Chapter 287 (1/2)

“But I was told that the dungeon’s highest difficulty setting is the blue color?”

The difficulty of the illusory dungeon created by the magic circle was indicated by the magic circle’s color. It meant that the illusion Su-hyeun was currently under had the same level of difficulty as an indigo-colored dungeon.

This illusion-type magic circle was constructed under the cooperation of the Gordon Company and Johnny Brad. Bak Yun-gyu was the man responsible for importing it into the country.

As such, he was given an in-depth explanation of the magic circle’s operation, as well as the things to look out for by the Gordon Company. Therefore, he was certain that the circle installed in the training area couldn’t go higher than the blue color.

“The only indigo-colored dungeon created out of illusion-type magic should be in America and nowhere else,” he thought.

He was sure he did not make a mistake about that information, which meant that there was only one other possibility.

“Could it be…? Did Mister Su-hyeun actually interfere with Johnny Brad’s illusion magic?”

Johnny Brad was widely acknowledged as the world’s best as far as illusion-type skills were concerned. However, there could be no other explanation here other than Su-hyeun personally tampered with a magic circle created by such a man.

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Johnny Brad was the world’s best illusion-type magician.

There was no room to doubt his capabilities. Even Su-hyeun, recognized by pretty much everyone as the world’s greatest awakener, was thought to be unable to match up to Johnny Brad when it came to the matters of illusion magic.

This wasn’t the issue of “who’s stronger” but the difference in their specialized fields.

Su-hyeun had no problem accepting this. That was how well constructed the illusion he currently found himself in.

“At least in the matter of illusion magic, he’s probably better than the Lich King.”

Su-hyeun didn’t know much about Johnny Brad, other than this one thing—that he was the world’s best awakener when it came to illusion-type skills. And he would also suddenly vanish sometime in the future.

“This is far closer to a trial than a dungeon, isn’t it?”

There were two types of trials that Su-hyeun had detected so far.

The first one was tampering with a world that actually existed and establishing a specific goal within it. The second type was somewhat like this one, where you had to solve video game-like missions inside massive-scale illusions.

Johnny Brad’s illusion created dungeons, but a closer look into his illusion’s mechanics would show that the process seemed far closer to the illusions found within the tower of trials.

The thing was, he wasn’t the first person to come up with such a mechanism as far as Su-hyeun could remember.

“If it’s like this, I think it’ll be possible to do practice runs of not just the dungeons but even trials in the tower.”

He was quite familiar with the basic framework of the trials that showed up often in the tower. Su-hyeun inwardly told himself to discuss this idea with Gordon Rohan in the near future and then shifted his gaze away.

Krrrrr—

He caught sight of a giant currently baring its massive fangs at him and drooling away.

Su-hyeun was standing on a cliff, while the giant was standing at the bottom looking up at him.

“The Cyclops.”

It was a human-shaped monster with a single large eye on its forehead.

It was a monster that Su-hyeun, in his previous life, chose to hunt right after acquiring ninth-level magical energy. Not only did it possess a body the size of a Titan Turtle, but the club it carried around was also powerful enough to shatter that turtle monster’s shell.

“This guy should suffice.”

Whoosh—

Ka-boooom—!

Just as Su-hyeun locked gazes with the monster, the Cyclops swung its large club in his direction.

The cliff was completely destroyed and crumbled to the ground below.

The monster’s lips contorted into a smile, perhaps thinking that it successfully crushed Su-hyeun’s body just now.

Gu-ruk—?

But then, its lone eye began moving around this way and that as a puzzled expression surfaced on the monster’s face.

And at that very moment.

Slice—

Tumble—

The end of the club held by the Cyclops was cleanly sliced off.

The monster hurriedly looked at the club in astonishment. That’s where the human the Cyclops tried to kill a second ago could be seen standing tall.

“The cutting force is about this much, and…”

Su-hyeun smoothly swung his sword around.

He didn’t feel to be in much danger. It might be because this was an illusion, but he was also confident that had it been real, he would still be able to kill this monster without much difficulty.

The reason for that was currently gripped tightly in Su-hyeun’s hand.

“Uncle named it Palm Leaf Sword, didn’t he?”

After learning that the fan with the green jewel was called the “Palm Leaf Fan,” Kim Dae-ho immediately named the new sword as the Palm Leaf Sword.

Apparently, he chose this name because the materials from both Balmung and the Palm Leaf Fan had been combined into one. Honestly speaking, the name change was rather simplistic considering only the “Fan” part had been swapped for “Sword.”

“I’m still not sure how I can use this sword, but…”

He did feel relieved by the fact that he had already wielded a power similar to this one in the past.

“It’s pretty similar to the Somersault cloud, isn’t it?”

The Somersault cloud was the “cloud of the beginning,” while the Palm Leaf Fan was the weapon of the Bull Demon King crafted with the jewel containing the “winds of the beginning.”

Despite not being the same, these two had some similarities as well.

Shu-wuwuwu—

Winds gathered around the blade.

For some reason, Su-hyeun began thinking that he could control the winds anyway he wanted to.

“I’ll cut it down.”

Su-hyeun took a powerful swing at the Cyclops with his sword.

He didn’t use any magical energy. There was no need for that.

It felt like he could already cut anything down without it.

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A few minutes went by since the dungeon magic circle had activated.

Bak Yun-gyu was constantly looking at his wristwatch during that period. Weirdly, it felt like time was crawling along really slowly right now.

“It’s been three minutes.”

Now normally, the awakeners affiliated with the Authority and currently being trained directly by him needed at least half a day to escape from the illusion created by the magic circle.

However, Bak Yun-gyu didn’t believe that Su-hyeun would need as much time as those people.

“Kim Su-hyeun has already conquered indigo-colored dungeons all by himself. Not to mention, he has reached the 100th floor, too.”

The issue was with time. How long would Su-hyeun take to break free from the illusion of the magic circle and emerge outside?

Bak Yun-gyu waited in anticipation.

And after about five minutes went by…

Buzz, buzzzzz—

A change occurred in the indigo-colored magic circle.

“Already?”