Chapter 73
Before entering the 32nd Floor.
I took a moment to catch my breath and went over the information I'd learned once more.
“The theme of the 32nd Floor was fortress defense, right.”
Upon entering, hunters are assigned as soldiers on the castle walls.
Clear the floor by holding out for 30 minutes against waves of orcs coming from all directions.
The most important thing is to seal the gate as tightly as possible so it doesn't get breached, and if it does, you have to buy time even while running away.
“I guess I can just stand on the wall and spam magic.”
The plan was simple.
Set up in a good vantage point and wipe out the trash mobs rushing in for 30 minutes.
With a light heart, I entered the tower's entrance.
[Entering the 32nd Floor of the Tower (EXTREME).]
My vision shifted along with the familiar system message.
I naturally expected to see the view from atop the walls.
But the scene spread out before my eyes was completely different.
There was no smell of blood, no roar of orcs.
“Huh?”
The place I had been summoned to was not the castle wall.
An indoor room filled with a solemn atmosphere.
In the center of the room stood a round table with a massive map spread across it.
Around it were knights in ornate armor and mages in robes.
At the place of honor sat an old king wearing a crown.
Everyone looked grim.
“A war room?”
I was flustered.
Before I could even grasp the situation, every eye in the war room turned to me, who had suddenly appeared.
The murmuring voices that had been exchanging low conversation cut off abruptly.
“Who are you!”
With wary shouts, the knights all moved their hands to the sword hilts at their waists.
The situation was a hair's breadth from exploding.
But among them,
there was one familiar face.
the knight I had saved on the 31st Floor, Seymour.
He recognized me and shot to his feet.
He was wearing not the tattered armor from then, but the most ornate armor among them.
'Did he get promoted while I wasn't looking?'
Looking closer, it seemed like he had a scar on his face that hadn't been there before.
“Everyone, lower your swords!”
Seymour shouted urgently to those around him.
Then he turned to the king.
“Your Majesty! This is the Great Sage I told you about!”
“If you mean the Great Sage... the mage who wiped out an orc unit single-handedly with a single gesture?”
“Yes, that's him! If he cooperates with us, our chances of victory will rise several times over.”
Only then did I understand the whole situation.
The event that had taken place on the 31st Floor had spilled over into the starting point of the 32nd Floor as well.
It seemed I wouldn't just be participating in this battlefield as a mere soldier, but as an honored guest.
“Ahem...”
I nodded in satisfaction and adjusted my posture, just to look more dignified.
If only I had a beard.
Wearing a robe that draped all over the place didn't make me look very imposing.
Apparently, everyone else felt the same.
Despite Seymour's excited shout, the atmosphere in the war room remained cold.
They seemed unable to believe me after seeing how young I looked.
Whispers of confusion spread throughout the room.
“That kid is a sage?”
“...Just cute.”
“Makes me want to put him on my shoulders.”
“Did the Knight Commander see hallucinations from the shock or something? How could such a young child possibly...”
“No matter how I look at it, he doesn't look like a sage. He looks more like some granddaughter who snuck out in stolen clothes...”
In particular, the old mage seated beside the king openly showed his distrust toward me.
He seemed to be the kingdom's court mage.
He snorted and said to Seymour,
“Captain Seymour, magic isn't that simple.”
“Lord Gerard. But I truly...”
“Be quiet. What do you know about magic?”
“...”
His tone was as if he were asking where some ignorant knight with no knowledge of magic had been conned.
Seymour shut his mouth, unable to say anything.
The court mage Gerard openly looked me up and down and let out a sneer.
“From the looks of it, he does seem to have some mana, but that amount is only about the level of a somewhat talented student. If that child is a sage, then I might as well be a legendary archmage.”
The court mage's blatant mockery.
I felt a touch of irritation.
To be dismissed so openly?
This was the first time I'd met a mage of human caliber.
I had met Kim Suho before, but I hadn't observed him then out of courtesy.
'Let's have a look.'
For the first time in a while, I sharpened my vision.
With Insight Eye, I examined the mage's body from head to toe.
'This is interesting.'
A mage's body was fascinating to see for the first time.
I could examine his body as if I were looking at an anatomical diagram.
The flow of mana coursing through Gerard's body. Its amount. Even the peculiar organ located in his heart.
'What? His mana reserves seem terrible.'
It looked like his total mana was less than even a tenth of mine.
So why was that old man so confident?
Was his sensing ability terrible?
'Should I take a closer look...'
I pushed my vision to the limit.
Then something I hadn't been able to see before began to appear.
The way mana flowed through Gerard's body was of a kind I had never seen before.
Just in case, I compared him with the people beside him as well.
I could see several mages of a much lower caliber.
They all had the same kind of flow as Gerard.
An artificial flow, clearly different from that of ordinary people.
'So there's a method like this...'
The amount was far less than mine, but that flow was much more stable and refined.
I felt intense interest in this new discovery.
It was when I tried to imitate it by moving a little mana in my body.
Bwoooooooo-!
A massive horn blast rang out, shaking the entire fortress.
At the same time, the heavy door to the war room burst open roughly, and a soldier ran in.
“Reporting! The enemy's all-out assault has begun!”
The air in the war room froze in an instant.
The veteran general sprang to his feet and shouted,
“All units, prepare for battle! Move to your positions!”
At the command, every commander in the war room began moving in perfect unison.
They each grabbed their swords and dashed off toward their respective units.
The court mage also shot me one glare before leaving the war room with his staff in hand.
The war room emptied in an instant.
“Huh? Where do I go?”
***
A little later, I came out of the war room and headed for the wall.
I could see soldiers hurrying to their positions.
Amid the bustle, I spotted the back of one man.
It was the court mage, Gerard.
I quietly followed behind him.
“I need to see firsthand what kind of magic he uses.”
Gerard headed for the highest point on the wall.
A spot where he could overlook the battlefield at a glance.
It was when I got close to him.
A gentle light burst from his personal banner planted beside one of the towers.
“Hero of the kingdom, chief mage, court mage Gerard Arkan, has arrived—!”
“Damn. I should've brought a banner too.”
I muttered.
I hadn't bothered to carry one because it was too embarrassing.
Was that the norm in this world?
I might not have been ignored if I'd gone around with a banner and fanfare for that ridiculously long title list.
Gerard heard the sound of the banner and asked without turning his head.
“...Why did you come here?”
“Because that's where the mana feels strongest?”
“Hmph. At least you have a good eye.”
I stood naturally beside Gerard.
Gerard snorted at my glib answer.
“Very well, boy. You seem to have some talent too, so I'll specially let you watch my magic from the side.”
“Thank you?”
“Watch closely and learn. What a true mage is like...”
Gerard began chanting again.
I stood beside him and watched the flow of his mana intently.
“Fireball.”
When he shouted the spell, a ball of fire shot out from the tip of his staff.
The fireball landed in the middle of the orc horde and exploded.
The orc that took the direct hit screamed and turned to ash.
It was a fairly powerful spell.
Gerard turned to look at me, looking pleased with himself.
“Well?”
“It's impressive.”
“Heh-heh. Now do you understand? How ridiculous it is for a brat like you to be called a sage?”
Honestly, I was quite surprised.
I hadn't seen other mages, but with this level of firepower, wouldn't he easily clear A-rank?
The amount of mana itself was far less than mine, but this efficiency was beyond what I'd imagined.
As expected, this person's magic was completely different from what I knew.
“People are called geniuses sometimes. Especially when they're young, it's even worse. But that's nothing but an illusion. If you want to become a true mage, don't get drunk on your own arrogance...”
I brushed it off.
That intricate flow of mana.
It probably wasn't something one person had created alone.
It was likely a discipline established and developed by countless mages over a very long time.
“Hey, are you even listening to me?”
I recalled the flow of mana I had seen earlier in the war room, and the flow he had just shown while casting magic.
A flow like an intricately organized canal.
I decided to mimic it.
I opened the sluice gate of the enormous dam of mana in my body.
I forced the current to twist, carving out a new path.
Wooooooong-!
Even though I hadn't cast any magic yet, the air around me shuddered heavily.
Gerard, who had been standing beside me, whipped around in shock.
The arrogance from just moments ago was nowhere to be seen on his face.
He looked as if he had just seen a demon before his eyes.
“W-what is this...! This is impossible...!”
I could hear Gerard shouting something at me.
I ignored him. I focused only on the flow of mana within my body.
That alone was already more than enough to handle.
“This is harder than I thought...”
Some of the leaking mana flowed into the castle wall beneath my feet.
Kwarurururuk
A section of the once-sturdy wall instantly turned into fine sand and began to stream down.
“Aaagh!”
“The wall is collapsing!”
The soldiers nearby scattered in panic.
Gerard also screamed and fell backward.
In an instant, one corner of the wall was gouged out deeply.
I barely managed to keep my balance atop the half-collapsed wall.
“But I think I've got the hang of it.”
Once I'd found the path, the rest was easy.
It happened in an instant.
On the half-collapsed wall, I finally completed the new flow of mana.
“My body feels lighter.”
An unprecedented sense of liberation enveloped my whole body.
It felt as if even breathing and moving had become easier.
I stood at the edge of the wall and reached out toward the oncoming orcs.
“Desertification.”
Sand began spilling out from beneath my feet.
The feeling was clearly different from before.
Control had become much easier.
Sand poured out from the wall and blanketed the battlefield.
In an instant, a massive pit of sand formed below the wall.
“Chwik?”
The orcs were surprised by the sudden change in terrain, but only for a moment.
Before long, the ones who realized that sinking a little wasn't much of a problem started advancing toward the wall again.
Seeing that, I smiled coldly.
Then I gave an order to the Sand Worm that had slipped free from my fingertips.
“Begin.”
At that very moment.
The entire sea of sand began to move.
All the sand beneath their feet began to churn like a whirlpool.
The sand was being sucked rapidly toward the center, like water swirling down a sink.
“Kwoooooo!”
The orcs struggled desperately to break free.
A few of the ones at the edge managed to escape.
But the sand pit got deeper the closer it got to the center.
The orcs who were swallowed up to their waists in an instant could not resist the current.
The screaming orcs were helplessly dragged into the whirlpool.
At its center was a Sand Worm that had opened its enormous maw.
With its mouth open, the Sand Worm devoured everything being sucked toward it.
Orcs, goblins, even the weapons and siege engines they were carrying.
Hundreds of greenskins were ground up and disappeared without a trace, as if fed into a giant blender.
I looked at the overwhelming sight with satisfaction.
Then I decided to give this new technique a name.
“Sand Hell.”
It was a name I liked very much.
Before even a few minutes had passed, the first wave of greenskins charging toward the wall had been annihilated.
Only silence remained on the battlefield.
Not only the soldiers on the wall, but even Gerard, who had watched everything from beside me, stood there with his mouth hanging open, dazed.
I casually gestured toward the wall I had just collapsed.
The sand scattered on the ground moved according to my will.
The sand turned back into solid rock, perfectly restoring the collapsed wall to its original state.
It looked far sturdier than before.
I lightly brushed my hands off and returned behind the wall, leaving the frozen court mage and soldiers behind.
As long as I was here, this fortress would not fall.