Chapter 47

I once had a conversation like this with Alter.

He said that if I wanted to develop spells, I’d be better off reading a dictionary than books on magic.

“What does that even mean…?”

It made no sense to me.

I barely had the time and energy to explore the essence of spells just by reading those tomes, and now he was talking about a dictionary, of all things?

Besides, the standard common language dictionary was horribly huge and unbearably heavy. If a weakling like me carried such a blunt weapon, a sprain in my wrist, or even a broken bone somewhere, wouldn’t be surprising.

“Not all humans think the same way. Even twin brothers born and raised in the same environment differ in how they think, how they speak, even in the smallest of habits.”

“Yes, well… isn’t that obvious?”

Despite questioning the obvious, I nodded, indicating that he should elaborate.

“Apple.”

Walter’s absurd words twisted my expression; I stared at him, dumbfounded.

…What does he want me to do?

“What sort of apple did you imagine just now?”

“Pardon?”

“Tell me.”

“Just… a red, sweet apple, I suppose.”

“A pity. The image of ‘apple’ I intended to convey was green, underripe, and full of tartness.”

“……”

Just as I began to feel a twinge of displeasure, wondering if the old man was teasing me, he rose from his seat, tapped his temple with a wrinkled finger, and continued.

“The crux of the matter is this: no word in this world can concretize a human thought one-hundred percent.”

“……Hmm.”

“Magic is the power of thought. And incantations are like lubricants that aid that thought.”

Walter repeated yet again the phrase ‘Magic is the power of thought,’ which he had emphasized countless times while instructing me.

I’d heard those words so often, they occasionally brushed against my ears in my sleep.

I half-worried that as Walter aged and neared his death, he might ask for those words to be etched onto his tombstone; that’s how frequently he repeated the phrase.

…Thinking about it like that makes me feel a little scared.

“A mage is better off knowing as many words as possible. ‘Granny Smith’ offers a sense of youth and freshness, whereas the word ‘poison apple’ evokes a darker, more secretive feeling. Using the term ‘forbidden fruit’ can instill a sacred sensation, and ‘red fruit’ is an ambiguous and vague term, yet usable as a comprehensive feeling.”

As he explained, Walter wore a worried expression, cautiously placing a hand on my shoulder and continuing.

“The words spoken during the process of calculating magic directly impact your brain, Mr. Bean. The sensations and emotions these words convey to your brain greatly influence the calculation. Therefore, when constructing an incantation, you must decide with care. An incorrect incantation will negatively impact the calculation and ruin the magic.”

“If there’s such a risk, wouldn’t it be safer to use magic without uttering incantations at all? In a war where each use of magic is a matter of life and death, a misspoken incantation would mean certain death…”

Carefully removing Alter’s hand of worry from my shoulder, I had answered him thus:

“The incantation’s reward is as great as its risk. A proper incantation elevates the perfection of magic by at least twofold. Beyond proper, a magnificent, perfect incantation can boost the performance of magic nearly tenfold.”

“… If properly completed, you say?”

“You will almost certainly fail once or twice, without a doubt. But do not be discouraged, for even a genius finds developing incantations no easy task. Continuing to adjust through failure—that is the key to completing an incantation.”

To my worried mumblings, Alter replied with a smile.

* * *

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The footfalls of the spider-faced giant grew ever louder. The sound of cracking gold consumed all around, and my arms and legs began to tremble with a faint dread.

“Haa… Shit…”

You will almost certainly fail the first one or two times. An incantation is completed by continuously adjusting through failure.

Just as I was about to chant, that warning churned within my head.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t terrified.

I hadn’t tested whether the incantation I had created would work properly, or not.

There was a chance that chanting the incantation right now could overload the magic, causing me to lose consciousness instantly.

If I lost consciousness here, no one would be around to protect me. I would end up in that giant’s mouth, meeting a gruesome end.

My lips felt as though they were glued together. The fear of failure gnawed away at my courage.

‘…Rex wouldn’t hesitate like this.’

I steeled myself, the image of the melted-down orc’s back burned into my mind.

Ever since entering the dungeon, I’d been nothing but a burden on the party.

The guiding fell entirely to Trian, and Rex had suffered a critical wound protecting me. Even in the battles we’d faced, the glory belonged mostly to Lire; all I had done was manipulate a few artifacts.

During the hasty movements, I was carried like dead weight on my companions’ backs. And after each fight, I succumbed to hyperventilation and lost consciousness, forcing the team to waste precious hours confined to a single room.

…Pathetic.

Yes. Up until now, I had only been a hindrance.

I couldn’t bear to look at those who believed in me, who entrusted their lives to this so-called genius mage.

So, this was no time to be so foolishly frightened by memorizing a few paltry words.

“A lightning mage, was it? Melting gold. A decent amount of firepower, I suppose, but it’s not enough to pierce my skin…”

“Bud.”

I banished the extraneous thoughts from my mind and began to ‘bloom’ the electricity that enveloped me.

Tiny sparks, bursting from my fingertips, thinly laced my entire body, stimulating the vast amounts of mana stored within me.

“Steam.”

The air around me shimmered. As if bracing for a colossal impact, the molecules drew close, enveloping one another.

“Cumulonimbus and Monsoon.”

*CRASH!*

The immense thunderclap echoed through the chamber belatedly. A deafening ringing filled my ears, but my focus remained unshaken.

“…”

After the thunder subsided, a chilling silence settled over the room, thick as the air on the eve of a typhoon.

The spider giant seemed momentarily paralyzed by the sheer force that had erupted from within my body.

Now, it was my turn to repay the teammates I had cared for, protected, and believed in until now.

That’s right.

“Awakening.”

Just five minutes.

I decided to live as a true genius.

* * *

Lire, Rex, and Trian, their faces tense, stood with their backs against the Golden Gate, focusing on their breathing.

Soon, a colossal thunder would erupt nearby, and spider-like monsters would descend upon them from all sides.

Rex, axe in hand, struggled to steady his breath, while Trian sharpened his senses, determined to use his remaining arrows with the utmost care.

Lire, too, had pushed her mental fortitude to its limit, concentrating on the flow of mana within her. There was no need to restrain the power of her magic now, fearing that the thunder might leak out; this was the time to unleash her full potential.

*Psssht…!*

As Lire focused mana at the tip of her staff, ready to unleash a lightning bolt at any moment, she felt an alien current of lightning behind her head.

It was a pressure unlike any she had ever experienced in her life. A wave of terror bloomed instantly, and the word “death” flashed through her mind.

She quickly turned her head toward the source of the strange electrical current.

The Golden Gate stood there.

“…Could it be.”

A bad premonition filled her, and Lire mumbled to herself in a small voice.

“Is something wrong?”

Trian, who had been focusing on the sensation in his fingertips, noticed the color drained from Lire’s face as she turned around and asked.

“…Get down.”

“What?”

“Cover your ears and get down, now!”

Rire shouted at them, a volume of voice unheard of.

“……!”

Trian and Rex, hearing Rire’s urgent cry, simultaneously flattened themselves to the floor, fingers jammed in their ears.

It wasn’t that they felt the strange current of lightning that Rire did.

But within the brains of these worn and weathered veterans, the lesson that ‘a mage’s warning’ should never be ignored was etched deep.

Rire, too, swiftly swung her staff, enveloping the three of them in a protective barrier before immediately throwing herself to the ground like the others.

Immediately after, a thunderous roar ripped through the air despite the barrier.

…Was this the bizarre current of lightning she had sensed?

No, it was something far more brutal and sharp, beyond comparison.

Something was definitely happening beyond that golden door…

*Whoosh!*

Light.

Blinding white light pierced her eyelids, painting Rire’s previously black vision with stark whiteness. An immense shockwave easily shattered the barrier, shaking her body violently. At the same time, despite her hands clamped firmly over her ears, a ringing tore through her skull.

The three were engulfed in an inferno of heat, tumbling dozens of meters. Rire groaned, clutching her temples as a splitting headache descended, while Rex bit down hard, holding his breath against the agonizing pain of flesh torn from his back.

“…Insane!”

Trian, with his relatively sturdy build and without suffering significant injury, was the first to regain his sight, turning back toward the source of the chaos. Directing his gaze toward the epicenter of the explosion, he first caught sight of the white-haired boy, standing wreathed in lightning, clad in a sooty robe.

The walls of the treasure keeper’s room, adorned with gold, were crumbling on all sides, and a rain of gold was dripping from the ceiling.

Facing the boy stood a colossal giant with the face of a spider. The 20-meter-tall being, with a visage so grotesque that even the millennia-old Trian felt a wave of revulsion, had half of its body turned to black ash and scattered to the winds.

“……!”

The spider giant’s maw gaped. It seemed to be speaking, but the ringing in my ears still drowned everything out. I couldn’t even begin to guess what it was trying to say.

“……What’s the matter? You wanted to be entertained, didn’t you?”

The boy had torn down all the golden walls surrounding them, yet showed not a shred of remorse for the dungeon’s denizens.

“……Filthy, filthy! To dare defile our sacred temple……!”

The spider-faced giant clutched at its ruined left side with its right arm, the missing half of its torso having vanished in an instant of blinding light, and began to roar.

A thick cloud of dust filled the air. Mixed with vaporized gold, it had a yellowish tinge. The boy smiled as he watched it.

“Believe it or not, even I didn’t expect it to be this powerful.”

The boy pointed a slender finger at the spider giant. Once more, an immense, concentrated flash began to coalesce at its tip.

“So don’t get so worked up. It’s unbecoming.”