Genius Prismatic Mage Chapter 302

#302. Land of Disaster (1)

Ray strode down the steps, placed the frozen Joshua under his arm, and then climbed back up to stand in front of the people.

“Well then, let’s begin the proof.”

Proof? What proof?

Joshua's pupils shook.

“Z, proof? What the heck…?”

Ray whispered in Joshua's ear as he fidgeted and panicked.

“The magic you used earlier.”

"ah…!"

I understood what you meant, but the magic from earlier was something that occurred in an emergency situation, and I didn't know the exact method.

“I don’t know if I can write again like this all of a sudden. And in front of people… .”

“I'll help you.”

Ray placed his palm on Joshua's back and injected mana into him.

As I was guiding Joshua's mana through his entire body, I discovered something engraved on his head.

It was a magic circle.

It was a very small and elaborate shape.

‘I’ve read about this form… in a book. It’s a memory seal.’

On the way to the auditorium, I realized that it was the very magic circle Joshua had been talking about.

The curse that was forcibly engraved upon her when she was kidnapped to the city of wizards.

There was a little bit of gold, but it wasn't enough.

Woohoo──!

Ray injected the orange gem's mana into Joshua's body again.

The contained elements of purification and stability slowly disintegrated the magic circle.

“What on earth are you doing now?”

“Hmm, just standing still.”

“You may have come forward with confidence, but isn’t there no other way to prove it?”

As the time it took to destroy the magic circle grew longer, the distrust and doubt in people's eyes grew.

While heavy and stuffy air was flowing.

yet.

─Dismissed!

The magic circle was completely shattered.

In that moment, Joshua's memories that had been suppressed deep inside surged up powerfully, and the emotions related to them also blossomed.

Sector 50, back alley.

Hunger, fighting, and my brother.

"ah…."

A teardrop ran down Joshua's blank face.

There was no need to tell Joshua that he could now focus on his emotions and use magic.

Because colorful mana that resonated with the owner's emotions was already creating a phenomenon at the tip of his fingers.

Knock knock! Knock knock!

The stone fragments floating in the air gathered together and in an instant formed a stone statue in the shape of an adult male.

The moment they met the gaze of the stone statue slowly looking around the room, people let out exclamations and groans.

“Uh, creature?”

“Huh, not a creature. Didn’t you just see it create an object without any power source?

“If it is a creature, how do you explain its extremely organic, natural movements and lifelike appearance?”

Confusion spread like waves.

There was a heated debate, but it didn't take long for them to come to one conclusion.

There was no denying that Joshua's magic was in contact with the unknown power advocated by the Imaginary School.

Ray stepped forward and said.

“This guy here is Joshua, a trainee clerk at the Stone School. He explained the concept of imagination to me for a short time, and I succeeded in overcoming the existing barrier. If I had intended to hide the assets of the Imaginative School.”

Phew.

Ray took a deep breath and said.

“This wouldn’t have happened.”

*

The suspicions against the Imagination School melted away, and the incident was closed as a terrorist attack by an unknown group called Murkred.

In fact, it's not like there wasn't any noise afterwards.

But the impact of the fact that the magic that broke the mold was manifested by someone other than Ray was so great that it overshadowed all the voices of discontent.

It has been clearly proven that other schools of thought can also acquire the core theories of Imagination.

This actually had the effect of raising the profile of the Imaginary School.

“Mercred… I understand. I will organize what you have said and deliver warnings and cautions to the entire school.”

Under the orders of the president of the association, Gustav, a wanted notice was issued throughout the city, and all the schools began to search for Murkred, going around the dark alleys and other shadowy places.

That was a given.

Although it is a cancerous organization that is routinely lurking in the shadows of the city, I could not just sit by and watch it as it exposed its teeth to the sun.

And the restoration site of the Imaginary Tower.

“Wow, how fierce was the battle?”

Philip couldn't close his mouth as he walked around the scorched earth interior of the tower with Ray.

“Look here, the wall is completely collapsed.”

I did that, though.

“Wow, the entire ceiling here has disappeared. I’d believe it if a giant ran wild.”

I did that too.

Because I don't have time to open the door and go around.

As Ray was contemplating whether to tell the truth to please Philip, the voice was heard again.

“You said that the restoration and expansion are taking place at the same time? How many floors are they going up to this time?”

Ray turned on the pad and checked the score of the Imaginary School before speaking.

“It will go up to the 24th floor. They say that the extension takes more time than the foundation work. In about two days, you will be able to see the 25th floor. It’s not bad. At least the 26th floor will be a mid-level tower.”

“…What kind of speaking style is that?”

Instead of answering, Ray held out his pad and showed me the screen.

The cumulative score of the Imaginary School was increasing in real time.

“Uh… Is it normal for scores to go up like this?”

“Interviews with other schools are still ongoing in the temporary building. In exchange for helping solve each school’s difficult problems, they are handing over a portion of their accumulated points. This is being computerized. I’m looking forward to seeing it completed on the 27th floor.”

Could that be the case?

Philip understood for a moment that Ray was absurdly disrupting the ecosystem of the wizard city.

And then again a few days later.

“… … .”

Ray climbed to the top of the 31-story tower, which was still under construction.

I looked down at the city view with the hazy sunlight breaking through, and slowly closed my eyes, concentrating all my senses on the mana surrounding me.

And the moment a subtle wave of mana was detected somewhere in the city.

Dismissed!

I used lightning and flew towards it.

In the back alley that I reached after walking across the rooftops of the buildings, there was a young girl who was cornered and a homunculus standing in front of her.

"you…!"

The homunculus was melted by Ray's flames without even being able to continue speaking.

Ray handed the crying girl over to the soon-arriving Association patrol, then picked up the red bloodstone from among the ashes.

'doctor.'

Even after the attack on the Magic Tower, the doctor continued to kidnap children using homunculi or golems that were like his clones.

However, due to the city-wide warning, their scope of activity was limited, and they were now reaching out not only to the sect's practitioners, but also to ordinary households and children from back alleys.

As Ray stood there for a moment, a short figure wearing a hood approached him and spoke to him.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve visited a human city like this. Rael asked me to deliver this.”

Elder Falun, with his hood down, handed Ray a leather bag.

Inside, it was filled with small, spherical mechanical devices.

“Thank you for bringing it to me.”

“Haha, thank you. You are like a benefactor to us dwarves, so it is only natural that you would go to such lengths.”

“Can I ask you something else?”

“It was nice meeting you. See you next time.”

Ray, who was watching Falun quickly disappear on his short legs, moved his feet again and arrived at the outskirts of the city.

When I took out the sphere and pressed the button, the smooth surface cracked and opened outward, and a sharp drill spun out from the inside, at the bottom of the sphere.

Wheeee …

When placed on the ground, it rotated on its own and went into the ground, becoming fixed at a certain depth like a landmine.

I took out the red blood stone and activated the mana inside it.

Wooooowow──!

Then, the sphere in the ground began to emit huge waves of mana.

When the red bloodstone was deactivated, the sphere also stopped functioning.

'The performance is certain.'

It was a kind of trap to catch enemies, made at the request of Rael.

The doctor's goal is to pass through the land of disaster and reach the sealed ruins.

Because at some point, I was going to have to go out of the city, and unless I was extremely careful, I was bound to get caught by this detector that reacted to red bloodstone.

Boooo …

As we were walking around the outskirts of town, setting up detectors at regular intervals, a vehicle approached from across the wilderness.

widely!

“Kid, what are you doing this time?”

“It’s not something weird. I’m installing a detector.”

The person who got out of the car and approached was Curiosa, and he showed an unfavorable reaction after hearing Ray's explanation.

“To catch the Doctor, but what if the Doctor doesn’t plan on leaving the city?”

“No, I have no choice. The homunculi and golems are still being hunted, and I can’t keep producing the red bloodstones that power them.”

Unless the doctor crosses the land of disaster as originally intended and attempts to change the situation, he will inevitably die.

That was Ray's idea

“Land of disaster?”

“I went as requested by the busy little lord who has no time to leave our city. It was so dirty.”

Curiosa described the land of disaster she had seen.

Firestorm, thundercloud.

Cold wind, poisonous fog, etc.

It was said that it was difficult to even get close, let alone enter, because a natural phenomenon that felt like it would easily shorten one's life if touched was sweeping over them.

“You’re going to go through that hellish landscape to the other side? Ha, I guarantee you, you’re not in your right mind. Unless you have a suicidal mindset.”

“You’re not just going to endure the disaster and get through it. You have to have a plan.”

Ray took out his notebook.

This was the notebook that Lazy had dropped just before the explosion, and the contents of its charred and burned pages had already been analyzed.

“Look, Lazy has also received these orders from the Doctor.”

“A mysterious story that will stimulate your curiosity… Collecting toys… Collecting song lyrics? What the heck, what is this?”

“It must have something to do with how to safely pass through the land of disaster.”

Ray, who had answered the bewildered Curiosa, then gave her a blank stare.

“What’s with that look?”

“… … .”

“You want me, a free-spirited explorer of ruins who travels the wilderness and is the world’s greatest spatial wizard, to collect these childish things?”

“… … .”

“What the hell.”

The expression on Curiosa's mask was crumpled.

*

Another few weeks passed.

“… … .”

Ray climbed to the top of the tower and looked out over the city.

The same place you stand every day, just like at work.

But the scenery in my eyes changed every time I went up.

The field of vision continued to increase with the constant construction, and the amount of black smoke rising from the various towers that had taken up a significant portion of the landscape was gradually decreasing.

Hoooow──!

A newspaper that had been blowing in the wind at the bottom of the tower was sucked into Ray's hand.

The front page article was about the Imaginary School.

"The 12th school that surpassed the limits of elemental combination. A conversation with the Gross school."

With Ray's support, a total of 12 trainees were able to overcome the wall.

The school they belonged to stopped its own research and experiments that it had been conducting up to that point and began to invest everything in research on imagination, focusing on practitioners who had succeeded in enlightenment.

This could be the reason why black smoke is not currently rising from a considerable number of towers.

'perhaps.'

The problem with Black Rain may be resolved before the ban on magic is issued.

Of course, it was an optimistic hope, and only time would tell what the actual situation would be.

Falak.

As I turned the page, the following article appeared, taking up an equally large portion of the page.

"This time, it's Bahet, a student of the Daizel School. He keeps disappearing under mysterious circumstances."

The missing persons cases did not stop.

As the city's borders became more strict, the homunculi's movements also became more secretive and sophisticated.

The increasingly shorter intervals between kidnapping attempts seemed to testify to the doctor's impatience.

'There's no need to be impatient.'

This isn't the urgent matter.

All he had to do was keep his composure, bide his time, and then grab the neck of the opponent who emerged from the shadows.

So Ray had been observing the city for several hours.

────────!

Somewhere, a huge wave of mana was detected, as if a bomb had exploded.

The detector has been activated.

'Northwestern outskirts.'

Ray's new form disappeared from the top of the tower with a stomping sound.