Chapter 10
#10. Initiation (4)
When Iris infused mana directly into me, vitality surged through my entire body.
I felt as though I could easily run 100 meters in under nine seconds if I tried right then.
That alone had been astonishing enough to be difficult to believe, but my shock didn't end there.
“This is...”
Along with the vitality racing even more powerfully through me, I could feel even a faint sense of omnipotence.
Even the strength in my grip, which had grown incomparably stronger from simply clenching my fist, and my subtly improved five senses, including my sight and hearing, lent credibility to the hypothesis that had suddenly occurred to me.
On a whim, I closed my eyes and examined my body once more.
Then I sensed something near my heart that hadn't been there before. I instinctively realized what it was from its shape.
“A mana circle...?”
“Congratulations, Mr. Hyunwoo.”
Iris wore an expression that was half joy and half amazement.
By this point, it wasn't difficult to infer the meaning behind her sudden congratulations.
“Did I... create a mana circle?”
This wasn't merely a matter of being dumbfounded.
A war orphan becoming a mage in less than a day? It was the kind of premise that would get a novel buried under comments about how it had completely abandoned plausibility.
I pinched my cheeks and even slapped them.
They hurt and stung, but the pain soon faded.
It wasn't because this was a dream. It was thanks to the mana surging from my heart.
“Honestly... I can hardly believe it, even though I'm seeing it with my own eyes.”
Iris looked cute with that surprised expression.
If I could just knead one of those cheeks, I would have no regrets.
“I was praised many times by my master for creating a mana circle quickly too, but it took me about two months. I only managed it because I tried to communicate with mana almost without sleeping, but how did you...”
I was surprised too.
Even now, I couldn't believe it.
Was I really a once-in-a-generation prodigy who had created a mana circle faster than Iris?
The more I thought about it, the more my unease grew instead of my joy.
When I was in elementary school, I had been judged talentless in the magical power test conducted by the government.
As a result, I couldn't enter a magic tower or become a mage. But now? Was my talent at a completely insane level?
There were cases in which someone's talent blossomed with age, but this went far beyond that.
I had managed in five minutes what had taken even Iris, an 8th-Circle archmage, two whole months?
I knew my own limits well.
I was absolutely not that kind of genius.
That meant someone else had intervened.
‘It isn't Iris.’
If it were possible to artificially create mages, the elders would never obey her, even if Lesilia had betrayed her.
By process of elimination, only one possibility remained.
I walked over and picked up the phone that had been serving as an indirect light. As expected, the screen that appeared on my phone matched my prediction exactly.
[Thank you sincerely for participating in the dating consulting curriculum]
[Congratulations on achieving the intermediate goal of the Become an Attractive Member of the Opposite Sex! Project]
[☆1-Circle Mage Achieved☆]
[Check the reward prepared as a dating incentive in your mailbox]
‘So it was you?’
The dating consulting curriculum was what had caused Iris, in her unconscious state, to unreservedly reveal the heavy, dark past that could be called her trauma.
I had realized that the otherworld dating app was anything but ordinary from the moment it transported me to another dimension.
But I had never imagined that it possessed the ability to manipulate other people or directly help me create a mana circle.
‘What the hell is this thing?’
This was only a vague guess, but there was someone on the other side of this app.
I had no idea what it wanted from me or why it had put this app in my hands, but there was nothing I could do about it right now.
‘...Am I a mage now, too?’
Honestly, I still felt bewildered.
Becoming a mage had been practically my lifelong dream.
Of course, I wouldn't have cared what I did as long as it made me a lot of money, but it was also true that my admiration for mages had remained in a corner of my heart.
As my mind rapidly weighed the pros and cons of everything that had happened to me, I reached a conclusion.
This was an unparalleled opportunity.
It was true that something about it felt suspicious, but if I used the app's abilities properly, there was no way my path would end with becoming a 1st-Circle mage.
I could even reach the 5th Circle, the limit of ordinary mages and the realm known as that of a magus.
Perhaps even reaching the 8th Circle, matching Iris, seemed entirely possible.
‘Who cares whether the app's true identity is a demon or a monster?’
It seemed far better to join hands with a demon than with a god who wouldn't answer even if I prayed for a hundred or a thousand days.
In the first place, this was a world where ordinary people suddenly awakened supernatural abilities and became hunters or heroes.
There was a good chance this app was also an ability I had awakened.
‘All right, decision made.’
There was no point clinging to something I couldn't learn the answer to no matter how much I worried about it. It would only make me suffer.
My only goal now was to become a high-ranking mage and free Iris from this place.
“Let's continue the lesson!”
“Yes!”
The combination of a disciple who had awakened overwhelming talent? and a teacher bursting with motivation rapidly accelerated the progress of the lessons.
Fundamentals of Mysticism, Forelia's Alchemy, the Comprehensive Theory of the Elements, and so on.
That day, I devoted most of my time to learning the basics of magic.
Naturally, the lessons were difficult. The magic lessons, filled with technical terms I was hearing for the first time in my life, seemed to overload my brain.
But the otherworld dating app blew away all my worries.
[Learning toward achieving the intermediate goal of the Become an Attractive Member of the Opposite Sex! Project has been confirmed]
[Knowledge acquisition bonus for all basic magic studies +1000%]
[Mana sensitivity increased +1000%]
[Mana assimilation speed increased +10000%]
I wondered whether the numbers had been written incorrectly, but the effects were so unmistakable that they were almost excessive.
I absorbed every bit of knowledge as though each word I heard were being engraved directly into my brain.
It said +1000%, but it felt like far more than that.
To give a somewhat excessive example, it was as though an adult who had only graduated elementary school could get a perfect score on the college entrance exam simply by attending lessons for a week.
It was that absurdly powerful.
And that wasn't all. Perhaps because my mana sensitivity had increased, the mana drifting through the air spent the entire lesson throwing a tantrum because it wanted to enter my body.
Iris, my teacher, looked at me with astonishment and admiration when she saw that, but I only found it burdensome.
More because of the mana than Iris's gaze.
The increase in my mana sensitivity felt almost as though the mana were courting me.
Being loved by an intangible force with no physical form wasn't exactly a pleasant sensation.
There was a reason people said that too much of anything was bad.
Just as there was an appropriate amount of fluid for an IV drip, if I took in far more mana than I could digest, I'd be fucked.
Fortunately, when I sincerely rejected it, the mana quietly withdrew as though it possessed a will of its own.
Even if I wondered whether this was possible, in less than a day I had crossed dimensions, touched the breasts of an incredibly beautiful elf woman, and become the mage I had long yearned to be.
It was enough experience to make me realize that anything could happen in life.
The lesson continued as I refocused.
“Mr. Hyunwoo, do you know that mages are also divided according to the fields they research?”
“That's the first I've heard of it.”
“Elements, concepts, alchemy, spirits, summoning, and so on. Mages are called different things depending on their field of study, such as elementalists for elements, conceptualists for concepts, and alchemists for alchemy. Of course, it doesn't really matter if you're simply called a mage, either.”
Naturally, this was the first time Kang Hyunwoo had heard any of this.
On Earth, I had seen the media talk about alchemists and summoners, but back then, I had thought those were merely cool-sounding titles people attached for style.
“Then which field do you belong to, Ms. Iris?”
“I'm a spirit mage. Spirits can't approach the World Tree, so I can't show them to you right now, but I've formed contracts with quite a few spirits.”
As expected, when it came to elves, spirits were a given. By this point, the fantasy settings on Earth could practically be considered one-hundred-percent reliable information.
But one question occurred to me here.
‘Earth has beastfolk, dragonkin, dwarves, and halflings, so why are there no elves?’
According to what I had learned in history class, races other than humans and monsters were not native creatures of Earth.
Apparently, they had begun appearing in the records of various countries at some point... so why were elves the only ones missing?
Something was strange.
“...Mr. Hyunwoo?”
“Ah, I'm sorry. I was lost in thought for a moment...”
“Hehe, it's all right. It's already been six hours since we started the lesson. You kept studying without even taking a break, so it's only natural that you're tired. Let's end today's lesson here.”
She said it was all right, but considering Iris's kind personality, I couldn't shake the feeling that she was simply taking care of me.
I still couldn't quite believe it, but I had been receiving instruction from an archmage who, on Earth, would have been one of only three people in existence.
Should I apologize properly, even now?
My mind churned over this unfamiliar dilemma, but it seemed rude to disregard the kindness she had shown me, so I decided not to do it again and let the matter go.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“You worked hard too, Mr. Hyunwoo. I wish I had even half my master's knack for making lessons enjoyable.”
“Your master?”
“Yes. The former king of Phelledia was also my master, and taught me magic.”
Perhaps because she was reminded of the past, Iris gazed at the dark ceiling as though recalling something.
Since her master, the former king, was a stranger whose face I had never even seen, there was no way I could empathize with her, so I simply remained quiet.
That was when I huddled out of sight and secretly peeked at my phone's screen.
Ding— A familiar notification sound rang out, and a new screen appeared on my phone.
[Thank you for using our app]
[Congratulations on your first match. An additional gift has been delivered to your mailbox; please check it later]
[Please be advised that the match will end shortly]
[Remaining time: 14:59]
“This... had a time limit too?”
It had already been considerably more than half a day since I came here.
I had hoped that the remaining time would be fifteen hours rather than fifteen minutes, but there was no chance of that. My eyes were immediately drawn to the timer ticking down to 14:40.
‘No leeway at all.’
It had no compassion, either.
A guy who had been single for twenty-one years was finally enjoying a cozy date? with a stunning elf woman, and it had to ruin the mood like this.
‘I feel like giving it a one-star rating.’
Still, if there was one silver lining, it was that this kind of time limit could be resolved with money on ordinary dating apps.
It was difficult right now, but perhaps I could find a solution after returning to Earth.
Besides, I already had two stacks of rewards in that thing called a mailbox, so it was about time I looked into the app more deeply.
‘I'm curious about the situation outside, too.’
Moreover, now that I had created even a single mana circle, I was qualified to enroll in a magic tower.
I was twenty-one years old, so it wasn't particularly late, either.
‘I heard the government even gives you subsidies if you register as a mage.’
That alone would mean I wouldn't have to worry about living expenses.
Several other things came to mind, and while I knew it would probably be best to return to Earth soon, thinking about Iris made me want to stay here a little longer.
So finding a way to return as quickly as possible was my number-one priority.
“Ms. Iris?”
“...”
Seeing her back turned to me without answering, I assumed she was still lost in her memories.
I felt bad about interrupting her, but the time limit was pressing me, so I had no choice.
This time, I called out to her while lightly shaking her shoulder.
“Ms. Iris?”
“Yes?”
Iris turned around with a slightly startled expression.
“I'm sorry.”
“Ah... No, it's all right. I just remembered something from long ago... Is there something you need?”
The slight redness around her eyes made my chest ache, but... I couldn't simply leave without saying anything.
“The thing is... I think I should head back now.”
I explained that the app had a time limit and that I would return as quickly as possible, so she didn't need to worry. Yet she gave no reply, and just as I began to wonder why—
“Are you planning to leave me here alone?”
“...What?”
Rumble— I flinched at the vibration that seemed to shake the entire cavern. Was it an earthquake?
It was then, while I was looking around.
Clasp— A soft sensation closed around my wrist, and I turned my head.
There, a pair of green eyes shining far more vividly than before was fixed on me.
“Don't go.”
Iris wasn't smiling.