The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 252

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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 252
From a mage’s perspective, there was absolutely no reason to allow myself to be kidnapped.
‘Even knowing it’s not dangerous… why would I?’
Yet Choi Kang-mok prided myself on having grown.
Experiencing an entirely different world had stripped away my prejudices and broadened my horizons.
A mage’s common sense and the common sense of another world could differ vastly.
“Ah. It’s for the broadcast.”
Just as mages obsess over magic, streamers obsess over their broadcasts.
A ‘kidnapping act’ certainly packed plenty of shock value.
It would be far more entertaining to end with a rescue scenario than simply being kidnapped.
“I do owe Kang Pal-do quite a bit in various ways….”
He’d been a tremendous help in perfecting this magic (though he’d never actually given me anything).
So helping him out once in a while… well, it wasn’t the worst idea.
“Ah!”
Or perhaps!
“Was he trying to show me that escape magic can be used in reverse?”
Wait a moment.
I think I’ve been viewing Kang Pal-do purely through the lens of ‘streamer.’
For a mage, everything in the world is a teacher.
Everyone offers lessons and instruction.
Today, Kang Pal-do was one of them.
The same blink spell becomes evasion magic when used to dodge, and movement magic when used to approach.
‘If I use escape magic to pursue, it becomes tracking magic.’
The 36 Heavenly Strategies magic is swift and precise.
I’ve now developed an intuition for tracking and searching.
If I reverse the 36 Heavenly Strategies magic, it becomes pursuit instead.
Kang Pal-do was clearly aiming to use this situation to ‘teach the mage a lesson.’
From a streamer’s perspective!
‘This bastard.’
A delightful Lucky Mine, indeed.
“Should I… give it a try?”
Light was thrilled.
Thanks to Choi Kang-mok’s learning, Light too had gained a new revelation.
-That’s right, my escape was never truly an escape.
-My escape was actually an approach all along!!
As Light went wild, Choi Kang-mok’s affinity with the light attribute soared even higher.
With Light’s wholehearted support and resonance.
Choi Kang-mok recalled the sensations from the Labyrinth.
‘The opponent is Earth-level.’
It was far easier than tracking NPC assassins.
‘Done.’
The location was pinpointed.
I have a sense of it. I just need to move.
The title effect ’36 Stratagems: Retreat’ has been applied.
Magical pressure exerted on the caster is significantly reduced.
Can be used consecutively up to seven times.
‘I don’t need to succeed on the first attempt.’
It’s fine.
I can practice.
Practice is the bridge that transforms the impossible into the possible.
“Oh, Kang Pal-do.”
Fortunately, I succeeded on the first try.

* * *
Upon returning to the Ayla Advanced Magic Research Institute, Pease seized the 4th Floor by force.
Raymond’s expression turned bewildered.
“Professor Pease, what is the meaning of this….”
“The 4th Floor is mine now, Professor.”
“….”
Raymond made no effort to hide his confusion.
Of course, inwardly, he was delighted.
‘A rogue who seized his mentor’s magical research facility by force?’
His disciple would be furious if he knew!
Incidentally, that disciple is the director of this Research Institute.
“Professor Pease. You’ll regret this.”
“I’m already regretting it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why didn’t I take interest in magical anomalies when everyone else did?”
Why was I so ignorant?
Had I shown interest just a little sooner, my ‘mage’ would have become a ‘battle mage’ instead of merely a ‘mage’.
Would have become a combat magic anomaly instead of just a magical anomaly.
It is truly lamentable.
“You feel it too, don’t you, Professor Raymond? My
disciple’s
genius.”
“I do.”
Pease spoke with genuine regret.
His thoughts turned to Choi Kang-mok, though for different reasons than Raymond’s.
“I must teach my disciple as soon as possible.”
“What are you planning to teach?”
“My disciple still has a narrow perspective. Their world is too small.”
“?”
From Raymond’s standpoint, it was a difficult thing to comprehend.
My disciple actually has quite an open mind, don’t they?
Learning from mages, learning from assassins, and even learning from mines?
“They’re making a strict distinction between defense and offense.”
“Well….”
From a mage’s perspective, making that distinction was natural.
If you possessed the will to attack, it should become an attack; if you possessed the will to defend, it should become a defense.
A true mage could only be called such if their magic operated exactly as they intended.
But a ‘combat mage’ was different.
Pease continued with a serious expression.
“The reason for practicing defense separately and offense separately is ultimately to reach the realm of unified offense and defense.”
The best defense is offense, and the greatest offense is defense.
The two are ultimately one.
“That’s where maximum efficiency emerges.”
So it was regrettable.
“My disciple has already achieved unified offense and defense….”
But why would they deliberately separate defense and offense again?
They could simply integrate it all into ‘combat magic’ and be done with it!
“Yet they’re deliberately dividing and using them separately.”
Normally, that would be correct.
Defense magic first. Then offensive magic.
Most mages progressed by following those steps.
But Choi Kang-mok was different.
“My disciple is already in a completed form!”
Why would they break down something complete back into an incomplete state!
Pease was furious.
How poorly must Raymond have taught, presuming to be a master. Tsk.
“Reflect on yourself.”
“….”
In truth, Raymond was somewhat shocked.
It was a perspective he had never considered.
‘There’s merit to what Pease is saying.’
And so his mood improved.
I must convey this teaching to my disciple.
‘Then it will become my teaching.’
Raymond wore an aggrieved expression, though he wasn’t actually aggrieved.
“I shall take my leave for now.”
I must hurry to my disciple and impart this wisdom!
Faster than anyone else!
Lucky Mine happened to be running a broadcast with a kidnapping concept.
Raymond could tell.
‘My disciple is going to play a rescue game.’
I should get there first then.
Since I’ve been summoning the Mine every time, the connection is solid.
If I reverse the summoning sequence and deploy reverse-calculation magic, that becomes unsummoning.
Traveling to the Mine was incredibly easy.

* * *
Raymond, who arrived at the Mine before Choi Kang-mok, was startled.
‘This aura is…!’
It was my disciple’s aura.
Countless lines of magical power centered on Light scraped across the space like claws.
Burst!
Light exploded outward.
My disciple revealed himself from within.
Raymond couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration.
“It seems I taught reverse-calculation magic quite well!”
“…Pardon?”
“You used escape magic in reverse, didn’t you?”
“That’s correct.”
“My proud disciple!”
He was insisting on ‘teaching’ again, which was rather tedious, but it was a minor issue.
This wasn’t the first or second time Raymond acted this way.
What pleased me more was that he recognized my magic at a glance.
“Your magical growth is truly remarkable.”
“Not at all. Your movement magic is far more impressive, Master. When did you arrive?”
Moving freely anywhere on Earth.
Ignoring the penalties of the setting, without help from Light or Mayo either.
As a mage, it was truly an absurd level of achievement.
Kang Pal-do, bound to the chair, let out a hollow laugh.
“Hey. You guys didn’t come to rescue me?”
“Oh, right.”
“Oh, right?”
Kang Pal-do frowned.
Mages really weren’t normal, that’s for sure.
And they’re still babbling about magic in the middle of all this.
Choi Kang-mok spoke.
“I came to rescue you.”
“Yeah.”
Kang Pal-do continued as if it were nothing serious.
“The place is designed to explode the moment you arrive.”
“Is that so?”
Kang Pal-do’s AI recognized the urgency of the situation well enough.
[The arrival of an EX-Rank Awakener. That meant the collapse and destruction of space itself.]
Yet none of the ‘cast members’ showed any tension.
Choi Kang-mok, who had already mastered defensive magic, had blanketed the entire space with protective barriers.
Raymond couldn’t suppress his admiration.
“You’ve transcended the mere [spherical] form!”
In the past, I had completed defensive magic by suspending spherical energy constructs in the air.
But now I had gone beyond that stage.
‘Now it exists in the realm of [concept].’
You don’t need to see it with your eyes to understand.
The entire space is suffused with ‘defensive magic.’
Just like Mayo’s shield!
And that defensive magic preemptively neutralized the explosives.
Goosebumps erupted across Raymond’s forearms.
It was something he already knew, but the growth rate defied imagination.
Ordinary geniuses reach a plateau in their development, but this gifted disciple grows faster with each passing day.
Exponentially.
Kang Pal-do spoke in a flat tone.
“There seems to be a faction trying to kill you using me as bait.”
“Is that right?”
It wasn’t much of a threat.
“They believe your abilities were exaggerated because of the broadcast?”
“That’s possible.”
My abilities are only transmitted through Kang Pal-do.
Many people claim it’s all fabricated.
“They say you’re nothing but a phantom created by the media?”
“Mm.”
I suppose that could be true.
More precisely, I don’t really care.
Whether they believe it or not.
Emperor of the New Era, combat machine—I’m already drowning in countless misconceptions, so what difference does one more misunderstanding make?
Kang Pal-do’s expression twisted.
‘Unnecessarily magnanimous, as always.’
I wanted to add some dramatic flair.
But the reaction was disappointingly bland.
So I added some seasoning.
“Your magic is fake.”
The air shifted.

* * *
I had no intention of forgiving the kidnappers.
The fact that they had abducted Kang Pal-do meant they could just as easily abduct Kang Hye or Choi Kang-chul.
By sheer luck (?), it was Kang Pal-do who was taken, but if it had been Kang Hye or Choi Kang-chul, the situation could have been entirely different.
‘In the end, I need to respond with force.’
The kidnappers were an anti-EX gang with their headquarters in Italy.
Half of them didn’t believe in my power, and half coveted it.
Either way.
They all agreed on killing me.
Those watching Kang Pal-do through the screen realized their plan had failed.
“The explosion stopped.”
“Is the plan a failure?”
They had gone through so much trouble to abduct Kang Pal-do, only for things to go wrong.
“Do we have to wait for next time?”
A direct assault carried far too much risk.
The opponent was someone who had even taken over the Assassin Guild.
“I think it would be better to change our target to Choi Kang-chul or Kang Hye next time.”
“I agree.”
An EX-rank awakener remained far too composed.
An opponent in such a state was difficult to eliminate.
But if his family were abducted? Or killed?
He would lose his reason and become far more vulnerable….
“What’s this? On your forehead….”
“Brother, on your forehead….”
A white dot appeared on their foreheads.
It was a beam of light.
“What is this?”
Looking again, beams of light were streaming out from the screen.
“Damn!”
“Turn it off!”
They immediately unplugged the monitor’s power cord.
But the screen didn’t go dark.
Light spread across the entire screen.
Something like a ‘mass of light’ was staring directly at them.
“Huh?”
“Hmm?”
A beam of light shot out from the screen that refused to die.
Choi Kang-mok’s perfected assassination magic manifested in reality.
One man’s forehead was pierced clean through.
“Gasp.”
Instant death.
Another man fell as well.
The gang recognized the gravity of the situation.
“R-run!”
“Flee!”
They scattered to escape the Light.
Behind tables. Into the basement.
Into sealed rooms. Inside safes.
That day, all forty-eight gang members perished.
Nearly simultaneously.

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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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