Ch.6767. Magic Engineering

That evening, in the basement of his residence.

In this place completely isolated from the outside world, where even the eyes of gods couldn’t reach, he was literally going mad.

“Wonderful, how wonderful! The scripture, I can feel the love in every text of the scripture!! Ah, what a magnificent scripture this is!”

Each time he turned a page of the hard-to-obtain scripture, he couldn’t contain his excitement upon seeing the text forming its verses.

While the contents of other gods’ scriptures were a kind of social norm or rules for themselves, the verses contained in this scripture conveyed love toward the mortals who followed it.

Because it loves those suffering under oppression, it affirms revenge, a private sanction that shakes society.

Perhaps because it wishes for believers to neither inflict nor receive pain, it denies social status that could cause such phenomena.

Because it wants mortals’ efforts to be rewarded, it presents a social vision based on ability.

It affirms human desires but largely denies when those desires cause suffering.

And ultimately, he thought, all of its content signifies love.

Even the act of presenting oneself as a leader of society struck him in a different way.

Misunderstood by gods and possibly rejected by humans for such ideology.

But designating oneself as the leader of the society proposed in this scripture—isn’t that a kind of self-sacrifice, taking on the most harsh role solely out of love for these people?

A god sacrificing himself out of love for mortals—something completely unseen among the gods of the pantheon.

“Ah, aaaah…sublime, sublime, subliiime!!! Love—! Love—!! Looooove—!!!”

Deeply captivated by such sublime and loving qualities, he instantly abandoned his lifelong worship of Anat.

“If there exists a god worthy of faith in this world, it is only you!”

Though knowing no one would hear him, he tearfully made his fervent confession of faith.

At the same time, he resolved to join the Revenge Cult.

“Oh, right now, for you! I shall join them!”

Of course, just wanting to join didn’t mean this Revenge Cult was an organization one could simply join.

An organization with unknown location, unknown membership, unknown leader, and even unknown organizational structure—completely unspecified in every detail.

No matter how much one searched, it couldn’t be found, leading to growing public doubt about whether it even existed.

But he didn’t think so.

“Well then, shall we begin!”

As befitting a grand magician who had theoretically reached the realm of gods, he immediately developed and executed a “magical ritual to locate the Revenge Cult.”

Originally, magical rituals required sacrifices of immense value and hundreds or thousands of magicians exerting their full power…

But for him, the world’s greatest theoretical magician, it was nothing.

Instead of using mercury mixed with powdered gems as a catalyst to draw the necessary magic circle—which would hardly be sufficient—he simply used a few replicated drops of his own blood.

The sacrifice required as payment for what he desired in the ritual was replaced with leftover meat scraps.

He even decided to substitute for the magicians needed to conduct the ritual all by himself.

The conditions were so strange that it was odd anything happened at all, yet the magical ritual activated according to his will.

“Ohhh, success! Success!! To think you were in such a place!”

Lunifer, who instantly discovered the underground church’s location through the ritual, visited Gracchus’s mansion, its entrance, the very next day.

And suspecting he might be a pawn of the pantheon, I, who had descended in a messenger’s body, knocked out this love-sick fool and read his mind to understand his motives.

‘…Isn’t this guy completely insane?’

That was an appropriate assessment—he truly was a madman like no other.

※ ※ ※

Anyway, after confirming his motives.

‘This guy might be more useful than I thought.’

I evaluated this magician, Lunifer Ficentrius, quite highly.

Beyond his academic qualifications as a magician—more precisely, a theoretical magician close to a Wizard…

The biggest reason I valued him was none other than his insight.

Lunifer Ficentrius’s evaluations of each chapter of the scripture, though appearing like the ramblings of a madman, were surprisingly accurate.

…If you removed all that love nonsense and some of his exaggerated interpretations, that is.

Additionally, despite his earlier behavior, his magical aptitude was certainly not to be overlooked.

In terms of rank, Lunifer Ficentrius was roughly equivalent to a 4th-rank magician, but his true value lay in his theoretical aspects.

It was already surprising that someone who spent half his life researching magic in an academy had reached 4th rank, but as a theoretical magician, Lunifer Ficentrius had ascended even further.

In Dungeon & Adventure, magicians are broadly classified into three categories:

The Sorcerer class, who can use magic by training their innate magical abilities, primarily comprised of magical races rather than humans.

The Mage class, which most magicians in the Rom Empire belong to, combining talent with theory for combat magic.

In combat fields, they are unmatched by the other two classes.

And the Wizard class—scholars who handle magic as a discipline based purely on theory—a class that barely exists anymore.

Among these three classifications, Lunifer Ficentrius was, by my estimation, likely the first true Wizard.

Wizard.

As mentioned earlier, these magicians who treat magic as an academic discipline are quite inferior in capability compared to other magicians.

They can’t use magic instantly in combat situations like Mages.

They can’t skip incantations and cast magic by thought alone like Sorcerers.

Both their average mana capacity and magical attack modifiers are lower than the other two.

But where something is lost, something else is gained.

The advantages of Wizards are their insanely large repertoire of usable spells, faster casting speed in focused situations, and high mana efficiency.

Of course, aside from the first advantage, they cast more slowly than Sorcerers, and despite their efficiency, their lower MP total means it’s ultimately a wash…

These characteristics are actually more efficient in rear research positions.

Their low MP consumption reduces the mana required for large-scale magical rituals, and there are plenty of ways to replenish mana.

Additionally, Wizards can evolve into various forms depending on their specialization.

Among them, this guy was a Magitekist—a profession that should be immediately recruited for national management or group operations.

He was literally a jack-of-all-trades engineer who could implement various engineering forms based on magic.

At the same time, except for one thing, he wasn’t much different from ordinary magicians…

But that one thing was the decisive reason why Magitekists were special—they were among the few professions capable of using Nuclear Magic.

Though the MP consumption was enormous, its firepower was unmatched, giving it a cult-like popularity.

It was essentially a strategic weapon, which proved its destructive power.

And since Magitekists could create items that enabled its use, they were often valued above all other talents…

And now one had walked in voluntarily?

‘Good, from now on you’re the head of our research division. I’m never letting you go, even in death.’

Therefore, as I vowed to squeeze every last drop of value from him, I restored his consciousness.

“…? Oh, ohhh, ohhhhhhhh!!!”

Lunifer Ficentrius, looking around frantically, suddenly saw my wolf avatar and began to rave while shedding tears.

“C-could it be! To think you would personally, personally descend for this unworthy one!”

“…Personally?”

Feeling something odd in his words, I reflexively asked.

“I, I can see it! Your sublimity! Your greatness! And—your love!”

Now practically doing somersaults in his frenzy, he declared this, and only then did I belatedly recall what I had confirmed while reading his memories—that his eyes possessed mana sight.

To him, who could perceive mana as visual information, perhaps he could see my true form beyond this avatar—

…Wait, even the gods of the pantheon couldn’t identify the avatar’s true nature?

Then, what exactly is he—?