“Do you know why it’s so difficult for a mage to reach the next order of magic?” Roist asked.

“Because with each added order, the ecosystem of the magic circle becomes exponentially more complex.”

“You understand.”

If first-order magic was a desolate, empty field, then third-order magic was a dense jungle teeming with life. Sixth-order magic was a city, a society. While third-order magic only required managing an ecosystem that ran on the ruthless logic of survival of the fittest, sixth-order magic demanded countless elements as did human life—laws, an economy, national defense, social welfare, taxation, and so on. A delicate balance had to be struck to prevent these elements from clashing. That was the difference in difficulty.

Thankfully, modern mages like me no longer had to build our own ecosystems from scratch. The first mage and his disciples must have been extraordinarily competent, for they had established the most rational guidelines for forming such a system. We only had to follow their framework and add our own details to create a unique style. Still, even with guidelines, asking someone used to building jungles to construct a city was bound to feel like hell.

“The minimum time it takes for a fifth-order mage to master sixth-order magic is five years.”

The sight of Roist’s five raised fingers made my mind go blank.

“And that’s the standard for the mages of the Magic Tower, the gathering of the very elite. For ordinary mages, it takes thirty, even forty years, or they simply give up on the sixth-order altogether.”

“Ah…”

“Of course, you don’t need to make that face. The Tower Master is special.” Roist stared at me with the faceless void hidden inside his hood. “Why do you think the sixth-floor trial exists? One of its purposes is to ensure the new Tower Master masters sixth-order magic in the time they have.”

“Then… I’m in your hands.” There was no time to waste. I had no idea what Frost was plotting back home. I had to reach sixth-order as quickly as possible and save Hong Yul.

“Then let us begin.”

Roist and I stood facing each other.

“Are you familiar with the theory of the sixth-order?”

“Of course.” I knew it from ‘The Fundamentals of Magic’. The core of the sixth-order was the ‘splicing method’—a technique that bundled three orders into one, allowing them to be cast as quickly as second-order magic. In other words, the greatest advantages of sixth-order magic were its unparalleled casting speed and its instantaneous effect. “I’ve tried it a few times on my own, but I just couldn’t get a feel for it from the book.”

“That’s to be expected. I will teach you now.” As Roist spread his arms, countless magic circles unfurled. “Bring out your magic circles, Kim Yusin.”

* * *

Gasping, I bent over, hands on my knees. Roist, still standing with magic circles floating in the air, looked down at the base of the barrier.

“Good work. You finished just in time.”

The mountain of monsters I had destroyed had reformed in about twelve hours had become the same amount of time I’d spent under Roist’s instruction.

“Do you have a feel for the ‘splicing method,’ the foundation of the sixth-order, now?”

“Yes!”

His teaching methods were more intense than they appeared. He had laid dozens of sensory-amplification magic circles beneath my feet before having me cast a simple first-order circle. Then, without warning, he connected and spliced his own magic circles to mine.

‘Get a feel for it.’

That’s what he had said. When my magic circle was spliced with his, control of it transferred to him ninety-nine percent of the time. He made me experience that strange sense of detachment over and over again. Then, he slowly progressed to splicing second-order circles and then third-order ones. I was forced to experience the fusion of ecosystems. Only after that did Roist permit me to attempt the splicing method with my own magic circles.

‘Repeat it until you get that feeling again.’

I tried the splicing method in various ways. It was a lesson unlike any I’d had before. There was no theory, no explanation—just a command to find the feeling. It was like trying to open a lock by testing thousands of keys, one by one. Eventually, I had an inkling. I felt something similar to that sense of loss Roist had mentioned, that strange feeling of having something of mine taken away.

‘That’s the exact sensation. Get used to it.’

I repeated the process until the feeling was firmly ingrained in my body.

‘You’re trying to make the ecosystem too perfect, to interfere with every little thing. The moment two ecosystems meet and fuse, you must let them go. Don’t try to change the foreign and uncomfortable things that shift during that fusion. Observe with patience.’

After training like that for some time, I was succeeding eight times out of ten. I had finally learned the splicing method.

“Unbelievable,” Roist said. “Even accounting for the benefits of the trial, your talent is certainly exceptional.”

I lifted my head, still panting. “What kind of talent?”

“A talent for imitating and copying something that already exists.”

‘…Is that a compliment or an insult?’

“Your tenacity, in particular—refusing to let go of a feeling once you’ve grasped it—was excellent.”

“Th-thank you.”

“Come here. I will now impart the magic to you.”

I approached Roist, and he placed a hand on my forehead. As he quietly recited an incantation, a uniquely shaped magic circle appeared beneath his feet.

“What is the attribute of your specialized magic?”

“I don’t really have a specialty. Fire, ice, wind, and earth. I’m an elemental master who uses all four.”

“Oh ho, an unusual case.”

“And if there’s one more…” I met his gaze and answered, “…it’d be dark magic.”

Suddenly, Roist fell silent, as if at a loss for words. For the first time, I regretted being unable to read the expression hidden in the darkness of his hood. He removed his hand from my forehead.

“How did you come by dark magic?”

“I learned it naturally while clearing the third-floor trial.”

“The third-floor trial… When I challenged it, there was no such thing as dark magic.” His voice trembled. “The trials of the Magic Tower are modified and improved as generations pass, reflecting the will of each Tower Master. I don’t know who planted it, but their intentions are clearly malicious.”

“…Excuse me?”

Roist looked straight at me. “This is a piece of advice, as your predecessor. I recommend you seal away your dark magic.”

‘What was this all of a sudden?’ “I don’t understand. Dark magic has become an indispensable primary skill for me. It’s helped me overcome numerous crises.”

Roist staggered as he walked, then stared at the city on the opposite side. He let out a deep sigh. “Actually, my specialty is also darkness.” His voice was endlessly hollow. “Whether you use dark magic or not is your decision. But it’s best to be careful.” He gazed at the town shrouded in darkness before speaking. “What do you think of the people in this city?”

“Huh? Ah, I did think they were a bit strange.” At first, they just seemed like people who had lost the will to live, defeated by disaster and mired in despair. But the moment they saw me conjure mana, the entire city’s population rushed at me like madmen. They even licked up the magic I used for attacks, even as blood streamed from their bodies. “Since this was my first time in this world, I just figured that was how people were here and moved on.”

“Ha, of course not. They were once vibrant, ordinary people.”

“Then how did they end up like that… Don’t tell me, was it the Disaster?”

“That’s right. They were struck by the Disaster. And now, they are no longer human.”

A shiver ran down my spine. “What do you mean, not human…?”

“It would be accurate to think of them as something between the undead and monsters.”

“…My god. What kind of Disaster struck them?”

“The Disaster, Roist.” He said it calmly. “I was the one who made them that way.”

Roist continued his story in a placid tone.

The planet Ankhor de Antirs was in crisis, attacked by a great Disaster. Humanity suffered defeat after defeat. Renowned kingdoms fell in the blink of an eye, and the world collapsed like dominoes with unbelievable speed. Roist resolved to protect this city, where the Magic Tower stood, at all costs. He and the administrators of the Magic Tower joined forces to build a great barrier to protect the city, becoming the only survivors in the northern region. But he felt he had only bought a brief reprieve, and that eventually, everyone would die.

So, Roist made a second decision. He would develop a magic that could turn the non-awakened—those who couldn’t feel mana—into awakened beings. In theory, this was only possible through dark magic, a power used not by humans, but by an ancient race from the dark ages. According to texts, all members of this ancient race were mages. Roist planned to inject dark magic into human bodies to transform their physiology into that of the ancient race.

The experiment was a success. Ordinary humans were artificially awakened. They could feel mana and became a force capable of fighting monsters. Roist intended to turn the city’s entire population into mages and deal a major blow to the enemy.

However, after some time, a serious side effect was discovered. Those who became engrossed in the dark magic slowly suffered mental collapse and physical mutation. They felt a pathological craving for mana, a hunger that drove them mad. Their reason completely shattered, they soon became no different from monsters. This terrible Disaster became a virus, spreading across the world like an epidemic. It was the catalyst for the southern continent, which had been holding its own against the monster front, to be directly hit by the virus and fall.

That’s right. The one who destroyed this world was Tower Master Roist himself…

‘Which means…’

Roist hadn’t been protecting humanity here for eleven years. He had merely been guarding his own failed experiment. It was a little pitiful. The pain and guilt must have been so immense that he called himself a Disaster.

“Whether you continue to use dark magic is your decision, but keep this one thing in mind: no matter the type, dark magic will undoubtedly have side effects and risks. You should be wary of using it until you have a perfect grasp of it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Roist looked at me. “Since you’re an elemental master, I shall grant you a flame-type magic.” He placed his hand on my forehead again. The magic circle beneath him began to glow.

‘Whoooosh!’

An indescribably vast amount of knowledge and information flooded into my mind. It wasn’t as painful as when I first became the Tower Master, but the strange sensation was unavoidable. After the information transfer was complete, Roist removed his hand. I staggered and leaned against a wall.

“You have achieved a new state. In theory, you should now be able to use the sixth-order magic, Flame Tauros. The rest is up to you.”

“Ooh…” It seemed he had slammed the magic directly into my head, just like how I could use Water Veil with Anton’s necklace. “B-but… if you were going to do this, was there any need for all that training?”

“Grasping the feeling requires training. It’s something that knowledge in your head cannot provide.”

“Ah, I see.” In addition to the sixth-order flame magic, a few peculiar magic theories had also entered my mind. I wasn’t sure what they were yet. In any case, I had cleared the trial and received new magic. All my business in this world was now finished.

“Huh?”

My body began to blur. Just as I’d read in Anton’s diary, I was slowly disappearing from this world.

“It seems you’re going now.” Roist looked at me, clutching his chest. He looked uncomfortable. “The most important thing I want to tell you is… just because you’re the Tower Master doesn’t mean you have to bear everything alone. That is arrogance. If you indulge in excessive arrogance, a situation like mine might occur in your world as well.”

“Right.”

“…But well.”

Suddenly, a chilling sensation crept down my neck.

“If you insist on doing it, it can’t be helped.” From within the darkness of the hood, crazed, red eye sockets flashed. He snapped his fingers. I felt a switch flip in my head as a stream of dark magic spells unfurled before my mind’s eye.

“You…!”

Among them was ‘that magic’—the one that had destroyed this very planet.

“Ah.”

Roist shook with laughter. My body grew fainter, about to disappear from the world. Just then, his hood was thrown back. The face inside was a minced chunk of meat, without eyes, nose, or mouth. Words flowed from a magic circle where his mouth should have been.

“Even if I disappear, my research is eternal.” His voice was cold, his cadence quickened. He seemed like a completely different person. “Yes, it was I who planted the dark magic in the third-floor trial. I want you to carry on my madness. With your talent, you could turn all the humans in the world into awakened beings. No, to be precise, you could make them into an ancient race that transcends the awakened—Titans.”

I was shocked.

“I’m only trying to help you. Think carefully.” He wagged a finger. The flesh had vanished, leaving only bone, like a skeleton. “There is no way to stop the Disasters unless humanity becomes Titans. When you come to that conclusion, use the magic I have imparted to you.” A hole appeared in Roist’s flesh and tore open sideways, like a grotesque grin. “Someone like you will be able to complete my research.”

“You! Why would you do this—!”

But I didn’t get an answer. With Roist’s final words, my vision flickered out.

[You have cleared the first trial.]

[Moving to the next world.]

* * *

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep