"Please, spare me! I've got nothing left!"
Roman gave a wry smile to his new apprentice.
Samuel had studied under Roman for a week—not because the material demanded it, but because Roman explained slowly.
"Stop whining. Didn't you want to experience human life again? Working round-the-clock is humanity's blessing!"
"Hey, isn't it supposed to be 9-9-6?"
"Here, it's 0-0-7."
"Wait, 0-0-7 or 9-9-6, that's illegal!"
"Genesis says God created the world in six days, resting on the seventh. You said you're your own God, right? God works 0-0-7!"
"It's 0-0-6!"
"You're right. Take today off, but report back at midnight!"
Samuel closed his book, stood, and left the room.
Roman blinked, then muttered, "Did I just get played?"
Samuel was joking. He'd nearly mastered Roman's magecraft knowledge, even refining his mental constructs multiple times.
By cross-referencing magecraft and esper abilities, he began merging them.
He needed time to integrate this new power into a mature system.
Samuel called it "Modern Magecraft Engineering."
In essence, it activated the soul's mysticism through magecraft knowledge, forming an "engine."
By studying Samuel's "translated" magecraft knowledge, one stimulated their soul, awakening its essence to build an "engine," becoming an ability user.
Or rather, not just an ability user—a Modern Magus.
Samuel was the first Magus, a model for the system's traits.
First, magecraft knowledge is highly corrosive and mystical, incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Samuel's "system text" tamed this mysticism, allowing gradual assimilation.
If raw magecraft knowledge was a thick pipe, Samuel added a faucet.
Prolonged exposure let "water" seep in, awakening one's "Personal Reality" at a critical threshold.
The benefit: nearly anyone could awaken abilities. The drawback: it was slow, requiring extensive accumulation.
With reduced "pressure," the process was natural, but prodigies reached their peak slower than with magecraft or esper abilities.
Magecraft and esper abilities were forceful, swallowing knowledge or power. Magecraft required accumulating knowledge and its inherent power, but as the saying goes…
"People are limited by what they see."
Vast knowledge benefited the soul but not always the humanity or body.
Thus, nine out of ten mages were… abnormal.
Esper abilities? Drugs, hypnosis, bizarre methods—split from magecraft for quick combat power. Harmful to the body.
Samuel's system was gentler, easier for mages and espers to adopt, bridging their divide.
In combat, it inherited esper speed, mobilizing complex spell constructs via calculations for versatile attacks.
It combined esper convenience with mage diversity.
Now, Samuel's strength and distinctions.
He'd absorbed Roman's vast magecraft knowledge and eighty percent of Academy City's ability formulas, centered on The Book of Flint, Man and God, and "Calculation," forming a grand "ritual."
Man and God encapsulated Roman's insights, divided into "Human Order Incineration Formula," "Human Order Correction Formula," and "Human Order Observation Formula."
Human Order refers to the factors enabling human civilization's prosperity—individual choices, historical nodes, correct sequences, all vital to its current state.
The "Incineration Formula" disrupts nodes, derailing history into the unknown.
The "Correction Formula" corrects deviations, restoring the proper path.
The "Observation Formula" was Roman's final insight.
Humanity, or the Human Order, needs no savior. It advances on its own. One should observe, not interfere.
The Book of Flint symbolized igniting wisdom's flame, raising a torch to drive off beasts.
One observes and influences the Human Order; the other is part of it.
Thus…
A body formed from vast data, cycling through endless calculated outcomes, with The Book of Flint and Man and God as its "nervous system," and "Calculation" as its brain—creating the "True Human," the "Angel" Samuel.
A scientific miracle, the embodiment of calculation and the Human Order.
The Human Order is infinite, as humans always move forward.
Calculation, too, is endless—a tool for results, where results are just part of the process.
Samuel was born from these infinite forces intertwining.
But he refused to be a mere result of calculation or a node in the Human Order. Thus, "Angel Samuel" was born.
This wasn't instantaneous but achieved after Samuel tricked Roman and secluded himself for a time.
And Roman…
"Where is he? He said to find him!"
"He's in seclusion! Making me come here? Damn it!"
Solomon's wisdom let Roman understand everything.
***
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