The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 152

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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 152
About ten minutes earlier.
Kang Hye watched as Kang Pal-do was practically dragged into the Tower by force.
In that instant, she knew.
‘That bastard is going to call us too.’
Judging by his appearance, he was undoubtedly cunning and vicious.
He would certainly exploit her younger brother’s weaknesses.
Choi Kang-mok’s greatest weakness was….
‘Me and my older brother.’
Sadly, that was reality.
While Choi Kang-chul and Kang Hye had both achieved remarkable growth, they couldn’t compare to an EX-Rank Awakener.
‘I need to come up with a plan.’
Time was running short.
Soon, a ‘forced invitation’ would arrive.
This was the conviction of an explorer.
“Damn it! Why isn’t my older brother Kang-chul answering his phone!”
Now that she thought about it.
He’d mentioned there was a Seoul Guild meeting today.
She couldn’t reach him.
Kang Hye ran toward Seoul Guild Headquarters with all her might.
No time to waste. She burst straight through the entrance.
“Excuse me!”
“Hey! Stop right there!”
“Don’t touch me. This is EX-Rank Awakener business!”
At the mention of ‘EX-Rank Awakener business,’ the security personnel hesitated.
But thirty people used this excuse to show up every single day.
The protocol was to detain first and ask questions later.
“Let me verify your identity first… huh?”
“What?”
The Seoul Guild’s security team were skilled operatives, more capable than most guild members.
Yet even they lost track of Kang Hye’s movements.
“An assassin?”
“This is an emergency. We have an intruder….”
But the alarm never sounded.
Fortunately, Vice Lord, the security team leader on duty today, had checked the CCTV first.
“Stand down. Let her through.”
She was the blood sister of an EX-Rank Awakener.
The blood sister of the Occupation Lord, no less.
By bloodline, she was among the apex predators.
Within the Seoul Guild, her importance was unquestionably paramount.
Kang Hye’s breath came in sharp gasps, rising all the way to her throat.
“Hah… hah…!”
The Lord’s conference room came into view.
“W-wait, you can’t do this here…!”
Crash!
Kang Hye kicked the door open.
“What the—!”
“Where is the security team!”
Kang Hye paid them no mind.
“Kang-chul oppa!”
She pulled out a scroll.
“Hurry and use it… no, wait.”
There was no time to be choosy.
She immediately ‘arrested’ the Occupying Lord Choi Kang-chul.
“Kang Hye, what is this…?”
Several Vice Lords who hadn’t grasped the situation cried out in panic.
“Security team!”
“I will subdue her.”
“That crazy—!”
At that moment, Vice Director Han Sang-hyun transformed into a massive bear.
“Wait. Just leave this be.”
“B-but…!”
Han Sang-hyun bared his sharp fangs and growled menacingly.
The Vice Lords who had recently joined.
He directed open hostility toward the handful of ‘former city lords’ who had come under Seoul’s command when the existing Towers were integrated into the national Tower system.
“When was it that an EX-Rank Awakener’s identity was revealed? And you still don’t know her bloodline?”
“…”
“Is it that your intelligence network is lacking, or are you simply lazy?”
“Still, no matter what, suddenly barging into a conference…”
What was this?
The Occupying Lord had been ‘arrested’.
He couldn’t move an inch.
He was bound so tightly he couldn’t twitch a single finger.
And Kang Hye had used a scroll on herself as well.
“Ugh, this really hurts!”
She’d applied too much force.
“Oppa. You can’t move, right?”
“…Yeah, I guess not. But why are you doing this?”
“Didn’t you watch Lucky Mine’s broadcast?”
Kang Hye explained the situation briefly.
‘A forced invitation’ would be sent, it seemed.
That invitation would likely contain a special power capable of mental interference, she said.
Choi Kang-chul spoke from where he lay sprawled on the floor.
“So… you’ve already blocked it so I can’t lift a finger?”
“Yeah.”
“Couldn’t I just accept the invitation verbally?”
“I watched Kang Pal-do—it requires physical contact. It’s probably a limitation of the forced invitation.”
Just in case, I’d brought a gag as well.
“Director Han Sang-hyun. We need you to handle this for us.”
“It’s fi—”
“It’s fine, no arguments.”
I cut him off quickly. Time was running short.
There was no telling when the forced invitation would arrive.
“If it looks like we’re being dragged to the Tower, just knock us out.”
With Han Sang-hyun and Choi Deok-gyu’s help, the siblings even had the gags placed in their mouths.
It was an extreme measure, and Choi Kang-chul sighed, but Kang Hye was right.
Kang Hye’s eyes rolled back, showing only the whites.
Foam flecked her lips as she thrashed about on the ground.
“Aaaah! Phluh! Phlurgh! Mmmph! Ith ith gotta plath I gotta go! (Let me go, let me go, I have somewhere I need to be!)”
Choi Kang-chul was in the same state.
The two siblings had successfully resisted the invitation containing mental interference through purely physical means.

* * *
The best practice is real combat.
Choi Kang-mok had learned this truth painfully.
‘The essence of Dispel magic!’
It was more advanced than any Dispel magic I had ever encountered.
This was an opportunity. A once-in-a-lifetime chance. No, it was nearly a miracle of a lesson.
‘He’s too busy with his schemes to attack me.’
Moreover, he had summoned Kang Pal-do first.
Had Aimonshuter summoned Kang Pal-do first because he wanted to?
No.
‘There are systemic constraints.’
I had pulled the Floor 60 boss forward prematurely.
And through an abnormal method—using Mayo’s separated consciousness as a medium.
The system was already overloaded.
I had grasped that various restrictions were being imposed.
‘Which means.’
Right now, Aimonshuter was a living grimoire itself.
He continued to display Dispel magic. Yet there was no risk of being attacked.
The tension was slightly diminished, but the environment was perfect for concentration.
The structure of magic began to project itself in my mind.
‘This sensation… it’s familiar.’
It resembled the moment I first encountered a 20s-tier Small World.
Like that instant when the structure of the Small World began to reveal itself to my eyes.
Now, I could see the structure of that advanced Dispel magic.
───────
[Combat Mage]
A mage specialized in combat.
Upon entering combat, physical and magical abilities are maximized.
※However, ___ is excluded.
───────
Combat situation. Yet non-combat situation.
The optimal combination for maximum learning efficiency.
The perfect classroom for applying theory to practice.
Better than Professor Raymond’s lectures.
‘Not a unidirectional Dispel type, but one with structural distribution… Ah.’
Aimonshuter’s fundamental keyword is ‘deception.’
‘It’s not simple reverse cancellation.’
It’s not a method of simply deleting the magical formula.
Into the gaps of deletion, deliberately manipulated ‘false information’ is inserted.
Normally, Dispel would eliminate the entire equation [1 + 1 + 1 = 3] at once.
But Aimonshuter’s method of teaching was different.
He subtly removed a single [+].
[11+1=3]
Like this.
On top of that, he erased the +1 just like a common dispel formula.
[11=3]
Deception.
An absurd answer emerged.
As a result, the spell failed.
‘Inserting false information.’
-That is Mayo’s specialty.
-We have perhaps
achieved a magical
breakthrough.
With Mayo’s assistance, I could master it far more easily.
When doing arithmetic, having a calculator naturally makes things more convenient.
Haeju. After purification, now dispel as well.
This is undoubtedly magical growth.
I attempted to cancel the summoning spell from the Lucky Mine.
‘A failure.’
But as always, failure is the mother of success.
‘I was too hasty.’
A new place of learning.
I was far too excited.
‘This time… I will definitely succeed.’
The summoning magic circle opened once more.
Just as Aimonshuter cried out ‘A masterstroke!’
I formed a hand seal and waved my staff.
Concentrating so intently, I failed to deliver the elegant incantation.
‘I should have chanted the words.’
Had my master—the one who would perform ‘Triple Head Bald Eagle,’ producing three heads each with a different voice—witnessed this, he would surely have been quite disappointed.
‘Did it work?’
The light of the summoning magic circle faded.
The pattern cracked, and the center folded inward like paper.
The lines snapped one by one, and a black liquid like rotten oil splattered.
‘It worked.’
A chill ran down my spine.
I had completed a new spell.
Even accounting for the ‘Battle Mage’ bonus, this was still a step forward in magic.
[You have acquired the skill ‘Dispel (Creation)’.]
Now that I think about it, the foundation of combat
for a mage
seems to be Dispel.
The power to pierce through all magic and dismantle it. An essential force in battle.
Aimonshuter fell silent for a moment.
After a brief pause, he forced his mouth open with great difficulty.
–
You copied
my magic?
Unable to comprehend the current situation, Kang Pal-do activated the narration system.
It was a narration from the perspective of Floor 60’s boss, Aimonshuter.
Since he had been transferred by Aimonshuter’s forced invitation, the narration delved deeper into Aimonshuter’s point of view.
[I designed it all. Illusions, deception, and eternal victory….]
The battle reached a lull.
The ‘student’ Choi Kang-mok did not attack, and the ‘professor’ Aimonshuter could not accept reality.
[But that madman… with just two attempts, he dispelled my magic. Unbelievable, yet… it is the truth.]
Aimonshuter’s (Raoul’s) head, mounted atop the staff, began to vibrate violently.
[I will not accept this truth. This is an error. Logic has been violated. Everything… is an error. All of it….]
Static—crackle, crackle—erupted within the narration itself.
A perfect depiction of Aimonshuter’s inner collapse.
–
Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!
-Deception, lies, distortion, pretense, yes,
this is deception!!
Up, down, left, right.
The vibrating Aimonshuter opened his mouth wide.
From his mouth. From his eyes. He unleashed ‘light’ indiscriminately.
Something subtly resembling an energy sphere.
The narration expressed Aimonshuter’s inner state even more precisely.
[Replication is not your privilege alone, you madman. I too am capable. I am science.]
A Floor 60 boss’s magic far more powerful than ordinary energy bolts.
Yet for Choi Kang-mok, it was merely a target for practice.
‘This is perfect for training.’
A mage
does not settle for a single success.
Repetition. Mastery. Replication.
That is the true completion of magic.
‘Energy bolts, is it.’
Such a familiar spell.
Today is truly a day of growth and learning.
My respects to Professor Aimonshuter.
[Using Skill: Dispel (Creation).]
That professor is even a boss monster.
The Mythic-tier staff Excalion consumes no mana against boss-type targets.
The professor continues demonstrating magic for me.
[Using Skill: Dispel (Creation).]
I absorbed the Dispel magic completely.
The fracturing of my inner essence manifested as physical ruptures.
Light seeps through every crevice.
A harbinger of explosion.
‘Is he demonstrating explosive magic on top of this?’
He escalates the difficulty sequentially. Moreover, it’s a self-destruct variant.
This concept is quite familiar to me. At this level, it’s personalized tutoring.
Even Professor Raymond should learn from this magnificent teaching method.
Kang Pal-do’s face drained of color.
“We’re screwed.”
A human specialized in survival.
About ten seconds later. I sensed a massive explosion approaching.
This is a self-destruct.
Among all explosion types, self-destruct is the most dangerous.
“This time I’m really going to die…”
Inside my mind.
The survival specialist’s second hand ticked forward.
[10] [9] [8]…
No matter how I look at it, there’s no angle of survival.
Kang Pal-do’s face grew increasingly pale.
Then I opened my mouth.
“Silence, magic. Strip away deception. Accept truth. Cease, rampage.”
A perfect incantation. I smiled wickedly.
Are you watching, Master?
Surely even Professor Raymond would marvel at this.
“Energy Bolt.”
An Energy Bolt with maximized piercing properties tore through Aimonshuter’s face.
There was no explosion.
[These are my final words—do not deceive yourself by calling this Dispel. This was merely destruction. I was simply…broken.]
Dispel magic.
A perfect success.

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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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