Failed Dungeon Quest: Flames Cut by a Blade
The dark crimson light scattered like a greedy breath of flame that devoured everything it touched.
Just from looking at it, my eyeballs felt like they were burning, and my body’s moisture seemed about to evaporate completely.
The roaring flames made the surrounding air feel so hot it was almost painful.
Yu Seolhyeon suddenly felt her own breath grow warm. For some reason, the air itself felt suffocating.
Of course, any ordinary human would have turned to charcoal the instant they touched that fire, burned to ashes without a trace.
Even if they were heroes, they would have died on the spot if hit bare-handed.
Yu Seolhyeon had nearly died to that fire several times herself, hadn’t she?
But… but…
What on earth was this?
Yu Seolhyeon stared blankly at the scene she had just witnessed and couldn’t clear her mind of her confusion.
After all, she hadn’t even finished the job.
That flame.
“Cut the flame with a sword?”
Jinhyuk had drawn his blade in a smooth, unhurried motion, and the breath of fire split apart in an instant.
The mana-infused flames dissolved into nothing, scattering into harmless sparks.
The fierce wind died down like a butterfly’s wings fluttering once before fading away.
…What on earth was that?
Yu Seolhyeon had no choice but to watch Jinhyuk’s back with eyes full of disbelief at the impossible sight that had just unfolded before her.
Had he cut the flame of fire without even using sword qi?
Or, even if he had used it, how could he sever flames carrying such immense mana?
He couldn’t cut water with a sword, so of course he couldn’t cut fire.
This meant the scene she had just witnessed defied common sense, and her mind naturally filled with one question.
“…Supernatural ability? Could it really be a supernatural ability?”
Supernatural ability.
The power to manifest one’s own anomaly into the world.
This mysterious force had shattered countless rules and laws of humanity and opened up new possibilities.
If he had used a supernatural ability to slice through and erase the flames, she could understand it to a degree.
After all, the varieties and strengths of supernatural abilities were endless.
But if he had possessed that much power, why had he kept it hidden until now? There was no reason he would.
Besides, hadn’t Jinhyuk already possessed future-sight ability?
Future-sight and another supernatural ability? That was even harder to accept.
“Could it just be pure swordsmanship?”
To wield such skill, he had to be a master swordsman at the very least, right?
A master swordsman wasn’t just some neighbor’s dog.
Yu Seolhyeon shook her head in her mind. No one that young could be a master. Unless he was a once-in-a-thousand-years genius among sword masters.
Her thoughts grew deeper.
“You! You!”
“… .”
“What did you do?!”
“… .”
Kate screamed in fury, glaring at Jinhyuk with murderous intent.
But Jinhyuk simply stared at her in silence, without a single word.
Unlike before, his gaze was cold and his expression stern.
The scene of him swinging his sword as if he could easily block it burned itself into Kate’s memory.
Cutting the breath of flame like it was nothing was something Kate couldn’t understand.
After all, none of the heroes she had encountered so far had ever blocked a single swing of his blade.
Even the stronger ones had mostly run away in fear.
But how had this one managed it?
He had been hiding behind that girl and only using cheap arrows and tools before!
“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all!”
Kate growled in rage.
“This time it won’t work out!”
To shake off her inexplicable anxiety, she shouted and quickly gathered mana again.
She had no idea what trick he had used, but this time she would end it for good!
She would finish him with a stronger blow than before.
Just as she thought this, Jinhyuk slowly raised his sword without a word.
What was he thinking?
“…You?”
“… .”
A tremendous amount of mana began to concentrate along the upward-pointing blade.
The blade glowed purple and burned hot.
The concentrated mana was on par with the flames Kate had just fired.
An archer? No, even a swordsman couldn’t produce that much mana?
Kate, who had once been a mage, was thoroughly bewildered.
If that guy could gather that much mana, why had he fired only weak arrows last time?
Doubts piled on, but right now, the important thing was to burn the guy.
“At this distance, I’m far ahead. I can burn him before he gets close.”
The range that was the biggest weakness for any swordsman.
Since a sword was a typical cold weapon, it was an inevitable weakness he had to endure.
Not just swords—almost all cold weapons had the same flaw.
No matter how fast the guy came, he couldn’t match Kate’s preparations.
“So I’ll just die…?”
Whoosh.
In an instant of distraction, the sword swung.
What is he doing? Swinging a sword at this distance? While gathering flames in his mind, the blade released a crescent of mana that wasn’t there before.
Sword qi projection?
“?!”
Kate frantically expelled the incomplete flames in panic, but it was useless.
The lightning-fast sword qi tore through the flames like lightning and reached right in front of Kate’s face.
Kate instinctively extended her arm and remaining tentacles to protect herself.
The instant the steel-like sword qi touched her, the tentacles sliced cleanly, and her arm and bones were severed at the chest.
“Kuh… ugh… eek?!”
The excruciating pain shattered Kate’s focus.
The massive mana she had gathered in her mouth scattered at once, and the lost mana stirred chaos inside her body.
“Gurgle… c-cough… guh… ugh!”
Thanks to that, Kate suffered severe damage.
Her body was full of wounds everywhere, surpassing her endurance.
Kate spewed blood and collapsed.
Hah… hah… N-no way. I, this, this guy…?
“W-what sword qi projection…? How could a person like you… use such a technique…!”
Even though her sanity was half-lost and her mind lagging, she still remembered clearly that very few swordsmen could actually manifest sword qi projection.
She had never imagined that little brat could use it.
A fake to lure caution?
Or had he not been an archer?
I don’t know, I don’t know.
“…U-ugh…”
“… .”
“D-don’t come… don’t come! Don’t come, damn it!”
“… .”
Jinhyuk approached slowly, wordlessly, step by step.
Kate screamed, terrified.
She was like a fragile snake waiting for death.
Kate tried to flee in fear, but her body was too wrecked—tentacles, arms, and internal organs in shambles—to move properly.
A normal person would already be dead.
Kate, with her half-monster body, had barely kept herself alive.
But that wouldn’t last much longer.
A single predator was approaching slowly, savoring her last moments.
“U-ugh… gurgle… guh…”
Thud… thud…
The slow, quiet footsteps echoed like thunder in Kate’s ears.
Despairing death had closed in, so Kate could only stare at Jinhyuk with powerless eyes while vomiting blood.
Jinhyuk stared at Kate for a moment.
Kate didn’t know, but that hesitation had been what delayed his action.
But hesitation was over.
He had made his decision.
He raised the sword.
“…U-uh… am I dying like this… hah…?”
“… .”
Looking at the boy who hadn’t said a word even at the end, Kate remembered the past.
After endless research into unaging magic, she had become a monster herself.
She had only wanted to research longer.
She had only wanted to live longer.
But her greed had brought her this fate.
How many people had she sacrificed to extend her life?
In the end, she would fall as easily as this.
Kate closed her eyes in acceptance.
Death was upon her.
Finally—
Thud.
Jinhyuk’s fingertips trembled slightly.
But Kate, pierced by the agony of her heart, ended her life as a mad unaging mage.
This was the end of the boss monster in Yeongdeung Mountain Dungeon.
“…Jinhyuk.”
Yu Seolhyeon, who had watched the entire scene, was in a complete daze.
After all, there had been too many scenes she couldn’t understand.
“…So he was a sword qi projection user?”
Sword qi projection.
The ultimate technique many swordsmen dreamed of.
A long-range attack that required balanced high-level mana concentration, acceleration, and release abilities.
Among the academy students, only a handful could use sword qi projection.
Even the instructors who couldn’t use it.
Even in the Union, where the best of the best gathered, this rare skill was almost unheard of.
Yu Seolhyeon couldn’t use it either.
She had a similar technique of shooting mana with her spear, but she kept failing.
It was that difficult.
“It was far stronger than the one Siwoo showed during the evaluation last time.”
Of course, that wasn’t his full power at the time, but Jinhyuk’s sword qi projection was something she couldn’t even compare to.
The half-monster monster hadn’t been neutralized in one blow?
Yu Seolhyeon knew exactly how strong and durable the beast had been, because she had fought it to the death for dozens of minutes.
To think that the monster she had fought so hard to defeat had ended so easily.
Jinhyuk… what the hell was he?
He had cut the flames and used sword qi projection.
She had heard he was so weak he had just entered the academy.
Why hide all that?
Whether it was a supernatural ability, sword technique, or something else she didn’t know… why…?
If you dream of being a hero, you should never hide it.
“…Ah… consciousness.”
Perhaps the tension had released.
She could feel her consciousness growing hazy.
Before losing it, Yu Seolhyeon recalled Jinhyuk in her dimming mind.
“…Why you…?”
Only questions swirled in her head.
Then Yu Seolhyeon’s consciousness flickered out.
Beyond the blurry haze, she heard Jinhyuk’s voice calling her, and soon she lost her senses.
***
“Ah, I thought I was going to die.”
I slumped to the ground. Hah… look at my shaking legs.