Chapter 13: Dungeon Practicum (1)
“Everyone knows the origins of magic, but it was only when the White Mage, also called the Progenitor Mage, spread magic to the world that humans and other races were able to manipulate it.”
In reality, the magic class was highly subdivided.
Mana Trajectory, an Introduction to Advanced Fundamental Magic, studied the relationship between practicality and performance.
As in any other world, lectures were extremely boring. Professor Raiden of Lunar Studies, in particular, was not popular because of his characteristic sharp and aggressive voice that stressed listeners.
“After spreading natural magic to elves, metal manipulation magic to dwarves, and elemental magic to humans, the Progenitor Mage disappeared."
"So, does anyone know where the Progenitor Mage went next?”
“Me!”
“Speak.”
“He went to Heaven and taught the angels about light magic, then imparted dark magic to the demons in the Underworld.”
“That’s right.”
Baek Yu-Seol was sleepy as hell. Regardless of whether there was something he knew or not, the class was very boring.
‘How can I listen to this for three years…’
However, this class was pretty important. It was because there could be information that would bring him closer to the True Ending.
Professor Raiden lined things up with a marker on the blackboard with his characteristic annoying voice.
“But there were some things that the Progenitor Mage didn’t expect. Human's curiosity didn’t stop at elemental magic. Human mages began to travel worldwide and stole the magic of different races. That’s how modern magic came into being.”
Baek Yu-Seol yawned silently and looked around. Sitting a little farther away, Eisel caught his attention.
Did she initially take this class? As far as he remembered, no main characters listened to Raiden.
“People were not satisfied with that either. They wanted more knowledge and more magic. However, humans could not learn magic anymore. This was because the Progenitor Mage disappeared, leaving behind the world's Twelve Divine Moons. Does anyone know about the Twelve Divine Moons?”
At last, the main point came out, and his ears pricked up.
When a student raised his hand, Professor Raiden gestured for him to speak.
“Answer me.”
“It’s said that the Twelve Divine Moons are guardians stationed to protect the balance of the continents. It’s also said that until just a thousand years ago, they spread all over the world and looked over the continents.”
“Right. They each defended a continent with their special powers.”
The professor wrote four letters on the blackboard.
“For example, it was said that the Scarlet Summer Moon, which symbolizes fire, is a red flame, and that flame would never extinguish. Even now, it’s rumored that you can see the red flame if you enter the Alamanca’s Abyss. You should check it out if you’re interested.”
He was not joking, but the students burst into laughter.
Alamanca’s Abyss was an absolute forbidden zone ruled by the Sea King Alamanca. It was not a space where terrestrial life could dare enter.
Perhaps today was the day of the year when Professor Raiden made a joke that was actually funny.
“Focus.”
A light screen twinkled, and the laughter stopped when Raiden spoke. The students focused their eyes on a few images hovering in the air.
Alamanca’s Abyss.
In the deep sea, where only darkness loomed around, a bright red flame that could illuminate the entire world was surrounded by a huge octopus. The octopus was asleep while shackled by chains, but strangely, the flame did not burn it even though it was attached to its body.
The next photo was taken at Levien’s Coast.
A huge vortex formed in the middle of the sea. The catastrophic vortex with a diameter of five hundred meters was frozen entirely by the power of the Blue Winter Moon.
A mysterious phenomenon that was difficult to explain even with magic. It was so surprising that Baek Yu-Seol’s drowsiness went away.
“Just like this, each divine moon has its unique abilities, and it’s said that when all the divine moons come together, something very special happens.”
“What is it?”
Professor Raiden was speechless for the first time at a question from a certain student.
“It’s… No one knows. It’s because not once have all the divine moons been gathered together. That’s right. The divine moons haven’t awakened since they fell asleep a thousand years ago."
Baek Yu-Seol had encountered some parts of the Twelve Divine Moons while playing the game.
Those who went through their events were given special skills or received items from divine moons, and naturally, he had no choice but to be interested.
So, he found a total of five divine moons.
Even that was only possible by combining the information from other players. The five he found were only discovered after significant effort, and no player collected more divine moons than him.
For that reason, he thought that the existence of those Twelve Divine Moons could have a direct connection with the True Ending.
Ten years.
For ten years, countless players had played the game with numerous options and had seen countless endings.
But if no one had seen the True Ending, wouldn’t the answer be in the content that no one had reached?
And that was the Twelve Divine Moons.
Even in the game, despite the extreme difficulty, he had collected five divine moons while hovering at the edge of death several times…
There was nothing else he could do to see the True Ending. He just had to try again…
After Raiden's lecture, Baek Yu-Seol was walking down the hallway for the next one when someone called him from behind.
“Excuse me.”
“Huh?”
It was Eisel. She approached him with a slightly dissatisfied expression and said, “Why are you attending this lecture?”
“Why do I attend it? Your question is so out of the blue.”
“Answer me.”
“Uh, well…” In fact, the divine moon class he took was not very popular.
Magic was the basis of mathematically unfolding, calculating, organizing, and controlling the flow of mana, but Lunar Studies was completely unrelated to those concepts.
To use an analogy, it was akin to sorcery or witchcraft. To pray to the twelve moons who could be alive somewhere to borrow their power and inherit special abilities.
Like Professor Raiden, many people worshiped the divine moons and practiced divine moon magic. However, this method was not widely adopted because its advantages over traditional magic were not clearly revealed.
In some areas, it was said that members of Moon Shadow Church were even treated as heretics and expelled.
“I’m attending because I’m interested.”
“… That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“…"
She closed her mouth for a moment, pondered, and after staring at him for a while, parted her lips again.
“Well, then… Hmm. Does it have anything to do with grades?”
“Lunar Study is my hobby.”
He had noticed something strange too.
“It seems you weren’t there during the Lunar Study orientation. When did you apply?”
“Well, that’s…”
Come to think of it, there’s still a period for course correction.
“Did you apply for the Lunar Studies by any chance? Do you know the charm of it?”
“No? What are you talking about?”
After saying that, Eisel turned around and disappeared.
“Or not. Why are you like that?”
Leaving the question behind, Baek Yu-Seol moved to listen to the next lecture. Lectures continued until the afternoon.
Bang! Bang!
A giant scarecrow puppet burst into flames, causing a massive explosion. During the Practical Combat lecture, students shot at the target with magic attacks that matched their attributes.
“It’s not always about firing hard and fast. What matters is accuracy. Even if you have powerful magic skills, they’re useless if you don’t hit the enemy, alright?”
When the words of fire attribute Professor Hong Yi-El fell, the scarecrow shrank and began to run around.
The attacks of the students exploded in the air, unable to even scratch the target, and it was the same for Hong Bi-Yeon’s magic attack.
Thud!
She furrowed her brows, nervously pulled out the staff, and cast a ball of flame.
Her firepower was strong, but she could not hit anything.
Hong Yi-El passed by her and whispered.
“That’s terrible, Bi-Yeon.”
Hong Bi-Yeon paled at the words but closed her eyes tightly, trying not to show her chaotic emotions. Biting her trembling lips, she raised the staff again.
Suddenly assaulted by a strong sense of self-doubt, she dropped the staff.
“Hmmm…”
The horrifying pressure of failure fell on her chest and she fought to breathe against it as cold sweat trickled down her forehead.
‘You can’t make it obvious. You must not show your vulnerability.’
Hong Bi-Yeon felt like she would faint at any moment, but she persevered with superhuman mental strength. A girl approached her while she sat still.
“Wow, Princess, you’re incredible.”
“… What?”
“You used the same magic skill as me but had three times the power.”
'Is this brat aware of how I’m feeling, or she's just speaking without thinking?'
“What’s the point, though? It’s pointless. I’m not even sure I can hit it. I’m envious of you. You have high accuracy.”
“But if the Princess practiced a little more, wouldn’t she surpass someone like me easily?”
'What do you mean?'
Hong Bi-Yeon ignored the girl’s words, picked up the staff, and stood up. The pressure on her chest had eased up to some extent thanks to the conversation.
'Come to think of it, is she also a Flame Mage?'
'I think I’ve heard of her. Her name is Arshuang.'
In the outside world, there had been rumors that the greatest flame attribute talent of all time had appeared.
After thinking a bit, she recalled hearing it before, but when Arshuang entered the academy, her magic skill was so shabby that she could not even be compared with Hong Bi-Yeon.
It was completely natural. Hong Bi-Yeon was a world-class genius, not an all-time great. She did not show much pride because she had just defeated an opponent who deserved to be defeated.
“Whoo…”
For the rest of the lecture, Hong Bi-Yeon struggled to catch the running scarecrow, eventually bolting out of the classroom the moment the lecture concluded.
It was difficult for her to look at her mother’s face for even one second longer.
“Whew….”
She went to the break room and sat down helplessly. Even her legs felt numb, and she lost all sensation.
Perhaps it was because she exerted two or three times more strength than other students, or maybe it was the psychological factor.
“Princess.”
“Yeterin, there you are. Bring me a drink. And red ginseng candy as a bonus.”
“Here you go.”
Princess Hong Bi-Yeon’s exclusive bodyguard, Yeterin, was tall for a woman, reaching almost 170cm. Hong Bi-Yeon, who was 160cm, had to look slightly upward to make eye contact with her.
“By the way, any news?”
“Yes. It’s about the staff modification request you ordered the other day.”
“Ah, that.”
Hong Bi-Yeon stroked her chin and pondered. She had heard that alchemists sometimes used remodeled staffs, but she had never seen a mage do that before.
‘He is unique in many ways.’
A boy who was last place in the whole academy yet resonated with an upper-intermediate grade staff and had made his way into Class S.
“Is a magic sword possible?”
“Since the wand is so good, a good quality product will come out without problems. However, there’s one thing that is a little questionable.”
“Questionable?”
“That’s… The wand keeps trying to drain its owner’s mana.”
“What? Is it a dark artifact?”
“It’s not exactly like that. It appears to be constantly resonating with natural mana.”
“What kind of strange wand did he get? Stella is also strange.”
'Continuously absorbing the user’s mana and resonating with nature’s mana simultaneously? It's just weird to hear.'
“Why's such a garbage wand at upper-intermediate grade?”
“So, it’s only upper-intermediate grade.”
“What does that mean?”
“Its original performance was rated higher because it had the effect of explosively enhancing the user’s magic power and amplifying it tremendously, but it was lowered to intermediate grade because it would suck away the user’s mana upon contact.”
“S-Superior? How does a student hold such a thing?”
“That’s a riddle for me too.”
Hong Bi-Yeon knew very well that it was not set up for resonance in the first place. But how did he resonate with such a wand?
‘What is that strange commoner doing?’
Of course, that did not mean that the wand was coveted.
It was strange that the power of magic skill increased explosively, but the penalty of losing mana was too great.
“I don’t think he’ll use it even if I give him. I don’t know if he has abundant mana or doesn’t have any mana.”
That was pretty weird. If one had no mana, one wouldn't be a mage, so why use a wand?
“I don't know. The commoner will figure it out. I will just do what I was told.”
'Its owner is also one-of-a-kind, as is his staff.'
There was never a time when she kept commoners in her mind, but Baek Yu-Seol did not leave her mind for a long time in many ways.