Chapter 3: Birth of a Great Disciple

Translator: Lei

Proofreader: Masadeer (Japtem) & Lei

Squeeaal! SQUEAAAAAAL!

“Mommy!”

Thu-thu-thu-thu-thump!

The saying ‘Always be modest’ applied to times like this.

Buoyed by Master’s honeyed praise that no one in the history of magic had risen to the 2nd Circle so quickly, I went into the next trial with my head held high. However, upon experiencing the bitter hell that began after I was dropped off in a rather dense forest, I started crying. As my tears flowed, I realized the truth of the old saying.

There weren’t any rabbits I could catch with magic here. Time passed and my hunger grew, leading me to an itty bitty lapse in judgment.

‘I’m fucking crazy! Graaah!’

An immense bloodlust was raging behind me. It might be a slight exaggeration, but there was a boar the size of a bull running towards me like mad, its hide slightly tinged by my Fire Ball.

Being a 2nd Circle mage was useless. I was made to feel with my entire body that circle awakenings and mana levels were not proportionate.

‘Ah, it’s not even a dagger, but a fucking club! Gaaah!’

Even as I ran like crazy, I tasted the feeling of being driven to insanity as I looked at the wooden club in my hand. Being a Taekwondo fourth-degree blackbelt or a Kumdo 3-dan was no use. With such a miserable weapon, the jet-black boar and its quivering bacon were the essence of horror.

‘I’m gonna die!’

My first ever full-course wilderness adventure was about to end with me getting hoofstomped to death by a boar. I desperately sought a way to survive.

‘I’m saved!’

Just then, perhaps by the mercy of the mountain god, a huge boulder appeared in my view.

I jumped up with all my might and flung my body on top of the boulder.

Crash!

“Geh!”

At the same time that I jumped, the boar that had almost caught up to me crashed into the boulder due to inertia.

‘A-amazing!’ An incredible vibration was rocking my feet. If I had been rammed by that boar, it would have been difficult to find a shoe in the carnage.

SQUEAL! SQUEAL! SQUEAAAAAAAL!

The valiant Mr. Boar was perfectly fine even after ramming into the rock. It glared at me with bloodshot eyes as I shivered all over atop the rock. I was definitely a meal in its eyes, just like how I had thought of it as meat.

‘Isn’t this too much? What kind of 2nd Circle magic is this?’

There were three parts to magic: mana, will, and manifestation. Having trained all three parts perfectly for the 2nd Circle spell Fire Ball, I realized that something was wrong. Master said that 2nd Circle magic was the beginning of a so-called mage’s training. But my perfectly cast Fire Ball wasn’t strong enough to blacken the boar’s sturdy hide and bristles.

‘For my current 2nd Circle mana level, even if I couldn’t kill it, my spell should have made that pig uncomfortable for at least 8 weeks. But it got off with 2nd degree burns… Argh! What in the world is Master hiding from me?! Gaaah!’

The answer was clear.

That short-term magic circle that used Chinese-made crystals was definitely showing its limitations—I started my mage journey with an insufficient foundation.

Flop. SQUEAL! SQUEAL!

‘T-This little fucker!' While I was briefly lost in thought, the boar flopped onto its belly next to the 2 meter boulder, still radiating the fervent intent to gnaw and chomp on my bones.

‘I have to find a way! A way!’

After a month of harsh training, all that was left of me were muscles and bones. My state of nutrition couldn’t even be compared to the boar’s stored fat reserves. I had an ominous premonition that I would go crazy from hunger in a day and fling myself at the boar.

‘Wait, now that I think of it…’

Before dropping me off here, Master casually mentioned that there was nothing you could do about the size of your mana core. It was limited to what you were destined to have.

‘I might have reached the 2nd Circle, but I still don’t have enough mana. Plus, I’m simultaneously accumulating mana in the lower, middle, and upper danjeons, also known as mana cores, so it’s only natural that my mana quantity is low af.’

Also, Master said I ascended to the 2nd Circle, but he didn’t tell me exactly how much mana you were supposed to have at the 2nd Circle.

‘That evil, pathetic, petty, sicko, old fart Bumdalf!’

I internally spewed out a stream of curses.

‘It was called multi-chi channeling, right?’

I suddenly recalled the multi-chi channeling mantra Master carefully translated to Korean and explained to me in detail, which I then engraved into my long-term memory while trapped on a mana accumulation magic circle.

“If I can channel the diffused mana gathering in my mana core, then… that grilled pork bastard will…”

I gave one last glare at the bull-sized boar that was testing the human Kang Hyuk’s willpower. Determination flaring within me, I closed my eyes.

‘Just you wait. I’ll definitely turn you into a roast.’

My anger subsided as I sat down cross legged.

‘One became two, and it was called yin and yang. The five elements that make up the world were born of yin and yang. Each element became distinct from one another, and…’

As I recited the mantra in my head, my breathing unconsciously evened out, and each breath became infused with the energy of Mother Nature. I was mana breathing.

I filled my breaths with energy, opening the pathways Master had somehow drawn mana into.

All in order to give that boar, who reminded me of my wicked master, a one-way trip to heaven.

I, Kang Hyuk, was that kind of person. When being petty, I was incredibly petty. When being generous, my heart was greater than the Pacific Ocean. I was the biggest flip flopper, capable of being both a devil or an angel.

That was who I was.

* * *

“Huuh…”

Upon witnessing something that was difficult to believe despite seeing it with his own eyes, Aidal forgot he was under an invisibility spell and exclaimed out loud.

It was a very strange feeling to watch a rare genius who easily grasped multiple concepts just by getting taught one thing. At one point in his life, Aidal had been known as the greatest magic genius on the Kallian Continent. He had never expected he would find a genius far more outstanding than himself in this world. Though it was true that Kang Hyuk’s murky internal energy was cleansed by a magic circle’s mana, that alone could not make the boy so outstanding.

‘He… has been a child of mana from birth.’

Aidal thought of the grand magic Mana Clear, which could only be used by a mage of the 7th Circle or greater. Recipients of the spell would be cleansed of muddied internal energy and would gain a body and mana core that could hold pure mana. As a bonus, the cleansing of the body also developed the recipient’s intellect, allowing them to live a smooth and easy road as a mage.

But no matter how important the disciple, mages did not carelessly cast this magic. The grand magic Mana Clear could not be cast using mana from nature. It was only possible to cast using the caster’s own accumulated mana, so quite a lot of mana would be lost. In the worst case scenario, the spell could even cause the caster's circles to collapse.

Aidal had used that grand magic on Kang Hyuk for a whole month as he slept.

‘If it’s you, you can do it. Don’t give up. Kang Hyuk, my disciple. There’s not much time left now.’

He thought of the Kallian Continent, which longed to return to but couldn’t. Even before meeting the ascetic monk, Aidal wandered all over the world seeking a way to return to the Kallian Continent. The Dimensional Teleport magic circle consumed an immense amount of pure mana. Therefore, he went from place to place seeking a location where pure mana gathered.

In the process, he was enlightened by a casual sentence spoken by an ascetic monk who was dying while shouldering the entire world’s suffering and begging the heavens for forgiveness.

Life and death have no boundaries. No matter where you are, nothing will change.

The Kallian Continent would never welcome him back anyway and there wasn’t anything left for him to do there, so it was actually the Earth that he had traveled by foot that felt more like home to him.

Even so, he absolutely wanted to get revenge on those who had made a fool out of him. More importantly, as a mage, it was far too regrettable to let his magic die with him. He wanted to go to the Kallian Continent and let each and every person know of the enlightenment he had gained. He would do that through his disciple, the disciple of the Golden-Eyed Reaper Aidal who had challenged the 9th Circle that no one except the dragon had been allowed in all of history.

That was why Aidal completed the Dimensional Teleport magic circle.

And using a method exclusive to him, he worked on creating a new method of dimensional travel. In the meantime, he set up an illusion barrier in the Golden Lane, which reminded him of the Kallian Continent, and fished for a disciple to do the hard work for him.

‘I wonder if that guy is doing well. That blockhead!’

In fact, Kang Hyuk wasn’t his first disciple. About 20 years ago, there was one other guy who had happened to break through the illusion barrier and meet him. But that bastard was close-minded and wicked at heart. Lusting for his master’s fortune while learning magic, the bastard tried to murder him. Aidal had wanted to burn him to death with a Fire Ball, but in the end, he was unable to kill him—the bastard fell to his knees and bashed his forehead on the ground in a kowtow while begging Aidal to spare his life. The fact that he was the first disciple Aidal had gotten on Earth made him weak, and he had only learned offensive spells up to the 3rd Circle, so he wasn’t much of a danger.

‘Kang Hyuk, you’ll be able to do it. I, your master, only learned the theory for that mana breathing technique, but you’ll definitely be able to make it happen. The merging of your mana core!’

He was old, but Aidal was a mage down to the very marrow of his bones. By researching the internal chi channeling left to him by the ascetic monk, Aidal conceived a new mana breathing technique. However, he wasn’t able to use it. Because he was already an 8th Circle mage, his mana core had stationed itself in the middle danjeon and was far more powerful than the other cores. If he forcefully tried to merge his mana cores now, the disparity in power would make all the other cores explode.

That was why the mana breathing technique Kang Hyuk was training right now was a new method that no one else had tried before.

It was the beginning of a great path that even the legendary dragon had never challenged.

* * *

‘I did it!’

My mana breathing became as comfortable as the lullabies my mom sang for me as a child. The mana breathing technique based on the multi-chi channeling passed down through the generations gave me a taste of being one with nature as I breathed. And guided by my will, the mana that had gathered in my lower, middle, and upper danjeons was merged, though only barely.

ZZZZZzzzZZzzz~

Having trapped me on top of the boulder, the boar had begun a drawn-out siege and was happily sleeping with its belly carelessly exposed.

‘Ngh! This boar looked down on a human, the lord of all animals! In the name of Kang Hyuk, I shall punish you!’

As I chanted a sentence fit for a Sailor Moon girl who liked to punish evil in the name of justice, I gathered my mana in the middle danjeon where my circles were.

“My blazing will, my friend, Mana. My rage is your rage. In my name, rain down the purification of fire!”

I focused my mind and recited the magic incantation with a low voice. Modified by the mana inside me and my will, the pure mana diffused in nature was manifested in the world.

That was how magic came to be.

The boar’s eyes flashed open. As creatures that lived surrounded by nature, animals were sensitive to natural energy. As soon as I drew the nearby mana, the piggy bastard felt something was wrong and opened its eyes, perfectly rested from its nice long rest. Thanks to this bastard, I was consigned to wrangling with mana for half a day. How pitiful I was.

“Get fried, you piece of crap pig! Fire Ball!”

Whoosh.

As soon the incantation fell from my lips, I felt the mana that had gathered in my heart vigorously thrum.

[T/N: As a reminder, the lower danjeon is in the abdomen, middle is in the heart, and upper is near the crown of the head.]

Flaaaash!

As the vibrations stopped, a huge lump of fire somehow appeared above the boar’s head.

“Wow!”

I, the caster, was more surprised than anyone. The ball of flame was huge, a good 50 centimeters (~20 inches) in diameter, so glorious it reduced the magic I had cast so far to gum on the sidewalk.

Ba-baaaaam!

Fwwwoooooshhh.

SQUEAAAAAAAAL!

Ever seen a boar get hit by lightning under a clear sky? The boar that had futilely dared to target a human as its meal was struck with divine retribution. It ran into the dark forest like a bastard struck by lightning.

Craash! SQUEAAAAAL~!

And just like that, it rammed into a huge tree, leaving the world with a last cry of death.

“Puhahahahaha! That’s right! This is how it should be!” I burst out into vigorous laughter, standing atop the boulder and looking into the sky.

The destructive power was finally befitting of 2nd Circle magic, and it was a great achievement that I won by merging the little mana I had.

I had to be a rare genius sent down from the heavens.

“Huh?”

Stagger.

But suddenly, the sky whirled and spun above me. Something burst out from my nose and trickled down.

‘D-Damn it…’

My delight was short-lived. Due to the immense fatigue that crashed into my body, I lost consciousness right then and there.

‘Ah~ my boar…’

The afterimage of the Fire Ball-roasted boar barbeque drifted to my mind, and then everything went black.

Crash!

“Tsk, tsk.”

He suspected this might happen, and it really did occur. While happily cheering atop the rock Aidal had made with the spell Stone Edge, Kang Hyuk suddenly passed out and fell two meters onto the forest floor.

It was at that moment that Aidal canceled his invisibility magic and appeared, clicking his tongue.

“You stupid rascal. Is forcefully merging mana the size of an orc’s tail something to be so happy about? Huhu. How’s your first taste of mana exhaustion?”

Kang Hyuk was now experiencing mana exhaustion, the state every mage would experience a handful of times in their life. It occurred when you used mana exceeding the amount you had. At low circles, it didn’t have that much of an effect, but in the upper circles, this condition could induce a mana collapse and kill you.

“The first time is always that harsh. Heh.”

Aidal didn’t spare his unconscious, mana exhausted, shivering disciple any friendly advice.

His eyes fell on the boar. The hapless pig was steaming as it cooked.

“Looks pretty yummy. Kuku.”

“Th-that meat!”

My body ached all over like I was knocked out by someone’s club. But even through my haze of drowsiness and pain, a fragrant smell burrowed into my nose, stimulating amylase and maltase secretion and waking me up.

That sweet and rich smell could wake the dead.

The very first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was the ceiling of the room I was living in and a large, plump piece of meat.

Om nom.

Not bothering to answer my desperate cry, the person who called himself my master munched noisily as he ripped into a hind leg.

‘That’s 100% the smell of pork. Ah~ it’s the charcoal grilled pork that I had long ago.’

The fact that my nose couldn’t be deceived when even a dog’s could was a well-known fact amongst the members of my household. With my hunting dog-level sense of smell, I was able to precisely identify the type of meat.

‘The saying that the disciple reaps and the master sows fits this situation perfectly.’

The great magical achievement I had risked my life to produce was being eaten all alone by Master Bumdalf. The shameless knave was monopolizing and abusing the meat I caught without my permission.

“M-Master, does that meat happen to be the meat I think it is?”

“Munch! Oh? Nomnom! Who knows? Perhaps because the gods knew my body lacked vigor these days, a boar roast was presented before me, can you believe it? I was moved to tears, just like when I was fifteen and saw the panties of the female mage I liked.”

Even when making a comparison, Master Bumdalf used vulgar analogies that seriously lowered a person’s value. True to his name, Bumdalf, he was at the height of indecency.

“Did that boar not have any traces of having been hit by a Fire Ball, by any chance?”

“A Fire Ball? I dunno about such a thing. I just know that when I stumbled upon it, it was roasted to perfection. Kyaa! I’ve never seen such a tasty fellow! How can the meat be this tender? It’s killer with sorghum wine, absolutely killer.”

Driiiip. Without realizing it, saliva dripped from my mouth.

By my estimation, I had starved for at least one day. No matter what, I had to claim ownership of this boar meat and overcome this crisis.

“Master, it is presumptuous of me to say so, but that boar meat is certainly the one I caught with my Fire Ball. Please stop eating now and cede it to your disciple. This humble one is telling you now that this is the best way to prevent the relationship between a master and his disciple from souring,” I said, claiming what was mine with respectful words strewn in my entreaty.

“Got any proof? Really, and you say you made a Fire Ball? You’re saying some funny things. Don’t say such things that would make an orc kick you in the side with its short legs and just politely beg for a piece if you’re hungry. A man shouldn’t lie in front of such good food.”

As expected, I was strongly refuted by my master.

How much must he have eaten while I was asleep for that huge boar to be reduced to the size of a dog?!

‘I know you did it! You unscrupulous old fart!’

“Then, if your disciple makes a Fire Ball, then will you believe that my words are the truth?”

“Fire Ball? Alright, if you make a Fire Ball, I’ll believe you.”

‘Kuhahaha! I’ll show you. The magic skill of this genius!’

I was hungry and exhausted, but driven by the hope of eating meat, I jumped to my feet.

“My blazing will, my friend, Mana, my rage is your rage. In my name, rain down the purification of fire!”

I concentrated my will drop by drop and roused my mana.

‘Huh? Ah!’

But contrary to my intent, my mana didn’t move.

Bam!

“Ow!”

Instead, it was my master’s fist that crashed down on my head like a boulder.

“Yeesh, you lying bastard. For a person from the courteous country of the East to try and deceive his master because of some meat, how sad. Eat up. It’s the meat you wanted.”

When he finished talking, a hind leg that clearly had Master’s teeth marks in it appeared before my eyes.

‘Giving such ragged meat to me, a panther dominating Mt. Kilimanjaro, argh! No matter how hungry I am, I won’t stoop to his level…!’

“Thank you for the meal.”

Contrary to my thoughts, my hands had somehow rapidly moved to receive the meat, and an emotional smile appeared on my lips.

“That’s right, that’s how you should be. In the future, keep living kindly without telling lies. Being hungry isn’t a sin.”

“Master’s words, I shall definitely engrave deep within my heart.”

After laying down some stern discipline, Master turned around and left the room.

‘Argh, how can I live my life without having to eat bread soaked in tears? One day, I’ll get back at him! He’s frickin’ arm in arm with the devil!’

My desire to win blazed furiously. On this foreign land far from home, I was able to experience with my whole body the pain of those who lacked both power and support.

Munch.

And then, I dug into the scrap of boar meat that Master Bumdalf had left uneaten.

‘Yummy!’

I held back my surging tears as I enjoyed the delightful taste of boar. It was so delicious that I thought I heard a chorus of angels.

Nom nom.

‘Is there any alcohol left?’

I quickly scraped together justifications for stooping so low. Meat was meat, and servility was servility—that was all.

* * *

“Y-You’re sending me off?” I asked dumbly to confirm Master’s unbelievable words.

“That’s right. You’re not progressing at all, and teaching a blockhead like you is rough for these old bones.”

‘Should I believe this? Is he gonna tell me he’s helping me and then get me employed on a deep-sea fishing ship or something?’

A life that you lived while believing in others was beautiful, but since he had scammed me so many times, doubt came before belief.

“Ngh! Master, thank you. Actually, I did not tell you, but I was born into this world with the tremendously important responsibility of carrying on the family line as the eldest son of the Kang family’s 45th generation. Though I don’t care what happens to me, the anxiety my parents, grandpa, and other elders of the family will feel concerning the continuation of the family line upon losing me will be considerable. If Master could possibly send me home, my bones shall become dust and that dust will fly off to all parts of the world—such will be the extent of my everlasting gratitude to you.”

I would be the world’s greatest fool if I missed this chance. As I had already experienced, Master Bumdalf was fickle and his mind could change on a dime. This was no time to be worrying about pride or anything like that. I just wanted to return to the embrace of Korea, the home I longed for.

“Why does it feel like you’re implying that I imprisoned you while repressing, exploiting, and coercing you? Surely you’re not resenting me even after fairly receiving a custom-made present?”

This was dangerous. If I soured this sicko master’s feelings, I’d be risking getting dropped off on an uninhabited island.

The situation became urgent.

“In the East, there’s a famous saying that one’s master is no different from a parent. Although that wasn’t so at first, having formed a master and disciple relationship with you, I hold dear feelings toward Master, who showed me the kindness of a parent. This humble human, Kang Hyuk, is not one so shameless as to not know his master’s grace.”

I even pulled out dramatic words that were so far from my true thoughts that they made my insides bleed all over.

“Of course that’s how it should be. The heavens and earth know how hard I worked for your sake.”

This was the very essence of fraud, far surpassing my acting! It was amazing he could lower the sacred names of the heavens and earth to the level of a third-rate villain.

“Since there’s no knowing when we’ll meet again after parting, your master has prepared a few presents just for you.”

‘Huh? P-Presents?’

Before, I would have jumped to receive them, but because I had a very bad memory about presents, my face hardened like a Moai statue.

“What, you don’t want them?” Master Bumdalf frowned.

“O-Of course I do, how could I not? Only, this disciple of yours has done nothing to deserve presents, so always being on the receiving end pricks my conscience. Master, can’t we just pretend that I received them?”

Never in my life had I, Kang Hyuk, lived while trembling in fear with such servility. When I was in preschool, resentful of my parents’ disciplining methods, I fearlessly ran away from home for 5 days and 4 nights with just two Choco Pies and one liter of milk.

That Kang Hyuk became impossibly smaller before Bumdalf. And especially because I had learned magic, I knew very well the weight of the 8th Circle.

“Huhu, there’s no need to refuse. All you have to do is receive your master’s warm feelings.”

I really wanted to refuse those honeyed feelings! Goosebumps rose all over my arms as I clenched my eyes shut.

“Follow me, my one and only disciple.”

“T-To where?”

With a voice as friendly as if he were calling the next door neighbor’s dog, Master’s beckoning confirmed that my fears weren’t groundless.

“Do you want to come when I’m being nice, or…”

Fwoosh. At the end of his words, a compressed scarlet Fire Ball the size of a watermelon was terrifyingly manifested by his will alone.

“Let us be off, then. This humble disciple has been trembling in anticipation of the present infused with Master’s sincere feelings from the very beginning.”

Since I was sure he wouldn’t kill me anyway, I bit the bullet and braced for impact.

In such a situation, I knew I would only get hit if I resisted. If I was going to die, then it was probably a wiser choice to die without getting hit.

* * *

‘Geh! W-What is this?’

I followed Master to the lowest floor of the magic tower, clenching my eyes shut like I was getting led to the slaughterhouse. The magic tower had its own generator and was fitted with cutting-edge technology, including an elevator. I followed Master, and a huge door opened at Master’s command.

Upon going through, my eyes were assailed by the sight of a disorientingly huge magic circle, and my jaw dropped.

‘So many runes and figures I don’t know. What in the world is this magic circle?’

Since I wasn’t an upper circle mage yet, there wasn’t much knowledge I needed to know for magic. For whatever reason, my mind had become sharper after coming here. My IQ had already exceeded 150 before, but it felt like my brain had gained even more lucid processing power.

“Well then, what do you think? About this present of mine?”

“Huh? P-Present?” I repeated dumbly, staring at the magic circle he was proudly calling a present.

“You dumbass. If another mage saw this, they’d be happy enough to lift me to the skies. Tsk tsk, I even have to hand feed you the meal that I prepared… Goodness gracious.” Master Bumdalf gave me a look of utter scorn.

‘Whaddya want me to do about it?’ The magic knowledge I possessed was incredibly humble. It was like trying to get an elementary student who had just learned arithmetic to figure out differentials and integrals.

“Why’re you dallying about instead of going to the center and sitting down?”

“Huh? T-The center?”

In front of me was a 20 meter wide magic circle that shimmered with a golden light in addition to all seven colors of the rainbow. Master was telling me to go sit in the center of such a circle.

‘N-No way, it can’t be…?’

Since I was still a layman when it came to magic circles, I thought that maybe the magic circle in front of my eyes right now was a Dimensional Teleport circle.

Bam!

“You idiot! If I sent you off now through dimensional travel, you would come out as orc poop the very next day after your arrival!”

‘Orc poop…’ Along with dog poop, orc dung happened to be the most vulgar of the many varieties of poop. ‘Hmph! Were you an 8th Circle Mage as soon as you were born?’

Master was quick-witted, but I recently found out that he wasn’t a mind-reader. Even a worm could become a mythical creature, though maybe not to the level of a dragon, if it lived for a good two hundred years. It was nothing strange for a person to be able to tell what others were thinking after living for two centuries, so I went ahead and spoke my mind sometimes.

“Do you think you are strong?”

“Huh? I am not strong, but I have enough strength to protect myself.”

It wasn’t a lie. If it wasn’t Master, then no matter where I went, I was confident that I could live without being trampled on.

“Is that so? Do you think you can win if you fight an elite troop armed with well-maintained weapons?”

“W-what?”

“Are you confident you can take a single blow from a knight using Aura Blade?”

‘What is he talking about?’

“…”

“Think you can preserve your life while fighting a horde of orc warriors with twice the physical prowess of a robust man?”

Master Bumdalf was wearing a cold smile that was unusual for him.

“B-But aren’t those enemies that don’t exist in this world?”

It would honestly be difficult to easily win against the opponents Master mentioned. In particular, a knight who used aura, a specialized utilization of mana, was far stronger than the current me.

“Then can you block a bullet?”

“What? A-A bullet?”

I had absolutely no clue what he wanted to say. I mean, besides Superman, no one in the world was capable of blocking a bullet with their bare body.

“I can deflect not only bullets, but large cannonballs as well.”

‘Dayum, he’s really an old fart Super Bumdalf.’ From the way he said it, I could tell that it definitely wasn’t a lie.

“Just believe in me. As long as it’s not a dragon, I’ll make it so that everyone else will call you their elder brother.”

‘Elder brother? I’m not even a gangster or anything… sigh.’

My master’s earnest wish was to get me employed as a gangster. There was no way to rebuff such a stubborn old man.

“By all means, do as you wish.”

Until I was out of here, there was no freedom for me. This was the first time in my life that I longed so much for my country, South Korea, the republic of the free.

‘I’m coming, Mom.’

No matter how I thought about it, Master’s magic circle was tremendously dangerous. Master was an immensely intelligent being who had lived for over two hundred years, but the way he acted wasn’t much different from the preschool kids in my neighborhood. And I was the pitiful loser who was getting bullied and robbed of my lunch money by such a preschooler’s violence.

“Um, Master…”

Before I positioned myself in the middle of the magic circle, I earnestly called my master.

“What?”

Master was picking his nose with zero empathy for my feelings of getting dragged to the slaughterhouse. He apathetically answered without even dislodging his finger.

“Th-This one doesn’t use Chinese-made crystals, right?”

I was talking about the same Made-In-China crystals that made me seriously doubt the magic circle’s reliability last time.

“Hyuk, let me ask you one thing.”

“Yes?”

Master suddenly asked a question.

“Do you think it’s possible to live without Chinese-made goods these days?”

“…”

There was nothing more for me to say. I went to the middle of the magic circle and sighed deeply as I sat down cross legged.

‘Okay, there are nice Chinese-made goods out there too.”

I tried comforting myself.

But the problem was, those nice goods only appeared by random chance with the same probability of finding a pearl while eating an oyster.

* * *

‘I thought it would take half a year, but he’s an amazing kid.’

The totally dejected Kang Hyuk sat on top of the magic circle and assumed the mana channeling position. As he looked at Hyuk, Aidal the Archmage was unable to repress his awe.

Actually, even among the genius mages in the Kallian Continent, it normally took them at least half a year to condense mana and barely reach the 1st Circle. If magic was as easy to learn as the sword, then mages and even dogs and cows would gain the title of Archmage. Working that hard was normal in magic.

But surprisingly enough, in slightly less than two months, Aidal’s new disciple Kang Hyuk reached the 2nd Circle, and he did so by merging a knight’s mana core, the lower danjeon, a mage’s mana core, the middle danjeon, and a summoner’s mana core, the upper danjeon.

‘I have to send him when he’s risen to the 3rd Circle and the fusion of his mana has naturally occurred. But there’s no time. If this mana is held back any longer, it will explode.’

Aidal gazed regretfully at his disciple, who knew nothing and was channeling. Unlike in the Kallian Continent, Aidal was unable to find materials for producing high-quality crystals. The result was that the mana held in the Dimensional Teleport magic circle was unable to stabilize and was activating prior to his calculations. As per the Law of Mana Restoration, the instinct of powerful mana was to return to its original state.

‘Everything is up to your luck now. I can only pray that the Great God Adeine’s blessing is upon you.’

Though it wasn’t as dangerous as the Dimensional Teleport magic circle, this Forced Knowledge Transferral magic circle was also very dangerous. Though Hyuk’s body had been cleansed through the grand magic Mana Clear, getting to the 2nd Circle was the limit for generating circles by forcefully injecting mana. From the 3rd Circle onwards, he would have to gain circles through enlightenments without anyone else’s help.

That was why people called magic a study for wise men.

‘I will pass on all the magic theories I have comprehended in these past two hundred years to you. After I do so, it’s all up to you. Your life will change by as much as you are able to comprehend.’

Once Kang Hyuk was completely absorbed in mana breathing, Aidal opened a side door. The door opened to show a magic circle 3 meters in diameter.

It was the core magic circle that could impart all the magic knowledge inside Aidal’s head using magic.

‘Awaken, my disciple! And let the whole world know of Aidal’s great disciple!’

The wall of the 9th Circle, which he had not been able to overcome…

Aidal wished. He wished for his one and only disciple to become a great archmage who would surpass him.

“Magic Inheritance!” A clear magic incantation burst from Aidal’s mouth as he closed his eyes.

Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

Countless mana particles slowly poured from the magic circle. Each particle possessing a color of its own, the mana swirled into a whirlpool.

The mana at the magic circle that Kang Hyuk was sitting on also began to dance, filled with Aidal’s earnest wish for Hyuk to become a great archmage.