Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 144

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 144. Aurum the Nine-tailed Fox
The moment Celestial Spirit was summoned away.
In the Area of Final Trial.
……Aurum, the nine-tailed fox, looked up at the sky.
He had the face of a fox, yet stood on two legs.
His body carved like sculpted muscle, dressed in robes of pristine white.
“A Divine Beast.”
…It came to him.
The last scene the spirit had witnessed bloomed in his mind.
And so, he was certain.
That it was a Divine Beast.
A sacred creature dwelling in the cracks of the world.
He had failed to notice it until now, so transparent had it been.
It left no trace, as if it did not exist at all.
Yet it appeared the moment Celestial Spirit was removed.
“How amusing.”
The scenario was being rewritten.
The nine-tailed fox Yu Jin-seo had stepped aside from the lead, placing a new protagonist on stage.
Moreover, this new protagonist was a Divine Beast Contractor.
……Who was he?
What manner of fox possessed the power to work such a miracle?
Yu Jin-seo was a nine-tailed fox consumed by ambition.
With no Creator to restrain her, she must surely be coveting even the Fox Den itself.
Yet Aurum had let it be.
The Fox Den held no interest for him.
There was only one thing that captured his desire.
‘Sacrifice that makes me stronger.’
Power—that alone.
Strength was his only joy.
To crush those who rose to challenge him, to triumph and advance beyond walls that broke before him.
But for a long time, none came to face Aurum.
Yu Jin-seo would never set foot in this Area of Final Trial.
So all he could do was train alone.
Yet that was enough.
“Spirits.”
Whoooooooosh!
Hundreds of spirits burst forth around him like a flood.
Then they began to shift into monsters of every conceivable form.
…Spirits were like foxes.
They had no fixed shape and could transform as they pleased.
-Kill him!
-Kill our summoner!
-Kill him with all your might!
And these were his opponents.
Aurum trained by battling the spirits with whom he held Divine Beast Contracts.
Each time he was summoned away, searing pain tore through his chest, yet he made even this agony fuel for his growth.
Across centuries.
The spirits began to evolve.
They gained consciousness and attacked him with increasing ferocity.
As he repeated summoning and dismissal endlessly, his total Mana reserves swelled to mad proportions.
This was far removed from the image of an ordinary Spirit Summoner.
And the spirits themselves were equally far from ordinary.
Attacking their contractor—
Such a thing should have been forbidden by the contract itself.
Yet……
‘I hunger.’
It was not enough.
Even as he clashed with the swarming spirits, his expression was clouded with longing.
There was a hunger that spirits alone could not sate.
The unchanging routine of days.
No one challenged him, and that boredom gnawed at him.
There was no thrill in it.
Yu Jin-seo, the other foxes—all of them were nothing but cowards.
And yet……
This time was different.
That man was clearly advancing toward him.
And in quite a brazen manner at that.
What should he do?
Should he simply stand by and watch the Scenario shift, the protagonist change?
And why had the Ten-tailed Fox Yu Jin-seo suddenly made such a choice?
‘Either Yu Jin-seo had seen something that tempted her, or she had reason to yield.’
If the greedy Yu Jin-seo had surrendered her position, it meant compensation beyond measure awaited her.
Ownership of the Fox Den?
No. That couldn’t be it.
Once the Creator of the Burning Boundary had lost ownership, that den was as good as hers anyway.
Then……
There was one thing he could imagine.
A fox who commanded Divine Beasts, one who was both fox and Ten-tailed Fox, had brought Yu Jin-seo to heel.
It all matched the stories passed down through the ages.
If so, then that man was……
“The Nine-tailed Fox.”
……He must be the Nine-tailed Fox.
Grin!
“At last, my rival has appeared.”
* * *
Ding!
《Welcome to the Land of Poison.》
《Reach the end of the Land of Poison and defeat the demon Poison Spirit!》
《The poison insects dwelling in the Land of Poison will poison all moving things.》
《They enter through the mouth and nose, taking the poisoned target as a host.》
《Once you become a host, you lose control of your body and begin attacking other challengers—until death.》
It was a grim message.
And true to those words, the Land of Poison spread before them looked ominous to the point of dread.
A darkened earth tinged with murky violet.
A desolate, barren plain.
And from beneath that plain, poison insects occasionally writhed into view.
“……There is a ‘path’ with weaker toxin. This time, I’ll take the lead.”
Yu Jin-seo spoke.
A path only foxes could walk.
Only by treading this path could they hope to avoid death, meager as that hope was.
Even the poison insects rarely ventured down this way.
This was not something that needed explaining.
That was why she’d offered to lead.
To write a new Scenario, to kill Aurum, she needed to preserve as many survivors as possible.
But.
“Everyone, wait here.”
Park Chan-woo’s words shattered all their expectations.
Thump.
Then, without hesitation, he stepped onto the Land of Poison.
“……!!”
“H-He’s insane!”
“Does he know what kind of poison that is……!?”
The foxes gasped words that should never have left their mouths.
The poison spread across the Land of Poison was no ordinary toxin.
It was overwhelmingly potent—capable of poisoning even the Ten-tailed Fox Yu Jin-seo herself.
There was no antidote.
Only by eliminating the Poison Spirit could the poisoning be cured.
Without the predetermined path, he would die before reaching anything.
And the path Park Chan-woo walked now was not even that marked route.
He had stepped into a hell writhing with poison insects of his own accord.
Ding!
《Perfect Poison Immunity activates.》
《A potent toxin is broken down within the body.》
Park Chan-woo nodded to himself.
‘As expected.’
Time was, in the Water Spirit Dungeon, when he’d seized the avatars’ “provisions.”
After consuming the Thousand Blood Thread — presumed to belong to Han Shin — his constitution had improved to Perfect Poison Immunity.
It meant a thousand poisons could not touch his body.
Ordinary toxins no longer dared affect him.
He’d assumed the poison of the Land of Poison would prove no obstacle either.
And that assumption had been precisely correct.
‘Complete Poison Immunity is the realm where all poison is useless, while Perfect Poison Immunity is merely the realm that prevents death by poison.’
Only one person had achieved Complete Poison Immunity.
Han Shin.
That man possessed not only Complete Poison Immunity but also Water and Fire Immunity and an Indestructible Diamond Body.
Yet reaching the realm of Complete Poison Immunity would not be easy for him now.
Not after Park Chan-woo had seized the Thousand Blood Thread — prepared for Han Shin alone.
Thanks to that theft, he would never again die from poison corruption.
‘Poison insects. Gu Poison.’
Insects writhed across the ground and clung to his skin.
Park Chan-woo paused to consider.
Every poison insect here bore the form of Gu Poison.
They parasitized their hosts and controlled them.
With potent venom and the skill to wield it freely, that was what it meant.
‘Rare specimens that have grown on poison for ages.’
Appetite for research stirred within him.
Had time permitted, he would have dissected them to observe their survival methods in finer detail.
But time was the one luxury he did not have.
‘If I could absorb the Gu Poison’s toxin separately….’
His thoughts took a different turn.
Perhaps absorbing Gu Poison would deepen his Perfect Poison Immunity further.
Pop!
He burst the Gu Poison that climbed toward him.
Purple blood spattered outward.
The insect’s blood and venom.
He brought his hand, slick with it, directly to his lips.
Gulp.
“Mm….”
His face twisted.
The taste was atrocious.
More than that, his throat felt as if it were burning away.
Heartburn was merely the baseline.
Ding!
《Perfect Poison Immunity activates.》
《A rare and potent toxin is broken down within the body.》
《The ‘poison insect’ that has consumed toxin for eons bears the nature of a Spirit Being.》
《Unlike ordinary Spirit Beings, it bears no Spirit Orb, yet the toxin concentrated within its blood would become the finest spirit remedy, if only it could be absorbed.》
《Poison resistance increases by 0.01%.》
“Oh.”
It works.
He hadn’t expected such effectiveness, though part of him had wondered.
An effect as potent as a spirit remedy.
‘Paradise.’
For Park Chan-woo, this place was nothing short of paradise.
Pop!
Gulp.
Every insect that approached, he burst on sight.
Once he’d grown somewhat accustomed, he began chewing them whole, crunching them audibly.
By the time he reached the end of the Land of Poison.
Ding!
“I consumed every single poison insect in the Land of Poison!”
“Unbelievable. To engage in such consumption and predation simultaneously!”
“The Status Abnormality ‘Perfect Poison Immunity’ has doubled in effectiveness.”
“You have acquired the title ‘Poison Insect Devourer.'”
* * *
Shhhhhhh.
The poison of the land faded, bit by bit.
The mist too—even the poison insects that had writhed across the ground—vanished from sight.
“The Poison Spirit has been destroyed!”
“Someone has completed the Perfect Scenario!”
“Five Black Stars have been awarded additionally to the scenario achiever.”
“The Land of Poison has been cleared.”
“The Land of Poison is being purified.”
“Prepare yourself for the Fourth Trial.”
“…….”
There was nothing left to say.
The foxes could only blink.
This time, it had taken long enough that they thought it a failure, yet impossibly—it had succeeded.
Before they knew it, they were witnessing the Fourth Trial.
“……Who is that?”
“They don’t seem like an ordinary fox.”
The foxes felt mad with curiosity.
At first, they had merely thought some unknown fox was making a spectacle of themselves.
But as each trial progressed, each time Park Chan-woo wrought a Miracle.
All they could do was marvel at the sight.
Was that truly a fox?
If it was a fox, what in the world was it?
“…….”
Yet Yu Jin-seo did not answer the question.
She could not.
She did not know herself.
‘Park Chan-woo is not a fragment of a Hidden Piece.’
There was only conjecture.
She and the foxes alike.
All harbored the same thought.
If Park Chan-woo was a fox.
And if he was an existence recognized by the Creator, one who had acquired all the freedoms of the Fox Den itself.
‘He was never enchanted.’
Now it was certain.
They had thought him enchanted at first, but it was not so.
He had merely acted the part.
No wonder something had felt wrong.
…In that instant.
A single thought flickered through the minds of every fox.
‘The reason Yu Jin-seo elevated him to protagonist.’
‘The one who caused Yu Jin-seo to abandon her own will with but a single poison test.’
‘He burned the Fire Spirit to death, hurled a holy sword to slay the Celestial Spirit, and hunted the Poison Spirit alone without toxin, unbothered.’
‘Could it be…….’
There was only one scenario where all of this was possible.
Only one.
‘……Park Chan-woo is the Ten-tailed Fox.’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————