Chapter 57
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(371F) : Is there really no answer besides fourth-circle magic?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(506F) : How does this even make sense?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : No, seriously, no matter how much I think about it, I can't understand it;; How do you cast magic you just saw for the first time right away...
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(360F) : First-seen magic + incantation-only + an element with no affinity = one-shot clear LMAOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(543F) : This is seriously fucking insane.
No choice but to go to the fourth circle.
Now that I had learned every third-circle spell Seol Harin knew, I had no choice.
At that moment, comments like these were appearing in the gallery.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(214F) : It wouldn't make sense unless they already knew how to use it…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(436F) : For real, haven't they already known all along and just been humblebragging? Honestly;;;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : The prevailing theory now seems to be that the Demon King is using an anonymous account to pretend to be Newbie as a prank.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(506F) : LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : The hand-photo foreshadowing paid off ㄷㄷ
Rumors were spreading that I had known how to use third-circle magic from the beginning.
It was absurd.
I had started at Level 1, after all.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(OP) : We all looked at my status together, so why are you acting like this;;
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(543F) : Usable spells don't show up in the status window LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : EXPLAIN YOURSELF
It was hard to tell whether they were joking or genuinely suspicious.
That was probably because both were mixed together.
As suspicions about me were being raised, an anonymous user said this.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(755F) : Is it because the circles in the Barren Land are stolen from living mages' circles?
Seol Harin reacted.
ㄴ Seol Harin : …That is probably the case. The space where circles are acquired is the clear difference between Seoyoon and other black mages.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(601F) : Does that mean you can immediately use the spells that the mage whose circle was stolen could use?
ㄴ Seol Harin : I don't know for sure, but…
Then she added,
ㄴ Seol Harin : Or Seoyoon might possess talent on par with the Blood Demon Dao Venerable.
They were talking about a user with a registered handle.
It was a name I had heard before.
Blood Demon Dao Venerable.
It was a nickname that always came up whenever the gallery mentioned the vanguard.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(OP) : I've heard of him before, but what kind of person is he?
ㄴ Seol Harin : Well, for starters, he's not human…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(279F) : LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(746F) : In more ways than one, he isn't.
ㄴ Seol Harin : He's the guy on the highest floor right now… A long time ago, he said he was confused by the techniques of the body he had possessed, so he studied and relearned low-circle magic with me from the beginning.
ㄴ Seol Harin : He was exactly like you…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(563F) : That guy was like this too? LMAOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(312F) : Ranked number one, the Blood Demon Dao Venerable, is on the same level ㄷㄷ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(431F) : How high are they going to hype Newbie up? LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(716F) : That guy really was something else.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(247F) : One of those two has to be right.
One of two possibilities.
Either my circles belonged to a living mage, which meant I could immediately use any spells that mage had learned.
Or I possessed potential on par with the current number-one-ranked user in the gallery.
Seol Harin and several black-mage users from the higher floors were explaining the current situation that way.
More precisely, they said there was no other way to explain it.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : But wasn't Seol Harin afraid of the Blood Demon Dao Venerable?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : For real LMAO She thought they'd become friends and tried talking to him, but then he posted a picture of his corpse and she had a total meltdown LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(465F) : The Blood Demon Dao Venerable started one floor below Seol Harin, so he had no choice but to kill her LMAO
I was reading the gallery users' stories about the number-one-ranked user when
she made a proposal.
ㄴ Seol Harin : Seoyoon. Once you obtain the fourth circle, how about trying to use it without stabilizing the circle this time?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(312F) : ?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : Are you telling them to cast magic with an unstable circle?
ㄴ Seol Harin : Your casting ability is so overwhelmingly strong that we have no choice if we want to force the difficulty higher.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(248F) : What kind of insane thing is that? LMAOOOOOO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(324F) : Can magic power even come out of an unstable circle…?
Immediately after acquiring a circle, it spun wildly without settling into place.
That was why it always had to go through a stabilization process.
But Seol Harin was telling me not to do that.
Judging from the reactions, it seemed like a pretty radical proposal.
She explained,
ㄴ Seol Harin : If you activate a spell you just learned with only an incantation even at the fourth circle, you might genuinely be unable to learn Mental Fork during this vacation.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(435F) : No way LMAO
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(147F) : Learning a fourth-circle spell immediately too is seriously over the top…
I could tell what she was worried about.
Not being able to equip two artifacts because I couldn't learn Mental Fork during my vacation would be bad.
But quite a few other opinions were coming in.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : Won't you get mana backlash if you cast a spell with an unstabilized circle…? That goes against the very concept of magic.
ㄴ Seol Harin : I know that better than anyone.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : Then why…
ㄴ Seol Harin : The Blood Demon Dao Venerable did it. I don't know what he was in such a hurry about, but he forcibly learned an eleventh-circle spell before the eleventh circle in his newly created dantian had even stabilized. That was the first time he seemed to struggle a little.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(599F) : An eleventh circle? ㄷㄷ
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(461F) : That's insane…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(710F) : I can't even imagine that…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : But Newbie is only at the third circle right now. Isn't it going a little far to put them on the same level as that guy? LMAO
Seol Harin ignored the other comments and spoke to me.
ㄴ Seol Harin : Seoyoon, I'll post a suitable magic circle and incantation for a fourth-circle spell in the gallery, so go get it! Don't stabilize it!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(249F) : No, not being able to stabilize a circle immediately is actually normal…
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(643F) : And has it become an established fact that Newbie gets a circle in one day now? LMAOOOOOOOOOO
ㄴ Seol Harin : Oh, and this time, use the third-circle spells you just learned while searching! It'll be much faster!
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(100F)(OP) : Okay, got it.
My objective was clear.
Obtain the fourth circle and try using it before stabilizing it.
I gave the Blood Knight standing behind me an order similar to last time.
And then.
I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes.
Meditation.
I soon entered a meditative state.
*
The Barren Land welcomed me.
“As expected…”
There had been a change I had predicted.
As soon as I arrived, I surveyed the surroundings, but the circles had already begun thinning out from the center.
I infused magic power into the Evil Eye and counted the number of circles within a radius of 1km^2.
‘The density of the circles has definitely decreased by about half compared to last time.’
If so, I could expect the distance to the final boundary where the circles lay to have increased by the same amount.
If the radius doubled, the area of the circle would increase fourfold.
Therefore, I had to search an area four times larger than last time. Since it had taken 11 hours to find the third circle before, I expected it to take 44 hours this time.
By the subjective sense of time here, that would be over four weeks.
But Seol Harin had given me a tip.
Use the third-circle spells I had just learned.
The first thing that came to mind was a flight spell.
She had said it was the flower of third-circle magic.
“◆◆◆◆ Fly.”
As I spoke the spell's name along with the incantation, my body floated gently upward.
I thought searching would be much faster if I flew high and looked down.
Whoooosh-
But after flying for a few seconds, I realized it immediately.
‘…Slow.’
I wasn't an ordinary mage.
Since I had invested heavily in Agility, simply running was much faster.
Fly was rejected.
After landing, I immediately began casting the next spell.
“◆◆◆◆◆◆ Vital Boost.”
My heartbeat slowed in an instant. It was a third-circle enhancement spell that increased stamina.
I had needed quite a bit of rest last time because I lacked stamina, so this would definitely help.
And finally.
“◆◆◆◆◆◆ Vision Road”
My vision flashed, and the Evil Eye's field of vision expanded to more than twice its original size in an instant.
“…Wow!”
At this rate, my search speed would increase tremendously.
“Good, let's go.”
Whoooosh-!
I raced across the land.
The search proceeded as expected.
The boundary where the circles lay had expanded to exactly twice its previous size.
*
After repeatedly running, scanning, and searching,
‘I finally found it…’
I searched everywhere and uncovered the largest one.
It took an incredibly long time.
It felt like about a week again.
Bzzzzzt-! Gaaaaaah-!
A scream naturally followed.
I pulled out the circle and embedded it in my dantian.
I was now a fourth-circle mage.
*
Flash!
I returned to reality and opened my eyes.
Ten hours had passed.
“Ugh…!”
I was severely nauseated.
It was the worst it had been so far.
I now had four circles.
It felt as though my dantian had turned into spaghetti.
But I couldn't stabilize it.
I immediately opened the gallery.
I saw the post about the fourth-circle spell Seol Harin had uploaded.
[Title: 4th-Circle Fire-Attribute Spell ‘Fire Wall’]
The post contained a more complicated magic circle and incantation.
Without even having time to report to the gallery, I clutched my unstable, rampaging dantian and tried it immediately.
First, the incantation alone.
“◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆”
‘…!’
It didn't activate.
‘Good, it doesn't work with the incantation alone.’
This time, it was time to try using only the magic circle.
Swish, swish. I traced the pattern in the air.
Crackle!
The magic circle was completed, but the magic power crumbled in midair.
‘Finally…’
For the first time, I had encountered a spell that wouldn't activate with only the incantation or the magic circle.
Now I just had to successfully cast the spell with the magic circle + incantation.
If that succeeded, I could fulfill the conditions for Mental Fork training.
I drew the magic circle again.
Then, as I infused that magic circle with magic power, I recited the incantation.
“Ghk…!”
Just as the spell was about to activate, my hand stopped.
I was too dizzy.
As expected, the circles inside my dantian were the problem.
The first, second, and third circles were all in chaos.
The first and second circles in particular seemed to be protesting that I was bringing another one home before either of them had even been there long.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘Maybe it would get better if I stayed still…’
Instead of calming the first and second circles, I decided to stop the rotation itself.
That seemed like it would reduce the dizziness considerably.
Whiiir…
I stopped infusing magic power into the first and second circles.
Their speed gradually slowed.
Then I rotated only the third and fourth circles and tried the spell.
Vroooom-!
That was when it happened.
Fwoooosh-!!!
The magic circle and incantation meshed, and flames formed.
“Oh…!”
Finally.
I succeeded in activating the spell with the magic circle + incantation.
It was the first time.
Until then, spells had always activated with only one of the two—the magic circle or the incantation.
‘She really was a master instructor…’
Just as she had suggested, trying a fourth-circle spell without stabilizing the circle had been the right answer.
“Good…!”
I had now fulfilled all the conditions.
I could begin training in earnest.
First, I recalled the conditions for learning Mental Fork that Seol Harin had explained.
“I have to fail.”
She had said that even with all the spell's activation conditions fulfilled, the spell had to be canceled because the incantation and magic circle failed to meet.
That made no intuitive sense.
The person who spoke the incantation and drew the magic circle was the same person.
Since it all happened within one body, how was I supposed to sever the connection and prevent the spell from activating?
The answer was to divide my mind into two.
That was Mental Fork.
The specific training method was to rapidly shift the concentration being poured into the incantation and magic circle back and forth.
At almost the speed of a blink.
If I did that, the incantation and magic circle would separate and fail to mesh, and the moment that happened would be the point when Mental Fork occurred.
I tried it immediately.
Swish, swish-
“◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ Fire Wall.”
...
..
.
Fwoosh-!
Fwoooosh-!
But it was difficult.
The incantation and magic circle kept meeting, causing the spell to succeed.
I had gotten the hang of moving my focus between the two on my second try, but shifting it quickly wasn't easy.
It felt as though the spell activated before I could build up any proper acceleration.
Was it because the circle was larger, causing it to activate more quickly?
‘Then…’
To lengthen the casting time, I needed to weaken the magic power a little.
And I already had an idea of how to do that.
‘Let's stop the circles up through the third.’
I stopped the first, second, and third circles altogether.
I cast the fourth-circle spell using only the fourth circle.
Swish, swish-
I waved my hand and drew the magic circle.
“◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆”
I spoke the incantation.
“Fire Wall.”
Fwaaash…!
A wall of flame formed.
It was a failure.
“…”
There seemed to be only one method left.
‘Let's stop all the circles.’
I couldn't bring them to a complete stop, since I still had to draw out magic power.
I decided to try using magic with only the inertia I'd given the circles earlier.
I blocked the active rotation of every circle.
Then I drew the magic circle.
Swish, swish-
I spoke the incantation.
“◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ Fire Wall.”
Light shone from the surface of the magic circle as magic power was inscribed into it.
Its speed was noticeably slower than before.
Now.
I shifted my focus at short intervals.
One second passed.
It still hadn't activated.
Faster.
I moved back and forth between the magic circle and incantation, alternately relaxing and tightening the focus I was devoting to each.
Ssssss-
More. More. Much faster. Almost as though I were vibrating.
“Uh…!”
Psssss…!
The flame that had been about to form in midair weakly died away.
And I couldn't tell exactly when it happened.
My consciousness
had become two.
‘Crazy.’
‘Crazy.’
My thoughts echoed in my head.