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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Living as a slave of the Hwasan Guild, the embers that remained in the ashes had long since burned away.
One of those embers was Bodenoi.
He stood there, his face clouded with uncertainty, as if struggling to fully trust Lee Rowoon.
Of course, it was only natural.
Lee Rowoon’s appearance had changed beyond recognition.
And after witnessing the way he had neutralized the magic circles—effortlessly, without a single mage suffering backlash—Bodenoi must have realized that Lee Rowoon wasn’t just a player.
It was difficult to place faith in something that defied common sense so easily.
Still, after a long pause, Bodenoi finally spoke.
“I’m ready, Lee Ro…woon.”
His last words were barely above a whisper, too quiet for anyone else to hear.
Lee Rowoon tilted his head slightly.
“Hmm?”
Bodenoi hesitated for a moment before speaking again.
“Why?”
His voice was low, laced with doubt.
“Aren’t we supposed to abandon Armo? Isn’t that the only way we can survive right now?”
At Bodenoi’s words, Lee Rowoon’s tightly pressed lips curled into a slow smile.
“Ha, hahaha.”
Bodenoi frowned. “What’s so funny?”
It wasn’t doubt that clouded his expression.
He had already accepted the idea of being saved. What he was contemplating now was the next step—the choice he had to make moving forward.
Lee Rowoon chuckled. “You’re just as much of an idiot as before.”
Somehow, that realization made him feel lighter.
A lunatic obsessed with magic circles. A genius of magic.
Geniuses were always like that—so utterly consumed by one thing that another part of them remained completely broken.
And if not that…
‘Then it must be instinct.’
The kind of genius that could see things others couldn’t.
Bodenoi was likely both.
That was why, even back then, he had risked everything to save a stranger—Lee Rowoon—at the cost of his own life.
Lee Rowoon’s gaze darkened slightly. “Abandoning Armo. Are you okay with that?”
Bodenoi’s reply was immediate. “There’s no other way.”
His voice was steady, but there was a hint of resignation in his tone.
“You may have a power I don’t understand, but escaping the dungeon will be difficult. Haenam is already waiting outside.”
The subjugation squad Yuk Sagul had sent was merely a scouting party.
By now, reinforcements were likely stationed outside, waiting for their return.
“T-The Dungeon Master….”
A trembling voice broke the tense silence.
One of the older mages, a man with deep-set wrinkles and wary eyes, cautiously stepped forward.
“What do you mean? Abandoning Armo?”
Bodenoi turned to face him. His expression was calm, but his voice carried a weight that made the others hesitate.
“Jekyll, this is the only way we can make it out of here alive.”
The name made some of the mages murmur. Jekyll was one of Armo’s senior scholars, someone who had spent decades within the safety of its magic-woven walls.
“Outside, a second wave of enemies is already waiting to destroy Armo. What other choice do we have?”
Jekyll shook his head violently.
“B-But… we can’t abandon Armo!”
As if his outburst had given them courage, the other mages stepped forward, their voices rising in protest.
“Armo holds everything we have!”
“The magic circles that have been with us throughout Armo’s history—”
“Tsk.”
Lee Rowoon clicked his tongue, his expression unreadable.
‘Just the same.’
These people—they probably didn’t fully grasp the situation.
And the reason?
They were just like the elders of the Blood Cult.
‘People who have never seen the outside world.’
They had lived their entire lives in this dungeon, sheltered, unable to adapt to the world beyond these walls.
“If they are indebted to the Dungeon Master, then together—”
“Be quiet!”
Bodenoi’s voice cut through the room like a whip.
The chamber fell silent.
Even Lee Rowoon was mildly surprised.
‘He’s got quite a temper.’
Back then, Armo had spent only a brief time by his side, but Bodenoi had always been the definition of a natural-born mage.
And now, he was proving that once again.
While Bodenoi was ruthless against enemies, he was endlessly gentle with his own people.
To put it another way—he was softhearted, almost foolishly so.
“How can you tell them to risk their lives?” His voice, filled with frustration, echoed in the chamber. “These people—no, this person—took a risk for our sake and came all the way here! What more do you want from him?!”
Jekyll hesitated. “But….”
“If we break through with these people, as you suggested, and fight the subjugation squad, what changes?” Bodenoi’s voice sharpened. “The dungeon’s location has been exposed! Accept it.”
The emotional weight in his words gradually settled into something colder, more measured.
“We do not have the power to protect Armo.”
A heavy silence followed.
“Do you want to die here?”
Jekyll had no response. He clenched his fists but said nothing.
Bodenoi continued, his tone softer now, tinged with sorrow. “If all of Armo’s mages perish, isn’t that the true end of Armo’s history?”
No one answered.
And then, Bodenoi smiled. A faint, bitter smile.
It was a cruel reality, but he was trying to give them hope.
“The history of Armo—”
Tap, tap.
He lightly tapped his own head with his fingers.
“—is here with me.”
Jekyll finally lowered his head in resignation.
But—
“But…!”
Not everyone was convinced.
Another mage stepped forward, his voice rising in defiance.
It wasn’t surprising.
Mages were beings of obsession.
And those who studied magic circles—a field often dismissed as a fringe discipline—were consumed by an obsession beyond words.
Letting go wasn’t something that came easily to them.
“Don’t misunderstand.”
Lee Rowoon’s voice cut through the tension like a blade, directed at the protesting mage.
“This isn’t a proposal.”
The mage hesitated. “Y-You….”
“I am going to save Bodenoi. Other than that, I don’t care what happens.”
A chilling silence followed.
The protesting mage trembled, unable to withstand the suffocating killing intent radiating from Lee Rowoon.
Then—
“Let’s go.”
Without sparing the mage another glance, Bodenoi took the first step forward, walking ahead as if he had already made his choice.
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Bodenoi led the way, with Lee Rowoon and Jeong Chi-soo following closely behind.
From behind them, Kang Cheol-woo murmured, “You truly intend to destroy the dungeon.”
Lee Rowoon glanced back. “Why? Do you dislike the idea?”
Destroying the dungeon meant more than just eliminating a structure.
It meant the complete annihilation of the subjugation squad.
In other words—
‘They would all be considered dead.’
If any survivors made it out, they would be questioned about what had happened inside.
No one could be allowed to leave.
Everything they had built, everything they had lived for, would come to an end.
Kang Cheol-woo exhaled slowly. “There’s no way I dislike it,” he admitted. “I understand that this is the only way for us to survive.”
Lee Rowoon let out a low chuckle, amusement flickering in his eyes.
“No way.”
He tilted his head slightly.
“There’s another way to survive, isn’t there?”
Silence.
Kang Cheol-woo’s face hardened as realization dawned on him.
“You could run to Haenam and spill everything that happened inside the dungeon. Tell them those strange bastards from the Shadow Guild—the ones following the so-called Blood Demon—killed Yuk Sagul.”
“……!”
“And on top of that, the dungeon master of Armo even mentioned the name ‘Dank.’”
“T-That’s….”
Kang Cheol-woo’s complexion darkened.
“Armo was destroyed, but the mages survived, and the dungeon master fled with the Blood Demon. Say that, and you’ll live, won’t you?”
Kang Cheol-woo frantically shook his head.
“I don’t want to live in fear.”
So he still had some pride as a guild leader.
“If I did something like that, I’d have to pay the price eventually.”
“Wouldn’t Haenam protect you?”
“Haenam…?”
Lee Rowoon smirked.
Kang Cheol-woo let out a short laugh. “They’d kill us too—for letting Yuk Sagul die.”
“At least you’re not stupid,” Lee Rowoon remarked as he kept walking. “So, why are you telling me this?”
Then—
Kang Cheol-woo suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Without hesitation, he lowered himself to the ground and bowed his head.
For players from Earth, it was a humiliating act, but in Eun, this was how one made a desperate request.
“You said you’d show us a way to survive.”
“……”
“Then, please. If things stay like this, we’ll all die anyway. Even our families will be killed.”
Even if they were declared dead due to the dungeon’s destruction, they had no way to hide their identities and survive.
In this small country, South Korea, where could they possibly hide?
Even crossing the border is strictly controlled by Eun.
Leaving South Korea was impossible.
“…Perhaps…”
Kang Cheol-woo cautiously raised his head.
“Are you a part of the resistance?”
The resistance.
“I saved a few resistance members not long ago. But if Haenam finds out, I’m as good as dead. So please, grant us your mercy as well. We’ll do anything.”
Bodenoi and Jeong Chi-soo stopped, their gazes shifting to Kang Cheol-woo. Lee Rowoon looked at him in silence.
“Got it. Get up. Letting you die just like that doesn’t sit right with me either.”
Lee Rowoon spoke as if it was nothing and turned away.
“T-Thank you.”
Kang Cheol-woo quickly got up and followed behind them.
Bodenoi let out a small chuckle and resumed walking.
“You haven’t changed.”
“What?”
Lee Rowoon looked at him, puzzled.
He no longer resembled his past self in any way.
What hadn’t changed?
“Just… My hero.”
With those words, Bodenoi finally stopped.
They had reached the heart of the dungeon.
If compared to the Blood King’s Castle, this place was like the Ten Thousand Blood Pool—a deep abyss within the dungeon.
Wuuuung.
Magic pulsed from all directions, humming like a living force.
A massive, layered magic circle—its complexity suggesting the work of dozens of mages—was etched into the space.
At its center, an ancient, tattered book rested like a sacred relic.
“That’s the Core of Armo.”
It was the dungeon’s core.
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“Wait, dispelling this magic circle will take some time.”
As the protective barrier of the dungeon’s core, these magic circles represented the pinnacle of Armo’s arcane research.
Even for Bodenoi—hailed as a Grand Magician and one of the hundred greatest experts on magic circles in Einhart—disarming such formations would be no simple feat.
“Step aside.”
Lee Rowoon moved past Bodenoi.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Bodenoi’s voice rang out, sharp with alarm.
“That’s a sacrificial magic circle! It’s completely different from the layered formations those mages created earlier!”
His disbelief was palpable.
“They classify it as Heaven-grade by Eun’s standards, but if not properly dispelled, it’s closer to Dragon-grade! Are you even listening right now?”
Lee Rowoon stood at the edge of the magic circle, his gaze half-lidded.
“Shut up, Bodenoi.”
“You…!”
Bodenoi, flustered, took a step forward—
Chwaaaa!
A surge of blood erupted from beneath Lee Rowoon’s feet.
“W-what….”
Like an intricate spider’s web, tendrils of blood spread outward, forming a structured pattern. The light from the magic circle illuminated the crimson lines, creating a sight both mesmerizing and unsettling.
The onlookers were frozen in place.
“T-this is impossible!”
Bodenoi was the first to grasp what was happening, his voice laced with shock.
“A counter magic circle?”
Among the many ways to dispel a magic circle, one method stood as both the simplest in theory and the most extreme in difficulty—
A counter magic circle.
A formation that mirrored the existing magic circle in perfect symmetry, inducing mutual destruction.
In theory, it was called symmetry, but in practice, each magic circle was composed of intricate formulas, hidden axes, spatial distortions, and unseen incantations. Constructing a perfectly mirrored counter-circle required immense study and precise calculations.
And yet—
“A layered magic circle!”
That was exactly what it was.
But layering didn’t simply mean stacking multiple circles on top of each other. It meant weaving countless formulas and structures together, exponentially increasing complexity beyond that of a standard formation.
And yet, he had created a counter magic circle in an instant?
“I can’t activate it. You do it.”
“W-where the hell did you learn this?”
Learned?
That wasn’t quite right.
“It was engraved into me.”
By the Demon King—the sovereign of magic.
“…It’s real.”
At some point, Bodenoi had stopped listening to Lee Rowoon’s words.
Instead, his entire focus was on the counter magic circle that had just been created.
Even for someone hailed as the Grand Mage, crafting a counter magic circle in such a short time was an impossible feat.
But he had the eyes to recognize whether it was real or not.
“I… I’m supposed to be the greatest genius of Armo…”
With a tearful expression, Bodenoi reached out toward the starting point of the magic circle.
“I… I worked so hard…”
Tears welled up—not just words, but real tears—as he began imbuing the magic circle with his mana.
“Shit… this filthy world….”
Hwaaaak!
The magic circle flared with brilliant light before beginning to shatter.
Jjeooooong!
With a resounding crash, the formation collapsed completely.
As the remnants of the magic faded, Lee Rowoon stepped toward the dungeon’s core.
The air was thick with silence, save for Bodenoi’s quiet sobbing.
And then—
The moment Lee Rowoon touched the dungeon’s core—
“……!”
His face twisted in shock.
That which he thought he would never see again—
A system message appeared before his eyes.
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