The Lich Becomes a Hunter! Episode 6

1st Circle (2)

After Kim Minsik left, Choi Jinhyuk, now alone, drew a magic circle on the floor of the lodging.

“Hmm… It’s been a while since I drew one, so I don’t know if it came out properly.”

Choi Jinhyuk said that as he stared at the magic circle he had drawn on the floor.

Looking at the negative-dimensional mana accumulation array he had created after painstaking effort on the continent of Armaldin, Arman… no, Choi Jinhyuk smiled faintly as old memories came to mind.

“This brings back memories.”

Choi Jinhyuk recalled the time when he had once been an apprentice mage. Back then, he had just encountered black magic and had been utterly absorbed in it.

Of course, he had been fascinated by the magic of black magic itself, not the kind that involved selling one’s soul to demons or sacrificing people to gain power.

However, in order to properly use black magic, black mana—demonic energy—was necessary.

But Choi Jinhyuk had not wanted to use such sinister power, and after conducting research in various directions, what he discovered was none other than the mana of the negative dimension.

Negative-dimensional mana was a type of black mana, but it had the advantage that one could supply it through an accumulation array of one’s own creation without obtaining it through contracts with demons or the like.

Above all, it had the tremendous advantage that not only could black magic be used with negative-dimensional mana, but white magic as well.

As Choi Jinhyuk thought back on those old memories, he began inserting magic stones one by one at each cardinal point of the magic circle, which was filled with geometric patterns.

Under Choi Jinhyuk’s strength, reinforced by mana, the magic stones pierced through the stone floor as if it were tofu and embedded themselves within it.

Once he had placed magic stones at each point, the mana he had remaining was completely exhausted.

As his mana vanished, mana exhaustion set in, making Choi Jinhyuk’s breathing rough and his face pale. Yet Choi Jinhyuk ignored it as if it were of no concern and sat down cross-legged in the very center of the magic circle.

When Choi Jinhyuk sat cross-legged, the magic circle emitted a murky blue light and began operating.

And at the center of that magic circle, Choi Jinhyuk closed his eyes with a satisfied smile.

* * *

At around the time Choi Jinhyuk was creating his first circle, Kim Minsik, having finished his meeting with him, was meeting his superior, the Association President.

“Association President, I’m here.”

“Association President, my ass. You’re giving me goosebumps. Just talk like you usually do.”

As if he truly did have goosebumps, the man called the Association President, Seong Jihyeok, scratched his arms vigorously as he stared at the man who had called him that, Kim Minsik.

“So what happened with the trap dungeon? Did they all die?”

“No. Two survived.”

“Oh? They were pretty lucky.”

Muttering, “Two is quite a lot,” the Association President gestured for Kim Minsik to continue.

At Seong Jihyeok’s gesture, Kim Minsik resumed speaking.

“First of all, one of them is… a man named Jeong Cheolsik, the guild master of a small guild called Sparrow.”

“Oh… the guild master of a small guild? Hunter rank?”

“D-rank.”

“The trap dungeon was clearly marked as F-rank, right?”

“Yes. That’s why D-rank hellhounds, monsters two stages higher than that, appeared. Hounds appeared as sub-monsters as well. On top of that, Cerberus and a Hell Knight appeared as boss monsters.”

“Then how did they survive? Don’t tell me he had a second awakening or something?”

At Seong Jihyeok’s words, Kim Minsik shook his head.

It wasn’t that second awakenings, in which a person awakened new abilities, did not exist, but this incident was not because of a second awakening.

“No? Then what was it?”

“It was because of the other survivor. According to Jeong Cheolsik, that guy wiped them all out on his own.”

“…On his own?”

“Yes.”

At Kim Minsik’s words, Seong Jihyeok stared hard into Kim Minsik’s eyes, then waved a hand and said,

“Well, if you’re the one saying it, it must be true. Ha… Then who is this guy? If he can clear a D-rank dungeon alone, wouldn’t that make him top-tier among C-ranks?”

“That’s right. No, he’d have to be around B-rank to be like that person.”

“What the hell? What was he like?”

When Seong Jihyeok asked with an incredulous expression, Kim Minsik shrugged and said,

“Apparently he didn’t have a single scratch. And he’s a magic type.”

“…Insane.”

Kim Minsik made no comment in response to Seong Jihyeok’s curse. After all, he thought it was insane as well.

It was common knowledge that while magic types had explosive firepower, they needed to be protected by tanks such as reinforcement types in order to fully display their abilities.

Of course, there were those like battle mages who fought alone without the help of tanks, but even they could only clear dungeons two stages below their own rank by themselves.

At Kim Minsik’s words, Seong Jihyeok seemed to have grown thirsty. He picked up the iced Americano sitting on his desk, its ice now completely melted, drained it in one go, and looked back at Kim Minsik.

“…You’re certain he awakened inside the dungeon, right?”

“Yes. On the way here, I searched the entire Association database and even contacted the National Intelligence Service to investigate all his activities over the past few years. He was unfit. Until just yesterday, that is.”

“Haa… I don’t know whether to believe this or not.”

“You have to believe it. Believe that a monster rookie has been born.”

At Kim Minsik’s words, Seong Jihyeok rose from his seat and walked steadily toward him.

As Seong Jihyeok, who was a head taller than Kim Minsik despite Kim being 180 centimeters tall, approached, Kim Minsik flinched, but soon regained his composure and waited for Seong Jihyeok’s next words.

“So… can you recruit him?”

“I did.”

“Yeah, guys like that usually have strong pride, so they’re hard to recruit… What did you just say?”

“I said I recruited him.”

“No, how long has it been since you met him? How did you recruit him already?”

He was certain they had only met briefly today, yet Kim Minsik was saying the recruitment was already complete.

As Seong Jihyeok stared blankly in disbelief, only then did Kim Minsik begin explaining the conditions Choi Jinhyuk had laid out.

By the time Kim Minsik’s explanation ended, Seong Jihyeok stood before him as if his soul had left his body.

“…So what you’re saying is, we’re giving three conditions to a rookie who awakened today… No, since we’re giving him a house too, that makes four?”

“I’ll just give him one of my houses. I have plenty, don’t I?”

“Then putting the house aside, he set three conditions? Ha… He’s bold, isn’t he? What do you think? In your opinion, is he worth it?”

“Aside from the last condition, I don’t think there’s anything in it that harms us. After all, the conditions come with the premise that Mr. Choi Jinhyuk becomes an A-rank hunter. There’s no loss for us. And honestly, if he starts out as an A-rank hunter, you know we come out ahead even if we meet all the conditions I mentioned, right?”

“…That’s true.”

As Kim Minsik said, there was no hunter anywhere in the world who started out as an A-rank.

But if such a hunter emerged in Korea, and on top of that, the Association made a contract with that hunter and treated him as an equal? That would be good for the Association and good for Choi Jinhyuk himself.

“So where is this Choi Jinhyuk kid?”

“I booked him a suite at the KH Hotel.”

“Yeah? Then that should be fine.”

Seong Jihyeok was smiling in satisfaction at the way Kim Minsik had perfectly handled even a temporary place for him to stay.

-Ring ring.

“Ah… I’m sorry. I need to take this call for a moment.”

As soon as he asked for permission, Seong Jihyeok nodded, and Kim Minsik clicked the call button to answer.

And at the sound that came from the other end of the phone, his face stiffened.

Seeing Kim Minsik’s sudden change in expression, Seong Jihyeok asked,

“What is it? What happened? Another trap dungeon? Or an S-rank?”

“…They say he’s disappeared.”

“What?”

“They say Mr. Choi Jinhyuk has disappeared!!”

* * *

“Phew… For now, it’s the 1st Circle, I suppose?”

After using all the magic stones he had to create a mana accumulation array, he gathered the mana of the negative dimension.

Having succeeded in creating a circle with the negative-dimensional mana he had gathered in that way, Choi Jinhyuk left the lodging.

He had never needed rest to begin with, and he had only entered the lodging to replenish his lacking mana and hear what Kim Minsik had to say, so there was no need to remain there for long.

The location of his home in the original owner’s memories was still vivid, so he had no reason to stay in the lodging any longer.

Of course, before leaving, he had completely erased the magic circle he had drawn on the floor. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say he had destroyed it.

In any case, using enough magic stones to fill an entire bag, Choi Jinhyuk barely gathered enough mana to create the 1st Circle and immediately formed it.

Once he created the circle, the thought that this was only the beginning kept circling in Choi Jinhyuk’s mind.

“Being satisfied with the 1st Circle is absurd in the first place.”

Considering that on the continent of Armaldin, even a talented person would take at least a week to create the 1st Circle, making one in only a few hours was certainly an impressive feat. But to Choi Jinhyuk, it was nothing special.

After all, before his dimensional transfer, back when he had been a lich, Choi Jinhyuk had possessed nine circles and had been a great mage even among great mages.

“At any rate, with this, I should be able to use most basic spells.”

He could now use various spells: Grease, which eliminated friction on the ground to make things slippery; Dig, which excavated the earth; Clean, which tidied things up neatly; Shield, a defensive spell; Bone Arrow and Bone Missile, offensive spells; and even Bone Wall, another defensive spell.

In Bone Arrow’s case, he had been able to use it even before forming a circle, but the amount of mana required for the spell had been drastically reduced.

Bone Missile was a higher-tier spell than Bone Arrow.

On top of that, while Bone Wall was not at the level of the wall that had blocked Luderson’s path before his dimensional transfer, it was still enough to easily stop monsters like the Hell Knight he had encountered today.

If someone else saw it, they might say he could use far too many spells for someone who was only 1st Circle, but this was all thanks to negative-dimensional mana.

In black magic, the spells a 1st Circle mage could use were originally just two: Bone Arrow and Bone Missile.

However, negative-dimensional mana was extremely pure mana, and it was denser than the demonic energy of most high-ranking demons.

Because of that, he could use Bone Wall, which ordinary people could only use after becoming 2nd Circle Experts.

Of course, not just anyone could possess negative-dimensional mana, and even if they did, that did not mean they could use it like Choi Jinhyuk.

It was a miracle possible only because Choi Jinhyuk was a genius counted among geniuses, even within the collective of geniuses known as mages.

But while everyone on the continent of Armaldin would have applauded if they saw Choi Jinhyuk’s current achievement, Choi Jinhyuk’s own face held not joy, but disappointment.

“With just this much, I can’t even make a Dullahan.”

Until not long ago, he had been creating not mere knights but Death Knights, which were even higher in rank, and using higher-tier spells such as Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion instead of Bone Missile. There was no way he would be satisfied with Bone Missile, the knight in his pocket, and a Bone Hound.

However, Choi Jinhyuk soon exhaled a sigh and accepted the current situation.

“At any rate, as long as the contract with Kim Minsik goes through properly, most of that will be resolved.”

If he received the magic stone supply and corpse supply included in the terms of his contract with Kim Minsik, most of the problems in his current situation would be resolved.

The issue of his circles, his mana, and even the corpses needed to create his legion.

Having organized his thoughts, Choi Jinhyuk returned home, immediately turned on the computer there, and began looking up what he needed to do in order to obtain a hunter license.