Promotion (3)
A few moments earlier, when Hajun had stepped into the raiders' path, the men sized him up in an instant.
'What the hell?'
'Why is some nobody blocking our way?'
'He's lost his mind.'
To their eyes, Hajun looked like a second-rate Ascender, plain and simple. His clothes alone gave it away — rumpled, shabby, without a single decent magic tool or piece of equipment on him. The rings on his fingers looked fairly high-grade, sure, but that was all they were. Rings.
'Let's deal with him fast and move on.'
Once they'd finished trading glances, the raiders moved at once to dispatch him — but it was Hajun who moved first.
Crackle, cra-crack-crackle!
Emerald lightning gathered in Hajun's hand.
"He's a mage!"
"Block it!"
Only then did they sense that something was deeply wrong. The moment they felt the flow of the air itself twisting into a violent surge—
FLASH-!
KR-KR-KR-KR-KRUMBLE-!!
A bolt of lightning burst from Hajun's hand.
'That's Thunderbolt.'
The raider at the very front managed to recognize the spell Hajun had unleashed — and his lips curled into a smug smile. 'Magic Shield!' The bracelet on his wrist flared crimson.
This was no mere trinket. It was an Advanced-grade artifact, one that could shrug off a 1-Star Thunderbolt without breaking a sweat.
'Blocked.'
The instant he thought those words—
CLANG-!
KRA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KRACK-!!
The Magic Shield shattered like glass, and a colossal pain swept through his entire body. It was agony unlike anything he had ever felt in his life. The last sound to reach his ears before consciousness abandoned him was the sound of his comrades—
"GRAAAAAAAGH!"
"KHHH-ghk!"
"Guh-heeeeh…"
—choking out death-rattled moans of unbearable pain.
Thud. Whump. Thud-!
One after another, more than a dozen raiders — each of them a top-tier combatant on the 1st Floor — collapsed to the ground all at once. It was a shocking sight.
"G-Good heavens…"
Caught completely off guard, everyone stared wide-eyed at Hajun's back.
"Wh-What kind of magic…?"
The Black Rabbit Mask. The auction manager of the Black Hand. Truth be told, when Hajun had first stepped forward, he'd simply thought they'd gained a lucky meat shield. Black Hand elites would arrive at this location before long, and he'd assumed Hajun's only role was to buy them whatever time he could.
'This man is no ordinary level-10 Ascender. A trait of at least 8-Star. And that was unmistakably a Legendary-grade or higher Thunderbolt.'
The Black Rabbit Mask had managed Black Hand auction houses for a very long time, and because of that, his eye for appraising the value of items — and people — was exceptionally sharp. Among all the level-10 Ascenders he'd watched linger on the 1st Floor over the years, Hajun had just displayed the most impressive power he had ever seen. It was enough to make him doubt whether this man was truly a 1st-Floor Ascender at all.
'He can't be from a higher floor.'
In the Sky Tower, Ascenders from the upper floors suffered a constraint on their power whenever they descended to the lower ones — and that constraint was at its most severe on the 1st Floor. That was precisely why beings from the higher floors rarely came down here. And so, the strongest force on the 1st Floor was the level-10 Ascenders.
'Ahh. The heavens are smiling on our Black Hand. To think we'd receive the aid of an Ascender this powerful.'
The Black Rabbit Mask nearly pressed his hands together and bowed toward Hajun's back before he could stop himself. That was how swept up he was — how utterly captivated by Hajun's strength.
"Insane."
There was someone else whose emotions churned just as violently as the Black Rabbit Mask's — No. 53, the Fox Mask.
'I… felt fear at the sight of qi-lightning.'
The Fox Mask was, in truth, an Ascender of no ordinary lineage. The source of the power she wielded was noegi — refined lightning qi. Which meant she, better than anyone else present, understood just how far beyond anything she could produce the lightning force in Hajun's Thunderbolt truly was.
'He's really a 1st-Floor Ascender? Seriously?'
Her eyes, in constant turmoil, remained fixed on Hajun's back.
"…Might I ask who this honored benefactor is?"
And then—
There was someone whose emotions wavered even more violently than the Black Rabbit Mask or the Fox Mask: the Skull Mask, leader of this raid, the man whose plans had been most thoroughly wrecked by Hajun's sudden appearance.
'He's not one of Black Hand's.'
The Skull Mask had noticed that Hajun wasn't a Black Hand operative — just one of the participants who'd come to this auction.
'Of all the luck…'
It felt like stepping in dung on an otherwise uneventful stroll. How could a man like this be here, of all places?
'I cannot retreat like this.'
He had to secure Guldin's Necklace — the final item of this auction — no matter what it took. It was a mission he was prepared to see through even at the cost of his life.
"You bastards — you're Tiamut, aren't you?"
At that moment, Hajun spoke, his eyes on the Skull Mask.
- They are Tiamut indeed. The ones bearing the crest that toad carried, emblazoned upon their chests.
The reason Hajun could guess these men's identity at all was thanks to Ellaon's counsel.
"Th-That's right! Those bastards are Tiamut!"
The Rabbit Mask was quick on the uptake. Sensing Hajun's displeasure at the mention of Tiamut, he immediately confirmed it for him, hammering the point home.
"What?"
"T-Tiamut? Them?"
From the Ascenders who had stopped mid-escape to watch the standoff, gasps of disbelief burst out. Why on earth was Tiamut — public enemy number one, the most reviled band of villains in the Tower — here of all places?
"Uh… I-I need to go. Now."
The fear attached to the name Tiamut was considerable. Even after witnessing Hajun overwhelm the raiders, Ascenders began slipping out of the room one after another.
Whether they left or not—
Once Hajun was certain of who he faced, emerald lightning kindled in his hand once more. 'If they're Tiamut, then all the more reason I can't let them live.' These were the bastards who'd been sniffing at his heels, after all. Even the thought of leaving them alive left a foul taste in his mouth.
"…Withdraw from here now, and we will pretend your attack on us never happened."
The Skull Mask rumbled in a low, gravel-choked voice. But there was no chance in hell Hajun was going to listen. He'd already kicked the hornet's nest. Did he really think he could just walk past and be safe? Better to end things here, cleanly and for good.
'Thund—'
The instant he tried to loose a Thunderbolt at the Skull Mask—
"Shadow Binding!"
the Skull Mask shouted, a beat ahead of him.
Tiamut.
A mid-level branch located on the 5th Floor. There, several men who appeared to be executives were deep in conversation.
"Makshel can bring back Guldin's Necklace, surely?"
"Of course. He's the most reliable man we have operating on the 1st Floor."
Makshel — the man who wore the skull mask — was a powerhouse who would be hard-pressed to find his match anywhere on the 1st Floor. Part of it was the sheer caliber of his trait, but one of the artifacts he possessed shaped his strength into something even sharper.
"Fair point. That 'Legendary'-grade artifact he carries is the strongest anti-personnel artifact limited to the 1st Floor."
"Exactly. There isn't a soul in Black Hand on the 1st Floor who could stop Makshel."
"No — not just Black Hand. There's hardly anyone who could stop him, no matter who came."
"True. Well said."
And that was why the two men did not entertain even the possibility of Makshel failing this mission.
"Still, what is Guldin's Necklace, that we must secure it even at the cost of provoking Black Hand?"
"Hmm. I don't know either. All I heard from above was that it must be obtained at any cost. Though word has it, it's a sealed item."
"Oh-ho. Now I'm all the more curious what kind of item it could be."
"So am I."
Ssssfffffft!
My shadow suddenly stretched — and out of it, black hands began to reach.
'This is—!'
I frowned as I watched the dozens of black hands coil around my body. Bound tight from head to toe, I couldn't move a muscle. And naturally, that meant I couldn't aim a Thunderbolt at the bastard either.
"You should have left while I was being polite."
Killing intent blazed up in the Skull Mask's eyes.
'This is bad!'
Alarm bells rang through my head. Since becoming an Ascender, this was the gravest crisis I had faced yet.
"Rise."
The Skull Mask drove the staff in his hand into the ground.
"Grraaaaaah!"
"Grrrrk—"
And then—
The raiders who had unmistakably been swept away by my Thunderbolt and killed began to twist their bodies upright.
"U-Undead?!"
"Good heavens!"
"A-A necromancer!"
Another wave of chaos rippled through the onlookers at the sight. Necromancers were counted among the most formidable traits in the entire Sky Tower — and on the lower floors especially, their power bordered on invincible.
Crackle, cra-crackle!
Just then, I heard the snap and spark of electricity beside me.
"Hey, you. Think you can move?"
I rolled my eyes sideways and saw the woman in the fox mask, gripping a pair of rapiers wreathed in running current.
What was this? Was she seriously planning to throw herself at those things?
"I can't handle that many on my own. You need to break that binding."
At her words, I let out a quiet, inward sigh of admiration. She really was trying to help me. My opinion of the Fox Mask rose again. Consider my earlier comment about her being a lunatic at the auction — retracted.
"Can't break it alone? So I have to help you, huh?"
When I didn't answer right away, the Fox Mask shot me a sideways glance. I gave a small smirk and replied.
"No. I'm fine."
Bluffing, you ask?
No. In truth, I had just found the solution to this binding.
"Grraaaaaaah!"
"KAAARGH!"
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
"They're coming!"
the Fox Mask cried out, her voice tight with tension. And at that very instant, I activated the skill embedded in the Unprecedented Hahoe Mask —
'Stealth (5-Star ★★★★★).'
Ssssfffffft!
My form melted into the air and vanished. And the moment it did, the shadow hands binding me vanished as well.
- It worked! Ha-HA!
'Heh heh. What did I tell you? I said it would.'
- I grant that your clever little brain is something to behold.
That's right — this solution was my own invention. The ability that skull-faced bastard had used was unmistakably a shadow binding — a power rooted in my own shadow. So what happens if I erase the shadow itself with Stealth? The root disappears, and naturally, the Shadow Binding comes undone with it. That was my judgment.
"Search—!"
FAAAAAASH!
But the Skull Mask was no pushover. Whether he'd already worked out that Stealth was the counter to Shadow Binding, he immediately unfurled a detection spell.
However—
Cannot be pierced by detection magic of 5-Star rank or below.
That's right. My Stealth is 5-Star, after all. This Hahoe Mask didn't earn its Legendary grade for nothing.
'Honestly, even if Stealth hadn't worked, the Dispel Ring probably would have.'
I'd used Stealth first because I had no idea what Star rank that Shadow Binding was. If it hadn't come undone, I'd have popped the Dispel Ring next. Either way—
So, with that settled.
My turn now, isn't it?
'Thunderbolt.'
The moment I cast Thunderbolt while in Stealth, something remarkable happened: the spell, too, fell under Stealth's effect and materialized in complete transparency. Though that only held while it rested in my hand—
KR-KR-KR-KRUMBLE-!!
the instant it left my hand, it blazed into vivid emerald light. To their eyes, a bolt of emerald lightning must have simply appeared out of thin air.
KRA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KRACK-!!
The undead, struck dead-on by the Thunderbolt a second time, disintegrated entirely into ash. From behind me came another chorus of stunned, awestruck gasps. Even by my own standards, that was an absurd level of destructive power.
"You insane—!"
The Skull Mask shrieked and hurriedly fumbled a scroll out of his coat—
'Not a chance.'
I fired a Mana Bolt a step faster.
BOOM!!
Slammed dead-center by the Mana Bolt, the Skull Mask was hurled backward into the wall and smashed against it.