Chapter 179
Chapter 179
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Ampoule of Amplification (4)
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# 179
“Hum.”
His mana had swelled to the point where it could burst at any moment, but Rokan simply stood there with his arms crossed, watching it.
Even though he could jolt it with a shock to force a release without pushing the mana out himself, he showed no interest from the start and just watched it endlessly.
Boom!
And finally, the mana orb exploded.
‘…It’s bearable.’
In the very center of the explosion, Rokan grinned.
Whether thanks to the Silver Lion set’s effects or his considerable magic resistance, the mana orb’s blast was manageable enough.
Of course, since it had been designed with mages in mind, it wouldn’t have been set with damage brutish enough to kill in one hit.
But like getting soaked in a drizzle, if he couldn’t overcome it, he’d have to endure this damage forever. He absolutely needed a way to resolve this situation.
[Mana Condensation begins.]
As the mana orb began swelling once more, Rokan’s eyes sharpened. He started preparing to ‘release’ it.
His benchmark for timing was right before the explosion. He got ready to strike based on the timing he’d just tested. He even stowed his weapon and wrapped chains around his right fist.
Kwang!
At the precise timing he’d aimed for, he thrust out his fist and smashed the mana orb.
Boom!
However, nailing the exact timing wasn’t easy.
Rokan took ‘right before explosion’ as the timing, but no one could know if that was correct.
So what should he do? Keep repeating failures endlessly?
Rokan didn’t agonize over it. He simply put it into action.
Boom! Boom! Bang! Bang!
The timing could be off. And external shocks could introduce variables.
Taking that into account, what Rokan did was aim for ‘every possible timing’.
The damage was manageable enough with potions anyway, so he could keep challenging it almost indefinitely until his potions ran out.
‘Hot-blooded grit! Nothing’s impossible with this.’
That spirit, also known as grind mentality. He personally embodied the core mindset of Korean gamers, the world’s strongest battle race.
Thung!
And at last, he succeeded.
“Heh heh heh heh!”
His appearance was a total mess, though.
“Got the feel!”
But the significance of that single success was huge. Rokan hadn’t missed that momentary sensation, that timing.
Thung, bang! Bang! Thung.
There were still failures afterward, but he forced his success count higher until he filled all ten trials.
[You have acquired the Release Magic Circle as a reward for passing the ordeal.]
[Will you challenge the next ordeal immediately? Y / N]
‘Should I?’
There was no loss in doing so, but it was time to play it safe. Clearing all five ordeals might trigger a ‘forced job change’.
That was why even the fourth one made him a bit uneasy. Some quests granted recognition without needing to clear the final stage.
“I’ll forfeit.”
After a moment’s thought, Rokan declared his forfeit. He’d already obtained everything he’d wanted anyway.
He’d even gotten an extra Concentration Spellbook on top of that.
[Concentration Spellbook][Skillbook]
Using it allows you to learn the Concentration spell.
The Concentration Spellbook was a type of skillbook.
It was something unobtainable through normal means, and its effects were guaranteed.
Casting speed increase, casting failure probability decrease, cooldown time reduction.
A typical spellcasting skill, but Rokan had no intention of selling it. It would make excellent material for creating combo skills or master skills.
For now, he tucked it into his inventory and checked the other two items.
[Condensation Spellbook][Skillbook]
[Release Magic Circle][Skillbook]
These were skillbooks too. It felt like a huge waste to use them right away. Mastering them together would let him use powerful attack magic.
After all, these were the legacy left by Bang, the Archmage of Explosions.
Each one was surely at least Epic grade.
“Rokan-nim.”
As he pondered what to do with them, the half-elf High Master who had emerged first greeted him.
“You succeeded! Truly impressive!”
It was obvious at a glance that he’d failed.
As Rokan’s expression soured at the thought of freeloading, a couple of items suddenly appeared before him.
[Protection Rune][Epic]
[Liberation Spellbook][Skillbook]
They were the rewards from the remaining two ordeals. It seemed their assigned rooms had been perfectly offset from each other.
“I feel like I did far too little. It’s not much as repayment, but please take these.”
What a windfall. Rokan forcibly suppressed his rising grin as he accepted them. And in his heart, he prayed for success from the team that had gone in search of the finished product.
If they succeeded, wouldn’t the entire legacy of the Archmage of Explosions become his?
There would be no shortage of people who’d gladly accept a slave contract in exchange for items like these.
“Ahem, you’re too kind. Let’s get going.”
Tucking them away carefully, Rokan first returned to Taimura. Just in case, he scoured the unified auction house while also checking the messages that had come in via the homepage.
“Bingo.”
Perhaps because he’d spent no small amount of time in the dungeon under the pretext of training, there were quite a few reports on the items whose whereabouts had been unknown.
One user had even already secured a five-leaf clover.
Rokan messaged him to set up a meeting while checking the rest of the information.
“Looks like a match.”
Users were certainly sharp.
All Rokan had thrown out were the vague names of the quest items he needed, but they’d exchanged info among themselves, inquired around, and come up with entirely new hypotheses and data.
For example, with the Balance Gem Dust, they’d proceeded under the assumption that it was made by grinding a Balance Gem. They’d investigated whether Balance Gem was a literal gem or a nickname, collected every scrap of info related to ‘balance,’ and exhaustively searched for anything that could be called that even if the exact item name wasn’t Balance Gem.
Among the reports that came in, there was plenty of overlap, so weighing the intersections and hypotheses let him conclude they were likely correct.
“Two possibilities for Indestructible Crystal, one for Balance Gem Dust. Hmm… hope it doesn’t take too long.”
The information boiled down to a total of three leads.
Indestructible Crystal could be in ancient ruins or the northern hemisphere frost zone, while the Balance Gem was surprisingly in half-elf territory.
The problem was that gathering them might take too much time.
While they cleared a single dungeon, the Ancient Emperor’s advance had continued, with news already arriving that two more strongholds had fallen.
“No choice but to ask them for help too.”
“…Right.”
In truth, Rokan had wanted to use this as an excuse to wait for success news from the ones seeking the finished product, but the tactless half-elf High Master used a magic messenger bird to relay the request to the Black Dragon Legion.
The frost region was a disputed area, but it also had multiple undead strongholds, so they were seeking cooperation.
Then they reassigned roles entirely. Rather than moving together, it was better for them to search for different materials simultaneously.
Naturally, Rokan took the Indestructible Crystal. The suspected Balance Gem mineral was deep in half-elf territory.
Having divided the roles—if one secured their material first, they’d go help the other—they were about to set off again when it happened.
“…They were seriously injured?”
Bad news arrived. The gnome and dwarf High Masters who’d gone for the finished product had returned from the dungeon with grave injuries, barely clinging to life.
High priests were fully devoted to treating them, but since they’d been hit so viciously, recovery would take time, came the explanation.
Now the only thing to hope for was gathering the materials and crafting the Ampoule of Amplification. The accompanying news of the Ancient Emperor’s movements only made his heart race more.
“Let’s hurry.”
At this point, Rokan had no room for choice. Extrapolating from the Ancient Emperor’s path, his next target was unmistakably the human capital.
He’d loved humans more than anyone, so it wouldn’t be strange at all if betrayal-fueled rage drove him to exterminate them first.
‘Mutual destruction would be lucky. They’ll probably get totally wiped out.’
They were in a ceasefire with other races, so they could summon every High Master to the capital or imperial city, but whether that would stop the Ancient Emperor was anyone’s guess.
‘Gotta hurry.’
NPCs dying en masse meant little, but if the emperor fell, if the capital crumbled, that changed everything. The entire human race would collapse.
Human forces, already pathetically weak, would shrink even further, inevitably impacting the plans Rokan had laid out.
With growing impatience, Rokan rushed to the location suspected to hold the Indestructible Crystal.
Whiiiish!
“This is just like… Indiana Jones.”
The place Rokan had found was an ancient ruin. One positioned such that he had to cross sheer cliff paths carved as if sliced by a blade.
So Rokan faced a choice. Climb the cliff like rock climbing, or crawl along the precarious cliff path where even setting one foot properly was difficult, spiraling upward.
He could summon enlarged Kai and fly up, but the winds were too fierce.
Even strengthening Kai with a combo skill, imposing a time limit in a situation where he didn’t know how high it went was dangerously risky in itself.
As long as he didn’t fall headfirst, he could use Berserk to endure the fall damage, but climbing the cliff again while nursing aftereffects would be idiotic.
So the choice was obvious: straight up. Rock climbing.
Thanks to the knack he’d picked up in the Condensation trial, he shrugged off the fierce winds battering his back and climbed higher, ever higher.
Then, it suddenly hit him.
“Wait, I don’t need to suffer like this. Digdog!”
At Rokan’s call, a certain creature appeared. Digdog, the subterranean special mount capable of digging through earth for underground travel.
Rokan ordered Digdog to burrow into the cliff face.
Groooar.
Digdog’s saliva, which could soften even hard rock, drenched one side of the cliff, and its sturdy claws tore into it like child’s play in sand.
“Up you go, good job!”
A tunnel completed in the blink of an eye.
Rokan leaped inside and mounted Digdog.
“Alright, let’s head up!”
He began creating a new path using Digdog’s earth-digging ability.