-Infinite Pentagon
Last night, I had instinctively activated magic, but I still didn’t properly understand how the detailed process had even unfolded.
In that situation, I thought it would be better not to use magic if at all possible, but here I was, already on my way to work as a mage.
So one way or another, I had to study magic.
‘Even if my ego doesn’t remember it perfectly, this body is Oudin’s, so it probably remembers magic… Let’s try.’
I closed my eyes and turned my consciousness inward.
The basics of magic should begin with manipulating mana.
A pulse that spread from my heart and flowed through my entire body.
A pulse I had never known in my previous world existed within me. I naturally understood that this was the foundation that made up mana.
I focused all my mind and sensed the pulse in detail. In an instant, I sank down into it.
My whole body became consciousness and felt the pulse.
I grasped its structure. I understood how those minute movements gathered to create energy, and how they came together and scattered.
‘Ah…!’
To my surprise, I could control the pulse. I slowly moved it according to my will.
For now, only within my body.
I drew the pulse up from my heart, gathered it between my brows, then let it flow to my fingertips. I could feel energy writhing and coiling.
‘So this is mana.’
My heart pounded, and the space between my brows burned. I could hardly believe I was doing this, yet at the same time, mana felt utterly familiar, like clothes worn for so long they fit my body perfectly.
It had to be Oudin’s ability.
How long had I been like that? I was merely sitting motionless inside the shaking car, but in truth, I was sensing, understanding, and moving the foundation that formed the universe.
Now I felt like I knew. How to activate magic.
I even felt impatient, desperate to try using magic. But I couldn’t suddenly cast a spell inside the car.
“Phew. Mr. Mage, you’re not using magic right now, are you? Why does the air feel so heavy?”
Jang Pildu huffed out a breath and opened the car window.
Only then did I open the eyes I had kept closed and look around. My vision felt bright. Even objects in reality seemed to appear in greater detail than before.
I turned my gaze out the window. Outside, a fairly familiar cityscape unfolded.
There were apartment complexes and forests of buildings, and the roads were packed with cars. It wasn’t very different from the world I had come from.
But soon, I encountered an unfamiliar sight.
It wasn’t the buildings or the roads. It was the scene on the sidewalks, where people were walking.
Mixed among the people passing through the streets were other races.
That person with snow-white skin and a slender figure was an elf. And that short, sturdy-looking bearded one had to be a dwarf.
“What’s wrong? Was there an accident somewhere?”
I must have turned my head and stared without realizing it. Jang Pildu asked while checking the rearview mirror.
“No. Just saw a strangely shaped car passing by.”
I gave a vague excuse and turned my gaze forward again.
To me, it was an utterly unfamiliar sight, but to the people of this world, it was simply everyday life.
Only now did the story the crows had told me last night about other races immigrating to Earth feel truly real.
As did the fact that I had come to a world different from the one I used to live in.
I exhaled deeply.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t really something to be surprised by. Even in my previous world, where only humans lived, I had never felt much sense of belonging.
I hadn’t chosen to come to this world, but I hadn’t chosen to be born in my previous world either.
A world was something you were given.
In the end, it didn’t matter whether this world felt unfamiliar or familiar to me.
‘I just have to live.’
In that instant, I felt an intense wave of energy swirling within my body. I felt relieved that I hadn’t fallen into this world empty-handed.
* * *
The car entered Incheon Port.
Jang Pildu checked the location while peering this way and that, then parked the car in a lot inside the pier.
“Now, let’s get out. It’s that ship over there. We’ll be unloading the cargo from that vessel.”
I approached the pier as Jang Pildu led the way. Around the ship he had mentioned, mercenaries were already waiting. There were about thirty in all.
Trucks to move and load the cargo had also been prepared.
But the harbor was strangely quiet. I didn’t know if it was only this area, but I couldn’t sense the usual bustle of a pier.
‘A port normally wouldn’t be like this… would it?’
Incheon Port in a parallel world couldn’t be exactly the same as the one in my previous world, but even so, it was strange.
Unless the Republic of Korea’s economy had collapsed, Incheon Pier couldn’t possibly be this quiet.
“Everyone ready?”
Jang Pildu said as he approached the mercenaries. Seeing about half of them answer, that seemed to be the number of mercenaries from Pil Office. The rest were probably mercenaries from Hanta Office.
I joined them as well and carefully looked around.
The moment I looked around, thinking that I needed to examine the area properly, detection magic activated. It seemed my will had naturally triggered the spell.
Mana spread outward like a fine mist. It was a flow of pulses that ordinary people’s eyes would not be able to see.
The result was just as I expected. Within a radius of several kilometers, there was no movement from anyone else.
As if someone had deliberately cleared out the surroundings, not a single person could be seen.
No matter how I looked at it, the situation was unnatural.
‘Did the client clear the pier in advance? Why? What on earth is the cargo for it to be this secretive?’
That was when someone caught my eye.
A man in a black leather jacket was approaching the ship. The fine mist of my detection magic gathered toward him. I could feel powerful mana from the man.
‘That must be the mage Hanta Office brought in.’
He was an old man with snow-white hair. Even so, his gait felt remarkably vigorous. I couldn’t be sure, but he seemed to be quite an impressive mage.
Just as I was about to confirm the man’s identity with Jang Pildu, the man who had boarded the ship raised one arm high and gave a hand signal.
At once, the mercenaries began to move.
“Ah! The signal’s been given.”
“Hanta, everyone onto the ship!”
“Let’s go, everyone.”
The mercenaries from Hanta Office headed toward the ship with movements that were somewhat loose. They were moving in an orderly manner, but there was no sign of tension.
“Now, let’s get our formation in order too!”
At Jang Pildu’s shout, the mercenaries from Pil Office lined up as if enclosing the path from the ship to the trucks.
All they had to do was guard the short route while the cargo was moved. It could be called an extremely simple job.
With all four directions empty, there didn’t seem to be anything in particular to watch out for.
But I did not lower my guard. For some reason, I had a bad feeling.
The old mage was assigning positions to the mercenaries boarding the ship.
There was one container loaded on the ship. The cargo seemed to be inside. The old mage stationed the mercenaries in front of the container door.
I used detection magic to probe inside the container. I couldn’t detect anything in particular, as if the object inside wasn’t something imbued with mana.
Only, for some reason, I sensed a deep darkness.
“That old man is the mage, right? Do you know who he is?”
I asked Jang Pildu in a low voice.
“Hmm. No idea. I’ve never seen him before either. Hanta Office doesn’t have any affiliated mages, so they must’ve found him somewhere. They must really be short on funds, huh? They brought an old man? Haha.”
Jang Pildu answered casually.
He could say that because, as an ordinary person, he couldn’t tell how much mana a mage possessed.
Looking down on an old man might make sense when it came to mercenaries who used their bodies, but it wasn’t something to say about a mage.
In reality, that old mage was giving off quite powerful mana.
I kept watching the old mage without looking away.
Perhaps because he was about to use magic, I felt a faint pulse coming from him. He had wrapped mana around his entire body and was finely adjusting the pulse.
For now, I couldn’t tell what kind of magic he was trying to use. But an instinct that I needed to be wary ran down my spine like a shudder.
‘Why do I feel like this?’
The warning signal delivered by my detection magic made me tense without realizing it.
A moment later, I realized the true nature of that tension.
The mage stood in front of the container door and was drawing up his mana.
When he stretched out his hand, pulses rippled from his fingertips and seeped into the container.
The pulses of my detection magic, which had been hovering around like a fine mist, suddenly surged violently. Some change invisible to the naked eye was taking place inside the container.
‘What is it? What’s happening?’
I focused my mind even more and stared at the container. The moment I formed the will to see in greater detail, I was startled.
A massive life reaction was detected from the container. Mana I had not been able to detect until now could be felt.
‘Living beings? And living beings with mana? I couldn’t sense them earlier. Did the mage just awaken life?’
I didn’t know what they were, but the container was teeming with living beings. Living beings that possessed mana.
No one had said the cargo was alive. It seemed not only I, but the other mercenaries had no idea either.
“The cargo is alive. They may be monsters. Everyone, stay alert!”
I shouted to inform the mercenaries.
Detecting and warning of danger that ordinary people couldn’t perceive. This was probably the role I, as a mage, was meant to play on the job.
“What? The cargo is alive?”
“Monsters? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Was this a smuggling job? Damn it! This isn’t what we were told.”
Jang Pildu and the mercenaries gasped in surprise and began murmuring. As expected, they hadn’t known either.
Even then, I did not take my eyes off the mage and the container.
For an instant, the mage glanced toward me. As if he disliked the fact that I had revealed the cargo was alive.
The next moment, the mage traced a large circle toward the container with his fingertip. Waves of mana energy surged and shot out.
Just as blindingly bright light seemed to pour forth, a thunderous explosion struck my ears.
Kwa-kwaang!!
A flash burst, and everything exploded outward. Mana churned in every direction.
Even as I covered my ears and collapsed to the ground, I forced my eyes wide open so as not to lose sight of the mage.
But my vision was blocked as the world before me shone pure white. For a short while, I couldn’t see anything.
‘Detection magic…’
I had no choice but to give up on my naked eyes. I raised a strong will in order to examine the area through detection magic. The golden vision of my right eye shone brightly.
Then the pulses rippling around the site of the explosion formed the shape of a magic circuit and were read by me.
‘No, that’s…!’
I was so shocked I couldn’t even breathe.
The magic circuit formed the shape of pentagons layered over one another.
An infinite pentagon.
It was a shape extremely familiar to me. The symbol of the Samir Order, meaning eternal life.
That shape, which made my teeth chatter just by looking at it, was unfolding there.