Chapter 39

At some point, Yuria started to look anxious.

“We’re out of food. We need to find something to eat first.”

Looking around, everything was covered in cold metal. The blue barrier’s light shimmered on the metal surface like deep dawn light.

“But I don’t think we’ll find food here… Should we go outside to find food first?”

We had already searched for several hours, but hadn’t even covered a quarter of the first floor and found nothing.

She seemed worried that we might starve to death wandering aimlessly inside this place.

But we had no choice.

“Outside is even less promising. Everything probably evaporated.”

Yuria closed her mouth at my words. She understood how destructive the light had been when it was released earlier.

I spoke clearly to the anxious Yuria and Monggu.

“Our only option is to go deeper. If we can’t find anything on the first floor, then the floor below. If nothing there, then the floor below that… We need to go all the way down to the bottom floor and search. Whether it’s food or hope for our survival.”

But Yuria shook her head.

“No. That approach is still too risky.”

“It is. But it’s the only way.”

After my repeated persuasion, Yuria fell into thought then spoke again. There was determination in her eyes.

“Baek Jun-woo. Earlier you said this building is like an underground base? Does that term come from Earth knowledge?”

“Huh? Y-yeah.”

“Does this place seem similar to Earth’s underground bases?”

Similar to Earth’s underground bases?

Suddenly, what came to mind was the animation that the science enthusiast from Earth had watched as a child. Evangelion. Thinking about the underground base that appeared there, it seemed to serve a similar purpose. A fortress for attack and defense, and also where people lived.

“I think it’s similar.”

“Really? Then where do you think the supplies would be?”

Now I understood what she was getting at.

“Well… probably at the very bottom floor. A place where people could retreat to or hold out if necessary. The safest, deepest corner.”

Yuria smiled.

“That’s what I think too. Let’s go straight down to the bottom floor. If it’s a gamble either way, we should bet on the higher odds. Whatever happens, we need to resolve this while we still have supplies and strength. We don’t have the luxury of wandering around anymore.”

At first, I thought Yuria was talking nonsense.

“…But we need to find an elevator to go down, don’t we?”

We hadn’t been wandering around the first floor for nothing, right?

But Yuria shook her head.

“There’s a way.”

I turned my gaze in the direction she pointed.

“…You can’t be serious?”

There was a deep cylindrical void. Probably a direct shaft to the bottom floor… a deep, dark pit with no visible bottom. Earlier, Yuria had dropped a coin down there, but we never heard it land. I had no idea how deep it went.

And now… she wanted us to climb down the wall?

“That’s impossible… How long would it take to climb down? We don’t even know where the bottom is. We’d die of exhaustion before we reached it.”

“No. We can get there quickly if we jump.”

Jump?

As I opened my eyes wide, Yuria touched my forehead. Her hand felt ice cold.

“You’re burning up.”

She said.

“Your magical fever is getting worse. We need to do this anyway. Let’s create a Circle now.”

“A Circle? Now?”

“Yes. If we combine the physical abilities of a 1-star Ki-blood mage with 1st Circle magic… even carrying two people while jumping, there should be a way to survive.”

“…You want me to carry both of you when I jump?”

“Yes. Because you’re a mage.”

The unwavering look in Yuria’s eyes as she gazed at me.

I had a lot I wanted to say. But I couldn’t.

“Alright. I’ll do it.”

When living on the Star Continent, there comes a time when you must calmly attempt things that seem utterly impossible.

Especially now, when magical powers are watching me.

+ – + – +

My current magical power was approaching that of a 2nd Circle or 2-star mage.

This was thanks to the tremendous amount of magical power I had absorbed simply by entering this strange relic called Arsenal #7. A stroke of luck.

I had three options.

Raising Ki-blood magic to 2-star. Or abandoning Ki-blood magic and raising Circle magic to 2nd Circle.

In a normal situation, I would have chosen one of these two. From a long-term perspective, specializing in one field would be much more advantageous.

But for me, who needed to jump into the abyss right now, I couldn’t choose either option. Both had clear disadvantages.

First, Ki-blood magic focused on expanding the body’s limits, making it less versatile. I might be able to descend alone at great risk, but carrying two others would be absolutely impossible. Of course, seasoned Ki-blood mages can supposedly fly through the sky, but that’s impossible with just 2-star achievement. Even if it were possible, I was only a Ki-blood mage in name and hadn’t learned such techniques.

Circle magic was also problematic. At 2nd Circle, I could probably find a spell to safely land on the ground. However, unlike Ki-blood magic, Circle magic had a high failure rate. Circle magic required complex calculations and excellent control, and sometimes failed even when all these elements were in place.

-You fucking bastard!! Protect us as promised!!!

Suddenly, Teacher Sena’s voice came to mind. Even Teacher Sena, who had achieved her 1st Circle and was familiar with magic, had to make multiple attempts to successfully cast magic.

‘Moreover… that magic was Trimacos’s magic.’

A covenant magic created by an ancient mage who put his name on it. Such magics have much higher success rates than ordinary magic. Yet Teacher Sena still failed multiple times.

Could I successfully cast an ordinary spell on my first try? Spells that normally require a month of practice just to achieve a 30% success rate?

I couldn’t risk three lives on that. It was right to consider such spells unusable right now.

In the end, I had no choice but to combine relatively manageable 1st Circle general magic with the enhanced physical abilities of a 1-star Ki-blood mage to overcome this challenge.

Flap. Flap.

I read through Teacher Sena’s magic book and selected two spells that seemed immediately useful.

‘Wind and Shield.’

Both basic 1st Circle magic. Ten times simpler than 2nd Circle magic, but still not easy. I memorized the spells and corrected my posture.

“Are you going to start?”

Yuria asked. I nodded.

What I was about to do was… recite the mage’s covenant. I looked at Yuria one last time.

“So we’re doing this? You know, right? Once I become a Circle mage, my aggro will increase much more than now. The moment we go outside, we’ll be chased by calamities. If we don’t find something useful in here… we might all die.”

Yuria answered calmly.

“Better than wandering around here and starving to death. Do it!”

Okay.

I slowly rotated the magical power throughout my body and recited the mage’s covenant. Just like Teacher Sena had shown me before.

[Heaven. Earth. Wind. Star. All things in the world and the record of all things. Behold me. Thousand eyes and ten thousand ears. I am here. Listen.]

It was a strange feeling. As soon as I began reciting the covenant, these phrases felt completely new. Something I hadn’t considered when watching Teacher Sena.

‘Thousand eyes and ten thousand ears… this is referring to magical power, isn’t it?’

At least according to what I learned from Teacher Sena, no mage describes magical power as a living entity. Magical power is merely described as an unknown ‘force’ to be dominated and controlled.

But in this covenant, ‘thousand eyes and ten thousand ears’… isn’t that an explicit reference to magical power?

Did the first mage who created the mage’s covenant… see and feel natural magical power like I do?

The next phrase was even more explicit.

[Behold. I am one who speaks to the world. One who creates as I speak.]

This was related to the ‘covenants’ we make to gain magical power, and

[Behold. I have a mouth, a mouth for you to listen to.]

This was directly asking magical power to pay attention.

And the mouth I supposedly have is…

Whiiiiing!

The ring of magical power rapidly spinning and forming near my chest. Wasn’t this referring to the Circle? Actually, whenever Teacher Sena used magic, her Circle made a whoong! sound. Like a mouth.

Clang!

With the sound of metal locking into place, the Circle was finally complete. Having accepted all types of magical power indiscriminately, it showed a harmony of five colors: blue, green, red, white, and black.

‘Now for the final hurdle.’

Creating the Circle wasn’t the end. It needed to be activated.

My chest, where the Circle had settled, felt heavy and constricted, as if a lead weight had been attached. Cold sweat dripped into my eyes, but I calmly continued reciting the covenant.

[Therefore, when I say let the wind blow, the wind shall blow.]

This was the most difficult part of the mage’s covenant.

Since I said ‘the wind shall blow,’ the wind must actually blow.

This meant I had to move the newly formed Circle to successfully cast my first spell.

If I succeeded, the Circle would be properly activated. If I failed, the Circle I had created would dissipate, and I would lose the magical power I had worked so hard to accumulate.

That’s why mages normally practice several rehearsals before attempting to create a Circle. But I didn’t have that time.

Instead…

I had one useful Gift.

[Simulation]

The world turned completely dark, and I alone stood at its center.

The simulation conditions were me, magical power, and the mana filling the world.

Just like in reality, a heavy Circle had formed in my chest but was not yet activated.

‘Now… let’s try moving the Circle.’

There were many factors to calculate when casting magic.

I recalled the contents of Teacher Sena’s book.

————————

<Basic Wind Magic Formula for Circle Activation>

Congratulations on reaching the final gate of your arduous training.

Once you pass through this gate, you will finally become a true mage…

…

————————

Skipping the unnecessary greeting…

————————

<Basic Wind Magic Formula for Circle Activation>

To move the Circle, you must first know the three basic magical power manipulation methods.

First, concentration of magical power. Imagine a single point in your chest and concentrate all magical power there. Here, all magical power means all remaining magical power after creating the Circle.

For reference, individual experiences vary, but many prospective mages describe the feeling of magical power moving through their bodies as similar to hot water flowing.

Second, expansion of magical power. Rapidly expand the concentrated magical power to spread throughout the body.

Third, pulling and relaxation of magical power. This is the most difficult part of the three basic magical power manipulation methods.

There are horizontal pulling and relaxation, and vertical pulling and relaxation. Horizontal pulling and relaxation means aligning magical power horizontally with the chest as the center to create a horizontal line, then pulling both ends and relaxing them. Vertical pulling means aligning magical power vertically to create a vertical line and…

————————

Concentration, expansion, pulling and relaxation.

The basic magical power manipulation itself wasn’t that difficult. The truly headache-inducing calculations came next.

————————

<Basic Wind Magic Formula for Circle Activation>

The formula for creating wind magic is as follows:

[Concentration->Expansion->Horizontal Pulling->Relaxation->Concentration->Vertical Pulling->Relaxation->Concentration and Expansion followed by Concentration again.]

Repeat this sequence. However, if the magic doesn’t activate, perform three additional checks.

(omitted)

After the concentration check, if the left chest feels heavy, according to Horus’s theorem, repeat horizontal and vertical pulling and relaxation three times.

However, since Horus’s theorem has the problem of Circle floating according to Pitarat’s theorem, to resolve this, apply Sophie’s law…

————————

The basic formula was just one line, but the self-diagnosis methods for when magic fails to manifest, their solutions, the principles behind those solutions, and their annotations exceeded twenty pages. And magic, they say, rarely manifests on the first attempt.

Therefore, even exceptional talents would need to memorize all the derivative formulas, practice until they became second nature, and still typically take a week to successfully cast magic. An intimidating difficulty for just basic magic.

But I had no time.

Given the current simulation condition burden of about 1.5 Jun-woos, I could probably run it for about seven hours.

Far from enough, but… I had to try!

I moved the magical power according to the formula.

‘Concentrate!’

The magical power not included in the Circle concentrated at the center of my chest… the center of the Circle.

Woong-!

The Circle contracted slightly following the magical power and made a strange sound.

‘Expand!’

Now I spread the concentrated magical power throughout my body. The Circle, which had been compressed by the magical power, spread wide open and made another sound.

Wong-!

‘…Hmm?’

Something bothered me. But I continued for now.

Next was horizontal pulling, relaxation, concentration.

Woooong-!

As I moved the magical power according to the formula, the Circle changed its shape and made various sounds. With each sound, the surrounding mana was drawn into the Circle, then clumped together and released back out.

Like the donut shapes created by an amateur smoker, the clumsily clumped mana flowed out and dispersed.

‘Wait a minute… this feels exactly like…’

That is…

It felt like manipulating a marionette puppet.

If the Circle was the puppet, then the magical power I was moving was the strings controlling it.

‘Could it be?’

Lightning struck in my mind.

A phrase from the mage’s covenant flashed through my thoughts.

‘Behold. I have a mouth, a mouth for you to listen to.’

Mouth. The mage’s Circle was the mouth.

And the goal of the complex and convoluted magic formula was to manipulate this mouth like a puppet to produce the correct sound.

Concentration, expansion — these were all just expressions of mouth movements.

So why did the complex formula exist when you could just move the mouth directly…?

‘Because they can’t see magical power or hear the sounds it makes!’

Good heavens!

So that’s what it was?

They were like the blind men touching the elephant’s leg.

Like throwing a ball with closed eyes.

To hit a target with closed eyes requires all kinds of complex calculations. The body angle, arm angle, force… you had to calculate every single factor.

But… I didn’t need any of that.

Why? Because I could see and hear.

Just accurately throw at the visible target and… that’s it, right?

In the simulation world, I shuddered.

‘Seven hours…? No. Two hours, no! I’ll finish practicing within one hour!’

At first, I was anxious.

But now I could be confident.