Pick Me Up!

“Don’t you have any intention of learning magic?”

Her abrupt question surprised me a little.

“Even though I can only use fire magic, I’m well-versed in theory. It seems to me that you have quite the talent. What do you say?”

“Learn magic?”

“It might be tough to learn it alone, but there are plenty of valuable books in this library. If it’s the basics, you could manage somehow.”

I have already raised my weapon skill to level 6.

‘Are they telling me to become a Dark Swordsman?’

As a 2-star character, my current class is still a novice.

I can choose my class starting from 3 stars. I could continue as a warrior, focusing on swords and shields, but under certain conditions, a path to a hidden class opens up. One of those options was becoming a Dark Swordsman.

I shook my head.

“I’ll pass.”

“Why? It would be good to learn.”

“It will mess up my growth.”

Just because it’s a hidden profession doesn’t mean it’s necessarily stronger.

In certain situations, it might be stronger than regular professions, but more often than not, it’s weaker. Especially for Dark Swordsmen, they need intelligence in addition to the strength and vitality-based warrior stats, which inevitably lowers their overall potential. It means there’s a high chance of ending up being mediocre at everything.

“If you change your mind, let me know anytime.”

“You offered this because you don’t want to solve problems alone, right?”

“W-what nonsense!”

Was that the right answer?

I smirked to myself.

‘Training a researcher.’

After clearing the 15th floor and having a bit of spare time, I planned to assign Eolka to that task.

Researchers belonged to the mage category but acted as support personnel focused solely on research, not combat. The learning curve was much steeper than regular support roles, but out of a dozen, at least one should succeed. I couldn’t keep Eolka here indefinitely.

I observed Eolka working on the problems.

As she solved the problems, she started talking about her background. Her family had been a prestigious one known in the empire, but they had fallen into ruin due to political conflicts. She felt it was her duty to restore her family’s name.

‘I didn’t ask, though.’

“How did you spend your time before coming here?”

“Me? I was a farmer.”

“Lies. Who would believe that?”

“…Just let me solve these problems.”

I spent time flipping through the ancient texts on the bookshelf.

After 3 hours passed, Eolka stood up from her chair, looking tired. The hall’s clock now pointed at midnight.

However, the Master hadn’t logged off yet.

The reason was clear. It was waiting for the accumulation of research points. The research points gained from 3 hours were a total of 30. With 30 points, he could complete the first research.

‘The time has come.’

The research tree is divided into three categories.

The ‘Hero Responsiveness Research’ enhances the hero’s response to missions and commands.

The ‘Facility Scalability Research’ opens up the details of facilities and allows for more direct operations.

The ‘Dungeon Deepening Research’ expands the types of special-purpose dungeons and assists in smooth material procurement.

They respectively manage heroes, facilities, and dungeons.

Among these, the first research Anytng unlocked was,

[Ding!]

[Research, ‘Hero Responsiveness’ is now at Level 1.]

It was the Hero Responsiveness Research.

I had some expectations about the effects of this research.

[Blessings of the Goddess descend upon the waiting room!]

Zing!

Unidentifiable clusters of light shimmered in the sky.

The clusters of light turned into dozens of beams, shooting down from the sky towards the waiting room.

One of the beams pierced through Eolka’s chest, who was in the hall.

“Huh?”

Eolka, who was rising from her chair, staggered.

She sat again on the chair and lowered her head.

“Something’s strange…”

I opened the door to the Magic Hall.

Jenna and Aaron, who were at the training ground, were in a similar situation. They were half-slumped to the ground.

I examined their complexions, but it didn’t seem like they were experiencing any pain.

It seemed like a temporary dizziness or something. It didn’t take long for Eolka to regain her senses and stand up. Her face had turned pale.

“What’s this? I feel really weird.”

“I told you. It’s research.”

“Research? What on earth does this mean?”

I thought for a moment and then said, “Try saying ‘Status Window.'”

“Status Window? Ugh!”

Eolka fell backward.

The surprise was evident in her eyes.

“So it’s visible.”contemporary romance

I chuckled.

“It’s the Status Window. It shows your attributes as numerical values.”

Until now, system messages like Status Windows and mission details were visible only to me.

But things were about to change a bit from now on. One of the reasons 3rd party couldn’t do anything and died was that they couldn’t know the exact purpose of the mission. They couldn’t see the system. They didn’t know the conditions for mission success or failure. The Hero Responsiveness Research was a way to make this possible.

“Strength, Intelligence, Stamina, Agility. And Skills. Can you see?”

“Intermediate Fire Magic… Essence of Flame…?”

“That’s a Skill.”

The light that had seeped into Eolka’s chest didn’t only target her.

All the heroes in the waiting room must have experienced something similar.

“Follow me. We should tell the others too.”

I took Eolka and went out to the training ground.

Aaron was bouncing around the training ground with a terrified expression.

“It’s a ghost!”

“…What are you doing?”

“T-ta, Hyung-nim. This strange text ghost keeps following me!”

I ran up to Aaron and grabbed him.

“Don’t panic. It’s not a ghost or anything. I’ll explain.”

“W-what on earth is this?”

On the other hand, Jenna had a completely composed face.

In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it.

“Ah, so this how it is? This explains a lot! Oppa was looking at things like this. Yay!”

Jenna pointed at me and shouted.

“Appear, Status Window!”

“….”

“Huh? Why isn’t it showing up? Mine was clearly visible.”

“Where did you learn this?”

“I heard you mumbling about it sometimes, Oppa. I felt a weird sensation, so I tried it and something fun came up. These letters… these were what you were looking at, right?”

I nodded.

I was planning to tell them anyway.

It seemed like it will take more than an explanation to get free from them.

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