82. My Buff is a Drug
82. My Buff is a Drug
July 8 (Monday), 9:31 AM
Inside the gymnasium
The gymnasium.
Unlike the physical training room, this facility was designed to put multiple students through supervised drills.
Though calling them 'drills' was generous — participation was voluntary, so nothing was forced.
″Huff, huff...
Hye-yong was currently dying here. Metaphorically, but only barely.
As it turned out, barbell squats were absolutely an exercise capable of killing a man.
″One!″
When the male instructor's booming voice rang out, roughly twenty students dropped into a squat in unison.
″Two!″
And on two, they all rose as one.
′Hngk.′
Hye-yong's whole body shook like a leaf, but he forced himself upright.
He'd resolved that using buffs would defeat the purpose, so he'd been holding on through sheer grit and spite, but his limit was fast approaching.
′It was fine when all we did was run, but doing squats right after running is brutal as hell...!!
Still, he endured to the end without casting a single buff.
[ Strength Stat Growth Efficiency Increase ]
Strength stat growth efficiency increase — Level 6
Can only be cast on self
Growth buffs are precious!
If it's hard today, it'll be that much easier someday.
′I survived today on growth buffs alone — my stats have to go up soon, right?′
Before he knew it, the growth buff he could apply as a self-buff had reached level 6.
Talentless as he might be, he believed there would be positive results.
He clung to that hope as he endured, and endured, and endured.
″That concludes today's physical conditioning.″
Finally, it was over!
Hye-yong decided he'd let himself feel proud just this once, and let himself rest.
″Brutal... seriously.″
As he sat there muttering to himself, the male instructor who'd been barking orders earlier walked over and handed him a 300ml bottle of water.
″Good work, student.″
″Ah. Thank you, Instructor.″
″It was impressive, watching you fight your own battle without caring that anyone else was watching.″
His own battle...?
He just hadn't had the spare energy to look anywhere else.
″Plenty of people would've gotten discouraged with people snickering at them. What's your class?″
People had been snickering?
Hye-yong had been too wrecked to even notice.
′Well, yeah. Everyone else is lifting heavy and I'm the only one wobbling around with the lightest weight — of course it looks ridiculous.′
Maybe in the past that would have stung, but the Hye-yong of now had enough composure to just laugh off a little mockery.
He had the self-assurance of someone who knew he was one of the most important beings in the entire world.
Hye-yong dismissed the thought without dwelling on it and answered the instructor.
″I'm a Blessing Mage.″
″A Blessing Mage? I understood that class doesn't usually attend physical conditioning.″
That was true.
The training methods for Blessing Mages were more akin to magic study.
Comprehending blessings.
Researching applications of blessings.
And cultivating Divine Power to control the form of blessings while expanding one's vessel.
Doing so would raise the Divine Power stat and allow for stronger blessings.
But Hye-yong was no ordinary Blessing Mage.
Perhaps because the very mechanism by which he used blessings was different, the standard training methods for Blessing Mages produced virtually no change.
It wasn't as if he hadn't tried.
He had already tested that path thoroughly enough.
′I've got no complaints — my ability's way more useful and grows faster than the standard route anyway.′
No complaints. But if his alternative was just sitting in a room doing nothing but blessing research like the other Blessing Mages, he'd figured physical conditioning was a better use of his time.
″Haha... my stats are just really, really low. I've got to build stamina and make myself more manly, don't I? Besides, even research requires stamina in the end.″
″True enough. Good to see you understand that stamina is national strength. I'll be rooting for you — keep at it.″
The male instructor turned away with a satisfied expression after hearing Hye-yong's answer.
He'd probably seen Hye-yong — the only one wheezing and flailing in baby-mode while everyone else trained properly — and gotten curious about what kind of guy he was.
′Hm. Doesn't seem like anyone I know is in this time slot.′
Physical conditioning was divided by time slot.
Others he knew definitely did conditioning too, but in the morning block there was no sign of Ha-yoon or Ah-young or any of the students he recognized.
He'd considered switching times, but training alone wasn't so bad. He decided to stick with the morning session.
′That just leaves regular classes, class-specific lectures, and vocational training, I guess.′
It felt like his personal time had shrunk a bit more, but attending classes had proven surprisingly worthwhile — plenty of information that was genuinely useful.
Time to go to class.
-
Blessing Arts Class.
Another lecture began, no different from any other weekday.
″Today, we'll be going into more depth on holy water and holy relics, which you learned about in the first semester.″
Yoo Ji-ah's voice pierced straight into his ears.
′Holy water, holy relics? What are those?′
Hye-yong had absolutely no memory of ever hearing about such things.
Now intrigued, he perked up his ears and listened to the explanation.
″I'm sure no one here has forgotten, but I'll briefly summarize to help with understanding before we move on.″
The student who'd forgotten is right here!
Thank you, Instructor Yoo Ji-ah!
Hye-yong shouted that internally and watched the screen Yoo Ji-ah brought up.
As she pressed the remote, reference slides appeared.
″Those who possess the Blessing Mage trait generally have three career paths. First: combat support, directly using blessings to assist others in battle. Second: Blessing Scholar, studying the very structure of blessings to create and refine new blessing forms. And third: Symbol Maker, which is what we'll be covering today.″
Symbol Maker.
In English, it'd be something like Symbol Maker.
″The Symbol Maker — the vocation we're discussing — can widely benefit many people by creating holy water, holy relics, and the like.″
Click.
The reference slide changed to what looked like sculptural artworks.
″You all know, I'm sure, that if you touch and pray before statues like these inside local government buildings — city halls, district offices — you can receive a minor blessing? Everyone's experienced that, yes? As you all know, it's the Symbol Makers who craft these holy relics.″
Ohh, so things like that existed?
Hye-yong, still largely ignorant of the world outside the Academy, found even the fact that such objects were installed in municipal buildings fascinating.
Click.
This time the screen displayed what appeared to be holy water, bottled up as a liquid.
It looked exactly like a potion bottle from a fantasy setting.
″The specifics will be covered in vocational training, so for now I'll just touch on the key characteristics.″
″Holy water is a substance that allows someone to receive a blessing's effect by drinking it, even when no Blessing Mage is nearby.″
″However, it's a one-time use item, and its duration is short due to the high volatility of Divine Power.″
″The advantage is that even a Blessing Mage with minimal training can produce it — the crafting difficulty is not high.″
Click.
Now the screen displayed something like a necklace inscribed with a cross.
″Holy relics, on the other hand, are made by imprinting the form of a blessing onto a specific object over a long period of time. They can exert the blessing's effect in a stable, sustained manner.″
″Unlike holy water, which disappears into your stomach after one use, a holy relic can be used tens or hundreds of times. Even if its stored Divine Power is completely exhausted, as long as the Symbol Maker repairs it, it becomes usable again immediately.″
″The drawback is that crafting them is considerably difficult. Unless you possess the trait known as 「Holy Relic Maker」, you can't even attempt to make one. It's not something you can create just because you want to.″
″However, the prevailing theory in the relevant academic circles is that this 「Holy Relic Maker」 trait is mostly awakened through acquired factors. So, any student interested in becoming a Symbol Maker would do well to develop their own talent through vocational training.″
Hye-yong had always been a fairly attentive listener in Yoo Ji-ah's lectures, but today he concentrated with particular intensity.
The idea that he could give buffs through an object without being physically present struck him as overwhelmingly appealing.
′If I can pull this off, it'll be huge.′
People naturally gravitate toward what feels achievable!
Just like the Electrostatic Field buff he'd given Chae Hwa-ra — Buff Custom could outright fabricate talents that hadn't existed before.
A buff that enabled holy relic crafting seemed perfectly feasible.
′If it actually works the way I think it will, and I can make holy relics...′
A holy relic.
An object that grants a blessing simply by holding it, even without a Blessing Mage nearby.
The Buff Page function had made using buffs vastly more convenient, but it still had its annoyances.
Switching pages immediately dispelled every buff he'd applied on that page.
Suppose he cast a growth buff on Lanfang.
If something urgent came up and he had to switch pages, the growth buff Lanfang was receiving would instantly drop.
He'd have to find her and recast it, or wait until the next day to reapply it!
Lanfang was overflowing with the will to grow stronger.
But Hye-yong also had times when he needed to use his buffs for other purposes.
Like when he was messing with Park Yuri yesterday.
But what if a holy relic could be made just as he envisioned?
Lanfang could keep training with the buff active even when Hye-yong couldn't spare attention for her.
And it didn't stop there.
He could make a holy relic containing an exclusive buff, letting her do everything on her own — play the drum and the gong all by herself.
′Since holy relics aren't infinite and ultimately require maintenance, I don't have to worry about her dependence on me disappearing either.′
Moreover, holy relics would massively influence combat strength when fighting together.
Until now, once he'd buffed Lanfang, Hye-yong was left half-useless. But if Lanfang could buff herself via a relic and fight, he'd gain additional offensive power or a means to protect himself.
No matter how he looked at it, it was perfect.
It couldn't get better than this.
Of course, there was no guarantee everything would apply exactly as he imagined. But wasn't Hye-yong's power a kind of cheat that partially deviated from the world's laws?
He wouldn't know until he tried.
′First, let's go through vocational training. Then I'll figure out the rest.′
-
After finishing vocational training and wrapping up his daily schedule, Hye-yong sat down at his dormitory desk, recalling everything he'd learned.
′Start by making the buff based on what I've got in mind.′
[ Holy Relic Maker ]
Enables the user to craft holy relics as though they possessed the Holy Relic Maker trait.
Holy Relic Crafting Proficiency — Level 14
Can only be cast on self
The buff seemed to have taken shape, more or less.
′If I cast it on myself...
Something did feel subtly different, maybe.
But there was no immediately tangible sensation.
′Let's try what we were taught.′
Take any object, channel Divine Power into it, and feel out its grain.
Hye-yong grabbed a ballpoint pen that had been lying around nearby.
This was apparently the training to develop the talent: striving to locate what were called ″flaws″ in the object.
These ″flaws″ were invisible and intangible, so you had to control your Divine Power and feel them through a sort of sixth-sense sensation.
Right now, Hye-yong was channeling Divine Power with more focus than he ever had before.
He'd originally intended to try this during vocational training, but the class had glossed over it lightly — basically, ″give it a shot, if it works great, if not too bad″ — and only provided the method without any in-depth practice.
′Hoo. I'm out of practice channeling Divine Power — this is tough.′
Other Blessing Mages channeled Divine Power every time they used a blessing, so they'd do this as easily as breathing.
But for Hye-yong, his buffs activated the moment he thought of them, after which his Divine Power drained automatically. So even the simple act of emitting Divine Power was a struggle.
He'd take it slow and practice.
They said making a proper holy relic usually took months. There was no need to rush.
′Focus, focus, focus...
As he poured his heart into it, he eventually reached a point where he could sense his Divine Power drifting around him.
This was the most fundamental of fundamentals for a Blessing Mage.
He gathered the emitted Divine Power into his hands and gently stroked it over the ballpoint pen, as if spreading it smooth.
′Oh? I think I might be feeling something?′
Perhaps the Holy Relic Crafting Proficiency buff was showing its worth — he felt like he was getting some kind of intuitive sense.
′Alright. So I just stuff the Divine Power into this, right.′
The most basic preparatory step was to anchor the Divine Power into the object.
He pressed the Divine Power radiating from his hand firmly into the ″flaw,″ packing it in tight.
Still, the ballpoint pen didn't look any different.
′Hmm.′
Hye-yong stopped emitting Divine Power and focused all his attention on sensing the Divine Power within the pen.
′It's incredibly faint, but... I think I can feel it.′
It seemed he'd just succeeded in anchoring Divine Power into the object.
′Let's find more ″flaws″ and fill every last one I can.′
Hye-yong closed his eyes again and channeled his Divine Power.
Having done it once already, he was now deftly able to locate the ″flaws.″
′There's one here. Oh, and here too.′
They were never visible to the eye, but like a blind person reading braille, there was a sensation that only someone with holy relic crafting proficiency could perceive.
Fill one flaw and three more revealed themselves. Fill those three and twenty more appeared.
Hye-yong had to gather every ounce of his already meager focus and work diligently to fill every last one of those microscopic flaws.
How much time passed like that?
′Oh... I think it might be done now?′
He withdrew his Divine Power and examined the ballpoint pen.
′Hm. This feeling — like just holding it makes me feel holier.′
It was thoroughly saturated with Hye-yong's Divine Power.
He checked the clock to see how many hours had passed and found it was already approaching 8 PM.
′Wow, I've been doing this for over four hours.′
He was starting to feel tired from expending so much Divine Power, and considered finishing tomorrow. But he swiftly erased the thought from his mind and resumed work.
ㅡ I've got something to take care of today, so I don't think I can give you the growth buff.
ㅡ I see...
She'd agreed immediately, as was proper for a servant to her Master, but the lingering regret on Lanfang's face had stuck in his mind.
′Lanfang, just wait! This Master of yours will definitely complete an object that lets you receive buffs anytime, anywhere!′
Hye-yong's crafting fervor blazed.