TRPM 251

chapter 251

Sophia also wasn’t unaware of why Yeon Mirae and I were so close.

At first, she was skeptical, but once she realized that the amount of energy gathered when Yeon Mirae practiced the Qi Formation alone was different from when she practiced it with me, she began to believe our explanation.

Even so, seeing us hugging like this in the room must feel a bit strange.

“…You two really aren’t dating, right?”

“We’re not thinking about dating.”

“Sigh… I see.”

I answered Sophia’s question like that, and Yeon Mirae let out a sigh in agreement.

But it couldn’t be helped. At my age, it’s difficult to view women, including Yeon Mirae, as romantic interests.

Of course, I meant in terms of mental age, not physical age.

“Master… are you perhaps…?”

“The moment you say that word, I’ll kill you.”

I blocked Sophia from speaking and emitted a lethal aura toward her.

No matter what, that was unacceptable. Mentally, I might have issues, but physically, there was nothing wrong.

Perhaps understanding my thought, Sophia nodded.

Seeing that, I retracted my aura, and Sophia began to sweat and breathe heavily.

Exposed to my aura, she had momentarily forgotten to breathe—or perhaps she unconsciously held her breath to minimize her presence.

“By the way, Master…”

“Hm?”

“Have you been taking any good medicine alone lately? You seem to have more energy than usual.”

“Energy? Ah…”

Lately, I had been using the Awakener System to inject ether into my body, converting it into my internal power.

Thanks to this, my internal power accumulated faster than usual, and Yeon Mirae had noticed.

Since there was no need to hide it, I spoke honestly. I adjusted some wording for Sophia, but Yeon Mirae, who knew about both internal power and ether, understood perfectly.

“…I think I roughly understand the principle… If my guess is correct, the points used must be enormous. The efficiency seems terrible, too.”

“I have more points than I need.”

“Oh, right. You’ve registered so many techniques in the database…”

Sophia and Yeon Mirae nodded.

Most of the points I received from the system came not from the usage fees of registered techniques, but from training disciples as a Grand Master. Though, of course, the fees weren’t small either.

“I envy you sometimes, Master. You can use any benefits the Awakener System offers, right?”

“Benefits? You mean like checking other people’s information or erasing awakened abilities through the system?”

“Huh?”

“Yeah?”

Something about this conversation seemed off…

“Wait, Master. Could you explain what functions the Awakener System typically offers a regular person?”

“Well… it awakens abilities suitable for the person, allows you to use registered techniques by paying usage fees, and sometimes the system offers trades. Oh, after I enhanced the system, it also became easier to learn languages.”

“……”

“……”

Yeon Mirae and Sophia fell silent.

What’s wrong? Is there a problem?

“…Master, did you not enable the messenger, virus check, or nearby dungeon coordinate functions?”

“…What?”

“The features that decorate the system window, change fonts, or modify the UI?”

“Why would those even exist?”

More importantly, those didn’t exist before my regression.

“Those appeared after you enhanced the system, Artist.”

“……”

“No wonder… last time during the Mediterranean plane hijacking, I sent messages through the system but you didn’t see them… You hadn’t even enabled them.”

After hearing them, I called up the system to inquire about the functions.

【Fetching list of benefits per User Han Geonwoo’s request.】

The system displayed all the benefits available to me.

“…Why didn’t I know about this?”

Well, it wasn’t completely unreasonable. Since enhancing the system, I rarely opened the system window.

Usually, the system would notify me first, and when I opened it, it was mostly just to check my points.

For other tasks, I’d just request directly from the system rather than opening the window.

Given that, it wasn’t surprising I didn’t know about the available benefits.

【Unlocking benefits per User Han Geonwoo’s request.】

【User Han Geonwoo can now use the messenger function. You can exchange messages with others who have unlocked the messenger using points.】

【User Han Geonwoo can now use the virus check function. The system will alert you if infected with unknown viruses in a dungeon.】

【User Han Geonwoo can now check nearby dungeons…】

I unlocked all benefits I could. Unlocking them required points, but I had more than enough.

‘…But all these benefits are convenience-focused. None directly help me get stronger.’

I suddenly recalled what Dr. Jacob, the system’s developer, had said:

[If you expected the Awakener System to strengthen users or increase the number of awakeners, I’m sorry. That’s impossible. Only convenience features are updated.]

So the convenience updates he mentioned included not just language features, but miscellaneous benefits as well.

I wish I’d known sooner—but it was my fault for not paying attention to the system.

“Are you done?”

“Yes, I activated all visible benefits.”

“Unbelievable… the one who enhanced the system doesn’t even know all the benefits…”

“Sorry about that.”

I sighed, feeling embarrassed even to myself at how ridiculous it was.

“Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.”

“Oh? What were you going to talk about?”

Yeon Mirae wanted to change the subject, and I decided to go along with it.

“I originally wanted to learn how Master increased his aura quickly, so I could increase mine too. My weakness is that my aura quality is high, but the quantity is low.”

She meant she wanted to increase her own aura based on how I increased my internal power.

But she had no points to inject ether into her body…

“Just to be clear, you’re not expecting me to lend you points, right?”

“Yes, I know. But you can help me create sword techniques, can’t you?”

Sword techniques?

“Oh, you want to register sword techniques in the database and earn points from usage fees?”

“Yes.”

It wouldn’t be easy.

“Of course, Yeon Mirae, you could create a decent sword technique without difficulty.”

Even for normal people, creating techniques recognized by the system is nearly impossible—but given her talent and experience, the system would likely recognize her work.

However…

“To earn significant usage fees, the technique must not just be strong, but practical.”

Techniques requiring long training periods aren’t suitable for database registration. People often reference techniques from the database only for temporary, urgent use, not for long-term study.

“Can you create such a technique?”

Yeon Mirae had created techniques for herself, so creating one for others…

‘Difficult, but not impossible.’

There’s plenty of precedent. Before regression, she was my sword technique teacher.

After regression… she even held special lectures to show her skill and train others.

Many students’ aura levels improved through those lectures, some even becoming aura masters.

Thinking of that, she should be capable of creating sword techniques for others.

“…I can do it.”

After careful consideration, Yeon Mirae nodded, confident she could do it.

“Of course, with Master’s active assistance.”

“…Alright, alright.”

I had hoped to brush it off casually, but I’d have to stay involved until she completed the technique.

“Techniques…”

“…Why now?”

While Yeon Mirae and I discussed this, Sophia seemed to be thinking quietly.

“I’d like to create a technique too, and I hope Artist will help me.”

“……”

The weekend of the sports festival.

I headed to the back mountain we always trained at with Yeon Mirae and Sophia.

Others were following us.

“Let’s do our best, Sarang!”

Bam!

First, Lee Ha-eun holding her familiar, Sarang, in her arms.

Recently, Ha-eun always followed us during training to study mental magic—or at least to train alongside us.

So it wasn’t surprising she came.

However…

“Geonwoo, you train in a place like this?”

“It’s a pity you didn’t spar with me, but this isn’t bad…!”

Elena and Elliot, British royalty, had come along.

‘I didn’t expect them to be playing games at Ha-eun’s house.’

Apparently, Elena came to see Ha-eun, and Elliot followed to avoid causing trouble. When Ha-eun said it was training time, they got curious about the training of a Grand Mage and joined us naturally.

‘…Should I oversee their training too?’

But they likely had systematic training in England. As royalty, they may have strict routines, so I should be careful.

“We did train in England, but it wasn’t systematic, so it’s fine.”

“…Did I say that aloud?”

“No, I just thought it.”

Feeling slightly creeped out by Elena seeming to read my mind, I decided to oversee everyone’s training.