Chapter 171: How Are You Solving This?
The inside of the door was a strange place.
It was a straight space like a palace corridor, but numerous magic spells were installed along that straight path.
“Wow…”
They were just in a barren forest, but Roanna hadn’t expected such a place to exist beyond the door.
It was truly like another world, and Roanna looked around here and there like a child, marveling at it.
Of course, she didn’t move carelessly.
“We need to be careful, Roanna. You know that without me telling you, right?”
There are many magic spells installed here to deal with intruders. If you move even a little recklessly, those magic spells will activate immediately.
“Yes, I know. But what exactly is this place? Did the Spirit King create this? To prevent anyone from coming?”
Roanna asked, looking at the magic spells spread out everywhere. They were highly advanced magic traps that, if one was activated, would immediately trigger numerous other connected magic spells.It was an extremely dangerous space where even a small mistake could cost one’s life.
“That’s probably part of the reason.”
“I guess so… After all, my great-grandfather did such a thing. I can understand if he became disgusted with humans.”
But these weren’t simply magic spells to prevent human approach.
‘Originally, the wounds should have healed long ago. He is the Spirit King, after all.’
Yet there was a reason why he still couldn’t move from this place.
‘It’s a stigma. A stigma left by the Demon Realm Grand Duke who escaped from the Demon Realm.’
The strongest among the demons who escaped at that time was the Demon Realm Grand Duke.
The Spirit King was wounded while trying to banish the Demon Realm Archduke back to the Demon Realm, and that wound was a kind of stigma.
‘It’s a mark left behind with a promise of revenge someday. That’s why the Spirit King has made such excessive preparations to prevent demons from finding him.’
So he installed high-level magic to prevent humans and demons from finding him.
Ethan calmly activated the Eye of Horus.
The journey to the Spirit King’s dwelling was extremely treacherous. But seeing Roanna dismantle the magic at the entrance gave him confidence.
‘Her potential is indeed remarkable.’
The current Roanna is not the Roanna that Ethan saw in MePan at that point in time.
In other words, her skills are naturally lower than at that point, but even with those lower skills, she dismantled the magic installed by the Spirit King.
‘And in less than 10 minutes at that.’
Even with the interpretation provided by Ethan, this was no easy feat. Roanna was indeed the definite key to this task.
“But will the Spirit King listen to us?”
Roanna asked.
“He probably won’t. But we can’t just sit back and do nothing. Only the Spirit King can restore Prochet.”
“…Then what should we do?”
“We’ll have to go and persuade him.”
At Ethan’s words, Roanna looked at the inner part beyond.
Numerous magic traps installed on the way there.
The magic traps installed inside were much more difficult to dismantle than those at the entrance.
“To persuade him, we need to go where the Spirit King is… but can we get there? Teacher, this seems a bit difficult.”
Difficult. Hard. These were all unfamiliar words to Roanna.
Especially when it came to magic. For her, there was no such thing as difficult or hard magic.
“You’re right, Roanna. These are not easy magic spells.”
“Right? Then should we retreat for now… I’ll talk to the mages at the Magic Tower. I’ll tell them there’s such a place here and ask for help. If we all interpret and dismantle the magic together, we should be able to get inside quickly.”
“That’s not like you, Roanna. Faced with a difficult problem, you’re thinking about giving up rather than trying to solve it somehow.”
Roanna’s smile cracked slightly at Ethan’s words.
“I understand well why you’ve come to think that way.”
“…”
At the academy, Roanna was a student who became more motivated the more difficult the problem at hand.
It wasn’t just her natural personality; many of the students at Ivecar knew about Roanna’s family situation, so for the honor of the Prochet Magic Tower, she couldn’t show any signs of backing down.
That’s why she could be more enthusiastic and take the lead.
But it was different here.
The problem of the Prochet Magic Tower was too difficult.
It wasn’t something she could solve even with her outstanding talent.
As a result, she inevitably showed a quite different side compared to when she was at Ivecar Academy.
“I’ll watch over you. Don’t worry. There’s nothing you can’t do. If you fail, you can try again. As long as you don’t give up, it’s not a failure but a process.”
Roanna’s expression wavered at those words.
“Come on, let’s fail, Roanna. Among numerous failures, you only need to succeed once. You just need to build on that one success.”
“Is it really okay if I fail?”
“Of course. Who would expect perfection from a student? Though if we fail, we might both die, but don’t worry about that.”
“What? Are you sure it’s okay not to worry…?”
Without answering, Ethan immediately took out a parchment. As he wrote the interpretation, he occasionally explained to Roanna about the magic spells in front of them.
“You see that magic up there? That’s a repetition circle. It has the effect of reviving the magic after a certain time even if someone dismantles it.”
This repetition circle was the core magic of this space.
Therefore, this magic should be dismantled first, but that was virtually impossible.
“If that’s the case, we’ll just leave it be. If there’s a problem that’s difficult to solve, let’s just leave it for now. Don’t mind it, be bold.”
Roanna nodded. These were things she couldn’t learn at the Magic Tower or the academy.
“The repetition circle’s role is to restore the magic after time passes. We just need to pass through before it restores the magic.”
“!”
At Ethan’s words, Roanna looked at him with anxious eyes.
“I can continue dismantling. Handling mana is my specialty. But… that means you’ll have to interpret the magic non-stop…”
Leaving the repetition circle as it was meant putting a time limit on interpreting and dismantling the magic.
Numerous magic spells were spread out all the way to the end, and they had to interpret and break through all of them in a short time.
“Roanna, remember one thing. You can’t grow without taking risks.”
Ethan said this as he handed her a sheet of parchment.
“Let’s begin.”
Scratch-. Scratch-.
Ethan began analyzing the magic even faster than at the entrance. And Roanna, who received the parchment with the interpretation written on it, immediately began the dismantling work.
Roanna frowned slightly.
‘He’s gotten even faster.’
Ethan’s analysis speed was much faster than what she had seen at the entrance. It almost looked as if he understood and broke down the magic the moment he saw it, writing down the formula.
‘There must be many difficult parts.’
Roanna was confident in her own skills.
But it was difficult to understand at a glance the magic spells installed beyond there.
‘To break down magic, you need to understand the formula.’
It takes looking at it several times and calculating in your head a few times to understand just one formula.
‘It’s as if he already knows everything…’
“Roanna.”
“Ah, yes!”
This was no time to be thinking about other things.
She needed to concentrate. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to keep up with Ethan’s speed.
***
It was a place filled with green.
Trees and flowers were everywhere like a forest. Clouds were floating on the ceiling as if it were a real sky.
In the center of it all was the Spirit King.
A muscular body, white hair that reached down to his back.
On his face, which looked quite aged, a white beard hung quite long.
Tror, the Earth Spirit King.
He had his hand on his aching side and his eyes closed.
“They’ve managed to find me.”
Shaaaa-.
In front of him was an installed artifact. It was a kind of projector artifact showing those who had entered inside.
It showed the figures of Ethan and Roanna.
“I didn’t think humans would find me. I thought it would be those demon bastards, but it’s really humans.”
Seeing that they dismantled the magic at the entrance and came in, they seemed skilled.
But they probably won’t be able to advance any further.
“They’ll die not knowing how precious their lives are if they keep moving forward.”
He still had ill feelings towards humans.
“Damn that bastard. I never thought the one I personally chose after filtering through numerous candidates would do such a thing.”
Throb throb.
Every time he was filled with anger, his wound throbbed. To think that he, called the king of spirits, had to hide in a place like this and recuperate.
Moreover, despite recuperating for quite a long time, there was no sign of the wound healing.
“This is no way for a Spirit King to be.”
Tror looked at his side. There was a stigma imprinted there.
This was a stigma of defeat.
The crime of misjudging a human.
It was the result of taking on all the crimes committed by that human.
“I can’t ask the other Spirit Kings for help either.”
Although they’re called Spirit Kings, they have no interaction and have never met. As the Earth Spirit King, he could only meet spirits of the earth.
But he couldn’t meet those spirits either. Because he had a stigma on him.
“Sigh.”
Tror lay back.
He closed his eyes and focused on circulating the energy in his body.
Recovery was the priority.
Although it was a wound that didn’t heal well, it wouldn’t never heal. Once he erased the stigma and healed the wound, he planned to cross over to the Spirit Realm completely and never return.
Ding-!
At that moment, a sound came from the projector artifact.
“What?”
The two people he thought would be dead were moving.
“Shouldn’t the magic have activated?”
Tror gestured, and the projector artifact immediately flew in front of him.
“What, what are they doing now?”
The two humans were advancing. Of course, their destination would be this place where he was.
“…Are they solving the magic?”
Tror narrowed his eyes and looked closely.
Shaaaa-.
The two humans took another step forward.
“They’re solving it.”
Moreover, their speed was incredibly fast.
“They’re advancing like that without touching the repetition circle? Impossible. How can humans do this?”
Surely they must be demons.
Tror put his hand on the projector artifact. It was to observe the two more closely.
“They’re humans. And young humans at that! How can humans of that age have such skills?”
Moreover, one of them wasn’t even an adult by human standards.
The Spirit King observed how they were breaking down the magic and advancing.
“…”
The key was that human male. That human male was quickly analyzing the magic. And based on that analysis, the human female was breaking it down.
Tror looked at the human male.
He looked like he had just become an adult, but something was strange.
“He’s not in his normal state.”
He lacked something that ordinary humans should have.
“He has no mana either. But how? Those magic spells aren’t something that can be easily solved.”
Even as the Spirit King was surprised, the two humans quickly advanced forward. They were already halfway through the entrance path.
“Impressive skills. But… that will be the end.”
The Spirit King had installed magic much more powerful and complex than the magic installed earlier in the middle of that entrance path.
“In the middle and at the end, there’s magic much more complex than the magic installed earlier.”
That magic belonged to the category of great magic even among spirit magic.
As the Spirit King had expected, they stopped in the center.
“And when they stop, the repetition circle will activate.”
The magic will be restored immediately in the place where they are standing.
“As soon as the magic is restored, it will activate.”
That’s the end. If they wanted to survive from here, the only option was to quickly turn back and run away.
“Yes… they should run away… Huh? Advancing? They’re advancing?”
The Spirit King pressed his face against the projector artifact.
“What is this?”
The human male who had advanced slightly stood for a moment observing, then began to write something on the parchment without hesitation.
Tror enlarged the human male’s parchment.
Shaaaa-.
“He’s solving it, he’s solving it. This great magic… he’s solving it right there after just looking at it!”
It was something that overturned all the common sense he had held until now.
“How are you solving this! You human!”
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