Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 36. Final Reckoning
Hardship Leads to Happiness.
They say that joy comes at the end of suffering.
Park Chan-woo gazed at the fruits of his labor spread before him, a satisfied smile crossing his face.
‘Most Time Attack Abyss dungeons wouldn’t even get a look-in at this point.’
There existed a particular class of Abyss that required clearing specialized trials or objectives within a predetermined time limit.
These were called Time Attack Abyss, and Park Chan-woo had once earned something of a reputation in that field.
Yet even he could not help but shake his head at a mission like clearing thirteen dungeons in ten hours.
It had been a near thing, despite starting with maximum stamina reserves.
Especially given the constraints imposed by the status abnormality weighing on him.
He had endured the searing pain as if his muscles were tearing apart, moving ceaselessly—sweat pooling on his feet—throughout Fever Time.
‘…It wasn’t something a human should attempt.’
He’d nearly lost consciousness more than once.
No matter how much the elixirs inflated his attack and defense, his stamina and mana pools remained finite and equal.
The relentless cycle of running and casting magic had accumulated into such exhaustion that his mind began to overload.
Pushed to its limit, his brain had repeatedly tried to sever the connection with his body.
A primal instinct—forcing sleep to allow the body to recover.
‘I slept the whole day away.’
Resisting that instinct had cost him dearly; Park Chan-woo had slept for twenty-four hours straight.
He’d surrendered to the Sleep Demon before even checking his rewards.
For all his superhuman mental fortitude, there was no fighting on empty reserves—not when both stamina and mana had been completely depleted.
At least the Abyss had not encroached during that time.
Had he not confirmed the message stating that “the Abyss will not encroach for one day,” he would never have dared sleep so peacefully.
“……I needed that.”
It had been far too long since he’d slept so soundly.
Ever since his return, each night had been a struggle to find rest at all.
His body felt impossibly light now.
Park Chan-woo stretched gently and then began to read through the messages he’d missed.
《Tallying your results during Fever Time. 》
《You have cleared a total of thirteen dungeons, including the Inferno Dungeon.》
《You have bankrupted fifteen Creators.》
《You have successfully bankrupted the most Creators in the fastest time.》
《This is an immortal achievement, forever remembered.》
《The wailing of the bankrupted Creators spreads throughout the Abyss.》
《You have been granted the Title: Bane of Creators.》
《You have acquired 20 Coins.》
《Dungeon clear rewards applied with 2x multiplier: you have acquired 10 Gold Boxes (★), 4 Gold Boxes (★★), 2 Gold Boxes (★★★★), 2 Platinum Boxes (★), and 2 Platinum Boxes (★★★).》
…Good heavens.
The messages were so extraordinary that even seeing them with his own eyes, he struggled to believe them.
Twenty Coins, the acquisition of a Title, and dungeons rewards bloated twofold—every single line was a windfall beyond measure.
‘That makes forty-one Coins now.’
The more, the merrier.
Coins were infinitely precious.
They granted escape from any Abyss to come, and beyond that, they were the sole currency that could be traded across both Earth and the Abyss—the only universal resource that mattered.
Not to mention demons; before long, every person on Earth would pine for these Coins with all their might.
‘Money becomes mere scraps of paper.’
For now, this was still a world where money was everything.
Those with money wielded power and shaped the world.
But soon—very soon—money’s value would plummet into free fall.
A new age was dawning: an age where Coins meant power and authority.
Treasures beyond price, things no fortune could buy.
A world where Coins were all that mattered!
Those who grasped the Abyss’s rules would become obsessed with acquiring Coins.
But Park Chan-woo had no such need.
With a comfortable cushion of forty-one Coins, his survival was assured for a long time to come.
Unless a Demon-rank lord decided to personally erase him from existence, his Coins would not run dry.
The only realistic threat to his stockpile at this moment was if Ahetha, the Moon Lord, moved heaven and earth to obliterate him.
But whether Ahetha possessed such resources was deeply questionable.
‘In this Abyss, Ahetha lost a considerable number of Coins.’
He was certain of it.
Among all Creators, Ahetha had prepared the most elegant arrangement, making it clear she intended to ensure that Han Shin could never clear a dungeon. Yet that design had been stolen, and every dungeon had been cleared instead.
By Park Chan-woo.
Everything that was supposed to be impossible had failed.
The magnitude of loss Ahetha must have suffered was beyond imagination.
So she would certainly attempt to recover those losses in the second Night Abyss.
‘If I play this right, I might be able to bankrupt Ahetha before the fifth Night Abyss even begins.’
The Night Abyss occurred once a month, on the night of the full moon.
And when the sixth Night Abyss began, the first Racial War would open.
If only I could bankrupt Ahetha before then… there was a possibility that the Racial War could proceed in humanity’s favor.
Park Chan-woo rubbed his jaw.
The coin praise was enough for now.
It was time to check the remaining rewards.
‘Two three-star Platinum Boxes alone.’
Among them, he’d obtained two three-star Platinum Boxes.
One from clearing the Sleep Demon Abyss, and two from clearing the thirteen dungeons—meaning he had a total of three three-star Platinum Boxes.
And that wasn’t even the end of it.
‘A title related to Creators appeared too.’
Titles were rare enough as it was.
Titles related to Creators were rarer still.
Park Chan-woo shifted his attention to the title he’d just acquired.
Title: Creator’s Natural Enemy
Effect: The bearer of the “Creator’s Natural Enemy” title is not dominated by fear, intimidation, or fascination originating from a Creator. The title’s effect applies even in an Abyss that induces Mental Delusion directly created by a Creator.
‘…mental immunity!’
Park Chan-woo’s pupils dilated sharply.
It was a title that granted mental immunity specifically against Creators.
But a Creator could only be an Abyss Lord.
And an Abyss Lord meant an Ultra-High-Rank Demon, so the effect could potentially apply to demons below that rank as well.
More than that, the description even negated the effects of Creation Space—and Park Chan-woo couldn’t help but shudder.
How many vicious Abysses were there that corrupted the mind and induced delusion?
If one didn’t have a high Intelligence stat or possess skills and tools that protected the mind, there was no escaping such effects.
‘This will shine brightest in sniper Abysses where a Creator directly intervenes.’
A smile spread across his face unbidden.
In that Abyss where Kim Byung-han had been sniped before, Park Chan-woo had directly confronted the Demon-rank Gremory.
The terror of that moment had not faded even now.
He’d been overwhelmed by instinctive fear, unable to move.
If the same situation arose again, he would no longer be overwhelmed.
That was what it meant.
‘…I remembered. Gremory’s face.’
The moment he obtained the Creator’s Natural Enemy title.
The face of Gremory in the abyss, obscured like mist until now, finally surfaced.
Park Chan-woo recalled the circumstances of that time.
When he’d been about to hand over the Ring of the Dead’s Oath obtained after killing Andali El, the Demon-rank Gremory had opened a door and appeared.
At that moment, all Park Chan-woo had seen was Gremory’s pale white hand.
But Gremory had revealed her form directly.
He had immediately lowered his head and laid the ring upon that hand, but he had definitely seen.
He had seen it clearly—yet he could not recall it all this while.
His mind had been forcibly locked, as though he were not meant to remember.
A lone human could never withstand the presence of a Demon.
Had he faced her and engraved Gremory’s visage directly upon his mind, Park Chan-woo would already have ceased to exist in this world.
His heart would have stopped, and he would have departed long ago.
Yet now, he remembered.
Gremory’s face.
Her full form, standing before that door.
‘Beautiful.’
Even Park Chan-woo, whose aesthetic sense was unremarkable, found Gremory beautiful.
There was a presence that seemed not of this world’s beauty, a bearing difficult to put into words.
A sharp pang of regret swept through him.
The regret that he had not met her eyes directly.
【Human who knows honor. On a day not far hence, the hour shall come when my aid reaches you……】

Still, it wouldn’t be long before their paths crossed again.
Gremory had mentioned it directly.
If he could stare into those eyes face-to-face, if another chance came to stand alone before a Demon-rank existence, Park Chan-woo had something he desperately wanted to ask.
‘What are you trying to do?’
What were their true intentions and goals?
At first, he’d thought it was mere entertainment.
But they were far more earnest than he’d imagined.
They staked their very existence on this game.
He’d genuinely wanted to know what drove them, yet in the past, he could never reach the truth.
There had been no opportunity to face the Demon-King-rank or higher named Creators who governed the Abyss directly.
Ding!
In a flash, another message flickered before his eyes.
《Final Settlement begins.》
“…Final Settlement?”
Hadn’t the settlement already ended?
Was there still more to settle?
《A special opportunity granted to those who transcend their limits!》
《Once, you may combine unopened boxes to create a higher-tier box.》
《A ‘Combination Zone’ will be generated.》
《Please place unopened boxes within that zone.》
《The grade of the completed box will vary according to the quantity and quality of unopened boxes placed in the zone.》
《The ‘Combination Zone’ will disappear after 60 seconds.》
……This existed too?
‘Seems the rumor was true after all.’
He’d heard whispers that if you obtained too many rewards, another opportunity would emerge.
But this was Park Chan-woo’s first time experiencing it.
With so few people having gone through it, he’d dismissed it as hearsay, but it appeared to be genuine.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Soon a luminous zone materialized before him.
It seemed that unopened boxes placed inside would automatically combine.
Park Chan-woo didn’t hesitate and threw in all his Gold Boxes.
‘What should I do with the Platinum Boxes?’
Fifty seconds remained.
He had to decide within that window.
‘It is about time to upgrade my equipment.’
Normally, equipment was replaced every ten levels.
In particular, the Demon’s Pauldrons (-98Lv, Epic), Demonic Armor (-98Lv, Epic), and Demonic Gauntlet (-98Lv, Epic) he currently wore needed to be swapped out quickly.
To secure at least three new pieces, multiple Platinum Boxes were essential.
He naturally had to wrestle with what to do with two 1-star Platinum Boxes and three 3-star Platinum Boxes.
Park Chan-woo made his decision swiftly.
《10 Gold Boxes (★),
4 Gold Boxes (★★),
2 Gold Boxes (★★★★),
2 Platinum Boxes (★),
3 Platinum Boxes (★★★) — combining all of them.》
He would sacrifice every box he’d earned.
If he was going to get something anyway, one sure thing beat several mediocre ones.
In that instant.
Brilliance erupted!
A torrent of fierce light swept across all sides.
《Your level has increased.》
《Your level has increased.》
《The 1st Limit Break Quest has commenced.》
《You have obtained transcendent experience, and the Limit Break Quest is forcibly completed.》
《You have achieved level -89.》
The overwhelming experience points broke through his level cap by force.
But this wasn’t the combination’s direct result.
At best, it was merely a byproduct generated during the combination process.
And that byproduct alone had shattered his level limit.
He couldn’t even imagine how extraordinary the finished product would be.
《Luck from ‘Easter Egg (001)’ is gathering!》
Park Chan-woo swallowed hard, his eyes fixed on the combination field.
It couldn’t be more perfect than this.
The Easter Egg’s luck had attached itself to the combination.
Moreover, judging by the phrase ‘is gathering,’ it was clear that not just one but a substantial amount of luck had latched on.
Perfect in every sense.
Though he couldn’t know the exact grade, a combination of this caliber would yield at least a 4-star or higher Platinum Box.
It was even possible it could combine into a 5-star Platinum Box.
There was a good chance that the level-99-exclusive Diamond Box might appear, or some ‘special box’ like the one where radiant Anubis had slumbered could burst forth.
Truly, just thinking about it filled him with joy.
Pop!
《The ‘combination’ has been completed.》
《Congratulations. A ‘Gold Box (★★★★★★★)’ has been created!》
“…………what?”

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