The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 43

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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 043
The moment Choi Kang-mok entered the Tower, he immediately channeled his mana into the stone tablet.
Configuration for five consecutive darkness phases.
There was a risk of accidentally shattering the tablet, so the task demanded extreme precision in mana control.
But then, an alert sounded.
[!Sudden Trial!]
[‘Second Encounter!’ has occurred!]
[A special aura begins to permeate the Tower!]
‘What?’
It was an alert I’d never heard before.
The interior space of the Tower was drenched in crimson light.
The very fabric of space itself began to burn with a scarlet glow.
Choi Kang-mok immediately understood.
‘A Pocket Dimension!’
Chills ran down my spine.
The sensation from that day came rushing back.
This feeling. I could never forget it.
‘The sorcery of awakening negation.’
That sensation of my mind shattering.
That crimson aura I thought the sorcerer had unleashed.
But this time, something felt different.
‘No, that’s not it.’
A sense of incongruity.
I hadn’t noticed it when I first entered.
But I could feel it now.
‘This isn’t the sorcerer’s sorcery.’
Before, I had assumed it was the sorcerer’s exclusive mechanism,
but now I could be certain.
The Tower itself.
A Pocket Dimension was anchored to this twentieth floor.
[Challenge: Defeat the Polychromatic Sorcerer (0/1)]
The twentieth floor was telling me.
That only the Polychromatic Sorcerer was the challenge of this floor.
‘But that’s not the real condition.’
A chill raced down my spine.
Knowledge shapes perception, as they say.
Now I could see it intuitively.
‘The true hidden condition is to destroy the Pocket Dimension.’
The Second Encounter had begun.
“Mayo, I’m counting on you for surveillance.”
The sorcerer had yet to reveal themselves.
This was characteristic of the 20th floor’s multi-colored sorcerer.
They deliberately created intervals, appearing slowly before suddenly launching attacks through incantations.
-Understood. I will begin surveillance.
Mayo suddenly transformed.
The small cube shifted into the adorable form of a radar station, its antenna spinning lazily overhead.
…In truth, it had little practical effect. Merely a change in appearance.
I left the sorcerer’s surveillance to Mayo and focused my consciousness on the Pocket Dimension.
‘Show me.’
The structure of the Pocket Dimension unfolded within my mind.
A virtual dome space.
Within the realm of consciousness. The vast darkness that stretched endlessly resembled a miniature universe.
I entered a state bordering on selflessness and expanded my thoughts.
‘Circuits resembling mana pathways compose new laws of reality.’
Magic and Pocket Dimensions were fundamentally alike.
Energy flowing through circuits manifests specific ‘phenomena’.
I began to decipher the Pocket Dimension.
It was akin to the structural framework of a massive building becoming transparent of its own accord.
‘Two pillars.’
The center of the vast circuit. Core axes resembling pillars.
Should these two collapse, the Pocket Dimension would crumble alongside them.
When I collided Mayo’s Pocket Dimension with this one, striking those circuits would allow me to destroy this world with far less mental power and strength.
-Beginning interception.
Dozens of white magic circles materialized around Mayo’s core form.
Luminous white blades were summoned from the magic circles.
This was the interception magic implemented by Mayo’s Pocket Dimension.
The Pocket Dimension’s conceptual entity had manifested the form of interception most suited to this space and situation.
Dozens of blades extended in a straight line, destroying the incoming black spheres.
Flash! Flash!
Radiance tore through space and collided.
“Mayo. Stop the interception.”
-I find it temporarily difficult to accept the user’s suggestion. However, I will comply with the command.
The holy blades vanished, and the magic circles disappeared.
The space fell silent.
“Destroying the Pocket Dimension is more important.”
That was the crux of this floor.
The enemy was not the sorcerer, but the world itself.
‘Strike the foundational circuits.’
I compressed Mayo’s domain into a spear-like sharpness.
Forward. Then collision.
Boom—!
An invisible impact.
Yet it transmitted with absolute clarity.
The Tower, the world itself, trembled ever so slightly.
‘How exhilarating.’
A collision of pocket dimensions against pocket dimensions.
It was like playing go or chess across the fabric of worlds.
A form of play where one precisely reads and dismantles the opponent.
‘Far more intricate than simply obliterating them with Dilkkunoo’s magic.’
Destroying a pocket dimension was simple enough—just unleash an energy bolt.
With Dilkkunoo’s magic and the Pocket Dimension Destroyer effect stacked together.
───────
[Pocket Dimension Destroyer (S)]
Type: Destructive Power Amplification
Form: Class-Linked
Class Name: Dilkkunoo
Pocket dimension destructive power amplifies in synchronization with your current class.
───────
I could potentially obliterate an entire pocket dimension in one blow.
‘The problem is I’d get swept away with it.’
Regardless, all those prior training sessions proved invaluable.
‘It’s wavering.’
Fractures were forming in the circuit.
‘Adjust the domain smaller again.’
Each breath mattered.
Manipulating the pocket dimension with such precision, I felt like I’d truly become a genuine mage.
In that moment.
Another black sphere hurtled toward me, but I paid it no mind.
I trusted Mayo’s shield.
The sorcerer’s dark-attribute magic was no longer a threat to me.
Not as long as Mayo’s shield held.
[Shield (9): 72]
No damage taken.
Exactly as expected.
Boom! Boom!
The Tower shook with successive pocket dimension collisions.
Sharp dark-attribute magic streaked through the air like black foam, surging toward me with intent to consume.
My eyes grew calm.
‘How peaceful.’
Though it appeared I faced catastrophe, I remained profoundly serene.
Far more than the previous floors.
‘Wait, this…’
Why did I feel so at ease?
I could understand the reason.
‘Reverse difficulty scaling!’
Choi Kang-mok had grown by exerting extreme mental fortitude to survive his own magic.
Having adapted to Hell-tier combat spells, he was now facing Super Easy mode magic.
‘…I didn’t realize I’d become this strong.’
Even he was astonished by his own growth.
With his body concealed by superior concealment magic, the darkness-attribute spells flying at him from blind spots felt like child’s play.
‘But…’
Crack, crack—
The feared outcome was unfolding.
‘Why is the durability so pathetically weak?’
The stone tablet Joshua had given me.
It was gradually, steadily crumbling apart.
The tablet couldn’t withstand Dilknu’s magical power.
An artifact destroyed by mere foundational magic—how pathetic.
Still, there was no disappointment.
Choi Kang-mok resolved it instantly.
‘It’s fine. I can just buy the Evil Spirit Grimoire.’
The grimoire already had sufficient stock in circulation.
With enough money, I could acquire it.
What I pursued wasn’t the grimoire itself, but the meticulous process of obtaining it.
And understanding the Small World, conquering this realm.
This was the chapter to shed my past.
‘Focus on meticulously destroying the Small World.’
It was almost time.
I would be the first in the world to perfectly clear the ‘Second Encounter.’
Now I could move forward into the future.
But then.
[An unidentified awakened individual has infiltrated the Tower.]
Someone had entered the Tower.
Right in the middle of my enjoyment.
In that instant, my concentration wavered, and the Tower’s Small World rapidly restored itself.
“Damn it. Who the hell is this bastard?”

* * *
Joshua had concealed one crucial fact.
Using the slate that forced a sorcerer’s attribute would dramatically increase the probability of “Tower Penetration.”
“By now, he should have activated the slate.”
“Yes.”
Joshua held a secret meeting with Kim Kang-hyun, a ranker from the Busan Guild.
Kim Kang-hyun was also one of those who harbored intense hatred for Choi Kang-mok.
After all, Choi Kang-mok was the primary culprit who had destroyed the Busan Guild—the very foundation of Kim Kang-hyun’s existence.
“I will attempt Tower Penetration.”
“Yes. There can be no mistakes.”
The precisely designated 20th floor of Seoul Tower.
Location, timing, and conditions—everything was flawless.
With Real Madrid’s backing now behind them, failure was simply not an option.
“Beginning Tower Penetration operation.”
A flawless plan executed flawlessly.
In that instant, space trembled, and the system granted permission.
They had succeeded.
[Successfully penetrated Seoul Tower, 20th Floor.]

* * *
A familiar face.
A foreign ranker I’d seen multiple times in newspaper articles.
‘Joshua?’
Beside him stood Kim Kang-hyun.
An unexpected pairing, but I had little time to contemplate it.
‘They’re working together.’
The palpable density of hostility,
The killing intent I could sense with heightened sensitivity as a mage.
No explanation was necessary.
Joshua didn’t seem inclined to offer one either.
“You’ll die here.”
He withdrew something from his pocket.
A magic scroll.
Scrolls were expensive, but they could be deployed with surgical efficiency at the right moment.
No complex incantations—simply tear and unleash.
A dark-attribute spell.
“Shadow Arrowhead” streaked toward me.
The choice of a dark-attribute scroll made sense given we were on the 20th floor.
When the 20th floor’s boss, the sorcerer, wielded dark magic, the entire floor transformed into an environment favoring “dark magic.”
Its destructive power surged beyond normal parameters.
Not a chance. 🙂
In an instant, Mayo’s interception system activated immediately.
It appeared as though the ‘shadow arrowhead’ would be destroyed.
“I knew you’d do that.”
Joshua smiled wickedly.
I knew full well that my opponent, Choi Kang-mok, was an interception-specialized tank.
That he would inevitably respond with interception.
Whoosh—!
The ‘shadow arrowhead’ that collided with the interception magic dispersed like smoke.
It had been a ‘black explosion’ disguised as that shadow arrowhead.
Joshua felt a surge of excitement.
“Black explosion.”
The color of the battlefield transformed. A tempest of darkness enveloping the surrounding space entirely.
The black explosion swept across dozens of meters in radius.
‘For an interception-type tank, area-explosion magic is their weakness.’
A devastatingly powerful area spell—difficult for even a level 40 beginner player to endure.
The darkness consumed the vicinity.
This darkness itself became colossal damage, shattering the opponent.
‘Even this alone would be difficult to withstand.’
Yet Joshua remained vigilant.
I had already obtained intelligence that Daegu’s ranker Lee Kang-nam had been defeated in a mock battle.
Within the space where the explosion’s aftershock still lingered.
I was already casting a follow-up technique.
“This is what a world-class battle mage looks like.”
Most people consider battle mages weak.
They’re even mocked as idealists disconnected from reality.
The prevailing view is that they’re ‘frail bodies who die before even casting magic.’
Some even curse them, saying ‘they debase such a noble discipline as magic by confining it to mere combat.’
But Joshua thought differently.
“The combat of a trained battle mage is beautiful.”
Dual-handed casting. Double casting.
Simultaneously deploying a scroll incantation, I unfolded an eight-fold magic circle.
Eight magic circles materialized around my hands.
Within the magic circles embroidered across the sky like flames.
Fire phoenixes thrust their beaks forward. Eight phoenixes roared.
“Since most are weak, the battle mage profession appears ridiculous.”
But the rare few who survive change the era.
Joshua believed this.
“The fire phoenix I’ve refined.”
His eyes gleamed with intensity.
I was already certain of victory.
The joy of being able to definitively inherit the EX-rank profession surged through my entire being.
“Combined with the aftereffects of Black Explosion, it possesses four times the piercing power.”
A truly devastating magical combination.
Above the black smoke, the form of fire became starkly visible.
The wing tips of the colossal fire phoenix gleamed with razor-sharp brilliance.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
For an EX-rank awakened individual, the luck was terrible.
Now, only one final word remained.
Only the incantation of the spell was left.
“Pierce through, fire phoenix.”

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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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