Chapter 378

Words : 2157 Updated : Oct 11th, 2025

“What do you mean you’ll reduce it further?” Limrei’s beard trembled. Although his words seemed curious, Limrei already knew what Rudger meant by those words. He still asked because he wanted to confirm. “Don’t you know?” “You mean to fix my [Book Selection] magic?” Limrei’s expression turned frighteningly wrinkled. Criticizing a magic to its creator is considered an enormous discourtesy. “So you’re saying my magic is still immature and needs modification?” “It could be interpreted that way. But that’s not what I meant.” “What? Then what did you mean?” “I will do the reducing. So Master Sage, you just need to stay still.” “......” At this point, Limrei was so dumbfounded that he didn’t even feel like getting angry anymore but he couldn’t help but ask. “You’ve only seen my [Book Selection] magic once just now.” “Yes, that’s correct.” “And you’re saying you’ll use it? Moreover, you’ll modify it further? How is that any different from saying you’ll arbitrarily modify my magic?” “It’s not modification. Rather, I’m just following what you used and making slight adjustments in my own way.” “If that’s not modification, then what is it!” “I’m merely imitating it in my own way. Surely you’re not planning to prevent even that?” “Imitate? What nonsense! You think it’s as easy as you make it sound?” [Book Selection] is magic that Limrei created by improving detection magic in his own way. Its operating principle, process, and results were very different from detection magic. To say he would imitate it after seeing it just once. One couldn’t make such a statement without being incredibly bold. Even Roina, who acknowledged Rudger as an extraordinary magician, thought this was going too far. But Rudger, showing no doubt about what he said, held a book in his hand and spoke. “The detection magic you used was modified to react to the letters written in the book, wasn’t it?” “You can see that just by looking. What’s important is the method. Detection only tells you that something exists, it can’t distinguish the contents written in books.” “That’s right. So you modified the magical pattern to make mana react only to specific colors, didn’t you? In a book, white is paper and black is text. If mana reacts to darker colors, that alone can analyze the text.” Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it sounded. It was only possible by flowing mana between the pages of closed books, which required precise mana control. But Rudger placed his palm on one page of the book and sprinkled thin, wide mana over it. The mana writhed in response to the ink-written text on the book. Seeing Rudger actually accomplish this, Limrei spoke calmly. “Fine. Let’s say you can do that. Though that’s impressive enough, my [Book Selection] magic isn’t something you can perform just by completing that one process.” “I know. The next thing needed is to make mana react only to specific letters, right?” “......” “Since mana reactions differ for each word pattern, for this part, we just need to remember the mana patterns that react to specific words and pay attention to only those. For that, we’ll need to lay detection magic in double layers, right?” This time, Limrei couldn’t hide his emotions. “......How did you know that detection magic was used in double layers?” “At first, I was skeptical too. But when I actually tried it, one layer wasn’t enough. The structure is that the first layer reveals patterns of specific words, and the second layer of detection creates a [Signal] for those patterns, isn’t it?” In other words, Limrei’s [Book Selection] magic was magic that used detection in double layers. And Rudger understood this at a single glance. Since this was the first time Limrei had experienced something like this, his expression was a mess of mixed emotions. While trying to maintain his rationality, he couldn’t hide his incredulity, and along with anger, there was also admiration for Rudger. Limrei became competitive. ‘Fine. Let’s see just how far he can expose the foundations of the magic used here.’ “So. What’s next?” “Since you sent signals through double detection, I assume you marked certain frequency patterns in red and those above a threshold in blue.” “Right. Because that’s the clearest way to distinguish them.” “Using frequency wasn’t bad. But if we add a few more specific words here, it will be more discriminating. Along with ‘magic’ and ‘mystery’, adding words like ‘miracle’, ‘grace’, ‘chosen’. If all these words are included, we can find them more definitively.” “What significance do those words have?” “Ancient magicians thought their use of magic was a blessing. Rather than a reward for effort, they believed they were naturally graced, talented, and chosen. That would inevitably be reflected in their records.” Rudger raised mana at his fingertip, drew it out like a thread, and shot it toward the books on the shelves. The mana that touched the books quickly scanned them entirely, displaying numerous word patterns. Rudger analyzed only specific patterns from there and applied secondary processing. Then the mana reacted with the book and flashed with light. “We have a winner.” Rudger retrieved the scanning mana through the connected thread. It was an unbelievable level of mana control. “This way, we can find the desired books much more discriminatively than before. Of course, I can’t search large quantities of books at once like you can, Master Sage, but I can further classify what you’ve already sorted. It’s all thanks to you.” Rudger praised Limrei once to consider his pride. The point was that his magic wouldn’t be efficient without Limrei’s help but Limrei didn’t even hear Rudger’s words. Essentially, isn’t it like Rudger is just snatching up what Limrei has prepared? That was really hurting Limrei’s pride but he couldn’t just say Rudger was wrong. He had to honestly acknowledge it. Rudger didn’t just imitate [Book Selection], he improved it in his own way and made it more efficient and cleaner. Moreover, Rudger had figured out the operating principle of the magic used here just by seeing it once. While [Book Selection] wasn’t everything Limrei had, it was inevitable that his pride was wounded. “Y-you......” Limrei finally couldn’t hold back his anger and shouted. “Fine, you’re so great, you brat!” Though it was a childish outburst, underneath lay acknowledgment of Rudger. It was essentially a declaration of surrender. Of course, if he wanted to be stubborn, he could have found fault, but Limrei wasn’t that broken. He acknowledges what should be acknowledged. From the start, what Rudger showed was enough to force acknowledgment even if one didn’t want to give it. “You use magic in such a dirty way!” “Thank you for the compliment.” “How is this a compliment?! Huh?! You think this is a compliment?!” “Coming from a 6th Circle magician, how could it not be a compliment? It’s practically high praise.” ‘Wow.’ Roina unconsciously gaped in admiration at Rudger’s shameless side. His natural sass was perfect. Since he didn’t actually intend it that way, it shone even more. “Let’s begin now. Though we have time until we leave the mansion, time is money.” When Limrei filtered the books with [Book Selection] magic first, Rudger filtered them second. This way, the number of books to examine decreased significantly. Arpa, Sempas, and Roina gathered those books and stacked them neatly on one side of the library. The work was finished only after circling the entire library once. “How many volumes?” “A total of 132 volumes.” “Still quite a lot.” Though it was impressive to narrow down from tens of thousands to about a hundred volumes, 132 was still too many. Moreover, from here on, Rudger had to examine them alone. Of course, Roina, Sempas, and Limrei didn’t stop their own interpretations either. If there was any consolation, it was that thanks to the materials Rudger presented at the Arcane Chamber, Roina’s work speed was faster than expected. ‘This one’s a dud.’ Rudger, who had put aside materials that formed the basis of modern magic theory, asked Roina who had her head buried in a book. “Are you alright, Roina?” “...Huh? Did you call me?” “Yes. I did.” “W-why?” “Though we came here like this among ourselves, don’t you have your original affiliation? I’m asking if it’s okay to come like this, leaving those people behind.” Roina spoke dismissively of that. “It doesn’t matter. They’re just people the Association old men forcibly attached to me anyway.” “It wasn’t your own will?” “The Magic Association looks like one organization, but it’s divided into countless factions in detail. And the people who followed me are all from different factions than mine.” “People who pretend to help you while subtly trying to take advantage for themselves, I see.” “Yes. So I’m much more comfortable being separate like this. Of course, I’ll probably get an earful when I go back, but I can just endure and get past that much.” ‘I see.’ Rudger set aside his worries about Roina and focused again on examining the books. Though he was setting aside notable ones separately, even considering that, nothing had yet appeared that fully satisfied him. Still, since there were many books piled up, Rudger picked up the next one. ‘This is?’ This book wasn’t about magic. While it was related to magic, it put more weight on something else. Namely, it was about the holy war with demons. ‘Demons...’ Though it wasn’t immediately necessary material, curiosity struck, so Rudger turned the pages. ‘It’s explaining the existence of demons known to the public. And it says that religion has been fighting such demons since long ago.’ However if such content appears, the story usually develops toward religion being good but this book was different. Here, it was rather criticizing the Lumensis Order. ‘The Lumensis Order of that time was a symbol of absolute power that even held the right of dismissal. Yet they wrote content criticizing the Order.’ While puzzled, Rudger turned to the next page. [Demons each possess their own powers. How long they have lived doesn’t matter. The power they are born with inherently gives a single demon individual the strength to fight huge legions. The Lumensis Order has long searched for traces of such demons and fought them. But that was far from realizing justice. It was merely to protect their own authority.] [The most famous battle among them was long ago, the battle between hundreds of holy knight orders led by the past saint and the great demon Surna. The great demon Surna, who had destroyed more than two small countries, was mutually destroyed after the sacrifice of Saint Arkenis. After that, the demons who lost their central figure hid in the shadows of the world for a long time.] ‘Central figure?’ This is a slightly different story from what was discussed with Helia. Demons, or rather, beings who call themselves apostles, don’t have any sense of camaraderie with each other. Yet this document described the great demon Surna as a central figure. Is the record wrong? Or did Helia hide some of the truth? Rudger immediately moved on to the next content. [After the great demon’s death, Lumensis gradually became arrogant and tyrannical. They interfered in other countries’ internal affairs, and it wasn’t uncommon for them to steal property claiming it was evidence of faith in God. They even took princes and princesses from various countries as hostages. However, no one could resist the Lumensis Order. Not because of physical power, but because they had God’s authority. A terrible authority that could manipulate human will at their whim.] Rudger’s hand trembled as he was about to turn the page and at the same time, he realized that this document was absolutely not ordinary. Rudger carefully examined the front and back of the book and the preface. The author didn’t record who they were, or what they did where. Perhaps they intentionally didn’t leave it. ‘For instance, if their identity couldn’t be revealed.’ [That authority came from the main god Lumensis. Some rulers didn’t believe in God, but I know. That God exists, and that he tries to oppress us. The Lumensis Order was a means and puppet for that. So we couldn’t leave it like this. If we did, we would live under oppression forever.] [We found a way. We obtained a precious item that would end all of this. But there were too many things to prepare for that. So we joined hands with the elves.] [We created a huge facility and secretly grew the World Tree under it.]

Chapter 378

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