The Mage Who Devours Disasters - 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.
I had made it abundantly clear.
…’That One’.
It was proof that the inexorable force I had annihilated along with Earth stood clearly ‘above’ Heimdall, the god of the typhoon.
But that was not all I had discovered.
‘Its true name was originally unknowable.’
I only came to understand this at the very end.
Upon reading the words inscribed in the System Message.
[You have slain the ‘Absolute Deity, Inexorable Force’.]
The Absolute Deity and the inexorable force.
I had merely regarded it vaguely as ‘the final despair and calamity’.
The one who witnesses the moment the world perishes.
Naturally, such a name should remain unknown to all.
Unless one were mad enough to act upon such insanity as I had.
And judging by the reaction—
‘…Is it truly alive?’
If it were alive, then I had indeed returned to the past.
The attitude toward the Absolute Deity did not seem to be that of one truly annihilated.
The composure had vanished.
The voice had grown subdued.
Rather than rebuking me for my insolence, Heimdall was gauging my intent.
The demeanor one displays only before a living power.
It seemed I needed to assess the current situation more carefully.
Thus.
“Is it a name I should not know?”
I pressed forward with even greater composure.
Heimdall’s gaze turned toward me.
I answered with a smile.
Then.
“…Truly a fascinating creature. A ‘seed’ that knows the name of That One. If you came to know it instinctively, your talent may be far greater than I imagined.”
Heimdall’s demeanor softened.
Instead, ‘desire’ kindled in the god’s eyes.
Like that of a human.
Familiar.
Those were unmistakably the eyes of one who covets.
“What is your name, creature?”
My name?
I could hardly answer that I was Kim Jung-seok.
After a moment’s deliberation, I replied.
“Rag.”
Ding!
[Your character name has been set to ‘Rag’!]
[The tutorial begins.]
[Objective: Head toward the Tower of Gods.]
[Warning: Do not reveal that ‘Rag’ is a character.]
[All divine spears will turn toward ‘Rag’.]
[Rewards are determined by your arrival time.]
[Upon completing the tutorial, your level will increase and ‘logout’ will be activated.]
…What is this now?
It really is like a game.
In any case, it seems I can ‘logout’ once I complete the tutorial.
Then.
‘I need to finish the tutorial as quickly as possible.’
I would have to mobilize every method at my disposal to reach that place called the ‘Tower of Gods’.
“Rag. Remember this. Once you climb the Tower, come find me.”
The gleam in Heimdall’s eyes as he gazed at me.
I would have to exploit that desire.
“If you take me there directly, I’ll consider it.”
“Consider what?”
“The Tower of Gods.”
But I had no idea where the Tower of Gods was located.
I could search for it and make my way there, but it would certainly take considerable time.
I had no time to waste on such frivolities.
Moreover, I didn’t know what might befall me on the journey to the Tower of Gods.
Another deity could appear and harm me.
Heimdall’s expression hardened.
“…Take you there directly? Me, Heimdall?”
His pride was clearly wounded.
I shrugged and spoke.
“If you take me to the Tower’s entrance right now.”
I raised my index finger.
“Once I climb the Tower, I will seek out the great ruler of all things, ‘Heimdall’, before anyone else.”
“Heh.”
Heimdall let out a hollow laugh.
His expression was one of disbelief.
Yet simultaneously, he seemed rather taken with this audacious proposal.
“…Very well. I accept your deal.”
Phew. Thank goodness.
An easier acceptance than I’d anticipated.
But.
“However, there is a condition.”
“A condition?”
“Ascend the Tower as the overwhelmingly dominant ‘1st place’ among the God Candidates.”
Heimdall’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
“Should you climb the Tower with merely mediocre results, I will annihilate you the moment you appear before me. The price for wasting my time is nothing but obliteration.”
So anything less than an absolute first place holds no value to him.
Such divine arrogance.
It seems that heading toward the Tower of Gods means competing against other ‘children of the Deity’.
I nodded in agreement.
“Very well.”
“…What?”
“I will ascend the Tower as the overwhelmingly dominant 1st place.”
Either way, I had nothing to lose.
Completing the tutorial and logging out came first.
Let’s do this.
“Kahahaha! I like your spirit—truly, I like it!”
Heimdall burst into raucous laughter.
At the same moment.
Whoooosh!
A colossal wind enveloped my body.
My vision inverted.
Space folded, and the world warped.
“Go forth, you audacious ‘seed’.”
After those words echoed in my ears.
Thud!
A solid sensation struck the soles of my feet.
Opening my eyes, a colossal Tower piercing through the clouds displayed its magnificent presence.
‘Not express delivery—more like typhoon delivery.’
The sheer velocity left me breathless.
Ding!
[You have arrived at the Tower of Gods.]
[Tutorial completed.]
[It couldn’t have been faster.]
[Remarkable arrival speed!]
[You have achieved 1st place in all-time tutorial rankings!]
[The name ‘Rag’ has been recorded in the Hall of Gods.]
[Rewards befitting this record are granted.]
[Reward (1): Inventory]
[Reward (2): Spirit’s Wings]
[Reward (3): 5 Fragments of the Shattered Golden Ratio]
[Your level has increased.]
[You can now ‘log out’.]
* * *
The highest tier of the Tower.
The Garden of Gods stretched endlessly, with clouds beneath my feet.
Countless deities had already gathered there.
Heimdall materialized, cutting through the wind.
Then, as if someone had been waiting, a voice broke the silence.
“Heimdall. Why did you bring the ‘seed’ here yourself?”
A frigid tone.
“Finding the Tower on their own is part of the trial itself. Why would you grant such a privilege to a mere seed?”
The words carried an accusatory edge.
Every deity gathered in the garden fixed their gaze upon Heimdall.
Hostile stares.
And rightfully so.
The recovery rate of seeds scattered across Asgard was merely 1.8%.
In other words, ninety-eight out of every hundred seeds perished before ever reaching the Tower of Gods.
The surviving 1.8% of seeds underwent a ruthless competition where they killed or were killed.
And the number that transcended into ‘deities’ was far smaller still.
Heimdall had personally fastened the first button of this brutal survival contest.
Heimdall replied with indifference.
“Because he had the qualifications for it.”
An unwavering confidence.
At this, another deity’s voice rang out like a warning.
“Still arrogant as ever. If that seed you brought proves unworthy, you will not escape unscathed.”
“Do as you wish.”
Heimdall merely shrugged his shoulders.
The wrath of the gods meant nothing to him.
Instead, a peculiar anticipation set his heart racing.
Because it was unprecedented.
Heimdall—the Deity of Typhoons, the Ruler of All Things.
That mere seed had not wavered even a fraction before his overwhelming divine authority.
A seed, of all things.
One who should have crawled on the ground, paralyzed by terror.
Yet he had stared directly at Heimdall and brazenly proposed a deal.
I still remember it vividly.
That audacious gleam in his eyes.
In eons upon eons, I had never encountered such a madman.
So, without thinking, I accepted.
Or rather, to be honest.
‘…A seed that knows the name of the Absolute Deity.’
It was impossible.
Only the highest-ranking deities, like myself, knew that name.
It was not a name a mere seed could ever speak of.
There were rare cases where a seed would awaken by discovering the name of a specific deity.
But that was only possible because the seed possessed that specific deity’s talent deeply.
What if, by some chance, Rag possessed the talent of ‘Inevitability’?
Inevitability was an absolute throne they had never witnessed before.
The sole and unique existence that manipulated this Asgard and the Tower of Gods.
Yet, that immutable value could be shaken.
‘Asgard is far too static. A place of tedium and monotony.’
Heimdall was the god of typhoons.
He wished for fierce tempests to rage through this place as well.
Thus, he desired for those rigid absolute beings to be shaken.
The reason was simple.
‘I will not accept that anyone stands above me.’
The desire to ascend.
The ambition to reach a higher tier.
Yet once a ‘tier’ was determined upon becoming a deity, it rarely changed.
To alter this structure, one had to shake it from the foundation.
If ‘Rag’ could fulfill that role, this much of a gamble was worth taking.
It was at that very moment Heimdall was smiling inwardly.
“How is the amusement progressing on ‘Earth’?”
“Didn’t we agree to proceed by each creating characters?”
“We’re still in the protection period. Refrain from causing catastrophes too severe.”
“What is the target for human awakening?”
“For now… let’s set it at 30%.”
“And the remaining 70%?”
“You ask the obvious. Annihilation.”
* * *
Ding!
[You have ‘logged out’.]
[Returning to reality.]
[Warning: If your body in reality or in Asgard dies, both perish.]
A familiar ceiling.
Moldy wallpaper, dark and discolored.
A narrow studio apartment reeking of staleness.
I rose from the bed and surveyed my surroundings.
“…Sigh.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I remember.
‘Have I truly gone back in time?’
…This is the Semi-basement Room where I lived twenty years ago.
I checked the calendar.
March 14th, 2026.
A date I could never forget.
The day my peaceful life shattered, and hell itself began to unfold.
That was when it happened.
RUMMMMMBLE!
The entire building shook violently.
Dust cascaded from the ceiling, and the textbooks crammed into my bookshelf tumbled to the floor.
Wee-woo! Wee-woo!
My smartphone on the nightstand shrieked with alarm.
Simultaneously, the TV screen blazed crimson as an emergency broadcast cut through.
-Emergency alert. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has struck the heart of Seoul!
-Roads are collapsing in multiple locations….
The announcer’s frantic voice.
I steadied my swaying body and moved toward the window.
Beyond the Semi-basement Room’s window, the street had become a scene of utter chaos.
CRACK!
The asphalt road fractured like shattered biscuits.
A colossal sinkhole yawned open, swallowing the surrounding vehicles and people whole.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“P-please, save me!”
“The ground is collapsing!”
The screams of the people.
The blare of car horns.
And then.
SHRIEEEEEEK!
From the crevices of the fractured earth, bizarre creatures crawled forth from the pitch-black darkness.
Colossal rats with crimson eyes gleaming and razor-sharp fangs bared.
‘Demonic Beasts.’
The moment they revealed themselves to the world for the first time.
If I were my past self, I would have cowered beneath my blankets in terror.
But now, I was different.
Compared to the day Earth perished, this was nothing more than a parlor trick.
Still, there was something I needed to confirm first.
“Status window.”
Ding!
【Attributes】
Level: 2
Class: Calamity Devourer
Strength: 100(-80) Stamina: 100(-80) Agility: 100(-80)
Intelligence: 100(-80) Mana: 100(-80)
Titles: Slayer of the Absolute Deity, Greatest Calamity, Omnipotent One
Calamities Devoured: Annihilation Typhoon
My jaw dropped.
“…This is insane.”
With just one level gained, every stat had skyrocketed from 50 to 100.
But there was a problem.
[Warning: The power usable by your current body is only ‘20%’.]
[To use your original power at 100%, ‘Descent’ is required.]
[A special medium is needed for Descent.]
[Required Item: Fragment of the Broken Golden Ratio]
Only 20% of my power was usable.
So that’s why all my stats had -80 written next to them.
‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch, after all.’
I immediately reached out into the empty air.
“Inventory.”
A soft whoosh.
The air tore open, revealing a translucent space.
Inside were the items I’d received as tutorial rewards.
[Spirit’s Wings]
→ These are Spirit’s Wings. The wearer can fly through the sky.
[Fragment of the Broken Golden Ratio: 5]
→ You can ‘Descend’. Each fragment guarantees 1 hour of ‘Descent’.
Using the fragments of the Golden Ratio would allow Rag’s power to descend into me.
In other words, I could wield Rag’s full power for a total of five hours.
‘That’s more than enough.’
It was more than sufficient to exterminate those vermin and sort out the situation.
Kiiiieeeeek!
A massive rat suddenly thrust its head through the window gap.
Disgusting saliva dripped from between its yellowed fangs.
Our eyes met.
I pulled a fragment from my inventory and gripped it.
“Descend.”
Kwaaaaaaaa!
The studio apartment flooded with golden light.
My body twisted and expanded.
A height that would easily exceed two meters.
Firm, sculpted muscles.
My hair had transformed into a lustrous golden hue.
I had become Rag.
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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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