First Training with Monica
The mention of no ice cream made my emotions surge up in a flash. This frail little body apparently wasn't cut out for handling hormones.
"Uuu, wh-what... hngh...!"
Tears were starting to plop down one by one when Monica shouted.
"Sorry!! I'm not saying no ice cream! Whew, we'll do training first and then I'll give it to you right away!!!"
"Then... you should've just said we'd train and then eat ice cream."
"Sorry, seven-year-olds usually hate it when you say 'let's train.'"
Monica smirked as she said it.
"Well, at least you're glad to train. Lucky us."
She tossed her outer jacket onto the floor and started stretching.
"Kiddo, why do you wanna be a mage?"
"Well..."
The first thing that came to mind was a burning hunger for the hunt. But I swallowed those words and said something else instead.
"To give the abyssal things and bad guys a good thrashing?"
"Hmm... the folks from that unofficial magic tower who messed with you?"
"Something like that, you know."
Monica paused for a moment, then began her stretches.
"Kiddo. This country's never produced an Olympian champion. Not once."
"What's Olympia?"
Monica shrugged at my question.
"It's like the Olympics, but for mages fighting."
"......"
"Winning there is a nation's pride and a benchmark for magic prowess."
"Not really interested, you know."
"Yeah, got it. Anyway, Korea's been trying for decades to produce a winner there."
"Hmm."
"So! A ton of aspiring mages chase that championship trophy."
"They don't care about the Abyss?"
"Exactly, that's the problem."
Monica grinned at me.
"That's why I like your goal. Korea kinda slacks on Abyss management."
She gazed out at the vast space and continued.
"Alright, shall we start training now?"
I blankly took in the enormous interior of the training ground. The space evoked a massive warehouse, with the ceiling towering dozens of meters high.
"But... how much does it cost to fill a space this big with ether?"
"Huh? About 100 million an hour."
"Cough! Cough!"
It was an amount that nearly brought up the egg roll I'd eaten for breakfast.
"That's pricey."
As I marveled at the training ground, a blob of water had already floated up in Monica's right hand. At the same time, her left eye glowed red.
Monica spun the water blob around and flashed a grin.
"Before taking you into the Abyss, we're gonna test your survival skills today."
"Got it."
"It's way faster than a normal curriculum, but you can keep up, right?"
With those words—
Splash—
Monica's water blob flew straight at my face.
"......"
In an instant, I was soaked like a drowned puppy. I wrung out my drenched hair, irritation bubbling up.
"Is this what you call magic training?"
"Ahaha! Sorry~ I thought you'd dodge it, but you took it head-on? Weren't you trained as an assassin?"
"I lost my memories of th—!"
I dodged the next spell hurtling at my face.
"See? You can dodge!"
It was too fast for regular magic. And there was no incantation.
"Wha?! Chantless magic?!"
"Hehehe. Took you long enough? Not perfect chantless like Hero Lee Han, but still."
A water blob came flying from behind Monica.
"This isn't really magic—it's more like flicking off ether mid-casting process."
She boldly flung another water blob.
"Come on, counterattack!"
"I kinda felt it last time too!"
I reached out toward the water blob and said,
"Your teaching's way too combat-focused, isn't it?!"
I tried to overlay my will onto the ether blob but panicked and took it to the face.
Splash—
"Cough cough!"
I flopped straight onto the ground.
"Water up my nose! It burns! Burns so much!"
As I rolled on the floor, another water blob slammed down on my head.
Splash—
"Cough cough! Give me a break!"
"Hehehe, the spell's called 'This much water without a source?'"
"...?"
I stared at her in disbelief, and Monica came over with a towel, cackling.
"You should've listened. I said it's flicked off in the conversion process."
"...Not actual magic, huh."
Just like she said, it was ether whose nature had changed via mental core conversion—not intentional magic. So no caster intent, meaning Reverse Flow wouldn't work.
"Hehe, beats your magic reflection, right?"
She figured out a counter already...
As I gawked at Monica in dismay, she quizzed me.
"Emergency question! So how do you handle this kind of magic?"
I furrowed my brow at her words.
"Hya!"
Monica kept flinging water blobs to disrupt my thinking. I dodged the incoming ones nimbly, racking my brain.
Being able to flick ether mid-casting meant the process was more flexible than I'd thought.
Flick it away, drag it out, or stop it altogether...
That's when I recalled mages who'd cast but not fire—stopping to exploit the physical enhancement side effect.
I mimicked them, drawing on my Mage Hunter combat experience.
Like grabbing the ether wavelength onto my body...!
The ether that should've launched from my palm spread through me instead, filling my body with vigor.
"Huh? K-Kiddo? Hold on...!"
Whoosh—
I lightly leaped over the incoming water blob, closing to close range where attacks were tough.
"You learned it already?! Wait, no way! Is this sync rate?!"
The moment my fist flew toward Monica's face, her right hand barely grabbed my arm.
"Kiddo! Ugh!"
Smoke rose from Monica's right arm.
"I-I almost died."
"Oh?"
Only then did I blink in surprise.
"No barriers here like in matches! You'd kill someone swinging like that, kiddo!"
Monica set me down and said,
"You're something else... Whew."
Admiring me, she ruffled my hair and explained.
"That's one of the basics: Casting Hold."
"Casting Hold?"
"Yeah, though you're on another level..."
Monica kept petting my head as she continued.
"Battle mages' foundational technique. Halt the cast and use physical enhancement as your main power. It tripled mages' Abyss survival rates."
"Hmm."
"But I didn't expect you to master it this quick..."
I flung the held-back spell upward from above my head.
1-level Projection
Ether Shot
A fist-sized ether blob shot upward, and Monica beamed.
"Take in ether to the max for physical boost, then unleash at an unexpected moment for a surprise attack. That's battle mage combat."
Monica shrugged and went on.
"Fighting a battle mage is a headache. You gotta watch if they're casting or not, ready for sudden spells."
"Mages aren't all the same?"
Monica shook her head.
"Obviously tons of types. Blasters for long-range bombardment. Battle mages basing it on physicals like just now."
"Elementals, supporters, conductors, even necromancers."
I jumped at Taehyun's voice.
"Food!"
"Yes, Miss Eunha. It's a lunchbox."
"I was starving anyway."
"Haha, that speech pattern is really..."
"As long as it gets the point across!"
Taehyun pulled out the lunchbox from his bag.
"Miss, are you preparing to enter the Abyss?"
"Yeah, Taehyun."
I stuffed my mouth full of onigiri and mumbled,
"Mmph, goin' intha Abyth now?"
"Eat first, then talk, kiddo."
"Indeed, Miss Eunha. Table manners reveal character."
I nodded at Monica and Taehyun, swallowing the onigiri.
"But is it okay to just dive into the Abyss? I heard 6th-grade abyssal entities on floor 35."
"~You don't know Abyss structure, kiddo?"
"Indeed. You haven't registered for the Abyss yet, Miss Eunha."
"Abyss structure? Registration?"
Monica cleared her throat and conjured a massive tower hologram over her hand.
"Abyss looks like a black hemisphere outside, but inside it's a huge tower."
"I know. Korea's cleared to floor 35, from the news."
"But floors 1 to 20 are personal zones you clear solo. Everyone starts at 1 for that reason."
Old stories clicked, and I clapped.
"Right, I remember. Clear your personal zone alone for a mage license."
"Yep."
"Registered mages climb 1 to 20 solo to reach the Great Plains on 21. A-lone."
Monica swung her right arm around emphatically.
"Hehe, up to 40 years ago, they shoved 5-to-10-year-olds who awakened into the Abyss."
"...I know."
It was my exact plan, so of course I did.
"Oh?"
Seeing my face, Monica gave a wry smile and dropped it.
"So tomorrow, Abyss acclimation training."
"Then today's training's done... right?!"
"Huh?"
Monica, having polished off her lunchbox, stood up.
"Mages gotta hustle. Live like every day's 48 hours."
"......"
"Real training time, kiddo."
Red light swirled in Monica's left eye, steam hissing from her right arm.
"You turned into a machine all of a sudden...?"
"Be my sparring partner, kiddo."
"You're a 7-level mage!"
"No more talk!"
5-level Projection
Icicle Lance
"Gahhh! A 5-level spell out of nowhere?!"
I wrapped my body in ether and dove aside. The wall where the massive icicle hit cratered deeply.
"I was still eating!"
"Don't just dodge—throw a spell to block mine! Twist the trajectory at least?"
I yelled at Monica, who grinned wide while forming another huge ice spear.
"Saying that with a smile! Mages are all nuts!"
"Come on~ Block it, kiddo! Or I'll call you blockhead forever~"
That stung my pride. I scraped up surrounding ether, spinning it around my mental core.
"Huh, kiddo?"
Yeah, I already knew. My era had too many crazy mages. To break their noses, you had to charge like you meant to kill every time.
"Wh-whoa. That's Ether Shot, right?"
1-level Projection
Ether Shot -!
"Gahhh, kiddoooo! What the hell did you eat to grow up like this?!"
An ether blob so huge Monica vanished behind it hurtled toward her.