Chapter 18: The Predicament

“It’s already been 10 seconds.”

10 seconds have passed since Soo Hyuk put his hand on the crystal ball. He knew that it would only take around 10 seconds to be assigned a quest. Why hasn’t the crystal ball stopped yet?

Crack!

A faint sound came from the ball. When Soo Hyuk saw the source, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

“What?”

There was a tiny crack in the crystal ball. Soo Hyuk knew the process of becoming a Magician. Everything that happened so far had gone along according to an article on the Pangea homepage, but it was the first time he had seen a crack form.

Soo Hyuk looked up at Konten with an awkward smile. Konten’s expression had also changed as he noticed the crack.

“You can take your hand off now.”,

Konten said with an awkward expression. Soo Hyuk hurriedly took his hand off.

***

The Matab Steeple management division, Magician Konten.

“Haah……”

Konten stared at a lady and the numerous people behind her and sighed.

“Too many, just too many. I think I’m gonna die soon.”

There were too many.

“It was good at first.”

The first time he became a manager, Konten was elated. His status and pay were good even if he didn’t have any talent for magic, but now he felt that every day was extremely tiring.

“Thank you for your help!”

The lady got up from her seat after saying goodbye.

“Next person!”

Konten called in the next person, and the person who was behind the lady sat down. It was an average-looking young man.

“How can I help you?”

“I want to change my job to a Magician.”

“Oh, so you want to be a Magician.”

Konten opened his drawer and pulled out the crystal ball.

“First.”

Setting the ball in front of the person, he spoke,

“Place your hand on the ball please. Don’t pull away until I say so.”

People couldn’t become a Magician just because they wanted to. They had to have talent and luck. The crystal ball was a device that could help check their talent through measuring their wisdom. The actual name was the [Wisdom Marble]. People could only become a Magician after having enough wisdom, doing a task, and being at a certain standard. More exactly, after going through a magic course at the Magic Institute of Matab so that Magicians could at least have basic knowledge about magic.

“Okay.”

The man replied to Konten and put his hand on the Wisdom Marble. When he put his hand on the ball, the ball started glowing brightly.

“Ohhh!”

Konten let out a shout after looking at the glowing ball.

“The lights……!”

It was the first time Konten had seen lights so bright. The brighter the lights, the more wisdom a person had, but the lights before couldn’t compare to this young man.

“Hmm?”

However, Konten couldn’t help but become awkward as the lights continued for 5 seconds.

“What?!”

The light was becoming stronger over time. The light had become blinding as it continued shining for 10 seconds.

“Is it broken?”

Konten thought as he squinted at the crystal ball. He was using the ball more often now. Perhaps it broke from overuse?

It was then…

Crack!

The ball cracked.

“It is broken!”

Konten was sure after he saw the crack. The ball was definitely broken. It was probably spewing blinding lights like a miniature sun because it was broken.

“Still, to break in use.”

The Wisdom Marbles were known to break when dropped. But it was the first time they broke while being used. Konten spoke to the man with an awkward voice.

“You can take your hand off now.”

The man took his hand off at his words. When he took his hands off the ball, the lights quickly disappeared.

Konten withdrew the cracked wisdom marble and got out another one from his drawers.

“I’m very sorry. Looks like the previous one was broken.”

Konten explained as he set the wisdom marble again.

“Can you place your hand on this again? Please don’t pull away until I say so.”

“Of course.”

The young man put his hand on the wisdom marble again. Konten attentively watched the glowing ball again.

“……?”

After a few seconds, Konten made a confused expression.

“What’s going on?”

The crystal once again started letting out a blinding light after a few seconds.

“Wait, what if……”

Konten suddenly thought of something.

“Can you raise your hand!?”

Konten hurriedly shouted. The young man quickly pulled his hand away as if startled by the sudden shout. But could it be because the ball hadn’t cracked yet? The wisdom marble kept glowing radiantly although it wasn’t getting brighter.

Looking at the stable light, Konten took out a piece of parchment. It was because he needed another tool to record the information inside the wisdom ball.

The tool was the piece of parchment that Konten just pulled out. Of course, it wasn’t ordinary parchment. It was made from the skin of special beasts and it could record the magical information inside the wisdom marble.

Konten stuck the parchment onto the crystal, then the calm lights around the ball started to be absorbed into the piece of parchment. While watching the characters form on the parchment, Konten wondered,

“How much talent does he have?”

The amount of light coming from the wisdom marble, Konten had never seen anything like it. How much talent did he have for the wisdom marble to glow that brightly?

Swish!

Finally, the last bit of light was absorbed into the parchment. Konten then checked the parchment with an excited expression.

“……”

The man had seen that there wasn’t much written onto the parchment. But that didn’t stop the young man from wondering why Konten had such a weird expression on his face with his mouth open.

Konten finally closed his mouth after staring for a while. Then he thought about the contents of the parchment.

“No way, SSS?”

SSS, that was all the parchment contained. Just the three letters. But the consequences of them were something that he didn’t dare imagine. After all, something like this had never happened before. The SSS grade was somewhat of a joke until today. A fiction. And it was understandable as……

“Immeasurable huh,”

Immeasurable, the SSS grade signified immeasurable potential. What sane person could believe in unlimited talent and potential? Konten tore his eyes from the parchment and forced himself to stare at the young man and spoke,

“C-can you please wait a moment?”

“Sure.”

If you had just enough talent to be a Magician, according to the rules, you were required to bring monster parts to be registered as a Magician. If you had above average talent, you were told to bring a certificate from the Magician Institute in which proved that you completed the advanced course.

If you had exceptional talent, you would just be asked to introduce yourself to various important figures depending on the exact amount of talent.

It was the first time Konten saw someone with immeasurable talent. He had no idea how to proceed further. Introduce him to the Magicians? It was SSS. Who would he introduce him to?

“If I brought him to the wrong person……”

If he introduced this young man to the wrong person, he was sure to get swept in a storm. A storm that was unprecedented. Konten thought that it was better to ask other people and possibly push the responsibility as well.

“Sir, please wait a bit more!”

After asking the young man once more, Konten got up from his seat and quickly walked up to the Chief floor manager.

“Chief Kerza.”

“……?”

Kerza nodded at Konten after hearing his call.

“Here, please look at this……”

Konten handed his parchment over to Kerza, who had a puzzled expression.”

“What’s this?”,

Kerza asked as he received the piece of parchment, but Konten didn’t answer as he would know straight away. Hearing no answer, Kerza looked at the parchment in his hand.

“……?!”

Kerza made a stupefied expression at the bold SSS on the parchment.

“Who is it?!”

“It’s the young man sitting at my desk.”,

Konten replied to Kerza. His expression was full of certainty. Kerza looked over and saw an average looking young man staring absentmindedly at the people around him.

“Did you make sure he wasn’t already a Magician?”

Kerza asked Konten.

“Yes, if he had used magic, the Wisdom Marble wouldn’t have reacted!”

Konten confidently answered Kerza’s question. The wisdom marble wouldn’t work if magic was applied on it. It was because it directly measures the wisdom stat.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

Kerza nodded to his subordinate’s answer. Kerza also knew about it. It was just that this had never happened before so Kerza was flustered as well.

“What should we do about it?”

Konten asked Kerza.

“If we handle this poorly……”

Kerza paused slightly, and continued,

“It would be a disaster.”,

Kerza concluded. Unlimited potential. Anyone the young man was introduced to, would jump with joy. But what about the other people? Wouldn’t they be dissatisfied? And if he was introduced to everybody, they would openly start fighting over him. Order would crumble in the face of immeasurable talent.

“Then……”

Kerza couldn’t continue. What would they do? All they could do currently was delay the matter.

“It’s not our place to decide on this.”

Kerza finally spoke.

“Then do you mean?”

Konten asked Kerza with a surprised face. Then Kerza continued with a mysterious smile,

“It’s been a long time since the Spire Lords have gathered.”