The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 82

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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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82
Chapter 82. The Labyrinth of Artifice
***
A True Slash that transcended the speed of perception.
The massive blade of Black Iron I’d swung carved a vertical arc as it fell.
The sharp sound of it splitting the air rang out, threatening to shatter eardrums, and at its endpoint lay the cadre’s crown.
I watched his pupils shrink with terror. One more inch downward and it would all be over.
Boom—!!!
But an instant before the blade crushed his skull, a brilliant flash erupted before my eyes, followed by a massive explosion.
It was no crude backlash of Mana, no shoddy flash charge.
Just as the Aura condensed at the tip of the Black Iron blade was about to detonate, an external force—another pulse of Mana—arrived and precisely negated its destructive force.
A precise collision of action and reaction. The result of a meticulous magical formula, honed through bone-scraping discipline, designed solely to disrupt an opponent’s trajectory.
A heavy recoil traveled up my wrist. The massive body of the Black Iron twisted imperceptibly through the air. A deviation of mere inches.
That infinitesimal gap opened a path to survival for the man standing at death’s threshold.
“Well done… well done, Hong Tae-hwa!”
Through the acrid smoke curling into the air, his voice came—torn and ragged.
The man who, moments ago, had flaunted the arrogance of an A-rank assassin was gone. He dragged himself backward along the ground, using the smoke screen the boy had created as a shield.
When a man confronts death face-to-face on a battlefield, even the bitter shame of survival is gladly cast aside beneath the instinct to live.
I felt the Red Blood Cult cadre’s presence receding swiftly beyond the smoke. But I didn’t bother pursuing him, blade raised to his fleeing back.
There was no need. He couldn’t escape a single step from this enormous cage anyway.
A soft slide of fabric.
I gripped the hilt of the Black Iron greatsword firmly again. The rough leather texture settled into my palm.
The debris from the explosion gradually settled, and through the acrid haze, a silhouette breathing heavily came into view.
A boy.
Above the black tactical mask, crimson hair scattered like it belonged to a bloodstained scene.
Standing with both fists clenched and shoulders trembling, his eyes were pulled taut with extreme tension and lethal intent.
This boy had been my target from the start.
In this narrow, sealed Colosseum, the only objective I needed to cut through and confirm tonight.
Watching his trembling shoulders, I retraced the events that had brought me to this place.
***
The clock wound back precisely five hours—before the Red Blood Cult’s assault team descended on this location.
“This is it.”
D City, North Gyeongsang Province. Midway up an uninhabited mountain ridge near Kongsan Tower.
Scattered among dense undergrowth, the skeletal remains of an abandoned old-era military facility lay like teeth knocked from some forgotten beast.
A black SUV slid to a stop in the desolate clearing. The moment it halted, the air filled with nothing but the bitter mountain wind and an oppressive silence.
Stepping out of the passenger side, I keenly filtered the turbid Mana residue mixed into the surrounding atmosphere. The air touching my skin felt sticky.
The center point marked by the red dot on the Dekima Terminal. Without question, the location of a concealed entrance to an Incubation-Type Gate.
“Fortunately, it seems no one has arrived yet.”
Kim Dae-han, emerging from the driver’s seat, surveyed the surroundings and released a relieved sigh.
Before being the administrative team leader of the Ability Management Bureau, he was among the Hunter Association’s most skilled Barrier Weavers.
Even a Dimensional Rift concealed with the utmost precision wouldn’t be difficult to open without leaving external traces—not with his Mana combined with my assistance.
But the problem was that an unwelcome burden had accompanied us to the site.
“Why the hell did you follow us?”
I spoke flatly toward the man stepping out of the rear passenger door.
“Ha! Kim Do-jin. Don’t you know all Gates fall under the Gate Management Bureau’s jurisdiction? By protocol, you shouldn’t even have set foot here.”
The sharply dressed man adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses as he retorted. Bae Hyun-gyeom—the Power Division’s watchdog.
Just before we’d departed from G City Hall, Director Ryu Gang-jin had unceremoniously shoved this man into the rear seat of our vehicle.
The pretext was cooperation and escort, but it was really nothing more than an obvious leash to monitor my movements—which Ryu deemed impossible to control.
“I made it clear it wasn’t necessary.”
“Kim Do-jin, you’re talking nonsense.”
Bae Hyun-gyeom buttoned his jacket and spoke coldly with a snort.
“According to the latest report from the intelligence team, this Incubation-Type Gate has been dormant for nearly a decade—a vicious mutant space. No one knows what grotesque forms the monsters that’ve grown by consuming Mana Stones inside might have evolved into. Unless you want to walk in alone and end up dead, keep your mouth shut and cooperate. Isn’t that right, team leader?”
He glanced toward Kim Dae-han, who was retrieving equipment bags from the trunk, as if seeking affirmation.
“Well, yes. It’s true. Having the Power Division come this directly does give us peace of mind.”
Kim Dae-han answered awkwardly with a nervous laugh. His eyes were on me. He knew how much I despised Bae Hyun-gyeom.
“Your director forced this on me. No need to wrap it up as some special skill of mine.”
“The director’s order aside, eliminating high-risk Dungeons is actually my preferred work. So don’t feel obligated to thank me.
I’m simply doing my job.”
Bae Hyun-gyeom paid no mind to my jab.
Instead, he pulled the silver special gauntlets from the trunk and fitted them snugly onto both hands with sharp metallic snaps, settling into his stance.
A few days ago, Bae Hyun-gyeom’s right arm—the one shattered by the force of my True Slash in the Hunter Association Courtyard—had healed perfectly under a Healer’s care.
“So, are we just going to stand here running our mouths? Let’s get that gate open. My body’s itching for a fight.”
Bae Hyun-gyeom tapped his gauntleted fists together lightly, cracking his neck side to side. He moved with an easy, casual grace—as if he’d stepped out of a dull office and into a pleasant excursion.
It was the unmistakable physiology of a true combat addict: a creature in whom the thrill of violence had burned deep into bone and sinew.
I clicked my tongue once and approached Kim Dae-han, who was preparing to dissolve the barrier.
Whoosh—!
As Kim Dae-han completed the Mana Formation inscribed in empty air, the transparent atmosphere split with a sharp crack, and the entrance of a Gate rippled into view, shimmering with crimson light.
The undulating Dimensional Rift hung before us like the gaping mouth of some colossal beast, ready to swallow us whole.
“Done. Interior passage is open.”
Kim Dae-han wiped the sweat from his brow and stepped back.
“To deceive them, I’ll need to bind it perfectly in reverse from the inside. When you enter, be careful not to disturb the spatial wavelength. Once it closes, it will be difficult to open from within.”
“Understood. Thank you for your work.”
Bae Hyun-gyeom gave a light nod, then moved with his characteristic fluid grace toward the rippling crimson Gate, the first to throw himself through.
His retreating figure showed not a trace of hesitation.
I adjusted the cord on my Black Iron Greatsword and approached the entrance. Just before crossing the threshold, I lowered my voice to Kim Dae-han.
“Team leader, the Red Blood Cult will come pouring toward this location immediately after the press conference breaks. Far faster than we’re anticipating.”
“They’ll move that quickly? Then we have only a few hours at best.”
“They despise variables. They’ll move to seize the position before we can establish formation.”
I met Kim Dae-han’s gaze directly, driving the point home.
“And among them will be numerous sorcerers with superior detection abilities. If you lurk carelessly near the Gate entrance, they’ll spot you for certain. Observe from high ground at least two kilometers away. Suppress your Detection Magic as much as possible.”
“Understood. Once I confirm they’ve entered—”
“Seal the barrier at the entrance completely. Don’t let it be opened from outside.”
The most assured condition for a hunt.
“Not a single rat escapes beyond that Gate. Make it their tomb.”
Kim Dae-han swallowed hard, his eyes betraying a flicker of fear. But he nodded with grim resolve.
“I’ll remember. Please, be careful. I’m counting on both of you.”
***
I left Kim Dae-han’s farewell behind and walked steadily toward the crimson-rippling Dimensional Rift.
Vision strobed geometrically. The cold air of the Other World rushed deep into my lungs. Every nerve in my body went rigid.
“Curious…”
Bae Hyun-gyeom, surveying the landscape within the Gate, narrowed his brows and muttered. He was already infusing his gauntlets with Mana, senses alert.
“Kim Do-jin, you feel it too, don’t you? This isn’t the kind of place we expected.”
“Yeah.”
I affirmed curtly.
The space before us was neither a common cavern nor some twisted demonic forest. It was a Colosseum—vast, perfect, circular, overwhelmingly immense.
The walls were fitted with standardized stone blocks without gap or flaw. The floor was covered in fine sand.
In place of a ceiling hung a dark abyss, yet the structure mirrored human architecture exactly.
With this, my hypothesis crystallized into absolute certainty.
The Incubation-Type Gate is no natural disaster born from a Dimensional Rift. This is unquestionably an artificial Gate.
After the regression, Kim Dae-han first showed me the barrier wavelength of the Incubation-Type Gate.
The reason that frequency maintained such an eerily consistent pattern—
—was precisely this. Not the irregular chaos born of nature’s workings, but clear evidence of a space artificially carved and stamped out using magical engineering.
During my ten years in the previous world, I walked through countless Gates, broke them open, survived them. So I could be certain.
A true Gate should be something that lies far beyond human comprehension—bizarre, contradictory, impossible to map.
Its interior should be warped. The flow of Mana should be unpredictable.
But this place is far too human.
Barracks designed for minimal foot traffic. A Colosseum shaped as though stamped from a die.
Someone with clear intent and blueprints had renovated this dimensional space like furniture in a room.
For some, it was a training ground. For others, an experimental chamber.
Not only I, who have endured thousands of live battles, but even Bae Hyun-gyeom—barely budded as a hunting hound—could instinctively feel the obscene alienness this space exhaled.
The faint tremor in his fingers came not from fear, but from the visceral unease of stepping into something fundamentally wrong.
We descended in heightened vigilance, past the Colosseum’s bleachers and down the earth floor of the vast central arena.
With each step, the sand compressed beneath us, its crunch sharp and piercing in the otherwise suffocating silence.
And then—
in the middle of that empty expanse of sand—
“……”
a massive, overwhelming form materialized in our vision: a creature of vast mass, its gray wings draped, crouched motionless in the darkness.
Its mere presence pressed the air down heavy around us.
Ting! Ting!
Suddenly, a blaring System alarm erupted from the void, its shrill alert grinding against my nerves.
[Warning: A powerful monster has been detected.]
[Warning: This is an extremely dangerous environment unsuitable for a Successor of your current Level.]
[Immediate evacuation is recommended.]
A translucent red holographic window filled my field of vision, dizzying and impossible to ignore.
The System issuing warnings with such urgency meant only one thing: the creature crouched before me was a vicious specimen that rivaled the boss of a high-tier Dungeon.
Each time it drew breath, the sand beneath its bulk trembled faintly.
Shhrrk—
I drew the heavy Black Iron Greatsword bound to my back slowly, deliberately. Metal sang against the air with a cold, clean ring.
I glanced sidelong at Bae Hyun-gyeom, standing beside me. His eyes were already locked on the creature’s heart with killing intent.
“Scared? You can leave now if you want.”
I taunted him with a dry voice, my breath carrying Mana with each word.
“I’ll have the team leader open the Gate again. You just watch from outside.”
The corner of Bae Hyun-gyeom’s mouth twisted upward in a bitter smile. Behind his glasses, his eyes gleamed with something dangerously close to madness.
“Ha! Kim Do-jin, what exactly do you take me for? Do I look like the type to be intimidated by some warning window?”
He clenched both fists wrapped in Silver Gauntlets, his expression turning primal—the naked hunger of a predator standing at the threshold of violence.
A blue-tinged Aura began to ripple across his entire body.
“I’m going to show you this time. Just how much more devastating my fists are than your precious blade.”
“You ran away back then.”
“Not at all. The courtyard wasn’t a Gate—I stopped because the director told me to. If I’d gone all-out, that building would’ve been rubble.”
“Your eyes were clearly full of fear.”
Bae Hyun-gyeom adjusted his glasses, his gaze turning menacing. My provocation had struck home.
“Here, I can unleash my full power without restraint. Open your eyes wide and watch closely. My true strength—the side you’ve never seen.”
“Your pride’s pathetically small.”
Bae Hyun-gyeom ignored my jab and spoke with a growl.
“Here’s the wager: whoever lands the first solid hit on that bastard wins. The loser stays silent in front of me from now on.”
Bang—!
Before the words had even finished, Bae Hyun-gyeom’s form tore through the air like a spring released.
The explosive recoil from his Aura Step gouged a crater in the Colosseum’s sand floor, sending dust billowing in all directions.
It was reckless—charging in without even identifying the monster’s properties or attack patterns—but I had to grant him that speed.
The blue arc trailing behind him cut through space like a spear.
‘He really is insane.’
Even as I thought it, I gripped the Black Iron Greatsword and launched myself forward, feet digging hard against the ground.
I wasn’t falling for his shallow provocation or his petty wager.
But I had no intention of letting that rabid dog run circles ahead of me while I watched from behind.
More than anything, the creature was far too massive for Bae Hyun-gyeom to handle alone.
Shhrrk, clang—!
As our Auras tore through the Colosseum’s darkness and surged toward the unknown beast, the cool sensation of blade cutting air sang through my fingertips.
Muscles coiled. My heart thundered against my ribs.
[Successor.]
Airi, the fairy who had been cloaked on my shoulder, drifted forward in a shimmer of silver dust, whispering softly against my ear.
Her voice seeped quietly through the cold air.
[Are you… smiling right now?]
………
My eyes, cutting through the wind, trembled ever so slightly.
Tension crept into the corners of my mouth—a change I had not consciously noticed. The silent Colosseum. The colossal beast. Another force of nature rushing forward as if in competition.
“Me? There’s no way.”

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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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