Chapter 277
Chapter 277
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 277
Chapter Title: Bad Timing
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Dark night.
Moonlight pouring out an ominous yellow glow.
A serene hanok building nestled between lush trees.
In some sense, it had all the makings of a sentimental scene, but not a single person inside Bongam Hall right now felt that way.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
“Winds that rage across the frozen tundra—”
“Rise from the deep abyss of darkness—”
“Like a furious storm, with your fists, smite the foe—”
A clanging chant echoed through the silent Bongam Hall, where even the crickets had fallen quiet.
Whooooosh—
Mana whipped up like a storm. Magic circles of every color bloomed around them, along with bizarre runes and dazzling incantations.
[Flame Charge] [Magma Spray]
[Shock Wave] [Force Smash]
[Hex] [Scary Scream]
Boom, roar, kaboom, crackle, screeech—spells and curses flew in from all directions, spewing every kind of noise imaginable.
Mostly evocation-elemental spells, aside from a few curses?
“Just as I expected!”
While they were tied up chanting and hand-signing, I’d already prepared countermeasures for their spells.
[Lightning Rod]
[Force Ward]
[Distortion Field]
[Curse Block]
I activated a few spells and extended my mana in all directions—weakening their magic, dispersing it, bouncing it back.
Rumble! Crash! Zzzzap!
Flashes and sparks erupted everywhere. The surrounding roof tiles exploded with a crashing roar.
[Fireball]
Oh, a big one’s coming.
“Sending it right back!”
[Chains of Dominion]
Clink—
I shot out golden chains and snagged the incoming fireball.
[System: The ‘Spell Thief’ trait activates.]
Crackle!
For the record, it’s a trait I’ve had since level 1, but I hadn’t had much chance to use it since I rarely fought other spellcasters. I stole control of the spell and swung it full force—
Whoom—
[Spell Enhancement: Maximize]
[Spell Enhancement: Chain Explosion]
The fireball veered off its path, orbiting around me once before hurtling back at them with amplified power and new properties.
“No way!”
“Yeah, that’s what they all say.”
[Magic Shield]
[Protect from Fire]
Hastily cast protective circles and fire resistance buffs flew up. Hmm, even rotten fish has its flavor, huh?
Kaboosh!
Boom! Boom!
Right before the explosions,
[System: ‘Enhanced Vigilance’ activates.]
[Enhanced Vigilance] warned of danger. I already knew. Under my feet, right?
[Leap]
I vaulted into the air, and at that moment, the guy below the main hall finished his spell.
[Ice Spike]
Crunch!
Massive ice shards burst through the roof where I’d been standing.
“You can’t escape!”
The cultist slammed mana into his own ice.
[Ice Effect]
Craaack—
The shards instantly swelled into towering ice pillars.
That voice sounds familiar.
“Ah, Kim Sung-hwan.”
The old man’s more capable than I thought.
At the peak of my leap, I scanned the surroundings. Cultists below, looking up and chanting. Yeah, casting spells keeps you pretty busy.
“Anyway, that’s about the size of it?”
There weren’t many among the cultists who qualified as a proper [mage unit].
I’d gauged their level. No need to trade more blows.
I pointed at the surging ice pillars and extended my mana.
Rumble—
Kim Sung-hwan’s mana growled in resistance to my spell, but I’d already spotted the flaw in his incantation.
Crack—
[Forced Phase Transition]
Fwoosh!
Solid to liquid, liquid to gas.
A spell manipulating matter’s state. The ice pillars vaporized in an instant, erupting into a massive cloud of steam.
“Gah!”
Kim Sung-hwan’s scream. Losing control of a spell he was maintaining must’ve shocked him magically.
“Burning serpent that swims the deep abyss—heed my call, rend the earth, and reveal thyself—”
Chanting from the courtyard.
[Magma Blast]
“Enough.”
A spell rooted in Western mysticism. The casting style differed from mine, but the end result was the same.
I drove a magical wedge into the completed spell...
[Spell Overload: Magma Blast]
Boom!
“Argh! My hands! My hands!”
The cultist screamed, staring at his exploded hands.
At the same time, I extended mana to infuse the steam with new properties.
[R’lyeh Mist]
[L-Grade Accessory ‘Mask of Carcosa’ unique function, ‘Yellow Dominion,’ activates.
// Yellow Dominion: Adds ‘Spell Enhancement: Fear Infusion’ effect to certain spells.]
“Ugh, illusion! It’s an illusion! Don’t let your guard down or you’ll—”
[Thunderbolt]
“—Aaaargh!”
“This mist is mine to dispel! Wanderer who dances in the sky’s palace, with your cloak, unleash your—”
Yeah, I can see how bullshit the [Chant Omission] trait is.
I extended mana toward the cultist chanting to summon wind and shouted.
“Shut your mouth!”
[Prohibition: ‘Silence, thou shalt.’]
Splash—clink—
“On this land—mmph!? Mmmph!?”
The cultist’s lips mutated into slime and fused together. The spot where his mouth should be became flat flesh. He thrashed, muffled groans escaping.
Grooooan—
Magical mist inducing forced terror blanketed Bongam Hall. The fight was over.
“Where, where is it! Gah!”
“O-over there! Argh!”
“You monster! Urk!”
Trapped in darkness, mist, and fear, the cultists screamed and flailed in panic—and I picked them off one by one from the shadows.
Zzzzzap!
“Aaaargh!”
Fanatics, heretics, cultists—some fit those labels, others formed groups without any religious bent.
Still, in [Cthulhu World], those who worship abyssal entities are distinctly called [cultists] because their minds and thought patterns have warped into something utterly alien.
Normal persuasion doesn’t work on them.
You kill them—
Or shatter their minds with terror exceeding their madness.
I grabbed one cultist’s head, yanked it close, and whispered.
“Look into my eyes. Pick whichever of the four you like.”
A horrific monster’s face reflected in his pupils.
Pitch-black visage. Four eyes in unnatural positions. Chilling golden glow. Hmm, my face, but pretty damn creepy.
“Gaaah! Aaaah!”
I twisted and crushed his instinctive magical barrier, then invaded his mind.
[Mind Shrink]
Ziiing—
“Guhh—guh—”
“Stop! You monster!”
A voice intervening from the mist. Preparing a spell? That’s... Kim Sung-hwan?
I kept my eyes locked on the cultist and flung a spell his way.
[Torrent]
Splash!
“Blubblubblub!”
Kim Sung-hwan flailing in the waves.
That old man had some impressive intel last round too.
I whispered to the delirious cultist in my grip. Probably came off as sweet and seductive.
‘’You want to tell me the location of the Laclrex Grimoire.’’
“Ah, I want to tell you the location of the Laclrex Grimoire. Ahh—but what to do? I don’t know what it is, so I can’t say. Maybe my comrades in another branch know? I heard from Mun Kyung-nam that one of them got some mysterious artifact containing unknown wisdom. Could be tied to the ruins found under the Nakhwaam in Buyeo. Mun Kyung-nam will be here tomorrow and can tell you more? Ahh, but how do I deal with this urge to speak now? Will this craving fade only when I die?”
“Nope, wrong answer.”
I’d already interrogated Mun Kyung-nam. He’d spouted pretty much the same thing.
[Lightning Enchant: Static]
Crackle!
I enchanted the babbling cultist, then used telekinesis to hurl him toward the others.
Crackle! Zap! Zzzzzap!
“Aaaargh!”
“Arrrgh!”
The tossed cultist became a live wire, sparking wildly like an overcharged battery.
‘About ten minutes in?’
Midnight was still ten minutes off, but no one left to fight.
‘Figured it’d be easy, but this is too easy. Any more traps?’
They’re not usually this weak.
Even that flailing Kim Sung-hwan is judge-tier in his cult—not top judge, but a solid 0.8.
I saw the [Evergreen Mountaineers] veterans lose to them earlier.
Ah!
“I get it now!”
All that struggling with madness and penalties...
“Yeah, turns out I’m actually pretty strong.”
Different jobs might have counters, but same job? Higher level wins.
Which means my window for this easy fight is under ten minutes now.
Flutter—
The [Bongam Grimoire], tumbling across the wrecked floor of Bongam Hall, flapped its cover like wings and flew to me like a bird.
Got the [Bongam Grimoire] this time.
Subdued the cultists trying to summon the [Great Origin], and snagged the grimoire with spells to block its descent.
Normally requires a complicated prerequisite quest, but the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] got taken out, so...
Bittersweet victory.
That’s why I addressed the hazy spirit watching from afar.
“Guardian. What do you think? Shall I avenge you?”
I raised my left hand, pointing at the cultists rolling on the ground.
Want it? Shall I make it happen? A bloody revenge?
But the [Guardian of Bongam Hall] shook her head, expressing her inscrutable wish.
‘’Stop her rage and grief.’’
“Who’s she?”
‘’Stop her.’’
Who?
Hmm... a woman, a woman.
Mun Seung-hee? Curtain Call? Or someone else who hasn’t appeared?
What’s different between this round and the last?
Well, I beat up these idiots who were supposed to die decapitated here and saved them.
“No way, her?”
Come to think of it, someone mentioned a few times but never shown—not last round, not yet.
Yeah, I get it.
“Groan—”
“Ughhh—”
While I was distracted, cultists slithered toward the gate. They thought I hadn’t noticed, but I let them go.
‘The Guardian doesn’t want it.’
Even if they escape, they won’t cause issues. Some have busted mana cores from the fight, others are cursed by my redirects.
They’ll need weeks to regroup, which’ll fall on Mun Kyung-nam’s lap.
Creeeak—
The gate opened.
“Yeah, just slink away quietly. Don’t forget for the rest of your lives—this is the Guardian forgiving you, not me.”
They might get jumped by furious [Evergreen Mountaineers] before leaving Seoraksan, but that’s on them.
Instead, I opened the [Bongam Grimoire] to check its contents.
[System: ‘Enhanced Vigilance’ activates.]
“By what authority do you speak for Bongam Hall’s Guardian?”
Huh?
A woman’s voice—an older woman’s.
I surged my mana and whipped around.
“Ah, talk about bad timing.”
“You... what the hell are you?”
Voice thick with rage.
Strikingly tall. Rigid posture. Snow-white hair.
Black leather pants and a belt with holsters like a Western cowboy.
If she had revolvers, it’d be perfect, but twin longswords hung at her waist.
In another situation, I’d call her one cool grandma, but not now.
“All this your doing?”
“This? Just what exactly are you calling ‘this’?”
Not just the timing—other problems too.
Fight’s over, but I wasn’t defenseless.
I hadn’t sensed her approach until the gate opened. Meaning this grandma... slipped past my detection. She’s on another level.
“Splitting hairs.”
“Grrrrr.”
She’s pissed, sure, but that growl wasn’t her.
Next to the stylish grandma stood—monstrous—utterly grotesque—massively built dog, snarling at me in response to her fury.
“No, wait! Elder! If you’re an elder, you can sense what just went down here!”
“Yes.”
She nodded slowly and strode toward me.
Step—step—like a runway model, confident and firm.
“You dared wreak havoc in Bongam Hall and clutch the precious book my friend guarded.”
“...”
Yeah, it’s her.
Leader of the [Evergreen Mountaineers], [Hunter Association] hunter.
Conqueror.
Not the destroyer-and-conqueror kind.
Just Grandma Jeong Bokja.
But commonly known as the terrifying fixer [Conqueror]—the destroyer kind.
She took another step toward me.
I’ll say it again: worst timing ever.
Midnight—new madness incoming...
Five minutes left.