The Magic Tower Management Game, Subtitle: The Mage of Fusion (1)
If you mix blue and red, what color do you get?
The answer was purple.
It wasn’t a difficult question.
Then what about blue, red, and yellow?
How many colors can those three primary colors create?
The three primary colors, plus purple, green, and orange.
And then there was black, made by mixing all three.
Seven in total.
At that point, it might not have seemed like much.
But!
What if you mixed two drops of blue with one drop of red?
What if it was two drops of red and one drop of blue?
Every time you changed the ratio a little, a new color was born.
And what if you added yellow into the mix?
What if you could combine the three colors in an infinite number of ratios?
Then you would create an uncountable number of colors.
Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of endless shades.
That was fusion.
Taking different things and making them into one. In that process, infinite possibilities unfolded.
It wasn’t just colors.
Music was the same.
Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do.
With only seven notes, humanity had created hundreds of millions of songs.
Fusion was creation.
A magical phenomenon that created infinity from limited materials.
I had been captivated by the appeal of fusion, by the idea that I could make something endlessly from nothing more than combinations.
And then I found a game.
Magic Tower Management: Mage of Fusion
The name was Magic Tower Management, and its subtitle was Mage of Fusion.
As the title suggested, it was a game about managing a wizard’s tower.
The player became the tower lord, conducted magical research, and trained disciples.
The goal was to complete various requests, raise the tower’s renown, and ultimately grow it into the greatest magic tower on the continent.
The game had a wide range of systems.
Resource management, diplomacy, disciple development, magical research, tower construction systems, and more were all intricately interwoven.
Among them, the most appealing system, and the core system named in the subtitle, was magic fusion.
Magic fusion.
It was a system that combined different schools of magic to create entirely new spells.
Fuse fire and wind, and you could create a whirlwind of searing heat; fuse water and ice, and you could make a prison of absolute zero.
It went beyond simple two-element combinations. It was even possible to fuse three, four, or even more than seven types of magic.
As the number of possible combinations grew exponentially, the community generally believed there were still thousands of fusion spells waiting to be discovered.
Drawn in by that limitless system, I installed the game and launched it.
The problem was...
The moment I started the game, I was possessed by it.
Hell Difficulty
The blue window in front of me showed the difficulty level I had chosen when starting the game.
At the time, I had thought, Even if I’m nothing special in real life, I’ll at least become the best in a game!
After all, choosing Hell Difficulty multiplied rewards by five.
It had been a casual choice, one I’d made without thinking.
Now I was bitterly regretting it.
This character I’d possessed... no, this version of me was a third-rate mage who’d also been buried under a mountain of debt.
The creditors were due to come looking as soon as the game began, and if I couldn’t repay the debt within three months, the tower would be seized and it would be game over.
That was the beginning of Hell Difficulty.
The start was... fine, I could accept that much.
The problem came after that.
According to the community information, Hell Difficulty caused the dimensional rift event tied directly to the game’s ending to open much earlier.
The invasion event from that dimension.
Normally, before that event began, you were supposed to strengthen your own magic tower to the point where it could stand on its own.
But there was far too little time.
The clear condition was to defend against the various enemies pouring through the Dimensional Rift and, in the end, seal it shut.
No, how am I supposed to clear this...?
I hadn’t known this when I was just clicking in front of a monitor.
I had no idea it would become a matter of my real life hanging in the balance.
***
By the time three months had passed since I was possessed into the game, I still hadn’t adjusted to this world.
I was only stumbling around from one place to another, unable to do anything properly.
Still, over that time, I had at least managed to grasp the basic facts about this world.
The tower’s location, the surrounding terrain, and the severity of the situation I was trapped in.
The debt kept piling up, and there was no sign that the tower’s circumstances would improve.
The easy requests available in the early stages had already been taken up by other magic towers.
All that remained for me were requests with high danger and miserable pay.
Just when I still couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do, the office door opened.
“Tower Lord, this month’s interest payment is overdue.”
The one who opened the office door without even knocking was Lia, the tower’s only disciple.
No, calling her a disciple was almost embarrassing, since she had so little magical aptitude that she could barely cast a first-circle spell.
In the game, I would have dismissed a character like her long ago, but things were different now.
Lia was the only person here who could handle even the most basic chores.
“......”
Instead of answering, I looked silently out the window.
The sight of the old tower beneath the gray sky felt like an image of my own situation.
“Tower Lord?”
There was worry in Lia’s voice.
Yes. She must know, too.
When the tower collapsed, she would have nowhere to go.
“How much are we behind?”
“...Three months’ worth, including this month.”
It was the answer I had expected.
The things that had just been numbers in the game now felt like a vivid reality.
How am I supposed to fix this?
I wasn’t some veteran who had mastered the game, and I hadn’t memorized a perfect walkthrough.
I had only picked up a little information from the community. Even then, I hadn’t looked too closely for fear of spoilers.
I was a complete beginner.
There was no way I could handle this debt.
“...If we still can’t pay this time, what happens?”
Lia hesitated for a moment, then spoke carefully.
“The creditor takes over the tower that has been held as collateral. As for the tower lord...”
“And me?”
“You’d lose the heart of the magic tower...”
She didn’t need to finish.
In this game, the tower lord was a special existence.
If the tower was lost, the tower lord died as well. That was what surrendering the tower’s ownership meant.
In the game, it had ended with a mere game over screen. Now it meant the end of my life itself.
“Then what about you?”
Lia lowered her eyes for a moment.
“As for me... I’d have to find another tower. But with my ability...”
She didn’t need to say it to the end.
There would be no tower willing to take in a disciple who could only use first-circle magic.
Heavy silence filled the office.
This can’t be the end.
Whether this was inside a game or reality, this body was all I had.
If I gave up here, it was truly over.
Now I really had to do something.
I opened the desk drawer.
Inside were a few magic books covered in dust and a handful of old, shabby materials.
And beneath them sat The Fusion Grimoire of the Beginner Mage.
It was the only item I had received at the start of the game.
If I had chosen normal difficulty, I would have gotten a better starter item, but on Hell Difficulty, this was all there was.
I have to do something with this.
I picked up the grimoire. The texture of the parchment brushed against my fingertips.
I had no other choice.
The game’s core system, the one I had found so irresistible.
I was going to try magic fusion.
Lia looked at the grimoire in my hand with a shocked expression.
“Tower Lord, don’t tell me you’re going to use that for magic fusion...?”
“There’s no other way.”
I opened the grimoire.
It was faded and worn, but the basic formula for two-school fusion was still written there.
“No!”
Lia cried out in panic.
Unlike her usual cautious demeanor, her voice was desperate.
“Magic fusion is dangerous. Especially for someone like the Tower Lord...”
Lia trailed off.
“Someone like me?”
“...A former third-rate mage with unstable mana control shouldn’t attempt it carelessly.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. Because it was true.
In the game, it was something you could finish in a few clicks, but real magic fusion was different.
“What happens if I fail?”
“...In the worst case, mana backlash could damage the Tower Lord’s mana circuits.”
Lia’s voice trembled.
“And when magic fusion fails, it damages the surroundings too. This old tower won’t be able to withstand that kind of shock.”
“So the tower collapses, and I die with it.”
“...Yes.”
That really was a perfect dead ending.
If I attempted magic fusion, there was a high risk of failure; if I didn’t, I’d lose the tower in a week.
Death either way.
Then I might as well do it.
I gripped the grimoire tightly.
If I was going to die, I thought it would be better to die after trying something with my own hands.
“Lia, does the practice magic circle in the basement still work?”
“Y-yes...? It does work, but the output is unstable...”
I rose from the desk. Lia hurriedly stepped in front of me.
“Tower Lord, please, you really mustn’t! Magic fusion is...”
“Lia.”
I placed a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m not some game veteran, and I’m not a genius mage. I haven’t memorized a walkthrough either. I’m just a third-rate mage who got unlucky and ended up here.”
“What... what does that mean?”
Lia’s eyes trembled.
“It means one thing. If things stay like this, I’m going to die anyway. If I’m going to die no matter what, isn’t it better to try something?”
I gave a sheepish smile.
“At the very least, I can probably manage a basic two-school fusion. Probably.”
“Probably...?”
“That’s the best I can do right now.”
I passed Lia and walked toward the door.
“If I fail...”
Without turning back, I continued,
“Run before the tower collapses. There’s no need for you to get dragged into this, too.”
“...Tower Lord.”
I could hear Lia’s trembling voice, but I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
I went down the basement stairs, which creaked under my weight.
Mold, dust, and the faint lingering scent of mana.
The smell of an old tower stung my nose.
When I opened the door to the basement practice room, I saw a magic circle glowing faintly in the darkness.
An old magic circle, full of cracks and broken in places.
But it still worked.
I stood at the center of the circle.
I opened the grimoire in my hands and began reading the fusion formula written inside.
Basic Two-School Fusion - Fire and Wind
First, match the flow speed of the two mana streams.
Second, clearly define the fusion point.
Third, do not rush. Harmony of mana comes from patience.
In the game, you just inserted the materials and pressed a button, and that was it, but in reality the process was this complicated.
I took out the cheap magical materials from my pocket.
“One shard of red flame stone, one piece of wind spirit feather...”
In the game, they would have been bottom-grade materials. But right now, they were everything I had.
I placed the materials on the magic circle.
The circle reacted faintly, giving off a dim light.
At least I’ve started.
I steadied my breathing and began drawing up mana.
I could feel the mana in my body moving.
It was a pitiful amount, worthy of a third-rate mage, but that was all I had now.
With my right hand, I gathered the mana of fire; with my left, I gathered the mana of wind.
The two streams writhed in my palms.
Match the speed...
But it wasn’t easy.
Lia had been right about my unstable mana control.
The fire mana surged too violently, while the wind mana felt as if it might scatter at any moment.
Focus!
Sweat ran down my forehead.
I slowly, very slowly, brought the mana in both hands closer together.
Then.
Crackle--!
The mana violently repelled itself.
“Guh...!”
My body was shoved backward for an instant. My heart throbbed painfully.
No, not yet...!
I clenched my teeth and gathered mana again.
I couldn’t give up after one failure.
In a week, it would all be over anyway.
If I was going to die now or die later, it made no difference.
One more time!
I drew up both streams again.
This time, a little more carefully, a little more slowly.
The fire and wind mana began to rotate in my hands.
Define the fusion point clearly...
Repeating the words from the grimoire to myself, I precisely set the point where the two streams met.
And then--
Whoosh.
The two streams began to blend into one.
That was when it happened.
Mage of Fusion