Chapter 50 – Magic Conference (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Lartania, the labyrinth city.

The deeper one went underground, the more treasures and artifacts appeared, and its end had still not been found. At the top of that city, where countless mercenaries and explorers lived, there stood the five great guilds.

Bloody Iron.

Terranomad.

Arcadia.

Ancient Chasers.

Kalimadra.

The five great guilds known by those names possessed forces far stronger than any ordinary mercenary guild or explorer guild, and there was a clear gap in strength between them and all the lesser guilds.

And the guild masters of those five great guilds were powerhouses who could fairly be called superhuman rather than human.

One of them was Alderic, master of Bloody Iron, a man who had once slaughtered more than a thousand monsters alone on the tenth floor and earned the epithet Butcher. At the moment, he was descending the labyrinth.

But today, the reason he had come down here was not to reach the lowest floor. It was because of a high-paying request that had come to Bloody Iron.

Capture one monster alive on the twentieth floor.

With an axe the size of his body resting on his shoulder, Alderic made a strange face.

That was because the contents of the request were odd.

In the Lartania labyrinth, every fifth floor was a place with no monsters, a space that did not really suit the name labyrinth.

Of course, the deeper one went, the more those multiples-of-five floors, the so-called safety floors to mercenaries, changed into landscapes or structures that grew harder and harder to understand, but the basic point remained the same.

There were no monsters.

Yet the expensive request that had come this time clearly referred to capturing one monster on one of those multiples-of-five floors, the twentieth floor, so there was no way it would not seem strange.

Even so, the reason Alderic had still led his men down to the twentieth floor was simple. The advance payment had been enormous.

More importantly, the client had said it personally.

Even if the mission failed, the contract fee would not be reclaimed.

That was why Alderic was on his way down to the twentieth floor now.

It could be a trap.

Of course he had considered that.

But even if it was a trap, he was not particularly afraid.

A man who normally played around on the fiftieth floor, long called the bottommost floor of the labyrinth, was confident he could return right away even if something happened on the twentieth.

So as Alderic descended with his subordinates.

“Twentieth floor.”

They arrived at the twentieth floor, just as the client had said.

Looking over the landscape of the twentieth floor, where large ruined structures remained, Alderic’s men spoke up.

“…What is that?”

“A monster?”

“…Huh, boss, there really is a monster.”

Amazingly enough, just as the client had said, there really was a monster there.

“But….”

“Isn’t that a goblin?”

“It really is.”

And not just any monster, but one of the weakest monsters there was. A goblin.

“There’s really a monster on the twentieth floor?”

“Wow, then if we just catch that thing and head back up, we get even more money on top of the advance?”

“This is basically a golden goblin.”

“A golden goblin that’s even wearing clothes?”

“What kind of clothes are those? Eastern clothes?”

After spotting the monster, Alderic’s subordinates pointed and chuckled.

That was only natural. Since these were the mercenaries who explored the lowest floors with him, everyone here had already killed well over thousands of goblins.

Then, while they were all snickering.

“Hah.”

The goblin, which had been staring blankly at the ruins until just before now, let out a low sigh and turned around.

“The insects are noisy.”

With a voice far too clear to belong to a goblin, and a gaze more languid than anything else, it lazily let one finger drift.

From left to right.

And then.

“Ah…?”

The upper and lower halves of the mercenaries who had just been laughing at the goblin separated cleanly.

That was all.

Thud.

With that meager sound, five mercenaries who had been with Alderic for years died in an instant.

The moment Alderic felt instinctive danger and raised his axe, he saw it.

The goblin’s eyes as it looked at him.

In eyes far too intelligent for a goblin, only two emotions could be seen.

Arrogance.

Thud.

And contempt.

That was the last thing Alderic ever saw.

There was nothing after that.

His mind blacked out amid the mercenaries’ horrible screams.

And not long after, the one who had dealt with every mercenary who came down to the twentieth floor, no.

The king of all hungry ghosts.

Began moving toward the surface.

* * *

Basically, once the discussion portion of the conference ended, the friendly match began. Usually, the mage scheduled to participate in that day’s match came forward and nominated an opponent.

In other words, they could request a duel from any mage who had gathered to watch.

Of course, that did not mean the mage with nomination rights challenged just anyone.

If they challenged someone too far below them, people would talk behind their back and say they had picked on a lower-ranked mage.

But if they nominated someone too far above them, they risked embarrassing themselves and offending the other person as well.

Mages were creatures with strong pride by nature.

So most mages who gained the right to nominate chose someone of roughly similar standing, and Alon at least knew that much.

If I remember right, Baruk is around fourth rank.

Feeling interested gazes focus on him, Alon recalled Riyan glaring hard at Baruk the day before.

One rank above me.

In the world of mages, rank created an enormous difference.

The higher the ranks climbed, the greater that gap became. By the time one reached the seventh or eighth ranks seen much later, a difference of just one rank could still mean a tremendous difference in actual power.

At that age, if he’s fourth rank, then even if he’s not quite Penia’s level, he clearly falls into the category of genius.

He was thinking that while looking at Baruk, who did not seem all that old regardless of his face, when Baruk suddenly opened his mouth.

“Surely the mage who played such a major part in defeating that great Outer God hasn’t gotten scared, has he?”

It was a provocation sharp enough that even the mages watching the situation with interest could not help flinching.

No matter how anyone heard it, Baruk’s words carried the meaning: are the rumors about Alon false after all?

And Alon, the target himself, understood Baruk’s intent well enough.

He’s trying to screw me over.

Of course, Alon did not know the exact reason Baruk was doing this.

But for the current Alon, understanding that much was enough.

If someone tries to screw you over for no reason, give them a reason.

Alon was not mild enough in temperament to spare someone who was trying to humiliate him without cause, especially not when that opponent did not even look hard to beat.

Looks like I’ll get to test it in real combat sooner than expected.

Quietly, Alon slipped the finger guard from his pocket onto his index finger and spoke.

“I accept.”

And just like that, the duel was established.

* * *

It went just as expected.

Baruk, the Violet Tower Master’s son and a fourth-rank mage like Riyan, smiled as he looked at the expressionless Alon in the distance and felt the gazes of the gathered mages pouring down on him.

Naturally, provoking Alon and dragging him into the arena had all been part of Baruk’s plan.

More precisely, it was a plan for Baruk himself to stand in a brighter spotlight.

Of course, the title of Violet Tower Master’s son already gave him enough power to exert influence at the conference.

But he needed the power to wield even more influence, so when he heard Count Palladio had come to the conference the day before, he decided to use him.

Count Palladio, a man who carried all sorts of rumors around with him.

Baruk looked at Alon with a crooked smile.

He knew very well what kinds of rumors Alon was dragging around.

That he had greatly contributed to dealing with the Outer God that appeared in the north.

That recently, in the desert city of Colony, he had also greatly helped Golden Flash take care of the two Baba Yaga who had launched a surprise attack.

And on top of that, beginning yesterday, even the most unbelievable rumor of all had started spreading: that he had turned that delinquent Penia into something like a meek lamb.

Because of that, at this moment, the conference mages were rating Alon’s magic very highly based on rumor alone.

In other words, if the rumors were true, then Baruk was effectively doing something idiotic just to raise his own name value.

But he had not laid out this board thoughtlessly.

Baruk subtly raised his right hand toward Alon and fed mana into the plain ring on his finger.

Woooong.

With a faint resonance and a movement of mana so small that the other mages could not notice it, numbers began to appear on the ring.

The number three.

A grin spread over Baruk’s mouth as he looked at the number engraved on the ring.

The ring he wore was an artifact that could project an extremely weak trace of mana and roughly determine an opponent’s rank and mana quantity.

As expected. Weak.

Just like yesterday.

And just like when he checked one last time right before making his final provocation, the ring again displayed a rank of three, and Baruk smiled.

What Baruk trusted was this ring.

Normally, an artifact that could tell an opponent’s rank simply by lightly projecting mana would not have been very useful, but at a conference it had all sorts of uses.

Thanks to this ring, Baruk had been able to discover mages who lied on purpose to protect their pride and use them as stepping stones.

And because of that, he had hooked a fish this big too.

It was precisely because he trusted the ring that Baruk had been able to provoke Alon without hesitation.

“Are both sides ready?”

“I am.”

“Yes.”

When the question reached him as he was thinking, Baruk answered and lightly drew up his mana.

The rumor that that delinquent followed him like a meek lamb does bother me a little, but the ring is certain. She can’t be acting that submissive because of his magic skill.

Baruk thought about how to handle Alon.

Should I end it immediately? No. If I end it too fast, there probably won’t be enough impact, so should I play with him slowly?

But I shouldn’t drag it out too long either. If that count’s strength gets exposed as empty rumor, then the reputation that should be rising for me might drop for no reason… Right. Ending it a bit early would be best.

Already imagining how he would finish Alon off, Baruk gripped his staff.

“As both sides know, any magic that could threaten the opponent’s life will be subject to sanction, so please control your force. Then.”

Tap.

“Begin.”

The staff of the mage acting as referee lightly struck the ground, signaling the start of the match, and Baruk moved with a confident smile.

Then.

“?”

He noticed white breath slipping from his mouth.

It happened so suddenly that Baruk could not properly register it at first, and he only stared in confusion before he quickly realized that the air reaching his lungs had turned cold.

Just as he was about to question that.

“Huh?”

Crack.

He belatedly noticed that his calves were freezing over.

Craaack.

And it was not only his calves.

“!”

Once he realized it, he saw that the entire arena was freezing.

The white frost forming across the ground rapidly expanded its territory and turned everything around it into frozen earth.

And in the center of that frozen land.

He saw him.

Expressionless.

Emotionless.

Wearing a black finger guard that leaked ominous black mana, freezing everything.

The man standing loftily atop the arena.

“Ah.”

And Baruk realized it.

Something had gone wrong.

But by the time he realized that.

“Snow Mountain’s Echo.”

Alon had already spoken the phrase.