A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 3

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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 3

Crack—

The red sparks faded.

The crushing pain that had threatened to split his skull receded, leaving in its place a clarity so acute it bordered on the uncanny.
Aion’s eyes blinked open slowly.

The Hospital Room remained unchanged.

But overlaid upon it now were lines of blue light—as though something that should have remained invisible had suddenly become visible.

Aion raised his hand to touch the luminescence, but his fingers passed through empty air.

Substance-less. And yet unmistakably there.

Then the voices in his mind erupted all at once.

【Huh? What is this?】
【Why is my vision like this? What’s with these blue squares?】
【What scheme is that lightning-cursed fool cooking up now?】

It wasn’t only Aion. The voices could see it too.

“…Wasn’t this agreed upon?”

【No, I’ve never seen anything like this.】
【Explain yourself at once!】

At the height of the confusion, the blue lights suspended in the void suddenly aligned in perfect order.
Then a cold, sterile mechanical voice cut through his mind.

“Yggdrasil spirit stabilization complete.”
“Classifying fragmented consciousness.”
“New identification code assigned: Earth”
“New identification code assigned: Life”
……

Beep—

In an instant, name tags affixed with icons representing elemental properties appeared before each murmuring voice.

To Aion’s eyes, they appeared as text floating above system windows.

Ding!

【Flame: …What’s this now? My words are appearing right before my eyes.】
【Lightning: Bwahahaha! How fascinating!】
【Earth: You rotten bastard! Making decisions without consent!】

Logs streamed in rapid succession. Each voice that spoke received its label.
And so the chaos that had reigned in his mind was, quite literally, filed neatly away.

At last, the entity that had orchestrated this entire process revealed itself.

【Mado: Finally something approaching order.】
【Aqua: So it was your doing. Well…it doesn’t look half bad, I suppose?】

Aion gazed at the row of name tags lined up before him for a long moment, then opened his mouth.

“…Mado.”

【Mado: You’re calling me?】

“Explain what this is.”

A brief silence.

【Mado: I was planning to.】

Yggdrasil.

As the voice that bore the name Mado began its explanation, Aion leaned back against the bed and listened intently.

【Mado: I’ll be blunt. Yggdrasil is an autonomous, self-evolving mage cultivation institution that I designed.】
【Mado: It also analyzes the user’s current state in real time and independently calculates the optimal growth path to assign tasks.】
【Mado: It operates independently without external intervention, and even I, its designer, cannot interfere with its decisions.】

Aion gazed at the blue window before him. A device that grants tasks to users and cultivates their growth.

“…That’s a complex explanation. Was it made for me?”

【Mado: Yes. More precisely, to elevate you to the level I desire.】

The words were delivered flatly, yet carried weight beneath them.

“The level you desire…?”

【Mado: You don’t need to know that yet. What matters is how Yggdrasil functions.】

Aion listened in silence.

【Mado: Yggdrasil assigns tasks. Upon completion, rewards are given—and those rewards are distributed in the form of inheriting a portion of our power.】

“Inheriting your power?”

【Flame: What? Inheriting my power?】
【Aqua: I never agreed to this.】

Mado continued, ignoring their protests.

【Mado: Originally it was designed so that only my power would be inherited, but it seems others gathered in your vessel are included as well.】

“…So a task is a kind of mission?”

【Mado: Correct. Yggdrasil itself sets both the task’s difficulty and the reward’s scale based on the user’s state. No one can manipulate those values. Not even I.】

Aion slowly turned over Mado’s words in his mind, then pointed out the part that troubled him.

“But are you all really such exceptional beings?”

【Flame: What…?】

【Earth: Heh heh… a rotten bastard this one….】
【Aqua: You’re doubting us.】

It was exactly as he said.
Aion didn’t know much about these beings.

“That’s closer to bewilderment than suspicion. Just what level of mage are you?”

Mado paused briefly before answering.

【Mado: According to Yggdrasil’s records, we have each reached the Apex of Principle in all eight worlds simultaneously.】

“…The Apex of Principle?”

【Mado: The end—where a mage cannot advance further. The absolute limit of what a mage can achieve.】

The very terminus of a mage’s potential.

【Mado: We were all called Terminus.】

Aion’s pupils trembled.

“Terminus? You’ve reached such a state?”

【Mado: Believe it or not—that’s your choice. I think this explanation is sufficient.】

‘Hmm…’

Aion turned his gaze toward the window. Beyond the glass, the spires of Exion pierced the sky—a magnificent, sprawling city of magic.

And now, in this city, he had three days to prove his worth. Fail, and he faced exile.

His life in Exion balanced on a knife’s edge.

‘But if what they’re saying is true… if they really are as formidable as they claim…’

Many things might change from here on.

Then it happened.

Ding—

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[!] An Introductory Task has been assigned.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
『Introductory Task: How to Become a Mage』
― 『Task Overview: You have been registered as a user of Yggdrasil. Going forward, you must learn to use it. For this task only, a special introductory bonus reward has been set. After this, rewards will be calculated normally.』
― 『Objective: Successfully perform Release.』
― 『Assigned Reward: Vitality +1』
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Aion, still gazing out the window, let out a soft laugh.

“…So this is a task?”

【Mado: It is.】

“Release… I see.”

Aion’s eyes scanned the task window’s objective once more.

The discipline that any mage carries throughout their entire life—the first step toward becoming a mage, the foundation of all foundations.

The problem was that his body was in the worst possible condition.

【Life: Aion, perhaps you should take it easy for the rest of today…】

Aion didn’t let her finish. He was already on his feet, pressing weight against the hospital room floor.

“Ugh….”

His splinted arm throbbed with a dull ache.
Pain wracked his entire body—the inevitable aftermath of Byacon’s assault.

【Flame: Hah, if he’d listened to talk like that, he wouldn’t be here in the first place.】
【Earth: Always been that way. He’s the continent’s worst when it comes to running his body ragged.】

Aion made his way to the window, settled his back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

The method he’d learned first, executed exactly as taught.
Steady his breathing, turn his consciousness inward, then trace the current of energy flowing through his body.

…What he found was nothing more than the faintest of flows.

Regardless of how ravaged his body was, Aion’s Release had always been this way.

Just a handful of Mana—woefully insufficient to achieve Release.

But Aion did not despair.

Without teeth, one bites with the gums.
He accepted what he lacked and poured his all into producing the best result possible.

Time slipped past—how much, he couldn’t say.

“Hah… hah….”

Sweat poured from Aion’s forehead like rain, yet little seemed to have changed.

In fact, Yggdrasil itself didn’t appear to recognize this effort as a successful Release.

That was when it happened.

【Earth: Damn fool, you’ll never pull it off that way even after a hundred years!】

Without warning, Earth’s Terminus pointed out the flaw.

【Earth: Trying to achieve Release with some archaic method like that—you think your Mana will actually grow?】

The other Terminuses voiced their confusion.

【Flame: What are you saying? That Release is flawed?】
【Aqua: The method isn’t wrong. It’s simply Aion’s Mana that’s the issue.】

A firm rebuttal came back.

【Earth: You’re mistaken. This Release is a relic of an ancient era long since abandoned in my world.】
【Aqua: ……What?】
【Life: Is there… a better method for building Mana?】

A brief silence.

【Earth: Huh… Among you all, there’s no one who could match me in the quality and quantity of Mana!】

The room fell silent. The other Termini waited, doubt flickering across their faces, for Earth’s Terminus to continue.

Aion paused his Release, then spoke.

“…Go on.”

【Earth: That idiot, the first mage, compared Mana to water. So every mage understands Mana as water. Beyond that, they all think water holds the greatest abundance of Mana.】

“…That’s wrong?”

【Earth: Mana exists everywhere, but the most potent Mana dwells in the earth itself. If you accept the breath of the earth, you can leap to greater heights.】
【Flame: …Nonsense!】
【Earth: Shut your mouth! What do a bunch of senile old fools know… Listen well, boy. Do as this one teaches you, and in three days you won’t find yourself cast out of Exion.】

Aion gazed down at his own hands. Calluses thickened the palm that had gripped a sword.

They were the marks of steady practice since his uncle’s teaching—the scars of disciplined effort.

This was how Aion had always lived.
He never dismissed instruction lightly; he made it his own through bleeding dedication.

And he was ready to do the same now.

Aion turned to Earth’s Terminus.

“…What must I do?”

【Earth: Leave the Hospital Room. Your feet must touch the earth.】
【Life: What are you… Aion’s body right now….】

Aion began his discharge paperwork at once.

The healer on duty adjusted her spectacles as she spoke.

“Well… as long as he rests properly for a few days, there shouldn’t be any problems. Fortunately, there aren’t even any fractures, and somehow—despite being rammed by Byacon like that—there’s no serious injury beyond bruising… Still, he absolutely cannot exert himself these next few days.”

Fortunately, Aion’s discharge was approved.

【Flame: I don’t know who he takes after, acting so recklessly….】
【Life: ……Us, isn’t it.】
【Flame: …….】

After his discharge, Aion made straight for the park within the Academy Grounds.

In the early morning, before spring’s warmth had fully spread, small clusters of noble-born students were already gathered in the park.

Those indulging in leisure before classes. Aion walked among them.

His left arm was wrapped in bandages, bruises mottled across his body. His clothes were half-crumpled, and his hair still bore specks of dirt he hadn’t managed to wash out.

It was only natural that eyes turned toward him.

“Isn’t that the guy who got rammed by Byacon a few days ago?”
“Yeah. Still looks like that.”

A noble with a swaggering bearing let out a derisive snort.

“He’ll have his bags packed soon. Looks like that on day one, and he’s done for.”

A low chuckle rippled through the air—not even an attempt to hide it.

【Earth: Don’t mind them. Focus on what you need to do.】

‘…Now tell me the method.’

Speaking aloud here would get him expelled for mental instability rather than academic misconduct, so he posed the question silently instead—and fortunately, communication posed no problem.

【Earth: Impatient thing. You understand that fifty years separate your world from mine, yes? My world has naturally advanced magic that far. The Grounding I’m about to teach you is itself an evolved form of Release.】

‘…Grounding?’

【Earth: Release is the method of rolling a snowball. You roll the Mana within your body to make external Mana stick to it. Simple enough, but for someone like you, it carries a fatal weakness.】

Aion gazed down at his own hands without speaking.

‘…If the snowball is too small from the start.’

【Earth: Precisely. With Mana as meager as a tributary’s tributary—less than a pig’s weak stream—who knows how long it would take to reach orbit. Grounding is the method that overcomes that very flaw.】
【Flame: Stop toying with him and speak the method.】
【Earth: Plant your feet on the earth, and pour all the Mana within you downward, beneath your soles.】

Silence.

Aion’s brow furrowed. He’d sensed this would be a shocking approach, but not to this degree.

【Flame: That’s just Magical Power depletion!】
【Earth: I know. Grounding is the method of intentionally inducing that exhaustion.】
【Life: Why…?】
【Earth: What is emptied fills easily. Mana is no exception. The empty vessel receives the earth’s Mana of its own accord.】

Tingle—

From those words alone, something seemed to brush across Aion’s fingertips.

【Earth: In the first place, that we were swallowed by this thing was because it was hollow to begin with….】

‘…The method.’

【Earth: Hmm?】

After moving to a secluded corner of the Park, Aion spoke aloud.

“Tell me the method.”

【Earth: ……Very well. The method is simple. As I’ve said before, pour all your Mana downward beneath your feet. It will hurt at first—endure that pain. After that, you’ll come to understand naturally.】
【Flame: What kind of reckless nonsense is this!】

“……All right.”

【Life: ……There’s no stopping you, is there.】

Aion attempted Release once more.

Eyes closed, he gathered all the Mana within his body into a single point.

A handful of Mana, confronted anew.
Aion drew it slowly downward toward his abdomen.

And so he let the Mana flow downward naturally.

A modest amount of Mana dispersed through both feet into the earth.

Shhhhh….

Moments later, dizzying symptoms of Magical Power depletion washed over him.

Sway—

【Earth: Hold fast! You must plant both feet firmly upon the ground!】

Thump—!

Aion forced his feet down, adopting a wide stance.

His lower body stabilized, but he felt as though he might collapse at any moment.

“Grrrgh…!”

Veins stood out on his forehead, and his clenched teeth produced a grinding sound.

In seconds, he might lose consciousness.

Then, in that instant—

Through the two feet he had planted, the solid presence of a powerful force suddenly became tangible.

【Earth: Listen, boy! Think of yourself as part of the earth itself.
Make the earth mistake the truth—
convince it that you are part of it.】

Aion obeyed the instruction at once.
The act felt far from strange. His uncle had taught him similar principles before.

To hunt a beast, one must wear its scent; to hide one’s presence, one must blend with the surroundings—such had been the teaching.

Aion quickly ceased to think of himself as an individual.

【Earth: …I did not expect it to happen so swiftly.】
【Flame: It is because he has barely set down the sword.】

Shhhhhhh…

Through Aion’s soles, a solid and rough-textured force seeped inward.

Aion felt no emotion. He remained perfectly still, like stone, and merely observed his own body.

He watched as a vastly greater quantity of force than what he had poured out before took root throughout his entire frame.

Then, in that moment—

【Earth: Now! Seal it!】

Snap—!

The instant Aion opened his eyes, he ceased the Release state.

The Mana within his body, finding no path of escape, came to an abrupt halt.

At that precise moment, messages from Yggdrasil bloomed across Aion’s vision.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[!] Task completed.
[!] Reward granted: Vitality +1
[!] Stat increased.
[!] Magical Power increased by 2.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A successful Release in its evolved form—acknowledged by Yggdrasil itself.

【Earth: How does fifty years of future magical theory sit with you, you fool?】

Aion gazed down at his own hands.

“This is… Grounding.”

Three days until the remeasurement.
Everything that comes next rests now in Aion’s hands.

The Talentless Mage Swallows a Catastrophic Future — Episode 3

Author
Wang Motchi
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover
Dali

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0003

ⓒ2026, Wang Motchi

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part of this work may be reprocessed or reproduced in any form without the express 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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