Chapter 137
[Do you want power?]
A line a demon might say.
But what stood before me was not a demon, only a pathetic-looking sea urchin.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at the creature.
"If you say anything weird again, I swear you’re dead. If you start talking about human sacrifices or souls or whatever, I’ll grind you up and flush you straight down the toilet."
The black mage swam through the water, looking indignant.
[What exactly do you think I am?]
"What else would a black mage be thinking?"
[...If I only had my real body, I’d show you a thing or two. What a shame.]
"So, do you have any good ideas?"
[Yes. It seems you’ve learned the basics of word magic.]
"Word magic?"
It was the first time I’d heard the term.
"What is that?"
[Sigh... To think a fool like you would have divine talent. What cruel trick of fate is this?]
"...."
[Words have power. Word magic is the technique that maximizes that power. Some mages reciting spells and priests offering prayers are all forms of word magic.]
"I learned something like that?"
[Word magic is the power to bend the laws of the world by imbuing your voice with will. Does that really ring no bells?]
Only then did I realize what it was talking about.
"Thanks to the Siren’s vocal cords."
[Hmm, so it was power you obtained from a Siren? But that is the lowest of the low.... You can’t use it as-is.]
The black mage’s eye gleamed gravely.
[Right now, you’ve merely figured out how to put mana into your voice. You don’t understand its true power at all.]
"True power?"
So it wasn’t just about casting a weak hypnosis on animals and people?
[For example, the dragon tongue used by Ancient Dragons becomes a prophecy and a spell in and of itself. Its power is enough to kill an enemy in a single strike.]
"Can I become like that too?"
[That level is probably impossible. The human species has its limits.]
But the black mage added,
[However, doubling or tripling the power of your magic is no trouble at all.]
My ears perked up.
I could get that much stronger?
I pressed close to the fishbowl and met its gaze.
"How do I do it?"
[There’s no such thing as a freebie for a mage.]
"I’ll trade you a bottle of hexagonal water."
[Listen carefully. The essence of word magic is resonance.]
A guy who could be won over with a bottle of hexagonal water.
[Interfering with the laws of the world through sound. That is word magic. Mana is merely the medium.]
"Sounds hard."
[Of course. Not just anyone can do it. You have to understand the world as waves.]
The black mage launched into a full-blown lecture.
"Enough theory. Give me the compressed, practical version."
[...At first, start with a single syllable.]
"A single syllable?"
[Yes. Like ‘true’ or ‘para.’ There are plenty of good words. Choosing the right one is part of the skill.]
"Hmm...."
I thought for a moment.
The essence of my magic?
Earth, sand, ground.... A variety of words came to mind.
But those were too broad.
"What magic do I need right now?"
I pictured something in my mind.
An image of something rising up from the ground.
There was a fitting word.
"Bal (拔)."
The character for pulling out.
It can pull things out, make them surge upward, bore holes, and build structures.
I thought back to the attack on the 45th Floor. I had fired a massive spear and hit the whale, but it hadn’t pierced it.
If this word magic had been added to it, the result might have been different.
[Interesting. Bal (拔), huh....]
"Is it bad?"
[No. The fact that you chose it is fate as well. Whether it’s good or bad, I can’t say. It differs from person to person.]
"Then I’ll go with this after all."
I immediately began training.
The location was a soundproof basement.
I sat cross-legged on the sandy floor and took a deep breath.
"Sss, haa...."
I focused my mana on my vocal cords. My Adam’s apple vibrated faintly.
I imagined the image.
A massive force bursting up through the ground.
An energy of ascent that seemed to reach the sky.
I packed all of that into a single word and spoke.
"Bal (拔)!"
Nothing happened.
It was just an ordinary shout.
I thought I heard a snickering sound from the fishbowl beside me.
[There’s no way it would work on the first try. Word magic is something talentless fools may never master even after a lifetime of training.]
"How long would it take a genius like me?"
[What does breaking such petty records mean to a genius? A true genius is an irregular. Someone for whom simple number games mean nothing. Even if it takes ten years, if you can lift a mountain and move it in a single stroke, that is genius. Fast or slow doesn’t matter.]
"So how long do you think it’ll take?"
[...At the earliest, a month. Of course, that’s just to get started. Don’t even dream of mastering it.]
"Good. I’ll finish it in a week."
[Arrogant brat. Do as you please.]
I cleared my throat again and shouted.
"Bal!"
"Bal!"
"Bal—!"
"Fuck! Why isn’t it working?!"
I repeated it dozens of times, but there was no progress.
At this rate, I felt like my voice would give out first.
"I need to think this through."
[What are you doing?]
I decided to change my approach.
I took out my phone and turned on the recorder.
Not to shout blindly, but to listen to my own voice and give myself feedback.
"Asurabalbalta...."
I played back the recording and observed the changes in mana with Insight.
I hadn’t completed word magic yet, but there were clearly differences.
"Bal. Baaal. Ppal."
I tried delaying the timing and speeding it up. I adjusted the accent.
I checked and corrected the subtle differences that came from that.
"Raise the tone a little more.... Make the pace faster."
[...Hmm.]
I had no idea how much time had passed.
At some point, even the black mage stopped butting in.
I went beyond dozens and reached the hundreds.
By the time my throat finally started to sting.
"Bal (拔)."
Flinch.
The floor in front of me quivered.
"Huh?"
[Amazing.... To think you’d get the hang of it in a single day. Let’s stop here for today.]
"What are you talking about? I just got the hang of it, so now I have to see it through."
[Hmph, as if that were possible....]
I ignored the black mage and focused again.
Once more.
A little clearer.
A little stronger.
The image taking shape inside me.
An image of a mountain rising from the floor and reaching the ceiling.
I drew in a breath and let it burst out in one go.
"Bal (拔)—!"
KWA-AAANG!
With a shock, the floor surged upward.
A sand pillar about 2 meters high, far taller than I was.
I had finally succeeded in using word magic.
[My goodness....]
"Did you see that? Did you see it?"
[I can’t believe it. In just half a day....]
"That’s me.... Ugh."
I stood up to strut around, only to topple over on the spot.
I had no strength left in my body.
My throat also burned like it was on fire.
"I can’t move...."
[Of course. You used that much strength.]
I lay there on the floor for a while to recover my stamina.
As if knowing exactly what I needed, Chohogi brought me honey water.
"Ah, it’s warm...."
The pain in my cracked throat seemed to ease a little.
".... It would be nice if there were something like a mana recovery potion."
For the first time since becoming a mage, I felt the need for a potion.
As I patted Chohogi’s head, I unconsciously looked at its sprout.
The seed of the Phoenix Fruit.
"When is this going to grow?"
I tapped the sprout with my finger. Chohogi giggled and wriggled, ticklish.
Had it grown about a centimeter since the beginning?
It still seemed like it had a long way to go before bearing fruit.
Maybe I’d need to give it some special fertilizer or something.
"Maybe word magic works here too?"
[It’s not impossible.]
"Good."
The image of rising upward fit plant growth too.
I grabbed Chohogi’s head and held it still.
"Stay still. It won’t hurt."
It looked uneasy, but under my touch it obediently let me hold its head still.
I steadied my breathing and stared at the sprout.
I gathered up the tiny bit of mana left in my body and put it into my words.
The life force that bursts through the earth.
A stem reaching toward the sky.
I put the image I wanted into a one-character word and spoke.
"Bal (拔)."
A small whisper.
But the effect was undeniable.
The sprout twitched, and another leaf emerged. It had grown a little longer too.
"It works?"
Chohogi scratched its crown, realized what had happened, and bounced around excitedly.
It suddenly ran upstairs, came back with a pen, and handed it to me.
Then it stood with its back against the wall.
"...You want me to measure your height?"
"!!"
"No, your height is the same. It’s just the grass that grew...."
More importantly, if you can change your size however you want, what’s the point of measuring your height?
Even as I said that, I drew a line on the wall with the pen.
It didn’t mean much, but it seemed like it liked it.
"Shall we start training in earnest now?"
I stood up.
I still lacked the skill to catch that gigantic whale.
I needed training to improve my word magic and perfect a strategy for hunting the whale.
And of course, a practice ground for that training.
"Let’s go to the sea."
***
"So I’m finally getting to visit the sea on Earth too...."
The sea I’d tried to come to so many times.
Maybe because it was the winter sea, there were almost no people.
Or maybe it was because of the rumor that marine monsters showed up from time to time.
I took off my shoes and walked barefoot along the sandy beach.
Every time my feet sank into the sand, I liked the faint sensation of being linked to the earth.
Splash.
A wave rolled in and wet my ankles.
I had already confirmed the conduction skill back on the 44th Floor.
Now I could use magic underwater.
With coral in my mouth and a staff in one arm.
Anyone else would find it quite bizarre. And I was missing one arm at the moment, too.
"Phew...."
I took one steadying breath and walked into the sea.
Knees, waist, chest....
The more the water rose, the more buoyancy pushed my body upward.
Float.
My feet were about to leave the bottom.
"That won’t do."
The magic I was about to test required me to stay connected to the ground.
I focused strength into my feet.
I altered my body to take on the properties of a heavy mineral like orichalcum.
Thud!
Ignoring the buoyancy, the soles of my feet planted themselves back into the sandy seabed.
"Good."
Like old divers who walked with lead weights hanging from their bodies, I walked through the sea with my body made heavy.
Before long, the depth had reached 200 meters.
This was the boundary of the deep sea.
Perhaps because my body was already superhuman, I could withstand the water pressure.
I stabbed the staff I’d brought into the ground.
I poured in mana and amplified it through word magic.
"Bal (拔)!"
Kugugugu!
The ground split apart.
The sand on the seabed surged upward, creating a sandstorm.
My vision blurred as the water turned muddy.
Through it, a massive earthen wall began to rise.
".... Higher!"
I didn’t stop.
The ocean where whales lived had an average depth of 3 km.
If it stopped here, there was no way it could block that thing.
I drove all my mana and will into the wall.
With a single resolve: to cut the sea in two.
The wall rose endlessly.
Upward, higher and higher.
At last, a barrier shot up, cleaving the sea apart.
Snap!
I snapped my fingers.
The massive wall split left and right, beginning to divide the sea.
Whoooosh—!
Seawater poured down like a waterfall.
"Ah...."
I silently lifted my head and looked up.
Sunlight was streaming in through the split sea.
"I did it...."
The sea had existed for 4 billion years.
For the first time, the bare flesh of the deep sea was exposed to the sun.
A breathtaking sight.
Next, I had to do the same thing at twenty times this depth.