Episode 6
Episode 6: Ah, It's Almost Exam Period, So I Shouldn't Sleep
Sizzle sizzle!
The giant hornets that burst out of the beehive were immediately caught in the Energy Bolt net and burned to death.
Since this was a sort of trap and collection object, no experience was gained.
Instead, collection items were acquired.
[Acquired 5 Beeswax.]
[Acquired 3 Honey.]
"Ooh, sweet. I needed beeswax right about now."
Gyeongjun, having acquired the items, made a V sign toward Undine.
-Mu-mul......!
[Undine admires your magical skill.]
[Undine truly acknowledges you.]
[You may proceed with the contract.]
[The contract will be completed once you give a new name.]
It didn't take long to think of a name.
"Alright. From now on, you're Banguli. Because you look like a water droplet."
-Mu-mul~!
[Banguli accepts her name.]
[You have contracted with Undine, the Low-Grade Water Spirit.]
[You have acquired the Rare Skill 『Spirit Contractor』.]
[You have acquired the Rare Skill 『Water Spirit Summon』.]
[Spirit Contractor]
▶Attribute affinity increases depending on the type and grade of the contracted spirit.
▶Skill Level: Lv.1
▶Skill Type: Passive
▶Skill Grade: Rare
[Water Spirit Summon]
▶You can summon a water spirit. The spirit's grade depends on the skill level.
▶Skill Level: Lv.1
▶Skill Type: Active
▶Skill Grade: Rare
[Water Attribute Affinity has been created.]
[Water Attribute Affinity: 10]
Gyeongjun was very satisfied as he looked at the status windows popping up one after another.
He had come to cut wood, only to have a Rare skill called Spirit Magic fall into his lap—who in the world would hate that?
However, Gyeongjun's reason for being happy was quite different from most others'.
"Wow! Now I can study water attribute magic too. My Dimensional Study Room time is going to fill up fast, right? Oh boy, nice!"
Gyeongjun's interest was always solely in studying.
* * *
"T-Team Leader! The user 'Jeongnyeong Misonyeo' had her class stolen by Gyeongjun!"
The World Monitoring Team, 10th Branch.
Kim Buha urgently reported to the team leader there.
"What? Her class was stolen? What does that even mean? And who's this Spirit Girl?"
Jeongnyeong Misonyeo.
She was a Japanese player who loved otherworld novels.
Especially among otherworld novels, she very much liked ones that featured spirits and beautiful girls, and because of that, she named her ID 'Jeongnyeong Misonyeo'.
So she had a dream.
To class change into a Spiritist!
She had remained a beginner and leveled past 50 solely to become a Spiritist.
Then, after purchasing information on the Rare class Spiritist at a high price and asking around here and there, she had finally obtained the class change quest.
『The Eerie Rumor of the Starting Village』 was exactly that.
She had spent her entire fortune to acquire all kinds of water attribute affinity items, and when she was finally about to go to the water ash tree habitat in the Starting Village to contract with Undine......!
"...User Gyeongjun snatched up and contracted with that Undine."
"Really? Well, it's not like he stole it since they both received the same quest. Jeongnyeong Misonyeo just missed it."
"But isn't it pitiful? It must have been incredibly hard to reach level 50 as a beginner......"
"Ahem. It can't be helped. That's just how The World is. So, what's user Gyeongjun doing now? He got a spirit and all."
Looking at the monitoring screen, Gyeongjun was using Undine to collect beehives.
"What the...... Why is he hitting the mark every single time......? How does he find them everywhere......?"
Beehives that one might find maybe once every fifty trees, Gyeongjun was discovering in one go without any trial and error.
The reason was precisely because he had contracted with Undine, Banguli.
According to the settings of the Rare quest 『The Eerie Rumor of the Starting Village』, Banguli had used Water Slip magic to save humans from the giant hornets.
Therefore, Banguli could very easily find where the beehives were, and Gyeongjun realized this and immediately put it to use.
"Keh...... Using an Undine like that. To think he'd utilize something embedded as a quest setting like that. That user Gyeongjun is surprisingly clever."
"Right? Do you think it's because he studies?"
"Who knows. Why, are you going to start studying too?"
"Haha...... At my age, what studying."
"Goodness, how narrow-minded! Learning never ends as long as you live. We just realized from watching user Gyeongjun that 'oh, quest settings can be used like that too.' If that's not studying, what is?"
"Now that you mention it, that's true."
"Right. Studying isn't just sitting at a desk and twirling a pencil."
The team leader felt like he had said something cool and shrugged his shoulders, and Kim Buha nodded as if impressed.
"But then what happens to the user called Jeongnyeong Misonyeo?"
"Well...... She'll have to go get another spirit, right? Don't worry too much, it'll resolve itself. The God of The World manages all that stuff."
And a few days later.
To the girl who loved spirits and beautiful girls, and loved the two combined to death—Jeongnyeong Misonyeo—a notification arrived.
[The Rare Quest 『The Eerie Rumor of the Starting Village』 has been completed while incomplete.]
▶It had been speculated that a Low-Grade Water Spirit, Undine, would be in the water ash tree habitat of the Starting Village. However, after searching for several days, nothing was found, and eventually this rumor was concluded to be a false rumor.
"Kuaaaak?! M-my months of effort......!"
From this day forth, it is said that Jeongnyeong Misonyeo took a hiatus from The World for several months.
* * *
Gyeongjun, who had comfortably finished collecting beeswax using Undine.
Now it was time to finally make the chair he wanted using his Carpentry skill.
He made about 20 all day long.
[Gyeongjun's Sturdy and Robust Water Ash Tree Chair: 19]
▶A comfortable chair designed by Carpenter, the carpenter of the Starting Village, replicated by Gyeongjun. Though the clumsiness of a beginner carpenter is visible, the energy of the water spirit resides within, calming both mind and body.
▶HP/MP recovery 1.5% per minute (Normal) 3% (Advanced)
▶Item Grade: Normal (12) Advanced (7)
Spirit energy!
Unless special materials were used, furniture normally did not have special effects.
Gyeongjun had coincidentally utilized Undine in chair production, and as a result, spirit energy dwelled within and an HP/MP recovery function became attached.
While crafting, a new special stat was also unlocked.
[Gyeongjun]
▶Dexterity: 42
It was a stat called 『Dexterity』 that he hadn't seen before.
The higher the Dexterity, the higher the probability of producing higher grade items when crafting.
Gyeongjun had unlocked Dexterity while making the first 19 chairs, rising from 10 to 37.
But now his Dexterity was 42.
The missing 5 had risen all at once while making the last chair.
[Gyeongjun's Water Ash Tree Chair with Waist Correction]
▶A masterpiece reached by beginner carpenter Gyeongjun through countless repeated practice and research. With the sole intent to correct the waist, the waist does not hurt even when sitting for a long time. The energy of the water spirit resides within, calming both mind and body.
▶HP/MP recovery 5% per minute.
▶When sitting with correct posture and fully recovering HP/MP, all continuous recovery effects last 1 hour longer.
▶Item Grade: Rare
A chair with an auto HP/MP recovery buff!
If he put this up for auction, many solo players would open their wallets and try to buy it.
Because if you bought one of these, it would save you potion costs for life.
Of course, to Gyeongjun, all of these were nothing but extras.
"Mm, nice! It's not comfortable, but my waist doesn't hurt!"
"That's right. A comfortable chair and a study chair are different things."
A comfortable chair refers to one that is cozy the moment you sit down.
But such chairs hurt the waist when sitting too long, which wasn't good.
Carpenter's chair was exactly like that.
Gyeongjun made and sat in Carpenter's chair several times and caught that problem, and when making the last chair, he mixed in his own unique methods and modified the waist area.
It was a difficult process, but Gyeongjun eventually pulled it off.
It was thanks to constantly researching and studying while making 19 chairs up until then.
"From now on, I'm going into hardcore study mode for the exams."
Saying so, Gyeongjun pushed aside the library chair that was not only uncomfortable but also hurt his waist when sitting too long.
Instead, he placed the chair he made in that spot.
"Nice. Chair problem solved."
Then Gyeongjun opened the status window of the Dimensional Study Room.
[Dimensional Study Room]
▶Time Ratio: 2.0x
▶Accumulated Time: 52 hours
Despite having used the Dimensional Study Room time several times while making chairs, over 50 hours still remained.
That was how much knowledge the studying he had done to make chairs had enlightened him with.
Anyway, considering the time ratio of 2x, this was equivalent to about 100 hours of study time.
It was more than enough time to prepare for the midterms.
"I'm definitely getting above average on this exam! Let's go!"
Gyeongjun, gripping his pencil with determination!
But for some reason.
Perhaps because it was exam period, the moment he sat in the chair, drowsiness swept over him.
"Ah...... Did I work too hard all this time? The moment I try to start studying, I get sleepy, dammit......"
The so-called law of exam period!
During exam period, boring cleaning becomes fun, and the moment you make up your mind to study, you somehow get sleepier!
Of course, in Gyeongjun's case, he was just sleepy because he had worked too hard until now.
As Gyeongjun was shaking his head left and right to chase away sleep.
-Mu-mol!
[Banguli hops up and down, saying she has a good idea.]
[Banguli mentions the Water Slip she used before.]
"Huh? Why Water Slip all of a sudden?"
Water Slip was definitely the skill Banguli had tried to put Gyeongjun to sleep with when they first met.
The problem now was that he was sleepy, yet she was trying to put him to sleep?
Was the message "if you're sleepy, just sleep" after all?
As Gyeongjun tilted his head, Banguli began explaining this and that to him.
After hearing the explanation, Gyeongjun's eyes went wide.
"Huh? Really? You can inflict the opposite abnormal status of Water Slip too?"
-Mu-ul!
[Banguli nods, saying that's right.]
"Great! Try it!"
With Gyeongjun's permission, Banguli gathered mana and blew out water vapor exactly opposite to Water Slip.
If Water Slip's water vapor was a calm water energy, this time it was hot water vapor that made heat rise throughout the entire body!
[Through the effect of 『Water Insomnia』, hot water energy permeates your entire body.]
[Your Intelligence is higher than the skill caster's.]
[You resisted.]
"Hey, don't resist......"
Gyeongjun retorted at the status window and scratched the back of his head as if exasperated.
"One more time!"
-Mu-mol!
[Through the effect of 『Water Insomnia』, hot water energy permeates your entire body.]
[Your Intelligence is higher than the skill caster's.]
[You resisted.]
"Once more!"
[Through the effect of 『Water Insomnia』, hot water energy permeates your entire body.]
[Abnormal Status: Insomnia]
After three attempts, the abnormal status Insomnia was finally inflicted!
Gyeongjun felt the sleepiness from just moments ago completely fly away.
"Thanks, Banguli! I'm going to study now, so if I get sleepy again, I'll ask you."
-Mu-ul!
[Banguli nods vigorously, saying she understands.]
A feeling as if he had gulped down an energy drink packed with taurine and caffeine!
Gyeongjun felt the hot heat rising throughout his body and moved his pencil quickly.
Scratch scratch!
And so, his midterm exam preparations began.
* * *
Today is the day of the midterm exams.