D.I.O

‘Come to think of it, that girl must have tremendous spatial awareness.’

Generally, people would usually be able to recall their parent’s faces, but if they had to draw them from memory, from their eyes to nose and mouth, they probably wouldn’t be able to recreate the image in their minds. Similarly, a person wouldn’t necessarily be able to precisely construct a tank or a gun merely from seeing it; to do so would be on an entirely different level.

Moreover, in the young girl’s case, she knew how her gun and tank functioned internally, so the constructions could possess ‘functions.’ In other words, she was able to recognize and accurately pinpoint the location of each line, plane, and even screw on the constructed objects.

To construct a simple metal sphere, standard aura users would have to spend an enormous amount of time carrying that sphere to get used to its weight, texture, volume, and various other parameters. It was necessary that know each of these attributes by heart, as they’d have to be capable of recreating every aspect of that object even with their eyes closed. Hence, aura users usually went through a period of considerable repetition to fully comprehend an object.

/The Mithril bracelet has increased to the 6th tier!/

Since a simple metal sphere took this much effort and time, one could only guess how challenging it would be to construct something more sophisticated. An intricate object with many parts, like a wristwatch, would increase the complexity and difficulty of reconstruction manyfold. In order to construct this wristwatch, the following steps would need to be carried out without any flaws: recreating each component, understanding the watch's inner workings, and picturing the entire structure. This was a tremendous undertaking that most aura users would never even dream of, let alone accomplish. And this was why most aura users stuck to simple objects.

However, Cruze had gone against that mold and shattered all common sense with her construction ability. Actually, Cruze had never even seen a tank before. While she had briefly seen the exterior of a tank on television, that was the extent of her experience. And yet, she had perfectly recreated a functioning tank and used it at will.

“Alright, done.”

“Already?”

The speed at which Merlin completed the Enchantment wasn’t surprising… it was fear-inducingly fast.

“Yes. The flight spell I applied earlier didn’t take too long either.”

“Hmm, can something accomplished so quickly truly have a lasting effect? I don’t know much about magic power, but I feel that it should have been a bit more difficult and time-consuming.”

“Every user is slightly different.”

“Is that… so?”

The application of a spell and its duration could be easily checked through appraisal, so it wouldn’t be possible to scam others. Furthermore, the Enchantment spell that Merlin implemented wasn’t applying an active magic system to the item. It created a type of magic circuitry that allowed the item’s owner to input magic power into the item, activating a pre-set mechanical magic system. Hence, the Enchantment allowed the bracelet to act like an MP3 player. The owner would only have to change the batteries occasionally, or in this case, imbue the item with magic power, to keep the system going.

“I’m done. Here you go.”

“Okay, thanks. Here’s the short sword.”

/An iron short sword has changed ownership. Merlin is now the owner of the iron short sword!/

After Aidelin spoke, a text message popped up for Merlin. It seemed that the system was quite convenient.

“Oh, by the way, to operate that bracelet, you need to imbue your magic power or, if you don’t have any, internal energy. Will that be a problem?”

“Ah, that won’t be a problem.”

Then, Aidelin retrieved a stick the size of his palm from his inventory. One side of the stick was blue while the other was red, making it appear to be some sort of magnet.

“What’s that?”

“This is a converter that’s sold at the Exchange Center, just like the minimization device. It’s a low-grade device, so it malfunctions about 30 percent of the time, but it’s useful to kickstart an item like this.”

“It would be great to have something that didn’t malfunction so often, but the highest quality device costs six gold. That’s an absurd amount.” Aidelin muttered this under his breath as he activated the stick. Soon, chakra began to react.

Whoosh.

Chakra flowed through the converter and turned into magic power before entering the bracelet. Then, the bracelet’s internal magic system began operating. As he equipped the bracelet, Aidelin felt its effects and magic power circulate through his body.

“Oh, this is great. Also, the tier went up, didn’t it?”

Aidelin seemed ecstatic with the change as he nodded and spoke excitedly. However, Merlin was entirely focusing his attention on the converter.

‘Interesting. I’ll have to purchase one later.’

As Merlin thought this, Aidelin turned to him.

“I’d like to get to know you better. Can I add you as a friend?”

“F-friend? Add as a friend?”

Of course, it wasn’t uncommon to add people as a friend in an online game. Merlin couldn’t wrap his head around a middle-aged forty-year-old asking a young man to be friends.

/‘Aidelin’ has requested to add you as a friend!/

“Do I just need… to say accept?”

Merlin was technically asking a question, but the system understood it as acceptance, and Aidelin was added to his friend list. Obviously, Aidelin was the only person Merlin had on his friend list.

“Is there anything else you’d like to purchase?”

“No. Nothing else… oh, wait!”

Merlin hurriedly opened his inventory. Inside was a chunk of iron ore and a pickax, which he had received after his initial test. Until now, he had planned on putting these items into his bank’s private storage unit.

“Here, you can have this.”

“Hmm? Well, it’s not bad to have an abundance of iron ore. Thanks.”

Though the iron ore weighed ten kilograms, it was easy to carry the ore with the users’ inventory. And so, the iron ore and pickax passed from Merlin’s inventory to Aidelin’s.

“Then, I’ll be off.”

After putting away the short sword and bowing to Aidelin, Merlin turned to leave, but he stopped when he felt his foot bump against something.

“Hmm?”

It was a user, a young man in his twenties wearing a brown coat. The man was strewn across the ground with his head leaning against a light post and his eyes half closed.

“Oh, don’t mind him. He’s been like that for the past month.”

“He’s been like this for the past month?”

Merlin couldn’t help but look at the man with a perplexed face after hearing Aidelin’s words. The user’s nametag read ‘Manbo’ with a subtitle stating: [Tired of Everything in Life]. However, something was a bit unique about this user.

“Hmm? What is this?”

Above the subtitle [Tired of Everything in Life] was another subtitle that read, [Unbothered-ism]. Moreover, next to [Unbothered-ism] was an iron crown.

“Excuse me, but what does the tag [Unbothered-ism] mean?”

Despite Merlin’s courteous and careful manner of speaking, Manbo looked on with a frown.

“Ah, don’t talk to me. It’s tiring.”

“…”

Manbo’s voice showed how much he couldn’t be bothered, or rather, how unbothered he was, dumbfounding Merlin. In fact, Manbo’s indifference was so immense that it was almost tangible. It wasn’t that Manbo felt wary or even shy toward Merlin; he simply didn’t care.

“Trying to start a conversation with that guy won’t get you anywhere. He’ll only respond with those few words before totally shutting up and remaining silent.”

“Then, he truly does nothing and stays here like this?”

“Actually, I haven’t even seen him eat anything. He just lays there every day.”

“Dang…”

Surprised, Merlin looked back at Manbo. Although other people were speaking about him, Manbo seemed totally unbothered by everything as he stared at the sky.

‘If he’s only going to lay here like this, why did he enter DIO in the first place?’

This thought popped into Merlin’s mind, but he quickly became disinterested as it had nothing to do with him. And so, he turned away from Manbo. Merlin had spent quite a lot of time walking around, conversing with Aidelin, and applying the Enchantment spell. It wouldn’t be long before the next monster corps attack.

“I’ll really be leaving this time.”

“Okay, keep safe. There are only a few hours left before the Siege Quest starts.”

“Got it. Bye.”

Merlin smiled brightly before turning around and walking away. He was headed to the south gate.

***

“Huff… puff…”

Grr.

Using his long spear, Lancelot kept the beast that was growling menacingly at bay. The monster before him was two meters tall and had a well-developed, muscular body. It wasn’t exactly human, as it had a wolf’s head and fur all over its body. It was a werewolf.

“Ah, ah… Sensun…”

Behind Lancelot was a pale-faced middle-aged woman who was lying on the ground. She had just witnessed an average everyday person suddenly transform into a monster.

‘Right. The setting stated that this lady was his mother….’

Lancelot recalled the quest’s description that he read before entering the test. The werewolf in front of him was the lady’s son, who’d stumbled across a true-blood werewolf’s carcass and decided to roast it for a meal. Of course, the dead werewolf was in the form of a wolf. Essentially, the boy had been infected by a virus.

‘There’s no way I’ll be able to save him.’

The werewolf species rating was Level 6, so they were powerful monsters. Usually, when people were affected by the virus, they’d transform into a werewolf that was around Level 4. However, the boy had been infected by a true-blood werewolf through direct consumption.

‘He only consumed the cooked meat and not the blood, so he hasn’t transformed into a high-level werewolf, but he’s definitely at the standard level of someone who’s been infected, maybe even higher. I don’t think it’ll be easy to fight him directly.’

Fortunately, the test that Lancelot entered was [1:1 Battle] and not [Escort], so he didn’t need to save the distressed mother behind him.

Roar!

The werewolf suddenly crouched down, bared its fangs like a beast, and lunged at Lancelot.

Crack!

Lancelot quickly moved his long spear and landed it squarely atop the werewolf’s head. This was a counterattack that he had nearly perfected through countless repetitions. The werewolf, which had rushed in head-first without any martial skill or fundamentals, was no match. Its head was quickly crushed, resulting in the cracking noise which rang out.

Kyak!

However, a Level 6 monster was the same level as the dinosaur he had fought before, the tyrannosaurus. While the werewolf did not possess the size, power, and physical might of a tyrannosaurus, it wasn’t mistakenly designated as a Level 6 monster, as it had other qualities to compensate. Ultimately, the werewolf Lancelot faced was the same level as the tyrannosaurus.

Boom!

“Ugh!”

Due to the werewolf’s momentum, he smashed into Lancelot, sending him flying through the ceiling. Lancelot’s counterattack had definitely hurt the werewolf, but the monster merely shook its head a few times and acted as if it had already fully recovered. Then, the werewolf jumped outside the building to pursue Lancelot. With all four limbs planted down, the werewolf prepared to lunge at Lancelot once more.