Chapter 6: Volume I – Chapter 5: First Skills

*(A/N: I rewrote this chapter on 12.08.2023, so the paragraph comments before that date have unfortunately been lost. For your information.)*

I glanced back at my statistics window floating in the air.

I’m really weak… How did Aiden manage to get into this academy with these stats?

I can only think of two options. Either the old Aiden had an incredible theoretical mind or he was favored.

Even though I don’t know the condition of our family, judging by the clothes I saw on Clara when I was talking to her and the phone I was using in this world where holographic technology is everywhere, we don’t seem to be doing too well.

So Aiden must be pretty smart. Smart enough to get accepted into the best academy in the kingdom, even with stats like that.

Well, actually, I don’t have to worry too much about that. After all, in my previous life, I passed the university exam at the top of my class and got a full scholarship to a very difficult university, so I don’t want to brag, but I’m a bit smart too. I’m also very familiar with things like magic theories because I’m a ‘fan’ of this game.

I took another look at my stats with F’s in the holographic window, so my eyes lingered on the ‘Magic Power’ and ‘Mana Efficiency’ stats for a while.

As in every fantasy universe, there is magic in this world too.

Humans, normally beings who can only sense mana, cannot freely control it as they wish. At least that was the case until the awakening of the planet. When the system came along to help humanity with this, that’s when people started to be able to use the mana that they couldn’t use until then.

Honestly, I’m very excited to try this.

After sitting cross-legged on my bed, I closed my eyes and focused. Even though I was thinking about the dark place I went to after I died, I resisted as much as I could because if I didn’t get over the trauma I might have severe sleep problems.

It was a very strange feeling to feel my own mana. It was as if I was swimming in a pool but the pool was actually inside my body… In short, the concept and feeling of mana were exactly as described in the game.

A smile appeared on my face and I continued to focus. After all, I would not stop at just ‘feeling’ my mana.

I thought that the mana flowing through me was moving according to my thoughts, passing through certain points and being absorbed there. Then my muscles were suddenly filled with an unknown power.

<<——————————

Congratulations! You have learned the [Mana Boost(F)] skill. Your mana capacity has increased by a small amount because you learned it by experimenting on your own!

——————————>>

Although my eyes were closed, I didn’t care about the message I could see because my work was still unfinished.

I slowly moved the mana that strengthened my muscles toward my head, then focused it on my eyes, ears, and nose. Then the mana that I had focused on these places spread over my whole body as if it was suddenly free and covered my skin with a thin layer. While this was happening, I started to hear a sound, a sound I couldn’t hear before. The sound of the wind blowing outside the window.

<<——————————

Congratulations! You have learned the [Sense Enhancement(F)] skill. Your mana capacity has increased by a small amount because you learned it by experimenting on your own!

——————————>>

When I accomplished what I really wanted to do, I opened my eyes and realized that I was drenched in sweat. Even though I didn’t feel much at the time because I was focused, I was really tired from the mana that had suddenly left my body.

My Magic Power and Mana Efficiency stats, both F grades, were really giving me trouble, but I couldn’t keep the dirty grin off my face.

I had just used a skill that was not directly taught to me by the system, and so the system had given it to me directly. So I had gotten two skills for free, which is the first and simplest step of development for anyone living in this world.

So it wasn’t a big deal.

Of course, if you learn two skills so easily, it can be called ‘cheating’, but the skills that can be learned with this method come with the lowest skill level, F, and their number is very limited. This is because the number of skills that can be used without giving mana an attribute is very small and often inefficient, but for someone like me, who has almost no skills, this is a huge boon.

With the buff, which will wear off very soon, I felt an inexplicable sense of satisfaction as I squinted my eyes and was able to clearly read a piece of writing that I had not been able to read properly because it was far away.

Feeling ‘mana’, which was a brand-new sense for me, and using it to empower my body and my senses, just like in the stories, was so amazing that I felt like a ruler standing on top of humanity. Of course, unfortunately, this would only be true if I were in my old world…

Before I went off to my daydreams, I went to the bathroom and took a short shower to get rid of the sweat and then changed into clean clothes from my closet. Afterward, I stood in front of the only mirror in the room again to see how I looked.

My coal-black hair, which I had just dried, was quite elegant. My gray eyes made me look like a ghost, but I couldn’t complain that they added a nice touch to my otherwise ordinary features.

Even though my charm statistic was an E- grade, I couldn’t deny that I was more handsome than in my old world.

Well… Doesn’t that mean that in my previous life, I had, at best, F+ looks? I mean, two above the worst…

Ah… Great, now I feel like I’m blatantly calling my old body ugly. How wonderful…

With a bitter smile, I took a deep breath, and then sat at the table.

I actually wanted to go outside, breathe in some fresh air and take a good look around the academy, which had been transformed into something realistic.

But… there was something I had to do first.

I found some paper and a pen, looked at the pile of papers in front of me and sighed deeply.

Here we go…

*******

When I put the last touch on the last of the full sheets of paper I had set aside, I tossed the pen aside without a care, my tired eyes drifting to the clock on the wall of the room.

Six hours… I’ve been working on these papers for six hours, without stopping, without eating, without even going to the restroom.

Haaa… but it was definitely worth it.

I organized the thirteen photocopies I had set aside, placed them neatly in a folder I had managed to find by scanning the whole house, and… when everything was ready, a smile appeared on my face.

Yes, it was a lot of work, but it would definitely help me to take my first step.

I splashed cold water on my face to relieve my tiredness, then grabbed the file I had prepared and went outside.

I was greeted by a long corridor with no one in it. The design was just like in the game, very modern and charming…

Considering it was six in the afternoon, classes were already over. By now they must have been doing a seminar on life at the academy or something.

In short, I had completely ditched my first day… but I didn’t really care.

I knew that when I walked into the classroom tomorrow, I would get nothing but a warning because it was the first time, so I could spend my first day in this world at ease.

I took the elevator down from the eighth floor, watching the blinking buttons the whole time as an old habit, and then found myself in the lobby of the dormitory.

The lobby was definitely more crowded than the floor where my room was located. There were receptionists, friends talking to each other, and my peers running around carrying books.

There wasn’t more than one person from the first year. Because like I said, they were probably in the seminar right now.

Even in the middle of the day, though, I wouldn’t meet many freshmen, because the life of a freshman is… not much different from high school.

For first-year students, the academy individually tests and examines them. Academy advises them on the courses they will take from their second year onward and identifies their talents.

Of course, I didn’t give a damn about that.

When I saw the training weapons that some of the students carried on their backs and belts, I knew in my bones that I was inside Lunerra. My blood was boiling and so I began to walk toward my goal, studying these weapons with great interest.

The Cevilian Development Academy, or CDA as the humans abbreviated it, was the most prestigious academy in the kingdom I was on. It not only offered its students a huge campus and good lectures but also trained them to be useful citizens of the kingdom, especially in the fields of magic and theory.

It had its own special system compared to other academies, and I just mentioned it, but the campus was really huge… So much so that apart from the area where the dormitory buildings were located, there was a shopping mall where students could shop as they wished, a huge arena built for duels and entertainment, a multifunctional and huge training hall where all kinds of equipment could be found… All these and many more were just a part of this academy as if it was a small city in itself.

I walked through the crowds to a walkway and smiled brightly. As the air entered my lungs, many times cleaner than in my old world, backed by mana, I realized again the difference between our worlds. Just breathing here made me feel in paradise.

As I walked along the walkway, when I came to a certain building, I paused and widened the smile on my face.

The building in front of me was labeled ‘Mana Research Laboratories’ and this was my first goal in this world, the place that would solve my penniless me and my sister’s financial problems once and for all.

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