Chapter 102: A Desperate Struggle in the Abyss
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 102: A Desperate Struggle in the Abyss
High-level wizards can use Tier 7 magic. The spellbook ends at Tier 7.
However, there are cases where a Tier 8 magic tome can be unlocked by binding a Tier 7 tome. This is the final tech-tree magic available to any NPC or player wizard in the game.
An 8th-tier bound magic tome.
‘The Book of Hegemony.’
A wizard who has reached ultimate enlightenment can, through that wisdom, borrow a fraction of Wizus's hegemony, which governs all creation for a fleeting moment.
It is less the wizard's own power and more like an apostle sent directly by the God of Wisdom from beyond the ethereal plane.
An 8th-tier summoning spell.
‘Lord of the Ethereal Magic Tower.’
Its half-corporeal body, shimmering blue, looked like a sapphire, or perhaps like the aurora flame powder you use for a campfire.
White smoke rose from it, glittering like a sun-drenched beach.
"Fwoooo."
A breath of steam escaped the Lord's lips.
"Things are getting ridiculously complicated," Bipa muttered, frowning.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
The Lord of the Magic Tower raised its sword and began to charge. Its greatsword of blue light aimed for Bipa, but Mugol stepped in to block the path.
An 8th-tier summon versus a Deep Layer tiger-folk warrior.
The collision of the two heavyweights sent a deafening roar and a tremor through the entire room. Their crossed blades trembled violently.
Mugol took a deep breath.
I knew what skill that was.
‘Tiger Chases Three Disasters.’
The tiger drives away three calamities. It’s a spell that destroys three curses or debuffs after activation. Or…
‘Ethereal Movement.’
It could also be used to pin down the Lord of the Magic Tower, which was trying to ignore Mugol and pass through him, just like now. It could shatter its ethereal form.
KABOOM!
A tiger's roar, exploding like thunder, made my ears feel like they were bleeding. My legs gave out.
It was an ultra-low frequency muscle paralysis status effect.
Fuck.
I could feel the level gap. It wasn't even easy for me to just watch this fight.
“…”
The Lord of the Magic Tower’s ethereal form dissipated as it tried to pass through Mugol.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Mugol immediately grabbed the summon by its head.
CRASH!
The moment he threw it forward, Meldini fired a spell.
"Starlight Dissolution Ray."
Mugol quickly raised his sword to block the ray, but…
"Protective Amulet, embrace him!" the Spirit Race Taoist chanted. A single talisman flew out, wrapping Mugol in a powerful magical barrier.
CLANG!
Meldini's dissolution magic failed to break the barrier. Instead, the Lord of the Magic Tower pushed Mugol away and got back on its feet.
"Should I just let them take me?" Mugol asked, stepping back.
"...Honestly, I'm tempted," Bipa said, his brow furrowed.
I could guess what he was thinking.
Fighting here was a burden. Not only were his chances of winning slim, but even if he did, he couldn't avoid critical injuries and would be wanted throughout all of Sohen.
But he wouldn't want to be captured either. If he was stuck in a holding cell, I might just take Neko and find the elevator.
"We can't get caught right now," Bipa decided.
"Let's escape."
KABOOM!
Mugol immediately shattered a window.
WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO-WEE-WOO-
An alarm blared throughout the room. But Mugol and Bipa couldn't jump out the window.
Because…
"Structural Conversion: Curfew Dormitory," Meldini had chanted.
"The only places you're going are prison or the afterlife."
The magic was similar to the one the blacksmith in the steel mill had used.
But unlike transforming the steel mill to trap intruders, this time it was changing the dormitory itself.
RUMBLE!
A solid wall instantly rushed in to fill the empty space where Mugol had broken the window.
CRASH!
CRASH!
The same thing happened to the other windows.
"Dammit…"
"Aaaah!"
"Ugh!"
"What's going on?"
I could hear students screaming from all over the dormitory. The vents in the ceiling were sealed off, and as the structure shifted, something fell from a newly formed passage right onto my face. It was women's underwear.
"Caleb, you should get out of here too! This fight is going to be extremely dangerous."
Honestly, I wanted to. Just watching this was draining me. My hourglass was gone, so there was nothing I could do to help.
But…
"I'll fight too!"
If I didn't see the end of these bastards with my own two eyes, I'd be too anxious to sleep with my legs stretched out at night.
"Haha! Excellent! That's the spirit!"
Meldini seemed pleased with my answer.
"You'll learn a lot just by watching a battle like this, Caleb!"
"Then stay behind us and don't come forward!" Professor Isilof said, raising his wand.
"Stormy Hill."
The floor rose, creating a small high ground. Rain began to pour down from above, and a fierce wind started to blow.
"Void-Devouring Fog."
Below the hill, Meldini summoned a Tier 7 fog spell.
"Come alive!"
"Mugol."
Bipa opened his fan.
Behind it, he activated a talisman.
"Can you buy me some time?"
"No more than a minute."
The tiger-man's body trembled as he clenched his fists.
Facing the unmoving Lord of the Magic Tower on the high ground…
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Mugol began to charge.
"If one wishes to fly, how can there be no wind?"
Bipa waved his fan.
"For the wind is now below."
A powerful gust of wind once again surged from Bipa, colliding with Isilof's storm and clearing away the Void-Devouring Fog in all directions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Mugol, who had closed the distance in an instant, shot into the air.
That monster must have been holding back his strength to the absolute limit when he punched me in the stomach.
If he hadn't, I would have died with a hole in my gut.
Maybe that's why the hourglass didn't automatically flip back then.
‘Tiger's Calamity: Advancing Slaughter.’
Mugol's descending sword clashed with the Lord's.
CLANG!
To my surprise, the sword of the 8th-tier summon, the Lord of the Magic Tower, shattered.
But for an ethereal being, a weapon wasn't a physical concept. It was part of its body from the start, something it could regenerate at any time.
GRAB!
The Lord's hand seized Mugol's neck.
CRUNCH!
Mugol bit off the Lord's head.
"Ptooey!"
After spitting out a chunk of ethereal matter, the tiger's glowing eyes turned to me.
"Get back."
Isilof stepped in front of him.
*
"Please stay put here."
"B-But…"
Yernil, who had run to report the incident, was held back.
You want to go back there? Absolutely not!
"The professors have gone to the dormitory. If the intruders really are that Spirit Race member and the tiger-folk, there's nothing you can do there anyway, Yernil."
“…”
Yernil knew that was true.
But.
"Caleb is… he's still there…"
Caleb hadn't been able to escape. He might even join the fight between the professors and the intruders. Knowing his personality, he would.
Adventurers always said the same thing.
A wizard should always be in the safest position, at the very rear of the formation.
That position was the most powerful, but also the most fragile. High attack power, but a long preparation time.
They needed to be protected by flexible rear-guard members like rogues or rangers.
But Caleb wasn't like that.
When a strategy went wrong, he always threw himself into the most dangerous spot.
He stood on the front line against the exit boss, Back Attack. He was the first to jump into the 1.5th Floor to save a dying Aimus. In the middle of a monster wave, he had saved his firestorm until the last moment, ready to offer his own arm to a wolf. And on the 4th floor, he had stayed behind to fight the blacksmith alone until the very end.
The helplessness and frustration Yernil had felt beyond the cylindrical wall of that steel mill, a wall that even Aimus's iron staff couldn't dent, had still not completely faded.
‘He could die someday.’
That anxiety, that catastrophic thought, had been slowly, steadily eroding Yernil's heart for some time now.
Like that final scene from the battle at the steel mill, his way of fighting was always like diving into lava.
A method of barely snatching his own life from the jaws of a fiery hell.
‘He could die someday.’
Whether that day was today or tomorrow, Yernil didn't know.
She was terrified that the wizard would leave her side one day, vanishing like a legend.
"I… I want to help Caleb, too."
Yernil didn't have the confidence to face being left alone after he was gone.
“…”
The Consul scratched his cheek.
"Then let's go together."
*
Tiger-Folk Tier 7 Swordsmanship.
‘Fierce Tiger's Forest-Leaving Draw.’
What erupted from the scabbard with that skill was not just a single longsword.
The sword energy sliced through the living room's metal lamp stand, coat rack, and sofa as if they were tofu. It continued its momentum, cutting through the wall, the bathroom door, the front door, and my room's door, leaving a 280-degree arc of destruction.
"Breakwater of Wisdom."
"Breakwater of Wisdom."
Meldini and Isilof cast their defensive spells at almost the exact same time, like a decalcomania print.
"Tsk, one would have been enough."
Even in this situation, the halfling professor was composed enough to scoff.
A massive magical breakwater was summoned, blocking the sword energy.
But the dormitory's load-bearing wall had taken a critical hit.
KABOOM!
I felt the floor above us begin to collapse. If this fight dragged on, the entire dormitory might be destroyed.
A desperate struggle in the Deep Layer was just that violent.
‘Ethereal Capture.’
An ethereal net shot out from the hands of the Lord of the Magic Tower, its head now restored.
It was trying to capture Mugol. But despite his massive frame, as bulky as Gildal's, the tiger was faster than Back Attack.
BOOM!
Mugol leaped from his spot like a pouncing tiger, kicked off a wall, and jumped back in the opposite direction.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
I could barely follow his movements with my eyes. The tiger-folk warrior ricocheted around the room like a super ball thrown with all one's might.
‘Stance of the Morning Tiger.’
The tiger-folk warrior leaped over the Lord of the Magic Tower.
He landed right above Meldini's head.
"Professor!"
"Hmph."
But just before the tip of the sword struck, an ethereal wave appeared above Meldini's head.
Intense water pressure repelled the tiger-folk's power and then completely enveloped Mugol.
"Damn."
"Waterdrop Prison."
Meldini pointed his wand at the tiger-folk and wiggled a finger.
"Got him! I'm counting on you for the Spirit Race member, Isilof!"
Requiring immense concentration, Meldini couldn't afford to worry about fighting the Spirit Race member as well.
"Yes!"
Isilof aimed his wand at Bipa. I had a feeling I knew what spell he was about to use.
"Positive Charge Bullet."
BANG!
A sound like a gunshot rang out. What he fired was indeed a spell that resembled a real rifle bullet.
A single-shot magical bombardment with extremely high destructive power.
CRACK!
But surprisingly, Bipa deflected the bullet with his fan.
The full force of the Positive Charge Bullet slammed into the structurally converted wall, blowing a hole through it.
Just like in the steel mill, the dormitory walls had been made extremely durable by the structural conversion that turned them into a prison, yet Isilof's magical destructive power was superior.
FWOOSH!
The bullet flew outside and dissipated, having gone beyond its effective range.
"Tch."
Bipa's fan was broken.
The Lord of the Magic Tower did not miss its chance.
KABOOM!
‘Bipa!’
Foam frothed at the tiger-folk's mouth from inside the Waterdrop Prison.
The Lord's sword had pierced through the Spirit Race member's lower abdomen.
"It's over!"
Isilof aimed his wand again.
But just before he could activate a new spell…
"Tsk."
Bipa slapped a talisman onto the Lord's forehead.
"Why have you set foot in the mortal world? Follow the course of nature."
It was a banishment spell. It required a full minute to activate, but once the talisman worked, it could nullify magical phenomena for a certain period.
"I was originally… saving this to break the structural conversion."
Bipa clutched his side and coughed up blood.
KABOOM!
The Waterdrop Prison shattered.
"Professor Meldini!"
The tiger-folk's rough hand grabbed the back of Meldini's head and slammed it forcefully into the floor.
"Keuk!"
"Starlight Dissolution Ray!"
"Lightning Shock!"
Isilof and I fired our spells at Mugol simultaneously, but he was already gone.
With a single leap, Mugol moved from his spot and scooped up Bipa. And…
"There's a hole, so we can do it."
He stabbed the tip of his sword into the hole made by the Positive Charge Bullet.
*
KABOOM!
The wall of Dormitory Room 308 exploded.
He had broken through it, despite the structural conversion.
"Look over there!"
Inspector Adrian and his seven constables had been blocking the dormitory's front and back entrances, but they had never imagined the suspect would smash through a wall and leap from the third floor.
"Get them!"
The constables gave chase.
"Mugol! Focus on escaping!"
Hanging onto the tiger-man's shoulder, Bipa raised his fan. It was broken, so he wasn't very confident, but…
"Can you not smell the scent of plum blossoms?"
The Spirit Race Taoist focused his mind and activated a spell.
"Faint Fragrance, Sparse Shadows."
Plum blossoms rained down from the sky.
The constables' eyes went slack from the disorienting fragrance. As their consciousness grew hazy, Bipa and Mugol melted into the deep darkness of the night.
"Professor! The structural conversion, please!" Caleb yelled from Room 308, where the wall had been destroyed. He slid down a ramp that Meldini had created.
"Don't let them get away!"
*
Faint Fragrance, Sparse Shadows inflicted the 'Dazed' status effect on nearby enemies and allowed the caster and one companion to enter the shadows.
But professor-level wizards had ways to counter it.
"Moonlight Like Midday."
Isilof chanted a spell. A massive orb of light appeared in the sky.
Bipa and Mugol, who had entered the shadows, were exposed once more.
This was my only chance.
[It is your turn. Time remaining: 60 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■■■■■]