I Studied Mainly Textbooks! Chapter 33

A period of time had passed since Abel began researching ego magic.

Satisfied at the extent of his preparations, Abel manipulated his mana and pulled out every last drop from the depths of his heart.

"…Ego creation!"
He casted the ego bestowal magic.

Swoosh.
Streams of white mana moved in accordance with his calculations, melding into his Casio. 

Currently, the buttons on the calculator had been changed to Nuferian peridots. Although permanent self-preservation magic was already inscribed, there should be ample space remaining to cast ego creation on it.

Eventually, all of the white mana was absorbed. Abel waited with bated breath for changes.

……

………….

……………….??

'What's this? Why is there no reaction at all?'

There was no change even after a couple minutes had flown by.

Smack smack!
Abel lightly hit the back of the Casio a few times. This had been universally recognised as the best method to fix a broken machine on earth! Then…

Fwoosh.
The white mana that was absorbed inside all scattered, before dissipating into the air.

"What the, my calculations were all perfect though!"
He was flabbergasted.

Tap tap tap tap.
He recalculated his magic time and time again with the calculator.
He checked every single detail multiple times, but the result was the same.

Having no choice, Abel took out the scriptures on artifacts again and scrutinised it once again, just in case he missed anything.

Indeed, that had been the issue.

'These damn insurance companies!'
There was a very small warning written in tiny letters, just like the disclaimers that subjected advertisements  to terms and conditions.

<-Note! Ego artifact requires 'peptranium', which is known to accidentally encage souls.>

There it was, just like a very important clause of an insurance contract it was located at the very end. And the font was like… font size 3, on a laptop screen.

"Are they friggin' crazy? This should have been written at the very front!"

Well, perhaps the author only remembered it after writing the entire book, and just stuffed it in at the very end.

Abel then took out a communication orb from his pouch. When there was something he didn't know about, he automatically looked to Kyle for solutions.

Thankfully, he seemed to be present in his office, as he picked up the call.

[Hur, hur. The time is still early. What is it?]

"Grandpa! What the hell is peptranium?"
He immediately talked about it.

[Peptranium? It's a very rare magic ingredient. Do you need it?]

"Yes! Right now!"

[It's hard to acquire immediately. It's a very rare material, so it's likely there isn't any in the entirety of the Hela Empire. Nearly all of it was used up when we sealed the demon Velioc within the Cereborn Mountains. The other kingdoms should have some in their possession… so if you wait a few months, I can probably get you some.]

Although he could wait… it was good to be quick, right?

"Uhm… do you think Marquis Berner has any? He's from a magic research family."

[Hm, I recall that the Royal Mage Order definitely has a piece, but I don't think I can simply get them to hand it over. Marquis Berner might be a different case. I shall ask on your behalf then.]

"No! I'll do the asking. There's something I need to ask regarding the journals as well…."

No wonder everything hadn't gone smoothly. This was practically creating life, it definitely wasn't that easy after all.

There weren't many people that were aware of the circumstances behind 'Goel's accident' that occurred 2 years ago. Sibelius was one of them, though he had asked Abel, one of the victims, Abel only told him that he was suddenly attacked without rhyme or reason.. He also asked Goel, the person in question, but was informed that it was caused by a simple mana overload.

As Goel served Sibel from young, Marquis Berner paid for all of Goel's medical fees, and also helped him transfer into the administration department at the academy. However, that was all he could do.

Sibel had now spent a lot of time with Abel at MEAT. He was now much closer to Abel, and Goel was gradually relegated to the sidelines.

"Fufu, Abel, you're so dead now."
Goel chuckled like a psychopath while talking to himself. It was a very ominous laugh.

His rage that was once directed towards Cain, was now arrowed toward Abel.

At first, he hated Cain, who was the one that cursed him. He was fooled by Cain and almost  became a cripple after all.

Goel was able to find out, without much difficulty, that the magic he was inflicted with was not an ordinary one. He had personally experienced its effects and was able to deduce through his symptoms, that it had been none other than black magic!

When he discovered it, he thought about informing Sibel. However, Cain had suddenly lost consciousness and had yet to recover from his coma. Goel was frightened that the person who taught Cain black magic was the perpetrator, and that he would be the next target.

Moreover, Duke Junerheart's family was enraged about this as well. The moment he flapped his lips about Cain and the black magic, he would get an express ticket straight to the Junerheart family residence.

'If only that bastard Abel didn't exist!'

There was nowhere else to direct the negative emotions, and it was thus pointed towards Abel again. In the first place, none of this would have happened if Abel did not exist.

He did not, for one second, consider the fact that he had been the one who tried to harm Abel.

After one year of rehabilitation, Goel was now able to walk. However, he could neither run, nor lift heavy objects.

He dragged himself to many places on his half-crippled legs, looking for a secret method to send Abel to hell. Then, he finally found one during his winter holiday.

'You're so dead. The very best you'll get is an execution.'

He had succeeded in meeting the black magic organization through the occult religion placed in the Kornos Empire.

The black magic organization, named Plague, also had taken a liking to Goel. Despite his physical body being broken, his deep seeded hatred was very much to their liking.

Although he could no longer use magic due to the Berserker curse shattering all of his mana circles, he could simply start from scratch with black mana! The organisation estimated that his growth would be expedited as he had foundations in normal magic. He had readily agreed to the silencing curse as well.

Goel thought – Abel's magic abilities weren't something he could do anything about. This was why his train of thoughts led him here – to frame him! He would set a trap for him.

'Yes. Humans need to use their brains.'

Screw Abel over strategically! He would leave traces of black magic at the academy, and disguise it as Abel's doing. Once the principal, Gauss, found out, he would be killed on the spot. As Gauss had once received critical damage from the black mages in the Rose War, Goel was sure that Gauss would not hesitate to kill a student if black magic was involved.

This was Goel's operation "booby trap".

Inside the Marquis' office in Beheran. This was the weekend, and Abel had come to Marquis Berner for a conversation.

"Peptranium?"
Marquis Berner asked back. He seemed very surprised.

"Yes. I was wondering if you had any in your possession. I'm in urgent need of it."

"Hm…."
Berner leaned back on his sofa and fell into contemplation.

'I do have two pieces….'
Officially, the Berner Marquis Family was not in possession of any peptranium. Everything was supposed to have been handed to the Empire for sealing Velioc. However, the Berner family was a magic research family, and they had secretly kept two pieces for themselves.

"If that's the case, I'll give you a suggestion."

"What is it?"
Honestly, he hadn't planned on taking it for free. It wasn't like Berner would give up something so precious for free either.

"Recently, our family is writing a magic textbook that will be used in the academy in the future. I want you to participate as a co-author in the spellcrafting department. Since it's a basic textbook intended to be used by the lower grades, I believe that you are more than capable of it with your abilities. From what I've heard from Sibel, your teaching abilities during club are extraordinary.

'A textbook, huh……'

It seemed alright. It was for his juniors at school, after all. This seemed much better than transferring some of his shares from his papers in the journal. What's more, the textbooks used at the academy right now… were quite literally poop tier, worse than the beginner equipment a player was provided in games.

"Well, that's not too difficult."

Although people who get full marks in tests always say that they studied mainly textbooks, they actually do anything and everything else as well. They attended extrcurricular lectures after school, and got all sorts of past papers to practise. If that was the case, why not make a textbook that was designed like a reference book in the first place?

However, there was a problem with that as well. Textbooks were intended to be generalized for a wide range of students with differing grades, and stuff that was outside the syllabus, for example, L'Hopital's Theorem, could not be included in it.

(T/N: L'Hopital's Theorem is a commonly used shortcut to answers in Korea, in regards to questions on limits. However, as the proof is so difficult, it's not allowed to be in a regular school textbook. Only cram schools teach their students this. I remember using it, lol.)

However, this was the Kornos continent, not Korea!

'Let's go with cramming.'

First, memorize the formula by heart, and then try to understand it. He would make them use the formula by instinct. Tentatively titled 'Magic 101 Foundation Edition'.

Although some people may choose to give up on magic if this was the case, this kind of education method was still better by a margin compared to the current system.

"Also, if it's possible, why don't you write papers more frequently?"
Berner gave another suggestion.

Right now, Abel was submitting a paper every 6 months. As his papers garnered sizable interest , Berner was a little greedy for more.

"That'll be a little difficult, but I'll try raising a level."

The papers that Abel had published until now were mostly about the foundational theorems of algebra, as well as the concept of formulae. He had a bigger picture in mind when he published them.

This was why, although his papers caused a sensation whenever they were published, there weren't any concepts that could be directly applied into magic casting. Resultantly, the magic industry showed little interest as of yet. In fact, the papers received more interest from the financial field where they dealt with numbers a whole lot more.

'This is a little early, but should I do the one on runes?'

How to cast the 28 foundation runes in a shorter time! If he released this information for public perusal, the entire magic industry would be flipped over.

The reason Abel was planning to do so also had something to do with the black mages. It would be wise to raise the general level of mages before they decided to come out into the open.

Of course, if he did publish them, the black mages would profit off it as well, but for one, there were many more ordinary mages. It would benefit his sidemore  if he published them early.

"Hahaha, alright! I need to get it from the vault, so please wait here for a while. Oh! And you must keep it a secret that you received this piece from me. Officially, our family was never in possession of any peptranium."

Berner gave Abel a reminder as he stood up from the lounge chair. Although 60 years had elapsed, his family had indeed ignored an order from the Empire. Well, not like there would be dire consequences for him even if it was found out now, but it was better to avoid any and all potential trouble.

Lalala~
Having entered the 'secret chamber', Abel hummed as though something good was about to happen.
He had gotten his hands on a piece of peptranium without much effort on his part. And with this, it was time to bid goodbye to menial labor. Voice recognition would be the most basic function!

Abel took out the piece of Peptranium from his magic pouch.

Sparkle sparkle-
It looked like ordinary silver at a glance.

He placed the piece of peptranium and his Casio 5cm apart from each other.

Unlike peridots, there was no need to have peptranium worked into a physical portion of an artifact. It was written that the peptranium would be absorbed into the artifact like mana. From his estimations, he guessed that the ego was bestowed on the peptranium and it was required for the artifact to learn and possess unique characteristics.

"…Ego creation!"

All of the white magic mana was drained from Abel's heart once more. Until this step, it didn't look that different from what he tried last time.

(T/N: I'm pretty sure this was how it ended in the last chapter…)

Chapter end