After he gained his so-called cheat-like abilities, he laughed loudly for a while, as a maniac would.
Seeing him laughing like this, his cellmates began to worry for his well-being more than ever.
They had tearful eyes and worried expressions on their faces. After all, they had just found out the sweet boy they had been living with for years had finally gone mad.
They had no idea how they should try to handle this strange situation. Just as they were beginning to approach him, they saw him murmuring to himself.
From their point of view, he looked like he was in denial now, and he clearly needed some alone time to come to terms with his new reality. So they left him on his own for now.
On the other end, Jin-ho, without having a clue about his cellmates' kind intentions, was whispering to himself about how he should use these new abilities he gained by praying.
'Hmm. So it is connected to The System. Although I don't have a clue what this System is, it should be something beyond my imagination. If only a part of it can give me this level of absurd abilities, then I am sure the real thing is much, much greater than this. Okay, let's not dwell on things which I have no control over, and focus on what's in front of me, which is supposed to be in my full control. Well not complete control gor sure, as every one of the skills is locked currently. I wonder if those conditions are as easy as it says. Well, there's only one way to find out.'
"So the first Skill should be Matter Manipulation, I guess. Now I just have to figure out how this so-called Magic works. Hmm, the condition for unlocking this skill requires studying magic?" Jin-ho was whispering to himself.
After a while, he slowly got closer to the same girl from before, at least as far as his chains were allowing him. He then started to strike up a conversation casually. So that, the girl doesn't suspect anything of his intentions.
"Umm, I have some questions to ask you." After a pause, he began to speak again.
"I got the gist that we were locked up in here for almost a decade, and no help came for our rescue in all this time. But did we ever try to escape on our own? I mean, by using Magic or something."
"Hah. So you really did lose your memory. Well, I had my suspicions, but I guess it is true. You clearly don't even know about the slave collar's Magic restrictions." After sighing, the girl began to explain on her own, seeing the confused look on Jin-ho's face upon hearing the slave collar name.
"Okay, listen closely. This iron collar you see around our neck is not an ordinary collar. It is imbued with Dwarven Magic. It can negate any kind of Magic, no matter how powerful the Magic user is. It cannot be broken by physical damage, nor can it be bypassed. Only the keyholder of this collar can activate it and deactivate it. So it's not that we didn't try to escape this dungeon, it's just we can't. Even if we want to. Without our elven Magic, most of us are just children to these humans who hold Magic. We also can't escape with this collar on our neck, as the keyholder can locate this collar with just a simple spell. So trying to escape not only has no effect but it will bring about more violent torture from those evil humans."
Interrupting her, "If the dwarves made this collar and humans are now using it to hold elves as their slaves, then does that mean that dwarves and humans are allies?" Jin-ho asked with a straight face.
'Strange. He didn't used to be this sharp-minded. Did losing his memory make him more focused and curious than before?' the girl was thinking to herself.
Seeing the girl not replying and staring at him, Jin-ho worried if she had become suspicious or not for being this curious about this subject. So he tried to drop the subject by saying, "I guess it must be a dumb question, haha, right? I am asking this type of obvious question. Of course, humans and dwarves are allies. Otherwise, why would they make such objects for a different race, which had the potential for making a whole race weak enough to be captured as slaves? Of course, that's because they are friends. I am right, aren't I?" While scratching his neck, he blabbered this in a single breath.
'Heh. At least he became cute after forgetting everything. Look at him trying to finish the whole thing in a single breath.Though, He also came very close to the truth on his own analogy, too. This is getting interesting.' With a snicker, the girl began to reply right after him.
"Eon, how did you become so clever overnight? You guessed almost the whole thing on your own. Not the whole thing, but almost.", with a beam of smile on her mouth she spoke again.
"Well, you are right about the fact that dwarves are definitely not our allies, as they were the ones who had built this collar and many more things. But they are definitely not humans' allies either. You see, before all of this, we were at war with the dwarves for many years. They were on the verge of defeat until they built the slave collar and some legendary artifact which could have turned the war in their favor. But before they could achieve victory, they were invaded by the humans.
Humans used the dwarves' own weapons against them and brought them almost to the edge of extinction. Humans were always opportunistic creatures, but that was on another level. How they adapted and used their own enemies' weapons against them was a sight to see.
But we elves couldn't be too happy, even after seeing our sworn enemy brought to their demise. Because right after the dwarves, it was our turn. Humans didn't take much rest after that mass murder They had commited in that small period of time. They started raiding the countryside villages and border area settlements of ours. Kidnapping, killing the innocent, raping womens, and looting them afterwards was only some of the cruelty they showed at that time.
Seeing our brethrens facing this crisis, our queen had declared war on humans. And it was a war to be remembered. Thousands died, leaving behind many more orphans, widows,, old generations and many more. It was the worst year in all of elven history.
We lost. We lost so badly that it was enough for them to crush us completely in a single year. Their own and the dwarves' technology combined, they had become unstoppable. Every platoon had fallen without even having any real chance to fight.
And after the news of our queen's death spread like wildfire, our soldiers had lost all hope.
And when hope becomes lost, nothing can survive," the girl explained it all with so much detail that it felt like a well-written fiction story.
But sadly, this was not a fiction as Jin-ho understood. It was a experience of a life time. It was as if she herslef had been a part of that war.
"You talk as if you have seen the war happening with your own eyes." Jin-ho asked.
"Well, duh. I have seen the war. Not just seen, I have fought it too. I was a soldier you see." She spoke as if it were obvious.
"Hmm." 'So this little girl was a soldier in the war. Not that I doubt her, considering the elven age standards. But still.'
Then a realisation of his earlier plan came to his mind,'Well, it was a great background story and all, but I didn't get to hear anything about Magic till now. Let's get that information from her step-by-step.' Jin-ho schemed in his mind.
"What kind of Magic did you use personally in the war, when you were a soldier, umm miss..." Jin-ho asked casually, as if his curiosity was in her, not the Magic itself.
"Hmm? Oh, i guess you also forgot my name. my name is 'Vaeloria Syltharian Elsanawe'tharion of the House Aurelindor'. You can just call me Elsa. Back in the day, I used to be a White Knight, hehe. I used to be among the best of the best. Not that it matters now. Nowadays, I have become nothing more than a toy to fuck for the filthy noble people, haha." She had a pained expression while she said that sentence.
Hearing her describing herself in this way made Jin-ho feel a sting of pain in his heart, though he had no idea why it happened.
"Oh. You probably even forgot what a White Knight used to mean. You see, there used to be two types of warriors in our elven country. One was Knight, and the other was Mage. Both had different types of fighting styles. While we Knights fought more with strength and less with mana, the Mages leaned more on the spell-casting side. Both of us had our differences, but at the same time, they both of us had our similarities too.
In the Knight Rank, we used to have Black Knight < Grey Knight < White Knight < Invisible Knight and finally the fearsome Shadow Knight, which were under the direct command line of the queen.
Just like this, Mage also had their own rank system. But unlike the Knights, they used to have some branch ranks, which worked slightly differently than their parent ranks."
After her long explanation, Jin-ho was still scratching his neck, as he didn't find out anything related to Magic itself from this long conversation.
'Maybe I have to be direct for her to explain only the Magic's theory.'
"I am a little interested in this Magic which you guys used to use. Can you explain how it works as easily as you can?" Jin-ho asked as if pleading.
Seeing the raw curiosity in his face, Elsa smiled a little. She had not seen this type of curiosity on someone in a long time.
She began explaining the Magic mechanism with a newfound motivation to teach him.
"You see, Magic basically consists of mana, which resides in every living thing and matter. To use Magic, one has to channel their own mana to manipulate the matter. As soon as one masters matter manipulation, they slowly begin to understand how to manipulate energy around them. By using mana to manipulate matter and heat, we Elf mana users used to be able to create miracles in the past. We used to change large terrain by will, build dams for flood control, make rain, build houses, slay monsters, make various potions, and so on.
As long as we remembered and mastered the spell for specific Magic, we could potentially do anything we desired."
"So everyone who has this mana can use magic?" Jin-ho asked.
"Only the intelligent creatures could . To control mana at will, it requires a lot of meditation and understanding of how matter is like, at a subatomic level. Just when one can sync their mana to a type of matter, they can control and mold that matter however they like. Of course we still need chant and spell to control our mana. Everything is made up of different types of matter. So the more we can sync with them, the more complex magic we can perform. But obviously, not everyone can understand this, and even after understanding, not everyone can sync their mana with matter. That's why those who can use magic are highly rewarded with fame and fortune, in both the elven kingdom and the human kingdom."
Jin-ho entered in his own monologue again, 'So basically, mana is like a tool or a key for accessing and control the elements from the periodic table. The more elements we can control, the better and bigger magic we can perform. But then what about the chant or spell? Why do we need to chant for a magic to happen? Is chanting the spell a requirement for unlocking the skill?' Jin-ho was thinking this as Elsa was explaining.
"If just syncing gives us access to the matter at its subatomic level, then what is the chant for? Why is it needed for using mana?" Jin-ho asked not leaving any question in his mind.
'Wow. His level of understanding is by far the most superior I have ever seen. Most people take at least a week to understand what subatomic and even matter means properly. But he not just understood it, but already moved on to the next step?' Seeing Jin-ho's ability to understand this hard topic so well, she was stunned a little.
'Haha. Look at her. She is clearly impressed by my sharp brain. But what she doesn't know is, this topic of matter and its subatomic might be a higher subject for them, but as a science major student from Earth, this is just the fundamental and basic stuff for me. So of course, I can understand matter and how subatomic particles work. Let's humor her for some time.' With a grin, he waved his hands in front of her to wake her from her stunned state.
"Ohh. Sorry for spacing out.
Where was I? Oh I was saying, Even after syncing with matter, we can't manipulate that matter very much. Even the Shadow Mage can't use magic such as simple fire-making or simple droplets of water-conjuring, without the spells for it, Because of how high the mana cost is. Using magic without a chant uses 100 times more mana than normal. So every race had developed their own way of doing magic from ancient times. We all have own versions of spells. But Our elven magic is the most potent among them because of our long lives, we get to perfect many spells to its ultimate form in just our lifetime." As soon as she finished it, she stopped for a second, then spoke up again.
"But none of that matters now. As we can't even do simple magic now because we can't chant a simple spell, because of this damn collar. If we try to chant a spell, this collar electrocutes us instantly. And as I have said, without chanting, we can't even use simple magic without exhausting our mana." Her last sentence had a hint of sadness and nostalgia in them.
As soon as she said that, she stopped saying anything altogether and bent her knees and buried her face in them.
Without disturbing her further, Jin-ho began to lose himself in his own thoughts.
'So in other words, from their point of view one cannnot use magic without any spell. But according to this System window, I CAN use magic without having to learn any chant, even with this collar on. But then what about the high mana consumption rate, as she said?'
As soon as he finished his though, a new screen window popped up in front of him.
[Skill Unlocked: Matter Manipulation]
-STATUS-
Race: High Elf
Age: 96 years
Strength: 10
Stamina: 30
Agility: 12
Mana: 3000
Insight: 18000
SP: 5
-SKILLS-
Unlocked Skill: Matter Manipulation
(Lv 1: 0/1000 )
Locked Skill: Heat Manipulation
(Condition: Master matter manipulation up to lv10)
Locked Skill: Spell Management
(Condition: Create a new spell)
Locked Skill: Alchemy
(Condition: Create a lower-grade potion)
Locked Skill: Inventory
(Condition: Have objects more than the user can carry)
Locked Skill: Smithing
(Condition: Melt raw ore of any metal)
Locked Skill: Crafting
(Condition: Invent an item unknown to this world)
Locked Skill: Skill Shop
(Condition: Master all of the unlocked skills)
"Oh, Sweet. The skill has been unlocked." Jin-ho excitedly whispered to himself.
'Finally, some action time. Now let's see what I can do with this matter manipulation skill.'
With a victory smile, Jin-ho started to give more attention on this new skill which he unlocked just now.
Author: This world has in total six type of humanoids. As of now, we have knowledge of the three types, but later on, the other types will also become a major part of the story, unlike other stories of the same genre.
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