The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - 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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Episode 82
Episode 82
3.
One of the places users sometimes called the twelfth Fortress.
And to the NPCs, Calibaron—also known as the capital of knights.
An iron-clad stronghold that cultivated countless knights, this Fortress was constructed with an exceptionally tall spire at its center, spreading outward like a blooming flower.
Inside that spire, a handsome young man wearing extraordinary armor and a boy whose gender was ambiguous—both radiating well-controlled power—held an ancient, worn notebook and spoke to one another.
“So Hero Luke, that’s Hindel’s diary? But even if he’s passed on, reading someone else’s diary feels a bit wrong…”
“…Plinky, if anyone heard you say that, they’d get the wrong idea.”
“Wow! Is that so?”
The boy called Plinky grinned mischievously while playing innocent.
The young man called the Hero, Luke, found this quite displeasing.
But what could he do?
He couldn’t scold his younger sibling, so he let it pass for now.
This petty bickering wasn’t important at the moment.
“Ahem, and this isn’t a diary—it’s a journal. A record that Former Hero Hindel kept while pursuing the one known as the Demon King.”
“Ooh! From the days when he was chasing the former Overlord!? No wonder you brought me here when I mentioned Yoo Sung-hyun. So something like this existed!”
“That… please refrain from making statements that could be so easily misunderstood.”
In any case, Plinky now gazed at the journal with genuine interest.
And among those contents.
Luke pointed to one section and spoke.
“This place seems fitting, actually.”
“Oh? The Dark Castle? Ah! Indeed.”
“As expected, you understood immediately.”
“Of course! Even like this, I’m a descendant of the Sage! The Serdin Village where Yoo Sung-hyun is now is what outsiders call the Third Village, right? This place is the twelfth Fortress? Or was it a castle? Anyway, Selmas, where the Dark Castle was located, is also a Third Village.”
At Plinky’s words, Hero Luke nodded.
That was exactly right.
He had wanted to go directly to Serodin and see Yoo Sung-hyun.
But the key figures of Calibaron had all blocked the way to Serodin.
Because of that, Yoo Sung-hyun might have moved elsewhere.
He had thought it was already too late.
But reading this journal, he could discern it.
He suspected that Yoo Sung-hyun would likely head toward Selmas.
“Hmm, you seem quite interested in Yoo Sung-hyun?”
“I have no choice. The Overlord killed Hindel, my ancestor and my predecessor. I should see what kind of Overlord comes after him, shouldn’t I?”
“Hmm, are you going to kill him?”
Plinky spoke with an unusual tone and expression.
But Hero Luke, who spent much time with Plinky normally, could sense it.
There was clear hostility beneath the surface.
Had Plinky judged that Hero Luke harbored a desire for revenge at the name Overlord?
Perhaps that could be the case.
But.
“I still don’t know for certain.”
“Hm?”
“However, I bear the destiny of unraveling Hindel’s death. In the final ancient texts, there’s something about Hindel’s death, the Former Hero’s death, and the Demon King’s death that doesn’t quite add up. I simply want to understand it.”
“For now, at least?”
I nodded at Plinky’s words without hesitation.
With pure sincerity.
Plinky too returned to their usual demeanor.
“Well, that much is fine.”
“Hmm, then let’s head toward Selmas. Even if this Yoo Sung-hyun you mentioned isn’t there, we should certainly be able to find traces of Hindel’s footsteps.”
“That sounds wonderful!”
With the two of them’s journey decided thus.
Unfortunately, a semi-transparent teal-blue ghost that the two could not see shook their head behind them, muttering.
-Good grief, why are you going there, successor…. Why not just stay here and practice in peace… No, that’s not how you use a sword, and instead of training you just wander around all day, oh my, it’s driving me mad. Are all young people like that these days? Well, the sage Flan’s successor turned out fine, but…. Sigh. What sin did I… commit anyway.
Quite exasperated, it seemed.
Rather talkative in manner.
4.
Selmas.
A mystical village where three stars always hang in the sky.
Yet no one paid any mind to those stars.
What the users who sought out this village desired was but one thing.
The Canyon of Despair.
For some reason, the Canyon of Despair was a region overflowing with vast dark magic.
Unlike a naturally formed canyon.
It remained as if some great and enormous being had violently torn something away.
Some users speculated upon seeing the Canyon of Despair that it might be the handiwork of a mythical being that existed in the past according to the game’s lore.
Yoo Sung-hyun, who had arrived in Selmas, harbored similar thoughts.
“Wow….”
Was this really the trace of Helena tearing away the Dark Castle?
Was such a thing even possible for a human?
A canyon spanning several kilometers in width and at least ten kilometers in length.
That this was artificially created.
Even knowing it, I couldn’t believe it.
Though I shouldn’t think such things.
‘Is that why she was treated as a Demon King?’
Even I, who had absorbed Helena’s memories and experiences, could understand such thoughts.
People of that era would have felt it all the more.
It was rather terrifying.
In any case.
So I had to search this place thoroughly.
But that felt overwhelmingly daunting.
At first glance, the scale was absolutely massive.
‘It’s not like finding a needle in a haystack.’
Because of how vast it was, even with many people around, they dispersed enough that attention didn’t concentrate in one spot.
But that didn’t make things easier.
Just as I was letting out a sigh.
Yoo Sung-hyun’s inventory suddenly opened on its own.
Without even a moment to feel confused by the inventory opening without my will, a message appeared.
[‘An unidentified note’ wishes to leave the inventory.]
‘Huh?’
The note wants to leave the inventory?
It was clearly an event-type message.
The moment I took the note out of my inventory.
The note suddenly glowed and folded itself.
As it slowly folded, its form became clear.
The shape of a bird made of paper.
Flap, flap.
The paper bird fluttered its adorable wings nimbly as it drifted through the air, looking at me and pointing its beak somewhere as if indicating I needed to go there.
Could it be guiding me the way?
‘Oh.’
The mysterious sight was fascinating.
But survival came to mind first.
I immediately used the flight ability attached to my Anemor Slayer title.
Riding Anemor would draw too much attention.
So I headed toward where the paper bird was pointing.
Fortunately, no users paid attention to me flying.
Flight wasn’t an incredibly rare skill anyway.
I followed the fluttering paper bird straight ahead.
Annoying creatures attached themselves to me.
“Kekekeke!”
“Kikikiki!”
Annoying little demons that appeared to have membrane wings.
True to the name Canyon of Despair, with its massive dark magical energy flowing through it, there were considerable numbers of undead-type monsters, and due to the immense dark magic and spatial anomalies, demons were said to be abundant as well.
Judging by how they attached themselves so quickly after I took flight, it seemed to be true.
Annoying.
I was about to step in myself.
Then I remembered Fiora, who had recently gained a new body.
This was an excellent opportunity to see Fiora’s abilities.
I immediately opened the Underworld in mid-air and summoned Fiora.
-Huh?
Fiora appeared with a dull sound, materializing mid-air.
As the small girl’s form tumbled onto my shoulder.
I looked at Fiora and asked.
“Can you handle all of them?”
I wasn’t just talking about the two creatures directly in front of me.
There were only two visible at the moment.
But behind them lay countless glowing eyes in the darkness.
Taking flight into the air seemed to have drawn quite a bit of aggro.
If I used an area-of-effect skill.
I could sweep them all away at once.
But wouldn’t that create a more troublesome situation?
‘There are plenty of people watching below, after all.’
While other players were peacefully hunting.
If I swept through with an area skill.
I could catch other players in the blast.
I wanted to see Fiora’s true abilities.
But if I stepped in, it could become something far more serious.
So I was asking her instead.
-O-of course! I-I’ll try my best.
Her voice wavered slightly, lacking confidence.
Anyone listening would wonder if she could actually do it.
Her tone was utterly unconvincing.
But I knew better.
Behind that timid voice lay terrifying power.
And it was happening right now.
Fiora transformed from her slime-like form into an actual slime.
Unlike when using her spirit form—where only parts of her body changed—her entire race shifted completely.
A single water droplet, identical to her gelatinous body, shot out with a splurt!
‘What is that?’
Did slimes even have a technique like that?
I frowned in confusion.
The water droplet Fiora launched moved at incredible speed.
Spinning ferociously, it became a bullet, hurtling toward the two giggling lesser demons—and only I could perceive what was happening.
Splat! Splat!
Such tiny sounds.
Yet from those minuscule impacts.
[Critical Hit!]×2
[Experience gained!]×2
Death notifications appeared.
In an instant, those creatures let out cackling laughs before their lives were snuffed out—their eyes went dark as they plummeted.
It all happened in a single moment.
As they fell.
“Kik kik?”
“Kik?”
“Kek ek?”
“Ke re hek?”
All the lesser demons watching were bewildered.
What on earth had just happened?
They’d flown off cheerfully, cackling, then lost their balance and plummeted.
That was all the lesser demons had witnessed.
Without understanding the cause, they crawled out one by one, slowly and cautiously.
Spreading their wings and breaking free from the forest, they flew toward where Yoo Sung-hyun stood.
The sight resembled a swarm of locusts descending.
So many that the sky was instantly blanketed in a mass of black lesser demons.
Yet something glimmering shot through them at incredible speed.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Small sounds echoing from all directions.
And with each sound, the lesser demons began raining down.
Should I call it an area-of-effect skill so powerful that even I was startled?
The sheer volume of experience points flooding in was shocking, but seeing the lesser demons rain down the moment I took flight was even more astonishing.
‘Is this actually okay?’
Wouldn’t other players think something was off?
The power was significant enough to make me worry.
There was clearly no trace or visible sign of an area-of-effect skill.
Yet it was unmistakably producing the effects of one.
Thud thud thud thud.
Countless lesser demons plummeted.
The sight resembled them charging forward.
The players below couldn’t help but curse.
“Damn it! There’s a crazy flying bastard up there!?”
“Did he use a flight skill? Here?”
“Hey! If you want to pull aggro, pull it alone—why’d you make all the lesser demons fly up and make us targets too?”
“Seriously! Should we just kill that bird bastard?”
The frustrated players spoke while watching the lesser demons fly toward them.
But something felt off.
The lesser demons should have been cackling and letting out annoying laughs as they always did.
Yet they weren’t, which was strange.
The way they charged forward was odd.
“That… that’s weird, isn’t it?”
“Huh? Huh?”
“What? What’s going on?”
“??????”
Soon enough, everyone realized something was terribly wrong.
With a sickening cascade, the corpses of the lesser demons plummeted to the ground, splattering into bloody heaps.
Every single one bore a small hole through its skull.
They hadn’t rushed forward because the creatures were alive.
To rain down so many lesser demons like this—was such a thing even possible?
At first, I’d assumed it was just some fool with a high job rank who’d thoughtlessly drawn aggro.
In fact, that was true.
But seeing how he’d handled all that aggro alone…
“…????”
“W-what is this…???”
“W-what did we just witness???”
“I-is this even possible at our level…???”
“D-damned if I know!!! If I knew, I’d have done it too!!!”
“H-hey, didn’t you say earlier that guy was dead meat???”
“P-please, just be quiet.”
The players who’d witnessed that spectacle from nearby remained rooted in place, unable to shake off their shock, staring in disbelief.
Just how much experience had that earned?
Such curiosity flickered to life, but…
None of them dared approach.
Unaware that the players were still reeling from the shock, Yoo Sung-hyun was quite satisfied with the substantial experience he’d gained.
[Level Up!]×3
[You have reached Level 78.]
This was more than enough.
“Fiora, well done.”
-Hehehehe.
I gently patted the head of Fiora, who’d delivered such an incredible performance.
Then, satisfied, I glanced at the paper bird flying beside me and spoke.
“Shall we continue?”
Flap, flap, flap, flap!
The paper bird nodded its head vigorously at my question, and with an even more respectful demeanor than before, it resumed guiding the way.
I wondered why it was acting like that, but…
I didn’t dwell on it much.
As long as it showed me the way, that was all that mattered.
Yoo Sung-hyun didn’t pay much attention to it.
I just need to show you the 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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