I Can See Your Stats Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Ayra raised his trembling gaze, it seemed Shinjae couldn't see this notification window. To confirm more clearly, Ayra pointed to the empty space where Shinjae's stat window was floating.

"Shinjae, there's something on you there. Looks like a thread."

"Huh? Where? What?"

Shinjae's waving hand passed through the stat window. His gaze reflexively turned to look beyond the stat window. Ayra watched blankly as Shinjae waved his hand, trying to remove a nonexistent thread. Good, it can't be detected by others nor have any physical impact.

"Is it still there?"

"No, it's gone now."

"Really? Anyway, it's a cute little round thing."

Since artificial spirits were quite common in the Labyrinth, Shinjae soon lost interest. He checked Ayra's complexion one last time before standing up.

"I brought some food, so eat something."

"Thanks. And sorry. You're a guest, but I haven't been able to properly host you."

"Come on. Sick people should just rest."

After patting Ayra's shoulder a couple of times, Shinjae opened the door and left, and the stat window soon disappeared. Though they hadn't been particularly close, Shinjae had willingly come all this way to attend the funeral. He was truly, rarely, a good person. After the door closed, Ayra caught the spirit floating in front of him.

"Well then, let's find out exactly what this is."

His deep blue-gray eyes glowed softly. The artificial spirit in his hand was warm and unexpectedly felt soft like holding a pudding. Like warm soap bubbles... As the spirit was cutely staring with wide eyes, Ayra unconsciously started petting it before catching himself.

"A stat window, huh. Well, it definitely doesn’t exist in the physical realm."

When he tapped the blanket and commanded "Come here," it came, and when he ordered "Go there," it went. Moreover, it was consuming his magic power within manageable limits. Ayra soon reached a conclusion.

'So I really did undergo enlightenment.'

In this world, when an ordinary person suddenly gains insight or goes through spiritual awakening and becomes a mage, it's called enlightenment. And in the Labyrinth, when an ordinary mage suddenly wields magic they never had before, it's called 'enlightenment.' To compare it to games, if being a mage was the first job advancement, an enlightened mage would be the second job advancement.

However, enlightenment wasn't a concept that could be simply defined as something like a second job advancement. For mages, enlightenment magic was like an ultimate secret technique, not something to be carelessly bragged about. It wasn't for nothing that Ayra had deliberately downplayed it to Shinjae as simply creating an artificial spirit.

But since he had no memory of his time being sick, he wondered if this really was enlightenment. As he tilted his delicate face in thought, his fine silver hair slid smoothly over his shoulder. The artificial spirit puffed up slightly as if in protest and displayed another dialogue window.

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[Master! Please give me a name! :( ]

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"Stay still. Master is thinking."

Ayra chided while squishing the perfectly squishy spirit with his hand. The artificial spirit displayed an 'X(' emoticon on its body. When he pressed it even flatter because it was cute, it changed to an 'X0' emoticon.

...Is this thing enjoying this?

In any case, enlightenment magic varied tremendously between mages. However, no matter what, his enlightenment magic couldn't possibly be an actual game system itself. More precisely, the ability had manifested in the way most comfortable and familiar to his consciousness, and that way had taken the form of a 'game system.'

While deeply lost in thought and kneading the warm snowflake-like artificial spirit like rice cake, there was a knock at the door.

"Ayra-nim, may I come in?"

"Yes, come in."

The door opened and a familiar-faced man entered. Gray eyes common to people from this region turned toward Ayra before dropping downward. As he bowed his head politely, his black hair swayed. With his glasses, neat attire, and tidy black hair, he looked more like a typical young scholar than an office worker.

"I heard you had awakened and came to check on you. How are you feeling?"

Ayra hesitated for a moment, unable to remember what the man had said his name was when he first introduced himself as the governor of this territory. He was already bad with names, and his mind had been completely absent throughout the funeral. At that moment, as magic power flowed out again, another stat window appeared.

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<Ginas>

HP: ???

MP: ???

Physical Attack: ???

Magic Attack: ???

Affection: ???♡

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"I'm feeling better, Sir Ginas. Thank you for your concern."

While answering as if he had known the name all along, Ayra carefully observed the stat window he hadn't properly noticed earlier while pretending to look around the room. Now he noticed that besides the stat window, there were faint '???' characters floating above people's heads. If this followed the UI of the game he used to play, those question marks were surely meant for titles.

"Ayra-nim?"

Ayra, who had momentarily fallen deep into thought again, snapped back to attention at Ginas's call.

"Ah, sorry. My head still hurts a bit..."

It wasn't entirely a lie, as his physical condition really wasn't very good. When he pressed his head while speaking, a worried expression crossed Governor Ginas's face. However, that emotion seemed more like concern for the health of the only heir to the estate rather than concern for Ayra personally, whom he had only known for a few days.

"Shall I call for a physician?"

"It's just fatigue, I'll be fine after some rest."

"I understand. Please let me know if you need anything."

Ginas was impeccably polite, but there was a noticeable wall between them. This was natural, if anything. The familiar lord he had sworn loyalty to and his heir had died overnight, and the only successor was a mage who had grown up in the Labyrinth since childhood. Having been dispatched outside a few times, Ayra was well aware that the image of mages wasn't particularly positive in some regions.

Sure enough, wariness settled in Ginas's eyes as he looked at the artificial spirit Ayra was holding. He didn't even ask what it was, which spoke more of an insurmountable distance than politeness. Finally tearing his uneasy gaze from the artificial spirit, Ginas brought up the reason for his visit.

"Then we shall discuss the succession ceremony once you have recovered, Lord Ayra."

"Yes, I'll leave it to you."

After Ayra nodded in response, Ginas bowed politely and carefully closed the door without making a sound. A moment later, Ayra heaved a deep sigh.

"A succession ceremony..."

He had thought he might visit the estate again someday in his life. However, this wasn't a visit but a return. Moreover, Ayra was more familiar and comfortable with the Labyrinth than the estate, to the point where he would call it just a 'visit.' While he could recite all sorts of magical theories, he didn't know the first thing about estate management. Even the game he used to play was an RPG suitable for solo play.

He was about to sigh heavily again, but instead let out a couple of grand sneezes.

"C-cold..."

He had only pushed aside the blanket briefly to raise his upper body, but now he shivered and pulled the blanket up to his shoulders as chills ran through him. He hadn't even adapted to this cold yet. Could someone so inexperienced really manage the estate well? Wouldn't he run it into the ground? Ayra already missed the Labyrinth's year-round mild climate.

At that moment, with a 'ding!' sound, a transparent window appeared before his eyes.

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<Quest!>

[Let's name the cute Spirit GM who will accompany you on your isekai adventure.]

☞ Enter name ______

Reward: Spirit GM's affection and guidance

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When he looked down, he noticed the artificial spirit had become extremely crumpled between his hands while he was focused on the conversation with Ginas. Startled, he let go, and the spirit weakly floated up, returned to its original shape with a 'poof,' and shyly displayed small floating hearts...

"You... like being treated that way...?"

Anyway, what should he name it? Pushing aside the various theories and hypotheses randomly popping up in his mind, Ayra fell into contemplation. He couldn't carelessly name it like he used to name game characters, with thoughtless names like 'MusclePixieDorong' or 'EarthBallKing' or 'LagMadeMe Lose.'

After long deliberation, Ayra finally managed to decide on a name for the artificial spirit.

"Your name is Pebble."

It had a modest and cute feel in Korean and sounded good in this world's pronunciation too. He thought it was really cute and fitting, but somehow the spirit didn't seem particularly happy. Its expression became somewhat gloomy, which bothered Ayra, so he thought more. He pondered ten times harder than when writing his advancement thesis.

"Chewy Rice Cake? Stony? Don't like those? Too small-sounding? Gravely?"

As he tried out various other names, a new window appeared with a 'ding!' sound.

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<Quest Complete!>

[Let's name the cute Spirit GM who will accompany you on your isekai adventure.]

☞ Name entered: Pebble

Reward: Spirit GM's affection and guidance

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With an expression that was impossible to tell whether it had given up, was sulking, or had accepted due to its simple appearance, Pebble displayed a new window.

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<Quest!>

[Let's level up this cute Pebble.]

*Check stat windows of 10 people (0/10)

*Introduce this cute Pebble to 10 people (0/10)

Reward: New stat category unlocked

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As he carefully read the quest window, nostalgia washed over him. Since coming to this new world, what had troubled Ayra most was parting with modern civilization. Smartphones, internet, computers... and among them, games! A quest... As memories of the games he had tried to forget came flooding back, Ayra clenched his fist, overcome with emotion.

"Let's work hard on the quests and level up, Pebble."