Episode 1210
by Cristae-Hmm. No, maybe this isn’t a clue after all.
Hamster quickly regained his composure like a seasoned magical criminal.
Even if there was magic hidden in the fortress, it was unlikely to be in a place like this basement prison.
Ignorant brats or old fairy tales might suggest “maybe there’s treasure in the dungeon!” but in reality, valuable things weren’t usually stored in basement prisons.
What you store in basement prisons is generally prisoners.
Truly valuable things were kept securely upstairs, where only trusted people could get to them, not in an ambiguous, remote basement…
“No. Please trust my instincts. There’s something here in the basement!”
-Uh, really?
Hamster was a bit shaken.
It was rare for this Wardanaz mage to sound so confident.
Usually, he always nagged from a step behind, but for him to show such conviction—maybe there really was something.
Seeing that Hamster had taken the bait, Lee Han moved quickly. If he waited too long, Hamster might come to his senses again.
Fortunately, there were no other vampires near the basement entrance. This area had collapsed, so even the insane dead weren’t wandering here.
“What the…”
Descending through the ruined entrance, Lee Han was shocked by the grim traces in the passage.
Vampire dead were stuck everywhere like decorations on the walls and ceiling.
-He’s escaping… must stop him…
-The cunning archmage is scheming again… enemies have broken in…
These dead didn’t realize their battle had ended long ago and that they themselves had been defeated.
The dead above were similar, but at least they could move around. These couldn’t even manage that.
Hamster, uncaring of the grotesque crawling or impaled corpses, observed the traces with sharp eyes.
It could be a clue to the hidden magic.
-The assassin seems to have dealt with these ones. Not an ordinary quickfoot.
Battle mages, after all, had many different styles. Without a right answer, personality shone through strongly.
The style here was speed-focused.
It combined higher-level magic investing in speed and stealth, while attacking with low-circle spells, using just enough destructive power.
To fight like this, you needed a sharp eye to spot an enemy’s weak point and the skill to strike a vital area. Otherwise, insufficient firepower would become a handicap.
-Interesting, but it’s far from powerful, extraordinary magic. Do you really think there’d be a clue down here?
Hamster asked, puzzled again.
Sure, the achievement here for a battle mage was amazing, but this wasn’t what Hamster sought.
What Hamster wanted was ancient, powerful magic—magic the Yaksha King would eye, magic Sangueros would hide—not the artistry of pushing standard magic to the limit with skill and combos.
“I’m confident. More and more so. But look at this dead here.”
Lee Han pointed to a half-body corpse.
Unlike Hamster, he didn’t have the experience to immediately tell what magic was used.
The dead whispered a moan to Lee Han.
-The assassin… escaped… Must chase…
“Alright, alright. Be quiet now.”
-The assassin… escaped… so evil…
Since the dead wouldn’t shut up, Lee Han used a curse to seal its mouth.
Hamster squeaked,
-What do you want me to see? Their miserable end at the hands of the evil god?
“No, look at the cut there. What kind of magic do you think this is?”
Judging by the half-corpse, it looked like it had first been hit by a sphere-form element spell, then, while immobilized, chopped all at once.
He knew the first part, but the second part was hard to guess.
-Let’s see… For that type of cutting, it’s usually wind or ice… But it’s not. Wind would leave a more ragged edge, and with ice there’d be frost. Most likely it’s dark element.
“Eh? The assa— I mean, is the assassin also skilled in dark element?”
-You don’t need to be a master of an element to use its magic. Just learn enough for the job. Like I said, this assassin is all about skill and combos for firepower, so he wouldn’t be hung up on that stuff.
“I see, I see.”
Armed with the basics, Lee Han began back-calculating the magic.
‘Dark element, check. If it’s about cutting, then sword-shaped. If the attacks landed at once, it couldn’t have been wielded in person, so a summoning… so it must’ve been summoned behind the enemy and swung. And to avoid waste, it was probably an instant-disappear type.’
-…So are you not looking for clues?
Lee Han answered firmly.
“This is the clue. Please trust me.”
-Uh, okay…
Hamster was starting to get confused.
Being dependable was good and all, but what gave this kid so much confidence?
“Hm… Is this -Dark Sword of Ambush- around third circle?”
-It’s fourth circle, can’t you even count?
Hamster was so puzzled that he forgot his confusion for a moment.
The current imperial magic classification was so simple that even an ancient-magic-worshipping criminal like him acknowledged it.
If you’d just started learning magic, he’d get it—but for someone of Lee Han’s level (basically graduated), being confused about the circles was odd.
“I got mixed up because I haven’t needed to count magic circles. People make mistakes—how can you criticize over something like that?”
Lee Han retorted.
Normally, mages would master first circle spells over a long period, then second, and so on.
But Lee Han’s magical education involved madmen teaching him higher circles before he’d even finished the basic ones. While learning 1st circle, new lunatics would show up and teach him 2nd, and more lunatics came with 3rd, and so on.
Having learned so fast and in such a compressed way, it wasn’t obvious which spell was 3rd or 4th circle—what mattered was just whether he could use it or not.
‘Is this guy insane?’
Of course, Hamster was speechless at such logic.
Who’d ever believe someone capable of reverse-engineering a spell could just “forget” what circle it’s from?
“Next trace. Do you understand how this move was possible?”
The next details were even more perplexing.
A dead jailer was tangled in chains around the dungeon gate’s opening mechanism, and inside the bars, another dead body lay prone.
At a glance, nothing odd. But thinking deeply, it felt wrong.
The instant that dead fell, the bars would have shut. So how did Professor Baegrek get in and kill the enemy without a trace?
He didn’t attack from outside. The dead inside had clearly died to close-range magic.
It wasn’t spatial magic—no way would he use something so inefficient just to kill a single dead behind bars.
Nor would he have killed the inside dead first when the outside jailer was still there…
-You lack imagination. Time magic. He probably used acceleration.
Lee Han also had a similar spell, though he needed the pocket watch’s power for his -Limited Time Acceleration-.
“I see…!”
Suddenly the whole scene became clear in his mind.
If you accelerated fast enough and moved right, it didn’t matter what attack spell you used up close.
And given all this, Lee Han realized something else: Professor Baegrek wouldn’t use time acceleration in any wasteful way.
Pouring out magic with wild abandon was Lee Han’s way, not Professor Baegrek’s.
‘He probably pre-planned the path, then timed the acceleration magic to fit only that route. No need to waste energy on anything else.’
Just like when he summoned the dark sword behind his foe, the time acceleration magic must have been precisely constrained.
Growing increasingly fascinated, Lee Han enthusiastically scribbled out possible magic formulas. Hamster asked, mystified:
-This doesn’t seem like a clue to ancient magic, does it?
“Don’t disregard any clue—it could come in handy someday.”
Finishing his notes, Lee Han moved deeper.
He saw what looked like inquisitors and jailers fallen as if struck by the chains Death Knights use. These dead were still muttering, as if they needed to torture the assassin.
-There’s nothing here, is there?
“Of course not, since the assassin escaped.”
-…?????
Just moments ago you said there were clues here, now this? Hamster was flustered.
Was this brat actually out of his mind?
-You said there’d be a clue…
Regardless, Lee Han looked around the empty solitary cell. More than magic, he just wanted to know what had happened.
“!”
He found a short message scrawled near the bottom of the wall.
It was so short and inconspicuous that anyone not paying close attention would have missed it.
‘This is…’
The message was simple.
A note apologizing to the skeletal headmaster for acting on his own.
There was no doubt who wrote it or why.
“……”
After some thought, Lee Han quickly erased the mark.
As a student, this much was the least he could do for his teacher.
-What did you erase? Was it a clue?
“No, nothing special. If it was, I wouldn’t erase it. Let’s go up.”
-You said there’d be a clue!
“Guess I was mistaken. Haha. It happens.”
-……
Hamster, left speechless by absurdity, watched as Lee Han wiped out the remaining dead in the room.
There was no point, since they’d lost their sense of self, but he wanted to anyway.
‘…Is this guy threatening me?’
Hamster was deeply unnerved.
If so, this kid was seriously a rotten piece of work.
Magic can only be found upstairs. There’s nothing down below…
Emerging from the basement, Sangueros’s voice rang out once more.
Wandering in useless places had clearly riled the incomplete evil god.
Hamster glared fiercely at Lee Han.
‘I told you to go up!’
With a brazen face, Lee Han nodded.
“Indeed. Wasn’t expecting that. Who would have guessed it was in the fortress upper floors?”
-……
The people up there will welcome you, magicians. Hurry. No telling when this fortress might collapse.
Sangueros laughed heartily and disappeared. At that, Hamster grew even more nervous.
Unlike the material realm, such a chaotic dimension could shift dramatically. No one knew when a ruined fortress like this might completely collapse again.
-As he says, hurry up. If the fortress falls, all traces of magic will vanish beyond the void!
“Alright, alright. Calm down. We’re going now.”
Lee Han agreed, but still seemed as relaxed as ever.
Like someone who’d just as soon have it if it was convenient, or forget it if not.
Hamster could only think to himself,
‘There’s no way… He’s a mage too—he can’t not care about a magic like this… He must be faking it. Trying not to show a weak side in front of me—must be all nerves inside!’
What a sly brat!