The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage - Chapter 90

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 90
Episode 90
Calamity.
I’d thought the name alone was absurd.
But the effect was equally absurd.
Legendary+ grade.
When struck by holy or weakness-attribute attacks, it reduces damage by 33% and returns that reduced amount as damage to the attacker.
This effect alone was ridiculous.
But the Salvation’s Destruction effect, usable once per day, was even more vicious.
With just Salvation’s Destruction attached, it would be understandable even if it were Legendary.
‘Apply the opposite of all the enemy’s beneficial effects?’
That meant if they used healing, it would apply as damage instead, and if they used buffs, debuffs would be applied.
Truly a skill so absurd it could be a decisive turning point.
The demerit was that it could only be used once per day.
But it didn’t feel like a demerit at all.
Rather, it felt like a disaster if I didn’t have it.
Then I suddenly wondered if the Hourglass of Reversal applied here as well.
But when I tested it, that wasn’t the case.
‘That’s unfortunate.’
I was being a bit shameless about it.
But there was nothing I could do.
It was a skill obtained through a special effect.
It appeared to be a different effect from cooldown time.
If I had faced Hindel again with this Calamity effect?
I might have won far more easily this time.
‘Though I don’t know what would have happened if Hindel hadn’t fallen for it.’
If Hindel hadn’t been gripped by fear from the Grim Reaper, this battle would have been quite dangerous.
But thanks to Hindel falling for it, I was able to achieve victory more easily than expected.
My skills were that terrifying, after all.
In any case, I won.
With Calamity and its effect.
If I fought again, I’d be able to fight from a much more advantageous position.
Suddenly, I had such a thought.
‘For now it’s Hindel, but… if I return to the Mortal Realm and prepare to face the real Hero… that would be good.’
There was no need to fight deliberately.
But if they came at me first, I had no intention of avoiding it.
I was curious what the Hero of the Mortal Realm was like.
With such thoughts, I pulled out my final spoil of war.
A random skill book.
The random skill book I’d obtained before was rare grade.
However, what I obtained this time was nothing short of a Unique.
『Random Skill Book』
→《Unique》
→A skill book that allows you to randomly acquire skills related to your profession or common skills.
→From this skill book, you can obtain Unique through Legendary grade skills.
‘Hmm.’
Last time it was Rare to Epic, but an Epic didn’t come out.
That skill—Shadow Transfer—was incredibly useful too.
I wasn’t hoping for such luck this time around.
The minimum grade was already Unique.
Even just getting a Unique would be a win!
Yoo Sung-hyun anticipated what skill might appear.
As I tried to open the book.
[Will you use the Unique grade item, 『Random Skill Book』?]
*Upon use, the skill book will disappear, and you can randomly learn a Dark Mage exclusive skill or common skill of Unique~Legendary grade.
*Are you absolutely certain?
[Yes / No]
A warning message I hadn’t seen in a while.
But there was no stopping Yoo Sung-hyun.
I immediately pressed Yes.
Countless pages fluttered and turned over.
But unlike before, antique pages dyed in golden light and pages radiating an even more beautiful and warm orange brilliance flipped past with a whoosh.
Whoooosh!
Along with the sound of pages turning, emitting various lights.
A single page suddenly materialized before my eyes.
The brilliantly glowing orange page floated in the air, illuminating the shabby Inn Room like dawn itself.
Soon that radiant page consumed all the warm, dawn-like light around it, and a clock darker than pitch-black appeared.
The clock hands moved rapidly, and when they struck the hour.
Dong——!
Dong——!
Dong——!
A bell toll echoed from somewhere.
Yoo Sung-hyun stared at the sight with a bewildered expression at the deep tolling.
“…???”
Could it be?
I gazed with such anticipation.
The message I’d been waiting for appeared.
[You have acquired the Legendary grade skill, 『Clock of Apocalypse』 from the Random Skill Book!]
‘…Is… this real?’
No matter how fortunate one is, another Legendary grade?
Yoo Sung-hyun opened the skill window in disbelief.
It was real.
『Clock of Apocalypse』
→《Legendary》
→[Lv Max][Complete Form]
[Instant Effect][Active]
[Cooldown 30 minutes]
→Exclusive skill for Dark Mage class jobs.
→Consume mana as desired to designate a specific duration.
→The longer the designated time, the more mana consumed, the greater the damage dealt to the target when that time arrives.
→The cooldown begins decreasing after damage is dealt.
“Wow.”
A remarkably fascinating skill.
It was the first of its kind I had ever obtained.
Though it required strategic use, it seemed excellent for targeting fleeing enemies.
A skill that amplified damage over time itself.
What if I used less mana but extended the duration?
The attack would prove devastatingly effective.
There were countless ways to utilize it.
The applications were virtually limitless.
‘I’ve acquired an incredible skill.’
I wanted to test it immediately.
But dinner time was approaching, and if Hindel’s group caught me sneaking out, it would be problematic.
That Dark Mage bastard? Already suspicious, and now he’s leaving in the middle of the night?
They might suspect me of being a spy.
They don’t realize I’m currently held in high regard and treated as a hero.
There was no other way to think about it.
‘I’ll log out here for today.’
Yoo Sung-hyun made his decision and logged out.
5.
Saturday evening.
Normally, a typical company wouldn’t even require weekend work, let alone overtime.
However, E-World, which operates the Eternal World service, was no ordinary company.
A workplace that didn’t hesitate to call in staff on weekends when important matters arose!
With overtime pay and special duty allowances generously provided.
Few employees harbored complaints.
The problem was that even the supervisors who initiated the weekend call-in couldn’t sit still.
Given the gravity of the matter, Team Lead Ji Hye-jung and several other team leads were in attendance.
Skill Management Team Lead Yoon Tae-sung, Error Compensation Team Lead Lim Ji-won, and NPC Management Deputy Director Lee Jae-kyung.
I wasn’t sure why Deputy Director Lee Jae-kyung was included.
In any case, it was a gathering where even senior members from other teams were milling about.
Lee Won-sang couldn’t help but feel the pressure.
But how could he not call them?
‘The situation has become far too complicated….’
A compensation strategy meeting had been convened regarding the Thousand Blood Sword skill that Yoo Sung-hyun had obtained.
It was a skill far too overpowered to simply leave as is.
When the matter was reported.
As expected, the expressions of the other team leaders grew grave.
It couldn’t be helped.
“If it were any other user… but looking at the report we received, this definitely needs to be nerfed, doesn’t it?”
“It’s not a nerf—we need to fix the error. Regardless of whether it’s another user or a skilled user.”
“Hmm, hmm, hmm.”
Yoon Tae-sung, the Skill Management Team leader, muttered as if troubled, and upon hearing his words, Lim Ji-won, the Error Compensation Team leader, pointed out her displeasure.
From the company’s perspective, it was right to think of ways to minimize compensation.
However, Lim Ji-won, the Error Compensation Team leader who prioritized user welfare, had a notably people-first disposition.
And caught between them, Lee Jae-kyung was simply laughing as if he found the situation amusing.
Though in a difficult position, Lee Won-sang swallowed hard.
After easing his tension somewhat, he spoke among the team leaders.
“Looking at the current situation, it appears nearly certain that the Hero and Overpalace, along with Yoo Sung-hyun and Helena traveling to the past, will meet, so we must minimize compensation.”
“The Hero and Overpalace are one thing, but what’s the problem if Yoo Sung-hyun and Helena meet in the past?”
Lim Ji-won asked, clearly not understanding.
Lee Won-sang understood her reaction, nodded, and continued his explanation.
“Currently, across all continents of the Eternal World, there are only nine NPCs capable of evading the sight of the superintelligent AI Immortal, even briefly. They are the NPCs known as the Nine Heroes. However, according to Immortal’s assessment, even all nine combined fall short of Helena.”
“…So there’s a high probability of problems if Yoo Sung-hyun and Helena meet in the past?”
“Hmm, an Overlord. I don’t know much, but I understood her to be an NPC who once reigned as the world’s strongest. Even if she goes to the past and meets him, she’s still just an NPC, isn’t she?”
“That’s….”
Lee Won-sang bit his lip as if at a loss, then nodded.
Then he showed them a screen.
It showed Helena doing something with Fiora in the Dark Castle.
-Mmmm~ what should I gift to my successor~
Helena openly mentioning her successor.
And shock bloomed across the faces of the team leaders who saw it.
Except for Ji Hye-jung, who already knew, and Lee Jae-kyung, who was laughing as if amused despite not knowing.
The nuance suggests she already knows Yoo Sung-hyun is her successor.
Setting aside how she found out, if an NPC’s behavior is that blatant, it must be adjusted through Immortal.
However.
“Hahahaha! That can’t be fixed.”
Lee Jae-kyung spoke with refreshing clarity.
At that, Lim Ji-won asked first.
“Pardon? What do you mean by that, sir?”
“You can’t fix it?”
“Even if I regulate it with Immortal and impose restrictions, the strain is too great. There’s a real possibility the stage itself from that past era could collapse. If that happens, it would interfere with Yoo Sung-hyun’s Main Quest, so I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. For now, I’ve set it so Helena can’t receive the skills or items she possesses, but…”
“Isn’t that… sufficient then?”
Lee Jae-kyung responded to the naive question.
“That entity survived all the way there even under Immortal’s system—which had the strongest restrictions precisely because there were no users. According to Immortal’s own words, she’s a mysterious NPC with power comparable to his own superintelligence. So I’ve blocked it for now, but I have no idea how to properly reward Yoo Sung-hyun. And if he ultimately receives it…”
“We wouldn’t be able to suppress it according to Park Won’s directives. After all, it would be a reward Yoo Sung-hyun legitimately earned…”
“Right, exactly.”
We’d reached an impasse.
Which is why this compensation meeting had been called.
A situation where we couldn’t move forward or backward.
Ji Hye-jung stepped up.
“First, according to the existing compensation plan, wouldn’t we normally reward with a skill of equivalent rank? Isn’t there a way to reduce it?”
“…We could reduce it, but if the user expresses dissatisfaction, there’s nothing we can do.”
Lim Ji-won responded helplessly.
If we reduced the reward and Yoo Sung-hyun became dissatisfied, it could result in far greater expenditure.
The key was to provide compensation that wouldn’t generate dissatisfaction in the first place.
We had no choice but to give a Legendary-rank skill.
But Lee Won-sang, who’d thought of a clever solution, made a proposal.
“Then what if we allowed him to upgrade existing skills up to Legendary rank?”
“Hmm? What do you mean…?”
“Ultimately, the concern is that Yoo Sung-hyun already possesses too many high-rank skills, isn’t it? So instead of giving him a new skill, we could allow him to upgrade his existing ones. We create items that can raise skill ranks up to six times, and if he uses three of them on one skill, we upgrade it to Legendary at maximum. Wouldn’t that balance things out reasonably well? It amounts to upgrading two Unique skills to Legendary, but that’s still better than giving him a brand-new Legendary skill.”
All the team leaders nodded in agreement at the proposal.
Giving items that could raise existing skill ranks would definitely maintain better balance than simply handing over one Legendary skill.
It was an excellent suggestion.
“Oho? The reward itself is raising skill ranks, but in terms of potential, it’s equivalent to giving two Legendary skills…”
“Hmm, Yoo Sung-hyun’s current Unique skills are Self in Darkness, Skill Plunder, and Proliferating the Dead, right?”
“Even if we strengthen all three, they’re skills without major issues. Rather than directly boosting combat power, they’re utility-focused skills, and their growth ceiling isn’t that high, so overall combat strength shouldn’t increase dramatically.”
This was where you could truly see the competence of the capable Lee Won-sang.
Everyone was satisfied.
“Then we’ll modify the Thousand Blood Swords to add utility and damage with explosions on impact against enemies.”
“We’ll coordinate with the Item Crafting Team and have our Skill Management Team create the compensation items. We’ll need to create upgraded versions if Yoo Sung-hyun’s current skills don’t have them.”
“Thank you all for your hard work.”
Just as the meeting was wrapping up.
Lee Jae-kyung nodded as if everything was fine, then asked a question.
“But why is Helena using swordsmanship?”
Everyone turned their attention to the screen at his words.
They could see Helena creating a single blade and swinging it back and forth as if performing swordplay.
“…That, I’m not entirely sure about either…”
It was somewhat comedic that the NPC Management Team’s Lee Jae-kyung was asking the User Management Team’s Lee Won-sang in the first place.
But no one paid it much mind.
So Helena has taken up swordsmanship as a hobby.
Everyone was wrapping up the meeting and leaving around that time.
Once they all disappeared.
Helena stared directly at the camera on the screen and smiled with a knowing smirk.
As if she understood that someone was watching all along.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————