The Munchkin Magic Genius is Laughing

The skill Jeff possesses, ‘Movement’. The foundation of this skill is ‘Enhancement’.

Living organisms, artifacts, and even magic. It can enhance various elements by transforming their elemental arrays, making them different from their original state.

▶Movement

-Can be used on various objects including skills, items, people, etc.

-When Movement is used, the target is enhanced. The direction of enhancement can be freely modified by changing the elemental array, as long as the user’s mana permits.

-When combined with artifacts, it amplifies all mana in the surrounding area.

-When Movement is removed from the target, the elemental array returns to its original state. However, if concentration is disturbed during this process, serious damage may occur.

-Basic duration effect: Handles complex mana calculations.

-Basic duration effect: Magic utilization greatly increases.

Jeff has been using this skill to enhance various elements in the magic tower. Even the ‘Source of Life’ responsible for the magic tower’s flotation.

But Movement doesn’t simply have an ‘enhancement’ effect. What’s noteworthy is that as long as the user’s mana permits, the ‘elemental array’ can be modified and freely transformed.

‘I might be a bit short on mana…’

In fact, Jeff doesn’t have that much mana. After all, he hadn’t been in this world for very long, and besides Movement, he had almost no other decent skills.

This is also why he didn’t directly cause trouble at the magic tower. Even if he could enhance skills to beat up one or two magic tower people, if a few high-ranking magicians dragged it into a prolonged battle, he would be caught and beaten mercilessly. This is because the number of times Jeff could use Movement in a day wasn’t that many.

Therefore, over the course of a year, he had been slowly using Movement on magic tower artifacts. To give them a big blow later, additionally, he watched even as they stole his achievements. To shift the blame onto them later.

‘Sigh… well, it shouldn’t take much mana just to unlock one magic lock.’

With stage 2 and stage 3 exams still ahead, Jeff needed to conserve his mana as much as possible. Earlier, when fighting with the gatekeeper, he had already used Movement once to change a 1-element magic into a 5-element one. Although it was just a tiny sphere, he had already wasted an absurd amount of mana with just that.

“Ariel, please put your hand on it for a moment.”

Following Jeff’s words, Ariel first placed her hand on the magic lock. Then he spoke to Ariel.

“Please flow mana into the lock. About 10% of your level.”

Ariel silently followed Jeff’s instructions. Ariel’s transparent and blue mana is absorbed straight into the lock. Between the elements inside the lock, Ariel’s mana densely fills the gaps.

Mana floating in the void. Jeff decided to utilize it as is.

“Movement”

As he placed his hand on the lock and spoke softly, Jeff’s mana instantly extends toward the lock. Not long after, a fork appears between the elemental arrays. Jeff’s mana divides into two branches and extends again, and the extended mana further divides into dozens of branches.

Eventually, the mana branches out into tens of thousands of strands, exploring all the elements inside the mana lock.

‘So it’s structured like this. It should be easy to unlock.’

They’ve done something interesting. This mana lock is designed to be unlocked only when a certain level of mana is injected into the ‘lock acupoint’. But the funny thing is that they’ve placed a mana blocking formula right in front of the lock acupoint.

The dozens, hundreds of small formulas block all mana coming from around the acupoint. In other words, even though mana can flow to the surrounding area, they’ve set it up to be blocked right in front of the acupoint where mana needs to be sent to unlock the lock.

‘Let’s make this easy.’

Using Movement, Jeff modified the mana absorption formula. There are a total of 4 mana absorption formulas. They are spread in the east, west, north, and south, and their range is fixedly limited so that they don’t interfere with each other.

Jeff forcibly widened the application range of the formulas. Then,

Crackle!

As intense electric shocks began to occur, the absorption formulas started to interfere with each other. The formulas frantically fluctuated and vibrated to absorb each other’s mana. As this happened, the internal elements began to be destroyed one by one.

‘Now it’s just a matter of time before it breaks.’

‘There are mana absorption formulas inside the lock.’ Those who notice this fact would obviously continue to pour mana into the bottomless jar without knowing what the problem is. In fact, looking around, the majority of the applicants were anxiously pouring mana into locks that wouldn’t open.

[Why on earth won’t this open… how much mana do I need to pour in for it to open?]

[Brother. Please pour in as much mana as you have. The reason assistants were added to this exam might be because both people’s mana needs to be filled into the lock for it to open.]

Sure enough, there were already people who had taken the wrong direction.

Inspector Mellin clicked her tongue and shook her head as she watched them.

‘I thought the instructor applicants this time might be more skilled, but they’re all just pathetic. Fools with flat thinking.’

Normally, mana locks are released when ‘a certain level’ of mana is injected. After all, isn’t it just a simple lock? This level would prevent ordinary thieves who aren’t magicians from opening the lock, making it a great security device.

People were trapped in stereotypes. They didn’t question the difference between the principles of the mana locks they had seen so far and the principles of the lock in front of them.

Trapped in prejudice, they failed to grasp the situation. The lock doesn’t open even if mana is poured in. Then, more mana must be poured in. This unidirectional thinking is not what this exam is looking for.

What Inspector Mellin wanted was problem identification and problem-solving ability.

Would the exam prioritize stupidly pouring in a lot of mana? Really? Is that the type of talent Riness Academy wants? If they had thought about this even once, they would have looked for a different solution.

But all these idiots in front are doing is pouring mana into the lock. Some were even trying to physically break it.

Bang!

Bang!

“Brother. It’s not breaking.”

“Try using a higher-level magic! It seems like it will break if we do a bit more.”

“Should I heat it with fire?”

“No, use freezing magic this time.”

Inspector Mellin was shocked to see this.

‘No… how could they think of breaking the lock, what do they take the capabilities of Riness Academy inspectors for? Are they really people who don’t know how to think?’

Those who inject mana are relatively better. Those trying to break the mana lock left her speechless with disbelief. Anti-destruction formulas are engraved on the mana locks. It’s a formula personally engraved by Inspector Mellin, along with the existing instructor team of Riness Academy.

Mellin wanted to see problem-solving ability, not select those who excel in force, so of course, she had taken measures to prevent it from being shattered.

Mellin also checked on the man named Jeff, whom she had seen at the main entrance earlier.

‘What… he’s the same too. Maybe I saw the magic from earlier at the main entrance wrong.’

A man who can handle all 5 elements would not struggle to solve something like this. As Mellin was thinking this and about to turn her head,

— Click!

With that sound, the lock opened immediately. Moreover, it didn’t just open.

— Crumble!

The lock shattered on the spot. Ariel, who was standing next to him, cheered, and Jeff stood in front of Mellin holding the lock, or rather, what was once a lock, with an expression that suggested he knew it would break.

Then, Jeff deliberately spoke loudly as if wanting other applicants to hear:

“Inspector Mellin. I’ve broken the lock. Is this enough to pass?”

Mellin pondered. What she wanted wasn’t the destruction of the lock. But the lock in front of her was completely destroyed by anyone’s standards, wasn’t it? However, after examining the lock more closely, Mellin answered with inner admiration.

“You… pass.”

Inspector Mellin stared blankly at Jeff’s expression. This man didn’t care that he had already passed. Mellin hadn’t paid much attention either. Jeff’s gaze was entirely directed at the other competitors who had despised him. But then he turned his gaze to Mellin and asked.

“How many seconds did it take?”

“1 minute 27.35 seconds… breaking the all-time record.”

At that moment, the gazes of all instructor applicants in the hall were focused on Jeff.

“No way….”

“That can’t be…?”

“It’s just the first stage… this must have been passed using a trick, right? I could solve this quickly too…!”

“Quickly solve it. If a half-wit like him can solve it, we can too.”

“It’s just the first stage test… he will definitely not be able to do anything in stages 2 and 3. Don’t be swayed.”

“That woman next to him. I heard she’s a 3-element magician. That guy Jeff must have just tagged along. It will be fine if we crush him thoroughly in the competition and cooperation rounds.”

They pretend to be confident, but they were nervously glancing at Jeff and Ariel with uneasy expressions.