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The Closed School and the Secret Magic Circle
“Huh? You mean the school is temporarily closed?”
[Yes. This is a measure for the children’s safety, so please cooperate.]
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
That weekend, we cleared out the Orc Dungeon that had appeared in a corner of the school.
After dinner with my mother, I was watching TV when I overheard her talking on the phone.
‘That voice on the other end… isn’t that our principal?’
A sudden school closure.
It must be because they found the dungeon I conquered.
Well, they might’ve discovered the dungeon—but with all the monsters already dead, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
‘Still, maybe I should’ve burned all the orc corpses with the Samadhi Evolution…’
If I had, they might’ve assumed it was a completely new type of dungeon—one with no monsters, no traps, no danger at all.
That would’ve caused a huge stir, and researchers from all over the world would have rushed in to study it.
It was better this way—just an “unknown intruder” incident.
‘The school will probably cooperate with government agencies to find the intruder, but…’
Before I returned, I’d burned everything in that dungeon except the orc corpses.
Even the lingering magical energy was completely erased.
So even if they brought in a psychometrist, they wouldn’t find anything.
Psychometry only reads the residual memories left in scattered mana.
If you erase all traces of your mana like I did, you’re practically invisible.
No matter how skilled the investigation team is, it’ll be impossible for them to find me.
“Haa… What should I do about this…”
Anyway, it seems like the sudden school closure happened because of me.
My mother looked a little troubled after hanging up the call.
“Why, Mom?”
“Oh, Gunwoo. The school just announced it’ll be closed for a week starting tomorrow…”
“Closed?”
“Mm, it means you won’t have to go to school.”
I tilted my head like an innocent child who didn’t really understand what “school closure” meant.
Honestly, I couldn’t understand why my mom looked so worried.
After thinking for a moment, she started making phone calls.
“Jaehee? Do you have any plans this weekend?”
“Yes, Team Leader. I was actually wondering if I could take a vacation starting tomorrow.”
‘All of a sudden? Maybe one day is fine…’
“Um… I was thinking a week.”
Looks like she was talking to her boss.
“No, Jaehee. You’re saying a week off, not just a day? You didn’t mention this on Friday, and now you’re suddenly asking on Sunday?”
“That’s because… my son’s elementary school suddenly announced a closure… and I can’t just leave him home alone. He only just started school.”
‘Ah… I see…’
Mom sounded nervous, and her team leader sighed heavily on the other end.
“…Alright, but you have to come in tomorrow. We’ve got an important meeting. I’ll mark Tuesday as vacation, so find someone to watch him tomorrow.”
“Yes, thank you. Really, thank you!”
In the end, Mom managed to get four days off.
After that, she started calling people, trying to find someone who could watch me.
“Oh, really? I see… Sorry, I’ll try someone else.”
“Our son’s school is closed right now too? Oh, Ha-eun’s staying with her grandmother for a week? Your husband’s on vacation too? Oh, that’s nice…”
“Yeah, you’re busy… okay, I understand.”
But Mom’s network wasn’t that wide.
By the time it got late, she still hadn’t found anyone to leave me with.
“…….”
In the end, she sighed softly.
“…It’s only one day, right? One day will be fine. My Gunwoo’s a smart boy.”
The Next Morning.
Monday.
Mom, already dressed for work, crouched down in front of me and grabbed my shoulders.
“Our Gunwoo, you can stay home alone today, right?”
“…Yeah.”
I nodded.
She was worried, of course—but only because she thought I was just a normal kid.
If I were really an ordinary eight-year-old, I’d understand her anxiety.
‘She’s just scared I’ll get hurt if I do something reckless while she’s gone.’
It was only natural. Any parent would think that way.
“When it’s lunchtime, just scoop some rice from the cooker, and there are side dishes on the bottom shelf of the fridge, okay?”
“Okay.”
“If someone you don’t know comes knocking, hide under the bed, alright?”
“…Yeah.”
Of course.
I nodded obediently to her instructions, even though it felt a little strange.
“Alright then. As soon as Mom leaves, lock the door. Got it?”
“Yes.”
After repeating that several times, she finally left for work.
The moment I heard the door close, I locked it.
“…Now I’m finally alone.”
I walked straight to the kitchen, pulled out a kitchen knife, and brought it back to my room.
If Mom saw me doing this, she’d probably faint on the spot.
“Let’s see…”
I picked up the knife and looked around the room.
After estimating the size of the space, I exhaled lightly—
—and stabbed the blade into my hand.
Blood welled up instantly, dripping onto the floor.
Ignoring the pain, I began to draw a pattern with it.
A magic circle.
‘The same one from the school training room.’
A circle that gathers mana.
Normally, it’s drawn using powdered magic stones—refined cores taken from monsters.
But where could I possibly find those now?
The orc dungeon I cleared would’ve yielded some, but the purity of orc cores is so low they’d barely work.
‘There’s a way to use orc blood instead, but I didn’t have any left. And orc blood is… inferior.’
That’s why I was using my own blood.
My blood, cleansed and refined since infancy, was infinitely pure—saturated with energy and free of impurities.
‘At the very least, it’s better than orc blood or low-grade mana stones.’
“Phew…”
Before the bleeding stopped, I completed the magic circle.
Then I released a trickle of mana into it.
Wuuuung…
A low hum filled the air as the circle activated, and mana began to converge around it.
‘…It’ll probably take a while to gather as much as the school training room did.’
It was smaller in scale, of course—but enough for my purpose.
‘Once enough mana accumulates, I can absorb it through breathing exercises every morning and night.’
Satisfied, I looked at the blood-soaked floor.
Naturally, if Mom saw this, she’d pass out.
So I erased it all with Samadhi Evolution.
‘Only the blood, nothing else.’
The magic circle remained—already activated, its flow of mana stable.
As long as no magician deliberately disrupted it, it would stay.
After washing the knife clean and putting it back in its place, I nodded.
“Good.”
Then I sat in the center of the circle.
‘It’s about time my body could handle Harmony Divine Art.’
I took a deep breath.
The mana gathering around me flowed inward, drawn greedily into my body.
It merged with the mana already stored in my middle dantian—my heart—and began circulating through my meridians, transforming into inner energy.
Not just the lower and middle dantians, but even the upper one began to fill.
‘…So this is Harmony Divine Art.’
It was a martial art I’d created myself—one I’d known the theory of, but still found absurd in practice.
There are many types of internal energy cultivation techniques, but this one…
‘It converts any form of power—mana, aura, psychic force—into a single unified energy.’
It was on a completely different level from merely mimicking magic, aura, or psychic abilities like I used to.
Before, even if I copied them, true masters could sense something off.
But now… with Harmony Divine Art, I could use all of them perfectly.
Magic, aura, psychic power—and more.
‘Even spirit arts, and other rare abilities… theoretically, I can wield them all.’
That alone made this technique a masterpiece.
Yet it didn’t stop there.
“…To think it even allows interference with space and time…”
I raised my hand and lightly grasped the air.
The space before me distorted faintly.
It was only a ripple—barely perceptible—but I could feel it.
‘It’s just minor interference for now. I’ve only been practicing for a few hours, after all.’
Still, Harmony Divine Art was the culmination of everything I had ever experienced.
Even my regression was a part of it.
So it made sense that it could affect time and space themselves.
【User Han Gunwoo has completed a peerless martial art.】
【User Han Gunwoo possesses the qualities of a Grandmaster.】
【Granting ‘Eyes of the Grandmaster’ to User Han Gunwoo.】
It was as if the system itself wanted to shower me with gifts.
With this much power, it would be a crime not to become strong.
I thought that as I continued my training, refining Harmony Divine Art throughout the entire day—
—until the sound of the front door opening broke my focus.
“Gunwoo, didn’t Mom tell you to eat lunch while I was gone?”
“……”
I froze.
Right.
I’d completely forgotten to eat lunch.
And of course… Mom found out the moment she got home.
