Record of a Thousand Lives

Chapter 140

The boss monster of Thunder Paradise, the Great Lightning Kanjor, had five large horns that resembled a dragon’s and electric currents running through its fur. The golden staff in its right hand shone with blinding radiance.

Kanjor furrowed its brows while staring down at the human figure walking brazenly toward it. The ruler of Thunder Paradise roared, in a loud booming voice that reverberated across the entire area, “You dare to intrude upon my paradise?! You shall receive divine punishment!”

“Lightning Rod,” Kang Yoon-Soo muttered.

A bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Kanjor.

“Guaak!”?Kanjor screamed while squirming. It bit its lip and closed its mouth tightly. Then, the ends of its mouth suddenly curled up as it asked, “Did you expect me to scream like that or something…?”

The electric current surrounding Kanjor’s golden staff intensified, reaching a level that would fry an ordinary person from mere proximity.

The Great Lightning Kanjor, laughed mockingly at Kang Yoon-Soo, remarking, “Lightning is my strength in the end! What a foolish magician you are! You only ended up amplifying my strength!”

“You give better rewards this way,” Kang Yoon-Soo said in a dry, emotionless voice.

“What did you just say…?” Kanjor trailed off, unable to believe what the magician had just said.

Kang Yoon-Soo clapped his hands together and chanted a spell. “May the brightly shining light burn away this insignificant creature.”

An endless stream of light suddenly shot upward from underneath Kanjor’s feet.

“Gwuaaaaaaak!”?Kanjor screamed in agony, and its screams were genuine this time. The gigantic figure of the Great Lightning was soon swallowed up and disintegrated by the light.

[You have disintegrated the Great Lightning Kanjor without leaving a single trace behind.]

[Lightning storms will become less common on the continent.]

[Your skill ‘Auto Loot’ has sent all of the spoils directly into your dimensional bag.]

[You have obtained 5 Horns of Lightning, an unidentified electric substance, and the Great Lightning’s Staff.]

+ The absorption ability has been added to the Great Lightning’s Staff because you killed Kanjor in its empowered state.

The magicians merely stared as Kang Yoon-Soo killed the boss monster in one shot.

“He certainly lives up to his title as an Archmage,” Timero said in awe.

Professor Rehond gulped dryly and asked, “But do you know what the frightening part is?”

“What is it?” Timero asked.

“It is the fact that Archmage-nim has not even used a staff yet,” Professor Rehond replied.

A staff was to a magician what a sword was to a warrior, and it was not an exaggeration to say that Oblion was the only one on the continent capable enough to use such a spell with just his bare hands.

Professor Railsen suddenly added dejectedly, “To think that we still have to get rid of 109 magicians as strong as him…”

Some of the magicians sighed, while there were some who were not fazed at all.

As Hawelmon was quietly polishing his weapons, Haelian went up to him and asked, “Hawelmon, what are you doing?”

“Can’t you tell? I’m polishing the hammer that will turn that bastard Oblion into mincemeat,” Hawelmon grumbled in response.

Haelian turned and looked at her younger brother before asking, “Haselit, shall we start preparing our magic scrolls as well?”

“I have already prepared them, dear sister,” Haselit replied. He showed his elder sister several magic scrolls.

Haelian opened up a few of the magic scrolls before saying, “These will do. Ah, would it not be better to exclude the Poison Fog magic?”

“Ah, I made a mistake. We almost killed all of the other magicians,” Haselit replied.

“How are you managing the scrolls, for you to make such a mistake?” Haelian rebuked her younger brother.

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around and said, “Follow me.”

“When is the fight going to start?” one magician asked.

“Now,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“Huh?” the magician replied.

It was then that a voice that resembled Oblion’s rang out from somewhere. The voice laughed, seemingly having gone utterly mad. “Wuhahahaha!”

A soul fragment appeared from where the laughter had come. It was a figure that looked exactly like the Archmage, albeit translucent. Additionally, it exuded a sinister aura and had pitch-black eyes.

The soul fragment waved its hand and shouted, “Sky Break!”

The sky split open and thunder rang from the heavens. The magicians immediately brought up their staves and cast defensive spells.

“Defense Wall!”

“May wind protect us from the incoming disaster!”

The magicians stacked defensive spells on top of each other, creating multiple layers of protection. However, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck the thick defenses they had formed. Cracks suddenly appeared on the barriers, and they shattered violently one after another.

“Oh weak and useless shield. Sacrifice yourself to become our spear,” Haselit and Haelian both said, chanting a spell as they tore apart a magic scroll. The scroll burned away, and just as the bolt of lightning finally penetrated the magicians’ shields, it suddenly turned around and flew toward the soul fragment.

The soul fragment clapped its hands together and muttered, “Dimension Break.”

The space before it distorted, and a tear appeared that swallowed the lightning bolt whole before instantly closing up again.

It was then that Hawelmon suddenly smashed the soul fragment in the back of the head with his magic hammer. The fragment nearly fell to the ground face first.

“Blink!” Hawelmon shouted, instantly closing the distance, and smashed the soul fragment’s chin once again with his magic hammer.

Pukeok!

The soul fragment tried to cast a spell, but failed because its chin had been smashed in, causing it to keep slurring its chant. “Mahiic… mahi…?sseup…”?

“Die, Oblion!” Hawelmon shouted as he raised his magic hammer up high, smashing it down on the soul fragment’s head. The fragment’s skull was smashed into pieces, and its body turned into dust before being absorbed into Kang Yoon-Soo.

[You have destroyed a soul fragment of Oblion.]

[The soul fragment has returned to its owner.]

[Remaining Soul Fragments: 108]

“Wahahaha! It feels like my century-old grudge has finally been avenged!” Hawelmon cried out in joy while swinging his magic hammer.

The other magicians let out a sigh of relief. One of them said, “It is our first time meeting a soul fragment on a rampage, but I suppose it was not that hard to deal with.”

Professor Rehond remarked in disbelief, “Hawelmon’s unrefined battle style was quite effective against the soul fragment… That was unexpected.”

Professor Railsen added, “Has he not trying to kill Oblion-nim for decades? He probably stayed up for many nights thinking of a way to kill an Archmage, unlike us.”

“He is probably the one best suited to kill the soul fragments…” Professor Rehond said in response.

Hawelmon proudly pointed his magic hammer at Kang Yoon-Soo and boasted, “What do you think, Oblion? I managed to kill you!”

“There’s more,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“What?” Hawelmon replied, tilting his head in confusion.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed toward the horizon. There were thirty soul fragments walking toward them. Hawelmon and the rest of the magicians stood stupefied at the sight of an army of Archmages.

The soul fragments raised their hands up to the sky and said in unison, “Sky Break.”

Sky Break was a top-tier magic spell that brought forth a bolt of lightning comparable to a natural disaster. However, it could no longer be compared to a mere natural disaster if an army of Archmages cast the same spell at once. In fact, the layered shields cast by the magicians had been easily broken through by just one soul fragment.

“We cannot let them finish their spell!” Haselit shouted urgently, before taking out a magic scroll that took fifteen years to create and tearing it apart without any hesitation. The soul fragments suddenly began to slow down visibly. Haselit continued, “Time in that place will freeze for thirty seconds! We have to kill all of the soul fragments within that time! We will all be dead if that giant bolt of lightning strikes us down!”

It was exactly as he said. The soul fragments froze halfway through casting the spell and just stood there. In the area where the soul fragments were, the currents of air and mana, and even the sky itself, seemed to have frozen, unlike where Kang Yoon-Soo and the other magicians were standing.

This was a kind of magic Kang Yoon-Soo was familiar with. However, he thought, ‘It’s different from Kartheon’s?time-stopping?ability.’

Haselit’s magic scroll stopped time in only a specific area. The process of creating the scroll was immensely complex and difficult, but it allowed the user to stop time for quite some time once completed and did not place any burden on the caster. Kartheon’s ability, on the other hand, could freeze the entire world but placed a great burden on the caster.

‘Kartheon was a mighty emperor,’?Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he looked at Haselit.

The siblings Haselit and Haelian were historically known as geniuses in the field of creating magic scrolls. In fact, the magic scrolls containing the disaster-level spells that Kang Yoon-Soo had fished out from the basement of the Library of Knowledge had all been created by these two in their later years.

‘Those two are geniuses, no doubt,’?Kang Yoon-Soo thought.

The magicians unleashed a barrage of attack magic against the soul fragments. They continuously poured out an onslaught of magic capable of splitting the sky and the earth without showing any signs of ceasing. Meanwhile, Hawelmon threw several magic hammers that flew back to his hand automatically.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo was just standing there doing nothing, thinking,, ‘But Oblion is even more of a genius compared to them.’

All of the soul fragments were destroyed. The thirty soul fragments died, and time resumed flowing normally once again. The magicians all let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, however…

“Return Soul.”

One soul fragment suddenly showed up from behind where the other fragments had just been. It had intentionally been lying in wait some distance behind them. After casting Return Soul, its body was gradually destroyed, while life and vitality returned to the bodies of the other fragments.

At the sight unfolding right before her eyes, Equinn exclaimed in shock, “Oh my god! It is resurrection magic! That is forbidden magic that allows one to resurrect another using their own life as payment!”

The thirty soul fragments came back to life, and they raised their hands up to the sky while letting out a sinister snicker.

“Sky Break.”

They cast the destructive spell once again. The sky started to tremble as if it might fall to the ground, and thunder raged across the sky so loudly that it almost split the magicians’ eardrums open. The magicians all stared at the sky with despair written all over their faces.

“Hmm…” Haelian muttered while rubbing a magic scroll in her hand.

“Noonim, what is the matter?” Haselit asked.

“Which death is more painful, in your opinion? Being burnt to a crisp by that lightning, or suffocating to death inside poisonous fog?” Haelian asked.

“…” Kang Yoon-Soo silently looked up at the sky, and the gathering lightning looked as if it might fall at any moment.

Hawelmon cried out, “Oblion! You have to survive! You can’t die to something like this! You have to survive and let my son take revenge for me!”

“I don’t want to,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied curtly.

The soul fragments were undoubtedly powerful, as they had Oblion’s magic powers, but Kang Yoon-Soo was even stronger than the soul fragments. He was aware of the most optimal time to use magic.

‘It’s?time,’?Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he raised the Great Lightning’s Staff.

The unique-rated staff was an item that would disappear after he cleared the trial, but it was on a completely different level compared to the other items he had acquired so far.

Brrrroooom!

The sky rumbled before unleashing a ferociously destructive bolt of lightning.

“W-We are all going to die!”

The way the magicians acted in the face of death was no different from the responses of average humans, regardless of how skilled or wise they were. They hugged each other and closed their eyes, preparing for their demise.

However, the bolt of lightning struck something else instead of them.

“…?”

The magicians slowly opened their eyes and peeked, and they saw a golden staff in Kang Yoon-Soo’s hands, absorbing the bolt of lightning.

[The Great Lightning’s Staff has absorbed the lightning.]

The lightning did not stop there.

Bam! Baaam!

An endless stream of lightning bolts continuously poured down without showing any signs of stopping. The sky was torn apart, and the ground started to tremble and split to the point that the magicians could no longer maintain their balance.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo held the golden staff up high in the air while maintaining his balance.

[The Great Lightning’s Staff has absorbed the gigantic bolt of lightning.]

[You may unleash a more powerful attack, proportional to the amount of energy the staff is charged with.]

[132% charged!]

[297% charged!]

[449% charged!]

[674% charged…!]

A new message popped up the moment that the staff’s charge level exceeded 2,500%.

[Overload!]

[The Great Lightning’s Staff will now unleash an attack on par with a disaster.]

“Oh my! This can’t be!”

The magicians trembled at the sight of the golden staff shining brightly after absorbing the gigantic bolts of lightning.

Kang Yoon-Soo pointed the staff at the soul fragments and said, “Sky Break. Lightning Rod. Thunder Field. Electric Typhoon.”

The Archmage’s mana gathered at the tip of the staff, then burst out and flew toward where the soul fragments were standing. The area where they had been standing was obliterated, and the magicians could not open their eyes when faced with the blindingly bright light emanating from the staff.

Baaaaam!

***

The magicians opened their eyes and saw that Thunder Paradise had been turned into Thunder Wasteland instead. Everything in the vicinity was destroyed, leaving the entire area covered in white dust. The soul fragments had all vanished without a trace.

“We somehow managed to survive,” Equinn said.

Timero smirked and replied, “Tell me about it. We survived...”

“I never could have imagined I would get so emotional about surviving something like that,” Professor Railsen said while letting out a chuckle.

Equinn laughed loudly while rubbing her slightly burnt hair, exclaiming, “Look at my hair! It looks like half-burnt broccoli!”

All of the magicians laughed in response. They were not sure why, but they just felt like laughing at that moment. They had almost died just now, but they felt good for some odd reason.

Haelian pondered for a moment before saying, “Haselit, look at me. I am covered in dust, but I feel good for some odd reason.”

“I feel the same, dear sister,” Haselit replied.

“Why do you think that is?” Haelian asked.

“Because we are magicians,” Haselit replied.

“Are you saying that we are all strange people?” Haelian asked.

“Yes; is this not a thrill you would never be able to get while stuck in a laboratory the whole day? When else do you think intellectuals like us would ever get the chance to get down and dirty as we did just now?” Haselit replied.

Haselit and Haelian looked at each other’s dirt-covered faces and laughed.

Hawelmon seemed discontent with the result, grumbling, “What are you all laughing for?”

Equinn tapped Hawelmon on the shoulder and replied, “Hahaha! Hawelmon! Look at your beard! What the hell is that?”

“What?” Hawelmon exclaimed as his face turned red.

Equinn ran away like a naughty little girl, and Hawelmon chased after her with his short, stubby legs. The magicians ended up laughing even more at the sight of the two.

It was then that a man suddenly poured cold water over the warm, hearty atmosphere. Kang Yoon-Soo got up from the rock he had been sitting on as he said, “We have seventy-eight soul fragments left.”

The magicians immediately stopped laughing.

Professor Rehond carefully asked, “What do you think of taking a short break?”

“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

However, the magicians were rather smart individuals. Haelian took the initiative to take out a bottle of whiskey from Hawelmon’s bag.

Kang Yoon-Soo immediately changed his stance, saying, “Let’s take a break.”