A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 66

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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 66

The storm had passed, but Excion remained submerged in its aftermath.

Water dripped from the fractured edges of collapsed roofing, and rainwater clung to every leaf of the half-snapped avenue trees.

Whirrrrr—

Temporary cordons and restoration magic circles were scattered across the grounds, casting faint luminescence, while guardian knights in heavy armor moved through the otherwise student-filled corridors, their metal clanging with every step.

“Is it here?”

【Daeji: Oh! This way!】

Far removed from all that commotion.

At the eastern edge of the Excion grounds lay a lake that few students ever ventured near.

Astra Lake.

It was neither a venue for classes nor a maintained walking path.
As was typical of neglected places, the path down to the water’s edge lay half-buried beneath low grass and damp earth.

“Sigh… this should be the right spot?”

Aion stood before that lake now.

Yet in the center of the lake, a massive black rock rose from the water, proclaiming that this was no ordinary body of water.

The black shadow that extended down through the murky water sank deep—so deep its bottom was nowhere to be seen.

[!] Rewards granted: All stats +5, Daeji’s Ultimate Form: Dust inherited, all Traits and magic proficiency increased.
[!] Grounding Lv.2 → Lv.3▲
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Aion stood motionless, studying its contents for a long moment.

All the magic that had shaken his fate so many times until now were gathered under a single name: Ultimate Form.

This time, it was Dust.

Aion checked another window immediately after.

◆◆◆━━━━━━━━━━◆◆◆
『Daeji: Dust』
Classification: Ultimate Form
Effect: A portion of the earth is brought under the user’s domain. The earth that is bound to the user hovers near the user’s body, changing form and moving in response to the user’s will. Additionally, it autonomously responds to any physical impact or Mana Power reaction capable of causing harm to the user.
◆◆◆━━━━━━━━━━◆◆◆

“…Something feels unfamiliar about this.”

The description alone didn’t give him a clear picture.

Was it a defensive spell? Or something from the binding arts? Or perhaps a method of commanding a portion of the earth itself?

Before Aion could organize his thoughts, a hearty laugh erupted inside his mind.

【Daeji: Hahaha! Why do you stand there so vacantly? That’s right, here. There’s no better place to awaken this great earth’s Ultimate Form.】
【Hwayeom: Quiet. Have you been boiling giants? All the lake fish will flee at this racket.】
【Daeji: Let them flee. Those creatures dwelling in the water could never comprehend the dignity of the earth.】
【Suryu: …Did you just say creatures dwelling in the water?】

As always, the voices of the Extreme Points clamored noisily in his mind.

The usual commotion.
Yet only Daeji, the earth’s Extreme Point, seemed far more excited than ordinary.

【Daeji: I’ll admit, that Yggdrasil that Mado created isn’t entirely useless after all. It’s thanks to you reaching Tier 2. You’ve chosen a sufficiently appropriate magic.】

“Appropriate?”

【Daeji: Dust is Tier 2 magic. To be precise, Tier 1 mages aren’t even true mages yet, so it’s magic that can only be used after one has properly undergone initiation.】
【Hwayeom: In other words, it’s a needlessly complicated spell that just drains your Mana—we’re just dressing it up nicely.】
【Daeji: Silence, you spark. Close your mouth.】
【Hwayeom: Heh, I’d rather not.】

Aion let out a short breath.

“So what am I supposed to do with this?”

At that question, Daeji’s voice dropped.

The banter from moments before vanished, replaced by a weighty resonance that settled in its place.

【Daeji: Go to that rock.】

Whoosh—

Aion lifted his gaze.

The Black Rock in the center of the lake.

The massive stone rising above the water grew stranger the more carefully he observed it.

Its surface was not smooth.
Ancient fissures were etched upon it in layers, and damp moss and black mineral deposits were lodged in every crevice.

The storm had passed, leaving the rock’s surface slick with moisture, yet strangely—rather than cold, wet stone—it resembled something alive, something that had been breathing for countless years.

“What is that?”

【Daeji: A wedge driven into this earth long before Excion was founded. There’s a hypothesis that it’s a meteorite, but nothing’s been confirmed.】

“A wedge? …A meteorite?”

【Daeji: Whether it fell from the sky or rose from beneath the ground—at this point, no one knows. But one thing’s certain: it’s the right instrument for performing the Dust ritual.】

Aion moved to the lake’s edge.

It seemed impossible to walk out to the rock in the center.
The lake was deep, its surface still, yet that stillness felt ominous. The bottom was invisible.

“There’s something eerie about this place.”

【Daeji: That’s why people avoid it, despite the quiet. It might be the aura emanating from that rock.】

Without further question, Aion stripped off his clothes and cast them aside.

Whoosh—

【Hwayeom: My, my, shedding those layers with such enthusiasm.】
【Noejeon: Hehehehehehe! An exhibitionist! A total exhibitionist!!】

Soon only his trousers remained.

“Then….”

Splash—!

Whoooosh!

Aion cut through the water, swimming with practiced strokes.
His considerable skill brought him within reach of the black rock in mere moments.

At last, standing atop the stone shelf as he reached the Black Rock, Aion felt its true scale anew.

“Definitely… something….”

Its size was one thing, but the aura radiating from this stone stirred an uncanny discomfort.

【Daeji: Place your hand on it. Whatever this thing is, we have work to do.】

Aion raised his right hand in silence.

His palm pressed against the cold surface.

Click—

In that moment, a heavy sensation rushed from his palm. Cold, solid, and profound.

【Daeji: Use Grounding.】

Aion closed his eyes.

【Daeji: Your Grounding has grown considerably since the beginning, hasn’t it? Then you’ll hear it—so listen.】

‘…Hear it?’

The wind across the lake stilled.

【Daeji: This rock has breathed longer than you have. Listen to that breath first.】

At first, he heard nothing.

The cold touch of wet stone.
The faint sound of the lake’s ripples striking the rock’s surface.

And his own breathing.
That was all.

But Aion did not grow impatient.

Grounding was a magic of surrender—pressing oneself against the earth while touching it. He let his consciousness sink beyond the cold surface beneath his palms.

One layer.
Then another.

Beneath the rock’s surface lay fractures. And beneath the fractures lay water.

Below the water lay soil and minerals, ancient roots and the echoes of stone layers.

And deeper than all of it.

Thump.

Something sang out.
Like a heartbeat.

Aion’s brow twitched slightly.

‘I hear it.’

【Daeji: Yes.】

Daeji’s Ultimate Form spoke in a low tone.

【Daeji: So you’ve finally learned to listen.】

Whoooosh—

Then Aion’s consciousness was drawn downward.

Not fast, but irresistible. As though someone had seized his consciousness in their fist and pulled it down.

His consciousness sank into the rock. It passed beneath the cold water’s surface and descended to depths far below the lakebed.

‘What is this…’

Soon his vision darkened.

Yet much could still be felt.

Thin, long threads of Mana flowed slowly between the stone layers.

Some shone gold, some blue, and some a deep crimson like ancient blood.

Daeji was not sleeping.
He was simply breathing too slowly.

‘…Remarkable.’

Aion swallowed hard.

The vast Underground Realm sprawled before his consciousness.

Bedrock and strata, groundwater and mineral veins.
And a world where shattered roots and unborn Mana intermingled.

Something was stirring within it.

‘What is that?’

It was small.

Certainly, that’s how it felt at first.

But as Aion drew closer, an ineffable pressure washed over him.

An egg?

Or a cocoon?

A round shell formed by thousands of layers of sand and minerals locked together pulsed quietly in the deepest darkness of the Underground Realm.

【Daeji: Found it. Just as I thought. It was hidden here all along.】

Aion didn’t answer.
He reached out within his consciousness.

And the moment his fingertips brushed the cocoon—

…Crack!

A ridiculously soft sound emerged.

Yet in that instant, the entire Underground Realm seemed to open its eyes and watch him.

…Crunch.

The sound of reality reached his ears a moment too late.

“……!”

Aion’s eyes snapped open.

Whoosh—

The first thing he saw was his own palm.
It still rested against the Black Rock’s surface, but the stone that moments before had been only cold and unyielding was no longer the same.

Crack.

Fissures spread outward from where his palm touched.

Crack-crack—!

Cracks webbed across the Black Rock’s surface in an instant, spreading like a spider’s web.

【Hwayeom: Oh!!】
【Suryu: Something’s coming out?】
【Daeji: Open your eyes wide and look well. From this moment, you’ll witness the result of true magic—something far beyond the pathetic spells you lot dabble in!】

Daeji’s voice carried an unmistakable pride.

Aion, sensing the ominous power, took a step back.

Crunch-crunch-crunch-crunch…

The Black Rock was splitting open.

The massive stone at the center of the lake rumbled low, as though expelling something it had held within for ages.

Fsssh…

【Saengmyeong: Something incredible is about to emerge!】
【Noejeon: Hee-hee-hee! I’m trembling! Trembling, I tell you! Something massive is coming!】

The water’s surface shuddered, and ripples spread outward in concentric circles.

Crack-crack-crack!!

At last, the fissure split wide open.

And then,

…Patter.

Something fell.
Aion’s eyes drifted downward without a word.
The cracked seam in the rock.

Scattered across the wet stone around it lay a small amount of black sand.

Or rather… fragments?

A very modest amount, really.

Barely enough to fill one’s palm.

“……?”

…Silence settled in.

【Suryu: Hmm.】
【Saengmyeong: How… cute.】
【Hwayeom: Is that it? Or did something actually come out?】
【Daeji: …….】

Aion studied the scattered sand upon the wet stone, then slowly opened his mouth.

“…Sand?”

That was when it happened.

Whisper-whisper—

The sand moved.

It wasn’t the wind.
Nor was it the ripples of the lake.

The jet-black sand crawled up the bedrock as though possessed by a single will.

Like a slender serpent.

Whissssh—!

It swept across the top of Aion’s foot, wound around his calf, and in an instant climbed to his wrist.

“What is this…?”

Aion’s hand rose reflexively.

The sand coiled around his wrist and hung there, circling quietly. It looked like a bracelet, or perhaps a small living creature.

And in the next instant.

Clang—!

The black sand transformed into a bracelet upon Aion’s wrist.
As though that had always been its rightful place.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[!] Daeji’s Ultimate Form: Dust consciousness has been performed.
[!] At your current level, the mass of Dust is severely limited.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Aion gazed down at his bracelet.

“Is this Dust?”

【Daeji: Yes.】

This time, Daeji’s Extreme Point didn’t laugh either.

The voice was low and heavy.

【Daeji: It is a small earth that you awakened.】

“It’s rather small, then.”

After speaking of something immensely vast that was to arrive.

【Daeji: That is the measure of your vessel.】

“The magic itself poses no problem?”

【Daeji: That is the measure of your vessel.】

“…”

【Saengmyeong: You said that twice. I think you’re hurt.】
【Daeji: Be quiet.】

As Aion quietly observed the Dust,

【Daeji: Don’t mistake it. That’s not mere sand.】

Daeji’s Ultimate Form spoke.

【Daeji: The Dust lingers around you, and it will swallow death coming toward you first.】

“Swallow death?”

【Hwayeom: It’s just a defensive formula that reacts to the user’s perception. You make it sound all grand, and people think it actually works like that.】
【Saengmyeong: But it’s only Tier 2 magic—how does it possess consciousness?】
【Hwayeom: A unified sense, probably. Still, to use a concept that normally requires Tier 4 to even implement, this early… We weren’t wrong to focus on the form.】
【Daeji: …So those eyes aren’t just ornamental, are they, Elder?】
【Saengmyeong: Oh my, you do seem quite pleased.】

That was when it happened.

Tap.

A small fragment tumbled down from the upper edge of the cracked rock.

A piece without malice or will.

Yet it descended rapidly toward Aion’s crown.

Before Aion could react.

…Whoosh!

The Dust transformed from bracelet form into black sand and sprung upward.

It unfurled like an umbrella, deflecting the fragment away.

Splash—

The fragment fell into the nearby water.

Aion blinked slowly.

Merely a Tier 2 mage.
That’s not magic a mage of that level should wield.

Magic that acts of its own accord…

Daeji’s Ultimate Form, along with the now-silent other Ultimate Forms, foretold what lay ahead for Aion.

【Daeji: You’ll learn firsthand, over and over, how magnificent a magic the Dust you’ve just awakened truly is.】

The Talentless Mage Swallows a Calamitous Future — Chapter 66

Author
Wangmotchi
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover Design
Dalli

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0066

© 2026, Wang Motchi

※ This e-book is a work protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of this work may be reprocessed 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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