Chapter 43: Seeds of Sentience

“Today, you look healthier than usual. That’s a relief.”

“Thank you for your concern.”

With a wry smile, I bowed slightly and resealed the magic circle I had been examining.

I had rushed here after hearing that the room’s entrance was half-disappearing, but fortunately, it wasn’t a significant issue.

It turned out that a single spell from the magic circle had overlapped with the door, creating a distortion on top of it.

“Maintenance is complete. There was no major issue, so there’s no need to worry. Thank you for notifying me.”

“Haha, since it’s our domain, we should be the ones thanking you,” Hwaryoung said with a smile, glancing around the room.

It was the largest room on the second floor, occupied only by me and my group of four.

Thankfully, no one else was present.

Seeing me looking around, Hwaryoung chuckled softly.

“Don’t worry. Omon didn’t come to the tower today.”

“Haha, no, I was just curious about where the others might have gone.”

“Is that so? Then I must have misunderstood.”

We both laughed aloud at that.

I gave him a respectful bow and left the room.

Only after closing the door did I realize cold sweat had dampened my back.

I smiled bitterly.

I owed too much to their group, and I couldn’t help but feel self-conscious.

Although the debt wasn’t directly to Hwaryoung , it was to one of his associates, a young man named Omon.

Omon was a member of Mukgeumgo, the only loan-sharking organization across the university.

In fact, they owned an entire city.

When he heard rumors of me gathering elixirs and rare materials, he offered me a loan.

Thinking I could repay it quickly, I had accepted without hesitation.

And now, here I was.

The interest was unbearably steep.

No matter how much I paid, it felt endless.

Considering the costs of my research, it would likely take me another ten years to clear the debt.

I pushed the negative thoughts aside.

Dwelling on them would only drain my mental strength.

It was better to focus on the tasks at hand.

I had another room to visit.

***

As I carried on with my work, I found myself pondering deeply for an extended period, even while running errands or flipping through books I’d purchased.

The question consumed me: “How is a self-awareness, a ‘soul,’ formed?”

In many instances of magic, entities with self-awareness were not rare.

Usually, as long as there was sufficient ancient mana, a soul could form over time.

Animals absorbing mana to become intelligent magical creatures worked on this principle.

Similarly, old regions brimming with mana gave rise to spirits.

Even certain ancient magic circles in long-standing towers exhibited faint signs of intelligence.

Anything saturated with mana for long enough would inevitably develop a soul.

However, the dolls I created were far too recent.

Their shadows did not contain enough mana to foster self-awareness naturally.

A more specialized approach was necessary.

Contemplating this problem, I spent countless hours engrossed in thought.

Eventually, almost every waking moment revolved around my dolls and their shadows.

Four months after my last experiment, I found myself standing before my professor.

“So, you want to skip this lecture?” she asked, wriggling under thick blankets on her bed.

Her cocoon-like appearance might have seemed comical, but I was too tense to laugh.

As soon as I finished speaking, her mana enveloped me, pressing against my entire body.

She extended a hand out of the blankets, prompting her butler to gently help her sit up.

The butler tidied the bed and began assisting her with her attire.

This butler was one of her personal creations, reflecting her preferences.

It now bore the head of a dragon.

Originally a simple humanoid doll, it had been transformed to such an extent that its original form was unrecognizable.

***

After incessant nagging for a week, she had forced me to craft it to her specifications.

The result was a masterpiece combining human and dragon characteristics.

Gold-tinted scales glimmered faintly on parts of its body not covered by its ornate black-and-gold robe.

Its sharp emerald eyes, matching hers in color, gave it an intelligent and imposing appearance.

I couldn’t remember how many sleepless nights I’d endured to perfect it.

It resided in her mana-rich environment, growing ever more majestic with time.

‘I wonder if it might naturally awaken its own soul someday,’ I mused.

I kept my head bowed until her preparations were complete.

She eventually returned to her seat, and her butler brought over a table and prepared tea.

She lifted her cup, savoring the aroma, and said, “If you have a reasonable excuse, I might consider it.”

She sipped her tea slowly.

I wracked my brain for a valid reason.

Lying was out of the question; she would see through it immediately.

The truth was my best option.

“I’ve been deeply troubled by issues surrounding my magic and my dolls. I feel the need for intensive solitude and study, which is why I’m making this request.”

“Solitude? You?”

She chuckled, and the weight of her mana increased.

I quickly added, “Yes, I’m sorry. Keeping up with the lectures has been overwhelming lately, and I need to grow stronger.”

“That makes sense. You were the first to fail during the last exercise,” she said, nodding.

Her words stung.

She was right; I had been the first to falter.

During our last session in the submerged city, I had been swept away by the magical creatures before accomplishing anything.

It was a humiliating defeat.

The traps and monsters had grown increasingly challenging, in step with my peers’ rising skills.

Although I had improved, my progress paled compared to theirs.

Combat wasn’t my strong suit.

She silently finished her second cup of tea before finally speaking.

“Fine. Do as you wish. I already have a good idea of what you’re up to.”

Relief washed over me, and I bowed deeply.

“Thank you!”

“But if you fail, there will be consequences,” she said with a smirk. “I’ll bind your soul to the tower for ten years.”

I swallowed hard.

I shouldn’t have asked, but it was too late to take it back.

Now, I had no choice but to succeed.

She gestured dismissively.

Taking the cue, I bowed again and left.

Descending the stairs to the fourth floor, my tension finally eased, and my legs nearly gave out.

Still, I had managed to secure a precious week for uninterrupted study.

This was time hard-earned at great cost, and I intended to make the most of it.

***

Entering my workshop, I immediately inspected the shelves lining the walls.

There lay the materials I had painstakingly gathered over the years: millennium wood, century thunderstone, dream maw fragments, and more.

These were natural artifacts steeped in ancient mana, containing inherent magical circuits.

Purchasing them had drained my finances, making debt repayment impossible.

I had collected them for one purpose: to create a soul for my shadows.

Numerous texts supported the theory that ancient mana could foster self-awareness.

If that was true, perhaps an ancient shadow could develop a soul as well.

Among the materials, the millennium wood was the most potent and the most suited for doll-making.

Carefully, I placed it on my workbench.

My shadow, already prepared, awaited me.

Together, we began carving the wood, revealing its raw, elegant grain.

Slowly and meticulously, we shaped it into a figure—a simple owl.

The shadow mirrored its form, adopting the same appearance.

The shadow resembling the owl was carefully removed and transferred into a glass container.

Inside the container, the shadow flapped its wings frantically, searching for its master.

However, it soon succumbed to the faint sleep spell imbued within the container, falling into a state of dormancy.

As I had done before, I infused it with my mana to form a magical core.

The magical core created this time was larger and more powerful than any I had seen in a shadow before.

Everything had been stable so far.

It was only natural, given that past experiments had not failed at this stage.

I gathered the owl doll and the shadow and headed to the pre-arranged magic circle.

The circle, about the size of my torso, was an intricate design layered with seven spells.

I placed the glass container at the center of the magic circle.

Carefully, I began infusing mana to activate the circle.

The mana thickened and darkened, slowly dyeing the space within the circle black.

Sensing the mana, the shadow inside the glass container began to awaken.

This area was a simulated environment designed to mimic the shadow realm as closely as possible.

To create it, I had studied materials from the shadow realm and their mana properties, crafting an artificial environment meant to awaken self-awareness within the shadow.

The shadow soon escaped the glass container and started surveying its surroundings, clearly searching for its master.

However, the connection between the shadow and the owl had already been severed by the layers of spells encasing them.

The shadow began to assimilate into this simulated world, becoming faint and flickering weakly.

Eventually, only a small portion of it centered around its magical core remained visible.

I swallowed hard at the sight.

‘This is what my shadow looked like when it first took form—a presence so faint, as though it could vanish at any moment.’

The shadow could not be removed from the magic circle.

Its existence was confined to that space, and taking it out would dissolve it immediately.

Thus, I cautiously pushed the owl doll into the magic circle.

As soon as it entered, the connection between the doll and the shadow was restored.

The faint shadow immediately threw itself at the doll’s feet.

‘Did it work?’

But as soon as the shadow reconnected with the doll, it began to consume the doll.

The two fused, forming an unstable, twisted amalgamation.

The shadow broke free from my control, rampaging within the confined world.

It was no longer an entity with self-awareness but a berserk creature.

I had no choice but to extract it from the magic circle and destroy it.

I couldn’t understand why this result occurred when all the conditions were perfect.

Sitting before the shattered remains of the shadow, I pondered whether the issue lay in the materials or the shadow itself.

More experiments were the only way forward.

With that resolve, I poured more resources into creating new dolls.

And again, all attempts ended in failure.

“Damn it, my precious resources…” I muttered, staring at the pile of shattered remains on the floor.

Half of the rare materials I had painstakingly collected over the years were gone.

Even the century-old thunderstone, tempered by countless lightning strikes, and the millennium-old dream maw, imbued with the essence of dreams, had been destroyed in the same way.

No matter how powerful the material was, contact with the shadow resulted in grotesque transformations.

This outcome deviated entirely from my expectations.

At least I had a clue.

These ancient natural materials already carried strong mana and unique circuits.

Most failures resulted from conflicts with the artificially created magical core of the shadow.

Even in cases where the fusion didn’t immediately fail, the materials’ inherent tendencies rejected the shadow’s mana, destabilizing the entire structure.

Maintaining harmony between the doll and shadow became nearly impossible, leading to inevitable failure.

These expensive materials had simply disintegrated into nothingness.

But I didn’t despair.

I had never expected success to come easily.

I signaled to my shadow, which retrieved a prepared shadow and doll.

This shadow had been steeped in concentrated mana for two months.

The process had infused it with a cold, potent energy.

Out of all the shadows prepared during those months, only this one had survived.

The others had either broken down or mutated, unable to withstand the mana.

‘If this one doesn’t succeed, nothing will.’

Tense, I placed the shadow into the magic circle.

And I failed again.

Kneeling before the fragments of the shattered doll, I stared blankly at the wreckage.

Every step of the process had been flawless.

The doll and shadow had connected.

The balance of mana, shadow, and doll had been perfect.

But possessing immense mana alone wasn’t enough to create self-awareness.

The overwhelming concentration of mana destabilized the internal equilibrium of the doll, rendering it unstable.

This unchecked erosion ultimately turned the doll completely black.

In desperation, I removed it from the circle, but it merely exploded on the spot.

‘Damn it.’

It became clear.

Simply crafting an artificial environment wasn’t enough to create self-awareness within the shadow.

Repeated attempts yielded the same failures.

I had been overly optimistic.

‘Of course. If self-awareness could be created through such basic means, this world would already be filled with artificial intelligences. The creation of such entities requires far more than simple physical structures or mana infusions.’

‘So, what method was necessary?’

I looked at my shadow, its form shifting to reflect my will.

It transformed into a great mist, dotted with countless small stars that resembled a night sky.

Each tiny star represented a fragment of its self-awareness.

I had observed this sight countless times over the years.

Each star resonated with me, reflecting our connection.

This was the basis of my experiment.

My shadow inherently mirrored my will, resulting in its high intelligence and independent mana.

Within it, self-awareness was akin to these tiny stars—a small but vital seed.

I had assumed that creating the right structure would naturally foster such stars.

But every attempt had failed.

Perhaps I needed to change my perspective.

Self-awareness wasn’t born solely from mana.

This understanding aligned with the latest experimental results.

Even the most powerful materials lacked a core essence vital to success.

‘What was that essence?’

I looked at the twinkling stars in my shadow.

‘Could it be… this?’

Through all the failures, the unique nature of these stars became evident.

My shadow’s existence was entirely centered around me.

It acted for me, thought for me, and its very purpose was aligned with mine.

The shadow’s form was merely a vessel for this will.

The quantity of mana wasn’t the critical factor; the intent within the mana was.

This realization explained my repeated failures.

I had only focused on modifying the shadow and crafting artificial environments, expecting self-awareness to emerge naturally.

I hadn’t given much thought to the core nature of self-awareness itself.

This would require a new direction for my research.

I no longer needed rare materials or shadows brimming with mana.

What I needed was something connected to me—an entity with purpose, will, and mana.

If such an entity existed, I was certain self-awareness could form, even in the simplest shadow.

‘But did such a thing exist?’

Perhaps the legendary dragon’s heart might work.

Yet it was far beyond my reach.

I recorded all my findings in scrolls and reviewed them, pondering for countless hours.

I combed through books, purchased information, and temporarily paused my assignments.

I even halted the process of imbuing mana into my dolls, incurring significant losses.

But none of that mattered.

Solving this conundrum felt like a critical turning point in my life.

I isolated myself entirely, immersing myself in the essence of my magic and shadows.

I repeated countless experiments.

I analyzed the dolls, reviewed my magic, and studied the shadows.

Pouring everything I had into my research, I persisted.

***

A month passed.

Finally, I found a faint glimmer of possibility.