The "Hunter's Flea Market" was a place where dreams went to die—or at least, where they were sold at a 90% discount. Located in a repurposed subway terminal, it was filled with the smell of cheap mana-potions and the sound of desperate hunters trying to haggle for dented breastplates.
"I'm telling you, Gul, this is a waste of time," Jin-Woo sighed, his silver spear encased in a leather travel bag over his shoulder. He stood out in this place like a Ferrari in a junkyard. "If you want a new skill, I can ask my Guild to sponsor a Rank-C [Impact Thrust] book for you. Why are we looking at literal trash?"
"Because, my dear Genius Friend," I said, leaning over a wooden bin filled with dusty, thumbed-through booklets, "one man's trash is another man's... uh... something that isn't trash!"
Beside us, Seo-Yoon was tapping away at her tablet, her eyes scanning the stalls with terrifying efficiency. "Statistically, Han-Gul is correct. While 99% of these skills are 'duds'—meaning they consume more mana than they produce—the Law of Averages suggests that within a localized cluster of failures, a 'Golden Mutation' can occur. Though, seeing as Han-Gul's primary strategy involves 'vibes' rather than mathematics, I am mostly here to document his inevitable disappointment."
"Aha!" I shouted, plunging my arm into a bin labeled: UTILITY SKILLS – 5,000 WON ($4.00).
I pulled out a thin, yellowed manual. It looked like someone had used it as a coaster for a very oily coffee.
[Skill Detected: 'Static Friction' (Rank F - Passive)] Description: The user's hair sticks to balloons slightly more often. Causes minor sparks when touching doorknobs.
"See?" Jin-Woo groaned. "It's a prank skill, Gul. It does nothing."
"Wait, let me cook," I muttered. My eyes were already scanning the next bin. I felt a weird tingle in my fingertips—the [Origin Synthesis] system was humming, like a hungry stomach. It didn't want 'Good' skills. It wanted 'Compatible' ones.
I found the second piece of the puzzle five minutes later in a pile of rusted metal. It was a broken Skill Stone, cracked down the middle.
[Skill Detected: 'Vibrating Blade' (Rank F - Active)] Description: Makes a held weapon shake slightly. Mostly used for polishing furniture or mixing paint. (Warning: Stone is broken. Usage may cause hand numbness).
"Hey, lady! How much for the balloon hair and the paint mixer?" I asked the stall owner, a grizzled man with one eye.
"Ten thousand won for the set. And no refunds when your hand falls off," the man grunted.
I paid the money with a grin that made me look even dumber than usual. Seo-Yoon stepped closer, her holographic lens zooming in on my hands. "What are you doing? You can't learn a broken stone. The mana-circuit is severed. If you try to absorb that, you'll suffer a mana-backflow. Your brain will literally turn into jelly."
"Don't worry, Yoon-Yoon," I said (she winced at the nickname). "I'm not going to learn them. I'm going to... help them become friends."
I closed my eyes. In my mind's eye, a golden workshop appeared. The two skills floated there: a tiny spark of static electricity and a jagged, shaking line of kinetic energy.
[Synthesis Initialized...] [Component A: 'Static Friction'] [Component B: 'Vibrating Blade']
[System Note: These skills share a 'High-Frequency' molecular tag.] [Stability: 45% (Unstable)] [Warning: The 'Broken' status of the stone adds a 'Chaos Variable'. Proceed?]
"Oh, I love Chaos Variables!" I whispered. Confirm.
A sudden surge of heat rushed from my palms. To Jin-Woo and Seo-Yoon, it looked like I was just holding two pieces of junk, but then the air between my hands began to hum. It wasn't a low hum; it was a high-pitched scream that made the nearby lightbulbs flicker.
"His mana output... it's not rising, it's compressing," Seo-Yoon whispered, her tablet flashing red warnings. "He's forcing two incompatible wave-forms into a single point. He's going to—"
B-ZAAAP!
A small shockwave knocked the dust off the nearby stalls. When the light cleared, the manual and the stone were gone. In their place sat a single, glowing orb of violet light.
[Synthesis Complete!] [New Skill Acquired: 'High-Frequency Molecular Cutter' (Rank B - Growth Type)] Description: By vibrating mana at a static-friction frequency, the user can ignore the 'Hardness' stat of any physical object. It doesn't cut through armor; it vibrates the atoms apart.
I grabbed the orb.
[Skill Learned!]
I looked around. There was a thick, iron reinforcing bar sticking out of a pile of scrap metal nearby. I walked over to it, my hand glowing with a faint, violet shimmer. It didn't feel hot or powerful; it felt like my hand was "buzzing."
I swiped my hand through the air. No effort. No "Hard Strike" or "Power Slash."
The iron bar fell apart. The cut was so smooth it looked like a mirror.
Silence.
Jin-Woo walked over and touched the cut surface of the iron. "Gul... this iron is three inches thick. Even with my [Serpent's Strike], I need a full mana-charge to pierce this."
Seo-Yoon was staring at her tablet, then at me, then back at the tablet. Her hand was shaking. "That... that wasn't a Rank-C skill. It wasn't even Rank-B. You just ignored the physical laws of density. You just turned a 4,000 won 'trash' skill into a weapon that could bypass the scales of a Dragon."
She looked at me, her sharp eyes filled with a new, terrifying intensity. "Han-Gul. Who taught you that recipe?"
"I told you!" I said, beaming. "I just thought, 'Hey, static makes things stick, and vibrating makes things move, so if they move and stick at the same time... they probably cut stuff!'"
Seo-Yoon stared at me. "That logic is so incredibly flawed that I am actually offended by your survival. And yet... it worked." She stepped forward, grabbing my collar and pulling my face down to her level. "From this moment on, you are not allowed to 'fuse' anything without me recording it. Do you understand? You are a walking disaster of a variable, and I am going to solve you."
"Does this mean we're dating?" I asked, tilting my head.
"It means you are my Research Subject #1," she snapped, her face turning slightly pink. "Now, come on. There's a 'Cursed' stall at the back of the market. They have a Skill Book that has killed three people who tried to read it. I want to see what happens when you 'make friends' with it."
"Uh... is that safe?" Jin-Woo asked, his hand on his spear.
"Of course not," Seo-Yoon said, already walking away. "That's why we're going."
I looked at Jin-Woo and shrugged. "She seems fun! Let's go find the death-book!"
Jin-Woo put his face in his hands. "I'm going to die. I'm the genius, and I'm going to die because my best friend is a happy idiot."
But as we walked, I looked at my palm. The violet glow was still there. I wasn't just a porter anymore. I was an Architect. And the world was about to find out that "Trash" was just a word for things I hadn't fixed yet.