The Magic Tower (1)
“You’re really pretty hopeless, aren’t you?”
“W-what did you say?!”
Another Hall of Harmony.
Seated across from each other here were Ryu Jia and Adeline, one of the Magic Tower’s administrators.
Adeline looked to be in her mid-twenties. She had bright red hair twisted up high, and her sharp eyes glinted coldly behind a pair of thin spectacles.
With her arms folded, she raked Ryu Jia up and down as if sizing up a defective product.
“I’m honestly amazed you made it here when you don’t even know the first thing about magic.”
“Why do you keep picking a fight with me?!”
“How can someone this hopeless be an S-class hunter? What, did you just ride the bus by fluttering those cute little looks and acting all sweet?”
Adeline nodded with her arms still crossed.
Ryu Jia’s face turned bright red as she puffed up in outrage.
“H-hopeless? Who are you calling hopeless?!”
Ryu Jia shot to her feet.
“Didn’t you see I defended this place? And I’m the strongest one here, you know? ...After my brother.”
Ryu Jia added softly a beat later,
“...And after Seoyeon, too.”
“What? Then I guess that brother of yours must’ve carried you here. I can already tell what kind of estimate I’m working with.”
“I’m telling you, you didn’t see my contribution!! I killed thousands at once!!”
Ryu Jia shouted, waving her arms wildly.
“I’m stuck here, so I didn’t see it.”
Adeline answered as calmly as ever.
Then she looked back over Ryu Jia’s skill list and shook her head.
“Honestly, kid, you’ve got a lot of skills, but your use of them is a total mess. You’re all brim and no bowl, aren’t you? I don’t know why talent like that ended up with someone as ho~pless as you. Tsk.”
“K-kid?! I’m twenty! I’m an adult!”
At that, Adeline slowly swept her gaze down Ryu Jia’s body from head to toe.
And then—
“Hmm…”
A short silence.
“An adult?”
A strange smile touched Adeline’s lips.
“Pffft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Ryu Jia knew exactly where that look had landed.
Crack—
“Y-you little—! I’m still growing!”
“You said you were an adult, though?”
Adeline asked back with pointed meaning.
“Aaaagh!!”
Ryu Jia realized it then.
This woman...
She was far too much like herself.
The tone, the attitude, the way she treated people—everything.
It was like looking into a mirror.
Was I always like this too...?
For an instant, she felt a flicker of self-reflection, but that only made her anger surge hotter.
“C-cruel...”
Her eyes even began to glisten with both grievance and rage.
They always said that too much similarity between people could be poison.
This was exactly that.
Adeline sat with her arms crossed, scrutinizing Ryu Jia’s skills, while Ryu Jia herself was so worked up that her cheeks burned a furious red.
She’d finally met her match, and Adeline was absolutely laying into her.
Minsu, you bastard! Why aren’t you here when I need you...?
For once, she missed Park Minsu, who usually endured her sharp tongue without complaint.
The sweet, obedient idiot.
No matter what she said to him, he always just went, “Sigh, fine,” and took it.
Ah. In that moment, Ryu Jia was painfully reminded of just how precious Park Minsu really was.
“Ho! Look at this kid. You’re thinking about something else again?”
“I wasn’t!”
“I can tell from your eyes. You were definitely spacing out just now.”
“I said I wasn’t!!”
But Park Minsu wasn’t there.
She had to endure this terrifying woman with a personality that was almost unnervingly identical to her own, all by herself.
Adeline tapped the desk with her finger and said, “All right, then let’s get to the point. If we’re going to combine your skills properly...”
She fixed Ryu Jia with a sharp stare.
“First, we’re going to have to fix that arrogant attitude of yours.”
“W-what?!”
Adeline slowly raised her staff.
“H-hold on. I’m a customer! I paid one hundred thousand coins!!”
“So?”
“You can’t treat a customer like this!”
“I’m rich. Want a refund?”
Adeline’s answer was crisp and merciless.
“Or...”
She smiled faintly, her expression loaded with meaning.
“Try calling me Master. Then this big sister will personally guide you onto the true path of a mage.”
“Get lost!”
Ryu Jia shouted in fury.
“I can’t hold back either! You’ll be crying and apologizing before this is over, anyway!”
“What? Me cry? Ha ha!”
“Don’t laugh!”
“You’re pretty bold for a little kid.”
“I told you, I’m not a kid!”
And then—
Crackle—
Magic flashed at the tip of Ryu Jia’s staff.
At the same time—
Fwoosh!
Far stronger magic erupted from Adeline’s staff.
Meanwhile, on the floor below, in the other Hall of Harmony where Kim Jun was.
Bang, bang, crash—!
Rumble-rumble-rumble—!
Noisy clamor rang down from the ceiling.
“What’s that sound?”
Kim Jun looked up at the ceiling.
“Haha... t-that’s...”
Olivia gave an awkward smile and let her words trail off.
The source of the noise was the floor above.
That was the Hall of Harmony managed by Adeline.
Hmm...
Kim Jun searched through his memories from before his regression.
He clearly remembered Ryu Jia coming out of the Magic Tower with an indignant face, practically fuming.
Back then he hadn’t known what had happened, but now the answer was obvious.
So those two fiery temperaments met each other...
Kim Jun let out a snort of laughter.
There was no way those two would ever cooperate smoothly.
“Did they start throwing punches?”
“W-well... haha, hahaha...”
Olivia hedged helplessly.
Crash—!
The ceiling shook again.
That brat Jia is going to have a rough time.
Kim Jun smirked. It wouldn’t hurt for once to get a taste of her own medicine.
Still, that aside.
Kim Jun turned his attention forward again.
This is what matters.
At the center of the Hall of Harmony stood a massive magical apparatus.
A bronze machine at least three meters tall, its surface covered in intricate magic circles, blue motes of mana blinking on and off across its body.
The most eye-catching part was the two enormous scales mounted at its center.
The left scale and the right scale.
On each scale plate floated a transparent crystal sphere.
“The principle is simple,”
Olivia explained, pointing at the apparatus.
“When you activate a skill into each scale, the skill takes form and rises onto the balance.”
Kim Jun nodded. He’d seen the device before, back before his regression, but it still looked strange no matter how many times he saw it.
“And once you pour in mana until the scales are balanced...”
Olivia gestured toward the middle.
Exactly halfway between the two scales was a huge furnace-like mechanism.
Inside it, red flames of mana were blazing fiercely.
“The two skills fuse inside the furnace. They’re reborn as an entirely new skill.”
Kim Jun’s eyes gleamed.
Before his regression, he had come here with barely any skills to speak of.
Back then, all he’d managed was to force together two lucky C-rank skills to make a single B-rank one.
But now things were different.
Powerful skills nearing S-rank. Rare skills gained through his second awakening.
“May I take a look, just for a moment?”
Olivia asked cautiously.
“Go ahead.”
The Magic Tower’s administrators helped visitors achieve the best possible result.
They did everything they could to maximize a hunter’s capabilities and help them climb the Tower to its very end.
That was the fate—and the duty—of those who managed the Magic Tower.
Vmm—
When Olivia placed her hand on Kim Jun’s back, a magic circle unfolded and soft mana flowed into him.
Her power moved slowly along Kim Jun’s mana circuit while she closed her eyes and began analyzing his skills one by one.
At first, her expression was calm.
First, check the basic skills.
「Blast」 - C-rank
「Detection」 - C-rank
「Acceleration」 - C-rank
Nothing unusual so far.
Olivia murmured inwardly. They were the sort of general-purpose skills most hunters had.
But the next moment—
「Diabolic Override」 - A-rank
“Oh...?”
Her eyebrows rose slightly.
An A-rank skill already? And it’s a demonization-type?
A-rank skills were rare. Fewer than ten out of a hundred hunters possessed one.
But I suppose this is still within the realm of possibility...
Olivia kept analyzing.
And when she sensed the next skill—
「Dragon Tongue」 - S-rank
“...Oh my.”
Her eyes widened.
An S-rank skill.
One of the highest-grade skills in existence, something maybe one in a thousand hunters possessed, if that.
And it was Dragon Tongue?
T-this hunter... what is he? He already has an S-rank skill?
Olivia’s heart started pounding faster.
But the surprise didn’t end there.
More S-rank skills followed, along with abilities that could not be judged by rank alone.
Things like Deus Ex Machina or Diablo.
“W-wait a second...”
Her hand began to shake.
A-rank and S-rank skills kept appearing one after another. This wasn’t the skill composition of an ordinary hunter.
W-what on earth is this guy?!
Olivia opened her eyes in flustered disbelief. The way she looked at Kim Jun had changed completely.
“What is it? Is there a problem?”
“N-no. I-I’ll keep going...”
With trembling hands, she continued the analysis.
But the problem wasn’t over yet.
「Mark」, 「Black Flame」, 「Berserk」, 「Dragon Slash」, 「Dragon Blood Awakening」, 「Ragna Explosion」...
Uwaah...
Olivia let out a tiny cry.
There were too many skills. And every single one of them was high-grade.
J-just how many are there?!
Ordinary hunters had about three to five skills. Maybe seven at most?
But Kim Jun?
He’s past ten... no, there are still more?!
Olivia’s face went pale.
How could one person possibly possess this many skills?
And the problem wasn’t just the number.
Just analyzing each one alone...
Even a simple D-rank skill required serious work to understand how it functioned, how it interfaced with a hunter’s mana circuit, and how well it synergized with other skills.
It usually took anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour to analyze an entire hunter’s skill set.
But Kim Jun’s?
There are too manyyyy!! And they’re all complicated!!
The S-rank skills were complex in structure alone.
The layers of magic circles were different, the flow of mana was exquisitely precise, and the activation conditions and effects were multidimensional.
Each one would normally take hours to analyze properly.
And Kim Jun had more than ten of them.
“Hoo...”
Olivia let out a rough breath and pulled her hand away.
She’d consumed too much mana. Beads of sweat had formed on her forehead, and her legs were starting to wobble.
He won’t be getting a discount... sniff...
To do this much work for fifty thousand coins...
For a moment Olivia regretted her own kindness.
There was a reason they normally charged one hundred thousand coins per hunter.
For this level of labor, even two hundred thousand wouldn’t have been too much.
But what was done was done.
After a long, breathless pause, Olivia finally gathered herself and got back into professional mode.
“All right... let’s find the optimal combination first.”
She raised both hands and cast her spell.
Wiiiing—
A golden magic circle bloomed in the air, and Kim Jun’s skill list began to appear one by one.
The sight of more than fifteen skills shining in golden letters overhead was nothing short of magnificent.
“The combination I’d most recommend is Berserk and the Fire attribute you have, Hunter Kim Jun.”
“Huh?”
Kim Jun blinked.
It wasn’t the answer he’d expected.
Not his main attack skills like Blast or Diabolic Override, but two passive skills?
“Why those two?”
“Hehe.”
Olivia wore a meaningful smile.
“Maybe the most perfect masterpiece of my life is about to be born.”
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