Chapter 194
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: Kingdom - Lv. 463 Blanche (4)
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The fruit was Blanche's greatest weapon right now.
A 17th-year Exile wasn't considered a long-time veteran by Kingdom standards, and even that tenure had been spent crushing others through sheer specs.
The efficient Mind Map setups that veterans could achieve, the farming routes for high-performance gear, the methods to acquire certain cost-effective skills.
By her 17th year, she knew nothing beyond that—perhaps even less.
Unlike the majority of Exiles who had been civilians before, her ingrained fundamentals were different, and her gear had originally been farmed off other Exiles.
Thrown into a situation where the whole world was her enemy, she had no way to learn anew.
So she had to stick to the approaches she already knew—the ones she had no choice but to know.
The fruits guaranteed by the Labyrinth's system were excellent consumables. Easy to store, with no burden in terms of bulk or weight.
Yet their power was exceptional.
Typically used to progress through stages, few Exiles carried spares in sufficient quantities.
Blanche had collected them almost obsessively.
At first, she hadn't hesitated to spend the money earned from commissions.
With her identity uncertain, having money didn't mean she could buy proper gear anyway.
There were routes, but the prices were astronomically high.
She'd often sneaked in through rifts, offered fruits at altars, and farmed more.
The warrior nation lacked detection methods. Risky, but not impossible.
The bandaged figure burst out from the smoke screen.
[Dash] was a useful finesse skill.
Until reaching the stage where a single blow could cleave mountains or rend the skies, even a one- or two-beat advantage was huge.
While sprinting down the corridor's corner, it negated momentum loss and maintained speed, enabling maneuvers a beat or two faster.
The dilapidated old building had been repaired, but still had many unused rooms.
She smashed through thin walls of such rooms, passed through windows, and took detours.
The god of this temple might be watching, but she still had a chance.
She kicked down a wall and burst in.
The fairy dual-swordsman, having gauged her level from the earlier clash, looked startled.
She clearly hadn't expected the wall to be breached.
Her specs weren't bad, but she lacked PvP experience.
She'd probably been a civilian outside, and even in the Labyrinth, hadn't lived a life devoted to combat.
The incoming twin blades weren't refined for killing people—they were more like crude tools for butchering monsters.
Such swords were easy to parry.
The only thing she'd mastered over 17 years was handling mana.
That method had been honed even further during her eight years wandering the wilds of the Kingdom.
Surrounded by those monsters, Blanche had been an absolute underdog in specs, and they'd taught her the ways of the weak.
She realized it again the moment they clashed.
Her opponent's raw specs were superior.
In a fight without ambush judgment against Blanche, who'd invested extremely into agility, it was a loss equivalent to half a level gap.
Yet the blade that reached her first slid cleanly away.
Jenny panicked at how perfectly her right sword's strike had been deflected.
Her balance crumbled, but with fairy agility, she adjusted her left blade's trajectory.
But it lacked power.
Having invested almost everything into agility, precise movements manifested at her fingertips.
She pressed her palm to the flat of the blade and twisted.
As a child, she'd learned how to fight that man barehanded, without guns or weapons.
In the wasteland, Blanche had plenty of time, and her reason for living was finding the music box, so those unpleasant memories became endless fuel for rumination.
Jenny felt like her sword was being sucked into the opponent's palm.
The next instant, her left sword flew toward the wall.
Jenny was no low-level Exile either; the blade sank deep into the wall. No time to pull it free.
The shortsword that had parried the initial strike now aimed for her throat.
Jenny felt a chill run down her spine.
That exchange was, to the participants, a single breath splintered into fine moments, an extended chain of thoughts.
But to Remy, a mage with no standout talents, it flashed by in an instant, ending with Jenny in dire straits.
The debuffs, [Memorize]d and manifested but delayed in launch, now flew out.
The aim was precise.
All debuff spells in the Labyrinth were projectiles. Otherwise, mages would claim unrivaled supremacy.
Blanche couldn't finish Jenny off, only grazing her.
Instead, her mana-clad shortsword sliced through the incoming debuffs.
She tried accelerating the projectiles further, but it didn't work.
If she could manage that easily, she'd have chosen a more combat-oriented mage path.
Currently, Remy was closer to a support caster loaded with a few finisher attack spells.
Some of the volley hit Jenny too.
Thanks to the assassin's skillful use of her as a shield.
[Lightning Bolt] began casting next.
But it wasn't fired.
Instead, [Memorize]d, it orbited around her.
Even unlaunched lightning would deal damage and paralysis on contact.
The assassin gave up advancing with Jenny as a shield.
The window where Jenny was neutralized was a mere instant.
Pressing further would turn it into a brawl, not sword-on-sword, and warriors held the edge there.
A few fruits rolled on the floor, bursting another smoke screen.
Remy coughed. No tear gas effect, but potent enough for a mage's lungs.
The Goddess judged instead.
"Better head to an open area. They came prepared for tight spaces. Grab the Guild Master and escape the smoke first!"
The lightning circling the mage aligned behind her.
Remy hurriedly hoisted Jenny onto her back.
She had to grab the swords.
Fortunately, the assassin didn't press the attack immediately.
The mage on the fairy's back fired lightning into the smoke like a mobile turret.
The basic spell [Lightning Bolt] was fast and rapidly castable.
Lightning flashed at machine-gun speed.
Even basic spells wreaked sufficient destruction traversing the narrow corridor.
But the Goddess pointed out the direction.
"Above!"
Remy grimaced fiercely.
There was space between the upper floor and ceiling. That's how she'd first leaped in.
Having scoped out the abandoned hospital's layout beforehand?
She darted through that narrow gap like a rat.
The lightning aimed at the ceiling flashed again.
"You can't hit at that speed. Don't waste mana—prep something big!"
The Goddess was right. Remy began preparing her finisher [Lightning].
It took time.
Jenny kept running.
Then she noticed something wrong with her body.
"Uh... this is poison...!"
Remy realized it too. The initial assault had already exhausted her purification passives.
Like all trigger passives, they had cooldowns.
Potions didn't cure status ailments.
Jenny stumbled to her knees. The intense activity had circulated the poison faster.
Legs giving out mid-sprint led to the obvious: aiming for the window at the corridor's end to escape the building, she ended up tumbling across the floor.
Ignoring minor scrapes, Remy used the momentum to stand.
The ceiling collapsed.
A reverse-grip shortsword appeared. The bandaged assassin accelerated off the ceiling, striking down.
Mana barrier deployed reflexively.
If a shortsword-wielding assassin without ambush bonus, its power might be negligible.
Sure enough, the dagger failed to pierce Remy's barrier in one hit.
Remy flung herself backward.
She had to escape while the barrier held.
Assassins were weak in open fields.
No one expected her to charge straight into the sanctuary. Big miscalculation.
Then, inside the mana barrier, a sphere appeared from nowhere.
Purple.
An ugly fruit, scored with cuts.
Hairs stood on end.
Blanche had accepted herself as the underdog.
Overwhelming with specs was impossible.
Especially against the sturdy monsters on the Kingdom's outskirts, her genetically enhanced human flesh meant little.
So she'd relied on various tricks: poisons, traps, fruit handling techniques.
Her skills filled naturally with such things. Swordplay she barely practiced was covered by long-honed basics.
The explosive fruit slipping silently into the mana barrier had benefited from those corrections too.
She stopped pursuing, instead widening the distance.
A boom echoed. But the trained assassin's eyes caught the inner barrier deploying at the last moment.
Her hand dipped into her bosom with concise motion. Next, the shortsword flew. Thanks to a higher skill, it carried Heavy Strike in the throw.
The dagger embedded in the airborne mage's body.
Ambush judgment.
Coated in fast-acting, potent poison. Even a graze guaranteed death eventually.
She glanced at the fallen dual-swordsman. Paralysis poison for her.
Damage poisons weren't efficient on warriors.
Precious experience points, but she could kill and move on—the target mattered more.
She lunged for the confirmation kill.
Her ankle was grabbed.
"Should be paralyzed, though?"
The cat-eared fairy roared.
"You beast with paralysis poison! Do you know how many you've got?!"
Blanche scowled. This was the problem with warriors. Regardless of build, they had baseline toughness.
She swung the dagger down.
But her ankle yanked.
Power failed to flow into her sword arm.
It stabbed shoulder, not throat—not fatal.
And Jenny turned that into the assassin disarmed.
She powered her unsteady legs, shoving against the wall.
Grabbed the wrist, twisted.
Having dropped her twin swords, no mastery bonus.
Paralysis poison's aftereffects weakened her grip too.
Then biting force.
She tore into the wrist.
Blanche hadn't anticipated this attack.
She'd initiated. The fairy dual-swordsman discarded weapons and clung; Blanche ended up dropping hers.
Backup weapons were Exile basics.
But before mastery bonus returned, that brief gap was enough for Jenny.
Mutual debuffs gone.
Jenny, with superior strength and non-human race, dominated physically.
She held on.
Couldn't mount, but slammed into the wall with headbutts.
Then punches.
This was more efficient. No confidence against blades.
Her miscalculation: Blanche was highly skilled in unarmed combat too.
Despite greater strength, she was suddenly reversed and grabbed.
Joint lock followed.
Not the stabbed left arm, but the right fist.
Crackling twists sounded; Jenny hit the floor face-down.
Poison entered via shoulder again. This time, no frothing, twitching survival.
Blanche bolted outward. The mage lived.
The dagger she'd thought embedded was blocked by armor under the robe.
What material? It shouldn't have blocked so easily.
The Goddess considered incarnation for Jenny. To save the unconscious Remy, no other way.
Great Shaman Trdongt was never sloppy.
The armor under Remy's robe was pure mithril.
One of the few metals mages could wear without hindering spellcasting.
Crafted from the youngest's door scraps, the high-purity mithril breastplate covered most vitals.
Its engraved shamanistic runes maximized the wearer's defense.
Limbs unprotected, but for Exiles, not immediately life-threatening.
This situation surprised even the Goddess.
Blanche was a cautious perfectionist. She never acted unless victory neared 100%.
Everyone assumed some leeway. Anyone knowing Blanche would think so.
Tutorial-era Blanche vied for strongest among fixed named Exiles, barring Arthur.
Yet against moderately strong named, she passed without massacre.
Minimizing failure risk, no gambles—that was Blanche.
A named who always stayed farthest from recklessness.
So a more cautious approach expected this time.
Specifically, luring Remy into a mistake—yet brute-forcing in the next day?
Some variable?
Perfectly stabbed in the back, true.
Amid it, a sudden thought.
Honestly, Remy's value wasn't that high.
Worth wasting incarnation? Using it again might hit the Goddess hard too.
Not meant for spamming anyway.
Plus, could that battered Jenny handle incarnation?
No time to ponder. The Goddess chose human over divine.
She'd lived too much as a god.
The moment she resolved to incarnate, someone blocked the assassin.
"What is this commotion! This person is a mage, but an important patron of our temple!"
The assassin's face twisted in "What's this now?"
Goddess thought the same.
The youngest and angels rushed over. Temple combatants absent inside.
The Goddess hadn't properly checked the recent convert old doctor's info.
Honestly, hadn't even thought to. Was the old doctor strong?
"And what outrage in this sacred temple and hospital!"
The old doctor drew his scalpel in fury.
Formless energy gathered at its tip.
Called an aura blade.
"Begone, filth!"
Blanche judged the mission failed instantly. Unwinnable without ambush.
Smoke burst; the assassin vanished.
Unaware of the situation, the old doctor didn't pursue.