Alina, a maid of the Kalsburg family, had recently been experiencing something strange.
It concerned the master she served.
‘Something’s strange…!’
Lord Allen Kalsburg had changed somehow.
The timid, fragile young man she had known was nowhere to be seen.
His voice had changed, and the slouch in his posture had disappeared.
Had those been the only differences, she might have dismissed them as her imagination.
But there had been something that convinced her otherwise.
The first incident was the Kalsburg family’s succession duel.
Starting about a month before the duel, Lord Allen had spent his nights tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
On the morning of the duel, he had been unable to eat breakfast properly, so she had even spoken to the chef and brought him porridge instead.
And yet, that same frail young man had apparently won the succession duel.
“Is that really true? Lord Allen beat Lord Gilbert with his fists?”
“I’m telling you! I watched through a gap in the window, and he beat him to a pulp. It was so satisfying!”
“But how could Lord Allen possibly beat Lord Gilbert…?”
Gilbert Kalsburg was famous even among the maids.
There were plenty of unfavorable rumors about him being immature and full of bravado, but he was also known as a prodigy who had awakened a Skill before even turning twenty.
Given the North’s reverence for martial prowess, he was one of the young men most frequently discussed by countless girls.
Though that would probably change once word spread that he had lost to Lord Allen.
“I told you! I watched through a gap in the window, and Lord Allen beat him to a pulp. Lord Gilbert was always tormenting the maids! It served him right!”
“So what happened in the end?”
“The Head Maid gave me a look, so I couldn’t stay until the very end, but I heard the knights shouting. Lord Allen became the heir!”
“Really…?”
Lord Allen was also famous throughout the North, albeit for entirely different reasons than Lord Gilbert.
Despite being the eldest son of the Kalsburg family, he was known as a worthless weakling who could not even use mana and possessed a timid, unmanly disposition.
What would happen once word spread that he had defeated Lord Gilbert?
Alina could not even begin to imagine.
“He must have been hiding his true nature all this time. You should have seen him fight! He looked like a wild beast!”
“Lord Allen? That’s impossible….”
“Why would I lie to you? Lord Allen must have been pretending to be weak all this time.”
“But why?”
Alina’s coworker and friend, Michelle, lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Because of the Duchess, obviously! Every maid in the estate knows about it. They say the Duchess is planning to assassinate Lord Allen, the eldest son.”
“Assassinate him!?”
“Shh. Why are you shouting?”
“You mean... someone is going to assassinate Lord Allen?”
“That’s probably what everyone thinks. He used to stay shut inside his room doing nothing, and then he suddenly became the heir. Who wouldn’t resent that? That’s why I think you should find somewhere else to work, Alina. What if you get caught up in it too?”
Those words left Alina with complicated feelings.
The mention of assassination sent fear creeping through her.
At the same time, sympathy stirred in her heart.
Lord Allen’s reputation within the family could hardly be called favorable, but he had always greeted her with a smile.
“…….”
That was the first incident.
The second happened immediately after the succession duel.
His manner of speaking and behavior had changed somewhat, but that was only part of it.
“Move! This is urgent!”
A knight named Haveron had arrived and caused a small commotion.
He insisted that Lord Allen had to be taken to the Family Head immediately.
Before Alina could even stop him, he had barged inside.
She assumed Lord Allen would grant the knight’s request as he always had....
“I-I’ll be back shortly!”
The apprentice knight came rushing back out, his manner of speech now exceedingly polite.
After that, dozens of young knights arrived in a noisy procession.
“Maid. Is Lord Allen inside?”
“I am Alden, a rank-and-file knight! I have something to discuss with Lord Allen!”
“Hey, Alden. Can’t you see I got here first?”
Alden merely looked down at the knight without answering.
At that moment, Alina heard a BOOM!
For some reason, the other knight was suddenly flying through the air in the distance.
With an expressionless face, Alden turned to the maid.
“Lord Allen. Is he inside?”
Every single knight returned to see Lord Allen once again.
This time, each of them was drenched in sweat and carrying armfuls of gifts.
Some had even brought presents for Alina, asking her to put in a good word for them.
Being the heir to a ducal house really was something else.
They brought me all this stuff.
How much would all of this be worth if I converted it into money?
I really was the son of a family wealthy enough to have its own knights.
‘The Duchess must have pressured them pretty hard.’
The items presented by the knights varied enormously.
There were polearms, gemstones, ornaments, elixirs, and Artifacts.
Some of them would probably come in handy later.
And even the ones that did not could be sold for a considerable amount.
‘I can finally catch my breath.’
Now that the chaotic parade of offerings had finally ended, I could check something I had been meaning to investigate.
The talent this body possessed.
Magic.
“Hmm….”
The moment I thought about magic, something naturally came to mind.
The memories that had flashed before my eyes during the succession duel.
‘It’s incomprehensible….’
It had begun with Allen Kalsburg’s birth.
The darkness receded, revealing the first light he had ever seen.
A woman stood with her back to the light, looking down at him.
“…Allen.”
The woman whispered his name with a wistful expression.
She seemed to be Allen’s mother.
Soon, she faded away like a shimmering haze, and the scene changed.
“Aaaaaah!!”
Flames were consuming everything in every direction.
People were screaming as they fled.
For some reason, their fear was directed at me.
[Allen Kalsburg activates the Inferno spell ‘Fireball(火焰球)’.]
Allen was scattering flames from his tiny hands.
As the flames set everything around him ablaze, he used wind to spread them even farther.
Through the hazy vision, I could see the fire raging.
[Allen Kalsburg activates the Windstorm spell ‘Tailwind(順風)’.]
The accelerated flames chased after the fleeing people.
Impatience filled my heart.
I hurriedly added magic from another school.
[Allen Kalsburg activates the Support spell ‘Acceleration(加速)’.]
The Kalsburg estate was completely engulfed in flames.
Perhaps casting three spells had been too much for a child’s body.
My broad field of vision slowly began closing in as darkness swallowed it.
The status effect ‘Unconsciousness,’ caused by Mana Depletion.
At the end of the darkness, I opened my eyes.
‘Something about this doesn’t add up….’
Obviously, the fact that a child who appeared to be Allen had been casting magic was strange enough.
But there was something even stranger.
The schools of magic he had used.
‘A bug?’
Mages were people born with exceptional talent.
As a rule, they possessed an affinity for one of the eleven schools of magic.
On rare occasions, however, someone appeared with talent in two different schools.
Such people were called ‘once-in-a-decade geniuses.’
I recalled the schools of magic I had used in those memories.
‘Inferno, Windstorm, and Support.’
Then what about someone talented in three different schools?
Someone with that level of talent, rare enough to appear perhaps once in a century, was said to have ‘the makings of an Archmage.’
In fact, every great figure in history who had become an Archmage had possessed talent in three schools.
‘Then….’
What would you call someone talented in every school?
Hell if I knew.
No such character had ever existed.
‘This is unsettling.’
Allen Kalsburg.
After testing his talents, I discovered that this bastard possessed an affinity for all eleven schools.
It was unbelievable.
I could not understand it.
It felt like encountering some grotesque bug in the game.
In the game’s online community, Allen’s nickname had been ‘Sunfish.’
It meant he died at the slightest opportunity, anytime and anywhere.
How had someone with this kind of talent managed to die so often?
‘What’s the reason?’
I did not know.
That was exactly what bothered me.
It felt as though I possessed an unimaginably powerful weapon that I could not fully control.
“Ha….”
Fine.
Think positively.
Whatever the reason, this was an extremely welcome miscalculation.
I was a veteran who had spent three full years dissecting this game.
Talent for every school of magic.
If I was the one who possessed that kind of talent, I could put it to spectacular use.
There was something I always used to say while playing Deep Dungeon.
[The classes in this game have their own tiers. Generally speaking, Shamans are Tier 1, Warriors are Tier 2, Archers and Assassins are Tier 3, and so on.]
Of course, the tiers could change depending on the floor and party composition.
Every ten floors of the labyrinth required completely different abilities, and synergy between classes could not be ignored.
Even so, one thing never changed.
[The lowest tier? Obviously, Mages.]
The defining characteristic of a Mage was that they were snake-headed and dragon-tailed.
They began as something as pathetic as a snake, only to soar like a magnificent dragon by the end.
Simply put, they became more powerful the longer they had to grow.
‘The problem is that you never get to see that end.’
Mages were notoriously difficult to play in the early game.
There were three primary reasons.
The first was their deep but narrow specialization.
Because a Mage generally specialized in a single school, surviving in the labyrinth was difficult.
For example, Mages of the Deluge School, which manipulated water, were called ‘Drowned Ghosts’ on the lower floors.
They were so useless there that not casting magic was often more helpful than casting it.
The second was their inefficient mana consumption.
Magic consumed one and a half times as much mana as a Skill.
It did receive a power adjustment to compensate, but on the lower floors, the difference was barely noticeable.
The third was their long casting time.
Even a basic spell took more than twenty seconds to incant.
Unless you joined the Mage Tower or purchased a grimoire, you would not even have the opportunity to study shortened incantations.
For an ordinary Mage, surviving in the labyrinth was anything but easy.
It was a place where life and death could be decided in less than a second.
‘That’s why I never played a Mage.’
Of course, Mages did not have only disadvantages.
Battle Mages of the Mage Tower who had mastered Incantation Shortening to its utmost limits were treated extremely well.
Those known as ‘Executioners’ received especially favorable treatment.
And Mage Tower Masters, often regarded as prospective Archmages, sometimes enjoyed a status comparable to that of the king of a small nation.
Still, those three early-game weaknesses were all potentially fatal.
If I had been born as an ordinary Mage, I would have given up on entering the labyrinth from the start.
But apparently, the gods had not abandoned me completely.
‘The first problem is already solved.’
Since I had talent in every school, it did not apply to me in the first place.
With access to all eleven schools of magic, I could adapt to a wider variety of environments than most adventurers.
‘The second can be overcome.’
Mana-Enhancing Elixirs were incredibly rare, so there were hardly any on the market, but I knew several places where I could obtain them.
Well, I would have to reach the second floor first.
‘As for the third….’
That was the real problem.
Reducing casting time was one of the greatest challenges every Mage struggled with.
Apparently, incantations had once taken more than a minute, so twenty seconds was already the result of considerable progress.
Fortunately, there was one solution.
Those damned bastards I suspected of bringing me here.
There was a Hidden Piece obtainable from ‘El’ and ‘Om.’
If I could get my hands on it, I would be able to reduce my incantation time dramatically.
‘No one’s already taken it, right?’
I suddenly felt anxious.
It was like knowing I had a winning lottery ticket hidden somewhere in the middle of a crowded city.
‘I need to enter the labyrinth as soon as possible.’
The plan came together quickly in my head.
My brain automatically organized everything I would need.
And among those things, the most important and hardest to obtain was—
“Money….”
I needed money.
A lot of it.
“…Good.”
An idea suddenly struck me.
The position of heir to the Kalsburg family.
To me, it was worth about as much as a scrap of paper.
But the value of something depended entirely on the person.
And there was no doubt....
‘I’m certain.’
Gilbert and his mother, Hilda Kalsburg.
To them, it would be worth a fortune.