ALL NOVEL Chapter 45
Chapter
“Why is Original Magic so important! I can’t just not explain Quantum Magic now…”
Honestly, I just want to go home. That was Enok’s true feelings.
*
The first thing that greeted Enok when he opened his eyes was a strange ceiling. He had to seriously think about what he had done before falling asleep.
“Ah, you’re awake!”
But before he could even start to ponder, Iris suddenly popped her head in. Still half-asleep, Enok looked out through a nearby window.
“…What is this place?”
Not only was the ceiling unfamiliar, but so was the view outside. Had he been kidnapped while he was sleeping? Just as he was deeply considering this, a heavy sigh came from nearby.
“You don’t have a clue what’s going on right now, do you?”
“Oh, Yonia.”
“Right, you have no idea at all?”
Yonia chuckled as she explained the situation. Apparently, after Enok fell asleep, Iris had flown him to the nearby Magic Tower.
It was a simple explanation yet paradoxically difficult to understand. Or was it not that complicated?
“So, you’re saying I got kidnapped?”
“Kidnapped…? Perhaps? You did say something before you fell asleep.”
“Hmm.”
He couldn’t remember. He had been too tired to think straight back then. Well, not much had changed now, but he felt slightly better after sleeping a bit.
“Of course, you’ve been sleeping for two whole days.”
“Aha.”
Just as Enok began to understand this, Iris, who had been leading him, suddenly swung open a door.
“Hey, he’s awake!”
“Oooh…!”
If one had to describe the place, it could be called… yes, a hell for researchers. A cramped space where souls stuck between life and death endure endless torment, trapped at a desk.
In simpler terms, it was a laboratory, and strangely enough, when Enok entered, the soulless scholars there seemed to gain a flicker of vitality.
“Wait, you can use Original Magic!?”
“Then do you know anything about Quantum Magic!? How much do you know about it!?”
“Hey…! Didn’t we decide that I would ask the questions first by drawing lots!?”
“Just step back for a moment!”
The sight of weak scholars gathering like ants and raising their voices was certainly a unique experience. While Enok was in a daze, the only healthy-looking person, Iris, shouted to regain order.
“Enough…! I’ll be the representative for experiments… and ask the questions, so everyone quiet down a bit!”
Should I just run away now? Enok seriously contemplated.
*
And so, here he was. Enok, who had never studied a day in his life, was now studying. To be precise, it would be more accurate to say he was being force-fed knowledge.
“Classical magic, used by races excluding dragons, has significantly lowered the entry barrier for the study of magic, but there’s a huge flaw due to the Circle residing in the heart, affecting the flow of nearby mana.”
“…Yeah.”
“Quantum Magic is an academic field that delves into the unseen, into the microscopic world, so progress was delayed because of such flaws.”
“…Aha.”
“But users of Original Magic…”
“…Yeah.”
“So the most basic particles that make up matter are…”
“…Aha.”
“Also…”
“…Yeah.”
As Enok became a machine spitting out only ‘Yeah’ and ‘Aha,’ just before he achieved the miracle of dozing off with his eyes open, Iris, noticing his state, summarized her lengthy four-hour lecture in a nutshell.
“So, if you cooperate, it would greatly help the progress of Quantum Magic!”
“…Aha.”
Well, they could have just said that from the start; why go through all these theories that I wouldn’t even understand? Enok lamented.
“You definitely used Ki, right? Did you know that regular lightning found in nature is in a plasma state?”
“What’s plasma?”
“Ah.”
So it starts from there. After a moment of hesitation, Iris calmly gave up. After all, there was no need to explain theory to a test subject.
“Here, look at this.”
Iris held out a fist-sized metal ball. With eyes wide open, Enok nodded.
“This metal ball is made up of very tiny particles called atoms, and despite its appearance, there are countless empty spaces between them. They don’t pack tightly; they have a specific structure.”
“Why?”
“In this case, the metal ball has impurities mixed in, so it doesn’t have a perfectly regular structure, but anyway, the force maintaining the bonds between those atoms is called electromagnetic force.”
“No, why is that?”
“If you could control not just Ki but also electromagnetic force, then by removing the force maintaining the bonds between atoms, this metal ball would become ionized gas. Theoretically. Or you could provide enough energy to completely turn it into plasma.”
“No….”
Haa… Enok sighed. This person wasn’t listening at all.
“Well, I don’t expect you to completely separate them. If that happens, the magic equations will become too complicated for mortals. The state of the metal ball could change while calculating too, and there’s something called the uncertainty principle…”
“That’s unnecessary! Can’t we just use a decomposition spell?”
“If we do that, it would just split into very small chunks of metal.”
“Use that decomposition spell you mentioned… to the atomic level.”
“If that were possible, would I be here like this, ugh…!”
Just as Iris clutched her head in pain from a rush of past memories, Enok looked around.
An empty room. Just three people, a desk, and one metal ball occupying the space. It seemed a perfect place for boredom to settle in.
As Enok assessed the situation, Iris finally recovered from her painful recollection and started rambling.
“Ugh… bad memories… Anyway, what I want from you isn’t that difficult. I’ll teach you one spell, and you just need to use it to derive the wave equation. After that, convert the object into plasma and control it with Ki to create a Tokamak structure and initiate nuclear fusion…”
“…What the hell?”
Just listening to it made Enok’s anger rise. Even Rionne would be annoyed by this. Seriously. If she said one more thing, he was ready to destroy the whole Magic Tower.
Enok marched over and placed his hand on the metal ball. So somehow, he was supposed to break this down, right? Since it was about electricity, he could just use his Power effectively.
“Hmm…”
Enok closed his eyes and focused. Iris wanted to say there was no way, but held her tongue, thinking to let him try and then give up.
Then—
Patsh—
A part of the metal ball disintegrated with a blinding light. Iris’s eyes widened in shock.
“What, what the heck!”
This was insane. How? He hadn’t applied enough energy to disintegrate the ball, right? There were so many laws of energy conservation to explain, but to sum it up, it was truly absurd.
“How did you do that! This, this is impossible!? It’s against the laws! Even if you separated the electrons, energy can’t just appear out of thin air!”
“…What kind of nonsense is that?”
Unable to hold back his irritation, Enok retorted.
“Magic itself rewrites the laws; why are you so caught up in them? You do it because you want to!”
In truth, it wasn’t magic—he had done it using his Power, but it was somewhat similar.
“Is that so? No, that can’t be right! Magic has limitations on what it can interact with!”
“Magic isn’t a science. It’s an art.”
That’s what Rionne said.
“Magic is about hitting it intuitively and instinctively, not through reason and calculations.”
“That’s just nonsense!”
“The results speak for themselves.”
Enok manipulated the rotating plasma on his hand in all directions. He didn’t even understand why this was working.
He had blocked all the Ki felt from the metal ball, so why was energy burst out when it disintegrated? Who cared about the reason? The important thing was it worked. He had no interest in the constraints of laws.
“Hmm.”
Enok quietly observed the plasma in his hand. This… whatever it was, had an unusual sense of power. With a single mistake, it seemed like it could tear everything apart. The plasma was gaining even more power as it spun wildly.
“Do, nuclear fusion…!”
Ignoring the incomprehensible babble, Enok thought, what if this plasma replaced the nerve center in his Dantian? If it could maintain rotation, it might actually produce energy almost permanently, like a Dragon Heart.
Moreover, countless applications sprang to mind. If done right, it seemed possible to elevate the very concept of power itself. Unable to contain his racing heart, Enok immediately set the plan in motion. If it seemed achievable, might as well give it a try!
“Ugh, ugh…!? Don’t do anything crazy, you lunatic!”
Before Iris could get a word in, Enok shoved the gathered plasma into his chest. The plasma, spinning like a Circle, enveloped the nerve center in his Dantian, quickly disintegrating and absorbing it whole.
“Phew…”
Now the challenge was to maintain that rotation. How could he keep it going regularly? He pondered deeply, and that train of thought turned into contemplation. As Enok gazed beyond into a new horizon,
“Ah.”
Suddenly, the control of the plasma slipped.
“Huh?”
The flow of plasma became erratic and began to rampage. By the time he realized it, he was already on the verge of an explosion. Feeling the seriousness of the situation, Enok desperately tried to protect his insides.
Kuuuwooooon─────────!!!
The ring of plasma couldn’t hold back the explosion. He managed to stabilize it for a brief moment, but that force was at a level beyond what Enok could control…
“Uweeek…!!”
Blood gushed from Enok’s mouth like a waterfall. The sight of the internal organs mixed in with it turned Iris and Yonia’s faces pale.
“Eeek…!”
“You insane bastard! Priest! Get a priest right now! Quickly, damn it!”
The Magic Tower is turned upside down.