I Became a Magical Genius After Regression

Chapter 1

Randell.

A 43-year-old 3rd Circle Mage.

In his youth, Randell’s magical talent was brilliant.

He possessed an overwhelming mana affinity, able to gather mana ten times faster than an average mage.

No, to be precise, it was thought to be brilliant.

‘Back then, I didn’t know it was like that.’

Excited by the rapidly increasing mana with just a little concentration, he devoted himself to training.

And after gathering all the mana to complete the 1st Circle, he finally tried to use magic…

The magic didn’t come out well.

Specifically,

The casting was incredibly slow.

With an unprecedented mana affinity, and in another sense, an unprecedented casting time.

A mage with a lot of mana but taking all day to cast a spell was no longer a genius.

‘If you’re going to give it, give it all, why give only half the talent and cause trouble.’

He resented the heavens, but nothing changed.

As time passed, Randell barely graduated from the academy and became a perennial 3rd Circle mage.

And now, he was a mercenary and assistant mage, helping with relic excavations.

“The weather is annoyingly good. On days like this, something usually happens…”

Randell muttered, shading his eyes from the glaring sunlight with his hand.

Behind Randell, a low hill and the surrounding excavated ground were visible.

It was the excavation site.

‘What kind of relic is this, really.’

The relic was quite peculiar.

Relics from different eras were overlapping.

The upper part of the relic was not a problem.

It was an ordinary relic, so many artifacts that could be dated were excavated, and quite a few useful artifacts were found.

The problem was the lower part of the relic.

This relic, presumed to be much older than the upper part, yielded absolutely nothing.

There were only two things.

‘A smoothly carved passage and the iron door at its end. This is all there is to the ruins.’

However, an unusual magical power was felt from the iron door.

So all the excavation team members were eagerly digging, their eyes red with anticipation, expecting a great artifact to be sleeping inside.

The kingdom seemed interested as well, sending a guard unit, bringing the total number of excavation personnel to nearly 200.

‘But that iron door just won’t open, damn it.’

They had been trying all sorts of methods to open it for a month now, but all in vain.

“Waaah!”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, a cheer was heard.

Randel turned his head towards the direction of the sound.

The cheer was coming from inside the ruins.

Clang.

Randel threw down the excavation chisel he was holding and approached the entrance of the ruins.

At the entrance, wizards with faces full of joy were bustling about.

Randel approached a familiar wizard among them.

“Hey, what’s going on? Let me know too.”

“Oh, Randel! They say the door to the ruins has finally opened. I’m writing an urgent report to send to the wizard guild!”

“Oh, that’s great. How did they open it?”

“They processed the magical power into a porous structure… Oh!”

The wizard, who was talking with a joyful face, suddenly stopped speaking as if in shock.

Then, with wide eyes, he pointed behind Randel.

‘What did he see to be so surprised?’

Curious, Randel turned around.

But soon, Randel couldn’t help but open his eyes wide as well.

What entered his widened eyes was.

Swoosh!

A shower of arrows pouring down like rain.

“It’s an attack! Shield barri…”

The wizard, who had been frozen in shock, belatedly came to his senses and tried to use a defensive spell.

But it couldn’t be faster than an arrow.

Thud.

An arrow lodged itself right in the center of the wizard’s forehead.

“Ugh…!”

Randel was no exception.

Randel collapsed with a terrible pain in his abdomen.

Thud.

“Kill them all! We don’t need any witnesses!”

“Don’t let a single one live!”

“Target the wizard first!”

The feel of the hard dirt ground.

With a fiery pain, he saw enemies running up from the bottom of the hill.

Randel lost consciousness.

* * *

“You b*stards! Where did you come from!?”

“Captain, they’re not ordinary! They’re all at least lower-level knights… Ugh!”

Shouts echoed from all directions.

Randel barely regained his broken consciousness.

“Ugh…”

The next thing he felt was the terrible pain in his stomach.

Instinctively, he groped his abdomen and felt both wetness and hardness.

The wetness was blood, and the hardness was the shaft of an arrow.

“Ah, damn it…”

Randel barely lifted his upper body and leaned against a rock.

Thanks to the ruins being located on a hill, he could see the surrounding scenery at a glance.

The ruins were in chaos.

Below, the excavation team, the guards, and the attackers were all tangled up in a melee.

It was a pretty agile response for an unexpected ambush.

It seemed that the excavation leader, being a 6th-circle mage, had quickly gathered everyone around him.

‘Damn… What are those guys lacking that they had to come attacking in masks with such skills?’

However, despite the quick response, the fight was progressing one-sidedly.

He couldn’t tell how long he had been unconscious after being hit by the arrow.

But even at this moment, the excavation team members and the guards were being swiftly cut down.

The skill of the attackers, who mainly used swords, was comparable to that of most knights.

‘Damn, it looks hopeless… I need to figure out how to survive first.’

Randel, who had been hesitating, tore off his sleeve, rolled it into a ball, and bit down on it hard.

Then he forcefully pulled out the arrow from his abdomen.

Puuuk.

“Ughhh!”

Randel trembled violently from the overwhelming pain. The pain was so intense that he couldn’t move a finger.

But if he stayed like this, it would be one of two things.

[Die from excessive bleeding]

[Or die from the approaching attackers]

‘That can’t happen…!’

Randel, displaying superhuman endurance, placed his hand on the wound and focused his mana.

“Heal.”

Then the silver ring he was wearing sparkled and soon crumbled away, blown away by the wind.

The magic stored in the ring was activated along with the incantation.

It was a low-level healing magic, Heal.

“What the! Why does it still hurt?”

However, for some reason, the pain remained.

Instead of subsiding, something was welling up from deep inside.

Randel vomited it out.

“Uweeeek!”

What soaked the ground was a lump of blood.

It was black and dead.

Seeing that, Randel instinctively knew.

‘Ah! These b*stards… they even coated the arrow with poison.’

With this level of toxicity, low-level healing magic was useless. A separate detoxification magic was needed.

But detoxification magic was a 4th circle spell.

Randel, who was a 3rd Circle mage, couldn’t use it.

So, finding someone to help in this mess?

With people dying all around, who would save a 3rd Circle mage who isn’t even a full-fledged combatant?

‘Then the only way left is…’

Just one.

The excavation team wins, and then someone finds him and heals his wounds.

But victory was out of the question, and everyone was about to die?

In the end, his life was up to here.

The end.

And the moment he realized that.

Flare.

The eyes of the dying Randel burned brightly instead.

Like a candle that burns the brightest just before it goes out, like the sunset that is the most vivid just before the sun sets.

Randel gritted his teeth and spat out.

“These b*stards…! I won’t die alone.”

Of course, Randel was merely a 3rd Circle mage, and a very flawed one at that.

Due to his slow casting, he couldn’t kill even one attacker even if he risked his life.

But he could give them hell.

A very big hell.

‘What you guys are after… must be the artifact in the room of the ruins, right?’

It was certain. That’s why they attacked as soon as they succeeded in opening the iron door.

‘Fine, let’s see if you can take it!’

Staggering.

Randel, barely standing by holding onto a rock, clutched his abdomen and headed into the ruins.

* * *

The passage leading to the artifact, that is, the iron door, was really strange.

I don’t know what kind of technology was used, but all four sides were smooth.

Moreover, it was said to be a ruin that was at least a thousand years old, but there wasn’t a single scratch.

It meant that the hardness of the metal composing the passage was incredibly strong.

How they processed this was also a mystery.

“Huff, huff… Whether they dug with a spoon or not, they must have figured it out, damn it.”

But Randel had no time to worry about such things.

Just taking one step at a time required all his strength and concentration.

Even now, blood was trickling down between the fingers clutching his abdomen.

Thus, the red line that followed his steps from the other end of the passage to here was also Randel’s lifeline.

Randel looked back at the trail once and finally reached the end of the passage.

The iron door that had been blocking his way was gone.

Randel passed through the remnants of the iron door and went inside.

“Ha… Is this it?”

It was an iron door that hundreds of excavation team members had been working on for over half a year.

But beyond the iron door was just a small secret room.

If that secret room had been empty, it would have been a disaster, but fortunately, it was not.

A small box.

It was placed on the altar in the center of the secret room.

Randel approached the box.

‘This is…’

Unlike the plain secret room with no patterns, the box was extraordinary at first glance.

A pure white body as if made by melting platinum.

Hundreds of lines engraved on its surface.

Especially the lines that did not show any points of contact despite having no curves were the pinnacle of geometry.

“So pale it’s beautiful.”

Randel muttered unconsciously.

The box was more like a work of art than a magical artifact.

But then it happened.

―Do you want to live?

A voice was heard.

“What, what is it?”

Startled, Randel looked around.

But there was no one in the room.

It was dark, but it was only the size of a small room. There was no place for anyone to hide.

“I am here.”

The voice was heard again.

This time, Randel noticed. The voice was coming from the box.

The voice felt as emotionless as the stark white box.

“Ha… I’ve never heard of an artifact that talks.”

“Human, do you want to live?”

Randel was too startled by the artifact’s question to answer easily.

But soon he regained his composure and nodded.

“Of course! I want to live.”

“Then take me. I will give you life. I will give you power that no one can match.”

“…Power?”

“Yes. Power to destroy even the continent.”

“The continent? How could a mere artifact… Wait.”

Randel muttered in disbelief and then fell silent.

Something suddenly came to mind.

[The Box of God]

[The artifact of the emperor who first unified the continent]

According to legend, the emperor achieved tremendous feats using that artifact.

Turning the sea into land, and the forest into a desert.

An artifact that performed miracles. Hence, it was called ‘The Box of God.’

And now, the thing in front of him was also a box.

A box that looked more noble than anything else in the world.

“…Wasn’t that just a legend?”

Naturally, even an artifact imbued with ancient magic had its limits.

No matter how great it was, it could at most erase a small village.

Therefore, scholars did not believe in the legend of the first emperor or the existence of ‘The Box of God.’

They thought it was just a legend embellished to symbolize authority and the absolute.

But now, this artifact was saying that history was true.

“……”

Realizing this, Randel reached out to the artifact as if entranced.

“`

And just as his fingertips touched it.

―However.

“However?”

―Every time you use the power, you must pay a price.

“What price?”

―The lives of 10,000 humans.

“What?”

Randel’s hand stopped abruptly at the unimaginable words.

In fact, it was only natural.

Every power requires a price.

Just as a wizard needs mana and formulas to use magic.

Just as a person needs to eat to use strength.

Moreover, it was an artifact that spoke of the destruction of the continent.

Naturally, the scale of the price had to be vicious.

After a moment of silence, Randel spoke.

“Then let me ask you one thing.”

―You may.

“Is it possible… to bring back the dead? My mother, father, brothers, sisters…?”

―That is impossible.

“Heh, is that so?”

Randel laughed shortly at the artifact’s answer.

10,000 lives, it seemed like a lot at first glance, but it was surprisingly small.

How often does war occur in the world?

What about famine? Drought? Floods? Monster attacks?

Tens of thousands die every year.

Among them, 10,000 would hardly be noticed.

But the problem lay elsewhere.

“Then, whatever, it’s fine.”

That was his life.

He had no grand goals, no desires.

“`

There was no one at home waiting for him.

The family he had wanted to live happily with for a long time had already been dead for a long time.

So he had just been living aimlessly, like a tumbleweed, blown wherever the wind took him.

Now… he just wanted to rest.

‘Of course, the guys outside probably think differently from me. I had a feeling some impressive guys had come…’

If this artifact fell into the hands of the raiders, a bloodstorm would sweep across the continent.

Wars would break out countless times, and each time, the blood of more than ten thousand people, no, sacrifices, would soak the land.

A true catastrophe.

But it didn’t matter much.

It was something that would happen after he was dead anyway. The remaining guys? If they wanted to live, they’d have to figure it out themselves.

‘But still…’

Randel grinned and infused mana into his hands.

It wasn’t just the mana from the circle used for magic.

He extracted even the mana that formed the basis of his life.

Swooosh…

A faint flow arose in the windless cavity, and changes began to appear in Randel’s body.

His once pale complexion turned dark, and his brown hair started to turn white.

It was the price of squeezing out every last bit of mana necessary to sustain life.

And then.

With trembling hands, he tightly grasped the artifact on the altar.

[Crack]

Surprisingly, the artifact wasn’t sturdy. It shattered into pieces on the floor as soon as he applied force.

The artifact was destroyed just like that.

Tap, tap, tap.

Around that time, urgent footsteps were heard from the other side of the passage.

Randel smiled brightly in that direction and said.

“Heh… thanks for the poison arrow. As a token of my gratitude, cherish the candy I’m giving you, you b*stards.”

That was the end.

Thud.

Having exhausted all his mana and life, Randel collapsed on top of the shattered artifact.

Drip.

Dark red blood spread between the remnants of the artifact.

“No, no!!”

A scream echoed through the dimming vision.

It seemed someone had discovered the broken artifact.

Regardless, Randel quietly closed his eyes.

‘Finally… I can rest a bit. Living… was too hard. Ah! Mother… Father…’

Eventually.

A heavy silence fell.

* * *

“This way! The artifact is at the end of this passage!”

Urgent voices and the hurried footsteps of several people echoed through the passage.

And then appeared the intruders of the ruins.

Leading them was a man with half-removed mask, his golden hair shining brightly even in the dark passage.

The man arrived at the sealed room at a terrifying speed.

But his face soon turned pale.

He saw it.

A corpse and a shattered artifact.

And the blood flowing from the corpse, filling the countless lines etched on the surface of the broken artifact, one by one…

“No, no!!”

Thud.

The horrified man quickly rushed in and kicked the corpse lying on the artifact.

The corpse flew away powerlessly.

But it was already too late.

Flash!

A massive burst of light, starting from the completely reddened artifact, exploded into the world…

And then.

Time began to rewind.