A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 9

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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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Episode 9

One day before Aion set out for the central library of Arcanum.

On the surface, he appeared calm enough, but his mind was a marketplace in full swing.

【Suryu: All right, everyone put your heads together. Anyone have a good idea? We’ve had access to the third floor of Arcanum since the start of the term, after all.】
【Daiji: The third floor? That’s only open to second-year students with excellent grades. …We’re in for it.】

Daiji’s Extremity paused for effect.

【Daiji: On the other hand, it just means they’ve collected magic strictly at a student’s level.】
【Suryu: Even so, there are useful things among them. I know of several grimoires whose true value hasn’t been discovered yet in this age.】
【Daiji: If that’s the case, I have some too! Like the magic that collapses the earth’s axis and brings down most estates in less than a minute.】
【Mado: Rejected.】

As if to cut off the excited Daiji’s Extremity, a voice that rarely interjected of its own accord rang out coldly.

【Mado: Grandiose magic is useless at this point. Aion is currently only capable of wielding basic Telekinesis.】
【Roijeon: Ehehehehe! The state of a worm, I’d say.】
【Suryu: He can’t even handle his own bed collapsing, let alone the earth’s axis.】
【Daiji: ……That’s fair. Logical, even.】
【Saengmyeong: Handing a jeweled sword to a child doesn’t even serve as decoration. Aion’s Mana has risen somewhat, but…you all know, don’t you? That pitiful report card Yggdrasil showed us.】

Aion said nothing. That horrifying transcript, plastered with F grades, admitted no rebuttal.

【Suryu: This is difficult. Very difficult. We can’t squander this chance by picking infant-level magic either.】

Come to think of it, the one who usually would have jumped in first and steered the conversation was quiet.

【Suryu: …Say something, Hwayeom. It’s not like you to be so silent.】

There was no answer.

【Daiji: Hey there, …Hwayeom?】
【Hwayeom: ……Ah, were you calling me?】

His voice was drowsy, as if he’d just woken up.

【Saengmyeong: What’s wrong? Is something the matter?】
【Hwayeom: No. I was just thinking about something for a moment… What were we talking about?】

Suryu’s Extremity responded briefly.

【Suryu: So, do you have an opinion?】
【Hwayeom: On that matter, I do have something in mind, but….】
【Daiji: Predictable. It’ll be some magic with absurdly overwhelming firepower, I’m sure.】

Daiji’s Extremity let out a snort of derision.
The other Extremities didn’t seem to expect anything particularly different either.

【Suryu: Look, Hwayeom. We already went over those kinds of suggestions just a moment ago. We concluded that high-level magic is out of the question.】
【Hwayeom: …Is that so? Then what are the conditions for the magic this worm should obtain?】

Daiji’s Extremity rattled off the conditions crisply.

【Daiji: First, it must be high-efficiency magic that can be deployed immediately even with Mana as pitiful as his.】
【Hwayeom: Hmm.】
【Daiji: Second, since this is a result obtained through considerable effort, it must remain useful for a fairly long time without losing its luster.】
【Hwayeom: Mm-hmm.】
【Daiji: Third, the structure mustn’t be so complex that even this fellow’s limited knowledge makes it impossible to master.】

Even Daiji’s Extremity seemed aware that the conditions were utterly unreasonable.

【Hwayeom: Is that all?】

After a brief pause to collect himself, Daiji’s Extremity added the final condition.】

【Daiji: Fourth, it can’t take an excessive amount of time before becoming operational. It must be a fundamentally elementary form of magic, nothing more.】

Suryu’s Extremity clicked his tongue.】

【Suryu: Those are conditions that make no sense whatsoever.】
【Mado: That’s precisely why we’ve been discussing this for so long.】
【Daiji: Well? In your judgment, is there a single grimoire among those sleeping on the third floor of Arcanum that fits these impossible criteria exactly?】

And yet…

【Hwayeom: Had you not interrupted me mid-sentence, I’d have already said this three times over.】

A brief silence fell.】

【Hwayeom: There is one. One that fits those conditions perfectly.】

***

And the next day, the present moment.】

Aion returned to his dormitory room and gazed down at the worn book lying on his desk.】

“This is… the grimoire you all agreed upon?”

The book’s condition was nothing short of deplorable.】

The leather binding was tattered and frayed, its surface torn roughly in places as if some beast had gnawed at it, consuming half the cover in the process.】
The title was barely legible.】

‘Can I even read this?’

The texture of the paper composing the book was equally strange—unlike the smoothly finished parchment of the Lavantier Empire.】
Coarse and crude in appearance, yet possessing a curiously resilient quality, it was a material fundamentally alien to what he knew.】

Had someone not told him this was a grimoire, he would never have recognized it.】
It was an object so dreadfully ancient.】

【Hwayeom: Yes. Seeing it again after so long, the contents come rushing back.】

Aion swallowed a sigh and carefully turned a page.】

“Where…”

Crack.】

Aion’s eyes narrowed as he opened the book.】

Could these truly be called letters? They resembled arcane diagrams and symbols far more than any written language. Script of a form he’d never encountered before—foreign to the common tongue of Lavantier and absent from every foreign language he’d ever seen.】

It gave him the odd feeling of staring at a child’s doodle pad or a picture book.

Snap!

Aion closed the book without hesitation.

“Just to be sure, I’ll ask again—is this really it? I think I might’ve brought the wrong one.”

【Hwayeom: It’s the right one, you fool! Stop doubting everything.】

Hwayeom clicked her tongue and continued.

【Hwayeom: Hey, Mado. There’s no problem with me explaining this grimoire directly to him, is there?】

Aion tensed for a moment.
Yggdrasil’s system was more complicated than he’d thought. Direct implantation of memories or abilities possessed by Extremities was strictly forbidden—only Quests could make that possible.

‘So how will Yggdrasil judge it if an Extremity transfers this magical interpretation to me?’

【Mado: As long as the original exists, there should be no problem.】

Aion relaxed.

【Mado: It’s taboo to forcibly stuff nonexistent knowledge into someone’s head, but translating knowledge that physically exists right in front of you falls under the category of assistance. However, directly teaching the magic itself is another matter entirely. Even I can’t predict how Yggdrasil would judge that.】

Hwayeom grumbled.

【Hwayeom: Damn it, such a stubborn machine. Sounds just like my master—rigid and unyielding.】

Soon after, as if Hwayeom had made up her mind, she spoke.

【Hwayeom: Alright, grab a pen. Write down exactly as I tell you. Don’t miss a single character.】

Aion picked up the quill pen and pulled a blank parchment toward him. Soon Hwayeom’s voice began to echo inside his mind.

【Hwayeom: This is the first section. Listen carefully. First…】

Scratch, scratch.

In the quiet room, the sound of the quill’s nib scraping across paper rang out in steady rhythm. The afternoon sunlight pouring through the window gradually took on a reddish hue.

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

Before long, deep darkness had settled over the world outside the window.

At last, Aion set down the quill pen and rotated his stiff wrist.

‘Is it… finished?’

On the desk lay a thick stack of parchments, their surfaces crammed densely with writing.
The translation of the first chapter of an ancient grimoire, completed in half a day. And yet, despite all that time, it was only one chapter.

Aion picked up the first parchment, its ink not yet dry.
His eyes fixed on the very top of the translation—the part corresponding to the grimoire’s title.

He pursed his lips and read out the weighty name softly.

“…Heavenly Motion Arts?”

A magical name written only in Hanja characters.

“Is this magic from the Daelyeon Empire?”

【Hwayeom: No. It’s a relic from an ancient dynasty that rose to power long before Daelyeon was ever founded, from that distant eastern realm where they dared to claim divinity. The Daelyeon fools of today couldn’t even imitate it.】

“…What does the name mean?”

【Hwayeom: It means the technique of moving the heavens.】

“That’s all?”

【Hwayeom: For someone who’s only managed to master Telekinesis, it’s the best magic available to you right now.】

Aion gazed down at the explanation of the magic now called the Heavenly Motion Arts.

“Is it really that different from Telekinesis?”

【Hwayeom: Telekinesis, put simply, is like moving around a fork you’re holding.】

“…A fork?”

【Hwayeom: Right. You hold a fork, move it this way and that, and stab objects to carry them. So if you want to lift something heavy, the fork has to get bigger, and it costs you proportionally more strength. Terribly inefficient.】

Aion flexed his fingers in the empty air. It was true—in ordinary telekinesis lessons, the sensation you learned was that of forming threads of mana or pincers to grasp an object.

“Then what about this Heavenly Motion Arts?”

Hwayeom’s Extremity fell silent for a moment. A low quiet fell, as if sifting through ancient memories.

【Hwayeom: The Heavenly Motion Arts—or rather, the way that one used it—it felt like… yes, I’d say calling it a hand is the best way to describe it.】

“A hand…?”

【Hwayeom: To put it simply, the Heavenly Motion Arts could do far more than ordinary Telekinesis. It was vastly more powerful.】

Aion tilted his head, puzzled.

‘A fork or a hand—are they really that different?’

【Hwayeom: You’ve stood beside a beast before, haven’t you? Before you came here.】

“…You already know everything.”

It was a fair point.
All the Extremities had lived through Aion’s life before he came to Exion in much the same way. They had walked the time he had walked.

【Hwayeom: Right. How did it feel? When you met that great bear on the Snowy Plain.】

Whoosh—

Aion stopped the quill pen he’d been idly twirling. As his eyes closed, the cold northern Snowy Plain unfolded in his mind.

White breath. And beyond it, the massive white predator looking down upon him.

Its starving gaze.

It wasn’t mere fear. It was something far more primal than that.

“Paralyzed… like I couldn’t move without restraint… that sort of feeling?”

【Hwayeom: That’s right. A fierce beast dominates its surroundings through Killing Intent.】

Hwayeom’s voice dropped low.

【Hwayeom: He was exactly the same. The closer you drew to him, the more you felt overwhelmed. It was as though the entire space had already fallen under his control.】

Aion sat in silence, turning the words over in his mind.

【Hwayeom: That’s what the Heavenly Motion Arts are. Truthfully, I don’t know that much about this magic myself. I only mentioned it because when I considered the conditions your magic would need, it seemed suitable.】

“Even an ancient spell from some distant age in the Eastern Region?”

【Hwayeom: In any case, yes. I’ve only mastered the early stages directly, so I don’t know the details. I’ve only ever seen someone use it.】

Aion set down his quill pen.

“You keep saying ‘he’ and ‘that one’… Was this person the master of that magic?”

【Hwayeom: Master? Ah yes. He was the one holding this interpretation. I only found out where the original came from after I killed him.】

Aion’s eyes narrowed.

“…You killed him?”

【Hwayeom: Yes, I killed him.】

“……Why?”

【Hwayeom: Because he deserved it.】

A brief silence fell. Something unfamiliar resonated in Hwayeom’s voice.

【Hwayeom: Four hundred and seventy-two. And thirty-six.】

Aion’s brow furrowed.

“Don’t tell me… those numbers…?”

A chill ran down his spine. And the ominous premonition, without fail, proved correct.

【Hwayeom: The number of humans and mages he killed in a single night.】

Ding—!

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[!] A new Quest has been assigned.
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The Talentless Mage Swallows a Catastrophic Future — Chapter 9

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

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0009

© 2026, Wang Motchi

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