-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Magic Genius with Korean Patch
-----------------------------------------------------------------
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Magic wasn't all that common.
Especially in a small village like Brea, it was something you hardly ever saw.
'But there's a stone inscribed with Magic Language on the outskirts of a village this small?'
After easily subduing the deer that had been digging at the ground like it was possessed, Jeon closely examined the stone embedded in the earth.
The stone itself wasn't particularly large.
However, its color and shape were a bit unusual. The hue was reddish, unlike any ordinary rock, and it had been shaped artificially into a sharp, awl-like point.
"For now, let's pull it out."
He couldn't make out the full meaning of the text inscribed on its surface because so much was buried, so Jeon decided to extract the stone from the ground first.
It was embedded pretty deeply, but thanks to the deer having churned up the surrounding area, he grabbed it with both hands and yanked hard, pulling it free without much trouble.
"Hmm."
The stone he held was pointed at both ends in a spindle shape, perfectly sized to fit in his hand.
It even had a decent grip, suggesting some real effort had gone into shaping it.
'But this...?'
As Jeon turned the stone over in his hands, a question mark floated up in his mind.
"Isn't it too crude?"
A stone inscribed with Magic Language, hidden away in the forest.
He had secretly hoped it would be something profoundly mysterious, but up close, it was laughably sloppy.
The exterior carving was tolerable, but everything else was a mess.
"The Magic Language... it feels like they wrote it without knowing the first thing about it."
Especially the inscriptions—the quality was abysmal. Even reading them, it was impossible to figure out what the stone was supposed to do.
It was like a kid who'd just learned to write, stringing random words together without forming a proper sentence.
Words that should have connected didn't, and some of the Magic Language was flat-out wrong.
"Hmm, but it still works."
Impressively, despite the shoddiness, it was somehow doing its job.
The stone's function was simple: gathering ambient mana and storing it.
Carved into a specific shape to serve as a magic diagram, inscribed with Magic Language to imbue a rudimentary spell. Crude as it was, the principle resembled artifacts crafted by mages.
"Should I call this impressive... or pathetic?"
Artifacts weren't easy to make.
Yet here was something similar—amateurish and lacking in function, sure, but still produced by someone.
That said, judging by the haphazard inscriptions, the creator clearly hadn't known what they were doing.
It felt more like accidentally catching a mouse while backing away from a cow.
'Who made this?'
At this point, Jeon couldn't help but wonder about the maker.
Was there really someone in a tiny village like this capable of creating such a thing?
Lost in curiosity as he inspected the stone, he suddenly felt a strange sensation at his fingertips.
'Hmm? What's this?'
It was the feeling that he could grasp the mana stored inside the stone with his bare hand.
Drawn in by the odd sensation, Jeon gripped the stone tightly.
And with that, the feeling intensified.
-Uh... ugh... woo woo woo...
"Wh-what!?"
Startled by the bizarre voice emanating from the stone, Jeon flung it to the ground.
Fortunately, the moment he let go, the voice vanished as if it had never been there.
"Gho-ghost?"
Jeon from his previous life hadn't believed in ghosts.
Not because of fancy terms like horizon coordinate systems, but simply because he'd never encountered anything supernatural himself.
But this was a world where magic existed.
Aura and magic were real, and he himself could wield ancient Rune Magic.
Ghosts weren't out of the question.
'But I definitely felt mana.'
He'd thrown it in shock, but the stone was unmistakably magical.
Moreover, the sensation when he'd held it felt strangely familiar.
Maybe not a ghost, but some kind of magical entity.
With that in mind, Jeon stared at the stone with trembling eyes, swallowed hard, and picked it up again.
-Uh ugh... woo woo wooo...
As expected.
The moment he gripped it, the ghostly voice traveled up his arm and echoed in his mind.
But this time, he didn't panic and kept squeezing it tight.
And that's when he realized: he'd felt something just like this before.
It was identical to the sensation from holding the helm in the ruins.
Drawing on that experience, he addressed it inwardly.
'Alright, what do you want to say?'
-Ugh, woo woo, haa aaaah.
The drawn-out, garbled words sharpened a bit once he spoke, becoming barely intelligible.
'You have a grudge? About what?'
-Ugh, woo, ugh, woo...!
Unlike before, though, the voice seemed limited to a single phrase, repeating it endlessly no matter what he said.
"Ha, this is frustrating."
-Ugh woo, yes. I have a grudge.
He hadn't expected full conversation like with the great mage's will, but this level of failure was something else.
Just as Jeon was starting to give up on the repetition—
"Hmm?"
The voice went silent.
At the same moment, the mana emanating from the stone grew even denser.
Before, it had just been touchable by hand. Now, it felt like he could claim it as his own.
Confused by the sudden shift in place of the voice, Jeon decided to follow the sensation anyway.
There was nothing special to do.
He simply gripped the stone firmly and willed the mana inside to flow into his body.
'...It works.'
Sure enough, the mana began migrating from the stone into his body, slow at first.
It started in tiny amounts, then ramped up until, in a flash, every last bit poured inside him.
Unlike the imperceptible trickle from his arm, this rush brought a euphoric high.
"Ah."
But once he'd absorbed all the mana, the euphoria vanished in an instant, leaving Jeon murmuring with regret.
'Still, it filled me up pretty good.'
Compared to the usual automatic refill from his arm, it was about a week's worth all at once.
Psssh.
The stone, drained of mana, began crumbling away, turning to powder and scattering into the air.
Jeon stared blankly at the drifting particles, then felt several scenes flash through his mind.
'What is this?'
Like a rapid slideshow projecting in his head—brief glimpses appearing and vanishing.
A rural village landscape, a peaceful family meal, a stroll around the village outskirts.
Everyday, serene moments passed first.
Then came the opposites.
A confined, suffocating black space. Sharp objects strewn about. Rough black hands throttling a neck. Finally, blood pouring from a body, sucked into a stone lump.
"...This psycho."
The mental slideshow ended, and Jeon cursed involuntarily.
The images had flashed by too quickly to retain them all, but piecing together what lingered, he realized whose memories they were.
"Killed someone... to make this stone?"
They belonged to a girl from Brea village, murdered to create it.
'No way—that's what the grudge was about?'
Then the voice had been hers.
'But why did her memories flow into me?'
All he'd done was absorb the mana.
Why had her memories come with it?
The question lingered briefly, but Jeon pushed it aside.
Something far more pressing mattered now.
In the memory, those brutal black hands around the girl's throat.
Fleeting as it was, Jeon recognized their owner instantly.
"...Jefferson."
Come to think of it, this deep in the forest was territory only Jefferson could roam freely.
And with his warning not to patrol the outskirts added in, it was clear: Jefferson had made the stone.
A hunter meant to guard the village edges and slay harmful beasts... was preying on villagers instead.
And for what? A single stone.
Unable to even learn Magic Language properly, gambling on whether it'd work, he'd committed this insane act of murder and blood sacrifice.
"Thought he was just a grumpy hunter. Turns out he's a total lunatic."
As he sorted through the memories, Jeon found he couldn't stay still.
It wasn't just the inhuman madness of the act—the emotions felt so vivid in his head, as if they were his own.
"Gotta go right now."
So he resolved to check Jefferson's cabin immediately, where the madman had done this.
He considered alerting the villagers and going en masse, but that would take too long.
'This is the perfect time.'
His afternoon patrol hours overlapped with Jefferson's hunter duties.
Jeon wrapped up quickly, but Jefferson covered a much wider range, often taking several more hours—so he wouldn't be home now.
'Especially if magic's involved.'
He might not have mastered Magic Language, but he'd made that stone. Variables were possible.
Dragging villagers along could drag them into danger and blow things up worse.
'Going alone.'
With his mind set, Jeon's footsteps turned toward Jefferson's cabin.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Not long after Jeon departed.
Jefferson arrived at the scene: the fallen deer and the hole left behind where the stone had been yanked out.
"As I feared."
His original plan had been to run into Jeon after the patrol and give him a warning.
But when Jeon didn't return by the usual time, suspicion led him to scour the forest.
And there it was—this mess.
"Should've just killed him from the start."
Jefferson had never liked Jeon.
Still, he'd held off because the villagers' eyes were always on him.
He'd planned to wait until things quieted down, then do it.
"That idiot doesn't even know what the stone is."
Crunch.
The stone he'd set up a full half-month ago to gather mana—gone.
Blood pounded in his head; he wanted nothing more than to hunt the fool down and rip him apart.
"...Told him not to wander."
Specifically warned him against it to avoid exactly this, and yet he'd disobeyed and caused trouble anyway.
"Guess I need to show him what happens when you ignore a warning."
Imagining the cocky outsider's face, Jefferson fondled the hilt of his dagger.
The village buzzed about solo orc kills and whatnot, but it meant nothing to him.
No—better yet.
Strong enough to take an orc? Perfect material for an even better stone.
"Yeah... I'll make you into a real fine one."
Muttering to himself, Jefferson's eyes gleamed coldly.