A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 56

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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 56

A Mana Storm was coming.
This would likely be Aion’s last outing before the Mana Storm arrived.

“Sigh…”

Aion lay submerged in the warm waters of the Ley Line Hot Spring, quietly savoring the pure flow of Mana that enveloped his entire body.

His mind was tangled with many thoughts: the strange artifacts he’d just seen at the Erebos Repository, Aria’s absence, Sien’s commission, and more.

Above all, he felt a certain responsibility regarding matters connected to Aria.
He had been the one to draw her into the extraordinary; if she’d fallen into trouble because of it, his conscience would naturally weigh on him.

Aion swept his wet hair back, arranging his tangled thoughts in silence.

‘But in the end, whether it’s the matter of Aria or the task Sien gave me to follow Dante’s trail…’

There was no immediate clear solution to any of it. A more pressing problem was bearing down upon him.

“Everything will have to wait until this Mana Storm passes.”

Why did problems only ever pile up without ever being resolved?

【Hwayeom: Set your mind at ease. Regrets in youth are usually born when the heart races ahead of reason.】
【Daeji: Now that sounds like hard-won experience talking.】
【Hwayeom: You old crone… have you been watching?】
【Daeji: I don’t need to watch to see it clear as day.】

Submerged in the hot spring as he was, even the chattering voices of the Extreme Points sounded like a lullaby.

“By the way, how long will the Mana Storm last?”

【Daeji: Four days.】
【Hwayeom: Yes, four days should be about right.】
【Saengmyeong: The Mana Storm that Aion will face will subside at the moment the sun rises on the fifth day.】

It rarely registered in his daily awareness, but moments like these—receiving information about the future uncoupled from catastrophe—made him acutely aware of just how immense the benefits were of walking alongside the Extreme Points.

“Just asking out of caution, but does anything special happen during the Mana Storm? Or does some grave threat descend upon Excion…?”

Silence.

The Extreme Points did not answer his question readily; they all fell quiet at once.

As the awkward silence stretched, Daeji could bear it no longer and spoke first.

【Daeji: Has everyone become silent as stones? Why are you all so hesitant?】

Then Saengmyeong ventured forth carefully with an explanation.

【Saengmyeong: It’s just… well… since no omen has manifested yet, do we really need to bring it up?】
【Suryu: Hmm… if we speak it aloud and the thing actually comes to pass, what then?】
【Noejeon: Hehehehe! Say it, and it shall be!】

Listening to their exchange, Aion recalled the rules of omen, manifestation, and actualization that Mado had laid down.

A strict code of silence meant to avoid hastening calamities beyond his power to bear.

Suryu continued in a measured, weighty tone.

【Suryu: Aion, I think everyone understands now. If we all act selfishly to correct our own regrets, it could end up hurting you instead.】
【Saengmyeong: And if you were to be injured or killed because of this… well, that would become our greatest regret of all.】

At those words, Hwayeom—the one responsible for the dormitory fire—flinched and cleared his throat awkwardly.

【Hwayeom: Hmm, ahem… Don’t look at me like that. Fine, I’m sorry, so let’s drop it. Every time this comes up, I feel like I’m getting battered all over again.】

Aion closed his eyes slowly.
Sometimes they seemed to him like seekers who had transcended the affairs of the world.

It was a tremendous human desire to correct past, aching regrets, and yet here they were, putting his safety first.

“You’re all remarkably composed for people facing such a temptation—the chance to set right regrets that lie before your eyes.”

At his matter-of-fact observation, laughter suddenly burst forth in their minds.

【Hwayeom: Ha-ha-ha-ha!】
【Noejeon: Hee-hee-hee-hee! Composed, he says!】

“…Why are you laughing?”

As Aion asked in confusion, Suryu answered gently on behalf of Daeji and Mado.

【Suryu: Regret, you see, is inevitable.】
【Daeji: That’s right. No matter how much we struggle, we can never escape regret.】
【Suryu: Aion. You’re doing well. Better than anyone here, in fact. To be honest, none of us ever knew such brilliance during our time at Excion.】
【Hwayeom: But… that’s all there is. Humans are not perfect.】

The voices of the Extreme Points settled gently upon the water’s surface.

【Suryu: Someday you may have to accept that you alone cannot prevent all misfortune by your own strength.】

“…Is that so.”

A trial not yet come.
But one that would come someday.

Aion rose from the hot spring, turning those words over in his mind.

Splash—

As he emerged from the waters of the Ley Line Hot Spring, the cool forest air cooled his flushed skin. Simultaneously, a familiar blue light flickered across his retinas.

Ding—!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[!] Absorbing Wild Ley Line energy.
[!] MANA increased by 1.
[!] VIT increased by 1.
[!] Fire Elemental Affinity increased very slightly.
[!] Water Elemental Affinity increased very slightly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Aion quickly confirmed the familiar stat increase messages, shook the water from his body, and immediately returned to his training.

After drawing on the Ley Line, his mind felt sharper—as though he’d just awakened from deep sleep—and his training seemed twice as effective.

All the diligent cultivation of Suryu’s Ultimate Version technique, the training related to Drop.

Swish—

As Aion extended his hand, moisture from the air was sucked toward his palm at a frenzied speed.

The compression rate was incomparably faster than before.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the moisture clumped into a perfect sphere, shrinking to the size of a thumbnail with compression levels that had increased dramatically.

During his repeated training sessions, Aion had discovered something new.

Once the compression process was executed flawlessly, the stability of the water droplet created with Drop became almost unnaturally high.

Click.

Roll—

The droplet rolled smoothly across his palm like a solid glass marble, and even when tossed lightly into the air, it neither shattered nor scattered.

He even tried stepping on it.
It didn’t break.

【Suryu: Once the droplet enters a compressed stable state, it won’t shatter easily even under tremendous impact. To put it somewhat exaggeratedly, the Drop I cast won’t explode even if buried under a building—not unless I will it to.】

Hard to believe.

【Suryu: It hardly freezes, and it won’t evaporate from heat either. That’s one of Drop’s essential properties. For someone else to destroy its structure, they’d need to expend as much Mana as was used in the compression itself.】

“…Really?”

【Suryu: Try cutting off the Mana supply.】

Curiosity piqued, Aion completely severed the Mana flowing to the droplet that was maintaining its form.

Swish—

‘…It’s true. It doesn’t scatter.’

Even with the Mana supply completely cut off, the water droplet created with Drop still maintained its spherical form.

“How long can it stay like this?”

【Suryu: Even at your meager level of mastery, it can hold its form for at least a week.】

“…That’s interesting.”

True, he’d merely discovered an unusual property—it wasn’t as though he’d immediately created a new spell or devised concrete practical applications.

But.

Whoosh!

Aion threw one of the Water Bullets he’d prepared high up into the sky above the distant forest.

And when the droplet reached the apex of its parabolic arc, he briefly reconnected his Mana to the Drop that had flown away.

Boom!

Like fireworks bursting at a festival, the water droplets that had been condensing in the air exploded, scattering spray in all directions.

Whoooosh…

Aion stood for a moment, dazed by the miraculous sight.

It wasn’t a destructive explosion in the strictest sense.

Yet the water stream, compressed to its extreme, burst outward in all directions and fell over the parched forest like a refreshing rain—it was quite a spectacle.

Aion muttered to himself as the cold water droplets struck his face.

“Let’s head back to the lodge.”

***

Aion was leaning against the worn window frame on the second floor of the Mountain Lodge, gazing outside.

Whoooosh—

Swishhhhh…

A fierce wind was shaking the trees of Mistbeil Forest roughly.

“…….”

His gaze naturally drifted toward the second-floor window of the opposite lodge. Layla was there.
She too was resting her chin on the windowsill, looking in his direction.

Haaah—

Layla breathed onto the window. As the glass grew hazy, she extended her slender finger and began to write.

Scratch-scratch—

[ H e l l o ]

Aion read the letters and let out a small, dry chuckle. He too breathed onto his window and wrote letters in reply.

[ Y e s ]

Then Layla wiped the window clean with her sleeve, breathed on it again, and wrote new letters.

[ R a i n i n g ]
[ I k n o w ]

A strange, silent conversation separated by the glass.

【Hwayeom: …What are you two doing?】
【Daeji: Skipping their studies to get all cozy like this. Unbelievable.】

From a logical standpoint, it was a senseless prank.
The distance between the two lodges was considerable, and the deteriorating weather had reduced visibility. There was no way faint letters written with breath could be seen.

Aion could be excused—he possessed a hunter’s vision honed through tracking beast fur in the harsh wastelands of the north.

‘But how is she seeing it?’

Layla was reading every letter Aion wrote from this distance with perfect clarity. Beyond that brutal strength, she possessed eyesight that surpassed even a hawk’s.

He couldn’t begin to fathom what kind of environment could produce such monstrous physical prowess.

Well, anyway.

Crack-crack-crack—!

Thunder split the sky, and the world around him plunged into sudden darkness.

Patter, patter.

Fat droplets drummed against the windowpane.

Whoooosh—!

At last, as if the heavens themselves had torn open, torrential rain began to pour down in earnest.
Thick sheets of water cascaded down the roof that Aion and Layla had spent days patching and reinforcing.

Fortunately, the high winds had not yet ripped the roof clean away.

“At last.”

Aion murmured softly, gazing at the raindrops beading on the glass. The Mana Storm had begun.

***

For four days while the storm raged, Aion was confined to the Mountain Lodge, unable to venture beyond its walls.

The lodge, reinforced with the help of Luana and Layla, groaned under the fierce winds and downpour but held firm.

During that isolation, Aion accomplished a great deal.

He trained in Grounding and the Sky Movement Technique alone, and researched new applications of Drop based on its stability.

Whenever he had time, he combed through the old Magic Circle Treatises that Professor Helsen had given him, filling gaps in his theoretical knowledge, and gradually sorted through the tangle of thoughts that had clouded his mind.

A time devoted entirely to building his strength and tempering his spirit. It had been four days well spent.

And on the afternoon of the fourth day, when the Mana Storm reached its peak.

“…….”

Aion still stood at the window on the second floor of the Mountain Lodge, gazing out toward the distant form of Excion.

In the pitch-black tempest that raged even in broad daylight.

Only the central district of Excion, where the Dormitory and Main Building stood clustered together, blazed with brilliant light powered by Mana—a sight as magnificent as a colossal lighthouse.

A cradle of magic that gleamed with arrogant defiance against the ravages of the Mana Storm.

The light burned steadfast despite the violent rain and wind.

And yet.

Flicker…

Dim—

“……What?”

Aion’s brows drew together.
The lights scattered throughout central Excion suddenly began to flicker in unison, as if gasping for breath.

And then.

Flicker—

Crackle……

Pop.

In a heartbeat, every light illuminating Excion went dark as if it had never been.

The massive, radiant academy city sank entirely into the embrace of darkness and storm.

‘What in the….’

Aion’s heart lurched with foreboding.

All of Excion’s facilities operate on mana-powered devices. A colossal Mana Core buried deep underground continuously supplies mana to the entire facility.

Of course, emergency power systems should have been in place at critical installations, prepared for disasters like the Mana Storm.

But that all of Excion’s mana supply had severed completely right now meant only one thing.

‘Something’s gone wrong with the Mana Maintenance System….’

Aion instinctively raised his right hand and clenched and unclenched his fist again and again.

“No mana….”

He felt nothing. Not a trace of mana, neither within his body nor without.

A perfect mana vacuum.

Four days into the Mana Storm’s peak intensity. The heart of Excion had stopped beating.

The Extreme Points, who had been chattering playfully moments before, fell silent.

【Daeji: …It’s an omen.】
【Suryu: It’s an omen.】
【Saengmyeong: It’s an omen.】

Something terrible was about to unfold.

The Talentless Mage Swallows a Calamitous Future – Chapter 56

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

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0056

ⓒ2026. Wang Motchi

※ This e-book is a copyrighted work protected under the Copyright Law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or whole of this work may be reprocessed or reproduced 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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