Ch.205205. Seorabeol Mages Association (2)

For the Seorabeol Mage’s Association, Bahamut was an awe-inspiring being.

“While the magic we use is clearly an ability gained through Awakening, it was Lord Bahamut who explained this magic in the form of academic study. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he’s the master who established the foundation of Korean magical studies!”

Some called him the Dragon God who taught humanity the art of magic in the form of academic knowledge.

“The various spells we use, our magical techniques, even our magical tools—they’re all reverse-engineered from designs created by Lord Bahamut that we’ve managed to interpret.”

Some lamented that humanity’s magical technology was merely reverse-engineered from Bahamut’s creations, and they yearned for his teachings.

“Above all, Lord Bahamut directly passed down magic to us, making him our great master.”

There were mages who praised Bahamut as the grand master of magical studies, having bestowed the wisdom of magic upon them.

The Seorabeol Mage’s Association was a group captivated by the academic discipline and techniques of magic created by Bahamut, and they revered and anticipated the future designs he would create.

The reason they called themselves disciples of Bahamut was primarily due to their desire to receive teachings from the Dragon God more than anyone else, and secondarily to gain the prestige associated with the name of Dragon God. They could proudly say that the number of mages knocking on the doors of the Seorabeol Mage’s Association daily to gain this prestige was not just one or two.

From their perspective, they had Awakened as mages due to the apocalypse, but had no knowledge or foundation, merely being mages in name only who used magic called “skills.”

However, because Bahamut taught the academic discipline of magic, and mages passed down those teachings and successfully learned new magic, they could proudly call themselves mages and receive acclaim from the citizens of Seorabeol.

But today, a crisis that would leave these arrogant mages blank-minded had arrived.

“The reason I’ve called this emergency meeting when you’re all busy with civilian requests is because our association has fallen into an unprecedented crisis.”

“What kind of crisis?”

“The Priestess of the Dragon has given us a request.”

“What?! That’s terrifying!”

Of course it was—the Priestess of the Dragon had come personally to test the wisdom of these arrogant mages.

The Mage’s Club, which could be considered their predecessor, studied magic alongside Bahamut before forming their own schools. Bahamut had downgraded his magic to pass it on to them, and the Mage’s Club reverse-engineered this transmitted magic to form their own schools and become independent.

Compared to the Dragon God Bahamut, they were all ordinary mortals, but knowing this, they meticulously researched each spell passed down from the Dragon God, wrote papers, conducted repeated experiments in laboratories supported by the Balhut Cult, shared results within the club, established an academic society, and continued their tireless efforts without hesitation.

“A representative of the Dragon God giving us a request? Is our Mage’s Association capable of handling such a task?”

“That’s precisely the problem.”

From their perspective, the Priestess of the Dragon wasn’t simply a religious leader of the Balhut Cult or the ruler of Seorabeol.

She was a servant or representative of Bahamut, the God of Magic!

For the Seorabeol Mage’s Association, the Priestess of the Dragon was a living legend, someone too honorable to even address by name.

While mages were supposed to maintain a cold, rational demeanor and focus only on reality, it was precisely because of this that they felt the difference in status more acutely than anyone.

“As we all know, after the apocalypse, our schools directly met with Lord Bahamut and received magic from him, but the magic we’ve researched through our efforts so far is merely trivial magic to the Priestess of the Dragon.”

This was because, despite being Awakened and receiving Bahamut’s teachings just like them, there was an overwhelming gap between the magic used by the Priestess of the Dragon and that used by ordinary mages.

If an ordinary mage’s magic had an effect of 10, the Priestess of the Dragon’s wasn’t just 20 or 30 or 100—it was around 500 in power.

The difference was too great to even discuss in terms of a gap, and at this point, it was more natural to feel reverence rather than ugly jealousy toward the Priestess of the Dragon.

“Can our group of ordinary mortals successfully complete a request made directly by the Priestess of the Dragon?”

“Conversely, our school is currently researching and exploring the magic used by the Priestess of the Dragon.”

“Let’s hear the request first! The Priestess of the Dragon wouldn’t have given us a request we couldn’t handle!”

And now, this living legend—the legend that so many mages cited in their research on the Priestess of the Dragon’s magic, the legend they thought would never visit in their lifetime—had come to the Mage’s Association.

This was why Jo Gwang-jin, the chairman of the Seorabeol Mage’s Association, had been shocked by the report from the receptionist and had convened a meeting with all the heads of the schools affiliated with the association.

“In that sense, the Priestess of the Dragon who rules Pohang, Baek Seol-hwa, has made a request to our Mage’s Association. Are there any brave mages willing to step forward for this request?”

“…”

No one answered the chairman’s question; only silence filled the room.

The meeting room was so quiet that the sounds of swallowing and secret sighs were clearly audible to the mages present.

Someone needed to speak up or offer an opinion, but no one could bring themselves to do so.

Hearts were pounding rapidly, and fingertips were trembling.

‘This is an honor. But…’

‘If the Priestess of the Dragon is making a direct request, isn’t this a national-level project too difficult for an individual to handle?’

‘I don’t want to fail arrogantly and bear the responsibility alone.’

Wasn’t that the case?

While it was indeed an honor that the revered and respected Dragon God Bahamut and the Priestess of the Dragon had visited the Seorabeol Mage’s Association for the first time, the weight of their reputation made them feel crushed.

If they confidently stepped forward and failed, not only would the Priestess of the Dragon be disappointed, but in the worst case, they might lose the attention of their master Bahamut.

For schools that still had many research projects to complete, this was tantamount to a death sentence, but they could only watch other schools and bide their time.

“This is perplexing. Is there any reason why she would need our help?”

When one school finally gathered the courage to express their confusion, most of the other schools silently nodded, lending support to that opinion.

Of course, this wasn’t meant in a negative way.

After all…

“Aren’t we the ones who need help?”

“I can’t deny that.”

The point was that it was the Mage’s Association that needed help, not the Priestess of the Dragon.

Even now, they were struggling with various magical research and reverse-engineering magical items created by Bahamut, producing thousands of subpar products that were embarrassing to sell as merchandise—to the point where they felt apologetic toward the citizens of Seorabeol who purchased them anyway.

“Are there any mages here who research purification magic? The request itself requires purification magic, it seems.”

“I do.”

“I’m researching it too.”

“Clean water is abundant on the Korean Peninsula, but given the apocalypse, water purification is necessary for safe water.”

“I wasn’t interested before, but since the Priestess of the Dragon is interested, our school will also declare it a research project.”

As the atmosphere began to ease slightly, Chairman Jo Gwang-jin seized the opportunity to reveal the content of the request while looking for schools that had acquired or researched purification magic. Several mages raised their hands, indicating they could use purification magic.

There were even some who volunteered, saying that although they hadn’t been interested before, they would make it a research project since the Priestess of the Dragon was interested.

“The Priestess of the Dragon needs mages to purify the lower reaches of the Hyeongsan River.”

“…Hmm. That sounds like a simple task.”

“It’s not simple. The lower reaches of the Hyeongsan River have had pollution problems since the days of the Republic of Korea. I believe it’s been neglected for decades.”

After hearing the request, some mages questioned whether it might be a simple task, but others quickly corrected them, pointing out that this was a problem that had been neglected for decades.

Upon realizing that this request involved an issue neglected for decades, the heads of the schools gathered at the meeting began to look around with serious expressions and share their opinions.

“Well then, we should first assess the situation. I’ll dispatch my disciples to check the condition of the lower reaches.”

As one mage began by saying they would first make an assessment…

“Originally, we planned to ask Lord Bahamut, but unfortunately, Lord Bahamut is currently unable to purify the lower reaches of the Hyeongsan River due to other duties. In other words, we must purify the lower reaches of the Hyeongsan River in place of Lord Bahamut.”

With Chairman Jo Gwang-jin’s additional information, the mages gathered at the meeting began to waver one by one.

“…Can we compare to Lord Bahamut’s purification magic?”

“What’s the maximum purification we can achieve? How many mages can use purification magic?”

“An ordinary purification mage can only purify a cup of water at most, right? Even if our entire school participates, we don’t have the ability to purify an entire river.”

The moment it was mentioned that this was a project Bahamut would have handled, practical concerns inevitably arose among the mages.

They calculated the power of magic they could currently wield and discussed the number of mages available, but pessimistic opinions began to emerge that this was not a problem the Seorabeol Mage’s Association could handle.

However…

“…What if this project is Lord Bahamut’s intention?”

“Huh?”

“The fact that the Priestess of the Dragon has requested this of us means that Lord Bahamut’s will is also involved. In such a situation, if we’ve been entrusted with such an important project, doesn’t it mean that Dragon God Bahamut has judged that we have the ability to solve this? That’s what the chairman thinks.”

Just as the heads of the schools were about to express negative opinions, Chairman Jo Gwang-jin, who couldn’t afford to miss this request for the future of the association, presented a radical opinion to persuade them.

Jo Gwang-jin’s logic was that this was all a test from the Dragon God, and from the Dragon God’s perspective, this request was judged to be at a level that the Mage’s Association could solve.

It was such a far-fetched opinion that most of the mages looking at Jo Gwang-jin stared at him with incredulous expressions, but…

“Chairman, even so, that’s going too far—”

“He has a point!?”

“What?”

Conversely, a minority shouted that Jo Gwang-jin’s opinion was correct.

“Think about it. Do you really believe that ordinary mortals like us can read the thoughts of the Dragon God? If we could fully understand the Dragon God’s profound intentions, we would have already completed all the homework left by the Dragon God.”

Yes, realistically speaking, those gathered here had not yet properly interpreted even one of Bahamut’s spells and had not properly completed the homework Bahamut had assigned.

“But despite receiving support from Seorabeol for months and conducting research, we haven’t even properly reverse-engineered, let alone interpreted, and we keep producing works that are barely worth calling creations. Of course, they sell well, but when you think about the original, don’t you question why such works sell so well?”

Even now, that was the case.

Even now, they were creating magical tools with similar functions by imitating Bahamut’s works, but compared to Bahamut’s creations, weren’t they too embarrassing?

They were selling such subpar works for money, so how could they not feel ashamed!

They must have felt ashamed deep down and questioned whether they were truly worthy of calling themselves disciples of the Dragon God.

“In other words, this is a trial bestowed upon us by Lord Bahamut! This is Lord Bahamut’s plan to test us who have become complacent!”

Readers would know that this foolish dragon couldn’t possibly have such profound intentions.

He was just outsourcing to the Seorabeol Mage’s Association because he was busy with Phoenix-related matters, but the weight of the name “Dragon God Bahamut” was heavier than Bahamut had imagined.

“He has… a point!”

Even mages who initially resisted were now convinced by the persuasive argument.

Of course, the truth was that there was no such thing, but they had no way of knowing that.

Ah, how pitiful and pathetic these graduate students were!

The Priestess of the Dragon and the Dragon God, who weren’t even present, would surely be moved to tears by their sincerity in voluntarily becoming teaching assistants.

Such valuable magical manpower declaring voluntary enlistment and becoming excellent labor!

“If we can be recognized by Lord Bahamut, if our research can attract Lord Bahamut’s attention, isn’t that alone a guarantee of success?”

“He has… a point!”

But even that was enough to make the hearts of the mages gathered here swell.

After all, if they succeeded in this project, their school could succeed academically—who would want to miss this event!

Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding.

“Our Mage’s Association will do everything in its power to complete the trial given by Lady Seol-hwa!”

“No objections!”

The Seorabeol Mage’s Association decided to do everything in its power to complete the mission given by the Priestess of the Dragon.