The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

Book 2: Chapter 405

Void could not be called a field of study.

Even after studying this power deeply and building up systematic knowledge, it would be a futile effort to try to leave any records of it.

Fields of study should be shared by many people.

They should allow those who have accumulated enough knowledge to discuss amongst themselves, and anyone who has the will to learn should be eligible to enter. Although they might seem difficult and unfriendly to the layman, their complexity should never exceed a certain level.

In other words, they should be accessible. That was the only way for them to keep going. They needed masters, disciples, forefathers, and descendants.

And it needed alumni.

Those who could find different solutions to the same problem, and who could sometimes take different approaches to the same topic and discuss them.

Since ancient times, the most developed fields of study were the ones where experts with different thoughts often clashed.

Constantly thinking to point out or respond to logical arguments resulted in the most beautiful development of a field of study.

And it was for this reason that Void could not be considered as such.

‘Because the layman wouldn’t understand.’

It wasn’t just the laymen.

Objectively speaking, even those talented enough to be called geniuses would hardly be able to understand the magical powers that void possessed.

To state it specifically, its structure was tens of thousands of times more complex than mana.

From his understanding, the power of void was closely linked to disappearance and regeneration. There was no power in the entire multiverse that was as dangerous.

This level of difficulty, this level of risk.

It was not something that could be studied with trial and error. Naturally, this made it impossible to discuss with anyone else.

So Lukas simply accepted this power as a kind of authority.

It was similar to the power Absolutes used. A kind of power that couldn’t and shouldn’t be used by just anyone.

…The reason he said it was similar was because unlike that, Lukas had to learn the power of void from the bottom up.

Absolutes were different. Most of them were given a complete understanding of the power given to them from birth. This made it possible for them to use it as easily as breathing. In a nutshell, it was inborn.

That wasn’t the case for Lukas.

“Sss…”

He immersed himself.

Continuously immersing himself.

The flow of consciousness did not stop.

Lukas had only stopped once, and that was when he was no longer able to feel the power of void.

As indicated before, he had already crossed the most difficult ridge. Now, there was nothing to block Lukas.

However, it was slow. His pace was as slow as a snail. This couldn’t be helped. This was how difficult it was to carve out a field from nothing. Nevertheless, if he was neglectful now, there would surely be a time when he would have to pay for it.

It was fine.

Lukas didn’t feel any frustration or irritation because of this. In the first place, his perseverance and patience had long surpassed the level of an Absolute.

In the World of Void, the dump site was the perfect place to research the mysterious power of void.

Even if he was injured to the point of death, eating a corpse would allow him to be fully healed in the blink of an eye. To be precise, it should be called bodily regression or retrogression, but there was no need to go into the details.

He got injured.

Over and over again.

He’d thought that the risk would be removed as he gained more knowledge, maintained control of his temper, and got used to it, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, the risk seemed to only grow larger and larger.

Crunch.

Lukas forcefully bit into a corpse. This time, his teeth were also shattered, so he almost couldn’t chew or swallow.

It was at that moment that he realised something.

If something went wrong, there was a chance that he might not be able to chew or swallow a corpse. The solution to this was simple. He would simply need to cut the corpse into a more edible form.

To put it simply, he would have to cook a human corpse. This was a solution that Lukas would never have thought of in the past, but his blackened, rotten mind had long since lost its aversion to this.

There were no tools or technology.

So he could only make the corpses into something like dried jerky. Due to the nature of the dump site, the jerky wouldn’t harden as time passed.

Munch.

Lukas chewed on a piece of jerky and swallowed it.

The arm that had been severed in the explosion quickly regenerated.

Although he didn’t want it, mana also re-emerged.

‘…’

He didn’t want to replenish mana.

What Lukas wanted was to just restore his body.

‘If I can fully understand and control void, it should be possible to isolate the concept of regeneration.’

To allow the restoration of mana.

Or to just restore the body.

…Of course, currently, it was impossible for him to even guess how such a thing could be done.

Shaking his head, he decided to halt those stray thoughts.

In this case, since he was still far away from his destination, it would be better to just lower his head and stare at the tips of his feet as he took one step at a time. That would remind him that although he’s moving slowly, he’s moving steadily.

* * *

To create spells with void, he first needed to understand the interactions.

And to learn the interactions, he needed to fully understand the properties of void.

As a result of his analysis, he learned that void had the property of being easily swept away by surrounding movements whether they were material or immaterial. This was the reason it had unknowingly been mixed in with his mana and became an impurity.

That was tricky.

This meant that if his concentration wavered in even the slightest way, the void could be swept away by his own pulse.

Gathering it back together was a tedious process, but Lukas suddenly realised.

‘There is no need to gather it back together.’

This was a preconceived notion he had due to mana.

With void, there was no need to gather it in one place like a mana room.

Lukas allowed the void to spread out as it pleased.

“—”

Void scattered throughout his body.

Lukas could literally feel the power of emptiness flowing within him.

‘Now.’

Now that you’ve pranced around to your heart’s content, it’s time to listen to me.

Lukas cautiously assumed control over the void.

Bang!

“…”

A large shockwave rippled through his body, and with a cough, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

* * *

His experiment to observe the reaction of applying magical formulas to void was ignorant and dangerous. It was something that he would never have considered if he couldn’t regenerate his body an almost infinite number of times.

Originally, he was already quite insensitive to pain.

But now, it had grown to the extent that he even felt numb to what was essentially his acts of self harm. Whenever he used a spell, at least one of his limbs would be turned to rags, but he barely felt anything. The only thing he paid attention to was the movement of void.

There certainly was progress.

Gradually, he was beginning to understand the properties of void.

A bit more.

Just a bit more, and this power would belong to Lukas.

…Or so he thought.

“…”

One day, Lukas suddenly looked around.

There were no corpses in the area.

The reason for their absence was obvious.

“…”

Get injured.

Eat a corpse.

Get injured.

Eat another corpse.

‘For what reason…?’

For what reason am I living like this?

No. Could this even be called living?

Does being able to think and act mean one is alive?

Those sudden questions made him reflect on himself.

Then came the most difficult moment.

The feeling of detachment that he felt when he changed was hard to bear. He couldn’t accept the fact that the disgusting smell of a strange monster was coming from none other than himself.

At that time, he’d buried himself in the mountain of corpses and cried for days.

There were times when he screamed like a deranged person.

…As time went by, his broken mind gradually stitched itself back together.

After that, he became a bit more numb. He knew that this phenomenon was not a good thing. Everything that made up Lukas had either been dyed black or disappeared.

He forced himself to ignore it.

And once again.

Dived into void.

* * *

One day, he suddenly realised that he could move void according to his will.

That he’d completely comprehended the properties of void.

At that moment, he didn’t feel any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction.

He touched his face. He touched the face of a man who was incredibly expressionless.

How much time had passed.

And how much more time would pass.

He didn’t know. He couldn’t know.

Lukas shook his head.

Completely understanding the properties of void was a clear achievement.

Nevertheless, it meant another start.

There was no point in simply being able to manipulate this power. He wouldn’t achieve anything like that.

Void needed to be sublimated into a means of attack, defence, and perhaps even more than that.

Only then would he be able to defeat the Twelve Void Lords.

* * *

—A long time passed.

No.

Perhaps it didn’t pass at all.

* * *

If there was an accurate way to measure the movement of time in the dump site, it would be the existence of the three day bugs.

If he remained motionless for three days, they would always appear right on time.

This time was no exception.

Clitter clatter-

Hundreds of millions of them.

The number of three day bugs there was perhaps even more than that.

It was definitely an unusual sight to see such a number of these guys who usually only moved in groups numbering in the millions. Anyone who learned the reason for this would have no choice but to nod their heads.

Because there was a man who hadn’t moved a muscle for more than three days.

Not a corpse, a human.

He was definitely alive.

Even though he had a skinny body, long, dishevelled hair, an unkempt beard and fingernails, the man was clearly alive.

…A long time had passed since the man had been in this state. To an extent, it was strange that not a single three day bug had tried to devour him during this time.

Even after such a long time, the three days bugs were not able to approach him.

They themselves didn’t know the reason for this. As if they were being blocked by an invisible wall, they could not get closer than a certain distance from the man.

Twitch.

Suddenly, the man’s finger twitched.

Startled by this movement, the three day bugs, who had completely covered the surroundings, immediately began to scatter. If they were eating, they wouldn’t care if their prey moved or not, but sadly, they’d never been able to get close to the man’s flesh.

“…”

The man,

Lukas opened his eyes.

“—ah.”

The voice that flowed out was very broken.

“So it’s like that.”

In a completely emotionless voice, he muttered as if he’d finally realised something.

Then, he slowly lowered his stiff neck and looked down at his body.

His long hair and overgrown nails caught his eye.

“…”

Lukas stretched a finger towards his carotid artery.

Ssss-

Suddenly, his hair began to shrink. It was the same for his beard and fingernails. No, rather than shrinking, it was more like time was being reversed.

Before long, Lukas’ appearance had completely changed.

His long hair was now at an appropriate length, his beard had disappeared, and his fingernails, which were as long as a beast’s claws, had become short as if they were freshly cut.

“…”

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

—He’d lost many things.

Mana, identity, humanity, emotions.

…No. Did he lose them?

Maybe he’d thrown them away, or maybe he’d broken them himself.

He wasn’t sure. In truth, he didn’t really care. He didn’t feel like it was worth taking time to think about.

In any case, Lukas had lost a lot in this place.

Perhaps that was the reason.

His body felt incredibly light as though he could float away at any moment.

He’d become empty.

In other words, void.

That was the only thing Lukas still had in the dump site without throwing it away.

Lukas’ eyes were no longer blue. They were now a deep shade of black.

He looked around with those eyes.

The dump site.

He knew this place was large enough to be called a world.

But that didn’t matter. He already knew how to leave.

At some point, he’d become able to feel the existence of the exit.

Nevertheless, he’d never paid any attention to it until now. He hadn’t gone near it and he’d purposefully ignored it.

That was because he still had more to gain from the dump site, and above all, he’d felt that he wasn’t ready.

Tap-

As he walked towards the exit, a thought appeared in his mind.

Not anymore.

(TL: The one thing I’m curious about is what Pale is doing all this while.)