Magic—a mysterious field of study that makes possible what ordinary people cannot do.
They say that magic’s original purpose was to realize imagination, but in recent times, attributes were added to make it easier to cast.
However, since the essence of magic was ultimately scholarship…
“Ugh…”
It was hard to guarantee that it would be fun.
I didn’t know about manifesting magic itself, but learning magic theoretically was horrifically boring.
Still, if I didn’t want to repeat what had happened before, when I coughed up blood, I needed to study.
And so, after forcing letters into my head one by one…
“Is the first attribute finally done?”
The first section, the material related to the water attribute, was finished.
Since water was connected to the other basic attributes and was highly important, there had been that much more content.
“Uwaa… my head hurts…”
As I flopped down on the mattress, the desire to just fall asleep crept up on me, but…
There were about three days left until the Reaper came here. It wasn’t a long time, so I had to prepare.
After using my head, the next thing to do was…
Wreck my body.
Taking the Drawing Sword Saint’s “reference book” and the Immutable Sword, I moved to the place where I always trained.
The sand at my training spot was deeper than elsewhere, and the ground beneath it had been packed down firmly.
I held the sword and poured mana into it.
Then the sword and I connected, and mana flowed.
In that state, I drew.
Slice.
And then I sheathed it again.
Clack.
All I had to do was repeat that process until I was sick of it.
I had thought about putting down the sword and looking for shortcuts. But then I could never dream of reaching a position like the Sword Saint.
That was why I continued swinging my sword.
Until my body sent me the signal that it was starved of oxygen and could no longer move.
“Hoo, hoo…”
Drip. Drip.
With every swing, beads of sweat fell. The white sand gradually turned a coppery color.
The sand was packed down harder beneath my steps, and gouged out at the same time.
And as I used time as fuel to make the flower called swordsmanship bloom…
Pain came rushing in.
“Haa… haa.”
Lying sprawled on the sandy beach, gasping roughly for breath, I tasted the fishy scent of blood in my mouth.
I think I had heard somewhere that air passing through could damage the throat.
As I lay there struggling…
Whirrr.
A sound came from the submersible.
The sound of sand being dug up, and the sound of a motor operating.
Asoluzn was approaching me with its mechanical hand out in front.
In that mechanical hand, I could clearly see the “Bluetooth showerhead” I had bought at the exchange.
Having come right up in front of me before I knew it, Asoluzn brought the showerhead near my mouth.
Just as I was about to open my mouth, wondering what it was trying to do…
Shwaaa.
Water flowed from the showerhead.
Since it had been turned on right by my mouth, I had no choice but to drink the water coming out of it.
After drinking enough water for the pain to subside, the water stopped.
“…Did you give me water?”
At my words, Asoluzn moved its mechanical hand up and down as if nodding.
Then it came closer and held my hand tightly.
For a moment, I wondered if it was comforting me because I might be having a hard time, but…
Seeing the mana slowly stirring, I realized it was replenishing the mana it had used for the showerhead.
‘I almost got touched…’
In any case, thanks to the showerhead Asoluzn brought me, I was able to wash off my sweat and return to the submersible.
The current time was… a little past one in the afternoon.
It seemed best to turn on the stream now.
I roughly shook out my wet hair and began preparing for the broadcast.
Of course, by “preparing,” I only meant tidying up the submersible and putting away things that shouldn’t appear on stream.
Once all the preparations were done… I turned on the stream while chewing on jerky.
Then came the familiar cluster of comments from the regulars.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Good morning? Good afternoon?
ㄴDrawing Sword Saint: Perfect timing. I was just getting bored.
ㄴEducation Master: Have you bbeen welll?
ㄴKkukku: It’s been a while, but you’re still alive?
I glanced over the regulars’ comments, then looked at today’s stream title.
[Deep Sea Escape, Day 14: Entering the Central Region.]
The central region—the place I had been putting off because the number of Cyclopes kept increasing.
It was a place that posed more than enough danger to my life, but I turned my steps toward it.
“Today, I’m not actually going all the way to the center. I’m only planning to enter the outskirts.”
Naturally, I had no intention of going all the way into the management facility in the center.
No matter how much stronger I had become than a Cyclops, it was true that fighting them became difficult once their numbers reached the double digits.
I picked up my sword and walked toward the city.
The purpose of this city exploration was to secure one more weapon to kill the Reaper.
And to gather information while I was at it.
Also… to check the performance of my magic.
Step. Step.
The sound of my footsteps echoed through the city filled only with Cyclopes.
It was an eerie sight, but with the gallery’s comment window there, I didn’t feel like I was trapped alone.
ㄴTruth Scholar: I’m curious what material the buildings here are made of.
ㄴDrawing Sword Saint: Are no Cyclopes coming out? The more real opponents you have, the more it helps…
ㄴEducation Master: Uh, I’m so sleepyy but I can’t miss thiss.
Perhaps because I was still on the outskirts, no Cyclops had appeared yet.
But it was about time for one to show up.
Kirik.
At that moment, a Cyclops appeared immediately.
The Cyclops recognized me and tried to unleash a slash right away, but…
Slice.
I immediately separated the Cyclops into eyeball and body.
Now I could deal with one of them without a sound or rumor.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Since you can handle Cyclopes easily now, shall we explore more?
ㄴDrawing Sword Saint: Hmm… at this level, it seems fine for you to enter the central district.
It was true that my skills had improved by leaps and bounds compared to when I had first learned mana.
Enough to bisect a Cyclops in an instant.
‘…Even so, I still have to be terrified of the Reaper.’
…I suddenly felt depressed.
The more I thought about this damn deep sea, the more depressing things there were.
In any case, I was now at the entrance to the central region.
The number of Cyclopes had also increased to about three times what it had been before.
Of course, I could still cut down Cyclopes now, but considering the possibility of several more rushing in, avoiding them was the best option.
However…
‘I still haven’t tested my magic’s power…’
The reason I wanted to check the power of my magic was ultimately to see, “Can it be used against the Reaper?”
I wanted to see how strong the “spear magic circle” I had made this time was.
Using it out in the open had a high chance of drawing attention…
And using it from somewhere the Cyclopes couldn’t see had a high chance of missing.
Let’s think for a moment…
The magic I created was, in the end, focused on piercing.
So wherever I used it, this magic would pierce through something.
“Wait… then…”
As I continued that line of thought, one possibility came to mind.
Piercing a Cyclops like a sniper shot.
If I did that, the chance of drawing aggro would be lower, and escaping would be much easier.
After going through that thought process, I took cover behind a building and watched a Cyclops.
In the distance, I could clearly see a Cyclops gnawing at a building.
“Focus…”
I had left the magic circle with the spear drawn on it back in the submersible, so this time I had to draw the magic myself.
Recalling the flow from last time, I engraved the magic circle into my mana.
The problem last time had occurred because I was trying to recall a flow that didn’t exist.
But this time, I only had to follow the flow of the “spear magic circle,” so there was no problem.
My eyes were on the Cyclops, but my attention was drawn to my mana.
The flow of mana—I twisted it above my hand.
The mana left the flow in my hand according to my will, and bloomed above it.
A green light shimmered over my hand like a heat haze.
I wove that random flow together in midair.
Starting from the most basic circle, I dug deeper and deeper inward.
Using the water attribute, which I currently understood best, I drew out the magic circle.
I changed the calm, broad-flowing water into the shape of a spear.
And so, little by little, I made it dig farther inward.
Then, the moment the flows of beginning and end were all woven together at the center…
The magic was complete.
Water · One Pierce 水 · 一貫
A soundless stream of water poured out.
In an instant, a hole was punched through the Cyclops.
It was magic where the cause seemed to have vanished from cause and effect, leaving only the result behind.
The gentle stream of water, like a tautly stretched thread, cut through anything.
It did not draw the attention of the other Cyclopes either.
Perhaps it was because the mana had not been directed at them.
“Hoo…”
My head throbbed.
Thankfully, it didn’t hurt as if my head were splitting apart like last time.
Still, it was a fairly satisfying magic.
A spell that could snipe from afar and produced sufficient power.
Perhaps the regulars thought so too, because the comment window was in an uproar.
ㄴTruth Scholar: Magic! So you hadn’t given up on magic! And such beautiful magic at that… If you had been on the surface, straight to the Magic Tower…
ㄴFoot Sword Saint: Huh… the path of a magic swordsman, is it…? Your talent with the sword seems far superior no matter how I look at it…
ㄴKkukku: Wow… this is pretty amazing.
At the clean realization of the magic, the regulars showed all kinds of reactions.
I looked over those reactions for a bit, then headed to the entrance of the building I had been using as cover.
One of the goals of this exploration had been achieved.
Testing my magic.
However, there was still one goal I had yet to complete.
Getting one more reliable weapon to kill the Reaper.
I intended to obtain it inside the building.
It was something I hadn’t been able to do before because I had been afraid of drawing the Cyclopes’ aggro, but now it was fully possible.
Before my eyes was a tightly locked iron door.
And in front of the locked door was something like a door lock.
Normally, you would enter something like a passcode and go inside, but…
There was no one here now, was there?
“Pardon the intrusion.”
I placed my hand on the sword hilt.
Bang!!
And cut.
Well… there was no one here to complain. So wasn’t it fine?