NOVEL NEXT Chapter 50
“Have you already read it all?”
I looked down at the paper in my hand. Thanks to all the security and preservation magics I laid upon it, it was tougher than steel.
It could withstand even being stepped on by a turtle, and surely, it would remain like this for a hundred years.
I gently brushed the edge of the paper. It didn’t feel like I had read it for long, yet here I was, back at the end.
I wondered how much time had passed. Feeling my curiosity, the mirror bug floated up to tell me it was 4 o’clock.
This thorough read took two hours. Just to read this single piece of paper. If I tried to hurry, I could finish it in under ten minutes, probably.
But as soon as I caught sight of the text, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from a single letter. This was the fastest I had ever read.
I recalled the first time I read it. It was two weeks ago, on the way back from Professor Heisen’s tower. Curiosity led me to unfold this paper, and before I knew it, I was here. Almost two days had vanished.
I closed my eyes and slowly reminisced over what was written on the paper. Once again, I was taken aback.
Although I had already read it thirty times, there were still plenty of things within that I hadn’t noticed before.
How could so much be packed into just one piece of paper? It was simply unbelievable.
Opening my eyes quietly, I still felt the aftertaste of the words linger.
Before this realization faded, I decided to read the text again. And so I started reading from the first line once more. Time vanished in an instant, and the tree in my chest embraced new knowledge and continued to grow.
What a beautiful piece of writing it was.
Reading, reflecting, and realizing. That process repeated itself countless times. And at the end of it, I finally began to understand most of it.
A strong power surged through my entire body. I opened and closed my hand, feeling the powerful roots that had never existed before.
The roots spread throughout my being, half merged with the shadow. It felt as if the essence and the illusion coexisted, intertwining not only my flesh but also my soul and spirit with those roots.
I surveyed within my chest. There stood a gigantic tree. The previous unsightly form was nowhere to be found.
All this time, weaving countless realizations, the tree had filled itself up. Not only had it regained its former appearance, but it had also grown even larger.
Finally, it could stand tall on the vastly expanded foundation I had attained.
Below that tree, a gentle shadow spread out. The shadow tree had deepened, broadened, and become cozier. It sank into the foundation, shimmering with the stars contained within.
The presence of the two together resembled a tree sprouting from the night sky. This was the image I had dreamed of and what my tree desired.
But I still couldn’t be satisfied.
This text unveiled three shortcomings in me.
I lacked magical power, my knowledge was shallow, and my will was weak.
Professor Heisen had written a simple technique within it. It was called the shadow root.
The technique I had previously used was the one Ojo had taught me. The Nutrient Accumulation Technique, something every mage knew about.
In fact, it wasn’t even a technique suitable for a seedling. I had learned it at the sprouting stage, after all.
Yet, I had only gathered magic power with that. I simply couldn’t obtain a more useful technique.
Outside the university, I hadn’t even seen what a technique looked like. How could a wandering mage behold a technique?
Techniques were treasures honed over long ages, and there was no way to acquire them with mere gold.
Thus, wanderers, no matter how high their level, maintained their breath with poor techniques. I was one of them.
At the university, I could at least glimpse them. The problem was their exorbitant costs. The most basic technique exceeded ten thousand points, and as you progressed, the prices skyrocketed.
In truth, Professor Ilian had shared a few with me during that time. However, the techniques she handed over were too advanced.
They were filled with content that the me back then, and even now, couldn’t possibly comprehend. She didn’t know of the ones below them. She only collected valuable things.
To me, this technique was like a timely rain during a drought.
Through it, my tree newly took root all over, blending with the shadow. Thus, I could achieve my current state. This allowed me to partially fill the gap in magical power.
Then what is knowledge? Magic starts with knowing. If you don’t know, no matter how high your magical power, you can’t use magic.
Before meeting Professor Ilian, I knew very little. I merely studied a few magics lying around in the underground auction house, reconstructing them into usable spells. I never dared think of obtaining anything beyond that.
Professor Ilian taught me a great deal. Magic, knowledge, history, and so on. The books she threw my way contained such things. Thus, I became a somewhat capable mage.
But that was outside the university. Inside the university, I was just an utterly ordinary low-tier mage. Compared to others, my knowledge was very shallow and insignificant.
How inexperienced must the magic I created be? Within the simple flow Professor Heisen wrote regarding my ego generation magic, I discovered countless areas for improvement.
Professor Heisen had noted that if I give up knowledge, I can’t progress.
Thinking back, that was true. Since coming to the university, how much have I genuinely learned about magic? I had almost no memory of acquiring new magic.
The most recent things I’d read were a few old spellbooks tucked away on the 3rd floor library shelves. Even those, I had barely skimmed through and hadn’t truly grasped.
After coming to the university, I had been too preoccupied with day-to-day survival to remember.
And there was my weak will.
What he meant by will was directed at those creatures made of shadows, not me. This connected to the issues discussed previously.
Because my magic power was insufficient, the magic forming them was also lacking. Since my knowledge was shallow, the magic shaping them was pitiful.
And since my will was weak, the trunk of the tree at their center harbored only a feeble power. In the end, such fragile wills were all that emerged.
He wrote about the direction of nurturing that will. His experiences and trials were imbedded within.
As I endlessly chewed through the text inscribed on this paper, I realized what I lacked and how I needed to advance.
With gratitude towards Professor Heisen, I offered a silent bow to the paper.
I needed to nurture the star-like wills densely embedded in the shadow tree. The more they grew, the more my tree and inherent magic would surely perfect themselves.
If I reach that end, I might be able to see the next level. I felt that intuition arise.
Then how should I nurture them?
Now that I had learned to cook, these egos had also become somewhat familiar with cooking. As I used doll manipulation, they learned to handle dolls as well.
In this way, these egos fed on my experiences and knowledge. For that, I learned and absorbed a lot.
But this alone was insufficient. I had one body, and nurturing them all would undoubtedly take hundreds of years. The previous me had felt only helplessness towards such situations.
And Professor Heisen showed me a clear answer to this in the writing. It was something I had directly experienced throughout his lectures.
During the lectures, he shared shadows with many individuals. They grew into perfect forms resembling their masters, absorbing the experiences and knowledge of each person.
So, over the course of a thousand years, simply counting would amount to sixty thousand mages nurturing shadows. He distinguished them into pass and fail.
The shadows that failed and were reclaimed all seeped into the shadow world and became even more perfect clusters of shadows that composed that world.
The successful shadows remained by their masters’ side and grew further. And when their master died, they were said to return to the shadow world.
Having confirmed this simple structure through the text, I was greatly astounded. To think such a perfect method existed. If I couldn’t do it alone, I could just have others do it.
I, too, had to follow suit.
Then how could I achieve that? The method was paramount. Unlike Professor Heisen, I couldn’t create perfect shadows, nor could I compose a space called the shadow world.
But I quickly realized that it was an unnecessary worry. I was already achieving that to some degree. Through the dolls, no less.
Those more outstanding than me were presently in this tower nurturing shadows. The shadows inhabited the dolls and observed their masters.
And through that observation, they assumed the shapes their masters desired. Professor Ilian’s butler did, as well as Kashian’s bear doll.
The more attention their masters gave, the more they would grow. In this way, their feeble wills were gleaning knowledge and experiences from their masters, transforming into distinct forms.
Yet still, problems existed.
The changes were too subtle. A method to amplify that was needed.
I found that potential within the mirror bug.
The bulletin board — I could utilize that. If I got them to write within it, everything would surely accumulate within my shadow tree.
Even the tiniest details wouldn’t matter. If I could just contain everything possible within it, the observing egos would grow as well.