[Why Do Those Two Fight Every Day?? I Seriously Don’t Get It]
[Author: Anonymous]
Doesn’t pouring water on fire settle it?
How is this even an argument???
[Comments]
Water > Fire: Only that idiot doesn’t know something so obvious lol.
True Fire Mage: Who the hell are you? Want to die?
┗True Fire Mage: You’re treating me like some newbie fire mage who just started learning magic?
┗True Fire Mage: Real fire keeps burning no matter how much water you pour on it. Know what you’re talking about before you speak.
┗Anonymous (Author): Mad?
┗True Fire Mage: Wow, fuck. Where do you live?
Anonymous: Toss them some firewood and these assholes fight for ten hours straight, lmao.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
This is ridiculously cost-effective.
I let out a hollow laugh at how thoroughly they’d been baited.
It worked great. As expected, it was the ultimate word.
I didn’t particularly like the word, to be honest, but it was different when I was the one using it, right?
Of course, I had no intention of leaving it at that.
Remembering how I’d been banned last time, I walked the line and threw in a few posts supporting the other side, too.
That way, the gallery users who thought this was just their usual WWE could get interested and join the discussion.
Slowly, making sure not to be too provocative, I added posts one by one.
[But seriously, water is useless against really hot fire.]
[Doesn’t water have more uses in the first place?]
[Fire does look flashier and more destructive at a glance.]
[Don’t let it show that you normies don’t know Pokémons type matchups;;]
Not just my posts—the gallery users gradually began to chime in as well.
To kill their boredom, they were voicing opinions they normally kept to themselves.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Wow. At this point, it’s kind of impressive.
Both the fire mage and the water mage were spamming comments on every post.
More precisely, they had little to say under posts favorable to themselves, but they went insane in the comments whenever a post praised the other or put them down.
It wasn’t as though those two were the only mages in the gallery who wielded fire or water, yet they loathed each other with terrifying intensity.
Come to think of it… I feel like I saw something in a featured post when I first got here.
It had already been dozens of days ago, so I couldn’t remember clearly, but I recalled seeing something about the results of a contest.
With that in mind, I searched their usernames, but—
…I can’t find it.
I couldn’t find it no matter what.
There was no way I’d remember the title, either.
[Water mages are fucking trash lol.]
[It’s about time you admitted it, isn’t it? Everyone knows but you.]
[Water magic <<< has no fundamentals lmao.]
[Honestly, upvote if you regret becoming a water mage lol.]
[The fact is, you’re getting your ass kicked again this year.]
[Look how vulgar you are. Your personality is just like fire;]
[Fire = useless, aggressive, unstable, unpleasant.]
[No matter how much fire mages bark, everyone knows the truth lol.]
[What is a trash fire mage even saying? lol]
[Even the name “fire mage” has no fundamentals.]
How could they write dozens, even hundreds, of posts like this?
I knew they fought every day, but at this point, weren’t they in love with each other?
I don’t want people to call me a helpless idiot who can’t search for himself, but…
It seemed better to ask for some help this time.
[Aren’t both fire magic and water magic trash?]
[Author: KingGodWiki]
(The title isn’t bait.)
So which one is stronger, experts?
I saw some featured post about a contest before, but I can’t find the results.
I don’t know what it was, but if they compete every time, shouldn’t it be obvious who’s better??
[Comments]
Anonymous: “The title isn’t bait,” my ass lmao.
Anonymous: They’re just evenly matched.
┗Anonymous: Honestly, it’s impressive at this point. They’ll bring the links themselves soon enough.
Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Why are you looking for that, though?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): To learn magic.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: ? You aren’t a mage.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Is there some law saying only mages can use magic?
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Are you insane?
No, I’m serious.
Why couldn’t someone use some magic without being a mage?
I only said that because I was far from being a traditional mage who inscribed Circles one by one.
Of course, I wouldn’t mind if people like me were considered mages, too.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Actually, I’m a mage… Cool, right?
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: You said you can’t sense mana.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Didn’t you ask before whether you should learn swordsmanship or magic?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Whoa; Are you a stalker? Scary…
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: If you’re gonna talk shit, at least give me cola first, fuck.
It’d be funny if this guy never won cola for the rest of his life.
I snickered at the bald mage’s comment.
Even if he did win someday, I’d send him something other than cola.
I was already thrilled imagining his reaction.
Ding!
Water > Fire: gall.inifinity/view/34123821
┗True Fire Mage: Sneakily bringing up old results, fuck.
┗True Fire Mage: gall.inifinity/view/34567245
┗True Fire Mage: This is the latest result.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Thx thx;
How badly did he hate losing that he had to post an old link?
With a hollow laugh at the link the fire mage posted, I immediately checked its contents.
[★ Winner of the 548th Fire Mage vs. Water Mage Contest]
[Author: True Fire Mage]
(A photo of the timer for the 549th run floating in midair.)
(A screenshot of Water > Fire’s post.)
548th Run
Tower of Trials
Fire: 75 days
Water: 73 days
Tower of Wisdom
Fire: 88 days
Water: 80 days
Tower of Mindscape
Fire: 84 days
Water: 82 days
Tower of Fate
Fire: 99 days
Water: 113 days
548th Run
Fire: 346 days
Water: 348 days
Three straight years of victories. This bastard has finally been caught up lol.
All-Time Record
Fire 274 : 274 Water
[Comments]
Anonymous: Don’t say mean things like, “You got your ass kicked everywhere else and only won thanks to luck.”
┗True Fire Mage (Author): Luck is skill, too.
┗Anonymous: That’s usually what people say when luck is all they have.
Anonymous: Anyone know the results excluding the Tower of Fate? Go—
Anonymous: You won three years in a row and are only barely tied..
┗True Fire Mage (Author): See you in a year lol.
"…This is more serious than I thought?"
I hadn’t expected their contest to be about who could regress first.
They were savoring the victory, replying one by one to comments that reacted with the familiarity of people watching an annual event.
After scrolling down a little, I found the two of them once again throwing punches through hundreds of comments.
So they’re tied in the end.
Honestly, either one would have been fine.
If one side had been winning, I probably would have bought that one without hesitation, but of all things, they were tied.
[Are There No Fire Mages or Water Mages Besides Those Two?]
[Author: KingGodWiki]
I’m thinking of learning some magic, so convince me which one is better.
[Comments]
Anonymous: Those two are probably the only ones who’ve pushed a single element to the absolute extreme.
Anonymous: They’re idiots, but they’re mages at a level you can’t ignore...
┗True Fire Mage: Leave me out of that.
┗Water > Fire: Don’t treat us as equals.
True Fire Mage: Learn from me. I’ll teach you everything up to the ultimate level for just one Boogie set.
Water > Fire: I’ll teach you for one cola.
┗True Fire Mage: Fuck, stop wrecking my post and get lost.
┗Water > Fire: Step aside if you don’t have the skill lol. You’ve never even taken on a disciple.
┗True Fire Mage: Shouldn’t you have built up your skills instead of wasting time raising disciples?
┗Water > Fire: Even while raising disciples, I was stronger than you, though? lol
Dingdingding—
"What is this…?"
These bastards had clearly been trying to dump me off on either the fire mage or water mage at first.
Now they were fighting over taking me as a disciple, saying they’d teach me all the way to the ultimate level for free.
It didn’t take long for the matter of taking me as a disciple to devolve into a simple shouting match.
They probably aren’t even interested in the Irregular, are they?
Even if the Irregular appeared, they seemed like the sort who wouldn’t escape because they were too busy trying to beat the other one.
Yet judging by how they wanted Boogie and cola, they did have desires. What absurd people.
Ding!
Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Are you really going to learn magic?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): I told you, I’m a mage.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Fuck, quit lying.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): If I’m lying, will you teach me?
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Teaching you magic itself is a bit much, but I can tell you the pros and cons.
"Oh."
Judging by his username, the bald mage seemed like the strongest mage in the gallery.
How deeply must he have immersed himself in magic to go bald?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): If I send you cola, will you take me as your disciple?
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Nope.
"Crazy."
What on earth was he hiding that he would even turn down cola?
The guy who posted every day wishing to win cola was refusing it?
Let’s check it out first.
As I was now, it was difficult to invest anything beyond cola.
I still didn’t know how skilled this bald mage was, either.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Then which one would be better to learn?
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Honestly, I don’t understand where or how you intend to learn it… but I’ll let that slide. You seem like you’ll manage somehow, so I don’t even want to ask.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: If you only care about firepower, fire magic is better. That doesn’t mean water is weak; they just have their specialized areas.
"Mm-hm."
I carefully read through everything as he explained more details than I’d expected.
I didn’t know whether he was looking out for me because I was a newbie mage, or because of his secret longing for cola.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: If you can learn magic from other elemental schools in the future, it would be good to consider combinations, too.
"Combinations?"
Like mixing two elements or using them at the same time?
"…"
Right. Why hadn’t I thought of that?
As long as I threw Magic Stones, I could use any spells simultaneously.
What was impossible for other mages was possible for me.
Even if I didn’t cast them at the same time, if I considered the synergy between several spells—
Lightning magic and water magic.
It was obviously specialized for mass slaughter.
If I sprayed water over a broad area and added [Chain Lightning], everyone would be electrocuted on the spot.
Fire magic would have been effective too if I could use wind magic or something, but I couldn’t.
Is this what makes a great archmage a great archmage?
Considering how it would combine with lightning magic, water magic definitely seemed better.
Binding them with lightning and attacking with fire magic wasn’t bad, either, but…
Water is absolutely the right choice.
My instincts as a gamer were screaming it at me.
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Thx thx, I know what I should learn now. I like you, man.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: So what are you learning?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Water magic.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: Water magic’s good. Use it while thinking of all the ways it can be broadly applied.
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: So are you sending the cola now?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): ?
┗Baldness Not Stopped Even by a Ninth-Circle Archmage: ?
What a shameless thief.
He said a few words and expected me to send him cola.
He had said he didn’t need it, so I wasn’t sending any.
Even if tariffs disappeared, I had no intention of sending him cola.
I’ll give it to him later if he says he’ll accept me as a disciple.
Rather than those fire-and-water mages who practically radiated unorthodox-cult vibes, if I was going to learn, I should learn properly from a great archmage.
Using magic through Magic Stones like I did now wasn’t bad, but I still wanted to try sensing mana and casting magic myself.
Ding! Ding!
┗True Fire Mage: What? You’re going to learn water magic? Seriously?
┗Water > Fire: Hah, hahaha. As expected, the newbie knows what’s what.
┗True Fire Mage: Why???? No, newbie, fire magic is definitely better!
┗True Fire Mage: Fuck, answer me. What’s so good about water?
┗True Fire Mage: No, learn fire magic, damn it!! I’ll teach you!!!
I let out a hollow laugh at the two mages, who had no interest in me and kept fighting each other.
┗Water > Fire: That’s seriously pathetic. Right, newbie? Want me to teach you a bit?
┗KingGodWiki (Author): Nope, I’m not learning from you lol.
┗Water > Fire: ?
You could tell at a glance. If I got involved with even one of these two, I’d be exhausted for the rest of my life.
I’d be locked into a faction war I never wanted for hundreds of years.
After leaving a few appropriate comments, I immediately opened Starpang.
[First Step into Great Magic - Water-Element Magic] - 5,000 TP
[Your order has been completed.]
[Remaining Delivery Time: 5 minutes]
Water-element magic was fucking expensive, just like lightning magic, but I believed it would be worth the cost.
"…Han Seol, dual-element mage."
Fucking cool.
All I did was click some Magic Stones, but somehow, I felt proud of myself.
Just thinking about adding more and more elements in the future made the corners of my mouth rise.
Ding—!
[New comment from Not an Eraser.]
"…Did they catch me after all?"
I swallowed at the notification from the head moderator that had just arrived.
It wouldn’t be a big deal even if I got banned, since I could simply make another account, but it still gave me a nervous thrill.
Not an Eraser🔸: ...Be careful.
┗Not an Eraser🔸: (A sticker of a grotesque creature glaring with its eyes wide open.)
┗KingGodWiki (Author): ^^7
Safe.
It looked like I had barely stayed within the line this time.
Or maybe it was because I’d sent two Boogie sets.
*
[StarWiki]
-Skill Book: [Water Ball] auxiliary activation.
-Consumption: Low-Grade Magic Stone.
[StarWiki]
-Skill Book: [Water Arrow] auxiliary activation.
-Consumption: Low-Grade Magic Stone.
"Tch… Why won’t it work?"
The twenty-sixth floor of the Tower of Trials.
I had used the skill book I’d just bought to activate two spells, but the last one wouldn’t activate.
No matter how many Magic Stones I threw, it wouldn’t cast.
Like the spell had failed, it simply wouldn’t go off at all.
Swoosh—
"How many times have I had to pick these up now…?"
Maybe there was some other requirement. No matter what I did, I couldn’t make it work.
I had repeated the process of picking up the Magic Stones I hurled with all my strength nearly ten times.
[Water Rain]
It was clearly written in the skill book, so what was I lacking?
Until now, throwing a Magic Stone had automatically activated everything, so I had no idea what the problem was when it failed like this.
I sat on the floor of the tower and squeezed my eyes shut.
What was the problem? What did I need to do to fix it?
After pondering for a while as I rolled the Magic Stone in my hand—
"…A Low-Grade Magic Stone?"
I realized that the Magic Stone in my hand was a low-grade one.
Starpang definitely had Mid-Grade, High-Grade, and Top-Grade Magic Stones.
From the name alone, [Water Rain] had to be a spell that made water fall like rain.
There was no way that could be an easy low-grade spell.
Mid-Grade Magic Stones must be fucking expensive…?
If my memory was right, they were a thousand TP each.
I had about fifteen hundred TP left.
Even if I bought one, it was a huge expense that wouldn’t leave me enough to even test it.
"…"
Still, I had to do it, right?
If I bought skill books worth hundreds of thousands of TP later, I would need even more expensive Magic Stones then.
If I hesitated here or worried about wasting money, I’d never dare do it later.
It’ll work out somehow.
There had to be an effect worth the cost if it required a Mid-Grade Magic Stone.
As long as the answer wasn’t that it needed a High-Grade Magic Stone after all.
*
[Tower of Trials]
"Whew…"
Three more days had passed since I learned water magic.
Royal Palace Knights Basic Swordsmanship Form 1 had become perfectly familiar to my body.
Unfortunately, it didn’t activate, perhaps because it didn’t count as a skill.
Still, I had definitely learned how to swing a sword and what posture to take.
I nearly died on the twentieth floor.
This time was very different.
I had invested well over ten thousand TP.
I had reached the point where I could feel my stamina had increased, and I’d built enough strength to swing the practice steel sword repeatedly.
Han Seol on the twentieth floor and Han Seol now challenging the thirtieth floor were clearly very different.
Rumble rumble rumble…!!
Where am I?
The moment the door closed, I was transported into a small room…? A small space.
When I glanced through the hole in front of me, an enormous area came into view.
Underground? Is this some kind of cave?
It was a cave-like place where stalactites grew and faint moonlight seeped in.
It was incomparably wider than the colosseum on the twentieth floor.
The ground was uneven, and the place felt damp, as if there were an unpleasant smell in the air.
Clench!
I tightly gripped my sword in my right hand.
What would come out? What would I have to face?
The shield on my left arm, the Magic Stones in my pocket.
Even the wiki strategy guide I held in my left hand—I was fully prepared.
Thump! Thump!
Even so, my heart pounded wildly.
Crackle…!
A blue hologram rippled throughout the cave, and goblins half my height appeared.
One, two.
Ten… twenty….
The goblins kept multiplying until there were too many to count.
[Remaining Goblins: 100]
"…Ha."
I let out a hollow laugh at the tower message that appeared as soon as their copying glitch ended.
They made unpleasant kikik noises and frantically looked around.
Each holding a weapon, they tensely surveyed the area as though they had no idea where they were either.
Ding—!
[Tower of Trials]
-Strategy for the 30th Floor, 1st Run: Lure a small number of targets in and force them to fight in a narrow space. If you deal with the goblin chieftain first, you will be discovered.
…I suppose that’s only obvious?
I let out a hollow laugh at the wiki telling me not to foolishly go out and get surrounded, but to calmly fight here.
Without the wiki, I might have gone out without thinking.
It did feel like some kind of waiting area.
The one useful piece of advice was probably about the chieftain.
That guy wearing what looked like a bone necklace must be the chieftain.
I gulped as I watched the one in the center shout something and issue orders.
"Kigegegek!!"
"…Huh?"
After pounding his club against the ground as he barked out orders, he began slowly moving his feet.
Step.
Step…
As he gradually approached this way, I carefully stepped back, wondering if I had been discovered.
He didn’t seem to have noticed me in particular, so why was he coming this way? I gripped my sword and waited.
Swoosh.
"…"
"Kik…"
I squeezed my eyes shut as the bastard plopped down right at the entrance to the hole.
So what you’re saying is, I can’t kill this bastard first right now?
…And I’m fucked if this bastard turns around, too?
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