The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 29

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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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#029. Stakes

“Phew….”

Even after watching Jizeurak fall, Sung-jun didn’t let his guard down and cast a wide-range detection spell to confirm there was no danger in the surrounding area before finally relaxing his combat stance.

“Could you explain that fight from earlier?”

As the dense mana that had been filling the area around Sung-jun disappeared, Hyeon-jo cautiously approached in Sung-jun’s direction and asked.

Even to his eyes, which didn’t know much about magic, the fierce battle between Sung-jun and Jizeurak seemed to involve complex elements beyond what was simply visible.

“It’s exactly what you saw. An enemy appeared, we fought, and I won.”

“Do I look cross-eyed to you? I may not know the details about your abilities, but even I could tell that fight was no ordinary matter.”

Hyeon-jo also knew that Sung-jun had won through some kind of trick.

He just couldn’t understand what that trick was.

“What the hell… what was that pile of coins?”

The fight between Sung-jun and Jizeurak lasted only about 2 minutes in terms of time, but Hyeon-jo couldn’t gauge any timing when he could have intervened.

An intense intuition that he would definitely die no matter when he tried to intervene.

Originally, killing intent was an intangible, formless energy, but the air surrounding Sung-jun and Jizeurak gave off such a thick scent of death that it felt like this is what killing intent would feel like if it had a physical form.

And within that dense killing intent where moving even a finger seemed like it would result in immediate death, Sung-jun was casually moving around while taking wounds all over his body, facing Jizeurak and the Chusarja in a 2-on-1 battle.

Like someone who instinctively understood how they needed to move to survive.

The intuition that there must be something far beyond his imagination hidden in that process made Hyeon-jo’s entire body tremble.

Instead of answering Hyeon-jo’s question, Sung-jun brushed off his sleeves that had been tattered by the aftermath of battle.

Then, as if remembering a long-forgotten promise, he casually opened his mouth.

“To properly explain those coins, I’d have to start with the story of the Previous Demon Lord who first created that magic, but that would turn into a full-fledged magic lesson, so I’ll explain it simply. Actually, everything started from when we crossed the Yalu River.”

He began explaining in a calm manner, as if telling someone else’s story.

His explanation wasn’t an arrogant declaration of ‘I set up the board this way.’

Rather, it was closer to a retrospective interpretation like ‘Looking back, moving as the coin directed seems to have produced this result,’ as if he himself was amazed by the design of that grand causality.

“Actually, I didn’t read and move according to all the causal relationships precisely either. The Previous Demon Lord who first created the Fate Coin spell made that spell exactly for that purpose, but I didn’t use it that way. Originally, the future is something where the penalty grows larger the more precisely you try to read it.”

Sung-jun’s explanation was quite lengthy, and some of the information was even so complex it was incomprehensible, or consisted of unfriendly interpretations that excluded essential explanations and felt like ‘that’s just how it is.’

However, Hyeon-jo was barely able to grasp the core of what Sung-jun was trying to convey through such explanations.

“So you’ve been reading the future through that coin spell since we crossed the Yalu River, and based on the future you read, you guided us to this place?”

“To summarize, yes. Of course, I didn’t read far enough to know this kind of result would occur. I simply followed the actions that the coin’s heads guided me toward.”

Moving directly to this place as soon as they arrived at the Yalu River.

And fighting with Luochen who picked a fight with him, even knowing that Jizeurak was watching.

At the time he made those decisions, he couldn’t understand why the coin guided such choices, but now that everything had settled, Sung-jun could roughly understand why the coin made those judgments.

“It’s a retrospective story, but if we had fought a high-ranking Corrosion Entity right there after crossing the Yalu River, a different result would have occurred. If we hadn’t shown the Corrosion Entity the sight of me fighting Luochen here, a different result might have occurred too. I can’t know exactly what kind of future it would have been, but at least the results so far have worked positively for me.”

“Was there a reason you used that magic immediately after crossing the Yalu River?”

“It’s a simple reason. After hearing your story, I judged that the ability of the Yeojiggwi that appeared in China was the ability to read the future.”

To fight an opponent who reads the future, this side also had no choice but to counter with the ability to read the future.

When two beings simultaneously read the future and try to defeat each other, the probability of future prediction becomes half—that was Sung-jun’s explanation.

“Ultimately, assuming I also read the future and Yeojiggwi also reads the future, our respective win rates become fifty-fifty. The probability of me winning becomes 50%, and the probability of the opponent winning also becomes 50%. However, there’s a difference in that this side must endure the penalty of experiencing the same level of misfortune as the misfortune we avoid by reading the future.”

In Sung-jun’s explanation, Seoa was looking at her teacher with worried eyes. She had discovered one problem that others had missed. Her talent was instinctively reading the flow of mana, and throughout the battle, she had felt that the magical energy flowing from her teacher’s body was subtly unstable.

“Teacher. But it’s strange. You said that ‘Fate Coin’ spell definitely brings misfortune feedback equal to the luck borrowed. But during the battle, I didn’t see any such signs from you at all.”

At her sharp observation, Sung-jun smiled bitterly.

“Of course it came. And quite severely too. I just forcibly blocked it with another spell.”

“Is it possible to… block incoming misfortune with a spell?”

“It’s possible. Of course, there are limits to that too. If you’re curious, shall I release it for a moment?”

Saying that, Sung-jun released the spell he had cast on himself.

And not all of it, just a portion.

Then suddenly, without any warning, the ground Sung-jun was standing on caved in with a thud, driving Sung-jun’s body into the floor.

“Cough.”

“Teacher!”

Seoa screamed and tried to run over, but Sung-jun casually raised his hand to stop her. Then he calmly stood up while spitting out the dirt that had gotten into his nose and mouth.

“See? This is what happens.”

He pretended to be fine, but a drop of cold sweat was clearly flowing down his forehead.

Considering he suffered this level of injury despite releasing only an extremely small portion of the misfortune accumulated during battle, he could intuit that if he used the Fate Coin spell limitlessly in a fight against Yeojiggwi, the feedback he would receive would far exceed the realm of imagination.

‘If I’m not careful, I might die even if I win the fight.’

Sung-jun didn’t know how he would die either.

He could suddenly choke on food while eating, a blood clot formed during intense fighting could block his blood vessels, or he could be struck by lightning from a clear sky.

The magic Sung-jun learned from his teacher gave him infinite possibilities and power, but it didn’t make his body immortal, so he couldn’t help but fall into contemplation.

“The feedback’s impact is more serious than expected. For the time being, I’ll have to suppress the misfortune from striking even if it means overexerting myself. If I’m not careful, I might die on the road before even fighting Yeojiggwi.”

At his terrible explanation, Hyeon-jo frowned and said.

“Look here. If that feedback thing manifests in the form of bad luck, couldn’t you release that damn misfortune somewhere else? For instance… there’s gambling and such. If you lose big in one round and use up the good luck, the bad luck should drain away by that much too, shouldn’t it?”

“It’s a good idea, but impossible. Luck is relative.”

Sung-jun shook his head.

“Gambling without stakes is meaningless. If I pick up a hundred thousand won on the street, it’s tremendous luck, but for Bill Gates, it would be no different from picking up a piece of tissue that fell on the ground. The value of the luck I gained in this battle is at least equivalent to defeating two subordinates of an apocalypse-level Corrosion Entity and surviving. To offset that level of misfortune, I’d need appropriate ‘stakes.'”

At his explanation, Seoa stepped forward as if she had made up her mind.

With a face that held resolute will in her large eyes.

“Teacher. If it’s possible to postpone misfortune, wouldn’t it also be possible to transfer it to someone else? If it’s possible, I’ll share your misfortune!”

At her bold proposal, Sung-jun was momentarily speechless.

Because he had never considered the idea of transferring misfortune to someone else.

However, after thinking for a moment, Sung-jun shook his head and said to Seoa.

“It’s not theoretically impossible, but there are several problems.”

“Problems?”

“First is that the amount of misfortune currently accumulated on me is at a level that would be difficult for you to handle. And the other is that fate prediction spells have such complex structures that to modify the structure, I’d have to completely redesign the spell itself.”

However, clever Sung-jun was devising a new strategy, getting ideas from Seoa’s proposal even while speaking of impossibilities.

It was a strategy of not simply treating his misfortune as something to endure, but using it as a kind of ‘resource’ that could be transferred to others and utilized.

“But I like the idea itself of thinking of penalties like objects. Perhaps there might be a way to usefully utilize this misfortune.”

At Sung-jun’s words, Shirasaki Miyu, who had been quietly observing the situation, showed interest with sparkling eyes.

To her game-obsessed eyes, all of Sung-jun’s actions looked like an interesting game taking place on a giant chessboard.

She became curious about the next move in this game that Sung-jun had devised.

“Using misfortune? In what way?”

“It’s simple. What would be the worst case scenario for us right now?”

“Yeojiggwi suddenly appearing when we’re not prepared and wiping us out.”

“Right. That would probably be the worst situation. To add a bit more to that, it would be Corrosion Entity forces at a level we can’t stop attacking where we are.”

“Wait, you’re not seriously thinking….”

At Shirasaki Miyu’s flustered words, Sung-jun smiled and said.

“That’s exactly right. Since it’s come to this, I’ll accumulate misfortune to the level where enemies will find us on their own, making Yeojiggwi come looking for me of its own accord.”

“But for that to be misfortune, it has to come when you’re in unfavorable conditions. That means at the point you summon Yeojiggwi through feedback, you have no chance of winning.”

“Right. If I tried to summon Yeojiggwi through misfortune when everything was prepared, fate would define that as good luck rather than misfortune and wouldn’t draw Yeojiggwi in.”

“Then you’re saying you’ll deliberately face Yeojiggwi in a situation where you have no chance of winning?”

“No, that would just be suicide.”

The more he explained, the less understandable Sung-jun’s explanation became, making Shirasaki Miyu feel frustrated.

“I don’t understand even after hearing the explanation. So what are you going to do? Wasn’t your plan to draw in Yeojiggwi through misfortune?”

“When two beings who read the future use their abilities against each other, the future converges to results within a predictable range with 50-50 probability. But if more beings with the same ability can intervene, the difficulty of future prediction falls into a chaotic state where results become unknowable.”

Saying that, Sung-jun looked at the remaining two people among the three humans on Earth who could use magic, excluding himself.

Toward his disciple Yeonse-a and the Awakened Shirasaki Miyu who used magic through a Grimoire.

“Have you ever seen the Netflix drama ‘Three-Body Problem’?”

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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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