Mikael got into his car and turhe key. The engine roared to life. He then accelerated and began driving towards the outskirts of the city. Quickly, he pushed the speedometer from a normal 50 km/h to an exhirating 200 km/h. The sensation was thrilling; even though he knew he could run faster, it was still enjoyable to drive at such speed.

  Due to his speed, he soon reached the city's exit. He slowed down before leaving the walled city without entering any checkpoints. After a short drive, he parked his car and immediately headed into the forest.

  Mikael didn’t waste any time. He quickly searched for someoo kill in order to acquire the human race of this world. Although he found it a bit distasteful to kill someone who wasn’t his enemy and was just a random passerby, it wasn’t enough to stop him.

  It didn’t take long before he spotted a man eared to be a low-ranking ranker. Without hesitation, Mikael summoned his sword and rushed at the man from his blind spot, killing him swiftly and without resistance.

  He touched the man’s shoulder and activated the Race Gain System.

  [Race: Humans (Dirarnia World) successfully copied.]

  Ohis was done, Mikael found a wolf paearby. He fought them off and made them eat the man’s body. After the wolves were finished, Mikael wiped the blood from his sword on a tree. He was cautious, making sure he didn’t have any blood on him.

  ‘Okay, that’s done. I’ve acquired the race card, and I’ve made sure my kill won’t be traced bae. Even if there’s an iigation—which is unlikely—it’ll be lio a motack when the remains are found.’

  ‘It’s kind of sad how he died because he was unlucky that I o kill somebody to gain a new race. But that’s life. Sometimes you just get unlucky and die seemingly without a reason. I o keep being cautious or I could end up like him.’

  Ohe traces were covered, Mikael returo his car and drove aimlessly, pushing the car to its limits for fun. He did this partly as an alibi, but also to rex and unwind. After about an hour of driving, he reehe city and headed back to his mansion.

  Ohere, he quickly entered his bedroom and undressed, just like st time. ‘I’m really not looking forward to ging races again. It’s been only a day or two since I st did this, and I still remember the pain…’

  Despite the lingering memory of the agonizing pain, Mikael gritted his teeth and looked at the details of the race he had just acquired.

  [Race: Human (Dirarnia World)]

  Tier 1

  Description: The dominant ra the Dirarnia World. This race possesses strong physical and spiritual potential for a Tier 1 race. The stat limit for the five physical stats is 500, and the limit for Intelligend Spirit stats is 800.

  As a Tier 1 race, the maximum level is 50 before an upgrade to a higher-tier race is o tinue leveling.

  +3 to all five physical stats and +4 to the two spiritual stats at each level.

  Unlocks the Energy of Aura (Dirarnia) and Mana (Dirarnia), both of which are perma ges.

  Easier learning and how to use and trol aura and mana.]

  ‘Again? Aier 1 race? That doesn’t make sense! If this is a Tier 1 race, the power limit should be Tier 1 as well, but the power levels in this world are at Peak Tier 2, which means that at least one person in this world has reached that level.’

  ‘This just doesn’t add up for a race with these stat limits. I’m not sure how I tio grow with these straints, but for now, I don’t have a solution. I should focus on what I still improve.’

  ‘My best option is to unlock Aura and Mana. I should be able to unlock these two energies since I have the Spiritual Stats System, and the description of the Energy stat says that it’s possible to handle multiple energies. So, I shouldn’t have a problem. With these two energies, I keep getting stronger!’ he thought determinedly, before he initiated his race ge.

  [Race ge to Human (Dirarnia World) will begin in 10 seds.Warning: Individuals from paiive races have reported extreme pain during this process.]

  Mikael was expeg this warning—he had seen it a few days ago.

  [5]

  [4]

  [3]

  At the t of three, he took a deep breath and braced himself for the pain.

  [2]

  [1]

  [0]

  Surprisingly, when the tdown ended, he didn’t feel a bone-deep pain but instead a disfort only slightly worse than what he experienced during his Level 5 body refi.

  It ainful, but nothing he couldn’t handle—or at least, that’s what he thought, until a different kind of pain began. It was unlike anything he’d felt before, as if paring a headache to muscle pain.

  The closest description would be that his soul felt like it was both burning and transf simultaneously.

  While enduring this excruciatiion, he sensed a strange energy flowing through his body, but he was too focused on withstanding the pain to pay it much attention. He gave everything he had not to scream.

  After a moment that felt like ay, the burniion finally started to fade. A few seds ter, the pain diminished and quickly disappeared.

  Mikael exhaled the breath he’d been holding, then colpsed onto his back, out of breath and silently questioning his life choices as he stared at the ceiling.

  With great difficulty, he got up and made his way to the surprisingly modern bathroom iherwise medieval-themed house. Despite his exhaustion, he forced himself to take a shower—he was drenched i and had no iion of sleeping like that.

  After his shower, he dressed and colpsed onto the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

  Some time ter, Mikael felt rays of light nding on him, disturbing his sleep. He groggily raised a hand to block the sunlight, but it was no use—it forced him to get up. When he did, he saw that the sun was at its zenith, and the light was streaming directly from there.

  He stretched before cheg the notifications he’d received from his race ge.

  [Body potential slightly diminished.]

  [Spiritual potential greatly increased.]

  [Body refi efficy greatly decreased.]

  [Unlocked energies: Aura (Dirarnia) and Mana (Dirarnia)]

  Mikael leased to have successfully unlocked the two energies, but he frowned when he saw the note about decreased body refi efficy. ‘That’s what I was worried about. It seems that by using the Dirarnia World Human race, I’ll have better magical potential, but if I want to do any body refining, it’ll be much slower.’

  ‘To optimize this, I’ll o switch races depending oher I want to train my body or focus on Aura and Mana. And to do that, I’ll have to ehe pain of race-ging again…’

  Mikael put aside this depressing thought and focused on what truly ied him: his newly unlocked energies. He could feel a strange, liquid-like movement in his body, which felt odd. trating on his body, he sewo small spheres near his heart.

  Mikael wasn’t foolish—he khese spheres were his Aura and Mana cores. But even after trating on them, he couldn’t immediately tell which was the Aura core and which was the Mana core.

  He chose o random, the one closest to his heart, and attempted to trol the energy within it.

  Ten seds passed, then five minutes, but he still couldn’t move any energy. Realizing this approach wasn’t w, Mikael tried something different. Instead to trol his core like a muscle, he thought, ‘I he energy to flow out of the core and move toward my left hand.’

  Repeating this thought in his mind with plete focus, the energy finally began to move, though his trol was terrible. It took nearly a full minute for the energy to travel from his core to his left hand.

  When it reached his left hand, his hand glowed with a faint blue light for just a brief moment. But that wasn’t all—it also seemed to slightly strengthen his hand. ‘If this energy reinforce my body, it should be Aura. I should test the other core to see if it has a different effect.’

  He theed the process, this time using the core further to the right. The energy moved at the same sluggish pace before reag his left hand. This time, his body wasn’t reinforced; instead, his hand simply glowed, but the light was brighter than before and didn’t affect his body.

  ‘Alright, that firms it. The left core, the one closest to my heart, is my Aura core, and the one further to the right is my Mana core.’

  ‘Now that I at least know which core is which, I’m curious to see my atus after these ret ges.’

  “Status”

  [Name: Mikael AngeliniRace: Human (Dirarnia World)Lifespan: 21/99Overall Power: Tier 1Military Rank: Recruit 0/10 MP

  Global Level Tier 1 Race: 10/50Experience: 1.5K/91K XP

  Css: Sword MasterLevel: 26/50Experience: 17.5K/18.2K XP

  Stats:Strength: 423 → 413Agility: 476 → 466Endurance: 424 → 414Vitality: 448 → 438Perception: 447 → 437Intelligence: 21 → 51Spirit: 21 → 51

  Energy:Aura (Dirarnia World) F- Tier 100/100Mana (Dirarnia World) F- Tier 100/100

  Active Skills: None

  Active/Passive Skills:Body Refining Teique: Tier 0, Level 3

  Passive Skills:Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery: Tier 0, Level 2Footwork Mastery: Tier 0, Level 36th Seier 0, Level 2Swordsmanship Mastery: Tier 0, Level 5 (MAX)

  Life Points (LP): (-5900) 1320]

  ‘Hmm, my body got a little weaker, but holy, not by much. What’s more iing are the spiritual stats. First, the Intelligeat, which is holy the stra one, because until now, all the stats were linear—like, if you have 5th, someoh 100 would logically be twice as strong.’

  ‘But Intelligence doesn’t seem to work like that. I currently have 51 Intelligence, which should mean my mind is five times strohan a normal person’s, but it doesn’t work that way. Sure, I’m a little smarter, and my thoughts are faster, but certainly not by five times—more like a 40-50% improvement.’

  ‘Maybe the Intelligeat is actually linear in terms of mental strength—like, if you’re usial attacks or defehat would make more sehan having no liy at all. As for the Spirit stat, it retes to soul strength, which I don’t have a way to measure, so I ’t tell if it’s linear or not. Spirit also influences energy potency, but again, I have no way to measure that either.’

  ‘Then there are the Energy stats, but I don’t have a trainihod for them in this world. I could try to improvise a method using my imagination, but it could have ive effects. Anyway, the tral Academy exam is on July 5th at 10 AM, so deying my energy training a bit shouldn’t waste much time.’

  ‘Instead, I could focus on honing my trol over these energies, which would holy help me more than randomly attempting trainihods.’

  After finishing these thoughts, he began w on his trol. He started by fog on trolling his Aura, since learning to use Aura could help him enhance his body, even without this world’s trainihods. That would be useful. Mana, oher hand, would be almost pointless without knowing how to cast spells.

  He began his training by moving his Aura from his Aura core to various parts of his body. He started by sending Aura from his core to his hands, alternatiween the right a. Ohe Aura reached one of his hands, he immediately called it back to his core. If he didn’t retrieve it fully, he would lose some of his Aura.

  However, even as he tried to minimize his Aura loss, he still ed it quickly due to his terrible trol. Just one hour after he’d started, his Aura core was already empty, even though he’d been doing an exercise that required barely any Aura.