Chapter 90: Skilled Assistant, Please

An entirely unexpected situation.

Levan was utterly flustered by the sudden outburst of the Goblin Leader.

‘What’s gotten into him all of a sudden?’

He hadn’t done anything in particular.

All he’d done was tear the ticket and come here, yet the Goblin Leader abruptly went berserk alone, like someone incapable of controlling his rage.

The furious Goblin Leader shouted.

「Grrrr! The humiliation last time! I haven’t forgotten! That’s why today, I’ll tear you to pieces!」

“Last time? If you mean last time, then could it be...?”

「Graaaargh!!」

With a bloodthirsty warning, the Goblin Leader grabbed his blowgun once more.

Seeing that, Levan reflexively raised his shield.

Crunch!!

The dart shot out in an instant, lodging itself in the shield.

Right after blocking the dart, Levan’s brow furrowed.

It was just a single shot, but the shield’s durability dropped drastically.

But even more than that, what the Goblin Leader had said kept nagging at him.

‘He really remembers our last fight?’

This was a variable he hadn’t accounted for.

No matter how special a boss monster might be, for a mere monster to remember a past battle like this—

He’d never heard of such a thing during all his time playing Warlord.

Fwoosh!!

Another dart whizzed his way.

This time, he dodged.

If he kept taking those relentless attacks head-on, his Rock Shield wouldn’t last long.

‘First things first, put out the immediate fire.’

No use worrying over something with no answer now; better to set it aside for the moment.

And putting worries on hold aside, Levan had come here with a clear purpose.

He wanted to film the scene he’d envisioned.

He’d even used his only ticket for it.

In other words, he had to give it his all as if this was his last shoot.

Lowering his stance, Levan muttered to himself.

“Section Chief, I think something’s gone wrong here. But I trust you. So please, do your best with the editing.”

That was all he had to say to Bae Hyun-woo.

Instead of a clap, Levan struck a pose for two seconds to mark the edit point, then slowly began his commentary.

“……Hello, this is Levan.”

His opening line signaled the start.

Levan’s expression was utterly serious.

There was no need to show every process on camera.

From tearing the ticket and arriving at the Infinite Tower, to this very moment when the battle began.

If he just added some proper effects in between, he could make the scene transitions feel perfectly natural.

“Today, as promised, I’ll be challenging the 2nd floor of the Infinite Tower. I see the owner of the 2nd floor, the Goblin Leader, right in front of me.”

Puffpuff! Whoosh! Whoosh! Crunch!

Regardless of Levan’s commentary, the furious Goblin Leader fired his darts at his own relentless pace.

During that, Levan dodged two darts and blocked one with his shield.

“……With all that huffing and puffing, he must have a lot of anger. I tried talking to him earlier, but he wouldn’t listen. Maybe he’s got anger management issues? That’s why I’m going to check for myself. See this gown? There’s a reason I wore it today.”

He didn’t specifically mention the physical therapist concept tied to his channel name.

Thanks to the ‘Legend Begins’ video Bae Hyun-woo had uploaded, subscribers would naturally understand Levan’s concept without any further explanation.

“……Well then, let’s begin the real examination. Now, bring in the skilled assistant! Oh, and by the way, I’ve never served in the military.”

That was enough of a speech.

With that, Levan dashed forward, shouting.

“Charge forward!!”

Thunk!!

Another dart was fired as he charged.

But this time, the firing sound was different.

‘Explosive dart!’

A deeper sound.

It was subtle, but Levan recognized it immediately.

Because not noticing that sound last time had made things hell for him.

An explosive dart, looking just like an ordinary one, flew straight at his face.

Levan quickly raised his shield to cover his face, and as the explosive dart hit—

Boom!!

An immense explosion ripped away another chunk of the Rock Shield’s durability.

「Graaaaaaagh!!」

Thick smoke billowed around the shield.

The Goblin Leader roared in triumph, thinking his attack had landed.

But that was his mistake.

“Rock Smash!!”

A resounding boom!

[Rock Smash is activated.]

[Shout is activated.]

Through the thick smoke, Levan’s Rock Shield appeared, studded with darts.

Like a charging rhinoceros, the shield rushed forward, closing in on the Goblin Leader.

The Goblin Leader tried to evade.

But no matter how fast he was, he couldn’t be faster than sound.

[Targets who hear the shout are stunned for 2 seconds.]

Stunned by Levan’s roar, the Goblin Leader was forced to take the brunt of the shield’s shockwave.

Bang!!

A heavy thud.

A successful strike brought a smile to Levan’s lips.

‘This is it!’

It took using two skills at once, but this way he could always land a guaranteed hit.

Of course, this tactic was learned after countless battles.

Despite his lanky frame and tall build, the Goblin Leader was surprisingly agile.

Especially after getting caught off guard several times by him dodging Rock Smash with backsteps like a Master Orc—there was no way not to get annoyed.

This skill combo was born out of that frustration.

As the Goblin Leader was stunned, Levan swung his Black Iron Mace without hesitation.

“Thunder Strike!”

Crack!!

As thunder gathered on his mace, Levan struck squarely at the monster’s face.

[Critical Hit!]

The face was the perfect hit zone for a critical.

With a successful attack, Levan immediately put distance between himself and the Goblin Leader.

Because once the Goblin Leader entered phase 2, after taking a hit anywhere on his body—

Fyu-fyufyufyut!!

The feathered mane he wore like a Native Chief shot up like a spiky needle mantle.

“Phew……”

Levan breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the raised feather mane.

‘Last time, even knowing about this, I failed to dodge and had a rough time.’

Luckily, he timed it right and didn’t get stabbed by the mane this time.

After getting pricked a few times, he’d learned to spot the timing even if he didn’t want to.

When the raised feather mane receded, the Goblin Leader’s face was revealed again.

Blood trickled down the Goblin Leader’s brow.

「I’ll kill you, you bastard……!」

Blood streaming from his forehead.

Pupils glinting with a black cross over yellow-tinted eyes.

As if his appearance wasn’t nasty enough, the blood only made him look more vicious.

But Levan couldn’t help but smile.

‘I really love this kind of thrilling tension.’

A thrill-seeker, through and through.

Having beaten him once already, he had no doubt about winning.

The Goblin Leader brought his blowgun to his mouth again.

‘Here it comes.’

As the monster readied his blowgun, Levan swiftly used Hold.

“Hold.”

Pop!

Clutching a cube in his hand, Levan began circling quickly around the monster, solving the cube as he went.

Thunk!!

A deeper sound.

An explosive dart.

But this time, he couldn’t use the shield—he was busy solving the Hold Cube.

So he jumped.

This time, the dart was aimed at his ankle, not his face.

Boom!!

A solid explosion shook the ground.

But since the blast radius was small, Levan evaded it. He used the momentary opening to solve another piece of the cube.

‘Got it!’

The cube was complete.

The completed cube formula: 22.

Levan slung his shield on his left arm and grabbed the cube with his free hand, then charged at the Goblin Leader.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Harassing darts fired to keep Levan in check.

A lighter sound.

So these weren’t explosive darts.

But considering the durability of his Rock Shield, he couldn’t use it anymore.

So, just like he dodged the explosive dart, he twisted his body at just the right timing.

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

With each twist, thick darts shot past, stabbing the ground like lightning rods.

They looked just like the stingers of a wasp.

‘Jeez, scary. Seriously scary.’

Since the Goblin Leader’s main weapon was ranged, his accuracy was extremely high.

That’s why, in the last fight, Levan had to go without the Rock Shield midway through—he didn’t want to lose it.

The Infinite Tower restores all a challenger’s injuries and the durability of used items, but it doesn’t restore destroyed items.

So, for rare items like the Rock Shield, you had to manage their durability.

The Rock Shield was a great item, but since it was a low-level drop, its durability was low.

Darts came flying at him again.

This time, aiming for his ankle.

As Levan dodged, he thought to himself.

‘He really attacks efficiently, doesn’t he?’

He’d realized this after dodging the monster’s darts for so long.

The Goblin Leader was, surprisingly, an intelligence-type.

In other words, the Goblin Leader always targeted the critical hit zone with each dart for maximum damage.

Especially when Levan darted around in chaos like this, the Goblin Leader would almost always aim for his feet.

So whenever he saw a dart coming, Levan would leap in place like group jump rope. Doing so—

Crunch!

—let him narrowly dodge at just the right height.

After dodging several rounds of darts, Levan finally got within range and cast Hold on the Goblin Leader.

“Hold!”

[Skill is nullified.]

‘As expected.’

There was no way the owner of the 2nd floor wouldn’t have a skill barrier.

Of course not.

If anything, the Master Orc’s lack of Dispel was the weird part.

But the Goblin Leader’s skill barrier wasn’t unlimited.

Its cooldown was three minutes.

And it wasn’t automatic—it had to be manually activated by a spellcaster.

‘That’s why he couldn’t block my Shout earlier.’

Because it wasn’t automatic, a surprise Shout slipped through.

But with an obvious Hold like this, of course he’d block it.

That’s why Levan deliberately sacrificed Hold as bait to make him let his guard down.

‘That’s why I picked the 22-cube formula.’

The moment Hold was nullified, Levan swiftly pulled a bookmark from his belt and shouted.

“Freezing!”

[Freezing is activated.]

Crack! Craaack!

Cold burst from the bookmark, rushing toward the Goblin Leader’s head.

This Freezing used a whopping 44-cube, magic defense-ignoring version.

Still, even with the magic defense ignore option, Freezing couldn’t freeze everything.

Warlord had not only magic defense but resistance as well.

So Levan, with this hard-earned chance, froze the Goblin Leader’s most precious thing.

And that was—

“Smash.”

[Smash is activated.]

Kaang!!

With a powerful swing of his Black Iron Mace—

What Levan froze and shattered was none other than the Goblin Leader’s ‘blowgun’.

(Continued) The Magician Doesn’t Hide His Power