I stared blankly at what was on Gretel’s head.
Even upon a second look, it still seemed to be a fruit.
Of course, it wasn’t fully ripe yet, so it was quite small, but it clearly had the shape of a fruit.
Could it be a type of elixir?
I immediately activated the Outsider’s Privilege.
━━
[Mysterious Demonic Tree Fruit (???)]
Description: A mysterious fruit that grows on the demon tree. The effects and efficacy of the fruit vary depending on the demon tree’s mood and growth. Wait until the fruit fully ripens.
━━
“…What the.”
A fruit whose effects change depending on its mood?
I still couldn’t tell its exact effects, but it seemed Gretel was a summon that provided elixirs to its summoner.
I had been hoping for a summon useful in battle, but this wasn’t bad in its own way.
Still, the effect changes depending on mood?
Did that mean I had to match Gretel’s mood?
I blankly looked at Gretel.
Her sparkling eyes didn’t seem to suggest a bad mood.
As I stared at her, I reached out my hand to the fruit on her head.
She flinched slightly and stepped away from me.
“Did it hurt?”
Gretel nodded.
Since the fruit’s effect depended on her mood, I figured I should apologize.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”
Even as I apologized, Gretel kept stuffing sausages into her mouth.
It was fascinating how such a small body could keep taking in so much food.
As I crouched down and watched her, I suddenly noticed the wide-open fridge and became curious.
“Hey Gretel. By the way, how did you open the fridge?”
Gretel was only slightly bigger than the palm of my hand.
There was no way she could open the fridge door on her own.
With a sausage still in her mouth, she looked up at me and tilted her head.
Hmm. Did she not understand the word “fridge”?
I pointed at the fridge door and said,
“This square thing. How did you open it?”
Only then did Gretel nod in understanding, and walked toward the fridge.
Then, she jumped an incredible height, clung to the fridge handle and opened it with an oddly skillful movement.
I was left speechless.
“Holy crap. What is this?!”
Saturday—the first weekend after the start of the school term.
Today, a busy schedule awaited me.
Because the cooldown for the battle maniac trait, “Victory Call,” had reset.
For rapid growth, I had to make use of it every week, so I had to spend effort finding a suitable opponent.
I arrived in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do.
It didn’t take long to find the target.
I had the personal information of several criminals and the effect of the Outsider’s Privilege, “Character Insight.”
“Grrrgh!”
Right now, in front of me, the targeted demon clutched his half-disappeared shoulder and glared at me.
He looked like he was trying to get a good look at my face, but I had completely covered it with a hat and mask today.
“Damn it! A sneak attack?! How cowardly—!”
I formed a new light-element sphere above my hand.
The opponent was at least a B-rank demon.
The situation was in my favour, but I still had to stay alert until the end.
Then, the demon spoke to me.
“You… Are you Kim Jinwoo?”
I momentarily froze.
Even though I had perfectly hidden my identity with a hat and mask, he recognized me.
“…That reaction confirms it.”
Had word about me spread among the demons?
Well, considering how I was mentioned in the news every time I hunted one, it wasn’t that strange.
Instead of answering, I immediately unleashed my light-element magic.
Boom!
“Gaaah!”
The spell pierced through his stomach.
The light-element mana slowly burned through his body.
I added a few more light-element orbs to various parts of his body for good measure.
“Aaaargh…”
He was already torn apart.
Even a B-rank demon couldn’t do much with holes all over their body.
It looked like the tide had fully turned in my favor.
Maybe it was time to try that.
It was part of today’s objective anyway.
I took a deep breath and poured mana into the “Legacy of the Formless Spirit.”
Bzzzzzz…
At the same time, the magic sphere in my hand began to spark.
Crackle. Crack-crack…
The non-elemental orb gradually turned blue and began to charge with electricity.
There were a few stinging pains in my palm, but after a few training sessions, it was much more bearable now.
“Grrgh! What is that… Electricity?”
Despite rolling on the ground in pain, the demon looked surprised at my electric orb.
Then it happened.
The electric orb sparked just like before and burned my palm hard.
“Grrgh!”
I clenched my teeth and flinched.
The demon seemed to take that as an opportunity and, with his shredded body, attempted an attack.
As his fist was just about to hit my stomach—
I unleashed the magic.
Zzzzzzap—!
Boom!
[You have won the battle against the target!]
[As a result of “Victory Call,” you have acquired the trait “Light Footed.”]
[You have achieved the achievement: “Defeat with Electric Element.”]
[You receive 3,000 points as a reward.]
[Your proficiency in Electric Element has increased.]
[With the effect of “Blessing of Nature,” you gain additional proficiency in Electric Element.]
[You have acquired the trait “Electric Element Control.”]
[You have single-handedly defeated the B-rank villain, “Lee Jong.”]
[Causality has increased by 0.3.]
Numerous messages floated in front of me.
Since it was my first time fighting using electricity, I earned some bonus points.
“Ow… That stings.”
I shook my reddened hand.
Looking over at the demon’s corpse, I could see electricity still running through his body.
Not as strong as the light element—his natural weakness—but still quite destructive.
It did eat up a lot of mana, though.
“Hoo…”
Still, today, I defeated a B-rank demon without the Heart of Nature, mana elixirs, or my fighting spirit—just with my own strength.
Sure, I started by blowing off his shoulder with a surprise attack, but compared to the past, this was a huge improvement.
Soon, special agents who sensed the mana would gather here.
I didn’t want the world to know I could use the electric element yet, so I quickly left the area.
A hideout of the Ten Demon Council, shrouded in darkness.
Only demons with an invitation could enter this secret place, where nine S-rank demons had gathered in one place.
“It’s been a while, everyone.”
“Yeah, it has. But doesn’t it feel weird having one seat empty?”
Someone murmured from the shadows.
“It’s been about four months since Seong jin died, huh?”
“Yeah. Never thought he’d die, honestly.”
“Tch. Unlucky bastard.”
Then, as if someone suddenly remembered something, they spoke.
“Now that I think about it, there’s been a lot of recent incidents of our kind being hunted. Did you all hear?”
The other demons nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. It’s been increasing a lot lately. But apparently, most of it is the work of one guy.”
“That human mage, wasn’t his name… Kim Jinwoo?”
The moment his name was mentioned, everyone reacted like they knew it.
Which made sense.
About half of all recent demon purges had been caused by Kim Jinwoo.
Still, they weren’t too suspicious yet.
As a minority race, demons were known for their tight bonds.
Especially when something happened to someone close to them, demons would pursue revenge more fiercely than anyone.
So they figured the recent demon-hunting incidents involving Kim Jinwoo were simply driven by revenge from other demons.
As the conversation continued, a new voice echoed from the shadows.
“Looks like everyone is here.”
At once, everyone went silent.
The voice belonged to the “King” of the demons.
He scanned the nine gathered demons and spoke.
“I’ll keep this brief. In about two months, we’ll carry out the plan to eliminate the Child of Prophecy. Who among you will participate?”
“…!”
Everyone was shocked at the king’s words.
A plan to eliminate the Child of Prophecy?
Had they already succeeded in finding them?
“You say… eliminate? You’ve found them?”
At one demon’s question, the king responded.
“Cheonhae.”
At the king’s summons, Cheonhae stepped out from the shadows.
“You called?”
“Explain the plan.”
10 PM.
I wrapped up my personal schedule and training, then returned to the dorm.
When I stepped inside, I saw Gretel sprawled out asleep. Beside her, a half-eaten sausage was lying around—looks like she fell asleep while eating.
Still, unlike yesterday, the room was clean. Surprisingly, she had followed my instructions not to make a mess.
I examined her closely to see if there had been any changes like with the fruit last time, but nothing seemed different.
Seeing how small she still is, she must be in her growth phase… I wonder when she’ll finally grow.
“…First, I should wash up.”
After washing off the sweat from my body, I came back to the living room and collapsed on the sofa, activating the Outsider’s Privilege.
I hadn’t looked closely earlier, but it turned out I got an unexpected gain today.
Instead of a stat, I had acquired a trait from the “Victory Call.”
Let’s check what kind of trait it is.
━━
[Light Footed (B)]
Category: Trait
Description: Your steps become lighter.
[Passive Effects]
▶ Swift Footwork
Increases movement speed by 10%.
▶ Silent Steps
Infuses magic into your feet to greatly reduce footstep noise and presence.
━━
“Oh.”
A surprisingly versatile trait.
An increase in movement speed, and the ability to reduce both footstep noise and presence.
Especially with “Silent Steps”—since it reduces not only sound but also presence—it’ll be insanely useful during infiltration.
“This is way better than I thought.”
And it’s even a B-grade trait.
That’s basically over ten thousand points earned for free.
“Well, it should be this good for an S-grade trait.”
After all, I spent a hundred thousand points on it.
While wondering what to do with the remaining time, I suddenly became curious about how much causality had accumulated.
A good amount of time had passed, and I’d taken down quite a few villains.
━━
[Causality: 8.85]
━━
“8.8, huh…”
Still haven’t broken past 10.
At least the encouraging part is that the speed of accumulation seems to be increasing over time.
“I think something unlocks once it hits 10.”
━━
??? [Causality 10]
—Unlocks once causality exceeds 10.
━━
I’m really curious what kind of Authority it will be.
It’s not a skill, but an “Authority,” so it’s likely to be something way beyond what I’m imagining.
That said, I’m aiming for the “Deus Ex Machina,” which requires 100 causality, so I probably won’t use an Authority casually.
“Meh.”
Finally, I logged onto the internet and accessed “Forest of Mages,” a mage community.
You can sometimes find unexpected “rumors” or “intel” while browsing these kinds of mage communities.
Of course, there’s a lot of nonsense too, so you have to filter it carefully. Still, it’s good to occasionally check in to stay updated on the flow of the mage world.
As I was skimming through, a post title caught my eye.
- Forest of Mages Anonymous Board +
[Has anyone gotten a recruitment offer from ㅎㅅ? The pay here is pretty nuts.]
I knew instantly what it was.
ㅎㅅ.
Hanseong.
The conglomerate, Hanseong Group.
- Comments +
[What’s ㅎㅅ? Don’t use initials, come on.]
[I got an offer. ㅎㅅㄱㄹ, right?]
[Yeah. What’s your rank? I’m A.]
[S. But if you don’t want to die, don’t go lol]
[Still not saying where ㅎㅅ is?]
[I got an offer too. Seems like ㅎㅅㅈ is pissed off. But I value my life too much. I’m an A-rank who once underwent S-rank screening.]
ㅎㅅㅈ stands for Han Se-jin.
If you’re wondering why they’re using initials—it’s because Han Se-jin is secretly recruiting high-ranking mages.
They’re probably using initials out of basic courtesy to maintain some level of secrecy.
So Han Se-jin is gathering mages for the Jaun Subjugation.
This part hasn’t changed from the original story.
“Hm.”
Han Se-jin’s Jaun Subjugation Squad.
Though everyone online seems to be avoiding it, quite a few capable mages will probably join.
That’s because there are more people in this world than you’d think who harbour a deep grudge against Jaun.
Of course, we already know how it ends.
“Yawn…”
Getting sleepy. Maybe it’s time for bed.
Right then, a message arrived on my smart student notebook.
I instinctively knew who it was from.
Choi Seo-yoon.
These days, she’s been sending me messages around this time.
[Senpai. Remember how you joked about being popular? You really are now. 😲]
Popular?
Well, I can kind of feel it. My performance has been climbing steadily.
It’s nice earning points and all, but acting indifferent is the better play here. It’s cooler.
[I don’t care about being popular.]
[Lol liar. Weren’t you just talking about “the life of a popular guy” before?]
“When was that…”
[Ah, but now that you’re popular, I feel kind of sad. I used to be your #1 fan.]
…“#1 fan”? What the heck is that supposed to mean?
Time flew by, and it was already Monday of the following week. The first comprehensive training session of the morning began.
“Nice to meet you all. I’m Chris, and I’ll be teaching the second semester’s ‘Magic in Practice and Experience’ course.”
In front of the portal leading to the school’s multipurpose virtual training grounds—
Teacher Chris, or rather Jung Hyun, began his introduction in front of the 50 students of Class A.
“To introduce myself: I work as a magic consultant, and I spent about two years at a magic academy in the UK.”
A few girls sparkled their eyes at his introduction.
It probably wasn’t his credentials—they were likely impressed by his good looks.
“I’ll be giving you training geared toward real-world experience. The reason we’ve gathered here at the outdoor training field today is exactly that.”
Jung Hyun smiled.
“Today’s training will be a ‘Hostage Rescue and Anti-Terror Simulation’!”
Hostage rescue and anti-terror simulation.
Just like the name suggests, everyone takes on a role and gains real-world experience through the simulation.
And the more faithfully you act out your assigned role, the higher your score.
You might wonder what good it is to play a terrorist in training, but the idea is to experience that role and understand their mindset. Doesn’t really click with me, though.
“I’ll be assigning each of you a role. There are three total: Hostage, Terrorist, and Special Agent.”
“Whoa, sounds fun.”
“Right? I kinda wanna try being a terrorist or a hostage.”
The moment training roles were mentioned, a light buzz of excitement rippled through the students.
Jung Hyun raised his hand to signal for quiet.
The students quickly fell silent.
“Alright then. Let’s assign the roles.”
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