Chapter 82
Chapter 82
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: Securing the Chalice of Life
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The place I headed to was a small abandoned building near Jinwon Port.
As I got within a certain distance, I used Air Walk to climb to a high point on the building.
I could see countless people locked in combat at a glance.
Even a rough estimate put them well over a hundred.
It was a bizarre sight. You couldn't easily see this many wizards gathered for a fight even in the original story.
"...So where is he?"
The first thing I needed to do was locate Jeong Tae-chan, the guild master of Comet Guild.
From overhearing Baek Eun-sung's conversation last time, the Chalice of Life was with him.
But since I didn't know his face, there was no way to find him.
In that case, Baek Eun-sung...
"Ugh!"
Watching from above, I quickly spotted Baek Eun-sung in the thick of battle.
Baek Eun-sung was swinging his S-rank spear, the Paired Heaven Flower Halberd, massacring numerous wizards.
As expected of an S-rank wizard. But he was probably holding back his power as much as possible to avoid drawing attention.
Seeing that monstrous figure made me truly feel Jaun's fear all over again.
Gulp. I swallowed once and kept observing the battle.
It looked like I needed to find Jeong Tae-chan fast.
From the looks of Baek Eun-sung right now, it was only a matter of time before he tracked down Jeong Tae-chan.
I didn't know Jeong Tae-chan's face, but it wasn't like I had zero ways to find him.
I activated Character Insight.
It was a bit brute-force, but I used Character Insight to check everyone's info one by one.
After about thirty seconds...
"...Found you."
I spotted the one with Jeong Tae-chan's information.
In a distant abandoned building, a nervous-looking man in his forties was glancing around warily while continuing to fight.
Name: Jeong Tae-chan
Age: 46
Race: Human
Status: Anxious
Mana Rank: A
Interest: 0
Sure enough, fitting for a guild master—his mana rank was A.
I pulled clothes from my subspace and quickly changed.
The outfit I put on was the black jacket I usually wore while operating as Kim Jin-woo.
Finally, I added a hat, glasses, and a fake mustache.
Fortunately, plenty of guys around here had a similar style, so I wouldn't stand out.
Preparations complete. Lastly, I chugged the elixir.
Now I had about ten minutes.
I needed to recover the Chalice of Life and escape within that time.
"Hoo."
I reinforced my lower body with mana and leaped down from the building.
I glanced around once, then dashed quickly toward the building where Jeong Tae-chan was.
Along the way, some guys—whether from Goldwin or Comet Guild, I couldn't tell—tried attacking me. But I dodged their strikes with clean movements.
Truth be told, most of the people here were C-rank wizards.
Ones I could easily take down with my strength.
"Out of the way!"
That's when I was knocking down opponents one by one and pushing forward.
In the distance, I spotted Jeong Tae-chan, badly injured. He was covered in blood and limping.
Opposite him stood two people who looked like Goldwin guild members.
I manifested a spell and fired it at them.
Kwaaang!
"Arghhh!"
At the sudden support, Jeong Tae-chan looked at me with a brightened face.
He must've thought I was an ally.
But as I approached while manifesting another spell, his expression darkened again.
"Urk! Not an ally after all?"
Jeong Tae-chan glared at me warily and unleashed a flame spear at me. I twisted my upper body sideways to barely dodge the attack.
Even injured, the spell's power was vicious.
"Jeong Tae-chan. Hand over the Chalice of Life."
"...So that's what you bastards are after?!"
Jeong Tae-chan glared at me with eyes full of rage, clearly with no intention of handing it over.
No choice then.
I'd have to take it by force.
I extended my hand and aimed a manifested spell at him. He was an A-rank wizard, but in his badly injured state.
Right now, I could definitely take him down.
I fired the manifested spell at him.
Kwaaaang!
"Arghhh!"
The spell hit his shoulder, and a horrific scream erupted.
He curled up, trembling. He was writhing in agony.
I gathered mana again and manifested a new spell.
Woo woo woong...
Then I approached him and aimed the manifested spell.
"Hand over the Chalice of Life."
Jeong Tae-chan let out groans of pain as he looked at me with terror-filled eyes.
"You fucking..."
He rolled on the ground, muttering curses to himself, then started laughing like a madman.
"Heh heh. Just give it to you, right... So spare me... Heh heh heuk..."
With trembling hands, Jeong Tae-chan pulled a small golden chalice from his bosom.
I approached and took the chalice from him.
［Chalice of Life (Relic)］
Type: Chalice
Description: A chalice imbued with holy power.
［Continuous Effect］
►Purification
Fill the Chalice of Life with water to purify it. Consuming the purified water rapidly heals the body.
*Cooldown: 3 days
*The purified water loses effect after 10 minutes.
Durability: SSS
I'd finally obtained it.
The Chalice of Life, one of the materials said to make the Holy Grail.
It didn't have the Holy Grail's outrageous completed effects, but even on its own, it had impressive performance.
Jeong Tae-chan looked at me with resentful eyes before passing out and collapsing.
Mission accomplished.
Now to escape before Baek Eun-sung showed up.
That's when it happened.
"Oh. Found it~"
A voice came from behind. A man gripping a massive spear covered in blood was grinning at me.
'Baek Eun-sung.'
Baek Eun-sung approached me slowly with a beaming smile.
Even from quite a distance, his overwhelming pressure hit me. I pulled my hat down deeper to hide my face.
"Good work. You're with Goldwin, right?"
He must've seen me attack Jeong Tae-chan and assumed I was Goldwin.
Talk about lucky.
If he'd known I was an enemy, I would've been dead before I knew it.
Even so, the situation wasn't good.
With Baek Eun-sung right in front of me, my options were limited.
So what now?
Two choices.
One: Play along as a Goldwin wizard and hand over the Chalice of Life.
The other: Run.
...But could I really outrun Baek Eun-sung?
As a reinforcement wizard, Baek Eun-sung's physical abilities were top-tier even in Jaun.
Especially his running and agile movements—they were among the best in the entire wizard world.
Trying to flee from a guy like that would be suicidal.
But I had no intention of running blindly either.
I knew Baek Eun-sung's fatal "weakness," one that only a tiny fraction of people in this world were aware of.
I subtly rolled my eyes to scout an escape route. And I thought and calculated in my head.
The distance between me and Baek Eun-sung right now: about 25 meters.
If I ran, how many seconds before he caught me?
Four? Or three?
Three was iffy. But it was worth gambling.
Yeah, let's do it.
"Hoo."
Thump!
My heart pounded hard. Heart of Great Nature had activated.
"Haha. Thanks to you, I saved some effort, so I'll give you a big reward. I'm in a great mood right now. Want anything? Cash, something simple?"
I gathered mana. The elixir and Heart of Great Nature effects stacked, flooding my lower body with an enormous amount of mana.
Noticing something off in my actions, Baek Eun-sung's expression hardened slightly.
"You..."
He seemed to gather mana himself, then charged at me at a speed too fast to follow.
At the same time, I spun around, kicked off the ground, and bolted.
Paat!
I ran at my maximum speed.
I'd concentrated more mana than necessary into my lower body, causing excruciating pain. But I gritted my teeth and kept going.
Thud thud thud thud!
The sound of Baek Eun-sung's footsteps chasing me grew closer.
The terror was indescribable.
"Hngh..."
I kept running.
One second... two seconds... and three.
The longest three seconds of my experience so far. Then I kicked off the ground and leaped high.
I felt Baek Eun-sung's spear thrusting toward my back.
Pook!
"Keuk!"
The spear didn't reach, but the sharp mana blade extending from its tip stabbed into my back. Fortunately, it wasn't the spear body itself, so I wasn't caught.
Not even an exaggeration to call it a 0.1-second difference. And I plummeted downward.
Splash!
Cold seawater enveloped my body. Air vanished, replaced by a blue world before my eyes.
Blood flowed from the stab wound in my back, slightly staining the surroundings red.
I endured the pain and kept swimming underwater.
After about a minute, I surfaced.
"Puha!"
In the distance, I saw Baek Eun-sung staring at me in stunned disbelief.
"Hey, you... you crazy bastard! Get out of there?!"
Like I'd come out because I'm crazy.
I touched the area around the spear wound. The saltwater made it burn terribly.
If I left it like this, I might bleed out or get infected.
I needed to get to land fast and treat it.
"Hey! Come out! You coward! Hey!"
Baek Eun-sung kept yelling at me. His voice was so loud it hurt my ears.
"Eat shit."
I flipped him off. Seeing that, Baek Eun-sung's eyes bulged in fury.
"You, you fucking lunatic!"
I ignored him, turned, and swam again. Curses kept coming my way, but I tuned them all out.
"Hey! Where you going?! Get back here! Don't gooo!"
Divine Spear Baek Eun-sung.
One of the top ten physical reinforcement wizards in the wizard world.
He was terrified of water.
"Hah... hah..."
I washed up on the beach, trudging onto the sandy shore.
The elixir's side effects and blood loss had left me weak.
"Keuuk!"
I collapsed face-first onto the sand.
"...Thought I was gonna die."
I stared blankly at the starry night sky. The peace after the long fight felt strangely awkward.
But I couldn't waste time like this.
I forced myself back up. Looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then cautiously pulled out the Chalice of Life I'd stashed in my subspace.
The golden chalice gleaming gold.
I filled it to the brim with seawater.
Suddenly, the seawater in the chalice flashed with brilliant light. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into perfectly clear, transparent water.
"...Amazing. Can I just drink it like this?"
I examined the chalice from all angles, then downed it.
Despite it being seawater, the purification effect made it taste salt-free.
[You've achieved the 'Purified Water Consumption' feat.]
[You've obtained 5,000 points as a reward.]
"Hoo."
Vitality surged through my body. My foggy mind cleared bit by bit. The bleeding on my back was stopping rapidly.
Not quite the full power of the completed Holy Grail, but as expected of a relic—insane recovery.
"...Impressive."
I stored the Chalice of Life back in my subspace.
Then I pulled out some gauze. I always carried emergency supplies in my subspace.
I took off my top, spread the gauze wide, and wrapped it around my back.
It stung a bit, but thanks to the Chalice of Life, the pain was milder.
"Whew."
I changed into fresh clothes from my subspace and prepared to head back to the original site.
Beep beep! Beep beep!
Outside, chaos reigned. Sirens wailed as Special Task Force vehicles sped by.
Around this point, the incident must be wrapping up.
Hope Baek Eun-sung got away okay.
He wouldn't be so pissed at me that he's fighting the Task Force alone, right?
All sorts of thoughts crossed my mind, but I shook my head to clear them.
Baek Eun-sung could be hot-headed at times, but he wasn't stupid.
He'd probably realized his situation was screwed faster than anyone and bolted.
"Hmm!"
I lightly stretched my stiff body.
Time to head back to the scene.
The Jinwon Port guild war incident was swiftly quelled with the massive deployment of Special Task Force agents.