Chapter 7
#07. Initiation
In reverence for those who investigate the mysteries, people call them mages.
Those who convert the mana flowing through nature into magical power and manifest mysterious phenomena have always been respected, regardless of the era.
Looking back through history, there was once a mage who brought rain clouds when the worst drought ever seen swept across the continent and killed countless people. There was also a mage who annihilated an entire army of monsters with a single spell at the desperate moment when a country was on the verge of destruction.
The pinnacle of mages, those known as archmages regardless of the era, often left a profound mark on history.
And among the mages who wielded phenomena beyond human understanding, there were three who were praised as the greatest and strongest of the present age.
Valentina Sasha Danilova, the master of the White Magic Tower built upon the frozen earth.
Mac Damon, the master of the Black Magic Tower of the United States, humanity's strongest nation.
Duke Rupert Blake Winchester, the master of Britain's Blue Magic Tower—the nation of mages known as the origin of mystery.
They were famous as Earth's only three archmages with eight circles. In fact, more people could rattle off the names of the archmages than the name of their own country's president.
And standing before my eyes now was another archmage who had reached the exalted 8th Circle and stood shoulder to shoulder with those great mages.
"Mr. Hyunwoo?"
"..."
I had gotten thoroughly excited and groped the breasts of someone like that with all my strength.
She probably wouldn't hurt me at this point, but I couldn't help feeling nervous. The mindset of an ordinary person who had always worried about making ends meet wasn't something I could simply cast aside.
"Um... You're incredible."
My confusion and surprise lasted only a moment. Once I realized anew just how extraordinary it was to be standing face-to-face with an 8th-Circle archmage, Iris suddenly looked different to me.
If I had to put it into words, it felt like finding out that my beautiful, wealthy heiress of a girlfriend was actually a professor attracting attention in academia. Of course, the shock was dozens of times greater.
After shock piled upon shock, I felt as though my brain had begun to ache faintly.
But perhaps because one unbelievable event had followed another, I seemed to be adapting rather quickly.
"N-no, I'm not..."
Iris blushed, unsure what to do after receiving that compliment that wasn't quite a compliment.
Two hundred years ago, she had heard praise for her accomplishments until she was sick of it, so she had come to regard such praise as automatic flattery that people offered when they saw not her, but the queen.
But his compliments felt different.
"An 8th Circle archmage..."
The way she blankly muttered to herself and suddenly began watching my reaction made her believe that he was genuinely amazed and impressed.
Iris couldn't help feeling her pride swell.
"Heh, hehe..."
That silly laugh was an added bonus.
While Iris was lost in her own world and smiling, Kang Hyunwoo fell into deep thought.
She's an 8th-Circle mage. An archmage, one of only three on Earth.
Even Iris, who had reached such a realm, had been unable to do anything about the barrier for 200 years. Could I really be of any help?
I had boldly stepped forward and offered to help, but I was growing less and less confident.
'There is a limit to what I can bring back from Earth.'
As an impoverished college student rather than some enormously wealthy man, there was a clear limit to how much help I could provide.
No matter how I looked at it, I seemed to have taken things far too lightly.
'Did I offer to help too hastily...?'
What could be more pathetic and disappointing than stepping forward at first as though it were possible, only to say now that it probably wasn't?
Before I knew it, my back was damp with cold sweat.
"Mr. Hyunwoo...? Are you all right?"
At that moment, my eyes met Iris's, which were looking at me with deep concern.
I suddenly came to my senses.
Right. Once a man draws his sword, he has to cut at least a radish. If I gave up and grew discouraged before even beginning, I would be the very definition of a pathetic, spineless excuse for a man.
Smack!
"M-Mr. Hyunwoo??"
A sharp, stinging pain rose from both my cheeks.
"Ms. Iris, let's begin."
"Y-yes...? What do you mean...?"
Kang Hyunwoo spoke with eyes full of resolve, utterly different from moments ago.
"We need to escape."
***
There was a movie I had seen when I was young.
It was about escaping from prison, and I remembered hearing that it had been based on a true story.
Basically, three prisoners had managed to escape from a ridiculously hardcore prison and avoid capture for decades. Since they still hadn't been caught even now, people said that if the escapees were still alive, they would be in their nineties.
'If criminals managed to do it, there's no reason I can't.'
Even if I was an exemplary citizen who couldn't survive a single day without laws and had never experienced a prison break, I was confident there was nothing I couldn't accomplish if Iris's knowledge as an 8th-Circle archmage were combined with my excellent lackey skills.
"So the only way in or out is that enormous stone gate over there, right?"
"Yes... As far as I know, that's the only one."
This place was remarkably straightforward.
There were no other prisoners, guards, or security cameras.
For the past 200 years, the only thing separating Iris from freedom had been that enormous stone gate. If we opened it, I could immediately go sightseeing in a fantasy world brimming with mystery and adventure—but before that, we had to deal with the barrier erected by a quasi-divine being.
"Ms. Iris, to put it bluntly, what do we need to open that door?"
Iris pondered for a moment before finally opening her mouth.
"...A holy relic? If we had a holy relic specialized in breaking barriers, we could open it right away."
"...What else?"
"Well... I'm not sure...?"
A holy relic? Seriously?
This was no different from a father who, unable to refuse his daughter's request to buy her a car, glanced at his emergency savings account and then at his daughter before looking into reasonably priced used cars out of paternal affection—only for his daughter to show him the car she wanted on her phone, with a BXW Mini Cooper proudly displayed on the screen.
No, a Mini Cooper would actually be better. This was in the private-jet price range, worth hundreds of billions of won.
"Replacing a holy relic would require a great many things. Every one of them is difficult to obtain, and even if we somehow gathered them all, removing the barrier in my current condition would be an entirely separate problem."
"Another problem?"
"Yes. To explain simply, a barrier is a prison unconstrained by physical form. It is a prison that allows its caster to impose whatever restrictions they want on whoever they want and confine them in whatever space they want."
"...Isn't that ridiculously overpowered?"
Although I had always been interested in magic, I was actually a complete novice when it came to barriers and didn't even know the basics.
The reason was simple: barrier magic was a niche within a niche on Earth. It was like an obscure genre even among otaku who loved subculture.
"Magic is truly fair. Power always comes with restrictions. It offers extraordinarily high returns for a realm attained through talent, effort, and many years, but those who have not reached that realm must endure many restrictions to wield powerful forces."
Iris picked up a small fragment of stone from the floor.
"Three things are needed to use barrier magic."
She placed the small fragment she had just picked up on a stone surface resembling the remains of a ruin.
"First, a core to serve as the center of the barrier."
This time, she picked up another fragment and drew a circle around the first one, scraping at the stone as she went.
"Second, the spell formula that becomes the barrier itself. This includes both the restrictions imposed inside the barrier and the walls that support the membrane outside it."
Tap-
She placed a fairly regular-looking fragment of stone inside the circle.
"Finally, a sacrifice that allows someone who has not reached the realm to use a powerful barrier."
"So barrier magic lets you temporarily reach a realm you haven't attained by using a core and a sacrifice?"
"That's right."
Iris smiled faintly at the answer I had deduced with my sluggish brain.
"Here, a sacrifice isn't limited to an object. Just as an enormous amount of magical power can be used in its place, the same is true here. The World Tree's immense magical power is the sacrifice maintaining this barrier.“
"Then what are the core and the spell formula?"
"That much... I don't know either..."
Iris continued speaking with a bitter expression.
"I researched it in my own way, but the only thing I discovered was the spell formula engraved on the outer wall of the barrier.”
Iris traced the boundary of the circle surrounding the stone fragment with her finger.
“Normally, discovering the spell formula inside a barrier is easier and simpler than discovering the one outside. As I explained earlier, a barrier is ultimately magic used to imprison and impose restrictions on others. Just as you would immediately know if the gravity indoors were stronger than outdoors, even without anyone telling you.”
“Uh... Then why can't we figure it out now?”
“This is only a hypothesis, but perhaps that's because the restrictions within the barrier aren't directed at us.”
Magic isn't limited to acting on living beings, humans included.
If restrictions were being imposed on some inanimate object inside this place, the situation would become far more complicated.
“If this had originally been a prison, the restrictions would have manifested in a form that oppressed prisoners... but I don't know what this place was used for in the past, either.“
The cavern directly beneath the World Tree was vast enough to seem as though two or three soccer stadiums had been joined together, and it was as tall as the 63 Building.
Even speaking a little loudly produced an echo.
However, despite being absurdly spacious, there was nothing resembling a light source. All that existed was a wide lake in the center and traces of ruins collapsing in various places.
What on earth had this place been built for? There was no way a cavern this large had formed naturally. And even if it truly had formed naturally, what were the traces of ruins scattered throughout it?
”You really have no idea?“
”No... All I've discovered is that the writing left among the ruins is Ancient Elvish. But it was roughly 5,000 years ago that Ancient Elvish was used...“
Five thousand years ago? Seriously?
Even Sumer, currently known as humanity's first civilization, dates back only to around 4500 B.C. Records of Sumer aside, most records of ancient civilizations that appeared afterward are unclear as well.
It would be stranger if proper records had survived for a place built at least 5,000 years ago.
‘...But elves live for a really long time, don't they?’
Something seemed odd, but I more or less let it slide. Even for long-lived elves, 5,000 years was probably a bit much.
”To explain the spell formula on the outside of the barrier in a single word, it's ‘sealing.’“
”Sealing?“
”It blocks everything from leaving or entering. It's a very simple spell, but that makes it no less powerful. Even if I deployed magic with all my strength, breaking through the stone gate would be a distant prospect. When Lesilia imprisoned me, I was able to enter thanks to the royal insignia, but...“
That meant that now, without the royal insignia, the only way to open that stone gate was to use a holy relic of equal caliber.
‘...This is bad.’
I subtly turned my head so Iris wouldn't notice.
[Would you like to return?]
The words that had appeared on my phone screen, which had been buzzing for a while. Apparently, returning to Earth was entirely at my discretion.
Instead, returning to Earth in this state was also a problem.
Iris didn't know what was available on Earth. Of course, I had explained that it probably had most of what we needed, but I also said that if I listed all the materials we used here, I might go bankrupt.
She had a point. They were materials meant to substitute for a holy relic, so they probably didn't come cheap.
”Um, Mr. Hyunwoo?“
”Yes?“
At the sound of her slightly trembling voice, I hurriedly shoved my phone into my pocket.
”If you're all right with it, would you like to learn magic from me...?“
”...?“