Chapter 40

[Simulation Ended]

I opened my eyes. No time had passed at all.

‘When I say the wind will blow, the wind blows.’ It was right after I had made that declaration, and the Circle on my chest still felt heavy.

Only the magical powers knew how much time I had spent in the simulation.

‘Will he succeed on the first try?’

‘He practiced, so shouldn’t he?’

‘This one might not even know it’s the real deal.’

The murmurings of the magical powers weren’t in any language we’d recognize. Like strange echoes of wind blowing through a cave. But if you listened long enough, somehow you could understand their meaning.

The more I listened to the magical powers’ murmurings… the more I felt like they were searching for something.

Searching for what…

I’ll just remember this for now.

‘First I need to activate the Circle.’

I pushed away distracting thoughts and focused on the Circle.

Cold sweat dripped from my forehead, and my joints felt like they were being stabbed with ice picks. That’s what happens when you run a [Simulation] for seven hours. I ended up pushing my Gift to its limits.

It wasn’t because basic wind magic was difficult. I mastered that in less than an hour. I just spent the extra time researching more efficient ways to manipulate the Circle and even trying to see if 2nd Circle magic was possible.

The conclusion is this.

‘2nd Circle magic is too difficult right now.’

Moving magical power with precision was challenging enough. It required absolute practice time. Like a baby learning to speak for the first time, it wasn’t something you could master in a day or two.

‘But basic magic is definitely possible.’

I quickly cast the spell.

I pressed and pulled the Circle with magical power. Rather than following the formula exactly, I moved the Circle into the shape the formula was meant to create.

Of course, I succeeded without a single failure on my first try.

Whooom-!

The rigid Circle that had been weighing heavily on me moved and let out its first cry.

Mana was drawn into the Circle, shaped into the smooth curved pattern that symbolized wind, and released again.

The basic wind magic activated.

Whoosh-

A gust blew strongly enough to make my hair flutter.

It was finally time to complete the mage’s covenant.

[I am the rightful successor. The mage of wind, Baek Jun-woo!]

Having activated the Circle with wind magic, I completed the covenant with the title of wind. A ‘title’ gives advantages to specific elemental magic without any real disadvantages. There was no reason to refuse it.

Dong-

As I completed the covenant, the sound of a bronze bell rang out. Magical powers all around began chattering.

<See! He did it.>

<Come on, let’s go back!>

<No way, how could something like that…>

<But it’s the closest match we’ve heard in a while.>

What were these things searching for… They chattered on, evaluating me as they poured in.

Dong-dong- Following the bronze bell sound, the Circle I had created loosened up and came alive. What had been rigid became elastic, spinning clockwise and counterclockwise, constantly changing direction.

Once set in motion, the Circle never stopped, and the heavy pressure that had been weighing on my chest disappeared completely.

And the mana that symbolized me changed. A single smooth curved line representing wind was added near the top of the ginseng-shaped pattern.

That moment felt like… being reborn.

Strength surged through my limbs, my head cleared, and confidence filled my chest.

Even the chills and headache that had come from pushing my Gift to its limit completely vanished.

This was different from becoming a Ki-blood mage in many ways.

With apologies to Ki-blood mages… this felt like becoming a ‘real mage’ at last.

“Whew.”

I slowly opened my eyes. Monggu and Yuria were watching me, swallowing nervously.

“Did you succeed?”

Yuria asked cautiously.

I simply got up, dusted myself off, and walked toward the cliff.

“Those magic materials Teacher Sena gave you? Let me have them.”

+ – + – +

A dagger securely tied to a long rope.

A peach branch with the inscription carved out and filled with a paste of wormwood and dried horse blood.

Flowing robes inscribed with horse-blood talismans.

After more than three hours of work, I finished the preparations for our jump.

Yuria looked at me with disbelief as I made my final checks.

“When did you learn totem magic? That’s supposed to take a long time to study.”

“Just did. Seemed like I could handle it.”

It wasn’t anything special.

The principles of totem magic were similar to Gift. It’s like carving a stamp.

Using materials infused with magical power, you can fix magical power into specific patterns. When you apply mana to it, the mana gets stamped with that pattern.

And magic happens!

My control of magical power wasn’t refined enough for complex magic yet, but basic 1st Circle Wind was definitely doable.

Just a few circles and curved lines, that’s all it was.

If other mages who can’t even see magical power can make these based on guesswork and calculations, it would be embarrassing if I couldn’t do this much while clearly seeing everything.

“Tie this around yourself.”

I pulled out a new rope, wrapped it tightly around my waist, and threw the remaining length to Monggu and Yuria.

Yuria tied the rope around her waist without hesitation. Monggu hesitated before doing the same.

I could see his legs trembling.

The magical powers snickered at his frightened, pathetic appearance and turned their gaze away from him.

See? People don’t change easily. He said he’d risk his life to help me, and yet…

I was about to click my tongue when Yuria slapped Monggu’s back hard.

“Monggu!”

“Ugh! Huh? What?”

Monggu’s eyes went wide with surprise.

Yuria flicked his forehead with a sharp tap!

“You’re not scared, right?”

“Huh? Uh, no! I’m fine! Thanks.”

At Yuria’s question, Monggu pretended to be fine, straightening his posture with a confident expression.

It was such an obvious act that it made me cringe, but… the magical powers turned their attention back to him because of it.

Then Yuria turned to me.

“You’re not scared either, right?”

…That one question unexpectedly touched me.

Before me lay a pitch-black abyss with no visible bottom.

I had to jump into it with two people attached to me. How could I not be scared?

But people of the wilderness answer questions like this in a certain way.

“No. I’m fine. How about you?”

“Of course I’m not! I’m actually excited!”

We looked at each other and smiled. We understood each other.

Right. Anyone would be scared. But we pretend we’re not, and without hesitation, we run and,

Tap!

Jump!

A dizzying sensation like all the blood was being drained from my body as we began to fall.

“Waaaaaahhhh!”

Monggu screamed.

“You!!! Are you enjoying this?!”

Yuria checked with him.

“Huhuhuh! Yes! I’m enjoying it! Aaahhh! It’s good! So much fun!!”

Monggu desperately pretended not to be afraid. And Yuria gripped the rope so tightly her hands turned white. I watched this and laughed inside.

In the endless darkness, the wind rushed past, slapping against our faces.

We spread our bodies wide, careful not to collide with each other or let the ropes connecting us get tangled. Our bodies caught the wind, creating a floating sensation. It felt like flying through the sky.

“We’ve fallen about thirteen levels!”

Suddenly Yuria shouted. I see, we’ve fallen thirteen levels… I thought, then was startled.

“You can see that?”

“Yes, I can see it! But I still can’t see the bottom!”

Shouting, Yuria shot an arrow toward the bottom.

Swish-

The arrow left the bowstring and disappeared into the darkness. But we never heard it hit bottom.

I felt a jolt of fear.

“This is crazy… how deep is this place?! Should we stop now?”

If it’s this deep, will we be able to climb back up?

But Yuria shouted.

“No! I can see something!”

Swish-

She fired another arrow.

Ting-

This time we faintly heard it. The sound of an arrow bouncing off something.

“That’s the bottom!”

Yuria shouted.

“I can’t hear anything!”

Monggu was confused.

But I heard it too. Amid the howling wind, the sound of an arrow deflecting.

But something was strange. Of course I heard it because I’m a mage, but…

‘Yuria heard that?’

Even more surprising was what came next.

“People! I can see collapsed people down there!”

Yuria shouted as she looked down into the darkness.

‘People? She says there are people at the bottom of the relic? Wait… she can see that far down?’

I was surprised by two things. First, that she claimed to see people, and second, that she could see a bottom that even my mage eyes couldn’t perceive.

I’d heard before that Yuria had exceptional eyesight, but… is this even possible?

I turned to look at her in surprise and saw her eyes glowing bright blue.

‘Gift!’

Magical power was rippling outside Yuria’s body. Magical power flowing beyond the physical body in such quantities… it was the mark of a Mana User. Why hadn’t I noticed this before?

Yuria herself didn’t seem to realize it, but she was already a Mana User. I’m not sure exactly what kind, but she must have obtained some sort of physical enhancement Gift. It makes sense—Yuria certainly deserves to be a Mana User.

“Slow our descent!”

While I had been momentarily distracted, Yuria shouted.

The bottom.

Now I could see it too—a floor deep in the darkness. It was deep. This shaft was incredibly deep. Probably two or three times the height of that Lotte Tower in Jamsil I remembered from my Earth memories.

Anyway, it was time to slow our descent. I moved my Circle and began casting.

[The wind mage Baek Jun-woo speaks! Let the wind rise to bear us up! Wind!]

The reason for verbally speaking the incantation was to increase the spell’s success rate by drawing on the power of my past declarations, and also to gain more recognition from the magical powers. Magical powers love it when things happen as declared, so speaking incantations out loud when casting spells was advantageous for gaining their attention.

Thump-!

The Circle made a sound as it expelled mana. Like the murmurings of magical powers, it was an incomprehensible sound… but somehow I felt its meaning was ‘wind.’

Whoosh!

As the casting completed, the headwind grew even stronger. But our falling speed was still too fast. The bottom was rapidly approaching.

“Yuria! Monggu! Activate the ‘Wind Branch’!”

As I gave them instructions, I cast another spell.

[The wind mage Baek Jun-woo speaks! Nothing shall harm us! Shield!]

A rubbery force expanded from around me in a half-sphere, encompassing Yuria and Monggu as well.

Meanwhile, Yuria and Monggu unhesitatingly tossed their precious 1-shine mana coins to activate the totem I had earlier prepared from the peach branch, the ‘Wind Branch.’

Whiiiiiii-!

Wind magic overlapped with more wind magic. The gusting wind became so strong we couldn’t keep our eyes open, and the wind noise threatened to burst our eardrums. Only then did I feel our descent slowing down as my stomach lurched. But it still wasn’t enough.

“Three! Two! One! Activate ‘Wind Wings’!”

We activated another totem in succession. The flowing robes we were wearing—the ones I had inscribed with horse-blood talismans earlier.

More expensive mana coins burned up in the air, and the ‘Wind Absorption’ magic inscribed on the clothes activated.

The flowing robes began drawing in the surrounding wind.

Woong-!

The sudden influx of wind drastically reduced our speed.

“Huh? Huh? Aaaahhhh!”

But that created another problem.

The overwhelming headwind disrupted our positioning.

“Urrgh!”

Before we knew it, our bodies flipped over and the ropes connecting us became tangled. With spinning vision, I caught a glimpse of the bottom—it was really close now. Maybe only about 15 floors of height remaining?

But our speed was still too fast.

If we hit the bottom at this rate, even with the shield, Yuria and Monggu would die.

“Please! Stop!”

My final preparation cut through the air. The dagger connected to the rope flew and embedded itself deeply in the metal wall. Using my Ki-blood mage abilities, I squeezed every bit of magical power into strengthening the rope and dagger.

Thunk!

Our rapid descent halted momentarily as we caught on the rope.

“Kuh!”

“Guh!”

Yuria and Monggu groaned under the strong pressure.

And then,

Crack!

With that sound, the rope connected to the dagger snapped. Even a rope enhanced with magical power couldn’t withstand our falling energy.

We fell helplessly, and,

Boom!

Hit the bottom with a tremendous noise. The soft shield absorbed the impact, but there was still a ringing shock, like being hit hard with a pillow.

“Urrrgh…”

“Uggggh…”

Fortunately… judging by the groans, both Monggu and Yuria were still alive.

“Are you okay?”

I raised my head to check on them and froze in place.

“This… is…?”

The scene around us momentarily left me speechless.

Yuria had been right. There were people here.

Although they all seemed… dead… they definitely looked human. If not for the bizarre angles of their limbs and the blood that had flowed from their mouths and eyes, they might have appeared to be merely sleeping, so well preserved were the corpses. Almost as if they had just died.

And there weren’t just one or two.

The floor where we had landed was dented inward like it had been hammered, and all around us, beyond us, everywhere were these corpses.

Yuria and Monggu, still connected by rope, were tangled among the bodies and squirming.

“Look at this.”

When I whispered, Yuria, who had just regained her senses, opened her eyes wide.

“Are, are these ancient people?”

And by then, Monggu had finally opened his eyes and was horrified by the corpses.

“Did, did we kill them?”

Well… there were too many dead people for them to have been killed by our impact.

And they were dressed in very sturdy-looking gear.

They wore helmets and full-body suits made of some unidentifiable material.