Chapter 294: Divination Magic [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

Alex wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond to that, so he simply waited for the Merchant to continue. After a short pause, the alien sighed.

"Do you know why I asked whether you that question?" the Merchant asked.

Alex shook his head and replied, "No. Why did you ask?"

The Merchant leaned against the counter before explaining. "The competition to become a Merchant is intense. Almost anyone who can become one already has support from major factions, kingdoms, or even Monarchs, and the person who supported me asked me to find a genius in the path of magic."

Alex’s expression became more serious when he heard that, and the Merchant immediately raised his hands.

"Don’t worry. My job isn’t to report your existence to them," the Merchant said after noticing Alex’s reaction. "They only want me to tell you that their doors are open to you. If you’re able to properly enter the Land of Origin, they would welcome you."

"What?" Alex asked, unable to understand what the Merchant meant.

"You’ll learn more about this later, but the path of magic is almost dead." The Merchant’s expression became more serious as he continued, "In the Land of Origin, almost nobody who has access to information about the wider stars chooses the Mage Class anymore. That means there is almost no influx of new talent into the path of magic, and that has ultimately caused the entire path to stagnate."

Alex listened quietly while trying to process the information.

The Merchant continued, "There are still a few Monarchs of Magic who are trying to revive the path, and they want to help geniuses who choose magic. They’re always looking for new gems, people like you."

"The path of magic is dead?" Alex asked, repeating the words because he still couldn’t fully understand what they meant. He wondered whether Mages simply couldn’t become stronger after reaching a certain level, or whether there was another problem preventing them from progressing.

Perhaps some dangerous entity was hunting powerful Mages, or maybe the path itself had a hidden limitation that Alex had yet to discover. Whatever the reason was, the fact that powerful beings in the Land of Origin were trying to revive magic meant that something had clearly gone wrong with the path.

Alex had expected the answer to involve some terrifying enemy or an unavoidable limitation, so he became stunned when the Merchant explained the situation.

"Yes, Magic is simply too difficult, so barely anyone manages to make meaningful progress in it. When people see how much Mages struggle, fewer people choose the Mage Class, which means there is less research into magic and fewer people working to make it easier. Eventually, it becomes a self-sustaining loop."

Alex fell silent as he considered the explanation. It was much more ordinary than what he had expected, but that didn’t make the situation any less serious.

"Magic is too hard?" Alex asked, still somewhat surprised by the answer.

"Yes." The alien raised several fingers as he began explaining. "Warriors are basically dumb brutes who don’t need to think too much about their Techniques, while Rogues are heavily supported by the System. Priests use supernatural powers, so their abilities generally just work once they gain access to them."

The Merchant lowered his hand before continuing. "Mages are different because they need to understand what they’re doing before they can properly use a spell, and then they have to keep improving their knowledge if they want to use stronger spells. At higher levels, learning a single spell can take decades, and that’s only the learning process."

He paused briefly before adding, "The stronger spells also take a long time to activate, which creates another problem. Other Classes can simply attack the Mage during that time and finish the fight before the spell is ready. Well, Mages have their advantages as well. They have the fewest restrictions of all the Classes, because they can eventually do almost anything as long as they’re talented enough."

Alex thought carefully about the Merchant’s words. It seemed that the Mage Class was the most versatile Class available, but that versatility came at the cost of an extremely difficult learning process. He might have had a much easier time becoming stronger if he had chosen another Class, especially one where the System provided more direct assistance.

Did Alex regret having the Mage Class after learning this information?

Hell no.

Instead, the information made him even more excited. The path of magic was incredibly versatile, and that meant there were countless things he could potentially learn if he continued improving. As for the difficulty of learning high-rank spells, Alex wasn’t particularly worried because his ability to evolve his spells allowed him to bypass much of that difficulty. He could learns spells instantly thanks to his Talent.

’If I look at it this way, my talent might really be something unique that belongs only to me. I should never tell anyone about it.’

Alex decided to keep that information completely secret. If the Mage Class was already rare because of its difficulty, revealing that he could evolve his spells almost instantly would undoubtedly attract far more attention than he wanted.

"So, what’s the name of this organization that wants me to know their doors are always open to me?" Alex asked. The Merchant seemed satisfied that Alex hadn’t been discouraged by what he had heard and answered without hesitation.

"Sonna. Now, about the information on runes you asked for, Dobe! Bring the book on aisle 3A about runes."

"Asfa!" came the response from the alien who had been sweeping the floor.

Alex found that interesting. The broom-sweeping alien clearly couldn’t speak his language and probably couldn’t understand it either, yet it had understood the Merchant perfectly when he gave the order. That meant the Merchant’s words were likely being translated for both of them.

"Seems like you’re curious about how I can speak your language?" the Merchant asked after noticing Alex’s expression.

Alex nodded. "Yes. How does it work?"

"It’s because of this." The Merchant pointed toward a small object near his neck before continuing, "It’s an item that runs on Faith, although it can also be made to operate using Magic. I’ve heard that creating a magical version requires Divination Magic, but that’s difficult to produce, so Faith-based translators are much more common."

..

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