The Ordinary Daily Life Of A Black Mage

It had been seven years since he awakened black magic, and as he was practically a second-generation black mage, many people often misunderstood him.

This was because first-generation black mages were not yet dedicated to cleanup duty like him but were still active on the battlefield.

Thanks to the activities of some black mages, the public perception was such that modifiers like ‘worst,’ ‘most heinous,’ and ‘strongest’ were attached to them, and the appearance they showed on the battlefield was more than overwhelming, so the second generation suffered in quite various ways because of those first-generation black mages.

It wasn’t that he avoided battle. Nor was it that he couldn’t fight.

This was because actual black magic showed a difference of nearly three times in power compared to general magic schools.

But the problem was mana.

A chronic lack of mana drove black mages away from the battlefield.

First-generation black mages could be said to have benefited from the period when the first generation of Awakeners appeared.

The reason was simple.

In the early stages of the event called the Great Cataclysm, humanity made efforts with truly diverse attempts for survival and did their best to make up for the weaknesses of each job as part of countless policies supporting Awakeners.

They had to do so to save the world.

National treasure-class artifacts for health, recovery, and strength were given to melee-type Awakeners, and national treasure-class artifacts suited for those jobs were also given to healers and supporters.

Since they could only protect the world by actually using them, it could be seen as a natural step in a way.

On top of that, by using artifacts with mana increase and recovery improvement options, the first-generation black magic Awakeners, who were evaluated as the most efficient, took all such items as if they were their own and were active on the battlefield, accumulating both immense fame and notoriety, but in any case, the world was saved, and the first-generation Awakeners established themselves by achieving feats worthy of the birth of ‘heroes’ in various forms.

In comparison, the second generation was a chaotic time, but they had to survive desperately without receiving such support properly, and some were assigned under first-generation Awakeners and treated as labor that could be used up, so the relationship between the first and second generations was not very good.

Therefore, many second-generation Awakeners gradually moved away from the front lines in the form of wanting to take charge of cleanup rather than trying to accumulate merits on the battlefield, leading to the current established form.

The world had stabilized, and it was now the point where eleventh-generation Awakeners were appearing.

“It’s a request!”

Go Yu-jin, who came to work today with a bright expression—actually, there were only three employees in our company.

There were only three of us: the CEO, Go Yu-jin; An So-mi, who handled office work; and finally me, who was in the field, but even so, it wasn’t as if the company was small.

Go Yu-jin, a first-generation black magic Awakener, was uniquely someone who had stepped back from the battlefield after feeling sick of it, and An So-mi was also a very talented black magic user, but she was a second-generation black mage who had been kicked off the front lines due to frequent accidents caused by getting excited when seeing ‘blood.’

In fact, since he was also a case where he turned toward this ordinary cleanup work rather than standing on the battlefield due to his penalty, it was more correct to see it as three flawed black mages having gathered, but the interesting point was that no one could ignore their company.

It was for a simple reason, but it was all thanks to Go Yu-jin.

Among first-generation black mages, she belonged to the melee school and was a tremendous powerhouse.

Moreover, she was a woman who had been active enough to be called a hero during the Gate Incident—that is, the outbreak of the Great Cataclysm—but anyway, looking at her now, she was just a good-natured woman.

“What kind of work is it?”

“It’s cleanup for a Grade 3 gate. They say monsters might remain inside, so the pay has been set higher because caution is required!”

“A Grade 3, it’s been a while.”

“Right. Grade 3 or higher gates don’t occur frequently now.”

During the Great Cataclysm, the average gate grade was 3 to 4.

In the case of a Grade 1 gate, it could be seen as a monster habitat the size of two soccer stadiums, and Grade 2 was twice the size of a Grade 1 gate.

And since Grade 3 was twice the size of a Grade 2 gate, it meant that the higher the grade, the size became twice as large as the previous gate.

The largest gate that had appeared in the world so far was Grade 8.

It was called a Great Disaster, and it was a gate that caused such immense damage that it would be correct to say half of China was torn apart.

The maximum size of a gate people inferred was Grade 10.

‘If a gate of that scale occurs, humanity might end…’

A moment later, Go Yu-jin handed over the documents, and he took them and checked the contents.

“Jeong Sang-hu’s team was deployed?”

“Yes, we can probably expect it to be quite messy. Thanks to that, an additional amount has been set, so isn’t it good that it’s more profitable even for the same work?”

Just like Go Yu-jin said, the more a battlefield was ruined, the more extra charges could be added, so for us, it was a field where we could receive high wages for the same labor, which was a big profit.

However, Jeong Sang-hu’s team was a quite rough team.

“They probably tore everything apart, so I’ll go here alone. Why don’t you wait, Boss?”

After hearing his words, she looked at him with a serious expression.

As he met her eyes as if asking why, she began to insist that they absolutely must go together, and in the end, he had to step back, saying to do as the boss wished.

Watching that, An So-mi asked.

“Are you dating?”

“No?!”

“We are not.”

“…?”

An So-mi had an expression that she couldn’t understand, but Go Yu-jin grabbed him as if to go quickly and left the office.

When they arrived at the site, there was no mess like this mess.

“The floor is all broken, so it won’t even be possible for vehicles to enter, will it?”

“Sigh… I expected it, but this is too much.”

Just like Go Yu-jin said, he expected it to some extent. But the inside of the gate was a mess, feeling like they had gone too far.

So while looking around, he could see Jeong Sang-hu’s team, and seeing them smirking toward their side, it felt like they had ruined it like this on purpose.

The relationship between general Awakeners and black mages who did cleanup was very bad.

It was not an exaggeration to call it an ill-fated relationship.

Just then, Go Yu-jin also spotted Jeong Sang-hu’s team, and as she moved her steps there, he had no choice but to follow Go Yu-jin, and it was Jeong Sang-hu who gave a creepy smile toward Go Yu-jin as if they were acquainted.

“It’s been a while, Go Yu-jin.”

“Yes, it has. I heard you weren’t standing on the front lines much lately, so what brings you here?”

“There are rookies, so it’s for training purposes. It’s a bit of a mess, but it’s okay, right?”

“There will be quite a bit of extra cost, but you’re not the type of person to make a fuss about that much, are you?”

“Hahaha, that’s right. Any amount is fine, so please handle it well. And if there are monsters left over, I’m asking you to take care of them.”

Go Yu-jin nodded at those words. The conversation itself was ordinary, but the eyes glaring at each other were quite chilling.

In reality, the two of them had a connection close to an ill-fated one.

It was partly because they had been active on the same battlefield, but because Jeong Sang-hu engaged in combat as if destroying the terrain itself, it was inevitably uncomfortable for Go Yu-jin, who had to utilize the corpses laid out on the battlefield.

But at the time of the Great Cataclysm, there was no justification, reason, or leisure to nitpick about such things, so she performed the war with gritted teeth, and when Go Yu-jin eventually stepped back from the front lines for some reason, among the first-generation Awakeners, they used to treat Go Yu-jin like a coward or a quitter.

Such an atmosphere felt like it was also affecting Awakeners of other generations, but thanks to the first-generation black mages who were still active on the front lines, it felt like they couldn’t be looked down upon.

“Well, we have the next gate reserved. Let’s see you again next time.”

It was Jeong Sang-hu’s team that passed them and left the gate, and Go Yu-jin, who watched them until the end, said.

“Seong-chan, you should be careful.”

“There are quite a few monsters left, right?”

Go Yu-jin nodded her head.

As the ground collapsed, there were many monsters that survived as if stuck in between.

There was no reason they couldn’t handle those too, but it felt strongly like they hadn’t done it on purpose, and in reality, if the gate core was handled, it corresponded to having conquered the gate, so even if monsters remained inside, the association and the government did not take issue with it.

Because it was correct that they had conquered the gate literally.

Often, damage occurred during the cleanup process due to such issues, but now, because most of those doing this cleanup were black mages and thus not weak, death incidents usually did not occur.

But this gate felt somewhat uncomfortable.

‘Is it another ill-fated relationship born from an ill-fated one?’

He clicked his tongue and emitted mana first.

It was for the purpose of using detection magic. The goal was to figure out in advance how many monsters there were and handle them one by one.

And a moment later, the spread mana drew a magic circle and emitted a bright light.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but frown at the countless pieces of information digging into his head.

“…I guess there are a lot?”

“It feels like they purposefully buried most of the monsters underground and then only handled the core.”

Go Yu-jin also frowned deeply and was about to run out immediately.

So he quickly grabbed her and said.

“We’ll handle it. Let’s do some hunting after a long time.”

“But…”

He shook his head and said to Go Yu-jin.

“Work will dry up. Even if it’s dirty, if you beat up the client like last time, your notoriety will only increase further.”

As mentioned before, Go Yu-jin was a first-generation Awakener hated by the first generation. So this kind of thing happened occasionally, and because it was Go Yu-jin who hadn’t stepped back from the front lines due to a flaw in her person but was very powerful, even if they were first-generation Awakeners, there weren’t many who could match Go Yu-jin in terms of physical force.

It was the same for Jeong Sang-hu; the reason he was particularly harsh toward Go Yu-jin seemed to include an inferiority complex as well.

‘Even if it’s said to be their own circumstances… well, since most of them are injured ones anyway, handling them won’t be difficult.’

“It’s frustrating…”

Gritting her teeth, Go Yu-jin—he could understand her feelings.

“Shall we have a drink when the work is done?”

Hearing my words, Go Yu-jin showed a bright smile. And as she emitted mana as soon as she finished speaking, he shook his head and said.

“There are few corpses, so it will be difficult to make a golem. So I’ll handle it here. It’s not like there are monsters of such a great grade, so I’ll be able to handle it simply.”

Go Yu-jin nodded her head.

Through detection, almost all monster locations were identified. Was that why?

He naturally estimated which magic would be effective to handle the monsters, and soon emitted mana and went as far as using the Dark Press magic that lightly placed weight onto the ground.

‘In the first place, they are guys barely holding on while being pressed by the terrain, so it won’t be difficult to handle them even by just putting appropriate weight on them. And monster blood has low value.’

The purpose was to squeeze and kill the monsters by applying maximum pressure. If that were the case, when making a corpse golem, it was clear it would be less dirty, so there was also consideration for Go Yu-jin.

After that, the area was submerged in darkness, and at the same time, the ground was squeezed bit by bit as pressure was applied.

After surveying the pressure that continued for about a minute and the ground that had become considerably lower, he said to Go Yu-jin.

“Most of the monsters must have been handled, so let’s organize the rest and go for a drink?”

“I’d love to!”

It was Go Yu-jin, affirming with a bright expression.