The Core of the Magic Tower (1)

A flood of messages poured in at once, and with them came the sensation of mana spreading outward around the Magic Tower.

Judging by the nonstop group messenger notifications, everyone else had felt it too.

Is this that Influence Zone effect or whatever it's called?

I'd planned to check Magic Creation first thing, but a phenomenon this strange was impossible to ignore. Come to think of it, one of the conditions for the next tower upgrade had been something about reaching a 1 km Influence Zone.

I pulled up the Influence Zone information right away.

"Influence Zone. Influence Zone system."

"Huh?"

As a quick test, I used Multi-Element Magic to spark a small flame in one palm.

Fwoosh—

"Whoa?"

Even with barely any mana poured in, the flame bloomed far larger than before. I'd once compared this spell to a tiny hose stuck on an enormous water tank. Now that hose had at least upgraded from mouse-tail to cat-tail thickness.

I fed a little more mana into it…

Fwoosh—!

The fire swelled the instant I pushed power into it. For the first time, it actually felt like proper magic. I wanted to try chaining a few casts to check the real firepower, but the room would have turned into a disaster zone, so I held back.

Constraints and backlash are reduced too, it said?

One spell immediately sprang to mind: Mana Sense. That legendary self-stun magic. Its power had gone up, so the range would have expanded… but the backlash should have dropped by the same amount, right?

Just in case, I stationed Unit 1 right beside me, drew up mana, focused it into my sensory organs, and called out:

"Mana Sense."

The expanding awareness swept across the ground like a wave. It passed the apartment complex, the university, the big supermarket, the ruined district once dominated by spores, and even Jihee's bunker…

Wait, how far is this going?

It kept going, crossing the city limits until I could sense the vast swarms of zombies stretching all the way toward Suwon. Every last one of them poured into my head as vividly as if a 3D map had just been switched on.

Huh? I'm fine?

"You're completely fine, Master. It seems you didn't need to call me after all."

I hadn't collapsed. I wasn't even dizzy or in pain. Maybe because it was one of the lineages I'd registered for the school, the power boost and penalty reduction were absurd. I had no intention of ever leaving this building, so there was zero chance I'd step outside the Influence Zone anyway.

Having my skull stuffed with an unimaginable volume of unfamiliar information while remaining perfectly clear-headed felt strangely exhilarating—like I'd suddenly become one of those geniuses who memorize entire textbooks just by skimming them once.

Feeling proud, I posted about it on the Free Archive.

True to form, the otherworldly Tower Masters piled on the admiration. They could be surprisingly nice at times like this.

Wait a second. If pure mana magic—my secondary choice—was already this strong, just how much better had magic engineering, my primary major, become?

"…Then what about you?"

The answer came straight from Unit 1 standing right beside me.

"Shall I demonstrate?"

With that, she flung the window open and leapt out. She flipped two full somersaults in mid-air, then plummeted toward the ground like a hawk diving on prey.

Fweee—

A strange whistling tore past my ears. Unit 1 seemed to land on the road, and then a thunderous boom shook the earth as if an earthquake had struck. Asphalt cracked and black dust exploded outward; at the same time, pure white mana absorption charged with holy attributes burst around the golem like a special-effect blast.

Zombies that had been shambling near the road collapsed on the spot from the shock alone, turning into Mana Cores without ever knowing what hit them.

Unit 1 scanned the area without so much as a scratch, then suddenly stretched out one hand in a gun shape and aimed at a distant rooftop. Before I could wonder what she was doing, a thin, ferocious jet of water shot from her fingers and blew a zombie's head clean off.

She can do that with Multi-Element Magic?

As if it were nothing, she vaulted several stories in a single bound, caught the windowsill, and slipped back into my room. She moved so fast I could barely track her.

"The new power Master has granted me is excellent."

My disciples in the messenger were left speechless, but I could tell at a glance that hadn't even been her full strength. Just a light test. To her it looked about as casual as running down to the corner store for a can of cola.

"Together with the other golems, I believe we could sweep away even the enhanced zombies that rampaged at the university earlier."

"R-Really?"

Those things had scared the hell out of me back then. And she was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠saying she could handle them without much trouble—before I'd even touched the school's real features like Magic Creation.

This school system is ridiculously good.

No wonder everyone called the school the true core of a Magic Tower. The claim that one school could give more benefits than most tower-rank upgrades wasn't an exaggeration.

Still, that line about affecting structures and facilities inside the Influence Zone… what does that actually mean?

From the wording alone it almost sounded like I could freely reshape everything the zone touched. How was I supposed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to use it?

Ah. There's a separate Influence Zone Management button.

I pressed it. A translucent holographic map of the current 330-meter radius of my school's Influence Zone floated into the air. It showed my Magic Tower, the building next door, the shopping strip with the convenience store, and the road Unit 1 had just cratered—all of it.

Detailed information for every building and facility hovered over the hologram. Even this very building was listed. When I tapped any of those details, a prompt appeared offering to repair damaged systems or collapsed sections.

As a test I selected the road Unit 1 had wrecked and hit Repair. A creepy sensation of mana draining from my body hit me, then a grinding crunch sounded outside the window. The massive crater left by her landing began to warp and knit itself back together.

"Ah?"

How on earth was this even possible?

This is completely broken.

I recovered my mana with vigorous calisthenics and deep breathing, then reopened the Influence Zone Management window and hit the repair buttons for the Magic Tower's water and electrical systems.

Construction noise loud enough to echo through the entire building immediately followed. Pipes and wiring that zombies had smashed—and that had already been ancient and failing long before that—were restored in an instant.

Even after I'd built the mana-flame generator, turning on the lights still meant plugging a stand lamp into the ugly extra cables snaking out of it.

Click.

Once the Influence ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Zone repaired the infrastructure, the original light switches and outlets started working again. After all, our mana-flame generator had originally been converted from the building's emergency backup generator.

Shock after shock left my disciples reeling.

Even Jihee had abandoned her magic studies and was peering out the window.

When I thought about it, I still hadn't touched Magic Creation or any of the modification features. It was way too early for anyone to be this amazed… right?