In fact, strictly speaking, it could be said that 『Random Miscellaneous Skill Acquisition』 was truly the most rational choice.
Although a staggering 500,000 points were consumed with each use, the fact that the effects of the drawn skill applied simultaneously to all avatars including the main body was an efficiency that could only be called absurd.
‘Yeah, a new skill costs less than 50,000, so how could I resist this? Rather, not doing it would be a loss!’
Hadn’t 「Xenoglossia」, obtained through it, already been put to quite useful use?
Of course, 「Sturdiness」, which he had drawn just before, had disappeared after being absorbed by higher-level skills like Hali’s 「Ultimate Evolving Lifeform」, Heinz II’s 「Blood Lord」, and Horus’s 「Gold Dragon」 immediately upon acquisition, but···.
That too had become nourishment that further developed those abilities, so it could not be seen as a completely meaningless loss.
The problem was that because the gap with those higher-level skills had been so great, there was hardly any noticeable change.
But still, considering the amount of Karma points that were filling up in real time even now, it wasn’t a bad choice.
‘Yeah, so this isn’t my fault. You could say it’s···.’
...something close to an accident.
Having finished that self-suggestion, I quietly looked again at the message floating before my eyes.
《Forcefully causing the possibility of randomness to bloom. You acquire the skill 「Underwater Breathing」.》
「Underwater Breathing」.
A survival-type skill that prevented death by drowning due to the environmental factor of water.
Analyzing the exact mechanism through the knowledge being engraved in my mind, it could be said to be the ability to forcibly extract oxygen from water using cutaneous respiration.
“Ah···.”
Without realizing it, I closed my eyes tightly and raised my head toward the ceiling.
The utility itself certainly wasn’t bad.
Not to mention that the danger of drowning in environments where one could drown was eliminated, the water affinity included would be helpful in some way.
But if asked whether it was a useful enough ability to be called a jackpot... I truly had nothing much to say.
‘Hans the Undead is out of the question from the start.’
No, the other Transcendent-class avatars had long since surpassed the level where they could be bound by such restrictions.
Not to mention Horus the dragon, who lived on mana as an energy source, was the same.
‘Then that leaves only myself as the main body, the merchant Hubert, the dwarf Howard, Hesperon of the imperial palace, and finally Hugo of Ganghwangye···.’
Just that alone meant the expectation for the skill had already inflated from below 50,000 to 100,000.
Moreover, the problem was that the other avatars were hardly in environments where they needed 「Underwater Breathing」.
‘···The master of a super-sized merchant company, an artisan holed up in a workshop lost in the trance of labor, and a guest of the imperial palace, renowned as one of the safest places on the continent, drowning... Well, I suppose I needn’t worry about slipping and dying in a bathtub anymore.’
The one with the highest chance of using it was probably Hugo, left alone in Ganghwangye?
It was an ability that could be quite helpful in dealing with river bandits who operated around rivers and lakes.
‘Though Harris already turned that place upside down once.’
How the territories ruled by the river bandits after that typhoon had passed had turned out···.
Recalling the leaders of the Dongting Shiba Zhai and the Changjiang Shuilu Zhai, now felt only hazily, I soon shook my head heavily.
Truthfully, the likes of river bandit chiefs buried in a corner of memory were already out of my mind.
There was a separate, more pressing matter at hand.
‘This time, for real, the last time. Just one more time, really.’
His track record had fallen from plus-minus zero into the red.
If it came to this, there was truly no backing down now!
‘Yeah, besides, there are still over 5 million points left. ···Using it once or twice will recover quickly.’
Furthermore, the settlement for having driven out the Beoncheonhoe leader hadn’t completely finished yet.
As had always been the case, the influence of the aftermath of this incident would be calculated separately, so additional Karma would steadily accumulate.
So now—
‘Let’s get just one decent thing and cleanly pull out.’
This much ‘investment’ for himself should be fine.
I glared at 『Random Miscellaneous Skill Acquisition』 with eyes burning with a strange heat.
Honestly speaking.
By now, I couldn’t see anything in front of my eyes anymore.
***
Some time after that.
“Hmm. I nearly lost my self-restraint.”
Thankfully, Han Seonghyeon was able to come to his senses before squandering all his points.
No, rather than that, he prided himself on having gotten out quite early.
And indeed··· including the first draw that had yielded 「Underwater Breathing」, the total number of draws had been a mere four!
‘Yes, this is very favorable.’
But of course, the memories of having repeated ‘the real last time’ several times in his head had already vanished without a trace.
“Still, this isn’t bad.”
That wasn’t mere empty talk.
Along with the low muttered soliloquy, as he lightly stretched his hand forward, his fingertips disappeared into empty air as if treated with CGI.
Suuuuk—
Heat haze wavered in the air around where his wrist had now vanished.
And when he pulled his arm back, the disappeared body part had returned perfectly intact.
In that hand, he held a ballpoint pen that had not been there until just now.
Needless to say, it was an abnormal phenomenon caused by subspace interference.
‘Goodness, to think I’d actually gain an inventory.’
He tossed the pen he had been fiddling with onto the table and let out a chuckle.
The official name of the skill obtained in the second attempt was 「Subspace Storage」; its convenient nickname was ‘Inventory’.
It meant he had become able to manifest the ability to manipulate subspace as a skill.
Yet even after obtaining this very useful and incredible-looking ability, he was not satisfied with it.
‘Honestly, until now I hadn’t felt much inconvenience even without an inventory.’
The combination of 「Avatar Cloud」, which allowed avatars to exchange items with each other, and magical tools backed by abundant capital had already excellently replaced subspace.
To the extent that even this incredible skill he had just obtained was accepted as merely nice-to-have.
‘Still, things will become quite convenient thanks to this. If each of the avatars can directly use subspace with this, there will be more leeway from now on.’
In the end, the overall evaluation of 「Subspace Storage」 was slightly positive.
But his greed was too great to be satisfied with just that much.
‘I’m glad I didn’t give up there. Because what came next was the real deal.’
Han Seonghyeon smiled contentedly and nodded as he recalled the situation that had occurred only moments ago.
Having attempted another draw due to his subtle feelings about the previous result, the outcome of the random draw that had come out as the ‘real real last’:
《Forcefully causing the possibility of randomness to bloom. You acquire the skill 「Limit Break」.》
The third skill following 「Underwater Breathing」 and 「Subspace Storage」, 「Limit Break」.
It was a self-strengthening-type buff and a kind of awakening skill that all avatars could use, regardless of the user.
A hidden trump card that allowed one to temporarily surpass one’s own limits—regardless of whether that realm was high or low.
Though the aftereffects were so severe that it couldn’t be abused recklessly, it was an ability like a lifeline that would prove helpful in truly necessary situations.
“Good, good. Very excellent.”
In that atmosphere where everything seemed to be wrapping up.
The reason he reached out to the ‘real real real last’ while the scale of profit and loss had returned to the black and he was sufficiently satisfied··· was not for any particularly special reason.
‘No matter how I look at it, this is an upward trend, right? Somehow I’ve got a good feeling today? This time is really the final one?’
He simply couldn’t control his boiling greed.
And possessed by the spirit of a get-rich-quick gambler, he boldly rode the rising market···.
“Ahem, I suppose I’ll stop here.”
As if trying to balance things out, after receiving another vague skill as the next one, he came to his senses with a jolt.
That was the background of how he managed to escape the clutches of the ‘random draw’ immediately after drawing his fourth skill.
And having more or less sorted out his numerous new abilities, as if to check again, he stared intently at his possessed Karma value.
『Possessed Karma - 3,641,965』
The Karma value whose leading digit had dropped sharply.
Though it was still an unimaginably vast amount for most, compared to just moments ago when it had easily exceeded 5 million, it inevitably looked insufficient.
“······.”
Fortunately it was better than having exhausted it all, but looking back, he seemed to have been too immersed and burned through more Karma than expected.
Even if one use cost 500,000, repeating it four times meant a whopping 2 million!
‘What’s past is past. There are about 3.6 million Karma left···. If I’ve kept this much, it’s not that bad.’
While he was occupied with this side of matters, time in the other world was flowing quickly, and as that time flowed, his possessed Karma was naturally increasing.
At this rate, exceeding 5 million again and reaching 6 million probably wouldn’t take too long.
‘But.’
If there was a way to shorten that time, it was only right to make maximum use of it.
Especially when thinking of the Beoncheonhoe now lurking in secret across Earth, and their leader who had been forcibly expelled from Auterica and was currently seething with fury.
“I really need to earn more Karma. No matter how much I earn, it’s never enough.”
A lament naturally flowed from his deeply exhaled sigh.
In Auterica, the traditional stronghold, he was already extracting Karma close to the limit even now.
With the aftermath of the ‘Apostle of an Outer God Invasion Incident’ currently being processed, it was also a difficult situation to cause more trouble.
‘For now, I need to catch my breath to some extent. Then shall I look around other places in the meantime? I think it’s about time to sow some seeds···.’
With that thought, his consciousness headed not toward Auterica where most of his entities were gathered, but toward one isolated entity.
The pioneer Hugo, dispatched to a distant land to cultivate new fields.
To Ganghwangye, where he was spending time alone under the alias Ha Seunghun.
***
The Zhuge Family of Yongjung Mountain, Hubei Province.
The mountain on which they had established their base was not particularly high, but the buildings, including the time-honored main hall, exuded an unknowable dignity that overwhelmed onlookers.
It was authority emanating from the symbolism of being the main base of a force dominating the region, and also due to the influence of dense energy created by formations and sorcery being incorporated from the basic design stage.
Once, a suddenly appearing peerless expert of unknown identity had destroyed all the formations near the family residence, but a considerable amount of time had passed since then, and now one could find no trace of that time whatsoever.
Rather, the current main house of the Zhuge Family was a transformation into an even greater fortress than before, having thoroughly analyzed the cause of the collapse at that time and become capable of responding to it.
“Oh-ho, this. If used well, it could be quite useful?”
And in a private training ground prepared inside that fortress-like stronghold.
The youth at its center, Hugo, furrowed his brows while slowly stroking his chin as he held a sword.
As he too was an avatar, he was naturally receiving the newly added skills in real time.
「Underwater Breathing」, which would help when fighting near water; 「Subspace Storage」, which could make daily life more convenient; and 「Limit Break」, which could become a life-saving last resort in extreme situations.
And the skill obtained as the fourth···.
‘「Mimicry」, huh. This might be better than I thought? If it were in Auterica, maybe not, but here in Ganghwangye, it seems like it’ll be more useful than the other skills.’
「Mimicry」 was a skill that allowed one to imitate an opponent’s technique seen with the eyes.
Hearing only that, it would naturally sound like a fraudulent ability, but... perhaps precisely because it was so obviously powerful... all sorts of conditions were attached, making it not as easy as it sounded.
‘To mimic another’s magic, of course one must be a magician oneself, and it even demands reaching the realm where one can understand and activate that magic.’
While skills were special abilities that all touched upon the realm of supernatural powers, this 「Mimicry」 could not overcome the user’s limits.
In the first place, techniques of other races with different body structures were out of the question, and without training as a foundation, one could not imitate other mystical arts either.
‘In the end, it means one can only mimic the techniques of those with similar conditions to oneself.’
In that sense, this Ganghwangye differed in circumstance from Auterica, where various races and mystical arts mingled together.
Non-human races were so silent that one would question whether they even existed, and the mystical arts of this world were overwhelmingly dominated by the category of ‘martial arts.’
Even the Zhuge Family, counted among the foremost in fields like formations and sorcery, regarded martial arts not as a choice but as a necessity—so there was no need to say more.
‘That is···.’
Under the premise that his understanding of martial arts had been fully established.
‘All the martial arts in this world···’
He had, in other words, become able to steal them with just a glance.