Chapter 51
Sweat soaked my robe. The fabric, heavy with perspiration, weighed down on my slender shoulders and legs, making it unbearable to bear the burden any longer.
“Haa… Stop the nonsense and just hand over what was promised.”
I adjusted my breathing and demanded the reward from Daljin. Pushed to my physical limits, there was no helping the sharpness in my tone.
After all, isn’t pretending to be proper and dignified only possible when you can breathe easily?
I’m exhausted from dragging my screaming body from the tent to this spot. Though my memory is hazy, I believe I came close to the boundary between life and death at least twice—no, make that three times—on the way here.
Now, I just want to wrap up the matter quickly and return to the tent.
“Uh, well…”
Lir glanced at Daljin, then looked somewhat bewildered at my sharp words directed towards him.
I understood her reaction. After all, the Spirit of Lightning, Daljin, is a revered figure for Storm Mages—a god-like existence who introduced the concept of magic to this world and serves as the guiding path.
The books on magic that I’ve read so far always describe spirits this way.
“I’m exhausted, seriously…”
“Then again, what would you have me do?”
If I stay standing like this any longer, I might just see a god who’s no longer observable.
“Hah! I don’t dislike brash children. You have guts—I like that, more and more!”
Brash or not, I’m merely asking for my quest reward.
Is demanding fair compensation for labor considered courage in medieval times?
Today, once again, I’ve reaffirmed why the human Dark Ages are called so.
When, exactly, will labor laws be enacted?
“Fine! I shall bestow a reward upon you. First, I shall grant my blessing.”
Talk about reward—it sounds more like a favor.
Does this fawn not have a conscience? We nearly died doing the task you requested.
Finally, I’m starting to understand why labor advocates in the medieval era were called martyrs.
“Extend your hands, Lir as well.”
Both Lir and I, without hesitation, extended our palms towards Daljin’s antlers upon his command. At that moment, a faint, warm lightning spark jumped from his antlers and sank into our palms.
A faint scar remained on the lightning-pierced skin. It wasn’t particularly hot or painful, but since both Lir and I have quite fair skin, the scar was noticeable.
As the lightning spread throughout our bodies, a peculiar sensation of weightlessness enveloped me for a brief moment.
“Children, I shall aid you in reaching higher realms.”
It felt as if every blocked pathway within had been cleared. A lifetime’s worth of untapped potential surged through my mind in an instant.
My brain scrambled to decode the nature of the lightning that had penetrated my skin.
“This is…”
“It’s enlightenment, magic, and my blessing all at once.”
The Blessing of the Spirit.
A passive magic unique to mages, achieved only by communicating with spirits congruent with one’s own magical disposition.
Such magical conditions often can’t even be unlocked in the character creation screen.
In other words, even characters created as entirely magic-less can use this without difficulty, like my current state.
“…Phew, at least the basic conditions are met.”
I muttered lowly, inspecting the lightning-shaped scar on my hand.
Based on my research, to function properly, a one-hit Mage must satisfy two essential conditions:
One is to acquire the artifact ‘Red Crystal’ to compensate for the lack of basic combat skills, and the other is to earn the ‘Blessing of the Spirit’ for minimal survival capability.
The key effect of the Spirit’s blessing is an automatically deployed defense barrier that operates through the Spirit’s blessing embedded in the body rather than depleting the caster’s own mana.
Even my son, an Orc ‘Brute Mage’ who can’t use magic, relies on this passive magic effectively.
The Blessing is indeed a godsend to mages with low survivability.
It’s highly regarded—even among users following more balanced builds, it’s recognized as a top-tier magic. It even became a meme in the community when newbies asked, “What should I do after leveling my mage to level 40?” and were responded with, “Obtain the 1st-tier Spirit’s Blessing.”
Additionally, the best feature of Spirit’s Blessing is that the shield activates automatically in response to threats—ideal for someone like me who lacks the reflexes or timing to activate defenses manually.
Though the second ability this skill bestows isn’t particularly versatile compared to the automatic shield—most mages tend to overlook it as inconsequential or redundant. While redundancy might evoke a sense of mild regret for something missing, this second function is so irrelevant that its disappearance would barely elicit more than a shrug.
It simply removes the limit on how much magic can be stored within your body.
Ordinarily, most mages frequently consume their inner magic daily through battles, experiments, and training. Therefore, they rarely store magical energy within their bodies for over a week.
Naturally, the second ability, which removes the mana storage limit, draws reactions like:
“What exactly is that?”
“Is there such a function?”
“Let me check the wiki.”
“Oh, it’s really there haha.”
“Totally useless.”
Indeed, it’s rather negligible—a feature that doesn’t matter to most—but for me, the situation is entirely different.
I’m a half-mage who can only use one magic: ‘Blossom.’
Blossom is a magic that discharges all the mana stored within the mage’s body. Naturally, its power is proportional to the amount of mana accumulated.
“Until now, my Blossom’s maximum output equaled merely a week’s worth of mana.”
However, with the Spirit’s Blessing now in hand, the story changes entirely.
I can now store mana exceeding a week, a month, and even a year or more within my body.
The ceiling that limited my Blossom magic has been effectively removed.
Theoretically, from now on, by simply waiting without any training, I could become a mage capable of taking down a Demon King with a single finger snap.
I’ve had such an experience even in a virtual setting.
There’s still a video on my computer’s hard drive showing how I destroyed a Demon King with a single finger as a level 40 mage.
When I shared that video in the community, it got a decent response.
Of course, this was made possible by not using any magic for approximately 50 years of game time.
Back then, my experiment character was around 70 years old…
A fairly challenging experiment where I had to diligently progress quests to prevent a bad ending while not using any magic or leveling up my character.
“And one more thing—an agreed-upon item, correct?”
Even mastering the magic of the Spirit’s Blessing wasn’t enough for me. Originally, this magic could be obtained simply by touching a runestone.
However, that fawn presented us with an unheard-of quest, which nearly cost us our lives multiple times.
Given the extra effort we put in, we deserve fitting rewards.
“An exclusive gift, you say? You’re rather impatient, not even savoring my blessing.”
Daljin, eyes closed, analyzed and assimilated the lightning within himself, alternately looking at Lir and me.
“Ah, well. Considering the domains you’ll forge ahead in the future…this level of blessing isn’t all that extraordinary, either.”
Daljin turned around and slowly walked toward the tree where his runestone was buried.
The lightning-bodied Spirit of the Deer inserted a few thick, solid streaks of lightning into a firm tree root, then pulled out a small, deep-rooted branch.
The branch had a strikingly sharp and jagged shape, reminiscent of lightning. Daljin offered it to me.
This so-called exclusive gift appeared to be just a small piece of wood, peculiar in appearance but no larger than a few handspans.
“…Is it a staff?”
The branch remained intact despite receiving Daljin’s lightning—it even appeared to absorb some of it.
It heated the surrounding air, generating an upward current that slowly covered the sky with red clouds, dimming the sunlight.
“Take a look.”
Daljin formed the lightning into a circular container, placing the muddy staff in front of my eyes.
Even after years of gaming and testing every Easter egg and item, I’d never seen such a staff before.
Common staffs usually have specially processed handgrips for ease of use, but this one had none.
I hesitated for a while, then carefully placed my fingers on the sharpest part of the staff.
The needle-like thorns pricked my fingers, causing them to bleed. How exactly am I supposed to carry this around?
“Hm.”
However, the moment my hand touched the lightning-contained staff, it shattered into pieces. The sensation felt like the first time I touched the Red Crystal—it spread across my body from my fingertips.
The molecularized staff began seeping into my skin from the palm of my hand.
Looking at the dark purple molecules sinking into my palm, I turned to Daljin with an perplexed expression.
“…Is this an Artifact?”
“Wha—What?! Wait, is that… an Artifact?”
I heard Lir’s startled voice behind me while I calmly examined my palm.
“Damn it, why didn’t you mention it’s an Artifact beforehand?”
I sighed in evident frustration, directing my gaze toward Daljin.
“Hm… Does it not suit you?”
Daljin asked with what seemed like a surprised tone, clearly not expecting this reaction.
Lir also appeared puzzled, finding my discomfort puzzling despite having obtained an Artifact.
“Artifacts.”
Their origins are often unknown. These weapons, hidden worldwide, possess unique characteristics and can be both powerful blessings and crippling curses.
A prime example is the ‘Mortal’s Necklace,’ which increases experience points by twenty times but comes at the price of reducing the wearer’s lifespan to exactly two years—regardless of their original lifespan.
“Reconsidering that, it really is a crazy Artifact.”
Moreover, once bound through a special process called ‘Attribution,’ Artifacts cannot be discarded. This can lead to significant setbacks in character development.
“…Can you explain its effects? Are there any downsides? Will there be any issues with life span or health?”
Even though this world is different from the gaming world, my plan was to continue developing the one-hit mage I spent hundreds of hours crafting back in my one-room apartment behind a monitor.
The Artifacts and magics in this world follow the same rules as those in the game.
However, I suddenly find myself absorbing an unknown Artifact—this could easily derail all my planned progress.
“Quickly. Please explain.”
I earnestly implored Daljin, silently praying that it wouldn’t completely ruin my planned build.
“Hmm, hmm! First, calm down…”
Daljin cleared his throat as if to hide his own embarrassment, then continued in a composed voice.
“Calm down?”
What exactly did he just say?
