Chapter 403: 81st Floor, Advanced Magic (3) |
“Bartler’s magic was broken so easily…?”
A voice filled with shock escaped.
Taesan remained unchanged.
His breathing, complexion—nothing had changed. The attack itself was as meaningless to him as a child’s tantrum.
“…Our eyes must have been mere knots in wood.”
With a single test, they all realized. It wasn’t that Taesan lacked power—he had reached a level they couldn’t even perceive.
They were all ‘excellent magicians acknowledged by the God of Magic.’ They weren’t foolish enough to deny what had happened before their eyes.
“This is troublesome.”
After the trial ended, Elia scratched her head awkwardly as she spoke to Taesan.
“Was it you who proposed the trial?”
“Yeah. Lord Zelbando originally had another method in mind. But we insisted on this one.”
They had requested the right to test Taesan, to see if he was qualified to receive advanced magic.
Zelbando accepted their request.
“And this is how it turned out?”
Elia looked at Taesan with a bitter smile.
“You’re really strong. Far stronger than us.”
“So, is the trial over?”
Apart from the elder, the seven magicians couldn’t even reach Taesan. But Elia shook her head.
“No.”
Her eyes did not waver.
“Even if that’s the case, we are magicians. We are curious. How effective will our magic be against someone as strong as you? We have to give it our best.”
They requested time to prepare another trial for Taesan.
Taesan accepted the request.
As he passed the time reading books, two days later, Elia led him to the trial chamber.
“Alright! This time, it’s my trial!”
Her face looked exhausted, as if she had pulled an all-nighter, but her eyes shone brightly.
Before long, the other magicians arrived as well. Bartler still seemed unwell, staggering as he barely managed to take a seat.
“My trial is my magic—puppetry!”
She spread her arms wide. Two white puppets flew in and stood before Taesan and Elia.
“Rather than us fighting, we’ll control the puppets to battle! If you win, you pass! How about it?”
“But I don’t know how to use puppetry.”
“Don’t worry! I’ll teach you the basics.”
Elia approached Taesan and took his hand. The flow of mana seeped into Taesan.
Taesan read it, analyzed it, and understood.
“Normally, it wouldn’t be possible to learn this way, but since you’re much stronger than me, you should at least grasp the basics. If you focus your mana…”
“It’s done.”
[You have learned Puppetry.]
“…That was fast.”
Elia muttered, her expression sour. She had expected it to take at least an hour.
“So, how does it feel?”
“A bit awkward.”
“Right?”
Elia smirked and swung her mana.
“Then, let’s begin the trial!”
The puppets flew at each other fiercely, their movements incredibly fast and powerful.
A battle where the strength of the user didn’t matter. And Taesan, having only just learned puppetry, couldn’t control the puppet properly.
Since his overall ability was overwhelmingly high, he would soon adapt, but initially, he had a high chance of losing.
But Taesan had no intention of losing.
There was no restriction that he could only use magic.
Taesan linked his mana to the puppet and spoke.
“Work for me.”
[You have activated the Declaration of Motion.]
The puppet’s head jerked up.
Boom!
The puppet dashed forward. It was faster and more violent than Elia’s puppet.
“Wha…?”
Expecting Taesan to struggle, Elia unconsciously let out a bewildered sound.
The puppets collided, and Elia’s puppet was instantly overwhelmed.
Elia hastily controlled her puppet. It moved seamlessly, almost human-like. She was clearly a skilled puppeteer.
But that was all.
What resided in Taesan’s puppet was the Word of the Undying. Their very essence was different. In an instant, Elia’s puppet was destroyed.
“…I lost.”
She had devoted her life to creating her own magic—puppetry. Yet, it was shattered by a single word from Taesan. Her confidence crumbled.
After that, the magicians continued their trials, each utilizing their unique magic.
But none could reach Taesan.
The magician that used plants, Constria, set up a trial where he had to restrain Taesan with vines.
The plants couldn’t even touch Taesan’s skin. The trial ended in an instant.
The next magician’s test required resisting the pure condensation of mana.
Taesan simply waved his hand. The magician had gathered all his strength, amassing mana to the point of exhaustion, yet with a mere flick, all of it was erased.
“…Hah.”
The magician let out a hollow laugh.
The difference was overwhelming.
The magic they created was meaningless before Taesan.
And Taesan analyzed their magic in turn.
Their magic was incredibly diverse and unique. Depending on how he used it, it could be helpful to him.
But the more he understood, the clearer it became.
“Lord Zelbando’s magic is on another level.”
“…That hurts to hear.”
Elia made a wounded expression.
“You asked me what I thought of your magic. I simply answered.”
Their magic was indeed diverse and unique.
But that was all.
They had obsessed too much over niche aspects, weakening the power of their magic. Moreover, its versatility was severely lacking.
It wasn’t worth acquiring. Compared to the magic Taesan had learned in the labyrinth, theirs was undoubtedly inferior.
“It might be unnecessary advice, but instead of focusing on creating your own magic, it would be better to continue studying Lord Zelbando’s magic.”
They were undoubtedly strong. The fact that Elia wielded intermediate magic so naturally was proof of that.
They were at a level comparable to Shayan, who had called himself an Archmage.
Had they fought properly, they might have been able to match Taesan to some extent.
But they had forgotten their own strength.
Obsessed with creating their own magic, they had shackled themselves.
“At your current level, you can’t learn advanced magic.”
Even Shayan barely managed to wield the primordial advanced magic by utilizing the labyrinth’s system and equipment. There was no way others at his level could handle advanced magic.
“So that’s how it is.”
Elia gave a bitter smile.
She had already known deep down that all of this was meaningless.
Yet, she felt utterly stifled.
No matter how much they tried, the path to advanced magic was nowhere to be found. As a result, the seven magicians had chosen to escape by creating their own magic.
“Did Lord Zelbando know this and grant our request for that reason…?”
Elia realized.
The purpose of this trial was to show them that the magic they created was nothing more than child’s play to a true powerhouse.
She let out a groan.
“I guess we can’t be like the old man.”
It wasn’t difficult to guess whom she was referring to as ‘the old man.’
“You mean the Master of the Mage Tower here.”
“Yeah. He’s been here since the tower was built. He never studied Lord Zelbando’s magic, yet he reached this realm with his own magic. He’s the reason we started this foolish pursuit of making our own magic. Because right next to us, there was someone who had actually done it.”
A magician who reached the realm of the Undying with his own magic.
Elia smirked.
“Our magic may seem awkward and low-level to you, who learned Lord Zelbando’s magic, but the old man’s magic isn’t like that. His trial will be tough for you.”
“I’m aware.”
Taesan replied calmly.
The trials continued. Of course, they could not stop Taesan.
Time passed, and only two trials remained.
“My trial is this.”
A short, stout middle-aged man with a long beard presented a massive contraption.
“This is the culmination of my magic engineering. This machine itself is my magic. Your task is to operate it without breaking it.”
The man grinned, his face displaying confidence that Taesan wouldn’t be able to clear the trial so easily.
Taesan was undoubtedly a monster in terms of strength, but this was a matter of technology, not power. No matter how strong he was, he wouldn’t be able to pass until he understood the technology itself.
The man’s prediction wasn’t wrong. Taesan had no knowledge of the machine’s mechanics.
But the solution to how to operate and control this device was already in Taesan’s mind.
[Kang Taesan’s Authority has manifested. The King of Machinery has been activated.]
Mana naturally flowed out.
An elderly man, who had been quietly observing, suddenly stood up.
Elia, beside him, was startled.
“Old man? What’s wrong?”
The elder did not answer. He simply stared at Taesan with wide eyes.
“…How?”
A bewildered voice echoed, and the machine began to hum as it powered up.
Taesan took a step forward.
He walked through a long corridor and opened the door at the end.
Click.
A vast interior appeared.
Elegant wooden floors and walls were visible.
The space itself seemed expanded—its end was nowhere in sight.
He stomped his foot, and a strong reaction came from the floor.
“This is a space created by Lord Zelbando. No matter how much you rampage, it won’t be destroyed, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
In the center of the vast space stood an old man.
Holding a staff, dressed in a gray robe, he gazed at Taesan with sunken eyes.
“Where are the other magicians?”
“If they were here, they might get caught up in the battle. They’re watching from a separate location.”
The old man tapped his staff.
“I am Wirad. Just Wirad.”
He did not mention a school of magic. The reason was obvious.
For the one who called himself Wirad, such distinctions were meaningless.
“The rules?”
“All power except magic is sealed.”
The staff pointed at Taesan.
A powerful law bound him.
[Activated skill [Strong Blow] has been sealed.]
[Activated skill [Acceleration] has been sealed.]
[Passive skill [Rapid Decision-Making] has been sealed…]
A system window scrolled down, filling his vision.
Almost all of his abilities, except magic, were sealed.
“This is the trial of the God of Magic, Lord Zelbando. As long as you follow the trial’s rules, you cannot escape them.”
Taesan clenched and unclenched his fist.
Since even passive skills were sealed, his body felt different than usual.
“What’s next?”
“Make me step out of this circle.”
At Wirad’s feet was a magic circle large enough for one person.
“If you succeed, you pass the final trial.”
“Simple enough.”
Taesan gathered his strength.
The past seven trials had been mere amusements.
They held no real meaning or value. Lord Zelbando likely knew this as well.
Yet he had still accepted their request.
There was only one reason.
The magician before him.
This one alone was enough to serve as a true trial for advanced magic.
Wirad looked at Taesan with flickering eyes.
“You… What are you?”
“An adventurer of the labyrinth. And someone at the same level as you.”
“No. You are… fundamentally different from me.”
Wirad fell silent.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he shook his head and raised his staff.
“Regardless, I am the examiner. Pass my trial.”
Kiing—
Power surged from the staff.
It began to dominate space and rule the world itself.
“My magic is very simple. What do you see this as?”
Wirad struck the air with his staff.
A black dot appeared.
“A dot.”
“Correct. This is a dot.”
Wirad then dragged his staff horizontally.
The dot stretched into a long line.
“This is a line. A dot extended in a straight path.”
He then pulled the staff upward. The line stretched vertically.
“This is a plane. A line extended perpendicularly.”
A black plane was drawn in midair.
“Dot, line, and plane. These three are both my magic and my authority.”
Wirad’s robe fluttered.
Mana began to engulf the world.
“Come, unknown immortal. Challenge my authority.”
[Wirad’s Authority has manifested. Dimensional Definition has been activated.]
Comments 1