Shadow Monarch: Multiverse Ascendance

The "Hmm, this is too slow... I guess I'll use this then," Jin said as he took out his random box and opened it.

"I knew it, it's a dungeon key," Jin muttered as he gripped the iron key in his hands. The day had just started, and he had already completed his daily quest.

After that, Jin returned to his hospital ward. As he entered the bathroom, yes, this place had one.

He turned on the cold shower, and as cold water dripped on his body, he appeared lost in deep thought.

After showering, he stood in front of the mirror. He quickly moved to the nearest mirror and what he saw was something he still couldn't believe.

Black hair, pale skin with little muscle in his body, and deathly grey eyes.

Jin's POV.

It feels like going back in time or possessing someone else's body.

Of course, I believed those things only happened in stories. Or so I thought, as these past four days have proven me wrong.

As I touched my face, I hoped it would soon become a very handsome face.

The first change was in my body. I went up to a mirror in my room.

"Hmm. Hmm."

I looked up and down my body in front of the mirror, and there was a clear difference. My body was changing.

"My muscles are bigger."

It was the first thing that I noticed. The fat had disappeared here and there, replaced by muscles. My shoulders had widened, and my height seemed to have increased as well.

"I don't look that frail anymore."

Useful muscles had appeared all across my body. If I had to describe the feeling, it would be "nimble" or "agile." Even as a man, my body looked nice to me, or maybe I'm just a narcissist. It made sense that it would turn the nurses' heads.

And all of this is thanks to my hard training and the system.

It seems as though my consciousness has taken the place of the main character when I was in the setting of Solo Levelling.

So, let me make sure I've got this straight. I died. That was unquestionable in my mind. And at that moment, I found myself reborn in the universe of one of my favorite anime, manga, or light novel series as the main character, armed with the talents of the main character from another series that I had just started reading...

Surprisingly - or maybe not - I did not feel at ease with that revelation. Instead, I felt a sense of contentment, albeit in a very somber manner.

I have to confess that on more than one occasion, I have wished that I could live in a world of fantasy, where I could wield tremendous abilities, fight evil guys, do some evil deeds, and do whatever needed to be done with the beautiful women that kept showing up in the shows and manga that I have read.

As I closed each of the pop-up windows that had appeared in my line of sight, I came to the realization that the time had come for me to take advantage of this opportunity.

My first order of business was to learn and grow stronger.

After looking in the mirror for a few seconds, I moved to the bed and picked up the book from where I left it.

While I did many things, I came to the conclusion that although I had my memories from my former life, I did not have Jinwoo's memories from this existence.

I remember thinking that my mother would be healthy again, but that was only in the past. At the time, I was certain that this was the case because I had already read about it in the light novels.

The next step that I needed to take was to get myself ready for whatever was going to hit the fan next.

I made the decision that I would stick to the timeline described in the light novels and modify it as little as possible because I knew that even the smallest change could have a significant impact on the events that transpired as a result of my actions.

But I will do this until I am as strong as an A-class hunter.

I will freely admit that one of my greatest concerns was the possibility of being caught off guard. If you think being killed as a result of being caught off guard while intoxicated is bad, try not being there when it happened.

Following that train of thought brought to mind the book that I had been holding in my hands up until that point, so I decided to bring it closer to my face.

These past two days, I have been very busy. I have done nothing but complete the daily quests and try to learn more about the world, its society, the hunters, and the system itself.

I knew I was a Mage type, and I have enough Mana and Intelligence to qualify as one. I could even be a D-rank mage.

As I picked up the book I have been reading these days, after some research, I got to know that not many mages exist in this world. In the magical world, they won't even be counted as mages, as they don't use the standards of what we would call a mage. They are limited to a few spells. In fact, they are not even real spells; they are just skills that use Mana.

So they can't cast different spells; they are limited to what they have. There are no spells like Black Hole, Iron Skin, Hellfire, Acid Rain, Reinforcement, Chain Lightning, Ice Age, and so on.

All phenomena have fixed laws, which can be measured, calculated, and their manifestation is derived through 'magic,' which is the true magic that doesn't even exist.

After finding this out, I wanted to try and see if I could develop skills on my own rather than from the rune stones. After all, it should be possible. I am a gamer with a system.

So, after finding this out, I started performing different actions that could grant me skills like sprinting, jumping, throwing, and so on.

Which didn't yield any results, but all this research did grant me an Intelligence point, which also increased my MP by 13 points automatically.

I thought as I took a meditation position. It's not easy to meditate, especially for me, as I would rather spend my free time on my phone or TV than just sit in one place emptying my mind. What can I do? I'm an active person.

But I force myself to do it.

Slowly breathe out.

Okay, now relax your body.

Empty your mind.

Awaken your senses.

Clear out the sounds around you and focus on yourself.

Remember the feeling of the stat recovery. The mana around you.

With the feeling of the mana circulating around your body, breathe deeply for ten seconds.

The energy I felt when it was circulating around my body!

!!!

!!!!

!!!!!

!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!

As I started to feel the sparks of mana circulating in my body from my heart, "Ding!"

And as soon as I felt this, I heard a ding.

So my eyes snapped open as I looked at the window in front of me.

[YOU HAVE ACQUIRED A SKILL: MEDITATION SKILL.]

[MEDITATION/ACTIVE SKILL [LV.1]]

CONTEMPLATE YOUR INNER SELF BY CALMING YOUR MIND AND BODY.

-MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FATIGUE RECOVER SLIGHTLY.

-MANA GROWTH RATE INCREASES SLIGHTLY.

-MANA RECOVERY SPEED INCREASES SLIGHTLY.

-MANA BREATHING EFFECT INCREASES]

"Yes, yes, yes! Finally, I did it!" I screamed out loud in excitement as this was the best result I had in the last two days.

In the last two days, I meditated three times a day. I knew this would be the easiest skill to acquire, and this system pop-up proves that I can acquire any skill if I put enough work into it.

It's a good thing there wasn't anyone nearby, as they would have come running here after my excited yell. I thought as I closed my eyes again.

And tried different things to continue feeling the mana in my body. Now, with the skill, I could clearly feel it.

As I started to gather a small amount of mana around my heart.

Gather...

Yes, I just like it. I thought as I felt the mana around my heart increasing.

Time Skip.

Ding! >

And soon I was done. I heard the ding that I wanted to hear.

[DUE TO YOUR CONSTANT ACTIONS, YOU HAVE ACQUIRED A SKILL - MANA FLOW.]

[MANA FLOW/PASSIVE SKILL [LV.1]]

CONTEMPLATE YOUR INNER SELF BY CALMING YOUR MANA FLOW AND MANA HEART.

-MANA GROWTH RATE INCREASES SLIGHTLY.

-MANA RECOVERY SPEED INCREASES SLIGHTLY.

-MANA CONSUMPTION REDUCED SLIGHTLY.

-MANA BREATHING EFFECT INCREASES]

Reading it, I didn't know what to do. This was super broken, and I can't imagine why Oh Jin Woo deleted the system.

He never used this system to its fullest potential. This could make me a god. Hahaha hahaha.

I thought as I laughed at what I could do with this system alone. Forget other Monarchs or the Rulers or even the creator. I am going to make the most of this, hahaha hahaha.

I laughed like a little kid who just got his favorite toy and realized the toy was even more amazing than he first thought.

Let's see the last test, as now I can feel the flow of mana inside my body. I thought as I walked towards the corner of the room and saw the Essence Stones implanted in the ceiling, walls, and even on the ground.

Someone might ask why. Well, it naturally increases the healing speed of the body. It's hard to notice, but it does have effects, and it's most effective on hunters as their bodies are constantly around the Essence Stones.

Essence Stones are small glowing stones found inside the corpses of Magic Beasts. They are generally very valuable and serve as the primary source of income for most hunters around the world.

They are a long-lasting and highly efficient energy source, filled with mana, of course. No one can naturally extract that mana unless they are monsters.

Monsters eat Essence Stones and Magical crystals to grow stronger.

As I put my hand on the nearest white Essence Stone, closed my eyes, and reached out into its mana flow, it didn't even take me more than five seconds to find it.

After finding it, I took control of its flow and started to pull it into my body. As mana directly flowed into my body, I started to hear the notifications.

Ding!

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

And after that, I couldn't pull any more mana. I opened my eyes and saw the crystal turn into a blank color from its white hue, soon crumbling into dust. The dust flowed with the air, leaving behind a hole in the wall. "Yes, yes, I knew it would work."

So, I can extract mana from an E-grade Essence Stone up to five times before it breaks, allowing me to increase my mana by 0.5 per E-grade stone. It's totally cheating, but hey, if you're not cheating, it means you're not trying to win.

As I moved on to the next crystal.

Ding!

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

MANA STAT PERMANENTLY INCREASED BY 0.1

Stop it! Even though it feels amazing, I can't use it anymore. If the crystal starts turning into dust, the staff members will start getting suspicious of me. One or two doesn't matter, but more than that will be just a hassle.

Anyway, it was only a test, and it's successful now. I still need to do a few things before I head over to the dungeon.

As of now, I am defenseless, and going now would be inviting death. I am not even sure what type of dungeon it will be...

I am not a wishful thinker who believes the timeline will remain the same when I am different. So let's just create a few spells that could be useful in the dungeon.

I have already noticed the difference as I received in-game gold currency from the random box. 

After confirming that the door was locked, I pulled out Kim Sang-Shik's sword. It was nothing but a ten-plus attack weapon. Then I took out two daggers from the unlimited storage inventory. I bought these daggers from the system shop. 

They are ordinary steel daggers, but they have 15+ attack power, so they will be useful.

I set aside the daggers and picked up the sword, starting to visualize basic enchantments.

I was researching mana and magic because I wanted to find out if it was possible to cast magical spells. I had never seen anyone cast spells like a mage or wizard, and I was not referring to the simple magic that mages of this world cast. I was thinking about the more complex ones.

Will I be able to cast spells? I should, after all, I have two important things for a mage: intelligence and mana, both of which are higher than normal people. And if I could, it could make me much more versatile and stronger than even the original one, which is the goal. That's why I was doing this.

Time skip.

As I looked at the clock, I realized it was nearly 5 pm. I was so busy that I didn't realize how much time had passed. Successfully developing three spells, they aren't much, but I will work them out somehow. While developing my spells, something interesting happened—I gained a title.

LITTLE MAGE.

YOU HAVE ACQUIRED A SKILL WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE SYSTEM. DUE TO YOUR INDEPENDENT ACTION, YOU HAVE ACQUIRED THE TITLE "LITTLE MAGE."

TITLE - LITTLE MAGE.

IT REDUCES CASTING TIME.

MANA RECOVERY SPEED INCREASES SLIGHTLY.

MANA CONSUMPTION REDUCED BY 1%.

After getting the title, I realized that even the spells I create are treated as skills rather than spells. So it seemed like a universal law or something that spells were treated as skills.

And of course, I can't forget the skills I learned during the running. I thought as I checked out the skills I acquired after running so much.

"Sprint" (Lv. 1)

Active Skill

Mana Cost: 5 (+1/Minute)

Activate to increase your movement speed by 30%.

Costs 1 mana per minute to maintain.

"Your running has strengthened your legs."

Unyielding Spirit (Lv. 1)

Passive Skill

Mana Cost: 0

When below 30% HP, all damage received is reduced by 50%.

"You have an unyielding spirit."

The logic was sound. This meant that repetitive actions that met certain criteria unlocked skills.

"Amazing!"

The merits of this were incalculable. Normally, the repertoire of skills that Hunters used was received and fixed at the moment of their Awakening. Only the rare Runestones that sometimes dropped from A-rank or higher magic beasts could be used by a Hunter to learn a new skill.

This is why the price of Runestones ranged from hundreds of millions to tens of billions of won. He recalled a recent event of a Runestone being sold at an auction for the price of 70 billion won. It was a Runestone that taught a powerful healing magic capable of completely restoring an injured person, purchased by an anonymous foreign S-rank Healer-class Hunter who emptied his wallet for it.