Magic Academy's Genius Blinker - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Blink (1)

Memories surged into my mind like waves.

‘Mom, when I grow up, I will definitely become a wizard!’

I instantly knew. These were Baek Yu-seol’s memories.

In other words, the character ‘Baek Yu-seol’ in the game Aether World, who had the same name as the real ‘me.’

‘Yes. You will be able to do it.’
Th i s w a s c o p i e d fr o m k i n g mt l. o r g

In the world of Aether World where everything is determined by magic, those who are not wizards have no choice but to live as the lowest class peasants.

Baek Yu-seol’s family was exactly like that.

Born and raised between a mother and father who couldn’t learn magic, Baek Yu-seol dreamed of becoming a wizard amidst crushing poverty.

My parents scrimped and saved desperately to buy expensive second-hand magical books for me, and I dedicated myself to studying until my eyes bled.

But then, a fatal flaw was discovered in me.

‘D-Doctor… You said my son has Mana Leakage Syndrome…?’

Unable to store mana in the body… A cursed constitution for a wizard, Mana Leakage Syndrome.

A constitution so rare that it appears maybe once a century had, unfortunately, befallen me.

Although I wanted to curse the world, I didn’t give up on my dream of becoming a wizard.

Even with Mana Leakage Syndrome, I could use one spell freely, and that was the ‘Blink’ spell.

From that day on, I started to train in Blink…

“Haah!”

I gasped for air, raising my upper body abruptly, and my mind cleared.

“Ugh…”

A throbbing headache. The pain came from the process of pushing the invading memories to one corner of my mind.

‘Damn it…’

My name in the real world is Baek Yu-seol.

And the character I raised in the game Aether World is also named Baek Yu-seol.

But I can clearly distinguish that the real me and the game character Baek Yu-seol are different people.

…Or maybe not. Were they both me?

‘What the hell…?’

When I opened my eyes and looked around, I found myself lying in a half-collapsed hut.

The old planks creaked in the cold winter wind and broke off with a cracking sound.

Shrinking from the bone-chilling cold, I happened to find a half-broken mirror discarded in the corner.

What I did next was almost instinctive. I picked up the mirror shard and checked my face, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

‘…I’ve gotten younger?’

At age 29, I had often been told I looked young for my age, but I didn’t have a face that looked completely like a teenager.

Yet, the face in the mirror looked as if it had reverted to my middle or high school days.

It was hard to grasp the situation properly. At that moment, a message floated in the air.

[Episode 1]

[Escape from the Pursuers!]

?

I was more shocked by the familiar words than by the message floating in the air.

Wasn’t that the prologue quest for the character ‘Baek Yu-seol’?

In the game Aether World, you could progress through the story by immersing yourself in numerous characters, and most episodes started with the academy entrance ceremony.

But uniquely, Baek Yu-seol’s episode started with fleeing from pursuers.

‘No way.’

Knowing the reason well, I had no choice but to get up quickly.

Dressed in medieval-style commoner clothes, mixed with a bit of fantasy.

A single self-defense dagger and a water bottle hung from my belt.

In the pocket on my waist were some crumbs of hardtack and a small amount of money, along with the ‘Stella Academy Admission Certificate.’

“…Is this for real?”

It was exactly Baek Yu-seol’s starting item list.

I hurriedly touched my cheeks, pinched, and slapped them, but this wasn’t a dream. Just the biting cold made it clear that this situation was reality.

‘Of all characters…!’

Most other characters were from noble families, so their starting items were well-equipped. But Baek Yu-seol, being from a poor commoner family, started with practically nothing.

Such demerits were appealing as a hardcore gamer, but in reality, they meant nothing.

Th is w a s c o p i ed f ro m k i n g m t l. o r g
‘I need to stay calm.’

I quickly retraced my memories from before I was transported here.
T h i s w as c o p i e d fro m k in g m t l.o r g

‘True Ending.’

That’s what it said. But I was sure this game didn’t have a ‘True Ending’; it was supposed to be a ‘Multi-Ending’ game.

‘Could it be that in over ten years, no player ever reached the True Ending?’

If there wasn’t no True Ending but rather no one ever reached it, it made sense.

‘Damn it…’

I put the True Ending aside for now and quickly assessed my immediate situation.

‘A snowy mountain with a blizzard, an old hut, a single dagger, an admission certificate. According to my memory, pursuers would storm into the hut right after waking up…’

As soon as I thought that, I heard footsteps from far away.

“You damn bastard, how far did you run!”

“There’s a hut over there!”

“Go search it!”

Damn it. I quickly crouched and hid under the half-broken planks, avoiding immediate detection, but being caught was only a matter of time.

T h i s w as co p ie d f r o m k in gmt l . o rg
Peeking through the holes in the planks, I assessed the condition of the pursuers.

Armors made of unknown material and weapons etched with magical runes.

In this world, those using such weapons were probably the lowest-ranked street mercenaries.

But having only ever fought elementary school kids, I couldn’t beat them even if they wielded a single club instead of magical weapons.

‘What should I do? What should I…’

[You can use the skill ‘Forward Blink.’]

‘Huh?’

Forward Blink.

At the moment the familiar word came to mind, a message appeared before my eyes.

[Forward Blink]

Class: 〇

Maximum Range: 9m

Maximum Charges: 1

T h i s w a s co p ie d f ro m k i ng mt l . or g
Cooldown: 3 seconds

The one and only hope and magical skill given to Baek Yu-seol, Blink.

And the skill I’d practiced the most diligently in my entire life.

‘But that was just a game controlled by mouse and keyboard…!’

However, I had no choice now. The footsteps were already closing in.

Gritting my teeth, I got up and rushed out of the hut.

“There he is!”

“Catch and kill him!”

The worst drawback of Blink is that failing to control the distance could result in crashing into an object and dying instantly.

But it’s different when I use it.

‘Stay calm.’

I’ve used it countless times. My instincts understood the timing better than my head did.

[Blink]

My body shot forward instantly, and the distant tree rapidly came into view.

“What, what’s that!”

“A Blink spell? Was he a wizard?!”

One of the pursuers was startled, but the experienced ones immediately threw weapons at me.

They aimed to exploit the 2-second immobilization penalty after using Blink.

But for me, that penalty didn’t apply.

I am Baek Yu-seol, the Blink mage.

Thud! Thud!

Rolling forward quickly, in less than 2 seconds, countless magic and weapons rained down where I had just arrived.

If I had been hit, there wouldn’t even be a corpse left.
T hi s w a s c o p i e d f r om king m t l .o r g

After glancing back, I ran forward again, and the pursuers were genuinely flustered this time.

“What’s with that guy? How is he moving like that?”

“I don’t know! Just catch him!”

But the pursuers soon resumed chasing me closely.

This was a rugged terrain with many rocks and trees, and even ‘floating stones’ were drifting in the air. Using Blink improperly here could result in instant death.

I knew well why this terrain was like this.

‘The pursuers are faster because of their magical boots. To successfully escape, I must fully utilize Blink.’

That’s the tutorial episode for the character Baek Yu-seol.

Players who couldn’t control Blink properly here could never move on to the next episode and kept dying.

In fact, 99% of players who played Baek Yu-seol couldn’t pass this tutorial, and of the remaining 1%, many were blocked by the ‘distance control of Blink’ and ‘consecutive Blink’ barriers, and they quit.

‘Be careful. More careful.’
T h i s w a s co p i ed f ro m k in g m tl . o r g

[Blink]

Shoo! My body moved forward like a magnet, navigating the rugged terrain and traversing the mountain path.

The speed wasn’t as fast as I thought.

Controlling with a mouse and keyboard was vastly different from moving in real life, like heaven and earth.

Moreover, during the cooldown, I had to run myself, and sprinting on the slippery snow-covered mountain path for over 30 minutes left me gasping for breath.

“Huff, huff! Why is he so fast!”

“Is he using Blink in this terrain? Is he crazy?”

“Damn it! What are the wizards doing?”

“They’re already exhausted!”

“Shoot arrows or something!”

Second checkpoint. Using Blink to dodge arrows and spells.

‘But in the game, I could see all the projectiles on the monitor and dodge them…’

Arrows enchanted with wind magic would undoubtedly track me in a graceful arc, and to dodge them, I had to use Blink with precise timing.

Then, another message appeared in the air.

[The skill ‘Mana Leakage Syndrome’ is now active.]

[The derived skills ‘Sixth Sense’ and ‘Enhanced Perception’ are now active.]

My senses sharpened.

I could vaguely sense all the objects flying at me from behind as if I had antennae on my back.

Everything in this world is made of magic.

In other words, everything contains ‘mana,’ and things that move because of it can all be detected by the cursed body of Mana Leakage Syndrome!

Simply put, I can’t store mana in my body to use magic, but I can sense all the mana around me.

An arrow aimed at my waist, a javelin thrown to intercept where I’d land, and an area-wide fire spell cast within a 3m radius centered on me.

I could feel everything as if it were in my grasp, and in less than 0.3 seconds, I timed my Blink perfectly to dodge all three attacks.

Thud! Boom!

Boom!

A rain of arrows landed where I had brushed past. My heart pounded, but hesitation meant death.

‘There are seven pursuers in total. Two have lagged behind.’

Unlike me, who moved with Blink, the pursuers had to run on rugged terrain in heavy armor, and they were visibly getting exhausted.

But I was equally worn out.

Unless I had crampons, enduring this cold in thin clothes was painful, and climbing the slippery mountain was tough.

But the hardest part was using Blink consecutively.

One mistake meant death. The thought naturally drained my mental strength, and a dizzying sense of vertigo was creeping over me.

“He’s right in front of us!”

“He’s exhausted!”

The distance between the pursuers and me was roughly 100 meters.

‘But I still have the next checkpoint to pass…’

Whoosh-!!

A cliff.

At the end of the mountain path I had desperately run through was a sharp, snow-covered cliff.

Floating stones were drifting between the cliffs with a 5–6 meter gap, and to cross, I had to perfectly execute Blink’s ‘distance control.’

Once I crossed that cliff, I’d meet the passing mage corps and be rescued, ending the tutorial.

Th i s w a s c o p i ed fr om k i n g m t l . or g
But to cross the cliff, I had to flawlessly perform Blink cancel, completed in 0.1 seconds. A single failure meant instant death.

Easier said than done, 0.1 seconds.

Most players who succeeded did so after hundreds or thousands of attempts, passing purely by luck. It wasn’t a difficulty level achievable by humans.

To get through this place, I had to cross at least twenty floating stones, and a single mistake meant death.

However… honestly speaking.

‘It shouldn’t be that difficult.’

While climbing, I had already regained most of my sense for distance control.

I navigated several terrains by using short Blinks smoothly.

But the problem was that the pursuers were closer than I thought.

The cliff was an open space with limited footing. Crossing to the other side using Blink with a 3-second cooldown?

Impossible. I’d be helplessly bombarded by arrows and spells on the floating stones and die.

Thud, thud, thud!!

Even now, the distance was closing in. I didn’t have much time to think.

The most efficient way for me to survive.

There seems to be only one.

‘…I have to kill the pursuers.’

Surprisingly, the thought of killing people didn’t disturb me. Was it because they were the enemies of my parents in the story? No, it wasn’t.

Just, it seemed like I could win.

It seemed safer that way.

If this world were a game, attacking the pursuers would be impossible due to the system.

But this was reality, and there was no law forcing me to follow the game’s system blindly.

‘Hoo…’

Yes. It was crazy, even to me. I’ve never even fought properly in my life, let alone killed someone. Why was I thinking like this?

T hi s was c o p i e d f r o m k in g m tl .o r g
Was I originally this calm and brave in the face of death?

I don’t know.

Instead of pondering, I slowly touched the hilt of the dagger hanging on my belt.

“Huff! Huff! It’s a cliff!”

“Damn, where did he go!”

I put aside the doubt of whether I could do it. I still hadn’t fully understood my situation, but one thing was certain.

‘If I don’t do it now, I’ll die.’
T h i s wa s c o p ied f r o m ki n g mt l . o rg

In my life, the only experience I had with a knife was cutting green onions while cooking ramen…

The usage is simple.

Approach so quickly that the enemy can’t react and stab them in a vital spot.

Hiding behind a rock, I quickly rolled out to reveal myself and grasp the location of the enemies.

“There he is! Catch and kill…!”

Target distance, 8.7 meters.

Aiming for the archer’s neck, who was shouting while drawing his bowstring.

[Blink]

“Huh?”

Stab-!

I thrust the dagger.

End of Chapter