The Origin Sorcerer Family was a family that anyone involved in Sorcery Arts had admired at least once.
The birthplace of Sorcery Arts and the first prestigious family.
The family that had produced the greatest number of leaders of Cheonjihoe, the alliance of the Ten Great Families.
The public dismissed it as a setting sun, disregarding its long and storied history, but to those who lived beneath that sky, it remained the one and only sun.
Yet, as with all things in the world, there were always exceptions.
For instance, the moon could only reveal its presence when the sun went to rest, so naturally it had little reason to welcome the sun’s splendor.
“They are all fools…….”
Lee Yoonji clenched her fist as she muttered coldly to herself.
The resentment she harbored toward Park Hayul was a kind of inferiority complex that had been passed down through generations.
It was like a brand borne by anyone born into the Thunderclap Lee Family, another family of Sorcery Arts forever overshadowed by the Origin Sorcerer Family…….
“With Sorcery Arts like this, how do you expect to surpass the Origin Sorcerer Family? Give it up at once.”
“The Origin Sorcerer Family, you see. The Origin Sorcerer Family……”
Lee Yoonji was a genius who had somehow managed to bloom beneath the shadow of that towering tree.
“Things will change now. No, they have to change.”
Lee Yoonji bit her lip and repeated the words quietly.
It was by no means an idle delusion.
After all, it was an open secret that the recent heirs of the Origin Sorcerer Family had been unimpressive.
Park Hayul alone was proof enough.
The other students seemed intoxicated by the prestige of the Origin Sorcerer Family and had forgotten, but his actual ranking was only 700th.
She had heard that he was a half-baked failure who lacked talent in Sorcery Arts and had therefore chosen the Superhuman System.
“What could an idiot like that possibly do……? Everyone will come to their senses soon enough.”
Lee Yoonji steadied herself by recalling the plan that would soon become reality.
When the time came, she strode confidently toward the lectern normally reserved for the professor, as though she had done so countless times before.
“I look forward to working with everyone again this year. The portions that I am responsible for conducting will be replaced with assignments…….”
She carried out the orientation with confidence before introducing the day’s assignment.
“This is a Sorcery Formula personally inscribed by the professor. It is a barrier formula created by combining several different Sorcery Formulas. Since this is our first class, he said everyone should work together to unravel it, and that the class will end the moment the barrier is dispelled.”
As though to prove that she was not merely speaking, she took out a specially manufactured sheet of Goehwang Paper and attached it to the classroom door.
A reddish aura emerged from the formula and enveloped the entire classroom.
“So the class really ends as soon as we dispel it, right? Can anyone solve this?”
“It is impossible alone. Let us gather first.”
“Would he not know something about it?”
“Who?”
“Park Hayul…….”
The stage she had been waiting for had been set without her even needing to encourage them.
Now all that remained was to bring out the actor who, contrary to their expectations, would perform a ridiculous dance for them.
“It will not be easy. Even I needed more than twenty minutes to dispel it completely. It would probably be much easier if someone exceptionally capable helped us……”
Lee Yoonji paused for a moment, then called out to Park Hayul as though reluctantly asking for his assistance.
“Have you perhaps figured out the structure of the Sorcery Formula? Everyone is curious, so please do not keep the information to yourself. Share it with us.”
What were the chances he could answer?
Naturally, none.
Even so, she intended to keep pressing him.
She would ask again and again, like a steady drizzle soaking through clothes…….
She intended to torment him until the words I do not know finally came out of Park Hayul’s mouth and he looked flustered and pitiful.
It was cruel, perhaps, but what method could expose incompetence more definitively?
Lee Yoonji smiled brightly as she stared at Park Hayul.
She assumed the corners of her mouth would remain raised for quite some time.
“I was expecting something, but your attack is more timid than I thought. Unless you simply have a nasty disposition.”
But the answer that suddenly reached her ears was strange.
“What do you……”
“Never mind. Anyway, the class ends if I dispel this, right? Do not change your story afterward. I have a policy, you see. Anyone who plays games with my time deserves to have their head cracked, regardless of gender.”
H-head?
Lee Yoonji found herself wondering whether he truly meant the head she was thinking of, or whether the word carried some other symbolic meaning.
The other students were no different.
“What does he mean by head? Surely he does not literally mean someone’s head? He is going to crack it?”
“Idiot. Do you think a direct-line member of the Origin Sorcerer Family would say something with such a simplistic meaning? He is talking about the representative.”
“Lee Yoonji?”
“Exactly. Park Hayul is declaring his intention to challenge her. He is saying that he intends to take control of the Sorcery Arts System.”
“Ohhh. As expected.”
It was a case where the interpretation was far more impressive than the dream itself, but…….
Whatever.
“Let us finish this quickly. I am rather busy.”
Park Hayul rose from his seat and walked toward the door.
***
Was it because they had all chosen a non-mainstream System?
They seemed a little slow.
Leaving the strangely excited atmosphere behind me, I approached the door with the Goehwang Paper attached to it.
“How can you say something so vulgar……!”
Lee Yoonji finally caught on and shouted with a flushed face, but one sentence was enough to silence her.
“And your intentions are pure?”
“Ugh…….”
She was the type who was intelligent enough to be easier to deal with.
Even if I only said half of what I meant, she understood the rest perfectly.
In any case, seeing the barrier up close felt quite different.
Its complexity was enough to make my eyes ache, and the force emanating from it felt distinctly foreign.
“So this is a barrier.”
But knowledge deeply engraved into my mind through Reading did not discriminate between situations.
Shall I begin?
I took a deep breath and began dismantling it.
Intent functioned much like a switch.
The moment I decided to do it, information related to the Sorcery Formula began surfacing one piece at a time.
“This uses the Refinement symbol from the Wind Release Art, South Wind.”
One.
“The Accumulation section applies the formula from the Fire Release Art, Wall of Fire……”
Two.
Through the power of acquisition that went beyond mere memorization and understanding, even the most complicated Sorcery Formula could be broken apart piece by piece.
“It constructed the circuit using four defensive one-star Sorcery Arts and used a two-star Sorcery Art as the core.”
I quickly grasped its structure.
The active two-star formula was something I had never seen before, but……
“Does it matter?”
That too would soon become familiar.
[Trait ‘Reading’ activated.]
Now, let us see.
Almost greedily, I reached toward the unfamiliar Sorcery Formula.
At once, nearly all my mana drained away, and the true essence of a Sorcery Art I had never encountered before began surfacing in my mind.
Lee Hwayoung Style — Applied Two-Star Wood Release Art, Root of Domination
[Understanding: 52%]
A Sorcery Art that transmitted mana through a Sorcery Formula……
Interesting.
I had not acquired it completely, but I understood its basic mechanism.
I had not known a Sorcery Art capable of transferring mana even existed.
“As expected.”
The creator’s name had not been attached to it for nothing.
When ‘Style’ was appended to the name of a Sorcery Art like this, it was classified as Eponymous Sorcery.
Such techniques were rarer and more precious than ordinary Sorcery Arts, and the standard practice was for them to be passed down within a family or to a single successor.
Unlike me, who had simply snatched it up, some of these Sorcery Arts could not be purchased even for hundreds of millions.
“If I can modify it, this could be quite useful.”
If anything, it was fortunate that I had acquired only the broad framework and the important principles.
A suitable way to apply it suddenly occurred to me, but I put the thought aside for now.
Dispelling the barrier came first.
At this point, I had fully grasped how the barrier operated.
The key was the professor’s mana, which had been transferred through Root of Domination and remained inside the barrier.
Perhaps his Trait allowed him to imbue mana with intent, because the mana was controlling the different Sorcery Formulas almost like a living creature.
That left only one answer.
If I severed the flow of that mana, the barrier would collapse.
“This is easier than I expected.”
And I had managed to steal an Eponymous Sorcery technique along the way.
I gathered my remaining mana.
My goal was to identify and sever only the circuits connecting Root of Domination to the defensive Sorcery Formulas.
CRACKLE, CRACKLE.
A significant change appeared the moment I removed three of the circuits.
The red aura surrounding the door gradually began to fade, and once I severed the final circuit, it disappeared completely.
“W-what? Already?”
“How many minutes did it take?”
“Th-thirteen……”
Did Lee Yoonji not say it had taken her twenty minutes?
I had not intended to compare our results, but it had ended up happening anyway.
Well, it was not a bad outcome.
If quietly passing beneath everyone’s notice was impossible, then thoroughly crushing the opposition was probably more beneficial.
“Y-you! What in the world did you do?!”
Lee Yoonji shouted, her face so pale it had almost turned blue.
And what was I supposed to do about that?
I casually ignored her and declared,
“That is it for today’s class. Pack your things. It is time to go home.”
***
Since I had nothing to pack, I was the first to leave the classroom.
All the lectures scheduled for this week were finished, so I wanted to head straight back to the dormitory and enjoy some leisure, but…….
“Haah. What a life.”
That was something only ordinary people could afford to do.
As someone with a Terminal Condition and constantly pressed for time, I could not waste even a single minute or second.
I hurried toward the Comprehensive Training Ground.
I entered one of the rooms near the entrance and first reviewed the setting surrounding the Final Stage Conquest Battle.
The broad outline of the story transformed into scenes and flashed through my mind.
To summarize……
An unexpected anomaly would occur during the conquest of the Final Stage.
The four protagonists would face a crisis, and the process of overcoming it would become the trigger that caused them to see one another differently.
It was a fairly important episode, so a quest would naturally be assigned.
There was a high probability that the objective would be to kill the boss.
“But it will not be easy.”
The difficulty would probably be incomparable to the Opening Stage Conquest Battle.
The boss of the Final Stage was a Grade 6 Magical Beast, and it had a considerable number of Grade 7 Magical Beasts beneath it.
I also had to account for the possibility that variables unknown even to me could arise.
So I could not simply charge in without thinking.
I needed to prepare in advance.
My chronic problem of insufficient mana.
I needed a way to deal with it……
“First, the bracelet.”
Once my thoughts were organized, I activated my Trait.
[Trait ‘Manifestation’ activated.]
Thanks to repeatedly using Reading, my understanding had already reached eighty percent.
By now, I could envision and materialize it with considerable familiarity.
……But then.
[Insufficient mana for materialization.]
“This still does not work?”
I was momentarily bewildered, but the reason soon became clear.
[Permanently retaining an Armament requires an extremely large amount of mana.]
Huh……
The problem was not the Armament’s grade, but the duration.
Apparently, the system placed greater value on time than on power.
There was no other solution, so I proposed a condition.
“Limit it to one month.”
[Insufficient mana.]
Damn it.
“Then limit it to two weeks.”
[Insufficient mana.]
You little……
I felt a flash of irritation, but I still did not want to spend my own time on it.
“……Then limit it to one week.”
[Conditions established.]
[Materializing.]
Tsk.
It was unfortunate that I would have to Manifest it repeatedly, but at least it was free.
Perhaps I had been asking for something absurd from the beginning.
For something to remain forever without restriction would amount to true creation.
In other words, the domain of a god.
“In any case, my mana recovery rate is higher now.”
And I still had one card I had not tested.
The Eponymous Sorcery I had stolen earlier seemed promising enough.
Using the training-ground system, I summoned a training dummy.
[Trait ‘Manifestation’ activated.]
I approached and inscribed the Sorcery Formula I had acquired almost by accident.
But this time……
“Would this work?”
I reversed the positions of the symbols representing Input and Output.
That altered several intermediate operators, but since I had already acquired the underlying principles, it was not particularly difficult.
The moment I materialized it, a tattoo-like Sorcery Formula appeared across the dummy’s body.
A thin green line emerged from it and crawled up the back of my hand like a living creature.
STAB.
It burrowed into my forearm like an IV needle.
……What is this?
An unpleasant feeling came over me, and I was just about to cancel it when—
[The effect of the Sorcery Art ‘Root of Domination’ has activated in reverse.]
[You may borrow up to 20% of the host’s mana.]
“……Seriously?”
It worked that easily?
It was exactly the message I had wanted, which only made the result more bewildering.
The technique I had just used was the two-star Eponymous Sorcery Art, Root of Domination.
I had modified it in my own way before inscribing it.
Instead of supplying mana to the target bearing the Sorcery Formula, I had changed it so that I received mana from them.
Or something along those lines.
I had not attempted it with complete certainty, yet the result was an overwhelming success.
This dramatically reduced the burden posed by mana exhaustion.
Whenever I ran low, I could simply inscribe it onto Magical Beasts and draw mana from them.
Since it was a support-type technique, it did not consume much mana itself, making its efficiency quite good.
“This is incredible.”
If I lacked something of my own, I could simply take someone else’s and use it.
What a novel and delightfully thieving idea.
[Achievement-562: Putting a Spoon in Someone Else’s Sorcery]
[1 day has been added as a reward.]
[The name of the Sorcery Art has been changed to ‘Root of Greed.’]
[10 SP have been acquired for a shameless development.]
[Remaining Time: 14 days, 13 hours, 12 minutes]
[SP Held: 60]
What did you just call it?
That was going too far.
“You compared my ingenious idea to merely putting a spoon in someone else’s dish?”
Of course, the fact that it had rewarded me with an entire day was worthy of a respectful bow……
Yes, that was unquestionably a good thing……
So was I supposed to be happy?
“Ahem.”
In any case, I had fortunately found an alternative.
For the time being, I intended to focus on improving the Manifestation accuracy of Root of Greed and the Attribute Combination Sorcery Art I planned to use during the Final Stage Conquest Battle.
And just like that, time passed faster than a flash of lightning.
The weekend went by in an instant, and so did Monday, when my individual training lecture had been scheduled.
By the time I had achieved results I was satisfied with, the sun was already rising on the day of the Final Stage Conquest Battle.