Chapter 121
I took out the flask I'd hidden deep in the fridge.
I heard the black mage's dazed muttering.
[Mm, I was sleeping so well... What is it...?]
The setup for the interrogation was already complete.
I turned on the high-performance blender beside me.
Whirrr-!
The sound of the empty blender idling echoed through the room.
Hearing that, the black mage seemed to jolt awake and hurriedly collected himself.
[Do you really have to keep that right next to me?!]
“Otherwise, how are we supposed to have a conversation?”
[How did I end up being treated like this...]
I didn't feel the need to say anything more.
Today's objectives were twofold.
The goal was to decipher the grimoire and find a way to close the gate.
I decided to ask about the grimoire first.
The grimoire I'd found with the treasure-seeking compass, the reward from Floor 41.
The book contained the method I had used to awaken.
Even Sharon had fainted while reading the latter half.
It was a book with plenty of unsettling parts.
I was curious about the latter half of this book.
“Can you read this book?”
The flask tilted toward the book like a roly-poly toy.
As if it wanted to take a closer look.
A moment later, the flask pulled back again.
[This is... peculiar.]
“You do know, right? Hurry up and spill it. What's it about?”
[Wait. I want to make a deal first.]
The guy brazenly offered me a deal.
But not a chance.
“I don't negotiate with criminals or terrorists.”
[...Why am I a criminal?]
“No sign of remorse, either. You're beyond redemption.”
I shoved him into the blender and turned it on without hesitation.
A mental scream echoed through the room.
“Do you understand what you did wrong now?”
[I-I don't know... I really don't know. What on earth did I do wrong to deserve this treatment...]
“Hah...”
I let out a sympathetic sigh.
It was strange.
My ancestors had surely succeeded in reforming countless criminals this way.
'Doesn't it work on Westerners?'
Maybe it was because he was a Western ghost, lacking the shame and the virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom that humans ought to have.
There was no helping it.
There was nothing for it but for a civilized intellectual like me to give him a lesson at his own level.
“You tried to steal my domain.”
[You mean that kingdom? How is that your domain...]
“Did I or did I not plant my flag there?”
[...]
The black mage suddenly went silent.
He seemed to have finally realized his own wrongdoing.
But I was curious about the black mage's demands too, so I decided to hear him out first.
“So what do you want, then?”
[Give me a body.]
“Not a chance.”
[T-this is necessary for you to achieve your goal too! With a body, I can turn the pages of that book and make the scroll, can't I!]
“Hmm...”
[If that's the case, at least make my house a little bigger. And stop locking me in that cold prison! I keep falling asleep frozen solid, and I can feel my intelligence slipping!]
“Well, that much, I guess...”
I looked down at the flask.
The flask I had roughly carved from stone back on Floor 40.
It did look cramped.
At my affirmative answer, the black mage brightened and said,
[Oh, really? Then where will you move me? If possible, I'd like a crystal flask.]
“A flask? Wouldn't that be even smaller?”
[I could see outside directly, and more importantly, isn't it luxurious? It suits me.]
“Is that so?”
A flask being luxurious, huh.
I couldn't make sense of this guy's taste at all.
The one problem was that I didn't have anything like a flask.
After thinking for a moment, I found a 1.5-liter water bottle nearby.
“How about this? It's roomy, transparent, and pretty classy.”
[What is this? Fascinating... It doesn't seem like glass. It's a material I've never seen before.]
“Good, then we'll go with this.”
I transferred him into the water bottle.
Once I capped the plastic bottle filled with black liquid, it looked just like cola.
Aside from the eyeball occasionally floating around in the liquid to look around.
“Comfortable, isn't it?”
[Not bad.]
Since he seemed satisfied enough, it was time to get to the main point.
“What exactly is this book?”
I spread the grimoire open again in front of the plastic bottle.
He pressed his eye against the bottle's surface and carefully studied the book.
[It's truly strange. A mess in every way.]
“A mess?”
[Did you enter the path of magic by following this book?]
“You could say that.”
[One thing I'll say is that this method is absolutely not normal. Even I find many parts of it unfamiliar. You somehow managed to succeed.]
Hearing that, I remembered the experiment Fridge had conducted.
He said he had recruited volunteers to see whether they could awaken like I did.
But no one had succeeded.
“Did I just get lucky?”
[Of course, luck can explain everything.]
“So you're saying that's right?”
[If it can explain everything, then in the end it means it explains nothing.]
Why did all the mages I knew inside the Tower like speaking in such incomprehensible ways?
I suppressed the urge to press the blender switch and said to him,
“Keep it short and simple.”
[If talent is also luck, then I suppose so.]
“So I really was a genius mage after all...”
[Rather than that, it's more accurate to say that the contents of this book happened to fit you perfectly.]
Thanks to that, I could confirm it once again.
That I was a genius mage, a talent monster acknowledged even by the Tower's boss.
Honestly, it wasn't surprising. It was just too obvious a fact.
I decided to ask about something else I was curious about.
“Can you read the latter part too? I had someone else try it, and they fainted while reading.”
[Hmm... Perhaps that one wasn't qualified.]
“How do you get that qualification?”
[Every being has something called rank.]
“That again?”
It was an explanation I'd heard more than once.
“Then what about me? Am I qualified enough?”
[You seem just a bit short. Keep training and training, and one day you'll be able to read it.]
“But isn't that a bit weird? You can do it, even though you lost to me, while I can't.”
I was an earth mage. With one extra final consonant compared to a black mage, I had no choice but to be stronger.
[I just told you before, don't get it wrong. This form of mine isn't my main body. It's just one of countless clones.]
The black mage raised his voice, seeming offended by my words.
[I am a being who has reached lichdom. Though a problem caused my main consciousness to be trapped in an experimental body, I could originally crush the likes of you like bugs...]
“Oh, that kind of setup?”
[You little...]
The guy, truly offended, wriggled and shook the plastic bottle from side to side, but the cap was firmly shut.
I snorted and asked,
“Then can't you read it for me? Actually, that's how I handled the beginning. If someone translated it for me, I just followed along.”
[No, that won't do. You have to meet the qualification first.]
“What is that qualification, anyway?”
[The next stage of this book is erosion.]
“Huh?”
[The magic you're using now only barely lets you handle your own body. But at the next stage of this book, you will expand yourself into the world itself.]
“Another difficult word...”
[Simply put, it means you have to be able to perfectly control your own body first.]
“Hmm... so full-body sandification comes first?”
Indeed, it was a sensible explanation.
After all, I still couldn't turn my head and heart into sand.
So I still had to get stronger.
“I'll put this on hold for now.”
Either way, it'll be resolved sooner or later as I climb the Tower.
There was no point rushing it, so I didn't need to worry too much.
I closed the book and put it neatly back on the shelf.
Meanwhile, I thought I should tell Beetle about this too.
The more I heard, the more of a mystery it was how Beetle had even learned about this book.
I headed to the computer.
The familiar blue window.
[Title: Why Is It So Chilly Today?]
[Author: Fridge]
[Recs: 40]
ㄴPkkatju: You literally just said 'big rec'...
ㄴFridge: I deliberately avoided the word 'chilly.' What are you talking about?
ㄴMagicIsFirepower: There are only five of us, so why are there 40 recs?
ㄴPkkatju: The rec fairy must have stopped by.
ㄴBeetle: Since when does the rec fairy have more than 40 people? Is it Alibaba?
The Mage Gallery had nothing special going on today either.
I wrote a post summoning Beetle.
Along with a photo of the grimoire.
ㄴBeetle: It's an item I've never seen before.
ㄴBeetle: Where'd you get that?
But Beetle seemed to know nothing about this book.
ㄴㅇㅇ(333.333): Isn't all the stuff you kept posting in the gallery in here?
ㄴBeetle: No way, seriously??
ㄴㅇㅇ(333.333): If you don't know, then what are we supposed to do;;;;;
But I didn't stop there.
Because there was one more thing I wanted to ask today.
ㄴㅇㅇ(333.333): Then that thing you used to keep posting in the gallery back then—what was its source, and why did you write it? At least tell us that.
ㄴFridge: Ah, that one has been bugging me too. You said you got it in the Tower, but you never told us the details.
ㄴMagicIsFirepower: You never even explained why you kept leaving comments either...
When I brought it up, even the other curious mages chimed in.
A brief silence filled the comment section.
Soon Beetle replied.
ㄴBeetle: Ugh, it's really nothing...
ㄴFridge: That's for us to judge, so hurry up and tell us.
ㄴBeetle: I feel like I'm going to get flamed for saying this...
ㄴBeetle: Honestly, I don't really remember either.
“What?”
As Beetle said, it was truly an answer worthy of getting flamed.
He didn't even remember the reason for that bizarre incident? Was that even possible?
It was the kind of answer that made it seem like he just didn't want to tell the truth.
ㄴBeetle: I do remember meeting some NPC.
ㄴBeetle: But my teammates didn't remember it.
ㄴPkkatju: That's scary...
ㄴBeetle: Besides, even my memory is fuzzy.
ㄴBeetle: After I came out of the Tower, all that was left was knowledge of a few lines of text.
ㄴBeetle: And I also felt this compulsion that I had to spread it to someone.
ㄴBeetle: At first I got the urge to say it in an interview or somewhere like that, but I held myself back. The ripple effect would have been too huge...
ㄴBeetle: While looking for a way, I realized something. Even posting comments no one sees seems to count as spreading it. Once I left a few comments, the compulsion disappeared?
ㄴBeetle: Anyway, that's why I freaked out when you first showed up. I hadn't written it expecting someone to imitate it.
ㄴㅇㅇ(333.333): You didn't tell anyone about this? Isn't that a huge problem?
ㄴBeetle: I looked into it, and there are people who sometimes go through similar things, right? So I didn't think much of it.
ㄴBeetle: I figured I'd gotten some kind of geas. My power got stronger after I started writing comments, too.
ㄴㅇㅇ(333.333): Still, aren't you way too unconcerned about this?
ㄴMagicIsFirepower: I don't think you're the one who should say that, considering you blindly copied it...
By that point, I had nothing left to say.
In any case, it was clear that Beetle didn't know anything about this book or its contents.
It was one hurdle after another.
My head felt like it was getting more and more tangled up.
“In the end, was this a problem I couldn't solve?”
“Haa, at the very least, the gate-closing scroll needs to be sorted out.”
I let out a sigh and looked back at the plastic bottle.
Beside me lay a list I'd made a few days ago, organizing the materials that came from gates and the Tower.
The black mage would have to pick the scroll materials from this list.