The Return of The Mythical Archmage [EN]: Chapter 80

The first match of this year’s Olympiad is a 5:5 siege battle.

The match format is a tournament.

It’s a very simple format where you just keep winning according to the randomly assigned tournament bracket until you reach the finals.

Since it’s a tournament, there’s a high chance of facing weaker teams in the early rounds and stronger teams in the later rounds.

Therefore, most teams tend to conserve their strength in the early rounds and pour everything out in the later rounds.

It’s only natural.

There’s no reason to go all out from the start and reveal information when you can win against an opponent even if you fight with less effort.

Of course, this only applies when facing weaker teams in the early rounds.

If you meet a strong team from the start, you can’t afford to hold back.

You have to go all out from the beginning. You have to squeeze out everything you’ve got.

“…Our first opponent is the Korean team.”

“We’re so unlucky.”

“If it were last year, I would have thought it was good luck.”

That’s the situation the Italian national team is in right now.

Their first opponent is none other than the Korean team, one of the favorites to win this year.

Fight with less effort against a team like that? It’s impossible.

You have to go all out.

“Okay. Everyone, calm down for now.”

“Right. The match starts in 5 minutes. Everyone, calm down.”

“Except for Shin Hayul, we’re not lacking in anything.”

The Italian team is also a strong team. All 10 members are 4-circle users [a magic user who has reached the fourth level of mastery], and there are even two users of Vision magic [magic that allows one to see through illusions and other forms of concealment].

Although they don’t have a 5-circle user, their overall team power is higher than the Korean team, which has four 3-circle users.

“Fortunately, siege battles are won by capturing the opponent’s base. We don’t necessarily have to beat Shin Hayul. We have a good chance of winning.”

“Then are you going to use that strategy?”

“Yeah. It’s not the time to save our strength until the end.”

“Okay.”

The Italian team decided to use the strategy they had prepared as their surefire plan for this match.

—The match will begin in 10 seconds.

The announcer’s notice of the start of the siege battle was heard.

The Italian team players took their positions with tense expressions.

—Siege battle start!

The siege battle began, but none of the Italian team members left their positions.

Rather than leaving their positions, they began to hide in suitable terrain around them.

It was only natural.

The Italian team’s surefire strategy was none other than an all-in defense.

Everyone defends the base, waits for the opposing team’s attackers, and then attacks all at once when they come.

Overwhelm them with numbers.

With such a strategy, there was no way they would leave their base.

‘The best would be if two of them came. But even three is fine for now.’

Normally, this kind of all-in defense strategy wouldn’t work.

The opponent isn’t stupid, and they would consider the possibility of an all-in defense strategy and start by using mana detection [a technique to sense the presence of magic].

Usually, they would get caught by this mana detection, and their strategy would be exposed.

However, the Italian team possesses Vision magic that nullifies mana detection.

Detection doesn’t work against the Italian team.

That’s why it’s a surefire strategy.

The opponent has no choice but to choose one method.

“…Leader. They’re here.”

Just like this.

“How many are there?”

“Just a moment. I need them to come in a little more to know…”

The team member using mana detection suddenly widened their eyes.

A shocked expression.

It was an expression that seemed to question if what they were sensing was correct.

“…One person?”

“What?”

“One person?”

The murmuring among the team members grew louder.

They thought about 2 or 3 people would come. But it’s just one person.

“And this mana… It’s Shin Hayul.”

The moment they muttered that.

“Hello?”

A voice was heard from beyond the bushes. A voice they had only heard through the VOD [Video on Demand] of the strategy analysis room.

The voice of the man they were most wary of.

“Shin Hayul…”

Shin Hayul.

He walked leisurely with his hands in his pockets.

“Nice to meet you, Italian friends.”

Shin Hayul, who had approached a certain distance, turned his gaze one by one.

A total of five gaze shifts.

He accurately looked at the positions of the five Italian team members hiding in various places in the base, one by one.

“As expected, all five of you are here.”

“…You.”

He knew the positions of the team members, and even said that all five were there as expected.

It seemed that Shin Hayul had read the Italian team’s plan.

The Italian team members’ expressions became serious. If their strategy had been read, they would be in trouble.

‘Could it be that the other four are positioned around us?’

‘If we’re surrounded, it’s dangerous!’

Going all-in is an act that carries a significant risk.

Since capturing the base is the condition for victory, the defending side is unconditionally at a disadvantage when fighting 5:5.

Cold sweat dripped from the foreheads of the Italian team members.

“Don’t be too nervous.”

Shin Hayul smiled with a still relaxed gesture and tone.

“If you’re worried about the other four members of our team attacking, you don’t have to worry. I’m the only one who came here.”

“…What?”

The Italian team leader’s eyes flashed sharply.

“What… does that mean?”

“If you don’t understand what I mean, should I be more precise?”

Shin Hayul took his hands out of his pockets and released mana.

“It means I’m going to fight all five of you by myself. Okay?”

“…This bastard.”

A curse word came out of the man’s mouth.

He was furious at the words that seemed to disregard the Italian team.

“Nice expression. I hope that expression lasts until the end.”

Shin Hayul lowered his stance.

Shin Hayul’s Infinity Circles [a unique magic system] merged into one and pulsated.

‘Resonance.’

5-circle magic spells floated up one after another around Shin Hayul.

The magic spells, with power that had become even stronger after becoming a 4-circle master.

Not 6-circle, but a strange magic that far exceeded the power of 5-circle.

A parade of magic that should be called 5.5-circle.

“Try to block it well.”

In the midst of it, Shin Hayul was just smiling.

* * *

That night.

After all the schedules for the first day of the Olympiad were over.

“To commemorate the perfect start, cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Everyone shouted cheers along with Soonchan’s toast.

Of course, it wasn’t alcohol.

There were matches tomorrow, so they wouldn’t be crazy enough to drink.

Besides, they were still minors and couldn’t drink anyway.

They were just making a fuss with sports drinks.

“Kuh. From the opening ceremony to the match content, it was perfect, really.”

Senior Jin Heeyoon exclaimed with a ‘Kuh’ sound.

It didn’t sound like the reaction of someone who had just chugged a sports drink. Was that really not alcohol?

“Don’t get too carried away. Today, the only one who was perfect was Shin Hayul. We didn’t do anything.”

Kang Shinwoo said with his usual serious demeanor.

“We are Shin Leader, and Shin Leader is us! So, we were perfect! Mwahaha!”

Jin Heeyoon held a sports drink in one hand and patted Kang Shinwoo’s back repeatedly with the other, laughing heartily.

“Drink, drink!”

Then he chugged the sports drink again. Was that really not alcohol?

It was an incomprehensible level of high tension.

“Heeyoon is just like that because he has something good going on today, so just let it be.”

Ma Jinseok approached me.

“Something good?”

“Yeah. It’s a family matter, so I can’t really tell you. Just know that something like that happened.”

“Ah. Okay.”

Ma Jinseok’s gaze towards Jin Heeyoon was quite wistful.

It seemed that Jin Heeyoon’s family life was also quite eventful.

“Anyway, good job. Is your body okay now?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

The aftereffects of Resonance had now been resolved. I was completely fine now.

“Already? Didn’t you say that if you went all out, there would be aftereffects for at least 12 hours?”

I didn’t go into detail about Resonance, and just vaguely said that if I went all out.

Ma Jinseok was talking about that.

“It was originally like that… Didn’t I say that I had an achievement this morning? It seems that the penalty was somewhat alleviated thanks to that.”

“Ah.”

Ma Jinseok stroked his chin and muttered, ‘So that’s what it was.’

“By the way, are you really okay?”

“If it’s about my body, I’m really fine…”

“No. Not your body. I mean, is it okay to reveal your full power like this from the first day? No matter how I think about it, it seems like a loss.”

“Ah. That’s what you meant.”

Come to think of it, I was so out of it after the opening ceremony that I hadn’t talked in detail about the changed plan.

“You said you were going to raise your value as bait, but I thought you had already shown that value enough at the opening ceremony. Was there any need to do more than that?”

It wasn’t a look of questioning or anything. Just a pure question.

It was a look that seemed to say, ‘Since it’s your work, I’m sure you know what you’re doing, but I’m still curious, so please tell me what you’re thinking.’

“Hmm. First of all, before we talk about that, we need to talk about the performance.”

Performance.

At that word, everyone’s attention turned to me. Everyone looked interested in my performance.

Among them, Adela’s expression stood out the most.

It was a natural reaction, as Adela was the one who had the greatest interest in the magic I used in the performance.

But I felt sorry about this.

What I was about to say was not about the magic I used in the performance, but an approach from the perspective of the Olympiad strategy.

“As you all know, I wore a special artifact called ‘Four Realms’ during the performance, right?”

“Yeah. That contact lens-type, cheat-level artifact. What about it?”

“The fact that I wore the Four Realms during the performance is something the other teams won’t know.”

My high-end baiting operation started from the performance.

* * *

The lodging where the British team was staying.

In the small auditorium being used as a strategy analysis room, Maia Nerontia was briefing everyone.

“Here, as you can see from Shin Hayul’s appearance taken with the mana analysis camera. Shin Hayul didn’t wear any artifacts during the performance.”

Artifacts are mana conductors.

As such, when photographed with a mana analysis camera, only the artifacts appear in a particularly dark color.

However, no traces of any artifacts were visible on Shin Hayul’s body.

“The mana seems particularly dense around his pupils. What is that?”

Kyle asked casually.

“It’s speculated that this is due to the effect of Shin Hayul’s mana eyes.”

“Ah. Mana eyes.”

Shin Hayul’s mana eyes are famous.

They are evaluated to be similar to, or even better than, the Crimson Eyes of Kim Kangin, the Blue Magic Tower Lord.

“Hmm. So, you’re saying that he really performed that performance without wearing any artifacts?”

“That’s right.”

It was a natural conclusion.

There was no way they would know about the existence of contact lens-type artifacts that are worn directly on the pupils.

Even if that wasn’t the case, the eyes are a point where mana reaction is particularly dense.

“And this is the data analyzing Shin Hayul’s performance.”

Data that had been requested from British experts to analyze all of Shin Hayul’s performance.

It was fresh data that had just arrived 10 minutes ago.

“What does it say?”

“Hmm. It’s a 27-page analysis of the quality of mana, application related to control, and comparison values for output… Well, there’s no need to know all these details.”

Maia manipulated the PPT to display the last page. The data with the conclusion.

The conclusion of the data had the following phrase written on it.

[The estimated level of the subject is judged to be a 6-circle user]

“…Shin Hayul is a 6-circle?”

“Yes.”

Of course, this was the result assuming that Shin Hayul used magic with his bare body.

If the British analysis team had known about Shin Hayul’s ‘Four Realms,’ this result would never have come out.

“And if you add this data…”

Maia manipulated the PPT again to display the next data.

[Shin Hayul VS Italian Team Battle Analysis Results]

Data that had been similarly photographed with a mana analysis camera and precisely analyzed, of the battle that Shin Hayul had shown after the performance.

“The analysis results are like this.”

This time, Maia displayed only the result values.

[It is estimated that all the magic used by the subject exceeded the level of 5-circle, and is a kind of 5.5-circle level.]

[Considering that he handled 6 of these magic spells simultaneously, it is judged that the operation of the magic was not unreasonable.]

[The subject’s level is also estimated to be 6-circle.]

“Shin Hayul is a 6-circle.”

Maia’s voice echoed heavily in the small auditorium.

“In short, all the plans we had prepared to face the Korean team have been reset to zero.”

“…”

“…”

In this way, the small ball that Shin Hayul had launched was affecting all sorts of teams, including the British team.

“We need to devise new countermeasures to stop Shin Hayul.”

Shin Hayul’s high-end baiting operation was proceeding smoothly.