Training Addict Magician in a Growth-Focused Story

Training Addict Magician in a Growth-Focused Story

EP.26 The Lair of the Ancient Magician (3)

Leon had obtained over a hundred scorpion golem cores. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed during that period. After extracting the cores and storing all the remnants in the orb, he emerged to find the passageway clean once more.

‘Should I go further…’

Now that he could fully utilize his magic, Leon had no intention of stopping. Even the deepest passage had an end.

“Stairs?”

He saw stairs leading further down in the cave. They seemed to lead to a deeper part of the cave.

‘Were the stairs going up in the right passage?’

After some contemplation, Leon decided to step onto the descending stairs. The stairs spiraled downward. Illuminated faintly by light orbs, the stairs appeared to be carved from rough rock, yet each step was remarkably uniform in height and width.

‘The person who made this must have been very meticulous.’

Leon descended cautiously, step by step, until he suddenly held his breath at the sight below.

‘A knight…?’

In front of the stairs stood a massive door. An ivory-armored knight, with its head bowed, blocked the way. To be precise, it was a knight golem.

‘Did the ancient magician like big things?’

The knight was also enormous, about half the size of the giant door. It was roughly three times Leon’s height, even larger than the guardian golem he possessed.

Next to the knight lay an ivory greatsword. After holding his breath for a while, Leon realized that the knight golem wasn’t operational.

‘Considering the scorpion golems were moving, it’s probably not completely inactive. Maybe…’

He thought it might try to stop him if he approached the door. Although he was convinced it was a golem, he prepared thoroughly for battle just in case. He went into the orb and replenished all his memorized spells. The reason for his meticulous preparation, despite the knight being a golem like the scorpions, was the sword lying next to it. He wasn’t sure if the wooden sword’s ability would work on the armor it wore.

Leon, having used mana infusion, cautiously extended the wooden sword towards the inside of the knight’s helmet. His plan was to disrupt the knight’s core, just like with the scorpions. However, as soon as the wooden sword entered the knight’s range, the knight abruptly lifted its head. It grabbed the sword next to it and swiftly struck the wooden sword away.

Retrieving the sword, Leon confirmed that the knight was still operational.

‘As expected…!’

The sword the knight wielded was a separate weapon from the knight golem’s core. Contact with the wooden sword wouldn’t stop its function. From within the dark, barely visible face inside the ivory helmet, only the glowing red eyes focused on Leon. As soon as their eyes met, the knight charged at Leon with incredible speed. The greatsword swept towards the spot where Leon had been standing, threatening to obliterate it.

The speed was faster than expected, and Leon, clutching the wooden sword, infused mana into a Blink scroll. Blink was a lower-tier teleportation spell that allowed movement to a visible location within a certain distance. Appearing right in front of the door, Leon noticed a lever behind the spot where the knight had been standing. However, he still had to deal with the knight first, so he immediately summoned a 4-star earth elemental from the basic Arpina magic he had memorized.

Among the four memorized spells, aside from Pierce, all were basic Arpina magic.

Using Swell to enlarge the sword and then shooting it with Pierce would be convenient, but at least at the basic magic level, the two spells did not synergize. When one spell was used, the other was undone. The knight turned and approached Leon again.

Magicians often looked down on weapon-based magic. One reason was that its power was inherently weak, but even if it were strong, its impact was limited to a narrow range. If the weapon itself was powerful, it wouldn’t be a problem, but otherwise, magic that relied heavily on weapons had its limitations. Magic that manipulated weapons was also disparaged, but what about a knight wielding a sword directly? Magicians who could enhance their physical abilities with mana infusion found such opponents not too difficult to handle.

‘Of course, if it’s this big and fast… it would be more troublesome.’

Moreover, considering the scorpion golems, the problem was the defense that apprentice magic couldn’t penetrate. Leon quickly dodged the knight’s downward slash by jumping to the side. The knight’s sword struck the ground with force.

The knight, sensing that Leon was getting close to the lever, charged at him even faster. To buy time to summon other creatures, Leon used another Blink scroll. Appearing on the opposite side, he summoned a three-star and a two-star creature from the Arpina magic series.

‘Two Blink scrolls left…’

He had to use the remaining scrolls judiciously. In the fast-paced battle, it was difficult to retreat into the orb in a dangerous moment. Even if he could avoid immediate danger, reemerging without a proper understanding of the situation was risky. Blink was the only method that could introduce a significant variable.

A wind fairy and a small bird with flaming feathers circled around Leon. The reason Leon summoned them all at once was to distract the knight and, in the meantime, shoot the wooden sword through the knight’s helmet.

It didn’t matter that other apprentice magic didn’t affect the knight. As long as the wooden sword reached the knight, that was all that was needed.

Summoning three creatures at once caused Leon’s mana to drain rapidly. He immediately spread the three summoned creatures around the knight and began to gather his mana, prompting the knight to take a defensive stance with its sword. Seeing this, Leon was certain that the knight had no means to gauge his level.

Leon chanted the incantation for a combination spell.

“Trillapida.”

A boulder formed in front of the brown-haired mole that had emerged from the ground and flew towards the knight. The massive rock, large enough to cover Leon’s entire body, didn’t stop at one; it formed three times in succession and flew towards the knight. However, the knight easily blocked the spell.

Leon didn’t stop there. He pulled out a heap of F-rank and E-rank attack scrolls and threw them at the knight. The scrolls he hadn’t disposed of during the exchange festival were now proving useful.

“Wind Cutter.”

Following that, he activated a combination spell through the wind elemental, sending dozens of attack spells flying towards the knight. Earth walls rose around the knight, and flames erupted from the ground due to flame magic. A barrage of magic missiles, triple fireballs, and wind blades also assaulted the knight. Though the spells weren’t particularly powerful, their sheer volume scattered the knight’s focus.

‘Now!’

“Pierce!”

Leon shot the wooden sword towards the inside of the knight’s helmet. Infusing most of his remaining mana into the wooden sword, it swiftly pierced through the gap in the helmet. The spells the knight failed to block didn’t even scratch its body, but that wasn’t the point. The knight’s body jerked and tilted to the side.

Thud-

Seeing the knight collapse completely, Leon sighed in relief and retrieved the wooden sword. Approaching and examining the knight closely, Leon discovered that instead of a face, there was a round sphere inside the helmet.

It was the core. The light he had thought was an eye was actually the glow emitted by the functioning core. Leon then realized that the armor was completely hollow inside.

‘The armor itself was moving…’

In other words, it was an armor golem. This meant that he didn’t necessarily need to shoot inside the helmet; touching the armor alone would have stopped its function.

‘It doesn’t matter since I succeeded… but the core is completely destroyed.’

Unlike the scorpion golems whose circuits were damaged, the core of the armor golem, having been directly hit, had completely lost its light.

‘This is just like defeating a golem.’

It wouldn’t be wrong to say he had defeated it purely with his own skills rather than relying on the wooden sword’s ability. Without needing to extract the core, Leon placed the entire armor into the orb and then turned his attention to the greatsword lying on the ground.

‘I should take the greatsword too…’

Although it seemed like he was collecting swords despite being a magician, Leon placed the greatsword into the orb as well. Before opening the door, Leon entered the orb to replenish his mana and memorized spells.

‘I’ve used up a lot of orb time…’

Leon had used most of the orb time he had accumulated before reaching the fourth rank, and the 400 hours he received upon reaching the fourth rank. He hadn’t completed any quests since then, having attended the exchange festival immediately afterward, continuously consuming orb time. Especially, he had used a significant amount of time learning the Moonlight Scattering Sword, leaving him with 164 hours remaining.

‘I can’t pretend to be an ordinary person any longer…’

He needed time to train without worrying about being noticed. Becoming an ordinary disciple was a temporary measure to avoid suspicion until he could claim he had awakened his mana. But seeing the remaining orb time, he decided not to hesitate any longer. With the excuse of being in the lair of an ancient magician…

‘…Do I need to return to Widia?’

That thought briefly crossed his mind, but then Lia’s face flashed through his mind.

Rowen’s face also came to mind.

‘I should at least let them know I’m alive.’

Having fully recovered his mana, Leon returned to reality. When he pulled the lever, the double doors began to slowly open, scraping against the ground.

Kugung-

The cave vibrated. Although a small gap had formed through which Leon could enter, he waited until the entire scene inside was visible before stepping in. The revealed scene was not much different from the passage he had traversed before descending the stairs. The only difference was that at regular intervals along the passage, there were rooms on both sides. The doors to these rooms were large, though not as massive as the door the knight had guarded.

With the wooden sword floating around him, Leon cautiously approached the nearest door and slowly pulled the lever.

Kugung-

The door opened, revealing a space much smaller than he had expected.

‘This finally looks like a space used by a magician…’

Leon noticed a table placed in the otherwise empty room, devoid of any decorations or furniture. On the table lay a scroll that appeared to be in surprisingly good condition. Next to the scroll were a red book and a quill. The letters on the scroll were mostly intact, without any signs of fading or discoloration.

‘Was it preserved magically?’

[To my dear colleague Marcellus,

Are you striving to get closer to the source today as well?

I imagine your beautiful dance of mana is enveloping the world today.

I do not wish to belittle your passion, but would you listen to a friend’s sighing confession?]

The scroll was a letter addressed to someone. Leon continued to read the scroll.

[……The world is blinded by elemental magic, neglecting our noble magic.

They call it technology, but it is also the ‘source.’

Enchanted by dazzling flames and raging storms, they fail to see the wonder of life creation we have achieved.

(omitted)

I am enclosing part of my research results, so please reply if you are interested.

Your support and friendship are always a great strength to me. Even if our path is lonely and arduous, I am grateful to have a colleague watching over us.

Your eternal companion, Megriffa von Wittestein.]

‘So the golems were indeed created by an ancient magician…’

Leon turned his gaze to the red-covered book next to the scroll.

[The Secrets of Creation by Megriffa (Basics)]

‘It seems this letter was never sent… What happened?’

Leon opened the red-covered book.

‘The fundamental theories needed to create golems…’

The book started with the history of golem creation, followed by explanations of the materials used, the structure of golems, the manufacturing of cores, and the basics of connecting magical circuits.

‘I thought it was just a magitech book, but this is magic too…’

Golems could be operated according to a set manual, but they could also be controlled at will through magic.

‘I wonder if there’s an advanced version.’

Leon searched the empty room thoroughly but couldn’t find any advanced books.

‘Let’s check the other rooms.’

Leon left the room and approached the room directly opposite. When he opened the door, the space revealed was indeed larger than the previous one. In one corner of the room, he found a pile of ivory armor. The remnants of the knight’s armor, minus the helmet, were scattered around.

‘Was this a place where golems were made?’

After storing everything in the orb, Leon inspected the other rooms, but most were similar. They were mostly filled with the remnants of scorpion golems, and there was even a room with gargoyle golems that had their heads cleanly severed. All ten rooms were like this.

‘This is a floor for manufacturing golems… Why didn’t the gargoyle golems appear?’

With cautious steps, Leon opened the last remaining door. It was a spacious room that felt empty, yet there was a distinct difference.

‘A training room…?’

A wide circular stone platform rose in the center, and the floor and walls around it were engraved with magic circles. Protective magic circles. Leon had never seen one in person, but he had heard that the training rooms of high-level magicians were covered with protective magic circles to minimize the impact of magic.

Around the stone platform lay various golem remains, most of which were gargoyle golems. They all had cores installed, but unlike the autonomous golems, these showed no sign of movement despite having cores.

‘They said hundreds of golems could be controlled directly…’

Of course, the method to do so wasn’t detailed in the basic book of creation secrets. Considering the traces of magic around the platform, either the gargoyle golems were capable of using magic, or the owner of this lair could use other magic besides creating golems.

‘It’s too unnerving to enter.’

Without being able to confirm if it was merely a defensive magic circle, Leon hesitated to step in.

‘Let’s give up on this one.’

As he decided to turn away, a flash of light burst from the magic circle.

The light affected Leon even outside the door. Reflexively, he shielded himself with the wooden sword and chanted an incantation.

“Swell!”

The light flickered, and as Leon’s vision cleared after being momentarily obscured, he found himself in a darker, more cramped space than before. And the wooden sword, which he had just enlarged with magic, had vanished from sight.