One Year later

  The paper in Derek’s hands shivered, then shook, then exploded into a sheet of incandescent white flame that left him seeing spots for almost ten minutes, nearly half of which he spent swearing.

  So … what had he learned?

  Well, he’d figured out how to create a variant of hellfire, from hellfire, and that his self-made spell worked at least somewhat. Also, his fire resistance, despite being part and parcel of his ability to unleash hell’s flames, extended to the variants, too.

  Granted, that last one had been something he’d known already, but now he’d “proven” it for himself. Though he was careful to avoid amplifying the flames, as he was keenly aware of the upper limit of his ability to shrug them off.

  Even so … self-created spell that worked, paper that survived long enough for the spell to work at least somewhat, everything … well, everything that could work had.

  In some small part, at the very least.

  In some small, tiny, infinitesimal part.

  That just meant he had to try a few hundred more times, didn’t he?

  Derek pulled out his phone and checked the time. Well, there was absolutely no way to get those done before he had to go to his next lesson, but he could get in a few attempts, couldn’t he?

  He grabbed yet another sheet of paper from the warded zone and began to channel hellfire, only for the medium of his spell to turn into ash in an instant …

  Fuck.

  Derek sighed and settled on trying to calm himself before trying again; otherwise, he’d just wind up wasting more. And while he had paper to waste, seeing said waste was a foregone conclusion if he proceeded, he felt making the attempt now would be pointless. Also, any mana he likewise wasted would take a while to regenerate.

  But for all that it had cost him quite a bit of time, he was being offered new [Classes] and would likely see improvements to the ones he’d been eyeing thus far soon-ish …

  ***

  Two Years later

  What exactly was magic, anyway? Mana was known to do certain things, and it had been widely accepted as the fifth fundamental force of the universe, alongside the strong force, weak force, gravity, and electromagnetism, but the fact that it had been classified in a way that fit normal physics surprisingly neatly hardly meant it had been understood.

  Yet the fact that, in effect, the only thing he’d figured out was the immensity of what he didn’t know, as well as some small tricks.

  Granted, these small tricks were only small when compared to the absurdity of what high Level mages could unleash, the kinds of attacks that could flatten cities, create storms, and even, given enough time, deorbit moons or cause stars to go nova.

  They were just lucky that the last two were neither fast nor easy to hide; otherwise, some jackass would likely have tried something purely for the hell of it.

  Oh, and anyone actually capable of pulling something like that off would also be at a point where doing so would no longer really benefit them, at least in terms of progression. After all, what use was the opportunity for a good [Class] when there was no future Evolution left to use that advancement on?

  Maybe for a solid Capstone?

  But for all the shit that individuals had pulled since the advent of the [System], no one had gone that far just yet.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Besides, it did feel like he was getting closer to that. For all that he could only do so much with what he was learning, Derek knew he was improving.

  Now, he didn’t outright regret Seoul; he’d never have met his best friend if he hadn’t, but at the same time, he could admit that The Tower had been the better choice for him from the start.

  Though one of the most terrifying lessons he’d learned had been entirely accidental, at least on the part of the professor. It had been an aside on the topic of what history considered to be “magic,” specifically, rituals.

  See, the Norse had had this thing called “bone steel,” which was superior to iron and believed to be that way because it absorbed the power of slain enemies, as the weapons were smelted with ground bone, which they believed would result in the power of said enemies being absorbed into the weapon.

  What was actually happening was that they were making steel from the carbon in the bones. It had been a “cutesy” little side story.

  Derek, however, had read it as meaning that, despite the fact that one’s assumptions were wrong, plans made on said assumptions could still work and you could wind up getting sent down the entirely wrong path out of sheer bad luck.

  Something “working” couldn’t actually be taken as proof that the ideas one was working off of were actually true …

  It was the kind of concept that was certainly terrifying and had put Derek off even the idea of pursuing academia for a good week.

  Even so, did he have to figure out the mystery of magic? It wasn’t like it wouldn’t be amazing if he did, in fact, that would get him the legendary [Class] he wanted in an instant, but that wasn’t realistic.

  Not to mention that, with how the [System] rewarded effort, while he would reap benefits from making world-changing discoveries, he’d also get somewhere purely by mastering himself and his capabilities.

  Then, out of nowhere, a far more absurd and infinitely less relevant thought struck him: just how badly would he smell if the overwhelming stench of ash, soot, and sulfur weren’t covering it all up?

  ***

  Five Years later

  How long had he been in this room, desperately trying to work towards gaining a legendary [Class] even as his remaining time ran ever shorter …

  Yet at the same time, wasn’t that all a self-imposed limitation? Couldn’t he just choose to keep going? Couldn’t he … of course he could, the salient question was whether or not he should.

  So, what the hell, pun definitely intended, was the alternative? Throw in the goddanm towel? And at what point did the burning pride that kept him going tip into sheer fucking stupidity? At what point did his efforts to climb the previously unconquered mountain transition to being the equivalent of trying to bring down a concrete wall by banging into it with his head, of him bashing himself against the issue over and over and over again until either it gave or he broke?

  Derek took a deep breath in, then exhaled as one long sigh, and finally threw up his hand, palm facing the wall, and unleashed a stream of flame that quickly turned into a wall of letters, which then, in turn, vanished a mere moment later as his mana pool ran dry, leaving sooty streaks covering the wall, wavery but still perfectlyl legible.

  It ain’t over till it’s over.

  I didn’t hear no bell.

  Go big or go home.

  It was just a collection of movie quotes and generic uplifting sentences … yet somehow, it worked.

  ***

  As time passed and the room was occasionally cleaned, the sooty motivational quotes were erased, so he put them up again and again, each time striving to “put up” more each time. He didn’t always manage; hell, he didn’t most of the time, and compared to his actual training, it was a relatively tedious way to earn very little reward, yet at the same time, if he were forced to point at any single thing that kept him going, that would be it.

  So more years passed, more things happened, the world changed in countless ways, even if few of them were actually impactful, while others simply passed him by.

  Ye-in was Level 50 by now, and had chosen to pause there, for lack of a good offering, and the last time they’d met, that difference had been starkly apparent. As had the seeming age difference, despite having been born literally within a couple of months of each other, based on appearance, one would think Derek was at least a few years older, potentially by decades if one assumed he’d aged while also holding a high Level.

  Viktoria had returned briefly before heading back out, this time choosing to do something she was being surprisingly cagey about, which Derek assumed meant either a new relationship or some madcap scheme similar to the ones Isaac had, supposedly, been prone to pulling off.

  If only he’d allow himself to start moving forward, to start moving up in the world, to start leveling, he’d be able to move with everything, to finally be able to participate. But was he really willing to throw away all the time he’d spent trying to achieve his goals? Would it really be worth it to have spent all those years trying?

  Or was that line of thinking simply him jumping headfirst down the rabbit hole of the sunk cost fallacy?

  Honestly, at this point, Derek stopped caring, and instead kept on trudging forward, barely even expecting to receive the hoped-for reward anymore.

  … yet in the end, his head would prove harder than the wall he’d been bashing it against for a very, very long time.