Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 26
A white-haired girl peeking her head out after opening the door of the cabin.
She wore a purple pointed hat with a wide brim on her head, and spherical joints connecting each limb were visible between her clothes.
This doll was none other than.
'Witch Circe'.
One of the four major powers dominating the Tower, an elder of Pandemonium and a great black mage who had reached closest to the truth.
On the 3rd floor, she was commonly called by the name 'False Sage', and privately, she was the person who had been Seo-jin's master in his previous life.
Circe, who had been staring blankly up at Seo-jin, frowned and asked once more.
"Who are you? No, more than that, how did you break through the barrier and get in?"
The barrier surrounding the workshop was a mixed barrier woven with magic and sorcery that repelled outsiders.
Ordinary people couldn't discover the location of this place even by chance, and even mages would turn around without being able to break through the barrier.
But this uninvited guest had not only broken through the barrier but had moved so stealthily that she hadn't noticed his approach.
This meant there hadn't been even the slightest ripple in the mana wavelength while he was breaking through the barrier.
Seo-jin answered with a grin.
"That's proof that I'm your disciple, Master."
"What kind of nonsense are you spouting? I don't remember accepting someone like you as a disciple."
"You might not remember, but Master, you have accepted me as a disciple before. I guarantee it."
"......"
A man claiming to be her disciple with a confident attitude.
What kind of crazy person is this, she thought, but after pondering for a moment, the doll nodded her head.
"Well, come to think of it, that might be possible."
"As expected of you, Master."
"Come inside for now."
Circe readily opened the door and let Seo-jin into the cabin.
[......What the hell is this situation? Am I the only one who doesn't understand?]
Hyeon-wol, who had been quietly watching from the side, asked, but Seo-jin only chuckled.
"Master has flexible thinking."
Seo-jin smoothly followed behind the sphere-jointed doll into the mushroom-shaped cabin.
Inside the cabin where warm sunlight streamed through a small window.
Various research materials and medicine bottles were lined up on a table on one side, and a huge cauldron bubbling over a campfire installed in the center added warmth.
The cozy feeling of returning to one's hometown home after a long time.
"Take off your shoes and put them there......"
Before Circe could finish speaking, Seo-jin familiarly took off his shoes, put them in the cabinet, and picked up the mana perfume next to it to spray on his body.
CHIK CHIK-.
This was the process of removing insects that lived in the forest.
Next, Seo-jin took off his mud-covered robe and put it in the magic wardrobe next to the shoe cabinet.
After putting in the robe and closing the cabinet door, the wardrobe began washing the robe with a small mechanical sound.
After taking off even his robe, Seo-jin went straight to the soft sofa next to the campfire and sat down comfortably.
This series of routines was very familiar to Seo-jin.
But from Circe's perspective, it was an incredibly strange scene.
How could he act so familiarly when she had never taught him?
"What's your name?"
"It's Lee Seo-jin."
Circe poured tea and handed it to Seo-jin while asking.
"You definitely said you were my disciple. Then what did you learn from me and how?"
Seo-jin familiarly pushed aside the teacup with frog legs floating in it and rolled up his sleeves.
Then he showed his mana circuit that had dyed his arm pitch black.
"It would be better for you to see directly rather than hear words."
"What great thing are you going to show me......"
Circe grumbled for a moment at the sight of Seo-jin pushing aside the teacup.
"......!"
But as soon as she saw Seo-jin's mana circuit, she rushed forward so hastily that her pointed hat almost fell off.
"This is...... indeed."
Circe clung to Seo-jin's arm and examined his mana circuit from various angles.
'The composition of this mana circuit is...... not the inferior design that ordinary mage wannabes use briefly to implement magic and then discard.'
A structure where mana in the body gathers just by operating the mana circuit when magic is needed.
A mana circuit designed to be optimized so that it can be fired in any desired direction with any desired power at any time.
The concept itself was excellent, but the completion was even more outstanding.
This mana circuit could be seen as a trace of countless experiences and efforts built upon overwhelming talent.
'But something's a bit strange.'
Circe frowned and glared at the man claiming to be her disciple.
This guy's age was at most between twenty and thirty. Far too young to accumulate combat experience.
Moreover, if there was one strange thing.
'Despite designing a mana circuit with such completion, he didn't engrave a circuit that calculates and optimizes the surrounding mana concentration.'
This very part was proof that he was her disciple.
Circe, who had been clinging to Seo-jin's arm, soon sat on the opposite sofa with a cough.
"AHEM."
Circe analyzed Seo-jin's situation and constitution at once through his mana circuit.
"You have a problem with your Mana Heart so your mana sensitivity is lacking? That's why you stepped into black magic."
"Yes."
"And yet there's no trace of contracting with a demon, so you offered your own body as the price. Reversing the mana in your body to draw out Reverse Heaven's mana. That's the method I mainly use."
Circe rarely accepts disciples.
The conditions she sets for accepting disciples are very strict, the first of which is that they must awaken and learn black magic on their own.
The second is that they must not contract with demons.
But this inevitably leads to a problem.
'Progressive physical collapse.'
Using black magic without offering blood sacrifices means gnawing at one's own body and mind.
This was a difficult problem that even Circe, an elder of Pandemonium, couldn't overcome.
Circe clenched her fist made of spherical joints and said.
"I acknowledge it. You are definitely my disciple."
A spirit that touches the abyss yet resists it, and traces of that bloody effort.
This could be seen as definite proof of being a disciple.
"I told you I was your disciple."
"I think I know why you came looking for me. Take out the materials you brought."
Seo-jin laid out the herbs he had bought from the pharmacy in Chinatown without complaint.
After examining these carefully, Circe frowned.
"There are quite a lot of missing materials. Where are the mandrake and snow flower grass?"
With just this, she couldn't make the secret elixir that slows down the speed of physical collapse and increases mana sensitivity.
"There are limits to obtaining materials on the lower floors. This was all I could get immediately."
"Lower floors? What level are you right now?"
"Level 15. I just obtained the right to climb to the 4th floor."
"......?"
Circe, with a question mark, frowned and asked back.
"How the hell did a mere level 15 get here?"
I answered that question calmly.
"If I’m Master's disciple, I should have at least this much talent."
After thinking for a moment, Circe nodded as if she understood.
"True. You can't call yourself my disciple if you succumb to something like level. But you need at least the minimum physical strength to endure mana reversal, and it's impressive that you've held out until now. Well done."
At Circe's praise, Seo-jin scratched his head in an uncharacteristic manner.
Seeing that, Circe smiled slightly and tidied up.
"I'll procure the missing materials separately tomorrow. Rest comfortably here today."
"Thank you."
"Have you eaten dinner? If not, I'll make some for you."
Seo-jin looked at the teacup with frog legs and the bubbling cauldron, then nodded with a sigh.
***
After a terrible dinner.
In the night when darkness had fallen, Circe and Seo-jin sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and chatted.
Seo-jin summoned Baduki in front of Circe, who was smoking a water pipe.
"This is my pet dog. Say hello, Baduki."
GRRRRR-.
Baduki growled immediately because they were in front of a stranger.
But perhaps sensing something from Circe, he soon lowered his tail and bowed his head before her.
Although it was an artificial body made of spherical joints and just a part of the various souls scattered throughout the Tower, Circe was one of the elders of the magical path.
He must have felt irresistible mana from such a person.
Circe gently scratched Baduki's chin with her hand while examining his features.
"A spiritual being. Judging from the earth energy I feel, it seems you used Behemoth as material. It's not genuine though, it's a replica."
"You recognize it immediately."
"You must have met Nimrod, that guy. Then in the tutorial room?"
"Yes, he suddenly sealed my mana and told me to kill Behemoth. I really thought I was going to die."
"Seeing that you're alive and well, you must have dealt with it well. But at that level, even with black magic, you could kill Behemoth?"
"Ah, actually I also learned blood magic."
Circe tilted her head slightly, then spoke as if she understood.
"Blood magic? Aha, you must have made Leviathan's Fang."
"Yes, I tore up its stomach with that all day long. I almost melted to death in gastric acid."
"KEKEKE, why didn't you generate it directly near its heart?"
"There's that method too. I'll try it next time."
Hyeon-wol watched the two chatting excitedly from a distance.
[A well-matched master and disciple.]
The two sharing trivial chatter while eating snacks in front of the campfire heating the cauldron.
She had only thought he was prickly and irritable, but she didn't know Seo-jin had this side to him.
Actually, his dog-like personality and madness were learned later, and originally he might have had such a bright personality.
"......I've even met ordinary people passing by while kneading entrails all night. They ran away in terror."
"Did you catch them and manipulate their memories?"
"No, I let them go since they'd escape to the upper floors anyway...... Come to think of it, I didn't clean up. There would be entrail pieces and bloodstains left."
"What does it matter? As you said, they'll escape to the upper floors anyway."
"That's right, isn't it?"
[......]
No, he really was crazy to begin with.
***
The next day.
Materials prepared by Circe's artificial bodies scattered throughout the Tower were transmitted to the cabin.
Having secured all the necessary materials, Seo-jin and Circe began the full-scale production of the secret elixir.
"My disciple. You said you haven't changed jobs yet?"
"Yes, Master."
His level wasn't high enough so he couldn't change jobs yet.
"That's good. Then you can raise your level through elixir production and change to a special job."
Then Circe, holding a quill pen, asked Seo-jin for his opinion on the production method.
"What form do you think would be good for the elixir? Pills? Liquid?"
"I think the form you roll and smoke would be best."
"Cigarette form. Well, that's convenient and the effect is immediate too. But it won't be good for your health."
"What can we do? We have to accept that much."
We can't take care of efficiency and health at the same time.
After pondering for a moment, Circe soon nodded while writing chemical formulas in her notebook.
"Well, fine. You can replace the lungs and esophagus later. You could even extract the brain and transfer it to an artificial body."
"......"
Since it was Circe speaking, who transfers her consciousness to dolls, it didn't sound like a joke.
"Then let's begin."