Earlier before coming to the dungeon, our group arrived in a certain town that had access to the portal.
"You guys stay here and help fend off the Wave of Calamity that will be coming soon."
"Where are you going?"
"Me? Well, I'm going to do something important."
"I'm coming with you!" Otuko raised her hands up in excitement. "Staying in this town for a couple of days is too boring... If it's you, I'm sure that place you're talking about will be excited!'
She showed me a all-knowing smile that seemed to have understood my intention.
However—
"No."
There's something I want her to do.
"You will stay here with them."
***
Back at the present.
[Welcome back to the "Labyrinth of Calamity".]
Staring at the familiar panel in front of me, cracked both my knuckles and sighed deeply in contempt.
"It's been a while."
While I was preparing myself to face the enemies ahead, I suddenly heard a new notification as a panel appeared from the side of my view.
[Congratulations, you now have unlocked Lucky Check.]
"Lucky check?"
[Lucky Check allows you to spin the Wheel of Fortune using 100 BP (Boss Points) in each spin.]
[Depending on your luck, there's a possibility of you being able to obtain a Boss Pets that is only exclusive in the prizes.]
[There are a total of millions that you can win. And plus, there are different classes and tier in each prize.]
_____
[Item Tier]
[Low-tier item] : contains normal items like used sword, bows, shield, arrows, etc.
[Mid-tier item] : contains potions like health potions, rejuvenating potions, mana potions, etc.
[High-tier item] : contains valuable that can help the user's growth, high class times, weapons, or potions.
[Legendary-tier item] : contains Legendary class items. May vary to weapon and potions. The effect can be lasting.
[Mythical-tier item] : ???
_____
[Boss Classes]
[Calamity]
[Catastrophe]
[Apocalypse]
[Heaven]
[Over-Heaven]
[God]
_____
I see... This must be like a gacha.
I glanced over the monsters from the distance. It seems like none of them had noticed my presence as of yet.
"So, system, how many points do I have right now?"
[BP : 20,500]
From the looks of it, it seems like I can spin about 205 times.... How did I even get that much anyway?
Guess I'll try my luck and spin 10 times, who knows...? Maybe I might get lucky on my first try and obtain some mythical-tier item or some God-class pets.
[Do you want to spin?]
[Yes/No]
"Yes~"
After spinning my first try, I managed to get lucky by obtaining a high-tier item. It was a ring that let me store items in an empty space no matter how heavy it is.
"Wow... I got lucky on my first try. Let's try again..."
On my second spin, I managed to get a mid-tier healing potion.... But hey, it was still useful so I'm not that upset.
I didn't really need to use the healing potions in this labyrinth since I can just kill myself and respawn, so I decided to store it inside the ring.
Again...
This time, I got a low-tier rope. Yep, just a regular rope.... Maybe, I'll get something good next.
I began to spin again.
[Low-tier Broken sword.]
Again.
[Mid-tier Mana potion.]
And again.
[High-tier Strengthening potion.]
And again....
This continued until, eventually—
Ah... Shit.
—All my points went down into drain.
Ah... Curse this gacha game!!!
***
Later.
"...I'll refrain myself from using this gacha shit for another time."
After the constantly losing by getting low-tier shits without even getting a single Boss Pet, I decided to stop myself from continuing.
The only thing useful I got was too few... Pocket ring, two High-Tier Core, twenty useful equipments and fifteen potions. The rest are trash.
Since the monster here disappear as soon as they get killed, I couldn't take anything useful except for gaining battle experience and body training.
Well, I guess it wasn't all lost for me. Why? If I were to swallow the two High-Tier Core I got, I'll be able to finally gain more mana that can be used to refine my own core to increase my mana capacity.... Plus, I'll finally be able to begin my training on Frostfire since my mana won't be much of a problem.
However....
[Flame Golem Core : High Tier.]
[By swallowing this, the user will be able to get all the mana inside. However, the side effect is that they will be unable to use magic for three months.]
Although swallowing this core had it's benefit, I can't afford to lose my mana for three months...! Also, I can only stay here for a month since the day of the Waves of Calamity is getting near.
To be frank, it should be happening after nine days from now outside this Labyrinth.
The sole reason I decided to postpone my training on this element was because my proficiency in using mana is still low. If I'm being honest, I'm too weak and unskilled to learn it this early.
And truthfully, I did tried learning one of it's skill a couple of days ago. However, something went wrong because of my lack of mana, causing it explode on me....
...As I was saying, I'm not like some genius scholar or mage, who's good at understanding and theorizing magic, in this world, but a man who uses science to my advantage — I'm a scientist!
My mana, being the most important part of magic, needs to be much more refined and my mastery has to be similar to an advanced magician.
Mages is for beginners.
Archimage is for advanced.
Sorcerer is for Master.
And lastly, Sage is for the Perfect Mastery.
Mages in this world are often considered to be geniuses — being one can already make you genius among other geniuses. Why, you wonder? It's because only few people are able to understand the real concept of Magic!
'What is Mana?'
A question that had an obvious answer; however, only few are able to understand what it truly means.
It begins from understanding the world, but ends with twisting the rules of the world. That's what Magic are, according to some Scholar... However, such reply didn't particularly answered the question, but was merely a diversion to the real topic.
Mana...
I didn't really have a proper answer to that question either, as of now, if I'm being honest.
This world is real and work realistically... Almost realistically. It's not like what animes, mangas or light novels told I've read about.
According to my own research, mana is an energy that can be converted into—or a replacement to a particular element.
I have a theory that this world — Although the mana from this world don't particularly work like science, but it, technically or by half, didn't break the laws of physics... Remember, the keyword is "half".
Think about it, being able to control gravity? A parachute, for example.
Why? Parachute can reduce the SPEED of the fall because, since we know that streamlined bodies experience less drag; however, a non-streamlined body experiences more drag. A parachute doesn't have streamlined body shape, hence it increases the drag, which reduce the falling speed.
Like gravity manipulation in magic, as long as you understand this concept and don't break it, you'll be able to learn how to use gravity magic to glide through the air safely.
Now, then.... As for the keyword "half", as long as you understood something with HALF or a science-based fact, mana will bend as the user's imagination and understanding...
Yes, by IMAGINING and UNDERSTANDING the facts and bluffs of something, you'll be able to use magic freely.
If you don't understand it, let's say that if a someone were to imagine himself as God (Imagine), then he won't be God since it's impossible without fulfilling some requirements (Understanding).
I can already imagine that you're probably taking your time to think right now.
Since we already have (Imagine), yet without (Understanding), then, here's a good question that can answer that:
What do you think create a God?
A believer would say "God is there. He existed since the beginning."
However, for me, I would say, "God did exist, in a thought of a man. Yet, he never existed in the beginning."
Now, by understanding this concept, you'll probably be able to connect some dots altogether.
Yes... It's BELIEF.
If "God" is (Imagine), then "Belief" of people is (Understanding).
In truth, many knew this, but chose to deny this fact out of FEAR.
The Fear of The Unknown... It is truly terrifying, even to me.
No one knows what will happen in the future, after death, or what our fate will become.
Because of this, we, the people, chose to create something... Anything! Believe in some "High and Almighty Being" that will come and save us from this FEAR.
It was people's own fear that drives them to believe, or commit something.
Anyways, since you understand this fact, this also means...
One can become a True God... with the help of mana.
How? Like I've explained to you earlier, mana is similar to an energy that can bend according to it's user's (Imagine) or imagination and (Understanding) or the facts and bluffs.
Since the people's belief thinks that "God (Imagine)" is an "Almighty Being (Understanding)", then their own mana will naturally bend according to it's user's will.
Meaning, the people and their beliefs will become a good supply of mana if they were to believe that "someone" is God.
This should also explain the existence of "Divine magic".
It is said that it originated from the God and blessed to it's people... If that was the case, then "mana" shouldn't have become it's main source of fuel to function. It should be something like "Divine Aura", or some sort.
That can only mean that Divine Magic itself is a fraud.
It's not using God's power, but the people's...
And the people are too dumb to realize this, so they continue praying at the Churches of this world to be blessed by their so-called "Divine Power"... Ugh, this is disgusting. What a huge scam!
The Goddess of Light...
She must be a person who managed to ascend to Godhood by creating a weird cult through the process of making the people believe that she's some kind of God, who descended to this world as savior just like other weird cult leader that existed in my previous world, and then, used their own faiths and belief as a good mana supply of her own to refine herself to the fullest.
"If my theory is true, I can probably use this as an advantage to defeat the Gods that will appear in the future."
'How does a God die...? I've always wondered about this question myself.'
After swallowing one of the core I was holding and storing the other inside my Storage Ring, I felt my body becoming hot. It was slowly getting warmer and warmer, I could feel the hair of my skin rising up.
'Does it require god-killing weapons...? Maybe.'
With my closed eyes, I began to imagine the mana from the surrounding getting pulled like a whirlpool towards my core that was inside my body.
"Haaaa...."
'The "Divine Beings" or the so-called "gods" in this world are used to be people... They are once been hailed as heroes from their era.'
While I was too focused in this process, a shadow figure appeared from my side and flew towards my direction. It's not that I can see it, it was my senses that informed me something was moving at 3'o clock.... My sense seems to have gotten stronger, so it seems.
'But what if... Their story never existed in the first place?'
Just when the claw of the figure was about to hit my face, I lifted my arm and caught it's head easily with one hand.
"Ice Bomb."
'What if their story never got this far...?'
I opened my eyes, my attention was in front, ignoring the existence of the monster that had attacked.
It was all too sudden—
Pop—!
'Would they even exist?'
Blue crystalized fragments exploded and fell like snow. The body dropped with a loud "thud", causing other monsters to turn it's attention towards me.
"...Who am I talking to inside my head again?"
'I guess I should stop with this ridiculous monologue.'
With a grin, I lifted my head and stared straight at the incoming horde.
"Alright, line up my BPs!"
...
..
.
«If you want to know more about this world, then find my diary. I have kept my secrets there and information.»
As I recalled the content of the letter, I sheathed my sword back inside it's scabbard.
To figure out the secret of this world and it's relation for my transmigration...
"I'll find it no matter what."
***
In some unknown place.
Flick—!
A blue panel suddenly popped up in the empty air, flickering like a broken computer.
[Y⬛ m⬛t rem⬛ Go⬛ ⬛⬛ ⬛ ⬛⬛⬛!]
While this was happening, a hand with sharp claws appeared in the dark void beneath the shadow on the ground.
It began to slowly crept towards the panel until—
[To PARA⬛. ⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛—!!]
The moment the hand touched the panel, it grabbed it and shattered it into piece.
....
..
.
«Saber...»
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[A/N : I've been pretty not serious this days... I'ma add a bit of lore this time~]