The Heavenly Demon Extinguishes the Fire (4)
The tutorial for the combat mage began inside a building. I was sitting in a room made of brick, and in front of me stood an old man wearing a long white robe. He stared at me quietly before moving his hand. In an instant, countless magic circles unfolded around him.
Impressive. I still wasn't used to the language of magic, but I could at least read the flow of power he was using. That alone let me roughly understand just how extraordinary it was to weave so many circles with a single gesture. At that level, it would hardly be an exaggeration to call what the old man was doing less like magic and more like a formation.
Countless arrays bloom from a single hand gesture. The old man's mastery borders on formation arts rather than mere spellcraft.
“My disciple who wishes to see the world. Do you remember the basics of magic?”
“Of course.”
I already knew plenty about what magic was. After all, I was still someone who dreamed of the coexistence of martial arts and sorcery. I had spent my spare time steadily studying the language of magic and building up knowledge, so there was no need to sit through basic explanations.
“Very well. Then I shall test your knowledge.”
The old man spoke and snapped his fingers. The moment he vanished, countless magic circles wrapped around the stone walls, turning the room into a sealed chamber. While I was wondering what this was about, a single sheet of paper fluttered down from above.
First test. Create a flame.
This much was nothing. I remembered the magical words related to fire. And if I knew the characters, writing them with my mana was child's play. At first I had found mana fascinating, but after some time had passed, I was now quite familiar with it. These days, I could move mana as naturally as I circulated my inner energy.
I drew a magic circle and summoned a spark above my palm. One of the circles around me disappeared.
Aha. So if I passed every test this way, I could escape the room?
“Did you really think I would keep showing only foolish behavior forever?”
The awkwardness I displayed at the beginning was simply because I knew nothing about the technique called magic. Now that I had accumulated some knowledge, I was different from before! To be honest, the language of magic was so complicated that delving too deeply made my head feel like it would split open, but this much was fine.
As I shrugged my shoulders, another sheet of paper fell down.
Use that flame to hit the target.
The moment I read the words, something resembling a target appeared in the center of one of the circles on the right. Was I supposed to shoot a fireball at it?
I launched a flame using the language of magic, but it flew past the side of the target. Strange. I thought I had aimed properly—what went wrong?
I created another flame and fired it, but once again it refused to fly straight.
Heavenly Flame-nim. Did you turn the correction function off?
“That’s right. Using it would restrict my body’s movements, wouldn’t it?”
Most of the opinions said it would be impossible without turning correction on, but I half-ignored them. There were things that didn't work and things that worked from the start. Even I had grasped success only after countless failures when I first learned martial arts. Growth always came with frustration. These people simply didn't know how to endure it.
Still, nothing was working no matter what I tried. Was I missing something? Since I was ignorant about magic, I couldn't tell where I was making a mistake.
I'm a no-correction combat mage user. May I give some advice?
“Go ahead. If it sounds reasonable, I’ll listen. If not, I won’t pay it any mind.”
It looks like you didn't set the coordinates separately.
What were coordinates? Wasn't it enough to simply declare where I wanted to shoot the fire using the language of magic?
When correction is on, that's enough. But if correction is completely off, you have to specify the coordinates as well.
“I never saw anything like that on the MyTube videos I watched.”
Those kinds of lectures usually assume you're using at least minimal correction.
The person who donated basically explained it like this: Simply declaring that you would shoot at a certain magic circle would only make the fireball fly somewhere toward that circle. To accurately aim at the target in the exact center, you had to specify its position using the language of magic. The best way to do that was by setting coordinates.
“How do you set coordinates?”
I didn't even have basic knowledge about something called coordinates.
Well, it's like this...
The person who donated tried to explain how to set up a coordinate system, but I couldn't understand it. He was speaking under the assumption that I had gone through modern education all the way to university, but I had never received compulsory education. Honestly, when it came to academic subjects like this, I was no different from a primitive person. I could handle addition, subtraction, and multiplication, but that was about it.
Listening to his explanation made my head hurt.
“Enough. Stop there.”
I roughly understood. Magic didn't only require the language of magic. To use it without correction, one truly had to study and research relentlessly. The path of no-correction magic was less about enjoying a game and more like pursuing an academic discipline.
It was a long road ahead. I had never felt this overwhelmed when learning any martial art, yet here it was.
So are you giving up and turning correction on?
“No.”
I couldn't do that. If I took the easy path here, I would keep facing temptation in the future. I had not yet given up on the coexistence of magic and martial arts.
Of course I had no intention of giving up. In the end, all I had to do was put the flame inside that target.
I first wrapped my fist with mana, then kindled flames on top of it. Then I thrust my fist straight toward the center of the target.
Then one of the magic circles disappeared. It seemed to accept this method too. If even this had been impossible, I was prepared to start throwing flames randomly until something worked.
Just as I relaxed after solving one problem, another sheet of paper fell from above. Was there still more?
Create a water orb.
Alright. Let's keep going.
Jeong Eun-ho, the user who had risen all the way to pro by playing a no-correction combat mage and earning recognition for his skill, let out a hollow laugh as he watched Heavenly Flame clear the combat mage tutorial.
The way she cleared the tutorial reminded him of the saying that a weak body makes the head suffer. He should have expected it the moment she passed the first test by lighting her hand on fire and throwing a fire punch.
Originally, you were supposed to manipulate a water current to retrieve an object beyond the wall, but she simply smashed the wall. You were supposed to lift the ground to create stairs, but she just jumped up. You were supposed to generate wind to blow away fog, but she erased it with the gust created by punching. Eun-ho, who had excitedly rushed over after hearing a newbie was trying to play a no-correction mage, could only stare in disbelief.
To be honest, it was entertaining. Watching all the scenes he had imagined get completely shattered by overwhelming force was genuinely fun. But this wasn't magic!
If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have given advice through donations and just let her do whatever she wanted! Did I explain it too academically at the beginning? Was I too excited because it was my first time seeing a famous streamer attempt no-correction magic?
Still, to play no-correction mage, you had to be able to set coordinates as naturally as breathing. If you couldn't cross that line, you couldn't play it at all.
Sigh. Looks like my attempt to bring in new no-correction mage players has failed.
Eun-ho let out a deep sigh and decided to simply enjoy Heavenly Flame's stream. Having failed at so many business ventures before, he was quick to give up. Anyway, it was fun to watch.
“Now that she's passed the basics, that puzzle should be coming up soon.”
The puzzle that gave death to players in the combat mage tutorial. After passing the wind puzzle, Heavenly Flame stood still as a sheet of paper fell in front of her.
Time limit: 3 minutes. Failure to escape within the limit will result in death.
At the same time, the magic circles covering the walls began to glow.
How is she going to pass this?
The original way to clear the final puzzle was to analyze and disable the magic circles yourself. That required perfect knowledge of the language of magic as well as a complete understanding of the magical system. In short, you had to perfectly understand the magic system used not only in Apis but across the entire current VR game industry to pass this test.
Even Eun-ho, who prided himself on being in the top 10 among no-correction mage players, had needed several years to clear it. Originally, this was a puzzle that Heavenly Flame could never solve—and shouldn't be able to solve—but Eun-ho found himself hoping she would.
She had shown so many outlandish solutions so far. Wouldn't she show something fun this time too?
Heavenly Flame looked at the threateningly glowing magic circles around her and let out a sigh.
“Hmm. With my current level of magic, it seems impossible to pass this.”
“Ugh, so noisy. Still, I don't want to fail after coming this far, so I'll release my true qi.”
Having declared that, Heavenly Flame took a stance. What is she trying to do? Eun-ho, who wasn't very familiar with her stream, could only wonder.
The combat mage's body was weak. It was safe to call it the weakest among all characters that existed in Apis. The tutorial version was even weaker, so no matter what martial arts she used with that body, the result shouldn't change.
But before long, Eun-ho realized that had been his own prejudice.
Heavenly Flame threw a punch. The shockwave made the magic circles vanish, the walls collapsed, and the old man's dumbfounded face waiting outside was revealed.
“Just what the hell is that person?”
Unaware of Eun-ho muttering in bewilderment, Heavenly Flame leisurely walked out of the room and rubbed her neck with an annoyed expression.
“I think I'll stop with Apis for today. Maybe I thought too much—my head hurts.”
Hearing her words, Eun-ho could only let out another hollow laugh.
You never used your head at all.