I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

Whisper

Kim Dojun recalled the two items he needed to enter Pantheon.

'The first is the ticket to Pantheon that Goseon made... I've already acquired this, so there's no problem.'

As he fiddled with the black ticket tucked inside his clothes, he continued his thoughts.

'What's left now is the mask.'

The mask.

It was one of those almost essential items to prepare in order to enter Pantheon.

'For criminals whose names are already known, it's probably easier and even helpful to walk around bare-faced. But for me, there's no merit to doing that in a city of criminals.'

Just as Dan had told him, it was best for anyone who wasn't a criminal to hide their identity as much as possible. Kim Dojun suddenly recalled a setting he'd seen in Sorcery Killing Technique.

'I think originally, it wasn't always a city of criminals.'

Apparently, Pantheon was originally a neutral city that didn't belong to any country.

But as efforts were made to create a truly neutral city, free from the intervention of any nation, it naturally became a hiding place for heinous criminals looking to evade capture.

Pantheon didn't expel even these kinds of criminals, as long as they abided by the basic rules within Pantheon. Eventually, he'd learned in the game's information that this was how it became a city of criminals.

'Well, that's not what's important right now. It's getting a mask. A mask with a cognition interference sorcery cast on it.'

He thought of the routes through which he could acquire a mask right away.

'There's no place openly selling masks with cognition interference drawn on them. The first thing that comes to mind is the black market—'

He shook his head soon after.

'But going overseas just to get a mask at an exorbitant price with an unethical premium added isn't really appealing.'

Kim Dojun excluded the black market from his options and continued to ponder where he could get a mask.

"Ah."

He let out a small exclamation.

'That place exists.'

Recalling the settings from Sorcery Killing Technique, he waited for the next day to come.

So, on the weekend—

"Let's go."

He went out, intent on getting himself a mask.

####

The destination Kim Dojun headed to was Donghae, Gangwon Province, about two hours from the Sorcery Institute.

Swoooosh—!

The East Sea's waves, cutting through the water refreshingly just by looking.

He took in the scenery of the countryside that unfolded wide before him, with the sea as the backdrop.

He then averted his gaze immediately to an abandoned factory complex next to it.

It wasn't a mere skeleton of a building like the rest stops he had seen before; in fact, the somewhat maintained structure made it feel all the more eerie.

Kim Dojun focused his eyes on a particularly large and blue-painted factory in the complex and started walking towards it.

Step.

Standing before the abandoned factory, Kim Dojun entered without hesitation.

Crash!

The moment he stepped inside the factory, a wall appeared before him.

No—to be precise—

Thud! Rumble! Thud!

The wall began to form.

A wall that appeared out of thin air quickly blocked his way and was turning into a complex maze.

But as he observed this, a smirk played at the corner of his lips.

'That's the answer.'

The reason Kim Dojun had made the trip to Donghae today was precisely for this factory—or, to be more accurate, to find the 'Illusory Maze' said to have been created by a legendary sorcerer.

Creak—! Creak, creak, creak!

Even as he was thinking, walls materialized from the air, locking and twisting and rotating, dizzying his vision.

After a bit more time passed—

Thud!

With a massive sound, the maze completed itself.

"..."

Kim Dojun glanced backward.

All he could see was a wall, not the entrance he'd come through.

'Exactly as it was in Sorcery Killing Technique.'

Midway through the game's story, once the player got hints about the 'Legendary Sorcerer' through the library or the internet, they could come here. It was a maze with such a terrible difficulty level that it was clearly designed to torment the player.

'There are no monsters to gain experience from, and it's so hard that all it gives you is a ton of stress.'

On top of that, the developers had thrown puzzle elements throughout the maze to double the suffering of players already struggling.

Of course, Kim Dojun had managed to clear this maze after several grueling hours in Sorcery Killing Technique.

'I'm no genius. I don't have the maze's pattern memorized.'

In fact, back when he played, he pretty much rage-clicked everywhere due to frustration, and somehow managed to clear it with an "Oh, I did it?" kind of feeling—truthfully, he had no confidence in solving the maze now.

He was never particularly talented at using his head.

Which meant Kim Dojun might have to go through hell here all over again, but he wasn't especially worried about it.

"Hup...!"

Because he'd never planned on properly solving the maze in the first place.

Smash!

Immediately, Kim Dojun swung his fist and shattered a section of the maze wall trapping him.

Crack!

The maze crumbled like tofu.

However—

"Oh...?"

The broken pieces squirmed as if alive and quickly repaired themselves.

Watching this, Kim Dojun only smiled.

"This is even better..."

At first, he'd been afraid that breaking the maze would prevent him from earning the reward, but if it regenerated like this, the situation was different.

'The reward should be on the fifth floor....'

After glancing up at the ceiling, he let out a big sigh.

"Phew..."

He bent down, gathering strength in his legs.

Crack—!

Kim Dojun's feet left cracks in the defenseless ground.

"Hup!"

CRAAASH!

Kim Dojun's body shot up, smashing through the maze's ceiling in an instant.

And—

Unlike the over five hours spent in Sorcery Killing Technique—

"Arrived."

He reached the top of the Illusory Maze just three minutes after getting trapped inside.

Whooom—!

As the hole he'd made in the floor swiftly repaired itself, a grand old door came into view.

Knowing that was the exit of the Illusory Maze, Kim Dojun strode forward and opened the door.

Creak—!

He strode into the roughly opened door and immediately saw a box in the room.

A treasure chest that seemed as though it had come straight out of a fantasy story.

After confirming it, Kim Dojun immediately opened the chest.

Inside, he found a small vial.

Ding!

----
Special Antidote.
Grade: Advanced
Effect: When ingested while afflicted by a status ailment, it immediately cures the abnormality and grants immunity to it for exactly one day afterward.
----

A log window appeared as soon as he lifted the vial.

As he confirmed it, he thought,

'When I first cleared the Illusory Maze after more than five hours and got this, I cursed out loud, wondering if this was seriously the only reward.'

But now, Kim Dojun tucked the antidote away with a satisfied expression.

For him, the meager reward from the Illusory Maze was only a bonus.

The real reason Kim Dojun had come here was not this antidote, but something else.

'It should be around here somewhere.'

Scanning the grand room, Kim Dojun soon spotted a mask hanging on one wall.

A mask shaped like a scorpion's face.

Staring at it, Kim Dojun murmured,

"Found it."

####

In the game, he couldn't obtain anything beyond the antidote in this room.

Even so, the reason he'd sought out the Illusory Maze was because of a passage regarding the mask that appeared when the player investigated the room as a player.

'I don't remember it in detail...'

Of course, it was just a passing description, so he didn't remember it precisely, but the explanation still lingered in his head:
'A mask covered with all sorts of sorcery formations; if it can be properly used and possessed, it has incredible value.'

Despite the enticing description, the reason he hadn't—or rather, couldn't—take the mask back then was because of the passage that immediately followed when he clicked the mask.

'A menacing power can be felt. Best not to mess with it... or something like that.'

In short, since the developers had set it as such, Kim Dojun was unable to touch the mask in the game.

But this was not the game—this was reality.

Without hesitation, Kim Dojun walked over to the spot where the mask was hanging and grabbed it.

Just as he'd hoped, unlike in the game, no log window popped up to stop him, and the mask came right into his hand.

Ding!

A log window appeared before his eyes as soon as he picked up the mask.

----
Eccentric Immortal's Scorpion Mask.
Grade: Advanced
Special Effect: When worn, 'Eccentric Immortal's Tail' will grow using the wearer's spiritual power.
Effect: When worn, the mask's cognition interference sorcery formation prevents others from recognizing you. Additionally, with a distortion sorcery formation and memory assistance sorcery formation, it forces you to speak in a particular manner.
----

"Amazing."

Looking at the log, Kim Dojun displayed a deeply satisfied smile.

The scorpion mask was powerful enough for the phrase 'menacing power can be felt' to come up; he remained beaming as he put the mask on.

The next moment—

"Hup?!"

Kim Dojun suddenly felt something getting sucked out of him—SHWAAAAK!—and involuntarily gasped.

The stinging pain all over his body made him fear something was wrong for a brief moment.

"... Was that my spiritual power being drained?"

Soon he realized, along with a deep emptiness throughout his body, that every bit of his already scant spiritual power had been drained. Turning to look behind him—

"Oh..."

Kim Dojun saw a huge scorpion tail extending from his waist.

A tail made of black carapace, looking exceedingly sturdy.

"... Kinda cool, actually?"

He could see faint, dark spiritual power flowing between the joints, as if to show that it was moved by spiritual power, not a real tail. Without even realizing it, he murmured to himself.

Kim Dojun tried, as a test, to move the tail, but soon gave up.

'It doesn't move at all.'

The tail of the Eccentric Immortal didn't move a bit.

He attempted to move it once again, but gave up neatly.

'Well, what matters is the mask's function, not the tail.'

Since the tail wasn't what he needed in the first place, he thought no more of it, soon taking off the mask and tucking it inside his jacket.

"Time to head back."

Having obtained the mask to use at Pantheon, Kim Dojun left the factory zone with a smile and returned to the Sorcery Institute.

And so the weekend ended.

After the first day of week six ended, inside the Sorcery Institute building—

Kim Dojun said,

"I used this well."

"... What's this?"

To Han Soyeon,

"It's the item you gave me last time. The bottle of water with cyanide."

He handed the cyanide water bottle to Han Soyeon.

"... Eh?"

... The cyanide water bottle, with only half left in it.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
I give up, noone's normal in this novel.
I stopped trying to use my brain already.
【(⩌‸⩌ )】