There’s no superiority in professions, but people’s preferences really reflect the times.
In some worlds, doctors and judges are considered the pinnacle of professional status, while in others, war mages are viewed as the ultimate job boasting the most glorious life changes, capable of challenging the royal family.
These were typically the careers held by those who possessed wealth, honor, and social influence in the eyes of the public.
Doctors and judges could accumulate significant wealth compared to other professions, and their honor was equally unmatched. As for war mages? Well, that’s a given.
If you were to ask what the most esteemed profession in this world was, nine out of ten would say this:
Theoretical Magician.
The truth is, theoretical magicians had existed in past lives too, but their quirky atmosphere and large amount of work, combined with meager pay, kept them less popular.
However, the situation here was entirely different.
Digging deeper into the reasons, it all came down to mana.
Unlike the past, mana here existed in a state of probability overlap, being both everywhere and nowhere.
It’s not a clear explanation, but you could think of it like borrowing from another dimension.
This place where mana exists is called ‘Idea’, and to use magic here, one must go through the process of connecting to Idea. Naturally, this process decreases efficiency.
And the ones striving to boost that efficiency were none other than theoretical magicians.
In the end, that meant this was also the point where money converges.
To operate factories, mana is needed, and when wielding weapons, mana is also essential.
Mana boasted overwhelming efficiency compared to electricity, becoming an indispensable element in modern industry.
If you even increase efficiency by 1%, or even 0.1%, you’d find countless people willing to pay billions.
“Everyone, please hold hands to avoid getting separated from your buddy, okay?”
““Yes!!””
At Sea Star Elementary School in the second semester, around the end of August, the lower grades would visit a vocational experience fair.
About 500 students from 1st to 3rd grade boarded buses.
Since it was in the same city of Seoul, the travel time was relatively short.
“Where should we start looking?”
“Anywhere cool…”
Ah-rin declared she would try every profession at least once.
It would be a lie to say I had no interest, but the sweltering heat made it unavoidable to feel drained.
So, we headed to the closest second hall.
“Looks like we can learn cooking over there! Na-me, do you like cooking?”
“Not really.”
After all, I could live on just mana potions.
Besides, the unique nausea I felt when eating too much made me dislike food.
Back in my past life, I only ate out of necessity due to the risk of poisoning, and this life was no different.
“Hmm… then where to go… you’ll definitely hate exercise…”
The boys were flocking to challenge an AI goalkeeper in penalty kicks.
With a beautiful curve, their shots curved into the goal, but the robot goalkeeper jumped out and mercilessly deflected the ball.
“Too many people over there… I heard a famous streamer from Twish is coming today, so everyone must be going to see them. Na-me, you’re not really into this stuff, right?”
“Let’s go somewhere less crowded.”
“Okay, I’ll look for it!”
[InSert Catch-Up Challenge! -Letterbox] Dozens of kids crowded in front of the booth, lining up.
Unlike most booths that replaced things with augmented reality, this one seemed to have proper virtual reality content set up with actual capsules. Such is the capital power of big corporations.
“Since you’re good at magic, how about trying out as a magician?”
There’s no actual job called magician, just like calling a researcher an engineer.
Well, better than soccer, anyway. As soon as I showed a slight interest, Ah-rin dashed over there.
“Hey, everyone! How many can draw a magic circle?”
Young men in their 20s welcomed us with warm smiles.
Considering their robes, they seemed to be university club members running a practical program.
“Yes!”
“Then you can sit here, it’s a tall chair, so be careful!”
With that, Ah-rin and I found our seats safely, each receiving a slate in front of us.
One of the university girls sat opposite us holding the same slate.
“Hi, what’s your name?”
“I’m Ah-rin. This is Na-me.”
“Nice to meet you, Ah-rin and Na-me! My name is Da-yeon. So today we’ll be writing Light Magic!”
The magic that beginner students encounter first.
It’s like printing out ‘Hello World!’ in programming.
The reason why light magic is the first one learned is not only because it’s fundamental but simply because it’s the easiest.
“But plain light magic isn’t that fun, right? So we’re going to make a mini firework!”
“Wow! Can I choose the colors too?”
“Of course! Want to place your hand on the slate first?”
This must be a modern slate.
In the past, magic circles were mostly drawn on marble, but this was a type of artificially made alloy.
A chilly sensation creeps up my hand.
“Do you know the five stages of magic?”
“No! Please tell me!”
“The five stages are Record – Inject – Activate – Store – Cast. We can also divide it into three stages: Write – Store – Cast, but today we’ll go through all five steps in detail. Let’s try it out!”
Ah-rin slowly matched her rhythm with hers, reciting the five stages.
“Na-me, do you want to give it a try?”
“Na-me is a genius, so he probably knows it all already.”
“Oh, really?”
Da-yeon ignored me altogether and proceeded to explain to Ah-rin one-on-one.
If a kid with more than ten years of age difference showed off a bit, what could I say?
To a university student, it probably seemed trivial.
Honestly, dealing with her enthusiasm was a bit tiresome, and if that’s what they thought, that was fortunate for me.
“Casting: Light! Wow, it worked! Na-me, look!”
Yellow and white sparks burst above my head in concentric circles, glowing.
Aside from Da-yeon helping during the mana injection stage, Ah-rin completed most of the process by herself.
Moreover, it seemed she picked the colors to match the first letters of our names.
It didn’t seem like a coincidence. Filled with a meaningful sense of achievement, Ah-rin beamed with pride.
“Hehe, isn’t it pretty? Make one for me too, Na-me.”
Ah-rin tugged at my arm. I couldn’t say no. I was definitely weak against the charm of a young child.
I sneaked a glance at Da-yeon’s explanation and roughly grasped the principles.
Every process matched what I already knew, with only one ‘Storage’ process being special.
The reason they distinguished ‘Activation’ and ‘Casting’ was due to the fourth stage, ‘Storage.’
The principle itself was closer to ‘Link’, but in terms of application, it felt similar to storing magic in a void, hence the naming.
Even if the magic circle is drawn correctly, magic doesn’t naturally occur in this world.
There’s a need for a process that converts irreversible transformations into reversible states.
The discomfort, hassle, and time inefficiencies were downsides, but I saw those struggles as making this world safer.
It’s not a world where everyone unleashes ice missiles just by copying a drawing.
Light magic consumes a lot of mana, so how about something simpler instead?
I drew an asymmetrical sine wave on the slate.
Then, I inscribed patterns like the arabesque formula I had previously taught Ah-rin around it, filling the numbers representing color, rotation direction, coefficients, and degrees before and after the operator.
As I infused a meager amount of mana, the sine wave turned into a three-dimensional heart shape, revolving around its vertical axis.
Then, it filled with a red light and floated up from the slate until it reached in front of Ah-rin.
“Casting: What… I love you?”
As I cast, the three-dimensional heart exploded, sending dozens of small heart-shaped sparks bursting forth.
Even if we were to part someday, I wanted to give Ah-rin at least one unforgettable memory.
[I’m not an angel.]
[But… Who else would be an angel if it’s not someone who hands out bread to my brothers every day in this hellish place?]
[I’m the one who’s hated for you all being hungry, for you being ill, and for losing your family to war.]
[Are you leaving this place?]
[The hero will come soon. The merciful hero will watch over you all.]
[Don’t go.]
[I have to go.]
[Then please come back again.]
[I can’t promise that. Instead, I’ll give you this. It’ll be more precious than a piece of bread. In our world, we call this compassion and hope.]
The unnecessary memories surfacing must be just a feeling.
*
A slate activated for magic can’t be reused.
An object used as a mana circuit cannot serve as a magical conduit unless it goes through a complicated purification process, so it just needs to be disposed of properly.
Woo Da-yeon, a theoretical physics major in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Korea University, recalled the little one she had seen earlier that morning.
“Wow, I finished everything by the last day. Da-yeon! You’ll be attending the gathering today, right?”
“… Oh, huh? Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said.”
“I asked if you’d be coming to the gathering later. You’re not thinking of skipping it, are you, knowing how much you love drinking?”
“No, of course, I have to go.”
“What’s that slate you’re holding? You’re not throwing it away yet? The recycling truck is leaving soon. If you miss it, you’ll have to lug it back home, and it’ll be heavy!”
Subin, a fellow club member, reminisced how she had forgotten to dispose of slates at the booth last year and ended up carrying ten heavy blocks to the gathering.
“I just… thought there’s a genius among us.”
“Oh my, if our top student says that, what are we?”
“Want to see it? This was made by the kids from Sea Star Elementary.”
Subin took the 1 kg slate in both hands and inspected it.
“This is a rotational transformation matrix, right? I learned that from the bald professor in my first year; such nostalgia. And what’s this?”
“It’s a special form of the Baker-Campbell formula.”
“Bacon what?”
“What do you think? Do you think you could believe this? This magic circle was drawn by a first-grade elementary school kid all by themselves.”
“…”
“…”
“Don’t mess with me! I’m not falling for those jokes anymore. There’s no way a first grader could… really?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow! Can I take a look?”
Was it Na-me she said? Definitely a peculiar kid.
Even if you told me she was still in kindergarten, I’d probably believe it, she was that petite and cute.
Her long black hair, tied in low twin tails, would swing wildly from side to side with every step.
From the moment she entered the booth, her pale face was set in a determined expression, glaring intensely.
I thought she was a bit cocky, but looking closer, it was just the strong impression typical of having had a difficult life.
“Wow. Solving it all through Jacobian matrices, and it’s only this long of a formula. More complex than it looks, huh?”
As Subin said, that was the case. But what truly astonished Da-yeon was when that kid uttered the casting phrase.
“She definitely didn’t determine any casting phrase beforehand.”
When recording a magic circle, you specify variables and again call them when finalizing their values, ensuring magic undergoes the proper activation process.
Why do we designate variables in the first place?
Simply because it’s the easiest way to simplify problems.
Even when solving linear equations, we can designate a variable as x.
But as we grow older, we don’t think we need to do that, since we can calculate the results through mental arithmetic after adding and multiplying the values a few times.
However, accomplishing all this without designating any variables while staring down daunting formulas didn’t make sense.
Essentially, it meant she had reverse-filled the runes matching that character when casting.
What an amazing process to fill the variables after already finalizing the answers!
If that were as easy as saying it, we’d see everyone shouting “Ice Arrow!” in practical magic contests and shooting off fiery arrows.
What a bizarre phenomenon that would create!
Da-yeon acknowledged her mind worked differently compared to her fellow students.
It would be a deception to deny that hard work alone couldn’t take her this far.
Still, there were exceptional individuals, such as the top of the current theoretical physics majors and the student council president who had never slipped below first place in high school.
Comparing oneself to others only leads to endless unhappiness.
Because, in the end, only I can drive myself forward.
Pushing aside complex thoughts, Da-yeon aimed to enjoy quality time catching up with her club members today.
“Da-yeon! You need to take this! You’re trying to pass it off on me now, aren’t you? Hey!!!”
