Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 6

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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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Chapter 6. The Sword King Lee Hyuk-soo
The world Park Chan-woo perceived had shifted.
A massive eye hung in the full moon.
The eye moved left and right, gazing down at the earth.
Buildings bore ominous cracks that threatened to split them apart, and vines and vegetation sprawled across concrete floors.
Abandoned vehicles sat buried under thick layers of dust.
Not a single car remained intact—windows shattered, tires deflated and sagging, everything broken in some way.
If hell had a face, it would feel like this.
‘A remarkably well-preserved Abyss.’
Yet Park Chan-woo marveled in all sincerity.
The condition of the Abyss was pristine.
Among the ‘Night Abysses’ he remembered, this was by far the finest.
Though it was only the first night, that much made sense.
《The Twelve Divine Generals have appeared throughout the Abyss.》
《You must join forces and kill them all within ten hours.》
《Hidden quests exist, as do weapons and tools meant for slaying the Twelve Divine Generals—search carefully.》
《Additionally, ‘warps’ exist that allow passage to other Divine Generals.》
《If you work together and eliminate them one by one, you should be fully capable of succeeding.》
《Estimated survival rate: 1%》
《Upon clearing the Abyss, the reward Box’s grade will be determined by survival rate.》
《Should you fail to kill all the Twelve Divine Generals, all participants with Contribution at 20,000 or below will die.》
…Was this some kind of joke?
Fully capable of succeeding?
For that to be true, the Abyss wouldn’t have been designed with failure in mind from the start.
A one-percent survival rate was the Creators’ way of saying with absolute certainty that failure would come, and 1.98 million people would die.
Every single Creator who’d wagered on this Abyss believed as much.
‘It won’t go the way you expect.’
There are no exceptions.
Miracles never happen.
…Or so the Creators seemed to believe.
Park Chan-woo intended to be a thoroughgoing anomaly.
Even if he had to make enemies of every Creator alive, he wouldn’t allow things to unfold according to their design.
Besides, if worst came to worst, he could use an Escape Coin.
This night’s Abyss could be escaped with an Escape Coin alone.
In any case, the Dragon Divine General had appeared in Seoul.
The very one that all 20,000 survivors of the ‘first night’s Abyss’ had unanimously called ‘the strongest Divine General.’
Of course, that 20,000 included the Sword King, Lee Hyuk-soo.
To kill the Dragon Divine General that had driven everyone to the brink of despair, there was no time to waste.
‘First, farming.’
Park Chan-woo rushed out of his house.
* * *
The method for farming in the night Abyss was simpler than expected.
‘Things that shouldn’t exist in this Abyss. Finding those is the key.’
What could possibly not belong?
The answer was deceptively simple.
Park Chan-woo first searched through the parked vehicles nearby.
It wasn’t long before he found a skeleton sitting inside a car with a seatbelt fastened.
Crash!
Ting!
He immediately smashed the window with the World Tree Staff.
He reached through the broken glass and popped the lock from inside.
Then he unfastened the seatbelt around the skeleton’s waist.
《You have discovered an ‘Iron Shield (-98Lv, Rare)’!》
Poof!
Smoke billowed forth as the skeleton transformed into an iron shield.
‘Bodies don’t remain in the Abyss.’
It had been sitting naturally inside the vehicle, but the Abyss’s nature made it impossible for a skeleton to exist at all.
A skeleton wearing a seatbelt was even more impossible.
Find such ‘Anomalies,’ and that was all there was to it.
Things that couldn’t exist in an Abyss divorced from Earth’s ecology—things that shouldn’t be here.
The stronger the Anomaly’s characteristics, the higher the grade of equipment or tools it grants.
For about thirty minutes, Park Chan-woo rummaged through the vehicle.
“Sigh…….”
He found far less than he’d anticipated.
Of course, he hadn’t even begun proper farming yet.
Yet even with so little exertion, his entire body ached.
《Insufficient stamina.》
《Your body grows heavy.》
《Your entire frame burns.》
《Your vision blurs.》
《Muscle soreness begins.》
《Rest immediately. Continued physical strain may prove fatal to your body.》
His limbs had no strength left in them.
Park Chan-woo climbed into the empty vehicle, shut the door, and settled onto a seat.
“…My physical condition is absolutely abysmal.”
Minus ninety-eight Level.
Until he returned to normal Level, this would keep repeating.
Every second mattered, but push himself any harder here and he’d be done for.
Rest when he could—that was the only sensible choice.
‘If I raise my strength and stamina more, things might improve.’
Physical power scales with strength and stamina.
If he tired too quickly, the answer was simple: raise his stats.
Equipment “Unique Options” did allow him to shore up his stats to some degree, but it wasn’t enough.
The ceiling imposed by Unique Options alone was glaringly apparent.
Even the Eternal-grade World Tree Staff only granted ten points of Mana.
‘If things develop as I predict, I can overcome this.’
But it was worth trying.
The endless possibilities lodged in his mind.
Even if he manifested only a handful of them, conquering his current physical state would be entirely within reach.
The question was whether he could survive until then.
“P-please, save me!”
Fifteen minutes had passed since he’d begun resting.
A man wielding a sword was sprinting through a nearby area, screaming in terror.
But his gait was unsteady.
He was moving at a brisk walk, using his scabbard like a cane.
An arrow had pierced through his right leg.
“Why are you doing this to me—?!”
Whish!
Thud!
An arrow came from behind and punched through the man’s throat.
He dropped to the ground, dead on impact.
……Moments later, a man with a black muffler wrapped around his mouth appeared beside the corpse.
Eyes alone visible, the man reached for the scabbard the dead man had held.
Then.
Crack!
The scabbard crumbled to dust and scattered.
“What—can’t you take something if someone else is holding it?”
The man tilted his head in confusion.
He glanced around the area, then swiftly withdrew.
‘Incarnates are already running the game.’
Park Chan-woo lifted his lowered torso and watched the direction the man had vanished.
……If he’d continued resting outside, he’d have been the one struck by arrows and killed.
He didn’t have the stamina to even dodge them.
And the man who’d fired the arrow and committed murder was definitely an Incarnate.
Park Chan-woo had several reasons for his certainty.
‘The Black Lion Bow. An Epic-grade bow with a homing option on its arrows. Only Advanced Archer-class or higher can use it, and the fact that he’s already wielding one means he’s contracted with a Creator—he has to be an Incarnate.’
Incarnates were puppets of the Creators they’d contracted with.
In other words, they were humanity’s enemies.
Even if they didn’t intend it that way, they’d inevitably find themselves acting against mankind.
Just like that man had done moments ago.
Those intoxicated by power trample others underfoot, and their Dao ripens accordingly.
So there was no reason Park Chan-woo should think kindly of Incarnates.
‘Trash.’
Incarnates were a breed that hindered humanity’s unity.
The higher one climbed as a High Ranker, the deeper the suspicion grew.
If one accidentally became an ally of an Incarnate, there was no way of knowing when a blade might be driven into your back.
The problem was that there existed no method to discover them unless they revealed their nature themselves.
‘Damned Incarnate bastards.’
Of course, Park Chan-woo knew.
He knew of several Incarnates who would cause major incidents later.
For instance… the one who had been the first among humanity to reach Level 99.
No one could have imagined that the man lauded as a hero, who guided humanity, was an Incarnate.
Park Chan-woo steadied his breathing and stepped out of the vehicle.
To stand against those kinds of monsters, he needed more certain farming.
‘Found it. An Anomaly.’
The moment Park Chan-woo exited the vehicle, he approached the corpse pierced by arrows.
That corpse was the Anomaly itself.
‘Bodies don’t remain in the Abyss.’
They vanish when they die.
Just as a sword hilt and blade disappear, a human corpse must likewise fade away.
Yet this man’s corpse had not vanished.
Park Chan-woo spoke from directly beside the body.
“Stop playing dead, demon.”
The truth was that it wasn’t dead at all.
That it retained breath yet was not dead meant its identity could not be human.
Flash!
The moment Park Chan-woo finished speaking, the man they’d thought dead opened his eyes.
Those eyes were not a human’s eyes.
Narrow pupils, like a reptile’s.
The man spoke immediately after.
“How did you discover my identity?”
“The stench gave it away.”
Park Chan-woo replied, pinching his nose.
Found it.
From the beginning, Park Chan-woo had been searching for a demon in this Abyss.
One cloaked in human form—an Anomaly that should never exist in the Abyss.
Demons of the Abyss never transform into human shape.
The demon’s expression twisted in fury.
“Damn it…!”
Poof!
The demon transformed into smoke and scattered.
《You have obtained ‘Demonic Helmet (-98Lv, Epic)’!》
《You have obtained ‘Demonic Armor (-98Lv, Epic)’!》
《You have obtained ‘Demonic Boots (-98Lv, Epic)’!》
《You have obtained ‘Demonic Gauntlets (-98Lv, Epic)’!》
《Set effect ‘Demonic Heart’ has been applied.》
Whew.
Park Chan-woo let out a small whistle.
The demon’s death had left behind a complete set of equipment.
After methodically donning each piece, Park Chan-woo caught his reflection in the vehicle’s window and smirked.
‘I look like a demonic priest now.’
Grasping a staff to boot, he was unmistakably the image of a demon priest.
Had anyone witnessed it, they would have been horrified.
That was the moment.
―Come visit Mul Joha Night!
―Book with our manager Andariel!
―100% booking success rate!
A promotional vehicle passed by, blaring its message.
Park Chan-woo’s ears perked up sharply.
‘Found it. The real Anomaly.’
An extraordinary Anomaly.
That nightclub was something that absolutely should not exist in the Abyss.
‘The place where a Magician’s Stone was discovered.’
Just as he’d heard.
There would almost certainly be a Magician’s Stone in that nightclub.
Perhaps he might even acquire a Class from it.
He quickened his pace toward the source of the sound.
After walking for some time, he spotted the Mul Joha Night, blazing with brilliant neon signs.
“What exactly am I supposed to do here?”
“Wow, there are so many people….”
The entrance churned with raucous energy.
There were roughly two hundred gathered here by rough count.
Even that archer moving about with his mouth covered by a muffler was present.
Thanks to the corpse that fellow had left behind, Park Chan-woo had been able to identify the demon—in a way, he owed the man his gratitude.
But he was not the only one here.
‘Why is Team Lead Kim Byung-han here?’
He spotted Kim Byung-han in armor, sword in hand.
What brought this coward crawling into the Abyss?
Yet his gaze did not linger.
Another figure had caught his eye—one who made Kim Byung-han pale by comparison.
‘……Lee Hyuk-soo, the Sword King.’
The third human to reach Level 99, a genius among geniuses who had glimpsed the perfection of the blade!
The figure whose overwhelming sword talent had once driven him to despair now stood directly before him.

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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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