How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

The dungeon in the form of a cave became wider as one entered deeper into the fork. The ceiling also gradually became higher.

Soon, he fully entered one of the forked paths.

As expected, the deformed, one-horned demon monsters without wings immediately responded.

A massive body easily over 2 meters tall.
A muscular black body.
Arms and hands as big as torsos.

The large claws attached to those hands.

No, could those even be called claws?

Their monstrous size might terrify people seeing them for the first time. That’s how big they were.

It was a deformed appearance as if the body’s balance was completely focused on the two arms.

Even while watching the creatures charging at him from the front.
Frey showed no movement.

Just.

Bang-!

He withstood all those attacks by simply standing still.

This was because every time the creatures attacked Frey, auto magic activated immediately with a blue magic circle of the hexagram appearing automatically in one eye, and partial shield magic was deployed at each moment only where the creatures attacked.

The deployed shield magic was not ordinary.

A method of partial deployment where a bright white light shield rose densely.

A high-level light attribute shield magic.
A Shield Of Light.
It was the Shield of Light.

Frey once again confirmed with his own eyes the performance of the Shield of Light applied in conjunction with auto magic, which automatically blocked the creatures’ blade rush attacks reflexively while he just stood still, uninjured and undamaged, even though he was still under attack from them.

‘Indeed, its performance is several levels better than shield magic incorporating the 5 attributes. It’s not for nothing that it’s classified separately as a high-level light attribute magic.’

Its performance and defensive power were very certain, as he was seeing now.
No damage.
Unlike in his previous life, the creatures couldn’t inflict any harm or damage on him at all.

Frey thought with lowered eyes.

‘But auto magic is a magic whose performance is entirely focused on defense. I’ll have to attack separately myself after all.’

However, that alone was enough.
When auto magic automatically deployed shield magic on his behalf as if it had another self and consciousness,

Frey himself could focus on calmly executing attack magic.

‘Well then, shall we start counterattacking?’

Frey raised one hand forward.

The target pointed at by his outstretched index finger was none other than the foremost of the deformed monsters.

‘Ray.’

Deployed with silent incantation, the light attribute. The flash of light pierced through the center of the chest, the solar plexus, of one of the enemies in an instant.

Then at that moment.

“……!”

Whoosh-!

‘Oh?’

He could observe the body of the instantly killed creature disappearing with black flames, scattering black ashes and quickly oxidizing away.

Since Frey was seeing these monster creatures die for the first time in his life, he couldn’t help but feel some curiosity and interest.

‘So this is how they die. Interesting.’

After that, knowing that he could sufficiently kill the creatures even with the low-level light attribute magic Ray, he relentlessly fired consecutive flashes of light.

Without a word, the creatures fell and disappeared one by one to the flash of light deployed with silent incantation.

‘Then shall we move forward?’

Frey simply walked slowly past the places where the creatures had disappeared, into the deeper interior of the dungeon cave.

“Hmm.”

This time, creatures with the same humanoid appearance but with smaller bodies and limbs made of swords, with black bodies, appeared before him.

If the place he had just dealt with was the first stage, then what appeared next could be called the second stage of the dungeon where such creatures were located.

The appearance of each foot and hand sharpened like the tip of a sword.

It looked as if they were supporting their bodies by stabbing the cave floor with their sword-tipped feet.

Swoosh─!

“……!”

These creatures were also fast.
Whether it was because they had less flesh and were therefore lighter, or for some other reason, their speed was so fast that their body movements were barely visible.

Fortunately, he could remain safe because the Shield of Light formed due to auto magic automatically blocked their blade rush attacks immediately, just like before.

‘A total of eight. They attack by climbing the cave walls or coming from the ceiling. Unlike the creatures I encountered earlier that attacked recklessly without discrimination, this time there’s some system to their movements.’

In other words, it meant they showed a kind of strategy and tactics, teamwork and cooperation.

‘But these creatures can’t penetrate the Shield of Light either. However, if it were my previous self, I might have died with my throat slit without anyone knowing, unable to respond to their speed and total attacks.’

By ‘previous self’, he meant before meeting Sylvia, the Spirit King of Light.

‘Indeed, this is not a place one could come to carelessly without proper preparation.’

He could have had his throat cut earlier if he had been greedy.

That was the speed of their swift attacks.

‘But I have the Shield of Light due to auto magic. A defense-specialized magic that can easily block at least the same level of magic.’

Just in case, he had separately tested its defensive performance to see if it could block not only the flash magic Ray, but also light attribute attacks above intermediate level.

If one doesn’t properly know the power and performance of one’s own magic, later on, like when he fought with that Rekas from Sepirion, he might fall into a sudden mana depletion exhaustion state like with the intermediate light attribute magic Judgment of the Light that he used then. So he had once conducted experiments testing each magic he currently possessed from various angles.

‘In my previous life, I didn’t need to worry about such concerns because the power was so weak and the mana consumption was inversely proportional, so I didn’t easily fall into a mana-depleted state…. But not now.’

The case then and now was not the same.

Frey immediately fired the light flash Ray at them by pointing his index finger, just like in the previous stage.

However, surprisingly.

“……Oh?”

They showed the appearance of deflecting all those attacks with their sword-shaped arms and legs they were running with.

‘Not cut, but deflected…. That means those sword tips on their arms and legs are also in a state with considerable magic resistance added.’

Frey quickly noticed and grasped this fact.

‘Then how about this?’

Frey decided to activate the next light attribute magic with an intermediate level rank, not a low level, stopping what he had been firing.

‘Judgment of the Light is very unsuitable for use in a cave terrain like this, even if it’s a silent incantation magic with extremely reduced power and range. So the most useful intermediate rank magic for this terrain situation is….’

The Sword of Light.

The Sword Of Light.

As soon as he made his decision, a sword of light was created in Frey’s right hand.

‘Not yet.’

Frey didn’t stop there and deployed another weapon-type creation magic in his empty left hand.

The Spear of Light.
He deployed Spear of Light and then grasped it.

‘Additionally.’

The third magic.

Light arrow creation magic.

An Arrow Of Light, multiple light arrows were deployed in the air behind his back.

Frey had become ambidextrous while learning magic.

Now it was the era of using grimoires, which are storehouses of learned magic books, not the era of using staffs or wands.

To Frey’s left, white light was generated and quickly gathered, and his ‘white grimoire’ appeared, finally revealing its form.
At some point, his grimoire had changed to a pure white light color with the light attribute most applied.

‘The range of magic to be deployed through the grimoire, which is another medium for casting magic, is reduced, instead the power and accuracy are raised and applied to all magic to be used afterwards.’

The grimoire was also another core medium for magic deployment, separate from the mana heart, which is also called the second heart of a magician.

Therefore, he could also finely control and adjust the range and power of magic as he intended through that grimoire at the same time.

‘ImiTate. Automatic Swordsmanship.’

Frey used another non-elemental magic in double combination internally, and with the Sword of Light grasped in his right hand, he instantly cut down and annihilated two other creatures that were attacking closest to him.

They also disappeared in the same way as the previous creatures, becoming black flames in the air and quickly vanishing.

And the movements Frey had just shown were clearly similar to those of a swordsman.

The magic currently applied to his body was ImiTate imitation magic.

And Automatic Swordsmanship.

Literally, it was a double magic that combined two magics in order: imitating and mimicking the opponent’s swordsmanship, and automatically moving the body to perform actions and swordsmanship. These were also Frey’s new vision magics.

‘The spear in my left hand is a bit cumbersome. I should have deployed and used them in order after all.’

The movement of the sword is not by himself, but an automatic imitation movement of the body due to mana flowing through muscles, joints, and blood vessels, mimicking the opponent.

What is being imitated is the movement and swordsmanship of the creatures that he had observed with his eyes for a certain time.

However, for Frey, who had shallow learning in swordsmanship, this was the first mistake that occurred because he didn’t know how inconvenient it was for movement to have another weapon occupying the other hand when using a sword.

‘No choice. I’ll have to throw this.’

What’s done is done. Under this thought, Frey quickly made a rational decision and swiftly threw the tip of the Spear of Light he was holding in his left hand towards the creatures.

There was no strain in making such a movement because body enhancement magic was applied due to auto magic.

Rather, even in that simple action of just throwing, considerable power was contained.

Swoosh──!

The spear thrown in an instant pierced through one of the creatures and, without losing its power, shot forward before eventually disappearing.

Seeing this, Frey soon thought contemplatively.

‘This is too inefficient. The power is good, but to only deal with one creature.’

Was this showing some human-like aspect?

Soon after.

‘Can’t be helped. Spilled milk is spilled. Move on to the next immediately.’

What he then glanced at were the light arrows that were still floating behind him, waiting for his final command word.

‘Go.’

Following Frey’s final command, the Arrows Of Light were finally shot endlessly and numerously towards the creatures.

The light arrows were set to be automatically generated and shot again immediately upon consumption, as long as he didn’t cut off his mana.

And the creatures at first managed to deflect and block some of those numerous, seemingly infinitely generating light arrow showers with the sword tips of their arms and both legs, but.

Soon they couldn’t handle them all and one by one were pierced through by those light arrows and annihilated.

There was also one that barely managed to approach Frey again to attack, but that too was instantly dealt with using the automatic swordsmanship, imitation swordsmanship that mimicked the creatures.

Seeing the creatures annihilated more easily than expected, Frey thought on one hand that he should have dealt with them with just two things: auto magic and Arrows Of Light, without needing other magic.

And soon, he resumed his stopped footsteps and slowly moved towards the third stage, the deepest part of the ancient dungeon.

Contrary to his expectations, this ancient dungeon, which was expected to be quite dangerous, had no blockages in breaking through to this point, and it was also the moment when he realized that, unlike in his previous life, it was just an overreaction in this life.

──However.

Soon Frey, who had arrived at the deepest part of the dungeon, finally realized how arrogant that thought had been when he saw ‘that’.

“……This can’t be.”

In fact, what had been playing the role of holding these deformed monster demons here.

The highest-grade light attribute magic book.

However, it wasn’t for confining the deformed demon monsters of the 1st and 2nd stages that he had dealt with until now.

Its true role was.

It was only when Frey reached and directly faced what was right in front of him that he finally realized it was due to a being that was quietly sleeping with eyes closed, sealed and bound by chains of light that seemed to be maintaining multiple barriers with the highest-grade light attribute magic book as a core in the air.

Yes.
The appearance reflected in his eyes was like……

──A Demon King.

Wider than the cave interior of the path he had passed through before.
And also, that being, whose huge black, pitch-black body nearly half-filled the tens of meters high cavern with the high ceiling, had an appearance just like the manifestation of a Demon King.

A being that alerts one to the sense of danger, as if sealed in multiple layers with arms, legs, body, and neck bound by chains of light.

The true name of that being was,
One of the pinnacles of demons.
The Demon King, Baal.

“……”

…It seemed Frey felt that things might no longer be as easy as before.