The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 10

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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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#010. Three Years of Mourning

The meal Sung-jun had prepared might have looked humble in terms of the variety of side dishes, but it was neatly arranged with foods filled with his own care and devotion.

The wild vegetables that Teacher used to enjoy and the delicious fresh rice he cooked for every meal.

Seaweed soup that didn’t contain meat but used seasonings to give off a rich beef aroma.

He set the table daily with foods that Teacher would have enjoyed and eaten with delight if he were still alive.

Of course, Teacher didn’t openly show it, but he actually preferred the delivery food that Sung-jun brought home after finishing his delivery part-time job over home-cooked meals.

He was someone who much preferred greasy and stimulating foods that weren’t particularly good for health, like pig’s feet and buckwheat noodles, chicken and pizza, hamburgers and braised chicken.

However, now it was unfortunately impossible to obtain ‘those foods’ that Teacher loved most.

“There’s no pig’s feet today either. Just in case, I secretly teleported around all of Seoul City, but there wasn’t a single pig’s feet restaurant open. So please bear with this for today.”

Sung-jun spoke in a deliberately bright voice and sat quietly in front of Teacher’s photo, waiting for something.

Then, as if he had actually heard Teacher’s voice, he cheerfully exclaimed.

“Ah, what am I waiting for? Of course I’m waiting for Teacher to pick up his spoon first. As you know, Teacher, I’m nothing without manners. Hahaha! Ah, yes. I’ll eat now. Please enjoy your meal too, Teacher!”

Sung-jun spoke as if conversing with the empty air, then picked up his spoon and took a sip of soup.

Then he scooped up a spoonful of rice that was freshly cooked, warm and soft, but felt gritty like sand grains, put it in his mouth and chewed.

Drip, drip.

Tears came.

Teacher’s empty seat, who always told various adventure stories during meals, and Teacher’s face, who always showed the happiest expression in the world whenever Sung-jun picked out ingredients from the soup and put them in Teacher’s bowl, were endlessly tearing apart his lonely heart.

“Strange, isn’t it? I thought I could forget everything in about a week.”

Finally putting down his spoon, Sung-jun lay down in front of the dining table and looked up at the sky.

The blue sky that showed its unchanging blue appearance as always, even though the world humanity knew was collapsing in real time.

No, there had been changes.

Due to the large-scale corrosion incident that probably occurred in China, Chinese factories stopped operating, which would have significantly reduced fine dust.

Thanks to this, the already clean air in the ravine was giving an increasingly clear feeling day by day.

“Well then, shall we try again today.”

Sung-jun, who had roughly finished his meal with just a spoonful or two, lightly waved his hand toward the dining table.

Then a giant water droplet was summoned right above the dining table and sucked in the bowls set on the table along with the remaining side dishes.

Then, like a transparent dishwasher, it began rotating at high speed and washing the dishes.

“Hmm… strangely, among the new magic I’ve created, that one is my favorite…”

Soon after the dishwashing was finished, only the cleanly washed bowls fell back onto the dining table, and the summoned water droplet disappeared into thin air while holding the remaining food waste inside.

That didn’t mean the food waste had evaporated from reality.

It was just thrown away like garbage to dimensional coordinates of another universe that he had designated in advance through the subspace transmission magic he learned from Teacher.

Since he had found those coordinates to use as a trash can in the first place, Sung-jun had no idea what was there.

‘There’s no need to care about it anyway.’

But this tenth dimension was different.

A space where he could practice powerful attack magic to his heart’s content without being disturbed by surroundings, while maintaining a magical connection with this ravine that was Teacher’s grave and Sung-jun’s home.

And a space where he could fight the real enemy, ‘Corrosion Entities’, as much as he wanted.

And a space where Sung-jun, being human, could maintain his breathing and condition with just slight measures.

Finally, a space with sufficient mana concentration to practice magic to his heart’s content.

Sung-jun had explored one by one the universes that met his conditions among the countless multiverses written in the magic book Teacher left behind, and finally found one planet that he liked.

“Well then, shall we go.”

When he waved his finger to cast teleportation magic, the characteristic nauseating sensation began to cover his entire body.

And shortly after, Sung-jun’s body, having completed spatial movement, was transferred to a strange space filled with tremendously large trees.

“It would be such a nice place if not for the smell…”

21% oxygen concentration in the atmosphere, 78% nitrogen concentration.

The air composed of some other unique elements that couldn’t be found on Earth had optimal conditions for humans to maintain breathing without any special equipment or magic.

The only problem was that a peculiar smell, like the phytoncide smell you could feel in Earth’s forests multiplied by about 200 times, stung his nose.

And that smell came from a core element that had a very unique effect on this world’s vegetation.

‘Here they come.’

The moment he entered the world, he immediately felt hostility.

As if discovering a foreign substance that had invaded the body, he felt like the entire Gigantic Forest was focusing on where Sung-jun was.

And at the same time, giant trees that appeared to be at least 20 stories tall even for the smallest ones began moving by lifting their roots.

“Even after getting beaten like that yesterday, you won’t give up. At this point, you could at least run away.”

When Sung-jun raised both hands, the air above his palms began to ripple and rotate roughly.

Like wind-made blades rotating and dancing.

And at that moment, the building-sized giant trees began attacking by swinging house-sized branches.

“Today’s experimental magic is 5th Circle wind magic ‘Cutting Edge’ mixed with 6th Circle dimensional magic ‘Dimension Slash’. I think it’s an 8th Circle or higher spell, so let’s see how much power it has – take a hit and give me your impressions. The spell name is…”

Sung-jun, who had been thinking for a moment, smiled and extended his palm.

Then he recited a familiar name that anyone who reads manga would know.

“Spiral Wind Fire Wheel.”

At that moment, a giant scar that would probably take hundreds of years to recover was carved into the Otherworldly forest.

***

That evening.

Sung-jun, who had been devoted to magic training today without noticing time pass, returned to Earth from the Otherworldly Dimension only after becoming half-exhausted.

Then, lifting his eyelids that kept trying to close, he cast a teleportation spell.

He had used up the last rice he had today, so if he wanted to cook fresh rice and offer it to Teacher tomorrow, he needed to get rice.

Then a Corrosion Entity that had been devouring something that was alive until just moments ago near the teleportation location glared at Sung-jun who suddenly appeared and growled.

“Phew, I thought I had roughly cleaned up this area. I guess there were still some guys left?”

The place Sung-jun had moved to was an Abandoned Rice Warehouse in a danger zone Outside the areas reclaimed by the South Korean government.

A Grain Processing Facility near a ‘Restricted Area’ where a fairly strong boss-level Corrosion Entity had appeared in a nearby city, causing trouble for subjugation efforts.

Sung-jun had cast preservation magic on the giant Rice Warehouse there and was using it as ‘his personal rice warehouse’.

“Don’t just growl, attack me. You trash. I’ll slice you up very finely.”

What appeared as he said this was the same magic he had used in the other world just before, but a wind fire wheel with much weaker power adjustment.

No matter what, if he used high circle magic recklessly on Earth, the surrounding terrain could change, so he deliberately cast a spell with controlled power.

And that spell, exactly as intended, turned the house-sized Corrosion Entity that was charging at him into well-minced meat pieces.

“Phew, that was just the right power. My power control is getting better day by day, isn’t it? Hmm? That’s…”

Then, Sung-jun’s eyes caught sight of the corpse that the Corrosion Entity had been devouring until just moments ago.

Although it was in a horrifically miserable state with its internal organs completely torn out and eaten, the remaining corpse’s appearance made it possible to guess what its original form had been.

The identity of the corpse the Corrosion Entity had been devouring was a well-raised Cow, commonly called ‘Yellowie’ in the countryside.

“Beef… and Korean beef at that… It’s a bit unsettling since a Monster was eating it, but since it’s fresh, it should be okay, right?”

After thinking for a moment, Sung-jun swallowed the saliva that had gathered in his mouth and approached the dead cow.

Then, recalling content he had seen on YouTube before, he carefully examined the corpse.

“The brisket is on the belly side, so it was torn out completely when the internal organs were eaten… I think the sirloin is roughly on the back side?”

He cut out what looked like sirloin with the survival knife he usually carried, then put his palms together and prayed for the cow’s soul.

Then he took out plastic from his bag, put the dripping beef inside, moved back to the Rice Warehouse, and connected a battery he had made himself to the power line supplying electricity to the warehouse.

Whirrrr… thump… thump… thump… thump…

After confirming that the lights on the warehouse ceiling had turned on, Sung-jun moved to the rice storage and brought out some unprocessed rice.

Then he put the rice into the milling machine that removes rice bran and pressed the power button.

Whirrrrrr… whoooosh!

White rice grains pouring out of the hole along with the sound of machinery running.

The reason he could run the giant machine that could never be operated with a regular portable battery was because of the power supply device Sung-jun had made himself by processing Corrosion Entity corpses.

‘That was quite a useful guy. It gave me a bit of trouble to catch because of its electricity-absorbing nature, but conversely, because of that, I was able to make a super high-performance battery…’

Honestly, there were quite a few inconveniences due to the government’s ongoing electricity control policy, but since making the battery, he hadn’t been suffering much.

If he just charged it once in the morning by injecting mana, the battery wouldn’t run out even if he ran home appliances like refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners all day.

And shortly after, Sung-jun, who had turned a bundle of rice seeds into milled rice, stood up to remove the auxiliary battery.

And at that moment, something entering the barrier he had extensively set up around the factory was detected.

‘A Corrosion Entity? No. This size is human. And an Awakened too. Looks quite strong. If I go to get the battery now, I’ll be exposed to their view?’

The biggest problem was that the battery was outside the factory.

And in a completely exposed space that could be seen from far away.

After thinking for a moment, Sung-jun concluded that he had no choice but to give up the battery and hastily cast teleportation magic.

‘I don’t want to reveal myself yet.’

And immediately after he disappeared from sight, a black-painted special armored vehicle appeared near the rice warehouse.

“It’s remarkably well-preserved in intact condition.”

A woman who got out of the vehicle spoke in a puzzled tone as she looked at the warehouse.

In a situation where there were no other buildings around at all, the fact that only this warehouse remained exposed and maintained its intact appearance was truly a strange phenomenon.

However, what surprised her even more was that the interior of the rice warehouse visible from outside had lights on.

‘Electricity? How on earth?’

The city she had successfully recaptured just before coming here was in complete ruins.

Not only electricity but also water supply was cut off, with only a very few hidden survivors barely sustaining their lives with remaining supplies.

However, this warehouse not far from the city not only maintained its intact state but also had electricity properly supplied, which wasn’t even available in the city.

“Find out where the electricity is being supplied from! If it’s a structure operated by a temporary generator, it couldn’t have been maintained for this long.”

After sending her subordinates to investigate, she moved to a corner of the factory upon receiving their report.

And there, she discovered a mysterious object of unknown identity vibrating slightly with electrical wires plugged into it.

“This is…”

“I don’t know, Section Chief. I’ve never seen anything like this before either. It definitely seems to be something that produces electricity, but there’s no device of this size that can generate this level of output.”

“Are you certain there are no other power supply sources nearby?”

“From what we’ve confirmed, this is the only one. And we also confirmed that the moment we disconnect the electrical wires from this object, the factory’s electricity is immediately cut off.”

A ‘bio-battery’ that looked like a crude case resembling a snack box, with strange flesh inside and metal terminals inserted to allow electrical wires to be plugged in.

What caught her attention was a small ‘magic circle’ embedded on the flesh of that crude bio-battery.

“What about the CCTV?”

“Pardon?”

“If electricity was supplied, the CCTV would have been operating too. There must be recorded footage, so check all the CCTVs inside the warehouse right now.”

A small mistake Sung-jun had overlooked.

The small mistake of deciding to supply electricity to the entire factory instead of just the rice mill because it was bothersome was about to greatly change the fate of the Republic of Korea at this very moment.

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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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