The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#001. The Archmage Who Runs Deliveries

A fishy, murky air that stung the nose.

It was a familiar yet unpleasant, alien smell flowing from the ‘other world’ beyond.

Sung-jun stood before the control line, holding still-steaming delivery food in one hand and a worn scooter helmet in the other.

Today’s delivery destination was beyond the Gate, in the middle of a ‘Hunting Ground’.

“I’ll need to check your ID. Please present your Gate entry permit as well.”

A Guard with wary eyes, wearing an official armband over his bulletproof vest, blocked his path.

Though he had a youthful face, the gun barrel in his hands pointed at Sung-jun without the slightest tremor.

The people in combat gear and special vehicles bustling around proved this was no ordinary delivery location.

Sung-jun silently reached into his jacket and pulled out a crumpled ID along with a small laminated card.

「Awakened Ones of South Korea Registration Card – Ma Sung-jun」

The Guard looked back and forth between the registration card and Sung-jun’s face several times, then tilted his head with an uncomprehending expression. His gaze lingered briefly on Sung-jun’s shabby delivery vest and the food bag in his hand.

“…Confirmed. Please go in.”

The control line opened with curt permission. He could faintly hear other Guards murmuring behind him.

‘Why is an Awakened doing deliveries…?’

‘You see all kinds of strange people…’

Sung-jun deliberately ignored their stares and stepped inside the Gate.

His vision went dark with the nauseating spatial distortion, then brightened again.

A landscape different from reality, tinged with an eerie bluish light.

The atmosphere was thick with the smell of ozone and the scent of unknown creatures.

Click-.

Sung-jun manually turned off the headlight that had automatically lit up upon detecting darkness.

From here on was the danger zone.

Even a small light could appear as a signal to the monsters that tear people apart that there was prey here.

However, the problem was that while light could be blocked, smell was much harder to contain.

‘Of all things, why did they have to order fermented soybean stew…’

Looking at the delivery bag that kept emanating its distinctive pungent smell despite being tightly wrapped several times, Sung-jun let out a deep sigh.

Then he bent his fingers in an odd way and brought his empty hand to the bag.

“Claustra Odoris (Lock away the smell).”

For a moment, blue geometric patterns appeared on the bag’s surface before disappearing.

And the foul smell that had been wafting around vanished instantly.

However, Sung-jun, who had cast the spell, looked at the Cave spread before him with a much more tense expression than before.

“60… 59… 58…”

Unfortunately, the duration Sung-jun could maintain the spell was only about ‘1 minute’.

Originally it would have been a spell with a much longer duration, but on Earth where mana concentration was close to zero, it couldn’t maintain its original duration.

This was the decisive reason Sung-jun became a ‘delivery-running Hunter’ who risked danger to deliver food inside Gates.

The magic that was his awakened ability had become utterly useless for combat due to Earth’s ridiculously low mana concentration.

He could use it like this only because he was inside a Gate where there was at least some mana in the atmosphere; if this were reality on Earth rather than inside a Gate, he wouldn’t even dare attempt casting the most basic spells.

“Huff huff… 29… 28…”

Though the danger of monsters approaching upon hearing his footsteps lurked everywhere, Sung-jun desperately ran forward.

Choosing noise over smell was also a decision made considering that monsters inside Gates were more sensitive to smell than sound.

The sounds of battle between Hunters and monsters grew louder as he ran forward.

Feeling the sensation of metal, muscle, and bone being cut and flesh being crushed rushing toward him, Sung-jun realized this was not simply a Cave but a ‘hunting’ ground.

Then, one of the resting Hunters spotted Sung-jun and jumped up with a cheer.

“He’s here! He came! See, I told you! They really deliver inside Gates!”

Another Hunter beside him grumbled while rummaging through his pocket.

“Damn, I really didn’t think he’d come all the way here just because we ordered. Crazy bastard… Here, your share.”

They had apparently made a bet about whether the delivery would actually arrive.

Sung-jun paid no attention to their commotion and quietly set the food bag down on the designated makeshift table.

“One fermented soybean stew meal, stir-fried pork with lettuce wraps, plus extra steamed eggs. Delivery completed. Payment was confirmed as prepaid, you just need to pay the additional fees.”

“Additional fees?”

The man who seemed to have won the bet looked puzzled.

“Deliveries inside Gates include danger pay and special surcharges. Payment is accepted in magic stones. Since this delivery included fermented soybean stew with a strong smell, I’ll be charging an extra fee.”

Sung-jun added in an emotionless voice, as if explaining obvious regulations.

The man was momentarily stunned, but soon laughed heartily and pulled out a purple stone emitting a dull light from a small pouch at his waist, tossing it to Sung-jun.

“Haha! That’s right! You risked your life to deliver, of course you should get paid! Here, a small one!”

A small stone fragment tossed as casually as handing over pocket change.

Sung-jun silently stuffed it deep into his pocket.

Then he bowed his head politely, and without hesitation turned around and headed back outside the Gate.

This was reality.

The reality where a magic stone fragment he could only obtain by risking his life to complete a delivery was perceived as mere pocket change by a low-grade Hunter like the man just now.

“Oh? You came out faster than expected?”

Hearing the surprised voice of the control officer who saw him, Sung-jun took a deep breath.

As the familiar air of reality filled his lungs again, Sung-jun unconsciously let out a deep sigh.

He could feel the texture of the magic stone in his hand.

The new energy and currency that moved this world.

Something any Awakened could obtain through hunting.

Yet something he, despite being an Awakened, could only obtain through life-risking deliveries.

‘Damn it…’

Sung-jun also had an Awakened symbol carved on his shoulder.

A mark that had never once emitted light, practically useless.

If Sung-jun had chosen to learn awakening abilities from other categories instead of taking the path of magic, he would have gone hunting directly instead of these perilous deliveries.

But all that was granted to him was knowledge of magic that could only theoretically be cast but was unusable.

In the end, he had no choice but to earn small magic stone fragments through these life-threatening deliveries today as well, to sustain both his teacher’s and his own livelihood.

Insignificant crystallized mana that was essential for a mage, yet impossible for him to obtain on his own in his current state.

***

Returning to his Tiny Studio, Sung-jun placed the chicken box he had just bought on the shabby table.

As the appetizing smell of oil filled the room, the Young Girl who had been lying and rolling around on the corner bed suddenly sat up.

“Oh, chicken! Is it boneless today, or with bones?”

Her vivid sky-blue hair that could never occur naturally, and her pure, flawless skin like carved white jade were clear evidence that she was not human.

Though she looked no older than her late teens, her nagging was on par with any grandmother.

His one and only teacher, Shin Mina.

Once called by the name Minastrias, she was the world’s only and strongest archmage.

“With bones. If it’s too troublesome to debone, I can do it for you.”

“No need. I can handle that much myself.”

Mina grumbled but couldn’t hide the smile on her lips as she skillfully picked up a piece of chicken.

After finishing their late meal, Sung-jun turned around and sat cross-legged on the floor.

When Mina cleared away the empty chicken box and sat behind him, Sung-jun handed her the small magic stone he had earned today and a crumpled piece of paper. The paper, redrawn so many times it was nearly worn through, was densely filled with new magical theories and formulas he had pondered all night.

“…”

Mina fell silent for a moment after receiving the papers.

Then Sung-jun spoke to her in a tone that suggested he knew exactly what she wanted to say.

“I know what you want to say, but it’s fine. What I want to learn is the spell itself, not the casting of the spell.”

Familiar conversations repeated every evening for years.

She gently placed her hand on Sung-jun’s bare back as he exposed his upper body.

Then weak but pure mana began flowing from her other hand holding the cold magic stone.

“Revela mihi (Show me).”

Whoosh-

Mina opened her closed eyes.

Then an enormous Factory with no visible end spread before her eyes.

Magic that manifests the ‘spells’ a mage can use as a visualized mental space.

The pinnacle of modern magic, her circle as a great archmage was filled with massive machines that overwhelmed viewers with their sheer size alone.

‘The problem is that it’s a factory that won’t run without fuel.’

After briefly looking at her spell list, Mina quickly moved to the end of the factory.

Then she transferred her consciousness to where her disciple’s circle was located, connected through their joined hands.

What unfolded before her eyes was another scene that overwhelmed people in a completely different sense from her own circle.

Countless books and papers filling a space almost similar in size to her own.

These weren’t ‘machines’ that could produce magical results with just mana as fuel like those filling her circle, but rather ‘blueprints’ that explained how to make those machines and their operating principles.

‘To think he’s piled up millions of pages of magical theories he can’t even use.’

She wanted to add some bold lines to new blueprints, but the capacity of the magic stone Sung-jun had given her was woefully insufficient, so she threw three new spell scrolls drawn with barely visible faint lines into the mountain-like pile that was a graveyard of spell formulas.

And at that moment, Mina felt a strange sense of discord.

‘…What is this?’

What caught her gaze as she turned around was the usual pile of spells she always saw.

The familiar sight of thin papers so delicate that the back side showed through, stacked layer upon layer.

But to her eyes today, the tangled lines of randomly overlapping papers seemed to form… one massive picture.

Was it an illusion?

Mina narrowed her eyes and examined once more the pile of spells where she had just thrown the new spells.

Picture fragments that could be called a meaningful picture if you considered them as such, but looked like nothing more than overlapping papers when viewed individually.

A sensation captivated her, as if hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of lines were overlapping and intersecting in coincidental patterns, faintly creating some massive form that even she didn’t know.

‘…That can’t be right. Simply accumulating knowledge doesn’t change anything.’

Mina shook off that strange sense of discord, recalling the fact that no blueprint in the world could create something by itself alone.

“It’s done. By the way, you were up all night drawing this again, weren’t you? Get some sleep while you work! You’ll ruin your health like this!”

At the familiar nagging from behind him, Sung-jun chuckled and turned around.

His disciple’s eyes, as always, held only the satisfaction of gaining new magical knowledge and slight fatigue.

Looking at her disciple’s familiar appearance, Mina had no idea that a massive change was taking place within her disciple’s body—one that even she, the pinnacle of modern magic, could not predict.

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