Chapter 14
A magic duel is, as the name suggests, a competition where mages pit their magic against each other.
The rules are simple.
First, each mage equips an artifact that creates a barrier based on the level of their mana.
If the opponent’s magic reaches and damages the barrier, it scores 1 point.
Magic that is below the level of the opponent’s barrier does not earn any points.
Additionally, breaking through the opponent’s magic also scores 1 point.
Illusion magic, of course, cannot inflict damage on the enemy.
Therefore, the only way to score points is through the second method.
Naturally, no mage employs such a strategy.
“R-Rai, are you sure this is okay?”
“It’s fine. Just do what we discussed last night.”
Rain, nervous, stepped into the training arena.
She and her opponent, Domur, each created their own barriers.
The match would be decided by who scored the most points within the five minutes that the barriers lasted.
The magic duel began.
“Win, Domur!”
“Crush that illusion mage!”
Amid the fervent cheers of the Imperial mages, Domur began casting his magic first.
“Heh… I didn’t expect that Illusion Mage Riot would actually step up to the challenge.”
At that moment, Lenz approached the spot where Rai was standing and spoke.
He was already smiling as if he was certain of victory.
“Just in case, let me say this. Don’t try to unfairly reveal my identity if you lose…”
“–Don’t worry. Win or lose, I intend to protect the anonymity of all users. But remember, just because you’re anonymous doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want.”
“You…!”
Lenz’s anger flared at Rai’s words, but he soon took a deep breath and suppressed it.
“Why don’t you watch the duel? You’ll see just how great our magic is.”
“Ha, what could some illusion magic possibly… What the…?”
Lenz’s eyes widened as he turned his gaze to the training arena.
On the surface, it didn’t look like an intense fight.
However, the scoreboard displayed something strange.
[Rain 1 : Domur 0]
The score showed that the illusion mage had scored a point.
At that moment, Domur began to prepare his magic once more.
And Rain cast her spell at the same time.
Crack—crack—
Steel spikes erupted from the ground.
Rain dodged by throwing herself to the side, but the steel spikes rose simultaneously from the opposite direction.
Just then, a massive light began to shine down from the sky.
It looked like a god, or a giant angel, or even a colossal demon.
It was an entity that seemed to transcend human limits and began to attack Domur.
“H-Hiiiiik—!”
Because of it, Domur’s magic was interrupted, and Rain’s score increased.
Since illusion attribute mana was involved, breaking his magic was considered a successful breakthrough, earning her a point.
The spectators, too, shrank back at the appearance of that entity. Lenz was no exception.
Naturally, it was an illusion.
It was just so vivid and terrifying that one couldn’t believe it was an illusion.
“W-What’s the matter! It’s just an illusion!”
Lenz shouted, regaining his composure.
Hearing his voice, Domur came to his senses.
But when he looked up, more than ten giant beings were staring down at him.
“T-This is an illusion… an illusion… an illusion…”
Domur tried to hypnotize himself as he prepared his magic.
At that moment, the giants began to stomp their feet.
Even the vibrations of the ground felt real.
It was a fear that the fragile mind of a pampered Imperial mage couldn’t withstand.
“It’s an illusion… an illusion… an illusion…”
With his eyes tightly shut, Domur cast his spell.
The giant’s foot descended toward Domur’s head as if to crush him.
It was surely an illusion, yet even its shadow looked real.
The enormous foot drew closer and closer, and his vision began to disappear as the light was blocked out.
“Haaaah—!”
In the end, Domur canceled his attack magic and created a massive steel shield to cover his entire body.
Rumble…
The giant’s footsteps passed right through Domur and his steel shield, without leaving a scratch.
“Haha, haha, hahaha!”
Seeing the giants pass through his body, Domur began to laugh maniacally.
It was a bizarre laugh, born from a mix of terror and relief.
The other mages who were watching could not laugh along.
“Haaaah—!”
Even so, now that he confirmed it was an illusion, Domur was able to complete his attack.
Steel spears flew toward Rain.
Whish—
But they simply passed through Rain’s body and lodged themselves into the wall.
At the same time, a giant hole opened up beneath Domur’s feet.
With a sensation of being sucked into something, Domur began to fall.
The surroundings grew darker and darker, and below, a giant monster lay with its mouth wide open, licking its lips.
Screeeeaaaam—
Domur’s screams echoed throughout the training arena.
***
After the duel ended, Lenz collapsed into his seat in a daze.
The other Imperial mages had similar reactions.
Naturally, they would be even more shocked. They’d never experienced illusion magic before.
Of course, almost no one had witnessed illusion magic of this calibre either.
“That mage, you said he’s your nephew?”
“…Yes.”
“You mentioned you had a daughter in the past, right?”
“…How do you know that?”
“Because that illusion mage standing over there is your daughter.”
Lenz jerked his head up.
“In truth, most illusion magic practitioners don’t study magic very diligently. It’s because it doesn’t help much anyway. But Rain was different. Unlike the others who took part-time jobs, she worked extremely hard to research illusion magic.”
When I first came to the Illusion Tower, Rain was the only one not working a part-time job.
She was also the only one who took on the tower’s duties instead of the Tower Master.
It wasn’t until several years after I came to the tower that I realized the reason Rain acted that way was because she wanted to become a mage.
“The person you abandoned for having an Illusion Attribute has become such a remarkable mage. And she worked so hard to become that way.”
Perhaps calling her a remarkable mage might not be entirely accurate.
After all, everything was just a meaningless illusion.
But at the very least, Rain’s magic had won in this magic duel.
“Of course, I doubt you’ll acknowledge it as remarkable magic.”
Rain approached after stepping out of the training arena.
I waited to see if she had something to say to Lenz, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
“I… apologize. I’m sorry for belittling illusion magic.”
Lenz, at least, kept his promise. I suppose he’d fulfil the rest of his obligations as well.
“There are quests all over Maple Leaf Story where you can gain popularity points.”
“…?”
“Then, please keep your promise.”
Rain and I turned around and began walking away.
Anyway, the existence of quests that grant popularity points would be revealed soon enough, so I didn’t mind mentioning it.
As much as the Chief Mage was infuriating, I didn’t want to lose a user.
Well, if he worked hard enough, maybe he could restore his popularity back to zero.
“You were truly amazing, Rain. But… is it really okay to leave like this?”
“…Yes! Besides, I can’t seem to think of what I really want to say.”
“I’m sorry. I told the Chief Mage about your identity. Still, I think he remembered.”
“It’s fine. Nothing would’ve changed anyway.”
Rain smiled bitterly.
“…Now that I think about it, we never had a particularly close bond, even when I was young. Not in our family.”
“I see.”
“I just realized earlier that I don’t really miss this place… or my family. Maybe I just wanted to be acknowledged as a mage.”
“That’s why you’ve been working so hard researching magic.”
“Maybe that’s it? That’s why I felt so good when I won the magic duel. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I think that’s enough for me.”
Fortunately, it seemed Rain no longer had any lingering concerns.
I had worried she might be hurt because of her father’s behaviour, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
“Then let’s head home!”
Rain spoke with a bright smile.
I couldn’t help but smile back at her.
***
Galliard’s usual gameplay involved teaming up with his former comrade, the Elf Riana, to gain experience points through daily party plays, followed by completing quests during their adventures.
But recently, there was a particular quest that captivated him so much that he even postponed their party plays.
The name of that quest was the [Zatum Quest].
This quest, divided into several stages, could be started at the 3rd Job Advancement Hall located in the Elras Mountains.
To explain why Galliard became so engrossed in this quest, we must go back to the past.
Galliard first discovered the Zatum Quest when he was undergoing his 3rd job advancement.
It was a quest that could have been accepted at the time, but the 3rd job advancement took priority.
He had to travel back and forth between Victory Island and the Osiris Continent to complete the 3rd job advancement quest, so he didn’t have the time or energy for such a seemingly tedious quest.
Thus, Galliard forgot about the Zatum Quest after his 3rd job advancement.
It wasn’t until much later that he recalled the Zatum Quest.
The Abandoned Mine, a deep area within the Elras region, was a place where the monster levels suddenly spiked compared to earlier Elras regions.
When Galliard’s level was still low, he once ventured into the Abandoned Mine.
But his level was too low back then, and he had to flee immediately at the entrance.
After levelling up, Galliard returned to the Abandoned Mine and began hunting there.
As he continued hunting, he ventured deeper and deeper into the mine.
And then he found it—the map leading to the Gate of Zatum.
Despite being surrounded by high-level monsters, there was an NPC named Adovas, standing there seemingly out of place.
Through Adovas, Galliard learned about Zatum and recalled the [Zatum Quest] that he had once overlooked.
And now, in the present, Galliard was working through the [Zatum Quest] alone.
It was a quest that could be completed in a party, but he chose to create a solo party and do it by himself.
The first stage of the Zatum Quest was to obtain the Fire Stone from a dungeon within the Abandoned Mine.
He had to search the convoluted dungeon for rocks and chests to find seven keys in order to obtain the Fire Stone.
The unknown dungeon, the Abandoned Mine, was an extremely complex map.
It took him a long time to gather all the keys after scouring the map and getting covered in coal dust.
The second stage required him to cross over lava by stepping on tiny stones that were barely big enough for a single step.
And the further he went through the map, the more rocks began to fall from above, and the more difficult it became as he had to navigate by climbing chains and avoiding obstacles.
“How am I supposed to get through this?!”
Galliard had shouted in frustration when he first saw the map.
One wrong step, and he’d fall, forcing him to start over from the beginning.
It wasn’t as exhausting as fighting in battles, but it was mentally draining.
But once he got the hang of it, he managed to clear it.
The item obtained from the second stage was the Breath of the Volcano.
And then came the long-awaited third stage.
The third stage involved gathering additional materials to forge the Eye of Fire using the Fire Stone Shards and the Breath of the Volcano from stages one and two.
After gathering all the materials, Adovas would do the forging, and Galliard would receive the Eye of Fire.
“Whew… Finally, it’s over. [Zatum Quest].”
Even though he played the game all day, the Zatum Quest took him nearly a month to complete.
Since it was a quest Galliard discovered on his own, without any guides, it took much longer.
“If I place this on the altar… ‘Zatum’ will appear, right?”
The end of the [Zatum Quest] was a battle with the boss, ‘Zatum’.
There was no telling how strong it would be.
But if it had such a tedious prerequisite quest, it definitely wouldn’t be an ordinary boss.
The NPC Adovas told him that he could form an ‘Expedition’ of up to 30 people to challenge Zatum.
The Expedition System was something Galliard had never heard of before.
“An expedition… Just how powerful is this boss that it requires 30 people?”
Galliard’s heart began to pound.
Memories of the raids he had experienced during his time as a hero flooded back.
Memories of struggling with countless comrades to defeat one colossal foe.
Even now, his hands trembled at the thought of the final battle against the Demon King.
Galliard was eager to face Zatum as soon as possible.
“But… how am I supposed to wait for 30 people?”
However, in order to challenge ‘Zatum’, one must first complete the [Zatum Quest].
And right now, the only one who had cleared the [Zatum Quest] was Galliard.
Additionally, Galliard was also the highest-level user.
In other words, it would take a long time to gather 30 people qualified to challenge ‘Zatum’.
Galliard fell into thought for a moment.
Then, a smile slowly spread across his lips.
“Well, at worst, I’ll just end up dead.”
Of course, in Maple Leaf Story, death didn’t mean true death.
You only lose experience points and Mesos before waking up again in the nearest town.
T/n: Mesos: In-game Currency!
Of course, losing experience points was painful for a high-level user like Galliard.
But even so, Galliard couldn’t suppress his desire to fight Zatum right now.
“Who knows, maybe I can clear it alone.”
Back when he was a hero, Galliard had often dealt with enemies that seemed impossible to defeat alone.
Recalling those memories, he decided to awaken ‘Zatum’.
Clang—
The Eye of Fire fell onto the altar, producing a clear, ringing sound.
Shortly after, the Eye of Fire began radiating a tremendous light in all directions.
“Ugh…!”
The ground shook, and Zatum began to reveal itself.
“Th-this is… Zatum…!”
A colossal stone giant with eight arms.
“Raaaaargh—!”
Before ‘Zatum’, Galliard died without being able to do a single thing.
He couldn’t even handle one of Zatum’s arms.
Galliard realized that it was utterly impossible to handle this alone.
And a while later, a message echoed through the Maple Leaf Story server:
(Megaphone) Fallen Power Warrior: Looking for Zatum Expedition members (1/30)@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
And the next day, that message turned the entire world upside down.
“Did you hear? The top-ranked user in Maple Leaf Story, ‘Fallen Power Warrior’, is looking for an expedition team?”
“Of course! But what’s this expedition team even for? And what is Zatum anyway…”
“Ha… You guys know nothing. Zatum is a boss monster that sleeps deep within the Elras Mountains, and even ‘Fallen Power Warrior’ couldn’t do anything against it and died!”
“They say you need at least a 4th job advancement to even stand a chance.”
“And that’s just the bare minimum. Rumour has it you need to be at least level 140 to contribute meaningfully.”
“What? Aren’t there only a handful of players above level 140 right now?”
“That’s not all. To even awaken ‘Zatum’, you need to complete a special prerequisite quest…”
The news of the top-ranked user recruiting for an expedition caused a commotion everywhere.
“…Zatum Expedition?”
“Galliard… So that’s what you were up to instead of responding to whispers, having fun on your own.”
“Hoho… To think there was something else this interesting.”
“Hawawa—? There’s no way I, JeBbit, can miss out on such a big event!”
High-level users from all over began to gather, drawn by the news.
—
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