I worked myself into a frenzy to prepare for the enemies promised by Anime Attack. Uchiha Madara was the only one I was sure would show up, and if the others were on par with him I was fucked in any one-on-one confrontation. Foregoing sleep altogether and relying on healing magic to keep my health and mental fatigue in check I threw myself into crafting, magic, and martial arts with a fervor I never thought I was capable of. I actually mastered Tai-Chi according to the Gamer's Skills perk, and had earned [Basic Ki Mastery] and several levels in [Weapon Mastery (Unarmed)] for my trouble.
When I needed a break from other projects I approached Sung-Gon about soul magic and necromancy with the aim of learning to protect myself and others from the kind of crazy soul-sucking powers that showed up in anime. I barely noticed the messages when my stats went up from training and studying anymore.
Sung-Gon taught me how souls grew and propagated, what happened to them when people died before they moved on to the afterlife, how what was left behind sometimes condensed into soul stones, and how they affected the bodies that usually housed them. Really, I learned more than I ever thought he would be willing to teach anyone outside the family, including exactly how badly Voldemort had screwed himself up in the Potter-Verse when I asked about the effects of deliberately tearing the soul. That poor bastard wasn't going to heaven, hell, or any other afterlife after what he'd done. There was apparently a difference between messing with the growing portion of the soul and the core soul, the latter being BAD, while the former could be alright if done correctly.
Learning exorcism for malevolent spirits had been pretty quick, since I mostly just bathed an area in [Pearl/Holy] until whatever spirit was there left. After that I had to pick up a trick to push out everything else as they weren't affected by my former method. There may also have been an incident with a demon but I couldn't quite tell what happened through Sung-Gon's laughing. That was one messed up ghost, though.
When I received a notification for the [Soul Magic (Exorcism)] skill and that it was being folded into [Pearl/Holy], I also got an unexpected one saying that [Pearl/Holy] had been revised to [Holy] by Washu because the joke was getting old. There was still a note of it in the skill description, so I wasn't terribly upset by this.
Being able to sense and see souls had been an eye-opening experience. I could tell an experienced necromancer by sight, and most of the Hwan family qualified. It was a bit disquieting, especially when I realized that the Sung-Ah was exactly the opposite since I'd healed her. Her soul was like a shining beacon in the darkness of the house that I did my best to ignore, though it was more distracting than the dark blotches of the others. Examining my own soul showed a great deal of the same [Holy] energy coming from within along with my mana. It was also a little bit like trying to lick your own elbow, which is to say it was difficult but not impossible with my stats and a little creativity.
When Sung-Gon touched on how souls interacted with wards I finally found what he'd been looking for: a well-defined but somewhat flexible way of interacting with souls beyond "push them out, they're dead and I want them out of my house." Combining the ability to trap or anchor a soul in place with [Holy] and a little bit of magic based on old Jewish and Druidic traditions lead me to ways to both anchor my own soul in place and infuse it with [Holy] magic to help counteract any other necromantic shenanigans that might be thrown at me. It wasn't full-on death effect immunity or necromancy immunity, but it was as close as I was reasonably going to get in the time I had.
I practiced my new abilities by taking contracts through the Hwan family to exorcise or otherwise cleanse various locations and items. This seemed to please a great number of people, but I really couldn't be bothered to care as long as I wasn't hurting anyone and was getting better at the skills I'd need to survive. When I got experience points for a couple of the exorcism jobs I started taking on more difficult ones for a while, but ultimately only gained one level before I felt I needed to move on to the next priority. All of the stat points for that level went into luck, and I noted my wisdom was a little lower than I'd like for the future.
My next one-on-one class with the Cheon Bu clan they finally gave me access to their training area, and my productivity shot up. I spent as much time in there practicing magic and martial arts as I possibly could, getting something like eighty hours of practice a day and raking in experience and loot by the truckload. My underwear were now tiger-striped, though I'd made sure to wash them quite thoroughly first. The rest of the loot I shoved in my inventory and forgot about, which in hindsight wasn't a great idea. I was hoping to encounter Han Jee-Han soon, but so far I hadn't. Didn't he work for Cheon Bu by using Gamer's Loot to generate items for them to sell?
Whenever I returned to the Hwan home I practiced crafting, and I finally hit upon another of my goals when some of my newly-learned magical theories that allowed me to turn [Modular Spellcasting and Wards] into [Modular Spellcasting, Enchanting, and Warding]. With that and a lot of study of the staff I'd nabbed from the last mage (wanker) who'd attacked me I finally worked out how to craft an effective magical focus. My first set of gloves wasn't nearly as useful as the staff, but I kept at it. Whatever wasn't up to my standards I either practiced my [Mystical Energy Sense] and [Modular Spellcasting, Enchanting, and Warding] by picking apart or I simply sold them through the Hwans. It took me days and a ton of mana to improve the efficiency to something I was comfortable with, and it turned out I'd accidentally brute-forced an enchantment to make the gloves nearly indestructible in the process. That was great, because I didn't want to go making more any time soon. I would examine the enchantment and learn to do it right later.
Since I had a useful focus with which to reduce my mana costs I moved on to making the gloves more useful for other things. Two thin strips of conjured leather were carefully enchanted to produce [Force Wall]s, but I still wasn't satisfied. I knew there were a lot of different fictional worlds where deflecting or even reflecting magic was trivial, so I decided to try it. Tossing balls of pure mana at surfaces that were supposed to be reflective ate through quite a few temporarily conjured barriers before I had any success at all, but even a tiny amount of success was enough to allow me to create a new spell using Gamer's Skills. Studying the resulting spell and how it worked allowed me to add it to the leather strips already imbued with [Force Wall], which I then added to the insides of the gloves such that they'd produce barriers over the backs of my hands and allow me to smack things out of the way be they magical or not.
Since I now had a [Reflect] ability, I practiced it until I could apply it as a shield around my entire body. The original spell had been more a wall than anything else, but thanks to Gamer's Skills it wasn't terribly difficult to adapt. While I was at it, I started working on a variant of Han Jee-Han's [Mana Shield]. I duplicated the creation process I'd seen in the source material, then took it a step further by welding some aspects of [Holy] into it and coming out the other side with something that could block HP damage in exchange for MP at a set rate, which I really hoped to improve as I grew more skilled at it. The Gamer ability apparently saw the two spells as separate, as it called the new ability [Mana Protection]. Practicing the both was as simple as creating a wall with [Reflect] anchored to it and hurling mana bolts at myself until they each levelled up a dozen times. Since my mana regenerated passively in about two minutes at that point I estimated it would be a fairly effective defense. I was also getting something like four HP damage mitigated per one MP now, which indicated my assumption had been right about the [Mana Protection] ratio improving. It'd started out at one HP per two MP.
It was when I was contemplating how to get the most out of the time remaining that I came up with the idea of buying slaves from the Abyss Auction before it went dark. I'd do my best to free them, and getting them out would presumably save them from the initial attacks predicted by Washu. Now that it occurred to me I really couldn't see any better way to spend my remaining money than to help save other people. It wasn't like I needed materials anymore, and I made enough from selling the items I enchanted and services I'd learned that supporting them shouldn't be too difficult. That they themselves could work to help him set them free would only make it easier. How was I supposed to get that by Sung-Hon though? The one time I'd brought up slaves and the associated magic the man had nearly blown his top. I most likely wouldn't be allowed to stay in the house if I brought it up again, let alone bought any. I'd bring it up but be prepared to leave, then. I needed to figure out a way to warn people of the upcoming attack without setting the damn thing off early.
-
Two days after my revelation about how to save at least a few of the Abyss Action slaves I was approached by Sung-Ah, who asked to speak in private. When I lead to her a room and warded it for privacy, she asked to join religion. It was weird, but I think I got through to her that I wasn't any sort of priest in the end.
"You want to join my what now?" I asked, confused.
"I want to join your religion. You're obviously a priest, and both you and your god have done so much for my family I feel it's the only way to even begin to repay that debt. It would also benefit my family to have such a practitioner, if I were to become a priestess."
"I'm not a priest. What made you think I was a priest? Have I been so zoned out I ended up staring at a mess of passing choirboys?"
"What? No! You channel divine energy, you cured me and conferred such a powerful blessing it's even helping those around me, and take to priestly training like no one I've ever heard of! You're obviously at least partly trained in most of the things you're learning already!"
"Um… I do channel holy energy, yes. I don't get it from a god though. I mean, there was a Goddess involved but she doesn't provide the power or anything."
"You...what?"
"I don't worship any gods."
"Then where do you get divine energy!?"
"It's mine," I replied smugly, still happy that I'd managed to create [Holy], the ability previously known as [Pearl/Holy]. I was a little bit in my happy place for a moment and might have missed what Sung-Ah said next, so I just continued.
"I make it. It's a part of me and comes from me."
Sung-Ah stared at me incredulously, then stared at me intently while muttering to herself for a moment. I didn't understand what she said, so I naturally asked "what was that?" Her eyes widened and she muttered again, quietly enough that I barely heard her.
"It's still not quite getting through, sorry."
Her face was white as a sheet now, and she just stared at me for a few minutes. Her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head.
"What? Are you ok?"
Emotions ran across her face too quickly for me to accurately read, but they settled somewhere between resignation and awe. Her posture straightened ever so slightly and she addressed me in a calm voice. Mostly.
"What is your symbol, my lord?"
What the hell was she calling me a lord for? Was that a thing in modern South Korea? I didn't remember anything like that from my inherited memories or from my first life, so if it was it must have been an Abyss thing.
"You mean like my crest or something? It's a little hard to describe...I can try and make an illusion of it, though."
She nodded her head solemnly, but said nothing. I concentrated on manipulating mana into a way I'd seen before, but only touched on when I created [Holy]. The result was a little off-color and still felt like [Holy], but I eventually cobbled together an image of a lone cherry tree in full blossom sitting on an island just big enough to support it. Cuddled beneath its branches were a housecat and a pygmy hedgehog, but scaled up in size to be easily seen against the tree and behind the branches. She studied it intently for...a while. I was actually starting to get uncomfortable when she spoke next.
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Basic Illusion!]
"Which represents you?" She asked.
I wasn't quite sure how she'd guessed my wife and I designed the thing such that we were personally represented, but I indicated the cat anyway.
"Does the crest mean anything in particular? Why this imagery?" She continued. I contemplated her for a moment before answering. This conversation had gotten weird a few miles back and was turning into surreal territory as far as I was concerned, and I wanted it over with.
"The water and the island represent seclusion, peace, and cleansing. The tree represents love and life, and the cycles of such things. They are hot, cold and everything in between but they are also eternal. There are some types of trees that are genetically immortal, did you know?"
She was making that weird face again. The one I didn't know quite how to interpret. I continued, trying to get this over with.
"The hedgehog is a kind of totem to my wife, and represents her in the picture. The cat is the same for me. Every time I imagine the darn thing it's a different kind of cat, though. I'm not sure why. We're trying to find each other again, but we've both been given separate...quests, I guess. We have to get stronger before we'll be re-united. I haven't seen her in...a long time."
Her eyes locked with mine, and she addressed me once more. Her tone indicated she was trying to ensure she understood, and I hoped that meant we would be done soon. I had stuff to do and this whole social thing was getting on my nerves, and the topic was making it worse. I missed my wife, and it would be a long time before I saw her again.
"You are your own source of divine power, a goddess was involved in that, you cured me with that power and conveyed a blessed so powerful it's also helping those around me, your crest is this image, the cat represents you, the hedgehog represents your wife, and you've both been given quests to gain power before you can see each other again?"
"Um...yeah. That sounds about right."
She nodded slowly, then settled her hands into a prayer position for a few moments while staring me in the eyes. Whatever she was looking for she apparently got, as she left soon after. Hopefully she wouldn't call me a priest anymore.
-
Sung-Gon started giving me odd looks after that, and when I approached him about slaves he seemed a lot more willing to listen than last time. When I explained my idea of buying a ton of them and assigning them to research ways to free themselves and useful skills to have if we were able to free them he looked a little more enthusiastic, but still wary.
"Your idea has merit, but I cannot afford to associate my family with slavery. I will not order them for you, and you cannot order them yourself without putting yourself in danger from whoever started the mana broker after you."
We argued for a bit after that, me trying to convince him it was the right thing to do and him telling me it was too dangerous to do myself and would drag his family's reputation lower than even their necromancy had. I finally got so frustrated I just said the first thing that came to mind. Apparently Gamer's Mind wasn't perfect, and neither was I.
"They're all going to die, damnit! We need to get as many as we can out before it happens!"
Sung-Gon stared at me, eyebrows raised. I parsed over what I'd just said and realized I had erred, then decided to go along with it.
"I had a premonition, ok? There's a bunch of Japanese mages left after what the Auction people did to them, and they're going to do some sort of ritual that sends very powerful things after the whole of the Korean Abyss. They're going to start by destroying as much of the Auction as they can, since it was the Korean branch and one of their backing clans that did most of the killing. Please: I'm trying to save lives, and I didn't know any way to tell you about the coming threat without sounding insane!"
The staring continued, but the emotions crossing his face indicated his thoughts were racing. Confusion, doubt, something I couldn't identify, then more doubt that slowly faded to determination.
"How much did you see, and what must we do to prepare?"
[A new quest has been created: Help Prepare the Abyss for Anime Attack!]
I sagged with relief. This would make things much easier, especially if Sung-Gon could somehow convince others to help as well. I didn't care how he convinced them: he could tell them I had a vision, he could tell them he had a spy network and they'd picked up word of the Japanese mages, he could even just start ordering people around and pulling strings. The timetable was relatively set, and I still had most of a year before the earliest time Washu said it would happen. Any preparation was better than none, and hopefully we wouldn't set the damn thing off early.
I explained that some time in the next one to two years there would be an attack by what might be strange hybrids of summoned creatures and golems, since they took the form of fictional characters and had the powers of said characters. I believed they would hit the Abyss Auction first, but even if they weren't first they would still be attacked with overwhelming force. The few powers I could predict with some certainty were supernatural strength, speed, agility, and endurance, the ability to manipulate minds and souls, illusions, and various elemental powers. His look of understanding when I mentioned the ability to manipulate souls was followed by a dark look, though thankfully not directed at me.
After telling him what I knew about what was coming, I told him about my plans: I wanted to disseminate at least low-level healing and stabilization powers, figure out a way to make myself and whoever else was most likely to confront these beasts more physically capable, and find as many was to shield against mind techniques and esoteric energies as possible. I was fairly certain that between the Hwan and myself we could impart some sort of resistance to soul magics to our allies, so I'd need to escalate the training of at least a few healers to something nearer druids or priests in order to use the lighter version of the soul anchoring technique. Then I brought up the Cheon Bu, and said they had at least two people we needed as allies. When he asked who, I reluctantly parted with the information.
"Their Elder and one of their contractors, maybe some of the higher disciples as well. The contractor has an odd aura about him, and it seems to grow more quickly than mine does. I've seen him with the Cheon Bu heir. He'll end up fighting either way, but I think we have a better chance with him informed beforehand. I wish we could put a message out to the Abyss in general, but when I consider the possibility I just get chills about what would happen. I don't think it would be wise."
He nodded seriously, and to my amusement looked a little alarmed when I mentioned Han Jee-Han. The Hwan and Cheon Bu were not allies, but they were acquaintances at this point and Sung-Gon should have encountered Jee-Han before I even arrived in this world. Relations with the Cheon Bu had gotten steadily better since I healed Sung-Ah and started doing non-necromancy work as a Hwan representative. Since I also studied with them and had gained a modest amount of trust, they might believe what I had to say. If that didn't work I could try to corner and convince Han Jee-Han that he needed to be immensely stronger and be able to deal with a few specific things, just in case. Finally, Sung-Gon addressed me.
"I will retrieve what books we have on mind magics from the family library, then send a message to gather the family. Convincing the Cheon Bu of what you've told me would be more difficult than it's worth, but convincing them of an unspecified threat with the specific powers you've mentioned shouldn't take long. You will study the mind magics and train as much as you can. If what you say is true we will need you, and if it's not I will be expelling you from my home at the end of two years. Whether you truly believe what you're saying or not I will honor the debt we owe you by doing what I can to prepare, but that will be the last of our dealings if you're wrong or lying to me."
I nodded solemnly, thanking Washu, Gaia, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster in that order. I had more training to do.
-
I had to get copies made of some of the books on mind magic, since they contained actual spells that I could learn by absorbing the books and didn't want to destroy the originals. I made sure to keep at least two spare copies of each of the skill books after I read them. One was for my library and one was for Jee-Han. I needed to meet him soon. Training against each-other under time dilation would undoubtedly be the best way to quickly gain both skill and experience. I also made time to write up a guide to the most basic uses of [Holy]: healing and removing debuffs, which I termed cleansing. When Sung-Ah found out she stole the finished product, then showed up a few days later with a stack of hard-bound copies and refused to return my original notes. I was grateful, but confused by both her behavior and her enthusiasm. I'd had to re-write those notes when I couldn't find them on my desk, and she hadn't needed to admit to taking them or make books out of them.
When I finally met Han Jee-Han in the Cheon Bu illusion barrier, he had just finished speaking to the Cheon Bu heir about something. He turned around, took a look above my head, and gaped like a fish. I hadn't been paying attention to the names, titles, and professions floating over people's heads since I got here, just their levels. That meant I'd forgotten he'd immediately see my profession "The Gamer" and might freak out. I made a shushing gesture at him, then indicated he should follow me a short distance away from the entrance. I wasn't sure why he went along with it, but it helped so I wasn't complaining. Also, he started the conversation. That was nice, since I didn't have to try and come up with a greeting.
"You're like me! I thought I was the only one! Your level is lower, though. Want to party up?"
"Eheh..actually, I do. That's not the only reason I'm here though. Han Jee-Han, you can call me Wren or Player Two. There's a threat coming that means we both need to grow more powerful very quickly, and the Cheon Bu will need to prepare if you can convince them. Also, I have skill books that you need to learn."
"Ok, I was going to ask you to leave so I could work until I saw you were a Gamer too. That's going to take a while to get used to. Are you sure you want to give up skill books, knowing I'm like you? And do you know anything more about this threat?"
"Yes and yes, but I don't know how much you're believe. If at all possible I'd like to do a book exchange with you, especially if you can convince the Cheon Bu to allow me to learn some of their family art from the books. I was trying not to reveal the full scope of my ability to anyone, but since they already know about you it should be ok. I hope."
Jee-Han nodded thoughtfully, and held out his hand. I deliberately triggered my inventory window and sent him a party invite, which he accepted without comment. Grabbing the copied books on mind magic and the one printed one I'd gotten back from Sung-Ah about my [Holy] magic, I handed them to him. He wordlessly absorbed the [Holy] book and threw the rest in his inventory. His face practically lit up when he read the descriptions for the [Holy] spells.
"I can cure debuffs without soul stones now! Awesome! Thanks!"
"No problem. If you're up for it I'd like to practice the mind magic with you some time we're not grinding kills. That way we'll both get better at attack and defense as quickly as possible."
"Yeah, no problem! What's your power set, anyway? Your stats are only a little skewed toward mental abilities."
That reminded me, I needed to spend my skill points from levelling up. I opened the status window while we talked, and raised my intelligence and luck to eighty one and fifty, then spent the remaining points on dexterity to boost my speed, agility, and reflexes.
[By raising your intelligence to fifty, you've gain the skill: Mana Affinity!]
[By raising your luck to fifty, you've gained the skill: High Roller!]
I quickly ran through the effects of both new skills, and noted with interest that [Mana Affinity] was actually really amazing. If it wasn't maximum level already I'd have been ecstatic, but I was still pretty pleased with myself. [High Roller] was odd. It raised the maximum amount and level of loot that spawned, but it also said I'd gained the eyes of both Lady Luck and Gaia. Given that Gaia was already watching me I wasn't sure that was actually a good thing.
"I'm actually an all-rounder with a specialty in healing and utility techniques. What about you?"
"Oh, I'm a mage. Blaster all the way!"
"Alright. I guess that means I'm in front, but we'll both try to keep a distance?"
"Works for me. Let's kill some ogres!"
We spent the next three days or so doing just that, which meant about seven hours had passed outside. I gave Jee-Han my portion of the loot and all the random non-skill stuff I'd accumulated from my zombie runs except the soul stones. Since I didn't have an Abyss Auction account he agreed to sell it all for me in exchange for splitting the entire take fifty-fifty, my old loot included. Jee-Han hadn't known about the ability to go without sleep if you used healing spells, so he was pleasantly surprised when he found out. I picked up another sixteen levels and Jee-Han gained twelve, putting us both in the high twenties. When we took a break I looked at my stats again to attribute points then raised wisdom, vitality, and dexterity to fifty for the bonus skills.
[By raising your dexterity to fifty, you've gained the skill: Basic Speedster!]
[By raising your vitality to fifty, you've gain the skill: Basic Strong Body!]
[By raising your wisdom to fifty, you've gain the skill: Basic Strong Spirit!]
[Basic Speedster] was a skill that passively boosted my agility, reflexes, and speed but could also be actively engaged to speed me up even more. The best part was that it gained experience when I used it actively, which meant I finally had a way to keep up with super-speedy anime characters! [Basic Strong Body] looked a lot like the Gamer's version of the Ranma ½ Breaking Point technique's endurance, which was...well, it left me speechless for a moment. I was completely immune to any damage under a certain threshold. That was a step toward invulnerability! Unfortunately it didn't look like it scaled, which was terribly disappointing for me but did make sense if it evolved into [Strong Body] or something more advanced with more vitality. Did [Body Strong Spirit]...it did! I was immune to deleterious mystical effects under a certain threshold! Hopefully I was right about [Basic Strong Body] and [Basic Strong Spirit] would do the same thing. I signalled to Jee-Han that I was ready to go, but he indicated for me to wait. He was studying me closely.
"How are you keeping so many spells going at once?"
"What do you mean? I don't think I've been using very many. It just takes concentration."
"I saw you use some kind of fire spell earlier at the same time as you were trapping ogres in those [Force Wall]s of yours. I thought it was some sort of skill."
"If it is I haven't been prompted for it yet. Maybe we should try before we continue? If it works to reduce the amount of concentration required it would be beyond useful!"
"Alright. So how do we do this, then? I guess...two active powers at once like you were doing earlier, but try to concentrate specifically on splitting our attention?" He speculated.
"Sounds good to me. I'll try the [Force Wall] and [Pyrokinesis] abilities you saw me using earlier. Why don't you try using [Holy] and [Mana Shield]?" So decided, we tried it. And it was good.
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Multi-Focus!]
We looked at each-other wide-eyed.
"You realize we have to abuse the fuck out of this, right?"
"We wouldn't be Gamers if we didn't!"