The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage

1.

Not long after Mihael’s party—with Seong included—descended to the 81st floor, the backup teams reached the 80th; of the three, the one with the greatest advantage in mazes was Embris’s party.

Only upon arriving on the 80th floor did Embris check the leaderboard and look at the camera.

He could see the current viewer count.

[Current viewers - 9,147,872●]

It had originally been close to 8 million, but before he knew it, it had climbed to 9 million.

As more and more people flowed in, they began flocking to the second-place stream—Embris’s party.

Embris also noted that as he looked at the leaderboard and said:

“Phew, looks like we’re at least in second place.”

“Hm, but I guess from here it’s a boss fight.”

“Let’s use our time quickly.”

“Catching up to the Luna team or the Kyou team during a boss fight won’t be easy.”

At his party members’ words, Embris nodded as well.

Meanwhile, the viewers—

-Oh, looks like Luna’s party and Kyou’s party are combat-focused.

-Kyou is lol still fighting with his own party member right now?

-lolol looks like the party member picked the fight first.

-Noona, you’re pretty!!!

-Wak!!! You made it here!?

-This place is crazy hard!

-There’s a special mechanic, but......

(This message has been deleted.)

Since this was a floor Seong had already reached, some viewers tried to pull cuckoo-clock antics by spoiling what they’d seen, but they were instantly filtered and their messages deleted.

Embris didn’t particularly care; catching his breath, he said:

“If we don’t hustle, we won’t just fail to overtake him—we won’t even step on Seong-nim’s shadow. We’ll kill it as fast as we can.”

At Embris’s words, the demon sheep giant began to move, and Embris’s party hurried to hunt it.

Was it because Seong had gone in casually at first?

Embris’s party went all-out against the thing, and, of course, they quickly sensed the same gimmick Seong had and, taking to the air, swiftly subdued it.

Time elapsed up to that point: a mere 13 minutes.

It didn’t take long, but the two teams arriving right after managed kills in 11 minutes, shaving two minutes off by making up time from the maze.

Embris’s party had been slower to identify the gimmick than the other two, but they could still stay ahead for now.

And this time as well, Embris’s party was the first to arrive on the 81st floor.

However, upon reaching the 81st floor, Embris stared, dumbfounded, at a boss in a huge cavern that was just like on the 80th.

Its enormous size was similar, though it was a bit smaller than the demon sheep giant.

Roughly three meters tall, gripping a massive greatsword—that alone was no ordinary sight.

And seeing it shaped like a human as if made of shadow, they figured it would employ considerable swordsmanship; they clashed again, and after who knows how long—

“What kind of crappy boss is this!!!”

Embris snapped, shouting:

“Seong-nim killed a boss like this in under ten minutes???”

When Embris said that as if it were truly absurd—

The viewers answered.

-uh;;;

-ye;;;

-Yes;;;

-We don’t really know how he did it either......

-He just slid in and it died not long after???

No wonder; this one’s attribute was also the Abyss, but it manifested in a different direction, so Embris had no choice but to say this.

2.

Before Embris entered the 81st floor and got flustered—

Seong, who had reached it first, could see the shadow in the shape of a person, three meters tall like a giant’s shadow.

And in an instant, Seong smirked and thought:

’He uses the Abyss too?’

It seemed the 80s were full of things saturated with the Abyss attribute.

They had said to be most wary of the Abyss, and indeed the Abyss was showing up first—but well, he was out in front of everyone.

So, leaving that aside, Seong decided to take to the air and think it through again this time.

On the 80th floor, he had at least given Mihael’s party a chance.

But since he’d already seen their strength on the 80th, he figured it was right for him to step up, and Seong moved ahead alone.

The remaining members of Mihael’s party didn’t go out front; watching from behind, they said:

“Fighting!!!”

“Good luck!!!”

“P-please win!!!”

They suddenly found themselves turned into a cheer squad.

But not a single viewer laughed at them.

-Yeah, that’s actually the right call.

-If you’re going to get in the way, cheering from the back is best;;;

-Stepping out and getting retired for nothing is the most embarrassing thing.

-In Mugan, if even one retires the whole party gets kicked, right???

-Yeah yeah yeah yeah, so even one death is a no-go.

-Then do you have to start from that floor again?

-Yeah yeah yeah yeah, and you even get a hours-long lockout, so a death during a race is massive grief.

-Oh, so that’s why Mihael’s party is hanging back???

Some viewers had wondered why they weren’t at least providing support, but a kind viewer explained and the others nodded in understanding.

Seong flashed a slight smile to Mihael’s party and flew toward the giant shadow.

It reacted, reaching out immediately.

Seeing the hand extended toward him, Seong could feel it.

The Abyssal power dragging him downward.

A pitiless force that would not let him rise; but as Seong felt it, he lightly snapped his fingers and formed a semi-transparent spherical darkness around himself.

The Abyssal force dragging him to the ground vanished completely.

He wouldn’t have gone down even if the Abyssal power were there to begin with, but because it was bothersome, Seong made that semi-transparent sphere of darkness—at which the giant shadow reacted instantly and rushed him.

Likewise, the giant shadow charged and unleashed Abyssal power.

Wrapping its sword with the power of the Abyss and swinging, it emitted the Abyss; a strong repulsive force pushed out as a sword aura flew, and Seong calmly watched.

KAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA———!!!

The sword aura collided with the semi-transparent sphere of darkness, scraping with a sound like metal-on-metal as it tried to carve Seong’s dark sphere—but perhaps it was not enough; the Abyssal blade glanced off and flew toward the wall.

SLAASH————!!!

With a sharp sound, the Abyss-laden sword aura literally split the wall like tofu, and watching that, Seong assessed and looked at the giant shadow.

Apparently it was a type that, using that force of drawing into the Abyss, emitted qi to perform even stronger cuts, or bound its opponent as a mode of combat.

It was clear it handled the Abyss better than the 80th-floor boss had.

But that was all.

After a few exchanges, Seong began to use darkness against it, and the giant shadow, as if sensing him, swiftly evaded the awls of darkness that surged from the ground.

Perhaps because it was a giant shadow, its reaction to darkness was quick.

Next, Seong sent blades of darkness as well, but the giant shadow used Abyssal power to deflect the blades and showed better-than-expected application.

Seeing that, Seong smiled as if amused.

’He’s better than I thought, huh?’

Watching the giant shadow desperately defend against Seong’s attacks, the viewers were just as surprised as Seong was.

-Wow, it blocks that???

-If that had hit, it would’ve died on the spot ㄷㄷㄷㄷ

-It’s definitely stronger than the 80th-floor one, I think ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ

-Wow, this one is definitely strong.

As with the viewers, Mihael’s party had similar reactions.

But there was a big difference between seeing it on a screen and seeing it on site.

So Mihael spoke up directly:

“Ahhh, watching this, it’s like—gravity? No, should I call it repulsion? It’s using a pushing force; if the previous one merely absorbed the strength of those stuck to the ground, this one is using that pushing force for both offense and defense!!! But it’s not landing any direct hits on Seong-nim at all!!!”

At Mihael’s words, the viewers could focus even more on the footage.

Seong, likewise, paid no particular heed to Mihael’s commentary; summoning countless blades from all directions and firing them at the giant shadow—this time, the giant shadow used Abyss on itself to leap upward, bled off the blades of darkness along its sword, and slipped out of the spot.

SWOOSH———!

As it streaked in quickly, Seong, with a look of “can’t be helped,” pulled up one of darkness’s concepts.

On the 80th floor, he had killed using nothing but the embodiment of darkness.

For this 81st-floor one, he decided to draw out a concept a little; a concept was added to the darkness.

Darkness moved—more clandestine than any substance—and the giant shadow failed to notice, unable to see the covert darkness streaking toward itself.

The result—

THU-U-U-UNK—!!!

“......!!!”

The giant shadow, discovering the darkness that had pierced its shoulder, swung the greatsword in panic.

But the darkness had already vanished from that spot, and once again covert strands of darkness raked the giant shadow’s flank.

THUDUDUDUDUDUK———!!!

Its body riddled with holes, the giant shadow still seemed functional; it moved again and, perhaps deciding it couldn’t play around anymore, charged at Seong.

As it rushed in, it failed to avoid the dark awls bursting up from the floor.

No—it didn’t avoid them.

Ignoring them, even as countless holes opened in its legs, the giant shadow charged Seong; the sight was so reminiscent of a warrior that a few viewers let out short sounds of admiration.

-Wow, look at that toughness;;;

-The fact that it can run through that;;;;

-An average boss would be dead there??????

-The Demon King really is strong.

-Oh—they’re swinging the greatsword!!!!!!!

As the giant shadow closed the distance to Seong, he watched it calmly; once in close, the giant shadow raised the greatsword overhead and brought it down with power, and Seong, still maintaining ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ the semi-transparent sphere of darkness, watched.

Only—at the instant the giant shadow’s greatsword struck Seong’s dark sphere, a powerful Abyssal force was imposed on Seong, meant to spike him into the ground.

However—

KWA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AH————!!!

Even such a powerful smash from the giant shadow left not a scratch on Seong’s dark sphere and couldn’t force him downward.

Seong simply floated there as if fixed in place, and the ground below where he hung, under the Abyssal force, formed a hole so dark it couldn’t be seen.

That had been the giant shadow’s all-out attack.

Yet it left nothing on Seong’s dark sphere, and Seong said, almost regretfully:

“Felt like your trump card. Shame.”

With those words—

THU-U-U-UNK———!!

A sound like something being pierced.

From behind the giant shadow’s back, a dark grasp drove through its heart, and the shadow of the giant rippled and vanished on the spot.

Thus Seong cleared the 81st floor without incident and said:

“Let’s pick up the pace from here. It feels like they’re catching up little by little.”

At Seong’s words, Mihael lifted his head.

After that, Seong’s speed was extremely fast.

He cleared the 82nd, 83rd, and 84th floors all within ten minutes, and in the end, they reached the 85th floor within an hour.