The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

Asel had been able to use smoke formulas for quite some time. Over the past 8 years, he had observed Irina’s formulas occasionally and tried a few, all of which worked well. However, it was impossible to finely control the smoke as she did.

This was due to a lack of understanding of smoke formulas. Just as anyone can swing a sword, but proper handling requires learning swordsmanship, he could manifest the magic but was hindered in its application. Unlike handling lightning, shape transformation required controlling magical power at the particle level for each individual particle.

While this would have been too much for an ordinary magician’s brain to handle, it wasn’t that difficult for Asel.

He held the smoke that had changed to a sharp point in one hand, twirling it as he looked at Irina.

“Lightning formulas feel more like handling energy rather than a medium, but smoke feels like finely adjusting each particle making up the gas, so it’s quite unfamiliar. That’s why I’d like some advice.”
“…I don’t quite understand the concept of adjusting particles itself. How does that work?”

Irina muttered this, then carefully examined the spear of smoke Asel had created. She understood then.

Smoke formulas belong to a type of magic where the process of constructing the spell is quite complex. Even just to make a spear shape, you need to use a lot of characters in the spell. However, the spear Asel made had no such spell. He simply used a formula to control smoke, and created the shape by moving each particle of tobacco smoke individually.

It was an absurd feat. Irina rubbed her temples, feeling as if the magic she had spent her whole life with was being denied.

“There’s a limit to things, but you keep choosing to do more and more amazing things as time passes.”

She wondered where on earth they had picked up someone like this. Irina glanced at Ena with a disgusted look, then dispersed the smoke Asel had created with her hand. Since it wasn’t a shape created by magic, there was no backlash to Asel. He caught the dissipating smoke in mid-air, forming it into a sphere as he spoke.

“How can I improve it?”
“I have nothing to say. The moment I give advice on your magic, it stops being your magic and becomes mine. Advice is essentially meaningless for a magician with talent like yours.”
“……”
“So… I’ll give you a book about smoke magic that I personally own. Read it and construct your own formula anew. That would be best.”

Giving advice to a magician who has reached a certain level can sometimes have negative effects. Even more so if it’s a magician who hasn’t yet realized their uniqueness.

Even among magicians who have learned the same branch, if their uniqueness differs, the same formula often manifests completely different effects. The same applies when creating magic.

Irina didn’t want to take away that boundless potential from Asel.

So Asel understood her answer. He nodded and let the sphere of smoke dissipate into the air.

“I’ll give you the book before you move into the Academy dormitory. Is two days from now okay?”
“Yes. I’ll be waiting.”
“Alright, alright.”

Irina chuckled and lightly tapped Asel’s head with her pipe.

At that moment, all the lights in the banquet hall went out. Simultaneously, a wave of powerful magical power swept through the hall. There was no need to wonder whose it was. Asel turned his head towards the source of the magical power spread, waiting for the light to return.

“Asel, disciple of Aperture.”

As the voice was heard, the banquet hall brightened. Before he could even perceive it, Asel was standing in front of three old magicians. A movement formula manifested at a speed that didn’t even give the target time to realize. This was impossible unless the caster’s level had reached that of a great magician.

‘Master of teleportation magic. Galven Pirgoan.’

The magician on the far left. One of the elders of the Witch Association. Asel glanced at her rather eccentric appearance, then immediately bowed his head deeply and bent one knee.

“Yes.”

After that, formal congratulations were given. Something about being young, about talent, congratulations on becoming an adult, and so on. Of course, he didn’t just let it go in one ear and out the other. Asel etched their words into his mind as the coming of age ceremony continued.

As the congratulations ended, Galven, who had been silent until now, looked down at Asel and spoke.

“Raise your head.”
“Yes.”
“We have brought magical tools to celebrate your coming of age ceremony. Choose and take one of them.”

The elder standing on the right stretched out his hand into the air. In sync with this motion, a black hole appeared in mid-air, and the elder pulled out three magical tools from it.

They were taken out from a subspace artifact. As artifacts known to be rare, even Asel was seeing one directly for the first time.

‘I wonder if I could ask for that.’

Obviously, it wouldn’t be allowed, but he was tempted since having a subspace artifact would allow him to dissect the formula and learn spatial formulas.

However, it would be strange to throw a tantrum for something he couldn’t obtain. Asel cleanly shook off his greed and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the three magical tools floating in the air. Galven confirmed his gaze and began explaining.

“Lerson’s Mirror. A magical tool that shows the true name and face of anyone related to demons if they are nearby. It’s an item directly created by Lerson, who was famous as a demon hunter.”
“……”
“Flow Bracelet. Once a day, it deflects an attack that the wearer didn’t perceive in a completely different direction.”
“……”
“Lastly, the Feather of Ill Omen. A shape-changing magical tool that can transform into forms like daggers, arrowheads, or spearheads. Any part wounded by this feather rapidly rots. Choose one of these three.”
“I’ll take the Flow Bracelet.”

There was no need for deliberation. Asel immediately answered while looking at Galven.

The mirror and feather were undoubtedly excellent magical tools. However, for the research Asel wanted to do right now, remote interception formulas, he needed the Flow Bracelet.

Disassembling and analyzing the formula in the bracelet would help in creating magic. Although Lerson’s Mirror was tempting, it had to be lower priority.

“Then take it. This is now yours.”

The choice was made smoothly without a moment’s hesitation. Perhaps pleased by this, Galven smiled faintly and personally put the bracelet on Asel’s right wrist. A bracelet made of simple black cloth with no patterns. As soon as Asel wore the bracelet, he could fully sense the magical power and formula inherent in it.

This should be sufficient to help with research. Asel smiled with satisfaction and bowed his head.

“Thank you.”

With that, the conferment ceremony ended. Asel raised his body from the bow, and the elders gave him words of blessing.

“Continue to strive. All the rumors we hear say that you will be the next great magician.”
“You flatter me.”
“Whether it’s flattery or not is for us to decide. Don’t settle for the present, but climb even higher.”
“……”
“Be diligent. Even after entering the Academy, experience the world and look upwards. Don’t forget to return to Wiheim during vacations.”

Each of them threw in a word. Asel nodded, thinking that perhaps they weren’t eccentric but actually old-fashioned elders who cared for their juniors.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Fortunately, the elders didn’t do anything more than that. Instead, after telling him to enjoy the coming of age ceremony, they instantly left the banquet hall using Galven’s magic. Asel looked at where they had been standing for a moment, then returned to Ena while fiddling with the bracelet.

The coming of age ceremony was over.

Now only the Academy entrance remained.

*** sacrifice is more complicated than one might think. It’s not just about capturing people and grinding them up; one must carefully consider the items needed for the ritual, the magic circle, and even the amount of sacrifice to offer in order to achieve meaningful results.

“Aaagh!! Stop! Stooooop!! Gurgle…!”
“Oh, stay still. I’m telling you, I need to cut off your leg to match the weight.”

In this regard, demon worshippers were often well-versed in human sacrifice. Having conducted rituals offering so many humans as sacrifices, most of them knew very well how many humans were needed for which ritual, and how to match the weight.

The woman was no exception. She clicked her tongue at the old man who had fainted from writhing in pain, then threw him onto the magic circle without even stopping the bleeding. The old man’s family members, who were also on the magic circle, rushed to him. They hurriedly tried to press their hands against the amputation site to stop the bleeding, but the bleeding didn’t stop.

This was because there was a blood magician among those conducting the ritual. The blood magician showed an excited expression as he shoved life force into the magic circle using the old man’s flowing blood. The woman glared at him and folded her arms.

“Girzen, do it calmly. We’re filling Him with blood and flesh. Do it reverently.”
“Hehe… That’s why it’s more exciting, Delim. I can’t stop getting excited when I think about how grand a task I’m doing.”
“Crazy psychopath bastard.”

The woman called Delim muttered this, then began to take out people trapped in cages one by one. She threw the women alive onto the magic circle, and for the men, she just cut off their heads and stacked them neatly on the characters inscribed in the magic circle. Blood flowed crazily and screams echoed everywhere, but Delim paid no attention.

“P-please save me, please save me, I beg you…”
“Shut up.”

Slash!

Delim cleanly cut off the head of the man begging while grabbing her feet, then carefully placed it on top of the last character. She stuck out her tongue and pulled the dead man’s tongue with her hand, then tapped it while smiling.

“Ding ding ding~ How lovely you are when you’re still? Should I give you a kiss?”

She didn’t wait for an answer. Delim immediately kissed the pulled-out tongue and voraciously tore it off to eat. With a crunching sound, her pupils split vertically, and the sorcerer leading the ritual smiled brightly and said:

“Delim, come out now. We’re about to start the ritual.”
“Don’t interfere with my love for him.”
“Don’t worry. Your 47th husband will soon become one with Him. You can share your love to your heart’s content then.”
“Will He like me?”
“Of course. Who wouldn’t like such a lovely and cute woman like you?”

At the sorcerer’s words, Delim cut off the man’s tongue with a regretful look.

She approached behind the sorcerer while chewing the cut-off tongue. The sorcerer smiled at her once, then murmured with his hands clasped together.

“Let’s begin.”

Woong.

As he spoke, the sorcerer operated his cursed power. His cursed power, corrupted by hundreds of human sacrifices, resonated with the blood magician’s characters and created a dark red wave. The wave soon clung to the women’s bodies like insects and frantically gnawed at their blood and flesh.

Ear-splitting screams filled the space. But the sorcerer still moved his lips with a calm expression.

Sorcery, different from magic. A miracle manifested by pounding wishes and imagery into specific substances as mediums. That technique activates using blood, flesh, and souls as mediums to form a vessel to contain a transcendent being existing in another dimension.

Boom!

The wave of cursed power spread over the magic circle.

The movements of the writhing women stopped. The focus disappeared from their eyes. They looked at each other, then opened their mouths wide and started to devour the person next to them. Organs were strewn about, and countless corpses piled up on the floor.

Eventually, only one tattered woman remained on the magic circle. She looked at the sorcerer with blank eyes and moved her lips.

“Iwantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsoulswantsouls”
“Phew. It’s a success. The vessel for Him has been created.”

The sorcerer spoke with a bright smile, showing no fear despite the woman’s creepy muttering.

“Now we just have to wait until Gorsel brings a magician.”
“Do you think that young brat can do it properly? I don’t think so. It would have been better to send me or Delim.”
“There are things he can do because he’s young. As you know, young souls are ideal for offering souls.”
“Is that why you had him enroll in the Academy? To catch kids of similar age?”
“Yes.”

The sorcerer answered, stretching his mouth corners wide.

“If they’re too young, they’re immature, and if they’re too old, the ritual becomes unstable. Magicians who have just become adults are ideal. And the Academy is teeming with such magicians.”
“…Sigh. But it will take a long time to capture them. It doesn’t sit well with me, who wants to see Him quickly.”
“What can we do? Don’t you think it’s better to have proper thoughts and conversations possible than seeing Him unable to do anything stupidly, Girzen?”

The blood magician, Girzen, clicked his tongue and looked at the woman on the magic circle instead of answering. The sorcerer also didn’t continue the conversation, but smiled while looking at the ceiling and muttered softly.

“I’m looking forward to it.”