Chapter 17
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 17
Geunwon Sulga was the kind of family every sorcerer dreamed about at least once.
The origin of sorcery and its first great house.
The family that had produced the most heads of the Cheonji Association, the alliance of the ten great families.
The world called it a setting sun, dismissing its long history, but to those beneath that sky, it was still the one and only sun.
However, as with the way of the world, there were always exceptions.
For instance, in the case of the moon, which only revealed its presence when the sun rested, the sun could never be pleased by the moon's true nature.
"Everyone's so stupid......"
Lee Yun-ji clenched her fist along with a cold mutter.
The grudge she held against Park Ha-yul was a kind of inferiority complex passed down through generations.
It was like a brand carried by anyone from the Byeokrye family, another sorcerer family long overshadowed by his.......
"You think you'll surpass that family with sorcery this pathetic? Quit right now."
"That family, I mean. That family......."
She was the genius who had stubbornly bloomed in the shade of a great tree.
"Things will be different now. No, they have to be different."
Lee Yun-ji chewed her lips and murmured quietly.
It was, to be sure, no vain delusion.
It was an open secret that the family's recent heirs had been unimpressive.
Just look at Park Ha-yul.
The students seemed intoxicated by the family's reputation and had forgotten that his actual rank was only 700th.
She had heard he was a half-wit who had chosen the Superhuman Track because he had no talent for sorcery.
"What could a moron like that possibly do.... Everyone will come to their senses soon."
Lee Yun-ji steadied herself, recalling the plan that would soon become reality.
When the time came, she walked with a confident, practiced stride to the front of the lecture podium, the professor's exclusive domain.
"Everyone, please take care of me again this year. The portion I'm in charge of will be replaced with an assignment-type format......."
She conducted the orientation with a confident attitude and then went on to explain today's assignment.
"This is a sorcery formula personally inscribed by the professor. It's a barrier formula fused from multiple sorcery formulas. Since it's the first class, he said everyone should work together to break it, and class ends the moment it's dispelled."
As if to prove her words, she took out a specially made ghost-paper and attached it to the door, and a reddish energy born from the formula enveloped the entire lecture hall.
"So class really ends if we just dispel it? Anyone here who can break this?"
"It's impossible alone. Let's gather first."
"Wouldn't that guy know a thing or two?"
"Who?"
"Ah, Park Ha-yul......."
Even without anyone egging it on, the stage she had been waiting for was set.
Now it was time to bring on the actor who would perform a ridiculous dance, contrary to their hopes.
"It won't be easy. It took me over twenty minutes to fully dispel it myself. If an ability user could help, it would be much easier......."
After pausing for a moment, Lee Yun-ji called on Park Ha-yul as if reluctantly asking.
"Have you perhaps grasped the structure of the formula? Since everyone's curious, don't keep it to yourself—share some information."
The odds of him answering?
Naturally, zero.
Still, she would keep needling him.
Like a drizzle soaking clothes, she would ask and ask again.......
She intended to torment him until the words "I don't know" came out of Park Ha-yul's mouth and he looked flustered and pitiful.
Harsh as it was, was there a more certain way to expose incompetence?
Lee Yun-ji smiled brightly and stared at Park Ha-yul.
She assumed the corners of her mouth, pushed upward, would not be coming down for a while.
"I had some expectations, but you attack more timidly than I thought. Or maybe you just have nasty taste."
But the answer that suddenly reached her ears was strange.
"What do you mean......."
"Ah, forget it. Anyway, if I break it, it's over, right? Don't go back on your words later. See, I'm the type who believes that people who mess with time should get their heads cracked regardless of gender."
H-heads?
Lee Yun-ji wondered whether the head he meant was that kind of head, or whether it carried some other symbolism—
The other students were the same.
"What does he mean by heads? Surely he means actual heads? He's going to crack them?"
"Idiot. You think a direct descendant of that family would say something so simple-minded? He's talking about the representative."
"Lee Yun-ji?"
"Right. Park Ha-yul just signaled his intent to challenge. He's saying he'll take over the Sorcery Track."
"Ooh, as expected."
It was a case where the interpretation was more plausible than the dream.......
Whatever.
"Let's finish this quickly. I'm kind of busy."
Park Ha-yul rose from his seat and walked toward the door.
* * *
Maybe it's because they chose a non-mainstream track?
They've got a dopey side.
Leaving the strangely excited atmosphere behind, I approached the door with the ghost-paper attached.
"How could you use such a lowly......."
Lee Yun-ji, catching on belatedly, shouted with her face reddening, but it was settled in one line.
"And your intentions are clean?"
"Hrk......."
She was the type who was actually easier to deal with because she was smart. Even if I spoke vaguely, she understood perfectly.
Anyway, seen up close, the feeling was quite unusual.
It was complex enough to make my eyes ache, and the energy radiating from it was also foreign.
"So this is a barrier."
But knowledge deeply engraved in my head through Appraisal did not care about the situation.
Shall we begin?
I took a deep breath and set to work on dispelling it.
Will was like a kind of switch.
The moment I resolved to do it, information related to the sorcery formula surfaced one after another.
"This is Wind-Style Sorcery, with refinement symbols taken from the south wind."
One.
"The energy-gathering side is Fire-Style Sorcery, applying the Wall of Flame formula......."
Two.
When you break things down with the power of acquisition that goes beyond memorization and understanding, no matter how complex a sorcery formula is, it can be shattered.
"So it's a circuit made of four defensive 1-star sorcery arts, with a 2-star sorcery art as the core."
I grasped the structure in no time.
The activated 2-star formula was a type I had never seen before.......
"So what."
This too would soon become familiar.
[Using trait, Appraisal.]
Let's see.
As if coveting it, I reached out toward the nameless sorcery formula.
It was a sorcery art I'd never seen before.
Lee Hwa-young-style 2-star Wood-Style Sorcery application, Roots of Domination
[Understanding: 52%]
A sorcery art that transmits mana through the formula as a medium.......
Interesting.
I hadn't fully acquired it, but I understood the rough mechanism.
To think there was a sorcery art that enabled mana transference.
"As expected."
The founder's name wasn't attached for nothing.
Originally, when a character like "style" is attached next to a sorcery art's name, it is called a Named Art.
Rarer and more precious than ordinary sorcery arts, they are normally passed down within a family or to a single successor.
Unlike me, who had just swiped it, depending on the case it was a sorcery art that even billions couldn't buy.
"If it can be modified, I could put it to good use."
Rather, it was lucky that I had only acquired the broad framework and key principles.
A suitable application suddenly came to mind, but I decided to set it aside for now.
Dispelling came first at the moment.
With this, I had clearly grasped the operating principle of the barrier.
The professor's mana, transferred and residing through the Roots of Domination, was the core.
As if it had a trait that granted will to mana, it was controlling the different formulas like living creatures.
So there was only one answer.
If I could just sever that flow of mana, the barrier would be dispelled.
"Easier than I thought."
Thanks to that, I'd also stolen a Named Art.
I gathered my remaining mana.
My aim was to locate and sever only the circuits running from the Roots of Domination to the defensive formulas.
Crackle. Crack.
A meaningful change appeared the moment I removed three circuits.
The red energy enveloping the door began to thin gradually, and when I severed the last circuit, it soon faded away.
"Wh-what. Already?"
"How many minutes did it take?"
"Th-thirteen minutes......."
Ah, hadn't Lee Yun-ji said it took her twenty minutes?
I hadn't meant to invite comparison, but it turned out that way.
Well, not a bad result.
If I couldn't slip by quietly, it was probably more advantageous to stomp down firmly.
"Wh-what kind of trick did you pull!"
Lee Yun-ji shouted, her face pale to the point of turning blue.
But so what?
I lightly ignored her and declared.
"Today's class ends with this. Hurry up and pack. Let's go home."
* * *
With nothing to pack, I was the first to leave the lecture hall.
All the lectures planned for this week were over, so I headed straight to the dormitory. I wanted to savor some leisure, but.......
"Haah, my luck."
That was something only ordinary people could afford.
Given the nature of Limited Lifespan, with time running short, I couldn't waste a single minute or second.
I hurried toward the general training facility.
I entered a room near the entrance and first reviewed what I knew about the Final Stage Occupation Battle.
The rough story flashed through my mind, converted into scenes.
To summarize roughly.......
A sudden anomaly occurred while we were occupying the Final Stage.
It was the incident that would push the four protagonists, faced with a crisis, to see one another differently as they overcame it.
Since it was a fairly important episode, a quest would naturally be issued, and the objective was highly likely to be defeating the boss.
"But it won't be easy."
The difficulty probably wouldn't even compare to the Initial Stage Occupation Battle.
The Final Stage boss was a whopping Grade 6, with a sizable number of Grade 7 Monsters under it.
I also had to keep in mind the probability of variables I didn't know about occurring.
So I couldn't just charge in recklessly.
I had to prepare in advance.
My chronic problem: mana deficiency.
A countermeasure for that.......
"First, the bracelet."
Once my thoughts were organized, I activated the trait first.
[Activating trait, Manifestation.]
Thanks to steadily using Appraisal, my understanding had already reached 80%.
By now I could visualize and materialize it with practiced ease.
......But.
[Insufficient mana for materialization.]
"This won't work?"
I was flustered for a moment, but the reason soon became clear.
[Permanent possession of an Armament has a very high mana requirement.]
Huh.......
It was a matter of duration rather than the Armament's grade. It seemed to value time more highly than power.
There was no particular way around it, so I filed a request first.
"Limit it to one month."
[Insufficient mana.]
Damn.
"Then limit it to two weeks."
[Insufficient mana.]
Oh, for—
A surge of irritation rose for a moment, but I didn't want to spend time on it either.
"......Then limit it to one week."
[Conditions have been met.]
[Materializing.]
Tch.
It was a shame I had to manifest it every time, but still, it was free, so whatever.
Maybe I had been hoping for something absurd from the start.
For something to remain forever without limits was complete creation—the domain of a god, after all.
"Anyway, I've raised my mana recovery rate."
There was still a card I hadn't played. The Named Art I had just stolen was also worth some anticipation.
Using the training facility's system, I summoned a single training dummy.
[Activating trait, Manifestation.]
I approached and inscribed the sorcery formula I had inadvertently learned, but—
"Will it work if I do this?"
I placed the symbols representing entry (入) and exit (出) in reverse.
That changed several intermediate operators, but I'd already grasped the underlying principle, so it wasn't particularly difficult.
I materialized it immediately. A tattoo-like formula appeared on the dummy, and a thin green line emerged from it and crawled up the back of my hand like a living thing.
SHNK.
It burrowed into my forearm like an IV needle being inserted.
......What is this.
Just as I felt something unpleasant and was about to cancel it—
[Sorcery art, Roots of Domination effect is activating in reverse.]
[Up to 20% of the host's maximum mana can be borrowed.]
"......Really?"
It succeeds this easily?
It was the message I had wanted, which made it all the more bewildering.
The sorcery art I had just used was the 2-star Named Art "Roots of Domination."
I had modified it in my own way and inscribed it.
Had I changed it from supplying mana to the inscribed target into receiving mana from it instead?
I hadn't tried it with certainty, but the result was a great success.
This would greatly reduce the burden of mana depletion.
Whenever I was short, I could just inscribe it on Monsters and receive mana.
Since it was a support type, its mana consumption wasn't high either, so the efficiency was decent.
"Jackpot."
If I didn't have enough of my own, I could just take someone else's and use it.
What an ingenious, shamelessly thieving idea.
[Achievement-562: Getting a Spoon Into Someone Else's Sorcery Art]
[You have gained 1 day as a reward.]
[The sorcery art's name is changed to Roots of Greed.]
[10 SP acquired for shameless development.]
[Remaining Time: 14 days 13 hours 12 minutes]
[SP held: 60]
What the hell?
Still, this is too much.
"Comparing my brilliant idea to a mere spoon."
Of course, giving me a whole day as a reward was something to bow my head for.......
Right, that was definitely a good thing.......
So should I be happy?
"Ahem."
Anyway, now that I had luckily found an alternative, I planned to focus for a while on improving the manifestation accuracy of two sorceries: Roots of Greed and the attribute-combination art I would use in the Final Stage Occupation Battle.
And just like that, time flew by.
The weekend vanished in a flash, and so did Monday, when I had a personal-training class.
By the time I was satisfied with my progress, dawn was breaking on the day of the Final Stage Occupation Battle.