Vol 1 Chapter 19

It was worth training the auxiliary magic spells first, which he felt a strong need to master relatively quickly. These were purely imagination-based imaging, so after reading the incantations that roughly described their appearance, it was possible to quickly grasp the image with the help of movies or comics.

Moreover, the reason he was more obsessed with auxiliary magic was that in the 1st and 2nd circles, not only were there few spells, but there were no impressive auxiliary spells besides passive skills.

Perhaps the 1st and 2nd circles were designed to test the determination of novice mages?

However, the only attack magic he had mastered in the 3rd circle was Ice Spear.

Originally, there were two attack spells in the tower's 3rd class magic book: Lightning Bolt and Ice Spear. But unlike Ice Spear, whose 'ice' image was relatively easy for him to grasp, Lightning Bolt, the first electrical attribute spell, gave him nothing but a throbbing headache.

He had quickly succeeded with ice after experiencing the bone-chilling cold by freezing some ice in the refrigerator and taking an untimely ice bath, but Lightning Bolt was different. How convenient it would be if, like in comics, a lightning bolt would simply strike down the moment he shouted, but how could he conjure up the image of 'electricity' that he had never seen or touched!

In fact, it was electricity that allowed him to play this game at this very moment, and the computer that made his home comfortable also ran on electricity. Despite using it more often than breathing, the elusive image of electricity was utterly impossible to grasp.

"Damn it."

If this had been reality, he thought he would have had dark circles under his eyes worse than during his most intense study periods, as he was under quite severe stress from that Lightning Bolt.

Kapros arrived at the front of the forge, still pondering the elusive image of Lightning Bolt.

"Excuse me."

"Oh, the sword-ordering customer from before! You're finally here, Grandpa! Grandpa!"

The child who immediately made a fuss upon seeing Kapros's face ran to the blacksmith Pulman, who was still reluctant to leave the furnace, and soon Pulman came out to greet him.

"You've finally come. You asked for them to be made quickly, but how can you have such a poor concept of dates? It's been 12 days already. 12 days."

"I'm sorry. I had something important to do during that time..."

Unable to say that he had forgotten everything in the tower for four real days, he made up an excuse. Pulman shrugged as if he wasn't as angry as his words suggested, and soon went to the warehouse and came back with a box.

"Well, thanks to that, I had more time to make better ones, so it's good. Here, open it."

When Kapros opened the lid of the long box handed to him, there lay a pair of swords with 40-centimeter-long sharp blades and black grips, just as he had wanted.

Unlike what Kion-hyung, the weapon shop owner Dunzel, and even Kapros himself who had ordered them thought would be an ambiguous length, the swords looked like short swords in the shape of daggers. The design was very simple, but the flowing sharp edge was mesmerizing.

"How are they? The balance and center of gravity of the swords are really well done. It would be good to hold them and talk."

As if enchanted by those words, Kapros slowly approached and firmly grasped the right sword in his right hand and the left sword in his left hand, slowly lifting them.

"Ah..."

They were far more excellent than what he had wanted. The feel in his hands was good, and as Pulman said, the center of gravity was good too. He even began to worry if he could properly use these, which were better than expected.

"I really like them. How much are they?"

"15, 15 for each, so 30 gold in total."

"Here you are."

Fortunately, he had enough to pay for them with what he had saved up while hunting with Kion-hyung.

"Hohoho. Then come again if you need repairs."

"Goodbye, customer!"

***

"..."

The man who had been looking at the monitor displaying the in-game scene turned his gaze away after the customer who had bought the swords disappeared and the forge scene returned to its original quiet state. He pressed the button on the VT call phone placed beside him.

Beep.

[ Yes, Branch Manager. Did you call? ]

A moment later, as the secretary's figure appeared in a small hologram, the man opened his mouth with a gentle smile.

"Yes. Is it possible to connect with Master GM Mugeon, who's in charge of the eastern part of Mist, right now?"

[ Master GM Mugeon of the East, you say? ...Yes. He's not in game inactive mode, so contact is possible. ]

"Tell him to come to the port. For an eastern discussion matter."

[ Yes. I'll connect to port number 24554. I'll contact you soon, so please connect as well, Branch Manager. The code name will be 'Yoon Seok-ho'. ]

"Good."

As the hologram turned off with a beep, Yoon Seok-ho took out the VT port connection goggles that were connected to the monitor and put them on. Having worn them countless times before, the motion was perfectly natural. A faint light began to leak from inside the goggles as it connected to the VT port.

***

"I understand that electricity is supposed to be thrilling... but I really can't know without experiencing it."

Kapros was groaning again in the private room inside the tower, having put the swords, which were more expensive due to being custom-made despite having no special options, and twice as expensive as market price for being a pair, into the scabbards attached to his waist belt on both sides.

The crux of the matter was the image of electricity. He understood that it crackled like in comics and tingled like static electricity, but he couldn't grasp what kind of electricity could cause proper damage. He couldn't just plunge his hand into a bathtub full of water with a plugged-in hair dryer to experience it directly, as he had done to grasp the image of ice. He would die before grasping the image of electricity.

Thinking he might try once more what he had already attempted dozens of times, Kapros got up from his seat. He drew a glowing circle in the air as usual and put his right hand inside it.