More Reliable Than Anyone 3
Heroes Chronicle's world number one was about to learn upper-grade magic for the first time in history!
[The First Person to Learn Upper-Grade Magic (๑╹o╹)✎]
Han Se-ah wasn't about to sit on a broadcast hook this good without milking every drop of aggro out of it. On their way out of the city toward the 40th-floor gate, she hurriedly swapped her stream title. By the time they emerged through the gate outside the city walls, her viewer count had swollen into something you could fairly call an army.
She was already famous on Western boards like Reddit as a hot mecha-porn girl, so even though she streamed in Korean, a fair number of overseas viewers tuned in with the help of AI translators.
"Whoa, look at how many people showed up."
They were only passing through a gate to leave the city, and already the chat was so packed I was genuinely worried the stream might just explode. In a way, it was only natural. Fantasy meant magic, and magic meant fantasy — the word itself had a way of casting a spell on people. Honestly, had I ever met a fantasy fan who said they hated magic?
"So Hanna and Roland are heading to the Magic Tower, then?"
"Yeah. No need for everyone to pile in. Just Hanna and I should go — we're the ones who already know him."
"Once you learn the magic, show us once before we head into the Tower."
"Katie? Shouldn't upper-grade magic be saved for inside the Tower?"
"Ah, right, that makes sense."
And so, with tens of thousands of viewers trailing behind the camera, we stepped out of the Tower into the late afternoon, just before the sun went down. Sensing it was a difficult hour for the whole party to do anything together, we naturally scattered after agreeing to meet back at the mansion.
Without the mansion as a base, we would have had to hash out whether to meet at the guild tomorrow or in front of the gate. Now, nobody needed to say a word — gathering in the mansion dining room was simply a given.
I headed for the Magic Tower with Han Se-ah, since I was the one who knew Antenor. Grace and Katie vanished toward the market streets to maintain and restock swords, bows, and arrows. Irene gave a polite little bow and set off for the Temple as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Well then. Shall we?"
"Lightning magic, huh. I'm a little excited."
Even with the two beautiful party members who usually kept the screen lively peeling off one by one, the viewers only got louder. To them, upper-grade magic was the kind of thing only NPCs used — the ones so rare you could barely recruit them early on, pure pie-in-the-sky. No wonder they were this worked up.
We strode into the Magic Tower with our heads held high — and, without meaning to, left the viewers hanging.
"Senior Mage Antenor has already gone into the Tower, you say?"
"Yes. Not the 45th floor — he headed for the 35th. He plans to construct a large-scale research lab there, so I don't expect he'll be returning to the Magic Tower for some time… Shall I leave word that guests came calling?"
It had only been a little over a week since the harpies cut off their supply lines and forced them to retreat from the 45th floor in a hurry — and in that short span, he'd already packed up and gone back into the Tower.
With a gate leading into the Tower and a safe floor established inside, the ripple effects were already showing. It wasn't just Antenor, either. The Magic Tower floors that used to house research labs felt noticeably emptier against the skin.
A gate every ten floors, plus a safe zone at the awkward height of the 35th — and the butterfly effect was research-obsessed mages packing their bags and moving into the Tower entirely.
"Do we have to go to the 35th? We'll arrive way too late."
"Ah! Don't worry. The Magic Tower has partnered with the Temple to clear out the monsters from the 30th through the 35th floors, so if you leave now you should arrive around evening. Or, if you don't mind spending a bit more, you could take a reinforced carriage. Shall I book one for the two of you?"
"Th-thank you."
The pretty mage who'd been delivering the news of Antenor's absence in a purely clerical tone took one look at Han Se-ah's flustered face and all but hard-sold her something that looked like a crystal orb.
From the explanation, it seemed a kind of private-taxi reinforced carriage was now running between the 30th-floor gate and the 35th-floor safe zone, built to ferry mages and their precious research materials quickly and easily. First the gates, now vehicles — and none of it felt like it had been designed with players in mind.
At any rate, calling a carriage apparently came with some kind of per-call fee, because the office-worker mage suddenly lit up with energy. With her help, we managed to book a ride bound for the 35th floor.
Magic in Heroes Chronicle was divided only into basic, intermediate, and upper-grade, based on the quantity and quality of mana required. There was no finer classification system of first circles or first tiers.
That, of course, was also because of Heroines Chronicle.
Magic was nothing more than a skill belonging to magic-type gacha characters, and the spells they used had cooldowns — not ranks. This was a game where a single-target Fireball character could outdamage an AoE Flame Storm. Stretch the exaggeration a little further and it was the kind of web-novel energy where a Magic Missile that looked low-tier to anyone with eyes hit harder than a Meteor. A degenerate gacha game with zero fundamentals.
"You want to learn magic… from me?"
So what mattered was attribute and raw power, nothing else. And Han Se-ah was a talent perfectly suited to that freewheeling, foundationless magic system.
Hadn't she started by searing goblin eyeballs with Sparks, then manipulated gusts to snap the wings of cave vampire bats, then used Earth Control to firm up the ground, dig a pit, and build a sturdy spiral ramp they could climb?
Most magic in this world could be explained as "use mana to control XX." And Han Se-ah had handled everything from static electricity and moisture to wind gusts and earth with absolute mastery.
"Hmm. Rather sudden, isn't it. I've got time to spare thanks to the Tower's upheaval — I'm just an old man with nothing but hours — but what exactly did our hero come all this way to learn?"
"I want to learn the lightning magic I saw last time in the Tower. I'm prepared to offer a proper payment in return. …Do you happen to know that a different demi-human race, not harpies, lives on the 41st floor?"
"……Does this have something to do with those curious minerals you lot handed over to the Magic Tower as research material?"
Even setting aside the genius-questioner image her viewers' donations had built for her, Han Se-ah's mana control alone put her talent at four-star or higher.
Watching Antenor the old coot's eyes light up and his jaw start working like he'd just hooked a prize catch, I made a decision. He was warming up. Time to explore the 35th floor a little more thoroughly.
"Stone Dwarves, you say — no facial features? They speak without mouths, so they vibrate the air without vocal cords? That would mean they communicate through mana wavelengths, so why go to the trouble of generating actual sound with mana instead of simply using telepathy?"
"Uh, wait, hang on a second—?"
"Is it because they trade with various races? Those flappy ones, the harpies — the reason they're hostile isn't racial, but because the harpies attack the other races they deal with? That characteristic is—"
"Roland! Don't leave me behind! Help me explain!"
As a pure tank and upper-grade adventurer, I executed a perfect crisis evasion, ignored the slow-footed mage's desperate scream, and stepped out into the street.
The 35th floor. Originally, this space should have held a massive tree that mass-produced the ash-white tentacles serving as the Doppelgangers' innards. After I'd plowed the whole thing under with the blessing of Strengthening Holy Law, the Temple had purified the entire floor with Holy Power.
Which explained why the place was overflowing with mages and priests.
"Eastern soil goes to Research Building Three—"
"Sandwiches for sale! Cut small so you can eat them easily while researching!"
"The sister who went on patrol to the southwest this time—"
"Oh my, Father! Please take one of these before you go."
To the Temple, this was a trophy of victory over the blasphemous Demon King, claimed in the Goddess's name.
To the Magic Tower, it was the first land humanity had ever conquered that once endlessly spawned monsters.
Temple and mages both wanted the Tower purified in the end, so their interests aligned perfectly. Debates about leaving a few floors as mana stone farms were a conversation for much later. Right now, both factions were busy joining hands to analyze the safe zone.
Monsters no longer appeared at all. A warm, matronly woman cooked meals, and a pretty inn girl even hustled the socially hopeless mages for business. A peaceful 35th floor.
"Think I'll be able to learn the magic today?"
And in the middle of all that peace, the one suffering most was, ironically, the hero herself.
As expected, the world maintained its tranquility atop the hero's sacrifice.
Or not.