novelMagician's Ivory Tower (1)
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Chapter 80 - Magician's Ivory Tower (1)
Sungjin peeled the orange four ways. Past the peel was the succulent looking meat of the fruit. Sungjin ate the orange with one hand as he continued to read the information page.
Chapter 9 - Magician's Ivory Tower Raid
Objective - Hunt the Mad Magician 'Lenin'
Time limit: 1 hour 30 minutes
What caught his eye was the part where it said 'Chapter 9'.
'Ah... so we're already at this point... '
The reason why Sungjin was acting this way was because of the 10th chapter, the 'Red Dragon's Lair'.
From that point onward, the raid format would change from 5 man teams to 10 man teams. And the Raid boss 'Red Dragon Kal' Ghal' was stronger by over two times than previous Raid bosses.
Being unable to work in groups of 10 would inevitably lead to casualties. And the boss was strong enough that Sungjin had no assurance he could overcome it on his own.
'... I need to better prepare myself for the next raid... '
Sungjin put down the 'information sheet' after wrapping up his thoughts. He moved onto final preparations for the raid.
"Operator put 2500 points in strength, 2500 in Dexterity, 1000 in Stamina, 1000 in Magic power and 2009 in Mind power."
Sungjin initially wanted to try raising Magic power by a large amount to enable the use of '9th class magic' as soon as possible, but taking that route could lead to weakening his overall power.
As he experienced thoroughly during the fight with the Exiled Dark Elf 'Calian', neglecting to raise Strength and Dex could lead to instant death against bosses.
'But if I follow that kind of logic, I should be keeping Master Hunter activated at all times... '
But for now, he was in no position to take away the 'Adjudicator', since doing so would effectively cut his income by half. He once again vowed to purchase the Star of the Nameless after this raid.
Sungjin took a moment to recall his memory of this raid's Hidden Element.
'Yeah... I remember where it was... '
Since he knew where the hidden element was, he would only need to use one round of 'Treasure Hunter' Active skill to find the hidden boss. From this point onward, Sungjin knew one or more hidden elements of each chapter.
This was due to the fact that past this point in the raids, the other hunters had become aware of them and
'In that chapter, it was hidden there'
Gossiped about where the previous raid's hidden elements were found. Completing his preparations, Sungjin peeled the last orange and ate it. But meanwhile
['Rajen - Egg of Gold' has trembled twice. ]
The Operator gave an announcement.
'Oh right... '
He had forgotten again.
"Operator, give me that for a sec."
The cube ejected the golden egg, and Sungjin inspected it.
Rajenta - Golden Egg
Legendary Egg
Passive Skill
Primordial Tremor (III) - Tremble three times in one day
The bird strives to leave the egg. The egg is the world.
To be born, one must destroy one's world.
'What's this? It changed again. '
Sungjin thought to himself. Suddenly the egg shook.
'Tremble'
Sungjin held onto the egg tightly to prevent himself from dropping it. And then the egg shook a second time.
'Tremble'
And then a third
'Tremble'
And at the same time
'Crack'
The egg burst open, and he could see an eye from within. Sungjin stared at the eye beneath the eggshell. There was a slimy eagle chick blinking within.
The Operator gave an announcement.
[Congratulations. The Legendary Item 'Rajenta - Golden wing' Obtained. ]
Sungjin carefully placed the egg on top of the table. The eagle broke open its egg and climbed out. And finally, Sungjin realized that the creature was no eagle.
It had the eagle's head, but with the lion's body. Besgoro was first to speak.
'It's a Griffin. '
That was the case. 'Rajenta' was a Griffin' The wings were golden in color, so a 'Golden Griffin'. Besgoro gave a suitable title to the creature.
'The color of the wing suggests a rare breed, so I'd guess it is a Royal Griffin. It must be of a noble birth. '
Soldamyr who stood at the side also commented.
"Oh, it is a Royal Griffin. This breed of Griffins is born with a stronger resistance to magic than any other breeds."
Cain was wordlessly staring at the baby Griffin with his ears pointing straight up. With everyone watching, Sungjin picked up the Baby Griffin.
The Griffin was a little large considering it was just born. Estimating its size, it looked to be about 60 cms.
"Rawr!"
It let out an adorable cry. And at the same time, a 10 to 1 miniature version of the golden egg appeared in Sungjin's hands. It was probably similar to Cain's Wooden figurine for summoning purposes.
Sungjin looked back and forth between the egg and the newborn Griffin. The Griffin stared at Sungjin with big round eyes.
'Species of birds imprint with the first being they see when they are born, considering the being to be their parents... '
Since the Griffin had the upper body of a bird and lower body of an animal, Sungjin wasn't sure if it was considered avian or mammal. But whichever the case it was, it was clear that Sungjin ought to raise it.
"Operator, how much time is left?"
[Raid will begin 1 hour and 32 minutes from now]
Sungjin took a glance at Dalupin. Dalupin was watching the scene from afar.
"Dalupin, please take care of this child while I am away."
Dalupin gave a bow.
"Understood, Sir Hunter."
Meanwhile
"Rawr!"
The baby Griffin sat on top of Sungjin's hands and gave another adorable cry. It's cuteness level knew no bounds. Sungjin spent the remaining time playing with the baby Griffin and was finally teleported away to the Magician's Ivory Tower.
*
The town was in flames. The burnt wooden structures collapsed and choking ash filled the air.
'Kyaa!'
A scream could be heard in the distance. It was the scene of hell. At the center stood a lone and pale ivory tower. The Operator gave an introduction.
[Welcome. This is the Magician's Ivory Tower. ]
[It is the place where the Magician Lenin, the one who burnt the town, lives. ]
[Please be warned: The mad magician is not the only one who lives here. ]
[His dangerous experimental Homunculus also roams the tower. ]
As soon as the Operator was done,
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Burn! BURN!"
A silhouette of a mage throwing fireball after fireball into the town from the sky could be seen. This was the Mad Magician Lenin.
His magical attacks burnt all the remaining structures in the town. After exhausting the targets in the town, the Mage flew back to the top of his tower and disappeared.
Sungjin had a thought
'Wait... If I could fly up there, couldn't I just go straight to the boss?'
Unlike the Count Dimitri's castle ruins, this raid had more freedom. If he could fly like the Mad Magician, it looked possible to skip to the end.
Sungjin now had a total of 5 Trollseeker marbles. In order to use all 5 of them, he needed a minimum of 50 minutes. In other words, he had to complete all the parts of the quest within 40 minutes. He had to find a shortcut.
As Sungjin was watching the top of the tower, the other hunters arrived.
[Synchronizing other Hunters. ]
The summoned hunters had the following titles: 'Mountain', 'Hoplite'. 'Highlander', 'Green Magician'. It was now difficult to see any ordinary titles; only the best remained alive.
"Greetings."
"Let's work together"
Everyone was familiar with the Raids. And among them, the Green Magician raised his hands and
"Anyone found hidden pieces or bosses?"
He asked the group. The 'Hoplite' and 'Highlander' raised their hands. Sungjin watched for a moment and raised his hands as well. It appeared that only the 'Mountain' was still unaware of the existence of hidden pieces and bosses.
"What's that?"
"So the hidden elements are..."
The 'Green Magician' took the time to explain to him what it was about. While watching the interaction, Sungjin had a thought.
'Looks like it's about time I started looking seriously for my 'real comrades'. '
"I didn't know that..."
The 'Mountain' looked visibly upset due to having missed all those opportunities, but the 'Highlander' offered words of consolation.
"Don't be so disappointed. Hidden pieces are a pain to find, and Hidden bosses are not only well hidden... they are extremely difficult to kill. I've only managed to kill one so far."
Hoplite asks
"Which one did you get?"
"Me? The Wolfman in Chapter 2. But I haven't seen any ever since."
"Really? There was something like that in Chapter 2? I killed the Gravekeeper in Chapter 3."
'Green Magician' jumps in the conversation.
"I met the Gravekeeper too, but two of my teammates got turned into undead so... I had to keep running away until the time-over."
"I found an exiled dark elf or something last chapter. But after we found him... the tank died in 3 seconds..."
The hunters continued to converse among themselves as Sungjin watched silently. The 'Green Magician' asked Sungjin
"So which one did you find?"
'All of them'
He couldn't answer like that. Not to mention they would not believe him.
Sungjin pondered his answer for a moment before responding
"Well... isn't it more important to consider what we're going to do this raid?"
At his words, the conversation finally returned to the strategy for this raid.
"So the overall formation should be 'Mountain' in the front, followed by 'Highlander' and the 'Adjudicator', then 'Hoplite' with the 'Green Magician' in the rear."
"Green Magician... what kind of magic can you use?"
"I can use healing magic called 'Regeneration', 'Sun's Aura', a spell that reduces damage taken..."
While the four men were earnestly discussing the plans for this raid, Sungjin continued to stare off into the distance at the Magician's Tower. The top of the tower did not end in a point, but on a flat landing.
The Raid Boss Mad Magician Lenin awaited the hunters at the top level on the 10th floor. Originally, the hunters had to fight through each of the floors to reach the boss.
But it looked like it should be possible to take the Magic Carpet all the way up to the top floor and skip right to the end.
'If so, I could finish the raid by myself. Otherwise, I'd have to go along with these guys... '
Meanwhile, the hunters were wrapping up the talk.
"Ok let's do this."
"Glad to be working with you."
"Alright, good luck everyone."
This party seemed to be going in the right direction. At least on the surface.
[Raid will begin in 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0]
The raid began, and the door to the 1st floor of the tower opened up.
"Let's go."
'Mountain declared, but Sungjin stopped them.
"Wait a minute."
Sungjin took out the carpet from the Cube
"Flight."
He flew up the side of the tower alone.
"Hey..."
"Wait!"
Other hunters were staring up at Sungjin. Despite feeling the hot stare on the back of his head, Sungjin continued to climb the tower alone. At the top was a beheaded corpse of a lion.
'What is this?'
Sungjin thought as he landed on the top floor of the Tower. When he moved closer, he saw a magic circle drawn underneath the corpse. Like the name would suggest, truly the act of a 'Mad Magician'.
Sungjin ignored the corpse and looked around for a stairway down. The way was open. If he were to enter through there, he would likely face the boss right away.
Sungjin rode the carpet back down towards the ground and about half way down, he addressed the rest of the hunters.
"You guys cooperate and make your way up the tower as fast as you can. I'll give you guys a reward if you do."
"What?!"
Everyone was shocked. Sungjin had become used to that reaction.
"I am going to start at the top and make my way down. Then, until we meet again."
Sungjin bid them goodbye for now and headed back to the top, towards the stairway.
Note: The egg had the name 'Ra' when it was first introduced to us. That time it trembled once a day. After trembling its name then changed to 'Rajen' after whichit trembled twice a day. And finally, on trembling its name changed to 'Rajenta'. It then trembled thrice and hatched.
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