Chapter 214

Chapter 215. The Cause and Solution to All Problems (1)

As soon as Keter saw the middle-aged man, he took off his shirt. The middle-aged man, horrified by this sight, shouted.

“You perverted thief!”

Keter had only taken off his shirt because he didn’t want his favorite clothes to get ruined, but he grinned slyly and said,

“You’re standing pretty calmly in front of a perverted thief who has a thing for bald middle-aged men, huh?”

“Gasp!”

The middle-aged man frantically extended his staff. Mana began to gather at the tip of his staff.

Though he looked like a life loser who had gambled away all his wealth, he was the owner of this ruin and the creator of the world’s only ‘Sticker Magic.’

“Burn, flames of rage that will turn this world to ashes—Fireball!”

As soon as the magic incantation ended, a fireball the size of a human head shot out from the tip of his staff toward Keter.

Keter was dumbfounded. For two reasons.

“You’re using a 3rd-circle magic with an incantation, and your aim is off.”

Keter didn’t move an inch from his spot. But perhaps because his aim was shaky, the mage ended up shooting the fireball way to the left.

Swish.

Keter took two steps to the left and let the fireball hit him. He had taken off his shirt and stood still just to let it hit him in the first place.

The middle-aged man trembled even more in fear as he saw Keter willingly step into the fireball.

“You’re throwing yourself into a fireball? You’re a crazy perverted thief!”

3rd-circle magic, Fireball.

If hit directly by this, a person would be roasted alive.

But for some reason, the fireball that hit Keter did nothing, as if it had hit a rock.

“W-what?!”

There wasn’t even a singe mark. It just vanished as if it had been blocked by magic-nullifying armor.

Keter was circulating his aura in a positive cycle and his mana in a reverse cycle. This process kept his body in a constantly enhanced state, granting him immense resistance.

Moreover, Keter’s body was as tough as steel. To put it simply, Keter was like a high-speed rotating iron ball.

What kind of attack could possibly work on a high-speed rotating iron ball? Even decent aura attacks couldn’t leave a scratch, and magic below the 4th-circle would naturally ‘disintegrate.’

Thud.

Keter silently took a step closer to the middle-aged man. Just that action alone made the middle-aged man feel overwhelming fear and pressure.

“F-f-freezing power of the icy frost, freeze and sh-sh-shatter—Ice Spike! Ugh!”

He was so nervous that he bit his tongue right before finishing the incantation.

Boom!

For a mage, a ‘failed incantation’ meant death. His staff exploded, and the middle-aged mage fell backward, injuring his hand.

“Aaaah! My hand, my hand!”

Keter crouched down in front of him with a pitiful expression.

“Old man, you’re using 3rd-circle magic… and you can’t even cast magic without your staff? You’re a self-taught mage, huh?”

“Ugh…”

“Your abilities as a mage seem below average. Why don’t you show me your Sticker Magic, the one you created?”

That’s when it happened. The middle-aged man suddenly started crying.

“You damn bastard! You’re an assassin sent by Maknose, aren’t you? If you’re going to kill me, just do it quickly!”

“Huh? Maknose?”

Maknose.

Known as the Great Sorcerer of Paper and famous for his ‘Magic Scrolls,’ he was a genius who created ‘Scrolls’ that allowed anyone to cast magic just by tearing paper.

“What does Maknose have to gain by killing a bald old man?”

“You vile bastard. You keep calling me ‘old man’ even though you know I’m Denison! Calling me ‘old man’ when I’m not even a mage! Ugh! Maknose, you’re truly cruel!”

Keter stared intently at the middle-aged man who had revealed himself as Denison.

Originally, Keter had only planned to get the recipe for ‘Sticker Magic,’ but if the creator was alive right in front of him, that changed things.

‘I was planning to recruit a mage to learn Sticker Magic since Sephira doesn’t have any mages. But this makes things much easier and faster.’

As Keter pondered how to recruit Denison, Denison, who ‘mistakenly’ thought he had found an opening, extended his left hand and shouted.

“You let your guard down! Take this!”

Zap!

As he peeled off a lightning-shaped sticker from his left palm, Denison pressed his palm against Keter’s solar plexus, smiling victoriously.

“4th-circle Lightning Magic, Lightning Shock! You took that head-on, so at the very least, you’ll have a heart attack!”

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

“Ow, hot.”

“……”

Keter grabbed Denison’s wrist and pulled it away from his solar plexus, then looked at his palm.

Denison’s palm still had streaks of yellow lightning flowing through it.

The magic had definitely activated.

It just didn’t work on Keter.

“Your actual skill is 3rd-circle, but with Sticker Magic, you can even use 4th-circle magic. That’s fascinating. Old man, do you have anything else?”

“Uh… I do, but I’d have to go get it…”

“One minute.”

“One minute? For what…?”

“……”

Keter isn’t merciful to those who don’t catch on. He just silently glared at Denison.

Denison, who had completely lost his will to fight after seeing Keter take a 4th-circle magic head-on and remain unharmed, turned into a fool. It took him 10 seconds to realize what Keter meant.

The unspoken implication: ‘If you don’t bring it within one minute, something terrible will happen.’

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Denison, not even caring about his pathetic appearance, hurriedly ran to fetch his best stickers.

“Two seconds… Tsk, too bad.”

“T-this is the best sticker I have…”

Denison, without realizing it, started using honorifics with Keter. Regardless, Keter examined the stickers Denison had brought.

Only three.

They were stickers shaped like wind, flames, and water droplets.

“Show me what magic is on them.”

“Uh… It costs at least 10,000 gold to make just one of these stickers, so using them for a demonstration is a bit… I’ll just explain it verbally…”

Crack.

As Keter clenched his fist, Denison quickly held up the wind-patterned sticker.

“There are two types of stickers. Ones that activate when you stick them and ones that activate when you peel them off. This one activates as soon as you stick it. If I stick it to my palm like this—”

Whoosh!

Surprisingly, wind began to blow out from the sticker. It was strong enough to make his hair flutter.

“It’s a sticker that produces wind. The effect lasts for about a month.”

“Can you make the wind stronger or extend the duration?”

Denison was puzzled by Keter’s question.

‘What’s going on? Why is an assassin asking this?’

At first, he thought Keter was a thief. But then he realized he was a perverted thief, and it was clear he was an assassin sent by Maknose.

But it was strange. If he were an assassin, he would’ve just killed Denison, burned everything, or taken it all. Yet here he was, watching the sticker demonstration with interest.

‘Is he… not an assassin? Then this is even worse.’

If you remove ‘assassin’ from ‘perverted thief assassin,’ it’s still a problem. Because ‘perverted thief’ remains.

Seeing Denison’s thoughts written all over his face, Keter chuckled.

“I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Keter. I’m not the kind of person you think I am.”

“Uh, sorry, but just hearing your name, I don’t really know who you are…”

“I didn’t tell you on purpose. Depending on how you act, I could either be your savior or your undertaker.”

At Keter’s calm threat, Denison began to sweat despite the cold underground.

* * *

Denison showed Keter all the stickers he had and demonstrated them.

Having experienced Sticker Magic in his past life, Keter furrowed his brow.

Thinking that Keter didn’t like his Sticker Magic, Denison made a sad face.

And that was true. Keter wasn’t impressed by the Sticker Magic Denison had shown.

‘In my past life, Sticker Magic only started becoming popular recently. That means it took a long time of research and refinement.’

The reason Keter wanted Sticker Magic was because of its convenience, performance, and how well it paired with archery.

But that was by ‘past life’ standards. In this life, Sticker Magic was so inefficient that it couldn’t even be used in real combat, let alone be popular.

‘Compared to my past life, it’s at least ten times worse. It’s even more expensive than scrolls, so the cost outweighs the benefit.’

In his past life, the ‘wind-producing sticker’ lasted for a year and cost only 3,000 gold.

Plus, you could move the sticker around, and it wasn’t damaged by heat or moisture.

“Old man. This wind-producing sticker. To make it last for a year, reduce the cost to 1,000 gold per unit, and improve its durability—how long do you think that would take?”

“Huh? The maximum duration is one month, and you want to increase it twelvefold? And even lower the cost? That’s a bit…”

“Answer.”

“Ugh… R-roughly 8 years?”

“……”

Hearing it would take 8 years, Keter rubbed his forehead.

‘Too long.’

It would take much longer than he had thought.

But it wasn’t all bad news.

If Denison, the creator, said it would take 8 years, then a mage who had to learn Sticker Magic from scratch—and only from books—would take at least twice as long, 16 years.

In other words, meeting Denison alive was a stroke of luck for Keter.

However, Denison had prepared to die. This ruin was his tomb.

Bringing someone who had prepared to die back to life required considerable effort and time—but for Keter, who believed that no one in this world truly wanted to die, it would only take a moment.

“Denison, old man, do you want to die?”

“……!”

“You built this ruin to die, but you don’t really want to die. I know.”

“……I don’t know who you are, but I now know you’re an assassin sent by Maknose. But why are you asking me that? How did you even find this place and discover the hidden passage to get here? I can’t understand it.”

Though Keter showed goodwill, Denison naturally remained wary.

This was only natural, as Keter thought. If someone showed goodwill to a person who had broken into a hidden space through a secret passage, that person would have to be insane.

No matter what Keter said, Denison wouldn’t be convinced. Unless Keter revealed that he was a regressor who knew about Denison.

But the only person who could know about his regression was Maknun. Keter had no intention of revealing it to anyone else.

Threatening Denison wouldn’t work either. While threats could force someone to submit, they couldn’t truly persuade them.

Denison might submit out of fear of death for now, but if Keter couldn’t truly convince him, Denison would rather die miserably than cooperate.

So Keter decided not to try to persuade him. Instead, he would give Denison a reason to live.

“What does it matter?”

“……?!”

“What’s important is that you and I met here.”

“What do you mean…?”

“I don’t know your story, but ultimately, you want revenge on Maknose, right?”

“T-that’s nonsense! Maknose is a true Great Sorcerer. A 7th-circle Great Sorcerer! How could I possibly defeat Maknose?”

“Then why did you build this ruin? Why did you want to pass down Sticker Magic, which is trivial compared to scrolls, to future generations? Where did you get the money to build this ruin?”

“That’s…”

Denison hesitated.

Seeing an opening, Keter pressed on.

“Old man, you don’t have any friends, do you? Spill it. I’ll listen to everything.”

At Keter’s merciless yet sweet temptation, Denison wavered. But he still hesitated.

Keter delivered the final blow.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Maknose, that greedy old man, is the reason you ended up like this, right?”

With those words, Denison’s suppressed resentment burst forth.

“Y-yes! That damn teacher of mine is the reason I’m stuck in this godforsaken underground!”

Cursing the person someone hates is a magic that breaks down their defenses.