Chapter 9

　　"With what?"

　　"As you know, I am a member of the Unix Group."

　　There it is. I was wondering when he’d bring that up.

　　Unix was one of South Korea’s leading conglomerates. It was a household name in Korea, of course, but its reputation as a global enterprise was solid worldwide. A true corporate behemoth with interests in every industry, it had recently extended its reach into the hunter market. It currently owned the second-largest hunter guild in Korea, and Jeong Seojin was the third son of the Unix Group’s chairman.

　　"What do you think Unix will do when they find out about these potions? They’re the type to stop at nothing to acquire new assets."

　　"I know."

　　"I’m curious as to your true intentions for approaching me, knowing that."

　　"You may be a member of Unix, but…"

　　I took a sip of my coffee before continuing.

　　"You’re the one who despises the Unix way of doing things the most, aren’t you?"

　　Seojin was silent.

　　"I’ve done my research. The succession battle seems to be quite fierce."

　　The current frontrunner to succeed the Unix Group was the eldest son, with the second son and eldest daughter locked in a tight struggle just behind him. And Seojin, born late in his father’s life, possessed the greatest talent among his siblings, but he’d been systematically held down by them.

　　At one point, Seojin had used his expertise to acquire a small IT company and build it into a great success. In the end, however, it was absorbed by a subsidiary of the group run by his older sister. In return, Seojin was given a small bread factory.

　　Before he could even recover from the shock of being demoted from a successful startup CEO to a bread factory owner, that factory also went bankrupt soon after due to countless obstacles and regulations.

　　He was like a prince from some historical drama, forced to play the fool to survive. He had to hide his ambition and his claws, pretending to have no interest in power while living as quietly as a mouse. But I’m sure he was boiling with resentment on the inside.

　　"I’ll be blunt." I clasped my hands together and continued. "The reason your businesses were always snatched away from you was because you used Unix’s capital and borrowed Unix’s name."

　　To you, Unix isn’t a pair of wings. It’s a pair of shackles.

　　"Even if you could hand this entire Magic Tower over to Unix on a silver platter, nothing would change."

　　In the end, as long as you’re with Unix, any effort you make will only serve to line your siblings’ pockets.

　　After a long silence, Seojin finally spoke, his words like a sigh. "I can’t deny that."

　　"So this time, I want you to do it with your own abilities, without any help from Unix." I met Seojin’s eyes. "The Magic Tower has the potential to stand against Unix. Right now, only the first floor is open, but the potions alone are enough to send shockwaves through the world. Every time the other floors are unlocked, we’ll gain access to magical technologies on a whole different level. If you can’t have Unix, why not just surpass it yourself?"

　　"…But they still have overwhelming capital, and they also own the second-largest hunter guild in Korea. In this country, that means they have both wealth and military power."

　　"A hunter guild? Hmm, eventually, I’ll probably be able to crush it all by myself."

　　Seojin let out a small laugh. "That’s quite a boast."

　　"After seeing that magic and this potion, you still think I’m just boasting?"

　　As I said that, shaking the potion bottle, Seojin fell silent, lost in thought. A moment later.

　　"In that case, what is it you wish to entrust to me?"

　　"First, I want you to take full charge of the distribution and sales of the potions from the Magic Tower. I’ll give you full authority."

　　"That won’t be difficult, but what about the potion brewing?"

　　"I plan to hire someone else for the brewing side. I’ll have everything ready by the time you’ve finished your work. I already have someone in mind at the academy."

　　Seojin ran a hand through his hair and slowly nodded.

　　"So you’re in?"

　　"I’m in."

　　As he said that, Seojin rummaged through his briefcase and pulled out a contract. "We should make things official."

　　"…You seem to have found your motivation all of a sudden."

　　"I won’t deny it."

　　Seojin quickly filled out the contract and handed it to me. My face instinctively scrunched up as I read the contents.

　　"…Hey, a starting salary of a million dollars is a bit much, don’t you think?"

　　"Consider that a steep discount. Do you have any idea what my consulting fees are? For an exclusive contract, this is more than fair." Seojin grinned and continued. "And I’ve taken into account that I won’t be receiving a salary for a while, since this is a startup. The renegotiated contract will be several times this amount."

　　"You crazy bastard."

　　But his skills are the real deal. Once I’ve recruited him, he’ll easily earn hundreds of times his own salary.

　　I obediently signed the contract and pressed my thumbprint on it.

　　"Then I’ll be counting on you."

　　"I’ll be in your care. Yusin. No, Tower Master."

　　"You’re going to call me that too?"

　　"Would you prefer I call you Mr. President?"

　　"…That’s a little weird too. Just call me whatever you want."

　　We shook hands and stood up.

　　"So, what’s first on the agenda?"

　　"I’d like to know how many potion ingredients are in the warehouse."

　　"Almost none. It looks like we’ll have to procure the ingredients locally."

　　"Then it seems the first step will be to outsource to a distribution company and start scraping together monster byproducts."

　　Already diving in headfirst. Just as I expected. I knew I could count on him.

　　"I’ll leave it to you. Ah, about using Unix’s capital…"

　　"I won’t use it," he said, his face filled with a venomous determination. "I’ll build this Magic Tower’s success on my own merits."

　　"Alright, as long as you understand."

　　"By the way, if you’re delegating full authority to me, what will you be doing, Tower Master?"

　　I grinned crookedly and pointed upstairs.

　　"Expanding the office."

* * *

　　My fourth attempt at the Cube challenge began.

　　Vwoom, vwoom.

　　The Mana Arrows flew at me relentlessly. But now, I had reached a level where I could dodge them with a mere tilt of my head. The only drawback was that my stats were no longer skyrocketing. Maybe I was hitting a plateau, or maybe the fight had lost its life-or-death edge now that I was used to it.

　　It’s about time I graduated from this place.

　　Whatever the reason, I decided I had to go all out and clear the Cube on this attempt. I had accumulated enough know-how through my previous trials and errors. While dodging the arrows, I intermittently conjured the Gauntlet magic circle, equipping it whenever I needed to block or parry a Mana Arrow. My agility had increased, improving my reflexes, so I could react to any projectile I spotted without much difficulty. This method allowed me to get through the early phase with ease.

　　Now, the mid-phase. I checked the positions of the tiles and calculated the timing of the incoming projectiles—a time-lag attack with two Mana Arrows per set. The interval between attacks was extremely short. Even if I blocked the first wave, I could be taken down by the rapid tempo of the second and third.

　　The solution? Deceptively simple. I would set up a Shield for the second wave in advance. I’d parry the first arrow with my Gauntlet, and the pre-made Shield would safely guard against the second. Then, the moment I heard the arrow hit the shield, I would throw my body out of the path of the third arrow without hesitation. By simply reversing my defensive sequence, I’d managed to avoid taking a single hit.

　　Tiiiing!

　　Alright, the real problem started now. A bright red light flashed, signaling the late phase. The red lightning had a long casting time, but it couldn’t be blocked by a shield, and it struck faster than any human could dodge. Both my second and third attempts had ended here. But now, I had a feeling I knew what to do.

　　The rule of this trial was that I could only use the three basic spells. And inside the Cube, I had only used Shield and Gauntlet. I had yet to use the offensive spell, Mana Arrow, even once. So, what was Mana Arrow for? When I thought about it that way, the answer came to me.

　　Over there!

　　I fired a Mana Arrow toward the tile that was shimmering with red light. It passed through the blue barrier and struck the target perfectly.

　　BOOM!

　　Upon a successful hit, the shimmering red light went out.

　　…Just as I thought!

　　This trial wasn’t just about defense. It was testing my ability to use my own attacks to disrupt my opponent’s.

　　Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling!

　　As if to congratulate my breakthrough, red lights flared up from all four directions simultaneously. Green Mana Arrows were also mixed in between.

　　Damn, the difficulty curve on this thing is way too steep!

　　But the more difficult it got, the more fired up I became. I knew this challenge would lead to even more growth. Twenty seconds until the red lightning fired. I couldn’t let myself be intimidated. I calmly blocked the arrows that came first. Then, I prepared and fired Mana Arrows at the tiles in the order that the red lights had appeared.

　　Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

　　All four red tiles fell silent.

　　[Proficiency with the Mana Arrow magic circle has reached 70%.]

　　[Magic has increased by 1.]

　　[Intelligence has increased by 1.]

　　Yes! I clenched my fist in joy.

　　As I adapted to the combination of Mana Arrows and red lightning without much trouble, the Cube presented a new trial.

　　Gurgle, gurgle.

　　This time, a mud wall gurgled up from the floor. For a moment, I thought it was kindly providing me with cover, but a Mana Arrow fired from a tile passed through the mud wall as if it weren’t there and grazed my shoulder.

　　Ugh, that stings. Right, no way it’s a cover!

　　The walls rising from the floor made the already cramped Cube even smaller, hindering my movement. I tried firing a Mana Arrow at the wall, and cracks appeared on its surface. Aha. I got it instantly. Instead of a Mana Arrow, I thrust out my Gauntlet-equipped right hand, and the mud wall shattered into pieces and collapsed with a single blow.

　　So this one had to be broken with physical attacks. Easy peasy.

　　After clearing the mud wall phase with ease, the next part was a combination of all three attacks. I blocked the incoming arrows with Shield, shot Mana Arrows to cancel the lightning attacks, and broke the walls with my Gauntlet. As I repeated this pattern endlessly, I entered a state of near-total immersion, casting spells without conscious thought. I found myself deploying a Shield magic circle at the mere sight of green light.

　　[1 minute remaining.]

　　Just a little longer. But just as I was about to embrace a surge of hope.

　　FLAAAAAASH!

　　An overwhelming amount of light flashed from all sides. Not just green, but a lot of red as well. Mud walls began to creep up from the ground again. This was less a challenge and more a deluge of despair.

　　Almost every tile was shimmering with light. There were so many that it was impossible to track them all with my eyes. The difficulty was so high it seemed to be telling me to just give up. I’d be defeated if I kept doing things the same way. The Cube was demanding that I reach a new level.

　　I closed my eyes.

　　Immerse yourself. Deeper. Deeper!

　　Before the arrows flew, I gave up on reading the external environment and focused on the flow of mana within my own body. My mind went blank, and my senses were heightened to their absolute peak. Only then did I open my half-closed eyes.

　　And I saw countless green lights. A person only has two arms; there was no way to block them all one by one. But then, a question suddenly occurred to me.

　　Do I really need to use my arms to draw each magic circle individually?

　　I slowly lowered my arms. And as I watched the flood of Mana Arrows, I gritted my teeth.

　　Think of this entire atmosphere as the base.

　　I seized control of the mana in the air. I imprinted the image of the empty space as one giant canvas in my mind and, using multi-casting, stamped out multiple magic circles at once.

　　Shing. Shing. Shing. Shing.

　　Soon, imagination became reality, and the magic circles began to form. But the backlash of manifesting imagination into reality sent an unbelievable amount of calculations flooding into my mind.

　　"Aaaaagh…!"

　　My brain felt like it was frying under the computational load. But if I didn’t complete this, I would die. I pushed my brain to its absolute limit with a desperate sense of crisis, forcing myself to calculate the formulas, but there were just too many. My stomach churned. My vision blurred. My consciousness began to fade.

　　What have I done?

　　Just as I felt like I was about to drown in a sea of formulas, the formula for the first magic circle I had just completed came into view.

　　Right, don’t overthink it. Keep it simple. Take only the essence. The flow of mana always has a certain regularity. It might seem like the calculations are tangled because of Multi-Casting, but in the end, it doesn’t deviate from the larger framework.

　　Recognizing that, I looked at the formulas in my head again, and among the messy, tangled equations, I discovered a single thread of formula that connects them all.

　　This is it!

　　I began to organize all the formulas around that central line. It felt like all the messy six-digit numbers in the numerators and denominators were being canceled out and simplified. Finally, the essence began to reveal itself.

　　Now, to deploy…!

　　I relied solely on instinct for the placement of the shields. I prepared to deploy shields simultaneously on my head, chest, legs, and abdomen. The mana began to race madly toward the completion of the formulas, and I guided its flow naturally. Soon, dazzling blue magic circles unfolded around my body like a protective shell, and immediately after, the Cube’s arrows crashed against them. Listening to the staccato reports of the arrows deflecting off the shields, I was seized by a hair-raising sense of ecstasy. Not a single arrow had touched my body.

　　[Having reached a state of oneness through complete immersion in mana, you have attained a new level.]

　　[You have acquired Remote Casting.]

　　[Multi-Casting has reached Lv.3.]

　　[Magic has increased by 10.]

　　[Focus has increased by 5.]

　　Holy shit. This is insane. The rush was so intense I thought my mind would go blank.

　　But it wasn’t time to relax yet. There were still red lights remaining. I immediately prepared and fired Mana Arrows. Two. Four. And then six! I took care of all the red lightning. My head felt like it was going to explode from the overload, but I didn’t stop. I then used Gauntlet to smash the rising walls and blocked the final arrows with Remote Casting.

　　And then, finally.

　　[You have perfectly mastered the main techniques intended by the Cube.]

　　[You have cleared the Cube.]

　　[Magic has increased by 5.]

* * *