Chapter 240
Chapter 240
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 240
Chapter Title: The Mad Mage of the Crimson Tower
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rattle, clunk.
A cheap, rickety, and terribly bumpy carriage raced down the narrow path. Pulling it was an old donkey with speed that was no joke.
"Seriously, I'm faster than you at this point."
"Pruuuh."
"Don't give it a hard time. At this age, running like this is plenty diligent."
"I was giving it a hard time, but it doesn't listen anyway."
The donkey flicked its ears listlessly. No matter what you said, it moved at its own pace, stubbornly sticking to its rhythm.
It walked at a leisurely strolling speed, but even that felt slow because it kept stopping to munch grass on the roadside or relieve itself.
Clunk, rattle.
"Ahh..."
I flopped down flat in the roofless carriage. The sky was a killer shade of blue, and the clouds were pretty. But my heart felt stuffy all the same.
It wasn't really the donkey's slowness. Finding a carriage on this forest path was lucky enough.
If there hadn't been one, I'd have had to hoof it on foot for ages to find the Crimson Tower, without even knowing the local lay of the land. This was a lucky day, no doubt.
I was just a bit impatient.
Woooong—fizz.
Even channeling magic power didn't feel right.
It used to rev up decently, not like the monster engines but enough to keep pace with others. Now, my magic engine's output was laughable. Old donkey levels.
After a 30-way split, was it greedy to expect my magic abilities to be the same as before?
Eh, whatever. It's fine.
As long as I gather the scattered data, the ability recovers. Even with this sudden reset event, I'm still me. Gotta be grateful for the world.
It's not that urgent. The holy city thing should sort itself out...
From what I observed holding out against the forced teleport to the end, 'that thing' stayed behind in the holy city with my body, nice and quiet. In my opinion, even if security shakes a bit, it won't get loose into the world.
Having Yuna right there was a reassurance too.
Suppressing 'that thing' relied on my insane computational power. So during the process of turning my body into data, I deliberately excluded my head.
I split and designated the 『modules』 one by one, making only the informationalized parts—while leaving as much body as possible—the targets of the 『Forced Expulsion』.
Thus, my body's computational power was mostly intact. Meaning 'that thing's' seal was safe.
In other words.
"...No more quadrillion-digit mental math."
Since I poured all the computation into my body, the separated me turned into a bit of a dumb idiot.
Is this how normal people see the world? Shooting down falling leaves with paper planes used to be a casual hobby, but now wind calculations are tricky. Shame.
With calculation power and magic gone, what do I have left...?
Ihihihihiing—!!
"Kuhahaha! Halt right there! This road's under our bandit gang's control—pay the toll!"
"Mercy me, what money's a farmer with an old donkey got!"
"If you can't pay toll, strip your clothes and hand 'em over! Ditch the carriage too!"
What I have left.
I boldly stepped forward before the suddenly appearing bandit crew. Licked my lips to wet them, then fired up the concept engine.
"Alright, you mountain hero brothers. Hear me out for just ten minutes, and your minds'll change."
"......?"
My tongue's still intact.
Blocking a tiny path like this to rob what looked like a worthless little carriage... meant they were a pretty small-time bandit group. Sure enough, their gear was shabby, and there were only three of them.
They seemed like farmers turned bandits. Hard times make you grab a sword and head to the hills.
So I went with the empathy strategy.
I spun a tale of a poor farmer's woes, and squeezed a bit of support money out of the would-be extortionists.
"Waaah...! I pray your little sister gets better!"
"Yes, take care, good sir!"
I waved goodbye to the departing bandits with a 90-degree bow. Nice, got some travel fare this way. Enough to cover the carriage ride.
The coachman eyed me with worry during my tearless tearjerker epic, looking at me like a pitiful young man.
"Your sister's really got a bad illness?"
"Total bullshit, obviously."
"...Hah, so that's why you wander the world bare-handed."
Yeah, magic power's down, but my experience and wisdom are fully intact. Plus, all my TRPG techniques are untouched.
Rattle, clunk. The carriage resumed.
The old donkey, spooked by the recent bandit attack maybe, picked up speed by about 1.5 times. Good news.
Nothing else happened after. The kind coachman dropped me at the nearest town, and I walked the rest of the way to the Crimson Tower. Impressive size—three times bigger than the Violet Tower.
Now, what to do.
If I were 100% me, I'd stroll home cool as a devil like nothing happened. Objectively, I had serious skills.
Unless some passerby powerhouse stabbed me out of nowhere, I wouldn't lose—even if I couldn't win, I could escape easy.
But now? Kinda scary. I handled those bandits fine despite not talking sense into them, but an ogre or cleaning golem?
Curtains.
I need power to navigate this brutal world.
So, while waiting for Yuna and Yuri to find me, and to contact them, and for backup combat power in a pinch...
I decided to become a Crimson Tower mage and learn fire magic.
I approached the gatekeeper-mage, and got a reaction.
"Who're you?"
"Here to learn magic. Any chance I can join the Crimson Tower?"
"...That's not how it works—just showing up. Go home. You can't be a mage like this. Need a recommendation or gold, one or the other."
"Oh, really?"
But hey, words work on you.
"You know a single magic circle contains mana equivalent to four normal ones?"
"Huh...?"
......
I successfully became an apprentice mage of the Crimson Tower.
Studying another school's magic resets proficiency bonuses.
It's like how one soul can't manifest two awakenings. Trying fire magic with a magic engine tuned to illusion magic messes up the optimized structure.
That's why I held out. Endured the humiliation of losing to a golem and stuck to pure illusion magic. Couldn't ditch my illusion proficiency over a moment of misery.
But now I'm a special info-lifeform. I can discard whatever I want.
Learn fire magic here. Use the power to get home, then before fusing with my left-behind body, 'delete' the now-unneeded fire magic.
Eat and spit it out, basically.
Not betrayal. I'm never betraying illusion magic.
I slaved away researching holograms with physics, never once envied folks casually fireballing with a flick.
No dark suspicions here that honing Golden Tower golem control could've made real TRPGs without illusion magic.
"......"
So just a little.
A tiny bit. Just taste fire magic and bail. Learning it to get home—no way I'm falling to fire corruption.
Target in front of me. The Crimson Tower provided dummies and targets as amenities. Yeah, barbaric magic you shoot to smash—makes sense they'd have this.
Thump thump. Heart pounding like mad.
A weird sense of depravity. I'm really using another school's magic...
Strip the clunky bits from the fireball spell. Fix the unoptimized parts, customize for my ease. And now...
"『Mini Fire Spear』."
Shwoooosh.
The red-trailing fire spear hit the target dead-on with secondary acceleration from its rear propellant.
And came the boom illusion magic never makes.
KABOOM──!!
Ah.
Thrilling.
Smashed it. One flick. This easy.
I blasted it.
First feeling: bewilderment. Is this allowed?
Magic with substance, smashing targets—no endless feedback, stabilization, tuning? Isn't that wrong?
And this impact...
Bug. Balance patch gone wrong. Gotta report to someone to fix it. But, right now...
Right now, this magic's mine.
"Heh, hehehe..."
I'm a guy too.
Of course big warships and cannons interest me, sizzling firepower sets my heart ablaze. 'No such thing as too big an explosion.' Love that quote.
And now, I got it!
"Ha, ahahahahaha──!!"
I laughed heartily, venting joy. Then a subtle urge creeps into the void.
A bit more.
A bigger boom.
World's too dangerous. Spec up a little. At least enough firepower to erase an ogre in one go. Only then can I head back to the Violet Tower, right?
Need a lab. Small, cozy one.
"Hey, newbie! Can't use the range on your own! Access from third year, we got hierarchy here..."
"Lab."
"...?"
"Gimme a lab──!!"
I politely asked the senior mage, 'I urgently need to research something—mind if I borrow your lab?'
Luckily, the Crimson Tower senior generously permitted it.
Academy student Selbia returned to the Crimson Tower after ages. There was a story: the massive incident at the holy city Trumpet Hall threw the whole empire into chaos.
The palace, feeling the manpower shortage, dragged in even Academy professors to quell it.
Naturally, most classes were suspended, giving students an unplanned mini-break.
Selbia learned tons at the Academy. How to whack people with a staff, sure, but the standout was 『Countering Illusion Magic』.
Aimed at 'learn to deal with illusion magic!' but warped by some mad mage into 'fight in horrific tentacle mazes, approaching walls, deadly dungeons!'
Rich education, or brutally tough—depending on view.
"...Ughhh."
Selbia set down her backpack with a shallow sigh, rolling her stiff shoulders to loosen up. Then a familiar Crimson Tower mage approached.
"Hey, Selbia... A crazy bastard slipped into the tower."
"Not news? What's he done this time—like Jess confessing to the Crimson Tower Master day one?"
"Don't ask. Way beyond that. First day, snatched a senior's lab, raided the third-grade supply vault... Now, whew. See for yourself."
The Crimson Tower mage rubbed his forehead with a complicated look, like words failed, and led Selbia to the east facilities.
And there.
"We never knew explosions could be art too, brother. We were so close to them, yet blind to their beauty. If fireworks could paint the Milky Way..."
"We've ignored the hearts of those who'll die by our magic. We should send them off in splendor, no regrets. We pursue lethal magic, but now we must explore funerals' worth too!"
"Explosion, can you hear me? If it's okay, can I talk to you?"
Some lunatics were holding a shady cult meeting.
"See? That mad fucker recruited one by one, made this mess! But... listening, it kinda ain't wrong..."
"......"
Feels familiar.
A mage whose words twist hearts instantly, gone off the rails somewhere... One face comes to mind. Heard he went on assignment to the holy city.
Selbia pushed through the explosion-worshipping mages to the center. And there.
The suspected mad mage was.
"...Professor, what're you doing here?"
"Ah."
"What the hell are you doing? Why're you even in the Crimson Tower?!"
Selbia couldn't fathom why the illusion magic master—Academy professor no less—was a newbie Crimson Tower mage pulling this weird shit.