Floating Island (1)
Floating Island (1)
After observing the entrance to the Floating Island, I manifested the Authority of Space.
An indescribable spatial resonance swept from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes.
The characteristic nausea of a Spatial Leap wracked my body, and my feet lifted off the ground.
- Kriiiiiik...
A grating noise echoed in my mind.
Not a sound striking my eardrums, but a dissonance of space that I simply perceived.
How long passed?
My floating feet settled softly onto solid ground.
I had arrived on the Floating Island, which had been far above me only moments ago.
As if it had been waiting for precisely that moment, a colossal fist plunged toward my head.
I had anticipated this.
Without panicking, I threw myself to the side.
- WHOOOOM!
A tremendous crash flooded my ears.
My ears rang—tinnnng.
I kicked off the ground again, dodging the shockwave of wind and dust that lashed my skin.
The billowing cloud of dust gradually settled, revealing the hidden assailant.
[Gaemungu... Intruder... ]
A gigantic physique on the scale of a building.
Bipedal, with one pair of arms and one pair of legs.
Encased from head to toe in seamless, thick white armor.
'Hm.'
Its appearance was quite striking.
The Golem inside was just a smooth doll, but the armor it wore added flair.
It didn't flaunt excessive splendor, instead emphasizing rugged practicality.
[Intruder... Intruder...]
A voice resounded from within the stark white helmet.
Clank! The Golem withdrew its fist from the crater in the ground and turned its head toward me.
The mana gleaming through the gaps of its helmet clearly registered my presence.
'A Golem. A servant golem.'
I'd recognized it immediately.
Golems exist as monsters too, but mages commonly employ them as familiars, shaping them from earth or metal.
The uses of a familiar are many.
If it has no special abilities, it runs errands; like this Golem, it can also be used for combat.
There are exceptions, but magic generally requires time to manifest.
A mage without a vanguard to buy a few seconds and draw the enemy's gaze often makes a sturdy familiar to serve as that vanguard.
'Creating a servant golem that size is immensely difficult, and the cost is burdensome...'
- Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
'But neither skill nor expense would be the slightest concern for the Tower Master of Knowledge.'
The ground shuddered faintly.
Soon, countless mana gleams pounded against my body, and I slightly shrugged my shoulders.
[Intruder... Intruder...]
[Muster order, Gaemungu...]
[Repulse order, Intru... Intru... ]
The one that had just attacked me was particularly thick-armored.
The Golems flooding toward me now were equipped with an assortment of armaments.
Swords, spears, bludgeons, shields—all bizarrely oversized, scaled for the Golems themselves.
Brandishing those weapons, the Golems surged forward and formed a fan-shaped formation, intent on encircling me.
Behind me, a sheer cliff... No room to flee on foot.
'Hm...'
I tilted my head for a moment.
In the original work, there were two ways to reach the Tower of Knowledge, the Floating Island.
One was to be delivered there by the Vice Headmaster during one's time as a Siyoram cadet.
In that case, you were dispatched directly to the entrance of the Tower of Knowledge, not the Floating Island's perimeter, so there was no reason to tussle with Golems.
Even if you came outside and wandered around, the Golems wouldn't interfere with the player unless you attacked first.
The other way was to force your way in.
Many attempted it, but the only meaningfully successful iteration was the 11th Iteration.
It tore apart the powerful barrier over the Floating Island, barged inside, smashed every last one of these Golems, and proceeded to pound on the impenetrable Tower of Knowledge for days, trying to break it...
Ironically, even after all that rampage, it never got to meet the Tower Master of Knowledge...
'So even with the key, I'm still flagged as an intruder?'
When the first fist dropped, that was my thought.
But...
[...Authority confirmed. Repulse order amended. Trial order.]
Upon hearing that voice from the Golem that had first thrown a punch at me, I revised my assessment.
Right after that, the palpable killing intent the Golems had directed at me subsided considerably.
I did briefly wonder—could a Golem be bluffing?—but surely a servant of the Tower Master of Knowledge wouldn't try to pound me into a bean cake... especially when they'd just summoned me here...
'Wait. Hold on. It's correcting itself now? Then was that first strike genuinely meant to kill me?'
That sudden thought made me narrow my eyes.
Come to think of it, there hadn't been any sense of holding back in that opening blow...
'The Tower Master of Growth... Even that inscrutable Headmaster still set up some safety measures before throwing me into a Tower. Surely the Tower Master of Knowledge isn't an even bigger nutjob?'
- THUUUD!
While reasonable suspicion was taking root, the Golem kicked off with its massive body.
A body that size alone is a threat.
The crushing pressure of the wind rushing in was brutal.
'Fast.'
The Golem closed in right before my eyes, bringing a gale with it.
Its movements were swift, belying its heavy frame.
- WOOONG!
A fist grazed my hair.
Taptaptap! I kicked off the ground repeatedly to widen the distance.
This time, unlike before, the Golem didn't pause its offensive.
I moved nimbly, dodging the ponderously raining punches.
The Authority of Observation read the precursors of magic.
Crrrack! Mana discharged from the joints of its armor.
From precisely calculated locations, at precisely the right intensity, the emitted mana propelled the Golem's body forward.
With the acceleration, the Golem instantly closed the gap and thrust its fist out ferociously.
My hair was swept back.
I observed the fist tearing through the air and subtly extended one hand toward it.
'Mana Strike.'
- Krrrrrrk...!
The fist charging in with such momentum was blocked by the white slash.
Kriiiik! The protective magic layered onto the armor was gradually scraped away.
I was losing the clash of force. The extended fist was gradually being pushed back.
- BAM!
In the end, the Golem's fist was flung back over its shoulder. The slash dissipated, having lost its power, but the fist that had blocked it was now split wide open.
Thud! Thud! The Golem staggered back a few steps and raised its fist again.
That Golem was an artificially created familiar from the start. Since it felt no pain, it could resume combat immediately.
Knowing that, I naturally gave it no time.
I chased after the retreating Golem and slipped into its guard.
I gathered mana thickly in my Hungry Ghost and brought it against the Golem's waist, where its upper and lower body met.
Before I could touch the armor, a reflexive defensive spell flared up and blocked my hand.
Immediately after, I sensed a stirring of mana—an offensive spell preparing to counterattack.
'Mana Bullet.'
I cast the spell first.
High-speed casting without incantation. As someone with Mana Affinity, this was my specialty.
With my hand still pressed against the barrier, I unleashed it.
'Mana Bullet, Scattershot Ray.'
The mana gathered in my Hungry Ghost transformed into countless grains and shot forward.
- WHOOOOM!
The barrier blocking my hand was torn apart in an instant.
The Scattershot Ray hammered into the armor in quick succession.
The Golem's massive form heaved violently as if it had swallowed a bomb.
- Kik... Kriiiik...
The heavily rocked Golem creaked and groaned.
True to its nature as a familiar, the Golem twisted its body as if to continue combat.
But its waist was gone, riddled with holes large and small.
Continuing the fight was impossible.
'Hmm...'
Mana Strike and Mana Bullet.
The power of these two spells had leaped dramatically as my mana became purer in nature.
If I also modified the magic formulas to absurdly boost destructive output, even a Golem that tough could be turned to scrap in an instant.
Of course, the formulas got proportionally more complex; if I mis-cast them, the mana in my circuits could backflow or explode... I just had to not fail.
After shaking my hands briefly, I turned toward the Golem that had collapsed onto its knees.
...Even collapsed, a Golem looks stylish.
But it was already junk, no different from cool-looking scrap metal.
- THUD!
The wrecked Golem rose back up.
It planted its feet, straightened its body, and unbent its waist.
The waist, which had been practically torn off, was revealed.
- Kriiiik...
The damaged sections were restored.
As if time were flowing backward, the ripped armor gradually regained its original form.
Moreover, the damaged body of the Golem itself was restored as well.
'A restoration function.'
It wasn't surprising.
Even the Sky Wing Feather, which lay quiet for now, was equipped with a restoration function.
That was a familiar, not an artifact, but that actually made it easier to repair.
The armor regenerating... was likewise nothing to be surprised about.
What drew my attention was something else.
'The magic formulas were restored too.'
The armor, having returned to its original state, emitted a flash of light.
Clank! Fully restored, the Golem raised both fists.
- Clank! Clank! Clank!
Following its lead, the Golems that had been merely surrounding me now tightened their grips on their weapons.
'Hmm...'
I wiggled my fingers briefly in thought, then extended my hand and thrust it into subspace.
Golems are strong.
These were Golems personally created by the mighty Tower Master of Knowledge to protect the Floating Island.
There was no way they could be weak.
I could probably handle an underdeveloped Aerus—like the one I met in Sipnaha—as easily as taking a dog for a walk.
But at present, I wasn't so weak that these Golems could crush me.
Not even with hundreds of them arrayed in formation.
I could immediately pour out the Calamity Flame and melt them, magic formulas and all.
If I threw in every other method I had, I could break through them all without trouble.
In truth, I didn't even need to do that.
I could simply use Spatial Leap to jump straight to the Tower of Knowledge's entrance, which I could observe.
'But I came here to train my magic.'
I came here to hear a part of the truth, and to learn magic that would strengthen me for the future.
The threshold of the Floating Island was no place to abandon magic immediately and rely on other means.
Of course, my strength lies in diversity, using every tool at my disposal.
But on this Floating Island, I needed to rely primarily on magic.
I pulled my hand out of subspace.
What emerged was a staff of dark brown wood.
Its tip was curved, and set within it was a blue gemstone as big as my head—a classic mage's staff.
It wasn't an artifact.
Just an ordinary, average staff I'd picked up somehow.
'Haa...'
I held it sideways and settled onto it.
Immediately, the staff carrying me floated upward.
The flight spell inscribed on the staff.
In that instant, a spell flared from the ground—an attempt to prevent me from taking to the air.
Since it was a spell personally engraved by the Tower Master of Knowledge, stripping it away with my current magic skill was no simple task.
The manifested spell surged up to drag me back to the ground.
- Shhk!
'Not happening.'
A blade of mana sprouted from my body and cut through the spell.
Using Mana Affinity, I extended mana from my entire body, honed it like a blade, and severed only the magic itself.
...That was more mana manipulation art than actual magic, but let's let that slide.
'I may not be a proper orthodox mage... but this time, let's fight like one.'
Up until now, I couldn't deny that I'd focused too much on magic as a supporting role.
That wasn't a bad thing, but it probably wasn't great for training magic in isolation.
Facing the Golems that were now stirring restlessly, as if to close in on me, I slowly brought my hands together.
Incantation and Hand Seals.
Two crucial forms of self-suggestion in casting magic.
The problem was that my throat was in this pitiful state, and before, one of my arms had been gone, so I couldn't even form Hand Seals.
Now, even though incantation was effectively sealed, I had a prosthetic arm with functioning circuits, so at least I could manage Hand Seals.
I intertwined my hands and drew up my mana.
'Materialize.'
Then I released the woven mana into countless branching streams. Without distinguishing types, every spell I could hurl rained down in a torrent.
.
.
.
Until now, I had leaned too heavily on magic as support.
This time, let's fight like a mage.
Several hours after that ambitious declaration.
[Trial-taker, fleeing southwest. Pursuit order.]
[Shoot-down order... First priority: suppression]
I was executing the ultimate technique of the Thirty-Six Stratagems' Defeat Chapter: 'Running Away is Best Stratagem.' In plain terms, a tactical retreat.
* * *
[Player Correction System: Pioneering Progress]
[Quest "Arrival at Floating Island" completed]
[Points earned.]
...
[Player Correction System: Affection]
Lee Ha-yul → Tower Master of Growth (?)
●●●○○○○○○○(30/100)
｢Complicated｣ ｢Confusion｣ ｢Doubt｣ ｢Frustration｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Sulking｣
...
Lee Ha-yul → Tower Master of Knowledge (?)
●●●○○○○○○○(30/100)
｢Complicated｣ ｢Confusion｣ ｢Doubt｣ ｢Frustration｣ ｢Gratitude｣ ｢Sulking｣ ｢Crazy?｣
...
[The Tower Master of Growth flinches.]
[The Tower Master of Knowledge flinches.]
[The Tower Master of Harmonization sends a jeer.]