The Magician’s Memorial - Chapter 77



Only Krnovel

Episode 77

Quilbian placed his hand on the sky wall and observed the flow of Nak.

The clumped knots that formed the sky wall resembled a fine net, a net woven with tiny holes, even the needles made of logs.

I tried to push hard with my arms. It didn’t budge with simple physical force. How much force would be needed to break it and get out?

This time, I gathered the Nak in my hand. It was a simple agglomeration without any release. The Nak that had been rippling without any specific shape suddenly changed into a short rake shape.

It was a tool I often used when cleaning the barn. Drich used a hammer, but this is it?

I shook the pitchfork in my hand slightly. I could see the mana being drawn to it.

I tried to scrape the sky wall with a pitchfork.

There was a defect in the nak that formed the wall, but it was quickly repaired. It seemed difficult to make a hole in the sky wall with physical force or magic.

Quilbian looked down at the ground after scattering the Nak he was holding in his hand.

Hundreds of trees were running with their roots uprooted. They were not moving in a line, but rather bumping into each other and falling down, making a mess.

The trees whose waists were broken all turned into pieces and ran along the ground as if crawling. The trees whose branches were entangled with each other and could not fall off jumped in opposite directions and rolled around.

Most of the trees were bare, having lost their leaves.

A forest with holes where recordings have disappeared.

Quilbian looked at Nak, who was slowly slipping away.

Ten days have passed since the magic was implemented.

The Nak did not dry up. The Nak coming from the gap was increasing day by day.

The amount that can be released at one time also gradually increased.

Couldn’t it be that one day we can fill all the space under the sky with Naq?

“Okay!”

I shouted at Winte, who was on the roof of the dormitory below. The body that was fixed to the sky wall fell down.

It hit the ground with a thud.

I pulled my ankle out of the ground and jumped up to the roof of the dormitory.

“It does tear when I touch it. It looks like it needs a little more time to be cut perfectly.”

“You’ll definitely be able to get out of here. What matters is what happens after you get out.”

Winte’s voice was like a spring breeze. A comfortable expression and a comfortable posture. And the fragrant coffee.

“The coffee today is really ideal. It’s the kind of coffee that almost reached the first place.”

It was Winte savoring coffee with great praise.

“Really? It rained like usual.”

“It’s a fantastic collaboration of particles, molecules, and subtle temperatures.”

A list of unintelligible words. I guess that’s how it is now. I’m a weirdo who knows a lot.

Quillvian swung his index finger. The trees running around the dormitory rushed toward the eastern sky wall.

“If you keep digging, something will change.”

“When you have a lot of resources, the methods tend to be simpler. I hope it works out.”

After a while, a sound was heard from afar. The trees must have been throwing themselves against an impenetrable wall.

Keep knocking while covering your ears.

It’s like scratching an iron gate with a wooden skewer, but if you keep scratching for decades, won’t a hole form?

Anyway, what was left was time and money.

“What is that kid doing?”

Winte said.

“Who are you talking about?”

“Twella.”

“I’m tired of crying, so I’ll just stay still. That’s the kind of place it is. A place where you can’t do anything.”

“You said there were flowers and a house when you saw it.”

“It was there. It was quickly covered in sand and disappeared.”

“That kid is not the type to give up, even if he gets tired and takes a break. If he was the type to give up in the first place, he wouldn’t have saved you.”

“Let’s stop talking about depression. There’s no solution right now.”

Foolish Twella. Thinking of her made me nervous. Even though I had become indifferent to emotions through wear and tear, thinking of Twella standing alone on the gray sand made my molars clench.

“I’m going to drag you out there and nag you for three years. People shouldn’t be so kind that they fall for it. Your own life is the most important thing. You should never do such a foolish thing as trusting someone and sacrificing yourself for someone.”

“It’s so heartbreaking.”

“If you had done your work neatly, there would have been no reason to mess around.”

“I’ve said it many times, but I couldn’t help it.”

“I say this all the time, but saying you can’t help it is fucking stupid.”

I, too, was left behind in the gray world, far removed from the flow of time.

How does time flow in Twella? Can she maintain her sanity in a monochrome world where there is no sun or moon and where the passage of time is impossible to measure?

Quillvian would rather Twella be mad.

To make her lose her mind to the point where she can’t tell anything, so that when she’s pulled out into the distant future, it feels like a brief nightmare is over.

It was just too brutal to be left there alone with my mind intact.

Quillvien wasn’t alone.

When he believed he was the only one who survived, Twella’s best friend, Mae, approached him.

When the future seemed uncertain, Winte appeared at the cost of Twella’s sacrifice and offered help.

Yes, that’s right.

I live my life stepping on Twella.

I was able to breathe because there was a stepping stone called her.

When she didn’t know, she was an object of resentment, and she too wanted to be cursed and forgotten.

But what to do?

I figured it out.

Quilbian’s goal is now not to ‘survive’ but to ‘get that kid out’.

Time? How? Resources needed?

That didn’t matter.

If the purpose is clear, numbers will come.

I became half a monster to make that possible.

‘That woman’, he was able to smile even when facing Cheryl. It was important that he was not intimidated by the fact that she was a spirit that he met in a gap, not the main body.

From being something that one could not dare look up to, it has become something that can be overcome.

The first step is something everyone takes.

“There are no more books that can be interpreted.”

Quilbian looked at the bookshelf that Winte had summoned. There were books containing the goblin’s vision, but only a few were recognizable.

“You said there are three ways to learn magic?”

“That’s right.”

“What is the last resort?”

“To receive.”

“Should I ask you a favor? Give me the magic you learned?”

“that’s right.”

Quilbian tilted his head.

“You’re creating a book of magic by binding the essence of magic to objects, right?”

“yes.”

“Is there much of a difference? It seems the same in that you can extract and pass on magic by your own will, just with the process omitted.”

“Embodiing and binding the essence requires intervention in the mental world, that is, it consumes mental power. It is also like drawing one’s own destiny. If it is related to lifespan, then one’s lifespan will be shortened, but that doesn’t mean one will die immediately.”

Winte lifted his coffee cup.

“But those who pass it on will surely die. Whether it’s crude magic or powerful magic filled with strong salt, the moment you pass it on voluntarily, the one who passes it on will be destroyed. It’s the tragedy of a goblin who has become incomplete. At least humans don’t die just because they pass on the skills they’ve learned, right?”

Quillvin smiled with his arms crossed.

“It would be impossible to obtain magic through the third method. What goblin would give up his life and magic? Who would want it?”

“there is.”

“You say there is?”

As Winte gestured, something fell to the floor with a thud.

It was a frozen corpse.

It resembled a human in form, but had three eyes.

“This goblin passed on his magic to me and died. I had to freeze his body and keep it before it decomposed.”

“He threatened to torture me to death if I didn’t hand it over?”

“Well, you can take it that way, but not this guy.”

Winte kicked the corpse with his foot. The corpse cracked and split into several pieces.

The dismembered corpse melted in an instant and disappeared without a trace.

“‘Find a spiritual successor and continue the lineage of magic.’ That is the covenant I made with him.”

“Spiritual successor?”

“This is the magic that this guy created by sacrificing his life and magical power.”

Winte pointed east.

“Do trees run?”

Quilbian thought of the trees that would be holding up the sky wall.

“You have realized the essence and made it completely yours. It was impossible for me.”

“It wasn’t that complicated of a spell. Winter would have figured it out easily.”

“I realize. I hate those mysterious words so much. I also wanted to dig into the essence of magic. What exactly is magic? I know it conceptually, but embodying it and making it my own is another story.”

Winte made a seal with his left hand and snapped his fingers with his right.

The once blue sky turned red.

Waves of fire covered the sky.

A terror that will swallow everything up.

Just looking at it made his eyes feel like they were burning, so Quilbian slowly lowered his eyelids.

“The Sippin Hwang-hyung’s sorcery. It’s a simple sorcery that creates kitchen fire.”

“What kind of food can you make with that? It’s a fire that looks like it could burn down the world.”

“Even though it took the form of magic, the Nak I used was not even as strong as your feet. In the first place, my body is not suitable for moving Nak. By your standards, I have suffered for over 600 years, but this is all I can come to.”

Winte pointed to his own body.

Quilbian looked at Winte with distinction.

I see a lot of naks.

In the past, I thought it was a huge amount, but after looking straight at Cheryl and Twella, it seemed moderately large.

“That’s the result of 600 years?”

“Yeah. This is the first time I’ve tried this hard. And yet, this is the level I’ve reached.”

“Then that is… … .”

I looked closely at the fire that covered the sky. It was a mass of pure power. It looked similar to the small sun that Winte had created.

“Using the Narcs that respond to one’s will, one builds a system of power, and then induces phenomena by calling in mana. It’s a concept of magic. However, what I use is embarrassing to call magic.”

“Yes, that’s right. That’s not magic, it’s pretending to be magic… … It’s ignorant power.”

Winte stuck out his lips.

He was a gentleman who didn’t even bat an eye when someone cursed at him in front of his face.

“A power that is outside of God’s will. That is why I cannot handle it. I have come this far only with the help of the great Sitpin.”

I used to wonder why he was called the Great Sitpin, and now I understand.

“So Sitpin is something that even the monsters created by God could not understand, processed into something understandable?”

“Yes. The idea of ​​leaving behind magic and the flexibility of magic that surpasses the older brother all came from Sitpin. He is a great man who is comparable to the first ones.”

Winte clapped his hands lightly.

The bookshelf containing the books of magic was engulfed in flames. White flames obliterated the bookshelf from the world.

An ear-piercing scream burst out from between the ash-burned desks.

Quilbian looked at all the Nak’s dispersing into the air.

“There is no need to keep these magics since they are beyond your ability to learn. We have not made a covenant with them.”

“I’ve often heard the word ‘covenant’, but isn’t it just a promise?”

“The most powerful contract that can be made between life and life.”

“Strong restrictions?”

“It’s simple. If you break it, you die. Even I can’t break a covenant. Because I’ll die. If I’m prepared to die, I can break it, but I still have a lot of coffee that I haven’t collected.”

“You’re dying? You’re a being close to God?”

“That is a covenant. It should not be made lightly, but it is often used when transferring magic.”

Winte stretched out his hands toward the sky.

The raging flames disappeared in an instant.

Stars twinkled in the dark sky.

“Some goblins have dreams that transcend their karma. There are those who are greatly influenced by Sitpin, but there are also those who achieve enlightenment on their own.”

“Like a human?”

“Not just humans. All intelligent beings created by God. Ironically, the goblins that were not created by God are beginning to resemble God’s creations. You know what that means.”

“Get out of this land, we will be the masters.”

Quillvian shook his head as he looked at the star that was spewing out a gloomy light.

(Continued in next episode)