I Became a Disaster-Class Sorcery Genius

How to Win Without Fighting. (1)

The Trailblazer (先驅), Jaegal Shin.

In China, it was hardly an exaggeration to say that barely anyone did not know his name.

Of course, that didn't mean Jaegal Shin stood out among the most outstanding sorcerers.

On the contrary: as an A-rank sorcerer, he had yet to reach the level of an S-rank sorcerer.

In short, he was not yet a fully accomplished sorcerer.

No, there were even rumors in some circles that Jaegal Shin might end up retiring without ever achieving S-rank.

That was because his spiritual power was lower than that of ordinary sorcerers.

Although spiritual power can increase through acquired effort, ultimately it is heavily influenced by natural-born talent.

Because of this, the fact that Jaegal Shin, born with such little spiritual power, still managed to reach the ranks of an A-rank sorcerer was itself widely considered a remarkable achievement.

Even Jaegal Shin himself would humbly nod his head whenever someone commented that he might never become an S-rank sorcerer.

Because it was the truth.

Yet, that didn't mean other sorcerers disregarded Jaegal Shin.

No, more accurately, they simply couldn't disregard him.

That was because of his talent.

Even though he was merely an A-rank sorcerer, when it came to the 'sorcery formation', no one possessed greater genius than he did—and no one ever disagreed with this assessment.

In all of vast China, not a single person disputed his genius, so much so that his talent was none too little to be called "genius (天才)".

In reality, despite only being an A-rank sorcerer, he could maintain strength rivaling even that of S-rank sorcerers—using sorcery formations he himself created that could manifest mystical artifacts—so Jaegal Shin took unwavering pride in his "sorcery formation" abilities.

Recently, he had received a sorcery formation from the teacher who had helped him not long ago.

At first glance, it looked just like the scribbles of a child—according to the email, it was an unraveling sorcery formation for the modified Eight-Fold Primal Demon Formation (八區原魔陣). Something one might call a child's messy doodle at best.

'What on earth is this?'

And, very naturally, Jaegal Shin felt puzzled as he stared at it.

No matter how hard he tried, what he was seeing certainly did not look like a sorcery formation.

"Hmm..."

Jaegal Shin could say this with real conviction.

He was a genius.

At least when it came to sorcery formations, Jaegal Shin had a near-absolute belief in himself.

That's why, the moment he saw this formation, he came to a firm conclusion.

'This isn't a sorcery formation.'

'There's no way this could be one.'

Even if someone had drawn this and called it a sorcery formation, there were just far too many problems with it.

The greatest among them was that the shapes and lines were completely misaligned.

No—it was more than simply misaligned; this was at the level of someone just scribbling at random.

Yet even as he thought this, Jaegal Shin did not put the sorcery formation away from his sight.

'If my teacher asked me to decipher this, then it must be a genuine sorcery formation, at least in some sense.'

That was because the person who handed over this formation was Kang Cheol-shin, his former teacher.

So Jaegal Shin, filled with doubt, continued studying the sorcery formation.

How much time passed like that?

"... Hm?"

Jaegal Shin had found something.

'... Looking at it this way, it seems the shapes and lines were deliberately disrupted?'

Of course, for Kim Dojun, not even knowing what shapes and lines were, he'd just scrambled together a formation drawn roughly from his memories of game effects and illustrations in the game, without a clue about their meaning.

"... What?"

Even so, Jaegal Shin's unreal genius allowed him to start spotting fragments of the original sorcery formation—snippets Kim Dojun had unconsciously recalled as he sketched his version in his terrible drawing skills.

Unwittingly relaxing his frown, Jaegal Shin suddenly picked up a pen.

Tsk-! Squeak-!

Almost as if possessed, he began drawing thick lines across the sorcery formation displayed on his monitor.

With a pen that couldn't be erased, Jaegal Shin traced shapes onto his monitor.

After a bit more time had passed...

Jaegal Shin threw down his pen and immediately contacted his teacher, saying,

[Teacher, this sorcery formation is ridiculously amazing! Who on earth drew this?]

Jaegal Shin's question.

Kang Cheol-shin seemed surprised at Jaegal Shin's call, but explained everything that had happened one by one.

Soon after, Jaegal Shin realized why such a sorcery formation had come about, and found himself smiling unconsciously.

[Did you succeed in deciphering the formation?]

Kang Cheol-shin's question.

Jaegal Shin replied decisively.

"No."

[So you failed, then?]

"Teacher, this wasn't a sorcery formation made to be deciphered in the first place."

[... What? You mean this wasn't made to be interpreted?]

"Yes. According to you, the instructor tried to break the will of the Explosion God's disciple, and the kid drew this formation, right?"

[That's right.]

"This was made to mess with that instructor."

[... Mess with?]

"Yes. As you sent it to me, the sorcery formation is just a bunch of scribbles—not even fit to be called a formation."

[... Then why did you say it's amazing?]

Jaegal Shin didn't reply to that right away, but instead took a picture of his monitor using his smartphone and sent it.

"That kid turned it into a problem instead."

Of course, Kim Dojun hadn't actually intended to make a problem—he'd just created an atrocious drawing with his disastrous skills.

Yet Jaegal Shin, after reconstructing the mashed-up drawing into a real sorcery formation, replied with confidence.

[This is...?]

"This is the correct answer to the problem. If you have enough spiritual power...the variant formation, based on the modified Eight-Fold Primal Demon Formation attached in the email, can nullify most similar sealing formations."

[... Wow. Then why did that kid hide such a problem in there?]

"Probably—"

As Kang Cheol-shin asked, Jaegal Shin grinned mischievously.

"'If you can't even solve this much, then quit showing off,' wouldn't you say?"

That was his answer.

After finishing his call with Kang Cheol-shin, Jaegal Shin stared at his monitor, his expression full of interest.

It would take considerable work to use the monitor again, given the thick lines he'd drawn over it, but that wasn't what mattered to Jaegal Shin.

What mattered to him was the 'genius' named Kim Dojun.

Jaegal Shin had seen countless people claim to be geniuses throughout his life, brief as it was.

Yet, not once had he ever considered any of them his peer.

Because by his own standards, none of their talents could compare to his.

But in this moment, Jaegal Shin was certain.

'This one—this kid is my peer.'

This kid,

The one who set such a preposterous exercise, was undeniably a genius on the same level, standing side by side with him.

Therefore...

"... I have to meet him at least once."

Jaegal Shin murmured, a smile unconsciously forming on his face.

Around the same time, in Korea...

"Alright, look here. To apply the fundamentals of shapes and lines within sorcery formations, you utilize the principle of Yin and Yang with logic techniques—"

'... Guess I should sleep.'

Attending the basic theory lecture on sorcery formations, Kim Dojun began to doze off.

####

That afternoon, after class ended.

"Here."

On the appointed day, Kim Dojun met Shin Se-yeon and—while receiving the book he had lent her—suddenly found himself looking at her with a curious expression.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Irritated, Shin Se-yeon frowned at Kim Dojun's expression.

"I was just wondering if you actually did it properly."

"What? What are you talking about?"

A hint of annoyance crept into Shin Se-yeon's voice.

But Kim Dojun continued, his face calm as usual.

"As you know, the Astrology Basics volume is over three hundred pages."

"So?"

"The Astrology Fundamentals is around 230 pages."

"And?"

"If you hit someone on the head with either, you could probably kill them."

"?? All of a sudden?"

Shin Se-yeon looked at him, dumbfounded.

"But you're saying you finished reading the Astrology Basics in just a few days—that's what makes me suspicious."

"You're the one who set the deadline!"

Her face seemed to say, 'What kind of jerk is this!?' but Kim Dojun stayed perfectly composed.

"I did set the deadline."

"Then what exactly is your problem?"

"I don't have a problem. I just want to test if you actually memorized it properly."

"Fine, go ahead!"

At Kim Dojun's words, Shin Se-yeon looked at him like she couldn't believe him, but said to try if he wanted.

"Alright. Then I'll smack you each time you get one wrong."

"What!?"

Kim Dojun immediately opened the Astrology Basics book.

"Essentially, Astrology is the study of predicting the future by observing celestial phenomena. It wasn't originally included under sorcery—"

"That's from page 164, right in the middle of the astrology theory section. After that, it continues, 'Starting from when the Japanese scholar Futatsu Masato, an astronomer, began formally incorporating astrology into sorcery and using it together, it became mainstream...' Right?"

"??"

Kim Dojun couldn't help but be surprised.

"How did you do that?"

"What do you mean how? I memorized it."

With an extra-confident expression, Shin Se-yeon acted as if she finally had one over on him, so Kim Dojun quickly turned the page and began firing more questions.

Thirty minutes later...

"'To use astrology, you fundamentally need the ability to observe the sky. Using the north (北) as a base, you establish your sorcery formation and draw the hand seal to reach the basics.' Right?"

"... Did you really memorize the entire book?"

"That's nothing for me."

Watching her answer confidently to his dumbfounded question, Kim Dojun once again felt the world was unfair.

'She just memorizes books by looking at them.'

In Sorcery Killing Technique as well, Shin Se-yeon is described as a genius more than once.

Nevertheless, as someone who had the ability to fall asleep just from looking at a book, Kim Dojun found her truly mysterious.

As if he were looking at something that shouldn't exist in the world.

'... Well, people can't be perfect. Surely she must have at least one screw loose somewhere.'

Thinking so, Kim Dojun stared at her for a moment.

Right about when Shin Se-yeon began to sense something off about the way he was gazing at her...

"Ah."

Kim Dojun suddenly gave a small exclamation as if he had discovered something.

"? What is it all of a sudden?"

Looking at her with an expression similar to hers, Kim Dojun said,

"I see."

"?"

"She must have become a genius at the cost of turning into a delinquent."

He looked at her just as she was, somehow unimpressed.

"What are you blabbering about all of a sudden!!!"

Perhaps frustrated by this, Shin Se-yeon shouted in anger.

Seeing her reaction, Kim Dojun pulled another book, Astrology Intermediate Theory, from his jacket and handed it to her.

"Alright, then. Let's meet again this weekend."

And with that, he disappeared.

"Ughhhhhh!!"

For a while, Shin Se-yeon screamed a bizarre (?!) shriek at Kim Dojun's retreating back before leaving.

And so, time passed until the weekend came again at the Sorcery Institute.

"Well then, time to go earn some money."

Kim Dojun's first outing was about to begin.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
I'm not really fond of dumb MC trope, but Kim Dojun is just so nonsensical that I just go along with it.
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