Divine Fate — Part 1
Creak.
Grind.
Elder Jo’s head turned with a jerky motion, like a broken tin robot.
The opposing forces of Nethersteel and her mana circuits were causing discord in her body.
The mana sparks radiating from her were powerful enough to obliterate an entire village.
Elder Jo locked her mechanical and magical gaze onto me.
One eye was a magical orb.
The other, a mechanical prosthetic.
When she grinned, her jagged, gear-like teeth grated against each other, like a cheap horror movie creature.
“A little rat… You’ve come crawling to your death.”
She extended her hand.
With a metallic screech, her fingers unfolded.
It wasn’t like the standard prosthetic weapons used by Reinforced like mana cannons or magic machine guns.
Instead, her entire arm had been modified into a magical staff.
The arm bone formed the staff’s body.
The hand was an imitation, a magic jewel shaped to mimic human fingers.
I quietly drew the Black Tiger Sword.
“Install the heavy artillery.”
“Y-yes!”
Kim Mabeob bolted toward one side of the room.
Elder Jo’s gaze shifted to follow him.
I couldn’t let her target Kim Mabeob.
I tightened my stomach and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Come at me, you mechanical bag of bones!”
“…What?”
“I’ll send you to your disciple! That dumb nephew of yours is waiting for you in hell!”
“Heh… Heh heh heh.”
Elder Jo let out a dry, incredulous laugh.
To her, this was probably nothing but the barking of an insignificant worm.
A Level 7 elder of the mighty Mage Tower, part of the Four Great Factions, being insulted by a mere Level 5 back-alley warrior.
How laughable.
But soon, her eyes flared with dark, hellish flames.
“How dare you!”
From that moment, she didn’t spare Kim Mabeob another glance.
Her attention was solely on me.
Her murderous intent bore down on me as she raised her mana.
Whoosh!
The atmosphere shifted.
The immense mana flowing down from the black sun crackled and surged into her right hand.
Without needing to aim, a streak of black lightning shot toward me.
“Gah!”
I barely deflected it.
If not for [Sixth Sense], I wouldn’t have reacted in time.
Using [Swordsmanship Expert] to parry and [Close-Combat Mastery] to defend, I redirected the dark bolt, sending it flying past me.
Boom!
The delayed sound of the impact slammed into my ears.
The spot where the lightning struck had been completely obliterated.
The ground was gouged out, leaving a crater at least ten meters deep.
If that had hit me, the only thing left behind would’ve been the Black Tiger Sword.
“Hmph.”
Elder Jo sneered.
The ring on her left hand floated into the air, spinning rapidly.
Dark light surged upward from the ring, connecting her right and left hands in a deadly circuit.
Suddenly, flames began to flicker to life, glowing ominously like candlelight.
Seeing the crimson arcs in the air, I swallowed hard.
A full-scale bombardment was coming.
Not just targeting me, but Kim Mabeob as well.
Elder Jo intended to kill us both.
That couldn’t happen.
If Kim Mabeob didn’t finish installing the heavy artillery, I’d be dead as well.
“Jo Okbun!”
I shouted the name I had seen in the elders’ records.
“You think becoming Level 8 will let you defeat the Tower Master?”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“No way! You’ll never beat the Tower Master! You’ve never won, not even once in your miserable life! You know why? It’s because you’re part of the Solar Eclipse Sect! A pathetic, third-rate sect that can’t hold a candle to the Sun Mage Tower!”
The air trembled for a moment.
The flames in Elder Jo’s eyes flared violently.
A lifetime of inferiority, bitterness, and resentment—all of it surged to the surface in her mana.
“You insolent wretch!”
“Am I wrong? It’s called the Sun Mage Tower, isn’t it? Not the Eclipse Mage Tower! If your Solar Eclipse Sect was so great, you’d have renamed it centuries ago! Stop dreaming and just kill yourself already! When the Tower Master arrives, you won’t even get the luxury of dying cleanly!”
“How dare you—how dare you speak of the Solar Eclipse Sect in my presence!”
Under normal circumstances, she might have dismissed the provocation with a smirk.
But Elder Jo took the bait without hesitation.
Her incomplete knowledge and the unstable ritual had left her mind and emotions vulnerable.
I felt an itchy sensation at my throat and quickly double-checked my traits.
It was the effect of [Taunt].
Acquiring a new trait was great, but keeping [Taunt] equipped was dangerous in this situation.
Elder Jo waved her hand.
Under the guidance of [Bright Eyes] and [Sixth Sense], I saw the red arcs of light again.
This time, they were all aimed squarely at me.
The murderous intent behind them left no doubt—Elder Jo was determined to kill me.
Zap-zap-zap-zap!
Beams of light shot toward me, moving at nearly the speed of sound.
By the time the lightning struck, it was already too late to react.
But I moved just as quickly.
I slashed, parried, and redirected with the Black Tiger Sword, staying one step ahead.
It was a razor-thin margin.
If I’d been even 0.1 seconds slower, if I’d hesitated for even an instant while switching traits, I would’ve been obliterated by the dark beams.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Black lightning scattered in all directions.
The entire Dimensional Labyrinth quaked as if it might collapse.
Shockwaves rippled outward, sending debris flying everywhere.
The aftershock alone was enough to rattle my insides, forcing me to spit blood.
Still, I stood my ground, gripping my sword tightly.
Elder Jo’s face twisted into a grotesque grimace.
“GRAAAHHH!”
“SCAAAWWW!”
The semi-elemental phoenix and the mechanical crow embedded in her shoulders let out piercing cries.
“You blocked that?”
Yeah, I did.
Even though it feels like my hands are shattered, I blocked it.
At that moment, a welcome voice reached my ears.
“I’ve installed the heavy artillery! Activating it now!”
“What?!”
Elder Jo whipped her head around, panicking.
She raised her staff-arm and aimed at Kim Mabeob, but it was too late.
The magical dice had already begun to glow.
Brilliant rays of light pierced through the air, burrowing into the fabric of space like a sharp awl.
The rainbow-colored beams tore through the dimensional barriers, converging from multiple directions.
And then they fused together.
The space and the Dimensional Labyrinth were disrupted, and at last, the labyrinth began to collapse.
RUMBLE!
Space itself shattered.
It fractured like shards of glass, falling and scattering into nothingness.
The labyrinth was massive, so even its collapse took time.
Before we fully returned to reality, a handgun pierced through the broken space.
Bang!
A crisp gunshot.
Around the handgun, the fragments of space crumbled away, and a man forced his way through.
An elderly man in a tailored suit with neatly combed hair.
It was the Tower Master.
“Ah, my back.”
“Haven’t had to strain myself like this in a while. Feels like I’m about to pull a muscle.”
“Whew, what a mess this labyrinth is.”
“Elder Jo always had terrible taste.”
“Claimed she gave up black magic, but look at this hellscape of a labyrinth. Who’s she trying to fool?”
The Tower Master wasn’t alone.
The elders entered one by one in a line behind him.
Elder Jo twisted her head with a series of creaks, looking up at the sky—or more precisely, at the black sun.
The total solar eclipse, which should have been glowing with an ominous black light, was already shattered.
What should have been a dark disk in the sky was now riddled with cracks, like a broken black plate.
The ritual had failed.
Naturally, the backlash had begun.
Fwoosh!
Black liquid spewed out of Elder Jo’s entire body.
Likely a type of mana oil.
It was undoubtedly a concoction made by grinding down various rare materials into a refined mana solution, now spilling uncontrollably.
“You! YOU!”
Elder Jo’s jerky movements turned toward me, her glare seething with rage.
“I will kill you! I’ll kill you no matter what!”
Had the ritual succeeded, even if it took just a few more hours, it would have been a different story.
Even if she had gone mad, even if she had lost her intelligence and devolved into a mutated or corrupted being, Elder Jo would have ascended to Level 8.
But to fail at the very brink of Level 8?
And because of a mere warrior, someone she considered as insignificant as dirt?
It was no wonder she was losing her mind.
Elder Jo surged forward, her mana radiating wildly.
BOOM!
The sheer volume of mana she was expelling roared like a jet engine.
As black wings etched themselves into the air, she reached me in the blink of an eye.
This was a desperate moment where no one could save me.
As her magical jewel hand expanded like a massive bomb, ready to explode, I moved instinctively.
I swung my sword.
CRASH!
“Guh!”
The overwhelming shock was almost enough to knock me unconscious.
I couldn’t afford to swap traits.
Instead, I activated [Iron Fist].
Without the protective steel plates and mana radiance shielding me, I would have been obliterated on the spot.
My body flew through the air, not just a few meters but dozens of meters, tumbling like a leaf in the wind.
As I fought to steady my mind and vision, I saw Elder Jo aiming her staff-arm at me.
At its tip, the magic jewel burned with a vortex of dark flames.
By sheer coincidence—or perhaps not—my eyes met the Tower Master’s.
The usually jovial look in his eyes was replaced by a cold, calculating glare.
It was as if he were studying me, trying to uncover my secrets.
Magicians—no matter how friendly they appeared, they always left you with a lingering sense of unease.
I rolled several times across the ground before forcing myself to stand.
As if waiting for that moment, a wave of black flames surged toward me.
“Aaagh!”
The duration of [Iron Fist] was nearing its end.
I couldn’t rely on magic resistance or layered shields anymore.
Instead, I threw myself into the air.
Once, twice—leaping higher each time.
“Geumo Shoes!”
Elder Jo gritted her teeth when she noticed my shoes.
“You! What are you?! Are you the son-in-law of that damn Crow? How did you get the Geumo Set?!”
You’re just noticing now?
I couldn’t help but think how dull she’d become.
Honestly, a warrior’s instincts would have been sharper than hers right now.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Spells came flying at me.
Black fireballs rained down.
Dark lightning struck from above.
Shadow mines exploded all around.
And shadowy blades aimed for my vital points with silent precision.
None of it mattered.
I deflected, blocked, and evaded every attack.
The overwhelming momentum Elder Jo had shown earlier, like that of a colossal beast, was nowhere to be found.
At this point, she didn’t even feel like a Level 7 mage. She seemed closer to Level 6—maybe worse.
She stood rooted in place, relying only on brute force, casting spells with power but no finesse.
At this rate, she couldn’t stop me.
Instead of rushing, she should have been stacking up precise attacks to land a decisive blow. Instead, she was just spamming magic aimlessly.
I didn’t even need Trait Swap to handle this.
Patiently, I focused on defense, parrying her attacks with calm precision.
“Huff… Huff…”
Despite being the one under attack, I was composed, while Elder Jo was gasping for breath.
Her strength was visibly declining.
From Level 6 to Level 5.
From Level 5 to Level 4.
From Level 4 to Level 3.
And finally, to something laughable—a Level 1 spell caster.
The mana she emitted weakened with every passing moment, and the spells she cast became pitiful.
Eventually, a small blob of flickering candlelight came hurtling toward me.
I stared at Elder Jo and lowered my sword.
The blob of flame struck me directly.
For a brief moment, hope flickered in Elder Jo’s eyes.
But it was fleeting.
With a faint fizz, the blob of flame extinguished.
“This… This can’t be!”
Elder Jo howled in despair.
“This is impossible! Impossible! My magic, my power, my world!”
That was the end.
Elder Jo, still creaking, reached out with her staff-arm one final time.
Her entire body began to collapse.
The enchanted mana circuits fell apart.
The Nethersteel corroded and crumbled into dust.
The semi-elemental phoenix’s head disintegrated into flames, while the mechanical crow’s head shattered into scrap metal.
All that remained were bizarre remnants—her tin-can head and the finely crafted staff-arm made of magic jewels carved into the shape of a human hand.
Oh, and one other thing: the dull black ring on her left hand.
“Hmph.”
The Tower Master let out a scoff.
“Good riddance. Filthy bastard.”
He even cleared his throat, gathering phlegm before spitting on Elder Jo’s remains.
The elders, however, didn’t look as pleased.
“Such a waste…”
“How fleeting life is.”
“Power is meant to be pursued through proper methods, not shortcuts.”
“Where on earth did she learn such twisted knowledge?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Elder Jo’s disciple was with the Geumo Group. They must have combined the mana circuits there with the Solar Eclipse Sect’s knowledge and applied it.”
“People really… trying things without proper testing…”
“When someone’s blinded by the idea of leveling up, there’s nothing they won’t do.”
“I’m a mage myself, but honestly, that’s just how we are.”
Victory.
I had just taken down a Level 7 mage single-handedly.
Well… not exactly, I suppose.
If the Tower Master and the elders hadn’t disrupted the ritual and entered when they did, I’d probably have been drained dry and left for dead.
“You’re truly impressive.”
The Tower Master approached me and spoke.
Just moments ago, his gaze had been as cold and detached as though he were evaluating livestock, but now it had returned to its usual state—casually greedy, but still friendly enough to disarm you.
A shiver ran down my spine.
What scared me most was his ability to change his demeanor so effortlessly, to play his role so perfectly.
“Before, you seemed like a warrior specialized in magic combat. But today, you felt more like a practical, combat-oriented swordsman. Abilities reflect one’s life experiences, yet how can someone change so much?”
“Haha, I suppose I’m just a bit special.”
“Indeed, you truly are. Only someone special could be entrusted with the Black Tiger Sword by that old Tiger geezer.”
The Tower Master’s gaze lingered on my waist.
For a brief moment, his eyes changed—filled with a fierce, insatiable greed.
It was the kind of look that said he’d love to drag me off and dissect me in a lab if he could.
A bead of cold sweat ran down my back.
I was lucky to have the Black Tiger Sword by my side and even luckier that I had never revealed my true abilities in front of him before.
If I had… this wouldn’t have ended with a friendly wager or exchange.
“Hmm… I’ve heard something about this…”
The Tower Master murmured, frowning as though trying to recall something.
“Cheon… Cheon… what was it? Oh, right. Cheongeopjigoseong. Supposedly, those born under it possess boundless talent and ten thousand abilities.” (TL Note: Cheongeopjigoseong (천겁지고성), which basically means that when the Heavens are Timid, the Earth is Bold. It’s a way of saying someone has a Divine Fate)
Wait… I’d heard of this somewhere.
Right, when the magic spirit explained the Reconstructive Elixir.
But wasn’t this different from my Trait Swap?
I mean, I can’t even acquire traits with certain type restrictions.
Feigning surprise, I widened my eyes.
“Wow, that sounds incredible! I wish I were born with something like that. What was it called again? Cheon… what?”
“Cheongeopjigoseong.”
The Tower Master replied.
“But it’s purely theoretical. Unlike something like Heavenly Killing Star or Purple Star, it’s never been confirmed to exist.”
He dismissed it with a shake of his head and walked toward Elder Jo’s remains.
He picked through the wreckage, grimacing as he retrieved the staff-arm and the ring.
The rest of the remains were gathered by younger mages who had accompanied the elders.
But Elder Jo’s body was so damaged it was beyond use, even as raw materials.
Still, as a former Elder of the Tower, she’d likely be given a proper funeral.
“This is for you.”
The Tower Master handed me the ring she had collected.
“Consider it your reward for this incident.”
It was a plain, unassuming black ring.
I accepted it, swallowing nervously.
I knew exactly what it was.
The elders, however, immediately erupted in protest.
“Tower Master! You can’t do this!”
“That’s one of the treasures of the Tower!”
“How could you give the Eclipse Ring to an outsider?!”
“This is unacceptable. Absolutely not!”
Of course, the elders had no choice but to react this way.
[SSR Eclipse]
The greatest treasure of the Solar Eclipse Sect.
It was both the symbol of the sect leader and the most powerful artifact in their possession.
Additionally…
It was one of the Eight Great Treasures of the Mage Tower.
–TL Notes–
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Nice
Nice loot