Hidden? Hidden Piece! (3)

I couldn't believe it at all. A silly laugh kept slipping out of me.

Steadying my trembling hands, I slowly—very slowly—read through the detailed description floating in the air, scrutinizing every single word.

I stared blankly into space and muttered.

"This is seriously an overpowered item."

I was so dumbfounded I nearly burst into dry laughter.

Looking at the tooltip that said it converted the wearer's mana into lightning to exert physical force… yeah, I understood it perfectly.

There were originally two main ways to attack using mana.

Magic attacks that manifested spells using mana.

Or physical attacks that converted mana into sword energy.

Unless you were one of those geniuses scouted by the Magic Tower from the start, awakeners who began with magic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were rare.

High-ranking awakeners whose first ability was magic were exceptions anyway.

That meant most hunters relied on converting mana into physical force.

Until now, I'd stuck strictly to the classic long-range mage style—firing off lightning as lightning bolts. In other words, a wizard. Though with a massive dose of natural element affinity thrown in.

I hadn't learned any martial arts yet, so I couldn't use sword energy or anything like that.

But these gauntlets forcibly converted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the wearer's mana into lightning and let it exert physical force.

In other words, even without learning it or gaining the so-called "enlightenment" in martial arts, I could use sword energy.

The most important part was that it was an extremely rare form: lightning-attribute physical force.

Ice arts had the North Sea Ice Palace, and fire arts were mainly handled by the Demonic Cult.

But I'd never even heard of lightning-attribute martial arts.

That meant this was physical force with a truly unique attribute.

"If imbued with lightning..."

And then there was the additional effect.

If imbued with lightning, it can exert even greater power?

It really felt like those words had been written just for me.

"Ahem."

I puffed my chest out proudly even though no one was watching. Who cared? I was a natural element user, after all.

"If I'd worn this against that Orc Warrior earlier..."

Just imagining it sent a thrill racing through my entire body.

"I need somewhere to test this out."

Caught up in the excitement, I was about to swing my fist through the air when—

Ping—

My vision suddenly spun, and a wave of extreme dizziness crashed over me.

"...Huh?"

My legs gave out. I lost my balance and staggered.

I dropped to one knee and pressed a hand to my forehead.

The world kept spinning. Nausea surged up, leaving me feeling sick.

Dry heaves kept rising in my throat.

"Huk, heok... What the hell is this..."

My breath caught in my throat.

I tried to make sense of the situation while gasping, but I couldn't figure it out at all.

What was happening?

Then a memory from my F-class days ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠surfaced.

Back then, feeling dizzy from constant mana shortage had been an everyday thing.

It felt exactly the same.

"No way."

I focused my mind and examined my mana core.

"Where did it go?"

It was gone. The mana core that always felt full thanks to the constantly active Regia cultivation method was completely empty.

It was bone-dry, like someone had scraped the bottom of the barrel.

My eyes naturally drifted to the gauntlet on my right hand.

The red glow from the runes engraved on its surface had clearly dimmed.

"...So it was you."

Of course. There was no way a mythic-grade item could be used for free.

Just wearing the damn thing demanded an enormous amount of mana.

It was as if it was saying, If you want to use me, you have to pay at least this much mana.

It felt like my mana was draining away even from breathing.

My total mana capacity was still too low to handle what Thor's Gauntlets required.

No matter how much I circulated, accumulated, and recovered mana with Regia, the drain was five times faster.

"Ah, take it off first...!"

If I left it on like this, I wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

The tremors from mana depletion wouldn't stop.

I reached out with my shaking left hand and desperately ripped off the gauntlet's binding.

Clack. Kang—!

The gauntlet hit the floor with a metallic scrape.

The moment I removed Thor's Gauntlets, the hollow feeling in my mana core began to fade.

Circulation slowly returned, and mana trickled back into the empty core.

"Haah... Haah..."

I sprawled out on the floor, regulating my ragged breaths while staring at the ceiling.

A dry laugh escaped me.

As expected of a mythic-grade item. The thought crossed my mind again.

It was an item grade only S-classes used. One rank above the legendary grade.

I hadn't expected it to devour resources this insanely.

Who cared if the options were broken? I couldn't even use it right now.

"Well, whatever. Once I level up a bit, I'll be able to use it."

Once I'd calmed down, I slowly stood up and picked up Thor's Gauntlets.

They still looked brilliantly elegant.

It was a shame, but there was nothing I could do.

If I kept climbing the Tower, levels would come naturally, along with higher stats and greater mana capacity.

Even if it was disappointing now, I licked my lips again while imagining myself using them later.

"...Oh, right. Didn't Kim Soyeon say she'd give me a mana recovery ring?"

She'd definitely said it was an artifact that would help with mana recovery.

I'd put the gauntlets on again after getting that. With that thought, I tucked them into my bag.

"Anything else?"

I looked around just in case, but there was nothing more worth taking.

With light steps, I passed through the passage where the arrow rain had stopped and returned to the arena.

Only then did another system message float into view.

I chose YES.

With that familiar dizzy sensation, my vision warped, and the scenery instantly changed to outside the Tower.

"..."

No one would know I'd obtained a mythic-grade item.

I naturally glanced around, preparing for any possible danger.

Then I quickly headed home.

After entering the passcode on the front door and stepping inside, I heard rapid footsteps from the darkness.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap—

"Whine! Whiiiine!"

Neukgu came sprinting over, tail spinning like a propeller, then leaped into the air to express his joy with his whole body.

"There, there."

I crouched down and ruffled him all over.

Neukgu licked my chin, making constant wet chup-chup sounds.

I grabbed a snack, dropped it in his bowl, then went straight to the fridge and pulled out a can of soda.

Hiss. Clack.

"Nice sound."

I sat on the bed, took a swig, and started searching on my phone.

Thor. Mjolnir. Thor equipment. Thor's Gauntlets.

I searched everything related, but there wasn't much information.

Only occasional details about Mjolnir and Megingjord popped up.

That meant this was an unknown item.

Just to be sure, I logged into the Hunter Gallery and tried searching every which way, but the result was the same.

The only things there were the same stupid, worthless posts as always.

"Secrets?"

Were they sharing hidden information or something?

It looked like an unusually sincere information post, so I tapped it.

My precious eyes shouldn't have to see such filthy garbage.

"..."

Grinning, I eventually gave in to instinct and started writing a post.

I waited. I waited for comments full of question and exclamation marks.

Just imagining the reaction on the Hunter Gallery made dopamine surge through me.

But after a long wait...

"...?"

No notifications, not even a single comment.

Why?

I refreshed, but it was the same.

"I can't exactly post a photo either."

No matter how thoughtless I was, I wasn't going to do something that stupid.

If I did, crazy bastards would immediately try to track down my location.

I refreshed again.

Still zero interest. It had already slipped to page two and was completely buried.

In the end, I deleted the post and took another sip of soda.

I briefly considered writing another one, but shook my head.

Sighing, I opened the Heroine Gallery in the air and pressed the write button.

I posted it and paused for a moment.

Maybe because I'd been ignored on the Hunter Gallery, I was worried I'd get ignored here too.

But then the comments started pouring in like crazy.

A flood of question marks. Ahh, yes. This was exactly the reaction I wanted!

The heroines never let me down. With that thought, I replied.

More question marks and comments flooded in under mine.

Why is he like this? Must've gotten ignored somewhere again. Probably didn't get any attention at all. Stuff like that.

I read through their comments one by one with a faint smile.

"Hmm?"

Then one comment in particular caught my eye.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"...For real?"

Come to think of it, it had been strange that the Heroine Gallery—which said they'd help me—hadn't given me any information so far.

They'd only said things like Climb the Tower. You have to climb faster if you want advice.

If they wanted to make me stronger, shouldn't they have been feeding me hidden information?

But it wasn't that they wouldn't. It was that they couldn't.

Because I'd been fooling around on the seriously low floors until now.

"Wait, then... does that mean I'm the only one who knows about this?"

If even the people from the first playthrough didn't know this information, it was very likely.

Especially since it was Thor's Gauntlets.

Weren't the most famous pieces of Thor's equipment usually the belt?

"Meging... whatever. That one."

But what I'd obtained was a pair of gauntlets.

I'd never really heard the alias Járngreipr before.

Even when I searched, there was almost no information.

"Hmm. So that's how it is."

The thought that I'd found a honey pot no one else had discovered only lasted a moment.

If that was the case, maybe there were more hidden pieces waiting between floors 16 and 19.

The idea struck me.