The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 358

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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 358
358
As Belladrina offered her explanation, her mind wandered through countless thoughts.
Specifically, she found herself contemplating the battle between those two.
-‘A clash between two lords….’
Yoo Sung-hyun had experienced combat with lord-tier entities before.
The Dark Lord was one such case, yet even that encounter had never placed him in such a disadvantageous position, which is why Belladrina couldn’t help but sink into deep thought.
The confrontation between the Dream Mask and Yoo Sung-hyun could be viewed differently as a battle between dreams and blood.
At first glance, the matchup seemed decidedly unfavorable.
Dreams were abstract abilities bordering on conceptual power, while blood possessed clear boundaries and inherent limitations.
-‘His Majesty finds himself in quite the disadvantageous situation.’
Yet there existed an immutable law, did there not?
Everything depended on who wielded the ability.
How much one could utilize their power.
How skillfully one could apply it.
For the ceiling of an ability’s potential would skyrocket accordingly.
That was precisely what Yoo Sung-hyun demonstrated now.
The dreams manipulated by the puppet.
Undeniably formidable.
Strengthened by the power of thirteen masks, it was certainly a formidable opponent.
When Yoo Sung-hyun launched blood-based attacks, the mask would convert those strikes into dreams, reducing the damage to zero, and conversely, it would redirect that nullified damage back upon Yoo Sung-hyun.
Crack——!
One of his shoulders shattered as if bitten by something, yet Yoo Sung-hyun paid it no mind and continued manipulating blood.
Then his shoulder writhed as blood surged forth.
It regenerated almost instantly.
One of the meanings contained within blood—the ability to harness life itself.
Then Yoo Sung-hyun reflected.
‘This is no simple matter.’
The ability itself was troublesome.
Since blood had manifested on Underground Level 3, it made sense that dreams would appear on Underground Level 4.
Dreams lacked form, making them abstract, while blood possessed clear boundaries—they were fundamentally different tiers of power.
Of course, Yoo Sung-hyun possessed the abilities of other lords as well.
Abstract fear like dreams, darkness and necromancy that seemed both formless and structured, and Inferno Lord whose framework was unmistakable yet whose destructive power was unparalleled.
However, Yoo Sung-hyun had come here to test the Blood Lord, so he had decided to limit himself to blood alone.
‘If I can’t even defeat a puppet like that, then I’m unworthy.’
That would be a disqualification as a lord.
With that thought, Yoo Sung-hyun attempted to understand blood as thoroughly as possible.
Though its framework was clear, he believed there existed abilities he hadn’t yet conceived of.
In that moment, the puppet rushed toward him at tremendous speed, and though Yoo Sung-hyun tried his best to evade, it transformed into a pink fluffy cloud like a dream and split into five fragments, each becoming a copy of the puppet’s true form as they pressed their assault upon him.
Naturally, Yoo Sung-hyun responded in kind, scattering and condensing blood to create clones that collided with these dream duplicates.
Kwaaaaa——!!!
A fierce gust of wind swept through the Stage.
From the collision of the two, cracks began spreading across the Stage floor, and dust particles gradually scattered into the air.
Yet neither gave ground—a tense, evenly matched clash.
Yoo Sung-hyun watched this and snapped his fingers.
Snap—!
The blood clones’ bodies suddenly began to swell.
A massive explosion of blood erupted from that point, spreading outward.
Sizzzzz——!!!
The Stage floor touched by the blood began melting like snow in water, and a potent green toxic miasma rose from it.
A powerful explosive attack combined with blood toxin followed, but when the Dream Mask snapped its fingers, both the Stage floor and the Dream Mask returned to their original state.
Snap—!
Yoo Sung-hyun found this amusing.
Turning everything into a dream, then….
Meanwhile, the viewers watching began to realize I was at a disadvantage and grew increasingly worried.
-Is the Demon King actually going to lose?
-Fr fr… it looks like she’s being pushed back.
-No way, the Demon King hasn’t used her full power yet.
-Right, isn’t she only using her blood power right now?
-Yeah that seems right, but why only that? If she used something else, wouldn’t she win?
As the viewers expressed such doubts and worried about being pushed back.
Similarly, the Exploration Team members also began to grow slightly anxious.
“This doesn’t seem easy.”
“The Demon King seems to be losing ground a bit….”
“It seems evenly matched, but that’s quite an irritating ability.”
As the Exploration Team members murmured thus.
Belladrina’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
Looking at them, she spoke.
-Ignorant fools. If His Majesty were to use his true power, such a puppet would be nothing.
“B-but.”
-His Majesty is merely testing one ability against the puppet. Refrain from rash judgment and simply observe.
At Belladrina’s words, the Exploration Team members fell silent.
Her overwhelming presence prompted several viewers to comment in the chat.
-Kyaaah! She’s so cool, seriously.
-I hope the real devil loses… … Where can I find a family member like that? ㅠㅜㅠㅠ
-Captivating and completely loyal? I can’t handle this….
-Well, what she said makes sense.
-Testing his own limits?
-Testing a new ability?
-Wasn’t blood an ability he’s been using all along?
The chat was filled with envious comments, certainly.
But following Belladrina’s suggestion to simply observe, most were watching Yoo Sung-hyun’s battle unfold.
The puppet, having realized the matchup favored it, grew increasingly aggressive in its movements.
It lunged at Yoo Sung-hyun while summoning colossal dream-born creatures to assault him.
Yet Yoo Sung-hyun proved equally formidable.
As the battle raged, I began to understand something profound.
‘Blood, after all, isn’t confined to blood alone.’
Blood transcended its literal form.
Contemplating what blood symbolized—what the Blood Lord embodied—
my eyes began to glow crimson.
In that instant.
The massive creature’s foot that had materialized from the void descended to crush me, but—
blood erupted, piercing through the limb and draining the creature’s essence entirely, reducing it to nothing.
Bloodsucking.
One of the Blood Lord’s skills I had acquired even before becoming the Blood Lord itself.
I had awakened it, and now I understood.
‘The Vampire Emperor.’
Realizing that Blood Lord meant not merely a lord of blood but the Vampire Emperor, I could now drain my opponent’s very essence.
And beyond that—
understanding that vampires absorbed far more than mere blood—
the puppet could only stare at me in bewilderment.
What I had just absorbed was unmistakably dream essence.
And since that dream essence naturally belonged to the puppet, it should have been recoverable.
Yet the puppet felt the absorbed dream essence slip away irretrievably.
Smiling at the puppet’s confusion, I spoke.
“What I absorb becomes mine as well.”
At my courteous explanation, the puppet trembled and hastily conjured new dreams to attack.
But I too wielded both dream and blood simultaneously, manifesting a colossal bat whose razor fangs shredded the dream to tatters.
Then—
CRACK——!!!
SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH——!!!
As the nightmarish bat swelled into a vampire’s form, the dream puppet hastily reclaimed its dream essence, reabsorbing it.
Simultaneously, it fortified itself to its limits using dream power and hurled a punch at the colossal vampire charging toward it, yet could not strike the vampire as it transformed into mist.
In that moment, the vampire—now blood mist—crystallized all its essence into needle-sharp spikes and pierced the puppet.
The instant the puppet was struck, it attempted to transmute the damage into dream, but—
I smiled.
“The matchup wasn’t in your favor.”
With those words, the spikes became like straws, draining every ounce of the puppet’s power, leaving it to wither and crumble helplessly where it stood.
As the puppet disintegrated and vanished, I gazed upon the Dream Mask that fell to the ground—still tangible, unlike its former master—and smiled.
The Exploration Team members and viewers watching erupted into chaos.
“C-crazy! What was that just now!?”
“A, a Vampire!?”
“They do manipulate blood power, but… to think they’d drain dream power too!”
-This has to be cheating, right?????
-What the hell, this doesn’t make sense, does it?
-Vampires can drain things other than blood!?
As the Exploration Team members and viewers erupted into chaos.
Belladrina looked at them with disdain and rebuked them.
-Ultimately, Vampires absorb essence along with blood. Essence is simply vital energy. They drained it all.
While Belladrina’s explanation made sense.
Rather.
-Wait, you’re using the concept of absorbing essence like that????
-Isn’t that just a skill???
-I heard lord-class skills work like that… so that was a lord-class skill…
-Insane, but then the Demon King went down the blood mage tree???? Wasn’t it the necromancer tree?
-???????Really?
Such conversations began circulating among viewers, but Belladrina revealed nothing further.
The Exploration Team members also couldn’t ask carelessly—Belladrina’s aura was too ominous—so everyone remained silent. Then, suddenly, the floor of the stage opened, and stairs leading downward appeared.
And.
[Checking current contribution.]
[Only player Yoo Sung-hyun possesses contribution.]
[Only the Yoo Sung-hyun player’s team may enter.]
[Other teams cannot proceed further.]
[Teams that reach Underground Level 4 will receive special rewards.]
A system message suddenly appeared.
So only those with contribution could enter the final depths.
All the Exploration Team members felt regret.
But they all had to accept it.
Given the Dream Mask’s combat power they’d just witnessed, they would have died instantly if they’d stepped forward.
They all expressed their regret, and Baren spoke to Yoo Sung-hyun.
“We were able to come this far thanks to you. Thank you.”
“Not at all. I’m sorry we couldn’t go together.”
“Sigh, I too wanted to go all the way and investigate further, but it seems this Ruins will disappear once you descend, so there’s no helping it.”
Having come this far, I’d essentially done everything alone anyway.
So I could let it go without regret.
And so I shook hands with Baren, and the Exploration Team members waved goodbye, saying they’d see me next time.
“Thank you so much!”
“We survived because of you!!!”
“If you find the Exploration Team again, we’ll repay you!”
“Let’s explore Ruins together next time!!!”
As they exchanged such remarks, Yoo Sung-hyun descended deeper while Baren and the other members of the Exploration Team made their way outside.
The viewers were disappointed to see the stream end, but they understood this was as far as it went and left positive comments in the chat.
-That was so entertaining.
-So what will the Demon King get?
-Things are about to get way stronger down there lol
-I’m wondering what else there is left to do at this point???
-Hurry up and hit level 300, then go after the rankers lol
As they speculated about what Yoo Sung-hyun would obtain, they set aside their regrets and moved on.
And descending into the depths, Yoo Sung-hyun came face to face with a throne surrounded by countless masks.

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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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