[rumble rumble rumble! rumble rumble!]
Sky and earth. Pitch-black lightning leaping up from every direction my eyes can reach.
Just as “hot ice” cannot exist, pitch-black lightning cannot exist either.
“Resistance is fierce.”
[crackle! bzzzt!!]
Even so, what I’m seeing is unmistakably pitch-black lightning.
[System: Due to the absence of the prerequisite trait [Medium], the spell’s effectiveness is reduced.]
Within expectations.
As thought, without the [Medium] trait, this magic can’t lay a proper seal. That doesn’t mean I can lower the power.
I had no choice but to tune the spell’s effects.
“Jang Hyundeok is never around when you actually need him!”
Originally there should’ve been an event where the [Guardian of the Hermitage] lends a hand. But that’s no longer possible, and I have to handle this alone.
“Whew—”
Exhaling again, I restore the script of the [Demon-Sealing Array], which is burning coldly, charred by the pitch-black lightning.
[high, keening whine!!]
A five-hued rainbow ripples outward in sequence—blue, red, yellow, white, black—circulating and spreading to the four quarters.
With a brittle freezing sound, I feel space-time under Ulsan Rock lock in place.
[System: [Demon-Sealing Array] has been completed.]
[Achievement unlocked! You have sealed the “Seoraksan Underground Ruin.”
You have obtained “Advanced Achievement: Follower of the Hermitage’s Teachings.”
As an achievement reward, you gain “Spell Proficiency: Warding branch” and additional EXP.]
[You have thwarted the descent of the [Great Source] and spirited away an artifact imbued with Its power. Despite adverse conditions, you not only stopped the cultists plotting the [Great Source]’s advent, but also sealed the Seoraksan Underground Ruin to preempt any collateral problems.]
And then the message window keeps babbling.
[Granted, there was some inelegant brute-forcing along the way, but if we judge by results alone, it would be hard to deny you made the optimal choice.]
“Why are you tacking on creepy, useless commentary?”
Still, the message window isn’t completely wrong. I did strong-arm it. I did overextend.
“No, hold on. The one that wasn’t ‘elegant’ is you! If you hadn’t pulled that cheap trick, why would I have needed to regress at all?”
And on top of the spell-phobia, now you manifest “dog phobia” at that ridiculous timing?
“If this is a game, play fair! You bastard!”
I swung a fist and shouted, but—as always—no answer I wanted came back.
[You have sealed the “Seoraksan Underground Ruin.”]
[You defeated multiple cultists (Old Voice). Your understanding of the “Great Source Cult” increases.]
[You sealed a “Hound of Tindalos.” Your understanding of “Tindalos” increases.]
[You defeated multiple fixers. Your understanding of the underworld increases.]
[You have......]
A message window that won’t stop listing who I beat, who I influenced, what I obtained, and which achievements I gained.
After paragraphs and paragraphs, the conclusion it reaches is this:
[You have gained sufficient experience to reach the next stage. Level +1.]
[You have gained sufficient experience to reach the next stage. Level +1.]
[You have gained sufficient experience to reach the next stage. Level +1.]
And somehow I also acquired a large quantity of mana-stones.
Because such-and-such happened, you obtained this. Because you did X, you get Y. Because you did Y, you get Z......
[System: Proceed below to claim your rewards.]
“What the? Why are you giving out this many artifacts?”
When I moved down beneath Ulsan Rock, a staggering pile of artifacts had accumulated.
“These are the weapons carried by the guys Mun Gyeongnam brought, huh?”
Originally they were ordinary weapons, but the ruin entrance colliding with Ulsan Rock caused the ruin’s magic to vent everywhere—and as a result, these weapons transformed into random artifacts. ...A thoroughly contrived bit of exposition.
“Sure. Do whatever makes your life easier.”
I used shrink-magic and stowed the mountain of artifacts.
“Nice to have a lot, but there’s nothing I can use.”
It’s like doing dozens of back-to-back random weapon pulls and getting everything except the one thing I need.
Most are lower B-grade artifacts, and on the rare occasion something looks super-rare, it’s something a mage can’t use.
[Merciless Landslide (S-grade Weapon): A war pick that lived through a surreal calamity. By chance it fused with mana-stone and gained magic power, but it’s even larger and heavier than before.
Use Requirement: Strength stat 18+
Merciless Ruin: Destroys the opponent’s armor......]
How am I supposed to use that.
“Well, I did get the [Blade of Flesh].”
[Blade of Flesh (L-grade Weapon): A magic device said to be forged from hardened flesh of the [Great Source]. Its seven branch-like prongs form the shape of a blade, but it cannot cut matter. It’s closer to a tool for rites and ceremonies.
Power to Sever Time: Slices time and halts its flow. Duration scales with Will. Each use imprints a random madness on the mind.
Power to Sever the Wall: Slices space to open a slit into a second dimension. Each use imprints a random madness on the mind.
Agent of a God: Charisma +2.
God’s Flesh: Can serve as flesh for the [Great Source]’s descent. So long as you possess this blade, you will yearn for that purpose.
Old Voice: The bearer constantly hears the [Great Source]’s whispers. Unbearable nightmares and madness will roost in you.
Ravager of Space-Time: Each time you invoke this artifact’s power, beings outside space-time gain power to punish you.
Gift of the Source: Greatly increases the chance of encountering beings related to the [Great Source].
Ancient in Origin: Increases the chance of encountering “primeval beings”......]
It’s an item with absurd power—and an equally absurd number of penalties stapled on.
‘But I get to use all of that for free, don’t I?’
Anything about madness lodging in me is blocked by [Madness of the Abyss], and anything nightmare-related is blocked by the [Winged Cloak of the Night Veil].
“And all those ‘you will run into X’ riders are basically a weaker duplicate of [Feast’s Offering] anyway.”
Which means the only real problem is the entries tied to [Tindalos].
I sealed the one that kept tailing me up to now, but that was a stopgap.
They hunt [time travelers], so a new one will show sooner or later.
“Not right away; probably if I keep using [Time Stop] a lot, it’ll come back out again?”
When it does, I’ll beat it down again, or trigger the [Demon-Sealing Array] and bind it.
[You have reached Level 72!
As a level reward, you gain (1) bonus attribute point to allocate freely.]
[With sufficient experience, your use of 7th-tier magic is now unlocked. Note that to employ 7th-tier magic in earnest, you must obtain or study a grimoire containing 7th-tier spells.]
I dropped the bonus point into Will.
“Time to invest in my mental resilience.”
Plenty of spells—including [Time Stop]—scale off the Will stat. Right now, that’s the best choice.
If I can snag a few more suitable artifacts, I can push Will up near 30.
Kim Sinhwa
Class: Mage Who Stares into the Abyss
Level: 72
Magic Rank: 7th-Tier
Madness: [Mask Obsession (latent)], [Dog Phobia]
Strength 5 + 4 (Embers of the Northern Monastery)
Vitality 8 + 3 (Four-Sign Execution Sword [Green Tier])
Agility 8 + 2 (Winged Cloak of the Night Veil)
Intellect 30
Will 21 + 2 (Necklace of the Body Snatcher)
Charisma 20 + 2 (Blade of Flesh)
“Anyway, it’s been a while since I leveled up.”
My mood climbed, considerably.
[Once again, you have averted this world’s annihilation. Even before any foreshadowing of doom surfaced, you preempted the conditions for it—truly extraordinary foresight.]
“You mocking me?”
You hand out both rewards and penalties for regression, then prattle about foresight—obviously just to make fun of me.
Way to sour my briefly good mood in a single breath...
[But be warned. The power of the [Great Source] is vast, and Its wisdom is bottomless. It will watch the one who thwarted Its will.]
Right.
I plugged one of the [Great Source]’s ruins, but Its avatar still remains.
And besides—
‘Strictly speaking, the [Blade of Flesh] itself is the [Great Source]’s flesh, and also an altar and a ruin.’
Handle it poorly, and it could cause an even bigger disaster.
After claiming all rewards, I returned to where everyone was gathered.
“Hrm. I don’t like that.”
I turned my head back toward Ulsan Rock. The form of the seal-script I brute-forced into place doesn’t sit right with me.
[grating, skreee—]
It isn’t a sound you physically hear, but anyone who can sense mana would notice it.
Crudely put, it’s the squeal of a misaligned script grinding its cogs.
“I sealed it, but at that rate it won’t hold long.”
I had to sacrifice duration to avoid lowering the seal’s output. It is what it is...
With help from my Intellect stat and the [Spell Mastery] trait, I calculated the duration on the [Demon-Sealing Array] I’d made.
“At the shortest... roughly... it’ll hold about 19,500 minutes.”
Thirteen days and thirteen hours or so?
That calculation assumes the worst case. In practice it’ll last dozens of times longer—but this game always finds a way to go worse than worst, so I can’t be optimistic.
“Even if I ignored the trait prerequisites, this is stingy.”
I scratched my head, thinking. Should I just ask some other Abyssal entity for help?
When I sealed the [One Who Laughs], the [Living Flame] assisted. Thanks to that, I have the [One Who Laughs] under perfect control.
“No, bad idea. That thing is orders of magnitude above them.”
Among beings of the Abyss, the [Great Source] sits around fourth from the top.
Ask just any entity for power and they’ll either demand something outrageous or ignore me outright—obvious outcomes.
“Best would be dragging Jang Hyundeok here and recasting the spell.”
So where is that guy wandering, really?
It’s probably nothing serious.
I decided tracking his location would be too inhumane, so I didn’t. But I did put robust alarms and protective magic on him for emergencies.
None of that has triggered, which means...
“Hm...”
There’s one conclusion I can draw—but I murmured while refusing to look at it directly.
“Right, by the original timeline he wouldn’t even have reached Sokcho yet.”
I’ve been moving so fast I was outracing the flow of time.
So while my subjective time feels incredibly long, the time since Jang Hyundeok disappeared hasn’t actually been that long.
Just as my thoughts were about to run further down that path, Gwak Daeyong came sprinting from the container where Mun Seunghee was.
“Hey! Mr. Kim! Mr. Kim!”
“Ugh, what? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, good. I thought you were still up there and I was worried, but you came down just now?”
“Up there”—he means Ulsan Rock, which is now the seal-stone locking down the [Great Source].
“What do you mean ‘good’—what happened?”
“Right. Hurry, this way. The Chief’s acting strange.”
“Mun Seunghee?”
I didn’t get to finish my train of thought. I had to run to Mun Seunghee.
“Wizard!”
Mun Seunghee’s voice, almost a scream.
Thankfully, nothing had happened to Mun Seunghee.
The one in trouble was Lee Seonbin.
[crack! bzzzt-bzzzt!]
Lee Seonbin was slowly levitating, spitting pitch-black sparks from her entire body.
Wow—what is that?
“She was fine until just now! Why—why did she turn like this? Wizard? Wizard?”
Mun Seunghee shook my lapels, half-crazed.
I finally eased her back and spoke.
“Chief, I can handle this. So please, just—calm down for a moment!”
It’s infuriating that someone aimed this at Lee Seonbin on purpose, but the fix is simple. I’ve solved similar cases more than a few times.
‘If anything, they went this far just to share mana with me.’
Thanks to that, I can siphon off the [Great Source]’s power.
Sooner or later, I’ll make them pay for this pointless stunt.
