Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: The Mana Well
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In most cases, Pavarintos's maps are divided into three kinds of zones.
The "outer zones" inhabited by monsters.
The ‘border zones’ where monsters coexist with or compete against civilized non-human tribes.
And the ‘inner zones,’ where those non-human tribes dwell.
The spot where players are summoned lies at the border between the "border zones" and "outer zones."
It's a place where monsters and Pavarintos's races clash in fierce competition.
Among the non-human tribes, it's mainly the weaker ones or those with lower technological levels that reside here, and the monsters that appear aren't particularly strong either.
...Of course, it's a game plagued by so much bad luck that it's not even worth counting the instances, so it's not like you can say you won't run into an impossibly tough foe right from the start.
[Thud, thud-]
"You're free to talk from here on out."
"...Pardon?"
"It's relatively safe from this point. Relatively speaking, that is."
"...How do you know that?"
A good question.
Curiosity means they're ready to listen.
"Wolf ants split off into their own kingdoms. To minimize wars between their own kind, they mark their migration paths with pheromones from their territory, but there aren't any traces like that around here."
"Uh..."
"Same with goblin traces. They follow set patrol routes and mark their territory along the way."
"....."
"Since there aren't any, I can make a rough guess. The smell's much fainter too."
Smell.
A sense absent from the game version of Pavarintos. Sure, developing a related skill would pop up a message window, but here it hits you straight through the nose.
It takes a bit of observation to figure out what the scent is... but that's just something you confirm visually, so it's not hard.
Anyway,
It looks like we've entered an area that's reasonably safe. I can relax a little from here.
'...I'm getting a bit tired.'
Did I unknowingly let my guard down?
Suddenly, fatigue I hadn't noticed floods through my body.
"...."
"...Are you alright?"
"...I'm fine. Just a little tired..."
It's hitting me now, but this body has a surprising number of annoyances.
The long hair gets in the way, and the chest feels heavy.
Might be the attunement debuff making me feel languid too.
Nothing major.
Even with the attunement penalty, vampires have excellent sustainability.
Vampires are one of the few races with "regeneration" to begin with.
Recovering damaged parts in Pavarintos isn't easy, but vampires can do it. With that level of recovery power, a bit of fatigue should heal up after a short rest.
"...Let's rest here a bit before moving on. How about you?"
"Ah... I'm fine."
Meanwhile, the newbie looks okay.
Even with that heavy backpack, he doesn't seem physically burdened—no signs of strain.
Impressive. Humans really are the starter OP class.
I figured his sturdy build meant decent stamina, and I was right.
Mentally, though, he seems pretty worn out.
At my suggestion to rest, he sets down his backpack and sits on the cave floor. Now that I look, his expression is quite dark.
We sit in silence for a moment.
Then, in a weary voice, the man speaks up.
"...There's something I want to ask."
"I'll answer what I know, so ask away. Except my bust size."
"...Ahaha."
A faint reaction.
A dim laugh escapes the man's lips.
Less like he's amused and more like a conditioned response.
It was a decent joke, but maybe it fell flat.
Hard to imagine with this size, though.
"...Where the hell is this place?"
"Probably Pavarintos."
"Pavarintos? What does that mean?"
"No clue exactly. In the lore, it's the name of a tree, but as you can see, it's more like a labyrinth."
"A tree... labyrinth...?"
Pavarintos.
The meaning is "the labyrinth born from the world tree pathos."
Even as a game, Pavarintos had some deep lore.
There were enough users who loved the complex setting that overseas forums had players obsessively digging into it, but I wasn't that intense.
...I just read the setting book whenever I was bored, so I memorized most of it?
I didn't join overseas forum debates, though.
...Or so I thought, but looking back, I did debate a bit.
But that was an exception.
Skill Create was something every core player tinkered with at least once.
"It was originally a game. A PC game. Pretty famous, but you never heard of it?"
"...Doesn't ring a bell."
"...."
Never heard of it, huh.
Makes sense. It was famous, but not top-tier. Hardcore gamers might've heard whispers, but casuals? Not a chance.
Wasted 13 years on a niche game... nah, can't complain.
They advertised it endlessly as "reality," and now it is. Instead of getting dumped, I got compensated in a weird way.
"So this is the world inside the game...?"
"Nah, I doubt it."
"...You don't think so?"
More precisely, it's a bit different.
Not isekai'd into the game world—they turned the existing world into a game.
A more efficient theory: they dressed up reality's demo as a game.
The brainrot ads I slogged through for 13 years fit too.
Less likely some omnipotent super-GPT randomly picked a flop game to make real.
"The details are complicated, so I'll skip it. I don't know exactly anyway."
"...."
Besides, I haven't fully grasped the situation either.
I'm just another gamer who played a bit.
On the big picture, no different from the newbie in front of me.
"Any other questions?"
"...Who are you?"
Oh. Right, no introductions.
I don't interact with people much, so I forgot.
Not my fault, though.
In Pavarintos, meeting a "person" in the dungeon usually meant some psycho chasing you with a knife.
"Lee Do-hwa."
"...Pardon?"
"Lee Do-hwa. Born in Korea, twenty-six years old. The rest isn't important, so no need to say."
"Korean...?"
"Obviously. We're speaking Korean right now."
I skip mentioning I was originally a guy.
Not boring or pretentious, but it'd sound retarded.
"I made vampire waifu chars a thousand times and habit-formed into it"—that's a stretch for rational explanation.
There was a good reason, though.
In Pavarintos, female chars lag behind males in physical stats, but have slightly higher mana.
Not enough to close the gap, but a nice bonus for mage play. Extra memorize stocks early on.
Later levels make it irrelevant, but Pavarintos's openings are crucial—can't ignore it.
They said it's not balance; lore-wise, women need higher innate mana to form a child's essence.
...Not because I love busty waifus.
"What's your name?"
"...Hyun Tae-jin."
"Nice to meet you, Hyun Tae-jin."
A light handshake follows.
Didn't laugh at the joke, but this he accepts.
The brief flinch when our hands meet... whatever.
Good he's snapping out of it.
His eyes have some life now. I explain the plan ahead.
"First off, we're looking for a well."
"Water? We do need it, but..."
"No, the well itself."
"...?"
...The road ahead looks long.
Explaining Pavarintos know-how in one go ain't easy.
.
.
.
In Pavarintos, the most vital resource is mana.
Surprisingly, you can last ages without food.
For humans only, but brace for debuffs and starve—you'll move fine for days.
Water's common too.
In the Ominous Cave map especially, slicing exposed tree roots gives enough to avoid dehydration.
Mana's different.
Sitting to regen mana? Pathetically slow.
Yet without it, shit gets real bad.
For non-human races, mana exhaustion is a nasty debuff.
Humans skip debuffs but combat sucks.
Mages? Just civilians.
Recovering mana is tricky.
Other games have MP/5 stats for infinite regen, but not here.
Not totally impossible—special conditions enable limited infinite mana—but no cakewalk.
...Anyway.
Most common way: find a "well."
Seek mana gushing spots to recharge.
You can train/regen anywhere, but wells give unmatched efficiency.
...Complicated lore.
In-game, aerial mana (raw mana type) dilutes in the air by hierarchy.
Lowest 0th order.
Cave-wide mana (not fresh from wells) regens poorly for this reason.
Fresh well mana? God-tier recovery.
Back then, I figured fancy fluff for balance. Now? Probably true.
"-So that's why we're hunting a well now."
"Ah...."
"Get it?"
"...Up to finding the well, yeah."
"Good enough."
Finding wells ain't hard.
Wander and you get "dense mana scent" messages.
Higher mana sensitivity = wider range, but low sens still works.
No messages in reality, so I worried...
"Hm?"
"...? What's up?"
"This scent right now..."
"Scent...?"
...Turns out, not hard.
I knew it the moment I smelled it.
After a short break,
While wandering the outer zone for a good while longer.
Suddenly, the air felt different.
Like something thick mixed into the flowing air.
Hard to describe the smell-touch blend, but instinctively, it was mana.
Thick mana fragrance.
Guess that's what the game messages meant.
.
.
.
After catching the mana's afterscent, I quickly pinpoint the well.
"Whoa, this is...?"
"Feel it now?"
"Yeah. Faint, but... the air feels off."
As we near, Hyun Tae-jin senses the changed air too.
Human, so slower reaction?
[Inner Force Activation] would've detected farther, but no need.
Two detectors just waste mana.
Thus.
About five minutes down the passage, faint light leaks from afar.
Not the blue glow of Divine Tree Lanterns dotting the cave—a soft white radiance.
"No way that light is..."
"....The well."
Pavarintos's prime landmark.
A clearing with the "well" at its heart.