I Was Mistaken as a Genius Mage in a Game

Medieval fantasy.

A world filled with stereotypes like dwarves wielding hammers, elves with bows, and barbarians with their shirts off.

I love games that are full of such prejudices.

Because it is precisely in these games, full of such prejudices, that my hipster instincts shine.

A wanderer orc strength mage, a bard with full plate armor and a tank archer, a non-violence vegan barbarian...!

As I craft builds that make people say, "Why would anyone even make a build like that?", and watch these builds show their strengths in their own unique way, I enjoy the game.

The thrill when the strength mage swings a long staff and mindlessly breaks down the castle walls. The exhilaration when the archer blocks an enemy barbarian's axe head-on while pulling the bowstring. The emotional impact of stopping a war with a vegan barbarian’s grand speech...!

I don’t know how I turned into this kind of person, but when I play games, I can't get immersed unless I have such absurd concepts and ridiculous antics.

Maybe it's because, in real life, I’m the kind of person who dropped out of high school to pursue music — another reckless build.

...Let's not talk about that, it only makes me feel worse.

Click.

[Main character selection]

Orc / Mage.

LV 99.

[Just a dwarf]

Dwarf / Archer.

LV 99.

[Great General]

Dwarf / Barbarian.

LV 99.

The characters I’ve raised with love, affection, and endless research greet me in the character selection screen.

‘Jumok’, the orc mage, holds the game’s ultimate mage item in his hand, which triples the power of any magic used. However, he’s never once attacked anyone with magic.

Because I poured all my stat points into strength, leaving his magic stat too low to learn any spells.

‘Jumok’ is a mage who can't use magic, but despite that flaw, he has a tremendous strength that overshadows it.

He simply doesn’t die.

Passive skills like [Arcane Shield] that enhance the mage’s survivability do not require any magic stat.

Additionally, the passive magic [Blessing of the Spirit], which is obtained through a special in-game event and has a restricted acquisition route, doesn’t require magic stats but boasts incredible defensive power.

Because of that, the magic stat may be low and he can’t learn magic, but with surplus skill points from leveling up, I can fully invest them into survivability-enhancing passive magic!

Isn’t it a drawback that he can’t learn magic? Well, sometimes drawbacks turn into advantages, don’t they?

Like how a bad boy’s advantage is that he’s a bad boy and his drawback is also being a bad boy.

Anyway, when I create a character, I always focus on coming up with builds that are as unique as possible while also extracting maximum efficiency from their features.

And in order to maintain a build that’s "surprisingly useful yet still keeping that junky flavor," meticulous research is required.

Hasn’t someone said? The more you suffer, the sweeter the fruit.

Watching my creations shine in a world full of prejudice is the greatest joy in my life these days.

The joy that someone who just follows the ‘efficient’ builds like human mages or orc barbarians can never understand.

"Ha... let’s do this."

And today, I am once again going to create that feeling ‘Jumok’, ‘Jom Bi’, and ‘Dae Tong Ryeong’ gave me.

Because my proud fourth son’s build is finally complete.

Introducing... the ‘One Shot Mage’.

After testing and deleting dozens, maybe hundreds, of characters over the past four months, this is the result. Many builds came and went, but the one I thought was perfect is the only one.

[Please distribute your character’s stats]

I moved the mouse without hesitation and started allocating the stats. There was no hesitation in my hand movements.

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 1

Health: 1

Mana: 20

Luck: 1

Looking at these stats, most gamers would throw a comment like:

“Hey, will this character even work?”

For survival, you’d at least need to invest a bit into health, and to avoid missing out on various dialogue choices or scenarios in the game, a bit of luck should also be allocated.

So, the standard stat distribution for a mage would be to lower mana by 7 and distribute the remaining points between luck and health based on preference...

But for my One Shot Mage, none of that was needed.

Who needs health and luck? No romance in that.

I’ve tested it hundreds of times, and it works fine without them.

[Class Selection]

After allocating the stats, I wasted no time in selecting the Mage class.

Choosing barbarian with 20 mana is not a fun build, it’s trolling.

Such shallow and dumb actions would never be forgiven by the 4000 hours I’ve spent on this game.

[You’ve selected Mage. Please choose your magic type.]

In this game, mages can limit the types of magic they use when creating a character.

By setting it to learn all five types of magic—fire, wind, water, rock, and lightning—it’s easier to handle various situations, but in return, the individual magic’s power weakens.

On the other hand, if you limit yourself to only one type of magic, like fire or wind, you can summon massive fire columns or storms, making it far more powerful than a mage who can learn all five types.

So, balancing between the versatility of magic and its power is another fun part of creating a mage character, but... there’s nothing more to see here for me after my research.

If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.

I quickly set it to not be able to learn any magic except for lightning.

As I’ve said before, this character’s concept is ‘One Shot Mage’.

To fully realize the concept of burning everything to ashes in one shot, I needed to maximize the power of one type of magic.

The race selection that followed also gave me no hesitation.

[Please choose your race.]

‣ [Human]

Humans may struggle in the early game but have excellent potential in the late game.

I’ve also experimented with picking orc to compensate for the low health, but... the progress in the later stages of the game was certainly frustrating compared to a human.

If anyone wants to copy this build later...

Well, orc could be a good choice to complement the weak health and strength. If you want to breeze through the early stages, orc would be a decent choice.

Of course, I’ll go with human.

[Choose your background.]

[Noble]

[Commoner]

[Peasant]

[Vagabond]

Once again, no hesitation. My mouse rushed towards the Vagabond option.

While being born a high-class human provides good starting equipment, the critical hit rate that comes with it is relatively low.

With my chosen luck stat of 1, the critical hit rate is only 1%, which becomes a significant penalty for gameplay focused on combat.

However, starting as a low-class human boosts the critical hit rate. With luck 1, it’s a massive 20%.

Additionally, starting as a vagabond grants the bonus trait [Calm], which ensures the character remains composed in any situation. For a mage, this trait is an absolute necessity.

Thieves and their standard start as vagabonds for a reason. They need that critical hit rate for damage, and [Calm] helps prevent their stealth skills from being interrupted by monsters' area effects.

[Please choose your magic.]

“...Lock Volt, Lock Thunderstrike, Lock Charging Light, Lock Arcane Shield...”

My mouse moved at unprecedented speed, locking various spells from the lightning tree.

Locking spells is the same as reducing the number of spells that can be used, which increases the power of the remaining spells.

In the electric magic selection, I locked everything except for one spell.

[Blossoming]

[Consumes all mana in the body to transcend for 5 minutes. After using this skill, the character is incapacitated for a certain period due to status effects. Use is limited to once per day.]

The flower of the lightning mage! Blossoming!

This is a spell that allows a mage to compress and release their mana in just 5 minutes.

Depending on how much mana is stored in the character’s body, this spell has the potential to even destroy the last boss with a single gesture.

Of course, there are drawbacks to this skill.

It’s risky to use since it leaves the character incapacitated after using it, so timing is crucial.

If you mistime it, you’ll end up lying down in the middle of a battle, helpless.

Since it can only be used once a day, it’s usually not used on minor mobs.

...Actually, it’s easier to just not use it on mobs at all.

That’s why most conventional mages either don’t use it or just invest 1 point in it for emergency situations.

Conventional mages, that is.

[Blossoming LV40]

I locked all spells except for the lightning spells. Even the ones in the lightning tree.

Leaving only one spell, [Blossoming].

As a result of carrying so many disadvantages, my skill tree now had an enormous 120 points.

Without any hesitation, I poured all those points into Blossoming, resulting in a character with level 1 stats but a magic level of 40.

‘...Perfect!’

The One Shot Mage has the disadvantage of being able to use only one spell, but the advantage is that I can use one incredible spell.

Most mages pick multiple spells to deal with mobs, but my ‘One Shot Mage’ has no such options! Because all those versatile, trivial spells are locked!

By limiting myself to using only [Blossoming], the character accumulates mana without wasting any.

When [Blossoming] is used, the power output will be far superior to what any ordinary mage could achieve.

It’s like comparing a ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) mage who wastes mana on useless tasks to a mage who accumulates every ounce of mana for one perfect shot.

The drawback of being unable to use magic turns into an advantage once again.

Some might ask, “How do you deal with mobs that attack your character directly?” when you can’t use regular magic.

Indeed, mobs are a major obstacle for the One Shot Mage.

With stats near the bottom for both health and strength, I can’t just swing a staff like ‘Jumok’ and beat them into pulp. Additionally, as a vagabond, I can’t rely on high-level mercenaries from a noble background.

...Well, I’ll leave the solution to these problems for gameplay. Just watch closely as I work around these flaws and create a great mage.

[Please set your character’s name.]

[One Shot]

The surname is Han, and the first name is Bang.

A clear and noble name that carries a strong will to blow everything away in one shot!

It might be a very Eastern-sounding name, not fitting for medieval fantasy, but I don’t care.

After all, character nicknames aren’t a big deal. My first son’s name is ‘Jumok,’ second son ‘Jom Bi,’ and third son ‘Dae Tong Ryeong.’

With a proud smile, I pressed the start button for the game.

[Welcome, One Shot.]

This world is suffering from demons who crawled out of hell, demonborn monsters, and creatures transformed into monsters by these demons.

Your mission is to save the suffering...

As soon as I clicked the start button, the typical bland and cliché story intro of a medieval fantasy game began.

[Dwarves, humans, orcs, and elves temporarily cease their conflicts and create an alliance to fight against the demons...]

At that moment, as the painfully cliched background story passed by...

[Your help is needed.]

Click.

The consciousness faded.