The Foundation of a Magic Tower
"...What kind of monster are you?"
The expression on that crazy brat's face right now...
...was as if he had just tasted some heavenly delicacy.
It was the very definition of bliss and ecstasy.
"That was a truly delicious meal. I would give this one a B-grade. You possess a surprisingly excellent secret magic."
"T-The barrier... was actually shattered?"
The Grand Array of the Myriad Hells?
A mere brat had dismantled Cheonsa Prison's secret formation?
Faced with an utterly unbelievable reality, Gong Jeol-gang finally lost his mind.
He let out a hollow chuckle, his legs giving out as he collapsed to the floor.
*Splat.*
A pool of blood overflowed on the deck.
Sitting right next to the corpse of Sun Tae-go, the chief of the Flood Dragon Bandit Clan, Gong Jeol-gang grinned like a madman.
'It is out of my hands now.'
Since the formation he had crafted by sacrificing his hard-earned cultivation had been shattered...
...it was time to face the full brunt of the backlash.
Sure enough, the shimmering heat waves, shattered like shards of glass, slowly coalesced in the air, forming a shape out of a pale, thin mist.
The fully formed entity resembled a giant lizard.
It immediately opened its massive maw wide and lunged to swallow Gong Jeol-gang whole, starting from the crown of his head.
There was absolutely no way to block it.
It was merely the karmic retribution of his own making.
And yet...
*Slash!*
The brat, who had approached unnoticed, effortlessly sliced the lizard in half vertically.
He then looked down at the dazed Gong Jeol-gang and smiled.
"Consider this a complimentary service, since you showed me something quite wonderful."
"..."
...Did he just cut through the backlash?
With his bare hands, without even using a special dharma treasure?
As Gong Jeol-gang's eyes trembled violently, unable to comprehend the situation...
...Ilyang bit the tip of his finger to draw a drop of blood.
He approached the motionless black monkey and spoke.
"I will also be taking this Ego Golem as payment for saving your life. You do not mind, do you?"
Even if he did, it wasn't as if he could say so.
Overwhelmed by the succession of unbelievable events, Gong Jeol-gang finally gave up on trying to make sense of it and asked:
"Who on earth are you? There is no way a disciple of the Thunder Sect could dismantle the Grand Array of the Myriad Hells. If you are an esteemed elder concealing your identity, please bestow your wisdom upon this humble junior."
Even the current master of Cheonsa Prison...
...could not have breached the Grand Array of the Myriad Hells without sustaining a single scratch once it was activated.
Thus, this defied all logic.
In the first place, that formation was designed to trap monsters of a far higher realm than oneself.
Hearing Gong Jeol-gang's question...
...Ilyang shrank the massive black monkey, tucked it into his sleeve, and tilted his head with a highly amused expression.
"Do not throw around the word 'impossible' so lightly. That is merely by your standards."
"...!"
Standards are always relative.
Ilyang possessed absolute confidence in his anti-magic.
And before such an individual...
...no magic-sealing barrier could ever pose an obstacle.
'Though it was a bit unusual.'
Ilyang wore the bright, innocent smile of a child.
Today felt like his birthday.
After all, he had 'observed' two entirely new types of magic today.
"In any case, my work on this side is done~"
Uncharacteristically...
...Ilyang hummed a little tune as he turned his head.
He saw the bandits aboard the Nata Dragon King. At some point, they had ceased all movement and were staring at the deck with terrified expressions.
"M-Monster..."
"H-He is a deity! Quick, bow down and prostrate yourselves!"
"But the chief is dead!"
"Do you want to die too, then?"
The bandits, who had run rampant like apex predators on the river...
...had been prostrating themselves with their eyes glued to the floor ever since the house-sized black monkey appeared on the deck.
The bandits of the Flood Dragon Bandit Clan had completely lost their will to fight.
"The problem lies over there. What should I do?"
While the Flood Dragon Bandit Clan had surrendered...
...the Yama Bandit Clan and the Blood Wolf Bandit Clan were not the sort of benevolent souls who would abandon a winning battle.
Regardless of what was happening behind them...
...they continued to board the ships of the Jinseong Escort Agency with murderous intent, ruthlessly slaughtering the escorts.
Ilyang watched the scene for a moment.
Then, as if taking a leisurely stroll, he walked toward the bow of the ship.
*Creak, creak.*
As the worn wooden planks of the vessel groaned under his feet...
...the prostrate bandits scrambled to clear a path on either side.
A clear path opened down the center of the deck.
Ilyang glided down the path and stepped onto the railing at the bow of the Nata Dragon King.
"Hmm."
Since the Nata Dragon King was a massive vessel nearly twice the size of the other ships...
...simply standing on the railing granted him a panoramic view of the entire battlefield.
As Ilyang stood in contemplation, looking down at the blood-soaked mercenaries huddled together on the adjacent ship desperately administering first aid...
...one of the wounded...
...Senior Escort Jo Chang, spotted Ilyang. Waving his broken arm, he cried out as if spitting blood:
"Young Master! Please, lend us your strength! Help our Jinseong Escort Agency!"
"..."
Ilyang narrowed his eyes.
The subcontracted mission was already complete.
The agency had already stamped the completion seal beforehand when they handed over this life-threatening task.
'Which means it is over.'
His duty as a mercenary had ended the moment he stopped the Flood Dragon Bandit Clan.
He had no moral obligation to interfere any further.
"Please! I beg of you, Great Hero! Have mercy on us!"
*Thud, thud!*
*Thud, thud, thud!*
Covered in blood from head to toe, Jo Chang repeatedly banged his head against the deck, pleading for help on account of the brief camaraderie they had shared.
Ilyang was by no means a good person.
If one were to judge him by the world's standards of good and evil...
...and divide it into black and white...
...Ilyang was infinitely closer to black.
'After all, wizards have always been that kind of breed.'
As humans...
...they were creatures severely lacking in something fundamentally vital.
That was what a wizard was.
Statistically, the greater the deficiency, the higher their magical achievements.
Ilyang was no exception.
To him, anything that did not aid his pursuit of magic was utterly worthless.
Had he received such a plea in his original world...
...he might have simply watched from a comfortable distance as a faction was utterly destroyed, treating it as mere entertainment.
'However...'
Ilyang stroked his smooth, hairless chin.
The circumstances had changed.
In this world, Ilyang was not the absolute powerhouse he once was.
He had no foundation to rely on here...
...and possessed zero resources.
Without a proper foothold, delving into the mysteries of magic was an arduous task.
How convenient had it been when he established his Magic Tower in his former territory?
Though the initial stages had been somewhat troublesome...
...everything thereafter had proceeded as smoothly as clockwork.
The moment his thoughts reached that point...
...Ilyang's eyes flashed.
Perhaps, at this very moment...
...he could establish a foundation in this world that would serve his needs.
'Shall I build a Magic Tower here as well?'
It did not seem entirely impossible.
For here, too...
...though different in shape and form...
...the 'mystic' undoubtedly existed.
The time it took for Ilyang to reach this conclusion...
...was a mere fraction of a second, no longer than a single blink.
Having rapidly organized his thoughts, Ilyang looked at Jo Chang and spoke.
"I am a mercenary, and I do not work for free simply because we share an acquaintance. I intend to extract a fitting price. Can you guarantee that?"
"Of course! Both I and Jang Guk-du here will guarantee it!"
Ilyang smiled coldly at the two battered escorts.
"No matter what that price may be?"
"We will give you our very lives if that is what you require."
The lives of two mere escorts held not a single copper coin's worth of value to Ilyang.
However, since Jang Guk-du, standing beside Jo Chang, also wiped the blood from his brow and repeatedly swore to the guarantee...
...Ilyang gave a reluctant nod.
"I shall trust you this once."
Ilyang reached into his sleeve and pulled out the toy he had just acquired.
He drew his arm back over his shoulder...
...and flung it forward in a sweeping motion.
The tiny monkey doll soared high into the sky.
From its original state as an Ego Golem...
...the Great Black Star, its formulaic mana hastily rearranged by Ilyang in that brief span, plummeted from the heavens toward the river.
Simultaneously...
*BOOM—!*
With a deafening roar...
...the river erupted toward the sky.
The chief of the Jinseong Escort Agency...
...Jin Yu-seong, collapsed half-seated on the deck, panting heavily while drenched in blood.
'Where on earth did it go wrong?'
The plan had not been bad.
In fact, considering it was devised in a state of urgency, it was the most ideal plan possible.
The number of peak masters mobilized for this operation alone was ten, including himself.
It was a force capable of breaking through any crisis.
Of that, he had been certain.
And yet...
'I underestimated their strength.'
The bandits of the Flood Dragon, Yama, and Blood Wolf clans had not only mobilized nearly their entire forces...
...but, like the Jinseong Escort Agency, they had also recruited powerful external masters.
"Do not resent me. Is this not simply how the world works?"
A massive scythe with a blade as large as a man's torso.
The middle-aged man holding it with both hands and chuckling was...
...the Iron-Blood Scythe, Maeng Ryeo.
He was a man regarded as one of the top-tier peak masters.
A blood-crazed lunatic who roamed from place to place acting as a fixer, solely enjoying battles against the strong.
To think the Flood Dragon Bandit Clan had hired such a monster.
"Then again, it would be rather awkward for professionals like us to exchange apologies. My bad. In this business, if you are weak, you die. What else is there to say? Still, you will have a rather splendid death, Chief. To think you get to die by my hand."
"You talk too much. You must be quite exhausted."
"Haha, you misunderstand. This is what people usually call composure. I will graciously grant you enough time to leave some final words. Are your children not here with you?"
Listening to Maeng Ryeo's sneering, Jin Yu-seong finally cast a slow gaze around him.
Of the peak masters they had recruited, only six remained alive.
Out of the ten peak masters...
...four had already perished, their corpses cast into the muddy river.
'The rest are in terrible condition as well.'
On the enemy's side, as many as ten peak masters were still standing.
In truth, their forces had been evenly matched right before the clash.
However, the enemy had thoroughly analyzed their strength, whereas the Jinseong Escort Agency knew absolutely nothing about the foe.
'And to make matters worse, there was a traitor.'
Behind Maeng Ryeo...
...stood a sharp-featured man leisurely wiping his bloodied sword on the clothes of a corpse.
Looking at him, Jin Yu-seong had to suppress the boiling rage inside his chest.
"Mun Hong-dan. To think you were a spy for the bandits. How could a direct disciple of the Posa Sect sell his sect's pride to mere river pirates?"
The slick-faced, middle-aged man...
...clasped his hands together in a mock apology.
"My apologies. But this side promised to be far more lucrative. A man must choose his alignment wisely, after all. I happen to be quite fond of wealth and glory. Ah, and by the way, my surname is not Mun, but actually Sun. Please, call me Sun Hong-dan."
Jin Yu-seong grit his teeth at the shameless, grating response.
When recruiting peak masters from the outside...
...Jin Yu-seong had conducted thorough background checks.
The identities of the escorts were unquestionable from the start.
As for the mercenaries, they were completely cut off from any external communication once hired, leaving no room for collusion.
He had even gone as far as investigating the lineage of the specially invited peak masters, verifying their families and sects...
...and confirming everything through multiple rounds of verification.
Yet, he had never imagined that someone would stab him in the back, ready to sell out their entire family and sect in the process.
A profound sense of futility welled up in his throat.
It was time to make a final decision.