Chapter 9

The Life of a Former Ranker as a Newbie - Chapter 8 (9/271)

8

“Phew!”

Thanks to regaining his senses in time, he avoided kissing the floor.

Was it five days since he last had a proper rest?

Perhaps it was time to log out and get some rest.

While pondering this, Dojin lifted his head and froze.

“What? This is a place I shouldn’t be able to enter right now…?”

The area where he stood was one he absolutely should not have been able to enter.

Each item stored here was protected by separate dimensional isolation spells, and all of them were clearly at least of relic grade.

There was no way a 1st Tier Mage could be here.

Dojin wandered around in a daze.

Then he stopped in front of an old, ominous-looking book.

“This is the Ancient Book of Curses.”

The Ancient Book of Curses, an item that allows one to learn powerful ancient curse magic.

The reason Dojin was familiar with this book was simple.

He had seen it once when he visited this place in his previous life.

Of course, he hadn’t touched it even then.

‘Who was it that got completely ruined by this thing?’

He knew that someone who learned the curse magic from the Ancient Book of Curses ended up with a completely broken magic circuit, turning into a literal cripple.

There was no way he would do something as crazy as that.

A mage is the most neutral of all professions that handle techniques.

Thus, a mage is the most versatile of all spellcasters.

However, the most neutral mage is like a blank canvas, easily influenced by any color.

At first, it might not be noticeable, but as one learns and uses different spells, the circuit gradually changes, leading to specialization in certain areas and weakness in others.

If this goes to extremes, one might end up like the Ancient Book of Curses user, whose magic circuit was destroyed, or like Dojin in his previous life, who could only use destruction magic due to circuit deformation, becoming a half-cripple.

Of course, Dojin, who had already seen and experienced these things, wouldn’t suffer from such issues.

“Anyway, the fact that this is here means we’re at least on the 5th floor.”

Right. The important thing isn’t the Ancient Book of Curses itself.

The important thing is that this ancient magic book is stored on the 5th floor.

The 5th floor of the Ten Thousand Mile Library is a place where, as a mage, one must have basic abilities and solve all kinds of quests to the point of extracting Eltomagia’s liver and gallbladder to gain entry.

Yet, here stands Dojin, a 1st Tier Mage.

Why is that?

His contemplation was brief.

“It must be thanks to this ring, right?”

The wooden ring given to him by Sion.

It seemed this ring was acting as a master key.

‘...’

But to the current Dojin, it’s all a pointless story.

Here or higher, he can’t touch anything anyway.

Dojin tried the wooden ring on the magic seal that seemed the safest, which sealed a sword.

‘...’

He even rubbed it hard, just in case.

“Hmm. As expected, it doesn’t work.”

The result was, as expected, a failure.

The wooden ring only seemed to remove the restrictions on the place.

Dojin looked around at the magical books, magic materials, and weapons of immense value scattered around.

Even though they were like a picture of a cake, he couldn’t take his eyes off them, knowing that each one was worth more than a castle.

However, he couldn’t just waste time here.

“Still, such an opportunity is rare... I might as well go as high as I can.”

It’s a pity, but it’s a pity.

Such an opportunity to obtain a master key wouldn’t come often.

In his previous life, the highest he could reach was the 7th floor.

The highest a user had ever reached, even after seeing the highest floor, was only the 8th floor.

He didn’t want to waste the chance to see even higher.

‘If I can see what’s there, it might help me later.’

With his mind made up, Dojin took a step.

The imagery he conjured to receive guidance was a memory he wanted to forget.

The place changed instantly.

As the background changed, priceless treasures passed by.

He stopped at a corner of the 7th floor of the Ten Thousand Mile Library, a space with a desolate city as its backdrop.

This was where the ‘Spirit of Destruction’ was stored, a place where the entire area was cut out and preserved, as the items could not be separated and brought here.

This was also the midpoint of a hidden quest that Dojin had attempted in his previous life, investing luck, money, and effort.

Dojin looked at the demon sealed by dozens of dimensional barriers in the middle of the ruins.

It was a sight that made him feel dirty just by looking at it.

It couldn’t be helped, as absorbing this demon to obtain a half-hidden piece had ended his career as a mage.

It was a situation where experiencing PTSD wouldn’t be surprising.

‘I really thought I was going crazy back then.’

When he saw all the magic skills except pure attack magic disappear from his skill window upon waking up, Dojin felt as if the world had gone dark.

It was so bad that he considered diving into the Han River to reset his life.

Anyway.

This hidden piece, while a hidden piece, is a defective and incomplete one.

If he had known the backstory of the mad destruction mage who tried to create a complete destruction spell but died from circuit over-deformation and reverse flow, and was then consumed by the spell he was creating, he would have fled at full speed upon seeing it, let alone consider absorbing it.

No, he would have discarded the hidden quest altogether.

‘...I didn’t know this was actually the starting point of the quest, not the reward.’

It’s not like he was a pirate obsessed with X-Pieces.

‘Hahaha, try to find it if you can! I’ve cut off your limbs and hidden them somewhere in the world!’

Seeing the quest window with such crazy text, he was utterly speechless.

In the end, Dojin couldn’t find any way to solve the subsequent quest, his magic circuit was deformed and solidified, and he had to live as a mage who could only use attack magic with poor efficiency, and whose magic circuit would overload and collapse after a few uses.

But not anymore.

“Together, it was utterly terrible, and I never want to see it again. If possible, I’d rather it went to someone I dislike.”

Dojin showed the middle finger to the nightmare of his past.

And he took a step without hesitation.

Higher. As high as possible.

To the secrets hidden by Sion Grace, one of the greatest mages in the history of Eltomagia, or rather, Rosania.

The Ten Thousand Mile Library, reading Dojin’s mind, began to guide him.

However, from the 8th floor onwards, the seals were so powerful that it was impossible to tell what was sealed, or the seals were filled with various energies, making it impossible to identify the items.

It wasn’t as if he could complain about the seals themselves.

Without them, the violent mana currents emitted by the items would sweep him away and turn him into dust.

“So, is there no point in going higher?”

Dojin pondered for a moment.

He considered going back down and reading the books a 1st Tier Mage could handle until his food ran out.

But it felt a bit disappointing to just turn back.

Since it was such a rare opportunity, he thought he should at least reach the final point before going down.

“Right, I’ll take a quick look and then go down and read.”

With his mind made up, Dojin took another step.

This time, the imagery he conjured was very simple.

The end of this space.

The final place where there is no further to go.

The Ten Thousand Mile Library, recognizing Dojin as the owner of the ring, guided him kindly.

The place he arrived at was.

“...This is.”

It looked like a large room of some ancient ruin.

The walls were engraved with geometric patterns, and there was nothing else.

Is there nothing stored here?

Curious, Dojin turned his head around.

But no matter how he looked, nothing stood out in the alien space.

‘Is there a door to another room or something?’

‘Should I feel the walls-’

As he thought and took a step.

Whirring-

Hundreds, thousands of magic arrays appeared in the center of the room.

Or rather, could they even be called magic arrays?

They were so intricately intertwined and moved so wildly.

Before he could even process his thoughts, a cube as black as the abyss bloomed from the center of the magic arrays.

A mechanical voice sounded.

【New intelligent life form detected.】

【Initiating identification and exploration of the detected entity.】

【‘Fate’ search result: No information on the entity.】

【Recognized as an entity capable of accessing the New Book of Truth.】

The black cube made a hasty conclusion.

And.

Crack.

The magic arrays surrounding the black cube began to break and expand.

Phantom-like light particles and geometric patterns filled the room.

The surge of power exploded, enveloping Dojin.

* * *

In fact, the Ten Thousand Mile Library was a result derived from a magic to seal a dungeon.

A mysterious dungeon that, from the moment it was discovered, began to devour the surrounding space and expand infinitely.

Sion used the property of the dungeon to expand infinitely to seal it, and utilized the resulting space to create the Ten Thousand Mile Library.

However, the true nature of the dungeon was never discovered.

Whether it was a legacy of an ancient civilization or something that flowed in from another world.

What secrets it held at the core of the absolute seal that didn’t even allow access within a certain area.

But that secret was now revealed in a meaningless way.

‘...’

Standing in the center of the dungeon, a place he had never entered before, Sion recalled the scene he had seen indirectly.

“Why...”

Why was the seal broken?

No, the seal wasn’t broken.

The seal was still perfectly protecting the place even when the Regenian stepped in.

‘It felt like the Regenian was the only exception to the seal.’

This meant that the Regenian met the conditions to pass through the seal protecting this place.

What were those conditions?

‘It’s unlikely that it was a condition applicable only to a single entity. It must be a more general condition.’

If he investigated the Regenian now, might he find some answers?

The Regenian, though turned to dust by the mana storm, would revive in a few days.

If he wanted to investigate, there was nothing he couldn’t do...

As the great mage expanded his thoughts, his eyes were filled with excessive curiosity.

Swoosh-

A golden ripple appeared before his eyes.

The Light of the World Law.

A light that appears and adjusts when the continuity of the LOST world is seriously damaged for any reason.

The light, which NPCs couldn’t see or perceive, enveloped Sion Grace.

And her memory began to be modified.

First, the process of creating the Ten Thousand Mile Library was changed.

Instead of sealing a mysterious dungeon, it was changed to a process of blocking the aftermath of its destruction.

The memory of the Regenian reaching the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Mile Library was deleted.

Instead, a new memory was formed of her sipping a grape wine that didn’t even suit her taste, reminiscing about a colleague.

Thus, the world thoroughly erased the connection between Dojin and the ancient ruin.