[Special Discount!]
[‘Trait Enhancement (???)’ is now available at 50% off!]
[Remaining discount period: 6 days]
It had been a while since a special discount appeared.
The name of the item on sale was ‘Trait Enhancement.’
But unlike what I expected, it wasn’t a trait, skill, or item that was being sold.
The fact that it was labelled with ‘???’ meant that it was a ‘special item’ that could only be obtained through the point shop.
━━
[Trait Enhancement (???)]
Category: Special (Limited Sale)
Description: Enhances traits that have proficiency levels.
[Effect]
▶ Trait Enhancement
Raises the proficiency grade of an owned trait by 3 levels.
Price: 60,000 (50% discounted price)
━━
“…What the.”
It was a bit… no, a lot stranger than I expected.
From the name, I could tell that it was probably something that enhanced traits, but I didn’t think it would raise a grade by a whole three levels.
“This actually looks pretty good.”
Even though a 3-level boost might not sound like much, it’s actually a big deal.
It took me around 4 to 5 months to raise the ‘Blessing of the Great Nature’ trait by 3 levels, so considering how it gets harder as the level increases, this would basically save me at least two years’ worth of time.
“Huh. This is a tough decision.”
Still, spending 60,000 points at once felt heavy—it was enough to buy an A-grade trait.
Rather than making an impulse buy just because it’s discounted, I had to make sure it was really worth it.
“If it boosts the grade by 3 levels, that’s definitely worth it.”
Raising a trait’s grade doesn’t just improve its existing effects—it can also unlock new abilities.
That means raising a grade can practically give you the effect of gaining a brand-new trait.
“Hmmm.”
After agonizing over it for a bit, I made up my mind.
“Alright, let’s buy it.”
A limited-time item at 50% off—if I didn’t get it now, I’d probably regret it later. Even if I ended up regretting it, I should at least try.
Without hesitation, I purchased the trait.
[You have purchased Trait Enhancement (???).]
[You have achieved the ‘Limited Purchase’ achievement.]
[You receive 4,000 points as a reward.]
[Select a trait to enhance.]
As soon as I made the purchase, a prompt appeared asking me to choose a trait to enhance.
Among the traits I had with proficiency grades, the best one was definitely ‘Blessing of the Great Nature.’
Of course, the most expensive trait I owned was ‘Battle Maniac,’ but that one didn’t have proficiency grades since it was a fixed trait, so it couldn’t be enhanced.
Well, ‘Blessing of the Great Nature’ was such a solid, reliable trait that I had no regrets anyway.
[Enhancing ‘Blessing of the Great Nature (A)’.]
[The proficiency grade of ‘Blessing of the Great Nature (A)’ is 3.]
[The proficiency grade of ‘Blessing of the Great Nature (A)’ has surpassed 5!]
[‘Blessing of the Great Nature’ has been promoted to S-grade!]
[All effects of ‘Blessing of the Great Nature’ have been updated to match its new grade!]
[You have achieved the ‘Well-Raised Trait’ achievement.]
[You receive 5,000 points as a reward.]
“Huh? What?”
Did it just say that Blessing of the Great Nature got promoted to S-grade?
My heart thumped with excitement.
I brushed away the string of achievement messages and quickly checked the updated trait.
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[Blessing of the Great Nature (S) [Grade: 2 (28%)]]
[Passive Effects]
▶ Nature’s Grace
When circulating mana, additional mana is gained. Depending on the surrounding environment, you can gain up to an additional 230% mana.
Additional attribute proficiency is gained. Depending on the situation, you can gain up to 150% more attribute proficiency.
▶ Nature’s Rest
Health and mana recovery speed is increased by 100%.
Wound recovery is accelerated.
Recovery from various status effects is also accelerated.
▶ Grasp of Nature
You can control the natural mana in the air with your will.
[Active Effect]
▶ Heart of Nature
For 3 minutes, health and mana recovery speed is increased by 1000%.
*Cooldown: 20 hours
━━
“Whoa.”
Reading the updated effects left me speechless.
New abilities were unlocked, and the existing ones were massively upgraded.
Originally, Blessing of the Great Nature focused mostly on mana recovery, but now with the S-grade promotion, it included health recovery as well.
And the core ability, Heart of Nature, had its duration increased from 1 minute to a whopping 3 minutes—three times longer.
“Heart of Nature is the biggest win here.”
That short 1-minute duration always felt too brief, but with 3 minutes now, it felt just right. It even matched the duration of Fighting Spirit.
Not a single point of those 60,000 felt wasted.
Honestly, if it went on sale again, I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.
“But what’s this?”
Grasp of Nature.
That was the name of the new passive effect that had been added.
Apparently, it let me control the natural mana in the air using my will.
At that moment, the method of using Grasp of Nature became imprinted in my mind.
“Let’s try it.”
I looked around and settled my gaze on the refrigerator.
I focused my mind on the area around it.
Then, the blue mana in the air—normally invisible to ordinary eyes—began to appear.
As I concentrated even more, the natural mana started to respond and shift according to my will.
“Ooh…”
I was still clumsy with it, but it was definitely moving the way I wanted.
Slowly, I used the natural mana to grip the refrigerator door’s handle.
“Ugh.”
Suddenly, a sharp headache hit me.
It reminded me of the first time I used magic—when I was learning to handle imagination.
But I endured the pain and carefully pulled the fridge door open using the natural mana.
Creeeak.
The fridge door, now wrapped in natural mana, slowly began to open.
It felt like I was using telekinesis or something.
“Whoa…”
I stared at it with a blank expression.
“But… how am I supposed to actually use this?”
Four days later, on Friday during homeroom.
Jang Ancheol was explaining the final schedule to the students.
“Alright, the list of field instructors you’ve all been waiting for is out. It’s posted up front, so make sure to check it.”
“Ooh, this is exciting.”
“I heard a bunch of famous mages came this time.”
Jang Ancheol continued.
“Oh right, student registration starts next week. This week was the contact period with the external instructors—you all knew that, right? I’m sure quite a few of you already got contacted personally by them.”
The students nodded. No wonder everyone had been glued to their phone all week.
Of course, I just let it slide in one ear and out the other.
I’d already decided to choose Lee Hee-young as my instructor.
Strictly in terms of teaching ability, she was more than qualified.
“That’s it for homeroom. Good job, everyone.”
Jang Ancheol left the classroom.
Students immediately rushed to the front to check the list of external instructors.
I got up from my seat without bothering and began packing up. I’d rather finish training and get some rest.
“Kim Sunwoo.”
That was Lee Seo-jun’s voice calling me. When I turned around, he was standing there with an awkward smile.
Now that I think about it, this is the first time we’ve spoken since the tournament.
He’d been kind of avoiding me—maybe feeling awkward about getting mad at me back then. But I guess he’s over it now.
“What?”
“I was just wondering if you decided on an instructor.”
“Instructor? Yeah, I’m going with Lee Hee-young.”
My answer seemed unexpected, and he paused to think.
“Hm. Really? Well, she’s definitely a good choice.”
“What about you?”
I already knew, but asked for the sake of the conversation.
“I’m with Mage Shin Sungwoo. We’ve already talked.”
Sword Saint Shin Sungwoo.
A star mage with the nickname “Sword Saint”—he was known for his unmatched sword skills.
He was also someone who would have a great influence on Lee Seo-jun’s swordsmanship.
“Nice. You’re learning under a really amazing guy.”
“True, but didn’t you get a ton of messages too?”
I did. But most of them were from people I didn’t even know, starting with guild scouts and such.
Honestly, giving out student notebook contact info to school insiders felt like a privacy breach.
“There were too many messages. I haven’t even checked them. They just piled up.”
I showed him my message inbox. It was overflowing—600+ unread.
His eyes widened.
“Whoa. That’s, like, double what I got.”
“Idiot. People gave up on you ‘cause you’re too good. I’m the easy target, so they reached out.”
“Come on, don’t talk like that. Why’s your self-esteem in the basement?”
“…Whatever.”
Sunday, 10 AM.
Maybe because it was a weekend morning, but the training hall was unusually quiet.
On Saturdays you’d at least see a few people around, but Sunday mornings? It’s like everyone agreed to sleep in. Not a soul in sight.
I was sitting on a bench in the training hall, waiting for someone.
Bored of sitting still, I played around by using Nature’s Grasp to move trash on the ground.
I’d been practicing it here and there over the past few days, and it was starting to feel pretty smooth.
Not that I had any idea how to actually use it in combat.
“You’re already here?”
A voice called out. Yoo Ara showed up, wearing a black tracksuit with her hair tied back. She looked casual, but her beauty still lit up the room.
“You’re here?”
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No, I just got here too.”
I stood up.
We were meeting today for assistance in training—something we’d agreed on earlier.
We went into the training room together.
Yoo Ara stretched and looked at me.
“So, what do we start with? We can’t really do secondary form training, right?”
“We’ll have to rely on imagination. Start small—something easier to manifest.”
I summoned a small spell above my palm as a demonstration.
It felt weird. I hadn’t tried making anything other than orbs in a while.
The shape I made was a small, right-angled rectangle.
A mini version of a ‘wall.’
It was laughably small for real combat use, but this was just for practice.
“Start with something small like this.”
Yoo Ara looked at the tiny wall in my palm and murmured quietly.
“…You said you couldn’t do secondary forms, but you’re not half bad.”
I wouldn’t go that far. This is pretty much my limit.
Funny thing is, I didn’t meet up today to teach her, but somehow I ended up in the teacher role.
“I’ll give it a shot.”
Yoo Ara nodded and focused her mana onto her palm.
A moment later, the mana flared into a wall of flames.
“…What the hell.”
She got it on the first try?
She manifested a shape she’d never tried before—just like that?
I was impressed when I taught Yoon Hayoung, but this? This was next level. It kinda stung.
“That was easier than I thought.”
“…You just made it look easy.”
“Well, I guess it’s because I’ve mostly worked with simple shapes like spheres.”
“Hmm.”
That did make sense. Those who specialized in detailed shapes like spears or arrows often struggled with secondary forms.
Maybe that’s why I got the hang of it quickly too?
“Anyway, just gradually increase the size from here.”
“Sounds simple.”
“…Sure, let’s go with that.”
Coming from anyone else, I might’ve called it arrogant. But from Yoo Ara, it felt genuine.
“Oh, here you are~”
A middle-aged man’s voice suddenly echoed from somewhere.
Me and Yoo Ara instinctively turned toward it.
A man stood before us without a hint of warning.
Messy hair, unshaven beard. His face looked oddly familiar.
I froze a little. …No way.
“Who are you?”
Yoo Ara asked. The man answered confidently.
“I’m a new external instructor for field training.”
Another surprise. An external instructor?
“Oh, hello.”
Yoo Ara quickly bowed. The man smiled and nodded, then looked at me.
“Kim Sunwoo?”
“…Yes, that’s me.”
“Nice to meet you. But why didn’t you respond to my messages?”
“Messages?”
“This week was the contact period, remember? I reached out, but you ignored me. I mean, leaving someone on read is one thing, but not even reading it for a whole week? I got so annoyed I came to find you myself.”
Apparently, he’d come to recruit me personally. That was… unexpected.
“There were just too many messages. I didn’t even realize.”
“…I see. Still, try to check them in time.”
Then he glanced at Yoo Ara next to me.
“So, is she your girlfriend? Not bad. You’ve got good taste.”
Yoo Ara instantly frowned. She looked genuinely pissed off.
Which, in turn, annoyed me. Not at the man—but on her behalf.
[You have achieved the ‘Third Rejection’ achievement.]
[You have received 3,000 points as a reward.]
What? Seriously?
I didn’t even confess. And I didn’t get rejected either.
The man stared at Yoo Ara’s face for a moment, then spoke.
“…Wait, are you Jiho’s daughter by any chance?”
Yoo Ara’s eyes widened in shock. Yoo Jiho. That was her father’s name.
“You know my father?”
“Sure. I mean, I knew him. Guy had a nasty temper, so we weren’t exactly best friends.”
“…May I ask your name?”
Yoo Ara asked. The man rubbed his scratchy beard and said:
“Choi Ilhyeon.”
When Choi Ilhyeon revealed his identity, Yoo Ara’s expression changed again.
“…The Eccentric?”
“Don’t call me that. I hate that nickname. Some girl gave me that and it stuck. Just call me Hermit, alright?”
Then he turned back to me.
“So, I came all the way here to personally offer to be your instructor. What do you think?”
Choi Ilhyeon said confidently.
He probably thought I’d be thrilled to accept—after all, his name was well-known around the world.
And to be fair, I did know exactly who he was.
I knew how incredible Choi Ilhyeon really was. I also knew just how important he’d be later in the original story.
…But still.
“I already registered with someone else, though.”
“…Huh?”
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