Adrias Cromwell (2)

With a prominent nose and a dignified posture, the girl exuded an aura that seemed to come solely from her presence, not forced elegance. No, she had blossomed into a woman whose beauty was just beginning to bloom, making it ambiguous whether she could still be called a girl.

With each step she took, her pure black hair swayed, capturing the attention of those around her.

"That's Dienne Yang. They say she got a perfect score on the Magic Dynamics exam."

"Yeah, I'm taking the same class. It's been nine years since anyone got a perfect score. Makes you wonder if she's even human."

"Wow, really? I want to take that class too. How does she have no shortcomings, from her appearance to her abilities?"

"Is it just about appearance and abilities? What about her background?"

Dienne continued to walk with a calm and confident stride, seemingly unaffected by the surrounding chatter.

At that moment, someone caught her eye.

At first, she thought she had seen wrong and was about to pass by, but she soon realized that her eyes were not mistaken and stopped in her tracks.

"Adrias Cromwell."

The eldest son of the Cromwell Viscount.

No, it felt strange to call him a viscount now.

He would probably be demoted soon.

The reason she looked at the pitiful eldest son of such a wretched family was not for any other reason.

His family owed a debt to her family.

That's why they had crossed paths several times since they were young and had some degree of familiarity.

"That was when we didn't know anything as children."

The good times had passed, and now they were merely creditor and debtor.

Ever since the previous Viscount Cromwell died two years ago, she would show her disdainful posture as if she would even trample on him if given the chance.

He was truly a despicable man.

He had no talent, no abilities, and he didn't even make an effort.

He was merely alive because he was born, a worthless piece of trash who didn't even maintain a degrading appearance for a moment of peace.

But still...

"Why?"

Something didn't feel like usual.

Her disheveled hair that swayed like seaweed and her foolish-looking face were the same as usual.

However, it wasn't the usual slouched posture, and her always gloomy expression seemed listless, as if filled with emptiness.

Of course, she had seen him with a troubled expression a few times, but he was clearly different now.

Suddenly, her gaze fell on the book he was holding.

"The Conflicting Understanding of Nature and Mana?"

Of course, it was a book he had already mastered.

But it wasn't a book that such trash could comprehend.

Perhaps it was someone's errand or for some other reason.

The Adrias she knew was that kind of man.

"Hmm?"

As if sensing her gaze, he snapped out of his contemplation and looked in her direction.

"..."

After a moment, he slightly lowered his head and continued on his way.

...He just passed by?

Trying to look back as naturally as possible, she realized that he was indeed just continuing on his way.

"Huh?"

An awkward sigh escaped her lips.

She hurriedly closed her mouth, but even making a sound was an assault on her pride.

"Adrias, right?"

She thought he was a completely different person.

From a distance, she had her doubts, but seeing him up close, the atmosphere was different.

Did Adrias just greet her and pass by like that?

"How strange."

Rather than anger, curiosity and questions swelled up like waves.

Surely, when she saw him last month, he was trash, a bug.

What happened during that time?

"Dienne Alven. Wow, sends shivers down my spine."

Feeling the lingering gazes, I quickened my pace.

I didn't want to get involved with why they were staring at me.

Dienne Alven.

The beloved daughter of the Alven Duke, a renowned magical genius.

She was also the character I had played once before and currently, as the owner of this body, the closest playable character to Adrias.

In other words, it meant that she was the one most likely to kill me.

"But still, seeing her alive and breathing like that gives me a fresh feeling."

Due to the nature of the game where the difficulty increases as the character becomes more wretched, high-spec characters like Dienne Alven were meant for beginners.

I remember her as the third character I chose, and her talent and the power of her family were not to be ignored.

The Alven family was a powerful family that could be called one of the pillars supporting the empire.

"Come to think of it, I was indebted to them as well."

A memory suddenly surfaced, causing me distress.

The feelings of shame and inferiority that this worthless person had harbored were conveyed intensely.

But I have to distinguish it clearly.

"These are not my emotions."

Adrias.

Although he only played a minor role, I was truly invested in the game, so I discovered all the information available about him, even if it was an exaggeration.

Although I didn't know the detailed settings, I couldn't just let him die like before.

"Now I am Adrias."

I am Kim Jinho and Adrias at the same time.

Although it took me nearly a week to accept this reality, I have to do my best to survive now.

And the first step was determined.

"Attributes."

One of the reasons it took me so long to accept this reality.

Here, it was a blend of reality and game-like abilities.

To be precise, it seemed that only I had such abilities.

Ding!

[There are unselected attributes.]

This screen was evidence of that.

If it weren't for this, I might have adapted a little faster.

While the location and the people around me could be explained, when a game-like window appeared in front of me, I naturally thought it was a dream.

Although I had now adapted, at first, I thought I had gone mad.

I closed the game window and checked my information.

[Adrias Cromwell]

―Human

―Mana: 1581

―Specialization: Dual Core

―Talents: Dark Magic Command (General), Elemental Magic Water (Intermediate)

―Skills: Dark Magic Details 〉〉 Elemental Magic Details 〉〉

Pathetic, to say the least.

First, let's talk about mana quantity.

If you don't have any talent related to mana, that amount is considered average.

But average won't cut it in this world.

All the characters I've raised so far had at least one talent related to mana.

"How did I become a magician?"

Becoming a magician without any talent related to mana is difficult.

Unless you have an insane amount of money.

...Is that why our family went bankrupt?

Let's put that aside for now and move on to the specialization.

When you start the game, you are randomly given one specialization.

Of course, there are trash-like specializations that can still be useful for survival, as well as excellent ones.

In the game, I could restart and try to get a good specialization, but in this reality, I couldn't use such tricks.

[Dual Core]

―Epic

―Two mana reservoirs.

―Unlocks the potential of a mage-swordsman.

An Epic-grade specialization.

In terms of grade alone, it's a top-tier specialization.

And being a mage-swordsman has a certain romantic appeal.

"But it's all nonsense."

I've died countless times chasing after that romance.

Didn't I even try it?

I've seen the ending 12 times.

If you don't focus on one aspect, you'll never succeed.

With limited resources and time and double the abilities to develop, the rate of improvement slows down.

On top of that, this is not a game but reality.

Although the crisis period before the game started has been extended, the important thing is that this is reality.

"No, should I raise a low-tier character instead?"

"Haah."

I could only let out a sigh.

Even in the game, I've never achieved a No-Death Clear.

Even with characters far superior to Adrias, there was no No-Death Clear. How am I supposed to survive?

If it were a game, I could decide to focus on one aspect regardless of life or death.

But now, my goal is survival, not clearing the game. So the Dual Core specialization doesn't seem bad.

Because my priority is to survive, not clear the game.

Ultimately, I couldn't say anything about the specialization and had a distaste for it.

"If you have useless talents, fine. But to have them both as General and Intermediate?"

The A-grade talent simply says 'magic' in just two words.

Or 'swordsmanship,' for example.

When the description gets longer, it's not a good thing.

It means you only have talent in that specific area.

And now, even that talent is considered intermediate.

Especially in the case of intermediate talents, it has a negative effect rather than being better than having no talent at all.

If an ordinary person is rated 100, having an intermediate talent means 70 to 80.

"Water magic seems useless."

I realized it here.

It feels like the world is crazy and wants to kill me.

Perhaps the reason Adrias died countless times in the early stages was because of these trivial abilities.

Lastly, skills were an extension of talents.

To quickly level up the skills, you needed to have exceptional talent, but without talent, no matter how much effort you put in, it wouldn't work, especially for magic skills.

―Dark Magic: Basic Command (3/100) 〉〉 Skeleton Summoning LV1

―Elemental Magic: Intermediate Earth (2/100) 〉〉 Greece LV6, Rock Spear LV3, Earth Shield LV5

Even though I'm a third-year at the Academy, having intermediate proficiency is astonishing, but having only one elemental magic skill makes me want to go crazy.

I learned that to enter the Matop, I needed to demonstrate magical achievements by the time I reached the fifth year.

Ah, it should be said, it's not this guy but me.

In the end, there was only one thing left for me.

―Ding!

[You have unselected specializations.]

Selectable specializations.

Even though I've played numerous games, I've never had the opportunity to choose specializations.

In this game, there were elements of roguelike, so sometimes you could gain specializations by defeating mid-bosses or achieving certain accomplishments, but they were all random.

"To survive, I have to make a choice now."

Returning to my dorm room, I put down the book and sat on the chair.

And as positive thoughts crossed my mind, the message on the screen changed.

[Please choose the specialization you want.]

Hundreds of specializations appeared in front of me.

I carefully looked through the list of specializations.

First, I chose all the normal and rare ones.

"There are specializations like these?"

I thought I had seen all the specializations, but there were plenty of ones I had never discovered in epic or unique grades.

Especially the unique specializations, since they couldn't be obtained even by restarting the game, most of them were things I had never seen before, except for a few.

And finally, one specialization caught my attention.

"This is..."

Without realizing it, my thoughts came out of my mouth.

And I pondered for a while.

What is the best course of action for me to survive?

Is this truly the best choice?

How much resources and time do I have?

What is the situation?

"Huff."

It was a matter of life and death, so it was difficult to make a decision so easily.

By the time I checked the calendar in a hurry, Adrias's memories began to emerge.

I realized that I had made a promise with him to meet last night.

It was troublesome.

I won't die.

...Probably.

I quickly put on the clothes I had taken off and prepared to go out.

I have to find him now; otherwise, I'm really going to die.

"But before that..."

I stopped worrying and chose the specialization I had already thought about.

There's no point in agonizing over it for a few more days since the answer won't come.

Now that I've chosen the specialization, my goal is to plan carefully and survive as much as possible.

And the place I'm going to right now will probably be the first step toward that goal.

In this damn situation, I will definitely survive.