The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 7: A Broken System

Aria's eyes widened.

'If this kid knew.. Then, are <Players> actually common? No, I'm the seventh <Player>, so the only way this kid can know would be..'

She was seventh out of God knows how many people lived in the world.

'Is he a <Player>, just like me?' The doubt came to mind. Was there such a coincidence, in which the first person she met after waking up included someone in the same situation as her?

"Judging by the reaction, I'm guessing that my theory was correct,"

"Then, do you know what a <Player> is? Have you ever met one before?"

"No, I don't. Miss Aria should be the.. seventh, right? I am the sixth to be titled <Player>. In fact, I didn't know if you were a <Player>. The system gives us a notification signifying the coronation of the new titles, and the fact that you appeared not long after the notification was issued, combined with your strange attire and knowledge made me think that you were the one in question,"

"What about the perks of being a <Player>?"

Yoo Jin successfully attracted her interest.

Such a coincidence, she was not willing to fully believe in it, but the boy did possess some interesting elements.

"Well, I can definitely tell you that the System windows, notifications, and the statuses are not something other people possess," Yoo Jin clarified.

"Hmm.. Then, do you have titles too?" Aria wanted to inquire about her <Adapter> title.

"I do, but I think it differs from person to person. Mine is called <The Dragon>. What about Miss Aria?"

Yoo Jin was open about his powers.

'<The Dragon>.. If it's literal, then he is the embodiment of a real dragon?' Aria thought back to the her time. There had been some people who possessed the ability to morph. She even had the opportunity to morph halfway with her own summons.

"Mine is called <Adapter>. I don't know what it does,"

"<Adapter>? Ah, in that case, why don't you try fighting over and over again? My power came to me naturally after I played around with different kinds of situations. I'm still at level 7, I couldn't go into dungeons without risking my life. My experience points are all gathered through training,"

"Training? You can gain points from just training your powers?"

"That was the case for me. However, my Main <Dragon Arts> is rather focused on martial arts and practical skills. Training increases my attack power directly as I progress through the techniques, so I can understand why training yields experience points," Yoo Jin reasoned.

"Main.. That reminds me, my status doesn't show my Main,"

'It's really not there.' Aria rechecked her status and didn't find any of the supposed category.

Then, her words seemed to trigger a chain reaction.

[Updating System. Anomaly detected. Main values overridden.]

[Unknown seal detected. User conditions not suitable.]

[Analyzing causes. Searching for restorative measures.]

[Starting repair. Please wait.]

"..The System went ahead and started a repairing program. It told me to wait,"

"Then, what is Miss Aria going to do next?" Yoo Jin chuckled lightly.

"Explore this dungeon? Together?" Aria pointed at the complex, branched paths that seemed to have no ends.

Before, she wanted to kick the boy out to continue on with the dungeon, but things have changed.

Now that she knew that Yoo Jin was the same case as her, she had no qualms about letting him follow her into the dungeon.

Perhaps he could even be of help.

______________________________

"More wolves... Wolves, goblins, vampire bats... They're all basic monsters, but their numbers are high," Aria cut down the last batch of wolves and felt refreshed as she received a notification indicating an advancement in levels.

[Level C Vampire Bat <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[Level C Vampire Bat <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[Level C Vampire Bat <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[Level C Vampire Bat <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[Level C Vampire Bat <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[Level C Vampire Bat <Mad> successfully murdered.]

[Level C Vampire Bat...]

[Experience points increased by 20760.]

[Level increased by 1.]

Aria was now at level 13. Killing hundreds and hundreds of monsters only increased her level by 1, making her reluctant to use mana.

She opted for honing her swordsmanship skills instead. With the sword she had taken from Jun-su, she slaughtered her enemies like a berserker, swinging the heavy sword like it was nothing.

She had discovered that her System had many bugs. Once, she complained about how long it took to reach the next level.

To that statement, Yoo Jin replied with: "Right, I'm already at Level 21, I need 20000 more experience..."

It was then that she realized that Yoo Jin had caught up with her level, and even surpassed her. Not only that, he was able to tell the amount of experience he needed to progress to the next level.

"You.. have an indicator for your experience? And I'm still level 13... you know?"

Yoo Jin started at level 7, but now he was already on level 21, successfully passing the third grade. The monsters he killed were not few in number, but the number was still miniscule compared to Aria. It was strange how Aria was behind.

"Huh? Yeah, I do. Aria-nim, you don't? And level 13??" Yoo Jin was puzzled as well.

'Show my damned experience bar, damnit.' Aria had learned from experience that the System liked to play tricks on her.

It would immediately run a scan once she discovered an anomaly, but it wouldn't budge an inch otherwise.

It clearly knew how to fix itself, it just didn't want to. It waited for her to realize the missing features by herself.

[Running diagnostics. Anomaly detected. Experience points value overridden.]

[Unknown seal detected. User conditions not suitable.]

[Analyzing causes. Searching for restorative measures.]

[Starting repair. Please wait.]

Aria sighed. Her System was defective in all sense. She wondered if it was because she was an anomaly as well.

A defective product and someone who shouldn't exist. What a perfect match.

"I want you to list every single thing you have on your System, mine seems to be broken," Aria stopped fighting and sat down, beckoning for him to sit as well.

They had a long talk, with Yoo Jin listing his elements and Aria noting down the differences.

After further fixing, Aria had updated her System and gained several information.

First, although Yoo Jin was two levels ahead of her, Aria's combat ability was still higher. Some of it could be attributed to her [Tempered Body] skill, that allowed her to charge without fearing about excessive damage.

Second, her System had differences with Yoo Jin. Yoo Jin's System provided him with a visual representation of his body.

There, he could identify what injured him, and he could also see the enemies' name, levels, grade, health bar, mana bar, et cetera. In that model, he had several slots that detailed the equipment he wore.

He had eight slots in total, signifying that he could only wear 8 pieces of equipment at a time, unlike Aria who did not have such slots.

Yoo Jin described this panel as 'game-like'.

Aria believed this to be caused by her time's dressing culture, where one could wear as many magical accessories as possible.

She evaded the restrictions placed on modern people because she was from the past, she thought.

Aria also noticed that Yoo Jin had a category attached to him.

The young boy did not have the leisure of allocating his status points.

The System decided it for him, and he was treading on a path of high Strength and Agility, normal Dexterity and Vitality, and low Intelligence.

On the other hand, Aria had allocated her points based on her intuition. Most of it went to intelligence, an abundant amount went to Strength, some to Agility, and the rest was distributed fairly between the other two.

The changes that applied to her body once she added the status points were not simple. For example, her mana bar and amount directly increased once she upgraded her intelligence, this was an absurd thing back in Aria's time.

'<Adapter>... Does this mean that I can choose whatever path I want? Mix all of them together and become balanced in all attributes?'

'But the status points I'm earning is on the same rate as Yoo Jin. If I distribute it carelessly, I will be a master of none.'

Thinking about her choices, she decided to distribute it evenly for now, and continue from there.

"Alright, we're done. Let's go check the deepest part," Cleaning her sword one last time, she cringed as she felt like the blade was about to break. The edge had dulled down considerably over the number of creatures she slayed, but Aria had forcibly sharpened it by grinding the edge against one of the wolves' fangs.

They had determined the door in front of them as the last stage. After cleaning up all the branched paths and finding most of them to have a dead end, one path led them to this place.

They had went through more than ten sublevels. After upgrading her System, she could finally see the monsters' statuses with her own eyes. Aria noticed that monsters were not only determined by their grade, but also their levels. One could be of the same species and yet be stronger than their peers because of the difference in levels. As they progressed further into the dungeon, the monsters' levels kept increasing, peaking at the Level C Vampire Bat at level 25.

'Indeed, that one surprised me a bit. I was still able to beat it though, and our levels are nine digits apart.'

"Miss Aria, I'm just going to warn you, but what comes after this is commonly known as the Boss Stage. The monster behind this door is usually significantly stronger than the previous ones we'd fought," Yoo Jin had a grim look on his face.

"I'm at level 16, this boss should be enough to boost my experience points to level 17. There's no way I'm stopping. I just leveled up, so my status was recovered to max," Aria was not confident without basis.

She had tested the formidability of her [Tempered Body] skill. Although she couldn't control it directly, she learned that it worked like a sensor. Her body was perfectly fused with herself.

If danger approached, she was able to sense the threat her enemies possessed. If she chose to face the enemy, however, the skill would provide her with great protection that scaled with the danger.

If she faced the wolves, the protection it gave was minimal, as they were not viewed as threats. However, if the boss behind this door was strong as hell, then Aria was even more excited. She wanted to test the limits of her skill, especially when it was titled MAX.

Looking at her nearly filled up experience bar, she swallowed her saliva and opened the door inwards.

"Are you ready?"