Life as a Magician Begins at the Training School
Res Limen.
That was the name of the city I was in.
It meant the Threshold of the World.
The gods had hidden their faces, and the world had lost its mystery.
Yet someone had summoned mystery once more. Out of awe for that endless abyss of mysteries, they named it the Abyss.
Res Limen had been built directly atop that Abyss.
The Abyss had been sealed. The heart of the world. The center of the continent. The city within a city.
If there was a way back to Earth, it was surely here.
Traveling across dimensions was the ultimate mystery.
And the Abyss was the source of all magic in this world.
Without the Abyss, there would be no clues to dimension-hopping anywhere.
'And the kind of people like me fit right in.'
Res Limen, where people like me gathered, was the largest city in the world and the place where the most money and resources flowed.
It was a melting pot of races and peoples where even an alien like me could assimilate as one of their own.
In this bustling metropolis, the absolute core was the Prodigium League.
The central institution overseeing explorations of the Abyss.
It managed the overall administration and control of the Abyss, supervised the guilds organized by the Prodigium, and even issued Prodigium licenses.
At the same time, this was exactly where I was now.
"I want to obtain my Prodigium license."
"You're here for the training academy entrance application, right?"
"Yes."
Without a Prodigium license, entry into the Abyss was forbidden.
If I wanted to be chased for committing crimes, that was one thing.
Here, graduates of the training academy received basic equipment and mentors as support.
It was a one-stone-two-birds—or even three-birds—opportunity.
"May I have your name, applicant?"
"Roman. Roman Sun."
"Rom...an. Yes, that's it. Since you're here to apply for the Prodigium license, you probably know already, but the training academy currently taking applications is the one for mages. Even after you graduate, you must be a mage to receive the Prodigium license."
"I know."
When I nodded cheerfully, the staff member, having recognized the procedure, immediately moved to the next question.
"What class?"
"Warlock."
Me, a warlock.
The staff member's expression froze the instant I stated my class.
The casual sigh of "Ah..." that slipped out unconsciously perfectly illustrated the public's view of warlocks as a class.
But I remained unperturbed.
After all, why wouldn't I be?
'I am different.'
Not just a passing remark, but the truth.
I was unlike the other warlocks the world knew.
The greatest reason warlocks were despised was the price they paid to borrow demonic power.
That price was simply too fatal.
But I had no such price.
I simply existed in this world, breathing.
That alone satisfied the conditions of my contract with the demon Seir.
Yes.
The value was different.
Between Earth and this world.
On Earth, crossing one border changed the currency and prices overnight, but at the dimension level, the scale changed entirely.
It was like sending a Korean foreigner to a poor country.
Or, like sending Korean miners and nurses to Germany in the old days to earn foreign currency.
Like the citizens of oil-rich nations living their entire lives without money worries!
On this land of endless abundance, simply living and breathing was enough to cover the prices of Earth and leave surplus.
In effect, infinite magic power with no risk.
There was no need to feel inferior.
The problem was that I didn't know how to handle it.
'This is the training academy for that.'
Warlock was the number-one class that guilds in the Prodigium League avoided.
For a warlock like me, who was universally rejected, was there anywhere else to learn?
I had more than enough magical energy to burn, so with trial and error, anything was possible.
This was the real beginning of sunny days!
§
There had been a time when I thought exactly like that.
"The first step of training is team formation. Each team consists of three members. Begin."
The moment I heard the content of the training, I thought.
'This isn't good.'
Forming teams right from the first day?
'Not easy.'
It wasn't a personal problem.
It was a problem with my class.
Warlock.
To mages, this was the disciple of disciples.
A class that had once been fundamental but had now become a relic of a bygone era.
If anything, it was the one that boldly held the top spot among the three despised classes of mages.
'And why three people?'
Were Prodigium meant to be like study explorers?
Three against one?
'Still, I have to try it.'
Dead or alive, I had to try at least once.
Some people were already huddled together, as if they had known in advance.
Others looked bewildered, scanning their surroundings like me.
I approached one of them and spoke up.
And.
"Warlocks are a bit..."
I was immediately shot down.
"Warlocks, what kind of talk is that like mages! Get out right now!"
I was expelled.
"What? Twenty years old and just entering? Also a warlock? Hahaha, interesting guy."
"Then?"
"No. Interesting guy. No need. Training academy is enough. Go do something fun. They even hire interesting guys there."
I was mocked.
"Even now, you're the kind of guy who comes out. It's been a while. I'll give you serious advice. Forget about being a warlock. The price paid for the contract with demons is a waste, but treat it as sunk cost and cut your losses. Pretend it never happened."
"I'm really fine..."
"Enough, man. You must be young, I see. You'll die young. Sigh, what do I say? Anyway, go find someone else."
I was pitied.
"What nonsense. You're talking nonsense. Why include a warlock in the team? You'll get stabbed in the back."
I was ignored.
'So this is the current address of warlocks?'
I knew it from theory, but experiencing it was utterly humiliating.
The instructor said this was the first training.
If you couldn't form a team, it was a natural failure.
A dropout.
'I feel awkward.'
Why team formation from the start?
'Is there really no one?'
Training academies opened every quarter.
If I dropped out, I had to wait three full months.
It couldn't be helped.
Just pick any two people like me who were alone.
'They'd get in trouble if they dropped out here.'
[For contractors without friends, this is definitely a difficult test.]
I nearly screamed in surprise.
I barely swallowed my voice and thought inwardly.
'Please keep your tail hidden.'
[Tail? What is that?]
I knew some modern stuff, but I didn't know about tails.
'That means don't talk to me so suddenly.'
[Huhuhu, were you surprised?]
'Yes. So, a little...'
"Over there..."
"Wha...?!"
Damn it.
I couldn't hold back this time.
One-sided operations, both inside and out.
How was I supposed to endure that?
I quickly turned toward the sudden voice.
In my rear stood an individual with a deep hood pulled low.
"H-Ho, do you, do you... h-have a team?"
"Um, not yet."
Although unseen, I felt a vague sense that the face hidden beneath that hood was glowing with happiness.
"Then! Will you team with me?"
"Sure, but is that okay? Just so you know, I'm a warlock."
"Eh? Ah, no problem! I-I'm a spirit summoner too... hehe."
Ah, got it.
He was also a case where he couldn't find a team.
Whether warlock or spirit summoner, it was the same.
One of the three despised classes.
The spirit summoner was also proudly placed among them.
"Should we introduce ourselves? I'm Roman Sun. My class is, as I said earlier, warlock."
"Oh! I'm Leaf. Leaf Yusglimt."
"Could you be from a noble house?"
"N-No, it's not."
When I asked because the surname was unusual, Leaf shook her head vigorously beneath the hood.
The shaking caused strands of hair to spill out from the hood gap.
A straw-like dirty blonde.
Her face was hard to see due to the hood, but from the voice and the arm I had glimpsed earlier, she was clearly a woman.
Even with the lingering summer heat, the clothes wrapped tightly around her looked quite striking.
'One down.'
She seemed timid when speaking, but she had suggested teaming up first, so she had some backbone.
The spirit summoner part was a bit concerning, but there was nothing I could do about it.
And who knows?
Maybe Leaf was also a spirit summoner with some cheat like me.
"Then I need to find the last member..."
Let me see...
Someone alone like us...
"You."
"...Me?"
"Yeah."
A warlock and spirit summoner combination.
I was struggling to recruit the final member for this terrifying team when someone approached first.
'Why is the other one also a hood?'
Shorter than Leaf.
Even though the voice had a lower tone than Leaf's, there was a hidden childishness that couldn't be concealed.
From the beginning, the feeling was off.
The second hooded girl asked abruptly.
"A warlock, you say?"
"...Yes?"
Was she trying to pick a fight?
Her tone sounded rough, and it didn't seem like she had any good intentions.
Even before the conversation, she already had a bad idea.
After seeing so much bad stuff earlier, maybe she had already developed a victim complex.
"Put me in too."
"...You know I'm a warlock and still want to join?"
"Yeah. Don't you?"
We hadn't set any time limits, but recruiting another member wouldn't make much difference anyway.
It was better to come first while knowing I was a warlock.
"Leaf, is that okay?"
"Ah, yes! I'm fine."
"Got it. Name? I'm Roman, and this one is..."
"Leaf Yusglimt! I'm a spirit summoner."
She had enough social sense to speak first.
The second hooded girl responded without a word.
"Ray. Battlemage."
If it had been a little longer, the excitement might have lasted longer.
But right now, what mattered was what came after the introductions.
'Battlemage...'
Battlemage wasn't a class with a specific magic system.
In fact, it was so mixed that finding others with similar systems was hard.
They were heretics who treated magic not as an academic discipline but as a tool for real combat.
Their magic was specialized solely for battle.
In the mage society, battlemages were viewed as disciples and subtly discriminated against, but in Res Limen, it was different.
To face the great challenge of the Abyss, physical power was essential, so what did battlemage matter?
The guild even said they preferred battlemages over other classes compared to others.
But battlemage as a class had one major flaw.
First, because of the lack of consistent unity, developing abilities was difficult.
Second, the spread of skill levels was greater than in any other class.
Battlemage was all talk.
It was a class where they gathered only the fighters among rootless people and lumped them together.
Do you remember the three despised classes of mages?
Warlock, spirit summoner, and battlemage.
Precisely, the lowest spectrum of battlemage.
They weren't helpful outside of combat, so they were battlemage, but among those with low combat power.
Battlemages with strong combat power were all snatched up by nobles.
But battlemages with weak combat power were the ones everyone avoided and pitied.
In that situation, where would the second hooded girl, Ray, stand?
Most people would probably say the latter.
Her build alone already didn't suit battlemage.
'Hahaha... We really have all the three despised classes gathered.'
This team was not easy.
Still, I was the normal one, right?
'I'm really going to have to carry a log.'
§
"Enough. Those who have not yet formed a team, move to the left."
People who had been wandering alone or in pairs moved left with visible irritation.
We should have compromised and formed teams.
Why couldn't they accept and join when it was clearly necessary?
'I guess they thought teams would be formed automatically.'
They had completely wrong mind.
My impression matched the instructor's exactly.
"You all are withdrawing. Prodigium isn't something done alone. Those who can't even form proper teams and insist are unnecessary."
Complaints immediately erupted.
But their complaints were crushed in an instant.
The instructor was strong.
After simply dismissing the guy who had been causing trouble at the front, the withdrawing students couldn't even make a sound and shuffled out of the training academy.
After watching all the withdrawers leave, the instructor immediately gave the next training.
"We will proceed with the immediate next training."
Perhaps because I had seen the immediate withdrawal with my own eyes, the posture of the new students reacted noticeably differently from before.
With a faint satisfaction curling the corner of my mouth, the instructor said.
"If you formed a team, you should check your teammates' abilities. We will conduct a sparring match. It is a team-based sparring."
The atmosphere, which had been composed, collapsed instantly.
The restless murmuring spread and shook the entire area.
The instructor's voice rose again at that reaction.
"What did you expect? This is a training academy. We don't have time to teach you everything one by one. If you were looking for that, go to an academy. Proceed now!"
It was lightning-fast.
The students who had witnessed the withdrawal moved briskly to the instructor's command.
Various magics unfolded dazzlingly.
The speed was impressive; it seemed everyone had already laid down basic body enhancement as their foundation.
The ground bubbled and crackled, and lightning flashed, making me feel like I was truly among mages.
I carefully observed their magic.
Focusing on the flow and structure of magic power that I could now feel, I strained my eyes to grasp even a little of how they used magic.
After several such team sparrings, my turn finally came.
"Heh, do your best, Roman!"
"Thanks."
Receiving Leaf's encouragement, I headed to the center of the sparring arena.
I slowed my steps a little, thinking maybe Ray would say something, but she didn't.
Since I was looking for a battlemage, I wondered if there was anyone.
The cold guy... no, I should say the year-old girl.
When I stepped into the arena and faced the one who had offered me advice and pity when forming the team earlier.
And that person looked at me and said.
"Don't you want to forfeit?"
"Um?"
"You said warlock. I knew right away without needing to ask. Your magic power isn't being properly collected, so it's immediately noticeable. Demonic alien magic. You don't want to pay the price, do you? You can forfeit without penalty. If you forfeit, it's a win-win for both of us, right?"
Indeed.
This spar was merely an extension of team formation.
At the point of teaming up, I might have avoided withdrawal.
The losers in the previous sparring hadn't been penalized with withdrawal, after all.
It was possible that later they would say, "You all withdraw," but if they were going to do it, they would have done it immediately rather than postponing.
But the evaluation would definitely be bad.
"...You're right."
My murmur continued.
A completely indifferent, deadpan face.
Not to convince the opponent for the spar, but to openly pity the pathetic guy.
"That's right? Let's not tire each other out. I don't want to hear stories of me beating a warlock in sparring."
That word was spoken as if it was the most natural thing.
The small murmur after that reached my ear without any attempt to hide.
"Ha, guys like warlocks crawling in here... Recently, even dogs and cats are claiming to be Prodigium and making a scene."
If they wanted to persuade, they shouldn't have said that.
"Charming words."
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