Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Afterword (1)
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The moment I got home, I threw myself onto the sofa.
Was it because the battle with the black magician had drained me mentally?
My body felt heavier than usual.
“Ow….”
I let out a long sigh and stretched.
It wasn’t like the previous fights where I could just brute-force my way through.
This was my first real battle against a being with proper intelligence.
I’d won in the end, but I hadn’t let my guard down for a second.
“Time to get to work.”
After resting for a bit.
I dumped all the items I’d gotten this time onto the living room floor.
Now it was time to sort the spoils of war.
“Let’s start with the banners.”
The first thing that caught my eye was, of course, the reward from the 40th floor: the banners.
One original and four copies. A total of five banners.
I’d left one at the temple, so four remained.
Where should I put these for maximum efficiency?
I pondered for a moment.
“First off, one has to go in our house.”
One of them absolutely had to be installed at home.
Being able to return straight home from anywhere was a huge advantage.
I went down to the basement and planted the original banner.
A faint light flashed from the banner and then vanished.
“Now three are left….”
At first, I thought about sticking them in Seoul or other cities around the country.
But I shook my head and dismissed the idea.
“What’s the point?”
If I needed to go to Seoul, I could just teleport with magic.
Or ask Uncle for a ride.
No need to waste precious faith and items just to save a little time.
They might be useful in overseas cities.
“But when would I ever go abroad?”
I’d never set foot outside the country even once.
No overseas spots came to mind that I’d visit often.
“Definitely best to put them all inside the Tower.”
What if I planted these banners in key spots inside the Tower?
For example, the mines on the 30th floor block where the dwarves were.
That place was packed with all sorts of rare minerals.
If I stuck one banner there, I could pop in anytime, mine what I needed, and come right back.
This was definitely an item I had to use sparingly.
“Good thing I left one on the 40th floor.”
I suddenly felt proud of my past self for tossing a banner to Sharon right before getting kicked out of the Tower.
Pulling that off in the heat of the moment? Was I a genius?
The 40th floor didn’t have resources.
But it was my first stable source of faith income.
I needed to visit periodically to harvest the faith Sharon had collected.
With that thought, I decided to test it right then.
Could I really move freely inside the Tower?
I gripped one banner and activated it.
[Select destination coordinates.]
Two images appeared in my vision.
The temple on the 40th floor and my house.
I picked the 40th floor temple without hesitation.
[Consuming faith to teleport to selected coordinates.]
I felt energy drain from my body, and the scenery around me changed in an instant.
A fierce wind whipped my face.
“Huh?”
I looked down, and the temple sprawled out dizzyingly far below.
I’d told Sharon to plant it in the most visible spot, and she’d really stuck it at the highest point of the temple.
“Eek!”
My legs went weak.
Staring at the sheer height blanked my mind.
I screamed and scrambled back from the edge.
“I need to get down….”
But there were no stairs in sight.
I wondered how she’d even climbed up here to plant it.
I just ripped out a chunk of the temple stone and made it into a stepping stone.
An elevator just for me formed in seconds.
“I should’ve told her to put the banner inside….”
Sharon came running over, startled by my sudden, noisy arrival.
“Who…. Sage? You’re back already?”
“Yeah, just passing by. I’ll head out right away.”
I caught my breath, pretending it was no big deal.
I didn’t plan to stay long.
The function test was done.
After a quick greeting, I used the banner again.
This time, home.
The familiar sensation wrapped around me, and when I opened my eyes, I was back in our basement.
“Success. Emergency escapes inside the Tower are possible now.”
It really was an item for free movement inside the Tower.
An incredible haul.
But one thing bugged me.
The faith consumption.
“Worse gas mileage than I thought.”
At this rate, daily trips were out of the question.
I did some quick math.
The faith I got from temple visits had to exceed the teleport cost.
“For now, I’ll come back in a month.”
I nodded in satisfaction.
I turned my attention to the next item.
The black magician’s legacy.
A skull-shaped wand and a black robe.
Items that boosted black magic power and enabled necromancy spells.
“No real use for them right now.”
I decided to store both away for now and set them aside.
“This guy’s the problem….”
Only one spoil of war left.
I shifted my gaze to the gourd on the table.
Inside it was the 40th floor boss, the black magician Akisa.
This one was definitely strong.
He’d gone down pathetically before showing his full power in our fight.
But that was because I was too good.
“How could he have guessed I’d copy his magic?”
Even that first wide-area summon cancellation spell was plenty threatening.
Without the sandworm and barrier blocking attacks once each, the outcome might’ve been different.
How to handle this dangerous bastard.
Part of me wanted to send him to the afterlife right now.
But there was one reason I couldn’t bring myself to destroy him.
Gates.
The scroll he had was the key to closing gates inside the Tower.
What if I figured out the principle and could close real-world gates too?
The world would flip upside down.
It’d be a revolution.
I pondered, then booted up my computer and logged into the Hunter Gallery.
Checking public opinion wouldn’t hurt.
I wrote a post in my usual style.
[Title: What if we figure out how to close gates?]
[Author: Anon (555.555)]
[Body: Finding this out = Nobel Prize?]
ㄴ How the hell do you close a gate, idiot? You serious?
ㄴ (OP) Just imagining here, chill
ㄴ Why imagine the impossible? Moron?
“What the hell, this guy….”
I got pissed for a second.
What were the mods doing? Not banning trolls?
The gallery had really gone downhill.
Back when I was a mod, there were no trolls like this.
These days, mods just posted crap instead of managing. Truly lamentable.
I scrolled down to the next comments.
ㄴ If we could close ‘em, North Korea’s land becomes ours right away, no???
ㄴ Do we get all the gate-burst land? ㄱㄴ?
ㄴ (Waving Taegukgi)
ㄴ At that point, forget Nobel, they’d make a new prize
ㄴ Every government worldwide fighting to recruit you?
ㄴ But would it even work?
ㄴ Fr, no way.
ㄴ It could happen. But not in Korea lol
ㄴㄴ This
I read the comments and reached a conclusion.
This was info I had to uncover no matter what.
I steeled my resolve and opened an online shopping site.
I needed tools to properly break the black magician.
I bought a centrifuge and an ultra-high-speed blender.
Plan to test each and see what works best.
Rocket delivery, so they’d arrive tomorrow.
“Come to think of it, are there any black magicians among hunters?”
After checkout, a question popped up.
Might as well look into the black magician class while I was at it.
I posted another question on the Hunter Gallery.
[Seen any black magician hunters???]
ㄴ That YouTuber with the beard who smiles a lot?
ㄴ I saw one take 2 damage and draw 1 card.
“Always chasing memes instead of helping.”
I clicked my tongue and headed to a higher-level community.
The gallery for A-rank hunters and their team members only.
There, I finally got some solid info.
ㄴ Black mages are super rare. Fewer than regular mages?
ㄴ (OP) Rare class then? Sounds good?
ㄴ Nah. Skillset sucks for mobbing.
ㄴ Mages too. Only good for PVP. Never seen one myself.
ㄴ Heard if you see a black mage overseas, run.
ㄴ Why??
ㄴ Govt raises ‘em to assassinate other hunters.
“What kinda shit job is this?”
Awakened to hunt monsters, but specialized in killing people?
Is there even room for troll jobs like this?
I shook my head and scrolled down.
Then I spotted some interesting info.
ㄴSo no S-rank black mages? All assassins?
Someone’s question and its reply.
ㄴ There’s one necromancer. S-rank.
Necromancer. Mage who commands the dead.
It was also the option on the robe that was now mine.
I quietly committed that fact to memory.
Might meet them someday.
I wondered what they’d think seeing my items and the bottled black mage.
“…?”
That’s when I was organizing my thoughts.
I felt Chohogi slinking over beside me.
Eyes pointed elsewhere like it wasn’t interested, but it had sneaked right up to the table.
Anyone could tell it was watching me.
‘Why’s it moving so sneakily?’
Couldn’t ignore that.
I kept observing what it was up to, pretending to browse the gallery.
Chohogi kept glancing at me.
Finally relaxing, it shot out a sandy arm toward the black robe.
“Hey!”
I knew it.
Chohogi froze at my firm voice.
It slowly turned its head to look at me, face all ‘What? I didn’t do anything?’
As if its round face would fool me.
“You were gonna eat it.”
Chohogi shook its head no instead of answering.
But its eyes stayed glued to the robe.
This guy. Got smarter, but only in sneaky ways.
“No. That’s dangerous.”
I said firmly.
Who knew what accident it’d cause if I gave it that.
What if it revived last night’s chicken bones?
The thought was horrifying.
Bare chicken skeletons running around the living room.
Absolutely not.
I stood up and grabbed the robe and wand.
I felt Chohogi’s disappointed gaze, but I ignored it.
Dangerous stuff like this needed to be out of its reach.
“Size doesn’t even fit you anyway.”
I went to my room and rummaged deep in the closet.
Out came the box with the magical girl belt and wand set.
I put the items in the box with the belt and stashed it on the high shelf Chohogi couldn’t reach.
“Now I can relax.”
That wrapped up the research and item sorting.
Suddenly nothing left to do.
I sprawled on the sofa and pulled up the system window.
[Sandworm]
[Status: Summon Released (22 hours 58 minutes until resummon.)]
Still nearly a full day left.
Aftermath of the forced release during the black mage fight.
“I miss my wormy….”
I muttered in a deliberately sad voice.
Bored. Maybe make a tribute video for the gallery.
‘My precious sandworm crossed the rainbow bridge…’ Something clickbaity for laughs.
I grabbed my phone and searched for videos of the sandworm in action.
“Huh, not a single one?”
No matter how I dug through my gallery, no photos or videos of the sandworm.
Come to think of it, I’d never once thought to film it.
The only footage was the 40th floor battle vid Sharon just sent.
Even there, the sandworm appeared, swallowed the black mage, then got obliterated by a shockwave in the next scene without a scream.
And that was its only video record.
“Should’ve treated it better while it was alive….”
My nose tingled for no reason.
Sure, I’d see it again tomorrow, but I still felt bad.
Not just the sandworm.
Chohogi too.
We’d been together a while, but all footage was battle clips.
“Gotta reflect on this.”
From now on, I vowed to snap photos of Chohogi and the sandworm whenever.
Make an album later.
Tribute video on hold.
Instead, I opened the Mage Gallery.
Time to share my 40th floor clear achievements.
Sharon’s battle footage was bragging material on its own.
Telling how I took down a self-proclaimed 9th-circle grand mage black wizard? They’d be amazed.
I smugly opened the gallery screen.
“Hm?”
Right as I went to hit the new post button.
A fresh post at the top caught my eye.
[Title: Broke through new floor with shield from newbie.]
[Author: Magic is Firepower]
Magic is Firepower—Jung Tae-yeon.
She’d already posted a review of the shield.
Forgetting my own post, I clicked it like I was drawn in.