Chapter [X]
"Hmm……."
In the space where the only sound was the rustling of papers being flipped, Ransel stood before a massive bookshelf packed floor to ceiling with books.
She thumbed through one after another, spreading them open to check the tables of contents, then closed them again.
All of them dealt with magic.
The Understanding of Magic, the Types of Magic, What Incantations Are…
Each title was different, yet the core themes repeated the same three points.
Since the content of books with the same theme wasn't identical, she had to pull each one out individually and examine it.
What she was hunting for right now were books that delved into the principles of magic and those that catalogued its types.
Just as every field of study demands a solid foundation before one can move on, the same held true for someone like Ransel with her transcendent talent.
To her, the difference between having and not having a foundation was worlds apart.
It was enough just to review what she had once guessed at with intuition and instinct alone without knowing the principles.
That was why she had only visited the library after gathering enough money to live comfortably.
Passing by a bookshelf entirely filled with books on herbalism, she crossed to the opposite section.
The titles suggested these were all books about mana.
As she scanned for something worth reading, she noticed that this section, unlike the others, was almost completely empty.
Books were missing entirely.
Someone else had clearly taken them for reading.
Most of the empty spots were in the same positions, as if the same person had been pulling them out one after another.
Ransel peeked out from the edge of the shelf and spotted the readers.
She kept searching for several more minutes and collected several theory books that looked decent.
She sat down with the introduction book she had brought and opened it.
The table of contents on the first two pages immediately caught her eye.
'What is Magic? Mana? Components of Incantations? Incantation Sequence? Types of Magic….'
She recalled which chapters and pages covered the things she knew, the things she didn't know, and the guesses she had made with intuition.
There wasn't much she actually needed to read.
At most, the types of magic and the things she had been guessing at blindly.
The rest was what she had already mastered through countless uses of magic.
She skipped the unnecessary parts boldly and skimmed through dozens of pages at lightning speed, devouring only what she needed.
Hundreds of pages flew by in the blink of an eye, and soon she reached the final page.
'The existing types of magic are the Pure Elemental series, the Unique series, and the Others… the series that forms incantations yet doesn't belong to elements or uniques.'
In short, the Pure Elemental series dealt with elements, the Others created miscellaneous effects through incantations, and the Unique series consisted of particularly dangerous and corrupted incantations.
The Elemental series didn't end at the four basic elements; it branched out according to how elements were handled, such as with Salt and Fire veins.
'Among these, is the magic I need the Natural series?'
The Natural series handles plants while also stabilizing the mind.
The book had mentioned a branch that handled plants and at the same time calmed the mind.
What she needed was the latter—the branch that calmed the mind.
'The real problem is where to learn it.'
There was no problem or worry in the learning process.
Her talent was specialized for magic, and she could see the principles of any magic just by looking at it.
Ransel was the kind who could copy an incantation from an artifact the moment she saw it.
She knew she could acquire any magic simply by watching a mage cast it once.
'She was still saving money to buy artifacts, but… it wouldn't be bad to find other ways.'
If she could see something, she could learn it, so instead of asking where she could learn, she should ask where she could see.
She decided she would search for places later where she could watch magic being used and opened another theory book.
This time it was one about the Lightning series.
By the time she finished the books, closing time at the library had already arrived.
Ransel, staring blankly at the sunset beyond the window, began organizing the books she had read.
As she was about to leave the library after pushing the theory books she had read into the return slot, she suddenly noticed a man peering intently into a book.
"…?"
A mountain of books had been stacked beside the man.
Just by glancing at the titles, she could tell they were introductory books.
Introduction to Mana Manipulation, Basic Stages of Mana Accumulation, Basic Practice and Application of Mana…
All of them were books about mana.
And they described how to handle and accumulate it directly.
The man was reading the books with desperate intensity.
As if failing to do so would mean death, as if it was his mission to do so at all costs.
'He wants to become a mage?'
After living in this world for a month, Ransel had learned that mages were rare and precious.
Even just glancing at the proportion of superhumans showed that bodybuilders far outnumbered mages.
Even if there were mages, it took a long time for even the best ones to fulfill even one person's share of the work.
Mages with good skill received excellent treatment in this world.
So it wasn't strange that mages were sought after.
Basically she was indifferent to others, but she did notice those who worked hard.
She didn't know what the man wanted to do once he became a mage or what he hoped for.
Ransel nevertheless whispered "Cheer up" to herself and slipped out of the library.
Now familiar with the bustling streets and construction sites, she was just entering the red-light district when the siren of a police car blared loudly.
Busy police officers and the cold voices crackling from their radios.
"More pureists again? They just keep terrorizing and then give up…!"
One officer on the radio paused, reached out, and patted Ransel's shoulder as he passed.
After a quick nod, he dashed off in the direction where black smoke was rising.
He must have been in a very urgent situation, because he was moving quickly.
When her gaze shifted, dozens of police officers were hiding behind their squad car in front of the building.
Inside the building, dozens of people had huddled together, and Ransel knew they weren't gang members.
They were all tied up with ropes, and several gang members stood around them with guns aimed at their heads.
Through the broken windows of the building, she could see the terrorists from a distance.
They were smashing cyberware and mechanical lumps attached to their bodies with pipes and baseball bats.
She tilted her head slightly and touched the corner of her mouth.
As expected, the line of her mouth was still bizarre.
A creepy smile spread across Ransel's face as electricity began to flow around her.
The moment she stepped into the back alleys behind the red-light district, a gunfight broke out.
"Subdue them quickly!"
"Drop your weapons and surrender!"
Ransel's slanted eyes revealed a gray pupil that seemed to mock the officers and terrorists as she slipped away.
She then charged.
Ransel strengthened her body with mana and leaped up the exterior wall of the building to the rooftop.
At her feet, officers and terrorists faced each other in a standoff.
Though it was a gunfight, it was only a show of force for now—they were merely threatening each other.
Getting involved in something troublesome was exactly what Ransel hated, but she had no intention of missing the chance to use the knowledge she had accumulated from the introduction book in real combat without any risk.
'My luck is good. I can't touch the officers… so the target is the terrorists.'
There was no magic that could make Ransel's existence undetectable to the officers and terrorists.
In fact, Ransel could only use one magic.
However, her head was overflowing with inspiration after reading the introduction book.
Unlike before, when she had only relied on intuition and instinct to navigate the darkness, she now understood the principles and manipulated them at will.
How to heighten power, how to make it more efficient.
Endless curiosity and thirst for knowledge burned in Ransel's eyes.
Beneath the knowledge hunger and curiosity that consumed reason lay an unerasable war instinct.
A deep blue lightning exploded from her fingertips, and her body trembled as if about to fire three streams of electricity.
Ransel caught each individual electricity strand and twisted them into a spiral.
The three strands of electricity, which had been wrapping around each other, converged into a circle.
Inside the sphere of remaining electricity, the strands collided and repelled, amplifying the power.
It used as much mana as a Bolt, but the power was roughly twice as great.
Beyond the basic applications of compression and repulsion, it was power amplification that used pure control ability without extra mana consumption.
Ransel began transforming the sphere again.
Since it was stabilized as a sphere, she could change its shape without losing control for a while.
As Ransel bent the lightning sphere, the electricity flowed through her hand and then stretched out into two long lines through the gaps in her palm.
She extended her right arm long and formed a sighting point, while raising her left arm in preparation to throw the lightning spear.
The target was the terrorists.
Indeed, how strong had this magic become after borrowing knowledge from the introduction book.
"Heh heh…"
The lightning spear, which had been fired the moment the corners of her mouth lifted, pierced straight through the ceiling of the building and through the body of a terrorist hiding below the roof.
The lightning spear, which had penetrated the heart and erupted outward, immediately lost control the moment the repelled and compressed electricity escaped her grasp.
The clustered electricity loosened and constricted the body of the terrorist inside the building.
Immediately after, the entire building was bathed in deep blue light.