There Must Be a Reason Skill Books Are So Expensive

"There must be a reason skill books are so expensive."

At least he had managed to pick up a few, so that was a relief.

He divided the two Targeting books between his younger siblings as planned and learned the remaining one himself, activating it right away. Since there didn't seem to be any limit on the number of skills he could hold, picking up anything was hardly a loss.

He also learned the Critical Hit Probability Increase skill himself, then used the last book to enhance it, creating a five percent chance of landing a critical hit. He wasn't entirely sure how it worked, but since the probability triggered on every strike, he suspected that raining down quick, repeated blows would yield better results than slow, heavy swings.

What if I carried something like a machine gun that spits out hundreds of rounds per minute?

The thought flickered through his mind, but it felt too extreme. Burning money on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ammunition just to fish for critical hits would be terribly inefficient. Obsessing over critical hits might even make him neglect the basics, so it was smarter to treat them as a lucky bonus and focus on the fundamentals.

He went ahead and learned the two Mastery skill books for himself as well.

Daggers were the kind of thing anyone might use as a sidearm, and the shovel... well, to be honest, selling it felt like more trouble than it was worth, so he learned that one too. After exchanging twenty-five points through the system and picking up Tracking on top of everything, another long sigh escaped him.

"Let's just buy them with money."

Reminding himself that market prices existed for a reason, Kang Tae-sung returned to the page he'd seen earlier and started adding Mana Increase skill books to his cart.

The skill raised mana capacity by five percent per level, but there were also books labeled Level 2 and Level 3. Those literally boosted the skill two or three stages at once and were usually used in the early levels when enhancement chances were still high if someone wanted to jump multiple ranks in one go.

Because of their rarity, however, the prices were steep: 1.5 billion won for a Level 1 book, 3.5 billion for Level 2, and 5.5 billion for Level 3. The higher the number, the higher the cost.

After a brief moment of consideration, Kang Tae-sung ordered six Level 1 books and one Level 3 book, then went through the complicated deposit process once again to complete the purchase. This batch seemed to come from farther away; an hour and a half later, he finally heard the sound of a helicopter.

"Sorry for making you come out multiple times instead of buying everything at once."

"Oh please, don't mention it."

The same delivery driver from earlier descended on a rope once again to hand over the goods. Tae-sung didn't offer any gold coins this time, and the man didn't seem to expect any.

Back in his room, however, as he continued activating and enhancing the skills, Kang Tae-sung found himself staring with his mouth open at a message saying he had failed to reach the fifth stage.

"Even with an eighty percent chance?"

It left a bad taste in his mouth, but he had already used up all the Level 1 books. Only the single Level 3 book remained.

Hoping that an eighty percent success rate wouldn't fail twice in a row, he used it with extra care. Fortunately, the enhancement succeeded. The new level was +7. Adding the base five percent to the thirty-five percent gained through enhancements gave him a total forty percent increase in mana capacity.

"Impressive."

Kang Tae-sung was genuinely amazed.

The skill applied after the base mana capacity—in other words, after the increase granted by mental power.

With his current mental power at 4, his mana vessel was already roughly four times larger than normal. Thanks to the Mana Increase skill, he now possessed about 5.6 times more mana than he had back when his mental power was only 1.

The higher his base mana grew through further investment in mental power, the greater the multiplicative effect. That was probably why these skill books commanded such high prices.

"Hmm."

The only inconvenience was that his exact mana capacity wasn't displayed as a precise number. He'd heard it could fluctuate slightly depending on his physical condition at any given moment.

It felt similar to how stamina couldn't be reduced to a clean numerical value. At least with consumable skills, the system showed how long he could maintain or use them, which made things a little less annoying.

"This should be enough skills for now."

What Kang Tae-sung wanted most at the moment was to become stronger.

I'm still far from enough.

He recalled the rift that had dragged him away so effortlessly.

Looking back now, it clearly hadn't been an ordinary rift. Yet it hadn't felt like a living monster either.

The only thing he could clearly remember was how utterly powerless he had been. The crushing helplessness of being unable to offer even the slightest resistance. The faint fear that the same thing could happen again if a similar situation ever arose.

Stay calm. But...

He knew he was growing impatient. Still, the only short-term ways to grow stronger that came to mind were methods like this. At least he had money to spend. That was something.

"......"

When he checked his bank balance, however, he could only blink.

After learning a few skills and enhancing them, his account had dropped below ten billion won. Not just below ten billion—only about half that remained. Roughly 5.5 billion. He had started with 30.1 billion after selling the gold for thirty billion and adding the hundred million his youngest sibling had given him when opening the account.

"I suppose 5.5 billion won isn't exactly pocket change, but..."

He shook his head, let out a hollow laugh, and sighed softly.

He knew his body had grown stronger. He could feel it. The skills were worth the expense. Yet because he hadn't physically watched bundles of cash change hands, the whole thing still felt somewhat unreal.

His reflection in the mirror looked exactly the same as yesterday or the day before.

Yet 25 billion won had vanished from his account.

It felt strangely numb. Hard to process.

Like he had paid intangible numbers for intangible value.

The real problem will come later.

He didn't think he had overspent today in any outrageous way.

It might look like impulse buying at first glance, but it was nothing like purchasing luxury goods or drinking wine worth tens of millions. Skills were directly tied to survival. No matter how he felt inside, their value couldn't simply be measured in money.

Still, he had the distinct feeling that if he kept going, he would only spend more.

"I don't even have any equipment."

Only now did he realize that while he had learned skills, he hadn't bought a single weapon or piece of armor yet.

"What a mess."

Yet Kang Tae-sung muttered those words with a smile and felt almost no real worry.

It had been the same in the other world. He had always fought using mana rather than relying on equipment specs. As long as he still had mana left in his body, whatever he held in his hands would be enough to do the job.

"Efficiency will still be the issue, though."

Even so, he couldn't afford to be complacent.

In that other world, using mana hadn't felt like much of a burden. This world was different. He needed weapons with good efficiency—in other words, high mana synchronization rates.

The mana synchronization rate measured how well the user's injected mana could resonate with ambient mana. A ten percent rate meant the weapon would produce an effect ten percent stronger than the mana that had been put into it.

But to trigger that resonance, mana injection had to come first. And the ability to handle and inject mana wasn't something everyone possessed. It required either innate talent or effort so grueling it could kill you.

The current world, however, was quite favorable in that regard.

All because of the unidentified system called Awakening.

Of course, even the Awakened of this world were no different from ordinary people if they couldn't use mana. No matter how good the synchronization rate on their weapon, they could only achieve basic physical strikes. In fact, that kind of brute-force attack would damage the weapon itself, making expensive gear a waste.

But once someone crossed from Level 1 into Level 2, they would understand why people said the difference between the two was like heaven and earth. From Level 2 onward, one could begin to properly manipulate even small amounts of mana.

Naturally, it wasn't possible to wield it freely right away with no foundation.

Still, even a newly ascended Level 2 Awakened could inject their will into a weapon if they knew the method. And as their level rose, or as they trained the ability themselves, their mana manipulation would grow stronger.

What set Kang Tae-sung apart from ordinary Awakened was that he had already known how to handle mana to some degree even before his Awakening. In fact, the slight sense of dissonance that came with the Awakening had actually made the early days a little difficult to adjust to.

"Time to go hunting, then."

He needed to take a more proactive approach.

His family here was relatively safe. Instead of standing guard beside them, going out and earning money would help them far more.

His second brother had said something similar before. If Tae-sung planned to stay close out of worry for the family, he should ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠drop the idea—the second son would handle that role himself.

Unlike their youngest sibling, Han-sung didn't seem particularly interested in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hunting. From what he'd heard, after returning to this era the two of them had hunted together for a short time, but Han-sung had quickly stopped and taken a government job instead.

If his second brother stayed by the family's side, Tae-sung could feel reasonably reassured. If it wasn't enough, he could always use the money he earned to hire additional bodyguards. The problem, as always, was money.

"Hmm."

Only then did Kang Tae-sung wonder if his impatience had caused him to waste too much money. He could have used it for his family in other ways.

"Remaining points..."

He had just under two thousand points left.

After checking, Kang Tae-sung bought two high-grade potions available at Level 3 from the point mall, along with ten mid-grade potions. Each 300-milliliter high-grade potion cost 500 points, while the 200-milliliter mid-grade ones were 50 points apiece. After the purchases, he had less than 500 points remaining.

Yet he didn't feel the same sting of regret as when he had spent hundreds of billions. Of course, the points were worth roughly 2.2 to 2.7 billion won in cash, so it made sense, but it was still a considerable sum. Even so, he felt no particular attachment to it.

That evening, when the whole family had gathered, Kang Tae-sung carefully brought out the two high-grade potions and offered one to each of his parents.

"What is this?"

"It's so dark red it almost looks like blood..."

Despite its outrageous price, the bottle was a plain transparent glass container with no patterns or decorations. The red liquid inside did indeed resemble blood at first glance, just as his mother said.

"It's good for your health."

"Hyung's right. Just drink it first and we'll ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠talk afterward."

When it seemed like the conversation was about to shift toward how expensive it looked and the mood risked turning into one of burden, the second son quickly stepped in to lighten the atmosphere. The moment Kang Han-sung saw what his older brother had given their parents, he immediately recognized the items and unhesitatingly added his own encouragement.

When their youngest sibling nodded with similar eyes, the parents hesitated for a moment but eventually drank every last drop. As was the case with all good medicines, however, there was no immediately visible change.

Rather, that fact seemed to ease their parents' sense of burden.

"Isn't this expensive?"

"Yes, it is expensive."

"How much does it..."

"......"

When the eldest son couldn't answer right away, the second son spoke up once again.

"Anywhere from seven hundred million to a full billion per bottle."

"What?"

If only it were a joke. But the atmosphere made it clear it wasn't. The parents turned to Kang Tae-sung with expressions that didn't know quite what to do after learning the two bottles they had just consumed were worth between 1.5 and 2 billion won.