Chapter 36 - Half-Baked Mage (3)

Chapter 36: Half-Baked Mage (3)TL: SHW

[Park Seo-hyun – S-rank (Archmage)]

[Category – Shadow]

[Master – None]

[Disciple – None]

[Unique Magic – Light sinking into the swamp (?*transformation)]

[Affiliation – One-person guild ‘Light’**]

*Currently identified transformations are five types

**Guild with the same name as the Archmage Park No-kyung’s guild

[Park No-kyung – S-rank (Archmage)]

[Category – Light]

[Unique Magic – Navigator for all of us]

[Master of the guild ‘Light’*]

[Died in battle with Drake in 2013]

*Disbanded in 2005

* * *

“Pixies can fly and act in groups, so they are measured with a high danger level. But each individual is not that strong. Most importantly, their bones are weak and can be easily crushed by a small impact….”

I felt like I had gone back to the old days.

The old days, barely more than two months ago.

Until just before the vacation, I wrote raid plans and conducted briefings as usual.

The plans I wrote were always first checked by the Director.

This time was no different.

‘You’ve already finished writing it?’

It’s an unnamed C-rank dungeon. It’s even been cleared once. Writing a raid plan for such a dungeon can be done with my eyes closed.

I hadn’t even turned a few pages when Hong Seok-young looked up at me.

‘…It’s well written.’

‘Why? Do you have a problem even if it’s well written?’

‘No, it’s just so well written. Have you written a lot?’

‘This is something anyone can do, isn’t it?’

‘How nice would it be if everyone could do it.’

Hong Seok-young meticulously examined each page of the plan. After reading it all, he went back to the beginning.

‘Our kids should be able to do this too.’

‘Writing plans?’

‘There are plenty of people to write plans instead. But dungeon analysis is different. I thought people at Daseon had detailed guides, but looking at yours, it seems they wrote it with our feet.’

I had no response, so I just shrugged my shoulders.

I went around saying it was the Director’s Secretary Office to keep it short and easy to understand. Indeed, it was often treated that way. But this was actually my original job. The main task of the Comprehensive Dungeon Raid Situation Room.

It’s rare for a dungeon with a raised danger level to lower it again. From danger level 2, it becomes an immediate raid target, so even for level 3, raid guides are written.

A survey team is sent to check for any changes from the previous state, and any new information is incorporated.

Even if the danger level doesn’t change, the dungeon ecosystem can always change, so old dungeons are regularly surveyed.

In fact, this should be managed by the Director, but the Director was busy, and I systematized the work that was roughly handled by the staff.

Why did I work so hard?

Looking back now, there would have been no problem if I had taken it easier.

What kind of wealth or glory did I expect? Everything’s ruined anyway. My pension is gone too.

Anyway, compared to the plans I wrote at the Management Agency, what Hong Seok-young is reading now is really just scribbles.

But watching Hong Seok-young read even that diligently….

‘…Shall I give you a briefing?’

‘Hmm?’

I blurted it out unconsciously.

It was just that his face reading the plan looked so much like the old Hong Seok-young.

‘Don’t worry about the kids.’

‘Weren’t you the one acting like you would torment the kids as soon as you entered the dungeon?’

‘I’m still tormenting them now.’

Hong Seok-young chuckled at my words.

He wasn’t the person I knew, but frustratingly, his face still brought nostalgia.

“Even with your current skills, you can handle it.”

My first briefing since that day.

I’m human too, I can get sentimental. There’s Hong Seok-young, Park Seo-hyun, and Oh Hyun-wook listening to me. Yoo Ji-eun isn’t here, but her sister Yoo Hye-eun is…. Once you know, you wonder how I didn’t recognize it sooner, the sisters look so alike.

So, roughly considering her as Yoo Ji-eun.

It’s possible to mistake this for an ordinary briefing time at the Management Agency.

Humans are foolish animals like that. It’s not my fault.

“That’s the general explanation…. Let’s have lunch, and in the afternoon, we’ll have individual interviews. Each of you should think about what you’re lacking when facing the pixies.”

However, joking around like this never happened before. Most of the Hunters at the Agency didn’t feel comfortable around me.

Nostalgia for the old days ends today. Anyway, preparing to enter the dungeon with the kids will keep me too busy to feel melancholic.

Just until today. Only today….

That’s what I thought.

Exactly,

“I-I…. want to quit school….”

Until Park Seo-hyun blurted out something shocking.

* * *

I misjudged Park Seo-hyun.

I never thought her mental state would be this fragile.

In hindsight, it makes sense. If Park Seo-hyun had a strong, steel-like mentality, she wouldn’t have been called a witch in the first place.

Sometimes, she would mutter gloomily like Witch Park Seo-hyun, but Park Seo-hyun still got along well with her friends, even with her messy hair. She helped Choi Jin-woo draw runes. That’s why I let my guard down.

…Regretting the past won’t change anything. First, I tried to console Park Seo-hyun.

“I can’t even use magic properly! How can I call myself a mage!”

What she said next was utterly ridiculous.

I realized once again that I had severely underestimated the situation.

Park Seo-hyun wasn’t just mentally weak. She was extremely fragile and had a peculiar way of thinking.

She seemed to have come to her conclusion after what she thought was logical reasoning….

But from the start, her logic was flawed. It was wrong from the beginning.

Why did she grow up like this?

I didn’t know much about Park Seo-hyun as I only met her a few times for Management Agency matters. Just look at the reports the staff passed around with warnings plastered all over. They also mostly left her to Yoo Ji-eun.

I changed my approach. I gave up on comforting her and started to subtly provoke her. She wasn’t entirely a witch yet, so her trembling hands and shoulders gave her away.

“You said you’re not qualified to be a mage. There must be a reason you think that way.”

So I spoke more indifferently than usual.

Even during her witch days, she was stubborn and didn’t listen to others. She wouldn’t even pretend to read the guides I painstakingly prepared. I can’t say I wasn’t frustrated back then.

“So, what’s your complaint?”

Ah. Her shoulders flinch again. Her eyes are hidden by her hair, but her mouth is visible.

She doesn’t seem to realize, but her clenched jaw is grinding.

To be honest?

It was funny.

Not because I found a kid’s worries amusing.

“I have to become an Archmage.” Sᴇaʀch* Thᴇ ɴovᴇlꜰirᴇ.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“An Archmage?”

“But I don’t have the qualifications or talent to become one.”

She flinches at every word I say, pretending otherwise.

The fact that this girl, who will become an Archmage in five years, is saying this.

Park Seo-hyun, who massacred monsters with ruthless magic, was once this young.

So I prodded her more eagerly. It seemed like it was almost over.

“Or is it that you don’t consider basic magic real magic?”

“No! That’s not it!”

“That’s what you’re saying right now.”

Park Seo-hyun glares straight at me. Just a moment ago, she was crying her heart out.

“He hasn’t even been awakened for half a year, but it’s been over ten years for me!”

If it weren’t for what happened in Myeong-dong, would Park Seo-hyun have become such a witch?

But even now, it’s not particularly because of Myeong-dong.

“And I!!”

Looking at her, it seemed like she had been contemplating this for a long time, unrelated to Myeong-dong. Come on, quickly. Tell me what you’re thinking with that little head of yours.

“I even know unique magic!”

This was it.

The cause of Park Seo-hyun’s distress.

“It’s not that I don’t know the formulas, I know them all! And it’s not just knowing them! I understand them!”

I know the future Park Seo-hyun. It’s like having an answer sheet.

Park Seo-hyun had no one by her side except Oh Hyun-wook. However, Park Seo-hyun herself was so noticeable that she garnered a lot of attention in various ways. The Management Agency had information that wasn’t widely known.

As far as I know, Park Seo-hyun had no master.

The unique magic Park Seo-hyun uses is something she developed herself. At the young age of twenty-three.

And yet she says she knows the formulas?

“…It doesn’t work for me.”

That witch wouldn’t have claimed someone else’s formula as her own.

“You say you know unique magic?”

“Y-Yes?”

“How? How do you know it?”

“My grandfather… before he passed away, he taught me other magics too.”

“Your grandfather….”

I don’t know about Kim Chae-min’s family, but I do know about Park Seo-hyun’s. It’s quite dramatic.

Unfortunately, after her grandfather died early, the granddaughter who remained became a witch, turning the tale into anything but a warm fairy tale.

Her Archmage grandfather who raised his son’s daughter.

So when it was known that Park Seo-hyun used unique magic, many people naturally thought she would use light magic following her grandfather.

But surprisingly, Park Seo-hyun showcased an entirely new type of magic. Shadow magic, the exact opposite of her grandfather’s light magic.

Park No-kyung, Park Seo-hyun’s grandfather, was famous enough for his magic to be a topic for a long time. The magic that directly guided to the dungeon core was unique to Park No-kyung, both before and after him. When Park Seo-hyun was confirmed to be in the shadow category, it was thought that magic was lost…

But Park Seo-hyun knows it?

“Park Seo-hyun.”

It doesn’t matter if Park Seo-hyun can’t use it herself. If she just knows the formulas, if a talented light mage could learn it…!

“You can become an Archmage.”

Park Seo-hyun, who had been fidgeting, stopped moving and looked straight at me.

She had been saying she wasn’t qualified, didn’t have the talent, talking about dropping out and giving up, but who could think she would quietly give up magic seeing those eyes?

“You have talent.”

She understood formulas she could never use with her own mana. Even as someone who isn’t a mage, I know how remarkable this is; doesn’t Park Seo-hyun realize?

Unique magic is refined magic extracted from the mage’s mana that’s ingrained in their blood, presented in the form of magic. Most mages take family members as disciples because of this. If the same blood flows, there’s a higher chance of inheriting the same magic.

Of course, just being of the same bloodline isn’t enough. Unique magic is optimized for the individual. Even Kim Chae-min’s magic, passed down for three generations, varies slightly depending on the caster.

But if the nature of mana is similar, one can use the magic even without being related by blood. Conversely, even if they are related, if the nature of their mana is vastly different, they can’t inherit it. Park Seo-hyun is this case.

“I will make you an Archmage.”

Anyway, Park Seo-hyun is destined to become an Archmage. If I just tell her the category and set her direction, that time will be shortened.

It’s a good thing for Park Seo-hyun too.

“T-Teacher…?”

Park Seo-hyun asked with a skeptical face.

“Teacher, you’re not a mage….”

“Just because I’m not a mage doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about magic. Did you forget who’s teaching you runes right now?”

“Uh….”

Park Seo-hyun mumbled.

“I’m not saying I’ll teach you magic. I’m saying I’ll show you the way to become an Archmage.”

“……”

“You’re someone who can do it.”

I lifted my hand from under Park Seo-hyun’s chin. Even so, Park Seo-hyun didn’t lower her head and kept looking at me.

“After all, I’m the homeroom teacher of the magic class. Teaching my students….”

It’s easy.