Chapter 139
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 139
Every muscle in my body had torn apart.
The moment the intense pain pushed the threshold of my Drug Resistance Physique skill just a bit over the limit, I immediately stopped ripping my muscles.
'No weird skills will pop up, right?'
The skill Drug Resistance Physique was a growth-type skill that generated resistance to any stimulus exceeding its threshold and increased its rank by one step each time.
That meant it couldn't create resistances to every possible stimulus unconditionally.
Its current rank was E+.
Growth-type skills could apparently reach up to S+, so I only had five chances left to generate new resistances.
That might seem like a lot to some.
But it was far too few for me.
And in the middle of all this, I had no room to let it create some bizarre resistance.
Like one related to self-harm, for example.
Growing its rank through something like that would just be depressing.
So, I shifted my focus away from my own body to something else.
"Hey, you dead?"
"."
I stomped on the head of Andrealphus sprawled on the floor.
Her long, trailing entrails and blood were an eyesore, but it didn't concern me.
"Hey."
"."
"Get up before I start crushing your organs one by one. You think I haven't killed your kind once or twice?"
"!!!"
Having personally slain tens of thousands of demons with my own blade, I knew everything about their physiology and conditions.
I'd even studied biology to slaughter them efficiently en masse and dissected them countless times myself.
Right now, Andrealphusaka the Marquis of Beautywas in an intentional state of suspended animation.
She must have thought she could fool my eyes somehow.
"Too bad, but I've fallen for that cheap trick a few times already. I'm not at a level where that works on me anymore."
I knew full well she wasn't dead.
'Still, it's a relief she's healthy enough to pull off something this sneaky.'
There was still so much I hadn't done to her yet.
I'd let her reunite with the dead in her dreams, after all.
I needed to give her fitting compensation to ease my mind.
And the form of recompense I'd chosen was torture.
The thought of letting Andrealphus taste my aesthetic of torture made me grin innocently as I eyed her fingers and toes.
They looked pristine and well-maintained, like they'd never known hard labor.
But on closer inspection, I could see traces of hardship.
Her limbs bore the unmistakable marks of toil, even after her transformation into a demon had shed her old skin and flesh.
She'd probably been an ordinary country girl before falling into demonhood.
"The nobles of the Fallen Paradise are mostly ancient monsters who've lived since the Middle Ages."
Middle Ages.
Then I'd just have to use torture fitting for that era.
The Middle Ages were like a renaissance of torture, after all, with an incredible variety to choose from.
I wiggled my fingers, and suddenly I felt the muscles in my face smiling.
Like flipping a switch to turn off a light, I could change my outward mask with a simple gesture.
The intangible mask I'd overlaid on my emotions right now was one I'd named.
The Mask of Madness.
To a mad clown, morality was just a boundary to cross.
That's why there was no hesitation in torture. And because it clearly understood its own limits, it boasted perfect precision without a millimeter of error.
"If you don't get up you know what happens, right?"
"I-I'm up! I'm up!!"
"Good boy. Hey, you know what?"
"W-what? Gah, gyaaaaah!! It hurts, it h-hurts!!!"
"Why'd you jump up so violently? Your flailing's making the demon stench even worse in this poorly ventilated space."
Snikt!
I swung my mana like a blade and tore off one of her fingers.
I giggled through the whole process.
I had no idea what was so funny or enjoyable.
The mask was simply set to laugh, nothing more.
But Andrealphus, unaware of that, recoiled in horror at the mindless cackling madness.
'You crazy bastard! You told me to get up first!'
She wanted to argue, but she didn't have the guts.
Even after abandoning her humanity to become a demon, she couldn't comprehend this pinnacle of the incomprehensible.
That was Baek Seung-woo. All she could do was tremble in terror.
The pain was secondary.
Whether he knew of her agony or not, the madman fully immersed in his role didn't even glance at her as he spat out whatever he wanted to say.
"Right before mastering advanced magicaround the time you're about to become an advanced mageyou start realizing which spells suit your aptitude and talent. But here's the weird part. You know what?"
"N-no?"
His complete disconnect from conversation terrified her preemptively.
"I'll tell you."
Curiously, I had aptitudes and talents in two areas.
Thanks to my trait Magic Saint, I'd mastered multiple magic tomes quickly, learning spells from various fields and schools.
Elemental Magic led by fire.
Telekinesis, forcing motion on objects and creatures.
Progenitor's Curse, now obsolete but passed down carefully to distant descendants.
And so on. Countless mysteries floated atop the knowledge in my mind.
Among them, the field that suited this body best was one of the elements: fire magic.
Or so I'd thought until a few days ago.
"This worthless body's original owner wasn't talented in [Fire Magic]. They had aptitude and talent for 'heat'encompassing fire, light, and more."
It was a relatively recent realization.
With my limited knowledge, I'd judged that the fiery and solar energies of Solar Vein Blockage corresponded only to fire.
So I'd focused on [Fire Magic].
But in truth, it was a broader concept than mere fire. And the other aptitude wasn't this body's original owner's.
"And this is the talent my soul possesses. Since it's a good opportunity, I'll demonstrate it specially for you."
It was mine alone.
This was my true talent, what I was unleashing now.
PyrokinesisQuartering.
Whips of flame erupted in the air, binding Andrealphus's neck and limbs tightly.
The whips began to tighten bit by bit, squeezing her body while burning black scorch marks into her flesh and tormenting her.
But this alone wouldn't serve as judgment.
That's why it was Quartering, not Quartering Execution.
"No!! Stop!! It hurts, I was wrong!!!"
"Really?"
"Yes!! I'll apologize! I'll apologize for everything!! I'll join you, comrades or whatever, just spare me!!!"
"Oh? Then prove it."
Prove you're worth saving.
Of course, a traitor to humanity who'd become a demon had zero chance of genuine reform even under me.
But opportunities should be given fairly.
My teacher taught me that.
"Let's see if you can endure."
Thud!!
A coffin plummeted from empty air.
Filled with spikes of every length, it was a maiden of iron forged from flame.
The Iron Maiden.
I'd showcased it once during the Player License Exam.
But the number and variety of spikes were on another level now.
The quality and density of the mana forming the coffin were worlds apart.
PyrokinesisIron Maiden.
Andrealphus was sucked into the flaming furnace-woman.
Her neck and limbs still suffered the quartering as she became living kindling to stoke the iron maiden's fire.
But she wouldn't die.
If this ended in a futile death, it would contradict my aptitude.
"I won't kill you with this technique. And you won't die from it."
"S-stop!!! Stop it!!!"
"But this is my aptitude."
Torture.
My aptitude and talent were the concept of torture itself.
There was no fixed form or structure to how it manifested.
Only the target, their screams, and despair would make my magic stronger and crueler. And its end wasn't death, but greater suffering.
An endless cycle.
This aptitude felt like my entire life melted into it.
The magic I assembled by personally shaping mana with my will and intent held such perverse power.
"In a way, it's a talent perfectly suited to me."
No response came.
Only horrific screams filled the sewer.
As I monologued one-sidedly, the first round of torture ended.
Creeeak.
The burning iron maiden opened, spilling its contents.
But here's the thing.
No matter how meticulously chosen my torture was, Andrealphus's eyes went dead after just the first try.
Ah, this one's no good anymore.
"Gotta put this away for now."
What are you planning?
"Storage."
I shoved her corpse into the ring's subspace like stuffing a puzzle piece.
I didn't care if bones or joints snapped; I fitted her into the gaps perfectly and sealed the space.
In reality, her body was still breathing, and her name Andrealphus still functioned. If she willed it, she could easily tear through the ring's pocket dimension.
But I'd defined her as a dead body.
Why not bind her limbs at least?
"No need to worry. I'll fix her up soon anyway."
Fix her? What the hell are you planning?
What else?
"Extract memories from her brain, or puppet her into something that'll answer questions obediently?"
What?
As if she'd asked something obvious, I tilted my head.
Tamamo sensed her eye twitching.
This wasn't even split personality.
How could a person switch so extremely?
"Hmm What's next?"
The face that had shown such extremism even Tamamo was shocked by now stiffened rigidly.
A calm demeanor absent from the madman moments ago.
Various thoughts crossed my hardened expression.
'This mask is done. Should I head out and join the fight? Do I even need to? Or maybe stay here where no one's watching and finally finish those long-delayed experiments?'
I posed the questions to myself repeatedly.
In the process, I organized my thoughts, set priorities, and planned actions.
'First, I won't go out.'
Even if I rushed out now, it wouldn't make much difference.
The revolutionary army corpses and blood littering this sewer were slowly seeping out, drenching the viscount's lands everywhere.
This was a massive ritual sacrifice on a city scale.
Impossible to stop with ordinary means, so I opted for reorganization instead.
And that reorganization meant.
'Modifying my body into something more useful.'
It was insane.
The idea started from a simple question: one of the martial arts realms, Five Qi Converging to the Origincould I transplant that into a magical realm?
My knowledge of martial arts was already deep, so the conclusion came easily.
'Do it if you wanna die.'
Realms like Three Flowers Gathering at the Summit or Five Qi Converging to the Origin were more profound principles of internal alchemy than mere physical states, leading to varied interpretations by masters.
Five Qi refining Yang Spirit, Three Yangs converging toward the center, and so on.
Complicated talk, but it boiled down to one thing.
Dividing the dantian into upper, middle, and lower stages to reach higher powers.
Taoism saw it as part of the ascetic path to immortality, but I viewed it simply as mana resonating and harmonizing to grow stronger.
'Mana resonance and harmony. What if I expand it not to the dantian like a martial artist, but across the entire body for a mage?'
What else? Nine out of ten tries, I'd die.
That alone was suicidal enough, but I went further.
'If that's possible, could I incorporate the principles of ancient circles too?'
Martial realms like First-rate, Peak, Flower Realm, and Five Qi Converging to the Origin had been passed down for ages. Mages had low/mid/high tiers too, but those were relatively recent standards.
But magic had its own ancient terms for realms.
'The oldest magical realms and ranks.'
Circles.
This extremely simple criterion of "circles"circular rings crossing heart and dantiandivided mages by their number.
One to three rings: novice.
Four to five: expert.
Six: those who'd mastered [Domain] by modern standards.
Seven: archmages.
Eight: archmages who'd built [Sanctuary].
Nine: conceptual, with no modern peers except the Demon King.
A highly intuitive classification.
And if I incorporated that into my idea
I'd die for sure.
That's a crazy idea. You know your thoughts and emotions flow partially to me, right?
"Weren't you freaked out by the puppet talk and clamming up? I figured you'd go radio silent for at least a week."
Me? Heh Aren't you underestimating me a bit? Even I was once called the Hanging of Cannon Punishment and Nation-toppling Beauty.
"Isn't that a bit too shameless to call yourself a virgin at your age? The Yin Dynasty when Hanging was active was thousands of years ago."
Let me check.
King Zhou's era was roughly
Say that one more time and you die.
"Isn't that too much for your one and only contractor?"
Heh Even if you cross lines elsewhere, don't think about crossing them with me.
"Noted."
So don't make that face while smirking.
Even in my half-mad state, I knew poking at her age could bring disaster, so I held back.
Women are scary.
Really.
It felt excessive between the only two people who could open up to each other.
On the other hand, living with this mask might mess up my boundaries with Tamamo and lead to trouble.
Better to use it sparingly and discard it soon.