Labyrinth Exploration 101 - L.E Chapter 7 (Part 2): I Hate Pain (2)

She stood with her arms crossed, muttering,

“Ugh, that was a pain to peel off. Why’s it so clingy?”

“…”

Even at a glance, she wasn’t ordinary.

Seo Ji-woo’s personality is pretty well-known. There’s tons of rumors about her online, and before my regression, she’d come looking for me directly. With every intent to kill.

So today’s meeting feels oddly surreal.

“Your name?”

Seo Ji-woo asked me.

She—well, the current her—doesn’t know me yet.

I answered,

“…Seol Ha-woon.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-seven.”

“That’s on the older side.”

Seo Ji-woo, hands clasped behind her head, shot me a sidelong glance and asked,

“So, what is it~?”

She’s not asking because she doesn’t know. She probably figured it out way before I did.

“…The whole grassy field is a spell formation.”

“Oh~ Quick on the uptake.”

Seo Ji-woo snapped her fingers. A board appeared in midair, and she scribbled something on it.

“This is the answer, right?”

It looked like she’d drawn a magic spell formation, but instead of checking it, I looked at her. Up close, the resemblance was even stronger.

Especially her eyes—they’re practically identical.

A crease formed between Seo Ji-woo’s brows.

“What? Why’re you staring at my face?”

I belatedly checked the spell formation she’d presented.

“Looks like you’ve got half of it.”

“…Huh?”

Seo Ji-woo tilted her head. She seemed to process my words, then let out a dry laugh.

“Ha, half? Then what’s the other half?”

I leaned silently against the railing.

Meaning I don’t need to tell you.

“Wow, I don’t know what great revelation you’ve had, but…”

Seo Ji-woo raised her hand. Mana gathered above her palm, and in an instant, a spell formation took shape. It transformed into some kind of pass card, which she grasped.

“It’s the right answer, you know?”

I nodded.

“Congrats.”

“Congrats, my foot… Alright, I’m off.”

Frowning, Seo Ji-woo tore the card in half. Mana swirled around her, and her entire body teleported somewhere else.

“Guess that was a correct answer too.”

The grassy field itself seems to be an answer, but the spell formation I’m thinking of is a bit different.

A matter of balance, perhaps.

In spell formations, as far as I can sense, there’s a ‘center of gravity.’

In other words, if the center of gravity is stable, a spell formation doesn’t need to be perfectly symmetrical.

People—including my past self—usually think spell formations have to be fully symmetrical. Even this subspace’s grassy field appears symmetrical at a glance.

However, Mage Kim Se-jin.

If we assume his current position is the ‘core,’ it introduces significant asymmetry into the spell formation. Yet there’s a clear order within it.

Because the center of gravity is stable.

So, if you take Kim Se-jin as the origin point and observe the mana flow of the spell, you’d get a slightly different result.

“Phew…”

I closed my eyes.

First, I visualized the spell’s structure in my mind, then used [Mana Manipulation] to manifest it externally. I wove the mana rising in my palm into a spell formation…

I opened my eyes.

A chill ran through my body.

Kim Se-jin.

Far below, almost a speck from the railing where I stood, Kim Se-jin was looking at me.

He stared at the spell forming in my hand and gave a deep smile. A grin that stretched ear to ear.

“…Okay, that’s creepy.”

A wide-eyed guy smiling like that looks downright unhinged.

I nearly lost focus, but the spell was already complete.

*Zzt-zzzt—!*

The spell sparked and transformed into a card. A golden card.

“Done…”

I looked back at the grassy field. Kim Se-jin was gone.

“Hm?”

“What the hell?”

“Eek!”

I whipped around, startled. Kim Se-jin was right behind me. He murmured in awe as he looked at me.

“No, seriously, how? How’d you figure it out that fast?”

“…And I want to ask you. How did you get up here so fast?”

“It’s my space. Where I want to stand in my space is up to me.”

Kim Se-jin flashed a bright smile. A puppy-like grin.

“You. Do you have, like, savant syndrome or something? I noticed you limp.”

“My limp’s got nothing to do with savant syndrome.”

Kim Se-jin scratched his cheek, mulling it over.

“Oh, right. Still, that’s amazing.”

“…No, wait. More importantly—”

I glanced between Kim Se-jin and the golden card. My heart skipped a beat.

“Is there something to this?”

“To what?”

Kim Se-jin tilted his head.

“I mean, like a hidden mission or something. Isn’t that what this is?”

“Uh… I just did it because I was bored.”

“…What?”

My jaw dropped halfway. I was dumbfounded.

Kim Se-jin widened his eyes innocently.

“It’s just a spell formation I twisted up for fun. Honestly, I didn’t think anyone would figure it out. Usually, even veteran mages don’t pick up on asymmetry.”

“Wait, so—you mean—ugh, damn it. I wasted my time?”

I tapped the ground with my cane. *Thump-thump. Thump-thump.* Venting my frustration.

“Haha, you didn’t expect that, huh? I really didn’t think a contestant would crack this. But that’s yours.”

“What’s mine?”

“That. There’s a gem embedded in the card.”

I looked at the golden card. A small core was set into the front.

“What’s this?”

“A Magic Stone. A gift.”

A Magic Stone. Pretty valuable stuff. It’s barely the size of a fingernail, but this thing’s probably worth 10 million won.

I slipped it into my pocket discreetly.

“And…”

Kim Se-jin covered his mouth and whispered,

“This was all caught on camera.”

“…….”

Caught on camera.

That carried a lot of implications.

“A limping genius who cracked a high-level spell formation crafted by a top-ranked mage.”

Kim Se-jin grinned deeply.

“That’ll help your image, won’t it? Seol Ha-woon.”

Dangun

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