Training Addict Magician in a Growth-Focused Story

Training Addict Magician in a Growth-Focused Story

EP.33 Is It You Again?

One month ago.

Arpina encountered remnants of the Black Tower in the city of Flozenta, where her fellow magicians were based.

They were not black magicians affiliated with Tenelon, but they knew some information about Tenelon.

Among that information was the fact that there was a Tenelon hideout near Widia.

Whether that information was true or not, Arpina began to gather more information about Tenelon in earnest.

There was a reason Arpina was so cautious.

It was because of the leader of Tenelon.

They were already people who advanced their ranks through sinister sorcery, but their leader was an especially unsettling figure who had reached the Insight rank.

The leader of Tenelon’s Black Tower, Acrifa.

Arpina had encountered him before.

It was when she was young.

Not in the frontier kingdom of Vasprion, where Widia was located, but in the great empire of Derkantia.

In Derkantia, there were 20 human Transcendence-rank magicians, and he was one of the disciples among those 20, along with Arpina.

She recalled the 200-year-old elder she had seen before leaving the empire.

He had an extremely eccentric personality, but his magical skills were genuine.

Acrifa was his disciple.

Arpina had only seen Acrifa in passing, but she remembered his gloomy face.

Even though she knew one of Tenelon’s hideouts was near Widia, Arpina didn’t take immediate action.

She gathered information slowly and methodically.

When she was certain, she planned to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Otherwise, she would lose track of them again.

‘Especially that teleportation magic is too troublesome.’

Magic that hides in the darkness.

If a magician with a low rank used it, the flow of mana would be visible, but it was indeed tricky when used by someone of a higher rank.

Arpina was gathering information from various places when she received a report that something significant had happened in Widia.

Berford had caused an incident, and she needed to clean up after him.

The report had been delayed.

The relic exploration had already ended, and the report was sent to Arpina for the cleanup.

After that day, Arpina stopped collecting information and returned to Widia with Ria, who had been staying in Flozenta.

Arpina informed Ria.

Berford had broken his promise and went ahead with the relic exploration, and the magicians on the same ship got caught up in the relic and were now returning to Widia after the situation had ended.

Since then, Ria had been noticeably anxious, urging them to return to Widia quickly.

And she asked.

What happened to Leon?

Arpina had inquired separately and found out that Leon was among those caught up in the relic and had drawn the monsters’ attention alone before disappearing. However, she didn’t tell Ria.

It was because Ria was too anxious, and it wasn’t certain whether Leon was dead or alive.

It was natural to assume he was dead, but Arpina knew Leon had something hidden.

So she didn’t make any conclusions.

And as soon as they returned to Widia, she found out.

That Leon had returned alive.

‘As expected, he has something…’

He was a child with a strong tendency to solve things on his own, but now that he had drawn attention, he needed someone’s protection.

Naturally, that someone should be herself, who had an inkling of his true worth.

But then, another rumor spread rapidly in Widia.

‘He became the Tower Master’s personal disciple?’

Arpina was dumbfounded.

He became a personal disciple already?

Did he grasp the situation that quickly?

No, he was too cunning!

‘Did Raidera notice something too?’

If so, it was even more regrettable.

As soon as Arpina heard the news, she flew to find Leon faster than Ria.

And now, here they were.

“The Tower Master’s disciple?”

Leon scratched his head and spoke with an apologetic expression.

“I couldn’t refuse the Tower Master’s offer.”

Arpina knew it too.

If the Tower Master had made the offer first, Leon had no choice.

And objectively, being the Tower Master’s personal disciple had more advantages.

Knowing this, Arpina still spoke.

The thought that she was one step too late was swirling intensely in her mind.

It was a stark contrast to her usually cold demeanor.

“The Tower Master doesn’t have time to care for a personal disciple.”

“Yes… He mentioned that as well. He said there would be no support.”

“Then, is there any need to become the Tower Master’s disciple?”

“I actually prefer that part…”

One of Arpina’s eyebrows twitched.

“No matter how good that sounds, having no support means you won’t even have the opportunity to learn the Tower Master’s magic.”

“I’m prepared to accept that.”

Arpina, who had been staring at Leon’s unchanged expression, finally forced a smile.

She didn’t want to say this.

“The magic book I gave you. The Basic Four Elements Magic.”

“…Yes.”

“It must have been useful to you. Right?”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

“There are higher-rank spells too, you know?”

Leon glanced at her cautiously and then awkwardly smiled.

“…I see. Higher-rank spells from such a systematic magic. That’s truly impressive.”

“…”

In the brief silence that followed, Arpina collected her thoughts.

She swept her silver hair back coolly.

“Fine. Since you’ve already become a personal disciple, there’s nothing I can do. I’ll just wait for the reward you’ll give me, won’t I?”

Arpina’s lips quivered as she forced a smile.

Leon wiped the sweat that had started to bead on his forehead as he watched her.

“Yes… Thank you for waiting.”

“If that reward doesn’t satisfy me, then…”

“Leon!”

As Arpina muttered softly, Ria came running.

She glanced at Arpina, who had disappeared earlier, and then approached Leon directly.

“What happened? And what’s with that arm…”

Seeing Ria’s tearful face, Leon looked even more troubled than before.

“It’s fortunate that I survived with just this much injury.”

“If Leon got hurt this badly, it must have been extremely dangerous.”

Ria lowered her head and mumbled.

“Someone… should have taken you… It would have been better if we were together.”

Leon heard everything.

Was she saying it for him to hear?

Leon, instead, glanced at Arpina and spoke.

“If we had been together, it would have been dangerous.”

“I know I’m still lacking, so that’s true, but still…”

Ria glanced at Arpina once more.

Arpina, who had been lost in thought for a moment, noticed the glance and couldn’t even muster a bitter laugh.

‘How did I end up being treated like this?’

*****

Three months had passed since Leon became the Tower Master’s personal disciple.

He still used the training room for common disciples.

Every time he went back and forth, he could feel the common disciples treating him with great difficulty, but there was nothing Leon could do.

There really was no other support.

The only training room Leon could use comfortably was the common disciples’ training room.

They resented the Tower Master’s personal disciple for invading their space, and Leon had no choice but to use this training room, so he felt awkward.

A very uncomfortable situation for both sides.

‘It’s not like I go out much anyway.’

He just had to endure the awkwardness when he occasionally left the training room and encountered a common disciple on his way to his personal room.

In the meantime, Rowen visited and handed him a high-grade healing potion.

With it, he was able to heal the burn on one arm.

It was one of those days when he continued his training for 20 hours in reality and 10 hours in the orb, aiming to reach the initial stage of Arcane rank.

It was shortly after he turned 14.

General Quest

▶ Training (Completed)

Reward

▶ Magic Book (Alteration)

Leon received today’s reward.

The rewards alternated between artifacts and magic books.

▶ Acquired Light Magic ‘Radiance of Creation (SSS)’.

“Wow…?”

Leon, who had thought that S was the highest grade, couldn’t close his mouth at the sight of the dazzling grade before him.

Apart from the breath-taking joy, Leon was finally convinced.

There was something special about the 300th reward.

With a pounding heart, Leon accepted the yellow-covered book and felt a moment of puzzlement.

The reward he received this time was indeed a magic book.

High-grade magic books were often the unique magic of other high-ranking magicians.

However, this magic book had no name attached to it.

Come to think of it, he had only thought that the Transcendence rank corresponded to the S grade.

He hadn’t even considered anything beyond that.

‘What is this?’

The magic book couldn’t have naturally formed on its own…

As Leon opened the magic book and began to read, he found himself even more perplexed.

‘I don’t understand what this means…’

It wasn’t that he couldn’t comprehend it because it was a high-dimensional formula.

The structure of the formula was entirely different from the existing ones.

‘But I’ve seen something like this before.’

Leon recalled seeing a similar formula structure.

It was recent.

Leon hurriedly retrieved ‘Secrets of Creation (Advanced)’ from the makeshift library within the orb.

Over the past three months, Leon had lightly skimmed through both the basics and advanced ranks of Secrets of Creation.

‘It’s definitely similar.’

The structure of the formula was similar to the one found in the advanced rank.

The reason Leon had only lightly skimmed through the Secrets of Creation was that the advanced section contained not only formulas but also characters that were incomprehensible.

Leon vaguely knew that these characters were ‘runes.’

‘Were the characters in the Radiance of Creation automatically translated?’

Although there were no runes in the characters written in the Radiance of Creation, the structure of the formulas using runes in the advanced section of the Secrets of Creation matched perfectly.

‘Runes were said to have been phased out…’

Runes, once called the language of the gods, had not been used since ancient times.

It was understood that the magical power derived from runes was limited, and they naturally became obsolete as the modern system of magic was established.

‘I don’t know the detailed history, so it’s hard to understand everything.’

Leon only knew very basic history from a few books he had read in the introductory courses and the old magic library.

‘Would there be books about runes in the central library?’

Even though runes were said to be obsolete, he felt he needed to understand them to properly use magic.

Naturally, he needed to know this to handle the advanced Secrets of Creation.

‘Considering how people have been treating me, they won’t block my access to the central library.’

Leon got up from his seat for the first time in a while and left the training room.

As he entered the central library, people only glanced at him but did not block his way.

Leon searched for books at ease but soon furrowed his brow in frustration.

‘Are there no books on runes?’