Magic Tower Master.
The old mage whom Claire called master. Duran stared at Claire with indifferent eyes.
He didn't seem to be in a good mood. Duran's tightly shut lips were as stubborn as the wrinkles carved into an old tree trunk.
'Do those two have some kind of problem?'
It felt like things were about to get troublesome.
While Woojin was thinking that, Duran turned his head toward him. The two men's eyes met—the old mage and the hunter stared at each other.
Eyes full of vigor that didn't match his age. Woojin felt a coiled power lurking beyond those pupils.
"…He's strong."
Although the man's body was small like someone seated on the ground, the title Magic Tower Master suited him perfectly.
Just as Woojin thought that…
Duran, who had been silent all this time, opened his mouth.
"Follow me. I feel like taking a walk."
With that, the old mage suddenly began walking toward the forest.
Woojin and Claire exchanged glances.
What should they do?
In situations like this, it was difficult to refuse the request of an elder. So the two of them followed behind Duran.
But strangely enough, the old mage's pace was so fast that it was difficult to keep up just by walking.
'Why is he so fast?'
It made no sense.
Duran's legs were short, and he was leaning on a staff, so his steps appeared very slow. Yet strangely, every time he took a step he advanced several meters ahead.
It looked almost as if he were using a technique to shrink distance with each step. It seemed similar to Krnartash's Blink.
'Just how far is he planning to go?'
They had already been moving for more than twenty minutes.
They had long since left the base camp behind, but for some reason Duran still showed no sign of stopping. Because of that, Woojin and Claire had to run to keep up.
After running for quite a while, crossing several unknown hills…
Duran finally stopped.
Woojin stopped as well and looked around.
A canyon split to the left and right. Cliffs of reddish-brown rock stretched out on both sides as if enclosing the area.
"Master, why did you come all the way out here?"
At least tell us why we went through all that trouble.
When Claire demanded an explanation, Duran answered in a casual tone, as if it were nothing.
"There's something I wanted to confirm."
"…Confirm what exactly?"
"That."
Duran gestured toward them.
The old mage pointed at Woojin.
"You… have we perhaps met before? For some reason, your face seems familiar."
A rather sudden question.
Woojin briefly searched his memories, but soon concluded it was pointless. There was no way he would forget someone as distinctive as Duran.
"This is our first meeting. If I had met you before, I would certainly remember."
"So it was just my imagination."
Duran continued kindly.
"Then I suppose I can deal with it here."
Snap!
Duran flicked his finger.
At the same moment, Woojin dropped to one knee.
It wasn't voluntary. A crushing pressure pushed down on both of his shoulders. The overwhelming weight felt like being stepped on by a giant.
'Telekinesis?'
An interesting spell.
While Woojin evaluated it like that, Claire—who was standing beside him—shouted in shock.
"Master?! What are you suddenly doing?!"
"That's what I should be asking."
Duran growled.
"Claire, I wondered why you suddenly took a leave of absence… I never imagined you would be associating with a dark-side priest."
"That's a misunderstanding!"
"Are you saying I'm wrong?! I glimpsed the mental world through that man's eyes!"
There's a saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
When Duran and Woojin had locked eyes earlier, the old archmage had glimpsed part of Woojin's mental world through his eyes.
And what he encountered there was—
"A monster! That man harbors a grotesque and enormous monster in his mental world!"
Claire was momentarily speechless.
Because it was technically true.
Where should she even start explaining this?
Snap!
Duran flicked his finger again.
An even stronger pressure than before crushed down on Woojin.
Frankly, Woojin didn't like this situation.
'That's enough already.'
Since he had been pretending to go along with it, it seemed to have no end.
Woojin quietly exerted some strength.
Resisting the pressure, Woojin slowly stood up.
The weight grew stronger the more he resisted. Like a tug-of-war, their contest of strength continued…
Then Woojin stood upright and stretched his arms over his head as if stretching.
BOOOOM—!!
With a sound like a drum exploding, the spell suppressing Woojin was torn apart.
Stretching loosened the stiffness in his shoulders. Woojin rolled his neck from side to side, relaxing his body.
Witnessing such strength beyond common sense, Duran inwardly admired him.
"Hah, so you finally reveal your true colors!"
"Master!! That man is on our side!"
Claire tried to explain everything that had happened, but the old mage suddenly burst into anger.
"You've gone blind!! To believe you could be friends with a dark-side priest!"
"I told you, Jin isn't a dark-side priest in the first—"
"Silence!!"
Duran shouted sharply.
At that moment, Claire's upper and lower lips suddenly stuck together, preventing her from making any sound.
A Silence spell.
Claire fumbled with her mouth in shock.
"Mmm—mmph—!"
"Stand over there."
Duran waved his hand as if brushing away an annoying fly.
Claire was pushed far away, and a bluish sphere of light appeared, enveloping her.
'A spell that creates a barrier.'
It seemed like a higher-level version of the defensive magic Claire had used when they went fishing before.
Apparently he had cast it to protect her in case she got caught in the upcoming battle.
Woojin looked at the Magic Tower Master with renewed admiration.
'He can spam high-level spells like that without even chanting?'
He had often heard that archmages who reached the pinnacle were so powerful they seemed almost like gods.
Seeing it in person felt entirely different.
This wasn't an opponent who could easily be subdued while holding back.
Realizing that, Woojin attempted to talk.
"Sir. Instead of this, how about we talk—"
"Speaking with a dark-side priest is a waste of time."
"…Well, that's true."
It was a lesson Woojin had learned personally.
Most of the dark-side priests he had met were vile and cunning. Exceptions like Arwen were as rare as flecks of gold hidden in sand.
Of course, Woojin himself was not a dark-side priest…
But even if he said that, it didn't seem like Duran would believe him.
'…I wouldn't believe it either.'
Considering that he used power originating from the Demon Realm, Woojin wasn't very different from a dark-side priest.
Fwoosh!
A massive fireball swirled above Duran's palm. The moment Woojin saw it, he acted immediately.
'I have to close the distance.'
If he got close enough, it would be difficult for the mage to unleash wide-area spells like that. With that judgment, Woojin dashed toward the Magic Tower Master.
The distance shrank until he was almost within reach.
Bang!
Duran struck the ground with his staff. The earth rippled, and Duran slid backward as if gliding, instantly widening the distance again.
'What is this?'
Something felt off. Woojin was momentarily startled but began sprinting toward him again.
But strangely, the distance wouldn't close. No matter how quickly he moved his legs, the old mage still felt as though he were standing somewhere far away.
It felt like running on a treadmill. Woojin widened his eyes to grasp the situation.
"Mind's Eye."
The eye of the mind that sees through the essence of things. Using it, he examined the surroundings.
What he discovered was—
'…The space is twisted.'
The space between Woojin and Duran was bizarrely distorted. If he ran past the midpoint between them, that point turned back into the starting point and another midpoint appeared.
This repeated endlessly, forming a corridor that could never be reached.
Like running toward a horizon with no end.
'Magic that manipulates space.'
A bizarre spell he had never seen before.
Although Woojin was momentarily taken aback, he focused even harder with his Mind's Eye to find a flaw in the spell.
It seemed like he was beginning to see a small weakness—
But Duran didn't stand still.
Whooooo—
Duran slowly clenched his fist. The massive fireball swirling above his hand compressed and shrank.
The size became smaller, but the destructive power seemed to intensify accordingly. Soon it was compressed into a fireball small enough to fit in his hand.
Duran fired it.
Whoosh!!
A crimson trajectory charged forward viciously. The blazing heat singed Woojin's eyebrows.
'I have to dodge.'
He threw himself to the side.
But the distorted spatial magic returned Woojin to his original position.
At the same time, the fireball arrived right before him.
He couldn't avoid it.
Woojin hurriedly drew the machete at his waist.
KAAANG!!
Like returning a tennis ball, he struck the fireball with the wide side of the machete.
Woojin tried to swing his arm to knock it away—
"Foolish."
Duran sneered and opened his fist.
At that moment the compression of the fireball was released.
The small flame exploded, transforming into a massive inferno that swallowed Woojin whole.
Woojin burned like dry firewood.
Seeing that, Duran nodded with satisfaction.
'A fitting end for a dark-side priest.'
Burned at the stake.
Still, just in case, he decided to confirm the kill.
Duran raised his hand, and particles of red light condensed in midair, forming a single arrow.
With a small flick of his fingers, the arrow multiplied.
One became two, two became four…
The arrows doubled repeatedly.
Thirty-two arrows were created and fired in rapid succession.
Clang! Clack—!
Silver streaks flashed repeatedly.
Woojin swung his machete, shattering all of the arrows.
Then he walked out from within the flames.
Seeing this, Duran involuntarily inhaled.
It was a scene too unbelievable for his eyes.
"…Almost no damage."
Only Woojin's hair had been slightly singed. Otherwise he appeared almost completely unharmed.
Even the hunting clothes he wore were intact.
Woojin brushed off the flames clinging to his clothes as if wiping away dust.
Inside, Woojin felt relieved.
'Good. The clothes aren't too damaged.'
He had been worried because it was his favorite hunting outfit, but fortunately it didn't seem badly harmed.
The clothes were made from the hide of a predatory magical beast, making them extremely durable.
But now the situation was starting to irritate him.
Woojin glared at Duran standing ahead.
'How can I reach him?'
The spatial magic was the problem.
It seemed Duran used his staff to cast the spatial magic. The condition for activating the spell appeared to be the staff touching the ground.
The reasoning was simple.
When he first cast the spell, he struck the ground with the staff—and earlier, while walking, he had constantly tapped the staff against the ground.
'The way he seemed to shrink distance while walking must have been the same trick.'
Those steps that resembled Krnartash's Blink.
It was probably spatial magic compressing the ground to cross long distances instantly.
Woojin roughly understood how the magic worked.
But a big problem still remained.
'I have no idea how to counter it.'
Even knowing it, he was forced to take the attack.
How could he break such a cheating spell?
Woojin didn't think about it long.
'I'll just smash through it.'
As always.
He decided to trust his absurdly strong body.
Woojin lowered his upper body and placed his fingertips on the ground.
The posture of a runner preparing for a crouching start.
He poured power into both legs.
Gathering explosive momentum—
…BANG!!
Suddenly the soles of his shoes burst apart, and Woojin's body shot forward like a bullet.
A speed almost impossible to believe.
The spatial magic continuously refreshed, returning Woojin to his original position.
But he was simply too fast.
Gradually the spell began to overload.
Duran's expression showed clear shock.
'What is this?!'
The distance was closing step by step.
He had to stop him immediately.
Duran hurriedly cast several spells.
He froze the ground into a slippery sheet of ice and fired magical arrows at his enemy repeatedly.
The intention was to slow him down.
But—
Thud! Thump!
Woojin didn't bother deflecting the spells.
He simply endured them with his body while continuing to run.
"Ah… ow… that stings."
Getting hit repeatedly hurt.
The archmage's spells were terrifyingly powerful.
Woojin was still human, so he couldn't avoid feeling pain.
But if he stopped to block those arrows, the speed he had built up would disappear.
So Woojin gritted his teeth and kept sprinting.
Anger flared in his eyes.
'Just wait until I catch you.'
Using irritation as fuel, he pushed his speed even further.
A sprint at absolute full power for the first time.
Crackle— crackle—
At some point, red lightning began to flicker.
Everywhere Woojin stepped, scorch marks appeared like burning footprints.
To stop that charge, Duran unleashed every spell he could draw from his mental world—
BOOOOM!!
Thunder roared.
The lightning surrounding Woojin smashed apart everything in front of him.
Duran stared blankly.
'…Lightning.'
A man wrapped in lightning was charging toward him.
The distance between them shrank in the blink of an eye.
Woojin clenched his fist tightly.
Seeing that, the old mage was seized by overwhelming fear.
"W–WAAAH!!"
Duran screamed and fell over.
The Magic Tower Master shut his eyes tightly, convinced of his impending death—
But nothing happened.
"…What?"
Duran opened his eyes in confusion.
Then he saw the man standing right in front of him.
Woojin spoke generously.
"Shall we try talking now?"
"Y–yes. Let's do that."
Duran nodded repeatedly.
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