Chapter 155: How to Deal with a Mage (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 155: How to Deal with a Mage (3)
Roman’s declaration.
When Felix first heard it, he was furious.
'He is clearly looking down on me.'
Ten thousand gold.
It was an astronomical sum, enough to feed forty thousand people for an entire year.
The underlying message was clear: Roman had zero intention of losing. Worse, by telling Felix to bring the mages of the Phoenix Magic Tower, he was openly implying that Felix’s strength alone wouldn't cut it. Even if Roman hadn't meant it as a direct insult, the successive remarks stung bitterly. That night, Felix couldn't sleep a wink.
He was Felix.
A 5th Circle mage.
In terms of Aura Swordsmen, he was equivalent to the 4-Star realm, but the sheer versatility of magic usually granted mages power far exceeding their star-equivalent counterparts. Even if Roman Dmitry was a 5-Star Aura Swordsman, it made no sense for him to defeat Felix so effortlessly.
He gnashed his teeth.
With his insides boiling, he endlessly replayed the past days of sparring in his mind.
'From now on, it's a matter of pride. I will make Roman kneel and empty Dmitry's treasury.'
The first week had been an unbroken streak of defeats.
Ordinary magic simply couldn't bypass Roman Dmitry’s evasion. Felix had deliberately stacked Memorize spells while meticulously studying Roman’s patterns. Gritting his teeth in determination, he used his humiliating losses as stepping stones, devising various plans to bring Roman Dmitry down.
In their eighth duel, he deployed movement-restricting spells.
He bound Roman’s feet with coercive magic like Slow, but the effects vanished before they could even take hold. It was an incomprehensible sight. Although Roman had shaken off the effects of Hold in their very first duel, Felix hadn't expected him to brush off successive crowd-control spells so nonchalantly.
Academic magic circles theorized that one could dispel such effects by forcefully purging the foreign mana invading the body. But that was an incredibly difficult technique, and Roman’s reaction speed defied all normal limits.
The first plan was a failure.
Five days later, he initiated his second plan.
He concealed himself using the Mist spell. Yet, even with his visual information completely cut off, Roman pinpointed Felix’s position like a ghost. For his clumsy attempt, Felix’s world was spun upside down. A powerful impact rattled his skull, sending him rolling miserably across the dirt.
A week later, he executed a highly systematic third plan: baiting Roman’s attack.
He had set up magic traps a day in advance. The moment Roman rushed forward, Felix triggered them, launching a simultaneous bombardment. However, the exact moment Roman stepped onto the ground, a powerful shockwave erupted from his foot, shattering the traps outright. Detecting them was impressive enough, but Felix had never heard of anyone destroying magic traps with sheer physical force.
His mind shattered.
It had been a somewhat petty method. Yet, despite preparing a full day in advance for a scheduled duel, he couldn't even touch a single hair on Roman Dmitry’s head.
Roman was a monster.
An existence mages could not hope to match. Skill gap aside, Roman knew exactly how to dismantle a mage.
'Roman Dmitry’s abilities exist in a realm untouched by the academic papers of the magic world. Where on earth did such a monster come from? If he ever harbored malicious intent toward mages, no one below the 6th Circle would survive.'
Goosebumps erupted across his skin.
Just imagining meeting Roman Dmitry on a battlefield made it impossible to laugh off his consecutive defeats.
He struggled desperately in those daily duels. He spared no method, and by the thirtieth day, he threw away his pride entirely.
His last resort: seizing the first strike.
Utilizing the opening Roman arrogantly granted him, Felix unleashed a devastating attack right from the start, intending to end it instantly.
The result?
Crash!
Rumble!
Aura Barrier.
His all-out assault was blocked effortlessly.
Staring blankly at the shimmering barrier, Felix gritted his teeth, bracing for the inevitable impact.
Thud!
The world spun.
Faceplanted in the dirt, Felix finally waved the white flag after a month.
* * *
Thirty days.
Thirty duels.
Thirty defeats.
He finally admitted it. Roman Dmitry was an opponent he could not defeat alone. Felix began to approach the problem from a different angle.
'I shouldn't cling to my personal pride. If I were to lead the Phoenix Magic Tower onto a battlefield and encounter a monster like Roman Dmitry... we would be annihilated.'
He contacted the Magic Tower.
When the mages of the Phoenix Magic Tower arrived in Dmitry and heard his proposal, they scowled.
"...Are you saying we should fight him as a group?"
"Lord Felix, no matter the circumstances, this is taking things too far. Mages do not generally engage in 'sparring.' Unlike a swordsman’s duel, magic is a domain where output is difficult to control. A single mistake could lead to a fatal accident. And yet, you want a group battle? If we happen to injure the eldest son of Dmitry, how do you plan to handle the fallout?"
Their reaction was overwhelmingly negative.
A group battle was an absurd proposition. But above all, they found the premise highly objectionable.
"To be frank, losing thirty times in thirty duels is a bit much, don't you think? Lord Felix, you are now officially the Acting Master of the Phoenix Magic Tower. As such, you should display the dignity and skill befitting that position. Dragging us to a distant land only to show such a humiliating display is unacceptable."
The speaker was a mage named Nox.
Following the disappearance of the Tower Master, the power structure of the Phoenix Magic Tower had completely collapsed. Although Felix had taken over as Acting Master, he was routinely ignored by academic magic circles. Under these circumstances, Nox and the other mages refused to accept the new hierarchy. It was a total mess. Even if they joined forces, they had no clear path to improving their bleak future, yet they eagerly blamed their 'incompetent' Acting Master for the crisis.
If one couldn't excel in magic, shouldn't they at least be adept at politics?
Felix was stubborn and single-minded. He might have been a decent mage, but he was sorely lacking as a Tower Master.
Felix spoke up.
"You are right. Losing thirty times in thirty duels is an unacceptable result, no matter the excuse. However, Roman Dmitry has wagered a staggering 10,000 gold on this duel. If we join forces and defeat him, you may keep half of that sum for your personal use."
"...Is that true?"
Instantly, the mages' expressions shifted.
Half of 10,000 gold. Even divided among them, 5,000 gold was a mouth-watering fortune. They exchanged glances.
Seeing the greed reflecting in each other's eyes, Nox stepped forward as their representative once again.
"We only need to win once?"
"It is not a matter to be taken lightly," Felix warned. "Roman Dmitry is a natural enemy to mages. If we let our guard down, we are highly likely to lose despite our numerical advantage. Therefore, we must conduct a thorough strategic meeting and—"
"That won't be necessary."
Nox cut him off.
Nox was also a 5th Circle mage. Deeply disgruntled about losing the Acting Master position to Felix despite being in his mid-fifties, he paid little heed to Felix's warnings. He believed himself to be the superior mage anyway. If Felix couldn't defeat the opponent, that was his own failing. It would be a completely different story with multiple mages stepping forward.
He declared confidently, "Do not worry, Lord Felix. We will clean this up nicely."
* * *
A few days later, the duel commenced under entirely different circumstances.
Felix, Nox, and three other mages stood together.
It was a five-on-one match.
Despite the overwhelmingly disadvantageous situation, Roman’s demeanor was no different from any other day.
"I will let you have the first move."
"Ha."
Nox smirked, scoffing at the sheer arrogance. Even in a straight fight, the mages held the absolute advantage. Yet he was giving away the first strike? Just where did this baseless confidence come from?
"Do not regret those words."
Nox glanced sideways, giving the signal. With 10,000 gold on the line, there was no reason not to exploit their opponent's complacency. He channeled his mana.
The duel began with Nox's spell.
"Fire Lance."
Whoosh!
The moment the fiercely rising flames condensed into the shape of a spear, the other mages cast their spells simultaneously.
"Fire Wave."
"Fire Burst."
Flames erupted across the battlefield.
There was no complex strategy. Nox simply intended to overwhelm him with raw firepower, and the blazing inferno converged on Roman from all directions. Fire magic grew exponentially stronger as more firepower was concentrated. Since the synchronized spells blocked all escape routes, Nox was absolutely certain Roman had no way to withstand it.
However—
Whoosh!
"...!"
Piercing straight through the roaring flames, Roman Dmitry rushed forward.
Recognizing the exact same pattern utilizing the Aura Barrier that had defeated him time and again, Felix hurriedly shouted, "Watch out! Fire Wall!"
Roar!
He raised a towering wall of fire, desperate to buy even a fraction of a second.
Before the flames could fully spread, Roman slipped through a momentary gap and struck one of the mages.
Crack!
"Argh!"
A scream shattered the air. One mage collapsed helplessly to his knees. As the others scrambled to launch their next attacks with panicked faces, Roman struck a second mage.
He was fast—far too fast. Even without using Blink, Roman closed the distance in an instant. In the span of a single offensive exchange, two mages had already been taken down.
"What the hell..."
Nox panicked. According to his calculations, the fight should have ended with their very first strike. Clenching his fists, he drew in the ambient heat and unleashed his trump card.
"Fire Field."
Blaze!
It was a 5th Circle fire spell. Taking absolute control of the surrounding flames, Nox tried to restrict Roman’s movements by engulfing him entirely. Yet, no matter which direction the searing attacks came from, Roman’s movements didn't slow down in the slightest.
It was a baffling sight.
Amidst the surging inferno, Roman seemed entirely impervious to the heat. He swiftly dodged the magical bombardment and struck down yet another mage.
The mages didn't know. They couldn't possibly comprehend the realm of Immunity to Heat and Cold. Ordinary fire simply had no effect on Roman.
Thud!
The third mage fell.
Only two remained. Nox gritted his teeth, frantically channeling his mana, but before he could cast a single syllable, Roman was already standing right in front of him.
"Gasp!"
It was a speed that defied common sense.
Only then did Felix’s warnings echo in Nox's mind. Felix had told them to be careful countless times, but there was simply no way to comprehend the reality of Roman Dmitry without facing him directly.
In the end—
Smack!
Nox staggered. His eyes rolled back into his head from the sheer force of the impact, and he collapsed backward.
An overwhelming victory.
Felix’s jaw dropped. Although the match wasn't technically over, he didn't dare launch an attack.
"...No way."
The truth he had tried so hard to ignore was laid bare in this very moment. In all their thirty duels, Roman Dmitry had never once shown his full strength.
* * *
The mages of the Phoenix Magic Tower had their mental states completely shattered.
Regaining consciousness with swollen faces, they stared blankly at the sky, looking just as dazed as Felix had on his very first day.
"They say there is always a sky above the sky..."
"What on earth just happened?"
"This was a fight we could never win from the start."
It was an absolute, overwhelming defeat. They felt as if they were losing their minds. Born with the rare talent for magic, they had stood in positions of power and privilege their entire lives. This was the first time they had ever experienced such a crushing, helpless sense of defeat.
Felix had been right.
Roman Dmitry was a monster who defied common sense. He was fully capable of handing someone thirty defeats in thirty days, and absolutely no method to bring him down came to mind.
"...Lord Felix. What kind of monster have you been fighting all this time?"
It was Nox. Perhaps it was a feeling of shared misery. Facing an insurmountable wall, a sudden wave of camaraderie washed over him simply because they belonged to the same Magic Tower.
Even their last sliver of hope—a group battle—had vanished.
Realizing there was no longer any conceivable way to defeat Roman, Felix abruptly stood up, leaving the groaning mages behind.
"Wait here. I will go speak with Roman."
He was intensely curious.
Roman Dmitry. Just how on earth did he dismantle them so perfectly? From his evasive maneuvers to his Aura Barrier, from start to finish, Felix wanted to peer into Roman’s mind.
He went to find him.
Finding Roman spending his time leisurely in his room, Felix felt a sudden surge of emotion.
"I will ask you directly. To be honest, I no longer have the confidence to defeat you, Lord Roman Dmitry. So, to help us analyze the cause of our absolute defeat, could you at least explain how you beat us? In the world I have lived in, no one exists who can dodge magic and break through it head-on like you do. I know this is a difficult request, but please, for the sake of our future..."
"Very well."
"Pardon?"
"I cannot tell you the exact details of my techniques, but I can at least show you how I prepared for our duels."
Roman’s response was entirely unexpected. Felix had assumed he would refuse out of concern for leaking his martial secrets, but Roman readily stood up.
"Follow me."
They left the inner castle. After walking for quite some time, they arrived at a neat, two-story building.
"It is here."
"...What is this place?"
As they stepped inside, a deeply familiar environment came into view.
Much like a Magic Tower, the interior was lined with towering circular bookshelves displaying countless tomes.
Roman spoke.
"Every book in here is related to magic. It is safe to say we possess almost every magic book available on the market in Cairo. From mainstream publications to obscure texts. For a while, I practically lived here, spending my time analyzing exactly what kind of existence a mage is."
There were thousands of books at a single glance.
Felix’s mouth fell open. Staring at the overwhelming sea of knowledge, he realized that Roman Dmitry’s victories had never been a matter of luck or sheer physical superiority.
"From now on, I will explain how I dealt with you, Lord Felix. Do not take this simply as a favor. I hope that once you have heard my entire explanation, you will have some advice to add."
Roman walked over to a shelf.
Tap.
He pulled out a single book.
It was titled Understanding of Magic.
At the sight of such an incredibly basic, foundational magic text, Felix’s face filled with utter bewilderment.