heard he was taking a post as an instructor, she'd been ready to leap for joy. She was going to form a master-disciple bond with the hero she admired most. Anyone who wasn't thrilled by that would have been the strange one.

But then everything had gone spectacularly sideways.

"…"

Replaying their clashes was enough to make curses rise unbidden to her lips. He'd summoned her out of nowhere and torn into her with scathing remarks. He'd even forced the absurd claim that a sword suited her better, tearing her down in the process. It had been too much.

"Okay, fine, I was partly at fault… but he went way too far…"

Thinking back on their first meeting, she couldn't claim to be a pure victim. Still, the degree of it was excessive.

He had rejected her magic.

If any other instructor had said the same thing, she would have scoffed and ignored them. But the one saying it was Cheon Hae-beom. The role model she had revered her entire life was denying who she was.

It did not feel good.

Does he hate me that much?

"I was going to apologize, you know!"

Every time she tried, Cheon Hae-beom just kept needling her. The will to apologize had been there — genuinely.

"Ugh. He only hates me…"

Even grumbling to herself had grown tiresome. No one was listening, and even if someone had been, there was nothing to hope for from it.

If you remain as you are, you will forever mark time in place. You will spend your years in meaningless waste…

Why did Cheon Hae-beom's words suddenly surface now?

I know. In some respects, I can confidently say I know you better than you know yourself.

Your limits are clearly visible. That is not a healthy stance for a student still growing. Broaden your world. Correct your gaze.

Thinking it over carefully, his tone hadn't been arbitrary at all. It had sounded like Cheon Hae-beom truly meant well for her.

Na Eun-sol lowered her head and muttered,

"…doesn't even… know…"

Doesn't even know me.

Who that unfinished thought was aimed at — even Na Eun-sol herself couldn't be sure.

"…"

Fine. Just once.

That instructor of hers wouldn't have fabricated something completely wrong.

With that thought, Na Eun-sol shot to her feet.

A moment later, a sword was in her hand.

"I'll just try it…"

The hand holding the blade trembled. Mana surged through her body. Leaving only the barest thread of mana behind, she condensed every last drop of the rest into the sword.

"Hoo."

Before long the wavering mana settled, fully absorbed into the steel.

Na Eun-sol hesitated for a beat, then swung as if she'd made up her mind.

Whoosh!

"…?"

Strange. It was the first time she'd ever swung a sword, yet nothing about it felt foreign. If anything, it felt like reuniting with an old companion.

She shook off the dissonance and swung again.

Shhk!

The number she'd sworn would stop at one kept climbing.

Whoosh!

Swish!

"What… what is this?"

Na Eun-sol could only stare, thoroughly bewildered by what was happening.

After finishing the morning classes assigned to me, I headed for the faculty office.

Rows of administrative desks filled the room. I sat down at the one that appeared to be mine.

"Hmm…"

Rewards for carrying out an instructor's duties.

A number that was large or small depending on how you looked at it. Eleven hundred points wouldn't even let me glimpse an A-Class skill or talent. And investing them into stats… didn't sit right either.

"Because my mana is locked."

Mana made up the single largest share of a stat's importance. Everything else was roughly comparable, which left me without a clear choice. One worry birthed another.

"Skills would be better than stats, but… in my current situation, it's stats."

If stats were the hardware, skills were the software. Using skills efficiently required a sturdy body.

Raise the stats first.

If I tallied up the current protagonist Cha Hyun-woo's stats comprehensively, he'd probably be sitting near seventy. The rest of the students averaged over forty. Compared to them, my numbers were still rather pathetic.

Didn't exactly uphold an instructor's dignity.

Still, for clearing a single quest, this haul isn't bad.

Two hundred points left in hand, and eleven hundred gold. I'd save the remaining two hundred for emergencies, and the gold had no immediate use either. Besides, I'd already received a random box as a quest reward.

A holographic cube floated beneath that description.

But how was I supposed to open this thing?

Pop.

Without warning the box sprang open, and a massive fanfare blasted against my eardrums. That mood-lifting brass flourish had to mean a good skill had dropped, right?

Beaming, I checked the contents.

"What is this?"

I'd been thrilled for a second at the A-Class label, but the skill leaned closer to evasion than combat. Then again, it was wind-attribute — that was inevitable.

Utility varied wildly by attribute. Fire and lightning generally skewed toward combat. Earth leaned more defensive than offensive. And the skill I'd just received was a wind-attribute ability bordering on pure evasion.

Of course, wind-attribute attack skills existed too — I just happened to pull one of these.

But whose skill was this originally?

Skills were granted strictly according to attribute and an Awakened's unique nature. Talents, by contrast, could be acquired through training alone, independent of attribute. So characters might share overlapping talents, but never skills. Even among the same attribute, you only ever found similar cases — never identical ones.

Thinking about it this way, I feel like a total thief.

Anyway. Suppose I copied some Awakened's skill and used it exactly the same way. How would the original owner feel? A mess of confused thoughts, all of them leading to suspicion about my existence. Which meant I needed to use this skill carefully, out of its rightful owner's sight.

Hmm… a wind-attribute hero… and it's A-Class, so probably someone famous.

Sylph's Blessing. The name alone made it sound like a spirit-user's skill.

Shin Yu-jin? Elena?

No clear owner came to mind. If even I didn't know them, maybe they were a character with zero narrative weight? That couldn't be right — an A-Class skill had to have shown up at least once.

"Ha… no idea."

This novel was written by my closest friend, Baek Seong-hun, and I'd read it cover to cover about three times. I knew the settings of countless characters and monsters inside out — fine-grained skills included. The fact that I didn't recognize this one meant the hero in question had essentially no presence in the story.

I was still turning it over when —

"…!"

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bizarre theory slammed into my skull like a spike.

"No way…"

The sheer unreality of it left me reeling. It felt like I'd been smacked hard across the back of the head. I forced my scrambled thoughts into order and reread the skill description.

One figure — no, one monster — rose unbidden in my mind.

"A griffin?"

The griffin that had anchored an entire episode. Faithful to its mythological roots, it had been a powerful beast that put the protagonist's party through hell.

No doubt about it. The skill I'd obtained belonged to the griffin.

"What the…"

The talents and skills of every character appearing in the story. Meaning the category of "character" included monsters. Put another way, I could also claim the abilities of other intelligent beings — magical beasts ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and Mains alike.

"Insane."

Why did monsters fall to Awakened humans? Simply because they were weaker? Absolutely not. Pure combat power favored the monsters by a landslide. The reason those creatures got hunted down by humans was simple.

Higher intelligence and equipment.

Humans had gear that enhanced their abilities, and the high intelligence to wield that gear and their skills correctly. Monsters lacked both. That was how humanity had claimed the hunter's seat — and it was humanity's greatest advantage.

And now, as an Awakened, I was adding a monster's power on top of that.

A jackpot this big didn't come around twice.

"Ahem. Should I crack open another box?"

Not using this shop would be a crime. The Sylph's Blessing from earlier had come out of a Superior Random Box — three thousand gold's worth. I only had eleven hundred gold on hand.

"I'll settle for a Mid-Tier Random Box."

I shouted yes in my head.

This time I opened the box without any real expectations. Lady Luck had probably spent herself pulling Sylph's Blessing earlier. No fanfare erupted this time.

I hid my disappointment and checked the contents.

"Wh… what?"

But maybe the goddess of fortune was still on my side after all.

I broke into another broad, helpless grin.