The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 55

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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 055
The entire Seoul Tower trembled under the high-level spirit magic of ‘Dilcciknu’.
Kuguguguung—!
It felt as though a massive earthquake had struck.
Yet this phenomenon was not confined to the interior of the Tower.
Outside the Tower.
Countless Seoul citizens were startled awake.
“An earthquake?”
“Th-the Tower is shaking!”
The Sangam district convulsed violently.
Buildings swayed, and glass windows shattered with deafening crashes.
Cars screeched to emergency halts, and people raised their phones skyward, gazing upward.
“Wait, look there!”
“What—what’s bursting out?”
A knight clad in burning armor.
A harp maiden enveloped in wind.
A boy commanding cascading waterfalls.
A stone giant wreathed in sandstorms.
An archer of light wielding a mystical bow.
A dark specter wielding an ominous scythe erupted skyward.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Wh-what kind of wind is this!”
A tempest erupted, obliterating portions of the surrounding buildings and reducing the vicinity to wasteland.
Consumed by flame. Ravaged by flood and wind. The roads lay tattered as if a landslide had torn through them.
“Insane.”
Where the arrow of light had grazed, a ten-meter crater gaped open, and black fissures scarred the empty air.
Wounds carved by the spirit’s scythe.
“Something’s falling from the sky?”
“Huh? Magic stones!”
“Monsters!”
Magic stones and monsters tumbled together in a chaotic deluge.
[!Seoul Metropolitan Area Announcement!]
[Tower (Seoul) Floor 4 has been destroyed.]
[Emergency restoration operations are commencing!]
[Entry to Tower (Seoul) is prohibited.]
Seoul descended into panic.
Breaking news alerts erupted in succession, and broadcasters shifted to emergency live coverage.
[Breaking News] Awakeners inside Seoul Tower Missing!
Tens of thousands of Awakeners remained within the Tower.
None could exit.
Foreign media outlets moved swiftly as well.
[Is Seoul Tower facing collapse?]
[An unprecedented disappearance crisis that could claim tens of thousands of lives]
However, Koreans had already experienced a similar situation before.
[Isn’t this just Season 2 of the Tower Incident?]
└It was chaos back then too lol. In the end, people made a fortune anyway
└Yeah, I saw mana stones raining down like it was pouring
└The EX-rank savior will appear and rescue us lol. It’s the signature pattern
In the worst case, Seoul would lose tens of thousands of Awakeners.
No matter how superior the world’s best tower quality was.
Few Awakeners would dare challenge a tower that had swallowed tens of thousands in a single instant.
That would mean Seoul’s downfall. Moreover, it would signify Korea’s collapse as well.
[It’s not a collapse, it’s a return to the original state lol. I saw through their act from the moment they started bragging about being the top ranker and a world-class rookie.]
└Why? Will they ask that great EX-rank savior to rescue them again lol
└Still, hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. Let’s not mock them
└Shut up, you sanctimonious fool
└These idiots don’t know their place and act cocky, so they deserve this lol

* * *
A strange phenomenon erupting from the 4th Floor.
Some called it a harbinger of destruction.
But Christine’s thoughts differed.
“It’s remarkably similar to my [Flaming Armor’s Advance].”
A high-tier spell unrevealed to the public.
A spell that summons a knight clad in burning armor to attack the opponent.
A high-power summoning spell used against a single target.
“…If you layer an area-of-effect attribute on top of that, it would feel exactly like this.”
It was definitely magic.
She could tell because she was a mage.
There was another person thinking similarly.
Bessius, the Grand Mage of the Real Madrid Guild.
“That’s my signature spell [Sylph’s Melody], but…”
The scale and power exceeded it, yet the fundamental composition was similar.
Mailer, a mage of the Munich Guild, nodded as well.
“It resembles my spell [Earth Giant’s Roar]. And that blue form looks like my colleague’s [Blue Droplet Shield].”
While she didn’t know all their circumstances, Christine could roughly infer what had happened.
“It must have been a spell combining the magic of world-class guild Grand Mages. And the light and darkness attributes were unknown. What on earth did you do, Strongtree?”

* * *
Choi Kang-mok was equally disoriented.
[Tower (Seoul) Floor 4 has been destroyed.]
[Clear rank assessment is suspended.]
I had physically obliterated the Tower.
The magic had burst through the walls and erupted outward.
“Gasp… gasp…!”
Christine was chattering nervously beside me, but I had no breath to respond.
My breathing felt as though it would shatter entirely.
The backlash from magic far too potent had stolen my ability to breathe.
“Are… are you alright?”
She hastily retrieved a recovery potion from her satchel and placed it in my mouth, but it proved useless.
I opened my stat window while drawing ragged breaths.
───────
[Stat Window]
Strength: 49 (20 +5 +24)
Stamina: 31 (26 + 5)
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 30
*Remaining Stats: 13
───────
Thanks to the Sphinkias Robe, both Strength and Stamina had been increased by +5 each.
‘I need to raise Stamina.’
In my current state, recovery was impossible.
If Strength reinforced the barrel, then Stamina repaired it.
My body was an overheated barrel on the verge of shattering.
I swiftly invested my remaining stats.
───────
[Stat Window]
Strength: 49 (20 +5 +24)
Stamina: 40 (35 + 5)
Agility: 30
Intelligence: 30
*Remaining Stats: 4
───────
[Stamina 40 has been achieved.]
[Abilities related to Stamina increase significantly!]
Only after the notification sounded did my breathing gradually stabilize.
The tremors of magic still lingered deep within my bones, but at least I could breathe.
Now that I’d experienced it, I understood.
To wield a high-ranking spirit, one needs not just strength but stamina as well.
And only once at that.
“You’re feeling better now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah.”
My breathing was still ragged, but I was recovering.
“That was your magic, wasn’t it?”
“That?”
“The way you broke through and escaped the Tower.”
Through my conversation with Christine, I came to realize something crucial.
Christine’s Flame Armor Advance.
Bessius’s Sylph’s Melody.
Mailer’s Earth Giant’s Roar.
A fusion that seemed to blend the magics of the world’s greatest mages into one.
That evolved form of magic might very well be a high-ranking spirit.
But that wasn’t what needed discussing right now.
The real problem lay elsewhere.
The real issue was the missing people.
This was different from the 7th Floor.
On the 7th Floor, it was more like I’d done some advanced studying ahead of time.
An update had occurred, and recovery was remarkably swift.
But this time, I’d destroyed the entire floor itself.
What if recovery takes a long time?
Right now, tens of thousands of people are trapped in the Tower.
If this state persists?
They could all starve to death.
I had to prevent that.
But how?
I contacted Lee Byung-gyu immediately.

* * *
Seoul’s Lord, Lee Byung-gyu, oversaw all operations of the Seoul Guild and Seoul Tower.
The system provided him with far more detailed information than others received.
Armed with that intelligence, he made his way directly to the An House where Choi Kang-mok was staying.
“According to the system notice, the estimated recovery time is approximately one month.”
One month.
It meant Seoul Tower would come to a complete standstill.
Choi Kang-mok’s expression hardened.
“Is there no way to accelerate it?”
“It’s possible. If we invest growth currency, that is.”
However, the cost was astronomical.
“Reducing 30 days to 15 requires 1 trillion diamonds. From 15 to 7 days costs 2 trillion. From 7 to 3 days costs 3 trillion. From 3 to 2 days costs 4 trillion. Finally, reducing 2 days to 1 day requires 5 trillion diamonds.”
Choi Kang-mok’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
“What about Orbs?”
“…The required amount is half that of diamonds.”
Reducing 30 days to 15 required 500 billion Orbs.
Reducing 2 days to 1 required 2.5 trillion Orbs.
The saving grace was that Seoul was a city that possessed the Golden Labyrinth.
Its Orb acquisition rate and reserves competed for 1st or 2nd place globally.
“The Seoul Guild currently holds approximately 1 trillion Orbs.”
Choi Kang-mok had also summoned Christine to this meeting.
“Christine, I need to ask Britain for some assistance.”
And fortunately, London was also a Labyrinth-holding city.
Christine grasped the situation immediately and called Foster, the London Guild Master, at once.
Across the continent, his decision came faster than expected.
“Our Lord says we should save lives first, shouldn’t we?”
“If I may ask, what is your Orb reserve capacity?”
“We can roughly match 1 trillion Orbs. We’ll have to cancel some scheduled exports, but we can lend you that. We’ll discuss penalties and such later.”
“Thank you. I won’t forget this favor.”
Without London, matching the Orb requirement would have been impossible.
Christine winked with a slight smile.
“Just make sure the EX-rank Awakener doesn’t forget the favor.”

* * *
The leadership of the Real Madrid Guild received word of the developments.
“London is bowing to Seoul with humiliating desperation.”
They were surrendering their entire stockpile of Orbs to Seoul.
Even canceling existing export contracts in the process.
They were willing to endure catastrophic losses.
“These fools have no pride.”
“They’re more desperate for Diamonds than Orbs.”
The restoration target was five trillion Diamonds.
Even if Seoul and London pooled everything they possessed, it wouldn’t reach three trillion.
Orbs were insufficient, and Diamonds were desperately scarce.
“They’ll inevitably reach out to Incheon.”
Incheon was a city connected to Real Madrid.
“If we can use this situation to sway the EX-rank Awakener or draw him into the light, that would be ideal.”
The urgency belonged to them.
We simply need to sit back and observe.
They’ll come crawling eventually anyway.
I had already issued preliminary instructions to Incheon.
For now, stay out of it and wait quietly.
“What’s the probability that civilians will intervene?”
“That’s impossible.”
The sub-lords who had analyzed Korea recently spoke in unison.
“Korea is the nation where city-state fragmentation has progressed most severely.”
“Each city is desperate to devour the others.”
From an external perspective, Korea was a collection of divisions.
Rather than a single nation, it resembled five or six city-states barely sharing a flag.
“Regional sentiment as a concept has existed since before the Tower civilization.”
“By those standards, civil war would be unsurprising. They barely maintain the form of a nation, and they can absolutely never unite as one.”
A people that could never, absolutely never unite as one.
Real Madrid’s analysis was thorough and cold.
Yet reality would prove strikingly different from their predictions.

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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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