"Do you know why it's so difficult for a mage to reach the next order of magic?" Roist asked.
"Because with each added order, the ecosystem of the magic circle becos exponentially more complex."
"You understand."
If first-order magic was a desolate, empty field, then third-order magic was a dense jungle teeming with life. Sixth-order magic was a city, a society. While third-order magic only required managing an ecosystem that ran on the ruthless logic of survival of the fittest, sixth-order magic demanded countless elents as did human life—laws, an economy, national defense, social welfare, taxation, and so on. A delicate balance had to be struck to prevent these elents from clashing. That was the difference in difficulty.
Thankfully, modern mages like no longer had to build our own ecosystems from scratch. The first mage and his disciples must have been extraordinarily competent, for they had established the most rational guidelines for forming such a system. We only had to follow their frawork and add our own details to create a unique style. Still, even with guidelines, asking soone used to building jungles to construct a city was bound to feel like hell.
"The minimum ti it takes for a fifth-order mage to master sixth-order magic is five years."
The sight of Roist's five raised fingers made my mind go blank.
"And that's the standard for the mages of the Magic Tower, the gathering of the very elite. For ordinary mages, it takes thirty, even forty years, or they simply give up on the sixth-order altogether."
"Ah…"
"Of course, you don't need to make that face. The Tower Master is special." Roist stared at with the faceless void hidden inside his hood. "Why do you think the sixth-floor trial exists? One of its purposes is to ensure the new Tower Master masters sixth-order magic in the ti they have."
"Then… I'm in your hands." There was no ti to waste. I had no idea what Frost was plotting back ho. I had to reach sixth-order as quickly as possible and save Hong Yul.
"Then let us begin."
Roist and I stood facing each other.
"Are you familiar with the theory of the sixth-order?"
"Of course." I knew it from 'The Fundantals of Magic'. The core of the sixth-order was the 'splicing thod'—a technique that bundled three orders into one, allowing them to be cast as quickly as second-order magic. In other words, the greatest advantages of sixth-order magic were its unparalleled casting speed and its instantaneous effect. "I've tried it a few tis on my own, but I just couldn't get a feel for it from the book."
"That's to be expected. I will teach you now." As Roist spread his arms, countless magic circles unfurled. "Bring out your magic circles, Kim Yusin."
* * *
Gasping, I bent over, hands on my knees. Roist, still standing with magic circles floating in the air, looked down at the base of the barrier.
"Good work. You finished just in ti."
The mountain of monsters I had destroyed had reford in about twelve hours had beco the sa amount of ti I'd spent under Roist's instruction.
"Do you have a feel for the 'splicing thod,' the foundation of the sixth-order, now?"
"Yes!"
His teaching thods were more intense than they appeared. He had laid dozens of sensory-amplification magic circles beneath my feet before having cast a simple first-order circle. Then, without warning, he connected and spliced his own magic circles to mine.
'Get a feel for it.'
That's what he had said. When my magic circle was spliced with his, control of it transferred to him ninety-nine percent of the ti. He made experience that strange sense of detachnt over and over again. Then, he slowly progressed to splicing second-order circles and then third-order ones. I was forced to experience the fusion of ecosystems. Only after that did Roist permit to attempt the splicing thod with my own magic circles.
'Repeat it until you get that feeling again.'
I tried the splicing thod in various ways. It was a lesson unlike any I'd had before. There was no theory, no explanation—just a command to find the feeling. It was like trying to open a lock by testing thousands of keys, one by one. Eventually, I had an inkling. I felt sothing similar to that sense of loss Roist had ntioned, that strange feeling of having sothing of mine taken away.
'That's the exact sensation. Get used to it.'
I repeated the process until the feeling was firmly ingrained in my body.
'You're trying to make the ecosystem too perfect, to interfere with every little thing. The mont two ecosystems et and fuse, you must let them go. Don't try to change the foreign and uncomfortable things that shift during that fusion. Observe with patience.'
After training like that for so ti, I was succeeding eight tis out of ten. I had finally learned the splicing thod.
"Unbelievable," Roist said. "Even accounting for the benefits of the trial, your talent is certainly exceptional."
I lifted my head, still panting. "What kind of talent?"
"A talent for imitating and copying sothing that already exists."
'…Is that a complint or an insult?'
"Your tenacity, in particular—refusing to let go of a feeling once you've grasped it—was excellent."
"Th-thank you."
"Co here. I will now impart the magic to you."
I approached Roist, and he placed a hand on my forehead. As he quietly recited an incantation, a uniquely shaped magic circle appeared beneath his feet.
"What is the attribute of your specialized magic?"
"I don't really have a specialty. Fire, ice, wind, and earth. I'm an elental master who uses all four."
"Oh ho, an unusual case."
"And if there's one more…" I t his gaze and answered, "...it'd be dark magic."
Suddenly, Roist fell silent, as if at a loss for words. For the first ti, I regretted being unable to read the expression hidden in the darkness of his hood. He removed his hand from my forehead.
"How did you co by dark magic?"
"I learned it naturally while clearing the third-floor trial."
"The third-floor trial… When I challenged it, there was no such thing as dark magic." His voice trembled. "The trials of the Magic Tower are modified and improved as generations pass, reflecting the will of each Tower Master. I don't know who planted it, but their intentions are clearly malicious."
"…Excuse ?"
Roist looked straight at . "This is a piece of advice, as your predecessor. I recomnd you seal away your dark magic."
'What was this all of a sudden?' "I don't understand. Dark magic has beco an indispensable primary skill for . It's helped overco nurous crises."
Roist staggered as he walked, then stared at the city on the opposite side. He let out a deep sigh. "Actually, my specialty is also darkness." His voice was endlessly hollow. "Whether you use dark magic or not is your decision. But it's best to be careful." He gazed at the town shrouded in darkness before speaking. "What do you think of the people in this city?"
"Huh? Ah, I did think they were a bit strange." At first, they just seed like people who had lost the will to live, defeated by disaster and mired in despair. But the mont they saw conjure mana, the entire city's population rushed at like madn. They even licked up the magic I used for attacks, even as blood stread from their bodies. "Since this was my first ti in this world, I just figured that was how people were here and moved on."
"Ha, of course not. They were once vibrant, ordinary people."
"Then how did they end up like that… Don't tell , was it the Disaster?"
"That's right. They were struck by the Disaster. And now, they are no longer human."
A shiver ran down my spine. "What do you an, not human…?"
"It would be accurate to think of them as sothing between the undead and monsters."
"…My god. What kind of Disaster struck them?"
"The Disaster, Roist." He said it calmly. "I was the one who made them that way."
Roist continued his story in a placid tone.
The planet Ankhor de Antirs was in crisis, attacked by a great Disaster. Humanity suffered defeat after defeat. Renowned kingdoms fell in the blink of an eye, and the world collapsed like dominoes with unbelievable speed. Roist resolved to protect this city, where the Magic Tower stood, at all costs. He and the administrators of the Magic Tower joined forces to build a great barrier to protect the city, becoming the only survivors in the northern region. But he felt he had only bought a brief reprieve, and that eventually, everyone would die.
So, Roist made a second decision. He would develop a magic that could turn the non-awakened—those who couldn't feel mana—into awakened beings. In theory, this was only possible through dark magic, a power used not by humans, but by an ancient race from the dark ages. According to texts, all mbers of this ancient race were mages. Roist planned to inject dark magic into human bodies to transform their physiology into that of the ancient race.
The experint was a success. Ordinary humans were artificially awakened. They could feel mana and beca a force capable of fighting monsters. Roist intended to turn the city's entire population into mages and deal a major blow to the enemy.
However, after so ti, a serious side effect was discovered. Those who beca engrossed in the dark magic slowly suffered ntal collapse and physical mutation. They felt a pathological craving for mana, a hunger that drove them mad. Their reason completely shattered, they soon beca no different from monsters. This terrible Disaster beca a virus, spreading across the world like an epidemic. It was the catalyst for the southern continent, which had been holding its own against the monster front, to be directly hit by the virus and fall.
That's right. The one who destroyed this world was Tower Master Roist himself...
'Which ans…'
Roist hadn't been protecting humanity here for eleven years. He had rely been guarding his own failed experint. It was a little pitiful. The pain and guilt must have been so imnse that he called himself a Disaster.
"Whether you continue to use dark magic is your decision, but keep this one thing in mind: no matter the type, dark magic will undoubtedly have side effects and risks. You should be wary of using it until you have a perfect grasp of it."
"I'll keep that in mind."
Roist looked at . "Since you're an elental master, I shall grant you a fla-type magic." He placed his hand on my forehead again. The magic circle beneath him began to glow.
'Whoooosh!'
An indescribably vast amount of knowledge and information flooded into my mind. It wasn't as painful as when I first beca the Tower Master, but the strange sensation was unavoidable. After the information transfer was complete, Roist removed his hand. I staggered and leaned against a wall.
"You have achieved a new state. In theory, you should now be able to use the sixth-order magic, Fla Tauros. The rest is up to you."
"Ooh…" It seed he had slamd the magic directly into my head, just like how I could use Water Veil with Anton's necklace. "B-but… if you were going to do this, was there any need for all that training?"
"Grasping the feeling requires training. It's sothing that knowledge in your head cannot provide."
"Ah, I see." In addition to the sixth-order fla magic, a few peculiar magic theories had also entered my mind. I wasn't sure what they were yet. In any case, I had cleared the trial and received new magic. All my business in this world was now finished.
"Huh?"
My body began to blur. Just as I'd read in Anton's diary, I was slowly disappearing from this world.
"It seems you're going now." Roist looked at , clutching his chest. He looked uncomfortable. "The most important thing I want to tell you is… just because you're the Tower Master doesn't an you have to bear everything alone. That is arrogance. If you indulge in excessive arrogance, a situation like mine might occur in your world as well."
"Right."
"…But well."
Suddenly, a chilling sensation crept down my neck.
"If you insist on doing it, it can't be helped." From within the darkness of the hood, crazed, red eye sockets flashed. He snapped his fingers. I felt a switch flip in my head as a stream of dark magic spells unfurled before my mind's eye.
"You…!"
Among them was 'that magic'—the one that had destroyed this very planet.
"Ah."
Roist shook with laughter. My body grew fainter, about to disappear from the world. Just then, his hood was thrown back. The face inside was a minced chunk of at, without eyes, nose, or mouth. Words flowed from a magic circle where his mouth should have been.
"Even if I disappear, my research is eternal." His voice was cold, his cadence quickened. He seed like a completely different person. "Yes, it was I who planted the dark magic in the third-floor trial. I want you to carry on my madness. With your talent, you could turn all the humans in the world into awakened beings. No, to be precise, you could make them into an ancient race that transcends the awakened—Titans."
I was shocked.
"I'm only trying to help you. Think carefully." He wagged a finger. The flesh had vanished, leaving only bone, like a skeleton. "There is no way to stop the Disasters unless humanity becos Titans. When you co to that conclusion, use the magic I have imparted to you." A hole appeared in Roist's flesh and tore open sideways, like a grotesque grin. "Soone like you will be able to complete my research."
"You! Why would you do this—!"
But I didn't get an answer. With Roist's final words, my vision flickered out.
[You have cleared the first trial.]
[Moving to the next world.]
* * *
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