I Was a Porter, but My Mana Is Infinite? Episode 1
200,000 won a day.
Bae Seong-u, 19 years old, a first-year porter.
He was currently dying slowly from paralytic poison.
"Kgh... Stop messing around... Give me the antidote...!"
"Well, who told you to stand around stupidly and get hit?"
The short-haired man looked down at him with a sneer.
A feather scattered by the Harpy Queen before her death had grazed Seong-u's thigh.
Coated on the feather was a potent paralytic toxin.
"The entire room... was filled with them. How was I supposed to avoid them?"
"Do what you can! We can't waste an antidote on someone worth a mere 200,000 won. Don't feel too wronged. Blame yourself for being worthless."
The raid party truly seemed intent on leaving him just like that.
"You murderous bastards!"
Someone stopped at Seong-u's cry.
"Hey. Are we really just leaving him like that?"
"What then? You want to save him? You know this raid is already in the negatives, right?"
"No, that's not it. If we're going to do something, we should do it properly. It'll be troublesome if he survives for no reason."
He didn't mean to save him, but to make sure he died.
The man raised both hands and stepped back.
"Ah. If that's what you mean, I agree too."
The man drew his sword and approached Seong-u.
He writhed like a caterpillar.
It was the only movement possible for Seong-u, collapsed on the stone floor.
"Don't resent us too much. In your next life, either Awaken or don't be born as a porter!"
A sharp blade glinted.
Seong-u squeezed his eyes shut as it fell toward his chest.
But no matter how long he waited, the piercing pain never came.
Instead, what he heard was a monstrous shriek and a scream loud enough to tear his ears.
"Kuaaaaack!"
When he cracked his eyes open, he saw a massive wing stained red.
It was more than twice as large as the Harpy Queen, with a sharp beak as well.
"It's the Harpy King! Everyone, battle stations!"
The head of the Hunter who had tried to kill Seong-u moments ago was crushed and slid down the King's throat.
The true boss that appeared with an abysmally low probability in the C-Rank Dungeon [Harpy Queen's Nest].
The raid party hurriedly reformed their ranks.
"Block the attack first!"
"Uuaaaack!"
The Tanker picked up a shield as large as his own body and charged.
Kwoong–
The ground shook as the Harpy King and the Tanker collided.
Those in a hurry weren't just the raid party.
'Th-the antidote!'
Seong-u spotted a flask that had fallen not far away.
The Hunter who had tried to kill him had dropped it.
He forced his powerless arm to raise.
'Urgh. I can't feel my fingers.'
He didn't have the strength to open the flask.
He had no choice but to bring his raised arm straight down.
Kwajik–
The flask shattered, and the antidote spilled across the floor.
Seong-u stretched out his mouth and licked the antidote.
Mixed with sand, it scratched the inside of his mouth.
'Damn it. Wear off already.'
The raid party's battle intensified.
The Tanker's shield, which he had barely been holding up, was torn like paper, and his arm was ripped out.
"Kuaaaaack!"
–Kieeeeeeek!
Only when the Harpy King's beak crushed the Tanker's face did the scream cease.
"At this rate, we'll all die! Don't stop, attack!"
"I-I can't!"
The Healer, overcome with fear, turned and fled.
The Harpy King kicked off the ground and took to the air.
With a single flap of its wings, it caught up to the Healer and brushed past.
Shhk–
Red lines appeared across the Healer's entire body before he was sliced apart.
"Fuck! You stupid bastard! The Harpy King is running out of stamina anyway! If we hunt it together, we can split the rewards even bigger!"
A Dealer encouraged those remaining.
But there were only three of them left.
"I'll finish it, so somehow buy me time!"
The Mage swung his staff and unleashed a spell.
[Shock Boom]
Sparks erupted in the air, and the Harpy King's body shook.
One wing bent at a grotesque angle as it plummeted.
–Kieeeeeeek!
It twisted its body mid-air and charged at the Mage, skimming the ground.
"G-get away!"
He cast too late.
Caught in the Harpy King's claws, his upper and lower body were torn apart.
Crushed entrails and flesh splattered everywhere.
"Damn it! Kill it!"
The two Dealers continued their attacks from both sides like lightning.
The Harpy King's body became drenched in blood.
"Urgh."
Seong-u barely managed to raise himself, using a sword dropped on the floor as a cane to stand.
Whether the Harpy King or the raid party survived, it spelled trouble for him.
"This is the end!"
The blade flashed, slicing through the Harpy King's neck.
Blood gushed out, dyeing the surroundings red in an instant.
"Haa... haa..."
The man covered in blood panted heavily.
He was the sole survivor.
But he couldn't get up from where he had collapsed.
Just like Seong-u moments ago, only his hands trembled.
"Ah, now that I think about it, the Harpy King's blood also had a paralytic effect, didn't it?"
The man turned his eyes to look at Seong-u.
"S-save me."
"You want me to save you?"
Seong-u took one step at a time on trembling legs.
"If you save me... I'll give you the Harpy King's rewards. And money too..."
"Bullshit!"
With each step he took, the paralysis wore off and strength returned.
"Since everyone else is dead, if we sell those items... we'll get quite a bit of money. So the two of us... we'll split it all."
Seong-u looked down at him.
"How am I supposed to trust you?"
"M-money, I'll give you money. So the antidote..."
Puk–
"Kuhuk!"
"I have a policy of not associating with sons of bitches like you!"
He returned exactly what he had received.
That was his creed.
The Harpy King's corpse scattered into tiny particles and dispersed into the air.
"I'll make sure to take good care of the Harpy King's rewards. So don't worry!"
The particles gathered and clumped together into a single book.
"A skill book?"
Seong-u's eyes sparkled as he checked the information with his Scouter.
It was the only means by which an Unawakened could appraise items.
But the information displayed on his Scouter was strange.
"...Huh? What is this?"
[Fireball]
[Rank: F-Rank]
"...An F-Rank?"
* * *
After escaping from the Gate, Seong-u was held at the Hunter Management Bureau for several days.
It was unbelievable that a porter worth a mere 200,000 won a day had survived alone when the entire raid party had died.
A Bureau employee looking down at his Awakening test results frowned, seemingly displeased.
[Bae Seong-u]
[Rank: N-Rank]
[Subject is an Unawakened.]
"Hmm. So you're really saying the Red Skull raid party was annihilated fighting the Harpy King? And you're the only one who survived?"
"Yes. I've told you several times already. Do you really think I, who hasn't even Awakened, could do something to them?"
"That's true. They were average C-Rank. An Unawakened couldn't kill them even if they died and came back to life."
"Exactly. So can you please let me go?"
The woman tapped the table with her finger.
It was a sign that she found something suspicious.
"Listen, you. I'll let it slide this time, but I'll be watching you for a while. If anything turns up, I'll throw you in prison right away, so behave yourself."
The door that had been closed for several days opened.
"All items from the deceased Red Skull members and everything from the dungeon are confiscated."
The word "confiscated" nearly made him blurt out "you fucking bastards," but he swallowed it back down.
"...Excuse me, there was a skill book among them. That's mine."
"The F-Rank Fireball?"
The administrative employee scoffed and waved his hand.
"Tch. Take it."
An item the Harpy King had expelled upon death.
Seong-u felt a strong premonition that he somehow must not let this go.
And that premonition was correct.
* * *
A goshiwon barely three pyeong in size.
"Hmm."
Seong-u sat on the bed that took up most of the space and looked down at the skill book.
Its surface shimmered faintly with flowing mana.
"Please... let this be worth all that suffering."
Ever since Gates first appeared and monsters burst forth from within, the world had changed drastically.
And now, a year later.
Hunters used their Awakened abilities to hunt monsters.
The more monsters they slew, the faster their stats rose.
Additionally, by-products from monsters obtained in dungeons, as well as magic stones, had changed the world once more.
"Even in such a magic engineering society, Unawakened like me still exist."
Unawakened referred to those who had failed to Awaken naturally.
There was only one way for them to Awaken.
They had to learn a skill book obtained from a dungeon.
The problem was that the lower a skill book's rank, the more the stats one received upon Awakening changed.
That was why high-rank skill books were traded at exorbitant prices.
'Even the F-Rank Fireball that Hunters look down on would fetch at least 10 million won if put up at auction. That says it all.'
If F-Rank was like this, the price difference became heaven and earth as you went up to E-Rank and beyond.
"Right. Even if I work as a porter for several more years, I could never obtain an E-Rank or higher skill book. This is the only skill book the Harpy King spat out while dying, so there must be something to it... Better than nothing!"
Having made up his mind, Seong-u placed his hand on the skill book.
The book's light gradually moved into his palm.
Starting from the end, the skill book slowly turned to dust and disappeared.
"...Did it work?"
An Awakened could check their information even without a Scouter.
And before Seong-u's eyes, a translucent status window appeared that no one else could see.
[Bae Seong-u]
[Rank: F-Rank]
[HP: 12(F)]
[Strength: 10(F)]
[Agility: 13(F)]
[Stamina: 14(F)]
[Mana: 00]
Skills
[Fireball]
"Haa. Barely 12 to 13?!"
Considering that the average athlete had stats of 15, it was utterly pathetic.
The only things that had changed from when he was a porter were his rank changing from N to F and the addition of the Fireball skill.
"What the. What's wrong with my mana?"
It wasn't even a 1, but two whole zeroes.
"Does this mean I have no mana at all? That really doesn't make sense..."
Seong-u sighed and checked his body's condition.
His stats rose little by little, and vitality coursed through him.
"Fireball is there in the skills section, but with mana like this, can I even use it?"
Mana was absolutely crucial for using skills.
This was even truer for an Awakened who had learned a magic book rather than a technique book.
Just in case, he entered a Hunter community and searched.
[Mana stat 00]
[Status window display error]
....
They were all posts about broken Scouters.
Not a single post about a stat being 00.
Seong-u started to leave a question post in the community but deleted it.
"No. I might be mistaken for an Irregular for no reason..."
Those who deviated from the laws set by the world.
Irregulars were tracked by the Hunter Management Bureau.
Seeing how they disappeared without a trace, it was obvious what happened to them.
"Maybe it's displayed like this because it's F-Rank."
Seong-u decided not to think about it anymore and tried to cast the [Fireball] he had just learned.
* * *
He left the goshiwon and climbed a back mountain that people rarely visited.
After confirming no one was there, he piled up a mound of dirt and placed a small flowerpot on it.
"The power of an F-Rank Fireball was... about enough to char one square on a sheet of A4 paper, right?"
He reached toward the flowerpot and steadied his breath.
The method to use a skill was simple.
You just had to chant the activation word.
[Fireball]
He felt a churning sensation in his palm before a small fireball shot out.
Fwoosh–
One side of the flowerpot shattered.
"It worked!"
Seong-u clenched his fist.
He had succeeded in casting Fireball despite his mana stat being 0.
He didn't feel any fatigue in his body.
"An average F-Rank Hunter can use Fireball about 5 times, right?"
If he checked how many times he could use it, he could roughly gauge his mana capacity.
Seong-u thought himself quite clever as he reached out his hand again.
Having used it once, it felt familiar from then on.
[Fireball]
Fwoosh!
A withered branch caught fire.
Each time he chanted [Fireball], a small fireball shot out swiftly.
[Fireball]
[Fireball]
When he surpassed 5 casts, Seong-u's eyes grew wide.
There was still no sign of mana being consumed or the fatigue that should be felt.
Instead, energy surged throughout his entire body, and vitality welled up.
[Fireball]
A view of the completely shattered and burned flowerpot came into sight.
Seong-u looked down at his hand.
"I'm not even tired... Does this make sense?"
The mana stat on his status window was still a strange symbol.
"Alright. Let's check this to the end."
Seong-u cast [Fireball] himself, and each time, his surprise grew.
'12.'
[Fireball]
[Fireball]
....
'49...!'
Even the dirt had burned black, revealing the cement floor beneath.
He changed targets to the tree beside it and cast Fireball.
A normal F-Rank Hunter could barely cast 5 times, so this was already 10 times that.
'Is my mana so high compared to my Awakening rank that it won't display?'
The thought that learning the skill book had been a good choice filled his head.
Even so, the hand unleashing Fireballs did not stop.
His joy turned to shock as he passed 100.
His mouth went dry, and he gulped down dry saliva.
'Jackpot!'
When he passed 200, he felt the urge to pee.
'At this level, it's beyond even E-Rank. Could I really have become strong...?'
When he reached 300, his head went numb.
The mound of dirt he had piled up had long since been hollowed out.
Even standing still, his heart pounded.
It wasn't from exhaustion.
On the contrary, without a hint of fatigue, only exhilaration filled him.
Seong-u checked his status window once more.
"...Wait, this..."
He narrowed his eyes and carefully examined his mana stat.
[Mana: ∞]
The two zeroes were stuck right together.
"It's not two zeroes...?"