The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 65

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#065

 

“I think this should be enough.”

 

In front of the numerous Awakened kneeling on one knee toward him, Sung-jun lightly dusted off his hands.

 

The attack team members who rose from their positions looked at their own hands with disbelief and muttered.

 

“This is…”

 

“Divine blessing…!?”

 

“I heard he was a mage, but is he actually an Awakened from Legio Apocalypsis?”

 

It wasn’t unreasonable for them to have such misunderstandings.

 

A blessing that enhances the target’s physical abilities through special incantations.

 

‘Divine blessing’ was known to be an ability that only Awakened from Italy’s Awakened training institution, ‘Legio Apocalypsis,’ could use among all the world’s Awakened.

 

The Awakened of Legio Apocalypsis, known to be entirely composed of priests and nuns under the Papal States, were Awakened who manifested miraculous abilities using the power of faith toward God.

 

“No, it’s different from divine blessing. I’ve received divine blessing from a Legio Apocalypsis Awakened before, but this feels different from that.”

 

‘Of course it would be different.’

 

Sung-jun had also heard information about the Pioneer who trained Italy’s Legio Apocalypsis, the ‘Saint’ Nehillie, through his teacher Minastrias.

 

And those abilities, at least regarding buffs, possessed performance that far transcended the level of magic.

 

‘Well, if theirs is specialized type, then this is general-purpose type. Still, it should be useful at the current level.’

 

As Sung-jun described it as ‘general-purpose type,’ the buffs he granted to the attack team weren’t just one or two types.

 

Mental enhancement spells that help maintain concentration even in states of extreme fatigue.

 

Protection enhancement spells that strengthen defense to protect the caster even from attacks that could kill a tanker armed with thick shields and armor in one blow.

 

Elemental enhancement spells that greatly strengthen resistance to the four major attributes of earth, water, fire, and wind, as well as corrosion and darkness attributes that might pose threats.

 

Even life enhancement spells that strengthen the caster’s physical abilities to their limits.

 

Sung-jun had complexly applied enhancement spells from 4 of the 13 magic schools to strengthen the attack team preparing for battle to their limits.

 

Particularly, one of those enhancement spells was a mental enhancement spell that endlessly boosted the user’s confidence.

 

“We should be able to hold out with this, right?”

 

“Holding out isn’t the problem – I think we might actually be able to win.”

 

“I can’t feel the weight of my equipment at all. I feel like power is surging through my whole body.”

 

“Having a mage in the attack team makes this much of a difference…!”

 

Looking at the attack team who now thought they could defeat even a boss that appeared on the 100th floor, not just the 71st floor, Sung-jun said.

 

“I’ve done everything I can. Is there anyone who still thinks we can’t beat that thing?”

 

“No sir!!”

 

“Then I’ll provide support from behind, so let’s start the battle now.”

 

Infusing his voice with a spell that heightened battle spirit, Sung-jun said.

 

“Let’s clearly show that bug-like monster what kind of people own Osaka Dungeon.”

 

***

 

“What the hell is that crazy human doing?”

 

In the deepest part of Osaka Dungeon that no human had ever reached before.

 

In front of the mysterious stone ‘Dungeon Core’ that allowed him to perceive everything in the dungeon like his own body parts just by placing his palm on it, a robed man muttered.

 

Normally, Awakened should have challenged the dungeon boss with stable rotations to succeed in their strategy with minimal damage, but they were rushing at the Layer Boss like crazed berserkers.

 

This was the first time he had seen such a thing since being given responsibility for managing Osaka Dungeon.

 

‘Is this also because of that crazy human who appeared in this raid?’

 

The strange report he had received from Tokyo Dungeon’s administrator came to mind.

 

A report that a human in robes reminiscent of a mage had summoned a ‘building’ inside the dungeon with a bizarre ability.

 

However, what was important wasn’t the human’s bizarre ability to summon a building-sized structure with a single gesture, but the ‘change’ that man had brought to the dungeon’s interior.

 

Unlike the previous dungeon that lacked a proper base camp, after the unidentified man visited Tokyo Dungeon, numerous adventurers began actively operating in Tokyo Dungeon’s depths.

 

Thanks to this, Tokyo Dungeon’s operating balance, which had originally been overwhelmingly profitable, instantly turned into a deficit.

 

‘But I can’t raise the difficulty either…’

 

Since the dungeon’s purpose was to absorb humans’ negative emotions, increasing the strength of appearing monsters to harvest emotions of fear or despair was one way to operate a dungeon.

 

However, this method could cause adventurers overwhelmed by fear to give up on dungeon strategy, so it definitely couldn’t be called a good long-term method.

 

The most efficient method was absorbing emotions of fatigue, discomfort, and desire.

 

Place a woefully small number of rewards compared to the number of participants and lower the difficulty.

 

So they would stay in the dungeon longer to obtain rewards matching their numbers, though it wasn’t dangerous.

 

This method even saved resources needed to create strong monsters, making it a win-win approach.

 

A 5-person party would need to open exactly 5 treasure chests to secure 5 artifacts, but the amount of supplies they could actually carry limited them to farming 2-3 treasure chests – the balance was exquisitely adjusted.

 

Moreover, since the grades of artifacts from treasure chests varied, conflicts between party members over artifact distribution in dungeons weren’t uncommon.

 

And the emotions of jealousy, anger, and contempt generated in that process were also absorbed into the dungeon and converted to energy, so the latest dungeon form perfected over long years against numerous intelligent species was a masterpiece designed to generate maximum emotional amplification with minimum energy consumption.

 

Until the strange man in mage robes called Ma Sungjun appeared among the Awakened called attack teams.

 

The man named Sung-jun was destroying all the dungeon systems they had built up.

 

First, with supply, meals, and rest possible at the base camp, the emotions of fatigue and discomfort that could be harvested in the dungeon were greatly reduced.

 

With one entry providing sufficient farming time through intermediate supply and greatly reduced discord within parties.

 

Finally, as credit values rose sharply, most adventurers started selling items at auction houses for credit conversion instead of deciding item acquisition rights within dungeons.

 

By collecting credits this way, they could buy any desired items with accumulated credits without leaving everything to luck in dungeons.

 

Thanks to this, Tokyo Dungeon with completed base camp installation had several times more people hunting monsters and farming treasure chests throughout every corner of the dungeon, despite less than a month since camp installation.

 

Naturally, as the number of Awakened increased, monsters organized to attack harvest sites were all hunted before even reaching the harvest sites.

 

Moreover, since energy absorbed by the dungeon was used to extract items from Pandora’s Box for treasure chest contents, Tokyo Dungeon was currently in a tremendous deficit state.

 

And today, Osaka Dungeon under his management was also recording tremendous deficits.

 

‘No, he hunted all the Layer Bosses up to the 70th floor by himself! Then keep hunting alone! Why is he suddenly stepping back!’

 

The 71st floor boss was a new monster he had hastily created, excluding the originally planned monster.

 

To block the opponent’s strange spells specialized in penetration, he greatly enhanced regeneration rather than defense, and to pierce defense spells that easily blocked area attacks, he hastily created a monster that could use attack skills specialized in penetration.

 

He even made a separate human-form upper body for attack skills since there were no suitable parts available, and gave it an entire artifact specialized in penetration.

 

The reason the 71st floor boss became a bizarre monster with no foundation – having a giant insect body like a queen ant but possessing human-form upper body parts – was exactly this.

 

An anti-magic specialized monster’s artifact created to counter the combat patterns the opponent showed up to the 70th floor.

 

With the power of the gun-type artifact ‘Astral Piercer’ hastily given to pierce the opponent’s defense spells, there would be no problem penetrating the mage’s defense magic.

 

The only drawback was very poor penetration ability against physical defense, but the opponent was a mage anyway.

 

The power of Astral Piercer should be sufficient to inflict fatal wounds on physical defense at the level of the attack team’s main tanker.

 

However, the man called Ma Sungjun, who had single-handedly defeated over 10 bosses up to the 70th floor, suddenly showed the eccentric behavior of stepping back and leaving boss strategy to the attack team.

 

He even layered multiple powerful buff magic on the main tankers so strong that Astral Piercer’s penetration ability couldn’t pierce their defense.

 

Thanks to this, the 71st floor boss monster hastily created solely to face Ma Sungjun was being one-sidedly beaten without even demonstrating proper power.

 

“Kraaaaaaak!! Damn humans!! What the hell am I supposed to do!!”

 

The Dungeon Master frantically removed his hand from the Dungeon Core and rushed to the table behind him.

 

There, dozens of completed monster-form figurines and various body parts that looked like accessories for those figurines were scattered chaotically.

 

“If the opponent is an attack team, should I attach area attack skills again? No, what if that guy steps forward to fight alone again? Or should I accept losses here and send out something with only the strongest parts attached? But if the attack team suffers devastating damage on the 72nd floor, no one will attempt strategy…”

 

In this desperate situation where neither option provided answers, the Dungeon Master began tearing at his hair until blood appeared.

 

And in the Crystal Dungeon Core behind him, the image of the dungeon boss – screaming as it pitifully performed penetrating shots toward the attack team – was reflected as its body slowly crumbled under collective attacks from numerous Awakened.

 

***

 

“Huff… huff…”

 

“Really… to the 80th floor… in one go…”

 

Sung-jun truly didn’t participate directly in combat as he had declared.

 

Instead, he just appropriately added necessary buffs while observing the situation.

 

The attack team, whose overall abilities were greatly enhanced by Sung-jun’s buffs, could maintain optimal condition by even resting at the base camp additionally installed on the 75th floor, allowing them to defeat Layer Bosses at incomparably faster speeds than previous raids.

 

Even though they fought with fewer members from the 76th floor onward, leaving behind enough people to guard the camp installed on the 75th floor.

 

Sung-jun added additional buffs as if trying to compensate for the missing personnel with his buffs, greatly improving the attack team’s combat power.

 

Now they couldn’t even imagine what raids without Sung-jun would look like.

 

“Amazing.”

 

“If raids are like this, I should participate every day.”

 

Sung-jun’s positive influence wasn’t limited to the attack team.

 

Civilians who heard rumors spread by Sung-jun and participated in raids after collecting massive credits could also win numerous artifacts through auctions that were previously impossible to obtain even with money.

 

And the credits spent winning those items became the attack team’s profits, making everyone rich simultaneously.

 

‘I should have done this from the beginning!’

 

Clan Master Kurosaki Ryusei licked his lips while looking toward where Sung-jun was.

 

Beyond the buffs, thanks to the system Sung-jun changed, they could conduct raids that were more comfortable and joyful than any previous raids.

 

Of course, they had to give up the Layer Boss drop items that the clan had previously monopolized, but considering the credits earned from this raid, it could be said that the current situation was actually more profitable.

 

Other major dungeon raids wouldn’t have been able to break through to the 80th floor in one go without Sung-jun, which meant they could give the credits earned from this raid to clan members to attempt bidding on items dropped by Layer Bosses from other raids.

 

However, if there was one problem, it was that they probably wouldn’t be able to challenge the Layer Bosses of the 81st floor and beyond without Sung-jun’s buffs afterward.

 

‘Sigh… Then I guess I’ll have to use the credits gathered from this raid to obtain artifacts that would allow us to challenge the 81st floor…’

 

Seeing Kurosaki Ryusei looking at him with a regretful expression, Sung-jun smiled.

 

Then he approached him and struck up a conversation.

 

“The buffs weren’t bad, were they?”

 

“Indeed. Enough that it feels regrettable that Mr. Ma Sungjun will be absent after this raid.”

 

“Then that’s good enough. You must have earned plenty of credits, and you’ve fully realized the importance of buffs.”

 

Kurosaki Ryusei looked at Sung-jun with curious eyes.

 

The man named Sung-jun, who had brought about this tremendous change, hadn’t attempted to bid on any of the items that dropped while conquering up to the 80th layer.

 

The man Sung-jun that he had observed was different from other Awakened who were obsessed only with artifacts or their own growth—he seemed to be a man with eyes that looked toward goals in some more distant place.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————