Clearing the Game at the End of the World
Chapter 40: Eyelids (13)

[There are as many awakenings as mages and many more spells.]

“Oh, the introduction’s already exciting.”

This part of the book was definitely more worn compared to the boring theoretical part at the beginning. It also had underlines and other signs that this part had been read over and over again.

Professor walked along the path as he read the book. He would have preferred to sit next to the river to delve into more detail, but it wasn’t just one or two pages, and he didn’t have all the time in the world right now. So he read while walking.

[There are two major types of magic. The origin spell, which is based on one’s own awakening and is developed upon that, and the tracing spell, which borrows others’ awakenings and uses them. Origin spells are projections of one’s awakening. As one completely understands the image of the spell, they do not need a spell chant or hand motion. All one needs is a strong image and mana as the substance.]

[I understand many mages struggle with the ‘image’ part. I, the Great Dorman Baldanis, was also once a Level 1 mage until I understood seven different images of water.]

[A strong image doesn’t just mean a means of information saved in one’s memory, it means dozens of different memories come together to make one ‘image’.]

[Think of the word ‘Dorman Baldanis’ Grand Level 7 mage. Long beautiful beard, the mentor that taught five mages that became the lords of mage towers, and was a hot middle-aged man of 125 years with a bright future. Along with several other traits that any mage would know.]

[These are just pieces of information saved in the memory, not an image.]

[Now, think of the term ‘mother’.]

Bu-dump!

[What do you remember? Name? Specialty? Appearance? No, I guarantee that your heart remembers before your mind. This is a ‘strong image.’ An assortment of emotions, experiences, and countless memories combine into one strong image that becomes engraved in one’s soul. A mage that wants to handle an element must engrave that element into their soul and develop that image into what they want in reality. Do not worry about engraving the image into the soul. You will have an image in your mind similar to that once you’ve had an awakening. Is it hard to explain? Even better. It means that an image that is impossible to explain through mathematical explanation has taken place in your heart.]

“….A projection of the image engraved in one’s heart……”

[Of course, to one who has just entered the world of magic, this feeling will be unfamiliar. Therefore, most Level 1 mages that have made their awakenings in mage towers learned tracing spells first, and those who became familiar with spells went to make their origin spells.]

….That’s difficult. The information in the book itself is easy to understand since it’s written out so well, but taking that in and actually applying it was a different story. So what? How was I actually supposed to use magic?

[That’s enough of the boring explanation, let’s apply this information. Tracing spells is easier to understand through actual practice. In the magic system, I, Dorman Baldanis, created a spell chant that is the catalyst for the caster to plant the image in their head, and hand motions are the basics that divide that into bigger parts.]

[This is the most basic water magic spell, ‘Dorman Baldanis’s Hydroball’.]

[Visualization: The form of water.]

[Spell Chant: Oh, water that passes through one’s fingertips, as I understand you, you are no different than I.]

[Image: Calm lake. Caster is the lake, and the water is merely held in the lake.]

[Hand Motion: None. If necessary, fold the left ring finger, the first joint of ‘silence’.]

“…This is one s****y game.”

This is too much! I was going to endure studying this, but if I managed to get through that crazy mana affinity process, shouldn’t at least the magic be some ‘Fireball!’ and then a bam bam process?

He could understand the theory. That ‘Hydroball’ spell must be the origin spell of that old man. And Dorman tried to condense that awakening as much as possible to make that spell chant. So the person reading the chant can make the image inside that phrase. It was literally ‘borrowing’ that awakening through the chant.

-Jokasss: People tell you not to do something for a reason.

-takealook: I don’t understand why you’re not making that incredible body of yours into a fighter…

-Soygaybar: LOLLLL! Mages don’t require a high education for no reason. If you don’t study with your life on the line, you can’t even use it. LMAOOO.

-Holli: It’s still cool, though! If you use the chant, then you can summon water, lightning, and stuff!

*- Speedwagon: If you use the chant….

- Noru_is_druig: Hey Prof! Try this [Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows, buried in the flow of time, in thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness.] LOLLLLL. There’s a definite image for that one. I can even send you the video! Watch it when you do it!

-Soygaybar: LMAOOOOOOOOOO dragon slave.

-Jokasss: Ah yes, the original mage.

-Speedwagon: I wonder if they count dying from embarrassment as a way of dying from GG as well.

“This is so humiliating….”

This was the problem. This spell chant thing was a pure description of a person’s internal thoughts, so there were many parts that were more than a little embarrassing to say aloud. A good example is a charm spell. It’s something about how I capture you with my love and keep you by my side for eternity, but it makes you cringe when a bushy, buff guy makes weird hand motions while chanting this on the battlefield. Your ears bleed out, and your eyes just die.

And I need to do those things now in front of dozens, no, hundreds of people that are watching me.

“Ahem…. O water that passes through one’s fingertips….”

-Soygaybar: LMAOOOOOOOO!!!!

-Noru_is_druig: Hey! He’s really doing it!

-Highwaynachoman: Aye, that’s not how you do it! Put your heart into it! Say it louder! No imagery is gonna come to you with that tiny mosquito voice of yours!

“Argh! Stop bothering me! I know you guys want to see a mage too!”

-Speedwagon: That’s true. Mage players are rare.

-Jokasss: He mummified a commander-level mute with his bare hands, and he’s calling himself a mage cause he played with some water LOLLLL.

-Soygaybar: Ah, that’s called ‘gravity magic.’ The spell is if I throw you, your neck breaks in half.

‘They sure are excited about my embarrassing situation.’

Through his viewer’s ridicule, the parasite’s voice slowly crept into his head.

[Embarrassed? This emotion is hard to understand. This isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not hurting anyone, so why are you hesitating to do it?]

‘There’s something like that.’

Professor was going to just ignore him, but he changed his mind. It was impossible to practice magic while listening to that crazy audience.

It was possible, but it was mentally impossible. It would be like dancing in the middle of Times Square. I’m not a person who was trained to be calm in that type of situation.

‘Hey, parasite.’

[Hm?]

‘Keep talking to me.’

I didn’t like that he was there, but if he was going to stay, I might as well use him to my advantage. The guy I called a parasite must talk to me internally since time slows and my surroundings become quiet. It’s the perfect environment to concentrate.

[Keke…. You forget past grudges quickly.]

‘I can’t help it. If you hold a grudge for every little thing in the Wasteland, you’ll be dead in no time.’

Hm. It did get quiet again. This is useful.

Professor took a deep breath and tried to recreate the image that was described in his head as he started the chant.

“O water that passes through one’s fingertips, as I understand you, you are no different than I.”

He felt a similar wavy feeling to the one he felt when he moved the water in the river. Water, I am the water. I am the lake. Like how the water is contained in the lake, the water being contained within me is a natural thing….

[Oh, not bad.]

As I continued to recite the chant like a prayer, the parasite’s voice popped up. When I opened my eyes to peek, there was an actual ball of water the size of a small fist floating around my hand!

Ding!

<[Skill Obtained – Hydroball : A basic magic skill based on the awakening of the Great Mage Dorman Baldanis. You can create and throw water. / Attack 0-5 / Mana 0-5]>

It’s a skill now. I did it. I actually cast a spell!

“I-I did it! It’s water!”

-Speedwagon: You can’t call that the exact Hydroball spell, though. When you see other mages, they have a perfect sphere shape floating in the air. What this guy did is basically attached it to his hand, and there isn’t even much water.

-Soygaybar: Aw man! He actually did it in this harsh environment! I knew he was special!

-Noru_is_druig: ‘Professor–the one with no shame.’

-Numb3rtree: It is pretty cool, though.

Cool? It’s not as simple as that. Something was created in this world based on my will and imagination. That feeling of power was unbelievable. Even if I tried to stop it, looking at the small ball of water floating on my hand made me laugh out loud. It was the first time I actually felt joy while playing the game.

Whoosh!

I was still playing with the water when something suddenly caught my senses’ attention.

Thump thump!

He didn’t even need to replace them. They were hardly in a hiding position. Three skinny guys were hiding behind trees at the entrance of a forest trail.

‘This situation, this position. Ohh, is it that?’

-Soygaybar: It’s that.

-Speedwagon: It’s that.

-Holli: ???

-Highwaynachoman: It’s definitely that.

-Noru_is_druig: There have been so many new playthroughs so far that I forgot this existed.

-takealook: It’s so normal that it feels abnormal.

There were a few things that rapidly increased when a war happened.

First, the refugees.

There were people that escaped from the cities, but there were more people that packed up and left the nearby villages. Sadly, they weren’t escaping from the mutes. They were escaping from the castle soldiers that raided the nearby villages for supplies.

Second, ghouls.

As the number of corpses increased, the souls of the dead started pooling into the bodies, creating the undead, but there weren’t any worries about them in World 3. The ones that die in battle here walk back to the Queen, or the cities retrieve them and cremate all of them. Since there aren’t any corpses, there are no ghouls.

The third is…

“Hey! You there! Give us everything you have, and buzz off! I-If you don’t wanna die!”

The bandits in front of me.

It was an obvious storyline. They had to escape for their lives with what little they had in the first place, and they’ve been living in the woods, barely escaping starvation by eating grass. Even the kindest of people would turn to harsher habits if they saw their child on the brink of death.

‘All three are basically skeletons, and they’re scared out of their minds. These guys haven’t gotten blood on their hands yet.’

Shaking hands and stuttering when they talk. Not to mention, they started to stare nervously at each other as I stood there silently. They were a complete mess. In other games, these people would be the Lv1 wolves or rabbits near the starting area.

But they must have been farmers, those tools look pretty darn sharp….

‘Hm…. I could stand to get beaten up by them for about 10 minutes.’

Let’s check the chat real quick. The other people seemed to have similar thoughts.

-Jokasss: Why did they need to choose this guy, out of all people….

-Soygaybar: Escape! The man in front of you is a monster disguised as a human!

-Speedwagon: Logically, it’s not a bad idea to let them beat you up. You haven’t done your daily workout yet. You did use up a lot of energy last night, but that can count as the workout for yesterday. If you don’t bother the infected cells constantly, they’re gonna start crawling up again, so go and get beat up!

-takealook: Hello! I’m Refugee Bandit 1! This is day one of my bandit life! I’m a little nervous, but this big guy doesn’t have a weapon, so there’s no problem! Look at this! The sickle hit him! Huh….Why…why Is he fine? Why is he making that satisfied expression?

-Numb3rtree: H-hey, that guy’s smiling right now.

-Soygaybar: It was a dumb move for those bandits to try and rob Professor in the first place; look at him.

Professor looked at himself. A height of over 2 meters. His huge muscles were a copper tone that was almost a blackish-red color, and he had countless scars covering them. And even though they were covered a little, there was a slight red glow emitting from his eyes.

Looking at the bandits shaking in their shoes yet still holding their farming tools and staring at himself, Professor felt a pang of sadness.

“This… is the responsibility of a father…..”

“H-hahah…. You seem to be an injured soldier. If you give us everything in your bag, we’ll spare your life….”

“A, and your shoes! Leave your shoes too!”

“Clothes too! It’s usable if we wash it!” “Shut up! Hey, you! Don’t listen to these guys and start moving! If you try anything funny…. Yeah. I’ll cut your ear off!”

“Eeeep!”

It looked like the guy in the middle dragged the other two into this. The things they were doing were a little irritating….

“I’ve decided. I’ll just scare them a little and chase them off.”

‘A father struggling to feed his family. This is my weak spot.’

After putting down the bag he had, as they said, he closed his eyes and concentrated on his mind.

-Jokasss: Oh, using magic?

“Yep. Even dumb guys like these know that magic is a scary thing.”

To the average farmer, a mage was a mythical figure. In the tales of mages that bards spread, most mages were evil kidnappers, so there was no better way to scare them than magic.

‘I’m going to try and make it bigger this time.’

Professor raised his two hands and tried to remember the feeling as he chanted. After the first time, it no longer felt that embarrassing.

“O water that passes through one’s fingertips, as I understand you….”

“Kehehe, good. Just do as I….”

“Wait….. J-Jekers! W-w-w-w-what’s that?!”

“Water….in the air?”

When he finished the chant, there was a ball of water the size of an apple between his two hands. This time, it wasn’t attached to his body. It was in the air alone.

“Mage! He’s a mage!”

“Hehehehe. That’s right! I’m a water mage! One that understands the acceptance of water! That is me!”

A feeling of satisfaction vibrated through his body! This! This is what I played this game for! Those eyes, full of terror! Those stares of admiration! I’m playing the game! I’m actually playing the game right now!

A very normal power that doesn’t hurt every time I use it, or have some weird voice in my head talk to me! And that power is mine!

As I saw the scared faces of the bandits, the confidence that was sitting in a small corner of my mind grew and bloated up into a big ball. Ah, I can’t get enough of this! I’m so happy! Water is the best!

“Kehehehe! You pitiful beings have disturbed the peace of this mage, and now you must pay the consequences!”

“Ehhhh… Ahhhhhhh!!!”

“Annie, Millie! Dad will wait for you in the afterlife!”

-takealook: Huh, wait. Hey, if you throw that….

‘Oh no!’

I got so carried away that I accidentally threw the water in my hands. I tried to cancel it, but the water was already speeding toward the bandits.

“G-Get out of the way! I wasn’t planning on killing…..!”

“Aaaaaaahhhhhh!”

The Hydroball that whipped towards the bandits quickly slipped into their boundaries and….

Splash!

Sputter! sputter!

“Agh, that’s cold!”

. . . .

“…..? That’s cold?”

Soaked them.

The bandits were soaked, and I was still in the position of throwing the Hydroball. The four of us stood in silence.

-Jokasss: LMAOOOOOO ‘wasn’t planning on killing….!’ AHFJASDFHADLFDKSK Die? After that? LOLLLLLLL

-Soygaybar: Darn it! I’m soaked now! If it wasn’t for the cool autumn breeze that dried my clothes, I would have frozen to death! That mage is so scary!

The bandits, who were stunned for a moment, slowly started to laugh when they realized my magic was harmless to them.

“Heheheheh! He was weak after all!”

“Keheehee. What did I tell you? Mages are just fake beings from fairytales!”

“That reminds me, the mages in the stories were all filthy rich! That guy must have more money than he looks!”

“Kehehehe!”

“Hehehehe!”

“Kekekeke!”

-Soygaybar: LMAOOOOO!

-Jokasss: LOLLLLLLL!

-Holli: Hahaha!

-Noru_is_druig: FAZCMEOQEWFSLKJ can’t breath HACSXVDHBYNI

“This is so f***ing embarrassing…. I’m going to literally die!”

In between the two worlds, reality and in-game, the endless laughter made Professor’s face so red that it couldn’t get any redder.