The clearing was calm—eerily calm.
A rare pocket of serenity hidden in the outer reaches of the Forest of Elton, a place where weak monsters wandered aimlessly and adventurers rarely bothered entering.
To most people it wasn't special.
To Nam Gi Won, it was perfect.
A perfect place to risk his life.
He knelt beneath an ancient tree whose roots rose above the earth like intertwined serpents, forming a natural alcove. Soft moss cushioned the ground beneath him, and faint blue fireflies drifted lazily in the air, drawn to the lingering mana that pulsed from the depths of the forest.
In his palm lay a purple monster core.
The moment his fingers wrapped around it, he could feel the hum—
a faint pulse, like a trapped heartbeat.
It glowed faintly, sending ripples of light through his palm.
Nam stared at it for a long time before speaking.
"Monster cores," he murmured, almost academically.
"In this world, they're used as catalysts for spells, enchanting material, potion bases… but in my case…"
He lifted the core slightly, letting its purple glow illuminate his tired yet determined eyes.
"…it becomes fuel."
His expression hardened as the memory resurfaced
[Trait: EMPTY VESSEL]
…now renamed by him into something more fitting.
A trait everyone in Eternal Fate Online called trash, a dead-end trait with too many restrictions and ridiculous requirements.
But Nam had spent years testing it.
Breaking it.
Understanding its potential.
"Empty Vessel gives me these things called slots.
Internal elemental slots."
He tapped his chest lightly.
"Each slot holds one attribute. I can absorb cores directly into my body and create an internal mana core… but only if a slot is free."
He lifted one finger.
"One free slot.
Just one.
Because it's only level 1 for now
So this is all I get."
He let out a humorless laugh.
"If even an experienced mage tries this they might convulse and die due to rejection but I was different since having another mana core is impossible"
"However it was still risky after if I fail to control it's mana the moment broke free
it might go rampage till all of it's mana is depleted"
"So, to simplify:
This tiny purple rock?
If I screw up?
I die violently."
He rolled the core gently in his hand, feeling its warm, trembling essence.
He sat down in a lotus position.
The air grew still.
The tiny blue fireflies drifted closer, as if curious about what was coming.
"Alright. Step one," he muttered.
"Steady breathing.
Open meridian pathways.
Guide external mana inside…"
He frowned.
"Honestly, I had no idea what I'm doing I was just trying to copy cultivation novels at this point ."
Still, he straightened his posture, pressed the monster core to his chest, and closed his eyes.
He felt his trait activating on instinct
The first drop of mana entered him.
Nam felt heat.
Heat that surged through his veins like molten metal.
Then the second drop entered.
Perhaps unexpectedly too much mana was absorb at once
His eyes flew open.
"W-Wait—this is too—!!"
Before he could react—
BOOOOOOM—!!
Mana exploded inside him.
Lightning burst from his body, blasting the ground around him and ripping through the air. Thunder cracked so loudly it shook the leaves overhead.
He almost collapsed, teeth clenched so tight his jaw hurt.
His skin glowed faintly purple as veins lit up like lightning rivers.
"Agh—!! Shit—!!"
Bolts shot out from his shoulders, slicing scars into nearby trees.
The air crackled violently, filled with ozone and the sizzling scent of burning leaves.
This wasn't flowing mana.
This was chaos.
Pure, rampant power threatening to rip him apart from the inside.
He forced himself not to drop the core.
"Not… yet…!"
But it wasn't gentle.
It wasn't smooth.
It was like forcing a river through a needle.
Nam's body trembled uncontrollably. The pain was unbearable
He somewhat expected for the process to be painful as the in-game character used to suffer some damage in the process early on
'but this is too much'
A surge of heat and electricity was constantly felt by him caused by the untamed mana running wild in his veins
"This is mana is basically rampaging all it wants!"
Perhaps not wanting to be tamed it ranning rampant all it wants like the beast it was once was
His thoughts raced.
'Wait this bastard was once a beats right then I should treat it as one not just a pure mana.'
He visualized the mana as a beast.
A wild thunder hog.
He imagined binding it, guiding it through invisible pathways he barely understood—meridians he had only read about in fantasy novels.
Control it.
Shape it.
Guide it
He breathed out slowly.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
One breath at a time, he wrestled with the lightning tearing through his body.
The core in his hand cracked faintly.
"Just… a little more—!"
The wild mana slowly—painfully—condensed.
As if his heart was forging something new.
Then—
FWOOOOMP—
Everything snapped into place.
The lightning collapsed inward, becoming still.
Finally—
FWOOOM—
The energy snapped into place.
The wild arcs ceased.
The burning heat cooled into a controlled thrum.
A stable core of thunder mana pulsed faintly glowing warmly inside his chest.
The core in his hand crumbled into dust.
Nam fell backward, gasping.
A soft ring echoed in his mind.
Nam opened his eyes, drenched in sweat
Silent.
---
[Attribute: None ---> Thunder]
[Internal Mana Core Formed — Grade: Low Thunder Core]
[+475 Mp]
---
Nam stared blankly at the notifications for a few seconds.
Then he laughed.
Slowly at first.
Then louder.
"Hah… I did it."
He sat up, clutching his chest.
His body buzzed with barely-contained energy.
Every movement felt sharper.
Lighter.
Clearer.
He shifted slightly—
CRACK!
A tiny spark flicked from his fingertip to a nearby stone.
He grinned.
"Hahaha… I'm basically a walking taser."
Nam rubbed his sternum, feeling the faint thrum of the new core.
"It's unstable… but manageable."
He judged the current mana he had received from the mana core
"Only 475 Mp"
"Hmm… equivalent to upper First Circle in terms of raw mana amount…"
Being an upper first circle itself at my age should get me considered as one of the geniuses of this era.
Which should be enough for me to get in on any magic school I want
However I shouldn't be satisfied with this much since that place is where second circle is the bare minimum.
"Maybe because it was a low grade monster core I only got so much."
"but I wasn't in any hurry for now I should be satisfied for this much for now"
After all Nam Gi Won himself knew he had more chances in the future
He stood slowly.
Muscles tightened.
Lightning hummed under his skin.
A faint shimmer of purple flickered around his wrist.
"One slot filled," he muttered.
His eyes narrowed with determination.
"And the next core? I won't make the same mistakes."
He pulled his cloak tighter and stepped out of the clearing.
Charred trees crackled behind him, faint smoke drifting upward.
Nam glanced back at the scene he created.
"Well… at least no one saw that disaster."
He smirked.
"But still I had to try if I indeed would be able to use this power
"Now that the core had settled… I needed to test it."
Skills.
Specifically, the skills he used in the game.
He exhaled slowly.
"In the game, these weren't considered proper spells," he reminded himself. "They were just simple tricks"
Those "skills" were nothing more than patterns of mana movement. They were
Unrefined, Unstructured almost primative
Just exercises children learned.
Which meant…
They were simple.
And if they were simple, then—
"I might be able to imitate them."
A grin tugged at the corner of his lips.
I don't have to buy expensive spellbooks and memorize countless numbers of formulas.
Why pay for a full tome when he'd only use three pages worth of spells some six-year-old kid could recite?
He rubbed his temples.
"No way I'm wasting my starting money on that."
Not like he had money anyway
Still…
He wasn't confident.
After all he was afraid that it might not work as he wasn't following the proper way to learn skills
A shortcut that was impossible in the game
He also had no real life experience of casting spells even if it's theost basic spell there is there was a chance it would be hard
After all he wasn't raised as a mage and lived as one
So when he stood up and pointed his hand forward, he felt… ridiculous.
"All right It's not like I would know If it works or not if I don't try."
"Well let's try the most basic spell I know"
Nam inhaled as he raised his arm slowly, letting the soft forest air brush past his fingers.
He drew in a breath, steadying the tremor in his chest.
The moment he willed it, mana stirred—warm, weightless, and unfamiliar—flowing upward from the core of his body like faint currents of wind.
It gathered sluggishly at first, then more eagerly, as though responding to some instinct he didn't know he had.
A dull tingling crawled up his wrist as the mana pooled into his palm. Threads of pale-blue light flickered weakly between his fingers.
He tried to direct it to his fingertips, but the mana wavered. Instead of shooting outward, it kept swirling tightly inside his palm, condensing into a small, unstable knot of energy.
The light thickened, and a sharp sting bloomed in his hand, like holding onto a live wire.
"Ghh—!" Nam grit his teeth.
The mana vibrated harder, crackling with thin arcs of electricity.
He could feel it pushing outward, wanting to explode but having nowhere to go. This is bad—this thing's going to blow.
A harsh snap! erupted as a burst of electricity discharged right in his palms. He jerked his hand back on reflex. Blue sparks scattered like angry fireflies, stinging his skin before fading.
His palm smoked lightly, more from mana friction than actual burns.
Nam stared at his hand, his breath caught between shock and disbelief.
"So that's what happens if you don't shoot it…"
A beginner trying this would probably singe their entire hand. It made sense—Shock wasn't meant to be held. It was a release-type spell.
He closed his eyes, replaying the sensation. The mana had surged forward on its own at the last second. That meant it wanted an outlet.
The problem was him.
Don't clamp it. Guide it.
He lifted his arm again. Mana responded, flowing smoother this time. The familiar tingling crawled into his palm but didn't pool as chaotically.
He imagined a line—mana moving through his arm, down his wrist, into his fingertips, and then outward, as if he were exhaling through his hand.
The light brightened, gathering in each finger like small beads of lightning.
This time, instead of trapping the energy in his palm, Nam slightly loosened his stance, following a natural rhythm.
He flicked his wrist forward—not forcefully, but sharply, like snapping a finger.
"—Go."
And then—
BOOM—!!
A blast of purple lightning erupted from his hand.
It fanned out like a crooked tree, branches crackling wildly before scattering into fading sparks.
[Ding.]
A thin blue window unfolded before his eyes.
[Skill Learned: Shock].
Gi Won froze.
Then he laughed.
A genuine, relieved, boyish laugh.
"It worked… It actually worked!"
"With this discovery I might save time and skip things. This is a total game changer"
His heart hammered with excitement.
"So I really can imitate them…"
He felt confident.
Hopeful.
Alive.
That excitement carried him into the next test.
His smile faded as the last sparks of lightning vanished.
"It scattered too fast," he said with a wry expression. "No stability, no range…"
He rotated his wrist, feeling the lingering static fade.
"This is why I chose to become a swordsman. I can't do long-ranged attacks."
Proper mages could rain destruction like artillery.
Fireballs like falling suns.
Ice spears sharper than steel.
Storms of lightning that lit the sky.
And him?
He could barely shoot out a mana burp.
"But I have strengths too."
He rested a hand on his chest, where the newly assimilated core pulsed faintly..
He closed his eyes.
Mana crawled through his veins, slow and warm.
The core inside him felt like a small sun—tamed, but not silent.
He nudged it gently.
He can feel as mana circulated on his veins.
His body warmed as a resuly. His heartbeat synced with the rhythm of energy.
He inhaled deeply.
When he opened his eyes—
The world moved slowly.
Droplets of water falling from the ceiling hung in the air like suspended diamonds.
Dust floated lazily, visible one grain at a time. Even his own heartbeat seemed louder, clearer.
A notification appeared.
[Skill Learned: Charged]
Gi Won exhaled in satisfaction.
"Charged… one of the buff skill only I can use. One exclusive to an Empty Vessel."
"A core spell that I often use in battles"
Depending on the attribute he infused—
Heat, lightning, wind, earth—the effect changed.
It was a skill stronger than the buffs used by ordinary magic warriors.
But he didn't let pride blind him.
"So what?"
Mages still had mobility spells like Hyper Jump.
They had barriers, traps and crowd control.
Spells that could easily influence their surroundings
"In versatility, they beat me."
He tightened his fist.
Mana swirled around his knuckles, coiling like a phantom glove.
"But I beat them before."
He took a slow, confident step.
Power surged subtly through his limbs.
"With just a single sword…"
Wind stirred from his movement.
"I'll surpass them again."
The core pulsed warmly inside his chest, as if answering him
"Anyway… this should be enough to defeat some mobs."
I tightened my grip, feeling the faint hum of power running along my arm. It wasn't perfect—not even close. There were still techniques I couldn't fully control, stances that felt awkward, and skills whose timing I hadn't mastered.
"Why am I heading into battle when I should've practiced more, you ask?"
A smirk tugged at my lips.
"Because I don't think I need to."
Training was good. Necessary even. But there was something different about me—something I understood only after years of playing through countless scenarios, countless builds, countless failures and victories.
I've always been adaptive. Throw me into a new environment, and instinct fills the gaps where knowledge ends. Even in my old playthroughs, it was rare for me to stick to the same attributes twice. Not because I was indecisive, but because by the end of any run…
I had already mastered everything worth mastering.
Patterns, weaknesses, ideal paths, hidden mechanics—by the time the credits rolled, the game became a place I could traverse with my eyes closed.
And now, standing here in this world that mirrors the systems I once toyed with, that same certainty stirs in my chest.
I exhaled slowly, letting the forest wind brush past me like a quiet omen.
"This should be enough."
With those final words, I stepped forward—toward the treeline, toward the waiting monsters, and toward the uncertain road that lay beyond.
Whatever happened next… I would learn. I always did.
And this time, it wasn't just a game.
---
✦ End of Chapter.