Master Hunter K

Chapter 81 – Magician’s Ivory Tower (2)

Sungjin returned to the top of the tower riding the Magic Carpet where the beheaded lion lay on top of the magic circle formation.

‘Just...why...’

Sungjin looked around the roof. There wasn’t anything else worth noting. And from the stairway,

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

He could hear the mad laughter of the Magician ‘Lenin’. Sungjin recalled his past memories.

“Freeze! Burn! Die!”

This raid’s boss was so out of his mind; he was impossible to predict.

This raid was originally designed to be beaten from the ground floor up to the 10th floor where the boss awaited, but Sungjin jumped to the top and was planning on working his way down. In other words, just one floor down was the raid boss.

On top of the stairs, Sungjin held the Artemio instead of the Blood Vengeance. This weapon was a specialized sword to combat mages. Not only does it reduce damage taken via spells by 20%, but it could also reflect spells.

‘Whew...’

Sungjin took a deep breath before heading down the stairs. At the center of the tower was a large gaping hole spanning across floors.

Above the void was the Mad Magician, talking to himself.

“Why! Why pick that child over me! I can’t accept it! Damn that senile old man!”

Sungjin who was sneaking his way down the stairs noticed the Magician yelling at thin air and thought

‘Hey... I might be able to finish this faster than I thought’

Most mages aren’t able to deal with Sungjin’s blade up close. If he manages to get close, he could end the fight in a few seconds. Sungjin recited an incantation.

“Freedom from all prying eyes, Invisibility”

Sungjin’s body disappeared from sight. Meanwhile, the crazed Magician Lenin continued to yell at nothing.

“Yes! Right! That has to be it! He must have thought... He must have believed I would overcome him! Yes! He was afraid of me! Because I am a genius he cannot hope to contain!”*

While he was busy talking to himself, Sungjin continued to sneak upon him. He had earned the ‘Assassin’ title last round. One or two shots should take him out.

“Yes, I am a genius... a genius... I will beat that old one...”

He was now about 2~3 meters from him. When he was about 2 steps away from the boss, Sungjin leapt. But

“You little piece of shit!”

Lenin suddenly disappeared with a flash of light.

“Clang!”

Sungjin’s swords found nothing but air, striking the ground and leaving marks. Lenin reappeared a distance away. The Operator made an announcement.

[Warning! Boss]

[Mad Magician Lenin has appeared!]

Sungjin failed his assassination once again although this was only his second attempt.

‘Why can’t I do it?’

He thought to himself. Lenin took out a staff from under his coat. It was a long stick with three heads decorating one end. A strange staff.

Stranger still, because the heads were alive and moving.

“Woof Woof!”

“Arf!”

“Grrr!”

Each of the heads made noises on their own.

‘Oh yeah, I forgot about that... What weird tastes...’

Sungjin frowned. Lenin said to him

“I knew you were approaching me since a while ago. Cerberus warned me ahead of time, Assassin!”

Cerberus, it seemed to be the name of the three-headed staff.

‘If there are three dog noses, noticing my scent is a foregone conclusion...’

Assassination was difficult to pull off. Sungjin took up a proper fighting pose and prepared his swords. If assassination does not work, all he had to do was defeat it normally.

“Who are you? Did the puppet king send you? Or the old man? I don’t care either way. I will immolate you, freeze the corpse, and then present your severed head.”

He continued to speak nonsense. He was undoubtedly insane, too far gone. Sungjin had no time to listen to his mad ramblings.

The crazed magician Lenin began an incantation.

“Blink”

The boss disappeared. This was the most annoying factor about this boss; the ability to instantly teleport to any location within the tower. He heard an incantation from behind

“Burn everything in your path, Fireball”

Sungjin hesitated for a moment before deciding to use the spell he had just learned.

“Spell-devouring magic field, Anti-Magic Shield!”

He had Besgoro recite the incantation with the substitute casting as he also prepared his own spell.

“Burn everything in your path”

Lenin’s fireball reached Sungjin first and collided with his shield.

‘Boom!’

Luckily the spell held. Sungjin backed up slightly upon impact, but the embers did not fly his way. Sungjin grinned as he said

“Fireball”

He fired a counter attack. Seeing the spell fly his way, Lenin chanted

“Blink”

And disappeared once again.

“Boom!”

The fireball exploded.

‘... He dodged?’

Sungjin took a look around, but Lenin was not too far from the blast site.

“Grrr...”

He must have not been able to totally escape taking damage. Sungjin grinned once more as he charged towards the enemy, who responded by chanting an incantation.

“Awaken my blades, and defend me. Living Edge”

Soon, autonomous swords came to life and circled around him. They didn’t look very threatening, but they weren’t something he should ignore.

‘Clang! Bang!’

Sungjin chased after Lenin while parrying away the living swords. The magician retreated while waving his Staff to ward Sungjin away. Despite his inaccurate swings, the three dog heads attached to the ends

“Grrr!”

Kept on trying to bite Sungjin.

‘...Annoying...!’

Sungjin knocked the swords aside with his blade and tried to strike the dogheads, but

“Blink”

The Magician escaped a short distance away. Sungjin was starting to become irritated. He now had five marbles. In order to use all five of them, he required a minimum of 10 minutes each or 50 minutes in total.

So he had to clear the main objective within 40 minutes. He didn’t have time to waste at the boss. Sungjin returned the Moon Specter to the sheath and held Artemio alone.

With one sword, he held it straight ahead; he was preparing his sure-kill strike. He thought to himself while looking at his reflection on the sword.

‘Magic reflect... at a perfect timing...’

He was planning on using it. But

“Freedom from all prying eyes, Invisibility”

The Magician chose to hide instead. Sungjin charged ahead towards the last seen location but stopped himself. Even if he wanted to use ‘Ghastly Wail’, he had to locate his enemy first. Sungjin took a look around.

He couldn’t see any clues as to the magician’s location.

‘Grrr’

And then

“Spreading Death, Orb of Ice”

From a corner, the air began to freeze as a ball of ice began to form and slowly approach Sungjin. He didn’t have enough time to cast Anti-Magic Shield. He would most likely not succeed in reflecting it with the magic reflect.

“Solidify”

Sungjin attempted to block it with Sael’s Mantle, but the “Solidification” took too long.

‘Du du du’

Sungjin had to take a few of the initial icicles with his bare back. He could hear Lenin’s laughter.

“Hahaha! Idiot! Moron! Did you believe you could dare face off against a great Magician such as I?”

Sungjin was beginning to become enraged.

‘I was going to save this for later...’

But he needed him to fight against a Mage.

Sungjin quickly pulled out Soldamyr’s lamp and rubbed it. Soon the Blue Genie appeared and greeted his master.

“Did you summon me, Master?”

But he didn’t have time to respond.

“Fireball!”

A fireball came flying from nowhere. Soldamyr immediately responded in kind.

“Impenetrable glacial wall! Ice Wall!”

A wall of Ice appeared before Sungjin

“Boom!”

And it blocked the Fireball just in time. Soldamyr quickly grasped the situation.

“An invisible enemy.”

Sungjin replied

“I don’t care how, find him!”

Soldamyr immediately cast another spell.

“All-freezing winds! Razor sharp ice! Blizzard Storm!”

At his command, the entirety of the room began to freeze up. Sungjin also felt chilly, but he gritted his teeth and surveyed the surroundings. He saw an outline of a person appear in the blizzard.

‘There...’

Sungjin turned towards the location action

“Pa!”

He shot the Moon Spectre. The sword flew straight towards the snowman but

“Blink”

The enemy escaped once again.

“Haa”

Sungjin returned his sword to his side. Realizing his invisibility was countered, he released the spell. The Magician was covered in ice. Sungjin asked Soldamyr,

“Is there a way to counter his blink?”

Soldamyr answered

“Blink allows instantaneous movement through space, but he is unable to cancel the transfer. If you attack multiple locations simultaneously...”

The Magician attacked meanwhile.

“Melt the skin and rot the bones. Killing Cloud”

A purple fog appeared from the staff. Sungjin could tell just from the color that the fog was dangerous. While he was wondering how he could deal with it, Soldamyr reacted.

“Push away my enemies! Gust!”

The purple fog turned around and flew towards the enemy. He quickly

“Blink”

Dodged the spell he cast. However,

“Cough Cough”

He began to cough. Sungjin noticed earlier with the Fireball, but as Soldamyr said, the escape mechanism with the Blink was not perfect.

“Then if we attack as three it should end quickly.”

Sungjin called forth Cain as well.

“Woof!”

Sungjin did not wish to waste any more time in this chase. He addressed his two summons.

“Soldamyr, use magic to force his hands. I will go around towards his left, and Cain, chase him from the right. Intentionally move to his right side.”

After his short command, Soldamyr began casting his spell.

“Lance which pierces all!”

When Soldamyr’s spell came flying

“Blink!”

Magician used his spell to escape, but Cain was waiting where he reappeared. Even he could not cast Blink back to back. He swung his staff ‘Cerberus’ to retaliate.

“Woof woof!”

“Arf!”

“Grr!”

The three heads of Cerberus bared their fangs towards Cain, but Cain knocked all three heads aside with a single swipe.

“Whine!’

The heads all cried out in pain at the same time. Lenin lost his grip on the staff and became disarmed. Cain came charging forth. Lenin became frightened and yelled

“Blink!”

And teleported, but it was close to where Sungjin was waiting.

“Got you now!”

Sungjin had intentionally kept his distance while Cain was fighting. Sungjin quickly swung the Moon Specter.

“Ack!”

Lenin was cut in the stomach, but still retaliated with

“Frost Bite!”

However

“Reflect Magic”

Sungjin knocked aside the magic which headed his way with the Artemio, causing it to grab the Magician’s feet instead.

“What... What?!”

Before he could recover from his surprise, Sungjin swung his Moon Specter. His neck was severed in a flash. The Operator gave an announcement.

[Boss ‘Mad Magician’ Lenin Cleared]

TL NOTE

* The raw does not specify gender for the ‘old one’. Therefore I had to go with male pronoun unless the future chapters proves otherwise.

The status screen for the spells learned by K in his latest Black Market visit haven’t appeared and so hasn’t the status screen for the Griffin summon. When they are shown we will add them to Glossary.