Episode 758
Episode 758
"Still, I'd like to hear about the lecture content I missed."
"What lecture is it?"
"Uh... <Divination Spells That Drive You Mad>."
"Huh? That's a third-year lecture, isn't it?"
"That's exactly it."
Lee Han answered the senior's question with a bitter voice.
"Even if you're taking courses ahead of your year, there's no good reason to rush into divination magic."
The senior gave this common-sense advice before continuing his questioning.
"By the way, what kind of divination have you learned?"
"Last year, I mainly practiced Stone Divination." 'As expected, it seems hard to keep up...' The reason divination mages used divination methods was to protect themselves.
Peering into the future placed an enormous burden on a mage.
Divination protected the mage's mind by breaking down this future into uncertain, metaphorical fragments.
Rather than directly glimpsing the future, it involved looking at fragments of fragments that revealed the future, thereby safeguarding the mage themselves.
Of course, this came with its own drawbacks—reduced accuracy and increased difficulty in interpretation for the mage.
The Stone Divination practiced by first-year students last year was a relatively simple divination method that could answer basic questions, yet even then many students experienced low accuracy or severe rebound effects.
The senior doubted whether a junior who'd only learned Stone Divination should be studying <Divination Spells That Drive You Mad>.
"Senior. Before that, may I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"...Why are you in the form of a golem?"
Lee Han couldn't hold back his question.
No matter how many rare races one might see at Einrogard, he'd never encountered a bronze golem before.
Though the senior acted completely unbothered, as a junior he'd tried to stay quiet—but he couldn't restrain himself any longer.
"Side effects of divination magic."
"There's divination magic that requires becoming a bronze golem as its price?!"
"Not exactly. When you glimpse the future, you have to pay a price, and if your bare body takes it, you could die. Being in bronze golem form for a while is better."
"...I see."
Lee Han was beginning to understand why the Divination Magic department had so few students that it was often compared to the Black Magic department.
No matter how confident these seniors might be, who would want to turn into a bronze golem or go mad?
"Bronze Golem Senio... I mean, Senior, may I ask your name?"
"Ah. I can't tell you."
"?"
"This week is an inauspicious one for introducing myself."
"......"
Lee Han decided he would just call the other Bronze Golem Senior.
He was afraid that learning the senior's name might make them unnecessarily closer.
"Golem Senior. But you can still tell me about the lecture content, right?"
"Of course. Though honestly, I question whether it'll be okay—but since the professor gave permission for you to listen..."
The golem senior gestured with his creaking bronze fingers for Lee Han to enter.
Just as Lee Han was about to step forward, the senior quickly stopped him.
"Wait."
"?"
"Could you step with your right foot first? For the next three days, stepping with your right foot first brings good luck."
"Understood."
Lee Han accepted this without further surprise.
At this point, he wasn't naive enough to be shocked by one more eccentric senior.
Following behind with right-foot-first steps (the golem senior whistled sideways every five steps), Lee Han cautiously asked:
"About what you're doing now... that... strange... I mean... could you explain these behaviors a bit more?"
"It's not complicated."
The golem senior explained relatively kindly to his rare junior.
Mages of the Divination Magic department practiced various complex divination methods to read uncertain futures as accurately as possible, while simultaneously considering how to make the most beneficial use of those futures.
One such method was 'avoiding unfavorable futures and steering toward favorable ones.'
"Is that really possible? The more concretely you see the future, the greater the price you'd have to pay..."
"Not by directly seeing the future. Just by identifying the constraints. Actions that avoid misfortune and invite good fortune."
The Golem senior was an outstanding divination mage.
To determine which actions would bring good fortune and avoid misfortune, he used three types of divination and five different spells every week.
'Impressive.'
Lee Han was amazed as he listened to the senior's magical theory.
He knew that divination magic was particularly unstable and bizarre even among the Empire's magical schools, but he hadn't realized something like this was possible.
"How effective is it?"
"This week, I found fewer actions that bring good fortune, so it might be lacking..."
The Golem senior rummaged through his pocket, found a die, and rolled it repeatedly. Five times in a row, it landed on six, but the last roll showed a different number.
"Tsk. If it were last week, I would've gotten more."
"...!"
Lee Han was startled.
The effect of good fortune was far stronger than he had imagined.
Crash!
Suddenly, the ceiling of the workshop collapsed, and a brick came hurtling down toward the Golem senior's head.
Instinctively swinging his staff, Lee Han used telekinesis to fling the brick away.
"Are you alright?!"
"How did you...? More importantly, RUN!"
"?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a spirit vortex manifested inside the workshop, and a fierce wind dragged the thrown brick back.
Finally, the brick struck the Golem senior's head with a resounding—
Thunk!
"Ugh. As expected, I didn't set enough constraints on good fortune this week."
"What in the world was that just now?!"
"Good fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin. If you use good fortune, misfortune will follow. Don't worry about it. That's why I became a golem—to prepare for things like this. Here, take this week's lecture notes from Divination Spells That Drive You Mad."
The Golem senior waved his staff and extracted the lecture notes from a book.
The Divination Spells That Drive You Mad lecture would cover not just simple and intuitive divination but also complex and powerful techniques... (omitted)... The following are divination methods worth attempting for aspiring diviners...
Spirit Gold Coin Divination
-Cast five specially processed gold coins. Offer the coins that land face-up to the summoned spirits. The more coins offered, the more accurate the spirit's prophecy becomes...
'What a horrifying and cruel divination method.'
Five Demons Divination
-Summon a demon dwelling in the future and record five prophecies. If you fail to identify the two false prophecies among them, you will suffer a powerful curse of misfortune...
'Oh. This one seems slightly better.'
Perhaps unsettled by the junior diligently taking notes, the Golem senior spoke up.
"You're not supposed to practice or master these all at once—you're just learning that advanced divination techniques like these exist. No need to rush ahead. Understood?"
"Yes. I'll keep that in mind."
"Don't practice alone—do it here in the Void Hall. Since we're on the topic, do you want to try one now?"
The Golem senior didn't entirely trust his junior.
A student hungry enough for magic and knowledge to take on the entire school's curriculum wouldn't find it strange to return to their private quarters and experiment with these divinations one by one.
Just as the senior had said, Lee Han had absolutely no intention of practicing alone.
'As expected of an Einrogard senior—ruthless.'
First, he tells me not to push myself, then immediately forces me to practice.
Einrogard seniors truly couldn't be trusted.
"I'd like to try practicing the Five Demons Divination."
"Hmm. Alright."
Seeing his junior deliberately choose the demon divination over the gold coin method only further solidified the Golem senior's suspicions.
Mages were fundamentally divided into two types:
Those who start with easy magic and those who start with the difficult!
And unlike other schools, the Divination Magic School had a higher dropout rate among the latter. He needed to keep a very close eye on this one.
"Arrange the following materials and attempt to summon a demon dwelling in the future. Summoning the demon itself is quite challenging, so don't rush. Got it?"
"Yes."
Lee Han carefully took out the reagents as described in the book.
Moonlight-harvested puffball mushrooms, bone fragments obtained from the demon realm between dimensions, and cinnabar...
He wrote the name of the future with the vermilion powder...
"In exchange for my misfortune, I seek five prophecies. O tempting demon, appear."
"Try again slowly."
The Bronze Golem Senior observed his junior's precise movements, incantation, and mana expenditure, thinking that with this level of skill, he might face fewer trials and errors than expected. He'd been worried whether the student could keep up with third-year lectures, but it seemed there was a reason the professor had allowed him to attend.
"Senior. Isn't this a successful summoning?"
"What?"
The Bronze Golem Senior creakily turned his neck using his bronze joints.
Then he startled upon seeing the flickering maw of a demon in the center of the magic circle.
"?!?!"
Amazingly, this junior had summoned a demon on his first attempt!
"Does your bloodline have even a trace of demon blood?"
"Not to my knowledge, no."
"Does the Wardanaz family have deep connections with demons?"
"Uh... a little...?"
Lee Han answered uncertainly, wondering if enslaving demons counted as a "deep connection."
Hearing this, the Bronze Golem Senior found it somewhat plausible.
Mages with demon blood in their lineage or families connected to demons had an advantage when using related magic.
It was the same principle as spirit-blooded mages excelling in spirit magic...
Though summoning one on the first try was still quite impressive...
"I didn't expect you to summon it immediately. So that's why you chose demon divination? Clever."
"Haha. Thank you."
That wasn't exactly the reason, but Lee Han nodded anyway, wanting to make a good impression on his senior from the same academic branch.
"I thought you were the type who'd audited previous branches, retaken dropped courses, and recklessly thrown yourself into magic like the professor, risking your life."
"......"
Lee Han cursed the Bronze Golem Senior inwardly.
Perhaps his cold metal heart made him utterly tactless.
"Now, slowly. Ask it to deliver the prophecies."
"Deliver unto me the prophecies."
-You shall face an ancient being...
"......"
"Is this one false?"
The Golem Senior speculated from the side.
Even in Einrogard, encountering an ancient being was exceedingly rare.
-You shall not wander outside, neither by day nor by night...
"Hmm. This one also seems false."
Though this counted as a restriction among prophecies, its terms were excessively harsh.
The Golem Senior cast a doubtful glance.
Of course, he himself had imposed several restrictions to boost luck and suppress misfortune, but this one's scope was too broad.
-You shall mercilessly trample mages from other cradles...
"Isn't this one false?"
Lee Han, who had been listening quietly, asked.
The Golem Senior shook his head.
"Out of the three so far, this seems the most plausible. 'Cradle' likely refers to other magic schools. You'll probably encounter them at some point."
"Setting aside the encounters, why would I trample—"
"Mage pride works that way. Quiet now. You'll miss the prophecies."
-You shall become addicted to the Tombstone Mountains...
-A spirit shall tempt you...
"The first and second seem similar."
"My opinion differs slightly. O demon, the fourth and fifth are false!"
"?!"
-How unfortunate... I shall await your arrogance and ruin...
The demon openly expressed disappointment before vanishing back into the future.
The Golem Senior blinked his lens apertures in amazement at his junior's astonishing talent. 'So the professor didn't just leave him out of laziness!' When Professor Paselet had left the note saying, "Students need not retake dropped courses to keep up," he'd assumed it was just the professor being lazy—but surprisingly, it had been genuine.
"Senior! I want to learn how to change the futures foretold in these prophecies!"
"Now, now. Don't rush. The faster you go, the more dangerous it becomes."
"Staying still seems far more dangerous right now..."