Descent of the Legendary Archmage

I looked at the enormous turtle that was at least twice the size of an elephant up and down and admired it.

“Is this a turtle or a snake?”

A jewel-like shell that shines in a unique emerald hue.

Four legs with skin as rough as bark.

It resembled a tortoise.

The problem was its head, tail, and tongue.

What kind of bastard has a neck and tail that long? I would believe it if someone told me it was just a snake with a shell. With its neck stretched out and its flickering tongue, it pretty much is a snake.

"We haven't met before, have we? Nice to meet you."

I greeted the turtle that was glaring at me with its tongue flickering.

Thump! Thump!

Perhaps it didn't like my relaxed demeanor, but it powerfully pounds the ground with its front legs as it glares at me.

Its pressure was incredibly intense like it was trying to tell me that it was an enormous monster.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The emerald turtle struck the ground with its front feet as if it were a bull that had caught sight of red cloth.

It looked like it had a strong desire to storm at me.

Those who don't know much about emerald turtles may ask, 'well, it's just a turtle, even if it runs at me what can it do?'

I understand why one may ask that. Because most believe that it is natural for turtles to be slow. But this guy isn't just any old turtle. As a C-ranked monster, it has mana stored in its body.

Those who judged it to be slow just from looking at its appearances were to be in for a whole world of pain.

'It's coming.’

It stopped sweeping the floor and after a moment.

Thuuuump-!

The ground on which it was standing shattered, and I saw its giant body spin round and round.

'Fast!'

Its speed increased rapidly. It was flying at me at an incredible pace.

'Leg strengthening.'

I immediately swirled my mana around my lower body, and upon strengthening it as much as possible, launched myself away.

By launching myself vertically, I avoided the charge of the emerald turtle.

Thump!

An explosion sounded out with the cloud of dust that had formed from where I had just been standing.

It had tremendous destructive power.

'The book never said it was this fast.'

It seemed like its speed and power were superior to what the information I had told me.

Even among emerald turtles, it looked to be a particularly strong one.

'I guess I'll have more trouble than I anticipated.'

And as I had that thought, the explosion rang again.

Clouds of dust spread out like ripples from the emerald turtle.

Its body flew at me again.

And again I was perpendicular to where it had charged at.

I dodged its body slams by moving vertically.

Thump!

The emerald turtle that crashed into the ground bounced up like a ball and flew towards me.

It's here.

The double charge.

Its movements were like a tennis ball that had spin on it.

'This is faster than I had anticipated as well!'

It was so fast that even after strengthening my legs to the maximum, I couldn't avoid it.

Guess I have no choice.

'Barrier.'

The emerald turtle's body flew at me like a ball.

I formed a barrier in the direction the emerald turtle was spinning in and changed its trajectory.

Keeek-!

It truly is a C-rank monster. It had an outrageous amount of force.

'How is it so strong....!'

Though it was a barrier I had made with all my might, It was difficult to slow it down let alone block it.

I had miscalculated.

This was my mistake.

Guess I have no choice.

'Resonance strengthen.'

I immediately strengthened the barrier using the circle of resonance.

The barrier, that was about to crumble into pieces of mana, instantly solidified.

Thump!

The emerald turtle crashed into the ground, and another explosion rang out.

As before, the emerald turtle was concealed in a cloud of dust.

If you were an ordinary person, you would probably be preparing to fend off the relentless charge. But that's the worst course of action one could take.

'Upon using Double Charge, the emerald turtle loses all its strength for a moment.'

It can't keep using that wondrous move that allows it to fling itself like a tennis ball over and over again.

The double charge is an attack that takes that much of a toll on it.

The emerald turtle cannot use Charge again for the next 6 seconds.

I immediately used Wind to clear the dirt cloud, and ran at it.

'Though just because it can't use Charge, doesn't mean there's a gap in its armor.'

After using Double Charge, emerald turtles will generally curl up and focus entirely on defense.

Until it can use Charge again, it will only focus on defending.

Of course, it's a monster that is troublesome in various ways.

Tap-

I put my hand on its shell, closed my eyes and felt the mana flowing through the emerald turtle.

'The emerald turtle is a C-rank monster with mana. It uses 70% of its mana to reinforce its shell.'

To pierce through it, you'll need at least 5th circle magic.

In other words, mages with less than 5 circles can never penetrate it.

If you aim for its head, you can do damage to it even with 3rd circle magic, but finding an opportunity to attack it during its crazy charge is impossible.

It's a really annoying monster.

'It's still funny even now. Who came up with the idea of having this thing be the named monster?'

It seems like they put it in here just to have some variety. But even if that's the case, putting this thing that's immune to attacks is taking it too far.

'Though, to be fair. As someone who attacked it in the first place, I shouldn't be the one saying this.'

Guess we're as equally bad as each other. Both the instructor who put this thing in and me who attacked it.

'It's mana's very unique.'

From the mana I felt from the emerald turtle's shell, I gradually matched my mana with it.

'With this, I've met the first condition for activating interference.'

At that moment, its body began to move again. It took about 6 seconds to recover.

'For now, let's take a step back and wait for the next opportunity.'

I immediately created distance between us.

It stretched out its neck and tail and rubbed its front foot against the ground while glaring at me.

Bang-!

And it charges again.

From here, our previous confrontation was repeated.

'This time I'll avoid it perfectly without having to use Barrier.'

I dodged its charge and induced it into performing a double charge. And after it failed its double charge, I approached it while it was all curled up and touched its shell.

'I've finished completely understanding the magic formula's structure.'

And after around four more repetitions of this, I finally met the second condition of using interference which was to understand the magic formula.

'And the target has been located.'

And while it was laying still, I met the third condition as well.

'This range is no problem either.'

I was within Interference's 30cm range.

'Preparations complete.'

All conditions for using interference had been met.

“Whew...”

There were three seconds left until the emerald turtle would move. That's more than enough time.

Vrrrrrr-!

I took a deep breath and spun the circle of interference.

The mana, flowing through the circle of interference, followed my hand and permeated into the shell of the emerald turtle.

'Interference.'

I left the magic formula that I had identified as the base and additionally added how far it was from me.

Using the knowledge I acquired from Mímisbrunnr, I materialized the interference.

'Using where my hand is touching as the base, weaken the shell in a circle of radius 30cm.'

My mana, which perfectly matched the emerald turtle's mana, seeped into its shell.

'Interference success.'

A green light with a radius of 30cm rapidly covered its shell.

'Circle of resonance. Strengthen.'

Feeling its shell weakening, I spun the resonance circle along with the interference circle. And after that.

'3rd Circle, Icicle Lance.'

The spear of ice, reinforced by the circle of resonance, penetrated the emerald turtle's shell. And that was it.

The emerald turtle couldn't even say its dying words as it took its last breath.

[Successfully subjugated the Emerald Turtle]

[Kill Point + 200]

"Yes."

The message that came up made the tips of my mouth dance.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

The mansion of the Magic Shin Clan.

Shin Inhyuk was in his study, smiling as he watched the video of the battle survival test.

Shin Hayul was sitting on the emerald turtle's corps, operating the test assistance artifacts.

When I saw that, even I couldn't help but smile.

"To think that he really took on the emerald turtle alone..."

Kim Seokhyun, who was standing next to Shin Inhyuk, burst out laughing.

“Emerald turtles are said to be weak against the Ice attribute, but how did he do that with just 3 circle magic...”

"Well, I don't know either."

Shin Inhyuk's smile deepened. And Kim Seokhyun's surprise grew.

He was surprised at hearing the response, 'I don't know’, from the 8th circle mage, Shin Inhyuk.

“Even I'm unable to know something I've never learned. This is especially true for Hayul's magic which differs greatly from the standard, modern magic.”

Shin Inhyuk, who read Kim Seokhyun's expression, smiled as he said this.

“Oh, pardon me!”

Kim Seokhyun, realizing his mistake, bowed his head in embarrassment.

“Don't worry about it. It doesn't bother me.”

Shin Inhyuk continued to stare at the monitor with a pleasant smile.

He was quite skilled at butchering the emerald turtle's carcass to prepare food.

''He's showing good form in everything he does. At his age, it wouldn't be strange for him to be disgusted."

“He wasn't raised so weakly.”

"...Ah, that's right."

Recalling Shin Hayul's special education, which began at the age of six, Kim Seokhyun nodded.

“Patriarch. Can I ask you one thing?”

"What is it?"

Shin Inhyuk answered with his gaze fixed on Shin Hayul.

“Why do you think Hayul would do something so eye-catching?”

Ever since Kim Seokhyun had heard the news that Shin Hayul had started attacking the emerald turtle, he constantly questioned Hayul's actions.

Why would Shin Hayul do such a thing?

“Considering what young master Jihan and Seha can do to keep him in check, doing something like this would be catastrophic for him.”

Shin Hayul is currently in a state where he has no power.

Doing something so eye-catching when both Shin Jihan and Shin Seha were doing their utmost efforts to win the succession race was bound to make them target him.

No, in all probability, they'll do all they can to keep him in check.

Seeing how he was hiding the fact that he could use 3rd circle magic until the Baek Sahyuk attack, it doesn't look like he's unaware of what position he's in.

If Kim Seokhyun had been in Shin Hayul's position, he would never have done anything so eye-catching. Until he built up his strength and power, he would have hidden his strength as much as possible. Showing off could wait.

“I'm worried that young master Hayul's drunk off his power, and is making the wrong decision,"

Kim Seokhyun said with worried eyes.

Shin Inhyuk laughed at Kim Seokhyun who had these kinds of concerns.

“Hayul making the wrong decision?”

There's no way. Shin Inhyuk's smile gradually got wider as he looked at Shin Hayul from across the monitor.

"Hayul's always perfectly cool-headed. He cool headedly thought about the situation he'd found himself in and deliberately drew attention to himself."

“Are you saying that was on purpose?”

“That's right. Because he trusted me when I said that I would protect him for 2 months.”

"Ah!"

The situation's different now than it was during the mid-term comprehensive evaluation.

“So during those months, he's planning on doing anything that'll raise his wretched position within the family.”

As long as Shin Hayul had Shin Inhyuk's protection, neither Shin Jihan nor Shin Seha could lay a finger on him.

“But you're only going to be protecting him for 2 months. If you think about the consequences he'll face afterwards, catching people's attention like that will be truly detrimental.”

Now that he's acted in such an eye-catching way, Shin Hayul is bound to be targeted by both Shin Jihan and Shin Seha after the 2 months are up.

“As long as Hayul returns to the family, it doesn't matter whether he tries to lay low or catches everyone's attention. Since both Jihan and Seha will be wary of him regardless.”

As they had been awed by Shin Hayul's shining talent, there was no chance that they would leave him be.

"And because Hayul knows this, he's using this opportunity to do anything he can to draw attention to himself. So that he can build up the influence he requires to prepare for an attack even just a day faster.”

"Ah...”

Since he was going to be targeted anyways, Shin Hayul acted in this way to slowly build up his influence.

"And..."

Beyond the monitor. Shin Hayul was fighting with someone.

"He must be confident that in 2 months neither Jihan's nor Seha's meddling will pose any threat to him."

Though his opponent was someone who was remembered even by Shin Inhyuk, and a 3rd circle user from a respectable family in its own right, he was no match for Shin Hayul.

The way he overwhelmed his opponent was benefitting from one of the Magic Shin Clan's direct lineage. It's not bad.

“Why do you think that...”

“Since if he wins the gold medal at the World Academy Olympiad in two months, everything will be flipped on its head.”

That's what Shin Hayul was confident of.

Confident in his ability to take the gold medal at the Olympiad in 2 months.

Confident that once he does so, he would not lose to either Shin Jihan or Shin Seha.

Confident that he can become the next leader of the Magic Shin Clan.

And...

"...How bold."

Confident that he can become the world's greatest archmage.