The Figure Before Kanturo

The one who showed himself before Kanturo was Yujun — the very man who had been giving them so much trouble.

Kanturo, who had taken him for a mage, could only tilt his head.

A mage, walking right up to me in the open?

Confidence in one's own skill was all well and good, but this was the heart of the enemy camp. And he had set his feet down here of all places, where the liches who thrived in a chaotic melee were gathered.

On top of that, Yujun did something that lay entirely outside Kanturo's common sense. Out of nowhere, he drew a sword.

Kanturo had judged him a high-caliber archmage, so the gesture struck him as bizarre.

Are we... no. Is he making light of me?

Look closer, though, and the menace rolling off that blade was anything but ordinary. A thread of unease stirred in him — and yet, honestly, he could not imagine that a man wielding mana of such tremendous scale would also stand at a comparable level with a sword.

Kanturo decided that coming here was little more than reckless bravado.

"Walking in of your own two feet... what a fool."

At Kanturo's low mutter, Yujun snorted.

"You're a Lich Lord, aren't you?"

"Can you not tell by looking?"

"I know your weakness well."

"My weakness? How would the likes of you know what even I do not? There is a limit even to empty boasting."

"You don't know your own weakness?"

"That is correct. I have no such thing as a weakness."

Yujun could not hold back a laugh at the Lich Lord Kanturo's confident claim.

Once, he had used an item that turned him undead and become a Lich Lord himself. What he had learned then was that a Lich Lord was excellent in nearly every respect, inferior physical ability aside — and yet it carried one fatal flaw.

The undead possessed endless stamina, and wounds closed almost at once. Their mana surged back so quickly that running dry was all but unheard of. The might of their magic would have grown beyond what it had been in life, too.

The fatal flaw, as Yujun saw it, was this: the moment a warrior or a mage more skilled than they appeared, they could do absolutely nothing.

A Lich Lord seated on an inexhaustible spring of mana looked as if it ought to hold the advantage in a long fight. It did not. Set a Lich Lord against a mage of equal skill in close combat, and the Lich Lord lost every single time. Prepared spells struck hard, but casting under pressure was exceedingly slow.

To an ordinary player the difference was so fine it barely seemed to exist. Among mages of real caliber, that same gap decided victory and defeat. And if that held true even between mages, it went without saying against a warrior of a higher order.

The liches around them were a variable, yes — but short of another Lich Lord, overturning the outcome of this fight was next to impossible.

And Yujun was a swordsman whose swordsmanship had reached its peak. Even in a raw contest of mana against a Lich Lord, he was overwhelming. He had not stepped out so boldly before the liches for nothing.

"Come at me. Or should I go first?"

Seeing that Yujun looked as if he had no intention of using magic at all, the Lich Lord took him for a bluffer and laughed inwardly.

Kanturo ordered the liches to attack the man before them as one.

Like machines, they triggered projectile spells in the same instant, without a hair's deviation, and hurled them.

Yujun did not raise a shield. He kicked off the ground. There was no need to stand still and block magic.

Crack!

Three liches took the spine of his sword across the back of the skull and burst apart in a single moment.

Liches, it seemed, paid generously in experience.

This experience event is no joke.

Yujun, already under several experience-boosting effects, was feeling the event's benefits especially keenly.

Death Knights and dullahans — impossible to say when they had appeared — swept in at his back.

Yujun turned and swung once.

Boom!

Chaos bursting from the blade annihilated dozens of undead.

Petty things like these showed no sign of moving his experience. Unless they were high-ranking liches, there was no point in hunting them.

That was when the Lich Lord's savage magic came flying in — dozens of spells at once. A perfect chain, designed to seal off every space he might have used to dodge.

Yujun did not evade. He raised a sword barrier.

Dozens of spells struck the barrier and vanished. Not a single one of the Lich Lord's spells could pierce it.

So this is the extent of it... The power is certainly strong, but it's simple.

Because he was a mage from an older age? Then again, looking at the level of mages these days, the era did not seem to matter much. More likely the Lich Lord's magic only looked shabby because his own had climbed so high.

A great commotion rose behind him. He looked back to find Paranet charging in at tremendous speed.

Still not dead?

Paranet's hidden strength was beyond anything he had imagined.

Is he trying to help me?

The fellow was sprinting for all he was worth, convinced the situation was desperate. Less ridiculous than admirable.

Not the time for this.

Yujun ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠drove his sword into the ground.

Rumble. Rumble.

A tremendous vibration shook the whole area.

Every undead with its ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠feet on the ground either toppled or was smashed apart.

Only the Lich Lord and Paranet took no harm from Weapon Earthquake. The Lich Lord had slipped shrewdly up into the sky, and Paranet, recognized as an ally, felt nothing but the ground shuddering — the violent wave never reached his body.

This Weapon Earthquake did not raise his level, but a considerable amount of experience came in all the same. Aside from the Lich Lord and the ghost-type undead, everything was dead.

Had the liches survived, time would have let them resurrect the rest. For the Lich Lord to manage that alone was too much to ask. From the moment the liches were cleared away, any chance of the undead legion rising again vanished.

Yujun kicked off the ground and leapt toward Kanturo. With the Fly spell layered on as well, he stopped level with the Lich Lord's eyes.

"Now we can fight each other fair and square."

"...You. You were no mage."

"I am a mage. Magic just isn't the only thing I know how to do."

"How is that possible? Once one's realm in magic reaches such a height, the enlightenment bound to magic ought to hinder the learning of any other domain."

"Huh? What kind of nonsense is that?"

"Do you not know that from the moment one masters a single art, setting foot in another domain makes raising that realm several times more difficult?"

"I don't."

None of the Lich Lord's words matched his own circumstances in the slightest, so Yujun decided the man was saying whatever came to mind in order to stay alive.

He raised his sword to finish it.

"W-wait. Listen! Do I look ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as if I am lying?"

"Yeah."

"Ridiculous. Are you saying it was not so for you? That when either your magic or your swordsmanship reached its peak, there was no hindrance in learning the other?"

"I'm telling you there wasn't. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have been annoying enough to notice, so I just moved on."

"......"

At words that held not a shred of falsehood, Kanturo laughed as if hollowed out.

"What race are you, anyway? Your form feels unfamiliar."

"Human. You're wro— no, you were born a long time ago, so you probably wouldn't know."

"Human? A race possessing a standing akin to dragons or demigods?"

"Similar."

Not similar in the slightest.

Looking at potential alone, he privately thought humans could just about measure up — but how many humans ever grew that strong? They were nothing to compare with dragons, powerful from birth. He did not know demigods precisely, but that went without saying. Half a god or not, he could not bring himself to think a god was the same as a human.

"I see... Then I can accept this defeat with humility."

"Huh? Dragons and demigods ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are that impressive?"

Even at a glance, the Lich Lord's pride was immense. For a being like that to go beyond recognizing the limits of his race and admit defeat itself? Unless he held dragons or demigods in extraordinarily high regard, a reaction like that should have been hard to come by.

"Are demigods that strong?"

"A demigod, well — pile fortune, talent, and bone-grinding effort together, and I suppose one might manage it. But a dragon cannot be made after the fact. And I hold dragons to be the greater existence."

"...You weren't dragonkin, or a dragon yourself, were you?"

"As if."

"You're done talking, then?"

Kanturo gave a heavy nod.

The duel with the Lich Lord ended almost tamely.

Yujun closed in an instant and struck a single blow laden with Chaos, and Kanturo was erased without even managing to react.

Before Chaos, the undead — beings also called immortal — were utterly powerless.

They're giving me a Transcendent Stone?

Even viewed objectively, felling that many undead alone was certainly no ordinary feat. That brought his Transcendent Stones to four in all. Later, once his armor set synchronized and was sent through, he would be able to upgrade them all at once.

And if I wipe out the next undead legion the same way, could I get another?

He did not truly expect it. There was no guarantee he would receive the same reward simply for doing what he had done before. An achievement already earned could grow stricter, or stop paying out entirely.

Bring down a stronger undead legion, and it might still be possible...

His Peace Contribution was already climbing past forty thousand. Was that not the ceiling for annihilating a single undead legion? The achievement had inflated the number, so he could not hope for anything beyond this.

I still can't seem to spend Peace Contribution, so I should stockpile as much as I can.

He had no feel for how large the figure was, but he had monopolized the hunt of an undead legion. It could hardly be low.

"Master... have you not brought this to an end rather too quickly?"

"You think they'd raid a small village for nothing? The closer you get to the Empire or a great kingdom, the stronger the undead that come attacking."

"Then our destination is decided?"

"Yeah. Shall we start with the Holy Empire?"

"Is it not rather far?"

"I'd like Space Movement, if you would."

"Yes. Shall I use it at once?"

"Before that, I should say my goodbyes."

Yujun returned to the village and told those he had personally gathered that he was bound for the Holy Empire.

He felt sorry for the people he had drawn all the way out to a frontier village like this. But for the moment the Great Cataclysm seemed to pose no particular danger beyond undead raids, and so the point of gathering had vanished. Players of this caliber shut inside a single frontier village was close to a waste for the Continent as well.

"Because of you, Mr. Yujun, I only managed to catch thirteen of those undead."

When Kim Yohan grumbled, Dokgo Minsu cut in without fail.

"Had Yujun not been here, you would have died long ago. You took your fill of profit while every undead eye was fixed upon a single man — and this is what you say?"

"...Come on. I only said it to save face, and you're going for the throat."

"You would tear down that remarkable man merely to preserve your own face? You are an even more foolish stock than I had judged."

"S-stock, even."

"To twist the knife a little further, you are precisely upper-rank stock. The upper ranks will come easily enough, but your limit is plain to see. A top-tier player you shall never be."

"......"