The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 9

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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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9
Episode 9. A Necessary Evil
***
“But I’m afraid I must decline.”
A heavy silence descended over the Hospital Room.
Kim Dae-han’s pupils dilated briefly before settling back to their usual composure.
A reaction that suggested this fell within his expectations.
Yet behind that smile, a clear note of bewilderment lingered.
“May I ask your reasoning? Were the terms insufficient?”
“No. The terms are acceptable.”
I leaned my back against the wall and crossed my arms.
My gaze was fixed on him, but my mind calculated coldly.
“The moment I wear the label of belonging to City Hall, restrictions will follow my every action. I have no intention of hunting while waiting for someone’s approval.”
Kim Dae-han nodded at my words.
He loosened his necktie slightly and stepped closer.
Round two of the negotiation was beginning.
“You’ve read this precisely. For an ordinary civil servant Hunter, that would be the case. Their days would vanish in paperwork.”
He lowered his voice.
As though confiding a secret to a conspirator.
“That’s why what I’m trying to build is a ‘team.’ Nominally under the Ability Management Department, but with a command structure that connects directly to me—a separate unit.”
“A separate unit?”
“Yes. Approval chains? Unnecessary. You will judge everything, and you will execute everything. I’ll handle the aftermath and support.”
This was an enticing proposal as well.
Authority without accountability—an extraordinarily generous offer.
But I didn’t bite.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
That’s one truth about the world I learned before the Regression.
“For a salaried Hunter, that’s generous treatment. What else will I be expected to provide in return?”
“Extermination.”
Kim Dae-han answered without hesitation.
“The Incubation-Type Gates that our team discovers. I need you to eliminate the monsters within them. While I can perceive Barriers, I lack the strength to kill what lies inside.”
“You can locate Incubation-Type Gates?”
“We’re developing the means. One of our team members has a trait that makes it possible.”
Incubation-Type Gates aren’t easily found. The Donggureung Gate had been no exception.
It was only discoverable because the disaster had already unfolded.
Fundamentally, Incubation-Type Gates are concealed beneath concealment Barriers.
Detection equipment rarely picks them up, and their Mana signatures are faint.
By the time one is found, it’s usually too late.
But there was a way to locate them?
I didn’t answer immediately.
If true, it would be something extraordinary.
But that made it harder to believe.
Not yet.
I couldn’t trust it easily.
“You’re confident I’ll be capable of this?”
“I am.”
“When I’ve only just Awakened?”
“Yes.”
He met my eyes directly.
“Because you have the same eyes I do.”
My heart quickened slightly.
Eyes twisted by malice. Eyes that appeared placid on the surface but burned with the ashes of vengeance within—the eyes of a revenant bent on revenge.
My lips twisted of their own accord.
“I appreciate the proposal. But I can’t give you an answer immediately.”
I deliberately drew out my response.
To make him anxious. To make him understand that the choice was mine.
“Of course. Think it over slowly once you’ve been discharged.”
Kim Dae-han laughed it off easily, though a flicker of impatience crossed his face.
He picked up a silver metal briefcase from the floor and set it on the table.
A heavy metallic sound rang out.
Empty—
“I should pass this along to you. It’s your Gate Clear reward.”
“What is it?”
“Items that were at the scene when we rescued Do Jin at Donggureung. Our team’s Appraiser has already assessed them.”
Click.
As the bag opened, items laid upon the carpet came into view, along with a thick envelope.
The Mana Stones had already been converted to cash and placed in the envelope.
The efficiency was so sharp it gave me chills.
Had he anticipated what I’d receive and prepared it all in advance?
“I have capable people on my team. I deducted the standard commission.”
“Should I thank you, or do I owe you a debt?”
“A debt? This is a legitimate reward.”
Kim Dae-han rose from his seat.
A clean exit, signaling he wouldn’t drag this out any longer.
But the moment his hand grasped the doorknob, he paused.
“You’re free to doubt me. You can mock me as a mere government bureaucrat who knows nothing.”
His expression lay in shadow, backlit, yet his eyes burned with sharp intensity.
“But know this one thing: I have no interest beyond the complete annihilation of Gates. That much is the truth.”
······
The door closed.
Silence returned to the hospital room.
I stared at the metal bag on the table.
The Gate Management Authority. And Kim Dae-han.
These two keywords tangled and unraveled in my mind, over and over.
Before the Regression, I’d had no connection to government agencies.
Their information network was not to be underestimated.
Corrupt and sluggish though they were, the sheer volume of their database was overwhelming.
If Kim Dae-han were to unlock a back door to that database for me—
I might find clues I didn’t yet know existed.
‘Keep all possibilities open.’
I lifted the metal bag.
A business card was wedged in the bag’s gap.
[G City Office, Ability Management Department Team Leader Kim Dae-han].
And a small printed photograph beneath it.
A face I’d passed over without thought.
But seeing it again, a strange familiarity washed over me.
Where had I seen him?
The news? A newspaper?
As I fumbled through fragments of memory, one article flickered across my mind.
[Hidden Hero of the Donggureung Disaster: City Official K Dies in Duty.]
[Maintained Barrier Alone Until Citizens Evacuated… Finally Perished.]
‘Was that him?’
A sigh escaped me.
Not a Hunter, but a Barrier user—a government official.
He’d coughed blood maintaining the Barrier until reinforcements arrived, and was ultimately found with both arms severed.
The follow-up reports said his sacrifice had saved hundreds of citizens’ lives.
“Kim Dae-han···.”
I traced the name on the business card with my fingertips.
Now I understood why his eyes had been so deep, so desperate.
He wasn’t a survivor—he was a man still fighting, even in death.
I committed his name to memory.
***
The road back to the Family Home.
The streets I walked for the first time in so long brimmed with vitality.
The peaceful landscape of a city, before the gray despair could take hold.
Yet beneath that peace lay a hidden irony.
Whoosh—
A large advertisement was plastered on the side of a low-floor bus stopped at the station.
[The Future of Clean Energy! Mana Stones Will Change the World.]
[EduMana – Now Recruiting for Mana Stone Refiner Certification Completion Course]
“The future.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Mana Stones.
When the Gates opened and monsters poured forth, humanity braced for extinction.
But everything reversed the moment they discovered this blue jewel in the monsters’ hearts.
A hundred times more efficient than oil, producing zero pollutants — the energy source of dreams.
A single Mana Stone powers a household for a month; a cartridge no bigger than a finger runs an electric car for a week.
Nuclear power? Ancient history now.
The streetlights that brighten the city at night, the Mana Stone buses rolling past me — all of it runs on energy harvested from monster corpses.
Economists hailed it as the 5th Energy Revolution.
A new era where a nation’s competitive power hinges on a single question: how many Mana Stones can we secure?
The Gates were no longer a catastrophe.
They were the goose that laid golden eggs — a mine that pulled the nation’s GDP forward.
But instead of miners, Hunters descended into that mine. Instead of coal, they extracted blood.
A city where someone must die for the lights to stay on.
We had become addicted to the byproducts of the very monsters sent to destroy us.
Humanity could no longer survive a single day without the Gates.
‘No wonder cults like that have taken root.’
Fanatics who treat the Gates as blessings from the divine.
What chilled me most was that their logic wasn’t entirely wrong.
Reality itself was affirming them.
I swallowed the bitterness and moved on.
Within this vast contradiction, Hunters split into castes.
The “Noble Hunters” — those monopolizing Mana Stone mining rights, in cahoots with corporations and megaguilds.
And the “civil servant Hunters,” scrounging leftovers and saddled with the grueling work under public agencies.
Otherwise known as Abyss Hunters.
Kim Dae-han’s proposal was a gesture beckoning me down into that abyss.
Most aspiring Hunters would have spat and walked away.
But I knew better.
The real truth lives in the darkest depths.
I turned the Business Card in my pocket over once more.
I’d already saved the number.
***
A familiar alley appeared. The homey scent wafted over the fence.
The smell of home cooking, breathed in for the first time in nine years.
My tension dissolved, and hunger flooded in.
One night at the Family Home passed like a dream.
My mother’s nagging, my sister snoring in her sleep — even those sounded like lullabies.
The next morning.
I opened the steel case sitting on my desk.
As the heavy lid swung open, its contents revealed themselves.
“Huh.”
The first thing that caught my eye was a white envelope.
It was quite thick.
Inside were bundles of fifty-thousand-won bills, packed tight.
Mana Stone conversion funds. About fifteen million won, by my estimate.
‘He wasn’t joking around, then.’
I lingered on the sight of that stack of money.
This would put out my immediate fires.
Since my father disappeared, our family had been drowning in debt.
My father, a first-generation Hunter, was essentially conscripted into service for the state, but all that remained was a faded commendation and loans.
I remembered even the life insurance had been denied under the pretext of “special disaster.”
‘I should give this to Mother.’
This money would cover several months of loan interest and living expenses.
Until I could establish myself as a proper Hunter, our breathing room would open up.
I slipped the envelope deep into my desk drawer.
I thought it best to give it to her naturally, in time.
“Time to see what’s next.”
Now for the main course.
Two objects wrapped in black cloth.
I carefully unwrapped the package.
One was an artifact with a subtle blue glow.
The other was a weapon wrapped in black leather.
Airi had said the Appraisal was already complete, but I needed to confirm it with my own eyes.
“Airi. Analyze it.”
[Scan in progress···.]
A blue information window overlaid my vision.
The Appraiser on Kim Dae-han’s team seemed quite skilled.
The details were laid out cleanly, even including hidden options that would be difficult to identify with an ordinary Appraisal skill.
[Analysis complete. Appraisal accuracy: 99.8%.]
“What?”
That couldn’t be right.
Even the chief Appraiser of the Blade Guild before my Regression had maxed out at 95%.
This was nearly at the level of “the eye of God.”
The team Kim Dae-han had assembled—it was full of the finest talent after all.
[Successor, please review the inventory.]
[Rare Grade defensive artifact: 1 piece]
[Rare Grade weapon: 1 piece.]
Airi’s voice echoed in my mind.
A faint smile crossed my lips.
‘Rare Grade.’
Before my Regression, compared to the SSR and UR Grade items rolling around in the guild vault, these were practically toys.
But things are different now.
I’ve only just awakened and cleared the Tutorial.
While most rookie Hunters are nervously gripping a single Normal Grade rusty club, I’ve obtained two Rare Grade items.
This is like starting the game with a cheat code already activated.
There’s no reason to regret that they aren’t Unique Grade.
In fact, equipment beyond my current level would only be a hindrance.
These items will become the strongest foundation stones for my growth.
“Not bad at all.”
I closed the bag with satisfaction. Greed only invites trouble.
Even now, I’m ahead—more than ahead—more than enough.
But I’ll grow stronger faster than anyone else.
“Airi, confirm the equipment.”

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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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