The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 279

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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 279
‘Something’ spoke.
“Three thousand years, then.”
A humanoid silhouette draped in ash-grey robes slowly came into focus.
Pale skin revealed eyes with blackened sclera. The entire eyes were pitch black.
He gazed down upon the earth, clutching a staff worn and crumbled by the passage of ages.
“The opportunity to eliminate the monster has been granted. Finally!”
His manner of speech was decidedly peculiar.
How could it be otherwise? He had spent far too long in solitude.
Three thousand years endured without a single worthy conversation partner.
That he had not lost his mind was nothing short of a miracle.
There was only one reason he had managed to remain sane.
-To eliminate the magical monster that shakes the balance of the universe!
For that purpose alone, I trained for three thousand years.
The sentiment feels fresh. At last, I can finally kill that monster.
“For the eternal glory and sacred liberation of Arcsia.”
An unknown voice echoed from the heavens.
───────
First. I must discover a method to break through the consecutive invulnerability.
Second. I must find a way to survive the catastrophic damage.
───────
It was as though another external force had intervened in the continental tournament.
That force seemed to be explaining the background of this newly emerged ‘attacker’.
Proudly. As if conducting an orientation.
───────
When you are ready, you shall become the gatekeeper of the 80th Floor. Your training period shall not exceed three thousand years. We shall provide all materials necessary for your cultivation.
And in the end, we did prepare.
The gatekeeper of the 80th Floor—the one from whom the Mage had fled and evaded.
───────
He was Orelli, one of Arcsia’s Three Commanders who had once resisted Choi Kang-mok.
A figure barely remembered by Choi Kang-mok.
Rather than Orelli’s true identity, two words had captured my attention.
“Fled? Evaded?”
This was absurd. Choi Kang-mok’s expression twisted.
I had simply cleared it because I possessed the Clear Authority—and now they frame me like this?
And while invoking the ‘Mage’ no less?
Isn’t this an insult to the Mage?
───────
To eliminate the Mage
[Liberation Commander Orelli]
.
───────
I was already fed up with this.
Those damn Writers.
“Looks like you’ve accumulated some ink.”
American Continent. System. Writers—three allied forces versus a Mage.
The second battle had begun.
[American Continent Cumulative Damage: 0]
[Asian Continent Cumulative Damage: 14]

* * *
One minute earlier.
The cry of Tyler, the Lord of the United States, resonated deeply with Americans.
“There is no such thing as defeat in magic. Like true mages, squeeze every last drop of mana until the very end, mages of the American Continent! Do not be intimidated by a mage! We are mages just as proud as they are!”
The audacity to stand firm even while fighting an EX-rank Awakener!
One of the rare lords who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the emperor of this new age!
Truly, the lord of a great nation!
Yet there were those who interpreted it from multiple angles.
-Wait, isn’t something off?
-Sounds like he’s insulting the EX-rank Awakener…
-But if you break it down, it almost sounds like praise.
We’re just as proud as mages?
Doesn’t that mean mages are also praiseworthy?
-He seems to be resisting the hardest, but he never actually touches the magic itself
-Is this just my imagination?
But this wasn’t the mainstream interpretation.
In any case, publicly, Tyler was the leader of a massive force resisting the EX-rank Awakener.
The American Continent was being overwhelmingly pushed back.
He was pleased.
‘We’ll eliminate the attacker itself.’
If you eliminate the attacker, there’s nothing left to defend against.
In a moment like this, what should I say to make the EX-rank Awakener happy?
“There’s nothing to worry about! It’s merely a preemptive defensive spell the mage frequently employs!”
I bundled together the words that EX-rank Awakeners loved to hear.
Mage. Magic shown before. Preemptive OO.
This should be safe.
The results were excellent too.
But then some new ‘something’ started spouting nonsense like a dog.
“Now I’ll kill you, monster that mimics the mage.”
That bastard?
Why did it have to happen in our sector?
Tyler cried out without hesitation.
“Proud mages of the United States, keep your eyes on our true enemy! Do not forget! Our current [attacker] is not a [Mage]! Our enemy is that one!”
A glance.
Orelli looked toward Tyler.
Tyler met his gaze without flinching.
It wasn’t that he felt no fear.
He could tell that Orelli was an extraordinarily powerful entity.
But so what?
‘Choi Kang-mok terrifies me far more!’
When faced with one terrifying opponent and one less terrifying, you naturally curry favor with the more terrifying one.
-Wait, hold on
-Isn’t he essentially acknowledging the EX-rank Awakener as a Mage and praising him?
-Don’t talk nonsense, he’s simply speaking as a lord should
-Tyler is a strong half-EX faction, so why would he suck up to an EX-rank?
As opinions clashed across the community, Orelli swung his staff.
“For 3,000 years, I have devoted myself solely to the study of lethal magic. To slay the monster that mimics spells.”
Orelli was confident.
Now he had even mastered spatial liberation.
Magic that causes mana within a living creature to run wild and destroys its organs.
He had named this magic ‘Annihilation’.
“Anni—”
Something pierced through Orelli’s body.
‘An energy bolt?’
It wasn’t a grand and complex spell like Annihilation.
Just a small sphere of energy had punctured straight through Orelli’s torso.
Choi Kang-mok spoke.
“You should simply die.”
This wasn’t a real person at all.
For 3,000 years, the obsession to ‘kill Choi Kang-mok’ had manifested as a monster wearing Orelli’s form.
And it wasn’t even sane. That’s why it spouted nonsense about spell mimicry and such.
A deranged boss monster. Nothing more, nothing less.
Orelli stared at Choi Kang-mok with bewildered eyes.
“….”
His mana wouldn’t activate.
His entire body was destroyed.
From a simple spell, his body’s functions had completely ceased.
“Just now, that was….”
Orelli’s body trembled with dread.
Despite 3,000 years of advancement. Despite his confidence.
That monster had grown even stronger in the meantime.
Somehow, it seemed as though he had come to accept his own nature more fully.
“….”
If he had been his former self?
-For 3,000 years, I have devoted myself solely to the study of lethal magic.
Upon hearing those words, I would have granted him time.
To witness the magic refined over three millennia.
This was closer to a forced narrative inserted by the Writers into the boss monster Orelli.
Yet their strategy was flawed.
Choi Kang-mok had already passed the 90th Floor, and in that span, countless transformations and developments had occurred.
‘That monster… had acknowledged… it.’
A hair’s breadth difference.
Yet the gulf between them was nearly infinite.
Now that creature was the very embodiment of a ‘battle mage’.
A mage brimming with curiosity. A machine for combat.
Previously, these two could not coexist.
That monster possessed something like a compulsion to be a ‘mage brimming with curiosity’.
But now it was different.
“Even heaven remains indifferent.”
His body began to pixelate and fade away.
Had that monster achieved some revelation in the meantime?
Now there was not even a moment’s hesitation in becoming a machine for combat.
“My 3,000 years….”
They could not compare to that monster’s single instant.
How hollow it all felt.
To have raced toward this for three thousand years.
“Is this….”
He sensed intuitively that he was already dead.
Only lingering attachments remained. Every function of his body had failed.
“Is it a difference in caliber?”
What use was any grand magic?
What use was possessing ‘Annihilation’?
Without applying it at the right moment in the right place, it was no different from not having it at all.
In combat, flashy and powerful magic was unnecessary.
Magic capable of severing the opponent’s lifeline was sufficient.
Forgetting that for a moment had led to this bitter outcome.
“How lamentable. My magic….”
Choi Kang-mok’s expression twisted in anguish.
“Magic I cannot even use.”
What manner of mage was one who could not wield magic?
And who was he to demean someone as a magic imitator, given his own inadequacies?
He had no right to evaluate anyone.
Orelli’s expression twisted grotesquely.
By now, more than half of his body had already vanished.
“I have devoted my entire life to magic.”
“But you couldn’t use it.”
“I have devoted my entire life to—!”
“But you couldn’t use it.”
“Annihilation….”
“You couldn’t use it.”
Orelli’s face flushed crimson.
More so than when he’d felt the difference in their power.
Hahahahaha
-Is this really happening?
Yeah, you can’t do anything, right? Yeah, you can’t do anything, right? Yeah, you can’t do anything, right? hahahaha
-An EX-rank Awakener is doing this?
Suddenly showing some humanity, haha
The Emperor of the New Era, who had been ascending toward deification.
People discovered an unexpected humanity in him.
-EX-rank bro is seriously pissed, right?
Haha, he seems like such a neighborhood hyung, it makes me feel close to him.
Hahahahaha
Countless lords were astounded.
‘Perfectly calculated timing and strategy.’
‘He’s already demonstrated sufficient power.’
‘Now he’s stimulating public favor toward the masses….’
The Emperor of the New Era.
Truly a terrifying existence.
Orelli’s entire torso had vanished.
With only his face remaining, Orelli sighed.
“My 3,000 years…!!!”
[‘Attacker’ has been annihilated.]
[American Continent cumulative damage: 0]
[‘Attacker’ is generating a duplicate….]
[‘Attacker’s’ power level is too high; duplicate generation is rejected.]
[Additional ‘Attacker’ generation is impossible.]
[American Continent cumulative damage: 0]
Orelli’s unremarkable exit, ominous from his very entrance.
The American Continent’s cumulative damage remained at 0, and the generation of additional attackers had ceased.
Meanwhile, the Asian Continent’s cumulative damage had already surpassed 100.
Quite a few Awakeners witnessed the same notification.
[….]
-???
-Did I just see a notification like [….]?
-You too? Me as well
The System fell silent for a moment.
-It seems to have lost its words
-The System?
I knew from the beginning when you started slacking off.
-The System’s so baffled now it can’t even speak
-But usually these things appear for a moment then disappear
Yet [….]remained suspended in the air for quite some time without vanishing.
How ridiculous can you get lol
-The System’s probably thinking ‘Is this even possible?’ right now
Another voice echoed from the void.
───────
The growth speed of the ‘Mage’ is terrifying. We must stop him. The collapse of universal order is imminent.
Where did all those bastards who said this would work go? We’ve run out of ink again, dammit
───────
But then.
An unprecedented phenomenon unfolded—one that even Choi Kang-mok had not anticipated.

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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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