The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 60

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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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#060

 

“A misconception… Are you saying we’re currently under a misconception?”

 

Amano Jugo, the raid clan master of Yokohama Dungeon, spoke with a frown.

 

“That’s correct.”

 

“What’s your basis for saying that?”

 

“Because the level of Corrosion Entities that appeared in Japan is too weak.”

 

The apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities Sung-jun had encountered so far numbered two.

 

The colossal Corrosion Entity ‘Silermantis’ that appeared in Seoul’s airspace, as large as Yeouido.

 

And the Corrosion Entity ‘Yeojiggwi’ that appeared in China, possessing the ability to read the future.

 

One was sealed by Sung-jun’s teacher and the other fell by Sung-jun’s hand, but the strength both entities possessed overwhelmingly surpassed Sung-jun’s level.

 

Even Yeojiggwi, which Sung-jun had directly defeated, would have resulted in a miserable defeat if he had engaged in a power-versus-power battle without using the underhanded method of the Coin of Fate spell.

 

Even without going as far as apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities, Chusalja Jizeurak, Yeojiggwi’s subordinate that he had encountered before, also possessed abilities far stronger than what Sung-jun had in terms of pure force.

 

In fact, in Yeojiggwi’s case, it had eliminated half of the Awakened forces that the Chinese Government had painstakingly cultivated in just a single battle.

 

Beyond simple compatibility issues, the military force possessed by apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities was absolutely not something to be ignored.

 

Even their subordinates, not the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities themselves, were thought to be difficult for humanity’s Awakened forces to handle.

 

‘But since coming to Japan, I haven’t encountered Corrosion Entities that strong.’

 

Of course, the story might be different if they went to deeper layers.

 

Currently, based on Tokyo Dungeon, the deepest layer humanity had entered was the 55th floor.

 

If they continued their conquest and descended to deeper lower floors, there was a possibility of encountering Corrosion Entities with strength similar to the Chusalgu they had met in China.

 

Everyone would think that way.

 

Since this is a game-like system, the enemies appearing in dungeons would also become ‘gradually’ stronger.

 

So they needed to obtain items from dungeons and become stronger before descending to deeper layers.

 

The point Sung-jun had indicated was exactly that part.

 

‘Is there any meaning in nurturing human Awakened who are practically enemies, even giving them items?’

 

Corrosion Entities are humanity’s enemies.

 

Their goal is to annihilate humanity, and to such beings, human Awakened who could defeat them would be the greatest obstacle.

 

Yet for such Corrosion Entities to deliberately provide opportunities for humans to acquire magical artifacts from dungeons so they could become stronger than they currently were – this was a phenomenon that couldn’t be explained logically.

 

When Sung-jun explained that point, the clan masters gathered in the conference room fell silent with serious expressions.

 

“Have you really never thought about that problem?”

 

“I don’t think I’ve particularly thought about the reason… Isn’t that just how dungeons originally are?”

 

“Then who decides what’s ‘originally like that’? Surely the treasure chests in dungeons and items dropped when hunting Corrosion Entities must be items from Pandora’s box. In Japan, on the first day of D-day, Pandora’s box disappeared and Tokyo Dungeon was created in its place. Why would Corrosion Entities, who are practically enemies to humanity, scatter items for humans in dungeons, which are their territory?”

 

“Do you think there’s a reason for items dropping in dungeons too, Sung-jun?”

 

“Not only that, but I think there’s also a reason why food can be obtained from harvest sites.”

 

The simplest method for logically deducing the cause of any situation is to imagine what would happen if that situation hadn’t occurred.

 

What would have happened if food and items hadn’t dropped from dungeons?

 

Since the amount of disaster supplies held by the Japanese government and private sector was limited, the Japanese government would probably have poured all the Awakened forces existing in Japan into a short-term decisive battle against the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity.

 

And that target would probably have been the deepest part of Tokyo Dungeon, which was most strongly suspected to be hiding the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity.

 

But now that items and food can be obtained from dungeons?

 

Like the first raid Sung-jun had participated in, to move to the deep parts of dungeons, they had to organize an attack team to conquer the dungeon and a supply team consisting of several times more personnel.

 

And that scale had to grow larger the deeper the dungeon layers they wanted to enter.

 

This also meant it was more beneficial to conquer multiple dungeons to shallow layers rather than deeply conquering one dungeon.

 

If only Tokyo Dungeon had been conquered, they would have had to transport the harvest painstakingly recovered from the deep parts of Tokyo Dungeon to the surface and then to various parts of the country.

 

“One is a gamble. A choice where there’s a possibility of eliminating the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity that appeared in Japan and solving the black rain problem, but requiring enormous damage and effort.

 

The other is a choice to steadily clear the numerous dungeons that appeared nationwide and gradually secure insufficient food, even if the pace is slower. If those two choices existed, anyone would choose the latter. I think that’s the enemy’s aim.”

 

“Was there a reason they had to go that far?”

 

“As I mentioned, because the enemy is weak.”

 

Of course, Sung-jun’s evaluation of ‘weak’ was based on the Corrosion Entities from China and South Korea he had encountered so far.

 

Compared to China’s apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity ‘Yeojiggwi’ and its subordinates, and South Korea’s apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity ‘Silermantis’ and the Korean Corrosion Entities that appeared with it, the Corrosion Entities that appeared in Japan were much weaker.

 

Although he hadn’t yet encountered the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity that appeared in Japan, Sung-jun suspected that Japan’s apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity would also be a much weaker individual than Yeojiggwi or Silermantis.

 

If that wasn’t the reason, there would be no need to forcibly disperse Japan’s Awakened forces using such methods.

 

Explaining his thoughts, Sung-jun said:

 

“Of course, what I’ve just told you is merely a hypothesis. In reality, when we actually meet it, the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity that appeared in Japan might be overwhelmingly stronger than those that appeared in other regions, and the reason items drop from dungeons might simply be because it’s acting on a whim.”

 

“But the stakes the Japanese government would have to bet to confirm the enemy’s hand would be too high.”

 

Shindo Ayaka said.

 

The only way to verify Sung-jun’s hypothesis was to gather all remaining Awakened forces in Japan and break through to the lowest floor of Tokyo Dungeon in one go, but to use that method, they would have to give up farming the numerous artifacts that would drop from other dungeons throughout Japan.

 

By conquering slowly, their allies could also become stronger and they could secure more food.

 

In such a situation, her thought was that there probably wasn’t a need to engage in total war while taking on risks.

 

“If what Sung-jun wants to do is wage total war on Tokyo Dungeon with the power of the five major clans gathered here, I’ll refuse. If we wage total war like that and the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity is hiding in a different dungeon rather than Tokyo Dungeon, or in the worst case, even if we eliminate the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity but fail to solve the black rain problem, more than half of Japan’s citizens could starve to death.”

 

“Of course, if I had been in Japan from the first day of D-day, I would have also argued for waging total war to break through all 100 floors of Tokyo Dungeon at once. But now it’s too late to do that.”

 

“Then…?”

 

“If what the enemy wants is to conquer all dungeons one by one to receive dungeon rewards, then we should do exactly what the enemy wants.”

 

With a smile as if expecting something interesting, Sung-jun said:

 

“Though we’ll need to pick up the pace a bit.”

 

***

 

On the seventh day since Sung-jun had met with the masters of the five major clans in Tokyo.

 

Raids were simultaneously conducted in all three major dungeons in Japan.

 

A large-scale raid conducted by Kyoto Dungeon’s raid clan, Wolnyeong’s Arang.

 

A large-scale raid conducted by Nagoya’s raid clan, Infinity Blade.

 

Finally, a large-scale raid conducted by Osaka’s raid clan, Black Spear.

 

Major dungeon raids were regularly conducted for recovering harvest from deep layers, so they weren’t particularly rare to see, but this raid was conducted with completely different goals from other raids.

 

This time, the goal was to install large-scale base camps in the same form as those installed in Tokyo Dungeon on each layer of the three major dungeons.

 

Soga Yamato, the raid director of Kyoto Dungeon, looked toward where the clan members of Goddess’s Guidance clan, who were participating as backup for this raid, were located before departure.

 

Then he approached with a frown, looking at the small-statured girl among them.

 

“Can you really do it? Even without that man called Sung-jun?”

 

The girl Soga Yamato addressed was Yeonse-a, Sung-jun’s disciple.

 

She was carrying a large soldier bag on her shoulder as if she had come out shopping, looking nervously at the raid members who would enter the dungeon with her.

 

“Gender and abilities don’t matter for an Awakened’s strength, right? You should know that well too, Yamato.”

 

When Shindo Ayaka, who saw Soga Yamato, intervened between the two, he stepped back and said:

 

“I wasn’t asking whether she could fight. I was asking whether that girl could summon all those supplies inside the dungeon like that man Ma Sungjun did.”

 

“I… I can do it. Definitely…”

 

Gripping the straps of the bag on her shoulder tightly with both hands, Seoa said:

 

“Of course, I can’t summon them alone with my current abilities, but this time I have scrolls that Teacher gave me.”

 

What filled the bag she was holding so preciously.

 

Those were summoning magic scrolls that Sung-jun had made for her for this raid.

 

-Listen carefully. This is a one-time item I made so you can temporarily use magic inside dungeons even without me. The usage method is simple. Draw a coordinate designation magic circle at the point where you want to use magic, and inject mana while keeping your thumb on this point of the scroll.

 

Regular scrolls can be used that way, but summoning magic scrolls are a bit complicated. I’ve already assigned the parallel dimension coordinates where the items are stored to the scroll, but the dungeon interior coordinates where the items will be placed must be calculated directly by the caster from inside.

 

From now on, I’ll teach you how to calculate those coordinates, so listen carefully and learn.

 

For Seoa, who learned magic through intuition rather than theory, the magical formulas for calculating the coordinates of her location were incredibly complex and difficult, but she managed to learn the method of calculating coordinates after being corrected by Sung-jun countless times.

 

Of course, she hadn’t reached the level where she could calculate coordinates through mental arithmetic on the spot and summon at will like Sung-jun did, and even the coordinates she painstakingly calculated had a 50% chance of being wrong, but Sung-jun had already finished calculating in his head even her potential failures.

 

-Once you succeed in calculating coordinates, use the first spell to summon some appropriate item that’s okay to lose. Attach scrolls written in blue ink here for test items, and attach scrolls written in red ink here for supplies needed for base camp installation.

 

When summoning inside the dungeon, first summon items with blue scrolls attached, and if they summon normally, summon items with red scrolls attached to the same coordinates. If it fails, the coordinate calculation was wrong, so recalculate from the beginning.

 

The reason her bag was large was exactly for that reason.

 

Even if there was a 50% failure rate, since no one knew what would actually happen, he had prepared more than three times the summoning magic scrolls actually needed, calculating even the probability of failure.

 

Of course, since making magic scrolls itself required tremendous effort, Seoa felt a sense of debt to her teacher Sung-jun in her heart.

 

‘If I had been better at magic, Teacher wouldn’t have had to struggle…’

 

Since she couldn’t suddenly master that complex summoning magic in a short time, she resolved in her heart.

 

To work as hard as possible in this raid and reduce the number of scrolls consumed in this raid.

 

The desire to show her teacher the scrolls still full in her bag when she met him later and receive praise was burning brightly in her heart.

 

‘Let’s work hard.’

 

Thinking of Shirasaki Miyu, who was scheduled to participate in Nagoya Dungeon’s raid, and Sung-jun, who had decided to participate in Osaka Dungeon’s raid, Seoa said.

 

“Let’s depart. I too, as Teacher’s disciple, will prove that I am a mage who can pull my own weight.”

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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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