Now he could leave the tower?
He was practically imprisoned on the top floors of the tower for an entire three and a half months. Then it turns out, the reason he couldn’t leave was because of his hair!
“Brown hair looks really good on you!”
Without even knowing what was in Abel’s head, Kyle exclaimed at his own magical might. Despite his age, self-boasting never left him.
Polymorph magic. This magic changed appearances, and there were barely any mages who were capable of using it. Kyle was using such a high-level magic just to change Abel’s hair color.
“Black hair is an ominous sign here in the continent of Kornos. It is considered a symbol of black magic and sorcery. Once one falls into black magic, then all the bodily hair of that person would turn black due to the strong demonic energy. The black mages who stirred the world until now all had black hair.”
As this place had no black hair DNA, Abel, who was born with black hair, would get misunderstood very easily.
Kyle continued to speak.
“Your hair will grow every day. We can’t use hair dyes forever, right? Even so, it’s not like I can cast magic on you every single time. Now that you can utilize your own mana, the polymorph magic will be maintained as long as you supply mana to your hair. Since it is this 8-circle master’s magic, only 7-circles and above will barely be able to sense it.”
Meaning, only four people in the entire Hela empire would be able to see Abel’s true hair color. Barely, that is.
Abel fell into thought as he looked at himself through the mirror.
‘This brings up my college days…….’
As someone who went to a boy’s high school, he had to maintain 15mm hair length all the time. Otherwise, the head teacher of that year would beat him up. Only after he went to college could he try dying his hair.
(T/N: This doesn’t happen anymore. Only the old generation went through this)
Looking at the brown hair, he remembered his first crush.
‘Are you doing well Suji? I’m so sorry I ran away after eating the lobster last time! I didn’t have enough money. I’m being punished in some weird world so please calm your anger.’
Tap!
Kyle hit Abel’s shoulder with his staff since he was being distracted.
“Focus! From today, I shall teach you about spells, the most important thing in the utilization of magic. Do not get distracted. It is the most difficult part of learning magic, as well as being the ‘flower’ of all magic, so you must listen carefully.”
From how Kyle’s eyes became sharp, this was going to be insanely hard! Moreover, he even brought a staff that he hadn’t brought until now. It was the same staff he was holding when they first met.
‘Ha~.’
Abel felt a headache. He hated hard stuff. Well, for maths, he did that all the way to major, because he was interested in it.
The education lectures he had to take because of the unemployment issue was totally c.r.a.p. Considering how he had a painful time because of teacher employment, he would still grit his teeth at night.
Oh how much he regretted in majoring mathematics! It doesn’t earn you money, no employment, and what awaited was a dark future! Right now, engineering was the way to go in Korea.
“To use magic, mana is necessary, but you must also learn ‘runes’, that are ancient characters.”
Kyle pointed his staff towards the ground and started drawing something peculiar. When he did, red light started being drawn on the ground, and seeped into the ground wherever the staff a.s.sed. Eventually, it formed a hieroglyphic character.
‘So that’s why he brought the staff.’
He was almost scared because he thought it was for punishment.
“This is the shape of the first rune. There are a total of 28 runes, and the calculation for each rune is different so you must learn them. The type of magic will change according to the combination of runes, and the calculation will also become more complex.”
“Calculation?”
Abel asked back.
“The situation and position when you cast magic will always be different, will it not? You need to apply different operators to adapt to different situations and mana array. Then, I shall teach you the calculation for the first rune.”
Good! Calculations was something that Abel had confidence in. He was called the human calculator after all! Even if it was complex, he had his calculator with him, so there wouldn’t be any problems. Not only that, it was a scientific calculator that was capable of inverse trigonometric functions as well as differentiation and integration. No problems there.
Unless it was some weird new field of mathematics he didn’t know about, he had confidence.
“Even the most mansensitive children give up a lot here. It is that difficult. Do not worry! This Tardema will teach you until you understand.”
Emphasized Kyle.
Gulp.
Just how hard was it, that he was so emphasizing that point? Abel couldn’t help but be nervous.
‘Don’t tell me it’s something like h.o.m.ological algebra?’
A cla.s.s he listened to when he was 4th year college pa.s.sed by his head. Just from the weird name, he thought it would be hard and his worries had come true.
“Well, then. I shall now write out the formula, so you must be able to apply it for real right away.”
After saying those words, he moved his staff again and started writing down the calculation method.
Huh?
Abel’s eyes widened as soon as he saw the formula.
Although it looked completely different on the outside, the principles were the exact same as what he knew.
‘Isn’t this a quadratic equation?’
This was unexpected. Completely unexpected. Not because it was hard, but instead, because it was ridiculously easy.
“As this is your first time, it will be very hard. I will write you another question, so you can try solving it. I’ll give you around 5 minutes.”
5 minutes? This was middle school stuff. As a victim of Korean education, he only needed 10 seconds with the formula. In his head too.
“I solved it already though?”
He solved it while Kyle was still writing.
“Hur! Do not joke with me! Even I took 2 minutes when I first saw it!”
As a former genius child of magic, it sounded like nonsense to Kyle.
“Why do you solve it like that? You can just use the quadratic formula!”
“The quadratic formula? What is that?”
“Wow……. There’s nothing like a quadratic formula here? This is middle school stuff you know……. Well, then look! You don’t need to try every single number, and do it like this! If you subst.i.tute the coefficients like this, then it works out.”
Abel explained to Kyle the quadratic formula. This was the first time he did saw after he taught some middle school kids as an intern.
“My word!”
Just what was he doing until now! There was such a simple method…….
“Is there perhaps a different way to solve this?”
Becoming excited, Kyle started waving around his staff. What he drew was the calculation method of the second rune.
“Hmm… I think using derived functions should do the trick.”
“……!”
“Th, then this?”
The third rune.
“Oh, this? Hmm, the sigma formula….”
“A, and this?”
“The dot product of vectors…”
Plod!
Kyle fell down onto the carpet on his b.u.t.t.
All the knowledge he had known until now were completely smashed to pieces. The self-driving iron carriages, flying ships, and smartphones or whatnot from another world was much less of a shock than this.
“Wh, what is all this?”
“It’s maths.”
Honestly, Abel was surprised as well. Mathematics was an unavoidable wall for Koreans. They learn these things from grade school. It seemed like there was no such thing as mathematics in this world.
“C, can you teach me?”
Of course, he could do that, no problem. However, it seemed like the people here can only do the basic four operators. Even starting from middle school stuff, it would take at least 10 years!
“Well, that’s not so hard. But I have a condition!”
“Wh, what is it?”
“Mm… Now that you told me it was fine to go outside, I need to eat tasty stuff, buy some clothes, and… I need some… money for that…….
Oh! I also want to stop wearing these training clothes! This is not gym uniform from a boy’s high school. Look at this c.r.a.ppy design!”
Not for free, no! This guy seemed to have a lot of money too, but it was as though he was a rabbit in his previous life as he only ate plants. Thanks to that, he had to live a vegetarian lifestyle for an entire three months. He felt as though he had become a rabbit. Now it was time for some meat.
“Hahaha, that’s completely fine! Funds are managed by Perelman, so go to his office. I’ll talk to him beforehand.”
Yes!
No, this was not extortion. It’s just lesson fees – thought Abel. It was stereotypical self-justification.
“Rather than that, is the object in your hand this ‘calculator’? Why are you not using it?”
Kyle spoke as he looked at the calculator in Abel’s hand.
“Oh yeah! It’s just that the questions you gave me were far too basic. Give me a more difficult one.”
Single rune calculations were enough with his head.
“Okay.”
Kyle started writing a calculation formula with three runes this time. It was the basic 2-circle magic ‘Sleep’.
Tap tap tap tap.
Abel started tapping on the Casio and started to work out the answer. Kyle observed that process with eyes filled with curiosity.
“Here’s the answer.”
“How can this be……!”
So fast?