Not long ago, when I’d leveled up after what happened with Hanna, I’d seen a list of skills. Among them was one skill I had decided was useless and skipped over.
“[Touch of Attunement].”
I opened the skill window. The familiar screen unfolded before me.
[Available Skill Points: 0]
1. [Enhance Existing Skill]
2. [Acquire New Skill]
I reached into empty air and pressed the [Acquire New Skill] button. My vision flashed, and two skills appeared.
1. [Bullet Time]
Detailed Description: Upon activation, you enter a state of hyper-acceleration in which you perceive the flow of the world, excluding yourself, as slowed to 1/10 speed for up to 3 seconds. Usable once per day. The number of uses increases as the level rises.
2. [Touch of Attunement]
Detailed Description: Directly interferes with the flow of biological energy—mana, qi, and the like—within a target touched through the hand. It can stabilize rampaging energy to relieve pain and heal, or deliberately disrupt the flow to inflict extreme pain or grant ecstatic pleasure. As the level rises, the precision of attunement increases, and it becomes possible to absorb energy and make it your own, or bestow it upon others.
Without so much as glancing at [Bullet Time], I lowered my gaze. Then I began reading every line of the skill description with focus.
“……”
And I held my breath. It felt as if someone had struck me in the head with a hammer.
“Stabilize rampaging energy…?”
Seraphina’s [Mana Backflow]. That was a phenomenon in which the mana inside her body went out of control and ran rampant. In other words, wasn’t it literally “rampaging energy”?
“…Why didn’t I realize this?”
I had thought [Touch of Attunement] would be useless in combat. That my head would be blown apart by a bullet before I could lay a hand on an enemy. But it seemed that had been far too narrow-minded.
Reading the skill description again, there was no need to use this only in combat. If anything, this skill’s purpose was closer to management and recovery than fighting.
“…Tsk. Why does it look decent now that I’m looking at it again?”
Having [Indomitable Mind] didn’t mean I would stop making mistakes. It only kept my mind calm at all times. It didn’t correct the things I missed, overlooked, or got wrong.
In the end, I had misjudged the true nature of [Touch of Attunement]. If I had to define it, this was a kind of battlefield medicine. Something that could take away a wounded soldier’s pain without anesthetic, and stabilize soldiers suffering from shell shock.
And above all, Seraphina’s [Mana Backflow]. It seemed like it could become the most reliable means of controlling that time bomb of a woman.
“I have to do it.”
I made up my mind quickly.
But there was one problem with this plan.
[Available Skill Points: 0]
I had no skill points. It was the result of pouring every point I had into maxing out [Status Analysis] and [Captivating Speech].
“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve saved one in advance.”
Regret was useless. What mattered was the fact that I needed a skill point right now.
In other words, I needed to level up.
But I still hadn’t leveled up. It was strange. Until now, whenever I had achieved military merits on this level, I had always been granted a level-up.
Was I missing something? I quickly retraced my memories. When had I leveled up before? It was… my promotion to first lieutenant, taking control of the 3rd Platoon, Hanna’s mana awakening and our first experience.
“I should definitely be able to level up from this military merit too.”
And today, the infiltration operation in the Gray Forest. My military achievements had been overwhelming. I had infiltrated enemy lines perfectly and turned their camp into a sea of fire with the gunpowder crates. Even then, I hadn’t rested; I had saved the 2nd Platoon and completely cut off the enemy’s escape route.
An MVP in the truest sense of the word. It would be stranger if I couldn’t level up. And yet no level-up notification had appeared for me.
“There’s some condition.”
I recalled my memories in greater detail. Not just the superficial information that I had leveled up by accumulating military merit, but exactly when and how I had leveled up.
Inside my barracks after returning from the promotion ceremony. On my bed, where I had collapsed in exhaustion after completing the mission to take control of the 3rd Platoon. In my temporary quarters after returning from what happened with Hanna at the mana spring facility.
In that instant, realization flashed through my mind.
“My room.”
I saw the pattern. Level-ups had always happened only when I returned to my barracks and rested. As if the system only calculated rewards after confirming that every mission had officially ended and I had returned to a “safe personal space.”
It had to be the same this time too.
“…I need to get back to my barracks.”
I quickened my pace. I left the bustling supply depot and crossed the barracks area, where the platoon members were likely enjoying their leave.
“Uh, uh! It’s the platoon leader!”
“Loyalty! Lieutenant!”
The platoon members who spotted me approached and saluted. But I brushed past them without even sparing them a glance. My head was filled with nothing but thoughts of skill points.
The path to my barracks felt unusually long. Only after what felt like ages did the familiar door appear before my eyes. As soon as I opened the creaking wooden door and stepped inside, I shut it and slid the bolt into place.
With a dull thud, the world was cut off along with the noise outside. A perfect private space where only I existed. I held my breath and waited for a change.
“……”
I waited.
“…Nothing’s happening.”
Just as I began to think that maybe this wasn’t it, a change occurred.
My prediction had not been wrong.
Ding—
A familiar and welcome system notification rang inside my head.
[You have perfectly completed the Gray Forest Extermination Operation.]
[As a core force of the company, you have achieved overwhelming merit.]
[You acquire a large amount of experience as a reward.]
[Your level has risen to 9!]
[You have acquired 1 new skill point.]
A level-up.
I had become level 9. I lifted my head toward the system window floating in the air. There, the words were written clearly.
[Available Skill Points: 1]
Now I could obtain [Touch of Attunement]. Without the slightest hesitation, I extended my finger toward the skill window.
[You have selected the skill “Touch of Attunement.”]
[You acquire a new skill!]
A clear ding rang out. At the same time as a faint tingling spread through my fingertips, a new sensation seeped into me.
“It worked.”
I clenched my fist tight. Now I had a card that could control Seraphina’s problem.
“First, I need to test it.”
I needed to get used to how to use it. I sat down, wrapped my right hand around my left arm, and quietly activated the skill.
“Touch of Attunement.”
Ding—
[Skill “Touch of Attunement (Lv.1)” has been activated.]
In that instant, a strange sensation surged through me, as if I could feel the inside of my left arm through the palm of my right hand. It was not the physical touch of skin, muscle, and bone. It was something deeper—the flow of a fine, warm energy coursing along my blood vessels. My very life force. Like a calm river, it circulated steadily and smoothly.
“So this is… my biological energy.”
I decided to test the skill’s next function. According to the description, I could directly interfere with this flow. I focused my consciousness and manipulated the energy with the feeling of making the river flow even more smoothly.
[Stabilizing the target’s biological energy.]
Then a warm energy spread through my entire left arm. My knotted muscles softened, and I felt a subtle vitality welling up. It was like soaking in a bathtub full of warm water. It felt as though the fatigue from battle was being washed away.
“It should be possible the other way too.”
This time, I deliberately obstructed the flow. I imagined throwing a boulder into the middle of the river and disturbing the current.
[Disrupting the target’s biological energy circulation.]
“Urgh!”
A dull, intense pain flared up, as if my left arm had been smashed with a hammer. There wasn’t a single wound on the outside, but it felt as though the arm itself was screaming and my bones were being shaken. Only just before cold sweat broke out on my forehead did I hurriedly deactivate the skill.
“…Damn, that hurts far more than I expected.”
I thought for a moment about how this skill could be used.
“If someone were tortured with this level of pain, could they endure it?”
If it was just the hammer-blow level from a moment ago, someone with strong mental fortitude could probably withstand it. But the frightening part was that what I had just done had not been the maximum output.
“…It seems like it would be extremely effective.”
I stopped that chilling line of thought and moved on to the next step.
“…The last function.”
I swallowed dryly. According to the skill description, it was also possible to induce pleasure. In contrast to before, I gently and warmly caressed the flow of the river. I stimulated the energy delicately, like a tickling feather.
[Sharpening the target’s senses and inducing a faint pleasure.]
“……!”
Goosebumps rose on my skin. It was a thrilling, pleasant sensation that climbed up my spine, completely different from pain. As if my entire left arm had become an erogenous zone, a pleasurable numbness spread out from the place where my palm was touching.
I immediately deactivated the skill. My heart was beating slightly faster.
“Not bad.”
I was satisfied. The skill test itself had been successful. Now what remained was how I would use it, and whether it would work on Seraphina as well.
I leaned back deeply in my chair and closed my eyes. Then I recalled the activation condition of the skill. A target touched through the hand. In other words, my hand had to make direct contact with Seraphina’s body. How could I break through her wariness and naturally place my hand on her? Should I offer a handshake? Or should I wait for another moment when she staggered and support her?
While I was pondering that, the sunlight coming in through the window slowly turned into a red sunset, then sank into deep navy darkness. The noise of the soldiers filling the barracks area also began to die down. Before I knew it, night had fallen.
Knock, knock.
And a cautious knocking sound put an end to my thoughts.
“Is it already that time?”
Out of habit, I nearly used [Status Analysis] on whoever was beyond the door, but stopped myself. I would be seeing everything down to bare skin soon enough anyway, so what was the point?
“Come in.”
When I answered in a low voice, the door opened gently. A dim light from the corridor. With it at her back, a shadow stepped into the room.
It was Hanna.