The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 95

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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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#095. Pandora’s Box

“…Sung-jun! Sung-jun!!!”

Hearing the desperate cry calling his name, Sung-jun forced open his heavy eyelids.

Through his blurry vision, he saw Shindo Ayaka’s face as she shook his body.

“…Was I asleep?”

“I think ‘collapsed’ would be a more accurate description.”

When Sung-jun tried to sit up, he realized his body wasn’t obeying his commands at all.

It seemed the backlash from forcibly manifesting his unique world had returned in full.

‘There should have been a regeneration spell cast.’

He tried to move his mana to check his body’s condition, but the mana wouldn’t respond to his commands.

As if completely unable to hear Sung-jun’s will, the mana inside his body remained in place, completely ignoring his orders.

‘Is this the backlash from overusing my will? Rest seems to be the only answer.’

Since this was damage from excessive spell use, it seemed spell-based recovery wouldn’t work, so Sung-jun relaxed his entire body and looked at the ceiling as he spoke to Shindo Ayaka.

“Ayaka.”

“Yes.”

“If there’s a spare cart, please let me ride in it.”

***

“…That’s how it happened.”

Still unable to move even a finger, Sung-jun explained what had transpired.

After hearing Sung-jun’s explanation, Amano Jugo spoke with a pale expression.

“Such a battle… If the raid team had come together…”

“You would have been annihilated. It wasn’t a fight where physical force could be matched with physical force from the start.”

“Then did you know this and deliberately leave us on the upper floors?”

“Not exactly. I just knew how dangerous fighting an apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity would be, so I prevented you from falling into danger.”

Since Argen and Karcerion had been sent back to subspace as soon as the Dungeon Master deployed his unique world, when the Japanese raid team arrived at the 100th floor, Sung-jun was alone, collapsed on the ground.

And he was in a state of having coughed up tremendous amounts of blood, enough to create a pool on the floor.

Moreover, due to his body repeatedly bursting during the battle, Sung-jun’s robe was covered with hardened blood clots and pieces of flesh.

However, Sung-jun refused the suggestion to change clothes and headed to the 101st floor while lying in the cart.

And there, Sung-jun’s group discovered a control room that managed dungeons throughout Japan.

“…This place is…”

“Probably where the man in the tracksuit controlled dungeons across Japan.”

“How did he do it?”

“He likely used that spherical computer-like device. Despite its appearance, it’s a magical tool emanating strong magical power.”

What was found in the control room on the 101st floor was one spherical computer emitting a dim light, a portable hanger with several tracksuits hanging on it, a toilet placed in the corner, and basic living necessities like bedding on the floor.

The interior looked incredibly shabby for a place that had controlled the lifelines of over 100 million Japanese citizens.

In the center was a huge table cluttered with limbs of various monsters made from clay, like a space for assembling resin figures.

“Was he making monsters by attaching clay here?”

“Probably so. Though now they’ve returned to ordinary clay since the Dungeon Master is dead.”

Sung-jun spoke while lying in the cart that had been propped up at an angle.

The wheeled cart had been positioned upright so Sung-jun could look around the room even while lying down.

“We found a portal stone.”

One of the guards exploring the room discovered a portal stone being used as a clothes hanger and reported it.

Like old exercise equipment that had been set aside for use but ended up as a makeshift clothes hanger, the portal stone leading to the surface was positioned in one corner of the room, covered with tracksuits.

“This is ridiculous… We risked our lives fighting monsters to find this…”

Seeing Ayaka speak with a displeased expression, Sung-jun said,

“Still, it’s better than nothing. Now we can head to the surface.”

“Since the Dungeon Master has fallen, will the dungeons in Japan disappear too?”

“I don’t think so.”

Sung-jun turned his head to look toward where the spherical computer was.

There, a dungeon management program was still running, displayed on the monitor screen with a window showing [Auto-execution in progress].

“If it’s auto-executing…”

“It’s probably a program managing the dungeon’s monsters and loot. The man in the tracksuit likely set up a program to automatically operate the dungeons before he died. So that monsters and loot would continue to appear in the dungeons even after his death.”

“So he refused to give up being humanity’s enemy until the very end.”

Hearing Ayaka’s words, Sung-jun shook his head.

If what he was thinking was correct, dungeons operating under automatic management would be nothing less than the best means for Japanese adventurers to grow stronger in a relatively safe environment.

When Sung-jun expressed this thought, Yamato Sou also agreed with his opinion.

“I think so too. Now that the Temple of Awakening has lost its power, the only way to increase the number of Awakened is by entering dungeons and acquiring artifacts.”

“I have something to tell you about that.”

When Sung-jun, who could be considered the greatest contributor to this conquest, spoke, the masters of the four major clans all turned to look at him.

After swallowing briefly, Sung-jun spoke to them.

“Before that, let’s send everyone except you back to the surface.”

***

Although several clan members strongly objected to the masters’ order to return to the surface, leaving only the clan masters with Sung-jun who had proven his powerful strength by fighting an apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity one-on-one, the commotion didn’t last long.

After all, Sung-jun was currently unable to move even a finger, and above all, his blood-covered appearance created an atmosphere where they had no choice but to grant his request.

Refusing the request of a hero who had single-handedly challenged the 100th floor and been injured fighting a god-like existence was something they simply couldn’t push through with.

Thus, everyone except Sung-jun and the masters of the four major clans returned to the surface first using the portal stone.

And when finally only five people including himself remained in the control room, Sung-jun opened his mouth.

“There’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

“Right now, Sung-jun, you’re the hero who saved the Japanese archipelago. If it’s something we can do, we’ll grant any request.”

“The reason I came to eliminate Japan’s apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity was to find the relic of Pandora, who was Japan’s pioneer.”

“A pioneer, you mean…”

“I’m talking about the seven otherworlders who came to prepare for this situation in the past.”

“Weren’t there six pioneers?”

As Amano Jugo said, most people knew that six visitors had come to Earth from the otherworld.

Pioneer ‘Calostro’ who established France’s awakening agency ‘Bureau of Supernatural Powers’.

‘Sefasto Relim’ who founded America’s awakening agency ‘EDS’.

‘Drenex’ who established China’s awakening agency ‘Heavenly Martial Hall’.

‘Pandora’, head of Japan’s awakening agency ‘Temple of Awakening’.

‘Sern Ostro’ who established Britain’s awakening agency ‘King’s Knights’

‘Nehillie’ who created Italy’s awakening agency ‘Apocalypse Corps’.

The awakening training institutions they created each produced numerous awakened individuals suited to their respective orientations, preparing for the eventual apocalypse, but information about the last pioneer who had visited with them wasn’t well known.

Originally, when the seventh pioneer’s identity was revealed to be a fraud, most information was quickly deleted to cover up the government’s mistake in bringing a con artist.

The government that deleted the seventh pioneer’s information was South Korea’s government, and the seventh pioneer they defined as a ‘fraud’ was Sung-jun’s teacher, Minastrias.

“…So Sung-jun’s teacher was a mage… Ah, that’s natural since Sung-jun is a mage. So originally, Minastrias, the seventh pioneer, should have established an awakened training institution in Korea, where mage-class awakened individuals would have been trained?”

“That was the original plan, but when Earth’s mana concentration was too low to use magic, my teacher was branded a fraud and abandoned by the government.”

“Then were you able to use magic, Sung-jun?”

“No. I couldn’t either.”

“Then how did you learn magic?”

“I learned it theoretically. While imagining that non-existent mana existed, I learned magical theory by imagining in my head how magic should be used if mana existed.”

After telling this story about his teacher, Sung-jun continued explaining the ‘legacy’ his teacher had given to the pioneers.

His ultimate goal was to defeat Silermantis, which his teacher had sealed at the cost of her life, and save humanity, and for that goal he was hunting apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities and recovering the legacy his teacher had left behind.

Then Amano Jugo, who had heard Sung-jun’s words, said to him,

“But didn’t you already recover that legacy? You were desperately searching for that lion’s key or whatever.”

“That was a kind of side income. The final goal is separate.”

“What is it?”

“Pandora’s Box.”

As soon as Sung-jun finished speaking, everyone’s eyes turned cold.

If, as Sung-jun said, all artifacts dropped in dungeons came from Pandora’s Box, then the moment Sung-jun recovered Pandora’s Box, it could mean that artifacts could no longer be obtained from Japan’s dungeons.

When Ayaka pointed this out and questioned Sung-jun, he answered with a calm expression.

“Probably so.”

Thinking that even if it came to fighting Sung-jun, she had to prevent the recovery of Pandora’s Box at all costs, Ayaka said.

“Then it would be difficult to agree easily. Even if the Dungeon Master dies and the dungeon operates stably, preventing additional artifact acquisition in the current situation would be an unacceptable decision for the Japanese Government.”

“I think so too.”

“What?!”

“The biggest reason adventurers challenge dungeons is because of artifact drops. In my opinion, it seems like some of Pandora’s Box’s functions are fused with the dungeon system, so if I recover Pandora’s Box, the artifact drop function will disappear. If that happens, no adventurer would want to enter the dungeon and risk their lives fighting monsters.”

“Are you saying you’ll leave Pandora’s Box in Japan?”

“That’s not it. It’s Teacher’s relic, and it’s something I must recover.”

Having said that, Sung-jun slowly raised his right arm.

Then, as if trying to regain his sense of movement, he slowly clenched and opened his fist as he spoke.

“To put it simply, monsters in Japan’s Dungeon will no longer drop artifacts in the future. Instead, you’ll acquire awakening abilities in a different form.”

“What do you mean?”

“Instead of finished weapons dropping, they’ll drop in the form of skill orbs that grant awakening abilities when touched. Additionally, processing monster corpses to make weapons will sometimes imbue them with special abilities.”

“You’re going to change how awakening abilities are obtained? Why go through such trouble…”

“For the sake of the world.”

Slowly getting up his gradually moving body, Sung-jun said.

“I’ll change it so that awakening abilities, which could only be obtained from Japan’s Dungeon, can be acquired by hunting any Corrosion Entity anywhere in the world.”

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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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