Chapter 60: Magic Missile

[Do you want to learn skill ’Magic Missile (Common)’?]

[Yes / No]

Just like before, Kyle clicked Yes without a second thought. This was exactly what he had come all the way into the forest to do, and after finally unlocking his Mana Pool, he was more than ready to learn his first proper magic skill.

But unlike when he had tried to learn the skill earlier, there was no error message this time.

Nothing happened.

Kyle waited.

A few seconds passed.

Then another few seconds.

Still nothing.

He stared at the System window in confusion while standing in the middle of the forest. The sky above him had grown considerably darker, and the thick trees surrounding him had become nothing more than towering silhouettes against the fading evening light.

"What happened?"

Kyle scratched his head.

"Was I not suppo—"

[Knowledge Compiled Successfully!]

*THUD!*

Before Kyle could finish his sentence, a tremendous surge of knowledge suddenly crashed into his mind.

His eyes widened.

"GRHHH!"

His knees immediately gave out.

It felt as though an enormous waterfall had suddenly appeared inside his skull, with torrents of information crashing down upon his mind with enough force to shatter stone. Every piece of knowledge was being forcibly driven into his consciousness, penetrating through his thoughts and memories as if his brain itself were being carved apart.

Kyle collapsed onto the ground.

"W-What the fuck is happening?!"

Only moments ago, he had been excited about learning his first spell.

Now he was lying on the forest floor, clutching his head as an unbearable pain spread through his entire body.

[Importing Skill Knowledge for the following skill: Magic Missile (Common)]

[Warning: Knowledge transfer may cause severe pain to the User. Please endure the process.]

"GRRAAAH! It already fucking hurts!"

Kyle screamed.

But the warning had come far too late.

[Knowledge Imported: 1%...]

"Grrrgh!"

The pain intensified.

Kyle’s fingers dug into the dirt beneath him as his entire body trembled.

It wasn’t merely a headache.

It felt as though someone had opened up his skull and started pouring information directly into his brain. Concepts, movements, mana manipulation, spell structures, trajectories, targeting principles, and countless other pieces of information flooded into his consciousness faster than he could comprehend them.

And yet, somehow, his brain was absorbing all of it.

[Knowledge Imported: 10%...]

"UHHHGRR!"

Kyle rolled onto his side, unable to remain still.

The pain was comparable to having his femur crushed repeatedly with baseball bats. Every increase in the percentage brought another wave of agony, and there was nothing he could do to resist it.

He couldn’t shut it out. He couldn’t interrupt the process. He couldn’t even properly think.

All he could do was endure.

[Knowledge Imported: 23%...]

"GRHHH! Just—ARGHH! JUST KILL ME, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"

Kyle screamed at the top of his lungs.

He hadn’t even reached a quarter of the process, yet he already felt as though he had been tortured for days.

Only a few minutes had passed in reality.

To him, however, it felt like an eternity.

Every second stretched endlessly.

Every percentage point felt like another layer of suffering.

[Knowledge Imported: 39%...]

"GHRRRAAAH!"

Suddenly, something else began happening.

Voices.

Kyle froze.

There were voices inside his head.

Strange voices.

They were speaking in a language he had never heard before, repeatedly reciting and chanting something he couldn’t understand.

"The voices! NGH—MAKE THEM STOP!"

The strange chanting only made the experience worse.

He couldn’t understand a single word they were saying, but every syllable seemed to stab directly into his eardrums. It was like someone repeatedly piercing his ears with cotton swabs while simultaneously smashing his brain with a hammer.

The voices continued for what felt like an eternity.

Yet somehow, Kyle understood that they were connected to the knowledge being implanted into his mind.

[Knowledge Imported: 67%...]

"ARGHH!"

The strange voices suddenly disappeared.

But the pain remained.

Kyle lay sprawled across the ground, breathing heavily as sweat covered his forehead.

He wanted it to end.

He desperately wanted it to end.

Nearly half an hour had passed since the process began, but to Kyle, it felt as though several days had gone by.

This wasn’t learning but fucking purgatory for him.

[Knowledge Imported: 100%!]

[Congratulations, User.]

[You have obtained 100% Theory of Skill: ’Magic Missile (Common)’.]

The instant the System reached one hundred percent, the pain vanished. There wasn’t even residue or any side effects left from it.

One moment, Kyle was suffering enough to wish for death.

The next, there was nothing.

Kyle remained motionless on the ground for several seconds, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

"...Huh?"

He slowly opened his eyes. His head was clear and his body was under his control again.

He moved his fingers then his arms shortly followed by his legs.

Everything worked normally.

It was almost as though the horrible experience had never happened.

Kyle slowly pushed himself upright.

He looked absolutely miserable.

His clothes were covered in dirt, grass, and petals from the wild herbs scattered across the forest floor.

"Fucking hell..."

Swish. Swish.

Kyle stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes. It barely helped.

There was so much dirt covering him that only a proper deep cleaning would bring his clothes back to their original condition.

Then the System suddenly spoke.

[Oh, you finally learned a skill. Congratulations!]

Its tone was cheerful.

Far too cheerful.

Kyle’s eye twitched.

"You son of a bitch!"

He pointed angrily toward the invisible System.

"You knew this was going to happen! Why didn’t you tell me, bastard?!"

Kyle was genuinely furious.

If the System had warned him beforehand, he could at least have prepared himself mentally for what was coming. Instead, he had gone into the process expecting something as simple as clicking a button and suddenly knowing magic.

Instead, he had spent what felt like several days being tortured by an information waterfall.

[What could you have done if I had told you beforehand?]

[You would have only become more frightened and hesitated to learn the skill.]

[At least you successfully learned it. That is what matters.]

"Grhh..."

Kyle’s face twitched.

He knew the System had a point.

If he had known how painful the process would be, he probably would’ve spent several minutes psyching himself up before pressing the button.

Still, that didn’t make the experience any less fucking horrible.

Kyle let out a low growl like an irritated orc before deciding not to waste his energy arguing with the System.

He opened the skill information instead.

[Skill: Magic Missile Lv. Max]

[Proficiency: 0/100%]

[Knowledge: 100%]