Chapter 9
The Blessing of Starlight Ritual, a fortune-bringing sorcery created from the image of an elephant shining white under starlight, was a magical ritual with effects related to health and recovery due to the magical symbolism of elephants, considered sacred animals. It also had the effect of bringing a bit of luck due to the added element of fortune-seeking belief.
However, not everything could be good.
The effect of this magical ritual was not to 'bestow the symbolism of elephants', but to 'make one resemble an elephant to use symbolic power', so as a price, it made the sorcerer resemble an elephant.
Elephants had tusks.
Elephants had rough and hard skin.
Elephants were herbivores.
Humans didn't have tusks.
Humans had soft skin.
Humans were omnivores.
Elephants and humans were similar but different beings.
But one of the principles of sorcery was similarity.
Like begets like, and similar things call to similar things.
This was called homeopathic magic.
And according to this principle, humans came to resemble elephants.
Humans didn't have tusks, but they had teeth, so teeth grew to resemble tusks.
Humans had soft skin, but it became rough and hard like an elephant's.
Humans could eat vegetables, so they changed to only being able to eat vegetables.
The Blessing of Starlight Ritual was an incredibly honest magic that gave three benefits in exchange for three prices.
It made one resemble an elephant.
It made two new teeth grow, made the skin rough and hard, and forced one to only get nutrition from vegetables for a while.
However, making the skin rough and hard was a problem that could be managed with some care, and eating only vegetables wasn't a problem as vegetarian diets were abundant. It wasn't much of a price in modern times as well-developed vegetarian combat rations existed that didn't hinder mercenary life, which required tremendous activity with little food.
However, the growth of new teeth was truly vicious, because these new teeth were 'wisdom teeth'.
Jinseong, perhaps unlucky, had already had three wisdom teeth removed in middle school despite never being in love, and now he had to have additional wisdom teeth removed because of the ritual.
Therefore, when he learned of the price of the Blessing of Starlight Ritual, he cursed.
『 To make wisdom teeth grow is truly terrible. With this, I have become a person who has had wisdom teeth removed five times. 』
But with magical rituals, one never knew what would be paid as the price.
Jinseong just thought he was unlucky and went to the dentist to have his wisdom teeth removed.
And when he performed the second ritual, he tried hard to rationalize it to himself.
『 Wisdom teeth have grown again. But wisdom teeth can grow even under the eyes if one is unlucky, so I should be grateful they grew in a normal position. 』
Seven wisdom teeth removed.
Although it wasn’t all bad since wisdom teeth could also be used as magical materials…
For Jinseong, who had memories of having wisdom teeth removed with insufficient anesthesia, it wasn't a very welcome price.
But even at this point, he only blamed his own bad luck for being hit with the same price twice, without any particular thoughts.
But when the same price came back for the third ritual, he felt something was strange.
『 Isn't the price completely the same? 』
Two wisdom teeth.
Roughening skin.
Forced vegetarianism.
It was the same all three times.
What was even more strange was that the location where this price manifested was also the same.
Wisdom teeth in the upper parts on both sides.
Roughening skin concentrated on hands and feet.
『 Three rituals. Three identical prices. Can this be called a coincidence? 』
Jinseong immediately began experimenting.
He used the Blessing of Starlight Ritual for the fourth time.
Wisdom teeth grew in the same position, and the skin on his hands and feet roughened.
He used the Blessing of Starlight Ritual for the fifth time.
Wisdom teeth grew in the same position, and the skin on his hands and feet roughened.
This repetition of prices, which could not be seen as a coincidence, occurred identically up to the tenth attempt, and only then did Jinseong become certain that this Blessing of Starlight Ritual demanded the same price.
But here a question arose.
Why couldn't other sorcerers discover what he could discover so easily?
Could this be a peculiar phenomenon seen only by him, or only in this magic?
To verify this, Jinseong informed another sorcerer about this magical ritual.
That sorcerer accepted this magical ritual without resistance, as its effects were small but its price was not too large...
And paid a different price than Jinseong.
The sorcerer didn't grow wisdom teeth, nor was he forced to be vegetarian.
Only the skin on his hands and feet roughened.
『 To be able to heal internal injuries for such a small price, that's very good. I'll tell my fellow sorcerers about this. 』
The sorcerer, who could heal internal injuries for a price so light it was almost free, expressed great gratitude to Jinseong and informed other sorcerers about this ritual. And other sorcerers began to frequently use this magic that was said to have good cost-effectiveness, and each paid different prices.
Some sorcerers grew four wisdom teeth.
Some sorcerers began to find salad more delicious.
Some sorcerers gained an extra stomach and their intestines lengthened.
Some sorcerers' feet hardened like stones.
As it spread to many sorcerers, the price of the ritual became stronger, and eventually it became so enormous that it could no longer be used for its cost-effectiveness.
And at that point, many sorcerers abandoned this magical ritual, saying things like "That's how old magic is," "As expected, the cost-effectiveness isn't good," "The effect is small but the price is too severe."
Jinseong, who had observed this entire process, understood why the price of magic had not been properly studied.
Magical rituals demand prices in peculiar ways.
Let's assume that the effect of a general magical ritual was 100, and the price was also 100.
Of course, when using a magical ritual, one must pay a price of 100 in exchange for an effect of 100.
This honest equal exchange was 'very excellent' for sorcerers.
In a world full of people trying to overcharge, being able to purchase and use items at the regular price? Of course, they couldn't help but welcome it with open arms.
Summoning, contracts, magic, martial arts... All of these are unfair to humans.
Magic couldn’t achieve 100% efficiency. There was always energy loss in the process of use.
Summoning required a price in exchange for borrowing power from other beings.
Contracts involved transcendent beings lending power but trying to change the contractor to their liking. It meant having to accept that one's life and fate would change in exchange for borrowing power.
Martial arts also inevitably involved loss in the accumulation process, and would sometimes put strain on the body.
Even in sorcery, there were plenty of cases where the price was thought to be excessive compared to the effect. Just look at magical rituals being avoided while being called 'the choice of chaos'.
But having to pay a price of 100 in exchange for an effect of 100?
Of course, it could only look like an angel.
Then what about the sequence that followed?
Would one keep this honey-like information to oneself?
Not so.
Most humans would want to enjoy this good information with those around them. This was both an instinct as social animals and could be a decision stemming from a desire to be more admired.
So the sorcerer would share this honey-like information with people they were close to.
To colleagues, friends, lovers, family.
But there was a saying that it wasn’t a secret if more than two people knew it.
The person who received the information would spread this amazing information to 'people they think are trustworthy', and those people would spread it to others.
That was how the honey-like magical ritual gradually spread.
But a problem arose.
Unlike the information they first heard, the price became enormously huge!
The benefit was the same.
It gave the same benefit of 100.
But the price, some paid 1, some paid 199.
Benefits equally. Prices randomly.
Two people perform the magical ritual.
Then they both equally shared a total benefit of 200.
But they didn't equally share the total price of 200.
The total amount of price to be paid was the same, but its distribution was random.
The ritual that was fair when singular became unfair when plural.
And this became increasingly terrible as the number increased.
Twenty people perform the ritual.
The total benefit was 2,000. The twenty people equally shared 100 each.
But... the price?
Some would be lucky and end up paying a price of 1 or 10.
But what about those who were unlucky?
That was how a magical ritual that once received good evaluations turned into 'something very bad'.
Along with evaluations that its efficiency is garbage, the ritual gradually began to be forgotten.
And eventually, it would meet two endings.
One was when the sorcerer who first used this ritual used it again.
That sorcerer would pay the price honestly again and realize the mechanism of the magical ritual.
When that happened, that sorcerer would naturally come to one conclusion.
The conclusion that this magical ritual should be known by only one person.
That was how ‘single-person inheritance’ was created.
And the other is...
And the other was that it would simply be forgotten.
This happened when the sorcerer who first used this magical ritual died, or when they refused to use it again, frightened by the sudden change in price. In this case, the magical ritual was either forgotten or met a future where it could only be seen in some literature.
Its essence doesn't change, but it experiences rise and fall according to people's evaluations, which is truly regrettable.
That was how the truth about the price of rituals gradually disappeared into darkness.
Those who didn't know, didn't know.
Those who once knew, didn't open their mouths.
Those who tried to inform, couldn't prove it.
Those who knew, wished for everyone else not to know.
Just like me.