Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Hot Potato
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100 days had passed.
I was still just using my insight to draw constellations and fly off to various places here and there.
In this vast expanse, I connected the stars like signposts.
The more I focused my insight, the more I could transcend the limits of a human body. This must be what awakening feels like.
'That's Cancer over there, so this side must be uncharted territory...'
As I created constellations, I named them. A star map was gradually forming in my mind.
I kept making constellations using them as markers to navigate everywhere, but I was still lonely.
This place was just too vast... and too deep.
A boundless space where only I existed.
My appetite and sleepiness had faded more and more. Most desires had dulled enough to endure.
But boredom and loneliness only deepened.
Humans are social animals, right? I craved a group, interaction. It was lonely... and cold.
Even so, this pain was proof that I was still human, a social creature.
Day 143.
Hummm.
"Why is this star so weak?"
The stars each held their own energy. Hard to say what kind, but I could sense it through insight.
All those countless stars were lumps of energy.
While darting around comparing their energies, I discovered a very small star.
A very small star holding energy I could easily handle.
"It's so faint. Embarrassing to even call it a star."
Even after roaming endlessly, it seemed hard to find one with weaker energy.
I was constantly devising ways to escape.
With few options from the start, I was trying various approaches.
This time, it was time to try eating a star.
A method born from the question: Could I make this energy my own?
I gently caressed the star with insight, drawing out its light and slowly absorbing it.
I felt light flowing into my spiritual body. Mimicking knowledge from wuxia novels I'd read, I gathered the light into my dantian.
Then, very slowly, like consuming a spiritual elixir to build inner power, I circulated the energy.
'Got it.'
Finally, this faint energy was mine.
I called this energy Star Power.
Before I knew it, a year had passed since I was trapped here.
As I consumed stars, I realized something new.
These stars held not just Star Power, but information too.
Cosmic knowledge... magic.
Not strange for the interior of a mysterious grimoire to contain magic info.
The more Star Power I absorbed, the larger stars I could consume. Like that worm game where you grow by eating—my vessel expanded.
Some held fragments of Star Power, others potent magic knowledge.
"Menora."
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Menora Basic fire magic
Whoosh.
The first magic I used was fire magic. Sitting on my constellation, I felt the warmth of the flame blooming in my hand.
Basic magic, so it barely consumed Star Power. With this amount, I could keep the flame burning for a century without issue.
"Hoo... ha, haha, heup..."
It was warm.
In a space where there shouldn't be cold, I always felt it.
And for the first time since being trapped, I felt warmth.
Year 5.
Humans are animals of adaptation, they say?
I still pondered philosophically and logically if I could be called 'human,' but it didn't matter anymore.
Because I considered myself human.
Like playing Minecraft, I developed and reshaped constellations around me.
I connected stars in the center to make a home, occasionally venturing far to devour stars.
Roaming like mining for diamonds.
No animals or monsters was a shame, but what could I do? This wasn't a game.
Today, I planned to move. I'd finished developing the surroundings, so now I'd go far and build a new home, new constellations.
"Got everything?"
I packed a few constellations and some stars for snacks.
They didn't taste like anything, but the act was like eating, so it satisfied my hunger.
"Ra Mahir."
I no longer needed constellations as handles to move. I'd learned flight magic.
I settled in a suitable spot, connected stars, and set up signposts.
This would be my new home base.
Year 13.
My magic skills grew rapidly.
Most needs except loneliness could now be met with magic.
Life here wasn't bad anymore.
Snap.
Flicking my fingers teleported me before a massive star.
The largest, brightest from my old home before moving.
"Hah!"
I shouted and began absorbing it.
In the past, my vessel was too small for its Star Power, so I'd left it. But now, grown enough, absorbing it was no issue.
Finally drained of light, the star became an ordinary rock and crumbled.
I slowly stored the absorbed power.
Cosmic knowledge from the star flowed in.
I clutched my head at the incomprehensible info.
Until now, such knowledge with Star Power I'd skipped, undigested food is poison.
But now, it felt possible. I no longer processed info just with my brain.
Unfathomable formulas, languages, symbols, unfamiliar images.
In the flood of info, I gasped for breath.
After wrestling in my mind, I grasped a new info system unlike any before.
'Eureka.'
The word for times like this. My intellect had evolved a step.
When I 'opened my eyes,' I was there yet not there.
And instinctively knew: I'd just interfered with higher dimensions. Until now, I'd been stuck in 3D.
I'd truly surpassed human, become a higher-dimensional being. Things invisible before were now seen.
This place was higher-dimensional than 3D from the start.
I let floating sand slip through my hand.
"This is... time."
I analyzed myself from another dimension's view. As a 3D human until now, I'd been in higher space.
That's why I'd instinctively sensed time.
Felt it on my skin. The dimension of time.
But now, I saw it visually. Floating time.
"4D? Nah, more like 3.5D?"
Ascended to higher dimensions, I confirmed this was inside a book.
I saw the space's structure. Magic woven by a being higher than me, probably.
Was that being watching me now? Lower beings can't sense higher gazes, so no way to know.
Stars were 3D renderings of the book's info. For 3D beings to read and gain knowledge, this was the only way.
"A grimoire is a grimoire, alright."
A book unreadable in 3D. Then why shaped like one?
Shoddy divine joke. Thanks to it, I'm suffering inside this book.
Year 50.
As a 3D-born being, shifting higher dimensions took extreme mental strain.
So except research, I stayed in 3D. More comfortable. Research led to an escape clue.
A higher-dimensional info aggregate shaped like a book. I was inside it.
All I'd done was absorb the book's info.
Every action was reading the book.
What if I finish it? Might find a way out. But...
"...Would I still be human then?"
Headache.
Slurp.
I sipped tea in the hall, gazing at the vast cosmos, taking a break.
To not forget I'm human, I built a home in constellations. Planning long-term stay here, I named it for once.
"Hmm, Etoile... Yeah, Etoile it is."
I made Etoile as human-like as possible.
Mimicking human lifestyle, researching magic, passing time.
Studying magic from book stars, someday I'd escape.
Takes time, but fine. Here, I don't age or die.
I wanted back to society. To meet people.
Philosophically human, scientifically not.
But still human.
110 years passed.
Most time in Etoile's library.
I'd mastered most magic. Reached creating new ones, parsing and recombining complex structures.
Anyone seeing me might think omnipotent god.
But I felt deeply human.
No matter magic knowledge, nothing on life.
Realized in lifeless place: life is sacred, inviolable.
Peering higher dimensions changed nothing.
Humans raise animals, can't create. Same for me.
Ethics heavier than human thought.
Best I could do was grow plants.
As usual, tea then tending garden plants.
"You alive?"
Held stem, whispered.
Subspace in book, but these plants were truly 'alive.'
When I escape, take the whole building.
Show Earth to friends easing my loneliness.
Blue star in universe flowing with milk and honey.
Still longed for that star from another universe.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Just how long do you plan to leave it like this?"
People at the round table sighed, deep in thought.
"That's a grimoire! A grimoire! You're saying we let Korea's 22nd sorcerer chance slip away like this?"
Five years ago, an ownerless grimoire appeared suddenly. Dubbed the 'Cosmic Grimoire.'
Named so because its form resembled the universe.
"Regrettable, but too dangerous. Time to give up finding an owner."
"What do the guild masters think?"
Climber Association Chairman Kim Seok Hyun aimed to end it at this unofficial climbers' regular meeting.
"Guild masters, the Association has decided no longer to store the Cosmic Grimoire."
Grimoires differ from other artifacts. Unique bound artifacts only select few can wield.
"If no Korean owner by next year, hard to claim ownership. We'll have to sell to America."
Sighs everywhere. Sorcerers are all monsters without exception. Big money now, but national loss.
"So from now, rotate storage among guilds. Risky, but huge opportunity—you all know."
"...!!"
"Please do your utmost for a grimoire owner to emerge."
The chairman's shocking words chilled the room.
Truthfully, free unique item like a grimoire? Welcomed with open arms.
If not the Cosmic Grimoire.
In the awkward air, a sharply dressed man raised his hand.
"A word."
"Meteor Guild Master, speak."
Straightening his tie, Meteor Guild Master continued.
"We pass on sending guild members to the psych ward. So,"
Blunt refusal. But other guild masters inwardly agreed. Climbers driven mad by it numbered double digits.
"Exclude 'utmost efforts' meaning contact. If grimoire chooses, same space should trigger reaction, right?"
The hot potato game had begun.