Chapter 120: The Magic Tower
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 120: The Magic Tower
After leaving the Magic Tower, I headed straight for the dojo.
I walked down an empty street and entered the familiar building. It was an old red brick building, but it was at least minimally maintained—there were no cobwebs on the ceiling or in the corners.
A bell tinkled as I entered the dojo, and I saw my master sitting at the counter. She was rubbing her eyes with a drowsy expression, looking like she had just woken up.
“I didn't expect you to come today, too.”
“Training requires diligence.”
I changed my clothes and picked up a wooden sword.
My master said nothing as she watched me. It seemed to be a silent signal to do the same as yesterday.
I felt a sigh coming on, but since the training wasn't entirely useless, I silently began to warm up.
It would be foolish to neglect basic physical conditioning like stamina and strength just because I had magic power and internal energy.
Then, I suddenly remembered what my master had said.
‘My Sword Qi is only half-complete.’
Of course, there was bound to be a difference in the level of completion between my master's Sword Qi and mine. We had been training for different lengths of time. But I didn't think that was what she meant.
The image of her Sword Qi, blooming and fading on her fingertip like a flickering light, replayed in my mind.
I swung the wooden sword and tried to form my Sword Qi, but it was the same as always.
It was faint, but its power output was exceptional.
“Don't use your Sword Qi. Those wooden dummies are expensive.”
“If I break one, I'll buy you a few more.”
“Don't waste your money.”
At her firm tone, I retracted my Sword Qi. I gripped the sword and kept moving. My stamina drained quickly from the intentional release of magic power. Sweat poured down like rain.
Just like yesterday, I spent nearly half the day pouring out all my magic power and internal energy, but I had nothing to show for it. The only small comfort was that I finished faster than yesterday.
As soon as the training ended, I collapsed on the floor, just like yesterday. Even lifting a single finger felt like a struggle.
‘I feel like… I'm on the verge of understanding something…’
Ironically, though my stamina and magic power were long gone and I was swinging the sword with only a handful of internal energy, my mind was clearer than ever.
In the moment my dantian felt completely empty, about to hit rock bottom, the sharpest Sword Qi I had ever produced bloomed forth.
“What in the world is the problem…?”
What was that saying? You can only see as much as you know? That was exactly it.
My master had said my Sword Qi was half-complete.
Unlike before, when I couldn't grasp her meaning at all, I now had a faint inkling of what she meant.
The problem was that I couldn't clearly define that ‘something.’
“You seem to have a lot on your mind.”
Thump. A towel landed on my face. With a trembling hand, I grabbed it and wiped away the sweat. It was soaked in no time.
“You're doing well. So keep thinking, keep struggling, and keep questioning.”
“…Is that your advice? Is there anything else?”
“No. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
“…From where I'm standing, it looks like there are no cooks at all.”
I hadn't expected anything, but she said no more.
I lay there on the dojo floor for a while, quietly staring at the ceiling, before heading home.
Even after showering in a nice bathroom, eating an expensive dinner, and lying down on a plush bed, the thoughts from earlier showed no signs of disappearing.
They just kept circling in my head.
‘…I really feel like I just need to take one more step.’
It was like a nearly finished puzzle was missing a single piece.
The nagging feeling lasted late into the night, and I ended up not sleeping a wink until sunrise.
I felt like I could finally fall asleep, but unfortunately, I had another packed schedule today. I sighed and pushed myself up. My whole body ached with muscle pain.
*
Time passed, and the day the Magic Tower's semester began finally arrived.
“It's crowded.”
I'd visited the Magic Tower a few times before, but I'd never seen the lobby this packed.
And they weren't mages, but ordinary people in suits. Every one of them looked tense.
It wasn't hard to tell mages and non-mages apart inside the tower. Only the non-mages weren't wearing robes.
The strange thing was that even with at least a hundred people filling the lobby, it was completely silent.
Whenever a mage passed by, the people in suits would hastily step aside as if afraid of getting in the way.
‘What is this?’
The other mages, myself excluded, seemed accustomed to this scene and calmly walked past them to the upper floors.
I didn't understand what was going on, but it clearly wasn't a pleasant situation to keep watching.
Like the other mages, I ignored them and headed for the front desk.
The Magic Tower was a space for mages alone. Outsiders couldn't go to the upper floors unless invited by one of the tower's mages.
Transfer students like me had to get their student IDs from the front desk. Choi Hyena had told me all the complicated procedures were handled in advance, so I just needed to pick it up.
“Hello. How may I help you?”
“I'm here to pick up my student ID.”
“Ah, of course. I'll just need to check your identification.”
I took my ID out of my wallet.
“Yes, you're confirmed. The Gray Magic Tower sincerely welcomes Mage Kang Hyun-woo.”
The moment my name left the staff member's lips, I could feel gazes and attention from all around focusing on me.
-That's Kang Hyun-woo?
-He looks younger than I thought… Really, at just 21…?
-Wow… He's even more impressive than the rumors said.
-Tsk, another fly buzzing in.
-Ignore him. Guys like that never last long anyway.
The lobby instantly grew noisy.
I could feel the curiosity and hostility directed at me. It was, without a doubt, a troublesome situation.
Choi Hyena had warned me this might happen, but it was far more blatant than I'd expected.
“Thank you for your help.”
Completely ignoring the stares and attention, I headed upstairs. A magic circle activated, and my surroundings changed in an instant. It was a short-range teleport.
A hallway and space far wider than what it looked like from the outside unfolded before me.
Staircases leading to upper floors were scattered about, intertwined in a complex structure, and there was even a random waterfall.
Occasionally, birds of unknown species would fly by.
The center was a massive open shaft, and even when I enhanced my vision with magic power, I couldn't see the bottom. It seemed to connect to an incredible depth.
‘Even the floors are made of wood.’
The top floor, where the professors' workshops were, had a strong medieval feel, but this place took it a step—no, at least five steps—further.
Of course, it wasn't an incomprehensible sight.
The First Tower Lord said that magic was born from mystery. Just as monks leave the secular world, mages consider it a virtue to immerse themselves in mystery to study magic.
This strange, dreamlike place, built in the middle of a concrete jungle, could be called a mystery in itself. It wasn't built this way just for show.
“The faculty office… is that it over there?”
I walked in the direction where I could sense a denser concentration of magic power than that of the mages who looked like students. The stares were too intense for me to ask anyone for directions.
Fortunately, I barely felt the hostility I had sensed in the lobby. It was mostly curiosity.
‘Come to think of it, I really don't see any men.’
There weren't many people around, but it was strange how few men there were. The gender ratio for mages was about 2:8, male to female, so it wasn't particularly strange.
No one had yet discovered the reason for the skewed gender ratio. I'd heard research was ongoing, but there seemed to be no progress.
‘Wasn't the First Tower Lord a woman, too?’
It was just an unsubstantiated rumor, but considering the occasional whispers that the first King Arthur was also a woman, it wasn't an impossibility.
I walked down a hallway where tree trunks grew sporadically. Before long, I found a doorplate that read ‘Faculty Office.’
Knock, knock. I knocked lightly.
“Excuse me.”
Inside the faculty office, two women were sitting with their legs crossed. One had a cigarette in her mouth, and the other appeared to be reviewing documents.
“Who is it?”
The woman smoking a cigarette with a world-weary expression was the first to respond.
“My name is Kang Hyun-woo. I'll be attending the Gray Magic Tower starting today.”
“Kang Hyun-woo…? Ah! You're the monster Professor Choi was talking about?!”
“…Excuse me?”
A spark of life appeared in the woman's half-dead eyes.
The other woman, who had been engrossed in her papers, also turned her gaze toward me. She didn't say anything, perhaps because she was naturally quiet, but the look in her eyes was unusual.
They were both beautiful, but their interest was the kind that made me instinctively wary.
“Definitely… hard to see you as a first-year student.”
A seductive tongue slipped out from between the lips holding the cigarette. I could see the interest and curiosity directed at me.
‘…Good thing I wore the artifact.’
For the record, I was currently using the artifact I received from Grandma Choi Young-ok.
[Necklace of Concealment]
Grade: Rare
A necklace imbued with powerful magic concealment.
※Use of magic power is restricted while worn.
Thanks to it, my level appeared to others as a proficient 2nd Circle mage. This wasn't my original plan. Now that I was officially transferring to the Magic Tower, there was no point in controlling information anymore.
Reporters would probably start sniffing around soon, and it was obvious my name would start appearing in the news before long.
But if they knew I was a 4th Circle mage, it would be a different story.
-“4th Circle?”
-“Somehow, yes.”
I had met with Grandma Choi Young-ok just before enrolling. I told her the truth about my level, and the atmosphere instantly became serious.
-“Hyun-woo, I'm sorry to ask, but could you hide that fact for the time being?”
-“What?”
Struggling to find the words, Grandma Choi Young-ok explained that it was a necessary choice to ensure my safety.
A 4th Circle mage at the age of 21. It wasn't unprecedented, but the problem was that I had been learning magic for less than half a year.
A talent so overwhelming it was destructive would breed immense jealousy, envy, and desire.
Of course, with my talent and achievements, I would be selected as one of the next generation's rising stars and receive enormous support from the government and the magic community.
All sorts of elixirs and artifacts would probably fall into my lap just for existing.
But the aftermath was the problem.
The Seongbuk Choi family is undeniably one of the leading magic families in Korea, but on a global scale, there are countless families who boast far greater power.
-“Kidnapping… you mean?”
-“Yes.”
Grandma Choi Young-ok said that people would undoubtedly appear who would try to take me, even by force. Foreign governments and various factions were no exception.
Even if that didn't happen, she continued with a grave expression, there would be those who would try to cut me down before I could become a threat—chamchojegeun, cutting the grass to remove the roots.
The Tower Lord and Choi Hyena also possessed talents coveted by other factions, but they were safe because they were members of a prestigious magic family.
They might seem to compete, but in the end, the prestigious magic families coexist under the banner of Korea. But I had only promised an engagement; I wasn't yet a member of a magic family.
To my enemies, there could be no more tempting prey than me.
‘The magic I can use now is limited to the 2nd Circle, and it seems to be affecting my internal energy too.’
I could feel that I'd grown weaker, but there was nothing I could do about it for now.
But I wasn't worried. Iris, Cheon Yeo-hwa, and this current situation—they were all problems that would be solved once I became stronger.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Lee Chaewon. I teach Elementalism, but I'm also your advisor.”
“…Shin Minha. I teach Summoning.”
I found myself shaking hands with both of them.
A chill ran down my spine as I shook Professor Lee Chaewon's hand, and from Professor Shin Minha, I sensed the presence of another being.
Noticing my reaction, the expressions of the two women changed.
“Did you just…”
Just as Professor Shin Minha was about to say something to me, Professor Lee Chaewon cut in.
“Alright, alright! That's enough chit-chat. Shall we head to the classroom? Can't be late on the first day.”
“Ah, yes.”
Professor Lee Chaewon put out her cigarette and stood up. I followed her out of the faculty office.
Until the moment I left the office, I could feel Professor Shin Minha's piercing gaze on the back of my head.
‘Did I make some kind of mistake?’
Nothing specific came to mind.
“You'll have to understand.”
“Pardon?”
Professor Lee Chaewon turned to me as she spoke.
“She's never been interested in anything but magic. It's gotten worse lately, so the appearance of a self-taught man who reached the 2nd Circle must have piqued her curiosity.”
“Ah.”
She added that Shin Minha was the kind of eccentric you often find in the Magic Tower.
Then again, from my perspective, not only Professor Shin Minha but also Professor Lee Chaewon right in front of me was an eccentric.
‘Is she a professor or an adult model?’
Professor Lee Chaewon's outfit was so revealing it made the Tower Lord's attire seem modest.
Her neckline plunged dramatically, and her skirt was so short that the insides of her thighs were visible, clearly outlining her hips and butt.
Thankfully, her robe covered most of it from behind, but from the front, it was hard to know where to look.
“Your gaze is quite intense.”
“You're imagining things.”
“Really?”
Professor Lee Chaewon's eyes curved into a smile. As if to tease me, her hips swayed dramatically from side to side with every step.
‘…Even the professors here aren't normal.’
For a while, I had to struggle to keep my eyes off her backside.
We arrived in front of a door labeled 1-A.
“Wait here for a moment.”
“Huh?”
“It's your first day, right? You have to introduce yourself. I'll set the stage for you, so make sure you do it with style, okay?”
She was a professor, not a schoolteacher, but it was too late to stop the strangely excited woman.
“Everyone, listen up!”
Professor Lee Chaewon entered the classroom a step ahead of me and drew the students' attention.
“The transfer student you've all been waiting for is here today!”
For a second, I thought I was back in high school. I seriously considered just turning around and going home.
“Come on in!”
“Sigh…”
I straightened my clothes and slowly walked into the classroom.
In an instant, every student's eyes were on me.