I Never Run Out of Mana Chapter 51

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51. Beautiful Flowers Attract Bugs

The Awakened special handling force had finished their meeting.

Vice CEO Kim Ho Jin had left.

After confirming he left, one man asked everyone a question.

“Hey. Who’s going to take the Kim Min-Cheol case?”

“If he’s someone that goes through level 23 dungeons as if nothing, wouldn’t I be risking my life if I were to take on this case? I have 3 kids. Ahem!”

“Oh. Of course senior shouldn’t be doing work like this,” the junior said as he massaged his shoulders.

He continued while glaring at everyone else at the table.

“If you want this case, raise your hand up quickly!”

They were too busy giving glances at one another.

But that only lasted for a moment.

One man raised his hand.

“I.. I will…”

“Oh! Se-Jin. You looked like a smart kid from the start. Confident? When you start off, you should start with the tough ones to get used to things quickly.”

“Yes…”

“And this is something the vice CEO specifically requested of us, so make sure the report looks good, okay?”

“Yes. I understand!”

“What did I say. All work?”

“In moderation!”

“Good. Do your best.”

“Yes!”

A tree cannot grow well if the roots are rotten.

The association worked just enough to keep up appearances.

* * * *

“Who are you?”

The man who was keeping me under surveillance was rummaging through his wallet for something.

With his trembling hand, he pulled out something and preceded to hand it over to me.

“Awakened Association Special Maintenance Force Se-Jin Kim.”

“From the Awakened Association?”

“Yes. That’s correct. Here is my ID.”

The man gave out his association ID with fear in his eyes.

The association was made up of the elites, keeping a tight control over the Awakened.

This man must be either someone with very low ranking or a new blood.

After checking his ID, I asked him a question.

“So, what’s the occasion?”

“That’s… Are you Kim Min-Cheol?”

“That’s correct.”

“What’s your age? How long have you been an Awakened for?”

“Are you here to do an interview?”

“Ah. This is part of protocol…”

“18 years old and about 4 months since I’ve Awakened.”

“Hm… Haven’t reached the age to get a license… If you have a school ID, could you show it to me?”

“Instead of only asking me questions, how about answering mine? What is this about.”

“You’ve been put under suspicion of using a stolen or forged Awakened ID and an investigation has been launched for you.”

“Illegal ID?”

“Yes. It’s only been 4 months since you’ve become Awakened, but we’ve been receiving data that you’ve been solo clearing the level 23 dungeon.”

Murmuring the words, he seemed to be trembling like a leaf.

‘Did I say I was going to devour him or something?’

Now I was able to grasp the situation.

I knew this would happen eventually.

Even on the first day I met Jong Ho.

When I received the reward for defending against the succubi portal explosion, I was put under suspicion as well.

Thankfully for the idiotic association member who only tried to get his work over with, I was able to avoid the annoying complications.

All he wanted to do was to confirm the ID that I was using.

Wouldn’t I just have to let him confirm and be done with it?

“Here it is. My school ID.”

“Sorry… I mean. Thank you.”

After receiving my school ID, he looked back and forth between the ID and my face to check.

“Wew….”

After checking my ID, he sighed in relief.

“All done?”

“Um… I’m sorry but can you also do a fingerprint testing..”

“…Wew.”

I felt bad for Se-Jin Kim, shaking in fear and working late into the night.

To get it over with as quickly as possible, I did as he wanted.

Beep.

My information came up.

“Thank you. It really is you. Sorry for all the trouble.”

“No worries. We’re done right?”

“Yes. The confirmation process is complete.”

“I’ll be going then.”

“It’s amazing. To be able to do a level 23 dungeon in 4 months…”

“See you…”

I didn’t want to waste any more time.

I left him behind and headed towards the bench.

‘I got away easy this time, but seems like things are going to get bothersome.’

One day, my identity would be revealed, but at least I wanted to live quietly until I defeated Jin and his group.

I called Se-Jin.

“Hey there.”

“Yes! Mr. Min-Cheol.”

“Let’s go eat to out sometime.”

“R..Really? Wow! Thank you. Thank you very much.”

Se-Jin nodded eagerly with joy.

Now for the actual reason of calling Se-Jin back.

“By the way, does this identity confirmation automatically get uploaded to the servers?”

“No. This stuff isn’t on the network. Why do you ask?”

“Please delay the report as long as possible then.”

“Huh? I’ve already confirmed that you aren’t an illegal Awakened yet. There’s no reason keep others suspicious of you.”

“Come on. Even if that’s the case, there’s no Awakened who accomplished what I did in 4 months.”

“That’s true.”

“The news on TV and newspapers will have me featured. If that happened, do you think other countries will leave me alone? They’ll be asking me to transfer over. That would be a loss for this country.”

“Aha! That makes sense.”

‘What the… I was able to convince Se-Jin that easily? What a naive person.’

“Ah… Yes… I’ll be counting on you.”

“Don’t you worry! That cannot happen!”

“Thank you. Then I’ll be on my way.”

“Yes. Fighting!”

Perhaps Se-Jin is an airhead like Tae-Seong from my class.

There were many Awakened with fame equivalent to idols.

I didn’t know if Se-Jin was acting, but I could tell that Se-Jin’s eyes shone with honesty.

* * * *

Se-Jin left, and now it was time to check my spoils.

Arriving at the bench, I dumped the contents of the backpack.

With one day’s worth of hunting, I had gathered this many bloodstones.

Between the pile of stones, I saw the skill books.

Something like the thrill of lotto?

Since I couldn’t tell the identity of the skill book until I scanned them, it was exciting.

I stacked the four skill books next to the bench, placing the skill book I got from the rank 1 Lich King at the very bottom.

“All right… let’s see!”

The first skill I confirmed was ‘Charging’.

Used by tanks or clerics, one uses a shield to push away an enemy.

Useless.

At least it wasn’t a Fire Ball or Cross Cut. An F ranking attack skill book would’ve been bad.

Because this skill book had quite the price on it.

Without delay, I checked the next skill book.

‘Charging Shot’ for the ranger class.

I could use skills from all classes, but I had to give up on this one.

It was only usable when equipping a bow or crossbow.

With repeated duds, I was becoming less excited.

Click.

“Wow!”

I couldn’t help but exclaim.

On the smartphone was the skill’s name.

‘Glacial Field.’

Out of all the A+ ranking skills, this was the first one I tried to get.

While it had an aoe freezing effect, the damage was quite lower than Meteor or Iceberg, so I had given up on learning it.

But if it comes to me like this, of course I have to learn it.

It was like an herbal medicine after a long exhausting hunt.

The finale! The only skill book left was the one I got from defeating the highest ranking Lich King.

The stronger the boss was, the better the skill book drop.

I had a good feeling about this one.

“Probably not a skill beyond A ranking, but give me a good one!”

As I put my finger on the smartphone, I became nervous.

After scanning the skill name, I felt it.

The skill explanation was as follows.

-Formless Sword Aura-

Usable class: Warrior (Other classes have 10 times the mana cost.)

Mana cost: Channeled. (Per tick, uses 1% of total mana.)

Skill introduction: *Cuts apart the target with speed that cannot be followed.

*Target cannot detect the sword aura.

*As the skill rises, the destructive force increases.

*Usable on (???)  ranking bosses.

Cooldown: None.

Duration: None.

Skill ranking: Attack S

Additional information: Using the skill increases user’s physical and magical defensive stats increase by 10%.

Estimated skill book cost: ???

“S rank?”

Warrior class skill ‘Formless Sword Aura’ was an S ranking attack skill.

Out of all the skills I’ve obtained so far, none were an S rank.

I only had 3 A+ ranking attack skills. ¹

And that’s including the Glacial Field I got just now.

A ranking skills were not weak.

You can tell just by seeing it in action.

Meteor and Iceberg. No matter who the target was, they would receive massive amounts of damage.

But an S rank.

It wasn’t just the skill’s attack capability.

Looking at the additional information section, it said that I would obtain 10% physical and magical damage reduction.

Wearing the Lich King’s armor set, each piece granting 20% damage reduction, and adding this new skill, I’d only receive half the damage of any skills used against me.

“It seems I’m slowly becoming a monster?”

As everyone said, “Amateurs are based on gear.”

But at this point, I had already become a pro with all the ability and growth I’ve achieved.

And I had gear to boot.

It was almost enough to make me scared of myself.

Checking the skill book once more, I began to organize the stones.

Grabbing a fistful of stones and shoving them back into the bag.

It was to make sure no Awakened Essences would end up mixed with the stones.

“One, two, three. Almost threw away one.”

After repaying the essence to the midget, I now had 3 again.

It was nearly time to Awaken Meteor and Iceberg, both of which were nearing level 100.

The last one?

Of course I’d have to use it on Formless Sword Aura.

However, it would be difficult to raise this skill because it only hits a single target per use.

The condition for gaining experience for skills were a little bit different from skill to skill.

Most depended on how many targets it hit.

Explosion and Holy Missile were both single target skills.

That’s why I had not obtained level 100 with them even after one week of obtaining them.

Of course, I was using my infinite mana to level up my skills at an incredible rate already.

Not aoe’s, but single target skills are what differentiate me from other Awakened.

Thinking about that, I remembered the Assassin Weapon Throw that Jin used on me.

That skill was also a single target skill.

Dodging my attack as if it was nothing, I became more confused the more I thought about Jin. There was something wrong, but I couldn’t put my foot on it.

For that guy though, I had a present ready for him.

Hiding my evil grin, I headed home.

“My bag is stuffed more than usual today, hehe.”

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1. The other two A+ ranking skills is separately categorized as ‘single shot’ by the author.