The One at Durek's Back
Paranet, who had been quietly stalking Durek from behind, went rigid.
The pressure pouring off Durek was enough to freeze a body where it stood. Durek hurled his double-bladed axe, and Paranet's skull burst apart as he was forcibly unsummoned. The axe wheeled through the air and snapped back into Durek's hand.
Thwack!
"Next is the human. Your turn."
"You don't have to tell me."
The instant Durek took a step, Yujun used Flash. Before the dwarf could even register what was happening, the sword came down.
Shhk!
Durek's eyes flew wide. He never learned where the strike had come from—he couldn't even see it—and his head went spinning through empty air.
For all his towering swagger, the death was a hollow one. The bandits who had been watching the fight stood with their mouths hanging open. Durek was dead. They had seen it with their own eyes and still could not believe it. He had always carried himself with the majesty of a god, and the shock that struck them was beyond words. They had been certain that even if the sky split in two, Durek would never fall to anyone.
And now? A single human who had appeared out of nowhere had parted head from body and left him a cold corpse.
The only reason that rabble had been able to run the stronghold with any kind of order was Durek—an overwhelming absolute. That absolute was dead. The blow this would deal the Underground Kingdom would be immense.
Why did my level jump so much?
Yujun scratched the back of his head. The dwarf he had just fought must have been fairly high-level. Honestly, he hadn't felt all that strong. Paranet getting taken down had nudged his assessment up a little, but that was all. The man had never been a real threat.
"Th-the boss is dead!"
"What do we do?"
"Vice Boss!"
The bandits turned to the vice boss, who stood there with a blank face. Karim didn't so much as twitch. One of them grabbed his shoulder and shook him.
"Snap out of it! Vice Boss!"
"Huh? Uh..."
"At this rate we're all dead!"
"R-right! We've got to rally the men..."
While the bandits flailed and scrambled, Yujun spread his senses wide and swept the whole mountain.
The one I just killed was the top dog... so there shouldn't be anyone stronger.
Leaving like this felt like a waste. A new place, and an Underground Kingdom the people of the Infinite Tower Continent didn't even know existed. Somewhere around here, there ought to be a hidden piece.
That was when the bandits began to swarm.
"The enemy is one man."
Vice Boss Karim seemed to think that even with Durek dead, their advantage in numbers still gave them a chance. More than a thousand bandits massed near the summit. Far more remained down in the stronghold, but the ground was too narrow for all of them to climb.
"Wow. That's a lot of them."
Yujun let the words out in open admiration. Why were there so many people gathered just to do evil? He had never even seen the players who lived in the Underground Kingdom, and already he felt sorry for them. The Continent had bandits and pirates too, but every kingdom there could keep them in check. On the Continent there was no one who wasn't a player, so raising a subjugation force was easy and bandits and pirates struggled to grow their numbers. The Underground Kingdom was surely all players as well—had the bandits simply expanded too fast?
"We finish this in one strike! Pour on the magic!"
He had always thought the Tower of Infinity was a peculiar place. Even someone born to a kingdom's lowest caste still possessed a player's abilities. Those abilities might be meager, the talent lacking, but the road to growth lay open to everyone. That was why most of the bandits knew magic. Even a common bandit could cast large-scale area spells. Each of them was, in effect, a great mage.
The players here seem a cut above, don't they?
Durek had died in a single blow, so it hadn't really sunk in—but watching thousands of bandits unleash vicious magic all at once changed his mind.
Yeah. This is how it ought to be.
A smile spread across Yujun's lips. A new map always held stronger enemies and monsters. It was game talk, granted, but this world was the game's setting made flesh. For someone as hungry to grow as Yujun, a turn like this was always welcome.
Fwoosh! Hummm! Vmmm!
Dazzling magic in every color embroidered the sky, and every spell was aimed at where Yujun stood.
"Manuela."
"Hm?"
"Get far away."
"Got it."
Manuela chained Blink after Blink and cleared the spot. Yujun formed exactly seven shields. Thick blue barriers wrapped around him.
BOOM! CRASH! BOOM!
Thousands of spells slammed into his shields and nowhere else. Blast after blast hammered his ears without mercy. The shields held firm, but under the relentless bombardment fine cracks began to spider across them. He could have ended the problem by raising more of those blue membranes. He didn't. He prepared a spell instead.
Maybe I'll try something different this time.
Using the same magic over and over got dull. Yujun drew his mana up. He wasn't about to cast anything grand—Blizzard Storm, a spell not just anyone could use, but well within reach of a mage who had climbed a fair way into the ranks of the strong. Its range was wide, yet because it was ice magic its force fell somewhat short of fire. That, however, was only true of ordinary mages. Raise the quality of the mana high enough, and Blizzard Storm boasted tremendous power.
And the magic Yujun used was not ordinary magic. It was Ancient Magic. Ancient Magic was already an excellent skill on its own, and its rank was nothing less than EX++—the highest-ranked skill Yujun knew. Cast Blizzard Storm as ordinary magic and no matter how much mana you poured in, the result could still be merely decent. Ancient Magic at EX++ was different. He didn't spare the mana. He used it generously. He was holding a weapon, so the effect of the Weapon Skill Imprint would apply as well. He was genuinely curious just how strong the spell would be.
CRASH! BOOM!
Even then, the bandits' magic kept pounding his shields without pause. Just as the sturdy barriers reached the brink of shattering, Yujun's spell completed.
Crack! Crrrack!
Before a single shard of ice could touch the ground, everything began to freeze. Literally everything. There were no exceptions. Even the fire magic that had been scorching the air around him froze solid. The bandits were no exception either. Every one of them who had been attacking him locked in place, movement stilled. The spells still flying toward his shields turned to icicles and fell. The aftermath of Blizzard Storm did not stop there. The bandits waiting below froze as well. The power exceeded even what Yujun had expected.
He had killed tens of thousands with a single spell, and his level had risen only three times. The bandits' levels must not have been that much higher than his. Even so, he was satisfied. For the trouble he had gone to, the reward was more than fair. One of the Underground Kingdom's greatest headaches—an entire bandit stronghold—was annihilated just like that.
Yujun took only Durek's and Karim's equipment, cast Fly, and descended the mountain. He spotted Manuela, small beneath a black cloak pulled over her head.
"Did I keep you waiting?"
"Hm? You came right back, didn't you?"
Now that he thought about it, barely five minutes had passed since he had sent her away.
"What did you even do? From here it looks like you just turned the place into a snow mountain."
"Less a snow mountain than an iceberg."
He had frozen the mountain whole, so iceberg was the better word.
"Paranet's going to take this hard."
"Hm? Why?"
"He died looking pathetic. And he was already starving for your attention."
"Wouldn't he be more hurt by you calling his death pathetic?"
"...Ah. Paranet, sorry."
Manuela apologized too late, but Paranet had surely heard the word pathetic. He was the sort who could appear whenever he liked without being called, so eavesdropping was probably well within his power.
"Yujun."
"What?"
"Where's Sirius?"
"Uh...? Right."
Now that she mentioned it, he had completely forgotten Sirius.
"Where did he go?"
He had jumped first, so he ought to have landed around the same time as Paranet. He couldn't be dead, could he? A sudden unease tightened Yujun's face.
He can't die.
To get back to Sourtul Forest, he needed Sirius's help. If the kid was dead, it wasn't as if there was no other way—but that would be far too much of a hassle. Yujun quickly activated a search spell. The ripple of his mana stretched far.
"Sirius!"
"Sirius!"
Yujun and Manuela shouted his name. The echo came back again and again.
"Aang! What!"
Sirius appeared at once. Watching him hop—bounding nearly four meters into the air—Yujun was reminded all over again that Sirius was a player too.
"Where were you?"
"It looked dangerous, so I ran."
"Good call."
If Sirius had stood there gawking, Blizzard Storm would have caught him and killed him.
I almost killed him myself. That scared me.
Yujun took a Synchronization Marble out of his inventory and tucked it carefully inside his armor—aside from the inventory itself, about as safe a place as there was. He had taken the marble out for a reason: to find another one. An existing Synchronization Marble vibrated when a new one was nearby. He couldn't feel that while it sat in the inventory, so one of them had to stay out.
No telling when or where another Synchronization Marble might be hidden.
Receiving ten items this time had driven home just how incredible the marbles were. He didn't know what had become of the No-Pay Casual Gamer character, but for him, at least, it had come back as an enormous gain. No reason to hesitate, then. He would get his hands on Synchronization Marbles by any means necessary.
"Sirius."
"Yeah?"
"The way back to that tunnel from earlier. Tell me."
"See that mountain?"
The mountain he himself had frozen solid. Sirius pointed at it, and Yujun nodded.
"If you go straight up into the sky from the summit, there should be an entrance to the tunnel."
"I just have to go up?"
"Yeah."
"Then why can't you see it from down here? It wasn't even hidden by clouds."
"I don't know why either!"
"Well, all right. Thanks."
"Don't mention it! I'm heading off now!"
"Where are you going alone? Come with us."
"H-huh? Why?"
"Why do you think? This is our first time here. You're going to guide us."
"That's a bit much. I have a certain status of my own..."
Yujun casually showed him the bloodstained sword.
"...?"
Sirius only stared, not understanding, so Yujun added a word.
"Cutting off the bandit boss's head had a nice feel to it, but it ended too fast and I'm a little unsatisfied. Anything else around here I could cut? Preferably something alive. Even better if it's an animal."
"I-I'll guide you! Just trust me and follow!"
At that, Yujun smiled brightly.
"You'd do that? Thanks! I'm counting on you."
"...Yeah!"