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A gloomy staircase greets him.

The endless darkness, devoid of even a single light, feels as terrifying as the mouth of some abyss, making it akin to staring into the gaping maw of a predator. With each step taken on that staircase, the rustling sound collides with the shadows and echoes, making it hard to discern one’s position, and even the rail he clutches sends chills down his spine with its icy touch.

What makes the chill even more intense is when the railing feels warm instead.

At such moments, it feels as though he’s seized the tongue of a beast, provoking an urge to violently abandon the railing and ascend.

“Someone’s set this up.”

And this fear is undoubtedly unnatural.

Jinseong easily realizes that someone is playing tricks here.

Is it really so frightening that just holding onto the railing to climb up a dark staircase would instill such fear?

“Heh heh heh. Quite clever.”

Students attending Seoul Specialization High School for Ability Users might have fallen for such a ploy.

Even with special abilities in play, they are still students, minors.

It’s only natural that if they felt this way, they’d scream and flee in terror.

Even a man would likely hurl curses as he becomes unable to keep going.

It’s possible that even the teachers would have been deterred by an unsettling feeling and would choose not to progress further.

The existence of the “school urban legend” mentioned by Iarin would surely amplify the discomfort regarding this staircase, causing the teachers to think they should avoid meddling in their curiosity and climb up instead, reaching a sort of unspoken compromise.

Thus, the staircase naturally became a place to avoid.

At least, in situations like now, where darkness envelops the area and human presence is rare.

“It seems to invoke fear in an environment ripe for it…. It appears to induce a specific phenomenon in the body through the railing. Perhaps it makes the hairs stand on end, causes chills, or stimulates sweat glands…”

Hairs stand on end.

Chills unfold.

These are classic symptoms of fear.

When the hairs rise, it means the muscle that erects them is contracting, naturally causing goosebumps. In conjunction with a creepy feeling, it stirs the sweat glands, leading to cold sweats…

If this was intentional, it’s undoubtedly a cunning method.

Furthermore, feeling chills is exceptionally clever.

Rather than actually lowering the temperature, it expertly uses the psychological perception of ‘cold.’ By subtly varying the railing’s temperature so that one doesn’t properly register it, it creates a sharp contrast that delivers a significant shock at an unpredictable moment.

At that point, most people would think, “I suddenly feel cold.”

It may seem trivial and inconsequential, but it’s an effective method.

In terms of preventing people from approaching naturally, it’s more useful than any conventional barrier.

Moreover.

“Heh. They’ve also set up a trick to deal with those who are aware.”

For those whom this gentle approach fails to ensnare, there’s an additional ploy at play.

“R.”

The rough sensation felt in his hand.

If he ignored it, he might think it was simply a scratch on the railing, or maybe some foreign substance clung to it—a very subtle and inconsequential feeling.

However, if he pays attention, he can certainly detect it, and if knowledgeable, he can deduce something from that sensation.

“R.”

A braille pattern corresponding to the letter ‘R.’

“N, X, 1, 2, 3, A?”

And the braille symbols representing subsequent letters and numbers.

It’s as if, having entered thinking something was hidden, the presumption is that he must solve this riddle—the only way to enter that desired place is to crack this riddle, teasingly and mockingly.

Most would grapple with what this alphabet signifies, pondering its meanings and how it relates to the location they wish to reach.

“Meaningless.”

But Jinseong simply tossed aside such ponderings.

He didn’t even lightly reflect on the significance of the letters or what they indicated.

Instead, he merely offered a light admiration for the tricks this person played and continued onward up the staircase.

And when he reached the end of the stairs after descending and descending again.

He moved his arm slowly to solve the riddle in a way the examiner certainly did not intend, but also incredibly simple.

The skin felt dry and cracked.

As one arm grazed the rough stone floor, a stinging sensation persisted.

And that stinging only intensified every time Jinseong rubbed his arm against the railing, skin scraping, blood seeping out, staining the railing a deep red. Along with that, bits of flesh or whatever it was mixed with the blood, spilling out in places, while the powder-like substances flooded the floor and dripped down the railing.

Boom—

Or burst on the spot, sticking to the ceiling and walls.

They began to grow into a dark, murky form.

That shape bore a striking resemblance to the mushroom he had summoned with magic earlier.

And upon seeing the completed mushroom, he uttered.

“O mushroom, sprouted from the fairy’s footprint, what shall you say to that which has not bestowed upon you? What words will you speak?”

Then the mushroom opened its mouth to speak.

“You shall be cursed day and night! Whether lying down or rising, no matter when you venture out or when you enter, you will always be cursed! I shall not forgive you, and I wish for every calamity inscribed in the lawbook to befall you with the eternal flames of wrath embedded in your heart!”

O miserly and greedy one.

Accept this.

This is the curse of one who does not hesitate to offer their body as a sacrifice, harboring the flames of anger.

And thus, I grant the curse.

“Explode.”

O mushroom who has unleashed the curse, burst forth!

Boom-!

With a sound akin to bursting a balloon, the mushroom erupts, and its spores scatter in all directions.

The powder that seems capable of tainting his lungs with mere inhalation floats everywhere.

The flow of air stiffened at the end of the staircase, filling the space with the cursed sentiments, transforming into helpless dust that roams endlessly, akin to evil beings bound to wander the world and purgatory without salvation until the judgment day.

Behold.

The dust.

Is it not striving to cling to even that which is invisible,

To the non-existent, though invisible?

They cling.

Like dust attracted by static electricity, they gather.

With the darkness shrouding them like a veil, they latch onto the flowing energy that previously hidden.

The dust infused with curses and energy moves, adhering itself and transforming invisibility into visibility.

A line is drawn.

Lines emerging from a single vertex.

Converging and closing, forming geometric shapes.

Hexagons.

Squares.

Hexagons.

Squares.

Large hexagons and small squares cling together to form a shape resembling a sphere, yet possessing distinct angles.

It resembles a form carved from a standard geometric shape.

This is the shape of a truncated octahedron.

O lines of energy floating in the void.

The truncated octahedron, having gained color from the mushroom’s spores, now reveals its shape.

Drifting softly, it rotates slowly, existing in that space.

And as it recognized its existence, it began to mimic that shape, repeatedly sticking it to itself.

Behold.

The geometries filling the space.

Watch the movements trying to erase the dust from its body, the uninvited guest gazing at its form.

And.

“The Eleusinian Mysteries have taken refuge here.”

With the hand of Park Jinseong, enveloping the form in spores.

“The mystery hidden in the call of the seer shall reveal itself.”

His hand, having turned white as if it were pulled from a flour sack.

From that hand, mushrooms sprout rapidly.

Shapes distinctly different from the coarse morel mushrooms he cultivated earlier.

Some sport delicate stems with cute brown caps, others boast striking red caps, while others display colors so dangerously vibrant they appear perilous.

These appear on Jinseong’s hand, roots extending as if it were soil or wood and growing briskly, containing psilocybin, ultimately bursting forth, turning blue as it reveals the mycotoxins within its body.

Blue.

Jinseong’s hand turns blue.

The hallucinogenic mushrooms sprayed forth psilocybin.

Coated in a substance akin to blood, emitted by the mushrooms, Jinseong moves.

And so he,

The void.

The truncated octahedron.

The lines forming the shape.

The energy.

Snip!

…Tore it apart.

 

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