Preparing for Extinction

Preparing for Extinction

“So… magical power is the remains of gods and mana is the ink that records the world? We can move mana, the source of all thought, with magical power, the remains of gods… and that’s how magic is born?”

“Precisely. In the end, magic is a discipline meant to restore… perhaps even supplement the way gods created and controlled the world.”

I had shared the hypotheses I’d developed so far with the Mage of Refinement, Oh Si-jin. He was the second person after Pan-Dalus, and I’d shared even more advanced content with him.

‘Actually, Pan-Dalus listened to my theories with interest, but that was it. We never engaged in productive discussion that might have given me ideas for follow-up research.’

But Oh Si-jin would surely be different.

Though his level might be lower than Pan-Dalus, he was a genius! This was the first time I had genuinely admired someone else’s magic. Oh Si-jin was truly the only person who could recognize the potential of my hypothesis and help me develop it.

Oh Si-jin remained silent for a while, finally responding after a considerable pause.

“Hmm… an interesting theory, but your leaps in reasoning are too extreme. I’ve racked my memory and can only find a few studies that might support your claims.”

What?

“You’re from the wilderness, aren’t you? I acknowledge your genius. But your lack of education is painfully obvious. Without solid foundational knowledge and references, any theory built upon them will be flimsy. From my perspective, now is not the time for you to show off by creating theories. You’d be more productive spending that time calmly studying the works of your predecessors. That’s my advice as your senior.”

What did he just say?

My molars ground together.

“Is this… really the time for such talk?”

“What do you mean? Is there ever a wrong time for study? Don’t be arrogant. Even teachers in their seventies and eighties, who might pass away at any moment, never abandon their studies.”

Refinement (琢磨).

It’s a term used when cutting and polishing gemstones.

The Mage of Refinement, Oh Si-jin, was a craftsman who created magical tools with the same meticulous care used in cutting gemstones. That’s why his nickname was Refinement (琢磨). But there was another meaning. At just thirty-nine years of age, he had mastered all types of magic. Like a gemstone that had been cut and polished, he emitted the most brilliant light through bone-cutting discipline. The expression Refinement (琢磨) suited him perfectly.

Right. I was the one who had been mistaken.

Oh Si-jin’s body had stopped aging at sixteen. I was fifteen… so on the surface, we looked about the same age. Similar height. Similarly youthful face. I thought we would communicate well, but in reality, this man was a thirty-nine-year-old who had reached his level through the most ignorant and rigid study methods. Though a genius… his direction was completely different from mine.

I clenched my teeth. I glared at his yellow eyes. He was indifferent and seemed to be looking down on me. Despite being short himself…

“I can see both magical power and mana. My words are based on what I’ve observed.”

I revealed a secret I rarely shared with anyone outside my companions. But Oh Si-jin responded dismissively.

“Really? You can see mana? Can you prove it?”

“Of course I can! Maybe not right now, but someday it will be possible! But right now, we don’t have time to dwell on that!”

“Is that so? Then let me tell you a secret of my own. Actually, the cat I keep at home is the god who created the world. But I don’t have time to prove it, you see?”

He was mocking me.

‘Don’t get excited.’

I muttered to myself.

‘I have the memories of an Earth human, right? Over 50 years of memories. In that sense, I’m an adult. I even know how the science he loves came to be established. If I get excited, I lose.’

So I said:

“Damn it! You saw my magic?! And you still don’t understand? I completed the Deus concealment veil that you had only partially activated! How do you explain that?”

Ah, I got excited after all.

Oh Si-jin latched onto this, his sneer becoming colder and more intense.

“I acknowledge that your incantation is impressive. But it’s nothing special. Incantations that transcend eras have always been created. Each time, their creators claimed new magical theories. Of course, those theories were rarely correct. I wonder how you’ll fare?”

I was speechless. There was a mountain of things I wanted to say, but they got stuck in my chest, unable to come out. Oh Si-jin continued to berate me.

“You can see mana… Ha! Do you know how many people have claimed they could see mana since the beginning of magical history? All of them turned out to be delusional. They all paid the price in their later years for asserting such inaccuracies with certainty. Even those great mages lost the favor of magical power and spent their final years in misery. So here’s my advice as your senior: keep your mouth shut. Focus on your studies instead. It would be a terrible waste of your talent if your arrogant personality ruined it.”

He took a step closer. Coming right up to my face and glaring at me.

“Are you upset? Do you still think you’re right? Well, maybe you are. If so, prove it. Stop throwing tantrums. Prove it using the methods mages have built up until now. That’s how you contribute to humanity and magic. No matter how much you talk about knowledge only you possess, it will disappear when you die. It doesn’t help humanity’s progress one bit. If you keep thinking you’re so great all by yourself, you’ll live to regret it severely.”

In a way… he was right.

After all, to survive in this world… there are limits to what one can do alone. Magical power is truly a cursed power—the more you wield it, the more risk accumulates. Whether your body breaks down or larger calamities come hunting you.

Even today, what would have happened without my companions and Oh Si-jin? I might have defeated the enemies somehow, but what about the calamities? The thought alone is terrifying.

In the end, I needed to borrow others’ strength and help them grow stronger. To do that… I had to prove and explain my discoveries in terms of the knowledge they already possessed.

But…

Is that really necessary? Should I waste my precious time trying to prove to the blind that light exists in the world…?

“Do you know what I regret the most? The time I wasted on misguided theories. What if I’m wrong? All that valuable time spent anxiously wondering! Yes, I’m from the wilderness and haven’t learned much. But I know this: to survive in the wilderness, the most important thing is to believe in yourself. Survival isn’t a leisurely game. If I! If I had forged my own path sooner without being swayed by others… perhaps… I could have saved more people? Do you have any idea how much these thoughts torment me?”

Yet Oh Si-jin’s eyes showed not the slightest sign of wavering. How irritating…

“Don’t be emotional. That’s something we can never know. If you had listened to others, you might have become even stronger? There are lessons to be learned even in what’s wrong. Take what’s useful and discard the rest. Refusing to listen at all is nothing but stubborn dogmatism.”

“Take what’s useful? There’s barely a mouse’s tail worth of anything useful. I don’t have time to waste on such things. What I see isn’t a mouse’s tail, but the order that fills the sky. It’s celestial text!”

“A mouse’s tail… you’re not wrong. But do you realize that human progress has been built by piling up countless such mouse’s tails? One mouse’s tail placed atop others, bringing us closer to the sky—that’s our history. Your arrogance is truly hard to stomach!”

What?

I smiled bitterly.

“Piling up mouse’s tails to reach the sky? That’s precisely why it doesn’t work. That’s not how you reach the sky.”

“Then what method is there?”

“You launch a rocket. Of course, you wouldn’t understand that, would you?”

He certainly wouldn’t understand, but… I had nothing else to say. I just poured out everything I’d been thinking. Whether he understood or not.

“Don’t you get it? The tipping point! I’m talking about an irreversible change, the approaching singularity. We’re not looking at a proportional function graph but an exponential one!”

I couldn’t tell if Oh Si-jin understood my words or not, but his eyes twitched. They widened, then narrowed again…

I continued shouting.

“It’s the great cataclysm! The great cataclysm! Everything will be different from now on. We need to change our paradigm to match that change! Everything will collapse and a completely new order will emerge. And you’re saying we should take it slow? That’s the path to death. The only right path, the one narrow path. We need to forge that path to survive. We don’t have time to move slowly.”

As I shouted wildly, I felt a terrible loneliness.

What I see. What I know. Because I know it… I can more vividly sense the coming extinction of the world. But others don’t know this. Even those who remember and prepare for extinction… cannot imagine how massively and terribly it will strike. The world’s changes far transcend ordinary human perception.

That’s why I… had no time to make others understand and persuade them.

Oh Si-jin seemed at a loss for words. He took a step back and quietly muttered.

“…The great cataclysm… There’s logic in that. I hadn’t thought of it that way. The great cataclysm…”

Oh Si-jin continued muttering as he walked away.

Yuria, who had been quietly observing our argument, suddenly jolted her shoulders in surprise.

“…Huh? What? Is the fight over? It ends just like that?”

I had nothing to say either, so I just blinked.

It had been a sudden argument, and a sudden conclusion. Without knowing whether my words had been accepted or not.

+ – + – +

Two days passed. The calamities hovering in Lanciel City’s skies would likely all disappear by tomorrow. During that time, Refinement had locked himself in his room and refused to come out, while I spent my time helping my companions with their training.

“Monggu. Are you sure you’re ready?”

“Y-yes. Hit me with the strength of an adult ogre. I’ll sh-show you how much I’ve improved!”

…If you say so.

I clenched my fist tightly.

[@~~~%#!!]

Iron Blood, having feasted on plenty of blood and now overflowing with energy, reinforced my arm on its own. Bright red veins bulged on my forearm.

‘Hey. Hey. Stay inside. Who are you trying to kill?’

I forcefully suppressed Iron Blood.

I matched my strength to that of an adult ogre. Though it was only ogre-level strength, when unleashed from my small body, it would display tremendous speed.

Could Monggu really withstand this?

“Ready?”

As soon as I spoke, I pushed off the ground. My body was pulled forward.

Boom!

A tremendous sound hit my ears, and then I saw the sky.

‘Huh?’

“Ha, haha! I, I did it!”

When I turned my head sideways, I saw Monggu jumping with joy. He was high-fiving Yuria.

“You were right, sis!”

“See? I told you Baek Jun-woo isn’t used to his own strength yet, so his immediate reactions are slow. Here, have some water.”

Yuria was showing off. Only then did I realize.

‘Ah… I’ve been thrown.’

It was a tackle. Monggu had lowered his center of gravity, grabbed my legs, and thrown me. I was lifted like a lever and sent headfirst to the ground. And all of this was Yuria’s instruction… or so it seemed.

“Amazing… did he actually match my speed?”

Until very recently, Monggu couldn’t even react to half the strength of an adult ogre. Although his equipment had changed from 10th class to 9th class… today’s result proved that Monggu was utilizing 120 percent of his power.

I never imagined Monggu would grow so frighteningly fast.

But what about me? Yuria’s comment stuck in my mind. “Baek Jun-woo isn’t used to his own strength yet, so his immediate reactions are slow”…?

‘…Was that why?’

I hadn’t gained much magical power from this battle, oddly enough. The magical power I’d gained from defeating the magical beast and creating <God-Slaying Lightning> was still abundantly present… but I hadn’t gained anything this time.

I thought it was because ordinary stimuli could no longer attract the interest of magical powers, but perhaps it was my fault.

Monggu, remarkably stronger without a trace of magical power. Me, with increased magical power and all sorts of new spells, but less skilled at handling my body than before.

‘Hmm…’

While I was deep in thought:

“Oh my… Jun-woo, look at this!”

Suddenly Yuria called me.

“Hmm?”

The water in the bottle Yuria was holding was gushing upward from the mouth, defying gravity without any warning.

“Ahhh! What the! What is this?”

That wasn’t all. The fountain in the lord’s castle was also shooting upward, and even the water sprinkled to settle the dust from broken buildings was rising droplet by droplet.

“Is this… magic?”

Yuria asked with a blank expression.

Magic? No, this is…

Good grief…

I jumped to my feet.

“…We need to return as soon as possible. We need to meet Pan-Dalus!”