The AI Archmage - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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AI Archmage Episode 1

Altair slowly opened his eyes.

What he saw before him was an unfamiliar ceiling.

And a familiar voice reached his ears.

[Are you awake, Human?]

“Yeah.”

[As a high-performance artificial intelligence, I have confirmed that Human’s goal of ‘Fate Alteration’ has been successful.]

“It succeeded.”

Altair nodded and spoke with admiration.

“So this actually worked.”

[…What?]

Akasha responded with a voice full of disbelief, but Altair paid no attention to it.

“It’s fine. As long as it succeeded, that’s what matters.”

Altair sat up and changed the subject.

“So, Akasha. How’s your condition?”

[Analyzing.]

After a moment, Akasha continued.

[There’s no precedent for installing software into a ‘soul.’ It’s hard to be certain what changes might occur.]

“Well, that makes sense.”

It was something that didn’t make sense by common standards anyway.

‘Soul’ and ‘installation’ – there couldn’t be more incompatible words.

But somehow, it had succeeded.

“So where is this place?”

[Currently estimating it to be a Magic Tower. Based on the location, it appears to be the Blue Tower.]

“…Blue Tower?”

At the familiar term, Altair looked around his surroundings.

It was certainly a room that could be called part of a Magic Tower.

But there was something puzzling.

“…For the Blue Tower I know, this seems a bit shabby?”

Altair knew the Blue Tower well.

Not only was it one of the Four Great Magic Towers, but more importantly, it was his friend’s tower.

Belusian Kabala, one of only five 9th Circle archmages on the Continent and the Tower Master of the Blue Tower.

He was the eccentric mage who had long ago explored the Ancient Ruins where the Akashic Record was located.

“The condition is definitely not good.”

Altair frowned and examined his surroundings more carefully.

On the surface, it was quite luxurious and well-constructed magically.

But upon closer inspection, he could see that the maintenance was in terrible condition.

Cracks in the walls were left unrepaired and neglected, and the Magic Tools installed in the room weren’t in very good condition either.

At least the Blue Tower in his memory wasn’t like this.

It was sophisticated and clean, befitting its position as one of the Four Great Magic Towers.

“How much time has passed? If that fellow had been managing the tower properly, the Blue Tower’s rooms wouldn’t have been left in such a mess.”

[About 20 years or so? That’s the conclusion I reached by calculating the power contained in that Ancient Artifact.]

“…20 years?”

At those words, Altair tilted his head.

“The time difference isn’t as great as I thought. If it’s 20 years, that’s still enough time for him to be alive and well, isn’t it? Did he go senile in the meantime?”

He trusted Akasha.

He believed she could never be wrong when it came to calculations involving this kind of data.

Therefore.

“That old man was certainly at an age where going senile wouldn’t be strange.”

He decided to conclude that his old friend had gone senile.

Next, he examined his own body.

It was high-quality clothing with a bluish tint.

At least this much matched his memory.

“It’s a Blue Tower Student Uniform. It seems I’ve obtained the body of a young person.”

[Shall I proceed with synchronizing the body’s memories right away?]

“Yes.”

There was no need to hesitate.

The owner of this body was dead.

After all, the Akashic Record enters ownerless bodies, not by stealing the original soul and taking its place.

[Yes, I’ll proceed immediately.]

And as soon as Akasha finished speaking, the body’s owner’s memories rapidly poured into his mind.

– Even if you’re direct lineage, it’s meaningless if you can’t prove your talent.

– I’ll give you a purpose. Go to the Blue Tower.

– Why does our family have such a defective product…

Various voices swirled complexly through Altair’s mind.

Assimilating with another’s memories is not an easy task.

If done carelessly, one could be consumed by those memories and be assimilated in reverse.

And therefore, Altair quickly accepted only the memories he could handle for now.

The rest could be digested little by little.

‘The name is Sion Rostery.’

His background was quite good.

The Rostery Marquis Family, one of the most prestigious noble houses in the Empire.

He wasn’t even an illegitimate child of that marquis family, but direct bloodline.

His background was a jackpot.

However, unlike his bloodline, Sion’s treatment within the family wasn’t very good.

The reason was simple.

He lacked talent.

Sion Rostery was what people commonly called a ‘dullard.’ It wasn’t that he couldn’t use mana, but his affinity was below average.

Naturally, he fell far short of the standards required by prestigious families.

[It seems that Sion Rostery, the owner of this body, was ‘exiled’ to this Blue Tower.]

“That’s what I thought.”

[Based on my analysis of his memories, it appears he was used as some kind of bargaining chip… The Rostery family wanted to exert influence over the Blue Tower, so they dispatched Sion Rostery for that purpose.]

“…It’s a common occurrence.”

The situation of the Blue Tower quickly formed in Altair’s mind.

First, the current state of the Blue Tower was not very good.

The exact reason was unclear, but it had been this way since the moment Sion Rostery arrived at this tower.

That said, the current Blue Tower wasn’t in a state of complete ruin.

It was still in the same situation as a declining noble house.

And from the perspective of the calculating Rostery Marquis family, they must have judged this to be the optimal time to invest.

For example.

‘Promise support during a time when support is needed, and in exchange, try to secure a stake in the Blue Tower.’

Sion Rostery was the bargaining chip to prove that ‘price.’

In other words, the owner of this body himself was a symbol of the Rostery Marquis family’s influence within the Blue Tower.

“I’m caught up in more complicated circumstances than I thought. Though it’s not a major problem.”

As he clicked his tongue and organized his memories, Akasha conveyed additional information.

[The cause of death for the original owner, Sion Rostery, has been confirmed as reckless human experimentation.]

“He must have had a severe inferiority complex about his talent, so he probably tried to enhance his abilities through experiments.”

[Human’s speculation is correct.]

Altair let out a bitter smile at Akasha’s words.

In some ways, he was truly similar to himself.

The reason he had devoted himself to engineering was also because he had despaired over the reality of not being able to become a mage.

“Come to think of it, I’m no longer Altair. Akasha, from now on, call me Sion Rostery.”

[Confirmed.]

Altair, no, Sion continued to assess the situation by checking the memories he could immediately process one by one.

“The Blue Tower rapidly declined starting ten years ago. And in that decline… the other Four Great Magic Towers were involved.”

[The Blue Tower was at odds with the existing Magic Academia even during the time when Human was alive. Because they had cooperated with Human’s plans.]

“…Tsk.”

Thinking about it that way, it made sense that the Blue Tower’s power had waned.

No matter how much they were part of the Four Great Magic Towers, they couldn’t single-handedly oppose the entire Magic Academia.

It seemed that even after ‘Altair’s’ death, the Blue Tower’s stance hadn’t particularly changed.

“Moreover, the fact that the Blue Tower is in this state probably means something went wrong with Belusian as well.”

[Unfortunately, yes. The results show a high possibility of that being the case.]

“…”

At those words, Sion grimaced for a moment.

But it didn’t last long.

It wasn’t certain, and that matter could be confirmed later.

What was important right now was…

‘I need to improve this body first.’

It’s ridiculously inadequate for putting his knowledge to immediate use.

“Akasha, I’ll ask just in case, but a procedure to improve this body’s talent. Is it immediately possible?”

[Normally it would be impossible.]

Akasha spoke in a voice that sounded reluctant even to herself.

[Surprisingly, it’s possible, human.]

“It works?”

Honestly, Sion was a bit flustered since he hadn’t expected an affirmative answer.

He had just thrown out that question casually.

“There’s no way it would work?”

[But it does work?]

A moment of silence passed between the two.

The current Akasha was merely ‘installed’ in Sion’s soul.

Naturally, there should be limitations in terms of functionality, but apparently not.

And after a brief moment of thought, there was only one conclusion.

“The Akashic Record.”

The mysterious ancient artifact that could even change fate.

Perhaps the power that had been dormant within it had settled into both Akasha and himself.

“I’ll need to check it out once the situation stabilizes.”

[So will you do it right now? Honestly, this is my first time in such a situation, so I can’t say there’s no risk involved. It might be better to start the work after completing a detailed analysis…]

But Akasha’s words couldn’t continue further.

“What are you doing, not doing it.”

[Ah, yes.]

Well, her creator wasn’t the type to worry about such ‘trivial matters.’

[H-here we go.]

She immediately began examining every part of Sion’s body.

And quickly continued with the ‘work.’

The procedure to enhance physical talent itself wasn’t difficult.

In normal cases, various measures would be needed, but in Sion’s case, surgical tools were essentially built into his very soul.

[From now on, don’t do anything, human. I need to concentrate on the procedure.]

“Don’t do anything, is that it.”

Sion came to a conclusion without any concern.

‘She’s telling me to do it.’

Then he should do it.

Sion quickly thought of the ‘most dangerous but high-probability’ attempt he could make right now.

And it didn’t take long for him to think of it.

‘Mobius Circle.’

It was the Mana Circle Formation Method he had conceived when he was Altair.

Generally, mana circles are made to form simple circular rings.

Until now, that had been known as the most efficient and simultaneously most ‘natural method.’

But would that really be the case?

Altair’s research, which started from that question, eventually led to the creation of a new method of circle formation.

That was the Mobius Circle.

The problem was that while he had completed it theoretically, there wasn’t a single case of actually using it in practice…

[Um, human?]

“What?”

[As you can see right now, I’m putting tremendous effort into proceeding with this procedure.]

“I suppose so.”

[You must be in quite a bit of pain right now too, human? You know, enough to make it hard to concentrate.]

“Right?”

[So naturally, I don’t think you’d go crazy and cause a scene. …You won’t, right?]

“Haha, what do you take me for?”

He was a great technician.

An intellectual who possessed overwhelming magical knowledge and theories that would astound even archmages.

Of course, such crazy antics…

“I should do them.”

[Humaaaaaaaan!!]

Leaving Akasha’s screams behind, Sion boldly decided to attempt the Mobius Circle formation together, which had never once undergone safety testing.

[Gah! Gaaaaaaah!]

Akasha seemed to be screaming from the increased workload in his head, but it was fine.

‘Overcome it with the power of our bond.’

The years that had accumulated between him and Akasha would surely create a miracle!

Sion ignored the pain he felt in his body and began to concentrate his mind to form the circle.

‘I can feel it.’

He could feel his body changing through Akasha’s intervention.

And this situation was the perfect opportunity.

At this moment when his body was changing and mana was fluctuating accordingly, the inside of Sion’s body was more malleable than ever before.

‘So this is mana.’

It was the first time Sion had encountered this power.

While he had studied it theoretically, directly sensing and moving mana like this was the first time in his life.

But strangely, Sion felt an odd sense of familiarity.

As if mana had been one with him from the beginning, it moved according to his will and took shape.

Then from here on, it was time for Sion’s ‘theory’ to shine.

He condensed the mana that had begun to take shape and formed it into an endlessly continuing cycle.

The key was circulation.

Creating a special circle that wasn’t bound by circle ranks.

And the core of that was.

‘The soul.’

He continued to maintain his concentration like that.

And finally, through the bond with his companion, faith, and effort!

…And with the minor seasoning of Akasha’s tears of blood added, the ‘Mobius Circle’ was completed.

Whoooooosh!

The moment the circle was completed, a mana storm erupted with Sion at its center.

The storm swept through the room, turning everything into chaos, and finally….

“Whew.”

In the midst of the wrecked room, Sion opened his eyes that flickered with blue light.

“Mage class change complete.”

[Class change my… damn ass….]

Though Akasha was grumbling in his head with a half-dying voice, Sion paid no attention.

In any case, that’s how a mage was born in some shabby Magic Tower.

…A mage of unprecedented form, one who had broken free from the limitations of ‘circles’.

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