A Catastrophe Occurred, But...

"What's so hard about this?"

I gently nudged my mana and let it disperse into the air, instantly feeling the rich energy filling my room. All I had to do was draw this power out and dissolve it into the water. I slowly pulled the mana. Like cherry blossoms cascading on a windy day, a pure white light drifted down through the air.

'It's beautiful...'

There was no need to be tense or overly focused. The mana-infused water was finished with anticlimactic ease.

"Did they scare me just for fun?"

The strange light emanating from the clear water was eerily beautiful, almost like a mood lamp. And to think, all I did was inject some mana into a bowl of water... But at that moment, I had no idea. Unless the concentration of mana was dangerously high, mana-infused water would never emit a glow like this.

'Now, I just need to drop in the pebbles the golem brought.'

Completely oblivious, I was only worrying about how long it would take to make enough Magic Stones out of these tiny pebbles to meet the level-up requirement of tens of kilograms. The eco-bag was stuffed with pebbles the golem had gathered. Brown, black, white—I rummaged through all kinds of stones, looking for the ones that seemed to have the most white in them.

"Argh, a bug!"

There was a minor mishap when a bug suddenly crawled out from between the stones, but...

"M-Mana Absorption."

It didn't matter, because I had a spell with pest-control capabilities that far surpassed any electric fly swatter. A broad grin spread across my face as I realized I wouldn't have to worry about swarms of mosquitoes when summer arrived in a few months.

'If I learn ice magic too, I can live perfectly fine without an air conditioner, right?'

The world had gone to hell, but that was all the more reason to indulge in pleasant fantasies. Though, thinking about it only made me feel gloomy again.

"Well, then..."

But first, I had to finish what I started. I carefully picked up one of the selected pebbles and dropped it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into the mana-infused water.

And then...

BOOM! CRACK! CRASH!

"Eeek!"

The moment the pebble touched the water, a deafening roar echoed, and a blinding flash erupted. The pebble instantly began sucking in the mana and water at an incredible speed. Startled by the bursting light, I instinctively threw myself in the opposite direction.

Thud!

"Ow, ouch..."

Not only did I scrape my thigh against the edge of the bed, but the pile of clothes I had painstakingly organized was ruined once again.

"What on earth is that?"

But that was nothing compared to what was happening where the bowl had just been. The bowl was shattered into pieces, scattered across the floor. And the pebble inside it had instantly grown into a massive boulder of Magic Stone, taking up half my room. Consequently, my desk, which stood in its path, had been cleanly sliced in half by the shockwave of the expanding boulder.

"Ah."

Seriously, what the hell. If I hadn't instinctively dodged in the opposite direction, I would have been crushed to death. '22-Year-Old Yongin Resident Dies After Putting Pebble in Rice Bowl.' I almost became the subject of some ridiculous, trashy clickbait article. Well, the trash journalists who would have written such garbage were probably rolling around downstairs, united in zombiehood, but still.

'Ah, wait, what about the golem...?'

Ah. Fortunately, the golem had somehow ducked underneath and survived. In that case, everything was... f-fine. My heart was pounding like crazy, but we were okay. At least both the golem and I were alive.

But there was one more problem.

Thud, thud, patter-patter... The thunderous roar of the Magic Stone boulder's creation must have carried quite far, because zombies were sprinting like mad from the main road.

"I am... so incredibly fucked..."

No, seriously. How was I supposed to know putting a stone in water would cause this? Thanks to this, I was about to go on another zombie-herding hunt that I definitely hadn't planned for. Looking out the window, there seemed to be about ten zombies running toward me. There might be even more out of my line of sight.

'Can I even absorb all of them?'

The front door was already looking flimsy after being battered a few times. My remaining EXP was 1. It was impossible to level up Mana Absorption any further. Was I going to die without even getting to use this house-sized Magic Stone I just made? Wait, hold on. Did making a Magic Stone by cramming mana into water count as EXP?

"Status window!" I immediately opened my status window.

"T-thirty-one?!"

Sure enough, even though it wasn't a formal spell, it seemed the system counted this as EXP too. And a massive amount at that! I immediately opened my magic window and leveled up Mana Absorption as much as I could.

After spamming 'Yes,' the level stopped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rising at Level 4. My remaining EXP was 13. 'Is the EXP required for Level 4 twelve?' I tucked that detail away ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the back of my mind for now. Squeezing through the narrow gap blocked by the Magic Stone boulder, I headed toward the front door. I guess having a small body does have its perks sometimes.

Although the system messages flashed by too quickly for me to read them properly, the knowledge flowing into my head made it clear that the range and speed of Mana Absorption had increased.

'The restriction that it can only be used near the Magic Tower still hasn't been lifted.' Even so, the range had expanded significantly. Now, if I cast the spell from the front door, I could absorb zombies across this entire floor.

"H-hey, you bastards! Over here!!"

Fearing the zombies might wander off and mess with something else instead of coming to my floor, I deliberately shouted at the top of my lungs to draw their aggro.

Patter-patter— Fortunately, the zombies dutifully began climbing the stairs toward me. However, there were far more of them than I had anticipated.

"Twenty... twenty-two?"

If they all hit the door at once, wouldn't it just shatter? My heart, which had barely calmed down, started thumping wildly again. At this rate, I had to suck them all dry before they even reached the door.

"Mana Absorption!! Mana Absorption!!"

And so, the moment a zombie set foot on the stairs, I screamed, "Mana Absorption!!" One by one, Mana Cores clattered onto the floor at my feet. While the zombies collapsed in heaps, a serious problem arose.

'I'm running on empty!' To be precise, I was running out of mana. No matter how much oxygen is in the air, you'll die if you don't keep breathing. Similarly, no matter how much mana was around, if it wasn't inside my body, I couldn't use it to cast spells.

'Why does this cost so much mana?'

The more zombies I absorbed at once, the more mana it consumed.

Groooan— To make matters worse, the commotion had drawn zombies from the entire neighborhood. Making a mockery of my initial count of twenty-two, no matter how many I killed, their numbers didn't seem to dwindle.

"Huff... huff..."

Because of that, the mana inside my body was nearly depleted. 'S-stop...' Zombies were still climbing up from below. At this rate, I was going to be overwhelmed.

"N-no!" With insane reflexes, I opened the Free ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Registry.

But I couldn't just sit on my hands waiting for a reply, so I tried to find anything I could do.

"Huff, puff, huff, puff. Mana Absorption!"

First, deep breaths. Breathing desperately seemed to refill my mana, if only by a tiny fraction. Every time it did, I sucked dry a cluster of zombies. Then, while the ones behind them approached, I breathed frantically to recover more mana. But it wasn't enough. No comments had been posted yet.

Just then, an idea struck me. Just as I had forced the ambient mana into the water, couldn't I pull the ambient mana directly into my own body to replenish it?

There was no time to lose. Just like I had done moments ago, I used the tiny shred of mana left in my body to drag the surrounding ambient mana inside me.

"Ugh—"

My head spun as if I'd been struck by a heavy blow. At the same time, a torrent of raw mana began flooding into my body. If I had to describe the feeling... it was like pumping rocket fuel into a regular sedan. Several times the amount of mana I had previously held in my body was now coursing wildly through my veins.

So this was the sheer volume of mana I had poured into the water. No wonder the Magic Stone had grown so ridiculously massive. No wonder this disaster had happened. With belated regret, I kept casting Mana Absorption.

In the corner of my vision, notifications for comments on the Free Registry kept popping up, but I didn't have the luxury of reading them. If I didn't keep casting spells continuously, I felt like my body would literally explode.

"Mana Absorption! Mana Absorption!"

I spammed the spell recklessly. Before I knew it, a mountain of Mana Cores had piled up at my feet. The endless tide of zombies had finally ground to a halt. However, the raging torrent of mana inside me wouldn't stop, forcing me to keep venting it into empty space long after the zombies were completely wiped out.

Ten minutes that felt like a year passed.

"Huff... huff... I seriously thought I was going to die..."

I finally managed to stabilize the mana inside my body. Lacking the strength to even lift a finger, I collapsed onto the floor of the entryway, using the pile of Mana Cores as a makeshift mattress. Right before my eyes, the comment notification window I hadn't been able to read earlier was blinking.

Seeing the string of comments somehow made me chuckle. As a shut-in who practically lived on online communities before the world went to ruin, my very first thought upon surviving was to post about it.

'If I fail, it's a shame, but if I succeed, it's front-page material.'

Recalling a famous quote that had been of great comfort to my incredibly cowardly self, I snapped a proof shot showing the mountain of Mana Cores overflowing on the entryway floor and the colossal boulder of Magic Stone.