Let's Learn White Magic
The next morning, the report I received from the golem right after waking up wasn't exactly encouraging.
"Unfortunately, we didn't discover any survivors today. However, there were traces of people passing along the highway, so I intend to search that area more thoroughly."
The mass-produced golems couldn't speak, but the one that returned was carrying a large military-issue backpack and showed me the various items it had collected. The Mana Cores were steadily piling up as well.
"Ugh."
Using the Mana-infused Iron that kept replenishing from the upper floors, I even managed to complete three more mass-produced golems before noon.
Right in the middle of everything, the achievement triggered and a bizarre potion dropped from the sky. I had no idea what I'd succeeded at five times. This system really was as unhelpful as it could possibly get.
Use it sparingly. But if you hoard it too long it goes to waste. Still, achievement rewards pop up more often than you'd think. The conditions and success rates are just hard to figure out. If you dig through the gallery there's an old achievement compilation post.
ㄴ So are you telling me to save it or not to save it?
The potion you get from an achievement reward would probably be best saved for when you run into special zombies or dangerous enemies later. I'll tuck it away deep in a drawer for safekeeping.
Even though they were frozen, fresh vegetables and fruit would spoil quickly, so I went with healthy salads for breakfast and lunch. I hadn't realized it before, but when I hit slightly wilted vegetables with multi-element magic and a grass attribute, they perked right back up.
"It feels like I'm eating healthier now than I did before the world ended..."
I used to live on three meals of hamburgers every day. Actually, hamburgers would have been a luxury. It was all cup ramen back then.
"I'll head out for another search."
Clank. Creak.
The mass-produced golems kept hauling in supplies. Unit 1 and Unit 2 headed out into the distance to look for survivors, their bags carrying small amounts of porridge and patient meals. Upstairs, water and iron continued to be produced. It was a peaceful routine.
My disciple even took over all the household chores, washing both my clothes and her own and cleaning the tower.
"Aren't you pushing yourself too hard?"
"I owe you my life. This much is only natural."
Whenever I expressed concern, she would cut the conversation short with those firm words. There was nothing I could say to that. Thanks to her, I was able to devote every spare moment to magic research.
After our gallery's idol, user 187, mentioned trying out white magic, this humble SunWorshipper is taking the liberty of... (see more)
[Touch of Healing] — This is a basic healing spell you can learn starting at Grade 2. Unless you're planning to specialize in white magic, it actually offers better cost-efficiency than the higher healing spells. It works on pretty much any kind of injury. Just so you know, every healing, recovery, or purification spell below Grade 2 besides this one is complete garbage, so don't bother learning them.
[Light of Rest] — Wide-area attack magic that deals massive extra damage to unclean entities. Looks perfect for the current situation, right? It's pretty difficult, though. I think I already mentioned Mark of Justice.
[Protection of the Law] — Wide-area buff magic that works on a unique principle. This one's difficult too. Very.
Comments like "everything is hard" kept following after, but honestly there were quite a few that looked genuinely useful.
'Light of Rest might actually work pretty well for Magic Tower defense.'
It was a shame to lose the mana absorption and the Mana Core drop rate buff that came with it, but I figured nothing could be harder than alchemy. I started with Touch of Healing, which was supposedly the easiest of the bunch.
Because I hadn't learned the spells in proper ascending order, gaining enlightenment in the white magic branch was quite challenging. Still, thanks to my Attribute Perk, handling divinity and the power of light didn't feel all that foreign.
After running a few tests with my existing non-attribute spells like mana absorption, the enlightenment conditions were quickly satisfied.
According to what I understood...
'Hmm.'
The fundamental principle of white magic was "following the rules within your own heart." The reason it was called white magic instead of holy magic was that those rules didn't need to have any connection to gods or other supernatural beings whatsoever.
In fact, even if an evil person established evil rules for evil purposes and used magic accordingly, there would be no problem at all.
And since every person's inner code was different, the effects of white magic varied slightly from one caster to another. It was said to be the type of magic most heavily influenced by the unconscious mind.
'What the hell is this nonsense?'
It went on to claim that divinity and justice were merely things buried deep in the unconscious, spouting all kinds of rubbish.
The only part that really clicked with me was that, unlike other magic activated through the hands, these spells activated through the brain.
Well. As long as it worked, that was good enough, right?
There are days when the magic suddenly stops working for no apparent reason. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Everyone who's good at white magic seems to live like a monk. It really is an absurdly picky school of magic.
There were a few warnings like that, but I watched a pure white healing light sparkle into existence in front of me before fading away. I had no way to test its actual effectiveness without cutting my own arm open, and I wasn't about to do that. Pain was the worst.
'It probably won't work on the golems anyway.'
Still, did this mean I was immune to colds now? No, if the world ever returned to normal I'd become the ultimate healer who put all doctors out of business...
"......"
The radio had said yesterday that some military base in Gangwon Province got wiped out by flying zombie bombings. It was hard to imagine a day when that kind of thing would matter again.
Setting those fantasies aside, with every hospital already destroyed, a healing skill was incredibly useful right now. That was enough.
Next came Light of Rest and Protection of the Law. Despite the warnings that they were difficult, the mana manipulation itself wasn't all that complicated.
"They said it was hard?"
Aside from the slightly unusual pathways for channeling mana and the marginally complex operation, it wasn't anything special. Just something I could manage by feel.
......Or so I thought.
Pop—
"Huh?"
I'd tried to use Light of Rest, but the light that had begun to pour out suddenly flickered and died.
"......"
I hadn't done anything wrong. Why was it acting like this? No matter how many times I tried, the same thing happened.
"This is seriously annoying..."
But when I thought about it, the reason was simple. I'd learned the spell to make killing zombies easier. No matter what my personal code for white magic was, if I had to summarize it, it would probably be something like "kill zombies and live comfortably and safely." So of course it wouldn't work well when cast into empty air.
Whether you close your eyes and meditate or fast and train your mind, you have to trick your own unconscious somehow. This is actually why religious people are the main users of white magic. If you're not religious, it often drives you crazy while you're trying to use it.
"......"
Becoming a healer really was difficult. Anyway, I wouldn't be able to properly test these two spells until I had golems heading out to face zombies. I turned on the radio and waited for the golems to finish their farming and searching runs and return.
'The mass-produced ones will probably come back first.'
In the meantime, I decided to raise all three spells to Level 5 and check their modification options.
Alchemy: Mana (Main) + Touch of Healing → Basic Healing Core Production
Enlightenment Conditions: Elemental Condensation (Satisfied), Mana Condensation (Satisfied), Mana Elemental Manipulation: Divinity (Satisfied)
Golem Repeater (Main) + Protection of the Law → Link of Protection
Enlightenment Insufficient: Auxiliary Expansion (Satisfied), External Mana Storage (Satisfied), ???
'It connects with alchemy more than I expected.'
I'd imagined golems running around blasting out waves of holy magic, but unfortunately that modification didn't appear. The healing core seemed to function like a potion.
If it really was a potion, it would be perfect to send a few with anyone I had to dispatch outside, like emergency rations for a communications officer. Even otherwise, they could be kept on hand like regular medicine.
Later on, I might be able to run a small cottage industry. It could be worth teaching one person Touch of Healing and mana alchemy so they could focus solely on producing Mana Cores and healing cores.
The second modification, whose enlightenment conditions weren't fully met yet, seemed to be a spell that would let the Golem Repeater automatically apply buffs to the golems. It looked useful.
I didn't know exactly how strong the buff would be, but it would probably help the mass-produced golems' farming efficiency quite a bit.
'By the way, when are those kids coming back?'
While I was learning how to make healing cores and experimenting with them, the mass-produced golems returned carrying the supplies they'd gathered.
'That's less than I expected.'
It could be because they were moving carefully. Or maybe most of the buildings that could be safely looted had already been cleaned out over the past few days.
As soon as they set the supplies down, the mass-produced golems made motions as if they were about to head out again.
"Wait."
I stopped the golems and cast Protection of the Law.
'It would be good if the mass-produced golems became strong enough to reliably take down zombies.'
When I used it with that thought in mind, the spell didn't cut off. As expected, my conditions seemed to align with fear or hostility toward zombies.
Complex runes of light swirled through my mind before flowing toward the mass-produced golems in front of me. And the effect was...
The moment the spell activated, an enormous amount of mana was sucked out of me. It caught me off guard. 'Every time they attack a "zombie," light explodes and deals area-of-effect holy damage?'
What? It works like this? Isn't this totally broken? This isn't some kind of bug, right?