Level Up (1)
Selah Roselyn and I reached a fairly smooth agreement.
Her salary would be ten gold coins per month. For the time being, she would be assigned to cube maintenance alongside Lin Ashford and the others, as well as working at the Central Magic Library branch of the Cube Room. Think of it as a one-month probationary period.
That left the question of what I would be doing during that time.
“Eugene, are you ready?”
“Yes, Master.”
I had decided to receive instruction in my master’s unique magic, Gaemun.
Originally it would have been impossible, but now that I had become a spirit contractor, it was within reach. This was because I could now draw on external mana and the power of the Spirit Corridor itself instead of relying on my old, sealed mana core.
The month-long grace period had been the time needed for my body and core to adapt to the newly connected external circuits. The moment Archisia judged that the adaptation was sufficiently complete, she immediately began passing on Gaemun.
As expected of my master—she never goes back on her word.
When she first told me to change my major, I honestly thought she was about to pull a tosagupang on me now that the cubes had developed to a decent level. But if she’s passing down her know-how to me one by one like this, becoming her successor shouldn’t be too difficult.
As always, I headed to the second floor of the forbidden section of the library, in front of the Sephirot’s Tree.
It was a breathtaking sight no matter how many times I saw it.
Then Wiki, the now-familiar floating hand, drifted over and gave my shoulder a light tap.
“It’s true—your body’s circuits have definitely changed, Eugene. The more emotion and soul power you gather, the stronger you become. Shall we call it a side effect?”
“I’d like that, yeah.”
Honestly, how much soul power have I even collected so far? If I could just reroute and absorb a bit of it, reaching 4-circle shouldn’t be impossible.
I took off my outer robe, folded it neatly, and sat down facing the tree.
Whoom, whoooom.
The spirit stone embedded in my chest began to resonate.
I took a deep breath and exhaled. Golden motes of light mixed with my breath scattered mana and sparkled in the air.
“Gaemun is a spell that uses the space you stand in as a reference point and transforms it into your inner mental world. In simple terms, it opens a portal to your own heart.”
My inner world.
Wasn’t that a bit too abstract?
“Master, can I just imagine any world I want? Or does it have to be my happiest memory, or something from my childhood…? Are there no conditions like that?”
“It must be a world that best expresses who you are as a person.”
“A world that best expresses me…”
Then did that mean the meadow I saw every time I was dragged into Master’s domain was the space that best represented her? Hmm… it certainly matched how open-minded she was.
But understanding the concept and actually applying it were two different things.
What could I define myself as?
A fantasy game developer? The troublemaking third son of the recently rising Feltro Count family? President of the game development club? A nouveau riche who struck it rich in Romaniun? The head librarian of the Central Magic Library?
…The answer didn’t come easily.
After endless deliberation, I arrived at one conclusion.
I’m a reincarnator, after all.
I love my father and mother. Because I am their son.
Even though I was born with memories of my previous life, the fact that I am the child of Hannibal Feltro and Isabella Feltro remains unchanged.
My parents raised me with everything they had.
We’re a little awkward with each other these days, but… well, isn’t that how it usually is between parents and sons?
Yet the fundamental issue still remained.
No matter how well I was living as the son of a prominent noble house, how lucky I was to enter the academy, and how comfortably I was enjoying a life that rivaled my previous one thanks to magic and family influence—
The fact that I was an outsider would never change.
The memories of my previous life remained vivid within me.
The gray concrete buildings that stretched endlessly toward the sky, the smartphone I always carried, my coworkers and friends.
The whole fried chicken and glass of beer I ordered after a grueling day, the compact car I leased for two years, the 62-inch TV I splurged on for my rented room.
All of it was lingering attachment to me.
That world had dreams, daily life, and people I cherished. Even if there were more shortcomings than satisfactions in that life, now that I could never return, I found myself wanting to experience those old routines again.
Only then did something finally click.
I placed my hand over my mana core.
Warm body heat transferred onto the spirit stone, and the darkness beyond my closed eyelids transformed into light.
What appeared was a city full of vitality.
Sometimes the stench of sewers wafted through the air, cigarette smoke stung the nose, fine dust clogged the throat, car horns blared from vehicles clogging the streets, and shouts came from people sick of their daily grind.
At the same time, it was a world filled with the scent of royal azaleas blooming along apartment paths, the cries of cicadas announcing summer, children’s laughter and the sound of bicycle bells, subway announcements, and the latest pop songs drifting from cafés.
A world where you could become anything and do anything. A world of infinite possibility.
Understanding began to surge through me.
The transmission of unique magic wasn’t simply copied in the exact same form.
That was why it was called unique magic—because it couldn’t be standardized. The way it was passed from the original user to another varied greatly, and it would naturally transform to match the successor’s disposition.
“The transmission is complete. Now show me your Gaemun, Eugene.”
The activation phrase I had wanted to say ever since I first saw Master’s Gaemun.
I tensed my vocal cords and eyes, wiping away every distracting thought in my mind.
“—Ryōiki Tenkai.”
I thrust my finger forward and shouted.
“Hwando Bulya-seong.”
The brilliantly shining Spirit Tree vanished from my sight, replaced by a familiar city.
My bittersweet cradle—Seoul.
My impression after using Gaemun for the first time was extremely simple.
Fucking cool.
Even Liana Aisingioro had been shocked when she first experienced a modern city during her initial Dimension encounter. Back then I had rushed through it while showing off other backgrounds, but this time the world I manifested through Dimension was far clearer and more realistic.
It was impressive enough to draw admiration from Master, who had already visited urban areas before.
“Is this where you used to live, Eugene?”
“Yes, that’s right. Well, not exactly here—my actual home is a bit farther away.”
Our current location was right in the middle of Gangnam.
Normally the streets would be so packed with people that you’d be tripping over them, but with the entire road wide open and empty, it felt strangely refreshing.
“I can’t feel any flow of magic at all…?”
“That’s because this is a world that originally had none.”
There were two main ways to fight using Gaemun.
The first was to pull the opponent into a world or location advantageous to you, or to summon objects and people from your mental world to fight.
Which meant this was also possible.
A gray object dropped from empty air with a clack.
The familiar grip and reassuring weight.
It was a K2 rifle.
“It certainly looks quite different from the magic rifles we’re used to,” Master said, examining the rifle with interest.
“Want me to fire it?”
I expertly pulled back the charging handle to check the chamber. One round, all good.
Then I pulled the trigger toward the sky.
Bang! The stock slammed into my shoulder as flame erupted from the muzzle.
The second method was to impose all kinds of restrictions on the opponent who had been dragged in, forcing them to fight on your terms.
Take Master, for example. Even if a grand mage came at her, one wave of her hand would completely sever whatever destructive spell they were casting.
However, to impose such restrictions, the caster themselves needed an unshakable image of that space.
If even for a moment they thought otherwise, the dissonance between Gaemun and reality would often nullify the magic entirely.
In that sense, my Seoul was the perfect anti-magic zone.
Where was the magic in the real world, anyway?
There was no room for dissonance to even occur.
Of course, just because I had learned Gaemun didn’t mean I could actually overwhelm a real 5-circle mage. It was the same as how even the strongest shaman or spirit could have their domain easily broken by someone stronger.
I might be able to overwhelm them with every spell I had while they were caught off guard, but the moment the opponent tried to break the domain, this massive city would be reduced to nothing more than background 1 in a battle game.
And if the formation itself was destroyed, the entire mental world I had created with Gaemun would collapse.
Therefore, the real key to using it in actual combat wasn’t the Gaemun itself—it was what came after.
“Since we’re at it, how about a quick spar for old times’ sake?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Last time I set the mana restriction at fifty thousand times… but since we’re inside your barrier now and your standards have risen quite a bit, shall we lower it to forty thousand times?”
Master had already put distance between us.
I also finished all my preparations.
“You ready, Wiki?”
“Of course, Eugene.”
Having advanced from 2-circle to 3-circle, the purity of my mana had also increased. With Wiki’s assistance and the ability to utilize resources from the various games I had created, I was in a completely different league now.
“Please teach me well!!”
Clink-clink-clink!
As golden chains surged toward Archisia once again, I pulled the trigger on the K2 rifle in my hands.
Archisia Piel Athena versus enhanced Eugene Feltro. Round two—begin.