Chapter 11 (1/2)

Iponia

As I returned home, trying to defend myself from the downpour of Secretary Kim’s questions, I locked my door before taking Iponia out of the case.

“Hiss! Hiss!”

It bared its teeth and raised its fur, its green eyes giving off some desperate energy.

“Oh my. Calm down, kid.”

Director Oh advised me to refrain from touching it with my bare hands, but I didn’t mind it at all. When I caught the little guy running away to the corner of the case with both hands, Iponia twisted and rebelled without any strength. Doing so, it scratched at my forearm. However, blue light immediately flowed out of the bracelet as Auto-Heal was activated, and the wound disappeared without a trace.

“Now, I’ll put you on the floor.”

It had been in a situation where it was constantly threatened and starved. The excessively bright light of the displays would’ve also put it on edge. Not surprisingly, as soon as I put it on the floor, Iponia limped without looking back to hide in the dark space under the bed. It was a pity that it couldn’t even run properly even at the moment it tried to hideaway.

“I have to feed this kid too.”

I found the contact information of the guild’s supply department on my device and made a call. The other person didn’t panic even at my sudden request and only repeated, ‘Yes, yes!’ And exactly thirty minutes later, what was delivered were some skill cards.

“To give out guild assets just like that with a single phone call. It’s like a private organization.”

Of course, if what I asked for was something like a more valuable weapon-type artifact, it would’ve required approval from the guild leader, but this seemed to be okay.

“He chose some good ones.”

As I could see, each piece was precious.

“He only picked cards that were completely useless.”

That had been my request. One of the misunderstandings of ordinary people around this age was that, whatever their type might be, skill cards were very valuable and useful in some way. Most of the skills known through the media were gorgeous swordsmanship skills, magic spells, or even mysterious special abilities, so it was understandably misleading.

However, if you were to look at the skill cards found in dungeons, most of them were neglected even by F-class hunters and remain unused. This was because they took up a limited number of skill slots. Those were called trash skills. Usually, there were two types. Those with effects that were useless, or those where the mana consumption was impossibly great such as 300,000 (the maximum mana officially recorded in my past life is about 50,000).

If the latter were discovered, they were set aside and taken care of, but the former was treated as junk. The ones that came into my hands today also belonged to the first category.

[Self-Blind (Rank: F, Active)]

-Temporarily, the caster loses his sight. Mana Cost: 6

It was a typical trash skill. If you don’t want to see something, you lower your eyelids and close your eyes. You don’t need to spend as much as 6 Mana. I flipped over the next card.

[Promote Hair Growth (Rank: F, Active)]

-Creates several hair roots on the surface of the subject’s skin, allowing rich body hair to grow. Mana cost: 7 per 1.9 square centimeters

If I had landed in a time a little more to the past, I could have used it commercially, but in this era, hair loss had long been eradicated. Next.

[Luring Quebados (Rank: F, Active)]

-When the skill is cast, a very sweet scent that attracts Quebados for a certain period is released, and Quebados finds the caster attractive. Mana Cost: 25

For any reason, if you needed a Quebados, this skill might be useful. The only problem was that the Quebados didn’t live on Earth, and no one even knew what kind of creature it was. All other cards were similar. Okay, now···

I spoke to the guy who stared at me with a defensive look from under the bed.

“Are you hungry? Let’s eat.”

I quietly lay my gaze inside myself. A small amount of mana had been consumed during the event in the afternoon, but it had recovered naturally over time. I only took one card in my hand and then concentrated my mana on it. Immediately, the skill card responded.

Vwooom!

The card disappeared as it turned into light, leaving an oozing blue mana crystal in my palm. If that mana crystal were left alone, it would be absorbed into my body, combine with my active mana, and engrave a unique pattern. As a result, a new skill would be stored in the skill slot. After that, according to the stored information, the man moved, and the skill was activated. But I didn’t intend for such an event.

Vwoom! Vwoom!

I deliberately prevented that natural absorption by repelling it with mana. Then, I squeezed a little more mana out to cover it as if I was wrapping a crystal.