BCST 53

chapter 53

After swallowing the last gulp, I finally consumed all the Parameters.

Immediately, without letting my tension ease, I checked my body.

Something…

Something different?

“……”

I stood still for a moment.

Just as I lifted the crystal bottle again, wondering if I had left the very last drop,

Splash—.

A faint sound.

Somewhere, I heard the sound of waves.

Startled, I frantically scanned my surroundings.

Damn sea.

Damn octopus head.

Where the hell is that sound coming from?

Would I get abducted by some planet like last time when I reached Level 3? Teleportation?

But even as I meticulously surveyed my surroundings in tension, I found nothing unusual.

I spread my mana detection in all directions, my senses sharpened to the extreme, and all I could hear beyond the wall was Kin diligently tracing braille with his pen.

Scratch.
Scratch.

The sound of the pen echoed vividly in my hyper-sensitive hearing.

At that moment, I felt so immersed that I could almost hear the blood flowing in my veins.

Splash—!!

“…Ugh!!”

I clutched my ears and dropped to one knee.

A shock tore through the silence, as if a gigantic speaker had fired a shockwave directly at my eardrums.

For a moment, I thought my eardrums had ruptured, but thankfully, no blood came out.

Instinctively, I realized:

This sound wasn’t coming from outside.

And I had witnessed this phenomenon before—when I dealt with Paynup’s soul.

The sound of a soul had emanated from within the enemy.

Which meant…

Various ominous hypotheses crossed my mind, and my expression stiffened.

“……”

I had spent so much time contemplating myself over the past period.

I was already prepared for this much.

I steadied my wavering heart and braced myself for whatever would come next.

Come on. Bring it on.

Anything.

Come.

“……”

Nothing?

As I let my guard down for a moment,

Zzzeeeng—.

My entire body was instantly hurled through space somewhere.

“……!”

At the same time, all my senses were forcibly expanded infinitely by the surrounding scenery.

Up, down, left, right.

Everything was in the middle of an endless universe.

Behind me flowed a vast spiral galaxy, quietly dominating the center of the cosmos.

Gooooo…

Forcibly, my endlessly expanding senses struggled to catch up with the vast galaxy.

A perception far beyond human capability.

This must be [Divine Sense].

My ego shrank to almost nothing amidst the overwhelming sensations, all thought stripped away.

Only the edge of my mind remained, feeling my minuscule body and the cosmically transcended senses.

With such senses, no one on this earth could be feared.

No wonder the [God] depicted in the game treated the world’s creatures as insignificant.

I began to understand, even if briefly, that perspective.

The movement of hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy.

I could feel each one clearly.

On some stars, astronomically hot plasma and magnetic fields swirled.

On others, the surface split open, white flashes glinting like fissures.

On still others, the surface twisted along unknown trajectories rhythmically.

Every single one of those hundreds of billions of stars and even the slightest motion on their surfaces—something human senses could never perceive—I could feel.

And among those countless stars, I realized some were staring at me with this cosmic awareness.

Eyes piercing through the layers of space, watching me.

Profane, ominous, malevolent constellations burned with fiery gazes.

Under their burning stares, the edge of my mind—already just a shell—stretched and twisted into a spiral.

Like being sucked into a black hole, my spaghetti-like mind experienced an eternity in an instant.

Along with that, the galaxy rotated and stretched.

Space itself elongated.

Time and space flattened and laid out in a single line.

When everything aligned in that straight line…

“……”

I suddenly realized I was standing alone in the room.

Blink.

For some reason, my eyes felt dry.

It felt as if I had lost consciousness for a moment.

Was it just an illusion?

“……Hmm.”

Feeling slightly detached, I looked at the clock in the room—less than a minute had passed.

The crystal bottle of Parameters was still empty in my hand.

When did I drink this?

Ah, just now.

Silly me.

Now, would the effects start kicking in?

Sure enough, the effects of the awakening potion began pouring into my mind.

Ah, so this is how it works.

Overall body stats increased, and the penalties I used to suffer whenever I assigned traits were gone.

All very positive awakening effects.

But that wasn’t all.

The most crucial, core aspect.

A new ability had blossomed—so strong it felt almost unfair.

Thinking of it, I muttered incredulously.

“No way… giving this away with no cost…?”

Just from the first awakening potion? This ability?

I blinked, stunned by the unbelievable reality.

I summarized the core awakening ability I had acquired.

In short:

I could learn sub-tech magic of the spells I knew without spending points.

More precisely, it wasn’t just about using them; the foundational knowledge entered my mind, allowing me to train on my own.

This massively expanded the range of magic I could handle.

Previously, if I had gathered points to unlock high-level magic and trained the lower ones daily, the magic I could use would multiply dozens of times.

Now, the sub-magics of my Level 3 Counter Spell and the sub-magics of Ghost Roar were always accessible in my subconscious, ready to be called.

This would save a ton of points.

And my future point strategy needed to change, too.

I could now compensate for the things I missed due to limited points with real-world effort.

Wait a minute.

“Could this…?”

A sudden thought made me quickly pull up the trait window.

No need to lie down on the bed this time; no exhaustion.

Snap!

The familiar layout appeared.

I could see my learned and assigned skills and traits.

Two pale stars that had shocked me before caught my attention.

Among them, what stole my focus was the [Spider] symbol.

I had experimented with spider tech in the game.

So when I had faced Tulon Goksel and seen his magic, I had secretly wanted to use that magic myself.

Ah! If I had that, I could use it even better.

Ah! But it’s used so poorly.

Those thoughts.

But now, what had only been imagination was becoming reality.

Moreover, Tulon Goksel’s dark magic wasn’t boosted by traits; it was mostly granted in the usual dark mage way.

This meant that if I learned the Level 3 spell [Arachnid Grace], I could use some of the magic Tulon had used.

Sub-magics would still require training, of course.

But still, at least I wouldn’t struggle with the variety of magic anymore.

My current ability points were 10p.

Level 3 [Arachnid Grace] consumed 8p, leaving 2p.

But this was already allocated when I first assigned magic points.

Because minor magic didn’t belong to that tech tree.

And the crowning gem of a dark mage—the minor magic, especially [Spider] type—had to be assigned.

I had to assign [Thread Spitting] and efficiently enhance its traits.

With all my saved points now allocated, I invested them eagerly.

Then, I looked at the newly gleaming trait window and smiled contentedly.

At this rate… this mission might go more smoothly than expected.

Day 4

Busy adapting to my enhanced physical stats and newly acquired magic,

Kin finally achieved the target results in the “Braille Book” training.

“Oh, ohhh…!!”

Kin Next raised both arms, trembling and cheering.

He hadn’t slept once, it seemed; fatigue was visible on his face.

And after success, the impact was always emotional.

Kin trembled silently at the air, unable to make a sound.

Then he spun around and spoke.

“Magician…! Sync rate has risen to 4%! How… how is that even possible!!”

4%.

It sounded low at first, but that was only because the cyberware was legendary-level, so the overall potential was high.

Before training, Kin’s sync rate was just 1.6%.

Now, at 4%, he had achieved more than double the progress accumulated in the previous three days.

No wonder he was cheering so loudly.

“Ma—magician…! I really treasure you!”

“No. Back off a bit.”

I pushed Kin’s face away as he tried to hug me, scowling.

Yet, Kin still smiled cheerfully, unfazed.

“Alright! What’s the next training? I’m ready for anything! Just say it!”

“The next training, huh.”

I turned to look at John, who looked exhausted beside me.

He must have been stressed providing the final reward, the ‘Parameters.’

He probably didn’t sleep well, worried I’d gobble up the reward and run.

But if I had really wanted that, John would already be dead in my hands.

Not that I was saying he should be thankful I didn’t kill him—his worry was just pointless.

Anyway, worries don’t always go as planned.

I ignored the sprawled John and pointed to the structures in front of him.

“This is the next training.”

Kin looked at the items and tilted his head.

“Oh, those. John’s been making them anyway. Some kind of spider web?”

On the table were mazes made from thread, needles, and small structures for frames.

They weren’t large and looked flimsy, far from sturdy, made carelessly by John.

I picked one from the dozens and explained the next training to Kin.

“This time, close your eyes and use only your cyberware finger sense to navigate the maze. Don’t cut the thread; feel the structure with touch, and at the end, pass through without touching anything even once.”

It was an advanced stage of the previous braille book training.

But the difficulty had skyrocketed.

Unlike braille made for humans, this maze had none of those conveniences.

Thread lengths, continuity, and arrangement were irregular in a 3D structure.

Completing this required sensing skills far beyond the braille book.

Kin, intuitively grasping the difficulty, frowned.

“I’ll do it… but magician, there’s something I’m worried about first.”

Worried?

I looked at him with a puzzled expression.

Kin avoided my gaze and spoke in an uncertain voice.

“I… I’m not confident in shooting as well as before.”