Chapter 3: Learning Magic
When I turned on YouTube, a video popped up with an Indian uncle excitedly speaking in English.
No subtitles, no fancy intro. Just a simple video with only a blackboard.
“I don’t know English.”
Actually, even if I knew English, it would have been hard to understand.
That curry-thick accent would be tough even for American natives.
But in front of the overwhelming teaching power, the language barrier wasn’t much of a problem.
“Basic magic…. Is used like this only. First, you imagine to pull up the power of the earth….”
The uncle explained passionately, using hand gestures, foot movements, and even drawing pictures on the blackboard.
Humanity didn’t need anything else to communicate with each other.
“Seems like he’s saying to imagine pulling up the power of the earth roughly.”
I nodded while interpreting the uncle’s words in my own way.
The core was similar to meditation.
The divinity settled inside me. Communicating it with the external nature.
“This important! Three months!”
The uncle suddenly emphasized by holding up three fingers.
“It can take more than 3 months to feel mana? This is a bit troublesome.”
I wanted to use magic right away and pass the certification.
A new gallery, and one with only four mages in Korea, now five including me.
I wanted to become one of them as soon as possible and enjoy gallerying.
But it could take three months. That was too long.
“Let’s just try it anyway.”
It wasn’t something that would happen by rushing anyway.
To directly feel this power of the earth, I went outside first.
I had to find the place closest to dirt, where there’s the most dirt.
After thinking, the place I headed to was the playground in the apartment complex.
I sat cross-legged in the middle of the playground’s sandbox.
While crushing the toad houses and sandcastles the kids had dug with my butt.
Not long after, I started feeling the gazes around me.
“Oh my, look over there.”
“What? Oh, that girl over there?”
“Yes, she looks like a student, what is she doing in the middle of the playground at this time?”
“Who knows. Maybe some challenge that kids do these days? Lately, kids are crazy about filming YouTube.”
“What’s good about filming that?”
“Why, in our time too, there were kids going crazy wanting to be idols?
These days, they film that and if it gets popular, agencies contact them or something?”
“Then is she like an idol trainee? She does look incredibly pretty. Though her clothes are shabby.”
Whispering sounds came.
I’m used to being treated like a crazy person.
But hearing ‘pretty’ was a first in my life.
It felt awkward, like my body was twisting.
I tried hard to ignore their gazes.
When I glanced with my eyes open a bit, it was just a few grandmas sitting on the bench and some passing aunties.
Whatever they thought of me didn’t matter.
I closed my eyes and focused only on feeling the mana.
Thanks to the 30 days of meditation training, concentration wasn’t difficult.
The surrounding noise faded, and my consciousness gradually dug down, into the sandbox.
Then I felt it.
The minute energy contained in each grain of sand. The massive flow created by them gathering.
The heat transmitted from deep underground, that weight. Time. The pulsation of life. All of that.
This was mana.
“Success.”
I opened my eyes.
Looking at the clock, it didn’t take a few minutes. The process that the video said could take three months ended in just a few minutes.
I looked around.
Fortunately, the people who were watching me earlier had all left.
Now was the chance.
I carefully extended my hand and tried manipulating the mana.
“First, from simple sand movement….”
Following my gesture, the sand smoothly rose and wriggled like a snake.
“Ooh!”
I played with moving the sand here and there, forgetting time for a moment.
I made an ugly frog drawing that I often saw in the gallery with sand, and engraved the gallery logo largely.
“I should write a post later titled ‘Hunter Bum Made a Sandcastle, How Many Likes?'”
I captured all of that in my phone camera for certification.
After playing like that for a while, something suddenly came to mind.
The most basic attack magic that the Indian uncle taught in the video.
“It was Sand Bullet, right? The name is so half-assed.”
But the name isn’t important.
I scooped a handful of sand onto my palm.
And closed my eyes and imagined.
A single bullet.
The sand grains in my hand move according to the image in my head.
They clump together firmly. Compressed, rotating.
I saw the shape of the divinity inside me changing. The divinity now looked like a small bullet.
Suddenly, it felt dizzy, like my head was spinning.
Sparks in my head.
The feeling of countless information pouring into my brain at once.
The optimal arrangement of sand grains, the most efficient compression method of mana, the optimal rotation speed.
Skipping complex formulas, all the results are derived by intuition.
All of this came to mind naturally, as if I had known it from the beginning.
‘Has my head ever worked this fast?’
No, definitely not.
I’ve rotted my brain all my life writing sh*t posts. Suddenly, it felt like I became a genius.
‘When awakening as a mage, not just the body but the head was remodeled too…?’
Maybe. After all, even gender changed, so it’s weird if the brain stayed the same.
I stopped the distracting thoughts there.
I precisely manipulated the mana according to the optimal solution that intuitively came up.
On my palm, the sand clumped while rotating violently.
With a sizzle sound, finally, a black, solid bullet the size of a fingernail was completed.
I pointed my finger towards the worn-out bench in the corner of the playground.
And fired the completed sand bullet.
Whoosh-!
The bullet flew at terrifying speed with a sound tearing the air.
Boom!
With the sound, a large hole was pierced in the bench backrest.
Like it was hit by a large-caliber sniper rifle.
I was shocked by the power. This is just basic magic? One that can be used without skills?
No wonder mages are called overpowered.
“……”
I stared blankly at the smashed bench for a moment, then snapped out of it.
I had to leave quickly before anyone saw.
“But I can’t resist certification shots.”
I hurriedly took out my phone and took certification shots.
Even if my life ends in 1 second, I’d be taking certification shots.
I took shots of the holed bench and the faint sand pattern left on my palm together.
After taking a few more, I left the playground without regret and fled home.
*
As soon as I arrived home, I accessed the Mage Gallery.
It hadn’t even been two hours since I last posted, but several new posts were up.
To check the atmosphere before I entered, I read from the latest posts.
[Title: When Is That Newbie Coming]
Author: Magic is Firepower
It took me five months. Wonder how many months until that one comes back. Was the task too hard?
ㄴ Refrigerator: At least three or four months. Even genius me took two months.
ㄴ p Pikachu: I did it in one month? lol
ㄴ Refrigerator: You’re lightning attribute. Lightning is originally a fast attribute. Earth takes long.
ㄴ Beetle: Anyway, let’s wait.
[Title: But What If That One Is a Scammer? lol]
Author: p Pikachu
Maybe upload some clumsy edited image today and run away? lol
ㄴ Magic is Firepower: Could be.
ㄴ Beetle: No, my gut tells me. That one’s real.
Hm, buzzing about me. Atmosphere mixed with expectation and doubt.
Anyway, getting attention is always fun.
I smiled satisfied and pressed the write button.
[Title: Certification. Is This Right?]
Author: ㅇㅇ
(Roughly photo of holed bench)
(Roughly photo of sand remaining on palm)
Is this what you told me to do? It’s hard.
As soon as I posted, the gallery literally exploded.
ㄴ p Pikachu: ???????????
ㄴ Refrigerator: ??????
ㄴ Magic is Firepower: ?? What is this?
ㄴ Beetle: Hey, how did you do this? Already?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): You told me to.
ㄴ Beetle: No, I did tell you, but I didn’t think you’d do it this fast…. How long did it take you to feel mana?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): About 10 minutes?
ㄴ Magic is Firepower: 10 minutes? 10 minutes?
ㄴ Refrigerator: Bullsh*t. It took me two months to first feel mana.
ㄴ p Pikachu: Even for me with lightning attribute, it took a week just to get the feel! 10 minutes doesn’t make sense lol!
I smiled satisfied at that reaction.
This is when to add more fuel.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): Huh? Maybe you guys just have sh*tty talent and it took long?
ㄴ Magic is Firepower: This bastard?
ㄴ Beetle: Hey, everyone calm down. First look at the photos. Does that look edited?
ㄴ Refrigerator: …No. Looking at the cross-section of the hole in the bench and the traces on the hand, it’s Sand Bullet alright.
Impossible to imitate that precisely just from the YouTube video. It’s real.
ㄴ Magic is Firepower: Then really did it in 10 minutes? Talent is insane shiver.
ㄴ Beetle: A really amazing newbie appeared….
Seeing the gallery buzzing about my talent made me feel good.
But I couldn’t show enjoyment openly.
I remembered the gallery rules and commented gruffly.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): But giving such a hard thing as certification task, are you crazy? If not me, would have come in half a year.
ㄴ Beetle: No, that… Originally, I was going to acknowledge if you came back in about a month and just floated some sand a bit…. Didn’t know you’d shoot Sand Bullet in a day. Sorry.
Beetle apologized meekly. I replied as if generously forgiving.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): Fine. So now I’m an official member?
ㄴ Beetle: Of course. Welcome, newbie.
ㄴ Refrigerator: I believe. You are a mage.
ㄴ p Pikachu: Congratulations on becoming a mage lol.
Receiving their welcome made it real.
The fact that I really became a mage and one of them.
Then, Beetle added a new comment.
ㄴ Beetle: With that talent and power, you can chew through the tower’s tutorial….
Go to the tower when you have time. Ah, put off hunter registration.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): I was planning to go to the tower anyway, but why hunter registration?
ㄴ Beetle: There’s a reason. If you reveal you’re a mage now, troublesome things will happen for sure. Register after you’re strong enough.
Tower. The ultimate reason I gobbled dirt for 30 days to become a mage.
Becoming a hunter means wealth and fame await.
But don’t register as a hunter?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): Can’t enter the tower without hunter registration, right?
ㄴ Beetle: Anyway, these days except Seoul, they don’t check strictly.
ㄴ Beetle: To live as a mage, you must run the tower. Need to get magic stones, accumulate exp too.
If you have questions or need anything for entering the tower, ask anything. We’ll tell you everything.
Seeing his comment, I solidified my resolve.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ (Author): Ok. Then I’ll go tomorrow.
No need to think. What did I suffer for 30 days for.
Wasn’t it all to become a mage and live well.
I had just taken the first step.