The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 84

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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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Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 84
Typically, a 7th Circle mage is said to have transcended the realm of humanity and entered the state of a transcendent being.
Then what of the 8th Circle?
What exactly must one sacrifice, and how much, to reach that pinnacle?
Ilhyang.
No—I, Trevallion, had been consumed by such anguish for a long time.
I could see no path forward to the 8th Circle.
Merely possessing resources was not enough to attempt the 8th Circle.
One required a transcendent enlightenment that surpassed the limits of humanity.
And there, I was utterly blocked.
Until now, I had never experienced such difficulty even once.
Yet from the 7th Circle onward, no matter what I attempted, I could not feel my soul growing.
This was the fate of one who had lived as a prodigy.
Others had to struggle through each lower stage, breaking through walls with blood and sweat.
I had never known such hardship.
Whenever the necessary resources and environment were arranged, I crossed barriers and ascended stages with effortless ease.
Now, having lived so easily until this point, the karmic debt of my rapid growth came crashing down upon me all at once.
I was so desperate that I would have sold my very soul to a demon.
It was at this critical juncture that I encountered Manmulsang.
* * *
I abandoned everything and began to blend in among ordinary people.
I went to the streets and drew pictures to scrape by day after day.
I entered a Noble House as a servant, performing menial labor while enduring countless insults and degrading tasks.
I completely forgot that I was once a legendary archmage.
Had I sealed my own memories through my own power, the seal could easily have been broken.
So with Manmulsang’s aid, I truly erased all my memories.
I did not merely erase my memories—I locked away my magical talents, my swordsmanship, and all my other exceptional abilities.
Thus, I became an entirely different person and lived an ordinary life.
In the depths of winter, I attended the Baron’s Son on a hunt, only to be chased to the brink of death by a monster that appeared suddenly. Later, standing beside the noble’s son, I was captured by bandits and enslaved like livestock.
When the Baron came to rescue his son, I barely escaped, yet my life did not improve much.
Even after returning to the Castle, I had to worry about my next meal.
But those times were not filled with suffering alone.
After a day’s labor ended, sharing a beer with my fellow workers at an Inn.
Gossiping about the high-and-mighty over drinks and such.
Had I remained as I was before,
I would have found it difficult even to witness the ordinary lives of common people, let alone experience them directly.
The emptiness in my soul was filled in this way.
Reliving the moments I had rushed past too quickly because of my abundance of talent, I gradually nourished my soul.
And finally,
After approximately thirty years had passed, I could remember everything anew.
Two lives naturally intersect.
Like awakening memories of a past life in a single morning.
Trevallion, who had become a 7th Circle Grand Mage,
left behind the life he had desperately struggled through until then.
And moved toward the Magic Tower once more.
“Have you finally arrived, Master?”
“Yes. I’m relieved to see you looking healthier than expected.”
“I have no issues, but Master, your condition appears quite poor.”
“How could that be? I’m in peak condition right now. Do I really look that bad?”
“I cannot speak to what lies within, but at least your appearance is concerning. To be frank, your face has deteriorated considerably.”
My foremost disciple, Lian.
He remained exactly as he had been when we parted at the Magic Tower.
Still confined to the Laboratory, researching magical elixirs and spiritual potions.
Preserving forbidden texts in his own hand.
Lian’s expression and tone suggested he had never worried about his wayward Master for a moment.
Yet for some reason, Trevallion felt profound relief at such an attitude from his disciple.
“You intend to challenge the 8th Circle now, I see.”
“Yes.”
“I shall prepare in advance.”
The conversation flowed with perfect naturalness.
And so Trevallion challenged the 8th Circle.
He succeeded.
He became the first human to reach the 8th Circle.
The first thing Trevallion felt in that growth was a transformation in his cognitive ability.
The moment he reached the 8th Circle.
Trevallion could precisely ‘perceive’ all things existing in this world within his mind.
He could know in real time what people on the opposite side of the Continent were doing, even while lying in bed.
The flow of mana across the entire world became vivid, as if grasped in the palm of his hand.
Thus a human became capable of summoning wind and rain through his own power alone.
He could now directly command natural disasters.
Yet despite this, Trevallion did not ascend to the heavens, remaining only upon the earth.
He had become a living god.
* * *
“…What a damnable dream.”
Ilhyang rose from his bed and immediately grasped his throbbing head, exhaling a sigh.
The memories from the time when he lived an ordinary life were not vivid.
Perhaps he had deliberately lowered even his memory to ordinary levels.
Because of that, he had forgotten. Only now did the faces of those old companions return to him.
James, who had supposedly cut off his toe and eaten it while chopping firewood.
Liam, who claimed a fish had bitten off one of his ears after falling into a pond.
Oliver, who had gone to war, earned merit, and was officially appointed as a soldier by the Baron.
The faces of those friends, long since dead, surfaced in my mind.
Suddenly, memories processed as hazy as murky fog became visible.
No matter how hard I concentrated, those memories refused to sharpen.
And so I became certain.
“These must be the memories Manmulsang took with him.”
Why did he take some memories and leave others behind?
What was the criteria that Manmulsang used to choose?
Shaking my head, which had grown somewhat heavy.
I rose from my seat, opened the Door, and descended directly to the first floor.
“Oh my! Are you feeling better, young master? You collapsed so suddenly that I was terribly worried!”
“It seems you moved me to the bed. Thank you.”
Ting—!
I flicked three silver coins from my pocket, and Poil, the Inn Server, caught them with flashy hand movements as if performing a trick.
“Haha, it was no trouble at all, young master! Shall I bring the usual meal?”
“Yes.”
“Chef! Roasted duck, dumplings, and thin noodles, please!”
Poil rushed to the Kitchen with a clamor, placing the order.
I sat down and fell into quiet contemplation.
‘Manmulsang is not a creature of this World.’
What does he ultimately want?
Just as he said with his own mouth.
Is it truly the case that he works for the balance of the world?
‘There’s no way to trust that.’
Manmulsang’s very body was fake.
At first, I didn’t know what his body was made of, but I learned through old experiments.
‘A Homunculus.’
An artificial life form.
A creature that exists only within a flask created by mages for experimentation.
Yet only Manmulsang would use one as a proper physical body.
‘Then where is the true body that moves it?’
Seeing how Manmulsang casually traverses various dimensions.
That true body must possess overwhelmingly superior power.
‘It manipulates time, has no spatial constraints, and its body never ages.’
Isn’t that essentially a god?
What could such a god-like existence want from insignificant humans?
What on earth could it be?
Could such a thing even exist?
Even I, at this very moment, desired nothing in the Lower Realm.
Truly nothing at all.
As long as he doesn’t become a nuisance, that’s all that matters.
Then wouldn’t Manmulsang, if he reached that level, lack for nothing even in the Upper Realm rather than the Lower Realm?
After all, he would possess the ability to obtain whatever he desired by his own hand.
So why would such a being go through the trouble of sending a fake body—a Homunculus—to meddle in human affairs?
‘And what could he possibly gain from doing so?’
Looking back on the war with the Demon King now, Manmulsang had gained remarkably little.
Or rather, it wasn’t that he gained anything at all.
One could even say he suffered a loss.
He had unilaterally sold goods that favored humanity.
And in return, what he took was predominantly cheap items by comparison.
“Your meal is served, Young Master.”
As Ilhyang pondered, dishes were laid out across the Dining Table in succession.
As I brought them to my lips, my thoughts continued.
The moment the sweet and savory taste of roasted duck brushed my tongue.
‘Come to think of it, the appearance of Manmulsang means there must be great adversaries somewhere.’
Adversaries.
Like the Demon King and the Hero.
Beings destined to inevitably clash with one another.
In that other world, it was the Demon King and the Hero.
‘But in this world, who could it be?’
Could it be the Upper Realm and Lower Realm?
But the disparity in power between the two is far too stark.
So that made no sense.
‘No, thinking about it that way, the Hero was never a match for the Demon King to begin with.’
No matter how much divine power the Goddess bestowed upon him.
If the Demon King had moved to capture the Hero personally in those early days when the Hero first appeared?
The Hero would have melted into a handful of blood the moment he stepped beyond the Castle gates.
The power gap between the Demon King and the Hero in those early days was truly immense.
It was only because the Hero moved to pursue the Demon King that his strength rose sharply.
And simultaneously, he gathered good companions, increasing the overall power of his forces.
That was how the Hero ultimately achieved victory against the Demon King.
‘Now that I think about it, didn’t Manmulsang say I was a qualified one?’
I had heard that story before when I was beside the Hero, so I hadn’t thought much of it then.
“Surely not….”
Now that I think about it, I haven’t found a suitable adversary in the Lower Realm yet.
But Manmulsang appeared before me for the first time. Then could it be?
“Could it be that this time, I’m playing the Hero’s role?”
Ilhyang unconsciously lifted his gaze toward the ceiling of the Manseok Inn.
At the thought that someone might be watching from up there, his eyes naturally drifted upward.

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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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