Chapter 006…
A Small Gift for a Competent Subordinate (3)
[Wizard A wakes from meditation.]
“…You’ve worked hard.”
Watching A slowly rise from the partially destroyed meditation chamber tugged at Shinwoo’s heart. Ah, why didn’t you fix it earlier?
Shinwoo wanted to fix it right away too. But…
「Meditation Chamber Lv.1 (Partially Destroyed)」 – The wizard is resting.
Warning! Recovery efficiency is greatly reduced due to the chamber being partially destroyed, and debuffs may apply.
Repair Materials: 10/10 logs, 5/5 stones, 30/30 mana
Required Personnel: 0/1 low-level wizard (Wizard A is currently meditating)
The system wouldn’t allow repairs without a wizard. Shinwoo thought about waking A but then hesitated, wondering if repairs could even be done while A was in a state of “Mana Overload” and “Exhaustion.”
It’s probably inefficient to make them work while in a status abnormality, like when exploring the gates.
So, he had to watch A cough for hours, and it tore at his heart. To ease that sadness, he watched a movie, Santa vs. Monster, and exercised to sweat away his tears.
After some time—well, after soothing his sorrow—A finally woke.
“Now that A’s up, let’s see how magically the building can be repaired.”
[Starting repair of 「Meditation Chamber (Partially Destroyed)」]
Thud!
A slammed the floor with his staff. A light brown magic circle spread from that point, instantly covering the floor of the meditation chamber.
Perhaps because he’d gained some knowledge of magic, Shinwoo muttered:
“Wow, it’s earth-element magic, but the structure makes no sense at all.”
If Shinwoo tried to replicate that, he would surely fail. The magic circle in the chamber felt like a machine, every part interconnected organically.
As the circle activated…
Vwoooosh!
Dust and stone fragments from the floor flew up, filling in the broken walls. The materials A had brought split into smaller pieces, filling in gaps the stones couldn’t reach.
The meditation chamber was restored as if time had reversed.
“…I have to admit, this is magical repair.”
And now that it was restored, Shinwoo noticed details he hadn’t before: the hearth, a faintly smoking incense burner, a blue carpet, leather sofas—the interior was surprisingly well-decorated.
It looked like a proper wizard’s lounge.
Who would imagine this room had just been left covered in dust?
Magic—so magnificent, yet fearsome and awe-inspiring.
“Of course, the performance must be improved as well.”
If only the exterior was cleaned up, it would have been a bit disappointing. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.
「Meditation Chamber Lv.1」 – Restore HP and mana through meditation.
Maximum Personnel: 0/5
A qualified low-level wizard gains eligibility for promotion to a mid-level wizard when meditating.
“This is it!”
Shinwoo had been wondering how low-level wizards would get promoted. The meditation chamber seemed to serve that purpose.
Hmm, should he let A meditate again?
Just as Shinwoo was pondering this…
[All Magic Tower infrastructure is now functioning normally.]
[Some features unlocked as qualifications are met.]
[Feature: 「Facility Enhancement」 unlocked.]
[Feature: 「Hunting」 unlocked.]
“?!”
Shinwoo’s eyes widened. Repairing the meditation chamber had unlocked new tower features. All of them seemed important.
‘Facility Enhancement!’
He had expected skills like levels for each facility eventually, but he hadn’t imagined it would happen now. He immediately checked the features.
「Facility Enhancement – Summoning Room」
Description: Adds ‘Facility: Astral Gate’ to the Summoning Room.
Effect: Reduces summoning cost and allows summoning of a low-level wizard by consuming extra materials.
Enhancement Materials: 0/30 logs, 0/30 stones, 0/20 orc tusks, 0/10 demon horn fragments, 0/1 mithril ingot
“…Oof.”
Shinwoo’s excitement deflated upon seeing the materials. Except for logs and stones, the rest could only be obtained in the Teeming Forest.
“Even if I try sending for the materials, the tower’s mana—and my wealth—would be drained.”
Even just the mithril ingot was ridiculously expensive.
Hmm, other facilities are similar.
He checked other facilities; though slightly less demanding than the Summoning Room, they also required materials not available inside the tower.
But the system had never demanded the impossible.
Naturally, this made another feature even more important—
“Hunting.”
Not the casual socializing type, of course.
「Hunting」
Effect: Summons a gate containing a designated monster depending on the day of the week.
Monday: Imp
…Sunday: Random
“This feels very familiar.”
Shinwoo chuckled; this was the classic “weekday dungeon” style seen in mobile games.
But the following warning shattered his amusement:
[Warning! If the tower is captured, important resources and internal facilities may be looted or damaged.]
“…Indeed.”
All the effort spent building the tower could vanish in an instant. He considered ignoring hunting, but after much thought, he decided to take the risk.
No growth comes without danger.
Besides, there’s no guarantee that something like the Steel Predator incident won’t happen again.
He had to grow stronger. That meant it was finally time to do what he had been postponing.
“Summon a new wizard.”
「Summoning Room Lv.1」 – Summons a low-level wizard.
Required Mana: 9/150
Required Personnel: Tower Master 1/1, Low-Level Wizard 1/1
Required mana: 150.
“Wow, that’s a lot.”
With research mana already tight, he couldn’t easily attempt such a costly summon. Otherwise, the new wizard would just sit idle for lack of mana.
So he had delayed the summon to focus on research.
But to clear gates via hunting, strengthening the team isn’t optional—it’s necessary.
Looking at the mana output from the engine room, it would take roughly…
“One day?”
Unfinished enchantment research flickered in his mind, but he shook it off. A man who draws his sword must also cut the radish! This was a tactical retreat to advance later.
“Ah, but it’s still a shame…”
He wanted to continue his enchantment, but would have to pass time watching videos. Luckily, he found something interesting:
《Psychokinesis Techniques Even My Dog Can Do!》
“Ohhh!”
The title seemed silly, but it had over a million views.
The elderly man in the video was someone Shinwoo recognized from TV. His credentials were impressive:
A math professor at a prestigious university who awakened during the First Gate incident and spent 25 years mastering magic.
Now, he served as the magical advisor of Taesan Guild, one of Korea’s top three guilds.
“Can I really watch this lecture for free?”
Shinwoo felt lucky and started watching… unaware why the comments were locked.
Later, Oh Hana, seeing her mentor again, gave a wry smile:
“Why haven’t you taken down your YouTube videos yet?”
“Are you scolding me as soon as you see me? And why would I take them down? I didn’t say anything false.”
“Then you should remove ‘even my dog can do it’ from the title. How is that even possible?”
She watched her mentor, Kim Cheolsu, float coffee in midair while playing Go by himself.
He was controlling five objects telekinetically. A genius who gained an A-rank job as a psychokineticist.
If he concentrated, he could probably handle double digits.
His power might not match a grand sorcerer, but his skill with magic—especially psychokinesis—was unmatched.
“Oh, I still don’t know how you became a professor with that kind of explanation skill.”
“…Formulas are honest.”
“And magic?”
“Honest too. You get predictable results, just needs imagination to use.”
“Oh, that’s more than just a little imagination…”
Before comments were locked, chaos had erupted:
“Lunch time! Lunch time!”
“Ah! The brain has left and right hemispheres, so psychokinesis can be separated too! But why does he read and play Go while making tea? How many parts is his brain divided into…?”
“Educational video (X) Genius chronicles (O)”
“I’m an A-rank hunter from the US but… is his brain a computer? Someone tell me the answer—”
The comment section had to be locked.
“Remember when you went to YouTube Korea to show a live demo?”
“People think the problem is that they can’t do it themselves, so they assume no one else can.”
“No one else would do this besides you.”
“Baek Seol-ah might try… Ah well.”
“Oh Hana smiled bitterly. Kim Cheolsu sighed inwardly.
Would she come to me and not realize my former students compete with Baek Seol-ah, Korea’s grand sorcerer?
The old man ignored it, turning the topic:
“Imagine how rewarding it would be if someone learned something from my video.”
“Have there been any?”
“You locked the comments. If unlocked, at least one person would surely learn. I guarantee it.”
“Then I’ll bet with you. If even one person learns, I’ll do one favor for you within a month. If not… you know the consequence?”
Kim Cheolsu furrowed his brow.
“You want to become my student and not fulfill a single request? Fine. Let’s bet this way: if I win, you do one favor for that person.”
“Hmm… fine. There’s likely no such person anyway. But it must be proven rigorously.”
“All right, let’s do it.”
Kim Cheolsu, full of enthusiasm, declared he’d post more videos. Oh Hana snickered—there was no way she could lose this bet.
Meanwhile, at that moment…
“Woohoo!”
Bubble, bubble
Swish, swish
Shinwoo cheered as he heated seaweed soup and cleaned the floor without lifting a hand.
Long live Professor Kim Cheolsu!
