The Lost Ruins (2)
"Aren't you making me exercise a lot of patience right now?"
Ji Yeon-ha, who had been lying down, abruptly sat up and spoke slyly.
"About what, may I ask?"
"That transformation earlier, this dragon... Being around you makes me feel like my common sense is falling apart."
Fair enough. From her perspective, everything probably looked absurd.
After all, on paper I was an F-rank hunter of the warrior class.
And yet here I was, hurling spears of flame, commanding the spirit of a dragon — and just moments ago, transforming into one and soaring through the sky.
Even I have to admit it's strange.
Mages pursue theory and ideals, but at the same time, they're more hard-nosed realists than anyone. In Ji Yeon-ha's eyes, I'd already left common sense light-years behind.
"You really can't tell me anything?"
"I'm sorry. A contract is a contract."
"Hmph!"
Ji Yeon-ha swiveled her head sharply and changed targets to Ah Seo-ah.
"What about you? Aren't you curious? What kind of man your guild leader really is."
"Huh? Ah..."
Ah Seo-ah gave me a sidelong glance. When I answered her gaze with a bright smile, her eyes went dead as she stared off into the distance.
"...He's always like that."
Curiosity killed the cat, as they say. Thankfully, Ah Seo-ah seemed to know the proverb.
With Ah Seo-ah dodging the question too, Ji Yeon-ha moved her lips for a moment before her shoulders slumped in defeat.
"I wondered why you set such conditions at first... but I think I'm finally starting to understand."
With someone of Ji Yeon-ha's intellectual appetite, you needed precautions like this to keep conversations blocked off.
Even by my own assessment, the abilities I currently possessed went far beyond any limits I should have had.
"That said, it's strangely comfortable, isn't it? Not a breath of wind."
"I blocked the wind with magic and stabilized us ages ago. After all, with acceleration magic stacked on top, your bodies would struggle to handle the flight speed."
Under Ji Yeon-ha's buff magic, Moss was flying at roughly twice his usual speed.
"Krwaaaah!"
Apparently satisfied with the sense of speed himself, Moss beat his wings with even more vigor.
At this pace, we could clearly reach the Hall without getting surrounded by Guardians.
We'll save more time than I expected.
Come to think of it, though — how many spells was Ji Yeon-ha running simultaneously right now?
"You're casting this on top of the buff magic? Aren't you short on mana?"
"I am Ji Yeon-ha, you know."
She gave a little smirk and puffed out her chest proudly.
"This much doesn't even feel like I've spent any mana."
Lost in the mana augmentation of my Dragon Transformation, I'd nearly forgotten — Ji Yeon-ha was a monster of mana in her own right.
And on top of that, her skill was refined enough that casting even identical spells let her waste converge to almost zero.
No wonder she's the Tower Master.
At least within the Asian sphere, you'd be hard-pressed to find a mage who could surpass Ji Yeon-ha.
"Ah-hem... ahem..."
Ah Seo-ah cleared her throat awkwardly and shuffled carefully closer.
"S... Senior Ji Yeon-ha...?"
She stood fidgeting in front of Ji Yeon-ha, mumbling her words. A faint smile crept across Ji Yeon-ha's lips at the sight.
"Pfft, why are you so tense? We've even entered a gate together now."
"Yes? Well, still..."
"Just call me Senior. Everyone who walks the path of magic is senior and junior to one another, aren't they?"
"R... really?! Can I?!"
Ah Seo-ah hopped in place with joy.
"Senior! Actually, there's something I've been wondering about. Is there an effective way to overcome mana leakage as casting length increases?"
"For that, instead of fixing a spell's structure in parallel or series when you conceive it, mix them fluidly according to their natures. For example, what I just used was..."
After a few exchanges, the topic slid seamlessly into magic itself — mostly Ah Seo-ah asking questions and Ji Yeon-ha answering them.
Watching Ah Seo-ah chatter away while Ji Yeon-ha patiently explained, I couldn't help thinking they looked for all the world like a master and her disciple.
Was it like this before my regression, too?
Looking at them, they made a natural pair — one the most illustrious mage of the present era, the other a rising star brimming with potential.
Chances were high that even before the regression, they'd have been drawn together just like this.
"Whoa! My mana really is wasting way less now!"
"Haha, what a quick learner. You're fun to teach."
A genius understands a genius, after all. The two of them would have grown close this quickly no matter what.
...Which is exactly why the question gnaws at me.
"Senior, can I ask more questions?!"
"Ask away as much as you like, Junior."
Why did Ah Seo-ah — the very girl who'd once idolized Ji Yeon-ha — claim that the woman she revered had abandoned her duty as Tower Master and run away?
Ah Seo-ah's words had smeared the reputation of Ji Yeon-ha, the former Tower Master herself.
Back then, I knew nothing about Ah Seo-ah as a person, so I'd accepted it at face value.
But now, I knew her — a little, at least.
She could hardly be called a good kid.
"Please let me join Shin Guild..."
But she wasn't purely rotten, either.
At the very least, when she was proven wrong, she had it in her to accept it and own up to it.
"I just don't get it..."
"Wh... what?"
"You."
"What about me?"
"You're just... seriously, what am I going to do with you, kid..."
"Gah! Stop needling me!"
Ah Seo-ah hissed through her teeth.
After facing the Guardians a few more times, we finally reached the heart of the city.
"Wow... what is that?"
Ah Seo-ah gaped up at the massive dome-shaped structure floating in the air.
"That would be the main event of this gate."
The so-called Hall of Magic — an ark containing the sum of every civilization this world had ever produced, and the final place that judged the qualifications of all who entered.
"Moss. To the entrance."
"Krruh!"
Moss slowed and carefully glided toward the entrance — a colossal iron gate set into the front face of the dome. Once the three of us dismounted before it, Moss sank back into the shadows.
"Well then, shall we?"
The real assault began now, in earnest.
Geeriik—!
The moment we stood before it, ancient gears ground into motion and the gate swung open on its own — a ponderous, weighty sound as both halves slid apart.
"For a place that guarded itself so fiercely, the door opens pretty easily, doesn't it?"
"For anyone who pushed through all those Guardians and made it to the entrance at this height, a door like this is meaningless."
"Ah, I see."
This Hall had never been meant to keep people out in the first place. If anything, it yearned for someone — anyone — to come inside.
O seeker of the Sorcerous Path.
O wanderer who slays not, yet hungers for eternal wisdom.
O searcher thirsting for knowledge.
Your footsteps have at last reached this Hall.
You who would enter — leave with everything held within, and nothing less.
Should you fail to do so,
then you shall be preserved in this Hall, remaining forever as one of its eternities.
A mechanical voice rang in our ears.
"So the space itself is speaking to us."
"How could you tell?"
"The voice carries far too dense a concentration of mana. It's essentially been broadcast as a waveform of pure magical energy."
In a word — the voice had no life in it.
"Let's head inside for now."
I stretched my senses to their utmost, but nothing radiating hostility registered yet.
"Light!"
Ah Seo-ah conjured a glow. Relying on that small light, we walked for a while along the damp, dark passage — and before long, we arrived at a beautiful hanging garden drenched in radiant sunshine.
"Wow."
Unlike the tangled, overgrown chaos outside, the garden was immaculately kept, as though it had been tended up until very recently. It felt as if we'd stepped inside some enormous greenhouse.
Welcome, all who have reached the End of Magic.
While we were still admiring the scenery, a message appeared at the very center of the garden.
"A lot more courteous than that voice at the entrance."
"From this point on, it must have judged us as worthy 'Challengers' rather than intruders."
Challengers of the Hall — in other words, people proving whether they had the right to claim the crystallization of magic-engineering enshrined here.
Magic Crafting.
The number of 'Sages' remaining in the Hall is currently: 0.
Therefore, this trial shall be administered by me, 'Wisdom' — the Hall's system of eternal maintenance.
A pleasure to make your acquaintance. >-<
"...A system that does aegyo, too. Wonderful."
Wisdom — the system maintaining the Hall for eternity. Best to think of it as a kind of hyper-intelligent AI.
I don't actually know that much about this one, though.
The group that first cleared this gate had made public only the interior environment, the Hall itself, and the clear conditions. The system administering the trial had barely been described at all.
It could become any kind of variable, so I'd better stay on guard.
This trial exists to prove whether you Challengers are worthy of inheriting the Hall's treasure, the 'End of Magic'.
From this point forward, you must work together to clear this trial, stage by stage.
"Isn't that just combat, though? Gates are all like that."
Ah Seo-ah stretched lazily.
Afraid not.
If it were that simple, I could have come alone.
But there was a reason this gate's tickets came in threes.
Each of you three will now be assigned a Role.
You will be divided into: 'Tuner', 'Breaker', and 'Warrior'.
The essence of the trial is for the 'Warrior' to defeat every enemy.
Should all enemies of every stage be defeated, the Challengers win; should any Challenger surrender or die before then, the Hall wins — and synchronization with the Challenger will begin immediately.
"S... synchronization?"
When Ah Seo-ah asked in a terrified voice, the answer came flying back.
Synchronization is the process of analyzing the Challenger's brain and storing all knowledge within it into the Hall.
"...So we die?"
Probability of death: 99.98%.
"UGH! So you're saying we croak!"
0.02% was a slightly pathetic margin to gamble your life on.
An explanation of each Role follows.
The 'Warrior' confronts enemies directly. The primary duty is to defeat the enemies summoned in sequence.
The 'Breaker' pierces and dismantles enemy defenses. Each enemy maintains its own unique defensive framework; the primary duty is to read through it, rapidly reverse-engineer it, and neutralize the defense.
The 'Tuner' supports the Warrior. The primary duty is to solve problems generated within the Hall and grant the Warrior beneficial buff skills.
Role assignment will now begin.
Once you have deliberated sufficiently and reached a decision, please call upon me, Wisdom.
( ˶ｰ̀֊ｰ́ )੭
"It seems we're free to choose our own Roles."
"Hmm... one Role is already decided, I think."
We all agreed without a word needing to be said.
No one suited that Role better than me.
"I'll take the Warrior."
Challenger 'Lee Tae-hyun' has been assigned: Warrior.
I couldn't very well place two mages alone against the enemies. Strategically and common-sensically, that would have been the worst possible choice.
"Might I also decide the remaining Roles?"
"By all means. Honestly, the explanations alone don't give me much of a feel for it anyway."
"If you're fine with it, Senior, I'm fine with anything!"
Both mages consented readily.
So what's left is...
Breaker and Tuner. Both were vital Roles.
At a glance, the Breaker seemed to carry the heavier burden —
but the Tuner can't be dismissed either.
Because the Tuner's role didn't end with simply 'handing out buffs'.
The Tuner encompassed other duties that Wisdom had left undescribed.
"Then... I'll divide the Roles."
And I had already made my decision.