Labyrinth Exploration 101 - L.E Chapter 6 (Part 1): I Hate Pain (1)

──One week later.

On a sloping road near the mountains, skid marks were deeply and violently etched into the asphalt. The wreckage of what was once a car lay scattered in pieces.

Oil leaking from the engine mingled with the blood of some beast, trickling *drip-drip-drip* until it reached someone’s black walker boots.

“……”

Mage Tae-woo. He lit a cigarette while staring at the liquid touching the top of his foot.

It was a traffic accident.

Not between cars, though—between a car and a wild beast.

A black bear had charged out of the forest like a mad thing and struck the car. The speed by the mana-infused beast was hard to follow with the naked eye. The SUV was torn apart like paper, but Tae-woo was unharmed.

There was only one reason.

He hadn’t let his guard down.

“Hmm…”

As he exhaled a long plume of smoke, a word suddenly surfaced in Tae-woo’s mind.

“Sixth sense.”

He couldn’t remember the name, but it was something a former UDT soldier had once said.

As a mage, Tae-woo didn’t believe in fortune-tellers. Shamans were no different—mere quacks chasing shadows beneath the veil of mana, nothing more than frauds in his eyes.

And yet, one week ago.

At the bookstore, he had heard just one sentence.

‘Be careful of traffic accidents.’

Because of those words, Tae-woo had paid just a little more attention.

Perhaps it was an extremely subconscious, almost negligible amount of caution.

But thanks to that tiny bit of attention, he had avoided disaster.

“…Interesting.”

If something like sixth sense truly existed, it might be a sense borrowed from the power of magic.

That nameless soldier definitely had talent.

Tae-woo looked down at the trail of oil that had stopped at his feet. He flicked his cigarette butt onto it.

*Whoosh!*

In an instant, flames erupted. The spark quickly turned into a blaze. In the silence of the night, the sedan was engulfed in fire.

The mage’s back had already disappeared into the coniferous forest.

—

* * *

“Right arm. Done!”

I raised my right arm triumphantly.

To be precise, it wasn’t just my right arm. The veins across my entire right upper body, including my chest, glowed vividly.

“Ahh~ Feels refreshing.”

It had taken me a whole week of relentless effort to finally complete it. I wanted to exercise during that time, but just the circuit training alone had drained my stamina.

My Stamina stat was a measly ‘2,’ after all. According to the stat description in [MoMo], that’s barely better than a cat.

I opened the tech window.

「Lower-Grade Mana Concentration」
Proficiency: 22%

“What? That’s it?”

Tech proficiency only increases with consistent use. Once it hits 100%, it naturally advances to mid-lower grade, then mid-grade, and so on.

The so-called ‘skill crafting.’

Of course, since [MoMo] offers a high degree of freedom, you can also invest additional tech points to forcibly master a skill. Starting from Mid-Grade, skill crafting becomes ridiculously demanding, so you inevitably have to invest in a few more.

“…One week left.”

I picked up my smartphone.

[ Seol Ha-woon. We are pleased to inform you that you have passed the first round of auditions for *Labyrinth Exploration NaN*. You will now proceed to the third round of interviews… ]

The third interview is exactly three days away—

[ Recognition Level Up! ]

[ Recognition Level: 3 ]

“Huh?”

A sudden, unexpected notification popped up. I blinked a few times before flicking my finger.

“Oh~ The traffic accident?”

A rather peculiar traffic accident had happened to Tae-woo.

The article I read said he had collided with a truck, but of course, someone of Tae-woo’s caliber getting into a traffic accident sparked quite a few conspiracy theories.

After all, to the public, mages are the kind of people who wouldn’t die even if a plane crashed, let alone a traffic accident.

[ Tech Point Acquired. ]

Anyway, I got a tech point.

This time, of course, I chose [Low-Grade Mana Manipulation].

[ Low-Grade Mana Manipulation ]

■ Allows for easier manipulation of mana both inside and outside the body.

“Thank you.”

I gratefully clasped my hands together to the unseen benefactor.

I should at least follow them on Instagram as a token of gratitude.

Let’s see.

[ TAE-WOO ]

His SNS account was already packed with 90 million followers. I pushed my account [SEOL__] into the sea of followers.

Dangun

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