Escaping the Mystery Hotel

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 96

Current Location: First Floor, Room 105 – Room of Rest

Sage’s Advice: X

- Han Kain

I woke up on the bed.

I vaguely remembered grasping the Power of Incarnation just before losing consciousness.

I also remembered seeing my comrades rushing toward me.

They must have carried me to Room 105 after I fainted.

The date had already changed, and it was evening—I had lost an entire day.

Thankfully my vision was fully restored.

I needed to find my comrades.

As soon as I stepped outside, I spotted Elena.

“Oh! Kain? Are you alright? Everyone was worried when they saw blood streaming from your eyes.”

“I’m fine. It seems the Hotel’s doctor did a good job treating me. Although, now it’s someone else instead of Kim Sanghyun.”

“Let’s head over to the tea table.”

Following Elena to the table, I saw my companions chatting and drinking coffee.

As soon as they noticed me, Jinchul-hyung reacted, “Oh, Kain! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

“We were worried since you didn’t come out. Did you gain some great insight?”

Insight.

His words brought back the swirl of thoughts in my head.

What insight did I even gain?

When I summoned the Grimoire to test it, everyone flinched and took a step back.

My consciousness seemed to float away from my body and then splinter into fragments.

Am I supposed to put these fragments into other bodies?

“…”

After a brief attempt, a splitting headache forced me to return to my original body.

“It feels like I’ve gained some ability, though it’s still vague.”

I explained the new power I had gained in simple terms.

What would be the best way to describe it?

Elena, who had been listening intently, spoke up, “It sounds like a kind of puppetry.”

“That’s a fitting description. When I use the power, it’s as if I turn into a puppeteer, controlling more than one body like marionettes.”

Ahri tilted her head.

“It sounds incredibly powerful, but also a bit strange.”

“In what way?”

“First, is this even a skill a human brain can handle? Humans struggle to multitask, like drawing a square with one hand while drawing a triangle with the other. It seems you’d need three times the intelligence to control two bodies simultaneously.”

“It might sound odd, but it feels like my consciousness splits in a way that makes it possible. If I had to use your analogy, it’s as if my consciousness divides, assigning one part to each hand. But…”

“But?”

“I don’t think I can use it for long. Right now, it’s hard to maintain for even 10 minutes.”

“10 minutes? That’s way too short.”

“Maybe it’ll increase over time?”

Songee agreed, “It definitely will. The duration of my bracelet-related abilities has increased since I first acquired them. At first, I thought it was just because of practice, but based on what we’ve heard recently, maybe my soul has grown stronger too.”

“That’s possible. Do you have any other questions?”

“The second thing is minor. It just doesn’t match what I expected from the name.”

Grandpa nodded.

“The name was ‘The Power of Incarnation’, right? I thought it would be some kind of cloning ability.”

“It might still be.”

“What do you mean?”

I paused, recalling the strange characters I read in the Grimoire—characters that seemed to burn into my mind, the culmination of dark knowledge created by the son of an alien god.

“There were three sentences.”

“Huh?”

“There were three sentences. The first one was, ‘Accept that an immutable self does not exist.’ Of course, it wasn’t written in Korean, but that’s how I interpreted it.”

“What about the second and third?”

“I don’t know. The first one is the only one I grasped, even vaguely. As for the second…”

Amid the confusing knowledge swirling in my mind, I drew upon an unknown power.

- Crackle!

A small light flickered at my fingertips.

Though my companions watched with interest, the light faded as quickly as a match flame.

Elena, her curiosity piqued, asked, “What was that?”

“I honestly have no idea. Anyway, there were three sentences, and I’ve only understood the first one so far, which is why the ability is still rudimentary. It’s more like puppetry than the true Power of Incarnation, and even then, the duration is quite limited.”

Noona, who had been silent, murmured, “An immutable self does not exist.”

“Huh?”

“Perhaps it’s related to the Buddhist concept of ‘Anattā’¹. In that case, could the second sentence be about ‘Anicca’ ²? What’s the third?”

“What do you mean?”

While I didn’t understand, Ahri seemed to catch on, “The third could be ‘Dukkha’³ or ‘Nirvana’⁴, right?”

“I’m not familiar with Buddhism, so I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Do you have any idea what the next sentence might be?”

Noona gave me a brief response, “It’s just a pointless train of thought. The concepts in the Grimoire are only vaguely similar to Buddhism, not identical. The creator of the Grimoire wasn’t the Buddha but the One Who Couldn’t be Born. There’s no need to try to understand it as a Buddhist teaching.”

“Trying to interpret it through a similar yet different philosophy could actually hinder my understanding of the Grimoire. correct?”

“Exactly. It’s best to just wait. When the time is right, the Owl will probably tell you to read the Grimoire again.”

As the discussion about the new power wrapped up, I began to feel fatigue in my eyes, and my head grew heavy.

Before I could mention it, someone else noticed.

“Kain.”

“Oh, Teacher. Please speak casually.”

“I’m comfortable as I am. You should rest now. Your eyes feel heavy, don’t they?”

“You can tell? Just by looking at someone, you can diagnose them… Every doctor in the world would envy you.”

“Sometimes, I amaze even myself.”

Eunsol Noona, looking somewhat surprised, said, “Are you still dealing with aftereffects? You should take it easy today.”

“Isn’t there a meeting about Room 104 tonight? I’ll participate in that.”

“That’s exactly the kind of thing you should avoid. We’re going to the Cursed Room tomorrow, so you should focus on recovering. We’ll have the meeting without you and fill you in tomorrow morning.”

Elena agreed, “There’s not much to discuss tonight. We’ve already decided which room to enter, and we’re just going to go over the hint’s meaning.”

At that point, a tight, throbbing headache set in, and I ultimately returned to Room 105 and fell into a deep sleep.

***- Lee Eunsol

After Kain returned to Room 105 to rest, the remaining people, as if waiting for him to leave, began to discuss things that were difficult to bring up in his presence.

“Honestly, it’s a bit scary, don’t you think?”

Songee nodded.

“It was a little unsettling. Kain-oppa could already possess our bodies if necessary, but now he can potentially control multiple people at once.”

Jinchul tried to reassure everyone.

“Kain wouldn’t abuse that power. Besides, didn’t he say he couldn’t even use it for 10 minutes?”

“‘For now,’ yes. But that time is bound to increase. And this isn’t even the end. According to him, he only understood the first of three sentences. Who knows what he’ll become when he comprehends the other two?”

It was a vague thought, but Kain might become more like an angel or a demon than a human by then.

Perhaps he already was.

Given the uncomfortable nature of the topic, everyone fell silent for a moment.

“Since we’re on this subject, don’t you think there’s some variation in the potential growth of Inheritances?”

Ahri asked curiously, “Potential growth? Are you saying the growth limits of Inheritances differ?”

“Yes. It feels like Kain’s Grimoire is unique in that it doesn’t just stop at possession. There’s also the Power of Incarnation, three sentences within that, and it seems like it has endless room to grow.”

“That might not just apply to the Grimoire.”

All eyes turned to Ahri.

“What’s with that reaction? Didn’t you all know that Inheritances have immense potential? When I first started using the ‘Ancient Blood’, I could barely perform hypnosis. But now, I can pull off all sorts of tricks.”

Ahri grinned and conjured a “cold wind” at her fingertips.

Songee, watching in fascination, seemed to understand.

“Come to think of it, my abilities have changed a lot since I first got them. Now, I can use them while running, and the time limit feels more lenient.”

Elena chimed in with a similar observation.

“The same could be said for ‘Ominous Imagination’. Beatrix demonstrated incredible applications, transforming herself into a supernatural being. Maybe I’ll be able to do something similar one day.”

Jinchul seemed unsure. “I haven’t noticed much change.”

Ahri offered a different perspective.

“You may not have noticed a change in your Inheritance, but your Blessing has clearly become stronger.”

I was starting to understand the situation.

“Everyone seems to be making progress in their own way. It feels like the power that each person uses most frequently is what’s improving. Songee relies heavily on her Inheritance, so her mastery over it is growing. Jinchul uses his Blessing as a primary means of strength, so that’s what’s developing.”

“Something like that. However…”

The vague note in Ahri’s voice drew everyone’s attention.

“Considering all this, Kain’s growth with the Grimoire seems unusually fast. Maybe he had the makings of a genius mage all along?”

A “genius mage” in the 21st century—it sounded strange. Could that really be the reason?

It was probably best to end the topic here.

“Let’s drop this for now. We’re entering Room 104 tomorrow, after all.”

1. The doctrine of "no-self" – that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon.2. The doctrine asserts that all of conditioned existence, without exception, is "transient, evanescent, inconstant".3. the "unsatisfactoriness" or "unease" of transient existence, which we crave or grasp for when we are ignorant of this transience.4. the extinguishing of the passions which is the ultimate state of soteriological release and the liberation from duḥkha ('suffering') and saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and rebirth.