Chapter 2
Name: Shin Ian.
-Sir, sir, sir
As soon as he realized he’d picked up a grimoire that called itself the ‘Hand of Re-Creation,’ he immediately turned on the gallery and left a comment on a post by the regular user ‘SeriousMagicAddict.’
SeriousMagicAddict.
Abbreviated as ‘Simmujung,’ he reacted to the reply right away.
-SeriousMagicAddict: What is it?
ㄴA book suddenly appeared at home. No matter how I look at it, this seems like a grimoire. Can you appraise it?
ㄴSeriousMagicAddict:
Take a photo of the book and send it.
He did so.
A short while later, a reply arrived.
-SeriousMagicAddict: Have you read what’s inside by any chance?
ㄴI only read the introduction.
ㄴSeriousMagicAddict: You’re fucked.
It was a blunt answer. Ian frowned hard.
-Fucked?
ㄴSeriousMagicAddict: If you saw the introduction, you should know. This book is a grimoire written by a foreign god. More specifically, a grimoire written by a fairly high-ranking foreign god.
It means the Reconstruction of All Things.
Ian had, for no reason, locked the grimoire away in the bathroom and was staring at his phone.
-SeriousMagicAddict: Since it’s a grimoire that has never been discovered before, nobody knows its contents, but there are records about its appearance, so identifying it isn’t too difficult. Thanks to Nostradamus having prophesied that it was a dangerous grimoire, it’s fairly well known.
ㄴWas Nostradamus a mage too?
ㄴSeriousMagicAddict: He was a famous mage. His book of prophecies is basically a grimoire.
That was another new fact. Ian let out a low groan and tapped at the screen.
-What’s important isn’t that. So what am I supposed to do now?
ㄴOnce you become the owner of a grimoire, there’s no other way. Especially not if it’s a grimoire written by a foreign god.
ㄴNo, seriously, what am I supposed to do?
ㄴSimple. You have to become a mage before the madness takes hold.
It was anything but simple. Ian swallowed hard as he looked down at the grimoire, which had somehow appeared right beside him.
-What’s madness? I don’t feel anything right now.
ㄴNo madness? You don’t have a headache, hear strange muttering, or feel like bugs are crawling through your brain?
ㄴYeah.
ㄴThat is strange. But don’t let your guard down. It wouldn’t be strange for the madness to flare up at any time.
After saying that, Simmajung paused for a moment before continuing.
-SeriousMagicAddict: First, become a proper mage. Once you can control the grimoire’s power, you’ll be able to control the madness too.
ㄴGot it for now. Is there a separate community for mages or something?
ㄴSeriousMagicAddict: Leave your email. I’ll send it over. But getting in is on you. I can’t help you with that.
Ian let out a breath and left his email in the comments. After that, no more replies came. Instead, a URL arrived in his email.
With trembling hands, he clicked the link.
At the same time, he was connected to the site. Ian waited silently for the page to finish loading.
Ding-ding.
Soon, the loading finished.
With a rather cheerful sound, the first thing to appear was a pure white question window.
[Q. Explain the three components that make up magic.]
A question he didn’t even know the answer to had been thrown at him from the start. Ian immediately tried to access the gallery again and leave a comment, but his account had long since been blocked.
[Blocked for 31 days]
[Reason: cliquishness]
[Handled by: Head Mod]
“Fuck.”
Ian spat out a curse and snapped his phone shut.
‘Cliquishness... I guess so. Exchanging emails and sharing a separate way to contact each other was basically the same thing.’
For a moment, his head grew hot, but he doused it with cold reason. Thanks to that, he was able to clear away useless thoughts and think about the situation.
‘Contacting them through the gallery is impossible. Asking by email what the three components are won’t work either. He said he couldn’t help.’
In the end, he had to figure it out on his own. The answer was probably written in this grimoire.
“Hoo...”
Now that a grimoire had appeared and he’d been suddenly given the goal of becoming a mage, his mind was less tangled than expected, thanks to the time that had passed. His heart was still pounding, but the shock and fear he'd felt at first had long since faded.
He rubbed his face dry and stared at the grimoire beside him.
A snow-white grimoire with an ornate, almost dazzling air.
To fully control it and avoid going mad and losing himself, he had to become a mage. And only after becoming a mage and understanding the three components of magic could he join their community.
In the end, no matter how you looked at it, becoming a mage was the top priority.
‘Fuck it, let’s give it a shot.’
Ian washed his face once in the bathroom, then sat on the bed and carefully opened the grimoire.
The thick book opened without resistance. It wasn’t written in Hangul, yet for some reason Ian could understand it perfectly.
He exhaled and slowly began reading the words before him.
[Don’t panic just because you don’t fall into madness. That means you are not the strange one; everyone else except you is strange. If the compatibility between you and this grimoire reaches 100 percent, this grimoire will cause its owner neither madness nor harm.]
For some reason, it sounded like an explanation. Ian turned the page, wondering whether he could trust the sentence or not.
[It is true.]
As soon as he turned the page, huge letters filled both pages. Startled, Ian coughed and flipped to the next page once more.
[Everything written in this grimoire is true, and the owner of this grimoire—the great ‘Reconstruction of All Things’—is extremely friendly toward the human who has finally appeared with 100 percent compatibility and takes a very deep interest in them. Furthermore, since she detests lies and mockery more than anyone else, she clearly states that she herself never speaks falsehoods.]
……She, huh.
Apparently, even foreign gods had a concept of gender.
And given that it was spitting out sentences related to what he was thinking in real time, the grimoire seemed to have a will of its own too.
Perhaps the foreign god, its author and original owner, was speaking to him by borrowing the form of a book.
To know for sure, he’d have to keep reading.
Ian swallowed once, turned the page that was practically a greeting, and finally moved on to the prologue.
[There are a total of three magics written in this grimoire.]
[First, alchemy.]
[Second, various convenience magics.]
[Third, Re-Creation.]
[To use these magics, the first step is to be initiated into magic. The initiation into magic is written on page 785 of this grimoire. If the owner of this book is still ‘human,’ we recommend quickly being initiated into magic and becoming a mage.]
“Recommended to become a mage, huh...”
This was another unexpected fact. Ian let out a low hum and slowly turned the page.
According to the information he’d heard so far, only by becoming a mage could he be free from the grimoire’s madness.
If that was true, what benefited the grimoire wasn’t its owner becoming a mage, but remaining an ordinary person forever.
Then it could dominate its owner through madness and toy with him however it pleased, but this grimoire was instead urging him to become a mage even more strongly.
‘Did Simmujung give me the wrong information? Or is everything written in this grimoire true?’
No, maybe both the mage and this grimoire were telling the truth. It might simply be his own fault, blinded by suspicion, that he couldn’t trust either side.
“This is rough...”
Ian let out a heavy sigh and opened to page 785.
[0. Initiation into Magic.]
He checked the words written at the very top of the page and read on below.
[To be initiated into magic and become a mage, you must first understand the components of magic more deeply than anything else.]
[The most important thing is the four elements that make up this world. You must accumulate bodily experience with the elements—earth, air, water, and fire.]
[Each stage is as follows.]
[1. For one week, eat only dirt for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You must not accept any other food at all. This will establish the framework for using magic over the course of one week.]
[2. For one week, meditate every morning and evening while facing the wind. Through this, you will feel ‘Merlin’s Flesh,’ hereafter referred to as ether, the principle behind all things in the world and magic’s most important resource.]
[3. For one week, drink only water for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This will remove the waste left in your body, and by learning the flow, you’ll be able to directly handle ether.]
[4. For one week, every day at noon, light a fire and meditate before it. That will heat the perfected body and finally shed the human shell to obtain a mage’s body.]
“...Except for the last step, they’re all difficult.”
A sigh escaped him, but there was nothing he could do.
The moment he picked up the grimoire, his peaceful daily life was over. To survive while somehow enduring the abnormal, becoming a mage was the only option.
Ian gave a bitter smile, stuffed the grimoire into his bag, left the house, and bought a pile of dirt from a nearby flower shop.
Then, as soon as he got home, he scooped up a handful and shoved it into his mouth.
“Ugh!”
The horrific taste spread through his mouth, but Ian held back the urge to vomit with sheer willpower. Parasites and various bacteria and microorganisms flashed through his mind, but he pushed them aside and kept shoveling in the dirt.
Those were all things that would be no problem once he became a mage.
Surely the grimoire wouldn't tell him to eat dirt without considering the microorganisms living in it and the various germs.
Ian held back tears and forced roughly a bowlful of dirt into his stomach. A gag reflex rose up, but he somehow endured it.
After finishing, Ian rinsed his mouth with water and collapsed onto the bed.
‘I’m supposed to do this for a whole week?’
Just imagining it made his head spin, but Ian exhaled an earthy breath and slapped his cheeks hard.
Once he’d made up his mind, there was no turning back. He had to see it through, at least to the end.
Brainwashing himself like that, Ian kept eating dirt for lunch and dinner too.
Then exactly one week passed.
“...Oh?”
Ian could feel the changes in his body.