Chapter 61
Chapter 61
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: Play Ball (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A massive spear.
The mana, condensed and accelerated to its limits, had become a single line glowing with sublime radiance.
An aurora intense enough to blind the onlooker streaked through the air.
It was over in an instant.
The homunculus instinctively extended its arm along with its shadow.
It wasn't a deliberate act of defense.
Just like a cat chasing the end of a laser pointer out of curiosity. The meaningless extension of its arm turned to dust in the torrent-like flow of mana.
Even if mana itself held no offensive power, at this density and compression, it was no different from a massive weapon.
Its fingertips began boiling and disintegrating from the tips.
The spear of light chased away the shadows like the dawn dispelling the morning darkness.
The cascade of mana that engulfed the three red eyes rolling with curiosity incinerated everything from the shadow, the monster's body, to the extremities of its form before vanishing.
2.
Siwoo watched as the homunculus, swallowed by the soundless explosion of light, evaporated without a trace.
-Thud
He collapsed to his knees on the grass, feeling as if he'd just finished a marathon.
"Ugh... urk...! Urk...!"
The moment the tension holding his body together loosened, nausea surged up along with bile.
He'd done plenty of insane things today, but the measure he'd taken to defeat the homunculus was the craziest of them all.
Not only had he sucked in that ultra-pure mana, but he'd also turned his internal mana circuits into a single 'path' for it.
A tiny miscalculation, and he'd have exploded from the mana overload or become a vegetable forever.
Even now, with everything mostly successful, he felt the early signs of qi deviation creeping in.
"I'm gonna die."
Siwoo rolled away from the vomit and lay flat on his back.
He could feel his veins swelling and contracting with each pulse.
Exhaustion, burnout from overworking his brain with mushroom doping, and a body creaking from the rampaging mana.
"Heh... heheheheh...."
Even so, Siwoo laughed heartily, feeling like a middle schooler again after so long.
How could he not feel good?
He'd diligently researched magic on his own until now, but there'd been no way to verify or prove his skills.
Not with results visible enough to see.
He'd spent his life grinding away at bots, wondering, 'Am I actually any good at this shit?' Now it felt like dominating every placement match and carrying to victory.
He'd repelled a homunculus—one you wouldn't even dream of touching unless you were a 15th Hierarchy witch with autonomous defenses.
The terrifying monster that even the twins could only barely halt.
From afar, the twins' voices grew closer.
"Assista~nt!"
"Assistant! Assistant! Assistant!"
He barely managed to sit up, and there they were, charging toward him over the hill.
Odile slid to a halt almost on her knees and hugged the seated Siwoo tightly.
She stroked his cheek with her cool palm, asking urgently.
"Are you okay? Anywhere hurt?"
"Assistant, how many fingers am I holding up? You good?"
Odette, hanging off one of his arms, wiggled three fingers in front of his face.
Siwoo chuckled and assured them he was fine.
The twins let out deep sighs of relief, then started bouncing around excitedly.
Their cheeks flushed red—they seemed even more thrilled than he was.
"When I heard the plan, I thought you were crazy. But Assistant, you're way cooler crazy than I imagined!"
"Assistant beat it! You really took down that homunculus!"
Odette stomped her feet in place, unable to hide her excitement, while Odile kept petting his head.
"Good job, good job, Assistant."
"We believed in you!"
They squealed so loudly that even Siwoo, burning with accomplishment, started to calm down a bit.
They were celebrating enough for all of them.
After a while of revelry, Siwoo took each of their hands and stood up.
"I thought we were goners. It's all thanks to you, Assistant."
"If it weren't for you, we'd all be in deep trouble."
"You two made it possible by drawing its attention."
"That's true."
"Yeah! Sniping while we played bait! Still, amazing!"
He tried to play it humble to avoid seeming too smug, but he couldn't stop grinning.
The three headed toward the clearing where the homunculus had vanished, their celebration ongoing.
The area where he'd fired the mana spear was churned up like it'd been hit by artillery—the power had been that intense.
They'd come back here, naturally, to check the loot.
They'd raided hard; time for rewards.
Siwoo and the twins hopped into the crater.
Inside lay an egg faintly glowing black.
About the size of a chicken egg?
Similar in shape and size to an egg, but it looked more like a cat's-eye gem.
Inside the thin, glass-like shell, black shadows shifted constantly, trapped.
"Is this the Creation Witch's legacy?"
"Yeah, the 'Egg of Gnosis (γνῶσις).'"
"What's that?"
The three crouched around it, admiring the mysterious loot for a good while.
"Homunculus hunts drop various legacies. Could be artifacts like my music box, potions with spells like Amelia's perfume, or scraps of paper scribbled with magic circles."
"What about the Egg of Gnosis?"
"A sort of memory storage device. Kind of like the 'Stigma' system?"
"I heard it's a way to directly impart knowledge or enlightenment about new magic."
Now Siwoo understood why some witches risked it all to hunt homunculi.
This little egg was basically a skill book.
Odile reached out and picked up the egg.
The twins exchanged glances and nodded, concluding a brief consultation.
"Here, Assistant. This is yours."
"You sure?"
He hadn't dared hope, but it wasn't just any item.
The twins, as apprentices, had far stronger curiosity and obsession for new magic.
And even if Siwoo planned and executed it, they'd risked their lives drawing aggro too.
He hadn't expected them to hand it over so freely, no strings attached.
"I want it too... but it feels right giving it to you."
"I agree. Without you, I'd still be shaking in fear."
"Thank you so much."
"No need to thank us—we owe you more."
"Yeah! You were super cool, Assistant."
Odette flashed a thumbs-up with eyes full of admiration and placed the Egg of Gnosis in his palm.
The weightless egg rolled on his hand, the shadows inside swirling like a galaxy.
"How do I do it?"
"A strong intent to accept the 'Gnosis' is enough, they say."
The thirst for new knowledge was a scholar's instinct.
Siwoo had his dreams of becoming a mathematician castrated mid-bloom by kidnapping, but he'd poured that passion into the new field of magic.
He even regretted that escaping Gehenna meant no more advanced spells.
This opportunity was thrilling.
Siwoo swallowed and gripped the egg tight.
His body felt swallowed by darkness.
His consciousness was sucked into a space without even a floor. He squeezed his eyes shut.
"Wh-what...?"
When he opened them, only endless black void existed.
His body floated in the center.
-Rumble!
A massive roar from behind. He turned—his body rotated and moved on thought alone, like zero gravity.
"Whoa...."
There, piercing the darkness of ignorance, was golden wisdom.
Even in this depthless space, the structure asserted itself undimmed.
It was a magic circle of runes, lines, curves, points, and planes.
Its interlocking parts turned slowly like intricate machinery, emitting deep sounds.
Despite being new, it felt intensely familiar.
Siwoo instantly recognized the massive structure distorting distance sense.
It was the large-scale magic circle he'd researched and built over three years.
This space visualized the accumulation of his magical knowledge and wisdom.
Unfinished because his magic wasn't complete—branches ended in hazy darkness, gears spun idly in spots.
A shiver ran through him.
He'd never imagined his research could evoke such awe.
It felt like his mind's horizons expanding.
Not staring at trees in a forest, but soaring above for a macro view—it inspired anew.
Now he saw the flaws, the misdirected parts.
Confidence bloomed that he could refine toward higher realms.
The mystery didn't end there.
A large egg—about a quarter the size of his circle—suddenly appeared.
Different scale, but identical to the Egg of Gnosis in his hand.
The pulsing shadow inside rose clearly even in the darkness, breaking free of the glassy membrane.
"Ah..."
An uncanny sensation.
Like rediscovering something long forgotten.
New knowledge flowed in without resistance.
As the rippling shadow built new structures,
his perception expanded.
His thinking deepened.
New insights—
arcana,
principles,
laws,
truths—that might've taken years alone—pierced his brainstem.
This was the world witches saw.
The Egg of Gnosis invited him, sans Stigma, into that realm.
The shadow, having built another edifice in his cosmos, melted into darkness, duty done.
How the homunculus's shadow nullified magic.
How it sustained countless circles without proper mana engines.
The law letting tiny circles flow without interference, like water.
Realizations cascaded.
Before the shadow's architecture fully formed,
Siwoo's consciousness was pulled back.
"Gah!"
Just like entering.
A single blink,
and he was back in reality.
His freely floating body resisted gravity; his boundless mind absorbed worldly impurities.
The twins peered at him, eyes sparkling, right in front of his face.
"......."
New power had been born.
New knowledge had been born.
Siwoo murmured, gazing at his hand anew.
"Beautiful, right? The place you saw, Assistant, is 'Ain (אין).' A part of the unmanifested trinity worlds, the realm of '0' beyond ordinary human perception or judgment."
The twins beamed, thrilled to share the same world and sight with him.
Like when they'd shown him the Latifundium.
"Just because we can't perceive it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Ain slumbers in the concepts of all who wield magic."
"You're too good to have been born a man, Assistant. If you'd inherited a Stigma as a witch's descendant, you'd have made a name for yourself."
Now Siwoo understood why they'd given up this priceless chance.
They wanted to show him this other world he didn't know.
"We didn't give it, but welcome to the true 'world of magic.'"
The twins smiled purely, no jealousy, just sincere congratulations.