Chapter 49  

"Master!" cried the deputy master.

“What’s going on?” Helen asked, surprised by the deputy master who suddenly hurried into the room.

"The blue ones! They are storming in!" shouted the deputy master.

"What? Are they nuts? I explained it to them so many times!” Helen shouted.

Furious to hear the news, Helen opened the window and saw a crowd of blue wizards gathered outside of their Magic Tower.

"Summon everyone! We are going out, too," Helen ordered.

The alarm went off and when the wizards heard this loud noise that rang throughout the tower, they got on their feet to find out what was going on.

"What's happening?” Cigarate frowned.

Cigarate had been meditating and circulating his mana when he noticed the wave of mana from outside. When he opened the window, the wizards of the Blue Magic Tower were approaching.

"Shit, it hasn’t even been a day yet… ugh!” Cigarate sighed.

The Red Magic Tower was considered a suspect behind Shun's sudden death. In order to turn the situation around, Cigarate had no choice but to reveal his hidden skills in front of Helen to prevent her from acting irrationally.

'I thought it was all settled... '

Cigarate knew that if this continued, there would be a war between the Red and the Blue Magic Towers. As a challenger of the hell level just like Lee Shin, Cigarate had to make the Red Magic Tower win at the Deleague. However, he knew if the power of the Red Magic Tower was weakened due to a battle with the Blue Magic Tower, it would be more challenging to clear the stage.

‘We have to stop them!’

* * *

‘There should be no twist this time.’

Lee Shin had sneaked into the vicinity of the Red Magic Tower to watch the situation up close, because it could get really difficult for him if things went wrong again this time.

"Shane! What do you think you’re doing?” Helen shouted.

Bang!

Shane's response to Helen's question was a spell that was filled with anger. Although it was not a spell strong enough to hurt Helen, she could not stop the aftermath of his spell which hurt the surrounding second-class wizards and those at a lower rank. When Helen saw her people injured, she started activating her mana in such infuriation that it made the surrounding air heat up.

"You better not mess with me," said Helen.

"Oh yeah? I guess it irritates you seeing your wizards get hurt,” Shane said.

"Isn’t that obvi—” Helen replied.

"Well, the same goes for me! How dare you do that to our Head Clarte, especially on the very night we agreed to cooperate? You used his family to threaten him!" Shane shouted.

When she heard what Shane said, Helen was so shocked that her mana flow became unstable for a moment.

"What are you talking about?!" said Helen.

"Come out," Shane called out to Hemingway.

When Shane called out, the Head Clarte of the Blue Magic Tower who had been hiding among the wizards presented himself in front of the crowd. His entire body was burned, and due to the burn, one of his eyes was blinded. Half of his hair was also singed, so he had to shave them all off to look less miserable.

"Are you still going to pretend like you don't know anything even after seeing him?" Shane asked.

Similar to the death of Shun Grammys, anyone could tell that Hemingway was attacked by a fire spell. Since the opponent was the Head Clarte of the Blue Magic Tower, people knew that no ordinary wizard could hurt Hemingway with their skills unless they belonged to the Red Magic Tower.

‘Is it really someone from our Magic Tower?’

.

At this point, even Helen was suspecting that there could be a spy in her tower. However, she knew it was too late to figure that out right now. Looking at how things were going, it seemed difficult to resolve the misunderstanding of the Blue Magic Tower, and war was inevitable.

'Well, two of their most powerful fighters are already down.’

Normally, there was a slight power difference between the Blue and the Red Magic Towers—the Blue Magic Tower being slightly superior. However, currently, the Red Magic Tower was at a great advantage, and they thought they could finally end the long-standing rivalry between blue and red.

'Only if I can kill Shane here...'

If Helen could defeat Shane, the rest of the blue wizards could be dealt with by the Clartes of the Red Magic Tower. As soon as Helen made up her mind, she seemed to be a totally different person.

"What if we did? What are you going to do about it?" Helen smirked.

"Ha! Finally, you're showing your true colors!" Shane shouted.

Shane was so outraged that his veins were protruding to the point where his eyes had become bloodshot, and he rapidly activated his mana. Similarly, Helen's mana was activating, and the most nervous person in that scene was Cigarate.

‘As a challenger who just became a second-class wizard, there's nothing I can do about it.’

Cigarate had revealed his skill to some extent, but that did not mean he had shown all of his skills. Besides, he knew that if he revealed all his skills at this moment, he could easily become a strong suspect behind these tragedies. Helen already seemed determined to have a battle with the Blue Magic Tower, and the tension between the two was at its peak.

‘Since it has come to this point, we’ll trample on the people of the Blue Magic Tower and win.’

Cigarate was convinced that if he joined the battle, he could at least prevent any damage done to the most powerful fighters of the Red Magic Tower. However, that was only if there had not been someone watching the situation from afar.

‘The Blue Magic Tower would collapse here, and the Red…’

Lee Shin tried to get away from the scene because he thought the fight would soon begin. However, when he noticed the shadow of death that was cast on Helen now fading, Lee Shin changed his mind. Lee Shin thought there could be an unknown variable introduced to the current situation, just like Helen’s unexpected behavior.

The war between the two towers began when Shane and Helen cast a magic spell on each other. It was a war between fire and water. At first, the strengths of the two towers on the battlefield seemed quite similar, but soon after, there seemed to be a gap.

‘Wait, that guy is…’

Lee Shin noticed the guy from the Red Magic Tower whom he saw earlier at Shun Grammys’ lecture. That guy stood among them and used his magic at the right moment, bringing down the power of the blue wizards and even turning the game around.

"Was it him?” Lee Shin wondered.

In Lee Shin’s memory of his previous life, there was nothing about that wizard in this magic city. Since there was no way he would have missed such a skillful person…

‘He must be a challenger.’

There was nothing strange about encountering a challenger in the hell level difficulty, because occasionally there were challengers who appeared in these stages. Cigarate did not seem to be a challenger of the Earth, and it was clear that if he was a challenger from another dimension, Lee Shin could not afford to underestimate him.

In the next moment, Lee Shin secretly moved to the back of the battlefield, and knocked down a wizard of the Blue Magic Tower who was waiting at the back. After taking his clothes, Lee Shin entered the battlefield where there were dozens of magic spells firing. The temperature on the battlefield kept changing ever so often.

Shane and Helen were at the center of the change. It seemed to be a neck-and-neck situation, but the difference between having a Head Clarte and not having one on the team was pretty significant. Shane's concentration had weakened little by little due to the incoming attacks, and Helen continued to plow through the gap.

[Ice Spear]

[Water Ball]

These magic spells were not great, because they were just the basic ones. However, what mattered more was who was using these spells. Strangely, when the Head Clarte of the Red Magic Tower directed her magic spell toward Shane, those basic magic spells appeared and cut off the flow.

"Shit! Stop them! You guys should at least block these basic spells!” Helen shouted.

Helen screamed in frustration, but there was clearly a gap between the second and third-class wizards’ and Lee Shin's magic spells. Thanks to Lee Shin's assistance, the atmosphere of the battlefield, which had been leaning more and more in favor of the Red Mana Tower, had reverted to its original state of balance. By then, Cigarate, who had hidden himself amongst the red wizards to use magic, also realized that there was someone on the side of the blue wizards.

‘Who is that? Is there another person in the Blue Magic Tower that I don't know yet?’

Soon, the heat in the battlefield cooled down rapidly, and the power of magic on the red side had weakened, resulting in a series of damage inflicted.

‘Is this field magic? It wasn't the Clarte who used it. It was cast among the second- and third-class wizards.’

Cigarate was not the only one who noticed Lee Shin's field magic, because everyone above the rank of Clarte had noticed it.

‘Who’s doing that? Was there another wizard who could use this magic?’

‘Is it Hemingway? No way… that can't be true.’

‘The master and the deputy master are busy dealing with the opposing master and the deputy master. Then who’s doing this?’

However, that was the end of their question. Wizards of the Blue Magic Tower had to take advantage of this favorable situation and the Red Magic Tower had to minimize the damage.

"Shane! So there was a reason you dared to attack!" Helen shouted.

"Shut up!" Shane shouted.

Helen clenched her teeth at this unexpected situation, and Shane was also shocked to see what was happening, but he did not make it obvious.

‘Well, I think the balance is pretty good now.’ It was time for Lee Shin to retreat. He knew that others could not afford to look for him because they were busy fighting. But if he were to stay longer, he was more likely to be caught. Lee Shin sneaked out, pretending to be one of the injured second and third-class wizards, and moved to the outskirts of the city. The inner part of the city was already in chaos, and to return to the Black Magic Tower, he had to go back through the outskirts of the city.

Wooosh—!

Bang! Sheee—

Suddenly, there was a flame ball directed toward Lee Shin, so he quickly created a shroud of water. The flame ball disappeared in a cloud of steam upon coming into contact with the water.

"Are you a challenger?" Cigarate asked.

Cigarate, wearing the Red Magic Tower uniform, had gone after Lee Shin. Since Lee Shin had hidden his face in the robe, Cigarate did not know that the opponent was Lee Shin yet.

"Challenger? What's that?" Lee Shin slightly altered his voice and pretended not to know.

"...I guess you don't want to tell me. Then I'll force you to open your mouth,” Cigarate muttered.

At the outskirts of the city, the flames soared over the fields where there was no one else around. The temperature rose in an instant. Suddenly, a chain made of fire extended out from the flames that had spread everywhere.

[Ice Fog]

[Water]

[Expansion]

A series of spells were casted. Ice fog surrounded the area and the magic that was broken down into particles turned into water and expanded. Under Lee Shin’s magic, the chains of fire disappeared as if they had exploded, and Cigarate, who kept the onslaught of magic going, urgently cut off his source of mana.

"Keugh!” Cigarate gasped.

Cigarate groaned because of the mana reflux due to a rebound, and clenched his teeth because what Lee Shin had used was a completely unexpected combination of magic. Cigarate became more vigilant and protected himself by creating a barrier of fire around him.

Swoosh—

The flame that had spread through the grass in the field was extinguished in an instant, and the humidity rose rapidly with the steam surrounding them. On these kinds of battlefields, cryomancers were more dangerous than assassins because one never knew when the steam around them would turn into a sharp dagger.

‘Show yourself!’

Since his field of vision was blocked due to a thick fog of water vapor, Cigarate activated his mana to stay alert to the surroundings. However, it was not until five seconds later that he realized he had lost track of Lee Shin. Although Cigarate hurriedly spread his mana power and looked around, traces of the wizard had disappeared.

"Fuck!" Cigarate uttered a series of curses and was forced to return to the battlefield.

Meanwhile, Lee Shin, who ran away from Cigarate, arrived at the Black Magic Tower with a sigh of relief.

"What have you been up to!" Raymond shouted.

Lee Shin found it interesting how Raymond was the one he kept running into. Lee Shin wondered if Raymond had nothing else to do.

"I was busy preparing for the test tomorrow," Lee Shin replied.

"Oh, yes. Did you get a chance to see what I gave you?" Raymond asked.

"Yes, it's been very helpful," Lee Shin replied.

"Ha! Of course, it should be! All right, I won’t bother you, so go get ready," said Raymond.

"Okay," Lee Shin replied.

The Black Magic Tower had also been affected due to the fight between the Red and Blue Magic Towers, but the Black Magic Tower was considered the least troubled because it was so far away from those towers. Besides, the Black Magic Tower had been ostracized by the other towers in the first place.

"Hmm… Cigarate…" Lee Shin pondered.

When Lee Shin first saw him in Shun's lecture, he did not find anything special about Cigarate. Even the ability he revealed on the battlefield and in the confrontation just now was not that surprising.

"Work harder,” Lee Shin muttered thinking about Cigarate.

Lee Shin thought that things could go a lot faster than he thought.

* * *

"Hi everyone, my name is Reina and I am the supervisor in charge of overseeing the second-class test. Your test is to create an object that can be cursed with materials, but not magic," Reina explained.

There were only ten wizards in the test room, and Lee Shin was one of them.

"You’ve only got three hours to complete the test. You may submit it to me once you’re done. Then, let’s begin,” Reina announced the start of the test.

Having an understanding of the curses was very important for the Black Magic Tower, because the source of black magic was cursing. This test required one to build up knowledge and study different curses, but it seemed to be lacking. Nevertheless, this test was still able to assess the candidates on how they wield the true essence of the Black Magic Power.

"Lee Shin… Wait, Lee Shin…?” Reina muttered with a surprised look. She had been taking note of the wizards. "I've been searching for him everywhere, and I finally get to see him.”

From a distance, Reina could see that Lee Shin was attempting the test calmly. After Reina had noticed the curse left on the dummy a few days ago when Lee Shin took the third-class test, she tried searching for him whenever she had time. However, she could not find him since he was so busy every day. Besides, she could not take time out of her busy schedule.

‘I'm curious to see what he will bring.’