After a full day had passed.
The old man, who had barely come to his senses, spotted Hio and opened his eyes wide.
“Who are you!”
It seemed he did not remember Hio, who had appeared while his consciousness was hazy, so Hio calmly explained the situation. Soon, the old man let out an embarrassed cough.
“Ahem. I don’t know who you are, but thank you. As you can see, I’m nothing but a useless old man, so I’ve nothing in particular to repay you with.”
“Yes, well. That’s all right.”
He was going to repay him with skill books anyway.
For now, Hio brought over the vegetable soup he had prepared in advance and set it before the old man.
“Eat before it gets cold.”
The old man glared at the soup as though it were some strange object, then, without another word, took a spoonful.
“……Mm.”
Perhaps it suited his tastes, for the old man kept moving his spoon.
Hio watched him for a moment, then sat down beside him and quietly began eating his own soup.
Inside the room, with no one saying a word, only the clatter of tableware could be heard.
At length, the old man scraped his bowl clean, set it down, and looked at Hio as he spoke.
“I am Berga Pavlenko. As you can see, I’m an old man with nothing left to do but wait for the day I die.”
For someone saying that, there was quite a bit of strength in the old man’s voice.
As if he were someone who still had a goal he had yet to achieve.
At that, Hio also set down his empty bowl and opened his mouth.
“I’m Hio. A traveler who just wanders around without parents, siblings, or friends.”
The two of them exchanged a rather plain first greeting.
* * *
Three more days and nights passed.
Hio was still inside the magician’s house, together with the old magician who had introduced himself as Berga.
His original plan of leaving the empty dungeon after obtaining just two skill books had gone completely awry, so for the time being, he was staying there.
On the first day, Berga had told him he could leave now, but when Hio said he wanted to stay longer, he nodded without complaint.
Perhaps he, in his own way, had missed having another person around.
Or perhaps he felt a trace of sympathy for Hio, who said he wandered without parents or friends.
In any case, what mattered was that for three days, they had lived together not in a dungeon called “the Last Magician’s Tomb,” but simply in an ordinary magician’s house.
Berga’s physical condition was worse than expected, and his aged body was slow to recover.
Still, since the extent of his visible injuries was not severe, after three days he regained enough strength to get out of bed.
“The truth is, this house goes down as far as the third basement floor.”
On the day Berga recovered his strength, he said this to Hio as though revealing some tremendous secret.
Of course, Hio already knew this, but he played along appropriately.
“Wow.”
He had clearly known the way underground, but for some strange reason, he had not been able to take that path.
Unlike in the game.
“What? You’re telling me not to lie? Uhahahaha! Then I suppose I’ll have to show you something truly amazing.”
Having regained his original energy, Berga was exactly the kind of old man Hio had first seen.
Needlessly talkative, and needlessly quick to laugh.
And needlessly proud of pointless magic.
And Berga’s personality was, for Hio, a favorable turn of events.
“Now, this is the path leading underground.”
The place Berga brought Hio to was in front of an empty wall with nothing on it.
Of course, Hio knew that beyond this wall was the path leading underground.
That was because, in addition to his experience from the game, he could sense the faint flow of mana thanks to his trait as a genius of mana sensitivity.
But this time, too, he simply played along.
It seemed this was what the old man wanted.
“……There’s nothing here?”
“Uhahahaha! Of course it would look that way to the eyes of an ordinary person. However!”
Berga placed his hand against the wall.
“Now! How about this!”
At the same time, the wall split to both sides, revealing stairs leading underground.
‘What is this, a fingerprint scanner……?’
No wonder he hadn’t been able to find it.
Contrary to his thoughts, Hio clapped his hands and put on a surprised expression.
“Wow.”
“U hahahaha! Isn’t it amazing? The truth is, I am the last magician remaining in this world, the final descendant of the legendary Pavlenko family!”
Berga, introducing himself that way, was overflowing with so much pride it was almost burdensome.
“Ah, yes. I see.”
“Hm? You’re not surprised?”
Of course, it was not important to Hio.
Had he gained Berga’s trust in just three days?
He could now go underground, and all he had to do was take the skill books that were probably there and leave.
Thinking that, he went down below.
“I’ll show you this place, but there is a great deal of research material here, so you must not come down carelessly.”
Only after passing the second basement floor and reaching the final third basement floor did Hio realize that something had gone terribly wrong.
“Uh…… this is all of it?”
“Yes. More complicated than you expected, isn’t it?”
Because in the spaces of the second and third basement floors, there was not even anything that resembled a skill book.
Only scraps of paper were scattered about in disarray.
And only then did he understand why Berga had shown him the basement without hesitation.
‘It’s not that I gained his trust…… There’s just nothing in the basement.’
It was simply that there was no problem in showing him the basement.
Valuables or whatever else aside, there were only incomprehensible papers strewn around, so what reason was there to hide it?
‘……This, by the look of it…….’
It seemed he had arrived at a point in time before Berga obtained the skill books.
“By the way, even after hearing that I am a magician, you didn’t seem very surprised.”
Berga asked, but Hio’s head was a mess, so he answered roughly.
“That’s because I saw it when we first met.”
The time when he had visited this place back when it was a game was definitely later than now.
Even so, he had thought it would not be a big problem.
But the magician he had naturally assumed was long dead was alive, and the skill books themselves were nowhere to be found……
‘Is it simply a matter of timing…… or did the mass arrival of possessed people create a butterfly effect?’
The problem was that he had no way of knowing.
“When we first met? What do you mean by that?”
Unaware of how complicated Hio’s thoughts had become, Berga asked calmly.
“You know, back then you made that amazing magic circle and shot magic.”
At that answer, Berga stopped dead in his tracks.
“You…… saw that?”
“Yes……?”
“Say that again. You really saw that?”
His unexpectedly intense reaction was somewhat bewildering.
Originally, between skill users, there was no problem with seeing each other’s skills.
It was not as though one could imitate a skill just by seeing it anyway.
“Yes, I did see it…… Was I not supposed to?”
“No! Quite the opposite! Say it again! What did you see?”
“That strange magic circle appeared, and from there, magic……”
As he retraced the words he had answered so casually with, he suddenly realized.
The issue was not that he had seen it.
An ordinary person would simply think, So he used a skill…… and let it pass.
However, he had specifically mentioned a magic circle.
“That’s it! That!”
And at that, Berga was thrusting his face uncomfortably close.
His eyes sparkling, in a way unbefitting of a half-dead old man.
“A magic circle is made of mana, so it can never be seen with the eyes! And yet you’re saying you truly saw it!”
“……Pardon? I’m not sure what you mean……”
Hio, sensing an ominous premonition, belatedly tried to make an excuse, but.
“Uhahahaha! It’s too late to try hiding your talent!”
Berga’s eyes had already gone wild.
“My disciple!”
He had been marked as a disciple.
By the weakest magician in the world.
* * *
It was not as though there had been no players who researched magic.
No, rather, there had been quite a few.
Was magic not originally the flower of RPGs?
On top of that, something called magic books openly existed in the point shop.
They were fairly expensive, but still much cheaper than skill books.
Because of that, in the early to mid stages of the game, there had been many players who believed there must be some hidden piece related to magic and devoted themselves solely to digging into it.
However, the results had been utterly disastrous.
- Title: Magic books, f*ck! F*cking hell!
- Title: Lost all my points because of magic books. I’m quitting, bye.
- Title: Which bitch was spouting bullshit about there being something in magic?
- Title: RPG game with no magician = trash game
……
There were users who had not given up for over a year, but the conclusion they reached was ultimately the same.
- Trash game with no magic!
- Magic is dead.
- Absolute garbage, dogshit class.
- If you say you’re a magician, even beggar NPCs look at you with pity.
Compared to the time required to learn it, the activation time, and the amount of mana consumed, its power was absurdly weak.
It was, quite literally, complete dogshit garbage.
That was certainly the case, and yet……
“Magic is great! Magic is omnipotent! Learn magic from me! You will become happy! As the disciple of the last great magician remaining in this world……”
What was this old man, shouting Long live magic! in front of him and trying to gaslight him?
Rather than that, Hio needed to infer the route by which the skill books had been obtained through other conversations, so he tried hard to steer the topic away.
“Forget that, old man. By any chance, before this, were you somewhere other than here……”
“Hey now! Old man, you say! Call me Master!”
“……Hoo.”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
This magic-crazed old man would not listen at all.
Things were becoming quite troublesome.
According to his plan, he was supposed to obtain two skill books here, use one to raise funds, learn the other for evolution, then fill Endurance to 1000 and evolve it as his near-term goal.
‘But I don’t even know where the skill books are, and the magician I thought would be dead is right in front of me passionately telling me to become his disciple…….’
Could things possibly get more tangled than this?
‘Magic. Magic, huh…….’
No matter how he thought about it, it was not it.
Was this not garbage that had already been verified in the game?
“Becoming your disciple is a bit……”
“Did you not see a fragment of great magic!”
“Well, it was fascinating, but that was the end……”
“Magic is great! Once you learn it, you’ll understand too!”
“Could we have a somewhat more practical conversation instead of that……”
“Disciple! Magic! Disciple! Magic!”
“……Fuck.”
It was hopeless.
There was no doubt this old geezer had gone senile.
‘……Should I just give up on the skill books?’
It was certain there were no skill books inside this dungeon.
He did not know through what route Berga had obtained the two skill books, but since as many as ten thousand possessed people had been thrown in two years earlier, numerous variables must have arisen.
Those skill books might perhaps never come here at all.
‘Still, that would be a real waste.’
Even so, giving up without properly looking into it was too wasteful.
Considering the value of the skill books…… would it not be better to become his disciple as Berga wanted and build up favorability?
Even if he could not obtain the skill books, he might at least be able to figure out their original source or the direction they had gone.
‘……Fine. I came all this way, so leaving empty-handed makes no sense.’
That was what he thought.
When he decided to become the disciple of the last magician remaining in this world.
“Then teach me.”
It was as light a thought as that.
“How amazing magic is…… Hm? Truly?”
“Well, it was fascinating.”
The mana that moved as one with Berga’s gestures.
The glowing patterns of mana and the beauty of the restrained formation.
The emotion he had felt when he first saw it had indeed been wonder.
“Magicians…… are looked down upon.”
Yet once Hio said he would become his disciple, Berga’s expression turned serious.
“A discipline that flourished in ancient times. But after repeated decline, it has now become an occupation with no one left to remember it. In the past, magicians were respected by all, but now they are mocked by all.”
“……Earlier, weren’t you saying it was great and amazing?”
“Of course! That only happens because they do not know the depth and greatness of magic. Magic is great!”
“Then that’s enough. Teach me. I’ll try learning.”
The reason he extended his hand toward Berga, who somehow looked a little gloomy, was a sort of habit.
The handshake one typically offered when a contract was concluded.
A hand extended without any particular meaning, merely to be clasped.
However, Berga’s expression as he took that offered hand became brighter than anything.
“I look forward to it! My disciple!”
As if someone were poking him in the side, a corner of his heart grew uncomfortable.