The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 118

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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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The Return of an EX-Rank Mage Episode 118
One hidden truth about Story Gates was revealed.
It was continuity.
In other words, the narrative context remained connected.
[Sick child in Fire Spirit’s Playground]
└ ???
└ Spirits get sick? lol
In the corner of the playground.
A single flame lay on a chair, groaning in pain.
[Quest triggers if you go near it fr]
└ Do we take it to a spirit hospital?
└ First time seeing a spirit cry
└ Little fire spirit ㅠㅠ Sorry, I’m crying… …
───────
[My body hurts so much!]
The fire spirit was suffering for reasons unknown.
Some kind of solution seemed necessary.
───────
And then, the answer came.
That item’s identity was none other than ‘Fragment of Cheongyeon’s Tear.’
[Do you know what you get for clearing the Quest?]
└ What do you get?
└ Probably just junk lol
The post that followed
instantly flipped the global rankings upside down.
[Gives Awakening Orb (photo attached)]
└ ? An Awakening Orb?
└ Awakens non-Awakened people omg
The orb was transparent like glass.
Inside, a crimson flame swirled endlessly.
Consuming it granted immediate Awakening as a fire-attribute class.
There was no choice in profession, but for the non-Awakened, such details hardly mattered.
Choi Kang-mok’s eyelids closed slowly as he examined the photograph.
Fifteen years of memories drifted quietly through his mind.
‘An Awakening Orb.’
I understood the weight of this orb better than anyone.
Something I had yearned for endlessly, yet never obtained.
This small orb alone could change someone’s entire life.
For the non-Awakened, this was perhaps salvation.
‘Let me verify this.’
The moment he entered the Fire Spirit’s Playground, he received a notification distinctly different from what ordinary Awakeners heard.
[Tower Creator Entry!]
[Daily Visit Benefit: You receive 1 Awakening Orb.]
A 🙂 symbol appeared on Mayo’s torso.
– How fascinating.
– On Earth, by human standards, this is a concept found in idle-type Pocket Dimensions where auto-hunting applies. It’s quite intriguing to encounter attendance rewards here.
What was truly interesting was the “daily” visit benefit.
Once per day. The rewards reset.
‘Tower Creator. A curious setting indeed.’
It seemed there were secrets hidden that current humanity knew nothing of.
Similar phenomena were detected at other Gates.
The Dragon Palace Gate.
[Tower Creator Entry!]
[Daily Visit Benefit: You receive 1 Tear of the Blue Abyss.]
While others received “fragments,” Choi Kang-mok received a complete finished product.
Simply by entering.
“They’re just giving this away.”
Was it the same as what I already had?
The moment I pulled the Tear of the Blue Abyss from my inventory.
‘Huh? A crack?’
Intoxicated by magical achievements and the changes in reality, I had momentarily lost focus.
A crack had formed in the item I was carrying?
‘My structural mana has begun to extend beyond my body and affect the external world.’
I had merely cast magic.
Yet it had begun destroying everything around me.

* * *
[Magic Foundation Expands Its Influence!]
[Non-Awakeners Chase the Korean Dream]
Miners. Mages.
And now, the non-Awakeners too.
Korea had become their dream.
And there was one more person chasing that dream.
“Sh-shit!”
Kang Pal-do’s eyes snapped open.
He’d fallen asleep in his own bed, but when his eyes opened, he found himself on something resembling a dental chair.
Under blinding lights, someone was poking at his abdomen.
“Aaahhh! What, what is this!”
“You’re awake?”
In that instant, his head spun.
The face of an old man who’d been slapping his cheek in the dream.
It felt both real and like a dream.
‘Am I still dreaming?’
In that old man’s hand glowed a yellowish orb.
Kang Pal-do tried to sit up urgently, but—
‘My body won’t move?’
Strapped down by a belt, he couldn’t budge an inch.
“How can a dream feel this real!”
“It’s not a dream.”
Kang Pal-do sensed it instinctively.
This was a kidnapping.
“I-I’m a million-subscriber YouTuber. You really think you’ll get away with this…”
Wait.
His face looked familiar.
“…Professor Raymond?”
“Raymond. Pleased to meet you.”
An NPC with confirmed identity—which made this even stranger.
Why had an NPC abducted him?
Then this place was… the Ayla Magic Research Institute?
“W-what is the meaning of this?”
“Observing. Or rather, researching.”
“Researching what!”
“When your Awakening will collapse.”
Raymond provided a rough explanation.
“You were caught in the Director’s magic, weren’t you? Your Awakening qualification is crumbling from the aftermath. It seems more than half has already collapsed. Unfortunately, Earth’s equipment makes precise analysis difficult. So—”
observing
There’s no other choice.”
“Research, you say!”
“Yes, research.”
The conversation paused for a moment.
Raymond regarded Kang Pal-do with an expression far more serious than expected, then wore a satisfied look whose meaning remained inscrutable.
And then,
smack—
he licked his lips.
Kang Pal-do’s face drained of all color.
“You know what a survival-specialized constitution is, don’t you?”
“Please, just let me live.”
“I won’t kill you. Do you think a professor would carelessly destroy such a valuable test subject?”
“….”
“That would be a grave insult to me.”
What does that even matter right now!
I wanted to protest, but I couldn’t.
That mad scientist was far too terrifying.
Just then, a figure sitting in the corner rose quietly to his feet.
“Professor, speaking that way only makes it more frightening.”
“Pardon?”
Raymond tilted his head in confusion, but given who he was facing, he refrained from arguing back.
After all, he was the Research Institute Director.
“I’ve heard from the professor about the situation. It seems my awakening was nearly cancelled because of me.”
Choi Kang-mok carried a sense of moral responsibility for it.
My magic now destroys even others’ awakenings.
Choi Kang-mok knew all too well how miserable the life of an unawakened person truly was.
My conscience wouldn’t allow me to simply leave things as they were.
“By ‘because of you,’ you mean….”
Blink, blink.
Could it be?
“EX-rank Awakener?”
“Well, yes.”
Choi Kang-mok unfastened his belt.
“Here, take this first.”
“W-what is this?”
Kang Pal-do was utterly bewildered.
The sole player in all of South Korea.
A super rookie rapidly rising on the world stage—the EX-rank Awakener—stood right before him.
“It’s an Awakening Orb. If an unawakened person consumes it, they become awakened. If an awakened person consumes it, it appears to provide various benefits. It even restores awakening qualifications.”
“That’s a shame. It might be better to use it after things break down even further.”
Raymond inserted the yellow orb back into Kang Pal-do’s abdomen.
There was no physical stimulus, but the psychological damage was considerable.
The sensation of something entering my stomach. An indescribable revulsion. A wave of disgust washed over me.
I never wanted to experience it again.
“A fascinating constitution indeed. To transform misfortune into fortune itself.”
Being caught in an EX-rank Awakener’s magic was misfortune.
Meeting Raymond was an even greater misfortune.
With each accumulation of misfortune, it paradoxically inverts—raising the threshold of fortune higher.
“It seems even contact with the Research Institute Director is perceived as misfortune.”
“Yes, well. That’s understandable.”
“Thanks to that, this one’s fortune threshold continues to rise.”
Raymond’s eyes gleamed.
“If I keep him around, he’ll become a fortune totem. I’ll invite him periodically to understand the detailed mechanics.”
Kang Pal-do tried to deny reality once.
This is a dream.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.
“I’m curious whether stealing fortune from him would also be judged as misfortune.”
Choi Kang-mok became curious as well.
If accumulating misfortune generates fortune, and that transforms into survival specialization, there were many angles for magical interpretation.
‘What if I could apply this to my own magic?’
Could I reduce two fragments to one?
‘Fortune Resistance: Probability-Based Magic Evasion Model’—perhaps such theories could be conceived.
Survival correction through misfortune accumulation. And increased evasion rate. It seemed worth exploring.
“To steal that, specifically how would one….”
Raymond raised his hand with a serious expression.
He held up two fingers and drew circles near the navel.
“Poke the organs. Like before.”
Choi Kang-mok’s expression twisted slightly.
No matter how much of a magical concept it was, the phrase ‘poking organs’ was far too brutal.
The act of carving open someone’s abdomen to extract fortune.
That was… humanly speaking, something that couldn’t be done.
They taught this in magic theory class.
Magic ultimately exists to benefit humanity.
Magical research must always remain within the bounds of ethics.
“It’s fine. There are slight side effects, but the fortune actually grows instead. The gains far outweigh the losses!”
Kang Pal-do cried out.
“I’m not fine with it!”
”
Slurp
.”
“Don’t you dare lick your lips!”
He lost consciousness.
Raymond spoke with an indifferent expression.
“My, what a fragile test subject.”

* * *
Choi Kang-mok’s reason for seeking out Raymond was clear.
The weakening of Driving Force.
More precisely, it was to discuss minimizing collateral damage from the destructive power of Driving Force.
Cheongyeon’s Tears had ultimately shattered.
That meant even the mythic-rank artifact Excalibur could suffer the same fate.
‘My body broke too.’
Raymond laughed heartily and replied.
“There may be a way, though.”
[Cooldown has not arrived.]
There were still roughly twenty-four days left until the formal research request.
“It seems I’ll need to accept it as an official research commission.”
“Isn’t there a way around it?”
“My apologies. When I entered the Tower this time, I depleted so much of my power that helping you has become difficult.”
He mentioned the general approach, but it was rendered as ‘■■■ ■■■■’ and couldn’t be interpreted.
Getting help from a professor-rank mage seemed out of reach.
However, besides the professor-rank mages, there was one person in the Research Institute who was very favorably disposed toward Choi Kang-mok.
It was the intermediate-rank mage Owen.
His fluorescent bald head gleamed as he bowed his head.
“My apologies. I’ve caused you great trouble, Director.”
After their conversation.
Owen’s expression brightened.
“Ah, if that’s the case, I think there might be a way! If you just give me time, I can research….”
Owen was an intermediate-rank mage, but he was actually more helpful than some mediocre advanced-rank mages.
Because he overflowed with passion and sincerity.
Then Choi Kang-mok spoke.
“I think we’d need a buffer material that can absorb the physical force from my Driving Force.”
Even if it breaks, let that be what breaks.
“Exactly! I came to precisely that conclusion myself. The only problem is….”
“We’d need a filter that reacts only to Driving Force and absorbs the impact. A high-performance discriminatory structure would be necessary.”
“?”
“Am I wrong?”
“W-well, you’re right.”
Unease crept into Owen’s heart.
He knew this Research Institute Director was no ordinary person, but he was theoretically far too competent.
If this continues, won’t the position of intermediate-rank mages become precarious?
Fortunately, Choi Kang-mok continued the conversation.
“I don’t possess such a technique. Could you create one for me, Owen?”
“I could make it. There’s just one thing I need, though I’m not sure if we can obtain it on Earth…”
“I’ll find a way to get it.”
At times like this, having the Boddari Union on my side felt incredibly reassuring.
If I mentioned it to Kim Chul-in, he’d procure it for me even if it were on the opposite side of the world.
“I need a Luck Box.”
“Pardon?”
“Chance and fortune operate at a certain ratio in magical outcomes. Without controlling them, even the most intricate structure becomes unstable at any moment. However, if we could artificially fix that ‘chance’ and ‘fortune,’ we could intentionally bias the results.”
“…I see.”
A brief silence fell.
Owen spoke slowly.
“The Luck Box is virtually the only method that makes this possible.”
“Where can we obtain one?”
“It’s given at Floor 60 with an extremely low probability to those who clear it at A-rank or higher.”
“…I understand.”
Floor 60 was still far away.
Until then, I’d need to devise alternative methods.
Perhaps increase my strength further.
‘My strength is already far too high.’
At this rate, I couldn’t even estimate when I’d be able to raise my intelligence.
Choi Kang-mok spoke again.
“Could we extract it from a person and create one instead?”

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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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