Chapter 96: Black Bull Racer

“Hmm, not bad.”

After the second recording was done, Seongwoo played back his own video, which had been automatically saved in the capsule.

The result was more than satisfying.

He especially liked the concept at the end, where he abruptly ended the broadcast right as his frozen leg shattered.

“So, the only thing left now is that guy.”

There was no rush.

No one was chasing after him, and he wasn’t being pressured to produce results.

He just needed to film as the ideas came to him, letting things flow naturally.

‘Of course, I’ll have to prepare all the items in advance.’

Besides, the filming was going faster than expected. Even after shooting two videos, he still had more than five hours of playtime left.

In other words, he had plenty of time to rewatch the videos he’d recorded.

After checking his footage, Seongwoo picked up the sheet of paper he’d organized for the next shoot. He called it a script.

‘Hmm.’

Even so, the so-called script was only a single page.

But that one page was filled with surprisingly meticulous plans Seongwoo had come up with.

‘Can I pull this off?’

Back in his Blunt Warrior days, his level was 105.

Besides, since he mostly played solo, it was only natural that this was his first time in the Forest of the Labyrinth.

‘I’ll have to keep venturing out on my own, so thorough info gathering is essential.’

After reviewing the script one last time, Seongwoo logged back into the game.

---

[You have hunted a Black Minotaur.]

Thud!

Deeper inside the Forest of the Labyrinth, there were no more Brown Minotaurs in sight.

Instead, Black Minotaurs with their dark hides had become common.

‘Found it.’

After Levan easily took down two Black Minotaurs, he smiled as he looked beyond, at the presence waiting there.

[White Minotaur / Lv.122]

The one Levan was seeking.

It was none other than the White Minotaur.

‘Sure enough, the white ones do look stronger.’

A lone white bull mixed in with the black ones.

Maybe it was because the color contrasted so starkly with the black, but it looked strangely sacred—and much more formidable.

At last, having found the White Minotaur, Levan pulled the Goblin Leader’s Sleep Dart Gun out from his jacket.

“Time for a proper send-off, don’t you think?”

With a wicked grin, Levan raised the dart gun to his lips.

His target: the Black Minotaur.

A tranquilizer dart shot out from Levan’s gun.

---

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Deep inside the Forest of the Labyrinth.

Now, in the place where only pure white White Minotaurs remained, a single black bull was sprinting at full speed.

But then—

“……!”

“……!”

“……!”

With every Black Minotaur that charged past, the eyes of the watching White Minotaurs began to change one by one.

Those eyes were none other than brimming with excitement.

The reason was simple.

Flap! Flap! Flap!

On the back of the galloping Black Minotaur, a giant red cape billowed in the wind.

And sitting atop it, clutching its iron horns like a steering wheel, was none other than Levan.

“Run, run, run! Let’s gooo!!”

“Moooooo!!”

The Black Minotaur carrying Levan on its back definitely reacted to his words.

It even shifted direction whenever he twisted the horns.

Flap, flap!

What’s more, Levan himself was wearing a red cape just like the Black Minotaur.

On top of that, he even wore a pair of jet-black sunglasses—a must-have for any racer.

The reason why Levan, a mage, was able to control a Black Minotaur over level 100?

That was thanks to the ‘Taming Scroll’.

‘This taming scroll is fantastic. I’ll have to use it more often.’

Warload had all sorts of scrolls.

Teleportation scrolls, enhancement scrolls, curse scrolls, healing scrolls, buff scrolls...

Of course, there was also a scroll for ‘taming’ monsters, used by monster tamers.

‘Money really is king. Back in the day, I wouldn’t have even glanced at an item like this.’

Creating a scroll itself wasn’t all that hard.

Making a scroll just meant imbuing a blank scroll with your own skill via the ‘Conversion’ skill. That was the whole process.

So, a scroll’s popularity was naturally determined by how rare or useful the skill inside was.

Among those, the taming skill ranked pretty high.

After all, playing with obedient creatures was something most people dreamed of.

But Levan didn’t buy the Taming Scroll for that purpose.

The only reason he bought the Taming Scroll was to get some good footage for his broadcast!

Levan spoke as he guided the Black Minotaur.

“I always dreamed of riding a buffalo galloping across the plains after watching a TV documentary, and now I’m making that dream come true. The ride’s not great, but the speed is no joke. If any of you get the chance, you should definitely try it. This summer’s hot leisure activity is being a Black Bull Racer! Right, Wagyu?”

“Moooooo!!”

Levan named his tamed Black Minotaur ‘Wagyu’.

At first, he considered naming it something like ‘Hogu’ since it looked like an easy target, but since it was his own, that felt too cruel, so he went with ‘Wagyu’ instead.

Riding on Wagyu’s back, Levan glanced behind him.

“Moooooo!!”

“Moooo!!”

“Meeeeee!!”

A whole herd of White Minotaurs were chasing after Levan and Wagyu.

There were easily over twenty of them at a glance.

But that wasn’t enough.

To stick to the script, he needed at least twice as many White Minotaurs as he had now.

Levan slapped Wagyu on the back of the head.

“Already tired and panting, my Black Bull, are you?!”

“Moooooo!!”

Wagyu barreled on like a runaway locomotive.

Levan recalled the map of the Forest of the Labyrinth he’d memorized, and circled around the forest once more.

And after running for about ten more minutes—

‘That’s it!’

By now, there were probably fifty White Minotaurs in hot pursuit.

“Wagyu, just a little more! Run a bit more and I’ll let you rest!”

“Moooooo!!”

He’d gathered all the numbers he needed.

All that was left was to head to the planned location.

Levan twisted Wagyu’s horns, starting the last race toward the destination.

‘There it is!’

The destination began to appear in the distance.

It was a gorge.

A very narrow one at that!

Levan didn’t hesitate and made straight for the gorge.

They ran and ran, and finally, at the edge of the gorge—what he’d decided was the finish line—

“Jump!!”

Levan, riding atop Wagyu, launched himself high, as if making an emergency escape.

Splat!

A perfect landing.

If there had been judges, they would have all given him a perfect ten.

As Levan leapt off Wagyu’s shoulders, Wagyu came to a halt.

But even though Wagyu had stopped—

“Moooooo!!”

“Moooo!!”

“Meeeeee!!”

Thud, thud, thud, thud!!

Over fifty White Minotaurs, entranced by the red cape, kept charging toward Levan and Wagyu, not stopping at all.

Standing on the ground, Levan smiled at Wagyu.

“You did well, Wagyu.”

“Moo.”

“It was fun being together—let’s never meet again.”

“Moo?”

“What are you looking at? Go and don’t fight.”

A tamed monster is absolutely obedient to its tamer.

At least, monsters tamed by a scroll were like that.

Because, for monsters tamed with a scroll—

‘There’s an expiration date.’

A number floated above Wagyu’s head.

It was a notification for the remaining taming time.

Now, there were only about five minutes left to use Wagyu as Wagyu.

But that was more than enough.

Because Wagyu would be deleted within five minutes.

“Moooo!!”

Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble—

The ground trembled.

The trembling was caused by the approaching White Minotaurs.

Wagyu stood before them.

Like a single black stone placed before countless white stones on a baduk board.

Of course, he wouldn’t become a hero.

After all, the Black Minotaur’s level was lower than that of the White Minotaurs to begin with.

[The Black Minotaur has died.]

[With the Black Minotaur’s death, the taming effect is automatically canceled.]

Black and white collided.

Of course, as soon as they collided, the black disappeared.

From the start, there was no way one black could withstand nearly fifty white.

Wagyu vanished like a sheet of paper being ripped, soon dissolving into dust, leaving only the giant red cape fluttering in the air like a white towel thrown into a boxing ring.

Watching this, Levan muttered,

“Good job, Wagyu.”

After Wagyu died, Levan finally drew his weapon.

The distance between him and the White Minotaurs was shrinking fast.

The leading White Minotaur glared with bloodshot eyes and threw a punch.

“Moooo!!”

Whoosh!

The white bull’s punch sliced through the air.

It was fast.

But slower than the tranquilizer dart the Goblin Leader had shot.

As the meteor-like fist came crashing down, Levan shoved up his Stone Shield and shouted,

“Shield Bash!”

[Shield Bash is activated.]

Craaaash!!

No time to use magic.

Behind him was a dead-end wall, and in front, more than fifty White Minotaurs, driven mad by the sight of the red cape.

This was the last stand.

Levan had planned from the start to lure them all here.

“Moooo!!”

“Shut up!!”

[Shout is activated.]

A shout for a shout.

Levan responded to the frozen white bull with a barrage of blows.

At times like this, he couldn’t help but think that if his main weapon were a sword, things would be so much easier.

To kill with a blunt weapon, you had to smash the skull, and unfortunately, Minotaurs were all tall.

[You have hunted a White Minotaur.]

[You have hunted a White Minotaur.]

[You have hunted a White Minotaur.]

……

But “impossible” wasn’t in Levan’s dictionary.

Using the narrowness of the gorge, Levan made sure to face only up to three White Minotaurs at a time.

As a result, he was able to defeat them all in turn, taking little damage.

[Level up!]

He even managed to achieve one of his goals: finally leveling up.

“Yesss!! I finally hit 70!!”

[Shout is activated.]

Crack!

Fifty-four.

It’s a lot if you say it’s a lot, not so much if you say it’s not.

But the one clear thing is, taking on nearly fifty Minotaurs alone in a nonstop brawl is tough.

[You have hunted a White Minotaur.]

[You have hunted a White Minotaur.]

But Levan kept at it doggedly.

He struck, smashed, beat, and beat again—until at last, he brought down the final White Minotaur.

“Huff, huff… Finally… finally got them all…!”

Levan had finally succeeded in bringing down every last White Minotaur.

That was when it happened.

Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!

The tremor.

There were no more Minotaurs around.

And yet, the ground still shook.

Was it an earthquake?

No.

The reason the ground trembled now was simple. The reason the ground trembled now was none other than…

[You have massacred far too many Minotaurs.]

[As a result, the master of the Minotaurs is extremely enraged.]

[The master of the Minotaurs wishes to invite you to Labyrinthos.]

[Would you like to enter the dungeon, ‘Labyrinthos’?]

(Continued) The Mage Doesn't Hold Back His Power