The Return of the EX-Class Wizard - Chapter 98

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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 098
My train of thought derailed for a moment.
The hollow disappointment of a failed spell weighed far heavier than the joy of clearing an EX-rank dungeon.
Immediately after exiting the Tower, I found myself muttering without thinking.
“Damn it.”
“What’s wrong, Strongtree!”
Christine, who had just returned, saw my expression and widened her eyes as she approached.
“Don’t tell me… you failed the EX-rank clear?”
“No, that’s not it…”
I offered an awkward smile.
Then I steadied myself once more.
“It’s fine. Everything went according to plan.”
“…Really?”
Despite my words, Christine’s expression darkened noticeably.
She could tell immediately.
Right now, this person’s face was anything but fine.
‘I can practically smell the gloom radiating off this mage…’
To wear such an expression even after clearing an EX-rank dungeon.
Outwardly composed, but inwardly drowning in melancholy.
Christine laughed bitterly.
‘I still have so far to go.’
Unlike herself, who would have screamed with excitement just clearing an EX-rank dungeon, this person treated a failed spell as a true failure.
That was what it meant to be a mage.
A true mage. Strongtree Choi Kang-mok.
“But you should have a rank-down debuff on you. How did you manage an EX-rank clear?”
I was genuinely curious.
The 30th-floor range had poor compatibility with Christine.
For her, it was a humiliating tier where she mostly recorded B-rank clears.
Her world ranking didn’t even register in the top 300.
“I just did it the usual way.”
“Come on, don’t be like that. Tell me. I promise I’ll keep it secret.”
Christine’s magical curiosity had erupted.
As a fellow practitioner of the craft (?), this was something she couldn’t simply overlook.
“I really just did it.”
“Really really?”
Christine scrutinized my face from every angle.
“…Wow, you really just did it?”
“Yeah. I destroyed the Tower.”
“That’s a common strategy… Don’t tell me you just destroyed everything from the start? Without taking them down one by one?”
I nodded.
Christine pressed her temples and spoke.
“Again… fundamental destruction?”
“Probably.”
“…Honestly, I thought you’d do it like Vicario.”
“Vicario?”
“Yeah. He fights with both the Heart Fragment of Ignis and a Phoenix feather.”
Using those two together, the flame zone monsters just melt away.
Debuffs are essentially neutralized.
It’s not for nothing that the two combinations are called cheat codes.
“I thought that was exactly the route you’d take.”
“Oh, right. I forgot to equip those.”
….
Christine let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re insane.”
So absorbed in perfecting the energy field that I’d forgotten the existence of two artifacts altogether.
As a mage, it was possible.
‘But you reached EX-rank without even using them?’
The flame zone conquest method that Italy had monopolized.
A new path might now open up.

* * *
Western Europe was now a cauldron of shock and fear.
[EX-rank from Floor 31 to 32? For real?]
└Isn’t that impossible?
└Vicario got pushed back…?
└So there really is no eternal first place
Italy had long guarded the throne of the 30th floor range.
At its center stood the symbol of the Naples Guild, the Holy Knight Vicario.
But now, that throne was trembling.
Hahaha, you Italian bastards, you think you’re the best? The best? The best?
Mockery emerged, but some were serious.
[This is no laughing matter. The 30-40 floor range is actually the most critical section in Tower civilization]
└Tower civilization is structured so the waist must be firmly supported to be maintained
└Italy’s waist is about to break in 10 seconds (Feat EX-rank spine breaker)
└How do you think Western European hegemony came about?
└Mocking this is basically admitting you’re an idiot
In the Tower Civilization 1.0 era, hegemony belonged to Europe.
Conquest strategies, artifacts, magical theory. All cutting-edge technology came from Western Europe.
There was once an age when the entire world looked to Europe.
The reason ‘hegemony’ had become ambiguous was simple.
City-state formation.
As each city became self-sufficient, the concept of national hegemony blurred.
But now?
The tide of globalization was beginning to flow once more.
[If this continues, European hegemony will shift to Asia]
└Asia X Korea O
└Korea X Seoul O
└Hey, that EX-rank awakener is a true patriot. Korea O is correct
[Still, the upper echelons are dominated by Europe]
└For how much longer?
└Can’t they clear the Floor 30s as EX-rank?
It’s only 32 floors. The real battle starts from the 33rd floor.
Amid the flurry of opinions, fire fell upon the feet of Vicario, a holy knight of the Naples Guild.

* * *
“Damn it.”
After Floor 31, now Floor 32.
“That EX-rank awakener must have discovered the same hidden route as me.”
A fragment of Ignis’s heart and a phoenix feather.
Using both together negated the rank-down debuff of the Floor 30s while simultaneously reducing the fire giant’s defense significantly.
Vicario checked the Hall of Fame again.
───────
[Hall of Fame – Floor 32]
[World] [Personal]
1. -(Seoul, EX)
2. Vicario(Naples, SSS)
…
───────
Even rubbing my eyes and looking again, reality remained unchanged.
I had clearly dropped one rank.
“This isn’t simply a matter of my ranking.”
The reason Italy had maintained Western Europe’s dignity,
The intermediate to advanced sections.
Especially because I had demonstrated overwhelming Tower-climbing prowess in the Floor 30s.
I stood at the center of that.
By assisting each city, including Naples, through the Floor 30s, I had elevated Italy’s average clear rate to the ‘highest tier.’
“Now that the EX-rank awakener has found the same route, Seoul will soon reach that level too.”
Moreover, that man is a patriot at his core.
Solo climbing? He doesn’t do that.
Given time, he will elevate the average of all Korea.
“If you fall behind in Tower climbing, you’re left behind.”
Lately, a certain hypothesis has been gaining traction throughout Western Europe.
The so-called Law of Total Wealth.
The total amount of rewards from the Tower and Gates is fixed,
and if someone takes more, others inevitably receive less—such was the theory.
“If Korea takes more, we get less. That’s how it works.”
Especially in the higher floors, which affect both quantity and quality, this theory operates with even greater force.
Moreover.
‘Korea’s Tower count nearly doubled after unification.’
If all those Towers were standardized upward?
Italy could no longer compete.
“There’s no choice.”
Vicario bit his lip firmly and reached out his hand.
In that hand lay a single worn occult tool.
───────
[Spirit of the Fallen Fire Spirit]
An occult tool that summons the vengeful spirit of a corrupted fire spirit.
It stimulates the curse seal imprisoned deep within the Forgotten Fire Spirit’s Stone Tower, amplifying the clear rank reduction debuff.
※Application Range: Tower Floors 31~40 / One designated national territory
───────
“I never wanted to use something like this.”
But he was about to lose everything he had.
[Will you use ‘Spirit of the Fallen Fire Spirit’?]
[Application Territory: Korean Territory]
It was a choice without alternatives.
[The Spirit of the Fallen Fire Spirit descends upon Korean Territory Towers, Floors 31~40.]

* * *
Choi Kang-chul, the captain of the EX-rank Dedicated Team, spoke in a formal report tone.
“A strange curse has been cast across the entire Korean Tower.”
He showed me a photograph.
Above the Forgotten Fire Spirit’s Stone Tower, a skull made of flames drifted lazily in the air.
“We’re still investigating the cause, but one thing’s certain—the debuff has been strengthened.”
A promising hunter equipped with a fragment of Ignis’s heart and a phoenix feather had challenged it with great confidence.
The result was F-rank.
“They wept and caused a commotion. Not even SS-rank…”
The disappointment was as great as the expectations had been.
Choi Kang-chul shook his head bitterly.
“It seems that when Vicario directly participates and assists, some mitigation is possible. The Holy Knight’s privilege appears to apply.”
“…I see.”
I nodded heavily as well.
I had only mentioned “magic failure” to Christine, but clearing an EX-rank floor was hardly unimportant.
Rather, it was crucial.
“What are they demanding?”
“Diplomatic relations with us. They want us to open up one EX floor in Naples as well.”
“We’ll need additional Tower occupation rights?”
“I can handle it myself. My new special skill only allows me to occupy one floor.”
“Ah.”
Truly befitting the EX-rank Dedicated Team captain.
Dependable.
“It will take time and resources, but that’s something we can negotiate with Naples.”
Choi Kang-chul continued.
“But this is the bigger problem.”
“What is it?”
“You know Vicario, right?”
“Of course.”
“There’s a condition that he maintain first place from at least Floor 36 to Floor 40.”
The sovereign of the 30-floor range.
They wanted to preserve Vicario’s symbolic status.
“He said he’d guarantee at least SS-rank clear if you enter together with him.”
SS-rank guaranteed at a time when the curse has been strengthened.
On the surface, it wasn’t an unfavorable condition for me.
But.
—*Hehehehe, hehehehe, puhehehehehaha!*
—*The Ascending Explorer, how delightful!*
When I thought of Kang Hye, an EX-rank clear was essential.
Not only that, but the EX Shop, EX Coins,
‘An unprecedented consecutive EX-rank clear’
.
Giving up now would mean losing too much.
“But hyung, if the curse has been strengthened… doesn’t that mean from their perspective, they saw no possibility of me clearing EX-rank? Why would they go this far?”
“Because you’re an ‘exception of possibility’. They want to eliminate even that possibility.”
They wanted to erase every possibility.
“And what was it… Vicario apparently set up a barrier due to his job characteristics or something.”
“A barrier?”
“Yeah. If you maintain 1st place for at least six consecutive floors in the 30s, it will prevent the curse from spreading further.”
“…Is that actually true?”
It was all a lie.

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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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