“Mr. Kim Do-jin, have you ever considered learning magic?”
It was a completely unexpected proposal.
Only one thought crossed my mind.
What a windfall.
But I didn't let it show on my face.
“Magic? What, are you offering to enroll me in an academy or something?”
“That’s right.”
“……?”
Magic is divided into four levels of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Sage.
The places and conditions for learning magic differ for each level.
Beginner magic can be learned at basic magic academies authorized by the government. Any Awakened One can enroll, but the monthly tuition starts in the millions of won.
So this woman was offering to enroll me in one of those academies?
For someone as broke as me, even that would be something to be grateful for… but that wasn't quite what I was hoping for.
“Of course, I didn’t come all this way just to enroll you in an academy.”
“Then?”
Phew.
I breathed an inward sigh of relief. For a second there, I was worried she’d actually come all this way just to offer me a spot in some basic academy.
She took another envelope from her inner pocket and showed it to me.
It didn't look like money. What was it?
“This is a request for special admission to Hankuk University.”
Hankuk University.
A Hunter training institution established after the Great War in Yeouido twenty years ago. It was the place every young Awakened One desperately wanted to get into.
Why?
Because upon graduation, you were issued a Hunter license without any further exams.
The only problem was that the difficulty of graduating was on par with the Hunter license exam itself.
“The Hankuk University Department of Magic is unique in that it allows special admissions even for the second semester.”
I’d heard about that. It was because promising mages were so rare that they were always looking to increase their numbers. I remembered that the decision had been passed unanimously, with no objections from the other departments.
They might have found it annoying, having gone through hellishly difficult exams to get in themselves, but even they knew it was better to have one more mage in the back line dishing out tons of damage.
I finally understood what Yoon Ji-an was getting at.
“So… learn the basics at an academy, then get special admission starting in the second semester. Is that it?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Hmm.”
I stroked my chin and began to feign contemplation.
It was, quite literally, an act.
My mind was already made up.
But if I jumped at the offer, it would look like I was indebted to them for getting in. I had to accept it in a way that felt like a win-win for both of us.
As my feigned deliberation dragged on, a hint of urgency crept into Yoon Ji-an’s impassive face.
Finally, after waiting in silence, she spoke.
“I heard you taught yourself the magic you used to defeat the orc.”
“That’s right.”
To be precise, I learned it from watching MeTube.
Occasionally, wandering mages with no affiliation or guys with a severe case of attention-seeking would upload videos of themselves demonstrating their magic on MeTube.
What was the title of the video I watched again?
Ah.
I think it was, [Never Underestimate Earth Magic Again.]
The creator seemed to be trying to promote the greatness of earth-attribute magic, but the spells he demonstrated were the most basic of beginner magic, so the comment section was filled with ridicule.
“Are you aware that very few people succeed in learning magic through self-study?”
“I didn’t know that.”
Of course it was difficult.
The guys who posted demonstration videos on places like MeTube all had the same goal: to show off.
They’d fill their videos with needlessly complex jargon and then cast the spell, all to show what cool and amazing mages they were.
How could it be easy?
The only people who could successfully learn from those videos were either people who already knew magic or talents who were cut from a different cloth from the start.
And I, who had only recently awakened, had managed to kill an orc with magic I’d taught myself.
To them, I was a very promising sprout.
“I believe the starting point is also crucial for talent to fully blossom. Therefore…”
So they were trying to sway me with the rather tempting bait of special admission.
Even without it, I could just wait until next year’s entrance exam, show off a few spells, and get in right away.
They knew full well that a talent who could master magic through self-study would grow just fine on their own.
There was only one reason they were doing this despite knowing that.
To put me in their debt.
Their plan was to indebt a promising future mage and use that leverage later.
Something along the lines of, We took such good care of you when you were a newbie, you can’t turn your back on us now.
Maybe they’d even try to coax me into becoming an Association-affiliated Hunter down the line.
“S-So, what do you think?”
She’d been rambling on about something, but I’d tuned most of it out. It was all predictable anyway. The gist of it was probably a 5,700-character essay on why I had to accept this offer.
I pretended to think it over for a moment longer, then shook my head.
“Ah, that seems a bit excessive, no matter how I look at it. I don’t like the feeling of being heavily indebted…”
I expressed a gentle refusal.
Yoon Ji-an’s face grew even more urgent. She even started waving the hands that had been resting calmly on her lap as she denied it.
“Y-You don’t have to think that way! We simply wish to help talented Awakened Ones grow. We have no other intentions, I assure you.”
As she spoke, trying to change my mind, her expression darkened in real-time.
Before coming here, her superiors must have drilled it into her ears: Make him feel indebted to us in some way.
How ironic, that she herself was now telling me I didn’t need to feel the slightest bit indebted.
“Oh… is that really all there is to it?”
I asked again, fully aware of the situation, a wide smile playing on my lips.
She nodded, her face crestfallen.
“That’s right…”
Her words said yes, but her expression screamed no. The disconnect between the two added a touch of cuteness to her otherwise rigid demeanor.
“Then I see no reason to refuse.”
After getting that final confirmation, I shook off any sense of obligation and snapped up the offer.
Truthfully, I’d been thinking about learning magic for a while now.
My ability was to shape mana into something resembling magic, relying solely on my innate talent. This ability, better described as sorcery than magic, was not yet perfect.
“An excellent decision.”
Her face brightened a little.
Although she’d failed to indebt me, the fact remained that I would be learning basic magic and gaining special admission with their help. They would surely try to use that fact later.
Not that it would work.
“We are currently looking for a suitable academy nearby. I will visit you again shortly.”
“Alright, take care on your way out.”
With a somewhat unsatisfied expression, she gave a slight bow, turned, and left.
I watched her go before returning to my room.
Two white envelopes sat on the folding table.
“Hehehehehe.”
Just looking at them made me laugh.
I was ten million won richer, I was going to learn basic magic for free, and I’d gotten special admission into Hankuk University.
“It’s raining good fortune!”
As I said before, my current ability is incomplete.
My power allows me to make anything happen as I will, as long as my mana permits. In a sense, every spell is an original creation made just for me.
While that sounds impressive, it has a huge blind spot.
Are my original creations stronger and more efficient than existing magic?
The answer to that question is uncertain.
As I see it, my ability right now is like rolling a die.
If by chance the mana distribution, arrangement, and form are all perfect, I roll a six. But if even one thing is off and the efficiency is a complete mess, I roll a one.
There were only two ways to solve this.
One was to use mana like crazy from now on and personally figure out the most efficient methods for every situation.
The other was to just copy existing magic.
“If I had to choose between the two, it’s obviously the latter.”
Of course it was.
One path was like drawing up blueprints on an empty plot of land and building a new house from scratch. The other was like moving into a well-built house and just redecorating the interior to my taste.
Magic was the crystallization of efficiency, refined over decades by talented mages.
If I could copy it, there was no need to bang my head against a wall starting from nothing.
And I was more than capable of copying it.
Why?
Because my eyes can see mana, which others can’t.
I can see how a spell manifesting before me moves and uses mana.
All I had to do was copy it exactly and make a few minor adjustments to make it easier for me to cast.
“I was wondering how I was going to enroll in a magic academy.”
The only reason I hadn’t tried to fix this problem, despite knowing about it, was simply because I had no money.
The more prestigious magic academies charged nearly one to two million won a month for tuition. For someone whose entire fortune was three million won, it was an unimaginable price.
“But now that money’s no longer an issue…”
All that was left was to copy their decades of accumulated know-how, solve my problem, and become flawless.