I couldn't even sleep, and I researched the Wiki all through dawn.
"The path of Magic begins with opening the Lower Dantian... and by opening the Middle Dantian and Upper Dantian, you can become a high-ranking mage... ah, fuck."
I messed up my hair.
I'd started studying Magic as a side thing, but I still couldn't get a feel for it.
Half-asleep, I shoveled down breakfast and worried.
The other kids had already finished eating. I'd overslept, so I ended up eating late.
I'd rather do physical work, but using my head felt like death....
Actually, using my head is my specialty.
From what I've figured out, this world is simple.
A fantasy setting.
With a Tower thrown in.
I don't know if it's a romance fantasy.
Since the place I'm in now is an orphanage reeking of cow dung, it's a bit far from romance.
Still, that's just about where I am; if I go outside, who knows.
The key is this.
When you become an adult, a Tower invitation is given to those who qualify.
And the one who receives it chooses whether or not to climb the Tower.
Strong or weak, climbing the Tower is the goal of life in this world.
"...I don't want the Tower, though."
Just looking at it, it seems dangerous.
[It's a little hard to simply think that way, though?]
[The Tower was a structure supporting the world's economy, power, and class system overall.]
Well, that's the overall structure.
It's not like anyone threatened me to climb with a sword in hand.
Unless I have great talent for Magic.
In that sense, the Wiki about Dolores was the same.
There was so much in the Wiki that I couldn't read it all.
To summarize simply.
'Elysia von Dolores.'
She is the Duke of the Dolores family.
She was once one of the Tower's highest climbers.
They say she climbed the Tower with six sworn sisters....
But one day, she stopped climbing without any warning.
After that, Dolores retired from public life.
Now she runs an orphanage and raises disciples.
[They say stopping the Tower is practically the same as retirement.]
"Is that so?"
Since I don't live here, I don't know what it means to stop climbing.
Well, maybe she just wanted to raise disciples; the kid looked cute.
"But Ruler of the 5th Floor? What's this?"
After the name Elysia von Dolores, there was the alias Ruler of the 5th Floor.
[The Tower is divided into climbing zones and residential zones. Like residential districts and commercial districts.]
[The one who oversees the residential zone's benefits and profits is the Ruler. By the way, the specialty of the 5th Floor is...]
"Oh, okay, I got it for now."
Ruler, huh. Literally. Seems like someone holding vested interests.
Too much information is tiring for now.
I get the gist.
[Hmph.]
Anyway, there's one thing important right now.
That Dolores gave me a mission.
That I have to show her something surprising within a week.
How on earth am I supposed to surprise that lady?
I slowly reasoned with the information I had.
And the first thing that came to mind was, of course, that.
[Gorgonue's White Gloves][★★★★★]
[Unique Equipment] [Compatibility][1.1/100] - [Extreme Poison]
[Amplified by the wearer's innate yin energy and the equipment's yin energy interlocking.]
[Cause of blocking seven of the nine meridians in the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.]
The most questionable thing among the information I had.
I remembered it because it was the most intuitive information visible in my sight.
It was the window that appeared when Dolores equipped the white gloves.
Compatibility 1.1, Extreme Poison, Nine Yin Severed Meridians, seven meridians blocked.
It sounds like those white gloves don't suit Dolores, but....
I can't know for sure.
"...Let's look into it."
What exactly that window means.
I got up from my seat.
And headed straight to the Magic Class.
***
Fortunately, Dolores had guaranteed me some freedom.
I could go hang out in the Magic Class.
Actually, I didn't go to hang out; I had something to look into.
"Oh, Lionel! What brings you here!"
The person I visited was the Instructor.
"Ah, nothing much, I just had a few questions."
"Have you thought about taking a Magic Class? Good thinking."
The Instructor welcomed me very happily.
I shook my head at his words and pointed at the table behind him.
"Not that... Instructor, could you try wearing those gloves for me?"
The gloves were neatly folded on the table.
I think he wore them during yesterday's magic demonstration; black embroidery was sparsely stitched around the wrist.
"As expected, there's a reason Dolores picked you. You have a good eye."
The Instructor lifted the gloves with a satisfied expression, showed them to me, and began putting them on.
"These gloves are equipment only those with outstanding magical aptitude can wear. Not just anyone can use them; only those chosen by Mana can."
-----------------------------
[Apprentice Leather Gloves][☆☆☆☆☆]
[Compatibility][10/15] - [Suitable]
[Calling it a mage's equipment is rude to mages, and calling it just equipment doesn't make equipment feel entirely good either.]
[It is equipment suited for mages who have barely risen above ordinary people.]
-----------------------------
When he put on the gloves, a window appeared before my eyes.
I half-listened to the Instructor's explanation and focused on the information before me.
The white gloves Dolores wore had all five stars, completely filled with color.
Moreover, the Compatibility... its maximum was 100.
But now all the stars were empty.
The maximum was 15 too.
"A mere 1-star equipment, and something you can't easily obtain here...."
All the stars were empty....
"Then isn't this 0-star...?"
"Huh? What did you say?"
"Ah, no. It suits you well."
Actually, it did suit him somewhat, which was a relief, but I couldn't erase the bitterness.
It meant he'd barely risen above ordinary people.
"Thank you. It's cool."
The Instructor took off the gloves with a satisfied expression and placed them back on the table.
I watched his back and quietly organized my thoughts.
So the grade of the gloves themselves is different, but.
Dolores had low Compatibility with the equipment, while the Instructor had high Compatibility.
'Dolores is Extreme Poison, the Instructor is Suitable.'
That meant Dolores, despite having expensive equipment, was an unsuitable user.
"Um, Instructor...."
I tried to ask the Instructor... but stopped.
Come to think of it, rather than asking this person....
[Huh?]
This one would know better.
"Ah, thank you."
"Sure. Class is soon, so if you'd like to observe...."
"Oh, I have a bit of a headache."
I bowed briefly and left the Magic Class.
I sat down under the shade of a tree on one side of the orphanage.
And I asked her.
First, what I was most curious about.
"What exactly does Compatibility indicate?"
However.
[I don't understand either.]
[There's no data on that part.]
"...Huh?"
[But I did find an item presumed to be a similar concept to Compatibility?]
[According to the Inner Tower Community, there is a concept called 'Equipment Compatibility Theory.']
[The problem is it hasn't been academically established, and even within the community it's rumor level? Urban legend? It feels like people whisper about it.]
"A rumor."
[Yeah. There are claims that wearing equipment with good Compatibility dramatically increases combat power, but....]
[Well, there don't seem to be any cases where someone wore it and measured or proved it?]
I sat there dazed for a moment.
In other words.
This Compatibility that I can see is information that doesn't exist anywhere in this world.
[But Oppa.]
[Can I say one more weird thing?]
"...Go ahead."
I answered briefly.
If there's something scary about this little sister.
She's an artificial intelligence who reasons and judges on her own; because she surpasses humans, she infers and points out things I missed.
That's sometimes reassuring.
Sometimes it gives me goosebumps. Because she seems truly alive.
Just then, Magic Class training was in full swing on the training ground.
When the Instructor drew a line in the air, the inside of his lower belly sparkled.
[Oh, that's it. They say that's the phenomenon of Mana gathering in the Lower Dantian.]
[But you can see that, Oppa?]
"Why is that?"
[How???]
[There are no reports anywhere that the Mana of the Dantian can be seen with the naked eye...?]
I looked toward the training ground.
I still saw sparkling things.
The children's lower bellies also sparkled with light, but it didn't gather.
On the other hand, the Instructor's light gathered in his lower belly, though faintly.
That was the difference.
[They say even a goldfish can roll over, so maybe you, Oppa....]
Leaving Yuna's nonsense behind, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
It was also something from the Wiki I'd read at dawn.
According to what the mysterious archmage wrote in the Wiki.
The Lower Dantian is the lower belly, the Middle Dantian is the chest, and the Upper Dantian is the head.
The Instructor's is his lower belly, so of course it's the Lower Dantian....
Dolores sparkled around her chest.
"Open Dolores's Wiki."
I checked her estimated specs.
[Dolores again.]
[Based on estimated specs, that person, who was a top-tier Tower ranker, is expected to have opened up to the Upper Dantian.]
Upper Dantian.
The Upper Dantian is the head. That's common sense in any setting.
But what I saw was her chest.
The body part that sparkled was definitely her chest.
"...Then does Dolores only have the Middle Dantian opened?"
[Seems like it.]
[You can't leave the Upper Dantian open and use only the Middle Dantian. That's what the theory says.]
I slowly scratched my head.
So to summarize.
The world knows Dolores as a top-tier ranker who opened up to the Upper Dantian.
But in my eyes, I only see the Middle Dantian.
Her equipment has a good grade, but it's Extreme Poison to her.
And her Middle Dantian is blocked too?
I'm a little dizzy.
"...But maybe I just can't see the Upper Dantian?"
Well, maybe my skill is lacking.
Or my understanding is shallow.
Let's not jump to conclusions about things that aren't certain.
When I turned my gaze, a cute little annex beyond the orphanage came into view.
It's where Dolores is staying.
They say she almost never stays here, but this time, exceptionally, she said she'd stay for a week.
Equipment.
Compatibility.
She'll probably handle it herself, but... it might be related to her stopping climbing.
Anyway, that's not my problem right now.
A way to surprise Dolores, within a week.
If I narrow it down, there seem to be about two ways.
First, I, Kim Yujin... no, Lionel.
Really have a natural talent for Magic, and show that talent directly.
But realistically, this is impossible.
[Cast Light Magic / Lowest Grade]
[Under the moonlight, pray for 2 hours every dawn for 2 weeks.]
Every Magic usage method is like this.
They say this is the standard.
In other words, within a week it's impossible, impossible, impossible.
Of course, just in case, I did some prayer kiting for a few minutes at dawn.
If I had talent, I should be able to go poof and cast Magic with it.
Naturally, nothing has happened yet.
Then the second.
Use Compatibility.
This seems realistically the best.
I imagined it.
'Duke, your equipment is trash.'
"......"
Saying this out of nowhere with no evidence.
Will my neck survive?
If I at least mention the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, it might gain persuasiveness. The problem is how to prove it.
The fortunate thing is that when I think of Dolores, that Status Window appears again?
"...It's dazzling."
But the Status Window is translucent, and the sunlight was high noon.
It was so bright it was hard to see properly.
"How am I supposed to move this...?"
That was when I was fiddling with the air.
When my fingertip touched the Status Window.
Flutter.
"Huh?"
The Status Window expanded greatly, unfolding into two screens.
The moment I saw it, I knew what this structure was.
It was an RPG game's equipment equip window.
You know, those famous domestic RPGs. The structure was exactly the same as their equipment window.
In the center of the screen, Dolores stood gracefully posing.
There were several slots presumed to be equipment slots, but all were locked in black.
Only the slot on the hand side had equipment that looked like gloves inserted.
Glove slot.
I pressed it.
Then.
Flutter.
The window opened.
[Replace]
A Replace button and.
[No Equipment Owned]
"......"
I have no equipment.
Of course, I'm a kid who entered the orphanage yesterday.
I felt my heart pound.
In other words, it means I can't do it because I 'don't have' equipment.
Theoretically, being able to check equipment here means.
If I bring suitable equipment and try equipping it... Compatibility will appear.
Then that becomes evidence I can present before Dolores.
No need to explain in words. If I equip it, it'll show immediately.
I looked at the training ground.
The Instructor is still exercising.
It's now or never.
I quickly entered his office.
The gloves were stored very carefully. Maybe he'd tried them on because Dolores was coming last time.
I immediately picked up his gloves.
And held them up to Dolores's Status Window glove slot.
[Would you like to replace?]
"I should."
And the window that appeared.
-----------------------------
[Apprentice Leather Gloves][☆☆☆☆☆]
[Compatibility][0.1/15] - [Remove Immediately]
[Unless one is insane, there is no reason for a genius archmage to wear these. If one still wishes to wear them, visiting a nearby doctor is recommended.]
-----------------------------
"...It came."
Only then did I realize I had been holding my breath.
I slowly let out the breath I'd held.
I can check equipment Compatibility.
Without even wearing it.
"Then."
Now there's one problem.
How to obtain equipment that suits Dolores.
From what I can see, finding equipment suited for Dolores in this village is like picking stars from the sky.
It'd be better to just make it.
Can I also freeload on equipment crafting?
I pressed this and that on the interface with hope, but....
Nothing appeared.
That was when.
[Oppa heh]
"What."
[Roll with your body]
[Read this]
She unfolded an Inner Tower Community post before me.
[✪][Request for a Recommended Post for Future Generations) Basic Blacksmith's Equipment Crafting Guide.]
"......"
I stared at the title for a moment.
Yeah, nothing's easy.
I thought it'd be better than Magic.
Better than praying under moonlight for 2 weeks.
I immediately opened the post.
And revised my future dream.