Level Up (2)
Solomon was pounding the ground in pure regret.
Shit. I should’ve brought the Webweaver Kit.
The new toolkit he’d prepared that day held more than just an automatic lockpick and grappling hook. True to its name, it also contained magnet spikes designed to let him scale walls like a spider.
The bitter truth was that the kit now sat safely tucked away in Room 204 of Hotel Snark.
He hadn’t expected to need it so suddenly. After all, he wasn’t even on an official request.
Yeah, what’s the point of regretting it now?
With no other choice, Solomon forced himself to move out of the underground reservoir.
A cute, almost adorable little test to determine whether he had what it took to become a truly deadly shadow mage.
That was how Lord Bawry had described it. Perhaps escaping this place itself was the test.
The underside of Guild City was no mere network of deep tunnels. The sight unfolding before Solomon’s eyes was a full-blown underground labyrinth.
A giant maze beneath a city wasn’t that unusual a setting. It fit perfectly with the existence of underground mages and the Sewer Magic Tower.
Here goes…
Solomon silently extended his arm. The Black Bird Spirit Bracelet shimmered with magical power, and several crow spirits burst forth, scattering midnight feathers as they took flight.
Wandering an underground labyrinth without a plan was suicide. The first order of business was to use their eyes and ears to scout the surroundings.
!
It happened immediately. The black bird spirits didn’t have to travel far before something caught their gaze—practically nose-to-nose distance.
A labyrinth creature.
It radiated a dark, grotesque aura straight out of an H.R. Giger painting. A perfectly smooth, featureless face like some egg-like ghost. A humanoid torso fused with far too many spider-like limbs that let it crawl across the floor. It wasn’t any easily recognizable “standard monster.”
Crunch.
“!”
It exploded forward.
The moment Solomon registered its presence, the creature closed the distance at an absurd speed, like a monster from a horror film.
And because his vision was linked to the spirits, the thing lunging straight at them hit him like a jump scare. He nearly fell flat on his ass.
“Jesus Christ!”
It was so fast that the instant he realized the distance had closed, the connection to the crow spirits snapped. Not one or two—all of them in the area were wiped out simultaneously, without exception.
Fast.
The crow spirits’ dynamic vision scaled directly with Solomon’s own abilities. In other words, the creature’s movements were difficult to track even with his eyes.
No wonder it had looked extraordinary from the start.
…Did I walk into the wrong damn hunting ground?
It felt like more than just the wrong place. This was badly wrong.
Should he retreat to the underground reservoir and wait it out? There was no guarantee the creature wouldn’t come this way. Solomon quickly cast a spell.
A magic that pierced the dark, mold-scented structures of the labyrinth to see what lay beyond the walls.
It’s coming right at me!
The moment he activated clairvoyance, his heart sank.
The creature must have been thoroughly irritated by the crow spirits. It was crawling toward him at high speed, showing zero hesitation at forks or corners. Its movements made it perfectly clear that it knew exactly where he was.
It’s tracking the path the crow spirits took!
It was retracing the magical residue left by the spirits that had flown out moments ago.
Insight Success!
Before he could even feel satisfied, Solomon quickly sent out three or four more crow spirits from the bracelet.
He deliberately layered additional magical traces at the upcoming turns and intersections to throw the creature off.
As expected, it began to hesitate. It paused at several forks, unable to decide which path to take.
Do I fight it?
Or should he avoid the monster and either push forward or retreat? There was no way this was the only creature in the labyrinth.
He had already spent one spell slot. Whichever choice he made, he needed to commit.
Fortunately, the decision was made for him—though not by his own will.
…Running is no longer an option.
The distraction using the crow spirits lasted only a moment. Soon the creature seemed to pinpoint his exact location within the flow of magic and began moving again.
It crawled along the walls at an even more ridiculous speed than before, as if it had no intention of ever letting him escape.
It had already exceeded the speed at which he could run or shake it. Cursing under his breath, Solomon yanked the thread mechanism on his sleeve. He gripped the Ghost Whale Bone Blade and braced himself.
Like it or not, the creature approaching like something out of a horror movie clearly knew he existed.
Which meant his presence had already been exposed. In other words, he could not launch an ambush.
For an assassin, it was just about the worst possible fighting scenario imaginable.
…Should I use Invisibility?
Even with Invisibility, there was no guarantee he could stay hidden. Besides, the creature was already tracking him by following magical traces despite him being invisible. Given that it had no eyes or facial features, he was skeptical about how effective the spell would be.
And casting Invisibility wasn’t just spending one spell slot.
Level 1 Spells:4 uses (⚀⚀⚀⚀■)
Level 2 Spells:2 uses (⚁⚁)
He would be throwing one of his precious, limited-use Level 2 spell slots straight into the trash.
No need to rush. I can use Invisibility later if I have to.
Having made up his mind, Solomon steeled his resolve. Soon, beyond the corner of the underground passage where he stood, numerous fingertips emerged like a scene from a horror movie.
An unidentified creature clinging to the wall, moving with its countless spider-like limbs.
“.”
The moment he saw it, Solomon recited a Level 2 spell without hesitation.
It’s coming.
Click. Click!
He drew the Nightfall automatic crossbow from his quick-loader belt.
Bang!
From its compact, belt-sized form, the parts assembled in the blink of an eye. He pulled the trigger. The multi-fire slider was already set to maximum.
Ten bolts fired simultaneously in a burst. And thanks to the Deadlock Workshop’s heavy modification, they carried auto-homing capabilities.
The creature’s response to the bolts rushing toward it like guided missiles was… shocking to the point of absurdity.
It caught them.
It snatched every single one of the ten bolts out of the air with its spider-like limbs.
You monster bastard!
The instant he thought they had been caught, the bolts flew back through the air. The creature had hurled them straight back at him.
Whoosh!
Solomon rolled across the ground. The bolts slammed into the stone wall behind him with a sharp whistle. From that alone, it was easy to estimate the creature’s physical strength.
But what was truly terrifying was the creature itself as it closed the distance like a jump scare immediately afterward.
Goddamn it…!
In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of him. At the same time, the countless limbs attached to its torso—the same “hands” that had caught the crossbow bolts—surged toward Solomon.
Its movements were so fast and precise that Solomon nearly forgot he was standing inside a Level 2 area-of-effect spell. The various advantages magic should have granted, the disadvantages it should have inflicted on the enemy, all of it felt utterly hollow.
So Solomon decided on a gamble.
There was no time to calmly calculate whether it would work in the face of those rushing limbs.
It would either work or it wouldn’t.
!
Without hesitation, he generated a Shadow Mimic behind the creature.
Slash!
Just as expected, the creature ignored the Solomon in front of it and immediately swung its arms at the mimic behind. Even though it was just wild slashing, it was obvious that a single graze would tear a body to shreds.
However, the mimic imitating Solomon had no physical form that could be wounded.
It worked!
Solomon immediately cast the next spell.
Invisibility. Whether the creature could see him or not no longer mattered.
Paradoxically, the true power of Invisibility wasn’t the “not being seen” part.
The real broken aspect was that even if the opponent detected his presence, he could still force an Ambush.
In simple terms, it let him forcibly trigger an ambush.
Right now, the creature in front of him was busy slashing at the shadow mimic behind it.
Therefore, Solomon was now standing directly behind it.
Its completely defenseless back.
Blade in the Dark, activate.
There was no second chance. He had to put everything into this one strike.
All the tangible and intangible power of the game system and rules within him, his traits, the swirling vortex of invisible forces—everything loaded onto the tip of his blade and drove down.
Slash!
A strike from behind against a defenseless enemy. The most destructive physical attack permitted by the rules of this game.
The Blade in the Dark trait, which guaranteed one melee critical hit per day, activated. The Glass Die (⚅) that increased damage also triggered.
Master of Ambush
On successful melee ambush: +6 damage
All the abilities he had built up for this single strike now swirled at the tip of his blade.
He didn’t need to know what the creature was made of or how its anatomy worked.
He simply trusted the rules.
The rule of this world and this game that there was no defense against a backstab.
Slaaaaash!
Blood erupted. The term “blood fountain” didn’t do it justice. Like being sucked into a black hole, the blade plunged deep into its body without end.
Fortunately, the creature had no mouth. So it couldn’t scream. No sound escaped no matter how deeply the blade tore through its flesh.
However, it wasn’t weak enough to die quietly from a single ambush.
Slash!
The countless spider-like limbs thrashed wildly in the pain of the ambush. A convulsive strike hit Solomon.
“Urgh!”
As the flailing limbs grabbed, clawed, and snapped at his body, Solomon refused to retreat. He had to hold his ground even if it meant gritting his teeth through the pain.
Now…!
And just then, the recording finished.
The shadow magic that could instantly mimic a mage’s final action on the spot. The mimic appeared and replayed the exact ambush Solomon had just performed with identical power.
To make things worse, thanks to the creature’s high magic detection, the shadow mimic paradoxically served as the perfect decoy.
No matter how it swung and clawed, it couldn’t destroy a shadow. Unfairly, the reverse wasn’t true.
Slaaaaash!
Two ambushes. At last, the assassin’s blade succeeded in bringing down the monster.
“Haa… haa!”
In the hard-fought victory, Solomon realized his body was drenched in blood.
Bones broken in multiple places, internal bleeding—the list went on. His body was far from that of a fair-fighting warrior.
While the narrator spouted his nonsense, Solomon gritted his teeth against the pain and steadied his stance.
Fucking bastard.
Solomon swallowed his curses.
All my spell slots are spent, and my body’s wrecked.
Trying to navigate the underground labyrinth in this condition would be the same as begging to die.
So Solomon gritted his teeth and forced his body to move. Whipping his injured, heavy frame, he headed back to the underground reservoir. At least it would be safer there.
Upon returning, he leaned against what looked like a pressure regulation column and slid to the ground.
With his eyes closed in that position.
No matter how dangerous it was, there was no other way. It was time to rest.
* * *
His eyes opened.
Welcome back.
The man he had been waiting for—Level 5—stood before him. But this was no time to relax.
Congratulations. Your level has inc—
“Skip it. Just give me the Level 3 spells first.”
He was in no mood to listen to the Game Master’s full explanation.