The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 287

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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 287
Choi Kang-mok jolted awake from his sleep, startled, and quickly surveyed his surroundings.
A hill shimmering with golden light came into view.
“Huh?”
It seemed he had been forcibly summoned.
One thing was certain.
“It doesn’t seem to be a summoning spell, though.”
Something felt oddly familiar about this.
I could sense it instinctively.
“Kang Hye?”
It seemed Kang Hye had called me here.
Kang Hye, who possessed no summoning ability whatsoever.
“I can definitely sense Kang Hye’s presence, but….”
It was a strange sensation.
Not something I could see with my eyes or grasp with my hands.
It had no physical form.
Yet despite this, I felt an unmistakable certainty that Kang Hye was nearby.
[Challenge: ■?? Crack ◆◇ ??]
Was this a corrupted place?
Yet it felt different from corruption.
“If anything, it leans more toward the sacred….”
Since I wasn’t a priest, I couldn’t be certain.
In any case, it didn’t feel corrupted.
On the other hand, Kang Hye was trying to speak to Choi Kang-mok.
“Brother!”
After a moment, Kang Hye realized something.
“You can’t see me, can you?”
He seemed to sense something vaguely.
But Choi Kang-mok couldn’t see Kang Hye.
She shouted loudly directly into his ear.
“I’m right here!”
Still, Choi Kang-mok didn’t notice.
He only tilted his head and looked around.
“How did I even summon my brother?”
I don’t have any summoning ability at all.
Then, several voices reached Kang Hye’s ears.
“You are the Faith of this era, it seems.”
For Kang Hye, this was difficult to comprehend.
Still, she could grasp one thing.
“I’m being treated as the master of this Gate.”
In other words, it seemed I had been appointed as the administrator of the Faith Gate.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Bestow appropriate trials and blessings upon the faithful devotees.”
Faithful devotees?
It seemed to refer to Choi Kang-mok.
[Challenge activation is possible.]
[Challenge difficulty is divided into High/Medium/Low.]
“Ah….”
The structure was simple.
Set the challenge difficulty high, and the rewards improve; set it low, and the rewards diminish.
[Faith’s yield is inversely proportional to difficulty.]
Right.
Inversely proportional to difficulty….
“Huh?”
Inversely proportional, not directly proportional?
“The lower the difficulty, the better the rewards?”
Could this actually work?
Was this an error?
For a moment I entertained such thoughts, but Kang Hye shook her head.
“No way. My brother has been treated unfairly far too many times already.”
So, wouldn’t it be fine if he received some good fortune for once today?
“Just because the difficulty is low doesn’t mean the rewards always have to be poor.”
[Challenge difficulty has been set to ‘Low’.]
[Difficulty configuration is proceeding.]
[If difficulty configuration fails, the Gate will collapse and Faith and its devotees will perish.]
Kang Hye scoffed at the notification.
This is my domain. A place to give my brother something good.
There’s no way anything would perish here.
I’m going to help my brother.
She felt not a trace of fear.
[‘Faith’s’ faith is deemed worthy.]
[Difficulty has been successfully configured.]
[Difficulty is set to minimum.]
[Challenges will be automatically assigned.]
Choi Kang-mok also received the notification.
[Challenge: Trial of the Cross]
A cross materialized atop Golden Hill.
Choi Kang-mok unfurled Baek-ik and flew slowly toward the cross.
Something felt off.
“…Huh?”
A figure hung from a cross.
It was a silhouette far too familiar.
───────
[Trial of the Cross]
Use offensive magic against Faith.
Faith will not die.
Prove your faith.
※However, the offensive magic in question must be pure offensive magic with no technique whatsoever.
※The moment Faith is compromised, ‘Faith’ will die immediately.
───────

* * *
Raymond, a professor at Ayla Magic University reviewing applicants, received a startling notification.
[■Faith Believers – ]
I couldn’t interpret this notification on the first attempt.
However, it wasn’t just one notification.
Multiple notifications came in succession.
Raymond mobilized his magical knowledge and finally succeeded in deciphering the notification.
[!Faith Believers Group-Wide Announcement!]
Even Raymond had never seen this form of announcement before.
Normally, announcements are transmitted on a regional basis.
Korea, continents, the world.
But this time was different.
‘An announcement exclusively for Faith Believers!’
Faith Believers couldn’t be considered the mainstream of this world.
Attributing inexplicable miracles to ‘Faith’ was easy but hardly logical.
Perhaps bordering on heresy, it was difficult to operate openly.
‘The Faith Gate has opened!’
Faith Believers had always believed.
That someday the ‘Faith Gate’ would open.
Then ‘Faith’ would descend and prove faith itself!
“My disciple! Where is my disciple!”
I hastily summoned Lucky Mine.
Lucky Mine shouted irritably.
“Let me sleep!”
I’d grown quite accustomed to mining.
Raymond no longer frightened me.
“Kang Pal-do. You’re quite the remarkable streamer from Earth, aren’t you?”
“What are you talking about? I’m a mine.”
“You are an excellent mine, but simultaneously you are also a streamer. Don’t limit your identity, Kang Pal-do the streamer.”
“….”
Kang Pal-do felt as though he’d been struck on the head.
‘Come to think of it….’
There was no need for it to be solely mining.
Why couldn’t I mine while streaming at the same time?
“But why did you call me?”
Normally, we don’t have conversations like this.
Raymond naturally conducts the mining operations, and Kang Pal-do willingly submits to being mined.
Kang Pal-do understood it now.
The more mining was repeated, the higher the quality of luck became, and the greater the value as a mine.
The sensation of my abdomen being pierced still wasn’t pleasant, but I’d grown quite accustomed to it by now.
But I couldn’t understand why today he was giving a lecture about alternative identities.
“Show me my disciple at once!”
“Choi Kang-mok?”
“Yes, immediately.”
One of the very few humans who could connect directly with Choi Kang-mok.
Still half-asleep, Kang Pal-do rubbed his eyes and launched a drone anyway.
[The contract party exists in a spacetime that cannot be accessed.]
“Huh…?”
“What’s wrong?”
“It says he’s in a spacetime I can’t access?”
Kang Pal-do’s expression twisted in frustration.
“Seems like it won’t work.”
“You’re a streamer with exceptional abilities in spatial liberation, aren’t you?”
“I think I failed because I’m still a bit drowsy.”
Kang Pal-do pulled an energy drink from the refrigerator and gulped it down.
Now I was starting to wake up.
“My spatial liberation abilities are actually quite refined.”
I sent the drone again.
The result was the same.
[The contract party exists in a spacetime that cannot be accessed.]
Raymond pressed further.
“Why isn’t the drone disappearing?”
“I’m just a bit drowsy….”
Kang Pal-do sensed it instinctively.
‘He’s located in a space my abilities cannot reach!’
But I couldn’t admit this honestly in front of Raymond.
My pride was wounded.
A streamer who monopolizes Choi Kang-mok couldn’t even show him?
This was nothing short of a loss of credentials.
‘No. I can do this.’
On this entire Earth, I am the sole streamer who showcases Choi Kang-mok.
If I don’t showcase Choi Kang-mok, then my identity as a streamer ceases to exist.
That would be nothing short of another form of death.
‘I cannot die.’
I am a survival-specialized Mine.
Kang Pal-do’s body was suffused with golden light.
Even his pupils and skin gleamed brilliantly in gold.
‘I can showcase Choi Kang-mok to the entire Universe.’
He harbored no doubt in his own abilities.
He believed in his talent.
Raymond marveled at the sight.
“The luck is boiling over…!”
This Mine already possessed luck of exceptional quality.
Yet that luck was bubbling and churning within the Mine itself.
Like a volcano on the verge of eruption.
Kang Pal-do, lost in a state of ecstasy, cried out.
“I can showcase it!”
Raymond felt a powerful conviction emanating from him.
Now was the moment for the miner and the Mine, who had synchronized their breathing over countless years, to demonstrate their fantastical synergy.
“Yes, you can showcase it!”
He immediately commenced the excavation.
“We have become one.”
Raymond’s eyes too were suffused with golden light.
Two bodies connected through hand and abdomen.
The miner and the Mine became one, sharing consciousness.
“Do you see it, Mine?”
Raymond showed the notification he had witnessed.
[!Faith Believers Group-Wide Announcement!]
“I see it, Miner!”
[A Faith Gate has been generated.]
[Location: Unknown]
Yet Kang Pal-do could discern it.
The text reading ‘Unknown’ gradually faded, and new characters emerged.
[Location: Choi Kang-mok’s Descent Point]
Raymond saw those characters as well.
He sensed that everything was unfolding favorably.
Choi Kang-mok.
Luck of a caliber entirely different from anything before had been excavated.
It was not luck in its ordinary form.
A form closer to ‘concept’ than ‘matter.’
According to Kang Pal-do’s will, luck was absorbed into the drone.
And he finally succeeded in moving the drone.
The interpretation AI operated on its own, even though Kang Pal-do hadn’t activated it.
[‘The Mage’ arrived at the summit of Golden Hill through serene flight magic and is now gazing at the cross. The challenge is extremely simple. One offensive spell toward the boss monster and it’s over.]
The difficulty was truly low.
Kang Pal-do felt slightly excited.
“Easy, so easy.”
Watching Choi Kang-mok get oppressed every day had weighed on his heart.
Today was a very easy task!
[Today too, the Mage will be magnificent. The boss monster on the cross will be.]
And just as a moment of silence seemed to fall….
[….]
The AI gave up interpreting.
It powered itself OFF as if it had been operating on its own.
“This insane AI bastard, seriously….”
The figure captured on screen.
The person the AI had interpreted as the boss monster.
In other words, the person now hanging from the cross was Kang Hye.
“….”
Kang Pal-do closed his mouth.
Something feels off about this.

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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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