As the closing time of the library approached, only a few people, including Lenoch, remained.

He gazed out the window at the setting sun, lost in thought.

How long had it been since he last had time to himself like this?

Compared to the days when he was tormented by labor until near death at the factory, this was a world of difference, yet Lenoch’s expression remained crumpled and unyielding.

“This is a bit different from what I expected.”

After spending the entire day buried in the library, devouring books related to magic, he reached one conclusion.

Surprisingly, aside from the concept of magic patterns he learned from introductory books, there was hardly any knowledge beneficial to Lenoch.

“The concept of common magic has completely disappeared.”

The classification of magic was solely about the unique magic system, “Sinister,” which each wizard could learn one of.

There was no mention anywhere of the common magic system, “Dexter,” used universally by all wizards.

Had common magic been erased with the transition to the 3.0 worldview?

If so, it didn’t explain all the common magic he had used until now.

No matter how extraordinary Lenoch’s talents were, it was impossible to extract and use a non-existent concept.

“Considering the convenience of common magic, it’s logically impossible for it to be forgotten or become obsolete.”

Compared to unique magic, common magic lacked specialization and depth and had negligible power, but its advantage lay in its overwhelming versatility, applicable regardless of attributes or targets.

A wizard who mastered electric-type unique magic could summon a lightning storm thousands of times stronger than bolt magic, but couldn’t conjure a cool breeze between their fingers.

Common magic served as a lubricant to prevent excessive fixation of magic and smoothly tighten the gaps between different magics.

At least until the game WORLD 2.0.

“There must be a reason it’s not mentioned at all… I’ll have to look into it later.”

Lenoch flipped through the pages of the books scattered on the desk, lost in thought.

The books categorizing unique magic systems contained various information on attributes, black magic, necromancy, shamanism, and barrier techniques, but Lenoch no longer looked at them.

To acquire a unique magic system, he needed to find a real “grimoire” or a master to pass on the Sinister, not browse catalog-like books in the library.

For Lenoch, who didn’t know a single person, let alone a grimoire or master, this information was meaningless.

Ultimately, as Lenoch resigned himself and began to pack up the books, someone suddenly spoke to him from behind.

“If you want to become a wizard, it’s better to give up.”

“……?”

At the clear yet cold tone, Lenoch turned his head in the opposite direction without thinking.

A woman in a white blouse and blue skirt was organizing the books left by people.

With her flowing blonde hair swept to one side, she had a sophisticated impression. Her cold expression and calm eyes matched her elegant appearance.

Without properly looking at Lenoch, she continued speaking.

“You’ve been sitting and reading books all day, but that’s not how you become a wizard. At your age, it’s far too late, so it would be better to study theoretical magic engineering.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I don’t want to see you clinging to futile hope.”

Thud.

Finally, she put down the book she was holding and looked at Lenoch’s face.

Her ocean-blue eyes calmly gazed at him.

“If you haven’t joined a school or found a master, the only way left is to learn magic at a university. But without a solid foundation, you can’t even enter a university, and even if you do, there’s nothing to gain from the lectures.”

“……”

“You can’t do anything alone. It’s a field where talent and luck determine a lot. Curiosity, passion, and a desire to explore are secondary.”

Lenoch silently stared at her face.

Contemplation

Her face, shaded by the sunset, was quite beautiful even in Lenoch’s eyes.

She seemed to regret her words as she noticed Lenoch’s gaze.

“Sigh… I’m sorry. I don’t know what I’m saying to a stranger.”

She brushed aside her fallen blonde hair with a gesture.

“It’s past closing time. I need to organize the books, so I’d appreciate it if you left.”

As she turned her back again, Lenoch finally spoke.

“Is that from experience?”

“…….”

“If you’re a student, it’s too early to give up. Instead of pushing yourself too hard, wouldn’t it be better to start with what you can do?”

“Ha…..”

She seemed bewildered, as if she hadn’t expected to receive advice from Lenoch.

However, this was all Lenoch could say to her.

Given his talent in magic, it was she who needed to make an effort, not him.

Perhaps she wanted to give advice based on her own situation, but she had completely misjudged her target.

Not knowing what kind of disillusionment she felt at the university, he hoped her path would be bright as he began to descend the stairs, but she called out to him.

“Hey!”

When Lenoch turned around, she took something out of her blouse and threw it to him.

It was a luxurious business card with a golden name inscribed on it.

She stared at Lenoch with an incredulous expression for a while before letting out a deep sigh and speaking.

“You seem to have mistaken me for a student, but you’re completely wrong.”

“…..What?”

“Your behavior and words are utterly absurd. I never imagined you’d interpret my advice like that….”

She rubbed her head as if she had a headache but eventually shook her head.

“Fine. If you come to see me later, I’ll show you a bit of magic, so do as you please. You can leave now.”

“…..”

“Is she out of her mind?”

Lenoch, who had been watching the blonde beauty who seemed to be talking to herself and answering herself, finally left the library. After examining the business card, he understood what she meant.

Her title was clearly engraved at the bottom of the card.

[Lavatenon University. Chair Professor of Elemental Magic Department.]

[Alice Richelin.]

“….She was a professor?”

From her demeanor and words, she seemed no different from a new university student, yet she was a professor.

Why was someone like that organizing books in the library in the first place?

Lenoch was momentarily confused but quickly gathered his thoughts and moved on.

According to his plan, he wouldn’t have to meet her again anyway.

There was no need to keep thinking about someone he met by chance.

As he left the bustling area and approached the street where his hotel was located, someone suddenly called out to him.

“Excuse me, sir.”

The person who called him was a young man in a police uniform.

He smiled amiably and showed Lenoch a device he held in his hand.

“Could you cooperate with a brief inspection?”

“…..An inspection?”

As soon as he heard the word from the police, Lenoch’s mind began to race.

Could it be that they realized he was a factory worker with no proper identity? He thought he hadn’t shown any signs, but to be discovered so soon.

No, that’s not it. If they knew Lenoch had no identity, the police wouldn’t have approached him alone.

The officer approaching him with a device in one hand was too defenseless.

In a fleeting moment, Lenoch deliberated intensely but eventually turned towards the police calmly.

“Running away now would only arouse suspicion.”

“I don’t understand why an inspection is necessary.”

“Oh, it’s nothing serious…. There was a robbery reported nearby.”

He said with a faint smile.

“We’re investigating wizards based on the magic patterns left at the crime scene.”

“…..I see.”

Lenoch realized the case the police were pursuing had nothing to do with him, but he maintained a perfect poker face.

This was definitely a change from when he was on Earth.

No matter what he thought inside, his expression rarely changed.

He obediently extended his hand towards the device, and slowly channeled his magic towards the bottom of the device the officer held.

In the meantime, he didn’t forget to subtly alter the pattern of the magic he was channeling.

The teardrop-shaped pattern scattered and was absorbed into the device, then displayed on the screen.

The officer compared the magic pattern on the display with a photo he had in his pocket, then nodded with a smile.

“The pattern is definitely different. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Apparently, the officer couldn’t see the movement of magic with the naked eye, so he carried such a device.

Lenoch pointed at the device the officer held and asked.

“Does this detector also determine the presence of magic?”

Although the absolute amount of magic he possessed wasn’t much, all the magic within Lenoch’s body was perfectly controlled due to his overwhelming talent.

Naturally, there shouldn’t have been any magic leaking out, but if the officer noticed it, it seemed likely he relied on the device.

The officer nodded awkwardly in response to Lenoch’s question.

“Yes, yes. They say it uses materials sensitive to magic, but wouldn’t a wizard like you know better?”

“Actually, I haven’t been in this city for long. So this is how crime investigations are conducted these days.”

“It’s been a long time since they stopped preferring evidence that isn’t systematically prepared during investigations. You seem to be quite old despite appearances.”

As criminals increasingly used various techniques to hide their identities and escape, it had been a long time since typical CCTV, surveillance cameras, or eyewitness testimonies were excluded from major crime investigations.

Thanks to Lenoch’s cooperative attitude during the investigation, the officer seemed to have a favorable impression of him and spoke freely.

Shamans or necromancers summon the spirits of victims, blood mages track bloodstains, and druids wander the streets searching for faint echoes.

While it’s not impossible to incorporate magical countermeasures into surveillance equipment, the cost is so high that, except for the city’s core facilities, they have no choice but to carry investigation equipment and work on foot.

Listening to the officer’s complaints, Lenoch nodded repeatedly. The officer chatted casually for a while before leaving when a sound came from his pager.

Watching the officer’s retreating figure, Lenoch let out a sigh of relief.

“It wasn’t a visitor from the factory.”

Perhaps all the effort he put into avoiding pursuit had paid off. He expected at least a pretense of searching, but there were no signs yet.

After all, from their perspective, Lenoch was just a dying factory worker, so it wasn’t strange if there was no pursuit.

Although he had stolen a supervisor’s car, the supervisor had already crossed the river Styx after being shot by Lenoch, so no one would care.

It was too early to be completely at ease, but there was no need to be overly cautious either.

Lenoch thought so, but he also considered it a good thing that the police in Balkan relied on magic or techniques for investigations.

Powerful wizards have a certain resistance to magic that designates them as targets.

Even if someone tries to find a wizard through magic that tracks a scent, if the wizard has resistance to target-designating magic, it won’t work well.

And when Lenoch set the talents of this body, he maxed out even such minor abilities when creating the character.

If the abilities he directly set were implemented in this world, Lenoch’s body would have absolute resistance to any tracking or curse magic.

“It might be difficult to resist if a wizard much more skilled than me designates me as a target, but it will be a great help in hiding my identity or escaping.”

Lenoch returned to the hotel, checked out immediately, and moved to another hotel far from that area.

“No need to leave traces.”

He didn’t think he needed to worry much about being pursued by the factory, but it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.

“The accommodation fee was too expensive anyway.”

It didn’t take Lenoch long to grasp the cost of living in Balkan.

The hotel he stayed at charged 100,000 Cel per night, yet the quality was far from satisfactory.

The new hotel he moved to had slightly smaller rooms and bathrooms, but the accommodation cost was nearly half.

This way, he could avoid spending all the money he had painstakingly saved on a week’s accommodation.

After moving all his belongings, which weren’t much, Lenoch picked up the notepad and pen next to the bed and began writing something down.

He intended to organize what he needed to do and what he could do here.

“The top priority is to survive.”

It had been nearly a week since he woke up in this unknown world.

He needed to survive to secure time and leisure for the next steps. Contemplating why he came to this place was a matter for later.

And for that, he first needed to restore this weak body to a normal state. As it was, Lenoch didn’t have much time left.

“The methods needed to recover the body…. The only things that come to mind are unique magic related to time or equivalent elixirs or treasures.”

In the library, he considered unique magic related to time, but Lenoch thought it was more feasible to find elixirs or treasures.

Unique magic is the most precious treasure and secret of wizards, and it’s difficult to even have the opportunity to encounter unique magic unless one is in a master-disciple relationship.

“But elixirs or medicinal herbs that restore stamina are different. Depending on their effects, finding the medicine itself shouldn’t be difficult.”

Of course, elixirs like the panacea, known as the Elixir, would be hard to obtain even with a fortune, but elixirs with inferior effects would be different.

As long as they could alleviate the penalties of this weak body and extend his time, it would be enough. Provided such elixirs existed in this world as they did in the game.

The conclusion was clear.

“I need to find a way to earn money.”

He needed money. A lot of it.

“……..”

Suddenly feeling a tug in his head, Lenoch couldn’t resist and put a cigarette in his mouth.

As he lit it and inhaled the smoke, the fatigue vanished, and vitality surged through his body.

“Whoo….”

Exhaling the smoke he had filled his lungs with, Lenoch let out a deep sigh.

He realized that, in the long run, he would have to rely on such things to earn money.

To heal his body, he needed to earn money, but to earn money, he had to continue harming his body.

It was an unavoidable contradiction, but for Lenoch, who had nothing, it was perhaps inevitable. He had to break through this cycle to create opportunities.

Fortunately, unlike others, Lenoch possessed a very special talent.

It wasn’t surprising. From the beginning, that was the only thing he could rely on.

Lenoch continued to ponder and contemplate his future actions for a long time.

Although he had set long-term goals, the process of reaching the results was entirely up to him.

It wasn’t enough to merely decide to earn money; he had to meticulously plan and prepare for the process as well.

Exploring various means, including magic, was not an option but a necessity.

The room’s lights went out long after the cigarette smoke had dissipated.

Bounty Hunting

Even if the existence of common magic was forgotten in this world, the magic he used hadn’t disappeared.

Holding a weapon unknown to others was akin to a privilege.

Realizing this, Lenoch poured all his time into researching magic, except for the time he went down to the lobby to extend his meal time and room reservation.

The three magics he used at the factory—Light, Bolt, and Silence—were just a few among the many types of common magic.

Most common magic existed for the user’s convenience, so there were no powerful or deep magics, but the feature of being unrestricted by attributes and types was a significant advantage.

Therefore, he began organizing all the common magic he could remember and started testing whether he could use them one by one.

Swoosh!

As he watched the roll of toilet paper being sliced with a chilling sound, Lenoch nodded.

“The cutting magic is usable too. Now, let’s see….”

He scribbled the name of a new magic in the corner of a note filled with ink. Several similar notes were scattered around the bed.

Through his efforts, Lenoch had a clear grasp of the magic he could use and its limitations.

As long as he used common magic, Lenoch didn’t need to worry about magic circles, hand signs, or incantations.

Just by imagining it, the magic naturally took shape, and by solidifying his will, it was realized in reality with the consumption of magic.

Of course, there were several magics that were impossible to use with Lenoch’s current amount of magic or too powerful to attempt in a hotel room, but even so, Lenoch realized just how absurdly talented he was.

When he played as a magic gunner, he had to form hand signs and complete incantations to use any tier of common magic.

Fortunately, the act of drawing magic circles could be skipped for the sake of convenience in the game; otherwise, it might have taken minutes to use magic.

Moreover, as he continued to practice magic, his magic capacity increased significantly, nearly tripling from when he first awakened his magic.

Simply using magic increased his magic capacity, something Lenoch had never experienced during his long enjoyment of WORLD.

Thanks to this, Lenoch could use magic nearly ten times a day, and his pace of researching magic accelerated day by day.

He spent entire days practicing magic in his room, collapsing into sleep when his magic was depleted.

After a week of immersing himself in magic until his mind was exhausted, Lenoch succeeded in elevating his magic abilities to a level where he could confidently call himself a wizard.

And finally, today was the last day he had decided to dedicate to magic research.

There was a limit to doing nothing else. It was time to go out, find a proper source of income, and stabilize his life.

“This is the best I can do.”

Even though he had played as a magic gunner, Lenoch didn’t remember all the common magic.

He hadn’t entered this world after experiencing in-depth play as a wizard; he had created this body to experience that play.

Therefore, most of the common magic he knew were popular ones well-known among players.

However, despite the gaps in his game knowledge, Lenoch didn’t feel anxious.

The number of usable common magics he had organized filled three sheets of notes and more.

While he might lack magic, he wouldn’t lack adaptability. Lenoch was confident.

“It’s time to go out.”

As he opened the window, the cold dawn air seeped into the room.

Inhaling the chilly breeze that formed visible breath, Lenoch tore the notes he had organized about magic into pieces and flushed them down the toilet.

All the information about magic he had compiled over the week was washed away, but Lenoch calmly packed his belongings and stood up.

All his talents were specialized in learning and handling magic. The numerous magics he had organized were perfectly stored in his mind.

He had done all the preparation he could.

The funds he had extorted from thugs and his cigarettes were running low.

Without securing a stable source of income, it would become difficult to maintain his current lifestyle.

It was time to move.

Without hesitation, Lenoch left the room.