Klaus slowly opened his eyes… He had passed out on the ground yet again.
'I do a lot of that lately.' He thought, staring up at the ceiling.
One would look at him and think he was a drunk the way he was passing out everywhere. 'Uh, what happened before I passed out?'
He could remember seeing something about a System screen saying… He couldn't exactly remember what the screen said but what he did know was that his head hurt like absolute shit. It felt like someone had driven nails through his skull.
"Also, what's that smell?" Klaus let out, wrinkling his nose.
But he paused… His voice sounded weird.
"What the hell?"
He sounded very seductive for some reason, like he was trying really hard to seduce someone with his voice or in other words, he sounded refined… more smooth and clear instead of his usual rough tone.
Klaus lifted his hand up and saw something black on the ground beneath him. He looked closer and found himself face-to-face with the black blood from earlier. It had stained the kitchen floor completely, creating a grotesque puddle that he'd been lying in.
He stood up slowly. The congealed blood stuck between him and the ground, stretching like tar before finally breaking away as Klaus pulled himself free from it.
"Disgusting…" He muttered, looking down at himself.
Then he noticed something else… He was taller than before.
Plus when he glanced at his hand, disregarding the fact that it was completely covered in this gooey, sticky black blood… Klaus looked less like a piece of spaghetti and more like someone that actually went to the gym regularly.
"Ah… I forgot the name of this…" Klaus said aloud, trying to recall the game terminology.
It was just on the tip of his tongue then he hit his other fist against his waiting palm as his eyes lit up with recognition.
"Eureka! These are impurities." Klaus remembered now.
The game had mentioned they smelled like shit, and it wasn't lying but Impurities themselves were what was expelled from an Apprentice or even a Wizard's body when they ranked up to the next class.
It was gooey and black because all the impurities that had been accumulating in the blood as well as in the mana core of the person were expelled during breakthrough.
More and more impurities would come out with each rank-up, and by the time someone ranked up into a full Wizard, they would be a very attractive person compared to their starting appearance.
Not only were impurities dispelled during rank-ups, but the body itself built up even more.
It was even more pronounced for Aura users, as their own expelled Impurities were converted into more aura to be used in their techniques.
"Lucky bastards." Klaus muttered under his breath.
He walked away from the counter carefully, leaving sticky black footprints on the ground with every step.
"Now I need to clean up these impurities, take a bath and…"
He lifted his hand up properly to examine it, and immediately felt the shirt that he wore straining against his body.
The fabric pulled tight across his chest and shoulders, these were places where there used to be nothing but bone.
"Buy new clothes too?" Klaus let out a heavy sigh.
It seemed like everything in this world was constantly working against him.
Just when he'd spent so much money to get some decent commoner clothes the day before, he had to go and get new ones already because his body had literally changed shape in hours.
"I think I'll go for oversized ones this time." He muttered to himself.
That was the best way to save money at a time like this. Buying oversized clothes would guarantee more time using them before he outgrew them again… if that even happened.
"And I also need to test out my new mana capacity more, check my stats properly, maybe do some training…" Klaus counted off on his fingers. "So much stuff to do again."
For now, he would focus on the immediate necessities: cleaning this disgusting mess, buying new clothes from the Galen Marketplace, getting a new set of light armor that would actually fit his transformed body, and then finally beginning proper mana training.
"How long will all of this take?" Klaus wondered aloud.
He looked out the window, seeing the hot afternoon sun blazing down on Galen Town. The day was already half over.
Hopefully he'd still have enough time to properly check out his new gains after dealing with this whole ordeal.
"I'll be done before evening." Klaus said with false confidence.
…
"I was wrong…" Klaus muttered several hours later as the sun had fully set and it was late evening now, the sky was dark overhead.
It had taken much more time than he'd expected.
The main problem was that he now looked less like a regular starving commoner, so these marketplace people were actively trying to con him out of his money at every opportunity.
"I don't think I'm that unrecognizable," Klaus complained to himself as he walked back to his apartment. "So what if I gained a few pounds of muscle and my face reconstructed itself? I'm still the same noodle I was before on the inside."
He was now painfully aware that the sellers from yesterday had sold him all of those clothes at reasonable prices specifically because he'd looked like he hadn't eaten in a while or a pathetic charity case but now that he looked healthier and more put-together, they had been calling out prices that, even though he could technically afford them, made him feel very regretful about the whole experience.
All that haggling back and forth, going back to the Pawner to buy a few more used swords he wanted, buying everything he needed including extra non-smelling cleaning potions to re-clean the kitchen floor and completely exterminate the last lingering traces of that horrible smell.
It was 8pm on the clock already by the time he'd finished everything.
"Better late than never, I guess." Klaus said tiredly.
He had activated the house protection ward and was now in the storage room… the same one he'd used yesterday for his failed dagger attempt.
He sat down on the ground in a meditative posture, crossing his legs.
"Let's start by actually seeing my stats properly this time." He took a breath. "Status!"
The glowing interface materialized in front of him.
…
「Name: Klaus」
「Age: 17」
「Class: Second-Class Wizard Apprentice」
「Resonance: Indigo ★★☆+」
「Mana Capacity: 420」
「Magic Power: 145」
「Magicraft Affinity: Metal Magic (C-Rank)」
「Physical: 45」
「Skills:」
├─ Magnetic Field (Tier 2)
├─ Metal Sense (Tier 1)
├─ Polish/Tarnish (Tier 0)
├─ Cleanse (Tier 0)
…
Klaus stared at the screen for a long moment, his eyes moving from stat to stat.
He had purposely avoided checking his own stats earlier while dealing with the cleaning and shopping errands, but now that he was actually seeing the numbers displayed clearly in front of him, he felt like jumping for joy.
It was a genuine shame that the Tri-Essence Spirit Root only worked once in a lifetime according to the item description, or he would have become a cultivation protagonist speedrunning his way to godhood in no time at all.
'So first of all, I've reached Second-Class, huh?' Klaus thought, looking around the storage room with entirely new eyes and awareness.
This was the exact stage when Aspiring Wizards could actually feel and visually see the ambient mana in the air around them and that was exactly what he could do now with perfect clarity.
In the air were small blue flecks of mana floating lazily around like glowing dust particles suspended in the atmosphere.
He could choose whether he wanted to see them clearly or dismiss them from his vision on command as well, which was surprisingly convenient for concentration.
Klaus raised his palm experimentally and mentally willed the floating blue flecks to come to his outstretched hand.
It was also much easier to actively gather mana from the surrounding environment now instead of just passively regenerating it over time through rest.
The flecks rushed to his hand obediently and surrounded it completely with concentrated magical mana, creating a small but visible blue glow.
"If I remember correctly, there's a move called Mana Punch in the game." Klaus said aloud, examining the mana coating his fist.
It was a simple move where a mana user covered their fist in raw mana and threw it forward as an attack. This technique proved that mana could be used as a way of doubling or even tripling the force of a physical strike.
"Not like I'll actually be able to use it properly." Klaus let the mana dissipate with a sigh.
Just because he had a decent body now didn't mean he wasn't still trash at hand-to-hand combat.
Adventurers needed a base Physical stat of at least 20 to be able to properly hold and swing their weapons without hurting themselves and even if he did have 45 now, he was still incredibly mediocre compared to the other playable characters on the Gacha wheel back in the game… most of whom had 400+ Physical stats at their base level.
The next thing Klaus noticed was that his Resonance had upgraded to Indigo.
While there were three main recognized tiers of resonances which were Red, Blue, and Purple… Indigo fell in between Blue and Purple, which meant that while the Spirit Root had dramatically pushed his resonance upward, it wasn't quite able to break through completely to full Purple-tier.
"Which is still amazing progress," Klaus muttered to himself. "I can't believe I was able to get this much growth out of a single herb even with the gambling aspect."
Sure, there was that terrifying percentage bar that was clearly pure gambling and had nearly given him multiple heart attacks, but all that pain and fear had been completely worth it in the end.
His Mana Capacity, Magic Power, and Magicraft Affinity had all increased dramatically overall… They had absolutely sky-rocketed.
"I'm not a half-bad mage anymore." Klaus muttered while stroking his beardless chin thoughtfully.
He now had a Mana Capacity of 420, which was actually respectable, while sporting a Magic Power of 145. Those would have been genuinely good stats in any other circumstance other than his specific situation.
"Well, I'm still ass since I only have Metal Magic affinity, but beggars can't be choosers." Klaus sighed. "I need way more spells."
The current spells he had were useful, but they really didn't help him that much defensively or even offensively for that matter.
There was a hard limit on the variety of spells he could get from the Pawner naturally with his current budget, and he wouldn't have access to more unique and specialized Metal Magic spells until he actually entered Divine Academy and got access to their library.
"I'll just try and work with what I have for now." He muttered under his breath.
At the end of the day, he needed to manage and optimize what resources he currently had available instead of wishing for things he couldn't obtain yet.
There was actually a place he could potentially go to if he wanted to acquire a Copy Affinity like one of the game's heroines possessed which was a hidden location that could grant additional affinities.
However, it was far too dangerous to head there with his current power level, so he would have to put that plan on hold indefinitely.
His Luck stat still hadn't increased at all, remaining at a pathetic 12 and with his mediocre luck, Klaus wasn't even sure he would be able to successfully roll another magical affinity even if he tried the gacha for it.
"But several good things came from this whole rank-up." Klaus said, trying to stay positive.
He stood up from his meditation position. The oversized shirt he'd bought trailed down his body like it was a dress, hanging loosely.
He had strategically bought some clothes that fit him completely and some others that were much bigger than his current size, just in case he grew again during future breakthroughs.
Without wasting any time, Klaus summoned a sword from his storage ring and gripped the handle firmly.
"It's one of the new ones." Klaus examined the design carefully, turning it over in his hands.
The swords that the Pawner had given him today vastly differed from the previous batch he'd purchased since the craftsmanship was noticeably higher quality.
"I think these are Capital-made swords that were sold to him second-hand."
Klaus remembered that he'd had a player character in the game that used these exact kind of swords… a royal knight class character with incredibly high stats so there was probably a royal knight that had come to Galen Town recently to personally investigate the monster surge issue in Galen Dungeon.
"I'll think more on the implications later." Klaus said, refocusing on the present.
He took what he knew was probably a terrible stance; he didn't really know anything about proper sword stances, which was exactly why he desperately wanted to spin a sword technique skill or combat manual from the gacha eventually.
"Do I have enough Physical power to swing a sword properly without it throwing me off balance?"
Klaus planted his feet firmly on the ground and swung the blade downward in a vertical slash.
The sword followed his movement exactly as intended and though the swing wasn't particularly fast or powerful, when his hand stopped at the end of the arc, the sword stopped too without any awkward wobbling or loss of control.
A wide grin made its way across Klaus's face.
"Ha! Take that, slimes!" He pumped his fist up victoriously.
The next time he encountered slimes in the Galen Dungeon, he would give them absolute hell with proper sword strikes instead of just relying entirely on Magnetic Field.
"Alright, I also wanted to use the Merge option to combine swords together to get better quality ones that won't be destroyed by a thrown tree."
Just as Klaus was about to take a seat and pull up the Gacha interface, there was a loud knocking sound coming from his front door downstairs.
Knock knock knock
"Who could possibly be coming to see me at this time of night?" Klaus thought suspiciously.
It wasn't like he had ordered anything for delivery, so what was going on?
"Or could it be thieves…?"
The house protection ward would prevent entry, but the only way to cancel it would be to physically open the front door. If these were actually thieves that wanted to rob him, opening it would be foolish…
Unless he could defend himself properly.
Klaus's eyes narrowed.
He activated Magnetic Field, feeling the spell drain mana from his pool, and summoned all of the swords within his ownership from the storage ring.
Eight blades materialized and began floating around him in a defensive formation as he walked down the stairs toward the front door.
Once he arrived at the entrance, he carefully arranged the swords around the doorway so that the moment someone hostile tried to enter, they would strike down on his mental command.
"Coming!" Klaus called out.
Then he reached out his hand toward the door handle, gripping another sword in his other hand as backup.
If thieves came to loot him, it was only right for him to loot their corpses afterward. It was only fair since in this world, it was survival of the fittest and the winner took everything.
Klaus opened the door cautiously and tensed immediately, preparing to dodge or counterattack but he wasn't attacked.
Instead, someone was slumped on his porch completely unconscious, holding a crumpled piece of paper in their hand.
"Taula?" Klaus blinked in surprise.
He could recognize the girl's distinctive blonde hair anywhere, even in the darkness. But why would she be passed out on his porch specifically?
Klaus reached down carefully and took the paper from her limp hand. It was written in extremely wobbly handwriting, like someone had been drunk while writing it.
…
Klausss I know you're very very mad at me and don't want to talk with me but when I got home Grandma already left saying she was going to the capital after that I lost my money pouch to the Drunk Twins so if you wouldnt mind I wanted to stay with you pretty please they also made me drink a whole lot of alcohol soooooooooo
…
After that line, it was just completely incomprehensible drunk gibberish scrawled across the paper.
Klaus palmed his face with a heavy sigh.
"Can't you use your punctuation, girl?" Klaus muttered under his breath in exasperation.
But regardless of his annoyance, he couldn't just abandon her on the steps of his place since she was genuinely knocked out cold.
He was trying to be a pragmatic survivor, not a heartless monster.
Klaus bent over to lift her up bodily but he couldn't.
She was far heavier than what his 45 Physical stat could actually lift, even with his improved body.
"Fuck this useless body." Klaus muttered under his breath in frustration.
He thought for a moment, then had an idea. He angled two floating swords underneath Taula's body using Magnetic Field and carefully levitated her inside, maneuvering her through the doorway and over to the sofa.
He made sure she was placed there properly, adjusting her position so she wouldn't fall off.
"I hope she doesn't try to punch me again when she wakes up."
With that concern voiced, Klaus locked the front door securely and deactivated Magnetic Field, retrieving his swords back into storage.
He headed upstairs to his bedroom, leaving Taula sleeping downstairs on the couch.
The moment Klaus's footsteps faded and she heard the distant sound of a door closing, Taula's eyes snapped open.
She quietly rolled off the couch with practiced stealth and adjusted the cloth wrapped around her forehead that had been hiding her completely sober eyes.
"They were right…" Taula whispered to herself with a small smile. "It really did work."
Her grandmother had really left for the Capital for medical treatment, that part was true but Taula still had her money pouch safely secured on her person.
She hadn't actually lost it to the Drunk Twins at all.
They had told her that men with noble hearts would always help a friend in distress on their porch and though she didn't see Klaus as particularly noble in the aristocratic sense, he had indeed helped her off the ground and brought her inside to safety.
She had also been discreetly trailing him since early this morning and had noticed his dramatic new appearance. He no longer looked like a piece of spaghetti at all, he'd filled out considerably.
"Well, it's time to explore my friend's hous—"
"Aha, I knew it!" Klaus's voice rang out accusingly from the top of the staircase.
He was pointing down at her with his arms folded across his chest, looking thoroughly unsurprised by her deception.
Taula flinched violently and looked up at Klaus standing there with an 'I told you so' expression plastered across his face.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" Klaus demanded.
Taula had been caught red-handed in her infiltration attempt.