The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 7

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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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7
Episode 7. The System of Salvation
***
I sat in lotus position on the cold flagstones of the Altar.
A long breath escaped my lungs, expelling the stale air within.
Above my head, in the space of imagination, I conjured a single droplet of water.
The purest crystallization of Mana.
Drip.
The droplet fell upon my crown, soaking my brain, flowing down the spine.
This was no mere meditation.
This was Refactoring—rebuilding the circuits themselves.
Mana and Aura.
I was redrawing the map of my nervous system so that these two disparate energies could flow without collision.
If blood vessels were a road network, then I was now rewriting the traffic signal system.
‘Congestion points cleared. Alternate routes secured.’
[Master, twenty-four hours have elapsed in real time.]
Airi’s dry notification.
A whole day had passed.
“My real body must be sleeping with an IV drip running.”
The geometric patterns carved into the Altar floor pulsed faintly.
My body felt light.
The circuits that had been twisted by Mana backflow were now perfectly aligned.
I stood.
Crack-crack.
Even though this was a virtual body, the sensation of joints loosening was vivid and clear.
“The spell formulation is optimized.”
[Optimized? I request a detailed explanation.]
An inquisitive one, this creature.
But I didn’t think it a bad idea to teach it information.
I answered, drawing Magical Circuits through the empty air.
“In computer terms, I installed a new operating system. I was trying to force a Warrior’s program to run on a Wizard-exclusive OS, which caused bugs. So I deployed a compatibility patch.”
[Understood. You’ve constructed a hybrid operating system.]
“Something like that. Now I’ve trimmed away the unnecessary computational steps.”
Magic is the manifestation of image.
It’s inefficient to recall complex equations during combat, one by one.
What’s needed is a trigger.
A macro—a single word that executes complex spellwork instantly.
“Airi. Rename skills. Map ‘Quick Strike’ to ‘Slash’. Map ‘Strong Strike’ to ‘Breaker’.”
[Confirmed. Mapping spell data to those keywords.]
The patterns on the Altar floor flickered.
An intuitive command crystallized in my mind.
Now, the moment I think ‘Slash’, Acceleration Magic and Aura will activate simultaneously.
With no delay whatsoever.
I adjusted my grip on the Short Sword.
The sensation spiraling around my fingertips felt far smoother than before.
It was the fruit of dozens of hours’ work.
I gazed toward the exit of the Altar.
My real body would be lying on a hospital bed.
Assuming Airi had properly triggered an emergency rescue call.
Praying I wasn’t still on the street somewhere.
“Let’s go back.”
***
The smell of disinfectant.
Smell was the first sense to awaken.
Next came fluorescent light piercing my vision.
I squinted and opened my eyes, and a white ceiling came into focus.
At least I hadn’t died.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, his eyes opened! Mom!”
“Do Jin!”
Familiar voices. Voices I had longed to hear.
When I turned my head, I saw two women.
Mother. Sister.
“Hey! Do Jin! Have you completely lost your mind? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
My sister Min Seo struck my shoulder with reddened eyes.
Mother gripped my hand, repeatedly murmuring “Oh my, oh my” as she pressed her palm to her chest.
……
My throat tightened.
Ten years had passed in real time.
Before the Regression, when that very Gate at Donggureung had completed its Incubation and gone berserk, these were the two people who were swept away first and lost.
I still carried the bone-deep memory of weeping in the rubble of collapsed buildings, finding only Mother’s worn wallet.
But this time was different.
I had stopped it.
Before that terrible future could arrive, I cut it down at the root with my own hands.
Having crossed through a hellish fate, they now stood alive before my eyes.
Warm with body heat.
Foolishly, heat rose to my eyes.
Relief and guilt surged together like a breaking dam.
“Hey, you—are you crying?”
Sister asked, sounding bewildered.
It was understandable to be startled—her brother, who normally would’ve bristled at such a thing, was now glistening with tears.
“No, there’s just a lot of dust in here.”
“You’re kidding me. You’re sobbing.”
Sister teased mischievously, pinching my cheek.
It hurt.
And that made it real.
This isn’t a dream. It’s the reality I changed.
“Oh, my boy. How much you must have suffered—”
Mother dried my eyes with a handkerchief.
The rough texture of weathered knuckles.
Hands that had raised us both alone after losing Father in a Gate accident.
In Mother’s eyes lingered the terror left by Father’s absence.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I worried you.”
I bowed my head. The grand dignity of a Regressor wasn’t needed here.
For now, just being an irresponsible son was enough.
“Do Jin. You said you’ve Awakened. Are you thinking of becoming a Hunter?”
Mother’s voice trembled thinly.
It had come—the question I knew would.
The fear of not wanting to send her son to the place that had swallowed Father.
But I couldn’t lie to her.
False reassurance would only become greater despair later.
“Yes.”
Mother’s pupils wavered. Before she could say more, I squeezed her hand.
“I have to protect this family. In Father’s stead as well.”
A hackneyed line.
But it was my honest conviction, both before the Regression and now.
Silence stretched out briefly.
Mother released a long sigh and hung her head.
“No one can break your stubbornness. You’re exactly like your father—”
“Mom, he has to pass the Hunter Association exam first to even become a Hunter.”
Sister cut in briskly, as if trying to shift the mood.
Through the window, a crimson sunset was falling.
To keep that glow from turning the color of blood, I couldn’t afford to rest.
But my body was honest.
Whether from the harsh training at the Altar, the moment tension released, sleep crashed down upon me.
“Get some rest. Until the IV drip is done.”
Sister’s voice grew distant.
I sank into deep sleep.
***
When I opened my eyes again, the sun had fully set.
The Hospital Room was dim, and beneath the glow of a bedside lamp, Sister was tapping away at her Tablet PC.
“You awake?”
“Yeah. Mom?”
“She went home for a bit to grab some clothes. Apparently you’re being discharged tomorrow.”
My sister pulled a chair over and sat beside my bed.
She studied me with the sharp, appraising gaze of a reporter.
“The doctor was practically in shock. Said your body was absolutely ravaged. Something about your Magical Circuit getting tangled up, I don’t know. Exactly what have you been doing out there?”
“I just… pushed myself too hard.”
“A day after your Awakening?”
My sister clicked her tongue.
Min Seo of Daily Gate—South Korea’s preeminent social affairs correspondent.
A veteran reporter specializing exclusively in Hunter and Gate-related incidents.
A tenacious woman who became a journalist determined to uncover why our father vanished.
My eyes caught the Tablet PC on her lap.
Complex network diagrams and blurry photographs filled the screen.
“What are you covering these days?”
“The usual. Digging into some rats that stink to high heaven.”
My sister switched off the screen.
But I hadn’t missed it—a keyword visible in the corner.
Light of Salvation, and the Management Bureau.
“Is that… the Gate Cult you’re talking about?”
At my question, my sister’s eyebrows twitched.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Just… overheard it somewhere.”
“Hmm.”
She regarded me with suspicion before turning the Tablet PC back on.
The screen displayed a photograph of a bizarre emblem—a cross merged with a Gate.
“Yeah. These lunatics have been stirring things up lately.”
The Gate Cult.
A heretical religion that treats the emergence of Gates as “Divine Judgment” and “Salvation.”
Before the Regression, I’d thought they were just run-of-the-mill apocalypticists.
The sort of fungal growth that naturally sprouted as the world decayed.
But in those final moments before the end, the madness they displayed was far from that of simple believers.
“Glory to the God of the Gate!”
That voice, screaming as it severed a comrade’s neck, still rang in my ears.
“Their influence has grown unnaturally. It’s not simple evangelism—it’s highly organized. There’s talk of prophets and prophecies and all that.”
My sister lowered her voice.
As if the real story was only now beginning.
“The problem is, we’ve found evidence linking them to the Gate Management Bureau.”
“The Management Bureau?”
My heart pounded.
People sometimes called it the Gate Bureau for short.
The omnipotent government agency that had gradually pushed out the Hunter Association and now wielded absolute control over Gate entry permits.
Arrogant and corrupt, yes—but still a government institution.
And they’d allied with a cult?
“You’re certain?”
“The suspicion is strong. We got a tip that cult members and Bureau officials both emerged from the same Gate. But someone upstairs is blocking the story from running.”
My sister laughed bitterly.
In a world overrun by trash journalists, she still carried the eyes of a real reporter.
“Those Bureau bastards—their stink goes deeper than you’d think. Not content with bleeding Hunters dry, now they’re in cahoots with cultists.”
The puzzle was beginning to fit together.
Before the Regression, why information about Zephyros had been cut off.
Why the Donggureung Gate had been left unmanaged and neglected.
It might not have been mere incompetence.
‘Deliberate abandonment?’
If the Management Bureau wasn’t truly managing the Gates—if someone had orchestrated it all?
“That could get dangerous.”
“That’s why reporters dig into dangerous things. If you want safe news, watch the weather channel.”
My sister shrugged as if it were nothing.
But I knew the anxiety hidden beneath that confidence.
She understood it too.
What he was touching wasn’t a hornet’s nest—it was a minefield.
“Noona.”
“What, are you going to lecture me again?”
“No. If you learn anything more about the cult, will you share it with me?”
She looked at me with a surprised expression.
“Since when? You always hated anything complicated—said you’d just focus on the Hunter exam.”
“It’s good to know these things.”
“Now that’s smooth talk.”
“And be careful with yourself.”
“You should take your own advice.”
She chuckled softly and closed the Tablet PC.
Then she shifted the topic with a playful grin.
“Anyway, you scaredy-cat Do Jin. You actually confident you’ll pass the Hunter exam?”
“Won’t know until I try.”
“Last year the pass rate was eight percent. Practically everyone fails. The best you can hope for is not to wet yourself when you see a monster—a nervous wreck like you.”
She laughed again, that familiar mocking tone.
The old me would’ve deserved it.
A coward who’d run to safety, planning to prepare for civil service exams instead.
Every test I actually took, I failed.
But things are different now.
“That’s why I prepare all the more carefully.”
Her smile faded. She tilted her head, studying my face intently.
A journalist’s instinct, maybe. It was kicking in.
“Hey, Do Jin.”
“What?”
“You’re… different somehow.”
“Different how?”
“Your eyes. I don’t know how to put it. You used to have that spineless look, but now you’re like some old hermit who’s been through everything.”
“I’m not an old hermit.”
Family—there’s no hiding from them.
“Can’t you just say I’ve grown up? I nearly died, after all.”
“Ha. Growing up my ass. They say even rolling in a garbage heap is better than death, and that people don’t change without dying.”
She muttered irritably and began peeling an apple.
Slice. Slice.
The knife’s rhythm filled the silence of the hospital room.
Outside the window, darkness had settled completely.
The city lights were flickering on, one by one.
Beneath those peaceful lights, someone prayed for the end of the world, and someone else kept quiet about it—growing fat on the secret.
‘The Gate Cult. And the Management Bureau.’
Keywords I’d overlooked in my past life.
Then I would have to cut them out.
I needed a larger, sharper blade.
A Hunter’s license was the first ticket to grasping that blade.
“This is good.”
I popped a slice of peeled apple into my mouth.
It was sweet and cool.

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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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