Descent of the Legendary Archmage

As I looked at the fireball that was just before my nose, I made my circle spin with all the strength I had.

‘Circle of resonance, strengthen!'

I amplified the power of my magic using the circle of resonance and then converted my mana to water to form a water shield.

Pwshhh-!

And soon after the fireball collided with the barrier made of water.

An immense amount of steam spread out.

'It's too powerful!'

Not only was my magic strengthened by the circle of resonance, but it also had the attribute advantage.

The circle difference between the two spells had been narrowed and under ordinary circumstances, it should have easily blocked it.

Pwooshhhh-!

Despite this, the 3-circle fire type magic, 'Flare Ball', was rapidly overpowering my 'Water Shield'.

"Oomph!"

The boiling hot water and steam scalded my skin.

At this rate, I was going to be burned to ashes along with the water shield.

'It's impossible to block this. I have to avoid it.'

After completing my calculations, I immediately shifted my center of gravity to the right.

'Stay!'

And at the same time, I reused the mana left in the Water Shield and made it so that it would retain its shape even after leaving my hand.

After doing so, I immediately flung myself away from where I was.

Pwooshhhh-!

Though I succeeded in fixing the magic in place, the Water Shield had grown weak due to it being away from my body and was gobbled up by the Flare Ball, disappearing in an instant.

Kwawawang-!

The flare ball, which still had strength left even after swallowing the Water Shield, crashed into where I was standing a few moments ago.

The asphalt melted like it was ice cream.

'As expected I couldn't fully dodge it.'

Since I was forced to dodge from an awkward position, I couldn't fully avoid it.

A part of my left arm was set ablaze by the Flare Ball.

Just from a glance, I could tell they were worse than 3rd-degree burns.

'It's fortunate that I can still move it.'

It was a relief that I didn’t have to carry out the rest of the fight with only one arm.

"Ke... kekeke. Kehahaha!!"

I could hear laughter.

A twisted jeer.

Laughter that was full of joy and ecstasy.

“Yeah, this is it. This is the original difference in skill between you and me! Kehahaha!!"

"...Baek Sahyuk."

Baek Sahyuk.

The eldest son of the Baek family, who had fired a Flare Ball at me, was glaring with red, bloodshot eyes.

"This is all because you're a defective bastard that doesn't know his place. Get it? Hm? Do you get it!"

Just from a glance, I could tell he was not in his right mind.

I had initially thought that his eyes had become red simply due to them being bloodshot, but on closer inspection, it was actually because all the blood vessels in his eyes had burst.

And traces of where his skin had burst in red stood out.

'Evidence of illegal drug doping.'

This is a typical side effect of a drug.

But not just any ordinary drug.

It’s a drug with a rank 1 danger rating that has no regard for the person's life, a type of drug that’s used by defeated soldiers of war.

Berserker.

"...You, have you actually gone crazy?"

Those who took it have no choice but to fight until death.

In order to forcefully accelerate the mana circle, the user's blood vessels must burst all over, and their form, dyed with red, is said to look like some sort of berserker so that's why the name was given.

Baek Sahyuk had taken that crazy drug.

"Am I crazy? No. There's no way. I'm perfectly normal. In fact, I feel like only now I've got my mind back!"

Baek Sahyuk spurred off from the ground.

His mana and body strengthened by the effect of the berserker allowed Baek Sahyuk to move at incredible speeds.

"...!"

Baek Sahyuk, who came right up to my nose in an instant, reached out to me.

“Because I can kill you as I wish! If this isn't normal then what is! Eehaha!!"

Magic power concentrated on the palm of his hand.

'Burning Impaction!'

The 3 circle magic that he had tried to use on me last time.

It was about to activate right before my eyes.

“Heup!"

I immediately struck Baek Sahyuk's hand upwards.

I had planned on canceling the magic the same way I did as last time.

However,

"You're too late. You retard!"

Baek Sahyuk was not the same as he had been before.

Before I could even redirect Baek Sahyuk's hand, his Burning Impaction fired.

Fwing!

The heat focused on a single point.

It was a small burning star, with mana so formidable, that it couldn’t even be considered as a 3-circle magic spell.

It was shot aiming for my forehead.

Ziiing-!

I could clearly hear the sound of skin burning.

As if my left cheek and ear had fully burned, I felt excruciating pain which dulled my thinking.

“You managed to stop that?”

Baek Sahyuk frowned as if he was displeased.

'...That was dangerous.'

Fortunately, my hand had hit Baek Sahyuk's the moment Burning Impaction had triggered and very slightly crooked the angle of his magic.

I used that angle to move my head to the side.

Resulting in the Burning Impaction only brushing past my cheeks.

“My magic... You blocked it twice? A defective bastard like you did that? How dare you? How dare you!!?"

Baek Sahyuk roared like some sort of animal.

''Hmm, I guess it could happen."

Then he suddenly calmed down as if had never been angry.

And then with a smile on his face, he made about 10 meters of space between us.

'...He's even showing symptoms of fluctuating emotions. I'm certain, it's Berserker.'

The more I looked at him, the more certain I got.

Baek Sahyuk had taken berserker.

'The strange thing is the power of his magic...'

Even if you take Berserker, the power of magic doesn't rise by that amount.

What the hell could that incomprehensible magic casting speed at magic power be?

"What are you looking at? You fucking bastard."

Baek Sahyuk, who had gone back to being angry, giggled and shook his finger at me.

"You scared? Are you going to piss yourself? Are you thinking about getting on your knees before it's too late?"

Mana swirled around Baek Sahyuk.

Even from a glance, I could tell that the mana, as if in alignment with Baek Sahyuk's murderous intent, trembled even more violently.

'Could it be that he's taken more than just Berserker?'

His mana acted insanely, in a way totally different from how a usual 3-circle mage’s mana was supposed to behave.

'Shall we give it a check?'

I lowered my body and fired a magic spell.

'Wind Spear.'

A magic spell that was like my identity, and a spell that was traumatic for Baek Sahyuk.

A spear of wind flew towards Baek Sahyuk.

"This son of a bitch..."

Perhaps he had remembered being made a fool out of by the Wind Spear.

Baek Sahyuk's face became even more ferocious.

"With this kind of shitty magic!"

With the intent to annihilate the four flying wind spheres, he unleashed his fire magic. Just by looking at it, I could tell that he had used way more mana than necessary.

To think that he would use 4-circle magic to get rid of 1-circle magic.

"I mean though it's a good idea to be wary of the reactivating Wind Spear."

But still, that's overkill.

''You shouldn't focus solely on that alone."

"...You, you son of a bitch!"

That's why he was falling victim to my surprise attacks.

If he had just used the appropriate amount of magic to deal with it, then his defense wouldn't be riddled with gaps like this.

Using the fact that I had dug out one of Baek Sahyuk's eyes, I ran straight at his torso and immediately used my magic.

The wind-type magic, Aero Boom, burst out from Baek Sahyuk's center of gravity.

'Did it hit?'

The Aero Boom tore his body to shreds.

I thought he would avoid it, but he couldn't even dodge that?

Is it because the Berserker you took slowed down your brain?

And as I was having these kinds of thoughts.

''Kehehe! Eat shit! Shin Hayul!" Shouted Baek Saahyuk, as if he was unscaathed after being hit by Aero Boom.

And mana circled him at the same time.

'Red!'

Red mana scattered over a vast area above Baek Sahyuk's head.

It was Baek Sahyuk's speciality,

'Flame Shotgun.'

I immediately spurred off the ground and created distance between us.

'Flame shotgun has the characteristic of having short range.'

Its range was 7 meters.

Only 7.

As long as you are 8 meters away, you won't be hit.

Phwuaaa-!

As it started to drop at about 6 meters, Baek Sahyuk's flame shotgun took full shape and flew towards me.

'If it’s that slow then I’ll be able to get out of its range before it hits me.'

I was confident of that and planned what to do next.

'That laugh...'

But for some reason, Baek Sahyuk laughing caught my eye.

I had a feeling that he was genuinely laughing and not because of his fluctuating emotions

'...No way.'

And at that moment, a thought passed by my head.

Magic casting speed and magic power that should be impossible to attain with just berserker.

A smile convinced of victory.

'And the timing of Baek Sahyuk's attack.'

There's no doubt about it.

"Len Smith. And the IL chip."

The one behind this incident was the Black Magic Tower.

'If Baek Sahyuk's implanted an IL chip in himself, then the range of the Flame Shotgun isn't 8 meters!'

I immediately switched plans and continued to run despite being out of the Flame Shotgun's range.

'If my calculations are correct...'

The Flame Shotgun approached closer and closer.

I used my mana on the lower half of my body and further reinforced my body, succeeding in reaching where I had intended to.

'The distance of this Flame Shotgun is 9.12 meters!'

I was exactly 10 meters away from Baek Sahyuk.

I stood there and looked upon the approaching Flame Shotgun.

'Bingo!'

Pwshshsh-!

The flame shotgun that had filled my entire field of vision, ceased to exist 1 meter from where I was standing.

It couldn't go over the range set by the magic circle and disappeared naturally.

“You... how..."

Baek Sahyuk frowned.

It was an expression that showed he didn't understand what was going on.

As I looked at Baek Sahyuk, I gently pat the scalds on my left arm and my face.

'Innovation Leveling chip. Berserker. And Len Smith.'

Len Smith is the one behind this incident.

‘Len Smith chose Baek Sahyuk as the person who was supposed to attack me on Friday.'

I think he intended to use Baek Sahyuk to attack me tomorrow and under the pretense of intervening to break up the fight, he planned to frame me as an illegal AI user.

And because Len Smith uses mind control magic, it wouldn't be too difficult for him to manipulate Baek Sahyuk, who already had the intent to kill me.

And even if Baek Sahyuk luckily killed me, then all the better.

That's probably what he had thought.

* * *

'...I hadn't expected this.'

It was my mistake.

From the moment I found out that Len Smith was using mind control magic, I should have assumed that there would be the intervention of a third party.

To think that I had relaxed after Len Smith had been caught.

'I guess I should reflect on this.'

My mouth felt bitter.

"Did you hate me enough to even use an IL chip?"

"An IL Chip? What are you on about?"

Baek Sahyuk snorted.

His expression tells me that he doesn't understand what I'm saying.

“Yeah. As expected you don't remember."

That fact that he had taken berserker, the fact that he had an IL chip implanted and the fact that it was Len Smith who did it.

Baek Sahyuk had forgotten all of it.

"If you're going to talk nonsense, then go to hell first and then you can yammer away!"

Baek Sahyuk fired his magic again.

Three Flare Balls flew towards me.

"The IL chip is an illegally modified artificial intelligence that enhances the magic formula by boosting the user's body."

I gently ducked and put my hands on the floor.

The Flare Balls passed over my head.

"And because of that, the power and range of the magic spells change."

The Flare Ball soared past its set range of 15 meters and exploded after reaching 20 meters.

“But the only things that change are the numbers. Its characteristic of being unable to switch direction remains the same.”

I felt the hot wind coming from behind me and got up from where I was.

“It’s the same with Berserker, it only raises the power of magic by forcefully accelerating the mana circle. The characteristics of the spells cannot be changed.”

“What are you talking about! You insect bastard!!"

Baek Sahyuk shouted and activated his magic again.

'Green.'

The color of magic with the wind attribute.

Perhaps he had thought that fire-type magic wouldn't work and that was why he was using wind magic.

‘3-circle magic. Wind Knife.'

A blade of wind was created from his hand.

I took a step back before it was even fired.

“And this is so ironic. What I'm researching right now is how the change in the structure of the circle and mana is affected by the alteration of the magic circle."

19.77 meters.

I stood still at that exact distance and stared down the flying knife made of wind.

Phwooosh-!

The knife made of wind came within 0.1cm of my nose and then completely lost its shape and disappeared.

“Thanks to you, I now fully understand how the amplification of mana and the rate at which the circle accelerates affects magic.”

As long as I knew the rate at which the IL chip was modifying the mana and by what rate Berserker was accelerating the magic circle, these kinds of calculations can be easily deduced.

"And I don't know if I should say that this is lucky or awkward."

Or even ironic.

“I didn’t know that your illegal AI and doping would give me a hand with my research.”

Whilst observing Baek Sahyuk's magic, I got a hold of the final part of the 'resonance' puzzle.

“What bullshit are you still spewing!! You fucking son of a bitch!"

Baek Sahyuk ran at me with a roar.

I looked at Baek Sahyuk, and let out a small sigh.

“I won’t thank you. Since there's not much difference between perfecting it now and perfecting tomorrow at dawn.“

I could hear something revolving inside my body.

The clear sound of the infinity circle revolving.

The two circles that let out different cries gradually became one.

And afterwards.

It became one loud sound.

'Resonance.'

The Circle of Deliberation and the Circle of Resonance had perfectly become one and started to revolve.