Far on Seoul’s outskirts, the Korea Magic Tower.
The cradle of domestic mages, this place was usually so quiet and scholastic that it had earned every meme and slur in the book—“outsider hatchery,” “anti-social club,” “pretends to be Ravenclaw but is actually the shut-in nerd tower,” and so on. But today was different.
“Northeast Point A, Red Warp #45—unstable link! Requesting Master support!”
“Is Stone Supply (mana-stone resupply) still not here from the main tower? At this rate every battle-mage we sent out is gonna croak!”
“The Mutable School is handling it right now!”
Beneath spires and stained glass that rose tall and solemn in Gothic lines like a medieval cathedral, multicolored mana light streaked in a frantic downpour.
The levitating lifts rising and falling all over the air were packed to capacity; the rush of wind from flight spells and flying tools summoned by impatient sorts never stopped.
Fwoosh, clatter!
On each floor, mana fire and chimes rang one after another. It was the device that announced a mage’s level when they entered the tower.
[Lv.4: Master Entered]
“How many Masters is that already?”
“Since when were the Level-4s this quick out of their armchairs…! Feels like every Master who’d been hiding nationwide just popped out at once!”
“Not a single one of them would beg to share research data, and now it’s this crowded—the first time since Salut Academy.”
The tower’s grades, divided by a level system, ran to six:
[Initiate (1)…