The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 148

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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 148
Choi Kang-mok furrowed his brow at the strange sense of déjà vu.
‘Faded Dragon Palace?’
Korea already had two ‘Story Gates’ in existence.
Fire Spirit’s Playground.
And Dragon Palace.
‘Is this next one… Faded Dragon Palace?’
Story Gates were not mere events. They had context, and they were interconnected.
For instance, the Tears of Azure obtained from ‘Dragon Palace’ had been the key to solving a hidden Quest in ‘Fire Spirit’s Playground.’
[Breaking News] England, Monsters Emerge from Faded Dragon Palace]
English Awakeners who thought they could finally catch their breath tensed up considerably.
What would emerge this time?
…But it was unfounded worry.
“What? They’re too weak?”
“Look at that turtle soldier. It’s slower than slime.”
A decrepit turtle-like monster wearing its shell on its back revealed hostility toward humans.
Its white whiskers dragged along the ground, and its two legs trembled constantly.
Simply walking was nearly a miracle.
“It collapses if you just throw a rock at it?”
“But why does it give so much experience?”
“Huh? It dropped an item too.”
This news quickly spread throughout England.
[Unexpectedly Low Difficulty Monsters Appearing, But the Rewards?]
[Is This the Trickle-Down Effect of an EX-Rank Awakener?]
The rewards were far too generous for the difficulty level.
“Isn’t this better than Korea?”
Korea had now become the nation that boasted the world’s finest Tower hunting.
Yet the drop rates and item quality from this ‘Faded Dragon Palace’ were easily surpassing even Korea’s standards.
“Wow, I already leveled up.”
“I got a Rare-grade item?”
Occasionally, a ‘Land Merman’ that received boss classification appeared, but even these were unremarkable.
[LOL Grandpa Land appears again]
└Heard you get a high-grade mana stone from defeating that?
That’s hilarious lol
└You Korean bastards… were already sucking on this honey?
└The trickle-down effect is insane
They were far weaker than ordinary land mermen.
Any Awakener who had passed the tutorial could hunt them.
The monsters leaking out from the Gate were the same, and the inside of the Gate was no different.
[Got a Rare-grade Necklace (photo)]
└Insane;;
└Look at all these people flooding in
└The rewards are no joke
└Tutorial difficulty but rewards like Floor 40 and above
└Is this even right
What fascinated me was the fact that the Dragon Palace possessed an H/P bar.
Within the Gate, there was indeed a Dragon Palace.
A shabby, decrepit Dragon Palace that looked as though it had been abandoned for centuries.
[Supposedly, it can’t be attacked in principle?]
└There are cases where attacks occasionally work
└Even so, it just recovers to full H/P again
What if destroying the Dragon Palace granted some astronomical reward?
Countless Awakened ones began flooding into England.

* * *
Choi Kang-mok returned to Christine’s mansion first.
Christine moved busily about the kitchen, genuinely committed to entertaining guests, while Kang Hye sat in the living room waiting for him.
Kang Hye’s eyes were brimming with anticipation.
“You’re going to talk about the Story Gate, right?”
“Yeah.”
The Gate of opportunity that had set the hearts of countless Awakened ones in England aflutter.
With the emergence of the Faded Dragon Palace, England swiftly regained its vitality.
Despair was replaced by hope.
And yet another hope ignited.
“Oppa. You know Faded Dragon Palace 2 appeared, right?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Another one showed up in the southern region.”
A new setting was revealed.
Since the H/P of the existing Faded Dragon Palace hadn’t vanished, the setting was that a new Faded Dragon Palace had been created.
Kang Hye let out a hollow laugh.
“The Gates are self-replicating. Doesn’t that make it even better?”
“On the surface, yes.”
Was it really that simple?
Kang Hye shook her head.
“The Awakened ones on the front lines have already caught on. Overall, the entire difficulty is rising.”
Korea is the world’s premier Tower-climbing nation.
The difficulty is low, and the rewards are generous.
“In countries with poor Tower-climbing conditions… they say Awakened ones are appearing who can’t even clear the tutorial.”
A high-reward Gate that suddenly appeared.
On the surface, it looked like hope for everyone, but something about it was out of sync with the flow of the times.
“I think you should destroy it once, oppa.”
“Seems like it, doesn’t it?”
The true meaning hidden behind the phrase ‘a target that is fundamentally impossible to destroy’ was actually ‘a target that breaks only when hit hard enough.’
Choi Kang-mok was the only one capable of hitting something that hard.
Choi Kang-mok tilted his head.
There was something unexplainable—an unsettling feeling.
“But something feels off, you know?”
“What?”
“It feels like it’s blatantly guiding me to destroy it.”
Displaying an ‘HP bar’ so openly, and even showing the message ‘fundamentally impossible to destroy.’
And of all times, when people’s nerves are already on edge because of Monster Land?
Could all of this really be coincidence?
“Oppa, what you’re saying feels like… bait, doesn’t it?”
“Not exactly that, just. Something feels like it’s hidden deeper?”
Kang Hye nodded as well.
Through the series of incidents, she had come to sense that the ‘System’ wasn’t entirely favorable toward Choi Kang-mok.
There was even the ‘forced expulsion’ from the Tower, wasn’t there?
“Now that you mention it, it does feel unsettling.”
In the end, discussion alone had its limits.
There was wisdom that could only be gained from direct experience in the field.
Choi Kang-mok smiled wryly.
“My gut tells me something’s hidden inside.”
Kang Hye focused intently on Choi Kang-mok’s words.
These were the words of the one who had opened the ‘Story Gate.’
The intuition of someone experiencing the site most directly.
Naturally, such instinct became an invaluable clue for an explorer.
“The System feels like it’s restraining my
magical
growth, you know?”
Suddenly?
Magical growth?
“The Faded Dragon Palace might actually be a huge help to my
magical
development.”
“…Oppa.”
“What?”
“Nothing, never mind. I also think it’ll be a big help to your m-a-g-i-c-a-l development.”
Kang Hye closed her mouth.
It wasn’t the first or second time he casually labeled everything good as ‘magical.’
This was the same person who swung a staff down on something and calmly called it physical magic.
At this point, it might as well be considered philosophy.
I decided to just accept it as is.

* * *
I entered the Faded Dragon Palace with Kang Hye.
But despite the name “Dragon Palace,” what stretched before my eyes was a harsh, arid desert bathed in merciless sunlight.
Only wind-carved rocks and cracked earth were visible.
A few twisted cacti, barely standing, were so desiccated they looked ready to shatter at any moment.
And at the far edge, a building whose silhouette was barely visible through the dust storm came into view.
Its outer walls were peeling, its roof had collapsed, leaving only the skeletal frame standing.
[Tower Creator Entry!]
[Daily Visit Benefit: You receive a ‘Copy Clam’.]
Just like the Story Gates in Korea, this place also granted a daily visit benefit.
───────
[Copy Clam]
Duplicates items obtained within the Story Gate.
───────
‘There really is everything.’
I brought an Awakening Orb to the Copy Clam as a test.
With a wet squelch, the clam opened its mouth on its own and extended a long “tongue,” swallowing the Awakening Orb whole.
[3] [2] [1]
Soon, the Copy Clam opened its mouth again.
Inside the shell lay two Awakening Orbs.
Kang Hye opened her eyes wide and spoke.
“Uh, um, I’m totally, completely, not surprised by this anymore.”
This is a person who destroys Towers, after all.
Item duplication is nothing.
“Looking at it, it’s clearly an application of copy magic.”
I didn’t quite bring myself to agree.
I neither affirmed nor denied it.
If I’d been a bit more shameless, I would have agreed, but my magical conscience hadn’t reached that point yet.
“Anyway, should we head to the Dragon Palace? I’ll take the lead.”
“Sure.”
As Kang Hye moved forward, she suddenly lifted her head at a familiar sensation.
And soon, she identified the source of that déjà vu.
“It’s exactly the same as the Dragon Palace we experienced in the Tower. More precisely… that Dragon Palace you swept away with Meteor Shower.”
If a devastated Dragon Palace barely recovered, it would probably feel like this.
A few decrepit monsters were wandering about the surroundings, but they weren’t at a level that could be called a threat.
Kang Hye examined the area carefully. Checking if anything was missing.
“Now I can even see the HP bars.”
The fully charged HP bar’s edge trembled subtly, rising and falling in a continuous rhythm.
The space was isolated, but it meant other players were attacking the Dragon Palace from different locations.
“The Faded Dragon Palace itself is being treated as a boss… oppa?”
“…”
Choi Kang-mok stood before the Dragon Palace, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Indeed, there were things one could only understand by being on the scene.
“Kang Hye. Let me ask you something.”
“What?”
“From a third party’s perspective, an explorer’s perspective—answer objectively?”
“What is it?”
“I’m the [Creator] of all Story Gates, aren’t I?”
The system certainly used the term “Creator.”
I thought it was because they were ‘Story’ Gates, but now the meaning was different.
New information had been added.
I had now entered an open-source worldview.
There was certainly such an explanation there.
───────
…’Authors’ could share, use, and create variations.
───────
Creator. Author.
Subtly, the words overlapped.
“Do you know what the daily visit benefit was for the Fire Spirit’s Playground I first opened?”
“Yeah. Awakening Orbs.”
“And for the Dragon Palace I opened next?”
“Fragments of Qingyan’s Tears.”
“To call it something grand like ‘Creator’ or whatever… isn’t it a bit meager?”
Kang Hye took a moment to review the situation.
‘Creator’ meant the first pioneer who created the setting and opened the Story Gate.
“Awakening Orbs are…”
Kang Hye’s expression hardened slightly.
It just took time, but anyone could obtain them.
In the same sense, ‘Qingyan’s Tears’ was no different.
It just took time, but anyone could complete ‘Qingyan’s Tears.’
“The grade is a bit low, isn’t it?”
I seemed to have focused too much on the daily visit benefit.
Since it was given just for entering, I hadn’t thought much about it.
Neither Kang Hye nor I had.
“You see it that way too, right?”
“Yeah. Objectively speaking, yes.”
Choi Kang-mok lowered his gaze.
I see a clam.
‘The clam does look appealing, certainly…’
But the limitations are unmistakable.
I can only duplicate items obtained within the ‘Story Gate’.
Is this truly the end?
Perhaps this ‘daily visit benefit’ is nothing but a smokescreen?
A kind of deception.
As if the Faded Dragon Palace itself were deceiving me now, urging me to strike it down and destroy it.
-In this world, only you can destroy me.
Tempting me.
To hide the ‘truth’.
Then, a voice of unknown origin reached my ears.
[“You’ve been caught?”]
Strange voices filled the surroundings.
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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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