Chapter 202
The Great Thief was losing his mind.
“What in the world…”
How long had it been since he gave the order to attack?
“Kuaaaack!”
“Gack!”
How had all his subordinates ended up getting beaten down like that?
‘These were elite subordinates who trained by walking the shadows with me….’
He couldn’t believe the sight of them sprawled out without a shred of dignity, bawling their eyes out.
Resistance? Defiance? A clash?
He would have understood if they had at least put up that much.
But.
That man’s movements were truly ghostlike.
Even he, who prided himself on being rather fast, couldn’t follow them with his eyes.
“D-Damn it.”
The Great Thief backed away, refusing to accept what was happening.
His opponent was staring at him while holding a brutally shaped cudgel.
‘That’s… not even magic. He’s really just beating them with a club, isn’t he?’
Until now, swordsmanship, spearmanship, archery….
How many people had strutted around arrogantly in front of him, only to end up in the grave?
The Great Thief had never imagined he could lose to something other than magic.
‘I need to run.’
This wasn’t someone he could handle.
The gambling den he had only just managed to establish in the middle of the capital?
His subordinates, wailing in agony?
This was no time to worry about any of that.
“Damn it, just you wait!”
Having made his judgment in an instant, the Great Thief quickly turned and ran.
‘Fortunately, it’s dark.’
No matter how fast or strong the other man was,
there was no way he could keep up once he started walking the shadows.
When it came to running away, he was confident he wouldn’t lose to anyone.
‘The name Great Thief wasn’t given to me for nothing.’
Swish!
He stretched out one foot.
His figure quietly melted into the shadows.
Swish, swish-swish!
Just as he crossed a wall, ran over a rooftop, and was about to slip into another alley—
Flinch!
‘…Huh?’
He felt a presence at his back.
He didn’t even need to turn around to know whose Energy it was.
‘What, no way.’
He caught up already?
To the footsteps of this Great Thief?
Cold sweat broke out on his brow, and just as he tried to move even faster—
WHACK!
A crimson cudgel smashed into his exposed ribs.
“Keoheok!”
His breath caught.
His vision turned white, and a high-pitched weeeeing! rang through his ears.
At the same time, a massive pain unlike anything he had ever felt washed over him.
“Kuaaaaaack!”
His body folded in half like a shrimp from the agony.
Naturally, he lost his balance and crashed to the ground.
He was out of his mind.
“Gack, you lunatic! Kuaaack!”
It was a pain that made him understand exactly why his loyal subordinates had been bawling their eyes out.
The Great Thief flailed his arms wildly and screamed.
“W-Wait!”
Whack!
“Kuaaaaack! Gack! Wait! No, wait a moment, please!”
WHACK!
The cudgel slammed into both of his thighs while he lay face down.
It felt like his muscles had been torn apart.
There was no way he could run after that.
“Kuaaaaaaack! Stop, stop! I surrender! I surrender, so let’s talk! Talk!”
The Great Thief had lost every trace of dignity.
The godfather of the underworld?
The pride of a shadow boss?
None of it meant anything in the face of pain.
“Talk?”
The man’s questioning voice reached his ears.
“Didn’t you refuse when I suggested settling this nicely earlier?”
Thud, thud.
Hearing the other man approach while dragging the cudgel across the ground, the Great Thief’s whole body trembled.
“Don’t worry. I’ve been hit with this plenty of times. It won’t kill you. It just hurts like hell.”
“……”
A chill ran down the Great Thief’s spine.
Along with the horror, every hair on his body stood on end.
‘I picked a fight with the wrong person.’
This opponent was no ordinary man.
His skills were one thing.
But this wasn’t the work of someone who had only beaten people a few times.
Otherwise, how could every single strike hurt this much?
Drip.
As if his body had filled with heat, sweat poured off him like rain.
His clothes were soaked, and his legs were shaking.
If he got hit by that cudgel any more….
He might really end up wishing he were dead.
‘No….’
Had he amassed all that wealth only to die like this?
He ran countless businesses.
He hadn’t even spent ten percent of the fortune he’d built by robbing nobles’ mansions.
‘No way. I’m spending it before I die.’
He wanted to live.
No, he had to live.
To do that, what did he need to do?
At that moment,
he suddenly remembered the man’s first proposal.
Create an identity for me.
An identity that will let me enter the Magic Tower.
“The Magic Tower!”
The instant the man raised his cudgel again, the Great Thief shouted in a panic.
“I’ll get you into the Magic Tower!”
Halt.
At those words, the man’s cudgel stopped.
‘This is it!’
Seizing the chance, he threw his eyes wide open.
“Hyung!”
The Great Thief was now calling the man Hyung.
“It’s true! I’m confident! Please, just believe me!”
The Great Thief’s desperate cry and
the murderous silence that ignored it entirely.
And then,
the man slowly opened his mouth.
“You can get me into the Magic Tower? You’re sure?”
“O-Of course! Forging identities is my specialty! You can’t entrust this to anyone else! This is work only I can do!”
“Hmm. You know what happens if I catch you lying, right?”
Kuuuung!
It was then that the man planted the cudgel upright and drove it into the ground.
Amazingly, the cudgel dug into the ground and stuck there.
“……?”
Wait a second.
The Great Thief’s whole body stiffened.
How was that possible?
It wasn’t even sharp like a sword or spear, yet it had sunk into the ground like that?
With the blunt end?
Just how strong did you have to be to pull that off?
‘A monster.’
In his eyes, the man no longer looked human.
As the Great Thief stared blankly with his mouth hanging open, the man tapped the end of the cudgel with his palm and spoke.
Incredibly, with every tap, it sank even deeper.
“Answer me.”
“Ye-Yes!”
Startled, the Great Thief nodded like a madman.
“O-Of course!”
At the same time, he engraved one thing into his mind.
‘I have to risk my life and forge this man’s identity somehow.’
===
Near the gambling den,
I was led into an underground reception room.
I sat on a leather sofa and crossed my legs.
Beside the table sat a steaming cup of hot coffee.
Across from me, the man who introduced himself as the Great Thief was bowing low and spilling information as fast as he could.
“…Only commoners and nobles with talent can enter the Magic Tower, Hyung!”
“And the procedures are extremely strict. That’s because the one who rules our world, the Magic Tower Lord, Gospelheim, resides at the very top of the Magic Tower.”
“The grades students receive at the Magic Tower are both a huge opportunity and a huge burden. Depending on what kind of grades they graduate with, their family’s future status can be decided.”
This world was certainly peculiar.
In some ways it flowed like the Middle Ages,
yet the Magic Tower stood at the center of everything.
The Magic Tower Lord held power equivalent to an emperor.
Because of that, it was also a world where any art other than magic was looked down on.
“First, I need to forge your identity, Hyung…. Your original identity is….”
The Great Thief, who had slyly tried to pry into my background, met my eyes and immediately lowered his head.
“A-Ahem! Well, if you were originally a noble, there’d be no need to forge anything. Not that it matters. Since you have black hair and black eyes, Hyung, I can set you up as a noble from the Orchen region!”
“Orchen?”
“Yes, you have a similar look to the people there. Ahem.”
“I don’t care about that. Just make it so I can enter the Magic Tower.”
“Understood! I’ll get started right away! Please wait just a moment!”
After bowing at a perfect right angle, the Great Thief opened the door with a clank! and hurried out.
Still,
he really does seem serious about this.
Maybe
the Elder was right when he said violence solves everything.
“……”
The Ten Thousand Arts Elder’s summoning time had run out, so he had temporarily returned inside.
“Hoo.”
As I closed my eyes to rest, the Great Thief, who had been working on it, opened the door and returned.
“Hyung, but… may I ask why exactly you want to enter the Magic Tower?”
I looked at him again.
“No, that’s not what I meant! The truth is, the easiest way to get into the Magic Tower is to disguise yourself as a student… but the students who enter are all in their early teens….”
“Ah.”
“And laborers or servants are managed very strictly by the Magic Tower…. So, if you don’t mind, how about disguising yourself as a noble and applying as a professor?”
“A professor?”
Me, a guy who doesn’t know the first thing about magic, as a professor?
That was a little shocking.
“…Most students end up serving their families after graduating, so professors are actually quite rare. That’s why it would probably be the easiest way into the Tower…. As for magic, well, with your level of stealth Art… if you go swish! and hide, then claim it’s stealth magic, people will believe it.”
“Laborers and servants are strictly controlled, but professors have it easier?”
That was kind of absurd.
“Yes, well… the reason is a little absurd too. To be honest, there have barely been any professor applications over the last few years. They’re called professors, but the work is harder than being a servant. The pay is poor, and the job is exhausting.”
“Well, in that case.”
I gave a small laugh and nodded.
“Do it that way. I don’t mind.”
After all,
I only had one goal.
[Stage: The Magic Dropout]
[Enter the Magic Tower and find the magic dropout.]
As long as I could clear the first stage, it didn’t matter how I got there.
===
》“Uhahahahat!”
Twelve hours passed.
The Elder, whom I had summoned again, burst into laughter in midair.
》“You, a professor? And a magic professor at that? My, my! I don’t know why every dungeon is always so full of entertaining situations.”
“Ah, please don’t just laugh.”
I asked the Elder for one thing.
To tell me which of the Ten Thousand Arts came closest to magic.
Even if it was only a disguise, wouldn’t it be strange to walk in as a professor knowing absolutely nothing?
This was a Special Dungeon known for its highest difficulty.
And it was my first time challenging an S-rank one.
I had to stay alert at all times and prepare for the worst.
That man called the Great Thief might have been weak.
But there was no guarantee I could defeat the one called Gospelheim, one of the three great Magic Tower Lords.
“Besides, didn’t you say it yourself as soon as we got here, Elder? That in this environment, it would be better to train in using my Energy in different ways rather than focusing only on physical training.”
》Heh heh, I did say that.
The Elder smacked his lips and nodded.
》You said you were applying as a new professor? For that, well, there is something that can create an effect similar to Bone Five’s with only a little learning.
“Oh, really?”
As my eyes lit up, the Elder smiled and held out his palm.
At the same time,
Fwoosh!
A flame quietly flickered to life.
》This is what’s called Sorcery.
“…Sorcery.”
》It’s a kind of ritualistic belief that borrows the power of supernatural beings or mysterious forces. But in the end, since it involves drawing out and using Energy, you could say it’s similar to magic.
“Ooh.”
My eyes widened.
Right.
For someone who had inherited the Ten Thousand Arts, I’d been using only swords and spears far too much.
A true master of the Ten Thousand Arts should learn things like this too.
》Heh heh, this worked out nicely. Yes, let’s use this chance to enter that so-called Magic Tower and study properly. You will learn this master’s Sorcery, and also absorb the magic of this place.
The Elder wore a satisfied look.
》And in doing so, you will create it. Your very own Sorcery.
===
At that moment, Alpen, elder and head professor of the Magic Tower, picked up a document.
“Hoh, an application for a new professor…?”
It was an application from a noble said to have come from the distant region of Orchen.
As Alpen quickly scanned the document, a hint of delight appeared in his eyes.
“How long has it been since we last had a professor application?”
The Magic Tower was always short on personnel.
Especially when it came to professors.
The position was seen as one where you had to cater to difficult noble children.
On top of that, you had to teach those nobles magic, so a very high level of skill was required.
And that wasn’t all.
There was also a rule that commoners could not become professors, because the Magic Tower was viewed as an institution for nobles.
That only made them even rarer.
‘Of course, I’ll still have to see for myself whether he actually has the qualifications to be a professor.’
As long as he wasn’t completely hopeless, Alpen was willing to hire him unconditionally.
To put it bluntly, if his skills were lacking, couldn’t they just dump him in charge of the class of dropouts?
That alone would lighten the other professors’ burdens.
Nodding, Alpen lifted his seal.
And then—
STAMP!
With a satisfying thud, he stamped the document.
[Baron Hoon of the Orchen Region.]
[Application for Magic Tower Professor.]
[Approved.]
[Test Required.]