◈ Episode 183. Debut

A time to sip a cup of tea.

If it’s short, it’s short, and if it’s long, it’s long.

I had so much going on.

‘……formal is hard, really.’

I would have overlooked it.

Grandell’s love of teatime……!

I had no choice but to drink one cup after another of tea brewed with everlasting snowflakes and scorching sunflowers, as there is no such thing as a pre-mixed bomb tea in Grandfell dictionary.

And the agony began.

[The effect of the Elixir, ‘Everlasting Snowflake’, is triggered].

[Ice attribute affinity greatly increased].

[Ice Magic Manifestation greatly increased].

[Anomaly, ‘Chill’, occurs.]…….

I was prepared, but it was more than I could have imagined.

The cold winds of Siberia?

The bitter cold of the North Sea?

Nothing compared to this.

If I had to compare it, I would have to bring the Senios the Ice Cap.

I thought.

Rattling.

But I blurted out.

“It’s a pleasant chill.”

Someone was going to freeze to death, what the hell!

I couldn’t just freeze to death.

I quickly steeped the scorching sunflower leaves and sipped.

And I regretted it again.

[The effect of the elixir, ‘Scorching Sunflower’, is triggered].

[Fire elemental affinity greatly increased].

[Fire magic manifestation greatly increased].

[Status Anomaly, ‘High Fever’ is triggered] …….

In my head, it was perfect.

In practice, it’s a different story.

The pain felt like my body was going to shatter.

Clink─geulang─

I lost consciousness and dropped my teacup on the floor.

The aftermath was too much for me to handle, even in a formal way.

I’ve done something really crazy, I realize.

But being strong is not surviving.

You’re strong because you survive.

In the end, I made it through, I opened my eyes, and that’s it.

“I’ve been making a lot of noise, not like me.”

I couldn’t be more pleased with myself for this moment.

By the way, another realization.

The effect of the [Blessing of the First World Tree] is……!

[Blessing of the First World Tree rejects ‘Chill’].

[Blessing of the First World Tree rejects ‘High Fever’]…….

Chills and High Fever have their place.

If not for the blessing of the World Tree.

I wouldn’t even be able to get to the scorching sunflowers.

I would have frozen to death with my teacup to my mouth, the world’s first human to freeze to death while drinking tea, and I would have been stuffed in a museum…….

‘It wasn’t just a warming buff.’

Even after consuming both elixirs.

Yes, the effects are neutralized.

The problem was that it was neutralized in my body!

[First World Tree Blessing rejects ‘Internal Injury’].

…… I must have seen a creepy message in my hazy consciousness.

Anyway, I wasn’t the one who welcomed Grandfell’s bravado for nothing.

[Title, ‘Transcendent’ triggers the effect] …….

The message that floated beneath it.

Excitement.

And most of all, a welcome heartbeat.

I had a lot of thoughts about what to check first.

The first thing I did was draw on my magic.

The magic flowed out and enveloped the broken teacup.

‘Anyway, I can’t just sit there looking disheveled no matter what.’

Swoosh.

Reversal magic manifested.

The shattered teacup on the floor regains its original appearance.

But wait.

Something about it seems different from before, even though it looks the same……?

For some reason, it looks more expensive?

Reversal magic is just what it sounds like: reversal.

It’s just reversing things back to their original state.

You didn’t add anything in the interference process.

It’s like a [aesthetic] change?

I could only think of one possible explanation.

‘…… It’s the effect of the circle.’

Elder Mage, Yugweed.

Before and after the circle was formed, she said, the power of magic could vary by several to ten times. I thought she was simply referring to power, but apparently not.

‘Wow, the universality of this is incredible.’

I marveled.

‘It’s not a transcendent for nothing.’

…… Okay, let’s see the exact effect.

I open the title in the status bar.

I checked the effect of the unlocked [Transcendent].

[Transcendent: Your transcendent state is sufficient to be called a Transcendent…….]

For some reason, the first sentence was familiar.

Where have I seen this before?

[Sublime] The title and the tone are the same, isn’t it?

[Sublime: Sublime one, the continent of Arcana remembers you].

Surely, like the sublime, you have to experience the effect by directly encountering it? I was worried. It wasn’t. Because the effect of the title of Transcendant was not that brief.

[Transcendent: Your transcendent state is sufficient to be called a Transcendent. – Current Achievements: Circle (1,000% increase in all magic manifestations) / None / None / None…….]

It’s not short, which is a problem.

‘Current achievement? Circle isn’t the only one?’

Of course, there are many different types of achievements.

I can’t count the classes in Arcana alone.

Even I, myself, have attained the Sword Force and the Circle.

Swordsmanship and magic, I’ve reached their respective levels.

But to see it with my own eyes, to see it in the system, was a different matter.

It meant so much to me, to Grandfell.

“Indeed, my path was right.”

My path.

As many holes as possible.

Digging as many wells as possible.

‘It wasn’t in vain.’

To fill in the gaps, if that’s the nature of Grandfell.

He would never be lazy.

I’ll never be able to use efficiency as an excuse to cheat.

It was me who was dying because of it……!

‘Lee Hoyeol, life is so cruel and harsh.’

But I’m not going to whine again.

As you can see, the effect of my accomplishment was enormous.

I continued.

“Surely you can’t call it an achievement yet.”

Life or death.

No, just thanks to dying once.

I’d skipped the middle step and achieved the Sword Force.

It would be difficult to call it the level of a transcendent yet.

Why, Harkon alone had a sharper sword force than me.

‘I need to be as good as Shegwin’.

How many elixirs will I have to consume before……. No, I mean, how many different kinds of efforts I’ll have to make to get there, which I can’t even begin to fathom right now.

I said nonchalantly.

“But a sword without pride is light as a feather.”

Yes, that was comforting.

You’ve got a lot of confidence, Grandfell.

Anyway, I checked the last of the floating messages.

I’ve seen the transcendental effect.

Just when I thought there were no more surprises.

……You’re overlooking a lot today, Hoyeol.

[You have acquired the Transcendent’s unique skill, ‘Socializing in Space and Time’].

To the title.

To tremendous effect.

Setting specific goals.

And now a unique skill.

You’ve been so generous.

I was starting to get suspicious.

I checked my Unique Skills with suspicion.

Then I opened my mouth.

“I don’t believe in coincidences.”

Really, shamelessly.

“If I’m going to wait for a coincidence, I’m going to go for it.”

*

AAU Korea Branch.

Tap, tap, tap!

Yoon Soogyeom tapped away at the keyboard without stopping.

Sung Hyunjoon, who had been watching, sneaked over.

He put a cup of coffee on the senior’s desk.

When he still didn’t respond, he grabbed a passerby and whispered.

“Mr. Yoon, do you have any idea why he’s acting like that?”

“Oh, Hyunjoon took you off work, didn’t he?”

“Yes, I came back to work today……. The atmosphere is different from usual.”

Lee Hoyeol’s absence system.

It was the best excuse in the office.

Sung Hyunjoon followed Hoyeol’s lead and used up his accrued annual leave.

During his few days off, he did all sorts of crazy things.

-“……, this is not the right posture.”

He even watered the potted plants alongside Hoyeol, who tended the flower garden, and got a slap on the back from his mother, who said that no one watered the cactus like that.

I returned to AAU with a lot of stories to tell.

Yoon Soogyeom has been like that since the morning.

He was too focused to talk to.

“Why, you must have gotten in touch with him.”

“In touch? With whom?”

“With my teammates from Cosmo.”

“Aww……!”

The AAU used to have less interaction between branches due to the intertwining of interests between countries.

However, with the launch of the Yusra branch, the interaction between the branches has become as active as it was in the early days of the cataclysm.

“I’m busy, Soogyeom is busy. We’re all busy. Everyone owes someone something. To the head of our Yusra branch.”

General Manager of the Yusra Branch.

A position Hoyeol held in the AAU.

“I thought that if I gathered all the scattered information from the AAU, maybe something would come out of it. Even if it doesn’t, I found something that could be useful to my team. It’s about dragons. …….”

“Dragons?!”

“Nope. I’ll tell you about that later, when I’m sure.”

“Aww…….”

“Anyway, good luck, Hyunjoon.”

The man who said that walked past Sung Hyunjoon.

“Ah, yes, good luck, senior!”

Sung Hyunjoon sat down quietly.

He waited for Yoon to take his hands off the keyboard.

An hour later.

Tap-tap!

When the opportunity finally came, he quickly opened his mouth.

“Senior, coffee on the side!”

“Coffee? Oh, thank you.”

“What kind of meeting were you having anyway?”

I asked.

Sung Hyunjoon’s glare made Yoon Soogyeom laugh.

“Nothing as big as you’re expecting.”

“……Eh, is it a secret?”

“No, it’s not a secret, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

Yoon pointed his finger at the monitor.

I blinked.

The text he was writing came into view.

A sigh escaped Sung Hyunjoon’s lips.

“Wow, why didn’t I think of this before?!”

Ultra high-level player content.

It was the fate of every game developer.

He remembered his days at Cosmo.

“Same here, but it was war every Thursday, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, every week we’d get an update and it’d be all about nothing.”

“I swear, we had to grind our teeth, especially us Korean gamers…we have a real……. How can you get content that takes at least a month to grind for cheap in a day!”

Back when Arcana was just a game.

The rate at which players consumed content was unimaginable.

As a result, in our meetings, we would write down any ideas for high-level content. That’s why Yoon reached out to team members in each branch.

“Are you going to look for ideas then?”

“Yes. I thought it might be worth digging into.”

“You’re right. Demon Kings, Dragons. Those were all things that were in the concept stage, because they just appeared in the rift as if they’d always been there.”

Likewise, he said, there may have been high-level content on the Arcana continent that was only an idea.

“What we need that information for now is…….”

For a moment, Sung Hyunjoon’s pupils dilated.

“That’s right, I’ll pass it on to General Manager Lee Hoyeol.”

“I don’t know about the other players, but……. Surely it might help the general manager! Or maybe he already knows all about it?”

“Either way, I’ll see what I can scrape together for now.”

Clearly, he wasn’t in the mood to talk about getting slapped on the back for watering a cactus.

Besides, Sung Hyunjoon himself was more curious than chatty.

“Senior, can I ask you one last question?”

“Sure. I was bored because no one was talking to me, so I’ll listen.”

“Oh.”

Drac─

Sung Hyun-joon pulled up a chair and spoke.

“So, of all the ideas you’ve scraped together, which one would be most helpful to the General Manager? The deep sea city you were typing about just now, or the hundred thousand caves in the Zero Mountains?”

Let’s see.

Yoon stroked his chin.

“They’re all important, but they won’t help you right now, will they? Whatever it is, you’ll write about it when the rift comes to mind, not if it exists.”

As long as it exists in that sense.

And if it’s a hot topic.

The content you can use right now is …….

“Is this …… [The Transcendent Community]?”

*

More luxurious than the Golden Palace of Yusra.

A space with a structure more unrealistic than a Magic Tower.

At least on the Arcana continent, places like this do not exist.

Yes, this is the 『The Spacetime Social Hall』.

In the language of other worlds, it’s called the Transcendent Community.

Only the transcendents could enter.

Because it was a space of ‘consciousness’.

A social gathering place that is only allowed to a very few people.

“?”

There was an unfamiliar feeling in the room.

Everyone’s attention turned to the source.

The gaze of the Sword Saint, Shegwin, was the same.

Soon, it was getting closer and closer.

With extremely clear and pure sound.

Ttogak─