Cheat Awakening

"Damn, what a lucky bastard," Myne cursed angrily, shaking his head. "If only he hadn't wasted his time bootlicking his boss and actually studied his skills seriously, he might be in a completely different place by now."

He quickly dismissed the thought of that poor bastard, who didn't deserve his sympathy. Instead, Myne decided to experiment with his newly acquired super-overpowered skill.

"But how should I use it?"

Myne confusedly rubs his head. Unlike his original awakening skills, which came with proper instructions, stolen skills didn't have this feature. Myne always had to spend a considerable amount of time understanding some of these bizarre skills. While most were straightforward, their use readily apparent from their names, others required deciphering their descriptions.

And then there were his Unique skills, which offered little to no practical information despite their flashy, eye-catching names and descriptions.

"Anyway, let's try creating something small. What's the worst that could happen?" After pondering for a few seconds, Myne finally made up his mind. Unlike his 'Realize' skill, which precisely stole the specific thing he desired from somewhere else in the world, he was actually going to create something out of thin air this time.

At the start, in order to not push his luck too much, Myne didn't think about something outrageous, but just a minor thing: an apple.

As soon as he activated the Unique Magic – Sublime Obscurity, Myne, who originally intended to conserve a small amount of mana due to his current shortage, found himself facing a harsh reality. Thanks to his previous night's fun – growing bizarre body parts for entertainment – he had used up 80% of the mana reserves he got from those 10 High-Grade Mana potions he bought from Alex before.

While he didn't regret his decision in the slightest, what's done is done and a lot of mana really went up in smoke just like that. f his previous mana expenditure on any skill was like a small trickle of water leaving a reservoir. This time, however, it felt as if someone had forcibly removed the trickle and replaced it with a gaping hole.

Within three seconds, his entire mana reserve mysteriously sucked away, and Myne instantly lost consciousness. His face landed with a thud on a small pile of honey buns.

But to Myne's great misfortune, even after paying such a high price, he failed to witness the magical scene in front of him. Countless tiny golden particles materialized out of thin air before him. Suddenly, all those golden particles started spinning crazily before colliding with each other. A soundless explosion erupted, generating an eye-blinding white light that obscured everything from sight.

However, strangely, despite the unimaginable intensity of the light, it seemed visible only to Myne, Alex – who had just returned, completely oblivious to this phenomenon – could only see the fatty rich uncle who gave him the task lying on top of food.

"Did he eat too much at once and choke himself to death?" Alex worried more about his remaining payment than the fatty uncle's life, rushed towards him with a face full of concern, as if the unconscious man was not a stranger but his own father.

"Hey, uncle, are you alive?" Alex asked worriedly, checking Myne's breath. He only exhaled a sigh of relief upon confirming the other party was still breathing.

Thud!

"F*ck! Which bastard threw this apple at my head?" Alex, whose head was on the table as he checked on Myne's life and death, happened to be under the blinding light, which obviously he couldn't see. Finally, as the light slowly started dying down, an apple materialized in the centre. The apple under the embrace of gravity landed squarely on Alex's head, causing him to scream in outrage.

Sadly, he wasn't a world-class physicist, otherwise, this fantastical magical world might have also witnessed the birth of someone who could discover the law of universal gravitation, thanks to an apple.

"Huh? Why is this apple golden? Someone hadn't tampered with it, right?" Just as Alex, fueled by anger, subconsciously reached out to throw the apple-shaped object, he suddenly noticed its colour wasn't red but actually gold, an obviously unnatural phenomenon.

"Forget about it," Alex muttered, shaking his head. "Better not to touch unknown things. Although it surprisingly smells nice, who knows what the heck this thing is?" He casually threw the golden apple out of the bar and refocused his attention on Myne. After a quick examination, Alex found out that Myne was suffering from mana exhaustion.

"How did this fatty lose all his magic energy while eating? Wait a minute," Alex pauses and suddenly his eyes lift up as a wonderful idea pops up in his head. "It seems like Lady Luck is finally smiling upon me. Just when I was desperate for money, she sent a walking treasure chest right to my doorstep, even knocking him unconscious for good measure!

What a stroke of luck!" Muttering excitedly, Alex began searching Myne's body like a pervert. He didn't even leave his underwear unchecked in his frantic hunt for a storage pouch. Unfortunately, all he found was disappointment.

"What the hell? Where did this bastard hide his storage pouch? Damn it, don't tell me he has a super rare storage-type skill. F*ck, what a huge loss!" Alex cursed Myne's entire family as if he wasn't attempting to steal Myne's belongings but simply retrieving his own. Grumbling, he took out a high-grade mana potion and poured it roughly into Myne's mouth.

The potion took effect almost immediately. Within two minutes, Myne stirred and opened his eyes, rubbing his forehead with a pained expression. Thankfully, he didn't attempt his double-layered disguise this time. Otherwise, without mana, his illusion would have stopped working. And Alex, without a doubt, would have kicked his ass a few times while he was unconscious for deception before helping him.

"So you're awake? Uncle, you shouldn't eat so much at your age. It's hard on your poor stomach, you know. It's not as young as your spirit," Alex remarked casually, shaking his head as he sat opposite Myne while eating Myne's food to appease his own anger.

"What happened? Agh, damn it! Why does my head hurt so much? Like someone beat it with a hammer a hundred times?" Myne groaned, clutching his head in pain.
Your next read is at empire

"Well, what else did you expect after waking up from the magic energy exhaustion? Haven't you experienced it before? Oh, judging by your confused expression, maybe not... Ah, I forgot, a big shot like you probably doesn't need to exhaust your magic energy completely. Only us poor folk who walk the edge of life and death would do such a stupid thing. Anyway, Uncle, what happened to you?

How did you exhaust all your magic energy for no reason?" Alex inquired casually, though he didn't hold much hope for an answer.

"What was I doing? I was trying my new s—" Myne, who was about to speak the truth, suddenly stopped. A wave of sobriety washed over him, and he began scanning the table, under it, and even the entire bar.

"What are you looking for?" Alex clicked his tongue in annoyance, and like he expected he didn't get the answer he wanted.

"I… Have you seen an apple?" Myne hesitated for a few seconds before asking cautiously.

"You mean that nice-smelling golden apple someone threw at my head?" Alex confirmed, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I think so," Myne hesitantly nodded, still unsure himself. After all, Myne couldn't think of anything except his weird skill that could bring a golden apple into this world.

"I thought someone was playing a prank on me by hitting me with a weird golden apple, so I threw it out. After all, who in their right mind would throw a suspicious-looking golden apple at someone? Anyway, here's the information you requested, along with twenty bottles of high-grade mana potions. It cost me an extra ten percent to acquire them, so you better be generous.

For your sake, I emptied my entire savings." As he spoke, Alex retrieved two scrolls and a small wooden box from his storage pouch, placing them before Myne.

"Huh? Why are there only nineteen bottles in the box?" Myne asked with a frown, still rubbing his forehead. As for the apple, he had already given up; Alex had thrown it out, and who knows where it landed, also there are so many people outside, that someone might have already picked it up out of curiosity. There was no point in searching for it.

His initial intention of testing his skill was confirmed but the only painful thing was that it cost him quite a lot.

"Why don't you take a guess?" Alex gave Myne a look like he was talking to an idiot before ignoring him.

"Sigh, fine. Don't be so rude. Don't forget, your tip is still in my hand," Myne grumbled, finally fed up with Alex's tsundere attitude, and angrily gulped down three potions in quick succession.

"Phew, that feels much better." Myne stored the remaining sixteen bottles in his inventory before finally picking up the information scroll on the table and started reading it without caring about Alex's envious gaze.

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{ A/N:- In Myne's world, only a handful of people know that the magical energy inside their bodies actually has a name, and it's called Mana. Only a select few, including Myne, divine beasts, and others at the top of the power pyramid, are aware of this. That's why, when speaking to anyone other than his family members, Myne refers to Mana as magic energy. }