I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

Teacher (1)

Inside the dormitory.

Kim Dojun looked down at the Ghost Liquor Bottle resting on his hand, then opened the stopper with a satisfied expression.

Pop!

Placing the stopper, which popped off with a pleasant sound, to the side—

"Ugk!"

He almost dropped the flask he was holding without realizing it.

'Damn, why is the smell so strong...!'

Kim Dojun looked at the flask with a baffled expression.

Even though it was no bigger than the palm of his hand, the aroma of the alcohol contained within was enough to make him recoil.

'... Am I going to die drinking this?'

That thought crept in before he even realized, and after smelling the alcohol again, he instinctively grimaced.

'No matter how I think about it, I feel like I'll die if I drink this.'

Of course, before getting trapped in this world, Kim Dojun had been an adult and had experience with all sorts of alcohol, including spirits. But the smell emanating from this Ghost Liquor Bottle was something he had never encountered before.

'Still, I have to drink it.'

But that grimace only lasted a moment, and with a big sigh, Kim Dojun raised the Ghost Liquor Bottle.

In the end, regardless of how he felt, the fact remained that he had to drink it.

"Phew...."

After a big breath, Kim Dojun glanced at the flask with a slightly tense face before pouring it into his mouth.

"Ugh!?"

The moment it touched his mouth, the taste was so horrific and chilling that Kim Dojun involuntarily twisted his face into an ugly grimace, thinking,

'Since I'm not going to use sorcery anyway, maybe I should just not drink it.'

However, remembering that he needed spiritual power to use spiritual tools even if he wasn't going to use sorcery, Kim Dojun mustered superhuman patience and forced his burning throat to swallow the spirit.

'Thought I was going to die.'

Coughing several times after it went down, Kim Dojun frowned, then, wondering if there was any left in the flask, tilted it to pour a few more mouthfuls into his mouth.

He couldn't pass up a chance to increase his spiritual power just because it tasted awful.

"Haa—"

After some more grimacing, Kim Dojun soon began to feel a warmth spreading through his body rather than just lingering bitterness.

"Oh...?"

He unconsciously let out a small exclamation at the sensation of something slowly rising, starting from around his abdomen.

Previously, when he looked inside himself, his spiritual power was so little that he could barely notice it.

But now?

'This is insane.'

Kim Dojun was amazed to feel his spiritual power filling his body.

'In the game, the Ghost Liquor Bottle was absolutely a broken item for increasing spiritual power, but actually experiencing it... it's incredible.'

Since drinking from the Ghost Liquor Bottle, his spiritual power was rising without end, to the point that what he originally had felt like nothing.

'Well, I barely had any to begin with, so comparing like this is a bit odd.'

Anyway, the effect was undeniable. After a few short minutes passed,

'Seems like it's almost over.'

He noticed the rapid increase in his spiritual power starting to slow.

'At this level, I should be able to use most spiritual tools without issue.'

Unlike before, when he had to search hard to sense it, spiritual power now filled him so abundantly that a satisfied grin appeared on his face as he thought,

"... Hm?"

He realized something was off with his vision.

Even a slight turn of his head made the world spin, and his thought process started to slow down indefinitely.

"Huh...?"

With a strange look, he shook his head a couple times, trying to process it as his thoughts slowed even more.

"... Ah."

Finally, he let out a faint exclamation.

'Come to think of it, the Ghost Liquor Bottle had a penalty, didn't it?'

Kim Dojun, with a dazed expression, stared blankly at the flask in his hand.

'If you use the Ghost Liquor Bottle, you get an intoxication penalty proportional to the spiritual power gained...'

The intoxication penalty.

Though it was called a penalty, it wasn't that big of a drawback.

In the game, drinking from the flask forced you to skip a day as a 'drunken' debuff.

Of course, for a few more in-game days, a penalty sign labeled 'intoxicated' would lower all stats by 5%, but just 5%.

5% could seem like a lot, but unless you were in the middle of a main quest, it wasn't that significant.

That's why Kim Dojun drank from the flask without much thought and only just now remembered the penalty.

'Guess I'd better just go to sleep early today.'

So, clutching his dizzy head, he decided to sleep.

####

No one wants to be associated with Twisted Evil, one of the so-called three major forces of the Shrine of Myriad Gods.

'If you hurt them, no matter how trivial, they'll hunt you down all the way for revenge.' That was the foundational motto of Twisted Evil; they had never left anyone entangled with them unscathed.

Fueled by that, Twisted Evil had grown.

They began as a small criminal group in the outer zone, then became a prominent mid-tier organization, and from there, they grew further into a major force feared by everyone, eventually becoming one of the three major powers of the Shrine of Myriad Gods.

They even managed to establish a massive den in the inner zone, directly overseen by Goseon.

Now, deep inside that inner zone's Twisted Evil headquarters, in a place called the heart and innermost core—the boss's office—two men were facing each other in conversation.

The man seated in the chair, listening to a report, was one of Twisted Evil's dual leaders—a man known as "Aryong" to the underworld, bearing the nickname "Silence."
Opposite him stood his secretary, Lee Seokdo, who relayed Aryong's words to the group.

"... This concludes the regular report."

"Hm...."

As soon as Lee Seokdo finished, aryong, rubbing his chin with a strange expression, spoke.

"... Summing up the report, we still haven't found a single clue about Scorpion Mask, who destroyed our business. Is that correct?"

"My apologies."

Lee Seokdo bowed his head.

Aryong stared at him for a moment, then continued.

"Our intelligence division hasn't found any leads either?"

"That's correct."

"Unbelievable. Those guys could find a corpse buried in an Indian slum as long as you pay them... They couldn't find this one?"

"Yes, apparently, so many people fled the outer zone after the incident caused by Scorpion Mask during that time frame, making pursuit quite difficult."

"... And the one who was with Scorpion Mask?"

"Him too—we couldn't find him."

"So, in the end, we can't find them...."

Aryong's mutter brought a silence over the room.

"... What will you do?"

After some time, Lee Seokdo broke the silence, prompting Aryong, who had been thinking,

"We kill them."

He spoke without hesitation.

"Our rules are simple. You know them, don't you? First—whoever messes with us must die."

"..."

"Second—always keep the first rule."

"So, how do we...?"

"Put a bounty on them. 2 billion apiece. Have all our 'eyes' in the outer zone, and prepare so our inner zone guys can mobilize at any time."

"Understood."

"Also, hire the Scarabs."

"... The Scarabs, sir?"

Scarabs.

A term for groups considered the lowest of the low even within the Shrine of Myriad Gods, who would do absolutely anything for money—scum among scum.

Most sorcerers within Scarab ranks were grade C, with grade B being rare, yet they surprisingly had a high success rate in carrying out assassination missions—even against high-ranking sorcerers.

This was because they covered their weakness with sheer inhumanity and cruelty.

"Yes. Ideally, Twisted Evil would handle this ourselves for appearance's sake, but now's not the time for that. Our goal is to crush those guys, fast."

"... Understood."

Lee Seokdo nodded and left the room.

Left alone, aryong muttered quietly.

"Scorpion Mask, huh..."

Tsk.

"Whoever you are, you've chosen the wrong opponent."

He grimaced and plotted in silence.

"I'll make sure you pay the price."

####

To get straight to the point, Shin Se-yeon realized that she'd been mistaken.

It was a little—or rather, quite—embarrassing: the misconception that Kim Dojun liked her...!

But since a few days ago, Shin Se-yeon had completely let go of that mistaken belief.

Because, after the first time he saved her in Gatura of Salvation, his subsequent actions were impossible to interpret as romantic in any way.

'I'm sure that's the case...!'

With a deeply conflicted expression, Shin Se-yeon looked at the necklace in her hand.

A petite blue gem glowing with a mysterious light—this was the necklace that Kim Dojun had gifted her just before.

Staring at it for a while, she then turned her gaze to her computer monitor and read a post displayed there.

----
Title: A Romance Expert's Love Guide

Everyone! Do you think your boyfriend gives you gifts for no reason?

No! Your boyfriend always has a reason for giving you a gift, and did you know that each gift has its own meaning?

Oh, you didn't know? (Surprised) Then let's find out together now!
...
..
.
The fifth gift is a 'necklace'.
So, the reason your boyfriend gives you a necklace is to say, 'I want to become one with you!'

Isn't that just romantic?!
...
..
.
----

"...'I want to become one with you'... That's what it means...?"

Shin Se-yeon, with a very conflicted expression, glanced between the post and the necklace, recalling the recent moment.

All right, make sure to wear it at all times, got it? Don't ever take it off.
Once you put it on, never remove it.

Kim Dojun's words had undeniably carried implied meaning.

'... Was I not mistaken after all?'

At the same time, a thought naturally surfaced in Shin Se-yeon's mind.

'No, that can't be. If that bastard liked me, there's no way he'd act like that, right?'

She shook her head at once.

'... But then, what does this necklace mean...? And what was the point of what he said back then...!'

This train of thoughts only confused her further. Groaning, Shin Se-yeon dropped her head onto her desk, grimacing as if she had a headache.

After thinking by herself for a while, Shin Se-yeon finally concluded that she wouldn't find an answer no matter how much she agonized alone.

'... I'll just call him.'

In the end, she made the call.

[... Hello.]

Kim Dojun answered the phone.

The Kim Dojun who, after drinking the Ghost Liquor Bottle, was about to sleep off his drunkenness.

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