Chapter 2: Adrias Cromwell (2)

With a prominent nose and a graceful posture, the girl exuded dignity, not as if she had forced it upon herself, but rather her mere existence commanded respect. No, now that her beauty was blossoming as a woman, it felt ambiguous to call her a girl.

With each step she took, her pristine black hair swayed, capturing the attention of those around her.

“That’s Dienne. I heard she got a perfect score on the magic dynamics exam.”

“Yeah, I’m taking the same class. It’s been nine years since someone got a perfect score. I almost question if she’s really human.”

“Wow, really? I want to take the same class too. Is there anything she lacks, from her appearance to her abilities?”

“Is it just about her appearance and abilities? What about her background?”

As Dienne calmly and confidently moved forward, paying no attention to the surrounding noise, someone caught her eye.

At first, she thought she had seen incorrectly and planned to ignore it, but soon she realized her eyes were not mistaken and came to a halt.

“Adrias Cromwell.”

The eldest son of the Cromwell Viscount. No, it seemed inappropriate to call him a viscount now. He would probably be demoted soon.

The reason she looked at the pitiful son of that noble family was not for any other motive. His family owed a debt to her family. That’s why they had encountered each other several times since childhood and even had a somewhat friendly relationship.

“It was like that when we were ignorant children.”

The good times had passed, and now they were merely creditor and debtor. Since the death of the previous Cromwell Viscount two years ago, he had shown a servile attitude whenever he saw her, as if he would even lick her feet. He was truly like a worm of a man. No ability, no talent, and he didn’t even make an effort. He simply existed because he was born, a worthless piece of trash who wouldn’t even dirty himself for a moment of peace.

That’s how it should be…

“Why?”

Something seemed different from usual. His disheveled hair, tangled like seaweed, and his foolish-looking face were the same as usual. However, it wasn’t his usual slouched posture, and his perpetually sullen expression seemed melancholic, as if filled with sorrow. Of course, she had seen his troubled expression several times, but it was clearly different from his current state.

Suddenly, her gaze fell upon the book he was holding.

“Conflicting Understanding of Nature and Mana?”

Of course, she had already mastered that book. But it wasn’t a book that such trash could comprehend. There must be some errand or some reason for it. The Adrias she knew was that kind of person.

“Hmm?”

As if sensing her gaze, he snapped out of his reverie and looked in her direction.

“…”

After some time passed, he slightly lowered his head and continued walking as if nothing happened.

“…He just passed by?”

She let out a faint exclamation from her mouth. Startled by her own voice, she hurriedly closed her mouth, but the fact that she made a sound itself hurt her pride.

“Adrias, right?”

She thought he was a completely different person. From a distance, she had some doubts, but when they met face to face, the atmosphere was different. Did Adrias really just greet her and walk past?

“How strange.”

Instead of getting angry, curiosity and doubt surged like waves. She clearly remembered that when she saw him last month, he was trash, a bug.

What happened during that time?

.

.

.

.

“Dienne Alben. Wow, it gives me chills.”

I increased my walking speed as I could still feel the gaze on me. I didn’t want to get involved if I didn’t know why they were staring at me.

Dienne Alben.

The darling of the Alben Duchy, known as a prodigy in magic. Also, a character I once played and currently the closest playable character to the owner of this body, Adrias. In other words, it means that she is the most likely person to kill me.

“But still, seeing her alive and breathing like that feels refreshing.”

As the rounds progress and the character becomes more pitiful due to the game’s nature of increasing difficulty, high-spec characters like Dienne Alben were intended for beginners. I remember choosing her as my third character, and her talent and the power of her family were undeniable.

The Alben Duchy was a prestigious family that boasted tremendous power, to the extent that they were called one of the four pillars supporting the empire.

“Come to think of it, I owed her a debt there.”

The memory suddenly came to mind, causing distress. The sense of inferiority and self-loathing that this body possessed was vividly conveyed. But I need to clearly distinguish it.

“This is not my emotion.”

Adrias.

Although he only appeared as a small supporting role character, I was truly invested in the game and found out all the information about him that could be discovered. Even if I didn’t know the exact details, I couldn’t just let him die like before.

“Now I am Adrias.”

I am Kim Jinho and also Adrias. Although it took me nearly a week to accept it, I must do my best to survive now. And the first button was already determined.

“Specialization.”

One of the reasons it took me a long time to accept this reality. Here, there was a mixture of reality and game-like abilities. To be precise, it seemed like only I had such abilities.

Ding!

[You have unselected specializations.]

This screen was the evidence. If it hadn’t been for this, I might have adapted a little faster. I thought of it as a dream when a window like a game appeared in front of me, ignoring the location and people around me. Now, even though I have adapted, I thought I was crazy at first.

I closed the game window and checked my information.

[Adrias Cromwell]

-Human

-Mana: 1581

-Specialization: Dual Core

-Talent: Commander of Dark Magic (General), Dull Magic of Water Element (Offensive)

-Skills: Details of Dark Magic >> Details of Elemental Magic >>

It’s miserable.

First, the amount of mana. Unless there is a talent related to mana, that amount is considered average. But you can’t survive in this world with just average. All the characters I’ve raised so far had at least one talent related to mana.

“How did I become a magician?”

It’s difficult to become a magician in the first place without a talent for mana. For a talentless person to become a magician, an enormous amount of money must be spent.

…So, did the family go bankrupt because of that?

Let’s put that aside for now and move on to the specialization. When you start the game, one is randomly given. Of course, there were trash-like specializations, but there were also good ones that could survive with just one.

Originally divided into four grades: Normal, Rare, Epic, Unique, there were bound to be good and bad ones. The problem was that this was the specialization that came out…

“Dual Core, huh.”

Since the specializations are random, I started and deleted numerous characters when starting a new game. A so-called reset.

“Of course, the highest grade, Unique characteristics, don’t appear, but even just the Epic grade below it is tremendous.

In the game, when good characteristics appear like that, I would start, but here in reality, I couldn’t use such tricks.

[Dual Core]:

-Epic

-There are two mana storages.

-The potential of a magic swordsman opens up.

Epic grade characteristics. Of course, just by looking at the grade, it’s an ultimate-grade characteristic. And to think of being a magic swordsman, how romantic and appealing it is.

“Nonsense.”

Following romance resulted in my legs being torn apart dozens of times. Didn’t I try it myself? I’ve seen the ending 12 times. If I didn’t dig only one well, I couldn’t break through at all.

Resources and time are limited, and the ability to grow needs to be doubled, so the rate of becoming stronger slows down. In addition to that, this place is not a game but reality. From what I’ve found out over the past few days, it’s still the past of the time when the game begins. Although the grace period before the crisis arrives has become longer, what’s important is that this place is reality.

“No, on the contrary, since it’s reality, should I grow as a mob character?…Sigh.”

I could only let out a sigh.

I’ve never cleared No-Death even in the game. Even with characters far superior to Adrias, if there’s no No-Death, how on earth can I survive? If it were a game, I could make a decision to dig only one well, whether to die or not, but if survival is the goal, the Dual Core characteristic didn’t seem bad either. Because my current self, the goal is not to clear the game but to survive.

In the end, leaving the characteristics as a trick and looking at the talents below, there was nothing more to say about this place. Honestly, I didn’t even want to see it.

“You have trivial talents, that’s fine. But do you have to be so mediocre?”

“Of course, the highest grade, Unique characteristics, don’t appear, but even just the Epic grade below it is tremendous.

In the game, when good characteristics appear like that, I would start, but here in reality, I couldn’t use such tricks.

A-class talent is simply written in one word as ‘magic’ Or ‘swordsmanship,’ for example. If the content becomes longer like that, it’s actually not good. It means that you only have talent in that field. But even that, I’m mediocre. Especially in the case of mediocrity, it has the opposite effect rather than having nothing. If an ordinary person is 100, then mediocrity means 70 to 80.

“Water magic is a lame skill.”

I realized it here. It seemed like the world went crazy wanting to kill me. The reason why Adrias died countless times in the early stages of the game was probably because of this insignificant ability.

Finally, skills were an extension of talents. If you had exceptional talent, you could quickly raise the proficiency and level of skills, but if you had no talent, even if you worked hard for a hundred days, it wouldn’t work, especially when it came to magic skills.

-Dark Magic: Basic Command (3/100) Skeleton Summoning LV1

-Elemental Magic: Beginner Earth Series (2/100) Greece LV6, Rock Spear LV3, Earth Shield LV5

The fact that it’s still a basic proficiency in the third year of the academy is surprising, but I’m excited even with just one elemental magic.

If you want to enter Matap, you need to show magical achievements to graduate when you reach the fifth year, so it was obvious what this guy’s future would be like without even looking. Ah, it was me, not this guy. In the end, there was only one thing left for someone like me.

-Ding!

[There are unselected characteristics.]

Selected characteristic.

Even among numerous game plays, I have never had the opportunity to choose characteristics freely. This game has elements of roguelike, so even when defeating mid-bosses or achieving achievements, I sometimes could obtain characteristics, but they were all random.

“Now I have to choose to survive.”

I returned to the dormitory room, put down the book, and sat on the chair. And as I reflected positively on the message that appeared in front of me, the message changed.

[Please choose the characteristics you want to have.]

In front of me, hundreds of attributes were listed in a swift manner. I carefully examined the attributes on the list.

First, I eliminated all the common and rare grade attributes.

“Oh, there are these kinds of attributes too?”

I thought I had seen almost all the attributes, but the epic and unique ones were abundant with things I had never discovered before. Especially the unique attributes, since they couldn’t be obtained even through restarting the game, except for a few, everything was something I had never seen before. And finally, one attribute caught my attention strongly.

“This is…!”

Without even realizing it, my thoughts blurted out.

And I kept contemplating for a while. What would be the best course of action for me to survive? Is this really the best choice? What are the resources and time I have? What is the current situation?

“Hmm.”

Because my life was at stake, it was difficult to make a decision easily. I already had a stack of various papers with notes piled up in front of me while I was contemplating.

The conclusion that came out of it was…

“In the end, I am a necromancer. It’s an undeniable fact. Even if I don’t use it, I can’t erase what I have learned.”

So, I have no choice but to make use of it. As long as I don’t get caught. Only when my life is truly in danger.

Moreover, if the necromancer can safely grow, they become a formidable monster, more powerful than any other magician. That’s why in the game, the existence of the necromancer was so wicked that players would find and kill them first in every playthrough.

“One of them was this guy’s master… Wait a moment.”

I hastily checked the calendar.

“It’s late.”

Adrias’ memories surfaced hazily. Now, in the memories that finally came to mind, there was undoubtedly a promise to meet him last night.

It was troublesome.

I won’t die.

… Probably.

I immediately put on the clothes I had laid aside and prepared to go out. I have to find him right now, or I’ll really die.

“But before that…”

I stopped worrying and chose the attribute I had thought about. It’s not like I’ll find the answer by contemplating for a few more days, so I’d better get the attribute quickly and make use of it. Now that I have chosen the attribute, my goal is to plan well and survive as much as possible.

And the next step towards that goal will probably be the place I’m going to now. In this damn situation, I will definitely survive.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep