Chapter 4 – Part-Time Job for Body Cleaning in the Mage Tower #3

When I left the inn room at dawn, I left the open book on the bed without covering it.
So it was possible to see at a glance what changes had occurred in the book.
I was shocked to see the inside of the open book.

‘Is the contents filled?’

It was obviously an empty book until dawn, but when I came back, there was content. If you ask me what it is, it is a picture. Several paintings depicting human figures in detail.

What the hell happened

The book described a human practicing magic.
A figure of an ascetic wearing a robe.
The monk in the picture made a hand sign. The hand sign is divided into several movements in order, and a short commentary is attached below the picture.

I flipped through the bookshelves and skimmed through the pictures.
The monk in the painting was making a round sphere on his palm.

The bead was as small as millet when the first hand sign was made, but as the hand sign was completed, the size gradually increased. The moment I reached the last picture, the sphere created by the practitioner had changed to the size of a fist.

I uttered the name of the magic that depended on the commentary.

“Magic Missile.”

Magic missile.
It was the magical name that the book had introduced me to.
Magic that strikes a target by launching a projectile made of pure energy.

“Ah-.”

I finally realized
That the book in my hand was really a magic book.
It is unknown why the contents of the book disappeared and suddenly reappeared.
However, the pictures and writings on the paper now are real, not illusionary.

‘I’m sorry for doubting that, old man.’

Thinking of the old man I met last night, I apologized in my heart.
No matter what tricks he used, what the old man handed over was a real magic book.
An item so expensive that it cannot be compared to just eight goblin fangs.

After the explanation of the Magic Missile, there is still nothing written on it.
Blank, blank pages continue in succession.
Among the hundreds of sheets of densely overlapping papers, only the front side has content.

Oh, I don’t know.
I flipped through the book and then shook my head.
The number of spells in a book is not very important. All I’m interested in right now is the opportunity to learn magic.

I would never have dreamed of paying money and learning magic myself, but now that I have a magic book in my hands, my thoughts have changed. It was worth trying magic training at least once.

It is said that reading and learning a book is free.
Who in the world doesn’t like freebies?
If all you’re losing is time, there’s plenty of reason to invest.
After all, there is nothing to do during the night when I come back from work.

‘Then let’s try it.’

I started perusing the magic book in a light excitement.
To be honest, I don’t know what the short phrase means.
It was impossible to decipher what the nature of mana was because it was full of jargon. Conversely, it was easy to imitate the practitioner in the painting. First of all, I emptied my brain and recklessly followed the pictures in the book.

Pictures divided into 10 movements.
Concentrating on the shape of the practitioner’s hand sign, I repeated the practice.

“How do you create a sphere…?”

Of course, there is no miracle that magic is manifested as soon as it starts.
But since I didn’t expect much from the beginning, I’m not disappointed.
There’s no way I have great talent, so learning magic is likely to be a long-term battle.
It would be better to take the attitude of slowly polishing your skills.

*

It was the next day.

‘This hand gesture is a bit complicated… I need to make my fingers flexible.’

Instead of going to work at the adventurer’s guild, I stayed in my inn room and devoted myself to magic training all day long.
It was because he was attracted to magic training rather than carrying out guild requests.
With the 40 coppers he earned anyway, he could pay for three days’ worth of living expenses, and it didn’t matter if he played tangja tangja for a day or two.
Of course, I’m not shutting myself in the corner of my room to play now.

In the middle of the meal, I did not forget to solve the meal with the rice prepared by the innkeeper.
Hard bread in a thin soup with leftovers floating around.

Normally, I would have complained about the meal without the head, but today I quietly picked it up and ate it. It was because I was so focused on my magic training that I didn’t care about the taste of the food.

Time passed quickly.
It was the first time since I was born in this world that time had passed so quickly. It was evening in the blink of an eye. Unexpectedly, because he was interested in learning magic, it was fun to do stupid things.

Imagining a sphere forming on the palm of my hand just like the picture gave me motivation.
Of course, it was a completely different story from producing results.

When it was the second day since I stayed in the inn.

I finally ran into an impasse.
Because of the great doubts, no progress was made in the training.

“What the hell is it to feel mana…?”

Mana.
Even so, I’ve lived in a different world for 20 years. Thanks to that, I had heard the world talk about what mana was.
Mana is a mysterious energy that spreads throughout the continent.
The power that motivates the use of magic.

It’s as easy as explaining it in words.
But when it comes to the true nature of mana, I don’t know anything. I had never heard such a story in my life about what it looked like or how it felt. Embarrassingly, the magic book was ordering me to feel the reality of mana.

The writings hanging in the corner of the book.
The writer of the magic book is proceeding with the explanation on the premise that the practitioner can feel mana. As long as he couldn’t feel mana, the progress of the training would inevitably be blocked.

What should I do?
If you’re learning from your master, you could at least ask a question.
Since I am self-study with a book, there is no way to solve the question at once. I put the open magic book on my lap and fell into trouble.

As I was rolling my head for a while, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Just an idea that could be a secret solution to the question.

What came to my mind right now was the magic tower.
Inside the Mage Tower, the wizards did not hesitate to pass on their knowledge to their junior wizards while bragging about magic theories without hesitation. Since I had been to the Mage Tower many times before, I remembered it easily.

‘Wouldn’t it be fine if I just steal classes from the Mage Tower?’

At the Mage’s Tower, classes are held every weekend for children of nobles. Among them, there are classes with advanced levels that sound like alien languages, but there were also basic classes for beginners. My job here is to steal those basic classes. If you keep listening to it, someday the mention of mana will surely come out.

Of course, you could pay the tuition and enter the classroom with pride.
However, the amount he had to pay to take classes at the Magic Tower was beyond imagination.
It was enough to lightly press down on the university tuition fees of the previous life.
A poor adventurer like me would not be able to pay even if I earned my whole life, so I had no choice but to cross the river.

Did you also tell me to remove the horns for sweet seaweed?
The next morning, I went to the guild and talked to Wendy, the receptionist.

“Wendy, it’s about clearing the corpses of monsters from the Mage Tower. Can I still get them?”

“Are you referring to the request to dispose of monster corpses? Yes, Mr. Luke. This week is the period during which the Mage Tower continues to operate the waste dump. The number of people is wide, and you can apply at any time.”

The waste treatment plant in the Mage Tower is always short of workers.
Every month, while the waste treatment plant is in operation, outside manpower is always recruited. After receiving Wendy’s request, I was able to enter and exit the Mage Tower easily today.

The scenery of the magic tower crowded with robed wizards.
It was the scenery of the magic tower that always looked the same, but today, for some reason, it felt different.
Maybe because the purpose of entering the Magic Tower was impure, he became nervous.
His clenched fists were wet with sweat.
As soon as you enter the room, you cannot make any suspicious movements.

I changed into work clothes and headed to the underground waste disposal site. At the waste disposal site, there was a body of a giant monster that had to be disposed of today.

“It’s the corpse of a Cyclops. It’s a one-eyed giant monster. They said that the Mage Tower performed an eye transplant on him, but he had a seizure while changing his eyes. That’s why he was brought to the waste disposal site.”

The head of the task force left a short comment with the large corpse in front of him.
Indeed, as the foreman said, the Cyclops did not have eyes.
I felt a bit disgusted and turned my head.

“Adventurer man, please collect Cyclops’ tendons. Pull out as many as you can and put them in a cart. I heard that his tendons are excellent for making potions good for stamina. If you work hard, I’ll bring you a special one. .”
“I do not need it.”
“If I sell it, I’ll get 20 coppers?”
“Then you’ll need it.”

I picked up a disassembly tool like a saw and shredded the Cyclops’ corpse. I was distracted for a moment when I heard that if you work hard, you will be given money, but soon calmed down.
I came to the Magic Tower today to learn magic, not to make money.

“It’s meal time! Everyone, eat lunch and get to work!”

Lunch time has arrived.
It was the only time that the workers of the corpse disposal team could move freely in the mage tower. In other workplaces, there was an atmosphere of rushing to the restaurant, but this is not the case. My appetite was bound to drop when I faced disgusting monster corpses.

Because of this, even if the workers didn’t eat lunch, they didn’t touch anything in the Mage Tower. It is an individual’s freedom to go out for a walk or read a book during mealtime. In other words, now was my chance to cross the class.

“Adventurer man, where are you going? Aren’t you eating? They say they’re selling grilled potatoes at the restaurant today.”
“I don’t have an appetite. I’ll take a walk for a while.”

I shook off the annoying foreman and started moving.
I was walking inside the Mage Tower in my overalls, but no one paid attention to me. Because the magicians of the Mage Tower always treated chores as invisible. The wizards didn’t recognize me, just like the waiters at the cafe in my previous life.
Of course, if they knew it was an incubus, they might show interest.
Right now, I’m wearing a similar overalls like Wu’s to the top of my head.
I was able to move easily without being called by anyone.

In the magic tower, there was a lecture building where professors’ classes were conducted.
Looking at the guide map hanging on the wall, I was able to arrive at the lecture hall.

‘It’s quiet.’

The hallway of the lecture hall is unmatched in silence.
Beyond the classroom door, I could hear the faint voices of the professors giving their lessons. I checked the class schedule hanging in the hallway one by one, and roughly figured out which classes were taking place in the classroom.

– Monster taxonomy
– Introduction to broom control
– Ancient magic history
– Principles of Alchemy
– Beginner mana response theory

What I needed was a class called 〈 Beginner Mana Sensing Theory 〉. A class that teaches how to handle mana for introductory level wizards. Fortunately, it was lunch time now, but classes were still taking place in the classroom.
It seemed that the professor in charge was giving individual guidance to students who were not making progress.

“…Professor Pleitz. I still can’t handle mana response very well.
“There is nothing to be disappointed about. It usually takes a lot of experience and luck to feel mana. If you follow the lessons without hesitation, you will see results.”
“Is that so? But I want to speed up a little more…”

I squatted down and listened to the crack in the door.
The faint voices of the two were finally audible.
At first, it was the voice of a professor who only encouraged the students. However, when asked persistently, the professor began to come up with helpful opinions little by little.

“Keuheum. In fact, there are some tricks to mana response. I know your enthusiasm, so I’ll give you a little direction.”
“What tricks?”
“As you know, the key to mana response is breathing. When you inhale and exhale, you sense the mana moving inside the body. But even inside the body, there is a place where the movement of mana occurs significantly.”

The professor opened his mouth briefly.

“It’s the stomach.”
“…Stomach.”
“There may be individual differences depending on the person, but in most cases, it can be said that the abdomen contains the most mana. When breathing, focus all your nerves around the belly button. If you feel a warm aura surrounding the internal organs, that is Manara. Whenever you think of it, practice it in your spare time.”
“Okay, Professor Pleitz.”

After hearing the professor’s words, I snapped my fingers in the mood of a windfall.
How to figure out how to feel mana so easily!
I guess I’m lucky too.
If I hadn’t found out today, I would have spent a few more days crossing the river.

I decided to go back to the inn and put the tricks I learned into practice right away.