The Hero’s Party Members Treat Me Well for Some Reason

24 – Conquest of the Reunion (6)

The log-like game I was playing.

[Mage and Hero Party] was a game with an incredibly high level of freedom.

With over hundreds of weapons and thousands of skills to choose from, the protagonist had a wide range of options, creating an enormous number of possibilities.

Finding the optimized profession from a gamer’s perspective was almost like fate.

With so many methods available, it was impossible not to try them.

Thanks to that, I had raised characters with various professions during nearly a thousand rounds of play.

A few efficient professions were optimized completely, facing the Demon King dozens of times.

Some of them were even used as primary professions.

If you want the most stable profession, it’s undoubtedly the Holy Knight.

Consistent healing and self-buffing, as well as bonus damage against demons, made the Holy Knight a formidable monster.

Furthermore, the Holy Knight’s automatic increase in favorability among humans made the game run very smoothly.

For the title of the best one-on-one profession, it was undoubtedly the Spear Master.

The ability to create numerous variables through magic, flashy techniques based on spears, and high damage output were appealing as the game progressed.

Speaking of the most powerful firepower, it’s, of course, the Wizard.

Extensive adaptability centered around the four major elements and a powerful one-shot ability through fusion and elemental enhancement made even the Demon King suffer.

I’ve faced the Demon King multiple times with all of them, and these professions have caught my eye. The possibilities are abundant.

But… when it comes to the strongest profession.

If you were to choose the profession with the highest peak when maximizing a character, I would not hesitate to pick this one.

‘Black Mage.’

Among them, the Regenerative Self-Destructing Black Mage.

This profession, which sounds like a hybrid just by its name, didn’t have as many encounters with the Demon King as one might think.

It’s because the difficulty level is too high.

Learning black magic leads to a drop in the favorability of the characters, as a basic principle.”

The stability is also compromised due to the strong black magic, which poses a great danger.

Being a profession that requires constant tightrope walking because there are many eerie and difficult skills.

Still, I couldn’t give up like this, so one day while conducting research, an idea suddenly came to mind…

“Wait, if the stability drops, can’t I just patch it up with healing skills?”

I immediately put the idea into action.

Starting from scratch, I leveled up my character, adjusted the skill set, and equipped the items.

Half-forcefully raising my character like that, I couldn’t help but be amazed.

“Crazy, what kind of scam character is this?”

Honestly, that round didn’t go well.

Most of the usable items couldn’t be obtained due to the decrease in the favorability of the characters, and the skill execution didn’t go smoothly either.

Furthermore, unexpectedly, the order of the Four Kings got messed up, and we ended up losing all the party members.

Two dead, one permanently injured and retired, and one left the party.

This game was started to save the four heroines, but before I knew it, no one was left by my side.

“Ha, should I just delete it?”

At that moment, I was hit by a moment of realization and attempted to skip this round and move on to the next.

If the realization hadn’t come after defeating the last of the Four Kings, I would have definitely deleted the character.

“No, I’ve done something up until now. It would be a waste to delete it. I’ll show the Demon King and then delete.”

And so, I headed towards the Demon King’s castle.

There was no saint blessing him.

The knight who protected the surroundings retired with a serious injury.

The thief who set the traps died.

Soon after, the magician followed suit.

Alone, I fought the final boss of this game with nothing.

The back view of the one quietly heading towards the Demon King’s castle seemed incredibly lonely.

Of course, I thought I would lose. I thought I would be killed by a single move.

“Oh no…”

But the result was…

“Can this be called a draw…?”

I defeated the Demon King.

He had sacrificed his skills, items, and comrades, all unprepared, to face the Demon King.

By manifesting dark magic through risks and patching up those risks through regeneration, along with the use of several powerful skills that accumulated damage as stacks, these three elements had insane synergy.

Realizing the potential, I had focused on becoming a dark magician since then.

“But I’ve never properly grown once.”

As I mentioned earlier, the difficulty level of operation itself was too challenging.

Learning black magic was difficult in the first place, and even healing skills were rare.

It was already difficult to obtain two types of skills, and doing so in a state where my favorability rating had dropped drastically… It was truly a hopeless situation.

But that’s why there is no better timing than now.

“Favorability rating?”

Isn’t it already f*cked beyond belief, even if I sacrifice my connections?

Regardless, I’m in the negatives, so it doesn’t make a difference if I fall further here.

“Healing skills?”

Even though it’s a replica, there is the top-tier skill, regeneration.

And as for learning difficult black magic?

That was also resolved.

《Blood Monster Technique》

《Pain Perception Technique》

They are right in front of me.

The fundamental skills of a regenerative dark magician.

Of course, it was a gamble. It was a crazy move.

Not to mention facing the Demon King, I might get cut from the Four Heavenly Kings due to operational issues even before that.

But if they are girls that can’t be found in other professions…

Isn’t it right to invest in the most possible place?

That’s all there is to it.

This is the only profession that can break through the final thousandth episode.

With confidence in my choice, I immediately picked up the book.

[Understanding greatly increases through the effect of Heavenly Martial Body!]

Now it was time for learning.

“Congratulations!”

“You’ve acquired Blood Flow Acceleration!”

“You’ve acquired Painful Memories!”

“You’ve acquired Blood Power Exchange!”

“You’ve acquired Pain Imprint!”

…

“…Phew.”

About 10 hours later.

After finishing a thorough reading of the book, I sighed lightly.

Thanks to the help of Cheonmu’s transcendental skills, the content of the book was easily understood.

Of course, the depth of the book’s content might have been lacking.

Nevertheless, the majority of the black magic books laid out here were mostly basic.

There was no deep enlightenment to be gained from learning them.

“Still, I’ve learned most of the core skills.”

What was fortunate was that I could learn the basic skills that formed the foundation of the Dark Wizard. Now, I just had to gradually improve these skills to enter the late game.

The principles of Blood Vein and Pain Perception were separate, but that could be discussed later.

Anyway, perhaps it was because I had learned several skills after a long time, but a sense of accomplishment captivated my heart. It seemed like I had finally entered a proper growth path.

But such thoughts were short-lived. I had to strengthen my impression of my surroundings.

“Hmm…”

I could see the subtle flow of mana emanating from my body.

The once endlessly pure blue mana, like a summer sky, was now emitting a strange turbulence.

It was a side effect of learning black magic.

Black magic, marked by its black color, gradually tainted the user’s mana as they learned more.

In this state, I was likely to be exposed no matter what…

It’s okay.

In the deep history of dark magic, there are also techniques to hide oneself from people.

“Sneu… Hoo…”

Inhales and exhales. Every time, a large amount of mana hidden inside surges.

I can feel my mana mixed with dark magic.

If I were watching from one step behind that sight, it would be like seeing paint that hasn’t been properly mixed in water.

I was planning to separate the spreading black ink in all directions and let it settle down temporarily.

I suppress the dark and murky magic power deep inside. And I stack the original magic power on top of it.

It is a difficult task.

Sorting out the two mixed colors of magic power is like untangling a tangled thread.

But it is not impossible, just difficult.

Perhaps because there is ‘magic control’ in the first place, it was easier than I thought.

“Hoo…”

How much time has passed like that?

At least when the mana ‘visibly’ looked clean, I stopped the work.

Then I smiled quietly to myself.

“Indeed, I am a genius.”

With this, there’s absolutely no chance of getting caught.

After rising from my seat, I prepared to go back little by little.

Before that, I didn’t forget to bring other books including ‘Blood Ritual’ and ‘Spirit Channeling’. Since this is the only space for growth that I have, I must take as much as I can.

As a magician, Balcan had a wide range of books on magic. Their manifestation methods according to mana flow, spells for strengthening magic, and ways to use magic efficiently, and so on…

I brought all those books without missing a single one.

Knowledge always comes in handy.

Like that, I returned to them, concealing the black magic tightly. I thought there was no way they could find out…

*

“Kyaaah! It’s dark magic!!”

“This idiot! Did he really cross the line!!”

“…He’s so evil.”

I was immediately caught, as expected.

“hahahaha, damn it.”

It seemed like it would be another tiring day.