Chapter 7: Introduction to Magic
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 7: Introduction to Magic
[Detailed Description: Circle Stone. A stone that creates magic circles in the user's heart. Upon use, the user can learn and cast magic of the corresponding circle.]
"What?!"
This was huge. Seo-un’s joy doubled; he never imagined he would obtain such an item from the man killed by the mage, rather than the mage himself.
Just as he was about to use the item immediately, the mention of a "waiting period" caught his eye.
"Tsk, tsk. So he died without even getting a chance to use this after finding it. I think he said he was a coachman..."
He felt a pang of bitterness.
He could imagine how happy the man must have been when he found this item; his emotions likely weren't much different from Seo-un’s own. To die without even getting to use it properly made him feel even more pity for the man.
"I'll make better use of it for you."
Seo-un tucked the item into his subspace and examined the remaining loot.
All that was left were some clothes and a few hidden weapon scrolls. Just as he was about to toss the clothes aside, a familiar voice stopped his hand.
[Ding! You have obtained Kria's Boots. Increases Agility.]
"Ah!"
Only then did he take a closer look at the pitch-black boots he had been about to throw away. He immediately swapped his shoes.
"Status!"
Agility: 36
His Agility, which had been a mere 26, had increased by 10.
"My body doesn't feel any lighter even though my Agility went up, though?"
Seo-un, who still had a low understanding of the Agility stat, didn't realize it yet, but Agility wasn't a simple stat that just made one's body feel lighter. It was a stat that enhanced his reflexes, serving as the foundation that allowed him to move faster and more nimbly.
Looking down at the last item at the bottom of the box—a thick book—Seo-un took a deep breath and picked up the volume emblazoned with a pentagram.
[Ding! You have obtained the Wind Ball Grimoire. You can learn it if you meet the requirements.]
"It really was a magic book! Give me the detailed description."
[Detailed Description: Wind Ball is a spell that manipulates wind to create and control spheres of air. The number and power of the wind spheres depend on the caster's ability. It is a spell commonly learned by those first entering the path of magic.]
"So it's for beginners."
After packing all the items, Seo-un stood up and looked down at the empty box for a moment before leaving the area. Since a fight had just occurred here, he felt uneasy about spending the night in this spot. He decided it was wise to move away.
After trekking for a long time through the pathless mountains, a single cabin marked on the map appeared. After checking for any presence inside, he cautiously approached the window and peered in. A bright lantern was lit inside.
Confirming no one was there, he entered, extinguished the lantern, and sat in the middle of the cabin. He pulled out the Circle Stone.
"Three hours... That should be enough, right?"
Having confirmed that the magnetic field had shrunk for the day while he was moving, Seo-un took the Circle Stone out of his leather pouch.
[Ding! Would you like to use it?]
When he pressed the 'O' button, another window popped up, unlike usual.
[Movement will be restricted while using the Circle Stone. You cannot cancel the process once it begins. Would you like to use it?]
He pressed the 'O' button again. The stone glowed brilliantly and sank deep into Seo-un’s chest.
There was no sharp pain, but a heavy ache set in, accompanied by dizziness and nausea. A pressure, as if something were gripping his heart and refusing to let go, gradually intensified.
"Gah...!"
A groan escaped his twisted lips. The sensation, which felt like he might vomit or collapse at any moment, lasted for a full three hours.
"Haaah...!"
As the three hours passed and the symptoms that had been tormenting him finally faded, Seo-un, drenched in sweat, clutched his chest and exhaled raggedly.
"Huff... huff..."
Seo-un’s heart beat wildly, as if proving it was still alive and rejoicing at being freed from the suffocating restraint. Clutching his chest to calm his racing heart, Seo-un wiped the sweat pouring down his face and lay back on the floor.
"Phew! I really thought I was going to die..."
During those three hours, the thought that something had gone wrong kept swirling in his head. The pain was incomparable to when he had formed his Dantian; it felt like his head would explode and his stomach would leap out of his mouth. He had been flooded with regret, wishing he hadn't used the Circle Stone at all.
After staring at the dark ceiling of the cabin for a while, Seo-un sat up abruptly and toyed with his subspace ring.
"Still, I have to do what needs to be done!"
Seo-un’s eyes sparkled as he pulled the grimoire from his subspace.
[Ding! Would you like to learn the Wind Ball Grimoire?]
As soon as he touched the window floating before him, the bluishly glowing grimoire turned to ash and vanished.
"Ah!"
The moment he learned the magic, he could feel the mana circles formed in his heart.
One... two. There are two.
The moment he felt an illusion of one of the two circles in his heart glowing brightly, a chant tumbled from Seo-un’s lips.
"Escrow Squad Wind Ball."
Simultaneously, he felt the sensation of wind gathering in his palm. A spherical orb, which only he could truly feel, formed above his hand. After chanting a few more times, he was able to create four Wind Balls that he could control at will.
"Four is my limit for now."
Finishing his sentence, he swung his hand toward one wall of the cabin and shouted.
"Strike!"
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The spheres of wind flew out and vanished as they gouged deep dents into the thick wooden wall. While the power was nowhere near the fireballs of the mage he had killed, he figured this would be quite helpful. It was a threatening enough level of power, especially against those "mages" whose physical abilities didn't seem much different from his own.
Of course, that was assuming the Wind Ball could actually reach their bodies.
"Phew. Should I try to get some sleep?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Seo-un flopped over and fell asleep instantly. It was the first time he had truly slept since coming to this world.
*
The moment he opened his eyes to the dazzling sunlight, Seo-un bolted upright and grabbed his crossbow, sharply scanning his surroundings.
"Phew. I'm going to end up with a nervous breakdown at this rate."
Stepping outside, he saw the sun was already quite high. As he opened his map to plan his route for the day, a sudden thought occurred to him.
Come to think of it, how many survivors are left?
Yesterday, two people had died right before his eyes. Since he had killed one of them himself, that meant at least two were gone.
"Survivor List!"
45/100
Jeok Hwa-jin --> James (Kill with Sword Art)
.
.
.
Keira --> Minuel (Kill with Magic)
Jin Seo-un --> Keira (Kill with Hidden Weapon)
"What?!"
Seo-un was so shocked the words escaped him. On the first day, only one player had been eliminated. According to his guess, that was likely due to an unavoidable clash between two players who met at a destination.
But by the second day, more than half the players had been eliminated. The pace was incredibly fast.
It's not like there's a cheat or something...
In the game Log that he used to play, if the number of players dropped abnormally fast, the common assumption was that someone was cheating. But this game was incomparable to a computer game made by humans.
There must be a reason...
Seo-un stared intently at the map. A city stretching out not far from the mountains he had been in yesterday caught his eye.
Did the players congregate? In the city? But why the city of all places? I don't know the reason, but players probably gathered around large towns or cities, and the fighting just kept going.
Seo-un’s guess was only half right. It was true that players had flocked to large cities and towns. But the reason was obvious.
A single day was more than enough time for players to learn about the items. And those items stimulated the other players just as much as they did Seo-un. Martial arts manuals and grimoires were more than enough justification to drive most players mad with greed. Their desire was just as great as Seo-un’s, if not greater.
As the martial artists' desire for manuals and the mages' desire for new grimoires began to boil over, every player moved toward the nearest large town or city. Naturally, encounters became frequent.
As a result, more than half the players were killed and eliminated in a single day.
Regardless, it's a good result for me. I'm grateful if the players drop out quickly! At this rate, my initial goal is achieved. Now... I'm aiming for the TOP 10.
The phrase "differential rewards for TOP 10 and above" lingered in Seo-un’s mind. He was already itching with curiosity to see what kind of rewards the creator of this logic-defying game would provide.
The more he thought about it, the more he steeled his resolve.
"I'm sticking to quick farming and camping until the end!"
After watching the map for a long time, Seo-un planned a route that stayed as close to the magnetic field as possible and as far from large towns or cities as he could, then began to move.
And from very far away, there was someone quietly watching Seo-un.
An old man with white hair and a long white beard that reached his Dantian was stroking his whiskers, watching Seo-un from a distance where an ordinary person's vision wouldn't even register a speck.
After watching Seo-un move busily for a while, the old man followed him, leaping from the top branch of one tree to another. Moving through the trees with footsteps as light as if he were taking a stroll, the image of Seo-un running and struggling was reflected as a tiny speck in the old man's dark pupils.
*
"Wind Ball!"
Along with his shout, a sphere of wind left his hand and smashed through the wooden door of a dilapidated cabin. After throwing a few more Wind Balls, Seo-un tilted his head and quietly watched the inside of the cabin from beneath the shade of a tree.
There was only one reason he hadn't started farming immediately.
Bloodstains around the cabin and a wooden chest.
For some unknown reason, there was a single wooden chest and a pool of blood suggesting significant blood loss, and the pool looked as if its heat hadn't even cooled yet. If there is a dead player, there must be a player who killed them. And seeing the trail of blood leading drop by drop into the cabin, the enemy was almost certainly inside.
It's not good to keep crossing paths with other players.
It was especially bad when he was this close to the magnetic field. Based on the pattern so far, the magnetic field began to shrink every day at midnight. The timing might change as time went on, but for Seo-un, who planned his routes to stay close to the magnetic field, he could only plan the next day's route and find a place to rest after midnight when the field had finished shrinking.
In other words, his schedule was already tight just moving along his planned route and farming; if he wasted time in a standoff with an enemy, he would face one problem after another. Being unable to move according to his pre-planned route was incredibly irritating to Seo-un.
Besides, there's no telling when the magnetic field's position might shift.
For now, it was shrinking regularly toward the center of the map, but no one knew when or where the center of this restricting field might move. Having played Log, Seo-un hoped this stable magnetic field would last, but he kept reminding himself that it wouldn't last forever. If the magnetic field were to shift to a far-off location at midnight tonight, he might have to move toward the safe zone all night without a wink of sleep.
It would be lucky if I could keep sticking to the mountainous terrain, but I can't be sure... What rotten luck to run into an enemy in a place like this.
Still, he couldn't just move forward and leave an enemy behind him in a place where his movement was restricted by the magnetic field. If he was unlucky, he would be traveling with an enemy at his back who could strike at any moment, which would be a constant source of anxiety.
I wouldn't even be able to circulate my energy properly because of the nerves.
Even as he thought this, Seo-un’s gaze and the crossbow aimed at the cabin's entrance remained steady and unwavering.