Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 7

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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 7. A Priceless Treasure
—Below my expectations.
The day Park Chan-woo first met Sword King Lee Hyeok-su in the Abyss.
Park Chan-woo and Lee Hyeok-su crossed blades.
After their duel, as Park Chan-woo lay defeated, Lee Hyeok-su had left him with those words.
Disappointment. Below expectations.
He’d passed by with cold, indifferent eyes.
After that duel, Park Chan-woo broke his sword with his own hands.
At first he’d denied it, but eventually he had no choice but to accept the truth.
In Sword Talent and understanding both, Lee Hyeok-su far surpassed him.
‘That brilliant Sword Talent—it was never given to me.’
He’d thought he possessed talent.
After all, he’d grown strong quickly despite starting later than others.
But he was wrong.
It wasn’t Sword Talent at all—merely fortune.
He’d walked paths carved by the deaths of countless others and mistaken them for his own strength.
It was only because he’d never seen someone with true Sword Talent that he’d believed such a thing.
But Lee Hyeok-su was different.
There was nobility in his blade.
Though he swung as if without restraint, each movement of his Sword Path wasted nothing.
An essential vision and insight that saw moves several steps—or several dozen steps—ahead.
A chilling combat sense that read his opponent, severed the flow, and brought victory within reach.
All of it combined had forged the ‘Undefeated Sword King.’
Park Chan-woo could never overcome him.
A difference in skill.
Only after experiencing that gap in talent firsthand did Park Chan-woo come to know that his path was not the sword.
‘My Level was 90 at that time.’
Far too late a Level to start from the beginning.
After wandering, he’d discovered he possessed Magic Talent, but it came too late.
He had far too few Level Points to invest in the Mage class.
Yet he walked forward nonetheless.
Aimlessly, without direction, he pressed ahead.
And so Park Chan-woo crossed Level 90 before finally pursuing truth itself.
……
Yet now, Lee Hyeok-su stood before Park Chan-woo, plainly alive.
Not as the Sword King, but as an ordinary man.
By now he must be in his early twenties.
He gripped a Wooden Sword, wore a cyan jacket over jeans.
Deep-set eyes. A gaze heavy with sorrow.
There was no mistake in what he saw.
Younger than Park Chan-woo remembered, yet unmistakably Sword King Lee Hyeok-su.
He didn’t appear to have farmed properly yet.
And yet he had an edge to him.
Simply gripping that Wooden Sword made it feel as though he held a true blade.
Lee Hyeok-su stood vigilant on all sides, quietly observing the entrance to the Water Good Nightclub.
“Greetings, everyone! I am Andariels, a High-ranking Demon, and I bid you welcome!”
A demon suddenly emerged from the nightclub entrance.
Andariels, with a massive spider’s body, four black wings, and a face painted like a clown’s, finally revealed itself.
Andariels spoke to the crowd immediately upon its appearance.
“Before you enter, please form a party first. As you know, Booking Parties fare far better with two rather than one, three rather than two, and four rather than three.”
Ding!
《Form a ‘Booking Party.’》
《A ‘Booking Party’ can be formed with up to four members.》
《Level differences between party members cannot exceed 10.》
Park Chan-woo’s brow furrowed inwardly.
Parties were typically formed between those of similar Levels.
There was no one here who could possibly form a party with him.
His Level was –98, while most of the people gathered here ranged between 1 and 10.
“Is this hell? Did you bastards invade Earth?”
A man hefting an Axe spoke up amid the chaos.
The Demonic Vice-Commander, Andariels, let out a cackling laugh.
“Is that a question?”
“It is.”
“You humans who entered the Abyss voluntarily seem to have some courage. The answer is: ‘This is neither hell, nor are we invaders.’ Well, since I’ve answered your question, I ought to collect my fee, don’t you think?”
“…A fee?”
“One life per question.”
Thunk!
“Kgh…!”
A thick thorn had materialized in the chest of the man wielding the Axe.
In an instant, all the blood drained from his body, leaving him withered and skeletal.
As the corpse—now a mummy—collapsed to the ground,
it dissolved into vapor.
The body evaporated entirely.
“Does anyone else have questions?”
……
……Of course not.
He’d snuffed out a life for asking just one question.
So effortlessly, too.
That wasn’t all.
Thunk!
Far across the chamber, another thorn materialized in the back of a man who’d been trying to slip away unnoticed and escape.
Instant death.
Two were dead now.
“All of you gathered here have no choice but to enter. Come now, form your Booking Parties. Simply join hands with one another, and it will proceed automatically. You have exactly three minutes.”
[180]
Simultaneously, a countdown appeared before everyone’s eyes.
Precisely three minutes, broken down into seconds.
“When the allotted time runs out, you’ll all be entering the Water Good Nightclub to make your bookings. Don’t worry—we’ve hired some truly beautiful women!”
Everyone understood.
There was no escaping now.
‘A High-ranking Demon.’
Park Chan-woo recognized the Demonic Vice-Commander Andariels’ true nature at once.
One of the Game Masters governing this place, the Night Abyss.
High-ranking Demons were the faction most fond of entertainment in the Abyss.
Because they and the Creators treated the Abyss as a playground, they would sometimes dress up like this and emerge to guide humans—though that was merely a pretext.
‘Guide, my ass. They just want to watch people despair with their own eyes.’
Of course, Park Chan-woo’s assessment was different from the surface narrative.
High-ranking Demons weren’t guides at all—they were simply perverts with depraved tastes.
[168]
“An-anyone want to form a party?”
“Hey! The stronger ones should stick together!”
“There’s no time!”
As the countdown dwindled, people scrambled to form Booking Parties.
The strong clustered with the strong; the weak with the weak.
Kim Byeong-han, whose team had completed a fair amount of Farming, managed to join a group quickly enough.
But there was one category of human no one approached.
Park Chan-woo and Lee Hyeok-su.
‘I really don’t seem to exist.’
Park Chan-woo had been noticing it since earlier.
Despite his garish Demonic Priest attire, no one’s eyes lingered on him.
Not even the Demonic Vice-Commander Andariels.
Non-Existence.
As long as he didn’t reveal himself, no one could perceive him.
‘At least I won’t be stabbed in the back.’
In fact, the opposite was true.
He held complete initiative.
If he could approach unnoticed and kill with a single strike, no ability could be more broken than that.
-Having dropped to Level 99, there was at least one upside.
But thinking himself 100 percent safe would be a grave mistake.
Park Chan-woo had revealed himself once before.
‘But how did Kim Byeong-han recognize me at Lake Park?’
Did he know me from the beginning?
Or perhaps there was some other condition for him to recognize me.
Because here, in this place, Kim Byeong-han wasn’t noticing him at all either.
“What about that person?”
“Pass. Too gloomy—doesn’t seem suited for party play.”
Lee Hyeok-su, on the other hand, was far too “ambiguous.”
Just a single Wooden Sword to his name.
A man with barely any proper equipment, no particularly impressive physique to speak of, yet somehow carrying an outsized presence.
He didn’t seem like a good choice for forming a party.
He could damage the party’s cohesion, create friction instead of harmony.
[3]
[2]
[1]
“Time’s up! We’ve successfully formed exactly fifty-eight parties. Of course, those coming solo are welcome too—I’ll arrange separate parties for you. We have seven remaining…… hm?”

In the middle of speaking, Andariels sensed something wrong and surveyed his surroundings.
‘What is this?’
The total number of people gathered in this zone was 199.
With fifty-eight parties formed and seven remaining, his authority could read them all.
If he bundled those seven into two parties, that would make exactly sixty parties complete.
Yet no matter how much he looked around.
‘One person is missing.’
…Only six were visible.
According to Andariels’ authority as master of this zone, there were 199 humans.
But only 198 humans could be seen.
‘Stealth?’
If they couldn’t be seen, they must be using stealth.
Yet there was no human who could escape the sight of a High-ranking Demon like Andariels.
Much less among humans facing the Abyss for only the second time—no such being could exist.
So where exactly was this one person?
The system couldn’t make errors, so it must mean he simply hadn’t found them.
A variable had emerged from the very start.
Andariels concentrated his focus and grew wary of his surroundings.
Tap, tap!
“Hey.”
“……Kehehehehek!”
Startled out of his wits, Andariels quickly stumbled backward.
Someone was tapping his torso with a Staff.
His blood ran cold.
Despite his vigilance, he’d sensed nothing of their approach.
Colorless, odorless.
Faced with this sudden manifestation, the demon supervisor Andariels couldn’t help but reel in shock.
“Who are you? When did you get beside me?”
“It seems there’s no one here I can form a party with. Is it all right if I enter alone?”
……Could this actually be a human?
That made it even harder to comprehend.
‘Just wearing a Demonic Set, and yet…?’
Even High-ranking Demons often wore them. It was unmistakable.
To humans of this level it was treasure, but in the Abyss it was common equipment.
How could someone wearing merely a Demonic Set approach and shake off the presence of a High-ranking Demon?
Andariels attempted to use his authority, granted to him for forcing party formations within this zone.
Then.
《Party formation is impossible due to a significant Level difference.》
This system message appeared before Andariels’ eyes.
‘What?’
……A significant Level difference?
It meant there was an unbridgeable, overwhelming gap in Level between this human and the others.
Not a single human among those gathered here was of sufficient Level to party with this man.
Andariels’ gaze suddenly fixed on the Staff that had just tapped his body.
At the same moment.
‘Wait, hold on. That Staff……!!’

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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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