First Battle
Strictly speaking, it was nothing like a ghillie suit.
"It conceals my presence… and even offers detection resistance… Come to think of it, I hadn't considered this. In martial arts novels, warriors can sense energy far beyond human limits. And those damn mages? Of course they'd have spells to detect life force or presence. This item is directly tied to my survival!"
He hurriedly wrapped the cloak around himself.
It was so large, it resembled a blanket and dragged along the ground. But as soon as he finished putting it on, it shrank to perfectly fit his body.
"As expected, a magic item!"
With both a breastplate and now a cloak in his possession, Seoun felt more confident.
Now, as long as luck was on his side, reaching the top 90 didn't seem so far-fetched.
"That's the advantage of 'Zalpah.' As long as you avoid enemies and keep looting, you'll eventually reach mid-rank."
Following the pre-planned route, Seoun looted six more huts but found no new items. As dusk settled, he opened his map and scanned the dimming surroundings.
"Made it this far safely. From here on, the danger zone's the problem. I need to stay close to it, eliminate threats from behind, and focus purely on survival…"
If he stuck to that plan, the top 90 didn't seem impossible. The real issue was farming the items he wanted.
He had collected more decent items than expected, but it still wasn't enough.
Thrown into an unfair competition as the weakest, even good gear meant little unless he acquired something that could dramatically boost his stats.
While lost in thought, he blended into the surrounding darkness, but then—footsteps.
"An enemy?!"
Startled, Seoun instinctively moved toward a nearby empty hut but froze in place.
"Wait, I'm in stealth!"
Looking down, he noticed his legs were barely visible—another reminder of the cloak's power. He cautiously drew his crossbow and loaded a bolt.
He aimed toward the direction of the sound. After a while, he saw a staggering, bloodied man dragging himself toward the hut.
"Haa… haa…"
As the man passed in front of him, desperately heading for shelter, Seoun began to squeeze the trigger.
"Shoot! Shoot, Jin Seoun! Just shoot! It's only a game! Pull the trigger, you bastard!"
But just as he was about to fire, a flaming projectile surged from behind the man, engulfing and burning him alive.
"Kyaaaagh!"
Watching someone burn to death up close sent cold sweat trickling down Seoun's back.
Only then did his thoughts sharpen.
"If there's someone injured, there's someone who injured them."
Step. Step.
A man, presumably the one who torched the wounded guy, began walking closer. Seoun steadied himself.
"This isn't just a game… I absolutely won't die like that."
Death is terrifying to everyone. But some deaths are especially horrific.
One of them is burning alive.
He stared briefly at the charred corpse in front of him, which then disappeared and was replaced by a wooden box.
Upon seeing the square-shaped crate, Seoun immediately recognized what it was.
"Loot!"
Taking a deep breath, Seoun readied his crossbow again and shifted his gaze toward the sound of approaching footsteps.
But he wasn't aiming where the man was coming from.
Seoun had aimed at the crate left behind by the burnt man—predicting exactly where the enemy would stop.
"I guess I hit him. I thought I heard a scream."
The voice sounded pleased, confirming that the fire spell had luckily hit the man's back.
"Not a great aim, I see."
"A mere enchanter like him… Now let's see what he gathered."
The man approaching the loot was small and unimposing. Seoun realized that, like him, others had also been thrown into this game with average, civilian-level stats.
"Makes sense. Whether it's a world of mages or martial artists, not everyone can be superhuman."
As a strange sense of kinship toward the burned man welled up—someone who had struggled like him only to die to a mage's spell—the moral hesitation in Seoun's heart vanished.
He realized that the one burned to death could've easily been him. Coldly narrowing his eyes, Seoun took aim at the crouching man's head as he opened the loot box—and fired.
Thuck! Whiiish! Tiiing!
The bolt, flying straight for the man's head, bounced off just before impact.
Seoun clearly saw a faint translucent barrier surrounding the man. And he also noticed that a thin crack had appeared across it after blocking the bolt.
Startled by the sudden attack, the man spun around, scanning his surroundings.
"Ascro dan fire."
One hand conjured a fireball while the other drew a longsword. As the man looked around nervously, Seoun quickly reloaded his crossbow.
"He still doesn't know where I am."
That much was obvious from the man's flustered, erratic scanning.
Given it was night and the bolt was black, it made sense. Had the enemy been a knight or a martial artist, that wouldn't have worked. But this mage, with his awkward sword grip, looked no more skilled than Seoun himself.
"Looking all around without sensing the attacker… just like a rogue."
With that thought, Seoun fired a second bolt.
Thuck! Swaaa! Tiiing!
Again, the bolt bounced off with a ting! This time, the man turned directly toward where the shot had come from.
At that moment, the man hurled the fireball with full force toward Seoun's direction.
"Strike!"
As he swung his arm with all his might and completed the incantation, a blazing red fireball—one that had instantly incinerated a man before—grew larger as it flew forward.
-Whoosh!
With a roar, the fireball blasted through the spot where the crossbow had been fired, exploding violently.
But Seoun, unfazed by the fireball that had swept through the area he'd just been in, calmly loaded a third bolt into his crossbow.
He had already rolled to the side and changed position right after firing.
The man, staring at the fireball that had pierced the darkness and vanished, quickly muttered an incantation.
"Eye Detection!"
Casting a detection spell, he scanned the area. When no humans were detected, he cautiously began to move forward.
Convinced that his fireball had burned another enemy to death, he moved slowly—just in time to take a bolt to the back of the head.
-Thunk! Slice! Clatter!
With the sound of shattering glass, the magical shield protecting him broke, and the man spun around to begin chanting.
"Ascro Dan Fai…"
But he never finished the incantation.
Seoun's throwing star flew almost silently through the darkness, piercing the man squarely in the forehead.
-Thud.
The man collapsed backward, lifeless. Watching the corpse fall, Seoun finally managed to stand up.
He had been crouched from the beginning to improve his crossbow's accuracy. Now, straightening his back, he touched his now-empty energy core with a bitter smile.
"One shot and I'm completely drained."
Worried the man might recast his shield, Seoun had used all his inner power to launch the throwing star immediately after the bolt. As a result, his small energy core was instantly emptied.
Approaching the corpse, he saw that the man, still staring with wide-open eyes, gradually became transparent—and soon disappeared entirely.
In his place appeared a wooden chest.
"Whew."
-Thump.
Only after seeing the chest did the realization of survival hit, and his body relaxed all at once.
Catching his breath, Seoun opened the chest—and his face lit up.
Seeing the items filling the chest, he began pulling them out one by one.
[Ding! You've obtained a longsword.]
[A standard longsword made of iron. The blade is undamaged.]
"Well, that figures. It was probably just a longsword the mage carried for self-defense."
Without even drawing the sword, Seoun strapped it to his waist, tossing aside useless clothes and a cloak, and turned his attention to a few leather pouches.
[Ding! You've obtained a Mana Stone. It assists with magic use and increases spell success rate.]
"They have stuff like this too? And this… jerky, huh."
Seoun shoved the pouches containing jerky and mana stones into his subspace storage and examined the rest.
[Ding! You've obtained the Ascro Necklace.]
[This necklace, crafted in pure gold, signifies a mage of the Ascro Magic Council. Showing it at an Ascro branch may get you assistance.]
"Tch! Trash."
Disappointed it didn't enhance his stats, Seoun was about to toss the necklace aside but instead stored it in his subspace.
"It's pure gold… Might be useful if I can take it back to Earth."
[Ding! You've obtained Dual Spelling. While equipped, you can cast one additional spell beyond your normal limit.]
"Huh? What does that mean?"
[Details: Dual Spelling is an item that boosts the wearer's spell-casting capability. A mage who can cast one spell will be able to cast two simultaneously. A mage capable of two spells can now cast three.]
"Ah. So it lets you double-cast. That's why the guy could cast both a shield and a fireball at the same time. Guess he wasn't that great of a mage after all."
Seoun's guess was spot-on.
The mage he had killed was just a rookie, newly promoted from apprentice.
[Ding! You've obtained a Mid-Tier Healing Scroll. Use now?]
[Ding! You've obtained a Shield Scroll. Use now? Activates a shield until it breaks.]
[Ding! You've obtained an Awakening Potion. Use now? Enhances all neural activity for 1 hour. May cause aftereffects.]
"Guess it's smart to use the shield now…"
As he spoke, he tore the scroll. With a whooshing sound, a thin membrane surrounded his body, then vanished.
"The problem is, what is this thing…?"
[Details: The Awakening Potion is a magical drug often used by mages. It stimulates the brain and nervous system, but can cause fatigue and weakness after use.]
"Stimulates the brain and nerves? So, magic caffeine or something? Not like I need it, though…"
Despite his words, Seoun shoved the potion into his subspace.
"And the last item is… another scroll. Typical mage loot, huh. Tsk."
[Ding! You've obtained a Mana Explosion Scroll. Use now? Warning: You are currently within the blast radius.]
"Mana Explosion? What now?"
Before he could finish the question, a detailed explanation popped up.
[Details: The Mana Explosion Scroll causes a mana blast. Activation conditions vary by scroll. The one you've obtained is a trap scroll. It explodes when someone passes through the designated area. Use with caution.]
"Heh… Land mines too?"
Shaking his head at the sheer variety of scrolls, Seoun still stuffed the trap scroll into his subspace.
"I was hoping for something that could teach me magic…"
Looking down in disappointment at the chest that had betrayed his expectations, Seoun turned to the other wooden box—the one left behind by the man who had been burned alive.
Not expecting much, he opened it—only to find it surprisingly full of items, which made him grin.
The first thing he checked was a leather pouch, when a familiar chime rang in his ears.
[Ding! You've obtained a Beginner Circle Stone. Use now? Cooldown: 3 hours.]
"Circle Stone? What's this?"
Now used to it, Seoun automatically asked for the detailed explanation.