Chapter 82 – Magician’s Ivory Tower (3)

“Whew”

Sungjin wiped away the sweat from his brows. It was a short, but intense battle.

‘Blinking everywhere with spells… Sigh…’

It took much longer than expected. In order to use all five marbles, he had to finish things as quickly as possible. Sungjin made his way down the stairs.

‘If this is the tenth floor… the hidden pieces were located… ‘

Sungjin tried to remember the past. As he made his way up while fighting the mobs, he came across a secret door. Contained within was a magician’s hat; a hat which granted temporary status boost.

‘Was that the 5th floor? Or was it the 6th?’

It was the place where a Manscorpion was, but he couldn’t recall as to its exact location. He was too busy trying to survive first time around, where clearing the objective was a difficult challenge in of itself; he didn’t have the time to sit around memorizing the location of secret items. Sungjin thought to himself,

‘Well, I should see it as I descend.’

“Let’s go Soldamyr, Cain.”

Sungjin climbed down the stairs with his two summons. The summons lasted 15 minutes thanks to the ‘Summoner’ passive.

It was in his best interest to make his way down the levels while he still had dependable allies. And thus he arrived on the 9th floor. The 9th floor unexpectedly had a large black goat roaming the level. The goat looked innocent enough. But

“Baa~”

When the goat let out a cry, Sungjin felt sleepiness wash over him. Resistance proved futile, and his eyes closed themselves. Sungjin was about to call out Soldamyr’s name who was following behind him

“Soldam…”

He didn’t manage to finish before falling asleep.

“Electronic Touch!”

Soldamyr used electricity to wake him, but the goat was already charging upon him. Sungjin braced his two swords against the goat’s charge, but

‘Pow!’

Cain came flying like a thunderbolt from the side, crashing into the goat’s side and flinging it away.

“Baa~”

The Goat cried as it was pushed away. Cain returned to Sungjin’s side

‘Grr…’

Cain bared his fangs and made threatening growls.

“T..Thanks, Cain.”

Sungjin thanked him as he recalled the past. The goat was no ordinary goat; it could cast magic, a Goat Magician. Probably a creature created by the Mad Magician Lenin. The Goat began to cry again

“Baa~”

A magic circle appeared before the goat. A fireball was fired from the magic circle. It was much smaller than the one fired by Lenin, but it was still quite a size. Sungjin chanted a spell.

“Anti Magic Shield”

The ball of fire flew straight at Sungjin.

“Boom!”

And exploded.

‘What kind of Goat shoots fireballs…’

Regardless of how strange the monster was, he had to beat it quickly. Sungjin charged towards the Goat again. The Goat swung its head around, trying to attack Sungjin with its horns. But that was a mistake.

There was no way it could hope to beat Sungjin in a melee. Sungjin didn’t bother dodging its horns and used the Moon Specter to strike the horn.

‘Crack!’

The horn broke off with a loud snap. The Goat’s prized horns were cut off with a single strike of the sword. The Goat became terrified and

“Baa~”

Cried as it retreated. Sungjin dashed forward to try and finish it off, but

‘Oong’

A bright light enveloped the Goat, and it teleported away a bit to the side. It was the same ‘Blink’ used by its master. Sungjin grinded his teeth.

‘I see… You learned a great trick from your master…’

Sungjin addressed his summons.

“Same tactic as before.”

At his command, Soldamyr began to chant. Cain ran towards the Goat’s right, and Sungjin ran towards the left.

It was the strategy that beat the Goat’s master; there was no way the goat would be able to overcome this.

“Lightning bolt!”

“Baa~”

The goat escaped the trajectory of Soldamyr’s spell, but it ended up moving closer towards Sungjin. Sungjin used the Blood Vengeance to behead the beast. Swinging the sword, Sungjin removed the blood from the blade. Soldamyr came up to him and said

“This creature… was created to cast magic.”

“Yes, it is impossible for ordinary goats to cast spells otherwise.”

Soldamyr picked up the severed head of the goat.

‘What is he…’

Sungjin was about to ask when Soldamyr whispered

“Mark of ill Omen…”

Sungjin stared at him. On the Goat’s forehead was a red upside down pentagram.

“What’s that?”

Soldamyr explained with a grave expression.

“This… is a forbidden formation.”

“Forbidden? What kind?”

“It’s a taboo spell which… merges two species together.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Just drawing this in Kutan is punishable… execution on the spot…”

Sungjin crossed his arms and said

“The master of this tower is such a nut job. You didn’t see earlier, but he burnt all the buildings down around the tower.”

Sungjin didn’t take it so seriously, but Soldamyr remained grave. Sungjin said to him

“Hey, let’s make our way down. We’re supposed to meet the others halfway.”

*

Sungjin progressed down the stairs while annihilating monsters on the way.

The difficulty of mobs on each floor rose from bottom to top, so someone like Sungjin who was making his way down from the top found each progressive floor easier than the last.

Sungjin finally reached the 6th floor where the hidden piece was located, guarded by a Manscorpion. The Manscorpion was a strange looking creature.

It had a body of a giant scorpion, like those of Kutan Desert, but had the upper body of a man growing on top. The human part wielded sickles, and although Sungjin wanted to try to speak to it, the Manscorpion wore a metal helm which concealed its face.

“Well, I’ll see after I kill them.”

Sungjin pulled out his swords. Soldamyr informed him

“Master, this is my last spell.”

He had fought all this time without rest, so it was unsurprising.

“Ah, ok.”

Sungjin turned towards Cain

“Cain, go destroy his tail.”

Sungjin made the request and then charged straight ahead.

“Lightning Bolt!”

Soldamyr’s spell came flying from behind

‘Bzzzt!’

The Manscorpion who was hit by the spells spazzed out on the spot. Taking advantage of this moment, Sungjin swung his two swords together and cut off both of its claws at the same time.

“Ugh…”

The Manscorpion let out a strange cry of pain as he swung his sickle to retaliate, but Sungjin dodged it by simply tilting his head back. It nearly reached, but it was all calculated. The large tail came bearing down on Sungjin but

‘Grr!’

Cain bit down and held onto the top part of the tail.

‘Haa hoo…’

The Manscorpion continued to let out a strange cry of agony. Sungjin was getting tired of it. He ran up the body of the Scorpion and cut off the wrists of the human portion of the Manscorpion, disarming it.

Then holding the Blood Vengeance upside down, he plunged the sword into the center of its scorpion side, killing it. The tail lost strength and became limp.

And although the human portion had only lost its hands it still went limp and died.

“Hmm…”

Sungjin considered taking off the helm of the Manscorpion to see his face but decided against it. He didn’t think that he would like seeing whatever was hidden underneath. Sungjin turned around.

Soldamyr was already back in his lamp.

‘Taboo spells… it really does leave a sour taste.’

He thought to himself. But then from the stairs leading down to the next floor,

“What do you think happened to him?”

“Why do we need to worry about him at all?”

“But the boss was cleared…”

“Forget it, let’s just get ready for the next enemy.”

Voices of others could be heard. The hunters had arrived. Sungjin went to meet the others along with Cain.

“Yo~ Nice timing.”

Reactions to Sungjin’s appearance were highly varied.

“You…”

The ‘Green Magician’ was speechless.

“Did you kill the boss? Alone?”

‘Mountain’ immediately asked out of curiosity.

“Why did you go alone?”

The Hoplite chastised him. And finally

“You fucking troll! Die!”

The Highlander came charging towards him. Sungjin thought as he watched the man run towards him.

‘This happened last time too…’

Sungjin readied his weapons and parried the Highlander’s two handed sword. One strike, two strikes, three strikes were exchanged… and this man was strong. Not only was he quick, but his strikes were heavy as well.

Sungjin took on a downward strike head on and was planning on pushing the sword aside.

But when Sungjin tried to push off the sword, the Highlander gave no resistance and instead rotated the sword, using Sungjin’s push to help turn.

Because of it, Sungjin was forced to make useless movements. The Highlander used this opportunity to attack Sungjin.

“Wooosh~”

The sword made threatening noises as it came flying towards Sungjin’s undefended side. Sungjin hurriedly brought his Blood Vengeance back down to block it

“Clang!”

The man retreated after his attack failed. The Highlander had a rigid expression.

‘He blocked this?’

His eyes seemed to say. But Sungjin was also surprised as well. The attack just now required ‘his full attention’ to block it.

If he did not have at least double the Dexterity and Strength, he would have fallen prey to the earlier attack.

‘Hey… he’s really good.’

Sungjin just stared at the man. The ‘Highlander’ was a young white male. Blonde, blue eyes, agreeable features, and handsome looks. The ‘Highlander requested assistance from his teammates.

“Hey! What are you dong? Help me!”

But the others remained hesitant. They must have felt uncomfortable attacking another hunter. By now everyone should have become aware of the ‘Troll System’.

They must not want to land the first strike. Sungjin found it interesting. Curious about something, Sungjin decided to test the ‘Trite – Eye of Jeremia’.

Sungjin touched the earring hanging from his right ear. The Earring required a conversation to activate. Sungjin faced the other hunters and said

“I am not a troll. All I did was run ahead.”

And soon he heard everyone’s voices all at once.

‘So the announcement about killing the boss was true?’

‘But isn’t that exactly the same thing as trolling? Well, since he’s not in troll state I shouldn’t attack him first and get the penalty.’

‘If either one of them dies… my contribution percentage should rise. I won’t get in the way and just watch. Things may end up playing in my favor.’

He could hear the sound of their inner voices. It was the most interesting of experience. And of the voices, the one that had the most impact on Sungjin was

‘That mother fucker… shut the fuck up!’

It was the ‘Highlander’s’ rage fueled thoughts. He came charging towards Sungjin once more.

‘Clang!’

The Highlander’s two handed sword exchanged blows with Sungjin’s two blades.

“Hey, why are you doing this?”

“You really don’t know?”

And whisper-like voices could be heard.

‘We almost died because you left the team!’

He didn’t seem like a bad person. Sungjin wanted to explain to him

“Hey, I’m not a troll. It’s just…”

“No excuses!”

The conversation did not last very long. He came charging towards Sungjin with the large sword. And his inner thoughts could be heard.

‘Trolls like you are enemies of mankind! You little piece of shit!’

Sungjin watched him charge in, but couldn’t help but grin.

‘Hey… this guy’s pretty righteous!’

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