The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 129

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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 129
There was one thing that had puzzled Choi Kang-mok.
—Why hadn’t Special Stages (3) and (4) of the Golden Labyrinth opened?
That was it.
To ascend the Tower, clearing the Labyrinth as a companion was essential.
To climb the 40s Floors, one had to clear at least up to Stage 40 beforehand.
Clearing itself posed no problem. After all, I was already breaching the Tower at EX-rank.
Thanks to that, SKIP had been activated for all stages up to 40, and I’d cleared them with mere seconds of waiting. Naturally, I held first place in the Hall of Fame.
I’d cleared Stages 30 and 40 just like Stages 1 and 10, yet (3) and (4) hadn’t appeared?
It meant additional conditions were necessary.
And that condition was this map.
“Do you know this place?”
“Not so much know it as… I predicted it would be here.”
“Predicted?”
“Yes. The Golden Labyrinth.”
“…Ah!”
Emily nodded after hearing my explanation.
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense. That would be the most likely candidate. Are you going in right now?”
“Yes. I’ll go in and verify.”
“Wait!”
Emily hastily grabbed the hem of my clothes.
“Hmm?”
“If you happen to obtain the ‘Unbreakable Rock’… could you give me just a tiny piece? I’ll do everything you need. Absolutely anything.”
I was about to respond.
Since she was already offering to do more on her own, I simply nodded calmly.
“Really? You promised. You’ll definitely give me one piece for my personal collection.”
Emily broke into a wide smile.

* * *
[Entering Floor 30 of the Labyrinth (Seoul).]
First, I entered Floor 30.
I ignored the challenge and checked if anything had changed in particular.
‘Since I entered with the map….’
The conditions for opening the Special Stage might be hidden.
[Challenge: Defeat 17 Shadow Leopards]
“Come to think of it, this is my first time actually attempting it properly.”
I’d always just hit SKIP, so this was my first time running it myself.
-Indeed. This would be our first experience together, user.
-First times are always thrilling, aren’t they? 🙂
Shadow Leopards were monsters shaped like leopards made of shadow.
They had an unusual pattern—they only spawned along the path an Awakener had traveled.
“I should walk around a bit first.”
As Choi Kang-mok moved, Shadow Leopards revealed themselves one by one along his route.
Whether they swarmed or not didn’t matter.
They couldn’t even penetrate friend-or-foe identification.
The first attempt yielded no particular clues.
Next time, I brought Kang Hye along.
Since she was an Explorer, I thought she might be able to find new conditions.
Kang Hye discovered one fact.
“Hmm… I’m not entirely sure, but… oppa, are you just beating up the Shadow Leopards?”
“…Yeah.”
I hadn’t used magic.
Instead, I’d simply swung down the Mythic-grade staff, Excalion.
The ‘Structural Power Buffer Module’ completely nullified minor physical impacts, so there were no durability concerns whatsoever.
“I weakened them first with interception, so that’s why.”
So just hitting them in the head kills them.
Since the terrain was narrow, it was far easier to dispatch them physically rather than use Energy Bolt.
Kang Hye blinked.
‘That expression… she clearly had no idea.’
I must have swung the staff without any conscious awareness, purely by instinct.
Or perhaps I was engaging in self-suggestion, thinking ‘I used the staff, so it must be magic.’
‘Certainly, I do fit the profile of a Battle Mage.’
Just because someone was a Battle Mage didn’t mean they only used magic in combat.
As long as the target fell, it didn’t matter whether it was poison, throwing blades, or anything else.
‘Floor 40 of the Labyrinth is still quite a high stage.’
By Tower standards, anything from Floor 40 onward qualified as ‘high floors.’
A region difficult to reach through effort alone.
Yet in such a zone, a mage was swinging a staff and employing physical (magical) combat.
“If I use magic, everything gets completely razed….”
“No, I wasn’t asking you to make excuses. A mage doesn’t always have to rely on magic.”
“Is that so?”
Choi Kang-mok’s expression brightened ever so slightly.
“Well, and since I used the staff, you could say it counts as a form of magic anyway.”
Choi Kang-mok didn’t openly agree, but he didn’t refute it either.
Thwack!
The shadow leopard struck by Choi Kang-mok’s staff flew limply through the air and crashed against the wall.
It was the seventeenth shadow leopard.
The last one let out a pathetic whimper and went limp. Its belly exposed.
“Now let’s finish with Blink.”
There was no real need to use Blink.
Still, I wanted to end this with magic.
“Wait a second, oppa!”
“What?”
Kang Hye drew a short blade and approached the fallen shadow leopard.
The shadow leopard was completely unconscious.
“Just a moment.”
Kang Hye drew her short blade and shaved away the shadow leopard’s fur.
In the center of its belly, once the fur was removed, a rectangular depression became visible.
It was an unusual structure not seen in beast-type monsters.
It was exactly the size to match the mine map.
Choi Kang-mok grinned widely.
Bringing an explorer had been the right call.
“So the map goes here, doesn’t it?”
He retrieved the map and placed it against the unconscious shadow leopard’s belly.
[!Hidden Condition Satisfied!]
[Special Stage (3) is now unlocked.]

* * *
[Entering Special Stage (3).]
I stood on the middle slope of Stone Mountain.
Black rocks stacked in layers, blanketing the slope like an enormous coal heap.
The surface appeared smooth as glass, yet proved surprisingly rough to the touch.
“Brother. Over there.”
A strange cube rested on a flat rock in the distance ahead.
A peculiarly lustrous black object.
The surface touching the ground seemed to hover unnaturally.
Looking closer, the surrounding rocks appeared to have split naturally around the box as its center.
[Challenge: Destroy the ‘Configuration Box’.]
[※If destruction fails, you cannot exit Special Stage (3).]
The condition itself was straightforward.
However, there was one additional notification.
[However, attacks that activate Special Stage (3) are immune to damage.]
Kang Hye regarded me with a displeased expression.
I’d recently acquired the Lucky Mine, or so I’d heard.
“This too, luck?”
Immunity to physical attacks from a staff—how convenient.
For a battle mage like me, this restriction was meaningless.
-In fact, Mayo feels the same way.
–
Everything you do lately makes the world seem to adore Choi Kang-mok♥
I’m getting worried
I might be getting
slightly annoyed?
“Get as far away as you can.”
“Got it. I was planning on that anyway.”
Fortunately, this place had several Unbreakable Rocks.
Kang Hye took shelter behind an Unbreakable Rock, while I charged an Energy Bolt.
‘Can’t hit too hard.’
Moderate force.
I could control my strength now.
I shattered it into fine fragments and attacked with the debris—a resounding success.
[Special Stage (3) cleared.]
[Configuration Box unlocked.]
Crackle—
Static erupted across the box’s surface.
Its form distorted as a System Message followed.
[Damage Limit Exceeded]
[The conditions for Special Stage (4) have been deleted.]
[Special Stage (4) has been forcibly opened.]
“?”
Choi Kang-mok tilted his head briefly, but soon tore his gaze from the destroyed wreckage and focused on the notification.
[Will you enter Special Stage (4)?]
“Everything’s going according to plan.”
I entered Special Stage (4).

* * *
Kang Hye’s mouth fell open.
“Wow, what is this place?”
A single black rock consumed her entire field of vision.
Even tilting her head back, she couldn’t reach its end, and her gaze extended upward before seeming to vanish into mist at some point. It felt as though the boundary between sky and earth had collapsed.
Her chest felt crushed.
Despite standing still, she felt the illusion of something massive bearing down upon her.
It was as if an entire mountain range had been compressed into a single mass.
‘It’s not just like it’s compressed.’
This thing, which resembled a majestic mountain range, was literally ‘a single chunk of rock.’
[Challenge: Completely destroy the ‘massive, unbreakable rock’!]
[※ ‘Completely’ will be judged by the system.]
[※ You are limited to three attempts.]
At that moment, a separate notification appeared only for Choi Kang-mok, the map holder.
[You possess the ‘Map of the Unbreakable Rock Mine’.]
[Upon successful completion of the challenge, this area will transform into the ‘Unbreakable Rock Mine’.]
Choi Kang-mok let out a hollow laugh.
“They want me to destroy this?”
If I pulverize this, it becomes a mine according to the lore.
But isn’t it far too massive to destroy?
“Though I suppose they have some conscience.”
They grant three chances to attempt the challenge.
It means I can leave if I want.
“Oppa, is it even possible to destroy this?”
“Guess we’ll find out when we try.”
“It’s amazing you can even say that. I don’t think a nuclear bomb would work.”
It’s called a rock, but in reality, it’s a mountain.
A sense of helplessness washed over me.
But the problem wasn’t just its size.
“The challenge itself seems quite difficult.”
There’s no space to dodge.
To destroy this entire massive rock, I’d need to operate both an energy field and high-ranking spirits simultaneously while investing considerable time.
Then he gets swept up by magical fragments.
Kang Hye also offered her opinion as an explorer.
“I think we should give up on this.”
Use magic here?
That’s basically asking to blow ourselves up.
Physical magic obviously won’t work.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
But there’s always a way.
Choi Kang-mok remained seated, lost in thought.
‘There has to be a way…’
Heaven helps those who help themselves, as they say.
‘I have a feeling there is one.’
And it’s a fairly safe method at that.
“Kang Hye. Could you map this place out while exploring around here?”
Kang Hye lifted her head and gazed at the massive boulder.
The slope was steep.
But she couldn’t bring herself to say she couldn’t do it.
She was a (self-proclaimed) EX-rank assistant and an (official) promoted explorer. To be more honest, she’d even submitted an application to join the EX Salvation Corps.
Give up? That wasn’t an option.
“…Yeah, just give me a few days. I brought food and water.”
“Sounds good.”
“…Okay. I’ll make the map.”
“Sounds good.”
“But when we leave, you might have to carry me.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
We began mapping.
I focused my mind and started analyzing the structure.
And several days passed.
For reference, I grasped the structure of Special Stage (4) faster than Kang Hye completed the map.
Kang Hye, looking considerably haggard after several days, gasped for breath.
“Insane. You mapped this entire place in your head? Just sitting there?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why do we need the map?”
“It becomes clearer with this.”
It felt like solving the answer again. The satisfaction of reaching the same conclusion through a different path.
I gazed down at the map and smiled contentedly.
‘She drew it quite well.’
I realized my sister was growing just as much as I was.
My sister, too, was progressing as planned.
“So, what are you going to do with this?”
“Something worth trying came to mind.”
An oddly casual answer spilled from Choi Kang-mok’s lips.

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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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