The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 23

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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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Episode 23
Episode 23
Two goblins trembling with fear.
Coincidentally, I had exactly two skills remaining.
Lee Sung-young selected one skill as if he’d already decided and cast it.
I channeled my mana.
Wisps of smoke curled from my fingertips.
The smoke soon took shape, manifesting a face like a phantom.
The smoke, resembling a specter that reeked of malice, was unleashed.
Saaaaaaah.
The smoke shot forth with a piercing wail that no mere goblin could refuse.
The smoke seeped into one goblin’s body.
[Goblin B falls under the effect of ‘Curse of Shared Pain’.]
[It is engulfed in agony for 10 seconds.]
“Gack! Kekgh! Gack!”
The goblin into which the smoke had seeped clawed at its own throat, convulsing violently.
Even that wasn’t enough—it crawled across the ground.
Yet the pain showed no signs of relenting.
The remaining goblin’s eyes trembled fiercely at the sight of pure terror incarnate.
Could it possibly survive?
Should it flee?
Or should it fight back?
Unable to choose, the goblin noticed Lee Sung-young moving and tried to react, but—
Whoosh! Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
Impossibly fast.
There was no way it could outrun such speed.
Any attempt to flee would result in immediate capture.
So then.
“Kerugh!”
It charged at Lee Sung-young, gripping a crude dagger.
Its courage was admirable.
Had other goblins witnessed this, they would have applauded such valor.
But Lee Sung-young felt a slight sense of relief watching the goblin.
I’d worried it might try to escape.
Now then, I had one skill left.
This skill was a buff ability.
I channeled my mana, and violet liquid materialized above my head.
The sinister violet liquid, exhaling ominous smoke, succumbed to gravity and fell without resistance.
Splurt, saaaaaaah!
The violet liquid cascaded down my body, seeping in with an ominous sound.
[You have used 『Poison: Anesthesia』.]
[For 1 minute, you feel no pain.]
[While unable to feel pain, your concentration improves.]
Though it was labeled anesthesia, my body moved without the slightest hindrance.
Rather, the pain vanished and my other senses grew razor-sharp.
Using poison as a buff in this manner—how intriguing.
‘This is entertaining.’
Lost in such thoughts, I came to an abrupt halt.
The goblin saw its chance and lunged with its crude dagger, aiming for my knee where no leather armor protected it.
Schrrip!
Being crude, the blade tore rather than cleanly sliced.
Yet I felt no pain whatsoever.
‘Interesting.’
I had never taken direct damage before, but the complete absence of sensation genuinely surprised me.
No external stimulus could intrude—only pure, undivided focus.
The goblin, oblivious to this, continued flailing its dagger wildly.
But being struck was being struck, and whether from high defense or not—
My health barely decreased despite taking the hits.
“Kek! Kek! Kekek!”
It was almost pitiful.
Giving its all, yet receiving no reaction from me.
Eventually, the goblin sensed something amiss and tilted its head in confusion.
Something was wrong?
It kept attacking, yet I seemed perfectly fine—why?
That exact expression crossed its face.
I gripped my steel sword and granted the pitiful creature mercy.
Whoosh.
“Kek!”
[Critical Hit!]
[The effect of 『One Strike』 activates!]
[You gain experience.]
After that, as the goblin thrashed about and regained its senses, I rushed toward it.
There was no need to move my feet swiftly—it was right beside me, so I closed the distance in mere steps.
I reached it.
Free from pain, the goblin turned its head frantically, trying to comprehend the situation.
The sudden silence around it felt wrong, and it sensed something amiss.
As it turned its head, something glinted, and a sharp sting bloomed across its neck.
“Kek?”
[Critical Hit!]
[The effect of 『One Strike』 activates!]
[You gain experience points.]
As I defeated the three goblins, unlike the undead, they left behind intact corpses.
I could butcher them if I wanted, but the moment I saw the three goblins wreathed in teal smoke, I knew what was coming.
The message I’d been waiting for appeared.
[You can now use ‘Legion of Death’.]
[Will you summon the ‘Legion of Death’?]
‘The numbers are small, but… it doesn’t matter.’
It was still embarrassingly few to be called a legion.
But Legion of Death had no cooldown.
I could use it every time a corpse appeared.
Truly, Almighty-grade skills were something else.
Without hesitation, I activated Legion of Death.
A teal heart bloomed in my palm.
It began pulsing violently as if bursting from my grip.
Thump———!
Thump-thump———!
Boom——!
Like giving the undead new hearts.
The rhythmic pulse echoed outward.
The teal smoke rising from the three goblin corpses seeped into their bodies.
The goblin spirits that had been escaping their flesh were caught by the teal smoke and dragged back into their bodies along with it.
As their souls settled, the goblins rose to their feet as if receiving new hearts.
Unlike in life, their bodies were closer to shadow—no, pure darkness—with teal energy blooming between their forms, and their eyes glowed with brilliant teal radiance.
‘Just as I thought….’
It was different from when I seized Beziron’s undead with Death’s Aura.
And different from when I accepted the skeletons into my legion.
These undead had clarity in their eyes and moved with purpose—far closer to living creatures than the shambling, uncoordinated ones.
Just like the rabbits from Beginner Village.
Was it because I’d raised them with Legion of Death before their spirits could fully escape, before much time had passed since death?
‘It’s definitely different.’
I’d felt it when I learned Death’s Aura through Helena’s memories.
But confirming it directly made it all the more real.
And my mana consumption had decreased compared to before I obtained the proliferating undead.
At this rate, I could keep using it without worry.
Was it because the grade was so high?
‘It seems more efficient than other undead creation spells.’
My proficiency had grown as I used the skill.
Yet Legion of Death, still only level 1, surpassed even level 10 and higher basic undead creation spells.
There was a reason they said grade was everything.
Well then, shall I test combat with these goblins?
As Lee Sung-young thought this to himself.
-Kekrek kekerek! Kekek! (Master, I have something to report!)
One of the goblins under the Legion of Death spoke to him.
He wouldn’t have understood it anyway…but he did.
‘Why can I understand this?’
How am I understanding this?
Could it be because our souls are intertwined?
It sounded like the voice of a spirit.
After all, in reality I could understand what foreign ghosts said too.
Was it really that surprising?
No, but understanding a goblin spirit’s words was still somewhat astonishing.
Lee Sung-young, who had lived his entire life with a calm demeanor, found himself amazed by many things in this game.
So what did it want to say?
“Speak.”
-Kekrek! (Thank you, sir!)
-Kekrek kekek kekrek! Kekekek! Kehekek! (If you go over there! The Goblin Settlement exists!)
-Kehek! Kekek! Kekrek kehuk! Kekehuk! (If you sweep the settlement clean! And make them all pledge themselves to the Legion!)
-Keruk! Kehuk huk! Kero! (Your prestige, Master! Will surely rise!)
The Goblin Settlement?
Isn’t that where these creatures lived?
They sold out their own settlement the moment they joined the Legion of Death?
“Let’s go at once.”
I’ve never seen soldiers so loyal.
-Keruk! (For the Legion of Death!)
-Kerhuk! (For our Master!)
-Karek! Kerhuk! (For us all!)
Three goblin death soldiers surged forward, their eyes blazing with a teal light that shimmered with death and madness.
They said they swore absolute loyalty to their master.
It was true.
‘Yet they serve me so blindly, even though I’m the one who killed them.’
It was simply curious.
But what did it matter?
Lee Sung-young followed the death soldiers guiding him toward one edge of the plains.
So then.
Should I raid the Goblin Settlement?
2.
In Beginner Village, the tutorial imposed many restrictions on available functions.
Most of those restrictions were lifted in the first real village.
One of them was travel between villages.
You could travel to the second village or to other first villages.
It was a feature primarily favored by scouts.
Whenever word spread that someone had appeared in another village, they would dash there at lightning speed.
Lee Sung-young, a scout for the Sick Brothers.
He too had arrived in Perseville urgently through the transfer function, but—
‘I’m later than I expected.’
He had wasted quite a bit of time.
Already more than thirty minutes had passed.
Roughly forty minutes? Or perhaps fifty.
The target might have already left the Special Job Training Center.
‘If I really missed them, that would be so frustrating.’
He had no way of knowing when that user would return for their next class.
Since there were login time restrictions, he couldn’t simply camp here for twenty-four hours.
What if another user had seen them?
He considered asking around, but quickly dismissed the thought.
If any user had seen them, they would certainly be a scout themselves.
There was no chance another scout would share that information.
Just in case.
He would wait a bit longer.
Fortune favors the patient.
Did that saying hold true?
The door to the Special Job Training Center entrance opened.
“Huh? Wh-what?”
Lee Sung-young’s eyes widened as he waited in front.
Could his desperate wait finally pay off!?
“Sniff, sniff.”
“…?”
That was what Lee Sung-young had been thinking.
But seeing the female user who emerged from the door wiping away tears and sobbing made such thoughts vanish instantly.
Still, one never knew.
Simply exiting the Special Job Training Center made someone a remarkable talent.
He shouldn’t be fooled by her tears.
“Sniff, sniff. How did they learn all the skills in one go?”
“?!!?!?”
At her sobbing words, Lee Sung-young felt chills run down his spine.
They learned all the skills in one go?
Was that even possible?
Could this female user be talking about the very user he was searching for?
Gulp.
Lee Sung-young swallowed hard and bit his lip.
He should have arrived faster somehow.
To miss out on this.
Regret flooded through me, but it was fine.
‘They haven’t left Perseville yet.’
The fact that they’d come to the Job Training Center meant they were still only level 10.
Perhaps I might find them while searching through the hunting grounds.
Lee Sung-young’s eyes gleamed at the opportunity that hadn’t yet slipped away.
Without forgetting his purpose, he rushed toward the female user and pulled out a business card he’d prepared in advance, handing it to her.
“Hello, I’m Lee Sung-young, a scout for Sick Brothers. I noticed you coming out of the Special Job Training Center, so I thought you must be quite talented.”
“Huh?”
The female user accepted the business card Lee Sung-young offered, bewildered.
He hadn’t mentioned the guild ranking.
There was no need to—Sick Brothers’ reputation was already immense.
His explanation wasn’t long.
“As you may know, Sick Brothers welcomes talented individuals regardless of gender.”
“Huh???”
“Please do contact us.”
Lee Sung-young handed over the card and dashed away like an arrow.
He intended to search every hunting ground to locate the user he was looking for.
Searching hunting grounds haphazardly didn’t suit his temperament.
But there was no choice.
His goal was to recruit faster than anyone else.
He opened his ears to his surroundings and ran, just in case.
“Hey, did you hear? Strange undead appeared in Perseville Plains?”
“Strange undead?”
“Yeah, about ten minutes ago? It was attacking the Goblin Settlement.”
“Oh. Must be a Dark Mage.”
“Lucky bastards, I should’ve gone Dark Mage too.”
A brief conversation between users.
It was an ordinary exchange with nothing unusual about it, but upon hearing the keyword “strange undead,” Lee Sung-young’s eyes lit up.
‘There!’
Lee Sung-young headed toward Perseville Plains.
Meanwhile, Yeon, the female user left behind with the business card, stared at what she’d received.
A business card bearing the name Sick Brothers.
She wiped away the tears that had been streaming down and her protruding lips returned to their normal position as she looked at it.
‘The… Sick Brothers, ranked 12th in guild rankings!?’
Yeon’s mood had improved considerably.
3.
Just one day.
One day.
Since Sung-hyun started playing.
To be precise, not even a full day had passed yet.
But why was it?
Lee Won-sang’s dark circles—he was the one overseeing me—had only grown deeper in that short span of time.
“…Sigh.”
“H-hang in there, senior.”
“Hang in? Ah, right. I’ll manage.”
Lee Won-sang nodded while glancing at Oh Jin-hyuk, who spoke from beside him.
At least Ji Hye-jung hadn’t chewed him out too badly.
She had returned from leave and was intimidating, but fortunately things had gone smoothly enough.
But was this really a situation worth finding strength in?
Lee Won-sang pointed at the screen with a wry smile.
“I have to find strength watching someone raise proficiency through some inexplicable power and master every basic skill in just over twenty minutes of class time.”
“Ah, u-um….”
Clearly sarcastic.
Oh Jin-hyuk had nothing to say in response.
“Sigh, anyway, he’s heading straight to the plains to test out his skills.”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“What else does he know, I wonder?”
Oh Jin-hyuk immediately agreed with Lee Won-sang’s remark.
There was no point in dragging out this conversation any longer.
Then, after pondering for a moment at Lee Won-sang’s words, Oh Jin-hyuk answered.
“Well…? It seems less like he knows something and more like he’s just going hunting purely for the sake of it? Is there something there?”
“There is… there is….”
For now, I was simply hunting goblins and testing out my skills without doing anything particularly special.
Lee Won-sang murmured while staring at the screen.
“There’s a Golden Goblin.”
“Oh!?”

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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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