Why Did I Have to Enroll

"Uh, uh-oh..."

Ban Yu-won hurriedly stretched his hand towards the sky.

The thread that had been descending to a certain altitude was now trying to ascend back to the sky the moment he observed it.

However, as he stretched out his hand and imbued it with strong will, the Mysterious qi rotating within his body responded and burned intensely.

It felt as if his will and presence were spreading throughout the area where he extended his hand.

'It's as if the Mysterious qi is enhancing my authority...'

Wasn't the original magic power called omnipotent because it could transform into anything?

As it had gone through a stage of refinement via the Mysterious Body Technique and had been dyed closer to Ban Yu-won's nature, just by imbuing his authority with Mysterious qi, it had been strengthened incomparably to before!

Due to the strong suction power exerted by his authority, part of the thread unraveled and came into contact with Ban Yu-won's hand, and he grasped it and pulled calmly.

'Great!'

Of course, what he was able to salvage was only a tiny portion of the text strings that made up the thread, but in fact, this was much more than what his companions had obtained.

Anyway, it seemed like he would be entangled with these so-called constellations frustratingly often in the future, so there would be other opportunities to extract that concept later.

Ban Yu-won decided to focus on the immediate results.

[You realize a more active and violent way of using your authority. The depth of All-Reading Eyes, All-Hearing Ears, and All-Speaking Lips increases by 10 each. The depth of Life has become 260.]

[You realize how to enhance your ability by imbuing will into Mysterious qi. The depth of Mysterious Body Technique has become 25. The depth of Mysterious qi has become 152.]

First, his pure development that occurred in the process of seizing the bundle of text strings.

The sensation of the limits of his authority crumbling was felt most clearly by Ban Yu-won himself.

Even without checking the notification about the increased depth, he understood best how to handle and develop his authority from now on.

'Indeed, this isn't a favor that can be repaid with just a gift of clothes.'

For Ban Yu-won, who believed in repaying favors as they were received, this was no small matter of concern.

However, when he glanced at Dokgo Yeon, she still had her eyes closed tightly, perhaps still feeling the aftereffects of leveling up.

Ban Yu-won gently sighed and turned his gaze back.

To the golden text strings intertwined in his hand, slowly unraveling.

[Life 50, Body 20, Magic Power 15, Countless Changes (萬變) 1]

The enormous amount of Life that involuntarily made him groan in astonishment first shocked him.

As much as 50, he had never obtained such a large amount of Life at once before.

Of course, he was thinking of sharing a bit with Eve, but still.

"15 should be enough, right?"

"Sss-sshh."

The delighted Eve expressed intense joy by squeezing and releasing Ban Yu-won's arm.

He chuckled and distributed some Life to the creature, then absorbed all the rest himself.

As it was a reward directly given by the tower, Life and Body were applied intact without any degradation, and surprisingly, the same was true for Magic Power.

[The absorbed Magic Power 15 is converted into Mysterious qi.]

'Oh, ohh.'

He had expected some loss, but the result was surprisingly 100%.

He had gained 15 Mysterious qi intact.

On top of that, as Life grew, the soul also naturally grew along with it, so it was as if he had cleared several rooms in one go!

'If I hadn't given some Life to Eve, I would have surpassed 300.'

Such a thought suddenly crossed his mind, but remembering that Eve was as much his partner as himself, and that the creature's growth was just as important as his own, he calmed his excited self.

And what was most important right now was.

[Absorbing Countless Changes 1. It is a supreme concept and a concept that humans cannot possess.]

Probably a supreme-level concept that seemed to have 'not yet been transformed into another concept' in the process of being bestowed from the tower to humans.

While dealing with the Babylonia Code, Ban Yu-won learned that there exist higher and lower concepts in language that are different from those classified by existing language rules, and the way to distinguish them was the range of application of the concept and the brightness of the golden light the concept possessed.

Typically, among martial arts, the Mysterious Body Technique's brightness is exceptionally intense, and the brightness of Mysterious qi is intense compared to magic power.

'And this... it's so bright it's blinding, absolutely blinding.'

Countless Changes.

Ban Yu-won had hoped that he might gain the ability to transform, but if that had been possible, he would have been able to apply the same Transformation to himself that he had given to Eve before handling Countless Changes.

"Shh, shh."

"You want it, don't you? You want it, right?"

"Sss-ssh! Shsshh!"

Eve's whining and affection, having noticed that Ban Yu-won possessed an even more splendid and delicious concept than the 15 Life she had just gulped down, was so cute it was almost a shame to see it alone.

The rest of the group, who had by now roughly sorted out the changes due to leveling up, were staring intently at Eve.

"She's cute."

"How about we use this as content for the video, Ban?"

"A good child who follows her master well."

Though Luciel seemed to be the only one whose point of appreciation was off.

After enjoying Eve's affection to his heart's content, Ban Yu-won, realizing he had no one else to give it to anyway (he briefly imagined giving Countless Changes to Lilith and transforming her into all sorts of things), took out Countless Changes and bestowed it upon the her.

However, as always when bestowing concepts on Eve, something unexpected happened this time as well.

[The target has mastered the lower concepts, and the compatibility is miraculously high! A fundamental mutation occurs in the target accepting the concept!]

"What?"

"Shhhhhh!"

Fundamental mutation? The moment he thought this, his innate language comprehension ability unraveled that incomprehensible language to a level he could understand.

Overcoming the innate nature and form, that is, the origin, to achieve an evolution that literally changes the species - hence, fundamental mutation.

It was a miraculous event that might occur once every few years across all dimensions!

[All concepts possessed by the target merge into one. Centered on Countless Changes, the individuality and characteristics of all merged concepts fuse to create a being with a unique concept. However, it will take considerable time until hatching.]

All the character strings that Eve possessed burst out from her body and flashed.

Eve let out one big cry, then curled up her body, and the golden character strings wrapped around her in several layers, finally becoming an oval-shaped egg.

"Uh..."

Ban Yu-won cradled the golden egg, which was just barely manageable with both his palms supporting it, and his pupils shook.

It was great news that Eve was evolving, but he didn't expect it would take time.

Of course, it's not a big deal if she's not around right now, but the problem is Luciel.

'The means to calm Luciel in case of emergency has disappeared.'

He had been relying on that all this time.

When Ban Yu-won glanced at her, Luciel just sent him a clear smile, still seeming to trust him without doubt.

He had no idea what the source of this woman's trust was!

"Ah, it seems a shift is about to happen."

"Shift? Oh, wait a moment."

Ban Yu-won came to his senses upon hearing Dokgo Yeon's murmur.

There was still something he hadn't retrieved from here.

Hurriedly putting the golden egg into his inventory, Ban Yu-won headed towards the very hole where the Irregular he had sent away earlier had disappeared without a trace.

And sure enough, while the person had vanished without a trace, he could see that the rippling golden character strings were still there!

[Absorb Life 29, Body 26, Magic Power 24, Soul 11, Spatial Control (空間制御) 2.5, Shadow Step (潛影步) 5.7, Star Trace (星痕) 0.1.]

It was good that he had absorbed them in one go, but there were too many points to take issue with.

First, the four core codes.

Unlike the concepts he had stripped from the tower earlier, once absorbed into Ban Yu-won's body, they had shrunk to less than half in an instant.

Especially in the case of Magic Power, 24 being converted to just 6 Mysterious qi made Ban Yu-won's mind reel.

Holding back tears, he absorbed all the concepts, and the core codes were summarized like this:

[Core]

Life 305

Body 246

Mysterious qi 173

Soul 452

'Well, at least Life exceeded 300... I don't know about the rest though. Spatial Control? Is this perhaps what Dokgo Yeon deflected earlier?'

If so, then the Step (步) with Shadow (潛影) attached, meaning to conceal shadows, must be the technique that Irregular used to hide its appearance and retreat rapidly.

Indeed, proving Ban Yu-won's imagination correct, both were concepts that humans could possess, but the problem was that with this level of depth, he couldn't manifest any significant abilities.

'I knew I couldn't bring over the full depth of concepts that the target originally possessed, but this is a bit severe even among those. Will it increase with practice?'

At least Shadow Step was incorporated into martial arts, and he already knew that concepts in the martial arts category increase in depth steadily with training, so he felt a little more at ease.

What troubled Ban Yu-won the most was the last concept.

[Star Trace 0.1 ― Trace of a star. Pure star essence with all uniqueness removed.]

Star Trace.

Judging by the name alone, nothing seemed more powerful, but the fact that it was so clearly connected to constellations bothered him a little.

However, since the explanation that it was pure essence with all uniqueness removed was probably not a lie, he decided to keep it for now.

That's right.

Star Trace was a concept that humans could possess.

"Ah, Room 10."

"It's a rest area, I see."

By the time Ban Yu-won had sorted out all the concepts and raised his head, a shift had already occurred, and the surrounding environment had changed.

The overall environment wasn't much different from Room 9, which could be called a kind of Irregular Room, but there were no pillars rising from the ground, and an elegant fountain was installed on the wall.

This was the basic type of rest area.

In other words, an environment equipped with 'safety' and 'drinking water'.

"I heard that if you're unlucky, there might not even be water, but fortunately that's not the case."

"Rather... it seems like we hit the jackpot?"

As Light spoke in a somewhat excited voice and pointed upwards, they could see branches hanging down from the distant ceiling above their heads.

From the fig-like fruit closest to Ban Yu-won to apples, apricots, bananas, grapes, melons, and watermelons, various fruits hung together on the branches, presenting a bizarre yet abundant beauty.

"I heard that the fruits that grow in the rest area not only help recover fatigue but also increase potential."

"Yeah, it certainly looks like a watermelon, but since it's not actually a watermelon, I guess it's okay for it to grow on a tree..."

Suppressing the urge to make a snarky comment, Ban Yu-won plucked and ate a fig, and in that moment, all thoughts vanished from his mind.

[You have gained Life 1, Magic Power 2, Charm 4.]

'Delicious!'

He decided to put aside for now the question of why eating fruit would increase his charm.

What's important right now is that this fig is a rare treasure that Ban Yu-won has never tasted before in his life, and probably never will again.

"Whew..."

"Wooow."

"Sniff."

Looking around, he saw that the other members were also biting into their fruits, with Light even moved to tears!

"I never thought I'd actually enter the Tower and eat the fruit of Eden...!"

"Eden?"

"You didn't know?"

Light said, unable to hide his excitement as he munched on the banana in his hand.

"Climbers call the rest area Eden. No one knows why, but everyone knows that the Tower has designated this area as Eden. So everyone calls these fruits the fruits of Eden... You've seen the rest in the textbook, right? The probability of fruit appearing in a rest area is less than 10%."

"It's not only delicious... I'm amazed to feel my inner strength growing. Even if it's just a little, it's accompanied by permanent growth. I wish I could eat more."

Dokgo Yeon, who had a sweet tooth, was chewing on a ripe apricot with such a genuinely happy expression that it was surprisingly cute.

"They say only one is allowed per person. No matter how many you pick, they'll disappear the moment we move to the next room..."

"I'm... I'm full. Can't eat... anything more."

As Luciel, who had quickly polished off a bunch of grapes, patted her stomach and spoke, Ban Yu-won found himself nodding unconsciously.

"Even if you try to keep some, they disappear once you leave this place, and even if you want to eat a lot, you get full after just one... It's like a tasting corner."

"Tasting corner?"

"I'll take you to one later if you want. There's just the minor issue of crossing dimensions."

The moment you eat one whole fruit here, you become so full that it's impossible to eat a second one.

Ban Yu-won had heard that there are serious side effects if you ignore this feeling of fullness and eat another fruit, and that these side effects are quite nasty.

"Well... Oh, it's true."

It was at that moment when Ban Yu-won had neatly finished eating one fig.

A surprisingly satisfying feeling of fullness came over him, making him not want to eat anything else.

It felt as if his instincts were firmly insisting, 'You can't eat any more.'

But what happened right after was even more surprising.

[You have gained Life 4, Magic Power 6, Charm 16.]

[You have eaten the one and only fruit of Eden, the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil (善惡果). The All-Seeing Eye will now be able to distinguish sin.]

Ban Yu-won froze as if he had been stunned.

'What did I just eat?'

The Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil?

The one that Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden and were expelled for...?

"Ah."

Ban Yu-won slapped his forehead.

He couldn't believe how he hadn't realized it until now.

This space is called Eden, and the fruit is referred to as the fruit of the Garden of Eden.

Moreover, the fruit he ate was none other than a fig.

In the West, the Fruit of Knowledge is often depicted as an apple, but that's just an image Western people have attached to it.

The Bible mentions that Adam and Eve, after eating the Fruit of Knowledge and feeling ashamed of their nakedness, covered themselves with fig leaves.

Why would they specifically use fig leaves to cover themselves? It must be because the fruit they had just eaten was a fig, so the nearest tree was a fig tree.

'No way, was what I ate really the Fruit of Knowledge from Eden? It can't be, but...'

At the very least, his ability had judged it to be the Fruit of Knowledge, and even mentioned it was the only fruit in the Tower. It was clearly a very special fruit, no matter how you looked at it.

Moreover, an incredible ability had been added to his All-Seeing Eye!

"Ban Yu-won, why are you making such a strange expression? Is it because you want to eat more fruit?"

"No, it's not for such a cute reason... It's nothing."

Ban Yu-won quickly composed himself as he saw Dokgo Yeon's cute face about to crumple.

However, looking around at her and the others, he couldn't see anything particularly different about them.

"Ba-Ban!"

It was then.

Light, who had been looking around, discovered something and called out to him loudly.

"There's even a treasure chest here!"

"Did an artifact drop?!"

It was the presence of a treasure chest, which is said to be found in rest areas with a probability as rare as the fruit of Eden!

Ban Yu-won and his group had hit the jackpot on their very first visit to a rest area!

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