Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 63
A unique building that formed an exquisite harmony between oriental curves and modern magical engineering styles.
The Mage Tower of Korea's mage guild 'Taebaek'.
The pillars decorated with red dancheong rose straight as if supporting the sky, and the ends of the tiled roof's eaves curved softly toward the heavens.
Seo-jin looked at the splendid building and chuckled.
'They've splurged on money.'
Perhaps due to the fierce competition between nations.
Even the Mage Towers were boasting their own unique beauty as if competing with each other.
Seo-jin immediately approached the security guard standing at the entrance of Taebaek's Mage Tower.
"Please present your identification."
The security at the Mage Tower entrance was strict, but when he presented the business card he had received from Han So-yul in the past, entry permission was easily granted.
"Ah, you've come to join. The information desk is over there."
Seo-jin nodded and headed toward the information desk.
When he said he had come to handle enrollment procedures, the receptionist handed Seo-jin a terminal.
"Here, please enter your name and number."
"Hmm."
After a moment's consideration, Seo-jin entered the name Nam-gung Cheon. For the contact information, he skillfully entered Ha-yeon's backup number.
Light hand movements as if he couldn't even feel pangs of conscience.
[......Are you insane?]
Hyeon-wol, who was watching from the side, reproached him, but Seo-jin didn't care.
"There's nothing to worry about much."
Anyway, the information entered when climbing the Tower was only held by the artificial intelligence BABEL and wasn't separately shared with the Mage Tower, so its authenticity couldn't be verified.
Of course, there might be problems when going outside the Tower, but this was just a means to summon Han So-yul anyway, so it didn't matter much.
"Do you have a recommender?"
"Here."
Seo-jin took out the business card he had received from Han So-yul.
"Ah, a recommendation from the Guild Leader. That's exciting. Next we'll have mana measurement. We need to conduct a mage aptitude test."
The receptionist guided Seo-jin to the mana measurement room.
What the Mage Tower valued more than names and identities was the mage's 'mana information'.
Mana circuits and traces of mana were like a mage's fingerprints, so individuals could be quickly distinguished with this alone.
The reason personal information verification procedures weren't strict was also due to this.
The mana measurement room they arrived at following the receptionist.
A crystal orb connected to machinery was emitting a brilliant light.
"Please place your hand on the crystal orb and inject mana. We'll measure mana quantity, control efficiency, and purity to calculate a score, and based on this, Mage Tower usage privileges will be granted, so please pay attention."
"Alright."
Pay attention indeed.
When Seo-jin placed his hand according to the instructions, the previously quiet crystal orb began flickering rapidly.
FLASH-.
The crystal orb poured out unstable waves mixed with blue and black light.
The measurement display panel was filled with indecipherable symbols and error messages.
This was the result of receiving the Reverse Heaven's mana unique to black mages.
"Uh, uhh?"
The measurement staff mage was flustered and didn't know what to do, and this strange phenomenon was immediately reported through internal reporting lines all the way to the top floor of the Mage Tower.
Since what he had presented during registration was connected to an emergency contact network linked to Han So-yul's recommendation code, the report was more rapid than usual.
DING-.
The express elevator that came down to the 1st floor in an instant.
"Huff, HUFF......"
Not long after, Han So-yul appeared with urgent footsteps.
Her usual composure was nowhere to be found, as her hair was disheveled from panting and her robe hem was slightly wrinkled.
As soon as she spotted Seo-jin, she sent him a reproachful look along with a sigh of relief.
"Really, if you came, you should have contacted me. Why are you causing a commotion here?"
"What commotion. Just clean this up."
"I got it. I got it, so let's go up."
So-yul pushed Seo-jin into the elevator as if worried someone might see.
She seemed more concerned about his identity being discovered than Seo-jin himself.
"Guild Leader, what is this......"
The measurement staff mage asked in confusion, unable to grasp the situation.
"It's nothing. An acquaintance came and played a little prank."
So-yul calmed him down while putting on sunglasses and taking out a stick from her pocket.
"Now~ look here, and forget about this incident."
FLASH-.
***
A quiet reception room inside the Mage Tower. Han So-yul seemed to have calmed down only after moving locations. She brought out tea.
"Here, tea."
Seo-jin sat with his legs crossed, looking at the teacup placed on the table as if evaluating it.
Since she had heated the teacup directly with Fire Magic, even though she hadn't gone to prepare for long, steam was rising gently.
It seemed she was subtly showing off the results of her mana control training learned under Witch Circe.
'Hmm.'
Seeing that it was at just the right temperature, her skill in controlling fire power had become more stable than before.
If fire power control went even slightly wrong, the teacup would burn or all the water inside would evaporate.
Seo-jin, who brought the tea to his lips to check the temperature, nodded silently.
"Your skills have improved a bit. You weren't completely hopeless after all."
"Be quiet. Why did you come here?"
"You knew everything and came to wait in advance, yet you're pretending not to know and asking."
"Ugh."
Actually, Han So-yul had heard the news that Seo-jin had conquered the 10th floor and immediately headed to the 11th floor.
She had anticipated that Seo-jin's next destination would be Taebaek's Mage Tower.
"Oh, and take this."
So-yul took out a cheque and handed it to Seo-jin.
"What's this?"
"The 3rd floor development started with the Thousand-Eyed Demon Tree subjugation. Since it's recorded as me having subjugated it, I received some reward money. Since we caught it together, I'll distribute it to you."
"Oho."
I hadn't even thought about it, but she's taking care of it like this. It was an unexpected gain.
However, Seo-jin looked over the check, shook his head, and returned it to So-yul.
"Thanks. But I don't need the check. I prefer actual goods, so give me mana stones."
"This is a check that's valid anywhere as long as our Mage Tower doesn't go bankrupt. And where would I get 2 billion won worth of mana stones right now?"
"It might go bankrupt. If there are no mana stones, give me items."
"What kind?"
Seo-jin handed over a note he had prepared in advance as if he had been waiting.
So-yul frowned and read the memo contents one by one.
"Star Dust and Dragon's scales...... Antique Golem's core, Arachne's thread......"
So-yul, who had been reciting materials for a while, crumpled up the note and threw it away.
"Ha, do you know how much this costs? 2 billion won isn't even close. Besides, Dragon's scales are extremely rare since it was subjugated not long ago."
"I know there's one left. Your sister gave it to you, didn't she?"
The Dragon's scales were definitely secured by Saintess Kwon Ha-yeon, who participated in the Dragon subjugation.
Ha-yeon had given it as a gift to Han Seo-hee, and Han Seo-hee, seeing So-yul struggling under pressure from performance results, donated it as research material at the association level.
To shamelessly demand such a precious item.
So-yul exclaimed as if incredulous.
"You know there's only one, yet you're asking for it?"
"Yeah, I can catch another Dragon and give it to you. You can't research it with current technology anyway, right?"
With current Mage Tower technology, they couldn't even scratch the Dragon's scales, so research would be impossible.
It would be better for Seo-jin to use it.
"That's true, but...... how do you know about that?"
Both securing the Dragon's scales and the fact that it was difficult to research immediately were strictly classified information.
Information that outsiders shouldn't know.
"I have ways of knowing everything."
"Did Master perhaps tell you?"
Han So-yul asked again, but Seo-jin didn't answer.
In the end, So-yul, who arbitrarily convinced herself it was thanks to Witch Circe, nodded.
"Alright. I'll give it to you. But this is a secret. If it gets out, both you and I are dead."
So-yul drew her finger across her throat threateningly.
No matter how it was a private gift for her sister, nominally it was an item the association had donated to the Mage Tower.
If it became known that this had been provided to an outsider like Seo-jin, controversy would arise.
"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."
"Geez."
So-yul, who sighed deeply, picked up the note again to examine it and asked.
"So, what are you going to do with this?"
"I'm going to make a robe. I can't keep wearing rags forever."
Saying so, Seo-jin poked a finger out his worn-out robe. Since he was still using what he bought on the 2nd floor, it was about time to get a new robe.
"It's long past time to change. You climbed to the 10th floor wearing that?"
"Something like that. Will you help?"
"Fine. But there's a condition."
No matter how much personal connection there was, giving away precious items like Dragon's scales without hesitation was absurd.
So-yul naturally presented a condition.
"Soon, the Mage Tower's joint expedition team will depart for the Great Cavity."
"Joint expedition team?"
"Yes, it's an investigation to explore the source of the 11th floor's abnormal mana. It's something we've always done, but this time we've formed large-scale joint investigation teams by country. Recently, mana anomaly phenomena in the Great Cavity have been frequently observed."
The mana concentration on the 11th floor was strangely high compared to other floors.
Usually, the higher the floor, the higher the mana concentration should be, but the 11th floor had higher mana concentration than even the 30th floor where the current top-floor conquest team was located.
However, the researchers here knew nothing about the battle between Witch Circe and the demon, so they couldn't find clues about the abnormally high mana concentration.
The joint investigation team was dispatched as part of that research.
Taebaek, South Korea's largest mage guild, also participated in that joint investigation.
So-yul continued.
"In this expedition, whoever finds something first gets to keep it. You know what that means, right?"
"The strong take everything."
"That's right."
The Great Cavity was an artificial cave formed from a demon's corpse.
It was a dangerous place due to abnormal mana phenomena, but precisely because of that, it was a place where high-quality mana stones and research materials could be obtained.
The expedition's purpose wasn't just investigating the cause of the 11th floor's abnormal mana concentration, but also collecting resources produced in the Great Cavity.
Resource distribution was agreed to be taken at the discretion of each country's investigation team, so So-yul intended to use Seo-jin's power here.
Seo-jin slowly stroked his chin.
"Since research results are behind and the Mage Tower's very existence is in danger, you want me to go and clean out all the other countries instead?"
"You don't need to explain it quite so bluntly."
Although South Korea was the sovereign nation that possessed the Tower, this didn't necessarily lead to superior research results.
Mage Towers and research facilities were ultimately consuming groups. They consumed enormous amounts of mana stones and expensive research materials, so they were literally money-eating hippos.
Precisely because of this, definite results had to be shown to receive support funds to cover this.
Other countries built foundations gradually from basic magic and invested with a long-term view even without results, but South Korea, as always, only valued immediate results.
This was why Han So-yul was acting urgently, and why she was betting everything on this joint investigation.
In short, it was a scheme to make up for insufficient funds and research results through this investigation.
"Hmm."
Collect according to ability, but the strong take the important things. There couldn't be better conditions for Seo-jin.
'This worked out well.'
He would have had to visit the Great Cavity anyway to obtain the demon's Energy Core.
If he entered with the identity of an investigation team member, he wouldn't have to worry about others' reactions, so things became easier than expected.
"Understood. I'll accept the proposal. What's the composition of the investigation team?"
"Ten people per country. However, this investigation has a competitive nature, so quite a few big shots might appear. I heard that Zhang Wei-an, Fernando, and Gu-ren are participating."
Gu-ren was a Japanese ranker, a brat known as the Grand Mage of the top-floor conquest team.
Zhang Wei-an was China's Immortal Technique user, and Fernando was a druid representing the Central and South American Union.
The other investigation team members were also formidable individuals.
"Everyone's grinding their teeth. You alone would be insufficient, wouldn't you?"
"That's why I'm asking for help."
Seo-jin chuckled.
"Good, I'll help you."
"Really?"
"Of course I'll help. But in this situation, the calculation changes, my friend."
Dragon's scales alone wouldn't balance the cost-benefit ratio, and it seemed there might be more to gain.