Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Illusion Victory and Zakum's Awakening
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A magic battle was exactly what it sounded like: mages pitting their spells against each other.
The rules were simple.
First, each mage equipped an artifact that generated a barrier proportional to their mana capacity.
If an opponent's spell hit the barrier and inflicted damage, that was one point.
Spells weaker than the opponent's barrier level didn't score any points.
Successfully countering or nullifying an opponent's spell also earned one point.
Illusion magic, naturally, couldn't inflict actual damage on an enemy.
That meant the only way to score was through counters.
Of course, no mage actually employed that strategy.
"R-Rye... are you sure about this?"
"I told you it's fine. Just do exactly as we discussed last night."
Rain stepped into the arena, visibly tense.
She and her opponent, Domur, each generated their barriers.
The one who racked up the most points over the roughly five minutes the barriers lasted would be the winner.
The magic battle began.
"Win this, Domur!"
"Crush that illusion mage!"
Amid the fervent cheers from the imperial mages, Domur began casting first.
"Heh... Illusion mage Riot. I didn't think you'd actually fight in earnest."
At that moment, Lens approached where Rye was standing and spoke to him.
He was already grinning, as if victory was assured.
"Just to be safe, if you lose, don't try to weasel out by revealing my identity..."
"-Don't worry. Win or lose, I'll keep the user's anonymity intact. But remember, anonymity doesn't give you a free pass to do whatever you want."
"You little...!"
Lens bristled at Rye's words but quickly took a deep breath to compose himself.
"Just watch the magic battle. See how magnificent our magic is."
"Hah, as if some illusion spell could... what?!"
Lens turned his gaze to the arena, and his eyes went wide.
On the surface, it didn't look like an intense fight.
But the scoreboard was off.
[Rain 1 : Domur 0] The illusion mage's score had gone up.
At that instant, Domur began preparing another spell.
And Rain mirrored him exactly.
Kagagagak-
Steel spikes erupted from the ground.
Rain threw herself aside to dodge, but spikes shot up simultaneously from the opposite side.
Then, a massive light began pouring down from the sky.
It was like a god. Or a colossal angel. Or perhaps a gigantic demon.
A being that seemed far beyond human limits descended and attacked Domur.
"H-Hiiik-!"
Domur's spell fizzled out from the shock, and Rain's score ticked up.
Since illusion mana had interfered, it counted as a successful counter.
The onlookers shrank back at the entity's appearance. Even Lens did the same.
Of course, it was an illusion.
Just one so vivid and terrifying that no one could believe it was fake.
"W-What are you doing?! It's just an illusion!"
Lens shouted after snapping out of it.
Regaining his focus at the sound of Lens's voice, Domur looked up.
Over ten colossal titans now loomed over him.
"Th-This is an illusion... illusion... it's an illusion..."
Domur chanted to himself like a mantra as he prepared his spell.
Then the titans began stomping their feet.
Even the ground quaking felt utterly real.
For a pampered imperial mage, it was a terror too much to endure.
"Illusion... illusion... illusion..."
Domur squeezed his eyes shut and cast his spell.
The titans' feet came crashing down toward him, as if to crush him flat.
It was definitely an illusion, yet the shadows were so lifelike.
The massive foot drew closer, blotting out the light from his vision.
"Huaaaaaah-!"
In the end, Domur canceled his attack spell and summoned a gigantic steel shield to cover his body.
Kugung...
The titans' footsteps passed harmlessly through Domur and his steel shield.
"Ha, ha, hahahahaha!"
Seeing the illusory titans phase through his body, Domur burst into mad laughter.
It was a bizarre cackle born from terror and relief.
The other mages watching him couldn't laugh.
"Huaaaah-!"
At least confirming it was an illusion allowed Domur to finally complete an attack.
Steel spears flew toward Rain.
Whoosh-
But they passed straight through her and embedded in the wall.
At the same moment, a massive hole opened beneath Domur's feet.
A sensation of being pulled in gripped him, and he began to plummet.
The surroundings grew darker. Far below, a colossal monster licked its chops and opened its maw.
Kuwaaaaaah-
Domur's scream echoed through the arena.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The duel ended, and Lens slumped to the ground in a daze.
The other imperial mages reacted similarly.
They especially would—this was their first exposure to illusion magic.
Though almost no one had ever witnessed illusion magic of this caliber.
"You said that mage is your niece?"
"...Yes."
"You mentioned having a daughter once?"
"...How did you...?"
"Because the illusion mage standing over there is your daughter."
Lens jerked his head up.
"People in the illusion school don't really study magic diligently. It's useless anyway. But Rain was different. Unlike the others just working part-time gigs, she threw herself into researching illusion magic."
When I first came to the tower, Rain was the only one not slacking off with a side job.
She was the only one handling the tower's duties in the Tower Master's stead.
It took years after arriving at the tower to realize she did it because she wanted to become a mage.
"The girl you discarded just because of her illusion attribute became an outstanding mage like that. And she worked incredibly hard to get there."
She might not truly qualify as an outstanding mage.
It was all meaningless illusions, after all.
But at least in this magic battle, Rain's spells had won.
"Though you won't admit it's outstanding magic."
Rain walked over from the arena.
I waited in case she had words for Lens, but it seemed not.
"Sorry... I apologize for dismissing illusion magic."
Lens honored the bet, at least. He'd handle the rest on his own.
"Maple Leaf Tale has quests that boost popularity scattered all over."
"...?"
"So keep your promise."
Rain and I turned and walked away.
The popularity-boosting quests would come to light soon enough anyway, so no harm in telling him.
I didn't like the magic minister, but I had no desire to lose users over it.
Well, if he worked hard, he might even reset his popularity to zero.
"That was incredible, Rain. But is it really okay to just leave like this?"
"...Yeah! Besides, no words come to mind anyway."
"Sorry. I told the magic minister about your identity. But he seemed to remember you."
"It's fine. Nothing would have changed anyway."
Rain gave a bittersweet smile.
"...Thinking back now, we weren't that close as a family, even when I was little."
"I see."
"I realized earlier that I don't really miss this place or my family. Maybe I just wanted to be recognized as a mage."
"That's why you studied magic so hard."
"Guess so? Winning the magic battle felt amazing. Like a weight lifted off my chest. That's enough for me."
Fortunately, Rain seemed free of lingering worries now.
I'd been concerned about her getting hurt over her father's attitude, but it looked like she was fine.
"Then let's head home!"
Rain said with a bright smile.
I smiled back alongside her.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Galliard usually partied with his old comrade, the elf Liana, for daily EXP grinding before tackling quests and adventures solo.
But lately, he'd been so engrossed in a quest that he even skipped party play.
The quest's name: [Zakum Quest].
This multi-stage quest could be started at the 3rd Job Advancement NPC deep in the Elnas Mountains.
To explain why he was hooked, we need to go back in time.
Galliard first discovered the Zakum Quest while doing his 3rd job advancement.
He could have accepted it then, but 3rd job took priority.
With all the back-and-forth between Victoria Island and the Ossiris Continent for the job quests, he had no bandwidth for something that looked annoying.
After completing 3rd job, Galliard forgot about the Zakum Quest.
He only remembered it much later.
The Abandoned Mine deep in Elnas was a sudden spike in monster levels compared to the earlier mountain areas.
Galliard had ventured in when his level was still low.
But he'd fled right from the entrance due to his low level.
Once he leveled up more, he returned to hunt in the Abandoned Mine.
Pressing deeper while hunting, he discovered a map called "Door to Zakum."
Amid hordes of high-level monsters, this map oddly featured an NPC named Adovas.
From Adovas, Galliard learned about Zakum—and it jogged his memory of the [Zakum Quest] he'd overlooked before.
And now, in the present, Galliard was tackling the [Zakum Quest] solo.
It was a party quest, but he could just make a solo party and go.
Stage 1 of the Zakum Quest required obtaining a Fire Ore from a dungeon in the mine.
To get it, he had to scour rocks and boxes in the twisting dungeon for 7 keys.
The uncharted mine dungeon was an incredibly complex map.
Only after smearing himself in coal dust and searching every nook and cranny did he finally collect all the keys.
Stage 2 involved crossing lava by stepping on tiny stones where even placing a foot wrong was impossible.
As he progressed, rocks fell from the ceiling, he swung across chains—the difficulty ramped up.
"How the hell am I supposed to get through this?!"
Galliard had yelled that the first time he saw the map.
A single mistake meant plummeting and restarting from the beginning.
It wasn't as tough as combat, but mentally exhausting.
Once he got the hang of it, though, he cleared it.
His reward for Stage 2: Breath of the Volcano.
And the grand finale, Stage 3.
Here, he gathered fragments from Stages 1 and 2—the Fire Ore, Breath of the Volcano—plus extra materials to bring to Adovas for smelting.
With all materials in hand, Adovas forged the Eye of Fire.
"Whew... finally done. [Zakum Quest]."
Even after a full day of gaming, this quest had taken him nearly a month.
With no guides, and it being the quest he'd personally discovered first, it naturally took ages.
"Place this on the altar, and... 'Zakum' appears, huh."
The end of the [Zakum Quest] led to a showdown with the boss, 'Zakum.'
No telling how strong it was.
But with such an arduous prerequisite, it couldn't be ordinary.
NPC Adovas instructed forming an 'expedition' of up to 30 people to challenge Zakum.
Galliard was learning about the expedition system for the first time.
"An expedition... just how strong is this thing to need 30 people?"
Galliard's heart began to race.
Memories surfaced from his days as the hero, raiding with comrades.
Struggling alongside countless allies to slay a single massive foe.
The final battle with the Demon King still made his hands tremble when he thought about it.
Galliard wanted to challenge Zakum right away.
"But... how do I wait for 30 people?"
To fight 'Zakum,' he needed to clear the [Zakum Quest] first.
And right now, Galliard was the only one who'd done it.
He was also the highest-level user.
Gathering 30 qualified challengers would take ages.
Galliard pondered briefly.
Then a smile crept across his lips.
"What's the worst that happens? I die."
In 'Maple Leaf Tale,' death didn't mean permadeath, of course.
Just EXP and meso loss, respawning in town.
For a high-level user like Galliard, the EXP hit stung.
But he couldn't hold back his urge to fight Zakum now.
"Who knows? Maybe I can solo it."
As a former hero, Galliard had tons of experience soloing supposedly impossible foes.
Those memories steeled his resolve—he'd awaken Zakum.
Kaang-
The Eye of Fire hit the altar with a clear ring.
Moments later, it erupted in blinding light everywhere.
"Ugh...!"
The ground shook as Zakum began to emerge.
"Th-This is... Zakum...!"
A colossal stone giant with eight arms.
"Graaaaaah-!"
Before Zakum, Galliard died without landing a single blow.
He couldn't even scratch one arm.
Galliard realized it was absolutely impossible solo.
And shortly after, a single chat message blared across the 'Maple Leaf Tale' server.
📢 MEGAPHONE 📢 Fallen Power Warrior: Recruiting Zakum Expedition (1/30)@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The next day, that message turned the world upside down.
"Did you hear? The #1 ranked player in 'Maple Leaf Tale,' 'Fallen Power Warrior,' is recruiting an expedition?"
"Of course! But what's it for? And what's Zakum...?"
"Hey now, you guys know nothing. Zakum's a boss monster slumbering deep in the Elnas Mountains. Even that 'Fallen Power Warrior' died without doing a thing!"
"They say you need at least 4th job to even attempt it?"
"That's the bare minimum—rumor has it you need around 140 to contribute meaningfully."
"What? There are barely any level 140+ users right now!"
"And that's not all—to awaken 'Zakum,' you have to complete a special prerequisite quest..."
The #1 player's expedition call sparked chaos everywhere.
"...Zakum expedition?"
"Galliard... no wonder he ignored whispers. He was off having fun solo."
"Ho... something interesting after all."
"Hawawa-? Can't leave Jebit out of a big event like this!"
High-level users from all over began converging on the news.