Chapter 51
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: An Unexpected Artifact
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Hot sweat soaked my robe. It grew heavy, saturated with perspiration, and my slender shoulders and legs could barely bear the weight.
“Hah… Dammit… Enough with the nonsense. Just give me what you promised.”
I caught my breath and told Dajin to hand over the reward. Pushed to my physical limits, I couldn’t help my harsh tone.
Being polite and pretending to be refined is only possible when you can at least breathe properly, isn’t it?
Right now, I was utterly exhausted from forcing my screaming muscles to carry me from the barracks to this place. I don’t remember it clearly, but I think I had about two near-death experiences on the way here.
No, was it three?
I can’t even remember anymore. I just want to get this over with and go back to the barracks.
“Uh, um…”
Rireu looked a little taken aback, hearing me speak so sharply to Dajin.
I could understand her reaction. To lightning mages, the lightning spirit Dajin was a being worthy of worship.
A being who brought the concept of magic to this world and showed them the path. An observable god.
That’s how every magic book I’d read so far had described the spirits.
“I’m so tired I could die…”
But what was I supposed to do about it?
If I stood here any longer, I might just go and see an unobservable god.
“Ha! I do not dislike an audacious child. You have guts. I’m liking you more and more!”
Audacious or not, I’m just demanding my quest reward.
In the middle ages, did you need guts just to demand fair compensation for your labor?
Today, I was once again reminded that the term “humanity’s dark age” wasn’t just for show.
When on earth were labor laws going to be enacted?
“Yes! I must give you your rewards. First, I shall bestow upon you my protection.”
The way he says “rewards” makes it sound like he’s doing us a huge favor.
Does that deer bastard even have a conscience? We almost died doing the job you asked of us.
Only after coming to the middle ages do I truly understand why labor activists are called martyrs.
“Hold out your hands. You too, Rireu.”
Without a word, Rireu and I did as he said, extending our palms toward Dajin’s antlers. In that instant, a faint, warm spark of lightning flickered at our fingertips before burrowing into the backs of our hands.
A faint scar remained where the lightning had pierced our skin. It wasn’t particularly hot or painful, but since both Rireu and I had rather pale skin, the scar was noticeable.
Meanwhile, the lightning that had entered our hands was spreading throughout our bodies. For a moment, a strange sense of omnipotence enveloped me, as if I were floating in the air.
“Children, I shall help you advance to a higher state.”
It felt like every blocked vessel in my body had been cleared. A sensation of potential I never knew I had exploded in my mind.
My brain instinctively began to race, frantically trying to analyze the identity of this lightning that had pierced my skin.
“This is…”
“It is enlightenment, and magic, and also my protection.”
Spirit’s Protection.
A passive magic with a special prerequisite, one that a mage could only awaken by communing with a spirit that matched their magical affinity.
Magic obtained through special conditions like Spirit’s Protection couldn’t even be locked in the character creation screen.
In other words, even I, who had created a character incapable of using any magic except ‘Blooming,’ could use it without issue.
“…Phew, well, the minimum requirements have been met.”
I muttered to myself, looking at the lightning-bolt-shaped scar on the back of my hand.
According to my research, for the ‘One-Shot Mage’ to function as a proper character, two prerequisites had to be met.
One was to acquire the artifact, the ‘Red Crystal,’ to compensate for my nonexistent basic attack abilities. The other was to obtain ‘Spirit’s Protection’ to secure a minimal level of survivability.
The core effect of Spirit’s Protection was, without a doubt, its automatically deployed defensive barrier.
The barrier wasn’t created using one’s own mana, but rather through the protection the spirit had embedded in the body. Thanks to this setup, it didn’t consume any extra mana each time it was deployed.
Thanks to that, my first son, the orc mage ‘Fist’ who couldn’t use magic, also found it quite useful.
For mages with low survivability, Spirit’s Protection was a skill akin to rain in a drought.
It was recognized as a tier-1 magic even among players who didn’t follow extreme and bizarre builds like Orc Strength Mages or One-Shot Mages.
It was so popular that a meme even circulated for a while in the community, where in response to a newbie asking, ‘I’ve leveled my mage to about 40, what should I do now?’ people would just reply, ‘Get tier 1 Spirit’s Protection.’
Furthermore, the best part about the Spirit’s Protection magic was that the barrier deployed automatically in response to threats.
For someone like me, who lacked not only the reaction speed to dodge monster attacks but also the ability to deploy a barrier with the right timing, it was hard to find a better magic.
On top of that, the Spirit’s Protection skill had more than one ability.
Well… the second function wasn’t nearly as versatile as the first, the defensive barrier.
For most mages, it was a feature they’d glance at, think, *huh, it has this too,* and move on. It was an ability so useless that calling it a white elephant felt like a waste of the term.
A white elephant is at least something you might feel a little sad to lose, right? If you go through the trouble of putting it in your mouth, it can be pretty tasty.
But this function? If it disappeared, the only reaction would be, ‘Oh, it’s gone.’
It was the function that removed the limit on the amount of magic power one could store in their body.
Ordinary mages constantly consumed their internal magic power through daily battles, experiments, and training. Because of this, most of them rarely stored magic power for more than a week.
Therefore, when people heard about this second function that naturally removed the limit on storable mana, their reactions were typically as follows.
‘The hell is that.’
‘It had that function?’
‘brb, checking the wiki’
‘Oh, it’s real lol’
‘Totally useless.’
Well, it was a function of about that level of importance…
But for me, it was a very different story.
Because I was a half-baked mage whose only usable spell was ‘Blooming.’
Blooming was a spell that released all the magic power remaining in a mage’s body. Naturally, the power of this spell was proportional to the amount of mana stored in the mage’s body.
‘Until now, the maximum output of my Blooming was limited to a week’s worth of mana.’
But after obtaining Spirit’s Protection, the story changes completely.
I was now able to store magic power in my body for more than a week—for a month, a year, or even longer.
The ceiling that had existed for the magic known as Blooming had just vanished.
In theory, from this moment on, without a single day of training, just by letting time pass, I could become a mage capable of blowing up even the Demon King with a single flick of my finger.
In fact, I had even experienced making this a reality, albeit through a monitor.
The video of me blowing up the Demon King with a single flick of my finger as a level 40 mage should still be saved on my computer’s hard drive.
That video got a pretty good reaction when I posted it on the community forums.
…Of course, that was only possible because I had spent about 50 years of in-game time accumulating mana in my character’s body without ever using magic.
If I remember correctly, my experimental character was about 70 years old at the time…?
It was a rather difficult experiment, as I had to diligently complete quests to prevent a bad ending while never using magic and simultaneously not leveling up.
“And one more thing. You promised something else, didn’t you?”
But I couldn’t be satisfied with just learning the Spirit’s Protection magic. Originally, this was a spell you could get just by touching a runestone.
But that deer bastard gave us a quest I’d never even heard of, and my companions and I nearly lost our lives several times in the process of completing it.
Since there was additional hardship, a fitting reward should be given.
“You mean the special gift? You are quite impatient, not even savoring my protection.”
Dajin clicked his tongue, glancing between me and Rireu, who was busy analyzing the lightning that had entered her body and making it her own with her eyes closed.
“Well, I suppose. For a protection of this level, considering the realm you will create and pioneer in the future… it is not such a great magic.”
Dajin turned and walked slowly toward the tree where his runestone was buried.
The lightning spirit, in the form of a deer, began to channel a few strands of the lightning that made up its body into the thick, sturdy roots of the tree. Soon, it pulled out a small branch that was lodged deep within the earth.
It was a striking branch, sharp and jagged, as if it were the physical manifestation of lightning. Dajin held it out to me.
So, the special gift Dajin gave me was, at a glance, nothing more than a peculiar-looking branch, about two or three handspans long.
‘…Is it a staff?’
The branch didn't even burn when struck by Dajin’s lightning; in fact, it seemed to be slowly absorbing it.
It heated the surrounding air, creating an updraft. The cumulonimbus clouds formed by the updraft slowly covered the sky, and the sunlight began to dim.
“Take it.”
Dajin cupped the lightning like a bowl, brought the dirt-covered staff before my eyes, and spoke.
Even I, who had enjoyed the game for so long, checking and experimenting with every Easter egg and item one by one, had never seen this staff before.
A normal staff would typically have its handle specially crafted to make it easy for the user to grip and swing, but this staff had nothing that could be called a handle.
Looking at the staff, which was no different from a handleless sword, I hesitated for a long time before carefully bringing my finger to its very bottom.
My finger was pricked by a sharp thorn, drawing blood. How in the world was I supposed to carry this thing…?
“Huh.”
But the moment my hand touched it, the staff held within the bowl of lightning shattered into pieces. The same sensation I felt when I first touched the Red Crystal spread from my fingertips throughout my entire body.
The staff, now reduced to molecules, began to seep under the skin of my palm.
Watching the brown molecules burrow into my palm, I stared at Dajin with a look of disbelief.
“…It’s an artifact?”
“Huh, wha?! W-wait… an artifact?”
From behind me, Rireu’s flustered voice reached my ears as I stared blankly at my palm.
“…Damn it, you could’ve told me it was an artifact beforehand.”
I let out a sigh at Dajin, my expression openly displeased.
“Uh… Are you not pleased?”
Dajin asked in a bewildered voice, as if this was a completely unexpected reaction.
Rireu also looked at me with a puzzled expression, wondering why I was troubled rather than happy about obtaining an artifact.
Artifacts.
These weapons, hidden all over the world, their creators and origins unknown, possessed extremely strong traits and individuality.
And among them were many items that held fatal restrictions along with their powerful abilities.
The most representative example would be the artifact called the ‘Mortal’s Necklace.’
This artifact had the devastating effect of increasing the owner’s experience gain rate by twenty times. But in exchange, any character who acquired this necklace had their remaining lifespan cut down to two years.
Not subtracting two years from their remaining lifespan, but leaving them with only two years.
The moment you got it, you only had two years to live.
‘…Thinking about it again, that really is a crazy artifact.’
What’s more, you couldn’t just discard an artifact if you didn’t like its effects. They were stored inside the body due to a special restriction called ‘binding.’
Thus, absorbing the wrong artifact could act as a fatal demerit to a character’s development.
“…Just explain the effects. Are there any demerits? Will there be any problems with my lifespan or health?”
The game world and the real world might be different, but I had planned to continue my growth based on the ‘One-Shot Mage’ build path I had perfected after pouring hundreds of hours into it from behind a monitor in my studio apartment.
After all, the artifacts and magic of this world were exactly the same as the ones I had seen in the game.
But to suddenly absorb an artifact I’d never heard of or seen before…
If things went wrong, the growth route and build I had planned might become completely meaningless.
“Hurry. Explain.”
I demanded an explanation from Dajin, inwardly praying that my build wouldn’t be completely ruined.
“Ahem, ahem! First, calm down…”
Dajin cleared his throat, as if trying to hide his bewilderment, and then continued speaking.
“…Calm down?”
What in the world is he saying right now?