Smaneg Guild (2)
Smaneg Guild (2)
Night in the Labyrinth City.
The bustling streets were crowded with adventurers.
Some rejoiced at hitting the jackpot, others clinked glasses in sorrow at losing everything.
The streets reeked of alcohol.
A drunken man staggered down the street.
"Fuck, I feel like shit."
Thud!
"Oh... shit. What kind of asshole are you?"
The man's face flushed red, raised his head to look at the man who had hit him in the shoulder.
A man wearing a black mask.
He was laughing, with his tongue hanging out.
"What... hey... you crazy bastard, if you bumped into someone... you should apologize! Why are you laughing?"
"Such a small thing, Quit being so loud."
"Wha? The fuck!"
The drunken man fumbled with something around his waist.
He pulled out his sword and tried to slash at the masked man, but things didn't exactly go his way.
Squelch!
The black masked man's hand plunged into the drunken man's heart. The drunkard widened his eyes and sputtered blood.
"Keukk.... P.. Ple... Please."
"What if I don't want to?"
Squelch!
The masked man who had ripped out a heart wrinkled his nose at the smell of blood.
"The smell of fresh blood, it's driving me crazy."
He ripped open someone's heart with his hand.
He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his bloodied hands. After throwing the handkerchief over the already dead body, he started a fire and burned the corpse.
The man's body was reduced to ashes before it dissipated.
The masked man turned on his heel and made his way back to the street where the guilds were congregated. He stopped at the building that bore the sign of the Smaneg Guild.
A time when no one would be around.
The masked man turned the doorknob, and it creaked softly open. The corner of the masked man's mouth twitched at the smell of blood inside.
"Hmmm~ Hmmmmmm..~~"
The masked man hummed and climbed the stairs. The guild leader's office at the top. There was already a person inside.
A man in a black hood and the guild leader.
Dropping the bloodied Guildmaster to the floor, the Black Hooded figure approached the Masked Man and knelt down on one knee.
"Sir Barnes, you have come."
"What's wrong with him?"
"I told him to shut down his drug operation and cover his tracks, and he hasn't done any of that."
"Really?"
Barnes strode over and stood in front of the Guildmaster.
His eyes were filled with venom.
He glanced at the Guildmaster, who glared back, then at Black Hooded man and sighed.
"If you're going to discipline, make sure you do it right."
He raised a finger and stabbed the guild leader in the eye.
"Argh.....!"
Barnes covered the guild leader's mouth with one hand.
He looked at the bloody tears in the guild leader's eyes and whispered quietly in one ear.
"You bastard, I have to go out of my way to kill Gold-ranked adventurers because you won't put your business in order."
"....."
"If those bastards come into our business area while raiding a dungeon, and thus ruin our plans, how are you going to deal with that?"
Barnes plucked the guild leader's eyeballs out.
"Argghhh!"
"Next time you don't understand me, I'll sell your wife and daughter to a brothel."
"Ugh... Ugh!"
The Guildmaster nodded frantically.
Then Barnes snickered and patted the guildmaster on the cheek.
"What are you saying?"
"Eup! Eup!"
"What, you want me to just take them and sell them?"
"Mmm!"
"I never knew you had such loyalty to your former boss who went first. Okay, I concede. I'll grant you your wish."
Barnes looked at the black hooded man.
"Give it to the brothels in our district."
"Grrrrgh!"
"Aaa. You're so noisy."
Crack!
With that, he snapped the guild leader's neck. He stared down at the dead body and sat down in the chair in the guild leader's office.
He wiped the blood from his hands and propped his legs up on the desk.
"What about the gold-ranked adventurer?"
"I sent mercenary forces, but they seem to have failed. As soon as it's daylight, I'll move in and take care of the targets myself."
"No, it's okay."
"Then......."
"Now that it's come to this, I don't think it's a good idea to do things quietly. Just let the people you wanted to kill take the dungeon."
He nodded.
"I'll move to cover our tracks."
"Right."
Barnes grinned at the red moon beyond the window.
"Let's get this over with and go hunt down that Redin guy."
* * *
A training facility built within the Roswen Guild.
The facility was neat and well-made, as if they had spent a lot of money on it. It had private rooms so he could train in peace.
Whenever Redin had some time to spare from the dungeons Hedun assigned him, he would come to the training grounds to hone his swordsmanship.
"Huu..."
After finishing off his basic physical training, he sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes as he breathed out comfortably.
The dungeons he had recently visited.
Looking back on the boss battles, he could clearly see himself gradually improving.
Instead of using sword techniques like a skill.
As his comprehension of swordsmanship grew, he began to use it at the correct and proper instances.
Another thing is slashing.
There was a huge difference in terms of sheer potency compared to when he first met Jin Sowol.
'Heh.'
Since he's been steadily eating boss monster souls, it won't be long before he reaches the peak wall.
Knock!
At the sound of a knock on the door, Redin opened his closed eyes.
"Who?"
"It's Chen."
"Just a moment."
Redin stood up and opened the door to the training room. A close-shaven, almost balding Chen was there waving.
He'd lost a bet with Ren.
From what he gathered, it's an annual event. Some sort of fraternal twin pecking order?
Still, the original version wasn't bad, and even though he was bald, it went well with his face.
"Come on in."
"Shall we get started?"
" Sure."
He took a seat in the center of the training room.
Chen took a seat to one side, snapped his fingers, and a circle of magic appeared, creating wind.
A cool breeze that blew away his sweat.
He'd used Gale Slash often in his dungeon runs, and it occurred to him that wind was an important key.
Rather than cutting through the wind.
Wouldn't it be better to move with the wind?
That question led to this current training situation. He moved his feet along the wind, which gently pushed him up from behind.
WHOOOSSSHHH!
With a crashing sound, his body was thrown away.
In a situation where the wind was pushing him, it was impossible to move his body freely.
It's like a sports car without brakes.
Or a wild horse without a saddle.
It was not easy to handle.
Thud!
And as expected.
He hit the wall and fell to the floor.
"Tsk."
He rose to his feet and stood at the center of the stage again. By now, Chen had gotten the hang of it and used wind magic on his own.
Whirl!
He felt the wind and flew out again.
Smack!
BANG!
Thump!
.
.
.
.
"That's it for today."
Chen raised his hands as he realized that he had used all the magic he could use today.
It was a shame.
He stood up and dusted himself off.
"Thanks."
"Tomorrow I'll be busy again, so I suppose it will be hard to visit for some time?"
"Okay."
After parting ways with Chen.
Redin showered and freshened up a bit.
Redin had bruises all over his body, probably from slamming into the wall hard, but he figured the more he had bruises, the closer he was to getting the answer.¹
At least it made him comfortable.
After changing and toweling off his hair, he stepped outside, and this time Hedun was waiting for him.
"May I speak with you for a moment?"
He followed Hedun into the office.
He sat down in a chair, sipped his cool drink, and asked.
"Has the dungeon been captured?"
"I found out something about the Smaneg Guild."
Hedun handed him something.
When he examined it closely, it was a report with graphs of each guild's dungeon takedown.
It was dated two weeks ago.
At the very bottom was the name of the Smaneg guild.
"And these are the most recent metrics."
Hedun handed him another sheet of paper.
On this one, Smaneg Guild was at the top. It boasted a huge list of metrics, starting with raid success rate and ending with raid speed.
This could only mean one thing.
From the time they tried to target him, there had been a major change in the Smaneg Guild. At the center of this change is the man the mercenary met.
"Have they made any new recruits recently?"
"No official recruits, though it's possible they've been sneaking around unofficially."
"Hmmm......."
Unofficial.
It was clear they were up to no good.
The reason they're actively raiding dungeons is because they're trying to get to the bottom of the Labyrinth.
Redin wonders what they're after.
"That's not the only thing that's suspicious. Smaneg's guild leader hasn't been seen anywhere since two weeks ago."
"... ..."
"And even more suspiciously, Smaneg has begun releasing dungeons they've been holding onto to other guilds."
Owned dungeons.
That is, dungeons that Smaneg's guild had been sending out explorers to gather information on, and then plan to raid.
They gave it away?
He felt something.
Like there's something in that dungeon.
"Did we also receive anything here?"
"Yes."
"That dungeon, I'll go in."
* * *
Deep in the Labyrinth.
He saw the dungeon that the Smaneg Guild had handed over to them. Redin sensed a level of demonic energy unlike anything he'd ever encountered in the Three Captains' dungeons.
An eerie sensation.
It was clear that there was a high-level boss monster in the dungeon.
This dungeon was the kind of dungeon where one might expect to find something like a Boss Monster Soul or even a Demonic Church Relic.
He can't believe they gave it away.
If it was any other guild, they would have kept it. This is getting more and more suspicious. They must be up to something big.
"Well, I guess I best get started."
With that, he strode into the dungeon.
Now that he was accustomed to entering dungeons, he had a little trick for it. He closed his eyes and counted 10 seconds.
Afterwards, he'd open his eyes again to overcome any disorientation.
Ten seconds.
Opening his eyes back up quickly, he looked around the dungeon.
Black lightning flashed in the red sky, and beneath it loomed a giant tree.
The World Tree, blackened and rotted by demonic energy.
At its center was a giant sigil. A staff symbolizing a Bishop, with a sword symbolizing a Knight on top.
A variant dungeon that appears occasionally.
Weaker than a Queen, but far more powerful than a traditional Triad.
Suddenly, his skin tingled.
Sensing movement everywhere, he quickly drew his sword. Soon enough, enemies appeared.
With black wings.
Fairy knights with full armor and swords.
The fairy knights, about the same size as humans, flew at him their red eyes glowing.
Monsters standing in wait for the adventurers.
"What the hell have they done?"
At a glance, there were more than a dozen of them.
For now, it was more important to reduce their numbers than to think about anything else.
Kicking the ground, he sprinted forward.
The key to this battle was to strike first and take away their momentum. Channeling his purifying power and mana, he swung his sword in a wide arc.
Clang!
A Fairy Knight blocked his sword.
Another Fairy Knight followed, taking advantage of the opening.
He parried and created some distance.
Swish!
He regained his stance.
He unleashed a flurry of slashes.
Slash!
He decapitated one of the Fairy Knights.
At that moment, several Fairy Knights charged at him. Although it's taxing on his stamina, he has no choice but to create a good distance between them and pick them off one by one.
Redin took out two magic scrolls from his subspace pouch. A glowing golden scroll. These were expensive.
"Gravity. Haste."
All gravity increased around Redin, and the haste lightened his body.
"Gaaaaah!"
"Grrgh!"
Fortunately, it worked.
With a quick flurry of slashes, I took down the fairy knights one by one. They tried to struggle, but it was no use.
Swinging his sword furiously.
After decapitating all of the Fairy Knights in sight, he slashed at the last remaining Fairy Knight.
Squeak!
The fairy knight turned to dust and disappeared.
Panting heavily, he looked ahead. A strange life force oozed from where the World Tree was.
It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before.
For a brief moment, his breath hitched.
It reeked of viscous, thick anger.
"Humans... Humans... I will erase you from this world!"
A monstrous voice echoed in the sky, and with it, the boss monster appeared.
A fairy knight clad in jet-black armor.
His eyes were unlike any other boss he had ever encountered. For one thing, they were not crimson. In addition, they carried a sense of ego that conveyed his will.
The eyes were filled with intense anger.
It looked directly at him and opened his mouth.
"Die, human."
** ** **
TL/N:
1. Redin plans to move with the wind instead of opposing it so him having bruises meant that he was "technically" riding with the wind.