The forum had ended.
The long journey concluded with a closing ceremony that was strangely grand.
Yachts gathered in front of the island.
They were the means of transportation to take the participants back.
Kim Song-cheol boarded a yacht along with Kim Myung-joo and Cha Se-hyeon.
Peter was not there.
Perhaps because he had revealed his true identity, he had vanished into thin air.
Instead, someone else appeared non-nonchalantly to help move their luggage.
Soon, the yacht departed.
The sight of a dozen or so yachts cutting across the sea was quite a spectacle.
“It ended more quietly than I expected, didn’t it?”
Kim Song-cheol, who was sitting in a seat on the yacht’s deck, asked.
Kim Myung-joo was sitting next to him.
“It was quieter than I thought it would be.”
Since the forum was over, he was also enjoying a brief moment of rest.
As proof, he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts.
“Quiet? What do you mean quiet? It was freaking loud.”
Cha Se-hyeon, who was next to them, irritably brushed away the hair stuck to her face.
The wind was blowing so hard that her pink hair was fluttering wildly.
“You mean the fireworks?”
“That goes without saying, but do you even know how many guys I blocked?”
“Really? I didn’t know.”
“Of course, you wouldn’t know, Brother. I was staring them down with my eyes wide open, so how could they come over and talk to you? Not a single one got through.”
“Haha, but do you know you were breached once?”
“Breached? Me? When?”
“Peter.”
“Peter?”
“Yeah, you saw him too. We were talking. When we were on the beach behind the resort.”
“No, who is Peter? What kind of nonsense is that? Did you have a dream?”
Cha Se-hyeon frowned and looked at Kim Jong-chol.
“You don’t know…?”
Kim Jong-chol tilted his head.
“No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like Cha Se-hyeon was joking.”
Kim Song-cheol glanced at Kim Myung-joo.
“Do you know Peter?”
“Who is Peter? Is it some kind of new meme?”
“What meme… there are no memes like that.”
Cha Se-hyeon, the only one in her twenties, turned her head away as if she didn’t even want to talk.
At that, Kim Song-cheol was lost for words.
Kim Myung-joo also seemed to truly not know.
‘What is this?’
Kim Song-cheol fell into confusion.
It was enough to make a ghost wail.
“You’ve forgotten Peter…?”
He could only mutter like an extra who alone remembers the protagonist in a world-line where the protagonist saved the world and died.
In the meantime, the yacht diligently crossed the sea.
The main island was not that far away.
The three of them soon arrived at the main island.
They got off the yacht, took a prepared car, and arrived at the airport.
They immediately went through the procedures and boarded the plane.
Kim Song-cheol sat in the same seat he had taken when coming.
After roughly tidying up his seat, he looked out the window.
His face was deep in thought. He had been wearing that expression for a while now.
“But just who is Peter…”
Kim Myung-joo tried to bring it up again.
“No, it’s nothing. I don’t think it’s something to… talk about. There’s no need to worry either.”
Kim Jong-chol waved his hand.
He didn’t know how it happened, but even Cha Se-hyeon had lost her memory.
One of the strongest Mages on Earth had been affected without even knowing why.
“Would anything change if he talked about it?”
There certainly wouldn’t be.
“But was there any harvest? You seemed to be talking to other Hunters.”
When Kim Song-cheol changed the subject, Kim Myung-joo smiled and played along.
“There were a few Hunters I could communicate well with. There will probably be another meeting in the near future. If they come to Korea, it will be thanks to you, Kim Jong-chol.”
“Is that so? I’ll have to practice Magic hard, then.”
“You’re stating the obvious.”
Cha Se-hyeon chimed in.
She had been lying down with her eyes closed, pretending not to listen, but she was hearing everything.
She slowly opened her eyes and sat up.
“Brother, you didn’t practice much in Guam, did you?”
“Yeah. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“On pur-pose? What kind of ridiculous excuse is that?”
“Ah… I was trying to time it right. I have to enter a Dungeon as soon as I get back, and I was worried something might go wrong.”
It was because of what happened when he last entered a Dungeon with Team 25A.
He remembered struggling because the Dungeon difficulty had changed strangely.
“Really?”
“I think I’ll reach the 4th Circle if I push myself just a little after I get back from the Dungeon, so don’t worry and just go to sleep.”
Kim Song-cheol pressed Cha Se-hyeon’s forehead and forced her back into her seat.
“Ugh, get off me.”
“Of course, Cha Se-hyeon swatted his hand away.”
Anyway, as she went back down, Kim Myung-joo’s eyes could be seen sparkling.
“You’re already at the 4th Circle?”
“Yes. The new training method is very effective.”
“…That’s fast.”
Kim Myung-joo stroked his chin once.
Kim Song-cheol’s growth rate was originally fast.
Even if the speed of filling his Circles was slow because his innate Circles were large, it was not something a normal Mage could compare to.
It was the one part of him that could be called human.
However, as he learned the new training method, his growth rate jumped significantly.
Even the transition from the 2nd Circle to the 3rd Circle and from the 3rd Circle to the 4th Circle had no significant difference.
“Just keep doing that. You’re doing very well.”
Cha Se-hyeon nodded while lying down.
If people who were pleased with Kim Jong-chol’s growth were lined up in order, Cha Se-hyeon would definitely be first.
In contrast, Kim Myung-joo only nodded quietly.
‘Graduation is already just around the corner.’
Reaching the 4th Circle meant graduation.
It went without saying.
He would naturally be the fastest graduate.
But that wasn’t the important part.
Many things would change.
It wasn’t for nothing that the Training Academy graduation was set at the 4th Circle; graduating meant officially becoming a Hunter of the Republic of Korea.
***
Kim Jong-chol returned to the dormitory and stood in front of the entrance.
A plan was clearly formed in his mind.
First, organize the luggage in the suitcase, clean the house, and take a shower.
After that, study the Magic Formulas with a clean mind.
It was nothing difficult, and he had no doubt it would happen exactly like that.
“Beep-beep-beep-beep.”
He entered the password and opened the front door.
He lifted the suitcase, went into the living room, and laid it down.
When he opened the suitcase, well-organized clothes were revealed.
There was no laundry.
It was because he had received laundry service the whole time he was at the resort.
“Shall I start with organizing the clothes…”
He picked up only his underwear and socks and went into the small room where the closet was.
‘…?’
Kim Song-cheol stopped abruptly in front of the door.
There was a desk in the small room.
It was where Kim Song-cheol studied Magic.
Aside from the Magic Books, it was a place where nothing else should be.
“However.”
A large box was placed on top of it. It was a pink box.
It was neatly tied with a red ribbon.
‘Is it… a bomb?’
Kim Song-cheol suspected the identity of the box.
He had no one who would send him a gift.
Even if someone had sent a gift, there was no reason for that gift to be inside his house.
He imagined a scene where the surrounding area was devastated the moment he opened the box.
‘Did I watch too many movies…?’
Kim Jong-chol stood blankly with underwear and socks in both hands, staring at the box.
It looked like a box containing a Christmas gift for a nine-year-old girl.
It would look perfectly at home under a tree.
If it were a bomb, he wouldn’t even want to believe the person was human for packaging it in such a box.
“For now, should I play along with the prank…?”
Kim Jong-chol waved his finger in the air.
Then, shields began to appear in front of him one after another.
It was the 3rd Circle defensive Magic, Shield.
Several transparent shields of a deep blue color blocked the space in front of Kim Jong-chol.
Kim Jong-chol flicked his finger again.
Then, the paper envelope on top of the box floated up.
It was the 3rd Circle Magic, Telekinesis, which he had learned not long ago.
He had postponed it because it had little practical utility, but he thought it was fortunate he had learned it.
As Kim Song-cheol flicked his finger once more, the envelope opened in midair, and the letter paper inside slid out.
The letter paper soon flew toward Kim Jong-chol.
“Hmm.”
The letter paper unfurled.
[I should give a gift to a good child, shouldn’t I? See you again soon. With love, Peter.]
It was Korean written in crooked handwriting.
The final greeting seemed as if it had been translated literally from English.
“…Peter?”
It was then that the Shield was deactivated.
If it was Peter, there was no need to even be careful.
He wouldn’t be able to block him anyway.
Kim Song-cheol just walked over, tossed his socks and underwear onto the desk, pulled the red string, and unwrapped the package.
Then he opened the box lid.
Inside were several antique-looking books.
Kim Song-cheol took out all the books and placed them on the desk.
He just pushed the unpleasant box onto the floor.
There were five books in total. Each one was quite thick.
There were no specific titles.
They were marked with numbers from 1 to 5. The covers were made of leather of an unknown origin.
“…What is this?”
Kim Song-cheol pulled up a chair, sat down, and opened the first book.
As if it were natural, the content was written in Korean.
As Kim Song-cheol read through the book.
Before even finishing the first page, he was startled and checked the cover of the book again.
“Of course, nothing was written on it except for the number.”
‘This is…?’
He corrected his posture.
Kim Song-cheol pushed his hips deep into the chair he had been loosely sitting on and straightened his back.
If his prediction was correct, this was truly a gift.
[2nd-Tier Circle Theory]
The title wasn’t written, but he could faintly guess it.
Kim Jong-chol became absorbed in the Magic Book.
When he read one page, he felt one Mage; when he read two pages, he felt two Mages.
This was not the result achieved by a single Mage.
It was a history where someone devoted their life to taking one step, and then someone else who took over the baton took another step.
“Step by step, like that.”
It was a history that had reached a distant place that seemed impossible to reach.
Kim Jong-chol thought of the Great Sage of the past who developed the Mana Training method.
After developing the Mana Training method, he left these words at the end of his work:
‘This time, I intend to study Circle Magic itself and leave another footprint.’
Kim Song-cheol could feel his traces in this book.
He didn’t know if the Sage was truly involved.
However, the numerous Mages dissolved into this book would have all been beings similar to him.
Beings approaching the unknown territory.
And beings who eventually set foot there.
It is often said.
Swordsmanship is patience, and Magic is expansion.
They had expanded Magic to this point.
It was a place Kim Song-cheol could not even dare to imagine.
No matter how brilliant Kim Song-cheol was, he could not leap over the years accumulated in this book.
Perhaps there were Mages even more brilliant than Kim Jong-chol.
Nevertheless, he simply immersed himself in the book with humility.
Kim Song-cheol solemnly stepped into the territory they had expanded.
‘Il-won.’
They called it Il-won.
It was a term referring to a single Circle.
However, it was not translated as a simple circle.
Circles had developed by being divided into several, but they eventually returned to one.
Just like when humans first created a Circle.
That was the essence of the 2nd-Tier Circle Theory.
Kim Song-cheol began to take in that unfamiliar and mysterious unknown land with his eyes.