The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 71

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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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#071. Counterattack

 

What awaited Sung-jun as he descended to the 72nd layer was a horde of monsters even greater in number than those on the 71st layer.

 

Moreover, it wasn’t simply that their numbers had increased – these monsters seemed to have blatantly improved upon the weaknesses that Sung-jun had targeted on the previous layer.

 

‘They’ve reinforced their outer shells.’

 

Monsters that had sacrificed their regenerative abilities in exchange for hard armor that seemed impervious to metal needles.

 

To easily break through the defensive formations of humans who had to stand on two legs to withstand attacks, the monsters peculiarly kicked at the ground with six legs like insects.

 

-KWAAAANG!!-

 

“What kind of strength is this!?”

 

“Form ranks! Don’t let them push through!”

 

The heavy armor unit that the Unbreakable Shield Clan prided itself on tried to block the charge of the six-legged beast, but the monster’s charge, with its massive frame, easily deflected the large shields that were insignificantly light compared to its own body weight.

 

Through the collapsed formation, beasts with sharp front legs like mantis claws began pouring in.

 

‘This is troublesome.’

 

If the monsters on the 71st layer felt like they had been made generally stronger on average, the monsters on the 72nd layer clearly felt like they had been created with a specific ‘combination’ in mind.

 

Armored monsters created to break through enemy defensive formations with the breakthrough power that came from their massive weight.

 

Mantis-type monsters created to penetrate through the gaps thus created and ravage the relatively vulnerable rear of the enemy.

 

The most peculiar were the monsters positioned in the rear.

 

Monsters that put tube-like hands to their snouts and blew air into them.

 

As the monster’s body, which had swelled up entirely rather than just its cheeks to blow in such strong pressure, contracted, sharp thorns were fired like shells from the tubes attached to its hands.

 

“Interesting.”

 

When Sung-jun waved his hand to activate magic, translucent protective barriers immediately formed around the bodies of all attack team members.

 

And when he waved his hand once more, the rhinoceros-shaped monster that had entered the formation and was sending tankers flying was flattened against the ground.

 

Magic that used the opponent’s heavy weight against them, adding weight beyond what their muscle strength could bear.

 

Multiple Gravitas spells activated simultaneously pressed down heavily on the large monster’s body.

 

“Kyaaaaaaak!!”

 

At that moment, clan members on the verge of being attacked by mantis-type monsters entered Sung-jun’s field of vision.

 

And not just one or two, but several of them simultaneously.

 

Sung-jun manipulated mana to grab the attack team members with an invisible giant hand and throw them to the rear, while pouring attack spells toward the charging monsters.

 

“Th-thank you!”

 

“Attack instead of talking! If the formation completely collapses, we could all be wiped out!”

 

Several clan members frowned at Sung-jun’s shout, as if he were the one in charge, but none of them could express dissatisfaction with his attitude.

 

Without Sung-jun’s inspired help just moments ago, they might have had to retreat with tremendous casualties by now.

 

Moreover, the current situation was far too dangerous to quibble about command authority.

 

Of course, that was only true for the Unbreakable Shield Clan members, not Sung-jun.

 

For Sung-jun, the current crisis wasn’t something that could be called a crisis.

 

‘Right. You want to find my weaknesses, is that it?’

 

Having instantly subdued the rhinoceros-type beast and rescued the clan members in danger, Sung-jun’s hand stretched forward once more.

 

It was a hand filled with terrible curses that would make one want to vomit just by looking at it.

 

***

 

The types of magic that Sung-jun had learned from his Teacher totaled 12 varieties.

 

Dimensional, Mystical, Elemental, Summoning, Necromantic, Illusion, Mental, Life, Transmutation, Abjuration, Fate, and Divination.

 

The 12 sources that formed the foundation of all magic.

 

A mage was one who used these 12 sources to create reality.

 

They created fireball spells by using transmutation magic to give form to elemental magic that produced fire, and created defensive spells by combining abjuration magic that prevented state changes in specific spaces with transmutation magic that converted it into shield form.

 

Curse magic was also a type of composite magic.

 

Magic that simultaneously operated illusion, mental, and life magic to inflict damage on the opponent’s body.

 

Among these, the magic that Sung-jun cast was the ‘Hyperalgesia’ spell, which enhanced the nervous system of the cursed target to make them experience hellish pain from even the slightest shock.

 

‘Though there is the drawback that as the nervous system is enhanced, dynamic vision and reflexes are also strengthened…’

 

The original name of the hyperalgesia spell was actually the nervous system enhancement spell.

 

A life-type buff spell designed to enhance the target’s dynamic vision and muscle responsiveness, allowing them to easily handle opponents much faster than themselves.

 

Sung-jun had added an effect that enhanced pain nerves to the existing spell, creating a new spell.

 

He also added illusion spells that blocked the opponent’s vision and disrupted their hearing to prevent the situation where the enemy became stronger due to the original enhancement effects.

 

The nervous system enhancement spell, reborn as Sung-jun’s original spell, was given the new name of hyperalgesia and became a new spell in the curse category.

 

“Huh? What’s this? What is it!”

 

The effect was immediate.

 

The monsters’ attacks, their vision blocked by suddenly appearing illusions, missed their targets, and just from applying slight pressure with shields, the monsters in front began writhing madly on the ground as if their bones had been broken.

 

The problem was that ‘hyperalgesia’ was a spell where the more one writhed in pain due to the shock transmitted from rolling on the ground, the greater the pain they experienced.

 

Seeing the monsters that had instantly lost their combat ability and were foaming at the mouth while writhing on the ground, Sung-jun said to the attack team members.

 

“You can finish them off now.”

 

Watching the adventurers who, though bewildered, were cutting the throats of the fallen monsters, Sung-jun thought.

 

The monsters that would appear on the next layer probably wouldn’t be affected by the spell he had just cast.

 

The opponent was blatantly deploying monsters with counter-measures applied against the spells that Sung-jun had used.

 

‘Responding isn’t that difficult, but…’

 

The problem was time.

 

Though they had set the 80th layer as the goal for this raid when entering Yokohama Dungeon, casualties were rapidly increasing as the type of monsters appearing from the 71st layer changed to a wheel warfare format using large-scale armies.

 

The instant regeneration magic that Sung-jun had used in his fight with Yejigwi was not ordinary healing magic but magic that forcibly returned the body’s state to its pre-injury condition, making it impossible to cast on others, and above all, the condition of his mana circuits was not normal.

 

The act of distributing buffs to all several hundred members of the attack team and continuously pouring out countless spells against even more numerous enemies was harsh enough to burden even the magic circuits of Sung-jun, the great mage.

 

It was only because it was Sung-jun that he could endure to this degree – the amount of magic that Sung-jun had poured out so far was at a level that even his teacher Minastrias would find burdensome.

 

‘I still have some leeway, but…’

 

After pondering for a moment, Sung-jun ultimately decided to attack one additional layer up to the 73rd layer and conveyed this decision to Amano Jugo, the raid leader.

 

Then Amano Jugo, the person responsible for this raid, also showed a positive reaction.

 

“The 80th layer might be too much, but it seems like we could attack one or two more layers. Rather than allocating personnel to transport the wounded, it might not be bad to push through to the 75th layer and set up a base camp there for treatment.”

 

As Sung-jun accepted the proposal to push through to the 75th layer, which was the base camp installation target, the attack team descended to the 73rd layer to attack the next layer.

 

What awaited Sung-jun’s party there were monkey-type monsters in a frenzied state that felt no pain whatsoever, as if they were blatantly trying to counter the curse magic that Sung-jun had cast on the 72nd floor.

 

***

 

“OOKIIIIIIIIIK!!!!”

 

A giant monkey that seemed to feel no pain despite having one entire arm severed swung its remaining arm and charged toward Sung-jun.

 

Seeing this, Sung-jun glanced at the severed arm and immediately cast a purification spell.

 

Against the enemy monsters, not his allies.

 

In Sung-jun’s judgment, the monkey-type monsters hadn’t completely removed their pain nerves, but seemed to temporarily ignore pain by being put into a frenzied state.

 

Therefore, he cast purification magic that simply forced the cancellation of the frenzied state.

 

Of course, since he had first cast the hyperalgesia spell from the 72nd layer before casting the spell, the monsters hit by Sung-jun’s purification magic received all the pain they had ignored multiplied dozens of times, rolling on the ground without even being able to scream.

 

“Teacher…”

 

Seeing Sung-jun frown for a moment, Seoa approached him with a worried expression.

 

Even though they had taken breaks at base camps intermittently, the space inside the dungeon was sufficient to gnaw away at human mental strength and stamina.

 

Since entering Yokohama Dungeon, Sung-jun had been continuously activating magic beyond the limits that a typical mage could use.

 

From the large-scale dimensional magic for base camp installation to the countless combat spells used while attacking up to the 73rd layer.

 

Among these, what gnawed at Sung-jun’s nerves the most was dimensional magic.

 

Unlike the surface where he could freely calculate dimensional coordinates in familiar ways, the coordinates of the space inside the dungeon completely disrupted normal coordinate calculation methods as if they were encrypted.

 

This was precisely why Sung-jun couldn’t open dimensional gates that extended from the dungeon underground to the surface.

 

Like an internal network disconnected from the internet, the space inside the dungeon was located in independent dimensions separated by each layer.

 

Coordinate calculation of the current position was only possible inside the dungeon, and even the coordinates obtained this way constantly changed – that was the space called a dungeon.

 

A place designed with a structure so fatal it could be called the natural enemy of mages who dealt with dimensions.

 

In such a place, Sung-jun had to establish a new coordinate system using himself as the reference point to connect his created sub-dimension with the interior of the dungeon.

 

‘If only the portal problem could be solved, there would be no need to worry…’

 

That was precisely the greatest absurdity of the dungeon that Sung-jun felt.

 

If one could return directly from underground to the surface, or move directly from the surface to the deep underground, all inconveniences from material transport to wounded treatment could be solved at once.

 

The problem was that with the existing dimensional magic that Sung-jun knew, it was impossible to create fixed portals connected from inside the dungeon to the surface.

 

A space where once you entered, it took over ten days just to descend to the layer you were originally attacking, and you had to waste over ten more days to return.

 

The additional stamina required to carry the food and consumables needed for the simple movement process.

 

The malicious design that made it impossible to contact the surface by any means until you returned.

 

Thinking about Japan’s apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity that wore down opponents in a different way from the Yejigwi he had fought in China, Sung-jun quietly raised both hands.

 

Then, deliberately ignoring his increasingly severe headache, he activated dozens of composite spells once again.

 

While calculating the dungeon’s internal coordinates that had changed once more just moments ago.

 

His heart ached again, but Sung-jun’s fingers did not stop.

 

What he was doing now was something no one else could do in his place.

 

At these deep layers, his disciple Seoa’s abilities were woefully insufficient to pull her weight as a mage.

 

And if Shirasaki Miyu, who could only use the limited magic stored in her Grimoire, stepped forward, all her spells would be analyzed and countered as soon as they moved to the next layer.

 

In the end, even with his disciple, even with his companions, even in the midst of hundreds of Awakened fighting alongside him, Sung-jun was always alone.

 

Ma Sungjun, the 22nd Demon Lord.

 

The sole disciple of Archmage Minastrias, who was the 21st Demon Lord and the greatest mage he knew.

 

Beneath his outward composure, Sung-jun wore a heavy burden like armor that even he himself was not aware of.

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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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