Chapter 91
Chapter 91
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 91
Rosaria's intention in offering a new body was clear.
A brain already invaded by madness. And a Mana Heart ruined by congenital cardiac vessel occlusion.
It would be inefficient to continue using such a body, so she meant for him to abandon it and transfer his consciousness to a new body.
This was also a method commonly used by the elders of Pandemonium who felt physical limitations.
Seo-jin had also considered such a method.
But there were tremendous side effects and costs involved.
Seo-jin asked Rosaria with a glimmer of hope.
"What's the cost?"
"Since you're also my acquaintance's disciple, I'll make it cheap for you. Give me your original body as research material. That much would be an incredibly profitable deal, wouldn't it?"
Rosaria's eyes sparkled with interest.
But Seo-jin shook his head as if he found it distasteful.
"...I refuse."
"Why, are you attached to your original body? It's an emotion any living being would naturally feel, but if you're walking the path of magic, that much shouldn't be a big deal."
As long as one is a living being born with blood and flesh, having attachment to one's own body is an instinctive principle.
However, Seo-jin's rejection of the proposal wasn't for such naive reasons.
'Changing bodies means the transfer or duplication of consciousness.'
No, could this simply be called consciousness?
Is recognizing oneself merely electrical signals?
Or is it the soul?
Then what is the soul in the first place?
In a situation where nothing was certain, he couldn't undergo such a suspicious procedure.
Someone might duplicate my consciousness, or seal it.
This means that the me who opens my eyes in a new body might not be me.
In such a state, if the original body is used as research material, there would be no way back.
Moreover, the one performing this dangerous procedure is a mad research fanatic for whom the distinction between good and evil is meaningless.
No matter how much of a transcendent being well-versed in magic she might be, entrusting one's consciousness to such an opponent would be an extremely dangerous affair.
Seo-jin questioned Rosaria.
"How can I believe that my consciousness transferred to a new body is truly me?"
It would be fortunate if I simply went to sleep and woke up having been moved to a new body.
But what if the current me disappears, and what awakens in the new body is a different me?
Or what if I end up facing a duplicate consciousness imitating me in the new body?
Such an absurd situation would be truly unwelcome.
But as if she had already anticipated such a question from Seo-jin, Rosaria shrugged her shoulders.
"Well. If only the continuous maintenance of consciousness guarantees that you are you, then how do you sleep?"
"Sleep? You mean slumber?"
"Right. Can you guarantee that the you before sleeping and the you after waking up are completely the same person?"
"..."
Seo-jin, who was about to answer that he could naturally guarantee it, momentarily hesitated.
The body's activities might be continuous even during sleep, but there was no way to prove that the consciousness remained continuously his own.
Only the memories after waking could indirectly prove this.
Rosaria continued speaking.
"Memories, dreams? Those are merely byproducts of consciousness. You can't prove the continuity of consciousness with things derived from consciousness. As you know, this world is crawling with transcendents who can easily manipulate such things. How would you know if someone extracted and devoured your soul while you slept, then newly implanted memories and dreams?"
She continued her riddle-like words while exhaling smoke.
"Every living being falls into sleep. What's the reason for that? Survival? Or brief rest?"
Rosaria created a flame in her palm and then clenched her fist to extinguish it.
"Sleep is preparation for the death that will someday come. It's experiencing the eternal termination of consciousness every day. But no living being fears going to sleep. Everyone fears only death though. Isn't that strange? So you don't need to fear either. Death, sleep, the continuity of consciousness. In the end, they're all on the same continuum."
Seo-jin frowned as he continued listening to her sophistry and said.
"...Enough with the sophistry."
She wasn't telling him anything about what he was concerned about, only trying to bewitch him with plausible words.
And.
"Moving to a new body is ultimately a contract with them. I have no intention of contracting with them."
The power that Rosaria commanded was ultimately the power of Black Magic.
Except for special cases like Circe or Seo-jin, all Black Magic was through contracts with higher beings like demons.
For Seo-jin, who was overworking his body to avoid contracting with them, contracting with them in exchange for a new body would be putting the cart before the horse.
It was a proposal not worth considering.
At Seo-jin's response, Rosaria nodded as if she had expected as much.
"In the end, like master, like disciple. How stubborn. Still, I like people like that. Struggling to the very end even knowing it won't work. It's cute."
Seo-jin retorted sharply.
"It's strange to meddle with predetermined destruction."
Of course, the elders of Pandemonium, who were close to the source of magic, wouldn't be easily defeated by demons like inferior Black Mages.
But ultimately, that end was predetermined. How could they be so confident before predetermined destruction?
To this, Rosaria shrugged her shoulders.
"Well? As long as you don't die, you don't have to pay the price of contracts made with them, right? And."
Her eyes gleamed coldly.
"Before such a thing happens, you just need to grow more powerful and either break the contract or kill them. That's what the path of Black Magic is about, isn't it? In fact, Circe killed one of them too."
"..."
Was it survival of the fittest?
Truly befitting a witch. Instead of thinking about keeping the contract, she would solve the problem by killing the other party.
Her way of thinking was completely different from ordinary people.
"Well, the problem is that even if you kill them, they resurrect. But someday we'll find a way to annihilate them permanently."
Rosaria said this while smiling lightly.
Defeating demons' true forms or annihilating them permanently.
To Seo-jin, it seemed like something infinitely distant, so he couldn't feel any real sense of it.
"I think that's enough small talk. Rest today. Since confirmation is finished, let's start working on magic creation from tomorrow."
***
Having finished the confirmation procedure, Seo-jin and Rosaria left the research lab and walked out through the long corridor again.
ZWOOM-.
The place they arrived at after exiting the swirling corridor was a guest room.
It seemed to be a facility inside the Mage Tower that he had seen from the central plaza of the 12th floor earlier.
"Stay here from now on. I'll prepare everything so you won't be inconvenienced."
The room was spacious and the facilities looked decent.
Seo-jin took out his backpack from his inventory, placed it on the bed, and asked.
"If I have time, may I visit other areas?"
As far as he knew, there was no regulation that one had to receive teachings from only one faction.
"Are you thinking of going to Gabriel or Talis?"
"That's right. I'm not particularly bound to Pandemonium after all."
"Well... there's nothing that can't be done. It's just that there's never been anyone who dared to say such things in front of an elder of magic until now."
There was a mountain of things to learn, and even if he gave up sleep to learn, it wouldn't be enough. She had never seen a madman who would want to peek around other areas during that time.
Moreover, there had never been anyone with enough guts to openly say such things in front of a witch who had lived for thousands of years.
But Seo-jin's case was somewhat special.
Thanks to being Circe's disciple, Rosaria wasn't uncomfortable, and there wasn't much for him to learn from her either.
If it were some unknown failing student turning their eyes to other miscellaneous subjects, she would scold them, but if it were an acquaintance's disciple who was also a good student showing interest in miscellaneous subjects, there was no reason not to allow it.
Rosaria readily permitted the outing.
"Make sure to return by tomorrow morning. You're free to wander around, but don't act recklessly and affect the schedule."
"Of course."
Seo-jin nodded and then clapped his hands as if remembering something.
"Ah, come to think of it, there's one thing I'd like to borrow for a moment."
***
The central plaza of the 12th floor.
For the first time since his regression, Seo-jin strolled through the plaza in comfortable attire.
No mask covering his face, no robe pulled over his head.
A modest gray robe with a somewhat bumbling impression.
It was a completely different impression from Seo-jin's original face, height, and attire.
This was thanks to the phase-change artifact [Mask of Ten Thousand Forms] borrowed from Rosaria.
Using this, he could freely change not only his attire but also his face and body shape.
More precisely, it changed the form that others perceived when looking at Seo-jin.
It was a mystery of much higher rank than ordinary transformation magic, so unless one possessed a higher rank, it would be difficult to see through the identity.
There were martial arts that adjusted bone structure, but those came with side effects.
But this had no side effects whatsoever.
Complete freedom felt after a long time.
Seo-jin savored this rare freedom as he left the Pandemonium area and headed to other areas.
The structure of the 12th floor was perfectly divided into four areas centered around the obelisk and cross roads of the central plaza.
Each area housed the servants and trainees of the four major powers.
Though the trainees were only the extremely few chosen in this cycle and the remaining thousands of climbers suffering in the testing grounds.
As he walked down the street, he happened to see a group of climbers who had failed the test and were in despair.
"Ha, damn. Did you fail too?"
"How are we supposed to pass that thing?"
"They probably just don't want to teach us. Let's go drink. They say just drinking here increases your magic power."
"Let's rest just for today and start again tomorrow."
Those comforting each other while heading to a tavern.
Those who failed the tests stayed in residential areas and repeated the tests until they passed.
Seo-jin before his regression had also experienced the same situation when he came to the 12th floor.
Of course, he hadn't gone straight to drink after failing once like those guys.
After passing them and walking for a while, he noticed someone in the distance moving enormous luggage.
THUD- THUD-.
Heavy iron chains that appeared to be training equipment, giant logs, and various training apparatus.
Binding them with chains of magic power to make them like a huge rock, then placing it on his shoulders and walking steadily was a muscular old man.
The one moving the luggage was none other than the Fighting Demon Talis.
Talis looked at Seo-jin for a moment, tilted his head, then soon realized his identity.
"What's this, isn't this the guy I saw during the day?"
Even the Mask of Ten Thousand Forms couldn't fool the eyes of a high-ranking being.
"How did you know?"
"Even if the appearance changes, the essence doesn't change. Isn't that natural? Do you have business with me?"
"I was wondering if there might be something to learn from you as well."
"Hmm? I thought you were being educated by that witch?"
"That's right. But just because I received Pandemonium's choice doesn't mean there's a law preventing me from learning elsewhere."
At Seo-jin's response, Talis straightened his shoulders and burst into hearty laughter.
KAHAHAHA-!
Then he erased his laughter and said.
"I've never seen such a bold guy before. Right, that's correct. There's no law saying you must be tied to only one place. However."
THUD-.
He set down the luggage from his shoulders and said.
"I can't easily accept someone who once rejected my teachings. This Talis's pride, Valhalla's honor won't forgive it."
"I acknowledge that."
For someone who had once rejected an offer and gone to another faction to come back asking to learn.
Even Seo-jin would have found it difficult to accept easily.
"But there's no law saying I should turn away someone who wants to learn. Like other climbers, I'll give you a test too. Try to pass it."