Chapter 34
Chapter 34
Academy’s Gumiho is a Magic Genius – Chapter 34
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"I have no idea what nonsense you're spouting, but you think I'm just going to sit here and take it?"
"Don't worry. Even if you hate it, you'll have no choice but to submit."
"No, before you can pull any tricks, your eyeballs will pop out first. Once you're blind, maybe you'll finally know your place."
The guy was dead serious about targeting my eyes.
Man, he has some weird tastes.
This didn't feel like mere posturing to intimidate me. I could tell from his eyes.
"But"
Il-yeong's gaze shifted to the distant scenery.
He stared intently at the boy in the school uniform holding a handaxe.
"before that, we need to kill all the witnesses, right?"
Not that he wouldn't have killed him even if he wasn't a witness.
Hearing that, I clutched the back of my neck.
This guy's even worse than I thought.
There wasn't a shred of falsehood in the assassin's words, laced with killing intent.
He was planning to kill an innocent young student just because he was in the way of his mission.
"For a shadow of the Elder Council, that's pretty low and petty, isn't it?"
In all my life, I've seen countless assassins, but this is the first one who couldn't suppress his emotions like this.
An assassin has to kill their own humanity and morality first to even take the initial step properly.
In that sense, the guy in front of me...
No, all three shadows dispatched here were utter failures.
From the Elder Council's perspective, they were probably disposable pawns.
"......"
"Why'd you suddenly go quiet? You were just threatening to target the kid and even exuding killing intent. Oh, wait a minute."
A sneer crept onto my face.
I looked down at him with eyes full of pity, like he was something pathetic.
"You didn't even know who your real master is, did you?"
"......"
The black-clad shadow shut his mouth at my words.
Doesn't he know that silence in a situation like this is as good as admission?
He clearly hasn't had proper long-term assassin training.
If he had, he wouldn't react like that.
He should at least feint a stab at my weak point with his dagger right now.
That half-assed display is neither here nor there.
'Well, I'm still feeling threatened by this half-assed guy.'
My body hasn't fully healed yet.
Thanks to the elixir, the external wounds are all gone, but the internal injuries still need time.
Especially my leg joints.
In other words, running away is completely impossible.
So I have to fight head-on, but with my already frail body and internal injuries, I don't know how much firepower I can muster.
If I screw up and get hurt again, there won't be any elixir this time.
'Buy time with words as much as possible and focus on ranged combat.'
I have no idea how long I can last in this state with depleted stamina and mana.
Well, no choice but to make it work somehow.
"Hey, Il-yeong. Let's not be petty and pick on a kid."
"Petty?"
The man's eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
Lee Ji flinched at the intense pressure, but I calmly continued.
"Yeah, petty. He's not even twenty yeta mere child."
"......And what about you?"
"I'm an adult. So are you guys."
"What a joke."
Whoosh. A dagger sliced through the air.
It wasn't aimed at me, but at Lee Ji's position.
I raised my hand and erected a wall of flames.
[Pyrokinesis]
Kwang!
It was more of a deafening metallic clang than a clash of flames and dagger.
Especially since the dagger was so fast, the sound was huge.
He was seriously trying to kill Lee Ji.
"How petty."
"That's what being an adult is!"
"To me, you seem like a kid too."
Tsss!
Il-yeong created two shadow daggers in his hands and swung his arms wide.
I watched closely and scattered two embers into the air.
The embers grew instantly and ignited.
The ignited embers blocked Il-yeong's vision and bound his hands.
Without a counter to flames, he wouldn't dare approach carelessly.
Or so I thought.
Whoosh. Il-yeong's arm cut through the flames and reached me.
Burns be damnedhe was prioritizing me first.
This guy's a complete lunatic.
Kaboom!
The clash of metal on metal.
But this time, it was a heavier sound than before.
"A shield made of flames. And surprisingly durable."
"Right? Useful spell, even if I do say so myself."
"Yes, a useful spell. Shame the caster's so weak, though."
Krunch. A massive shadow rose from the ground like a hand.
It easily crumpled my flame shield in its grip.
If that hand grabs me wrong, my bones won't be salvageable.
Of course, no need to worry about that.
His superior, the Elder Council.
Especially the Fifth Elder, who oversees the family's military power and leads the Nine-Tail Guild, hates messy business.
'If I die now, the succession would turn into total chaos.'
No matter how little real power I have, I'm still the Family Head.
If I die in the middle of this, the power struggle between my sisters and the elders would erupt, leading to the family's collapse.
At least until the succession is settled, they won't kill me recklessly.
'Of course, I don't know how long that will last.'
I don't know much about the Fifth Elder.
Eve never explained the Heavenly Fox Baek Family elders in detail.
From the novel protagonist Kyle's perspectivewhere I'm not the leadthe Heavenly Fox Baek Family is just a side note.
But one thing's clear: he doesn't seem very patient.
If things don't go his way, he'll kill even the Family Head without hesitation.
Otherwise, why send such a nasty shadow?
Woooong. The shadow on the ground rippled.
Dozens of tendrils extended like hands, wriggling toward my legs.
Getting caught by those would be bad news.
Demon EyeFuture Sight
A violet hue filled my eyes, revealing the future.
Just a short glimpse ten li away, but enough to shake off those hands.
If it wasn't enough, it must be my mana running low.
After using Heat Haze and all sorts of techniques, my body was at its limit.
I could collapse right now and it wouldn't be strange.
In that brief opening...
Il-yeong didn't miss it.
He formed shadow daggers in both hands and closed in on me instantly.
Caught off guard by the sudden approach, I instinctively used Heat Haze with both hands to repel him.
My hands stung.
"Ow, that really hurts..."
"Idiot! What do you think you can do with those puny fingers?"
"......Yeah, my fingers got a bit burned."
Il-yeong pointed at my hand.
It looked bad even at a glance.
Overusing Heat Haze must've caused severe burns on my fingers.
Not quite third-degree, but the scars would last a lifetime.
No big deal.
But close combat's off the table for a while.
No helping it.
I scooped up the liquid pooled on the ground with my palm.
Or... could you even call this a liquid?
As the viscous stuff filled my hand, my glove began to corrode bit by bit.
Obviously, I can't fight while holding this.
I'll have to lure him in and use it as a hand substitute in close quarters.
Right then.
The sensation in my palm made me chuckle involuntarily.
This'll do.
"Puhaha!"
"You're laughing right now, in this situation?"
"How could I not? It's hilarious."
Rumble. Crushing pressure bore down on my body.
Il-yeong knew full well the tide had turned in his favor.
So when I started laughing, he must've sensed something off.
To distract him from my palm, I provoked him.
"Come on, how could I not laugh at this? Shadows are supposed to hide their intentions, but you can't even do that."
"Intentions?"
"Yeah, your true intentions."
"What bullshit are you spewing? Is the burn pain making you delirious?"
"No, it's just too obvious. You never planned to save your comrades here, did you?"
Il-yeong flinched at my words.
Looks like I hit the mark.
His reaction was too honest.
In that instant, Il-yeong's shadow spiked toward my rear like thorns.
I snapped my fingers, countering with a wall of flames.
But in that split second, he was already in my face.
"I can tolerate you mocking me, but insulting my dead comrades is unforgivable."
Close enough that a twitch could kill me.
He menaced me with thick killing intent.
Ridiculous.
"As if."
"Then..."
"You couldn't even save your comrades in the first place. Aren't you overcompensating?"
"You bastard!"
Il-yeong unleashed even stickier killing intent.
He swung wide at my arm.
The shadow trailing his hand sharpened with edge, vibrating like a chainsaw.
But the shadow never reached me.
Because I spread my mana wide and solid like a shield.
This time, based on [Double Helix], it wouldn't break easily.
Hiding behind the shield, I smirked and said,
"Honestly, who needs comrades? What you really want is recognition from the Guild Master as a player, not as one of the guild's shadows. So to stand out among the other shadows, you let your comrades die while you ambushed me alone."
"......!!!"
The more we talked, the more Il-yeong's face stiffened completely.
We hadn't even conversed that long, yet he'd completely seen through him.
His deepest secret, unknown even to his comrades he'd lived with.
How does this guy know?
I knew what he was thinking.
"But hey, don't you see this around you?"
Splash! I flung the liquid from my hand.
The green liquid spread thick like toxic fog.
Il-yeong panicked for a moment but formed a shadow dagger and swept through the mist.
As he cleared his vision, the first thing that entered his eyes was the green swamp.
No, this wasn't just a swamp.
'......Guts? And blood?'
Definitely from that massive centipede earlier.
Il-yeong retched at the filth.
But something was off.
"Urk... uweeeek! What the hell...?"
Something dribbled from his mouth.
I thought it was normal vomit at first, but seeing the dark red drops hitting the ground changed my mind.
It was blood.
More precisely, blackened dead blood.
Right then.
Fizz!
A crumbling sound.
The dagger he'd used to sweep the mist was corroding.
'!!!'
He finally realized.
That green liquid was poison.
The most potent lethal toxin.
A deadly poison that even hewho'd endured every assassin training to become a proper shadowhad no resistance to.
His agony at being poisoned was short-lived.
Suddenly, he realized Baek Seung-woo was nowhere in sight.
'Where is he? Hiding in this mist...'
"Looking for me? I'm right here."
I said with a grin.
He was whipping his head around, so I figured he was searching and announced my position verbally.
With handfuls of gu poison sloshing in both hands.
This time, my palms brimmed with it.
"Y-You... what's that in your hands...!"
"Oh, this? Not bad at all."
The poison in my hand and what I just splashed was the High One's handiwork.
The solvent still dripping from the corpse.
Its nature: every poison in this dungeon mixed haphazardly, fermented in the High One's guts, infused with its deathly grudge.
This was gu poison.
"My skin's a little melted too, but this is fine, right?"
Splash! I scattered the gu poison from my hand, spreading like mist everywhere.
The fog grew even thicker.
Watching that, Il-yeong thought,
This guy's insane.
Splashing deadly poison like stream water, even including himself in the range.
Something's definitely broken in him.
"You mad bastard...!"
"This is rare poison, you know?"
"Stop it!!!"
"Why? Enjoy it while you can."
I stomped around, spreading the poison wide.
With every move, the fog thickened, enveloping me and Il-yeong.
Escape was impossible now.
Because I'd spread it too far.
"Well, now it's not about fighting each otherit's a contest of endurance."
My lips curled at his reaction.
A brilliant idea had struck me.
"From your reaction earlier, you said there's no Shim Young in this world, right?"
"What the hell is this Shim Young crap you've been on about?!"
So that's what puzzled you. I should've explained sooner.
But no need to wonder too much.
Soon enough, you'll find out what it means.
Now, the contest.
Whose poison resistance training is superior: the Nine-Tail Guild's...
Or my acquired Ten Poisons Immunity.
Let's test it with my eyes and your manhood on the line.
As I swallowed a laugh and sneered at the sudden challenge, Il-yeong's face grew pale with fear.
We hadn't even started yet. To him already terrified, I said gently,
"Don't worry too much."
You have nothing to worry about.
After all...
"Even if something goes wrong, I'll be your doctor."
You won't die.
Though it might be worse than death.
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