The Third Class (7)
“…….”
“I’d really appreciate it if you could just make a spot for us, just once. Honestly, this isn’t what I wanted at all. I only brought it up because you told me to say it if I had something to say….”
It was probably no mistake that she looked as if she truly meant it.
Honestly, I didn’t especially want to get involved in the romantic affairs of two other people, but if all it took was a single line from me to gain an assistant this competent, then it was a rather beautiful deal.
Still, it was only natural that I wanted to hear the reason. This wasn’t concern for Park Deokgu, but pure curiosity.
“Since when….”
“It’s not that there was any particular reason, exactly, just… Park Deokgu-nim’s face wouldn’t leave my memory….”
Maybe it was because of whatever trait he possessed.
“We happened to run into each other in a restaurant once… and the way he looked at me, all absentminded and indifferent… for some reason, it just… stuck in my head….”
What is he, some kind of femme fatale?
I was a little taken aback by the unexpected quality he seemed to have. No, to be fair, this woman had already said her type was big, warm, comforting people, so it made sense that she’d latch onto Park Deokgu, but even so, I couldn’t quite believe she’d been undone by a single glance.
Objectively, Hwang Jeongyeon was a beauty. There was something about her calm, composed air that gave her the feel of a quiet, dependable wife of good standing.
Her hair was tied back and swept over one shoulder, and her face suited a faint smile. I wasn’t disparaging our precious Deokgu or anything, but they felt like they were from entirely different species.
A woman with a 90 intelligence stat had been won over in barely ten seconds.
The result was wildly different from my own, considering I’d spent days trying to drag Jung Hayan over to my side.
I’d been a little surprised, but agreeing was the obvious choice.
“A spot would be easy enough to arrange.”
“Ah… and if you could also help a little with the impression, like saying he’s truly a good person or that he’s trustworthy, or that he seems like a good match….”
“…….”
“I’ll help as much as I can, too. I’ll do my best not to interfere with your research.”
“Yes. We’ll include that option as well. In exchange, I imagine I’ll have you doing quite a few things.”
“Thank you.”
With just a few words, I’d acquired an extraordinarily capable assistant.
Whether the two of them became lovers or not was hardly my concern, but I thought the odds might have risen a little. If I gave the woman a decent evaluation, then I’d effectively be putting points in with Deokgu, who trusted me completely.
When I thought about it that way, this strange little transaction felt quite reasonable.
In any case, it wouldn’t harm me.
In fact, it seemed even better if I could focus solely on the research.
“Then let’s begin, Doctor.”
“Very well, Assistant.”
And so I was able to plunge into proper research with an unexpected helper.
A little time passed after that.
“Have you found out anything?”
“Not yet. Still, it’s not as if there’s nothing there.”
My aim was, above all else, to reorganize Jung Hayan’s research results.
I wasn’t trying to create some new theory or do anything revolutionary.
The most important things were stat growth and class advancement.
As for stat growth, it had climbed fairly easily in the early stages of research, but the deeper we got into it, the more sluggish it became.
The efficiency of the old method of pouring in catalysts had begun to fall off.
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s not that I’ve dug into any specific body of knowledge. It’s more that I’ve been looking at what Hwang Jeongyeon saw before. As I said last time, what I’m mainly focusing on is whether alchemy can compress and sustain the magic contained in catalysts. And whether there’s a way to make use of genetic information values. That’s about it.”
“Ahhh.”
“I suppose the best way to put it is that I’ve started to see the structure and design of the spell. It’s not exactly useful information for us, though. Still, I can understand why Jeongyeon said Hayan was a genius.”
Things I had once dismissed as impossible were beginning to come into view, one by one.
I was starting to understand why Jung Hayan was called a genius, why the magic laid on me was enough to warrant a thesis, and why the magic stored inside catalysts held the potential to spawn an entire school of thought.
Unique.
The way mana was arranged, the sequence in which the tower of mana was built, and the method itself were all extremely refined.
Unlike Hwang Jeongyeon, whose intelligence was developing her memory, Jung Hayan’s intelligence had, without question, developed in the direction of handling magic, and it was still developing now.
You could feel it just from examining a completed spell in detail.
A genius.
Once again, I understood why Kim Hyunsung had become obsessed with Jung Hayan.
Of course, the research went on.
When we hit a wall, there were more and more days when I didn’t sleep, and I often skipped meals.
Hwang Jeongyeon, who was helping with my experiments, was the same. In truth, she didn’t have all that much to do, but even so, the simple fact that she could explain the magical principles I struggled with was reason enough for her to be there.
[Your intelligence increases by 1.]
[Your intelligence increases by 1.]
Slowly, little by little, the alarms continued to sound, and each one was pleasant to hear.
Once my intelligence stat had just passed the 50 mark, I began to grasp the mechanism behind the increases.
The first was the acquisition or understanding of new knowledge.
The second was deep thought.
You imagine, experiment, rebuild theory in your mind, and read books.
All of that helped intelligence rise.
Like Park Deokgu doing weight training to raise his strength, I was stuffing my brain full in order to fatten it up.
“I’ll tidy the room a bit for you for the first time in a while, Kiyoung.”
“Yes. I’d appreciate it. Please don’t clean near me. I still have materials I haven’t organized yet.”
“Of course. More importantly, why don’t you get some sleep?”
“No. It breaks my flow.”
Of course, the room had become a complete mess as well.
The materials and theory books I’d organized kept piling up, and there was even starting to be a shortage of space to move around.
Having all the materials lined up around the bed was a fairly amusing sight, but studying itself wasn’t fun.
It’s tedious.
It really was tedious.
I kept knocking on a door that didn’t seem likely to open, and the frustration of that was starting to pile up.
Still, there was no choice but to grit my teeth and keep going.
Even now, the party members out hunting with Kim Hyunsung would be improving.
If you fall behind, you get left behind.
That didn’t mean Kim Hyunsung would abandon me. It was simply natural that if I couldn’t keep up with the party’s level, I wouldn’t be able to go with them anymore.
To be honest, I didn’t want to be reduced to a mere potion factory.
So I had no choice but to stay glued to this bed, even if it was by force.
“Hey, Kiyoung. How exactly are you unraveling magic into a formation circle?”
“Ah. Everyone chants spells in slightly different ways, but at the very least, I usually cast them by constructing a tower. In Hayan’s case, it seems more like she designs it the way you’d build a finely tuned clock… though if I had to describe it, it feels like taking all the parts out and laying them out in one place….”
“I think I get what you mean.”
“It’s actually more complicated than unraveling my own magic. If anything, the hardest part is matching the genetic information values.”
“Just interpreting the spell is already hard enough… so converting it into a formation circle must be stressful, too.”
“Yes. Still, because it’s such a simple task… it only takes time.”
By now, I’d only just finished drawing the circles, but there was definitely some progress.
There was still no actual result to speak of, but the impatience was real.
And so a month somehow passed in muddled confusion, but fortunately, Kim Hyunsung’s party still hadn’t returned.
They must be suffering.
Without question.
The supplies they’d taken would have been useless or insufficient, and the atmosphere when they left had been a complete disaster.
Jung Hayan would be spending every night in tears, and Kim Yeri, with no orders from Kim Hyunsung, would probably be firing arrows at completely the wrong targets.
Maybe Park Deokgu had even gone back to being a coward from before.
Sun Heeyoung would still function fairly normally, but since she was uneasy about taking the lead herself, the whole party would probably feel as if it had lost its way.
When I thought that I wasn’t the only one having a hard time, I felt a little better.
And then more time passed.
Just a little. By then, I had mostly understood Jung Hayan’s magic, and my intelligence stat had climbed close to 60.
Personally, it was a result I had every right to be satisfied with.
“There’s been some progress, at least.”
“Yes. Your intelligence stat has actually gone up, after all. At this point, you’ve nearly reached the value you were aiming for.”
“Ah. Congratulations. Maybe you should take a little rest today?”
“No. I think it’d be better to finish at least this part and then rest.”
Since I believed I wasn’t the only one fighting, there was no way I could possibly rest. That was only natural.
Once I’d started living without any distinction between day and night, I was able to ask myself a more fundamental question.
It wasn’t a question about some truth hidden in magic.
It was a question about the class advancement I was aiming for.
How had Jung Hayan been able to take the next step without earning experience?
I already knew the answer.
She understood it.
Jung Hayan had obtained a class without ever going hunting.
I hadn’t asked her how she’d managed it, but it was probably because she had awakened to what magic was.
She had understood the discipline and been able to put it into practice.
In other words, she had reached a small truth.
I was the same.
I have to understand it.
Beyond analyzing, describing, and organizing the materials, I had to be able to understand everything I was drawing in my mind.
This path was right, and this direction was right.
After that, I remember constantly asking myself questions.
I began to fixate a little more on why than on how.
I reached toward the unseen truth rather than the visible result.
I imagined, put it into experiments, and searched for the reason they failed. The experiments themselves weren’t difficult. I had an extremely competent assistant by my side, after all.
“You’ve lost a little weight.”
“Still, it doesn’t feel bad.”
There was no grand talk of shedding a layer or reaching the truth.
What I was obsessed with was just why.
I wasn’t looking for some grand answer either.
Even the tiniest fragment would do.
I kept experimenting without pause on genetic changes, information values, what impact mana had on an organism, and whether an organism transformed by mana was complete or incomplete.
On the tangled, threadlike DNA we all knew, on which monster a certain virus was fatal to, on why a given gene could not accept that virus, I never stopped testing.
Formation circles, mana, genes, information, tiny fragments of truth none of it was properly understood yet, but one thing was certain.
I was improving.
“What are we trying this time?”
“Please use the catalysts brought back from the Garden of Terror.”
It wasn’t something I could call impressive.
I was far removed from scholarship, and I wasn’t even particularly smart.
In truth, I wasn’t a scientist, and I didn’t really understand genetics properly either.
Still, by this point, I found the process of searching for answers enjoyable.
“Looks like you’re having fun.”
“Not really.”
[Your intelligence increases by 1.]
“You are, though. I was like that too.”
“No. Honestly, it’s tedious.”
[Your intelligence increases by 1.]
“Liar.”
[Your intelligence increases by 1.]
And when I finally seized that tiny fragment I’d thought I’d never be able to see.
I was able to improve, just a little more.
With a result I could, in my own way, be satisfied with.
“Pfft.”