"Ugh…"
As Soren opened his eyes, he was greeted by a familiar sight, sky-blue curtains surrounding an uncomfortable hospital bed.
'I actually survived.'
"Hahh…"
Letting out a sigh of relief, he tried to raise his body but…
"–Ack!"
He was immediately reminded of all the insane actions he had pulled earlier, thanks to the pain that was felt from even the smallest movements.
'I guess I overdid it…'
'But what happened?'
The last thing Soren remembered was hearing someone block the hobgoblin's weapon before he lost consciousness.
'Who came to save me, though?'
Thanks to his state at the time, his vision was blurry, meaning he wasn't able to tell who had arrived at the scene.
'All I remember is the colour pink…'
'Well, it's not too important.'
Then Soren looked to the side and sighed at the sight.
"Right.. there was this too."
Sitting to the side of him was a translucent window.
.
▶ Quest Complete! [Survive] ◀
[Reward: Store Ticket, 50 Points.]
.
During the quest itself, he hadn't even been able to check the rewards thanks to the situation, but now that he saw them, he was somewhat confused.
'Store Ticket?'
Back when this world was still a game, a store ticket was an item that you could exchange for anything in the premium store, but Soren was confused as to how that would be translated now that there was no longer a premium store.
Instead of overthinking it, he decided to just accept the reward and figure it out after the fact.
.
[Receive Reward?]
[Yes] [No]
.
[Yes]
.
[Information]
.
[Store Ticket]
[4★]
[An item you can exchange for any skill worth under 10,000P in the store.]
.
"Really..?"
Soren was shocked by how amazing an item he had received from his first-ever quest.
'This is insane.'
"「Store」"
Without hesitation, he brought up the store window and started scrolling through the skills.
.
[Cooking] → 250P
[Gardening] → 250P
.
[Swordsmanship] → 500P
[Archery] → 500P
.
[Mana Sensitivity] → 1000P
[Language] → 1000P
.
[Mana Mastery] → 5000P
[Regeneration] → 5000P
.
[Spiritualism] → 10,000P
[Concentration] → 10,000P
.
The more he scrolled, the harder his choice became.
To someone in Soren's situation, there were far too many useful options.
But he knew he had to be smart.
He had no idea when he would be able to get another opportunity like this.
If used correctly, something like this could completely overturn his current weakness.
Looking at the list before him, there were many skills that he wanted that which was almost overwhelming.
'Most of these will be pretty useless right now though..'
Skills such as [Spiritualism] seemed amazing at first glance, but when he thought about it further, it became obvious how much of a trap something like that was.
Something like [Spiritualism], where you already needed a high baseline, was the worst possible option for Soren as of now.
That said, even some of the more useful skills were difficult to choose right now.
Skills such as [Mana Sensitivity] or [Mana Control] seemed perfect for his future growth, but the key issue with these was their prices.
'1000 points each.'
With a budget of 10,000P, he was hesitant to choose such a cheap skill, no matter how helpful it would be.
"Sigh, this is harder than expected."
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
After racking his brain for a while, Soren had finally whittled down his choices.
From five to three and finally, to one.
The skill he had ended up with?
[Concentration]
A mediocre-sounding skill at first glance, but after the incident in Rena Forest, he now fully understood the importance of such a thing.
As a class F transmigrator who doesn't want to get involved in the story, Soren is in a position where he needs the ability to act alone, whether that be for simple exploration or fighting.
He isn't Alex, not even a side character, and nor does he want to be.
Because of this, the fact that he is a magician is something that works against Soren.
As discovered in the time since transmigration, magicians are usually static units that throw out AOE or high-damage single-target spells.
But what is Soren?
A useless mage with mana and proficiency levels that are laughable for even a class F student.
At first, Soren had thought maybe he should just transfer to combat studies and go all in on that, but…
'I don't want to.'
It was pure stubbornness.
Although his own was pathetic, Soren had already been enchanted by magic.
He didn't want to abandon it just to swing a sword.
Plus, there was still the factor of his weak body; even if he did transfer courses, he would still be starting from nothing.
At the moment, what Soren truly needed was some form of immediate strength.
Even if it's only slightly, he needed that boost.
That was where [Concentration] came in.
Magicians not only spend time forming a magic circle, but also have to infuse mana into that magic circle.
Both of these acts took an inhuman amount of concentration, which was what led to magicians being stationary.
Sure, if you practice enough, you may be able to make small movements, but even that is impossible for most people.
Even back in Rena Forest, he had almost been in trouble thanks to his concentration breaking due to pain.
With [Concentration], however, Soren would be able to do more than just make small movements.
It would allow him to move however he liked, all the while being able to cast spells.
This would not only give him the ability to act alone, but also would give him an excuse for his spell power being lacking.
And most importantly.
'It's really cool..'
Even as a hardcore fan of TKS, Soren had never seen the [Concentration] skill before, meaning he was likely to be the only one who would have it. This led to Soren's belief that if he obtained this skill, he would be the only person capable of fighting in such a way.
He let out a small chuckle at his shallow thoughts and brought his attention back to the store window.
.
[Concentration] → 10,000P
[Buy?]
[Yes] [No]
.
[Yes]
.
[Used [Shop Ticket] (4★)]
[Success!]
▶ Acquired [Concentration]! ◀
.
"「Status」"
.
[Status Window]
Name: Soren Arden
Age: 18
◈ Titles
- Transmigrator (Year 1)
- Stella's Secrets
◈ Unique Skills
- Library of Memories
- ???
◈ Stats
Stamina - 0.8 (F+) [Increased by 0.3]
Strength - 0.6 (F+)
Agility - 0.7 (F+)
Mana - 0.8 (F+) [Increased by 0.1]
Divine Power - 0.3 (F)
Charm - 8.7 (S-)
◈ Skills
- Life Magic
- Basic Magic
└ Gaia (E-) [Increased by 2]
└ Aqua (F+)
└ Ignition (F)
- Concentration (F)
.
Thanks to both the hidden piece and the fight afterwards, Soren's status window was finally taking on an appearance fitting his position, even if that position was a student ranked 96th.
'Still, progress is progress.'
'I can't wait for the mock duel..'
Soren's childishness made it impossible for him not to look forward to the mock duel with his new skill.
"Heh.."
A goofy grin was plastered on his face as he imagined the reactions of the students who would be watching.
Then…
–Swoosh
The curtains surrounding the bed he was in were flung back.
Standing there was Lilliana, the professor of class F.
"..."
"..."
Silence flowed between them as Soren's face quickly heated up.
Then, finally, Lilliana broke the silence.
"...It seems that you're feeling better."
Soren nodded, trying to hide his embarrassment.
Then Lilliana stepped towards Soren and spoke once again.
"..You were out for a day. You were suffering from mana exhaustion and had heavy internal injuries."
She reached out her hand, cupping Soren's cheek, forcing him to look directly at her.
"Are you okay..?"
She looked at him with eyes filled with worry.
He couldn't help but find this entire situation strange, though.
'Was she always like this?'
Lilliana's actions were out of character for her.
In ❰The Knight of Stellaris❱, Lilliana Roseblood was an excellent professor but always kept a reasonable distance from the students, even putting on a mask when dealing with everyone.
The only times that mask ever slipped were for cute fanservice moments.
'Could she have known the original Soren?'
He had that thought, but quickly shook it off.
'No, that can't be the case.'
Lilliana had not once spoken to Soren in the weeks since he had transmigrated, and even then, the original body had only attended Stellaris Academy for two weeks before he took over.
'..Could it just be a difference between game and reality?'
Although that answer seemed like a cop out, nothing else came to mind.
'I'm not sure..'
He felt that maybe he was just overthinking it, but that didn't lessen his confusion.
"Um.. Do you need more rest?"
When Soren finally came back to his senses, he was surprised to see Lilliana's face only inches away from his.
It was such a close distance that he could feel her breath.
His cheeks were tinged slightly pink, so he opened his mouth to distract himself from the current situation.
"No, I'm fine. Sorry, I just had something on my mind."
He said with a smile as he rubbed the back of his neck.
The moment Lilliana heard those words, she let out a sigh of relief before taking a step back, seemingly only just noticing how close she had been, thanks to the faint blush on her cheeks.
Then her expression shifted.
Her eyes narrowed, the corners of her mouth were downturned, and her eyebrows took on a '\/' shape.
"I'm glad that you're okay, but please be aware that you will have to write a statement about this incident. I must ask, though, what were you thinking? It's not uncommon for first-years to become curious about Rena Forest, but going there only a month after the academic year has started and alone at that?" Lilliana looked into Soren's eyes. "Hahh… When I finally found you, I thought you were dead! That was how bad your condition was. Please be more careful in the future—"
Soren, receiving Lilliana's scolding, couldn't help but have an awkward smile on his face.
'When was the last time I'd been scolded out of worry?'
It was a strange feeling for him.
His memories were filled with his parents shouting or getting angry at him purely out of selfishness, so he could hardly remember how long it had been since someone had shown him this much genuine worry.
'It's kind of nice…'
There was one issue, though.
That was that it was somewhat difficult to take Lilliana's scolding seriously.
Thanks to her small stature and cute features, it was hard to see her as intimidating, no matter how angry she acted.
Even at this exact moment, she had her hands on her hips, her chest was puffed out, the little bear ears on her head were twitching, and her high-pitched voice was scolding him.
Seeing all this together made it difficult for Soren to hold in his laughter, but he tried his best.
"Pf- Cough, I'm sorry, Miss Rose. It won't happen again. Thank you for coming to help, though, you're the best."
"Ahem! Well, that is a professor's job after all."
Though Lilliana said that it was obvious she enjoyed the compliment, thanks to the corner of her mouth twitching.
After that, Lilliana spoke to Soren for a little while longer before leaving to do the work she had left.
"You should be fully healed by classes on Monday, so just rest up. Don't push yourself."
With that, Soren was left alone.
He looked up at the night sky visible through the window.
The moonlight lit up the room, revealing Soren's face.
The expression he had when he was talking to Lilliana had long since disappeared, replaced with a face full of exhaustion.
Rena Forest had been a brutal reminder that Soren was no longer on earth.
Even now, thinking back on how he felt when the hobgoblin walked towards him filled his entire being with fear.
'I need to be more careful.'
Unable to hold back the exhaustion any longer, Soren's eyes drooped closed and his breathing became soft and steady.
————「❤︎」————