Leveling with the Gods

After hearing YuWon’s words, the Administrator was speechless.

After a short pause, he laughed with a large smile. 

“▷ Fwahaha! Once again, you are right.” 

The Administrator stroked his beard, lowering his head to look YuWon straight in the eye. 

“▷ You’re the first participant to ever kill a Lackey in the 2nd Tutorial. Huh. I guess there’s a first time for everything. Fwahahaha!”

The Administrator laughed bizarrely. Now that he finally understood the situation, he was flabbergasted. 

YuWon was right. He had requested the meeting with the Administrator, and he had told the Administrator the Lackey’s secret. As a result, the Administrator killed the Lackey. Everything went as YuWon thought it would. 

 “▷ You may not have killed him with your own hands, but it is your achievement.” 

Normally, a Lackey’s death should have been impossible. 

Lackeys were the mid-level management of the Tutorial that acted as proxies for the Administrator. All the participants in a Tutorial put together couldn’t defeat a single Lackey. A Lackey’s power was close to that of a Ranker. 

And one of those Lackeys had just died.

Although it might have died at the hands of the Administrator, it was, without a doubt, all according to YuWon’s plan. 

“Thank you.”

 “▷ So what do you desire? You seem to already possess plenty of points. Let’s see, what would be a fitting reward…”

The Administrator became lost in thought. As this was the first time a Lackey was killed, he seemed unable to decide on an appropriate reward.

YuWon patiently awaited the Administrator’s decision.

The Administrator sat down on the floor, crossing his legs, getting lost deep in thought. After five minutes, he jumped up in an epiphany.

“▷ He at least deserves this much.”

The Administrator held out his hand towards YuWon.

Hand contact. It was the common method of trading points in the Tutorial and the Tower. However, the Administrator of the Tutorial had no reason to use this method to simply give out points. He could even transfer skills without any physical contact. 

‘Why is this necessary?’

The Administrator held his hand up. Without understanding his intent, YuWon grabbed it. 

In that moment… 

[You have obtained the skill – Master of Mana.]

[Your mana recovery rate slightly increases.]

[Your resistance to mana slightly increases.]

[Your sensitivity to mana slightly increases.]

[Your Arcane Power increased by 5.]

With the numerous messages that popped up, a blue light enveloped YuWon’s body for a brief moment before fading.

‘What…?’

YuWon’s eyes widened.

The Administrator let out a small laugh at YuWon’s reaction.

 “▷ Fuhaha. We shall meet again, once the 3rd Tutorial is over. Right now, I have some house cleaning to do.”

Guuuuuuh—

Once again, the inside of the station rumbled.

Just as when he appeared, the Administrator tumultuously tore apart the fabric of space before vanishing. YuWon blankly stared at the spot where he vanished before he checked his new skill.

[Master of Mana]

ᗌ Rank : S+

ᗌ Proficiency : 0.00%

ᗌ One of the Authorities of an Administrator, a being that rules over mana. 

ᗌ +10% mana recovery rate. 

ᗌ +10% mana resistance. 

ᗌ Increased sensitivity to mana.

ᗌ Increased authority over mana.

An S plus-rank skill. And it was one of the Authorities of an Administrator. 

“Isn’t this too much for a reward in the Tutorial?”

Even though he “killed” a Lackey, YuWon wasn’t expecting a reward this great. He would have been satisfied with an A-rank skill or item.

The Authority of an Administrator. Even YuWon has never heard of such a skill.

‘Authority over mana, you say…’

Mana was everything in the Tower. The power to control that mana, Arcane Power, was the biggest factor in deciding who the weak and the strong were. 

To rule over that mana… It was an ability fit to be called an ‘Authority.’

“I probably can’t use it properly yet.”

It was a brand new type of skill, but YuWon knew how to use these kinds of skills well. 

The skill might not be overpowered by itself, but it synergized well with any skill, boosting the user’s abilities. Depending on their proficiency, the usefulness of their skills could be night and day. 

‘Maybe I should be thankful to Olympus.’

Shwoo, shwaaah—

A blue sphere gathered on top of YuWon’s palm. The sphere wasn’t smooth. It continuously morphed irregularly. It was proof that he wasn’t able to properly condense mana yet.

It was a crude Mana Blast.

‘A Mana Blast during the second Tutorial…’

YuWon stared at the sphere in his palm. It wasn’t able to maintain a proper form yet, but it was undoubtedly a Mana Blast.

YuWon’s Arcane Power stat was barely at 26. It took hunting the Mother Worm, getting 2 lucky random stats, and using all his unallocated stat points. 

Mana Blast was a technique that required at least 40 Arcane Power with advanced control over mana. 

Though unstable, YuWon was able to create a Mana Blast with only 26 Arcane Power. Part of it was YuWon having exceptional control over mana, but it still would have been impossible without the effects of [Master of Mana.]

Boom—!

The unstable Mana Blast exploded. The power inside it blew apart like shrapnel, lightly damaging the ground around him. 

He clenched his fist.

“This is pretty nice.”

YuWon had a higher goal than simply making it through the Tutorial in one piece. He didn’t want to climb the Tower and become a Ranker because he desired power or wealth. 

‘But it’s still far from enough.’

Outer Gods were beings that perfectly fit the definition of omnipotent. Regaining his old powers was far from enough to fight them again. He needed far more cards to play against them than he had now. Far, far more. 

* * *

When he received his reward from the Administrator, there were approximately 14 hours left until the 2nd Tutorial was finalized. 

YuWon spent that entire time hunting. 

Earthworms infested more than just the subway station. They populated any underground space. So YuWon killed time by clearing out one basement after another. He didn’t have a choice, since the only monsters in the 2nd Tutorial were Earthworms. 

Near the end of the 2nd Tutorial… 

[Name : Kim YuWon]

[Level : 26]

[Strength : 33]

[Dexterity : 29]

[Constitution : 30]

[Perception : 26]

[Arcane Power: 30]

[Total Points : 10027]

[Unallocated Stat Points : 0]

This was the result of 13 hours of hard work.

After hitting Level 21 by killing the Mother Worm, he grinded 5 levels in 13 hours.

‘Worms aren’t enough anymore.’

Level 26.

At that level, not just YuWon, but anyone would have an easy time hunting an Earthworm.

In the Tutorial, the stronger your opponent is, the greater reward. So, logically, hunting monsters that were far weaker than him resulted in stunted growth. 

‘Thankfully, the 2nd Tutorial is close to being finalized…’

One hour remained.

YuWon decided to go back above ground. 

When the timer ran out and the 2nd Tutorial ended, a bonus reward was given to those inside the safe zone. YuWon wasn’t certain, but it was entirely possible that those outside the safe zone could get disqualified from receiving the reward. 

Tmp, tmp—

YuWon took heavy steps towards the surface. 

A whole day passed by while YuWon was underground, and it was night time once again. 

In the distance, he saw it. 

“What’s that?”

It was the safe zone that had stopped shrinking. Inside the circle, the people were split into two large groups. They were loudly arguing with each other about something.

“That’s why I’m saying let’s wait a bit longer! Hongdae became such a mess. Do you really think the government will do nothing about this? If we just wait one more day…”

“You’re in denial! Our world has changed. Not just Hongdae, but everywhere!”

“Ho-How can you believe that?”

“Didn’t you hear the explanation up till now? Didn’t you hear what sector this was? Do you really think this is the only place like this?!”

“Even if that’s true, isn’t the time almost over? Is there really any need for us to do this?” 

“This was the 2nd one. Who’s to say there won’t be a 3rd or even a 4th? Do you think the next one will somehow be safer? What if this safe zone suddenly disappears? Things could become so dangerous, we won’t even be able to secure the rations that are over there!”

“Stop talking already. We need to form the next resupply squad, now. Who are we sending? We’re almost out of time!”

People were fighting, split into two main factions—people who had accepted this world versus the people who hadn’t yet. 

It was the weak against the relatively strong. 

The people who accepted reality wanted to secure more rations for the safe zone. But they had to avoid the Earthworms above ground to loot the restaurants and convenience stores in the area. 

“Don’t feel so down. We were all originally going to die, and now a lot of us can survive.”

“Tha-That’s not fair! Why can’t we all survive together?”

“You want us all to starve together or something?!”

Inside the zone, people continued to argue. Even among the factions, a few people had already grown close enough to form teams. 

‘I’m not surprised this is happening.’

The safe zone was crowded with people. There was only one reason why this situation was occurring. 

Too many people had survived.

It was the result caused by all the people that should have been culled in the 1st and 2nd Tutorial surviving. People this complacent would not change, no matter how hard YuWon worked. 

Those destined to die would meet their end. Only the ones destined to live would survive. This was the rule of the Tutorial, and this rule would remain the same within the Tower.

“L-Look! Over there!”

“A person?”

“Is that a person over there?”

People started noticing YuWon in the distance.

He was carrying a backpack, walking towards the safe zone. People were surprised that there was a person outside the safe zone, but they were also worried for him.

YuWon became the center of attention. 

Was it because he hunted so many Earthworms? No Earthworms appeared to attack him.

When he was almost to the safe zone… 

Squirm—

‘That’s more like it.’

There was still one remaining Earthworm.

The ground below YuWon shifted. 

A few people with keen eyes spotted it and shouted at YuWon.

“Be-Below you!”

“Be careful!”

The Earthworm shot out from the ground to take a bite out of YuWon. However, YuWon had already hunted thousands of these bugs. 

Even if it was a surprise attack… 

Stomp—!

Splat—

It wasn’t a difficult task for YuWon to crush the Earthworm’s head. 

Thanks to having 33 Strength, he didn’t even have to use his knife to kill the Earthworm. 

Nobody could look away from YuWon.

[REMAINING TIME : 00 : 05 : 12]

YuWon checked the remaining time before speaking.

“Just ignore me and continue whatever you guys were bickering about.”