The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 58

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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 058
Two guilds receiving real-time strategy updates.
London and Saudi exchanged puzzled glances simultaneously.
“Energy Bolt?”
“But… he casts it and then just stands there?”
A first-person perspective strategy feed from the body camera.
From Choi Kang-mok’s position, it was an omniscient author’s perspective piercing through the entire battlefield, but from the external viewpoint of London and Saudi, it was merely a first-person reader’s perspective.
All they could see were fingertips, his field of vision, and the trajectory of magic.
However, London’s situation was somewhat better.
London was the one who could grasp the situation a bit more clearly.
It was thanks to Emily, the very creator of the body camera.
“I’ve connected the body camera to the drone feed. You know this is a secret from Saudi, right?”
With the drone shot, the situation became much clearer to see.
Foster, the Lord of London, tilted his head in confusion.
“Can Energy Bolt move so organically like that?”
Energy Bolt is a basic spell meant for restraint.
It simply flies in a straight line, meant only to distract the opponent.
All eyes turned toward Christine, who was participating via video call.
“…If that’s possible, then anyone could be a Grand Mage.”
“…”
“Even if it were possible, how many fools would actually do this with Energy Bolt?”
Christine had also thought of it as foolish.
It was like studying mathematics only to obsess over addition and subtraction.
Once you reach a certain level, you should be doing multiplication and division as well.
‘But…’
What if my thinking was wrong?
What if addition were executed at the speed of light?
Wouldn’t that be faster than multiplication?
Could that still be called addition?
‘He applied properties to magic that was already released.’
And while traversing the shortest distance at that.
‘He maintained penetrating power and succeeded in penetration once more.’
An attempt to collapse the labyrinth? An attempt to pierce through?
Other Awakened ones had tried before.
It had simply been impossible until now.
“Christine, how is he guiding the sphere like that?”
It was as if he were looking down upon the entire battlefield.
This was especially shocking because he was a Lord.
A Lord needs the ability to oversee the entire battlefield at a glance.
Just like Choi Kang-mok is doing now.
“Can’t we get the drone any closer?”
“We can’t.”
“Why?”
“The mana pressure is too intense.”
“Mana pressure?”
“It’s the pressure created when a mage casts magic!”
“But that doesn’t have physical force.”
“This one does.”
The mana pressure from the energy bolt was so overwhelming that the drone could no longer approach safely.
Anything touching that pressure would crumble to dust.
Then.
The purple serpent Akra let out a sharp cry and leaped skyward with explosive force.
“Huh?”
“Akra reacted?”
Snake-type monsters possessed exceptional threat detection.
It had instinctively sensed the menacing attack hurtling toward it.
“I didn’t know Akra could jump that high.”
“Neither did I.”
Meanwhile, the energy bolt shifted direction and extended toward Akra.
Like the practiced combat magic of a battle-hardened mage.
Foster’s eyes remained fixed on the screen.
“It’s remarkable how proficient they are in combat.”
The importance of combat magic—something Western Europe had only recently begun to recognize—the EX-Awakened had already grasped.
But there was something even more astonishing.
“At first glance, it looks like a hunting method of a battle-seasoned mage. But in truth… it’s far closer to a lord’s strategy.”
As a lord myself, I felt it acutely.
The EX-Awakened was dominating the entire battlefield.
Like a lord commanding a war, not merely a battle.
“They must have deliberately induced Akra’s movements.”
There was nowhere to escape in open air.
The energy bolt shot upward from below.

* * *
In truth, that final lure was not something Choi Kang-mok had intended.
‘I’d heard that snake-type monsters had sharp detection instincts, but…’
I never expected them to be this fast.
There were no reports of them jumping to such heights either.
In other words, this was an unforeseen variable.
‘The distance has grown too great for me to control properly.’
No matter how much I’d adjusted the range settings.
The farther the distance, the exponentially more difficult magical control became.
Fortunately, the ‘Precision’ trait performed admirably once again.
It extended toward Akra of its own accord.
But then.
[Akra has been defeated.]
‘What?’
Even Choi Kang-mok froze for a moment.
‘It wasn’t even a non-contact destruction…’
I hadn’t landed a direct hit at all.
It wasn’t even a grazing blow.
It hadn’t touched at all, yet it simply died.
Choi Kang-mok said nothing.
A mage’s destiny is control. Only when I completely understand and completely dominate something does it become ‘magic’.
Otherwise, it’s merely violence.
Something beyond my control had torn Akra apart.
‘What created this?’
My mind swirled in confusion.
[Calculating clear rank.]
[EX-rank clear achieved!]
Choi Kang-mok slowly rose to his feet.
I chose to accept the outcome pragmatically.
The plan had always been an EX clear anyway.
[Obtained 200,000,000 Diamonds.]
[Talisman Fragment 1/5…]
[EX Points…]
World Ranking 1st Place achieved.
───────
[Hall of Fame – Floor 25]
[World] [Personal]
1. -(South Korea, EX)
…
───────
“It went according to plan.”

* * *
Saudi Guild Lord’s Conference Chamber.
No one dared to speak.
After a prolonged silence, someone finally broke it.
“…What we witnessed was only one thing.”
Footage from a first-person perspective. That was all.
“An energy bolt. Then stillness. And between them… Akra died.”
The scene they had observed was remarkably simple.
A single elementary spell.
And an inexplicable victory.
“Could the footage have been manipulated?”
“The Seoul Guild wouldn’t have the resources to fabricate a live-broadcast transmission.”
“What about London?”
“…They would struggle as well.”
Silence settled over the chamber.
“Then what exactly… is this?”
The London Guild, having cultivated favorable relations with Seoul Guild for some time, fared slightly better.
At least they could observe the drone footage in real time.
Foster, typically composed and unflappable, widened his eyes.
“That thing that fell at the very end.”
Everyone rewound the footage.
Foster and the other London sub-lords had seen it clearly.
“The energy bolt that was fired first”
That single shot launched skyward at the beginning.
The spell Choi Kang-mok himself had discarded, believing it impossible to control.
It fell again and shattered Akra’s skull.
“It was a predicted shot.”
At Foster’s words, everyone fell silent.
A calculated strike. A preemptive blow calculated by altitude.
This… was possible.
While others recoiled in shock, Christine focused on something different.
“It wasn’t simply a predicted energy bolt shot.”
“Then what?”
“It wasn’t a sphere. It was shrapnel.”
“Shrapnel?”
Christine had observed most accurately.
“It must have struck the ceiling and shattered.”
The explorers had failed to measure it, but EX-Rank awakeners perceived differently.
“And those shattered fragments fell upon Akra like a meteor shower.”
Deliberate destruction.
A wide-area carpet bombardment through ‘Magical Fragmentation’.
“Just like a meteor shower.”
The place where Akra had stood was utterly devastated.
Massive craters pocked the landscape everywhere. Like impact sites from celestial bodies.
The labyrinth, which had stood as imposingly as a towering mountain range, lay in shambles.
Christine’s expression grew serious.
“I’m ending the meeting. I need to speak directly with the EX-Awakened.”

* * *
The moment Choi Kang-mok exited the Tower, Christine came rushing toward him at nearly reckless speed.
“You created a meteor shower?”
“A meteor shower?”
“Just how many layers of magical ingenuity and strategy were hidden in that? And how did you even determine the ceiling height that explorers couldn’t measure? Well, it wouldn’t have mattered if you hadn’t. If the mana fragments hadn’t destroyed Akra, the energy bolt induced from below would have obliterated it anyway.”
Christine spoke in rapid-fire succession.
She seemed to have already drawn all her conclusions internally.
“Meteor shower from above. Reflected projectiles from below.”
The labyrinth had no escape route, and Akra had no room to evade.
“When combat mastery reaches its pinnacle, this is what it becomes.”
Through the conversation with Christine, I too came to understand.
How this EX clear had been achieved.
Honestly, it had been luck.
“Fortune smiled upon me.”
“After all those meticulous calculations?”
I wasn’t entirely pleased.
Because this was a fluke, not true skill.
There was something else that troubled me.
‘My magic reached a ceiling that even renowned explorers couldn’t perceive?’
No matter how much I’d configured range enhancement, it was logically impossible.
This too warranted magical investigation.
My magical range seemed to have extended far more than anticipated.
‘Good. I have more to explore.’
“Anyway, thanks for sharing the footage. I didn’t know predictive shots like that were possible. It was truly artistry.”
“It wasn’t a predictive shot.”
“Right. You’re still the same, even today.”
Always so humble, aren’t you.
“But Strongtree, excessive humility is deception. From where I stand, it was flawless design.”
She didn’t stop there.
“You could have cleared this with a simpler method, couldn’t you?”
There was no need to make a grand display.
Yet I deliberately wielded magic with such theatrical flair.
It was a message.
“The creation-binding spell you demonstrated before entering the Tower. I didn’t understand why then, but I see it now.”
There was no particular reason, really.
But the Archmage Christine had assembled the puzzle with her own wisdom.
“Your unique creation-binding magic utilizing the Pocket Dimension. Mana fragments that can be precisely guided.”
Using Choi Kang-mok’s ability to stabilize the mana fragments.
Combined with the Archmage Christine and the master craftsman Emily working together to create the scroll.
If the necessary resources were to be supplied from Saudi Arabia?
A plausible outcome emerges.
A scroll that allows nearly anyone to approach an EX clear becomes possible to create.
“So your conquest of Floor 25 was a demonstration video for the entire world.”
Foster’s words came to mind.
An EX-Awakened is more lordly than anyone else.
“It was an orientation.”
“That’s not it.”
“Right. You maintain your humility. We’ll read between the lines.”
….
Christine winked.
“Just trust us! We’re London.”

* * *
To Choi Kang-mok, Christine’s proposal was quite an enticing one.
‘That’s right. A true mage must be capable of crystallizing their own magic into scrolls.’
Not merely mimicking a technique, but structuring and perfecting the magic itself.
A genuine mage creates their own magic.
And refines it so that others may wield it.
‘Successfully crafting a scroll is proof that I’ve mastered that magic.’
Yet he was nothing if not pragmatic.
‘…Crystallizing Dilcciknu’s entire energy bolt into a scroll is beyond my reach.’
At this juncture, Dilcciknu’s magic remained beyond my capacity to handle.
I had no doubt I would master it someday, but not now.
But a ‘fragment’?
Perhaps that was within the realm of possibility.
‘And… this newly reconstructed floor.’
The timing was remarkably fortuitous.
Spacious and sturdy. Perfect for a magical laboratory.
Precision. Compression. Penetration. Now came the next step—weaving mana dust into structural matrices.
As a mage, it was time to open the door to the next realm.
I could feel myself advancing.
“Everything is proceeding as planned.”
[Entering Tower (Seoul) Floor 4 (Reconstruction).]

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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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