Chapter 76

Two things bothered me about the record.

First, the Tower of Covenant that connects all worlds was torn.

Second, it appeared that mana was severely damaged along with the rifts.

What would happen to the world if the Tower of Covenant were torn? What would happen to existence if mana were damaged?

‘Should I see it for myself?’

I did some calculations.

When I was a 2nd Circle 2-star mage using Saíl, my simulation capacity was 5,113 simuls. Now as a 3rd Circle 3-star mage, my simulation capacity had increased about tenfold to 50,170 simuls. One disappointing aspect was that advancing from a 2nd Circle 3-star mage to a 3rd Circle 3-star mage only increased my capacity by about 10,000 simuls. [Simulation]’s growth followed whichever path had achieved the higher level, whether Circle or blood channel.

‘So that’s why they say developing Circle and blood channel simultaneously is disadvantageous.’

Even now, if I dissolved all my blood channels, I could create a 4th Circle. Considering the rate of increase so far, my simulation capacity would clearly reach hundreds of thousands. But now it was merely 50,000 simuls. The difference was too great. It wasn’t without reason that people said focusing on one path was the right choice as one’s level increased.

Still, I’d already made my decision.

I shook my head to clear away these distracting thoughts and prepared for simulation.

‘Let’s check what would happen if the rifts from that record appeared here.’

Fortunately, a small rift about my size could be implemented with around 4,000 Jun-woos.

[Simulation]

To reduce the condition burden, I simplified the world. I reduced the Tower of Covenant to roughly the size of our current space and modified the universe to have parts of the Sand Plateau floating around it. Then I summoned the rift. Up to this point, the condition burden was about 10,000 Jun-woos.

‘I can still simulate for about 5 minutes. Let’s try entering the rift first? To see how it connects the Tower of Covenant with the outside…’

With this leisurely thought, I observed the changes.

Boom!

A shockwave similar to what I’d encountered in the 91st floor record enveloped my small universe.

‘Good. It’s working properly.’

The rift gradually appeared, twisting the universe. I focused all my attention on observing the rift. But…

‘Huh?’

Stagger.

I felt nauseous. My entire universe constructed within the simulation wobbled and distorted.

I heard a wailing voice from somewhere. A voice I hadn’t included in the conditions…

-Error. Loaded information has been destroyed. Forcibly terminating simulation.

The world shattered like ash burned pure white, and I was ejected from the simulation.

Drip.

Hot blood flowing from my nose.

“A-are you alright?”

Pan-Dalus jumped up from his seat in alarm and grabbed my shoulders. His hands felt burning hot.

“Argh! J-just a moment!”

I shook off his hands and clutched my head.

Terrible pain. Blood vessels in my eyes burst, turning my vision red, and hot steam rose from my entire body. I had initially estimated the rift’s condition burden to be around 4,000 Jun-woos. But when the rift actually occurred, an enormous overload struck me. 4,000 Jun-woos? Nonsense.

This was the first time my estimate of the condition burden had gone awry, and also the first time I’d heard something like a guidance voice in [Simulation].

What did it say again? Error? Information destroyed?

“My goodness…”

Now I understood.

The rift wasn’t a simple calamity.

According to my hypothesis, [Simulation] is the ability to retrieve information from a database where everything in the world is recorded. For such a [Simulation] to go wrong and even have its retrieved information destroyed?

This might mean…

“Th-that rift… it’s not a calamity. It’s something that should never naturally occur!”

I shouted.

The rift exists outside the world’s laws. Or perhaps it’s the collapse of the laws themselves.

People on Earth enjoyed imagining humanity’s extinction through plagues, meteor impacts, or zombie outbreaks. Yes, those are calamities. Terrible calamities.

But they didn’t imagine the gravitational constant or cosmological constant changing, or the law of inertia breaking down. That was a realm beyond human intervention. The most fundamental conditions that could reduce the entire universe to dust or knead it like rubber clay with just the slightest change.

But… what if the rift was precisely such an error in those fundamental conditions?

Shiver!

My back became soaked with sweat.

That’s not just a calamity, is it? It’s truly… extinction.

“Pan-Dalus. What else happened after the rift appeared? There must have been strange occurrences.”

At my question, Pan-Dalus’s expression hardened.

“Hmm… the recording magic actually stopped working for unknown reasons, but bizarre phenomena continued afterward. Among many things… one was the doppelgänger phenomenon.”

“Doppelgänger?”

“A splitting occurred. While flying desperately, I glanced to the side… and saw multiple ‘me’s flying together. These weren’t mere mirror images. One looked at others in surprise, another in anger, yet another in lamentation… each had different reactions. Fortunately, once we escaped far enough, the split ‘me’s eventually disappeared. Mages speculate this phenomenon is a form of mass hallucination, but… well. I’m not so sure. I’ve never had such an eerie experience.”

“Urgh…”

Lytol groaned with a pale face as the memory seemingly returned to him. Cold sweat poured down. A clear trauma response.

I kept my mouth shut.

An object multiplying into multiple identical copies?

Following my hypotheses so far, the doppelgänger phenomenon Pan-Dalus described was likely an “error” resulting from problems with the universe’s fundamental laws.

I reached a conclusion in my heart. Wiping the dried blood from under my nose, I shared my judgment with Pan-Dalus.

“Pan-Dalus. You asked for my thoughts? I agree. The rifts on the 91st floor do indeed seem to be precursors to extinction.”

Pan-Dalus’s eyes gleamed sharply.

“Then… how much time do you think we have left?”

I sighed.

“I don’t know. It could be tomorrow or a hundred years from now. But what’s certain… is that the cataclysm you mentioned has already begun. We just haven’t noticed it yet.”

Outside the window, the three suns—Bird, Wolf, and Ruby—were sinking into the distorted space in the western sky. A red dusk fell, and night shadows stretched long into the office.

Pan-Dalus lit a candle and rubbed his eyes.

“Is that so? Hearing this from the Divine Mage makes it feel all the more real… Sigh… perhaps now I too must make up my mind…? Thank you for sharing your wisdom. Meeting you today feels like the greatest fortune of this old man’s life. But my head is too complicated now, so I must rest. Let’s continue our conversation tomorrow.”

And so the day’s dialogue concluded.

.

.

Pan-Dalus provided our group with the finest bedrooms.

After politely fending off Yuria and Monggu who were curious about what we’d discussed, I quickly washed up and lay down.

Of course, sleep wouldn’t come.

Though they said it hadn’t spread further, rifts had already occurred. Countless rifts, incomparably larger than the one I’d summoned in [Simulation], had already appeared.

…What kind of “errors” would manifest in the world?

I’d declared I would climb to the top of the Tower of Covenant to uncover all the world’s secrets and end the calamities… but would the world even remain until then?

Could I fix the “errors” that would appear in the world?

Fear and helplessness welled up inside me.

But at the same time, I felt a sense of pride that the title “Divine Mage” was so fitting.

‘The world needs a god.’

That’s all we can hope for.

Those damned gods who created and managed this world… then ruined everything and irresponsibly went extinct… they were now desperately needed.

Woong! Woong! Woonwangwoong!

I moved my Circles wildly to make sounds. It was my own form of outcry and curse directed at the dead gods.

I raised my middle finger by moving the blood channels spread across my chest and arms.

Circles and blood channels imitating gods.

These were our only hope, but still too crude to fix the world.

‘I need to raise my level as quickly as possible…’

I’d been warned not to raise my level further due to magical power addiction and high aggro, but nevertheless,

‘I can’t stop getting stronger.’

We had no time.

Lying in bed, I thought and thought.

‘For now, even if we can’t do anything about the aggro level…’

Magical power addiction. That problem needed to be solved.

And I also needed to compensate for the combat power loss from developing Circle and blood channel simultaneously.

Generally, the magical power needed to raise one’s level is three times the previous amount.

If the magical power needed to create a 1st Circle is 1, then 2nd Circle needs 3, and 3rd Circle needs 9.

When a 2nd Circle mage gathers 9 units of remaining magical power, magical fever occurs. The problem I discovered this time was that even a 2nd Circle 2-star mage experiences magical fever after gathering 9 units of magical power.

In other words, assume a 2nd Circle mage has gathered the maximum 8 units of magical power. Then a 2nd Circle mage can pour all 8 units into Circle magic and maximize its potential. But a 2nd Circle 2-star mage must divide the maximum 8 units between Circle and blood channel, so they can only use 4 units for each. Both types of magic become mediocre.

Moreover, if a 2nd Circle 2-star mage gives up their 2-star blood channel, they immediately recover the 3 units of magical power used to create Ki-blood magic and can become a 3rd Circle mage with 11 units of magical power. Considering the power of a 3rd Circle, insisting on blood channel magic instead of becoming a 3rd Circle… was indeed a loss.

This problem would worsen as one’s level increased and the total magical power difference grew larger.

‘The fundamental issue is that there’s a limit to how much magical power the body can accommodate.’

Magical power addiction and magical fever were essentially the same problem.

Magical power is too high-grade for humans to properly accept. The more you contain, the greater the strain on your body.

The only way to overcome this is to rise in level and transcend humanity.

In fact, as a 3rd Circle 3-star mage, my mana form differed from ordinary people.

The large ginseng shape was generally similar, but my mana pattern had three dots at the head, like strokes in a Chinese character, forming peculiar curves. This was evidence that I had partially transcended humanity.

But fatigue from frequent transcendence had put the brakes on my growth.

Moreover, pursuing both blood channel magic and Circle magic made both mediocre.

But there had to be a way to overcome this.

I recalled a conversation I’d had with Monggu recently.

Monggu, who had decided to give up magic and rely on ancient warrior equipment.

At first, I thought his decision was foolish. Equipment isn’t fully one’s own power like magic.

But gradually my thinking changed.

‘Earth humans wielded power capable of destroying planets, yet they didn’t suffer from problems like magical power addiction.’

A shift in perspective.

Humans are fundamentally tool-using beings.

A single gun is more powerful than strength gained through self-abuse and harsh training.

In the end, Iron Man is cooler than Captain America and Wolverine.

Ah, of course this judgment is influenced by the nerdiness of the Earth human whose memories I inherited. Anyway.

I took out a deactivated robot dog from my bag. One of the iron-eating beasts captured in the Land of Iron-Eaters. I had dissected this thing, which looked like a robot no matter how you viewed it, several times.

And I was convinced.

‘Here lies the path I must take.’

If changing my bones to adamantium is difficult, then I should create a magnificent iron suit.

Instead of absorbing new magical power to forcibly raise my level, I should create a “magical machine” to assist me.

That was the conclusion I reached.

Sleep fled completely.

I jumped up from the bed and activated [Simulation].

The lich moved a dead body using magical power.

The iron-eating beast had the ability to make judgments despite being inanimate.

If I studied them well, I too could create useful tools.

“Urgh! Gruugh!”

Though my physical condition was terrible, I gritted my teeth and continued my research through [Simulation].

Occasionally, when the pain became unbearable, I sublimated it into curses.

Curses dedicated to the ancient gods who had brought things to this state. I voiced them through my Circle for the gods to hear well.

Uwangwoong-wangwangwang! Guangsaengkiiiing-!

My Circle screams as much as I suffer.

It’s only disappointing that being modern language, it doesn’t attract the attention of magical powers.

‘If only I could collect a primordial incantation for cursing…’

And so, the night deepened.