Chapter 487

Secret.

He erased his smile and said it was a secret.

Not that there was no name being hidden, but that he could not answer the name being hidden.

“That is a secret,” he said that way.

Thus, the final question ended with a simple answer of “secret,” but one that contained countless meanings.

And upon hearing that answer, the eyes of the monster began to curve upward.

Like drawing an arch, one by one.

The two eyes curved upward, forming an eye smile, and a voice emerged as if scraping metal.

“Indeed. It’s truly understandable….”

That eye smile contained the emotion of relief when the conclusion he was thinking of was confirmed, a laugh that could only be produced when 99% sure and the last 1% fell into place.

The monster smiled with that eye smile and spoke with certainty.

“You were warned, yet you did not heed it. How truly regrettable it must be.”

The monster proclaimed.

Lee Jae-soon did not heed the warnings.

“Why do you jump to conclusions so hastily, elder?”

“It is not a hasty conclusion. It is conviction.”

“Why is that?”

However, he displayed a gesture of grievance towards the monster’s words.

His expression also bore the coexistence of grievance and disbelief.

That expression and gesture seemed so natural that it was hard to think otherwise unless one was an actor adept in method acting.

But even while observing such expressions and gestures, the monster was certain.

He was 100% sure Lee Jae-soon did not follow the warnings.

Why was that?

Perhaps it was due to the short conversation they shared?

Could it be the repetitive question about whether he adhered to the warnings?

Or could it be that thought-provoking question he had just thrown?

He looked at the monster with a mix of grievance, absurdity, and a hint of question.

He wanted the monster to explain why he was so certain that he had not followed the warnings.

He wanted the basis for his reasoning.

And the moment he asked, he was ready to refute.

He gazed at the monster that way.

The monster opened its mouth in response to his silent urging.

“Well, rather than that… it’s the ego—yes….”

A metallic sound.

Yet it held a hint of enjoyment and merriment.

That voice seemed mocking!

The monster laughed at the dullard and spoke with an undeniable scorn in its voice.

“Your hands are filled with strength, ready to strike at any moment, are they not—?”

The moment his words ended, Lee Jae-soon’s expression changed completely.

The smile faded, and his previously stiff expression was wiped clean, as if his face was entirely erased. The once playful movement stiffened entirely. Then, as if his muscles and joints had hardened, his skin began stretching like a rubber band pulled tightly.

Like someone tugging at his hair, his head spun around, while his neck stretched as if the bones were suddenly elongated.

His neck protruded like a turtle’s.

It bulged out as if a lump had formed behind it.

The skin that stretched tightly clung to the bones, revealing their shapes from beneath the skin.

His arms, elongated like whips, coiled on the ground.

Like a snake.

Like a coiled snake.

But holding threatening-looking tools, like a hammer and a cutting knife.

Thus, he had transformed closer to a monster or an evil spirit than a human, glaring intently at the monster.

With his head stretched out and eyes bulging, his hair a wild mess from spinning around, he spoke to the monster.

“Elder. This Lee Jae-soon has no name hidden. This Lee Jae-soon is perfectly fine.”

It was a calm tone, almost defensive, yet it harbored emotions that could not be hidden.

He felt a barely contained rage, as if he could not restrain himself from any action if pushed further.

However, rather than being intimidated by his near warning, the monster merely chuckled.

“Indeed…. Lee Jae-soon has no hidden name….”

Clang.

The monster stomped its sharp foot on the ground.

It spoke with a tone that seemed to agree, yet carried another meaning.

Tap.

Tap.

The monster lightly rolled its foot on the ground as if to pound it down, speaking.

“Tell me, do you know this? The world of magic is indeed profound and strange. Countless forms, countless effects. And numerous costs….”

Tap.

Thud.

“Even if one follows the same method and procedure in a ritual, just adding a slight change transforms it into a completely different ceremony. Isn’t that truly strange?”

Thud.

“Long ago, in a certain region, gods and humans were strictly divided. The ritual that distinguished the fate of gods and humans, presided over by the god Zeus, the leader of the gods and the ruler of the heavens, was just that. And yet, this simple ritual can become entirely different just by slightly altering the symbol… or adjusting the order of the procedures, or even slightly changing the invocation. Are you aware of that?”

The monster raised one hand and laughed.

“Take a great bull, implore the great god Zeus to choose you, cover the bones in oil, set it ablaze to offer the sacrifice to the divine. Concealing the flesh and entrails within the skin is deceit. When lightning descends from the sky and ignites the bones and fat, Zeus’ wrath is kindled. This is the moment wisdom is bestowed upon humanity, the moment abundance is granted to humankind. Thus, once this ceremony concludes, the ailments of livestock will be healed and they will thrive, allowing humans to feast upon the meat and fatten themselves.”

As the monster finished speaking, one of its clenched fingers extended, pointing at something.

“Offering a great bull to the great god Zeus, covering the bones with oil, igniting it to send the sacrifice upward. Carried by the smoke rising to the heavens, the offering praises immortality. The smell created by burning bones and fat symbolizes human mortality while the unblemished bones speak of the god’s immortality; thus, the fate of both is clearly distinguished. This appearance pleased the gods immensely, and to those humans who bow their heads and distinctly draw the line between gods and good, divine gifts shall be bestowed… thus will the heavens’ wrath diminish, and peace shall find its way into the nation.”

The monster’s fingers spread again.

Resulting in a gesture pointing at both.

“Despite being a ritual conducted on the same subject with nearly similar procedures, look at how vastly different the effects can be. One for livestock, the other for weather. This is both the mystery of magic and its allure.”

Moreover, it didn’t end there.

By merely twisting the symbols slightly, entirely different effects could be yielded.

It could be changed from an offering to Zeus to a dedication to Prometheus.

And, just like before, it too could ward off the ailments in livestock and promote their growth, or it could bring calamity upon the region encompassed by the ritual. It could bring about immense thunder when combined with various conditions, creating weather anomalies followed by fire. Or it could adjust the area affected by magic into an environment prone to fire.

As such, magic had truly profound aspects.

Knowing the right method allows anyone to carry it out, but the methods are so diverse….

How could one not love this?

How could one not love something so profound!

Thus, the monster, Jinseong loved magic, and his desire to understand magic was great.

And just as great was his effort to understand the cost of magic.

It was basic to research records on magic.

Observing those who used magic directly, deducing the cost, or even directly asking them could yield answers.

And for cases where detailed records were absent and practitioners were few, he sought to use them directly—repeatedly learning the costs himself.

Of course, that pursuit was truly arduous, and in the end, had left him a body resembling a corpse.

Yet, within the twisted time now, he was aware.

He was aware of the costs he had incurred from the magic he had used.

And he remembered the commonality among those costs.

He, was certain to remember.

“But you know…. This is quite a strange thing. It’s chaotic and difficult to sort out magic, yet within it, there are undoubtedly similarities… and among those similarities is the one I once handed to you….”

Fairy Mimicry Generation Ritual.

A ritual for creating a divine object, known as ‘Fairy Mimicry’, which mimics the fairy from records.

Being relatively accessible, many shamans are familiar with it enough that most know at least one or two of the related rituals.

However, just because it is accessible does not mean it is safe.

After all, poisonous mushrooms can often be seen around the world, yet they lead one to death upon consumption, right?

The Fairy Mimicry Generation Ritual was just like that.

Accessibility implied that many were practicing it.

Hence, depending on the mechanism of magic, if luck favored, one could perform it while paying a mere trifling cost, but if luck turned, one could pay an unimaginable cost.

Thus, the high-risk, high-cost, ‘inefficient’ Fairy Mimicry Generation Ritual should have faded into the annals of history, but….

Surprisingly, the Fairy Mimicry Generation Ritual remained popular even to this day. Many shamans learned at least one or two fairy-related rituals, and to even the perilous extent, there were ‘Fairy Shamans’ whose main focus was on fairy-related magic.

Why is that, you ask?

It was precisely because of the costs associated with fairy-related magic.

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