The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 97

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

#097. One Step

“Then I’ll begin.”

Sung-jun drew a massive magic circle centered around Pandora’s Box, which had been serving as a table stand.

As if he intended to use Pandora’s Box as a sacrifice.

Watching Sung-jun draw six additional auxiliary magic circles at hexagonal positions around the central giant circular magic circle, Ayaka muttered.

“Looking at this, you really seem like a mage.”

“It’s not that I seem like one, I am a real mage.”

Having finally completed all preparations, Sung-jun moved into a small magic circle connected by thick straight lines extending from the central magic circle.

Positioning himself on the auxiliary magic circle formed by a hollow circle, Sung-jun gestured for the other Clan Masters to move toward the wall, then spread both arms to activate his magic.

“It’ll take about 10 minutes. No matter what happens during that time, don’t come inside.”

“What happens if we go inside?”

“When the magic activates as I’ve set it up, magic will be imbued into the magic stones inside monsters just before they die. If it misfires, magic will be imbued into the magic stones while they’re still alive, allowing the monsters to directly use the abilities of the imbued magic. You’ve seen monsters in dungeons occasionally using artifacts like weapons, right? Imagine all Corrosion Entities worldwide using the same abilities.”

“…I absolutely won’t interfere.”

“Then I’ll begin.”

As Sung-jun crossed his outstretched arms, light began emanating from the magic circles drawn on the floor.

Simultaneously, dozens of Sung-jun’s voices filled the entire dark room, resonating all at once.

‘This is… Sung-jun? But multiple voices at the same time…’

It felt like multiple invisible Sung-juns were simultaneously activating magic.

And at that moment, as Sung-jun spread his arms again, six other Sung-juns appeared on the remaining six auxiliary magic circles he had drawn.

‘Seven Sung-juns?!’

Magic targeting an entire planet would normally require building a pyramid-sized massive altar with thousands of mages chanting simultaneously—it was large-scale magic.

Sung-jun was attempting to cast this with his power alone.

Since it was naturally impossible to perform such magic single-handedly, Sung-jun had split his soul into seven parts, casting the magic through each of his duplicates.

‘The physical burden is stronger than I expected.’

This was a burden of an entirely different dimension from the debuff spell he had cast on Yeojiggwi, the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity in China.

Back then, he had used an artifact called ‘Seven Vessels’ where each blade served as a massive magic tower to cast the debuff, but now, unlike then, there was nothing to serve the role of a magic tower.

The safest method would have been to receive cooperation from the Japanese Government, formally erect a magic tower, and cast the spell based on that foundation, but Sung-jun was taking the risk to perform alone the ultra-large-scale spell that would normally require thousands of mages.

Excluding his disciple Yeonse-a, who was still lacking in training and couldn’t even properly fulfill one person’s role, he was the only mage remaining on Earth.

‘So I’ll use my body in place of a magic tower to complete the spell.’

What Sung-jun was trying to change were the rules of the world.

A new rule that would make monster magic stones, which originally granted no abilities, imbue special abilities into magical tools made from them.

Sung-jun’s original magic, designed to copy only the magic imbued in the countless magical tools inside Pandora’s Box and grant it to magic stones, spread beyond the portal stones connected to the surface to the entire planet called Earth.

It wasn’t magic that simply imbued randomly copied magic into magic stones.

‘It’s impossible to imbue magic into magic stones after monsters die. So I need to detect the state just before death and imbue magic into the magic stones at that moment.’

The first auxiliary magic circle Sung-jun had inscribed forcibly imbued status-checking magic into the bodies of Corrosion Entities spread across the world.

Then Sung-jun’s duplicate standing on the first magic circle coughed up blood and fell to his knees.

‘If imbued completely randomly, there would be too many wasted imbued magics that might be discarded uselessly. Just as Pandora’s Box granted artifacts suited to the potential abilities of Awakened undergoing awakening ceremonies, I need to detect the aptitude of humans who attacked the monsters and copy appropriate magic matching their grade.’

The second auxiliary magic circle Sung-jun had inscribed imbued magic that detected and recorded the potential abilities of attackers who struck monsters, and the third auxiliary magic circle activated new magic designed to detect the magic of the treasure trove connected to Pandora’s Box and extract magic from artifacts suited to the attackers recorded in the magic stones.

Simultaneously, Sung-jun’s duplicates standing on the second and third magic circles coughed up blood and fell to their knees.

‘Interpreting and copying the design of the original magical tools so that those holding the magic stones can gain hints to create magical tools by seeing the design…’

Just as Ayaka could naturally see the magic stone’s information when she held it, magic was added to allow those touching magic-imbued stones to see magical tool information in a status window-like format.

Then Sung-jun’s duplicate standing on the fourth auxiliary magic circle fell to his knees in place.

‘High-grade magical tools require materials made from Corrosion Entity bodies to complete. So for high-grade magical tools, let’s include recipes for the materials needed to complete them and make it so monsters with key materials for those recipes can drop them when possible.’

Magic that scanned monster body information just before death and magic that selected the most suitable magical tools based on scanned information to imbue into magic stones activated simultaneously.

Then Sung-jun’s duplicates standing on the remaining two magic circles simultaneously fell to their knees, completing all preparations.

All that remained was connecting dimensional magic so that special artifacts impossible to create on current Earth, like the Grimoire that Shirasaki Miyu possessed, could drop directly rather than through magic imbuing.

Sung-jun opened a permanently maintained dimensional gate connected to the treasure trove linked to Pandora’s Box and inscribed magic that would allow special artifacts from the treasure trove to be directly summoned beside monster corpses through the dimensional gate when attackers possessed suitable aptitude and potential abilities.

“Hereby, I redefine the rules of the world.”

The moment Sung-jun’s ‘Divine Word’ resonated, the six fallen duplicates were simultaneously absorbed into Sung-jun’s main body.

Then the physical and mental damage the six duplicates had received while casting spells was directly reflected onto Sung-jun’s body.

“Gaaahhh!!!”

As Sung-jun vomited blood mixed with flesh chunks from the pain of his organs being torn apart, Ayaka tried to rush toward him in alarm.

Then Amano Jyugo beside her extended his arm to stop Ayaka’s action.

“He told us not to interfere.”

“But…”

“Let’s trust and wait. Sung-jun must have known too. That activating such tremendous magic couldn’t come without paying any price.”

As Jyugo said, Sung-jun had known everything.

How much burden would be placed on the caster’s body when activating such large-scale magic alone.

But Sung-jun had activated the magic knowing all those costs.

Five apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities remained on Earth.

Even if he defeated all those Corrosion Entities alone, humanity could face the crisis of extinction in the meantime.

While South Korea, where Teacher had sealed the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity Silermantis, or China and Japan, where he had directly eliminated apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities, might be better off, there was no way to know the exact situation of the remaining countries his hands hadn’t reached.

He had no way of knowing whether the US forces in Korea, who had hastily received return orders and returned to their homeland just before international communication networks collapsed, had safely arrived on their home soil until he visited the United States directly.

To prevent the worst-case scenario of humanity’s extinction while he defeated the remaining five apocalypse-class Corrosion Entities and recovered Teacher’s relics to achieve his goal, he needed to give humanity greater ‘power’ than they currently possessed.

‘Finally, I’ll seal this so no one can tamper with this magic circle.’

Sung-jun forcibly raised his trembling hands and isolated Pandora’s Box and the entire magic circle surrounding the box in a separate dimension.

In a kind of Inherent World that no one except himself could see or touch.

Having completed all magic this way, Sung-jun collapsed in place and fainted.

***

“Teacher!!! Teacher!!”

When Sung-jun opened his eyes again, what he faced wasn’t the dungeon floor he had last seen when collapsing, but the ceiling of a clean, white room.

As Sung-jun gradually regained consciousness, he realized he was lying on a bed, and also recognized that the person shouting beside him was his only disciple, Yeonse-a.

‘I’m outside the dungeon.’

The Clan Masters who had remained in the dungeon must have moved his collapsed body to the surface.

Having regained consciousness this way, Sung-jun looked at his disciple who was crying tears of joy at seeing him awake, and uttered the words he most wanted to say right now.

“I’m hungry…”

For Sung-jun, who had been asleep for nearly 20 days, it was an all too natural statement.

***

“You’ve been asleep for so long, wouldn’t it be better to have liquid food first?”

Seoa said, watching Sung-jun sweep large sausages and hamburger steaks into his mouth with terrifying intensity.

Then Sung-jun shook his head and spoke to his disciple.

“Mages can… munch… cast regeneration magic… gulp… so physical condition… crunch… gulp…”

“You can speak after you finish eating.”

“…is nothing to worry about. By the way, did you come straight from Osaka Dungeon?”

“A month ago, when the personnel restrictions on portals to the surface were lifted, I realized it. That Teacher had defeated the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity that appeared in Japan. I left all the supplies in subspace and quickly returned to the surface with just Miyu and myself. Teacher woke up right when I returned. I think it’s fortunate.”

“I didn’t wake up to match your timing, you woke me up. The mana you emitted while calling me collided with my mana and woke me up.”

“Then if I had been later…”

“I would have woken up later. The burden on my body was greater than expected. Thanks to you, I could wake up before my physical condition worsened further. Thank you.”

The Seoa that Sung-jun saw was displaying far superior mana than when they had parted before.

Her unintentionally emitted mana alone was enough to stimulate and awaken an archmage’s sleeping body.

It seemed to be the influence of magic she had used while protecting people inside Osaka Dungeon, but Sung-jun didn’t ask any particular questions about it.

Instead, Sung-jun requested a report on what had happened while he slept, and Seoa, as if she had expected this, clearly explained information she had prepared in advance.

“Before departing for Tokyo, I requested a detailed report on Japan’s current situation from the Japanese Government. I received that report while your meal was being prepared. The amount of data is quite substantial and includes a lot of unnecessary content, but shall I explain orally just the matters you’d be curious about?”

“That sounds good.”

With Sung-jun still not stopping his fork in front of her, Seoa began her report.

Extracting only the core content she thought necessary for Sung-jun from the vast and useless materials spanning hundreds of pages.

It was a report consisting precisely of the content Sung-jun was currently curious about.

“The effects of the debuff activated in China were confirmed through the Self-Defense Forces deployed to each dungeon. And after Tokyo Dungeon was cleared, it was also confirmed that magical tools could be created using magic stones with imbued magic rather than artifacts, and that abilities equivalent to Awakened could be activated with them. All five major clans in Japan are currently engaged in deep-layer conquest of their assigned dungeons. Since it’s been confirmed that higher-grade magic stones have higher probabilities of having imbued magic, they judged it would be more efficient to hunt stronger monsters when possible.”

“What about the Japanese Government’s movements?”

“They say they’ve organized large-scale subjugation forces consisting of heavily armed Self-Defense Force members, police, and civilian volunteers to begin dungeon conquest. Rather than conquering large dungeons like raid clans, they’re focusing on conquering the lower layers of regional dungeons.”

“Good. That’s a relief. It seems the magic activated normally.”

While Seoa was reporting, Sung-jun, who had more or less finished his meal, cast magic to check his physical condition.

After confirming his somewhat recovered physical state, he spoke to his disciple.

“Then we need to move right away. Sleeping for a whole month was an unexpected situation.”

“Your physical condition is…”

“It’s fine. The problem wasn’t physical damage to begin with, but the burden on my magic circuits. Most of it seems to have recovered while I was sleeping. Contact the Japanese Government officials immediately and tell them I’m requesting a meeting. Since I’ve achieved my purpose, there’s no point in staying in Japan any longer.”

“What do you mean there’s no point in staying in Japan…”

“We’re going to the United States.”

Sung-jun smiled at his disciple, who was looking at him with sparkling eyes.

“So I’ll need to extort a few planes from the Japanese Government.”

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