I'm the Only Wizard Climbing the Tower - Chapter 122

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 122: 122

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Flash!

The brilliant light faded.

I slowly looked around.

Then I saw it.

“They're coming!”

“Stop them! If this line breaks, the capital will fall!”

“Waaaaah!”

An army cried out at the top of its lungs.

-Kyaaaaaah!

-Kreeeeeeh!

-Kieeeeeeek!!!

A horde of Ghouls came rushing in.

They were clashing across a vast plain!

It was quite a sight.

-Booooom!

-Whoooosh!

-Slash! Crunch!

The Ghouls surged forward as if they were covering the burning earth.

Knights and soldiers frantically swung their spears and swords, while mages behind them fired scattered attack spells.

Thousands of troops fought desperately to hold back the Ghouls.

A massive battle was the first thing I saw upon entering Floor 40.

I muttered quietly.

“So Floor 40 has been altered too. I've entered the Steined Worldline again.”

“Enough with the Steins;Gate talk. I watched it because you recommended it, Jiho, but it wasn't very fun. It was just boring.”

“Fool!!! Just hold out until Episode 12! It gets insanely good from Episode 12 onward! Everything before that is buildup, so it can drag a little!”

“Who has the patience for long buildups these days? There are so many things that are fun from the start.”

This was the problem with modern people and their lack of patience!

There was nothing more exhilarating than letting the buildup pile up before finally blowing it all up! The catharsis was incredible!

It was the harmful influence of brainrot content that gave people quick, guaranteed dopamine hits.

Anyway.

‘Originally, Floor 40 was a floor where you had to fight through tens of thousands of Ghouls and Black Mages across dead land to reach the Black Mage Tower.’

That was what Floor 40 had originally been.

A completely dead continent.

A vast expanse stained black, where every bit of vegetation had shriveled up and died.

It was a floor where you had to keep moving forward through Black Mages and hordes of Ghouls until you reached the Escape Portal inside the Black Mage Tower.

But the Floor 40 I entered was different.

The land had not completely died yet.

Ghouls were still pouring in endlessly, but...

People had gathered their strength and were holding them back.

This was the result of all the alterations I had built up since Floor 35.

I had reformed the Black Mages, split the Black Mage Tower's forces in half, and prevented the Imperial Family from falling.

In the end, a worldline where people resisted the Black Mages to the very end had been completed!

“The Prophet watches over us!”

“For the Empire! For the continent!”

“Waaaaaah!”

Bang, slash, crunch, thud.

The Empire's forces fought desperately.

They somehow held their defensive line against the Ghouls swarming in as though they would cover the whole earth.

Still, there were simply too many Ghouls.

A massive horde of at least ten thousand was advancing like it was staining the horizon.

Even I, with some experience as a Hunter, had never seen numbers like this before.

At this rate, they were sure to be overwhelmed.

Which meant...

“It's my turn. Iing Iing! Attack helicopter mode!”

-Iing!

Pop!

Iing Iing, the ace pilot, used telekinetic flight to lift Hyeji and me high into the air.

Then I prepared my magic.

‘My current mana reserves are enough for 1,300 Fireballs.’

I had used too much mana in China yesterday.

It hadn't fully recovered yet.

Mana was so sparse on Earth in the real world that even if I spent an entire day recovering it, I only gained enough mana for a few hundred Fireballs.

My current mana reserves were not even half of what they were at full capacity.

The old me would have held back from using large-scale magic.

But...

“Well, if I run out of mana, I can just use Earth-Drilling Magic to recover it, right?”

-Iing...?!

“It's time for Lunatic Marisa!”

I wasn't worried about spending mana.

After all, I had my last resort... Chinkification!

If things got desperate, I could always destroy the environment to obtain mana!

-Iing iing iing iing iing!!!

For some reason, Iing Iing looked absolutely startled.

Ignoring her, I prepared my magic.

-Hummmmmmmmmm!!!

I drew a massive amount of Blue Motes from my heart and released them above my staff.

The air trembled.

Blue mana radiance boiled in every direction.

The surrounding mana reacted to what I had drawn out, resonating with it.

Blue light rippled everywhere.

That was when the people noticed me.

“W-Wait! That light...!”

“It's the Prophet! The Prophet has descended upon the world again to save us!”

“Ooh! Heaven above!”

Everyone's eyes turned toward me.

The blue mana radiance gradually grew brighter.

I pointed my staff forward.

“A barrage is all about firepower, ze!!!”

Mana Cannon, «Final Spark».

Activated.

-Flash!

Brilliant light erupted.

A huge wave of light shot forward.

A blue beam of destruction poured out.

-Kwaaaaaaaa!

A massive, sweeping pillar of blue light struck the Ghouls in the distance.

They vanished in an instant.

I turned my staff, controlling the beam's path.

-Kwaaaaaaaa!

From left to right.

As if I were erasing a drawing with an eraser, every Ghoul covering the horizon was buried beneath the light and evaporated.

Then, shortly afterward...

-Rumble...

The blue radiance died down after the brief blast.

Silence returned.

I raised my head and looked at the scene before me.

The horizon had been cleaned up neatly.

The Ghouls that had covered the entire land...

Even the War Black Mages scattered among them...

They had all evaporated in an instant beneath my magic artillery!

I grinned.

“Easy.”

Before a wizard, sheer numbers were nothing more than piles of Points!

Thanks to that, the amount of Points I'd earn for clearing Floor 40 was no joke.

As I happily looked at the empty landscape ahead...

“...”

“...So that is the Prophet's power.”

Thud, plop, thud.

The people on the ground began dropping to their knees one by one.

Seeing this fraudulent cult leader's true firepower, their faith seemed to be overflowing.

I muttered quietly.

“The sight of people kneeling before me. I've seen it so often that I'm getting tired of it...”

“Really?”

“Actually, that was a lie. It's fun every time. It feels new every time I do it.”

Whenever people worshipped and praised me, I felt so good that my shoulders seemed ready to ascend into Heaven!

Trying to hold down my rising shoulders made my back feel like it was going to cramp...!

As I looked down at the ground, I suddenly noticed someone.

“O Prophet! We have been waiting for you!”

A group of Black Mages in gray robes.

Among them was one particularly familiar face.

I knew that guy's name.

‘Isn't that Raphael? He was here?’

It seemed the reformed Black Mages, the Apostle Society, had joined forces with the Empire to stop the Ghouls.

Pop.

As I slowly descended to the ground, I spoke.

“Hm! Is that Raphael, the first Apostle of our Extreme Lunatic Hell Church? But your outfit changed. Weren't you originally wearing dull black robes?”

“You instructed us to change to gray robes, Prophet. We made it doctrine. From now on, the Apostle Society will wear gray robes.”

“...Did I ever say that?”

I tilted my head and scratched it.

Had I ever said anything about Black Mage fashion?

Honestly, what did I care whether a bunch of old men wore black robes or gray ones?

Anyway.

“Good to see you. I'm heading straight to the Black Mage Tower to kill that Sect Leader or whatever. Is the Sect Leader there?”

“The Sect Leader... you mean?”

Raphael's expression stiffened at my question.

I hadn't forgotten.

‘The hidden boss of Floor 40. The Sect Leader of the Black Mages. I'd been aiming to catch him.’

Back on the academy floor, Floor 38, I had given Raphael an order.

I told him to keep that Sect Leader guy in the Black Mage Tower.

I was going to kill him, so Raphael had to make sure the guy didn't leave the tower.

Originally, an enemy called the Sect Leader did not appear on Floor 40.

There were only three High Black Mages as boss monsters.

No Sect Leader or anything like one had ever been discovered.

But I was someone who altered the Tower's history.

I had entered the Steined Worldline.

That changed everything.

I could catch a hidden boss that nobody else would ever encounter!

There was no way I would let this chance slip away.

Raphael spoke with the same stiff expression.

“The Sect Leader... is in the Black Mage Tower.”

“Good job, Raphael. You really are my Apostle. You qualify to enter the Central Dogma.”

“But... there is a problem. Our Sect Leader, no, that one who has gone mad with greed, has activated forbidden magic!”

“?”

Raphael shouted in anger.

He said the guy had activated some kind of forbidden magic.

But weren't these guys Black Mages?

Even people who used humans like resources had magic that was forbidden to them?

Unbelievable.

Raphael spoke quietly.

“The Sect Leader, that madman... intends to offer the entire continent to gain immortality.”

“Immortality? Wow, something like that is possible? Did he find some Elixir of Penglai or something? I'm jealous...! I'd like to find one and give it to my sister too.”

“Jiho... Give me a Reverse-Aging Potion too... It's about time you did, isn't it...?”

Ignoring Hyeji's whining beside me, I focused on Raphael's explanation.

I was curious what kind of magic could grant immortality.

Raphael continued.

“To the Sect Leader, every life on the continent is simply material for completing a single spell... If the Sect Leader's grand magic succeeds, the continent will be swallowed by eternal darkness. We have to stop him.”

“...”

“The final great war you prophesied. This must be what Extreme Lunatic Hell Armageddon refers to. As expected, Prophet, you always speak only the truth.”

“?”

* * *

After finishing my conversation with Raphael, we flew toward the Black Mage Tower.

Naturally, Iing Iing was our means of transportation.

“Our ace pilot really is the best. Thanks to you, we can travel comfortably.”

-Iing!

“Aww, you cute, adorable, capable little thing! You're completely different from a Fairy Mage who just freeloads with a button press and only covets Reverse-Aging Potions!”

“Jiho, that's too mean...”

With Iing Iing's telekinetic flight, we quickly headed north.

As befitted a boss floor on the High Floors, Floor 40 had a huge map.

They said it took an average of a month just to fight through countless Ghouls and Black Mages and reach the Black Mage Tower.

People who had to walk on the ground really had it hard when clearing the Tower.

But we flew.

-Pop!

A no-effort straight shot!

It was as comfortable as traveling by airplane.

As we headed north, Hyeji, who was looking down at the ground, spoke quietly.

“But... the farther north we go, the stranger the environment gets.”

At Hyeji's words, I looked down.

Then I saw it.

“This is probably what Floor 40 originally looked like. It seems the devastation's effects haven't reached the altered starting area yet.”

“That seems likely. The ground is dead and black, and it even smells like sulfur...”

Just as Hyeji described, the ground was completely dead.

The land was dark and sodden.

Purple air laced with poison hung in the air.

The wide plains and mountain ranges had all dried up and shriveled, while gray, filthy water flowed through the rivers and valleys instead of clear water.

It looked like the world had ended.

It was also a familiar sight to me.

‘This is Earth-Drilling Magic. Did he cast Earth-Drilling Magic on an absurdly huge scale?’

The Earth-Drilling Magic I had cast in China.

A scene similar to what I had seen then now stretched endlessly before me.

So this was why it was called magic that killed a continent.

I had no idea how he did it, but the aftereffects were no joke when it was cast on such a vast scale.

We had to have flown at least several hundred kilometers.

How had he cast magic across such a huge area...?

As we continued flying, we saw something in the distance.

“Jiho! I think that's the Black Mage Tower.”

“Oh! Finally!”

Our destination, the Black Mage Tower, came into view!

A black tower stood beyond the horizon.

It must have once been an enormous tower that pierced the sky, but its middle had been destroyed, leaving it broken in two.

I knew what that tower really was.

It was a familiar tower, one that could be seen from anywhere in Seoul.

‘The Tower of Trials.’

The Black Mages had occupied the split Tower of Trials and used it as their base.

That Sect Leader guy had to be in there.

“Let's go, Iing Iing. Sect Leader or not, he'll die fast if I hit him with a few Railgun shots. Once he gets hit by a Railgun, he won't be able to move!”

-Iing!

Pop!

We sped up and approached the Black Mage Tower.

Then we saw it.

-Rumble...

A current of black mana spun violently around the Black Mage Tower.

Mana drawn from an enormous area was being sucked inside the tower.

It looked like a massive typhoon.

I swallowed hard.

“Wow...! That's an insane amount of mana coming in. If you suck mana out over such a huge area, can you gain this much mana?!”

Was environmental destruction truly necessary for progress!

As I looked on in amazement, I suddenly realized something.

‘...But the mana around here is completely empty.’

There was almost no mana left in this area.

Most of the Blue Motes I could see were being sucked into the Black Mage Tower.

As a result, my mana wasn't recovering at all, even though it normally replenished little by little like breathing.

‘That Sect Leader bastard ate it all, so I can't recover. That means I have to work with what I have left...’

I didn't have much mana remaining after firing that magic artillery blast.

Well, a few Railgun shots would obviously be enough to deal with him.

And if things got desperate, I could cast Earth-Drilling Magic too.

This should be more than manageable!

As I calculated what remained in my mana pool...

-Iing...

Iing Iing looked at me with a tearful expression.

Her face held a strange mix of worry and anxiety.

“What is it, Iing Iing?”

-Iing. Iing...!

What was that about?

Hyeji translated beside me.

“Jiho. Iing Iing says she's worried about you.”

“Worried? Why?”

Glance.

Hyeji and I looked at Iing Iing.

Iing Iing tightly closed her mouth.

-Iing! Iing! Iing! Iing! Iing!

She flailed around.

It was like she had something to say but couldn't say it, leaving her so frustrated that she stamped her feet.

What was it, seriously?

Ah, could it be?

“Don't worry, Iing Iing. You're worried that I'll turn into a Chink again, right? I'm an eco-friendly Hunter, you know. We have to keep our Earth green and green!”

It seemed Iing Iing hated environmental destruction because she was a fairy.

Well, she didn't need to worry.

Turning into a Chink was my last resort too!

Anyway, we approached the Black Mage Tower.

“Is that guy the Sect Leader?”

-Rumble...

At the very top of the Black Mage Tower, the uppermost part of the Tower of Trials that had been cut in half, an old man stood imposingly.

He drew in a massive amount of mana, absorbed it, converted it into black mana, and built up his power.

At a glance, he looked like an ordinary old man.

His limbs were as thin as a skeleton's, his eyes were calm, and his skin was covered in deep wrinkles.

He looked like the kind of old man you could find anywhere.

It was unexpected.

‘When I heard of the Sect Leader of the Black Mages, I expected tattoos all over his body or gaudy accessories plastered everywhere.’

Not at all.

That didn't mean he was normal.

‘He's melting.’

That was right.

The old man's body was melting in real time!

-Drip, splat, slap!

Chunks of flesh melted and slid off his skin one by one.

His bones and organs were being exposed!

As a result, he looked increasingly grotesque.

“Eeeek! That's so disgusting!”

“Hyeji, you have such a weak stomach. I trained you so much on the Lower Floors. Isn't that still better than the Goblin organ talent show or the liquid monster?”

“Is that something to brag about?!”

Hyeji recoiled in horror beside me.

I examined the old man with curious eyes.

More precisely, the mana arrangement he was controlling.

‘He's pouring in a massive amount of black mana. Is he separating his soul from his body?’

An enormous amount of black mana was being consumed.

The black mana arrangement was crude, as though he was only focused on raising the output. It was enough to make me feel the waste.

Still...

It was fascinating.

Wow, you could separate the body and soul?

Wouldn't that become some kind of out-of-body experience?

Magic was not omnipotent, but it truly was limitless!