Descent of the Legendary Archmage

The bookshelves that filled the entire room to the brim, and the countless books that filled those bookshelves.

A room that was too small to be called a library, but too big to be called a study.

“What in the...”

The space transportation that had begun with the books emanating a light. It was quite a disconcerting experience.

'Well, it seems like I've been transported into the book.'

Given these circumstances, this conclusion was highly likely.

Just like when I entered the pages of the tests, I heard my master's voice before being transported. So I'm thinking perhaps I'm inside of the book I had newly acquired.

"He definitely said that it was an appendix... Did he call it Mimir's tome?"

That's definitely what he said.

An appendix, Mimir's grimoire.

A book about my master's life. And it was at that moment.

Pat pat-

Someone tapped my shoulder.

Startled by the sudden touch, I immediately turned around.

Poke.

At the moment I turned, an index finger poked into my cheek.

It'd been a while since someone had pranked me by poking my cheek.

"Hello?''

The person who had pranked me was a girl I had never seen before in my life.

Perhaps she's pleased that I fell for it? She smiled as if in a great mood and greeted me.

"And you are?"

"Me? I'm Mimir."

The girl took her hands off my shoulder and cheek, went back to her original position and with a bright smile looked at me.

“I'm Mimir, the manager who manages this place, Mímisbrunnr. Nice to meet you. Successor.”

“Mimir's well?”

“Yup, the name of this library.”

Inside of Mimir's grimoire, there's Mimir's well. I see.

“It's the name of the library dedicated exclusively to the successor of the Bytenor style of magic, prepared by Ray Vell Bytenor for his future successors."

“Mm...."

I took a look around again.

“I think it's too small to be called a library."

As I said, at most, it's a large study. Even the local bookstore is bigger than this. It's by no means large enough to be called a library.

“That’s because your achievements are still low.”

"...My achievements?"

“Yes. This place, Mímisbrunnr, is a library that varies in size depending on which stage the successor is on.”

"Ah."

Expansion depending on achievement. It seems to be a place with a similar mechanism to Eadred's grimoire.

"By the looks of it, it seems like you haven't even passed the page of the second test yet. Am I right?"

''Yes. That's right."

"I see. Mm, in any case..."

Mimir frowned as if something was uncomfortable.

Was there something wrong?

“Hey, can’t you speak a bit more comfortably with me?”

"Sorry?"

“I’ll be seeing you a lot from now on so you speaking to me so formally is a bit... Let's be comfortable with each other, is what I'm trying to say."

Mimir seemed to be the type of person who disliked things such as formality.

“Alright then. Let's do that."

"It's nice that you're cool. Good good."

Mimir gave a thumbs up.

“By the way, successor. Are you very lucky?”

"Am I lucky? What do you mean."

“You found me while still as a second circle mage. You have good luck. They usually never find me this early."

“In that sense, I was definitely lucky."

Finding Mimir’s Tome can definitely only be described as luck.

“Well, good things are good. Anyway, congratulations. Thanks to me, we'll be able to go all the way to at least the 5th circle without any problems.”

"Up to the 5th circle?"

"Yup."

"What do you mean?"

“Literally what I said?"

Mimir stepped slowly and headed towards a shelf. Then, soon after, pulled out a book and threw it at me.

"Seeing is believing. Give it a read. Then you'll know what I mean."

I was wondering what she was doing out of the blue, but since she wanted me to read it I decided to do so.

“Huh?”

And the moment I turned the first page, my eyes widened.

"...The detailed theory of resonance?"

The book contained detailed information about resonance that wasn't written in Eadred's grimoire.

The explanations of the things that I thought I knew were also very thorough. And as well as this, the formula for changing the value of one's circle was also extremely detailed.

“This place is full of information that doesn't exist in Eadred's grimoire. Like the book, you're reading right now.”

“What do you mean by things that aren't in Eadred's grimoire?”

“Again, I mean what I said. The book was filled with test pages. And also filled with pages verifying the successor's identity. Therefore because of those and other reasons, the remaining pages could be filled only with strictly necessary information."

"Ah."

Because there was too much excessive information, it had to be reduced. Understood.

“If Eadred's grimoire's a summary, this place can be seen as a kind of textbook and reference book. I guess it can be explained as an expert-grade book that thoroughly explains and solves things that can't be understood with a summary alone."

A reference book.

I think that's a good analogy. This is definitely like a reference book. A book meant for experts that contains too much information.

The theory of resonance, which in Eadred's grimoire was about 5 pages long, is explained in over 700 pages in this book.

“I don't need to needlessly explain just how great these books are, do I? Since you're seeing it with your own eyes."

I turned the page.

“The books here. Do they all contain this high information density?"

"Mhm."

From a glance, it looks like there are over a hundred books. You're telling me all of those books are of this level?

“And the greater my achievements, the more books I get?”

''The amount you get increases exponentially depending on the difficulty of the magic?"

"...Woah."

I'm so dumbfounded I can't even speak.

That's genuinely phenomenal.

"What do you think? Now you know why I said we could speed run our way all the way up till at least the 5th circle?"

"Yep. I can tell exactly what you meant.”

It seems that Mimir's tome is a book that goes above and beyond what I had hoped.

Perhaps a book as great as Eadred's grimoire.

'Seems like passing the second test will be easy as pie?'

If you can't pass even with this much high-quality information, then you're just stupid.

* * *

Friday morning.

I made my way to school, feeling good for a change. I didn't get even a wink of sleep, but I don't feel tired at all.

'To think I got through 79 of them.'

79.

That's the number of magic circles I activated yesterday at dawn when I took the second test.

Last time I was only able to activate 25.

In just one day I had improved two-fold.

I had made so much progress that I almost feIt like I had gone through all those hardships for no reason.

'If I'm fast I'll pass by tonight, if not I'll without fail, pass by tomorrow.'

Since this was the case how could I not be in a good mood?

'If I hadn't obtained Mimir's tome, it would have taken me a minimum of 3 weeks to get to this point.'

The difference in difficulty between activating the 30th magic circle and activating the 70th is the difference between heaven and earth. Just what kind of formula is that complicated?

I'm not exaggerating, they were at least 3 times more difficult.

'And from the 90th magic circle onwards, it's bound to get even more complex.'

I wonder how many trials and errors I would have had to go through if I hadn't received the detailed information on resonance from Mimir's tome.

I don't even want to think about it.

'The second test is also a test, but the third test...'

Shiver.

I only imagined it for a bit, but I got the chills.

The one thing I was sure about was that it would be impossible to achieve 4 circles before the Olympiad.

'The Book of Mimir. This is the real deal.'

I've only read two books so far, but I can say this for sure. Mimir's tome is a cheat. And it's not just a cheat, it's a stupidly overpowered one at that.

'Master... You're a mighty archmage that deserves to be described as the treasure trove of knowledge.'

How are the explanations so detailed and friendly? It felt like I was being taught by a teacher who knew the ins and outs of this subject. It was so useful and entertaining that I genuinely didn't feel the time passing by.

'Agh. I want to read the other books soon.'

Could there be a blessing more illustrious than being able to indulge in this high-quality knowledge to my heart's content?

I wanted to embrace that feeling again.

'There were a lot of titles that looked interesting.'

Oh, I'm already excited. I headed to my classroom thinking about those books I hadn't got to read yet

* * *

After all my classes ended on Friday. After receiving a summon from my father, I headed to the main house.

I was so close to passing the second test and I wanted to spend the whole day in Mimir's tome and Eadred's grimoire so it was a shame.

'It had to be today of all days didn't it.'

It would have been great if the meeting was tomorrow. And thinking about it like that made me even more regretful.

'This is an important thing in its own right, but...'

The reason I'm visiting my parents' house today is to receive the reward for obtaining the mana stone mining rights.

I should be able to receive a reward benefiting the enormous sum of mana stone mining rights I had obtained.

'Ah, forget the reward or whatever, I just want to go inside Mimir's tome.'

I genuinely want to ignore everything whether it be my father's summons or the reward and just go take the second test inside Eadred's grimoire.

'The 3rd circle is right before my eyes.'

My desire to be a 3rd circle mage was overwhelming all my other wants. Well, that's just what I want to do; I can't actually ignore everything like that.

'Since there are some things I must take with me from the family's warehouse.'

In any case, I had to go at least once. Let's be optimistic about it.

''We've reached our destination.''

After about 20 minutes, I arrived at the main house.

“Thank you for driving safely.''

"No worries. Have a good rest of your day.”

As I got out of the car, one of the maids came up to me and bowed their heads. "Welcome, please come in. The clan head is waiting for you in the study.”

I followed the maid and as we walked along the familiar hallway, from the distance, I saw my father's study.

“Patriarch. Young master Hayul is here.''

"Come in."

"Yes sir."

The maid opened the door to the study, bowed her head and stepped back.

“Sit down.”

My father, who was engrossed in his paperwork, spoke without looking at me once.

"Yes."

At my father's words, I sat down at the table where refreshments had been prepared.

My father continued to not look at me and focused on dealing with his paperwork.

A magic stamp that responds to my father's unique mana is stamped on the document that was magically enchanted.

He must have repeated that about 10 times before leaving the documents and stamps at the desk, getting up and approaching me.

Then he sat down in front of me and cut straight to the chase.

“Unlike in the previous case, we didn't come to own these shares entirely because of you. However, it is an obvious fact that at least half of the credit should go to you. With the previous case included, 26% of the mana stone mining rights are yours.”

"Yes sir."

He's actually being generous when he says that I deserve 50% of the credit. If my father hadn't reacted so fast and hadn't covered up the incident so tidily, then this would have ended with just the downfall of the Baek Family. Even though this opportunity appeared as a result of my actions, 20% of the shares were pretty much made by my father.

''I've gained a lot thanks to you, so I should give you a reward worthy of it."

My father looks at me with serious eyes.

“Is there anything you want?”

“Yes.''

"What is it?"

My father's eyes twinkled. I wonder what kind of thing you'll say to make me jump out of my skin? That's what his eyes seemed to be saying.

“I want the ancient heirloom that's being stored in the deepest part of the family's warehouse.”

But this time, I don't plan on saying anything particularly out of the ordinary.

"...The ancient heirloom?"

My father said with a slightly disappointed look.

"Are you saying this despite knowing that its only worth is in its historical value?"

''Yes, I know.''

The ancient heirloom.

It's literally just a relic of the past. Although it is a type of artifact that's been magically processed, its performance isn't that great.

As my father said, it's a relic of historical value.

A family treasure that's been passed down from generation to generation.

An expensive antique.

That's the public opinion of the ancient heirloom.

"You're not thinking that the nonsense about the ancient heirloom holding a secret is real are you?"

There are many rumors about the ancient heirloom.

The most famous one is that inside the ancient heirloom resides a genuine power that's laying dormant.

“That's absolute nonsense. The ancient heirloom holds no real value. Ancient magic is just outdated magic and myths are just stories decorated with fiction."

Of course, it's just a rumor. Because their appearances were so magnificent and because they appeared in myths, those kinds of rumors spread.

So far, nothing had come out of the ancient heirlooms. And that's why my father had said that.

"I disagree."

However, my thoughts are different. There's definitely something to the ancient heirlooms.

''I believe that both the myths and the legends of the ancient heirlooms are true."

My master's magic, which is also my magic. The Bytenor style of magic is proof of this. The Bytenor style of magic is so great that it doesn't make sense for the artifacts created in the same era to not amount to much.

'And also, in one of the books I had read from Mímisbrunnr, I'd read some sentences that seemed to mention the ancient heirlooms.'

There is certainly something to the ancient heirlooms.

"...I suppose you still are young. To think that you would believe such nonsense."

My father spoke with a look of genuine disappointment.

“Alright. Fine. If that’s your choice, I should respect it. As your reward for this incident, I shall gift you the ancient heirloom.”

“Thank you."

"But, you may only take one. I'm sure you're aware of this?"

''Yes. I'm aware.''

The ancient heirlooms are worth just as much as the relics of historical value are.

Even with the hefty sum of 26% of the mana stone mining rights, I'm only allowed to buy one.

“I will ask you this one last time. You won't regret it, will you?"

"I won't."

My resolve is steeled.

Out of the ancient heirlooms that are being stored in the deepest part of our family's warehouse, there's only one that I want.

"I want the ancient heirloom that lies dormant in the family treasury, Ray Vell Bytenor's robes."

Ray Vell Bytenor's robes.

I want my master's robes.