The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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1
Episode 1. Annihilation Comes Without Warning
***
Ten minutes until humanity’s extinction.
Or perhaps less than five remained.
Measuring the remaining time had become meaningless.
With each breath, the acrid stench of blood flooding into the lungs, the rubble of collapsed buildings scattered all around—these alone were proof that this place was the very bottom of hell.
“Ugh…”
When he tried to push himself up, his comrade’s upper body, crushed beneath his legs, bore down with dead weight.
Slick blood pooled across the floor.
He forced the severed Mana circuit in his right arm shut.
Blood vessels ruptured as the backflowing Mana tore through his veins—a pain that seared white-hot. Yet his fingertips only trembled weakly; not a single spark of power lit them.
The Mana Hole located near his lower abdomen was already shattered, not even fragments remaining.
Absolute helplessness—unable to move a single finger.
The body that once stood at the apex of the 9th Circle was now nothing but a slab of meat stripped of all control.
His vision flickered red.
Beyond it, the silhouettes of staggering figures swayed.
Eyes devoid of focus, mouths gaping like beasts. They were no longer human.
-Gruuuuu…
An overwhelming mass bearing down on the atmosphere.
Zephyros, the Evil Divine Dragon.
A mythic-tier Fantasy Tier monster whose every stat and resistance had received an immeasurable judgment now coiled upon the earth.
The worst reversal imaginable, unfolding at the very moment humanity stood on the brink of conquering the Gate.
His breath caught.
His heart beat irregularly, and his vision shattered at will.
He had to resist somehow. But even after unleashing every Elemental Magic, every Arcane Formula, even Forbidden Spells of the spatial order—he hadn’t so much as scratched a single scale.
The cold truth that his final strike was nothing but a breeze to that monster gnawed at his mind.
-Gooooo…
Red eyes flickered between scales black as pitch.
They were not the eyes of something beholding a living creature.
The inorganic gaze of something regarding a heap of garbage before disposal.
-Beep-beep-beep-beep!
-Beep-beep-beep-beep!
Alarm sounds erupted in unison from the terminals scattered among the fallen Hunters.
[Grade 12 Mental Corruption detected.]
[Estimated radius: 5 km.]
[Evacuate immediately.]
[Repeating. Evacuate imm—]
Click.
As the warning sound cut out, a pain like scouring the inside of his skull with sandpaper crashed through him.
“Retch!”
Bile rose in his throat. His senses inverted; the spatial perspective warped.
“Krraaaaaaagh!!”
“Hee, hehe… hehehehe!”
Screams and mad laughter tangled from all directions.
When he turned his head, the comrades who had fought back-to-back with him moments before were driving blades into each other’s throats.
“Kill… kill them all…”
A Holy Knight with eyes rolled back, drool streaming.
He was crushing his fellow Healer’s skull with his own mace.
The man once called the “Shield of Protection” was now the most grotesque butcher, wielding his cudgel.
Crunch!
Red fragments sprayed from the crushed skull in all directions.
Fresh blood dripped down the Holy Knight’s chin. Yet in his eyes there was not the slightest hesitation.
Zephyros’s Mental Corruption.
It did not merely strip humans of reason—it was a curse that forcibly reformatted their very humanity.
Only because he had pushed his Mental Resistance Trait to its limit could he barely maintain his sanity.
Yet was this terrible clarity, forced to witness his companions’ destruction with a clear mind, truly a blessing?
The grandiose title of 9th Circle Archmage seemed infinitely pathetic before the blood pooling on the floor.
Then it happened.
Whoosh—
In that blood-reeking hellscape, an alien metallic ring tore through the air.
Cleaving through the billowing dust, a man surged toward Zephyros.
A cerulean blade-light that burned the retina.
A speed that far transcended the physical limits of human flesh. Only afterimages remained, etching crimson arcs across the void.
Korea’s mightiest.
Blade Guild Master—the Sword Saint, Kang Tae-yoon.
The realm of Ultra-Swift Speed was opening, attained through nothing but bone-grinding discipline and innate genius.
Screeeech—!
The air itself shrieked.
With every swing, space seemed to split, and the thunderous sound battered his eardrums.
In an instant that felt like an eternity, Tae-yoon unleashed over a hundred cuts upon the creature’s face.
An absolute strike, burning with life force as fuel.
But then.
Everything stopped.
Not a single scratch marred Zephyros’s scales.
As the Ultra-Swift Speed cuts fell silent, the dragon unfurled its massive wings as if brushing away bothersome dust.
A broken Sword Blade rolled helplessly across the ground.
Between the harsh sounds of tearing air, the dull noise of spewing blood cut through.
Between the dragon’s wings, a wind sharp as a blade arose.
A storm of compressed Mana.
This was no mere gust—it was a bombardment that crushed space itself.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
Hundreds of cyclones swept across the Square.
The remaining elite of the Blade Guild were torn apart like paper dolls.
Korea’s mightiest force vanished in a single wingbeat.
***
I barely managed to lift my head through the pale dust cloud.
My lungs felt torn.
Over blood-soaked earth lay mangled limbs. Mine. My thighs had lost their flesh, exposing bone beneath; my left arm bent at an unnatural angle.
[Skill Activated: Pain Blocking.]
I wrung out my remaining Mana and deployed the skill.
The excruciating pain cut off as though a anesthetic had been flooded in, and my body felt like someone else’s meat.
Where agony had been, a chill seeped in.
A dark crimson light was condensing in Zephyros’s jaws.
Breath. If that compressed Mana detonates, everything evaporates.
I clawed forward using my elbows against the ground.
My cheek scraped the dirt, blood pooled in my mouth. To keep from losing my mind, I forced a single sentence into my head.
A few meters ahead, a man lay collapsed, only his upper body remaining.
Kang Tae-yoon.
“Brother···.”
With trembling hands, I felt across his chest.
A red gem hung from a faded metal chain. A fragment of God that exists only once in the entire world.
World Item: Stone of Return.
[Emergency Protocol 1: When the Guild faces annihilation, the Stone of Return must be used on the Guild Master.]
He had to go back. If humanity’s strongest was given another chance, perhaps he could stop it.
I bit through the chain of the necklace.
The moment I brought the Stone clutched in my fist toward his heart.
Click.
A cooling hand wrenched my wrist.
“Don’t···.”
Tae-yoon’s unfocused eyes turned toward me with effort. His blood-drenched lips quivered thinly.
“···Protocol One. The Master returns.”
I ground my molars. Blood wept from the torn flesh in my mouth.
“You have to go.”
I tried to command it, but my fractured voice trembled pitifully. I forced my fist holding the Stone forward, yet Tae-yoon’s grip was grotesquely iron.
“I’ve failed. Again.”
With each ragged breath, dark crimson foam bubbled at his mouth.
“You are the hope.”
“Stop talking nonsense. Without you···.”
“Skill Activated. [Legacy Inheritance].”
Before I could finish speaking, my flushed throat constricted violently.
The moment Tae-yoon’s finger touched my forehead.
Whoosh—!
Searing heat blazed through the inside of my skull.
A colossal mass of information forced its way into my brain. Blood vessels swelled, and my heart thrashed as if it would burst.
“This… this can’t be…”
Instead of answering, Tae-yoon smiled—a thin smile tinged with blood.
I’d never seen such an unburdened expression on his face.
“Stone of Return activation. Target: Kim Do-jin.”
Squeezing the last of his strength, Tae-yoon forced the Stone in my hand to activate.
Red light erupted outward in a violent burst. A powerful pull began sucking my body into the void.
“No! Don’t do this!”
“I’m sorry. Just… live.”
With those words, Kang Tae-yoon’s head fell slack.
Leaning against the collapsed rubble, humanity’s strongest closed his eyes for the last time.
Bang—
At the same moment, Zephyros’s Breath swept across the earth.
The world was erased in white.
As my vision melted away, I watched my brother’s corpse vaporize into the light.
I clenched my teeth until my molars shattered. Blood from my gums reversed down my throat.
Even as my retinas burned white, I forced that massive reptile’s silhouette into my pupils.
I would tear it apart. I would kill it.
The world stopped.
And perfect darkness came.
***
“Cough—hack!”
Cold air rushed in hard.
A familiar smell—but one I shouldn’t be smelling now. The stench of mold, acrid and suffocating.
I gasped roughly and pushed my upper body up.
Cold sweat poured down like rain.
What lay before my eyes was not the ash-gray battlefield.
Yellowed wallpaper. Mold blooming in the corner of the ceiling. Soju bottles rolling across the floor.
Ten years ago. My Goshiwon room.
The bone-crushing pain I’d felt just moments before and my brother’s cool touch still clung to my fingertips. It couldn’t be a dream.
I picked up the old Smartphone lying on the floor.
As the screen lit up, sharp light pierced my eyes.
[December 25, 2026, 07:59]
A hollow laugh escaped me.
I’d come back.
Back to that day—excited about Christmas, dumped by my girlfriend, drinking soju in the corner of a Goshiwon room.
I looked down at my wrist.
Only the trace of the metal string that had held the Stone of Return remained. The regression seemed to have worked.
At the moment 7:59 changed to 8:00.
A strange sensation flowed through my entire body, making my veins tingle sharply.
A chill ran down my spine.
‘It’s coming.’
The moment my life’s trajectory began to twist.
Ding.
A translucent blue window appeared in the air.
[You have Awakened.]
Ten years ago, I’d stared blankly at this window, but now there was no time for sentiment.
“…Status window.”
[Name: Kim Do-jin]
[Level: 1]
[Trait: Tree of Sephiroth (S), Legacy Inheritance (EX)]
My gaze fixed on one point and wouldn’t move.
The Tree of Sephiroth was indeed an S-rank Trait leading toward Grand Sorcery. But beside it, that alien text.
[Legacy Inheritance (EX)]
An EX-rank Trait—a grade beyond evaluation itself.
This was the skill my brother had passed to me just before the regression, his hand pressed to my forehead.
“Check trait.”
[Trait: Legacy Inheritance (EX)]
[- Description: You inherit all memories, experiences, and martial prowess of the previous inheritor.]
[- Current Synchronization Rate: 5%]
[- Currently Activatable Legacy: ‘Sword Saint’]
Kang Tae-yoon.
Everything about the man who was humanity’s greatest now lived inside me.
My fists clenched tight.
My fingernails bit into my palms, drawing beads of blood.
I had to confirm what he’d left behind. If the power to cut down Zephyros slumbered somewhere within this inheritance.
“Skill window.”
I opened the list, expecting to see a transcendent array of swordsmanship that could cut through air and rend space itself.

[Mana Sense (F)] – Basic
[Swordsmanship (F)] – Legacy
Just two lines.
[Swordsmanship (F)]
Fundamental ability in handling a sword.
It had to be hiding something. Those brilliant killing techniques had to be nested in a submenu.
I tapped the [Swordsmanship] tab.
Whisk.
The submenu unfolded.
— Detailed Skills —
[Strong Cut]
[Quick Cut]
“…………”
Heavy silence fell over the Goshiwon room.
Strong Cut.
Quick Cut.
I stared blankly at the blue window floating in empty air.
For the greatest inheritance meant to prevent humanity’s extinction, it was far too simple.

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