The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 3

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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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#003. Awakening

“Wow! It’s a Shiba Inu!”

“Let’s chase it! Shiba!”

Sung-jun, who had thought today would be a lucky day until he started his part-time job, realized just how wrong that assumption was the moment he arrived near the Gate wearing the costume.

What he thought would be a simple part-time job of just delivering cake while wearing a costume…

Was turning into a complete mess due to an assault from children whose shouts made it impossible to tell whether they were cursing or calling out the breed of the dog costume he was wearing.

“Shiba! Do the Shiba thing, Shiba!”

‘These kids don’t actually like the dog costume—they just want an excuse to shout “Shiba,” don’t they?’

Though he felt a little inclined to play with the children, since cake was an item that required careful handling during delivery, Sung-jun carefully pushed through the swarming children and moved toward the Gate.

There, he could see safety personnel strictly controlling access to the area and guarding the Gate to prevent children from approaching.

“I’m sorry, but even amusement park staff cannot enter the Gate.”

When guards with the initials of the DDA (Division of the Dimensional Agency), South Korea’s Awakened management organization, blocked his path, Sung-jun briefly removed the mask he was wearing and spoke to them.

“Delivery.”

“Inside the Gate?”

“I have entry authorization.”

When Sung-jun pulled out his Awakened registration card from the pocket attached to his costume, the control officer looked at the registration with an interested expression.

Then he pointed at Sung-jun’s face and said.

“Ah! You’re that Awakened who specializes only in deliveries inside Gates…!”

“Yes. That’s me.”

“If you have an Awakened license, why don’t you just do Gate subjugation instead of delivery work?”

‘I’d like to do that too… if only I could.’

When Sung-jun smiled and extended his hand instead of answering, the officer guarding the Gate returned his registration card.

Sung-jun then asked about the general situation inside the Gate.

“Is it dangerous inside the Gate?”

“Not at all. Of course, we strictly prohibit civilian entry, but for an Awakened, even the lowest grade should be able to move around without any problems. After all, today is the last day for this Gate anyway.”

“The last day?”

“Today is the Gate closure date. Since most of the monsters remaining inside have been cleared out, orders have been given to subjugate the Gate’s master. So all the Awakened who went inside right now are B-grade or higher.”

“Ah… I see…”

That made sense. Typically, after appropriately graded Awakened conducted subjugation activities inside Gates to recover magic stones, high-grade Awakened would finally be deployed to subjugate the boss-level monsters inside the Gate and close it.

So the cake and delivery food that Sung-jun was currently delivering was both birthday celebration food and food for a wrap-up party commemorating the Gate subjugation.

However, since that fact wasn’t important information, Sung-jun bowed to the control officer, put on his costume mask, and entered the Gate.

Whether the Awakened inside were having a wrap-up party or a birthday party, Sung-jun’s only purpose was to deliver the food and receive magic stones as delivery compensation.

But while pretending to be calm, Sung-jun’s heart was beating a little faster with anticipation.

If all the Awakened who went inside were B-grade, this might be an opportunity to expect additional compensation.

‘High-grade Awakened sometimes find it bothersome to collect magic stones from low-level monsters. If things go well, today might actually be my lucky day?’

And as if responding to Sung-jun’s expectations, deep inside the Gate, the corpse of a low-level monster lay waiting with its magic stone uncollected.

***

“Wow! I’m really glad I came! I got all the magic stones I would have earned from a week of deliveries in one go!”

Sung-jun hummed as he wandered around the cave, searching through abandoned corpses to find magic stones.

However, just as he discovered another corpse and was about to bend down, his fingers froze in mid-air as if time had stopped.

‘The smell of blood?’

It wasn’t the smell of monster blood.

Having performed countless Gate deliveries, he had smelled the distinctive blood scent that monsters inside Gates gave off so many times that he was sick of it, so he could be certain of that much.

And with similar certainty, Sung-jun’s sense of smell was sounding an alarm that the scent he was detecting now was another familiar type of blood smell.

‘Human.’

When you smell human blood inside a Gate, there’s only one thing to do.

Drop everything and run toward the exit.

The presence of ‘human blood scent’ inside a Gate meant that something capable of harming Awakened existed inside the Gate.

Even as a fellow Awakened, for Sung-jun who had no combat ability whatsoever, running away was definitely the best strategy.

But contrary to his reason warning him to flee, his footsteps were heading toward where the blood scent was flowing from.

What was he thinking?

Perhaps the larger than usual amount of magic stones in his pocket was giving him courage.

With this amount of magic stones, he might be able to cast the minimum spells necessary for survival in a critical moment.

And if today really was a ‘lucky day,’ he thought he might be able to save someone’s life with that magic.

However, as Sung-jun followed the intensifying blood scent into the deepest part of the Gate, he came to painfully realize just how foolishly reckless his thought of ‘maybe being able to save someone’ had been.

‘What the hell is this…!’

Horrific corpses torn to shreds—the word ‘meat chunks’ seemed more appropriate than ‘corpses.’

Equipment scattered here and there among those chunks of flesh suggested that the owners of those blood clots had been Awakened.

And there, what Sung-jun discovered was the back of something dangerous that was chewing and munching on something with its back turned.

An unknown monster with a unique presence that didn’t match the feeling of any animal existing on Earth.

Sung-jun immediately activated presence-concealing magic and slowly backed away so the creature wouldn’t notice his approach.

And at that moment, the creature turned its head and its two eyes stared piercingly into Sung-jun’s eyes.

“Kruho?”

‘Is it assessing the situation?’

Gripping the magic stones in his costume’s pocket, Sung-jun mentally recalled a list of all the spells he could use in the current situation.

While pondering what kind of spell he should use to safely escape from an opponent that had slaughtered four B-grade Awakened without a scratch.

‘Generate stench, flash, and explosive sound simultaneously, then hide as quickly as possible while the opponent is confused.’

After running a rough simulation in his head, Sung-jun immediately began preparing to absorb mana from the magic stones.

But at that moment, what he discovered was a strange expression that looked like a smile on the lips of ‘that creature’ that had been glaring at him.

‘Mockery?’

Before Sung-jun could understand the meaning of that expression, an tremendous intensity of ‘nausea’ began pressing against his entire nervous system.

Not simply the ground shaking, but a sensation as if space itself was being twisted and shaken like it was being squeezed.

The sensation of a massive being grabbing his soul with both hands and crushing it like clay made Sung-jun scream involuntarily.

And simultaneously, Sung-jun was thrown out of the Gate inside Lotte World without understanding why.

“Survivor found! Survivor found!”

“He’s the only witness who knows the internal situation! Transport him safely to headquarters!”

“Damn it! This isn’t the time to worry about that!”

Amid screams coming from all directions, Sung-jun desperately tried to focus his mind.

Then, ignoring the pain felt throughout his body, he forcibly raised his head.

There was the sight of a Gate undulating in dark purple light, completely different from when Sung-jun had entered it earlier.

‘Gate rampage? Now of all times?’

Gate rampage was a phenomenon where a Gate left unattended for a long time became uncontrollable and countless monsters poured out into the real world.

However, Gate rampage typically occurred in completely neglected Gates, not in situations like this where the internal monsters had been cleanly cleared out.

Normally, the Gate before his eyes should have disappeared from Earth today after the Gate boss was eliminated by the Awakened party that entered.

‘Then the only possibility is… could it be?!’

A warning he had heard from his master came to mind.

The reason his master had come to Earth with his companions.

And the reason they had taken humans as disciples and trained them.

The single reason why humanity, which had neither sharp claws nor powerful physical abilities, had to be granted the ability called awakening and reborn as superhumans that would only appear in comics.

The ‘moment of judgment’ when all the laws that maintained the world would collapse and the fate of all humanity would be put to the test.

“D-DAY…”

When Sung-jun, realizing this fact, turned his head to look at the ceiling, he saw something that shouldn’t be there glaring down at him.

Craaaaaash!!!!

The reinforced glass forming the ceiling burst apart in an instant, and broken glass shards poured down like a torrential rain.

And simultaneously, the steel frame designed to support the weight of the heavy ceiling broke apart like a bundle of noodles with a terrible sound.

“Kyaaaaaaaaah!!!!”

“It’s a monster!!!”

Screams and cries coming from all directions.

The dream space called an amusement park, which had been filled with happiness until he entered the Gate, instantly transformed into the middle of hell due to the appearance of a giant monster matching the size of the amusement park itself.

‘Crazy! It’s ridiculously huge!!!!’

Looking at the upper body of the monster breaking through the ceiling and pushing into the amusement park, Sung-jun couldn’t help but be horrified.

Though he had seen countless photos of aberrants through news and online articles, no aberrant he had ever seen in his life was this massive.

While his mind filled with the wish that this were all just a dream, the monster that had attacked Lotte World was brutally slaughtering the people inside the park, as if to remind him that the scene before his eyes was reality.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”

Pop!

The sound of a person crushed under the giant monster’s claws bursting like a balloon delivered enough horror to move Sung-jun’s body, which had been frozen with terror.

Coming to his senses, Sung-jun immediately grabbed a nearby child who was frozen in place, tucked them under his arm, and began running at full speed.

To move even one step farther away from the monster.

A man in a costume running with a young child tucked under his arm, leaving behind the form of a giant monster that seemed like it belonged in the most horrific sci-fi movie.

The scene had an atmosphere like a mix of comedy and horror, but Sung-jun had no time to think about such things.

With insufficient mana to use proper magic, the current Sung-jun was literally no different from any other ordinary person overflowing in this amusement park.

‘I want to live. I can’t die like this.’

Feeling the most intense and primal sensation humans could experience stimulating his entire body with a thrilling jolt, Sung-jun was sprinting forward at full speed.

And at that moment, the violent struggling of the child tucked under his arm struck Sung-jun’s solar plexus hard.

“Ugh!!! Cough… Cough… Hey! What are you doing!”

“Let me go! Mom is over there! Mooooom!!”

Hearing the child’s screams that were so loud they seemed to make their throat bleed, Sung-jun quickly turned his head toward where the child was looking.

Then he turned his body as fast as possible and wrapped his arms around the child’s head.

‘I can’t save that.’

The last scene he saw before wrapping his arms around the child’s head was other monsters that had probably fallen through the ceiling the giant beast had broken, gripping the limbs of a beautifully dressed adult woman.

A scene where even someone without much imagination could easily predict what would happen in the next second.

Even running at the speed of an Awakened, whose physical abilities far exceeded ordinary people, saving the child’s mother would be impossible. What Sung-jun saw in that situation was the desperate look in the woman’s eyes as she gazed at the child beside her.

‘Please.’

Even knowing the terrible future that would befall her in just a moment, a mother’s heart not wanting to show that sight to her child was deeply etched in her eyes.

As soon as Sung-jun saw her expression, he blocked the child’s view with his body so the child wouldn’t see their mother’s death.

He even covered the child’s ears with the thick cotton-covered glove parts of the costume, so they wouldn’t hear any screams that might burst out.

The child’s movements, struggling frantically and throwing punches at his body, felt like slow motion.

And at that moment, a horrible sound that he would never get used to no matter how many hundreds or thousands of times he heard it echoed from behind.

‘Don’t look back. Run. Sung-jun. Run forward! Move now!’

Swallowing the tears flowing inside the costume mask and screaming in his mind, Sung-jun ran forward as if falling while holding the child.

Thinking of the countless tragedies he might have been able to prevent if he had properly grown as a mage.

It was sincere regret about choosing the awakening ability called magic—something he had never acknowledged once in ten years.

‘What kind of world’s only mage am I? When I can’t even save one person dying right before my eyes!’

Regret about wasting ten years learning an ability he couldn’t even use properly.

And regret about the foolishness of believing he would have plenty of time to develop his abilities in the future.

But before he could even fully contemplate that regret, the unfolding disaster blocked the path of the fleeing Sung-jun and young child.

“Kuwooooooooooo!”

The being that blocked Sung-jun’s path was definitely not a creature that belonged to this planet.

If such creatures had existed on Earth, humanity would have gone extinct before discovering fire.

And that creature was now trying to make modern humanity extinct.

“Listen carefully. See that door over there? When I give you the signal, run there without looking back.”

“Waaaah!! I can’t!! You take me with you!!”

“If we stay here, we’ll both die!!! Do as I say!!!”

The agents guarding the Gate area had long since been killed by the smaller monsters that appeared with the giant beast.

Against monsters that bullets couldn’t penetrate at all, the weapons the control agents possessed were of no help.

Moreover, the four B-rank Awakened who had entered the Gate were dead inside the Gate.

Sung-jun put strength into his trembling legs, remembering that he was the only Awakened left in this vast amusement park.

How would he appear in the child’s eyes?

A man in a costume mask that they were seeing for the first time in their life, trying to risk his life for them.

‘Let’s think that I was destined to die even if I got out of here anyway.’

If he died, that child would probably meet the same fate.

But if he was going to die anyway, he wanted to die looking like a hero, at least in one person’s heart.

He had decided to become a mage and become his master’s disciple for moments exactly like this.

‘It’s do or die anyway. I don’t know if it’ll work, but let’s try it once!’

That didn’t mean he had blocked the monster’s path without any plan.

The magic stone fragments he had gathered by searching through the pile of abandoned corpses inside the Gate earlier.

If he used all the mana contained in those magic stones, he felt he could at least buy enough time for the child to escape, even if he couldn’t defeat the opponent.

Calculating that he might be able to produce an effect similar to a frilled lizard threatening an opponent, I activated the most spectacular and massive magic circle I could create.

Even if it was inefficient, concentrating the attention of as many monsters as possible seemed like the best way to save even a few more lives of the people being sacrificed everywhere.

Crackle!! Crackle-crackle!!

“H-hyung… Don’t tell me you were an Awakened?”

“Stop talking and run!!!”

When Sung-jun shouted loudly, the child was startled and ran in the direction he indicated, staggering as if about to fall.

And Sung-jun, leaving that child behind, spread both arms toward the monster and shouted.

“Come at me! You monster bastard! I’ll show you the combat power of the Mage Guild, which may not be omnipotent but is close to almighty!!”

Apparently surprised by the six giant magic circles that suddenly appeared around him and the unexpected shout, the giant beast the size of a 2-story building unconsciously stepped back.

And that was exactly the reaction Sung-jun had intended.

‘It won’t activate anyway. The magic I activated is at a level that’s impossible to cast even using all the mana extracted from the magic stones. But just drawing the magic circles should be enough to draw aggro.’

As if the monster’s pride was hurt by the fact that it had retreated, it let out a roar toward Sung-jun’s direction with enough force to create wind pressure.

“Krwooooooooooooo!!!”

Thud!!

The beast kicked off the ground so hard that the solid concrete floor cracked, charging forward at full speed.

Seeing this, Sung-jun instinctively realized that even if he tried his best to dodge, he wouldn’t be able to avoid the monster’s attack.

And at that moment, an impact even greater than when the amusement park-sized monster had broken through Lotte World’s ceiling struck Sung-jun’s body.

Shwaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!!!

From the supposedly fake magic circles that should have only existed in form without activating, six human-sized fireballs shot out like bullets.

As if the magic had actually activated.

And the magic that shot out like that not only pierced straight through the body of the 2-story building-sized monster trying to attack Sung-jun, but also pierced straight through the side of the giant beast that had been happily destroying buildings.

“Huh?”

This shouldn’t be possible.

“Why did this fire?”

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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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