A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11

The Third Training Ground, where the advanced Telekinesis lecture was to be held.

Classes that emphasized practical skills over theory often made use of training grounds as lecture halls, and this one was no exception.

The moment Aion opened the classroom door, he found himself face to face with a familiar—and unwelcome—figure.

Blonde hair and arrogant eyes. It was Kael.

‘…So he’s taking this class too.’

Kael’s face soured the instant he spotted Aion.

His gaze radiated open displeasure and competitive hostility.
A look that seemed to ask: why do you keep appearing before me?

Then Flame clicked his tongue.

【Flame: Tsk. Don’t mind him. We’ve no time to waste on some greenhorn.】

Aion quietly found an empty seat and sat down.

【Flame: What you need to overcome now isn’t that fool. It’s yourself. Keep your focus on your goal.】

‘…….’

Sound advice. A textbook aphorism, really.
But Aion couldn’t suppress a bitter smile.

‘Overcome what? I’m barely at the crawling stage.’

【Flame: …I won’t argue that. Right now, you’re pretty pathetic.】
【Magi: An undeniable truth.】

Setting aside the banter in his head, Aion turned his attention forward.
The professor who would be teaching the lecture stepped onto the platform.

“Welcome. I’m Rowell.”

A middle-aged professor with neatly combed hair and sharp features.
He didn’t bother glancing at the attendance roster and went straight into the substance of the lecture.

“The purpose of this course is not to introduce you to what Telekinesis is. You should all know that already, having enrolled at Excion.”

【Flame: Wrong. This one has no idea.】
【Lightning: Hehehehe! Totally blank slate, that one!】

The professor tapped the podium with his conductor’s baton—a sharp, deliberate sound.

“Here, you will learn to use Telekinesis in a more practical way, with greater finesse and control. Therefore, we will forgo tedious theoretical lectures and focus almost entirely on hands-on training.”
“Ooh…”

Relief washed across the students’ faces.
They’d been itching throughout their enrollment, drowning in dry theory lectures on Mana Fundamentals and history.

What use was being a Mage if you weren’t going to actually cast magic?

To draw one step closer to the grand dreams he’d harbored when first entering Excion.

“Very well then. Shall we begin?”

The professor gestured, and the assistants placed something on each student’s desk. They were large, pristine white Feathers.

“This is basic weight-sense training. Lift the Feather to eye level. But do so gently—don’t damage its structure.”

A simple task.
Most of the students gathered here were elites, after all.

“Hmph.”

Kael snorted and flicked his short Wand with ease. The Feather soared upward with elegant, living grace.

Whoosh—

“Excellent work, Kael. Your Mana flow is remarkably smooth.”
“Ooh… so it really is Kael.”
“I guess Youth Magic Tower graduates are a different breed.”

At the professor’s praise, Kael arrogantly shrugged his shoulders and cast a sidelong glance toward Aion. But Kael wasn’t the only one drawing attention.

“Xiao Lin… an unusual name. Your Telekinesis is impressive.”
“This much is nothing special.”

Her tone was blunt, clipped.
She was the black-haired girl seated in the front row—Xiao Lin, an exchange student from the Eastern Great Alliance.

Without even a Wand, she was rotating the Feather freely with just a single finger.

“There’s real mastery in that. Impressive for someone so young.”
“You’re too kind. For me, this is merely fundamental skill.”

While the other students were lifting their Feathers into the air, Aion alone was drenched in cold sweat, wrestling with his.

‘Damn it… why won’t it move?’

With his Mana already pitfully insufficient, the Feather kept slipping through his mental grasp.
It only trembled and showed no sign whatsoever of rising.

Of course, he could simply use Telekinesis instead of Celestial Kinesis.

But they weren’t the type to overlook that.
Those called Extremities.

【Flame: From now on, you will have no use for Telekinesis. You must become proficient in Celestial Kinesis.】

“Ughhh….”

Aion’s face flushed red. The professor noticed and approached.

“Ahem. Aion.”

Aion looked up.

“…I’m working on it.”
“That’s fine. Lighter objects do present their own particular difficulties. Don’t rush yourself. There are always some students who progress more slowly.”

The professor left those words—which sounded less like comfort than simple fact—and moved on.
Snickers and jeers rippled through the crowd.

Kael was huddled with his classmates, whispering and grinning.

“All right, that’s enough warming up.”

The instructor clapped his hands.

“Now we move to the next stage. This time, I’ll increase the weight.”

The teaching assistants collected the Feathers and distributed something heavier in their place—Iron Spheres roughly the size of an adult’s fist.

“Your next task is straightforward. Lift this sphere. But unlike before, you won’t be scattering your Mana—you’ll need to concentrate it.”

Murmurs erupted among the students.

“Wait… you want us to lift this Iron Sphere?”
“Of course. You’re all capable of it.”

The students’ expressions turned serious.
The weight was in an entirely different category from the Feather.
Groans of effort sounded from every corner.

“Hhgh…!”

For students with lower Mana Affinity, their spheres didn’t budge an inch.
Even Kael had to furrow his brow and grip his Wand tightly.

“Urgh… rise…!”

Hmmm—

Kael’s sphere trembled and rose about ten centimeters off the desk.
Xiao Lin, too, succeeded in levitating her sphere after squeezing her eyes shut in concentration.

“It’s heavy. But I can do this.”

The students who’d barely managed it wiped the sweat from their brows.

That was when it happened.

‘…Wait?’

Aion looked down at his sphere and felt an odd sense of discord.
When handling the Feather, his Mana had dispersed into thin air—untethered, uncontrollable.

But this Iron Sphere was different.
Heavy, solid, undeniably present.

‘I can grip it.’

It wasn’t about wrapping external Mana around it. Following the very principle of Celestial Kinesis, if he extended the Mana from within…

‘Now…!’

Aion reached toward the sphere. With Mana, he grasped it.

Crack—!

“…?”

A dry, sharp crack split the air of the lecture hall.

The Iron Sphere that should have risen didn’t budge.
Instead, a web of fine fractures suddenly spiderwebbed across its smooth surface.

“……!!!”

Aion jerked his hand back in shock.
The professor stepped over and looked down at the damage.

“Oh dear.”

He picked up the cracked Iron Sphere and turned it over, examining it from all angles.

“Looks like a defective one slipped through. My apologies, Aion. These training Spheres have seen better days.”
“Ah… yes.”
“I’ll get you a fresh one.”

The professor left the podium to retrieve a replacement.

【Flame: Pfahahaha! Nice try, though.】
【Lightning: Kehehehehehe!】

‘Damn.’

He’d felt it on the edge of something—but that sensation had already scattered and fled far away.

“Now then, everyone’s attention.”

The professor returned to the podium and surveyed the class.

“So, what did you all think? Was it only slightly heavier than the Feather?”

Complaints erupted from every corner of the room.

“Only slightly? That’s not fair!”
“It was way too heavy, Professor. The Feather was so much easier.”
“I’d say the Mana cost was ten times what it was before.”

The professor smiled and turned his gaze to Xiao Lin.

“What about you, Xiao Lin? How did you find it?”
“Heavy. Not easy.”

Professor Rowell’s expression flickered with deliberate curiosity.

“Is that so? That’s strange. By my calculations, the difficulty gap between lifting the two objects shouldn’t be nearly so large.”

Murmurs rippled through the students.

“……Pardon?”
“That doesn’t make sense. The weight difference is enormous….”

The professor’s expression suggested he’d anticipated exactly this reaction, and the corner of his mouth rose.

“That’s right—and that’s precisely what I want you to understand.”

Swish—

The professor pressed a switch on the wall, and the massive curtain that had been concealing one side of the lecture hall swept open.

“…!”

The students’ jaws went slack.
Beyond it stretched an open space so vast and endless it seemed to have no far wall at all.

An expanse so enormous it resembled a military training ground.

This was the moment the reason for the lecture hall’s abnormal size became apparent.

At regular intervals, Mage Targets in human form stood planted across the space.
The farthest target looked like nothing more than a dot, even when the students strained their eyes against the distance.

“Surely… that can’t be a target too?”

Someone murmured in disbelief.

“Impossible… how are we supposed to hit that?”

Ignoring the gasps of his students, the professor held up an Iron Sphere, letting it hover in his palm.

Whoom—

“The first technique you will learn this semester is the Deception of Weight.”

Authority entered the professor’s voice.

“Most students find light objects far easier to manipulate than heavy ones. Because they are, in fact, lighter. That is physical law.”

The Iron Sphere began to spin like a top in the professor’s palm.

“But conversely, the reason you are bound by that law is because you have not yet learned to think like a true Mage.”

One of the students tilted his head.

“…Think like a Mage?”
“A Mage imagines, and reality manifests.”

The professor’s eyes gleamed with sharp intensity.

“Imagining this heavy iron sphere to be as light as a Feather.”

Shrieeeek—!

“Mage Rowell will strike that target without fail.”

A piercing crack split the air.

And before the students could even blink—

…Boom—!

The head of the distant Mage Target, which had looked like nothing but a speck, exploded into fragments.

“…Impossible.”
“It… hit.”

Someone whispered in a dazed voice.

“Hey, is something like this really possible with Telekinesis?”

Rowell gestured toward the target, dust still swirling above it.

“I’d hope that by the end of this semester, at least one of you will imagine the way a Mage does.”

***

The Third Training Ground, after the lecture had ended.

“Any of you who feel you need more practice are welcome to stay. There are no other classes today, at least.”

Rowell left those words behind and departed at an unhurried pace. But save for Aion, no one remained to practice.

“Does that even make sense? Things get lighter if you imagine them that way?”
“It works because he’s a professor. We’re just too far behind.”

Then, an excited voice burst from Kael’s direction.

“Kael, that was incredible…!”
“Hmph, that’s nothing. Come on, let’s grab a late lunch.”
“Y-yes!”

Before slipping out, Kael glanced once at Aion, who stood alone in the lecture hall, staring intently at a Feather.

“Well, if you don’t have talent, you’d better work hard.”

The students filed out noisily in his wake.
Few among them harbored real enthusiasm, not when Telekinesis itself was considered beyond their reach.

The lecture hall stood empty.
Aion remained alone, his gaze shifting between the Feather and Iron Sphere on the desk.

“I thought I almost had it.”

That sensation from moments ago—as though the Iron Sphere had been in his grasp—had already slipped away.

Now he would have to build it all up from the beginning again.

Alone in the darkened lecture hall, Aion suddenly felt a creeping loneliness settle over everything.

“I suppose a sensation doesn’t carve itself into your body so easily.”

Aion muttered into the empty air.

“You must be frustrated too, watching me like this?”

Usually, the Flame Extremity would have scolded him not to lose heart over something so trivial. But it remained unusually silent.

“Hey… old man?”

【Flame: I was watching.】

Flame’s voice was lower than usual, more measured.

“…You’re not upset? By now you’d normally be mocking me for not being able to even do this.”

【Flame: You damnable fool, what do you take me for?】
【Earth: He’s seeing it straight enough, far as I can tell.】
【Flame: …Hmph.】

Flame’s response carried an unusual weight to it.

【Flame: When I look at you now, it brings back memories of my former self.】

Aion lifted his head.

“Your former self? You mean fifty years ago?”

【Flame: That’s where it started, yes. And I suffered from a sickness of the heart for a very long time — shackled by inferiority and defeat.】

“…….”

【Flame: Aion, everyone finds the beginning difficult. Perhaps I’ve forgotten because it’s been so long since I encountered someone else’s beginning. Yet the anguish and torment you’re experiencing now — they were once as familiar to me as breathing itself.】

Aion felt suddenly self-conscious and scratched at his head.

“…Hmm.”

【Flame: Try again. I’m watching you closely this time.】

“…All right.”

Aion set the Feather before him again and focused his mind.

The same teachings, every time.
The same content rising to mind each repetition.

By now, they felt like they ought to be etched into his bones.

Don’t pour Mana outward; keep it contained inside while you expand it.

Expand… expand.

Yet it was still remarkable, in its way.
That Aion — who’d never learned proper magic beyond the basics of Telekinesis, whose talent was nothing short of dismal — had managed to reach this point.

Even the paltry amount of Mana he wielded felt like charity when described as “expansion.”

‘Reaching out a hand… reaching….’

Suddenly, a doubt crept into Aion’s mind: was this thought truly correct?
He couldn’t say why.

He’d only ever heard that Celestial Kinesis worked through the sensation of extending a body part, and so he’d focused solely on that — but now a suspicion bloomed that perhaps it wasn’t that at all.

‘Maybe it’s not my hand… that sensation is….’

Earlier, when he’d cracked the Iron Sphere. Something akin to Celestial Kinesis had definitely awakened then.

Yet the sensation Aion had felt in that moment was far removed from the feeling of reaching out with his hand.

‘It was almost as if my will itself was expanding….’

And in that instant, he understood.
That he had to find his own path forward.

Perhaps — and this was a very big perhaps, but perhaps.

‘What if Grandfather and I had different conditions when we first awakened this magic?’

The two were Aion Iscar, male.
Identical.

The difference: one was old, the other young.

‘Damn it all—they’re nothing alike.’

Age wasn’t the real issue.
It was everything else—the magical knowledge and experience accumulated over those years, all the things he’d built and learned.

Which meant Aion might possess a sensation for invoking Celestial Kinesis entirely his own.

‘Spread Mana through my whole body.’

Consciousness Expansion.

With his scant Mana and clumsy affinity, he couldn’t even attempt the kind of imagination required to enlarge only certain parts of himself.

What Aion couldn’t envision in his mind, he couldn’t manifest.

Yet for the Extremity of Flame, it would have been simple. That was the difference.

He changed his approach.
Toward something easier to imagine.

‘Expansion… if it’s expansion….’

Growing larger would work too.

His weight swelling tremendously, or his height shooting up suddenly.

Since he’d never experienced either, imagining them was difficult.

But there was one time he’d felt something similar.

When Aion was very young, around ten years old, he’d grown at an enormous rate—his body changing noticeably day to day.

In just that one year, his physical form had transformed as though he’d gone from boy to young man overnight.

‘The sensation of becoming… a child transforming into an adult….’

Natural. Accepted without fanfare.

So Aion’s consciousness expanded again and again.

…At last.

The small boy’s consciousness had grown large enough to touch the Feather.

‘Lift… it up.’

The table was a bit high for a child.
But for a young man, it was the right height.

Whoosh.

When Aion opened his eyes, he saw the Feather floating at his eye level.

Even with his eyes open, it didn’t fall.

Crack—!

It shattered and scattered.

【Flame: …You, how did you manage that?】

It was but an instant, yet Aion felt it clearly. This ancient, forgotten magic had unfolded in his hands.

Aion laughed quietly, a rare sound.

“…Now I understand.”

Ding—!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[!] Quest completed.
[!] Rewards granted: Celestial Kinesis Lv.2▲, Mana Manipulation Lv.2▲
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

The Talentless Mage Devours a Calamitous Future — Episode 11

Author
Wangmozzi
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover Art
Dalli

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0011

ⓒ2026, Wangmozzi

※ This e-book is a work protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of the contents of this work may be reworked in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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