The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 51

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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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#051. The Necessity of Utility

“Joint raid?”

Sung-jun, who hadn’t heard about the joint raid from Shindo Ayaka, the overall commander of this raid, looked at her with eyes demanding an explanation.

“Ah, I should have explained that part first, but I made a mistake. To be precise, the number of conquest personnel participating in this raid is 500. The total personnel is 700, but 200 adventurers under the Black Spear clan are participating as backup personnel.”

Even for raids of other large dungeons outside Tokyo, when one clan attempts a conquest, another clan is supposed to come as backup.

If one clan challenged a raid with only the forces they could mobilize and all the Awakened were wiped out, it could cause tremendous national losses.

In other words, the clan participating as backup could be called a kind of ‘insurance.’

“Naturally, the clan participating as backup doesn’t participate in the conquest until they receive a help request. And if we succeed in conquering floors independently among ourselves, they’re also excluded from loot distribution.”

“Then isn’t participation itself a loss?”

“Instead, when large-scale raids are conducted in Osaka Dungeon, we participate as backup. Even though they’re competitors, raid clans fundamentally have a mutually supportive relationship. However, if the raid clan managing the dungeon activates a cooperation request to the backup clan, the priority for loot transfers to the backup clan, so it’s best to handle things without making cooperation requests if possible.”

It was a clever system.

It was a system that could avoid the risk of Awakened being completely wiped out in case of unforeseen circumstances, while transferring the costs of operating large clans like Black Spear to the clan with raid authority rather than the state.

Sung-jun asked for understanding from Black Spear’s clan master Kurosaki Ryusei, then called Shindo Ayaka aside and asked her various questions about how the raid would proceed.

Then he nodded as if he roughly understood and asked her.

“So right now that man Kurosaki thinks that me and my companions are new raid members scouted by Goddess’s Guidance? He doesn’t know the fact that we’re the ones who cleared Nagano Dungeon?”

“Yes. But he probably suspects that you have something. Otherwise, a man who’s the owner of Osaka Dungeon wouldn’t have personally come to talk to you.”

Shindo Ayaka, who said that, asked Sung-jun for understanding saying she needed to prepare for departure and left.

Then Sung-jun spoke to Seoa and Shirasaki Miyu who were with him.

“Good. Though it wasn’t intentional, we seem to have become quite the center of attention, so now that we’ve gathered enough information, I think we need to decide what to do going forward.”

“Should we openly and flashily draw attention, or hide our identity while gathering information?”

“That’s right.”

“If we go too flashy, won’t we get our ankles grabbed later?”

“I’m not particularly worried about that part. Outside the dungeon, there’s the option of using transfer magic to just get our bodies out, and even if the worst situation occurs inside the dungeon, we can just suppress it with force.”

“That’s tremendous confidence?”

“Don’t think I can do it?”

Shirasaki Miyu, seeing Sung-jun’s expression, let out a short sigh and said to him.

“I don’t know about other people, but if it’s you, it would be possible. Still, I’d like you to avoid frontal battles as much as possible. Everyone is acting for the future of their organization or country, not because they have malicious intent.”

“I’ll be as lenient as possible.”

After the ensuing meeting, Sung-jun decided to expose his abilities, taking the risk of having his ankles grabbed.

In the current situation where he needed to conquer the deepest parts of the dungeon as quickly as possible, rather than making efforts to hide his abilities, he judged that openly revealing abilities that would be exposed eventually anyway from the start would be less of a waste of time.

Having made up his mind, Sung-jun immediately approached the mountain of supplies piled up to be loaded onto the supply corps’ carts.

Then he spoke to a Goddess’s Guidance clan member who was controlling the distribution of supplies.

“Are these the items to be taken down underground?”

Basically, Sung-jun would use informal speech with strangers he met for the first time or formal speech, but the standard wasn’t based on the other person’s position or age.

Even when facing someone older, if he judged it necessary not to be looked down upon by the other person or if he felt the need to create a sense of intimidation, he would boldly use informal speech even with strangers, and if he judged it necessary to gain favor, he would use formal speech even if the other person was younger or in a lower position than himself – this was Sung-jun’s style.

And judging that he needed to gain some degree of favor from the man before him, Sung-jun started the conversation with formal speech, unlike when dealing with Shindo Ayaka, thereby softening the wariness of the other person who had tensed up upon seeing him.

“Ah, you’re the clan member that the master temporarily recruited, right? That’s correct. You see the numbers written on the boxes? Those are the numbers assigned to each camp. You put down boxes marked with 1 at Camp 1, and boxes marked with 2 at Camp 2, and so on.”

“The distance must be quite far, so relying on carts to carry all these supplies must be quite burdensome, isn’t it?”

“Of course, since we’re relying entirely on manpower, it’s not exactly comfortable work. But there are many volunteers. In a situation where we have to rely entirely on food from the dungeon, it’s not easy for civilians who aren’t Awakened to find proper jobs.”

“I see… Then, if someone who could move all the supplies piled here by themselves appeared, would the people already decided to be hired be fired without receiving compensation?”

“Moving everything by themselves…? Are you talking about abilities like item bags or inventory that appear in novels? I’ve never heard of anyone having such abilities, but even if that were the case, the supply corps would still follow along. The supply corps’ role includes transporting support materials to base camps, but they’re also responsible for recovering harvested goods piled up at camps back to the surface. However, they wouldn’t need to carry heavy loads on the way there, so the physical burden would be greatly reduced. Of course, this is assuming someone with such abilities exists.”

After confirming that even if he carried all the supplies, there would be no particular harm to the civilians participating as supply corps, Sung-jun immediately reached out toward the supplies.

Then he crossed both hands and transferred the mountain of supplies to subspace.

As if he was deliberately trying to show that he had such abilities.

Then the clan member who witnessed an enormous amount of boxes evaporating before his eyes screamed in shock.

“What did you just do!”

“As you saw, I transferred the supplies to subspace. If I had to categorize it, you could say it’s a spell with abilities similar to the item bags or inventory you mentioned earlier.”

“Spell… you mean magic?”

“Yes. Because I’m a mage.”

Saying that, Sung-jun watched as the numerous workers who had been waiting to receive supplies scattered like ants.

As if waiting for something.

And shortly after, the ‘reaction’ Sung-jun had been expecting came flying toward him at high speed.

“Ma Sungjun!”

Shindo Ayaka, who had dropped everything she was doing upon receiving the report and rushed to where Sung-jun was, grabbed Sung-jun’s wrist before he could even answer.

Then she dragged Sung-jun into the clan’s temporary tent where outsider access was restricted.

“I heard you used transfer magic.”

“That’s correct.”

“I don’t recall you mentioning beforehand that you had such abilities.”

“I’m a mage. If I were to explain everything I can do, I might have to stay up all night for a week. I simply did things within the range of what I can do.”

“Sigh… Of course I understand why you’re saying that, but you must have known that the situation would become tremendously complicated because of what you just did…”

“Well, it’ll work out somehow.”

Sung-jun’s words were sincere.

Whether rumors spread about his abilities or not, whether power struggles broke out to obtain them or not, he just needed to respond appropriately according to time and circumstances.

For those who approach targeting his utility value, he receives fair compensation.

Those who approach with hostility, he defeats with force.

If Sung-jun in China moved within thorough plans and calculations, Sung-jun in Japan was deciding his plans in a somewhat freer atmosphere.

To defeat an opponent who relied on the nearly invincible ability of future foresight, it was absolutely necessary to seal the future foresight ability, but to defeat the Corrosion Entity that appeared in Japan, he needed to collect much more information.

What Sung-jun did was literally like throwing a stone into calm waters.

Hoping that the numerous ripples created would reveal the form of something hidden underwater.

“Damn it. Fine. Since what’s done is done, there’s nothing we can do about it. Then at least during the raid, please warn me before you do something.”

Sung-jun liked her way of speaking, asking for a warning rather than permission, so he nodded and accepted her proposal.

Then Shindo Ayaka bowed her head to Sung-jun in gratitude and immediately went outside the tent.

It was to control Kurosaki Ryusei, the competing clan’s clan master, who was running around in all directions looking for Sung-jun after hearing the rumors that had already spread far and wide.

However, unfortunately, the sudden action Sung-jun had impulsively carried out was causing chaos so enormous that it was impossible to control with her power alone.

***

“Did you hear? Captain? The rumor that the newcomer who joined Goddess’s Guidance has inventory abilities.”

“If it were just one or two people it might be questionable, but with so many witnesses, it must be real rather than just a rumor.”

“If that’s really true, it’s amazing. One of the most troublesome parts of dungeon conquest is the supply problem, and if there are inventory abilities, that problem could be solved at once.”

It was no wonder that the Black Spear clan member was talking with such an excited expression.

If there was a way to solve at once the supply problems that become more difficult the deeper into the dungeon you go, it would be possible to operate raid parties on an even larger scale than currently deployable numbers.

Basically, dungeon conquest faces serious supply problems the deeper you go down the floors.

Beyond simply installing base camps and replenishing supplies, much effort had to be devoted to allocating personnel to defend already installed base camps.

Naturally, no one who had worked hard to become an Awakened and gained abilities strong enough to participate in raids wanted to just carry luggage.

Hiring civilians on a large scale to carry supplies like now was for exactly that reason.

But if abilities like the inventory that appears in novels could be used, the story would be completely different.

Instead of setting up base camps and allocating precious personnel to shifts, it would be possible to gather only elite members on a large scale for direct deep-layer conquest.

The problem was whether the inventory ability possessed by the man named Sung-jun could move such large-scale materials at once, but there was no way to confirm this for now.

Like knights guarding a king, the elite players of Goddess’s Guidance clan were flawlessly surrounding the three people centered on Sung-jun’s party.

The order Shindo Ayaka had given them was just one thing.

‘Don’t let anyone approach Ma Sungjun’s party.’

It was a formation that seemed like a ‘warning’ sent to other clans, showing that they were protecting a mysterious Awakened with abilities that might be more precious than any other ability in current Japan within their clan.

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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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