Episode 10
Episode 10: The Sound of Rain is Nice, Good for Studying (2)
Rain was falling outside.
Dark clouds and raindrops, and behind them, a dim, murky sun.
Plip. Plip-plop.
It wasn’t raining all that hard.
It was the perfect sound of rain to listen to.
“Hup.”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
Gyeongjun was climbing the library wall using a ladder he had borrowed from the library storage.
When he reached the very top of the roof, the sound of rain became a little clearer.
Plip-plop. Plip.
This was surely the sound of the sky.
Thinking so, Gyeongjun reached his hand toward the raining sky.
The Magic Memory Stone atop his palm.
Gyeongjun held his breath so that unnecessary noise wouldn’t get mixed in.
Timo likewise didn’t say a word.
Sss.
Faint mana flowing from his hand touched the Magic Memory Stone.
The Magic Memory Stone repeatedly brightened and dimmed.
It was proof that Gyeongjun was controlling his mana on a microscopic level.
‘The inherent mana frequency of this Magic Memory Stone is 3,924 Hertz. I have to match it exactly.’
Gyeongjun continued to adjust the sensation of mana he felt in his hand.
And so, the moment the inherent mana frequency of the Magic Memory Stone matched the frequency of the mana Gyeongjun emitted—
Oooooom!
The Magic Memory Stone began to shine intensely.
This was the crucial moment.
Gyeongjun recalled the sensation of mana he had felt while repeating the experiment hundreds of times.
He had repeated the experiment countless times.
For days on end, he had refused to give up, racking his brains.
All for this single moment right now.
So now, even with his eyes closed, even without sneaking a peek at any records.
He could recall it not with his head, but with his entire body.
“…….”
The important thing wasn’t what he heard with his ears.
The sound of raindrops hitting the roof.
The sound of them cutting through the air.
The sound of them bouncing off his body and back onto the roof.
He heard all these sounds not with his ears, but with his whole body through mana.
The sensation he felt there—very slowly.
And very carefully.
Moving and moving again, he carved it bit by bit from the very deepest part of the Magic Memory Stone.
Oooooom!
And so, the sound of rain began to be carved into the Magic Memory Stone through mana, passing through Gyeongjun.
[You have gained a new enlightenment through delicate mana control.]
[You have learned the Rare Skill 『Delicate Mana Control』.]
[10 hours have been added to the Dimensional Study Room.]
[Delicate Mana Control]
▶Allows more delicate control of mana. 『All Magic Skill Levels +1』
※Does not apply to skills of a higher grade than Rare.
▶Skill Level: Lv. 1
▶Skill Type: Passive
▶Skill Grade: Rare
Gyeongjun couldn’t see the status window; his eyes were closed.
He was simply tensing his entire body, imbuing the sound of rain into his mana and carving it into the stone, nothing more.
And so, Gyeongjun remained with his hand stretched toward the sky until the rain stopped and the sun revealed itself once more.
* * *
“Damn it, why’d it have to rain.”
“Even the feeling of getting wet is realistic.”
“It’s no good when it’s too realistic. It’s probably just going to get in the way of hunting.”
Although more than a year had passed since its release, there were still quite a few beginners in the Starting Village.
Players passing near the library to receive quests from the beginner assistant in the plaza.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“A person?”
They suddenly stopped in front of the library, which they normally wouldn’t even glance at.
It was because of a man on the library roof.
“Why is he on the roof?”
“He’s holding something in his hand?”
Eyes tightly shut, one hand clenched around something, stretched out toward the sky.
It was Gyeongjun.
“Huh? It’s glowing!”
“Where, where?”
The stone resting atop Gyeongjun’s hand flickered a few times, then suddenly began to shine intensely.
“Wow…… that’s so cool.”
“It’s like a painting.”
“Right? What is he doing that looks so atmospheric?”
The players stopped passing by the library and gathered around it one by one.
All to see Gyeongjun on the roof.
“What on earth is he doing?”
“A hidden piece?”
“Dunno…… Should we ask?”
“Hey, don’t. He looks like he’s concentrating really hard. He’s not moving at all.”
“He really isn’t. It’s like a living statue.”
“Maybe he’s taking a screenshot to save as a photo?”
“Maybe. World’s scenery is beautiful, after all.”
Everyone offered this or that opinion, but in the end, no one could figure out why Gyeongjun was doing that.
Who on earth would think that stretching out a hand on a rainy roof was all to record the sound of rain?
No one.
Except for Gyeongjun himself, that is.
“That figure…… it is truly beautiful! So resolute, yet so very ethereal……!”
[The wandering artist Painter has been deeply impressed by your appearance.]
[Your intimacy with Painter has increased by 10.]
[Painter wishes to capture your current appearance in a painting.]
It wasn’t just players who took an interest in Gyeongjun.
The wandering artist Painter was passing through the Starting Village at that very moment!
Painter was deeply impressed by the man resolutely stretching out a glowing hand beneath the rainy sky.
Gyeongjun was beginning to draw the attention of not just players, but NPCs as well.
‘Don’t let my concentration waver. Feel mana with my whole body.’
However, Gyeongjun was so focused that he didn’t even realize people were gathering around the library.
Plip. Plip-plop.
Fortunately, their murmuring was buried by the sound of rain and didn’t reach the roof.
If it had, the Magic Memory Stone would have ended up containing not just the sound of rain, but useless noise as well.
“But isn’t that mana? You shouldn’t be able to learn magic in the Starting Village…….”
“It’s definitely a hidden piece.”
“We should definitely ask him what it is when he comes down.”
[You are gaining people’s attention.]
[Fame has increased by 1.]
[Fame has increased by 1.]
[Fame has increased by 1.]
.
.
.
[You have acquired the Unique Title 『He Who Stretched Out His Hand to the Rainy Sky』.]
And so, people forgot what they were supposed to be doing and stood together in the rain, appreciating Gyeongjun.
Until the rain stopped and the sun revealed itself once more.
* * *
When the rain stopped and the sun appeared, Gyeongjun had no choice but to log out immediately.
『What were you doing on the roof just now?』
『The thing glowing in your hand was mana, right? I heard you can’t learn magic in the Starting Village, so how do you have mana?』
『Sir, if you share the hidden piece, I’ll tell you something too. This is seriously amazing info.』
『I am the wandering artist called Painter! That appearance of yours, so beautiful yet resolute, and yet so ethereal that it makes a corner of my heart tremble as if driven mad! Might I preserve it in a painting? I beg of you, Boy♂!』
The moment he came down from the roof, a flood of countless handshake requests surged toward him like waves!
It was also shortened to “handshake barrage.”
Gyeongjun couldn’t help but be greatly flustered by the handshake barrage—a first in his life.
For an ordinary person, receiving even one such request in their lifetime was unlikely.
‘Countless handshake requests…… terrifying!’
A day after fleeing from the handshake barrage.
In the quiet library once again, Gyeongjun decided to check yesterday’s achievements.
[He Who Stretched Out His Hand to the Rainy Sky]
▶In the rainy sky, there was one who stretched out his hand toward the dark, murky clouds. In the darkness, he spoke in a low voice.
『Let there be light.』
“No, I didn’t say anything…… And what’s with ‘let there be light’…….”
Gyeongjun had never imagined that simply stretching out his hand on a roof would escalate into something like this!
He could only scratch his head awkwardly.
Skipping past the completely absurd title description, he looked at the effects below.
▶Fame +50. You are treated better by NPCs in the Starting Village.
▶Title Type: Regional (Starting Village)
▶Title Grade: Unique
“Fame…… What’s so good about having it high? Do you just get famous?”
World’s titles, true to the word “title,” did not raise stats.
Instead, they usually granted Fame.
Frankly speaking, Fame seemed like a relatively unimportant stat, but in some ways, it was just as important as the five main stats.
A user level 200 with zero Fame wouldn’t be recognized anywhere.
On the other hand, a user level 100 but with over 1,000 Fame would be welcomed by NPCs wherever they went.
They might be treated to free meals, praised as heroes, or even meet people a mere player could never meet and receive special quests.
In other words, Fame made possible what could never be achieved through stats and levels alone.
The effect of the title Gyeongjun obtained—『treated better by NPCs in the Starting Village』—was likewise an ability that could never be achieved simply by having high stats.
“Not bad. There’s nothing wrong with being treated well by NPCs.”
Besides that, he had also awakened the Rare Skill “Delicate Mana Control” on his own.
It added +1 to all magic skills of Rare grade or lower.
Honestly, skills of this type were good, as seen in other games.
Of course, Gyeongjun liked the bonus “Dimensional Study Room +10 hours” that had come with it far more than any of that.
Dimensional Study Room: 10 hours.
Considering the time ratio of 2x, it was practically like gaining 20 hours of study time.
“Hehe, that’s right.”
The Magic Memory Stone clutched tightly in Gyeongjun’s hand!
Carved into that tiny stone was the sound of nature’s rain.
Originally, recording sound into a Magic Memory Stone was extremely rare and difficult.
But thanks to Gyeongjun’s diligent studying, he had become able to convert sound into the form of “mana.”
This was more amazing than one might think.
To the point where he could write a simple paper at the Fairy-Elven Magic University!
Or if he organized it into a portfolio and submitted it, an admission certificate would likely be issued on the spot.
If Korea has Seoul National University and America has Harvard, then World has the Fairy-Elven Magic University.
An admission certificate from there was something that all residents of World would obviously look up to with jealous, envious eyes.
But neither papers nor magic university admissions were of any interest to Gyeongjun.
“Now I can listen to the sound of rain in-game even when it’s not raining, while I study!”
Gyeongjun had done all of this simply so he could listen to the sound of rain while studying.
Gyeongjun focused mana into his hand.
Soon, mana flowed into the Magic Memory Stone carved with the sound of rain, and—
Plip. Plip-plop.
—the sound of rain began to play.
Even though the library was empty and warm spring sunlight was streaming through the windows.
“Hmm-hmm~ Hmm-hmm~”
And so, Gyeongjun’s study session began again today.
[Intelligence has increased by 1 through continuous studying.]
[Intelligence has increased by 1 through continuous studying.]
[Through continuous studying...]
.
.
.
* * *
Quite some time had passed since Gyeongjun started playing the sound of rain every time he studied.
As expected, the sound of rain was the best for studying.
He had meant to only preview the final exam range for Physics I and Chemistry I, but he was so focused that before he knew it, he had reached the last page of the books.
He studied not just physics and chemistry, but also important subjects like language arts, English, and math.
Especially for areas where his foundation was lacking, he went all the way back to first-year high school material, and in severe cases, even middle school curriculum to review.
Just how long had it taken him to do all this?
Two months? Three months?
No, by then the final exams would already be over.
One month.
It hadn’t even taken Gyeongjun a full month to finish the above studies.
A process that would have taken an ordinary person well over half a year.
It was thanks to the ample Dimensional Study Room time he had saved up and Timo’s easy-to-understand explanations.
[Dimensional Study Room]
▶Time Ratio: 2.0x
▶Accumulated Time: 15 hours
“It’s about time I started studying something new.”
He had replenished the Dimensional Study Room’s time by studying magic here and there, but that alone had its limits.
It was proof that the amount he studied had grown that much.
Hence, a new field of study emerged.
Of course, he wasn’t going to just study anything blindly.
Just as he had previously learned the Carpenter skill to make a study chair.
Or borrowed a scientific method to record the rain sounds for studying.
He wanted to do something that would help with his usual studying.
“Hmm, what should I study?”
It was while Gyeongjun was lost in thought, chin in hand.
That a strange sound came from the librarian’s desk area.
“Zolra~ Zolra~ So listen, in the end when the mana transmitter and mana fixation nucleus meet…….”
Burari, who had taken over as librarian in place of the gone-mad Libra.
After being away from his post for a few days to meet his younger sister Libra, he too had gone mad.
He looked extremely bizarre, talking to an unseen someone in thin air.
Apparently he was studying, but the noise was just the same.
This reminded Gyeongjun.
“Should I look for a new place to study?”
“Yeah. Come to think of it, I’ve been here too long. It’s been over a year. It’s about time I changed my environment.”
Just as Gyeongjun had first fled from his noisy younger siblings and come to the Starting Village library.
This time too, Gyeongjun’s goal was to find a new place to study.
A quiet place where he could concentrate well.
“Hmm, really?”
“No, I don’t want to go through that hassle.”
Gyeongjun packed the book he had open, the Magic Memory Stone carved with rain, and the posture-correcting chair he had made himself into his inventory.
He was preparing to leave.
Once his preparations were finished, he spoke in a low voice.
“If there isn’t a suitable place, I’ll just have to make one myself.”