Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Wrong Encounter
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Etoile's corridor.
Moon Byul, as always, sipped his tea while enjoying a leisurely stroll.
Once his walk was over, he headed to the laboratory and threw himself into his research.
This routine had gone on for several years.
He had finally come to understand how the sub-space within the grimoire interacted with the outside world.
Now the only issue left was how to connect this sub-space to physical reality.
Moon Byul already had some clues.
The cosmic information held within the stars included data on Earth as well, and he had used magic to separately record the theories that might prove helpful.
Even after becoming a higher-dimensional being, he wasn't omniscient.
Pioneering knowledge from scratch would be inefficient, so he decided to draw on humanity's accumulated wisdom.
This slashed his research time dramatically.
Mathematics is humanity's language for comprehending the universe. And magic can only be deciphered through that same understanding.
Moon Byul had grasped it on a cosmic level, far beyond mere mathematics.
In the end, magic was just one of the universe's phenomena—one that could be expressed mathematically.
Of course, most humans would never comprehend it.
"Brill Ashnab Tres."
In one of Etoile's blocked passages, he cast a newly developed spell.
A small black sphere took shape there.
"Hmm... The form doesn't quite please me."
With a wave of his hand, the black sphere flattened into a rectangular plane. At a glance, it resembled a window mounted on the wall.
"About 118 years, then..."
This modest little window was simple in appearance, but it fused three transcendental magics: magical reinterpretations of topology mathematics, superstring theory, and Einstein-Cartan theory.
In short, a passage to the outside. Well, not quite a passage yet—more like a window.
Either way, the key point was that Moon Byul had succeeded in forging a connection from inside the book to the world beyond.
"This feels... rather strange."
Moon Byul wasn't overcome with euphoria so much as a profound sense of emptiness.
He reached out and caressed the black window.
He still couldn't leave this place, but this window would soon become a door. It wouldn't be long now.
"I'm looking forward to home."
With another gesture, a tea table and chair appeared—perfect for comfortably viewing the window at any time.
He sat down and peered outside. Earth, after a full 118 years. But it was pitch black.
"...Nighttime?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Several months passed, and the Cosmic Grimoire was finally handed over to the Wolverine Guild. Starting with the Meteor Guild—who had been the most vocal about it—they were passing the hot potato around in turn.
"Everyone heard, right? As of today, that troublesome grimoire falls under our jurisdiction."
Sighs of exhaustion rose from all around.
"Listen up! As you can see, one guy from White Tiger Guild got cocky, touched it, and lost his mind. So show the files to your teams. Absolutely no greed, ever."
At a gesture from Wolverine Guild Master So Seori, the managers distributed documents to the executives.
"Huh? Guild Master, this guy was an A-rank climber—a promising star in White Tiger Guild. What a shame."
A video soon played on the screen.
It showed him sneaking into the artifact warehouse and reaching greedily for the grimoire.
CCTV footage of the promising climber freezing solid on the spot the moment his hand made contact.
"Oof... Man..."
The staff who watched let out their own sighs.
The instant his hand touched it—before he could even open the book—a burst of light enveloped the White Tiger Guild prospect, and he went still.
It looked like a paused frame, but the CCTV timestamp kept ticking forward.
"You see that? His mind snapped, straight to the psych ward."
Wolverine Guild Master So Seori pointed at the screen and clicked her tongue.
"So that's the warning: don't get cocky and get hurt. Report any special circumstances right away."
Cosmic Grimoire.
Its form so resembled the cosmos that it earned the name.
The one grimoire among the world's 22 that still lacked an owner.
The Cosmic Grimoire hadn't always been treated like a bomb.
No owner meant anyone could claim it.
All grimoire owners were renowned climbers. From the start, grimoires belonged to the most coveted category of items.
"Meeting adjourned! One more time: this book is on another level from the others. No one's getting greedy, right?"
Yet the Cosmic Grimoire was a hot potato because anyone who touched it inevitably suffered temporal stasis.
As if the book refused to let anyone read it.
It had driven several top Korean climbers into mental institutions, and Korea had nearly given up on finding it an owner.
Grimoires were special artifacts that sought out their own masters.
Foreign countries were pressuring Korea hard to return it, claiming their own grimoires had found owners already. Strong climbers equated to national power, after all.
Among them, the U.S. demands had reached a point where they could no longer be brushed off diplomatically.
Ever since the Tower appeared, letting a powerful artifact rot away was a massive loss for humanity.
"Oh, and when Iru Ri gets back, tell her to come straight to my office. That's it for today—dismissed!"
To that end, Korea was forcing the guilds to pass the grimoire around in a desperate bid to find its owner.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A few days later, in front of the guild master's office.
S-rank sorceress Iru Ri checked her outfit and stood before the door.
"Iru Ri reporting back."
She knocked and entered the Wolverine Guild master's office. There sat Guild Master So Seori, utterly drained, her head planted on the desk.
"Guil...d Master?"
"Hwaaaang! Ruri!"
"Hey, cut it out! Not here in the guild."
Iru Ri recoiled in horror at the guild master's undignified display, batting away her hands.
"The other guilds are definitely isolating me!"
Up until they received the Cosmic Grimoire, the others had insisted that as long as no one touched it, nothing would happen.
But nope.
The moment the grimoire arrived, weird stuff started plaguing the Wolverine Guild.
"They all kept it quiet on purpose."
Ghost sightings. Sudden ground tremors that made walking impossible. The eerie feeling of being watched.
Just recently, the guard in charge of the artifact storage had called in sick out of nowhere, claiming total exhaustion.
"You're a sorceress—you must know something, right? Help your sister out! The other guilds are all playing dumb."
"Sigh... I just got back from the Tower."
To sum up the guild master's plea:
She wanted the guild's sole sorceress to take charge of managing the Cosmic Grimoire.
As a sorceress herself, Iru Ri wouldn't get greedy, and she was the only one capable of handling it properly.
Having heard her out, Iru Ri blinked her weary eyes before openly showing her displeasure.
"No way. And what if I lose my mind?"
"I get it. Just don't get close to the grimoire. Stay in the guild and keep casting 'purification' on everything."
Her nickname was the Little Saintess. As the owner of the Grimoire of Light, she was a support-type sorceress specialized in status recovery.
The "little" prefix came from her petite, adorable frame—something people had latched onto.
"Please! Your sister is begging you. Pretty please?"
"Sigh..."
It was always like this. The guild master would make some outrageous request, she'd pretend to hate it, but she'd help anyway.
Being chummy with your boss wasn't always a blessing.
"Fine, then give me a nice fat vacation this time."
"You got it!"
"And the attribute enhancement bracelet artifact I got from the Tower."
"...Sure thing!"
"Oh, and bump my contract bonus by two big ones."
"Whaaat???"
This was her chance. A golden opportunity to prove her worth and squeeze the guild master for all it was worth.
"I'll add it to the contract and bring it back."
Iru Ri scampered out like a cat, inwardly cheering. Truth be told, she already knew.
If there was no issue, fine—but if anyone could solve this problem, it was her alone in the guild.
'Grimoires are tempting artifacts, after all.'
So Seori trusted her guildmates, but not their desires. This was something she could only entrust to the one member who already owned a grimoire.
From the guild master's perspective, she had no other choice—and Iru Ri knew it.
"Time to rest up good!"
Like all support climbers, she was perpetually swamped with Tower runs. Climbing was always a life-or-death gamble, but for a supporter like her? Even worse.
High-floor raids above the 50th would slow down for a bit, but she could grind them later.
She saw it as a total sweet deal.
Until that night, when she came face-to-face with the book.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ That night.
She set up barriers in front of the artifact warehouse and stood guard until every last guild member had clocked out.
"Wisph, anything?"
Iru Ri had patrolled the entire guild with her pet fairy Wisph, checking for anomalies or external causes.
But the result was clear: nothing unusual.
The recent issues were even more likely tied to the grimoire.
So she settled in to wait for something—anything—to happen inside the warehouse.
It was so uneventful she was starting to get bored.
"A whole month of this."
She should've negotiated for one more high-end artifact in the contract. She hadn't anticipated just how dull it would be.
"Bored. So bored."
As she paced and stomped in front of the warehouse, the final guild member left for the day. Now it was just her and the night guards.
"Saintess, you're not heading out?"
"I'm good. Besides, tonight... well, you know I have stuff to check. Ha, ha."
"Understood. Stay safe."
The guard headed off to patrol elsewhere.
Stay safe? Safe from what?
She had no intention of half-assing her duty, but nothing seemed poised to happen.
"What's the big deal with that grimoire anyway."
Iru Ri stroked her own grimoire. The one that had materialized before her eyes, shining brightly the moment she awakened.
"Mine's way better. Right, Wisph?"
"Whing whing."
The glowing spirit zipped around her in high spirits.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Hmm..."
Lately, Moon Byul had been channeling Star Power through the window to the outside world.
Unable to cross it himself, he was attempting remote spellcasting.
He'd tried dozens of times, but the Star Power lost control and scattered after passing through the window's warped space.
"The space is unstable—not impossible, but controlling it is tricky."
Manipulating Star Power externally was twice as demanding as drawing it from within his body.
Remote spell activation was tough enough without the imperfect space causing it to dissipate immediately.
That energy dispersal should produce some noticeable reaction if people were nearby.
So why no response at all?
Star Power was a concentration of energy. He couldn't predict exactly how it would affect humans, but a powerful surge like that had to leave some mark.
He'd hoped for some sign of contact from outside, but it seemed unlikely.
"I've adjusted the spatial stability ratio, so there should be results today."
As usual, he prepared to attempt remote magic and opened the window.
"Light?"
For the first time, light streamed from the window. He'd always worried it was a sealed space since it stayed dark no matter the hour—but now it seemed to be somewhere humans could reach.
Then, a voice echoed from the window.
"Didn't see it! Didn't run into it!"
The first voice from another person in 118 years.