Training Addict Magician in a Growth-Focused Story

Training Addict Magician in a Growth-Focused Story

EP.23 Regular Exchange Festival (5)

When Leon retrieved the wooden sword, blood gushed out from the man’s pierced chest. Leon briefly examined the retrieved wooden sword.

‘Was it because the opponent was careless…?’

Or was it simply because the demon sword was powerful? Due to its ability to disrupt spells? Or was it the influence of the magic that poured out mana?

Numerous possibilities came to mind. However, considering Leon’s mana was not yet that extraordinary, he did not think it was simply because his mana was powerful.

Wiping the cold sweat that trickled down from tension, Leon meticulously scanned the surroundings with a detection spell before carrying the man’s corpse into the orb.

Kito was not around. After confirming that she could fly normally, he had instructed her to explore the vast space inside the orb.

Leon grabbed the silver disc and went back outside. He quickly erased the blood-stained floor with water magic.

‘The floor that was dented when I was first attacked and the wall the man collided with…’

Leon summoned the Earth Elemental, a four-star magic memorized in Arpina.

“Eosuite.”

A round, smooth-looking brown head emerged from the ground. Although the earth magic that could be linked with Eosuite included spells that could make the ground collapse instantly or throw boulders, Leon used it appropriately to fill the dented floor and wall.

‘It can’t be made completely natural…’

He decided to be satisfied with causing enough confusion to hinder accurate judgment. A loud noise had been made, so he did not know when a wizard might appear.

Leon swiftly left the place after using the mana trace remover. Having returned without even thinking of selling the items he had, Leon was experimenting with the power of the “Moonlight Scattering Sword” inside the orb.

Leon poured all his mana into the wooden sword floating in the air.

“Pierce.”

The wooden sword flashed and, in the blink of an eye, flew towards a thick tree far away from Leon, piercing through it. The wooden sword did not stop there and continued to fly at an undiminished speed.

Crash- Crash- Crash-

Several trees fell in succession. The wooden sword flew to a spot where it was difficult for Leon to retrieve it with basic telekinesis and disappeared.

“Huff… Huff…”

Leon wiped the sweat off, breathing heavily from the sudden exhaustion of mana.

‘It’s true that it gets stronger the more mana I pour into it.’

It was also true that it was difficult for Leon to handle, but that was because he had poured all his mana into it.

‘To think that magic gets stronger just by the amount of mana…’

With his current low mana quality, Leon had found a way to strengthen his magic through the quantity of mana. Confident in his mana quantity, Leon welcomed this discovery.

Leon sat cross-legged and regulated his breathing. As the clear mana circulated through his body, his mind became somewhat calm. The mana inside the orb always made Leon feel good. After becoming an all-attribute user, his affinity with mana had increased, making that feeling even stronger. It was undeniable that this had become the driving force behind his consistent training.

After regulating his breathing to some extent, Leon personally retrieved the wooden sword and placed it in his subspace pocket.

‘Now it’s time to take a look…’

Leon approached the man’s corpse. There were two subspace pockets that came out of his possession.

One of the subspace pockets contained only mana stones. Even with a rough glance, there were over a thousand mana stones. Leon set aside the mana stone pocket and emptied the contents of the other subspace pocket onto the floor.

The first thing that caught his eye was a black magic book. The title read ‘Acrifa Series: Brand of the Void.’

Leon took out a book titled ‘Call of the Abyss’ from the makeshift magic book storage. It was a black magic book he had obtained after killing Forn. The Brand of the Void was a high-level magic that could be used by a sorcery magician, but it did not seem to be particularly linked with the Call of the Abyss. The Call of the Abyss was a lower-tier magic that even apprentice magicians could learn.

‘On the other hand, the Brand of the Void…’

Leon frowned deeply at a certain point.

‘These guys are truly insane…’

The Brand of the Void was a magic that fundamentally required a magician’s core to use. It referred not to the user’s own core, but to another magician’s core. Since the core was not a physical entity, it was natural for it to disappear along with the magician upon death. Forcibly extracting and compacting it created the black slime that Leon found unsettling.

A magician was an entity capable of influencing reality with sheer willpower. The slime, made by combining the cores of such magicians, exuded a sinister aura as if it contained lingering spirits. Moreover, there was an artifact that could temporarily store these forcibly extracted cores…

Leon picked up the purple crystal lying next to the magic book. It was small enough to be held between his index finger and thumb. Seven gray stripes wriggled on the purple surface of the crystal as if they were alive.

The cores of magicians were stored in this crystal and then compacted according to the Brand of the Void magic. The more cores compacted, the more powerful the summoned slime would be.

‘What a repulsive magic.’

Leon set the book and crystal aside and picked up a token. It was similar to the token he had but had more intricate patterns engraved on it. Using an appraisal spell, he found that it was an artifact capable of forming a D-grade barrier. Since Forn’s token was E-grade, this one was a level higher.

A D-grade barrier was effective even against entry-level sorcery magic. The token had no signs of previous use, so it could likely be used up to five times.

‘So he was indeed careless…’

The fact that he did not use such an artifact meant he believed he could easily block the wooden sword with magic alone.

‘Well, if I saw an ordinary wooden sword flying at me, I’d probably scoff and try to block it too.’

Although the demon sword had a deceptive ability to disrupt a magician’s spellcasting, it was actually vulnerable to artifacts that only required mana infusion.

Leon pondered for a moment, staring at the token. The man had seemed to recognize something upon seeing Leon’s token on the ground.

‘Could it be some kind of insignia that allows black magicians of the same affiliation to recognize each other?’

Using the D-grade token without caution felt troubling. It was unclear whether the man had tracked Leon through a tracking spell on the token or had started pursuing him because Forn’s weekly research logs had stopped arriving.

Appraisal magic could not determine if a tracking spell was present.

‘Let’s keep it inside the orb for now.’

Even if there was a tracking spell, it was hard to believe it would work within the orb’s space. The same went for the red orb next to the token. It was a communication orb, and Leon planned to store it inside the orb and then throw it overboard when he sailed back.

The next item that caught his eye was a potion bottle filled with a dark navy liquid. Upon appraisal, it was revealed that the liquid had the effect of restoring damaged terrain or buildings to their original state when sprayed.

‘No wonder he launched a surprise attack in the middle of a magic city.’

Leon felt a belated sense of regret as he thought about the place he had hastily cleaned up and left.

‘It’s not like I can go back now.’

The last remaining items were five E-grade elixirs. Since E-grade elixirs would be ineffective at the sorcery level, it seemed he had saved them after reaching that level without consuming them.

Leon set aside the other items and once again focused on the black magic book and the purple crystal, deep in thought.

The Acrifa Series: Brand of the Void.

Aside from the magic that compacts a magician’s core, the shadow assimilation spell, which was simply a movement spell, seemed useful. However, that was not the reason for Leon’s hesitation.

The real reason Leon felt an extreme sense of crisis upon encountering a sorcery-level black magician was different. To learn black magic quickly, one needed the dark attribute. Alongside the light attribute, the dark attribute was considered the most exceptional talent, excluding all-attribute users. This was because it could not be substituted.

The reason for this dated back to the primordial times when gods and demons waged war. After the war of the gods ended, magic, which was considered a byproduct of the gods, remained and was systematically established by ancient magicians. This magical system continued to the present day.

According to this system, one’s level rose quickly when learning attribute magic that matched their attribute. Naturally, to reach the sorcery level at a young age, one needed the dark attribute.

However, what Leon discovered while examining the Brand of the Void was that even those without talent could rapidly advance their level. A new core was created around the heart. This core was different from the naturally formed core at the solar plexus. It was an artificial core made by sacrificing one’s own heart.

‘Of course, this would also require a certain level of talent.’

There were undoubtedly side effects to this method, but they were not detailed in the magic book. The book assumed that the reader had already learned this forbidden technique and continued with the content.

‘There was a reason why magicians persecuted this…’

The term “forbidden technique” was fitting.

Leon’s gaze returned to the purple crystal. The seven small gray stripes wriggled as if they were alive. Could they be the cores of seven apprentice magicians? Although it was unlikely that actual souls were trapped inside, Leon had no use for it and felt uneasy keeping it.

Should he break the crystal?

Leon pondered for a moment before picking up the black magic book. It seemed possible to modify the magic that compacts another magician’s core to instead release what was inside the purple crystal.

‘Is this too superstitious?’

The Brand of the Void was a magic designed to be used with an artificial core created in the heart, but this did not apply to Leon. He had the talent for the dark attribute, so there was no need to create such an artificial core.

‘This isn’t something to deal with right now.’

Leon emptied the contents of his original subspace pocket as well. He needed to decide what items to keep in the subspace pocket for immediate use. In other words, he was setting priorities.

However, Leon’s plan did not go as he had intended. As soon as he took out the wooden sword from the original subspace pocket, it began to tremble. Then, the purple crystal also started vibrating, and something was sucked out of the crystal and absorbed by the wooden sword.

“No, stop…”

It happened before Leon could take any action.