The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 123

The Rebirth of the Mythical Archmage-124

The ninth match of the Olympiad, the labyrinth exploration, had begun.

The participants for this match were the three of us: me, Soon-chan, and Senior Kang Shin-woo.

“But seriously, is it okay for me to be participating? No matter how much I think about it, I feel like Jin-seok hyung [older brother/senior] would be much more helpful.”

While I was surveying the surroundings to get a sense of our location, Soon-chan asked me quietly.

The labyrinth exploration is a special match where all sorts of actions, such as gathering, hunting, adventuring, and clearing, are converted into points.

Since knowledge is as important as skill in this match, Senior Ma Jin-seok, known as the brain of the third-years, was originally included in the lineup.

In other words, Soon-chan’s participation was not part of the original plan.

“That’s something I’m also concerned about. Why did they change the lineup right before the match?”

Senior Kang Shin-woo, who was mapping the terrain on the opposite side of Soon-chan, asked casually while focusing on his work.

“It’s because we need Soon-chan’s defensive magic.”

Soon-chan tilted his head.

“There won’t be many situations where I’d need to use my defensive magic in a labyrinth exploration.”

As I said, the labyrinth exploration is a special match where all sorts of actions, such as gathering, hunting, and adventuring, are converted into points.

Therefore, the importance of combat is not that high.

Since the importance of combat is not high, the need for defensive magic is naturally not that great either.

“A place where my defensive magic is absolutely necessary… Are we trying to catch a named monster in Zone 3 or something?”

Soon-chan said with a chuckle.

It was clear from his expression and gestures that he was joking.

“Well, there’s no way that’s…”

“That’s right. You’re quick on the uptake.”

Soon-chan’s shoulders twitched at my answer.

“…Are we really going to catch a Zone 3 monster?”

“Yeah.”

“That crazy monster? The three of us?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you perhaps out of your mind?”

Soon-chan looked genuinely worried about my mental state as he examined my face.

“I guess you’re serious.”

As if realizing I was serious from my expression, Soon-chan let out a hollow laugh.

“Do we have a chance of winning?”

“Would I have put you on the starting lineup if we didn’t?”

“I guess not…”

Soon-chan scratched the back of his head.

“No, even so, taking down that thing is…”

He had an expression of disbelief.

“Aren’t you pushing it too hard? We’re going to win anyway, even if we don’t do that, so there’s no need to take such a risk.”

The named monster in Zone 3 isn’t a monster that’s meant to be defeated.

It’s a kind of suppression device prepared to prevent players from easily clearing Zone 3.

It’s impossible to defeat.

In fact, the monster placed in Zone 3 has never been defeated in the history of the Olympiad.

The named monster in Zone 3 is that powerful.

So, it was natural for Soon-chan to react like that, since I was saying we were going to take the risk of defeating such a monster.

“Senior Shin-woo. Please say something to him.”

Soon-chan turned his gaze to Senior Kang Shin-woo.

His eyes were filled with the desire to get me to stop at all costs.

“Senior?”

Kang Shin-woo is cold and composed.

Therefore, he must have thought that he would object to this reckless plan and asked for his help.

But.

“That sounds fun.”

“…Huh?”

I was wrong.

It’s true that Senior Kang Shin-woo has a cold and composed personality.

But he’s also a martial artist who is as belligerent and challenging as he is cold and composed.

“Alright. Then when are we going to start the attack?”

Would someone with that kind of personality dislike fighting the named monster in Zone 3?

“…Senior Shin-woo, you’re not against it?”

“Is there a reason to be against it?”

Senior Kang Shin-woo’s eyes turned belligerent.

“If someone else had suggested this, I would have been against it. But the person who suggested it is Shin Ha-yul, the most capable leader in the world as far as I know. There’s no reason to be against it.”

“That’s…”

Soon-chan made a groan and lowered his gaze.

Then, he looked back and forth between me and Senior Shin-woo and let out a big sigh.

“Well, Ha-yul wouldn’t do something without a chance of winning…”

The corners of Soon-chan’s lips slowly curled upwards.

“Alright. Let’s do it. Before we break the record, let’s be the first to defeat the named monster in Zone 3.”

Soon-chan smiled.

‘…I feel sorry for him, seeing him so motivated like that.’

It was a smile that could only be made because he didn’t know, because he was ignorant of the hardships he would face in Zone 3.

“Let’s set all the records! Let’s go!”

“…”

My guilt grew even more at his enthusiastic reaction.

I should treat him well for a while after the match is over.

I sincerely thought so.

* * *

About three hours had passed since the labyrinth exploration began.

In that time, we had completed about half of Zone 1.

Considering that it takes an average of six hours or more to completely clear Zone 1, it wasn’t a bad pace.

“Aren’t we being too leisurely?”

But it was just not a bad pace.

It wasn’t a fast pace.

The really fast teams enter Zone 2 within an hour.

“When I checked the scores, there were already 16 teams that had entered Zone 2.”

In fact, many teams had already entered Zone 2.

“If those teams collect all the magic plants and magic stones, won’t we be completely screwed?”

The magic plants and magic stones in each zone are limited.

Since the resources are limited, the team that enters first has an overwhelming advantage. They can secure the resources in advance, or they can monopolize the resources to keep the teams that enter later in check.

The same goes for the ruins where you can get adventure points.

Since all the points go to the team that attacks first, the team that attacks first is much more advantageous.

If we’re too slow, we might not get any points in Zone 2.

As Soon-chan said, there was a good chance we’d be screwed.

“Don’t worry. I have a plan, that’s why we’re doing this.”

But that was an unnecessary worry.

I’m not an idiot, I wouldn’t have failed to think about that.

There was a reason why I was slowing down the attack speed.

“What’s the plan?”

“First of all, the gathering points you can get in Zone 1 are too big. Giving up all of that and going to Zone 2 is too big of a loss.”

The labyrinth exploration has a typical step-by-step attack structure.

If you clear Zone 1, you can enter Zone 2, and if you clear Zone 2, you can enter Zone 3.

And once you enter the next zone, you can’t go back to the previous zone.

In other words, if you rush to enter Zone 2, you won’t be able to return to Zone 1.

If that happens, it’s practically the same as giving up all the points you can get in Zone 1.

That’s too big of a loss.

“The points you can get in Zone 2 are higher than in Zone 1. So isn’t it better to go quickly?”

Since it has a step-by-step attack structure, the difficulty increases as you go to the next zone.

Since the difficulty increases, the points you can get naturally increase as well.

But this is only the ‘average’ points that are high. If you look at it individually rather than the average, the story is a bit different.

“It’s true that the average points you can get in Zone 2 are higher. But if you look at the points for rare materials, there’s not much difference between Zone 1 and Zone 2.”

“Ah?”

The difficulty of obtaining materials in each zone varies greatly. In the case of rare materials, there are only about three in each zone at most.

And these rare materials have high points regardless of the zone.

Therefore, if you aim to collect rare materials, it’s better to attack Zone 1.

It’s much easier to collect rare materials because the difficulty is lower.

“That’s a secret… I didn’t know that.”

“It’s understandable that you wouldn’t know. You were suddenly selected for the team, Soon-chan.”

Soon-chan hadn’t studied anything about the labyrinth exploration.

Therefore, it was natural that he didn’t know much.

“If you’ve got all your questions answered, move your hands. If we find just one more, we can move on to the next zone.”

“My hands and eyes have been moving the whole time, you know?”

With that said, Soon-chan began to focus on searching for materials again.

Silence fell in the labyrinth.

All three of us were focused on finding the last material without saying a word.

About 10 minutes passed.

“I found it!”

The news we had been waiting for was delivered. I got up from my spot and approached Soon-chan.

“This is it, right? The glass flower.”

Soon-chan pointed to a translucent flower nestled in a crevice of the labyrinth.

“That’s right. Good job finding it.”

It was called the glass flower because of its glass-like appearance.

As its name suggests, it’s as fragile as glass, and it’s easily broken by even a small impact.

“I see you’ve found it.”

Senior Kang Shin-woo approached from behind me and Soon-chan.

He was holding a bunch of potato-like things in his arms.

“Yes, we found it.”

“Indeed. It has the same appearance as I saw in the encyclopedia.”

Senior Kang Shin-woo’s eyes lit up slightly as if he was fascinated by the glass flower.

“Senior Shin-woo, you found the Galan stones too, I see.”

“Yeah. I found them a little while ago.”

What Senior Kang Shin-woo was holding in his arms were Galan stones.

They looked unimpressive like potatoes, but they were magic stones.

“Perfect timing. Can you give them to me?”

I received the Galan stones from Senior Kang Shin-woo.

“Is six enough?”

“Yes. That’s plenty.”

I buried the six Galan stones around the glass flower.

“Why are you burying the magic stones you just dug up again?”

Soon-chan squatted down next to me and tilted his head.

He had an expression that said he had no idea what I was trying to do.

“The glass flower is characterized by its fragility, just like glass. Not only the petals, leaves, and stems, but also the roots are sensitive to impact.”

“…Even the roots?”

“Yeah. So if you just dig up the ground, the roots will be shattered by the impact. Not to mention glass flowers that are embedded in hard ground like this labyrinth.”

When digging up the ground, the roots are torn to shreds while buried in the hard ground.

“Ah, I see. So those Galan stones are a way to safely collect the glass flower?”

“Yeah. Galan stones have the effect of softening the surrounding soil. Making the ground soft like that and slowly taking it out is the safest way to collect it.”

“I didn’t know that trash magic stone had such an effect.”

“I didn’t know that either.”

Senior Kang Shin-woo also seemed surprised.

“It’s natural that you wouldn’t know. There’s no use in knowing it anyway.”

The lowest of the lowest.

The trash magic stone Galan stone that can’t even be treated as a pebble.

Because it’s treated like a pebble, no one knows what kind of power this magic stone has.

Probably more than 90% of the existing magicians don’t know that Galan stones have this effect.

Only someone who is interested in magic stones like me or the Blue Magic Tower Master would know.

“Anyway, if you use Galan stones like this…”

I planted a total of six magic stones around the glass flower, in the right places.

“Okay, that’s done. Now please step back for a moment. You’ll get your feet stuck if you stay here.”

“Okay.”

“Understood.”

The three of us stepped back about five steps.

“Now we just have to wait.”

And about three minutes passed.

“Oh, it’s working.”

At that moment, the ground began to change and flow like mud.

“It’s not just mud, it’s a swamp now? For a Galan stone, it’s pretty effective. If you plant a lot of Galan stones, can’t you artificially create a swamp?”

“It’s possible. In fact, there are many places that have created swamp arenas in that way.”

“Wow. Really?”

Soon-chan’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s unexpected. I was taught that it was just a useless stone.”

“There’s nothing completely useless in the world. Ah. No, that’s not right. There’s you, Soon-chan.”

“What the hell, you little punk? Do you want to fight? I’ll show you how useful I am by punching you in the solar plexus?”

Soon-chan took a boxing stance and threw a series of jabs into the air.

“Really? Then should we go at it?”

“…Huh?”

Soon-chan flinched at my bright smile and bright answer.

“…Ahem. I’m letting you off because I’m in the middle of a match. You better know you’re lucky.”

Then, he cleared his throat and turned his gaze to the glass flower.

“Ah. Can we start collecting it now?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at Soon-chan’s attempt to quickly change the subject and escape the unfavorable situation.

“At this rate, it’ll be buried deep in the ground. Should I take it out?”

“Stop. I’ll do it. You need a knack for collecting glass flowers…”

Just as I was stopping Soon-chan and taking a step towards the glass flower.

Whoosh!

A sound of something cutting through the air was heard.

At the same time, I felt a cold mana sensation.

‘Icicle Lance?’

Five icicle lances were coming towards us.

“I knew it wouldn’t go smoothly.”

Soon-chan’s eyes lit up as he deployed an octagonal defensive magic.

The shield perfectly blocked the five icicle lances.

The ice spears shattered and scattered into mana debris.

“The healing camp is over. It was nice while it lasted.”

Nine men and women appeared in the labyrinth passage in the distance.

“Hand over the glass flower.”

It was a coalition team formed for ‘plunder,’ one of the identities of the labyrinth exploration.