Dark Mage (2)
Dark Mage (2)
My body felt light.
Light as if I could fly.
It was strange. There was no change in the skill window, yet...
Swish—!
"Kyaaaahk!"
"You scream like that from just that much?"
A criminal with a severed wrist crouched down, clutching his hand. Watching him, it was utterly ridiculous.
Someone whose leg was severed still tried to escape somehow, not giving up even when his fingernails were all broken and crushed... And here this guy is, screaming and crumpling just because his wrist got cut.
"Guide me to your headquarters."
"What, nonsense is this, you motherfucker! Aaah!"
"Ah, not this one?"
I pulled out the paper Deokgu had made from my breast pocket. It had things written on it like a rough organizational chart, their locations, and the characteristics of the members.
After reading the paper, I stabbed his chest with my sword and then twisted and churned it around. The thin leather clothes couldn't withstand the sharp blade and were quickly torn.
Plop, a pouch fell out from between the torn fabric. From the fallen pouch, white powder scattered down in a shower.
"...Tsk, busted."
The man, who had been groaning in pain, stuck his other hand into his breast pocket and pulled out a dagger. And my sword swung faster than that.
"Kyaaaahk! You crazy bastard! Why are you doing this! Ooooh!"
"Either die here, or guide me to your hideout."
Faced with a life-or-death choice, the man opened his mouth with a bitter smile.
"Fuck off."
After saying that, he crack bit his tongue. Biting the tongue wouldn't kill him, but the blood flowing from the severed tongue activated the magic circle that was in his mouth.
Poof, the man's head burst open. As I frowned looking at the blood splattered on my clothes, demonic energy crept out from the corpse and chewed up and swallowed the man's body.
'Must be nearby.'
The demonic energy that had swallowed the corpse escaped underground. I chased after the traces. Why was it? Ever since I woke up, everything began to look clear.
That demonic energy escaping underground that isn't even visible to the eye, the magical power spread wide like air...
'Something has changed... but I don't know what it is.'
However, there was no need to find the source. If I was curious, I could find out later.
What I had to do now was to crush the enemy with my newly increased power.
"There you are."
I held my sword and looked at the building the demonic energy was heading toward.
Simultaneously, the sword began to burn red.
Brighter than before.
"Trash should be burned."
I swung the sword. Fire spread to the building. Soon after, people rushed out of the building.
They looked just like bugs. Bugs gnawing at society...
Then today, I'll be the cleaner.
"Who the hell are you?"
A man who ran out from inside shouted that as he charged.
Dojin observed him carefully.
Muscles overly trained for a common person, the courage to charge at Dojin holding a sword without panicking even though an incident had occurred.
And the killing intent ingrained in those eyes.
No matter where you looked, he wasn't a common person.
So he cut him.
"Kyaaaahk!!"
Passing by the man clutching his severed wrist in agony, he entered the building.
Even though the building was on fire, the people inside were calmly moving boxes. As if they were more precious than their lives.
Dojin went inside and lightly pushed over a box. The boxes the people had been stacking with difficulty toppled in an instant, and the slimes inside fell down with a thump.
'Slimes?'
"You, what the fuck are you doing!?"
The man who had been directing the people stacking boxes ran over, furious. Dojin ignored him and split the slime open to check its contents.
As expected, it probably couldn't survive having its body split in half, as the slime soon transformed into a magic stone. Dungeon-born slime. On the spot where the slime died and disappeared, a large pouch plopped down.
It was a pouch containing drugs. Seeing that, Dojin realized why they were transporting slimes.
'If things go wrong, the slime can digest the drugs... and no matter how much the Guard Force is, they wouldn't think to recklessly split open a slime, right?'
Clever bastards. Indeed, being the kind of guys they are, they must have figured out the cell organization method.
However, the moment he realized they were criminals, any reason to spare them also disappeared.
"You ask what kind of person I am... Kyaak!"
He cut the wrist of the man who approached. Seeing that, the surrounding people, instead of being startled or screaming, naturally put down their boxes and looked for weapons.
Their response was proficient. Proof that this must have happened many times before. The men who brought out all sorts of weapons burst out laughing kik-kik and tried to distract Dojin.
"Hey, you. What are you? Guard Force? Those bastards wouldn't raid here alone like this."
"Cleaner."
"Clean... what?"
"Trash cleaner."
"Trash cleaning? You planning to say we're society's trash and you're society's cleaner?"
At those words, the criminals burst out laughing collectively. Hidden by the laughter, the sound of a thrown dagger was heard.
Dojin lightly swung his sword and deflected the dagger. Ziiing, the sword rang, but it had no effect on his body.
"That's right."
As Dojin said that and smiled, the criminals' attitudes changed in an instant. It seems there wasn't a cleaner who could deflect swords before.
Step, he took one step forward. In response, hidden weapons came flying. Bows, crossbows, daggers, spears and swords—everything that could be thrown.
He was confident he could deflect them all, but Dojin deliberately didn't deflect them and moved his feet. The unique footwork of the Goryu (ancient style).
In an instant, he kicked off and flew dozens of meters, landing on the second-floor railing. The criminals on the second floor who had been throwing weapons were startled and raised their weapons, but it was already too late.
Swaaak—!
Several criminals who were on the second floor were cut down by the sword and fell. And before they even touched the floor, the same number of men were cut down.
By the time the first men cut down finally fell to the floor, not a single person remained standing on the second floor.
"This is insane...!"
"A Knight? How like that...?"
Most of the men were astonished.
Not everyone was astonished.
"Haha, right. If you came alone like this, you must have a hidden trick."
He was a beastkin.
Wolf tribe.
Not a level like Hoyeon, with human form and animal ears and a tail. It was a figure that looked exactly like a beast walking on two legs.
It seemed he wasn't intimidated even after directly witnessing Dojin's martial prowess.
Well, you couldn't create a criminal organization that ruled the back alleys just by gathering ordinary thugs.
"You, what's your name?"
Rang-in asked Dojin his name. Dojin didn't feel like telling him. He just raised his sword.
Perhaps liking that more, he smiled and drew his claws. The wolf charged.
Sharp claws, claws that seemed like they could cut through any obstacle placed before them, clashed with the sword. Sparks flew, and blood and flesh scattered.
While confronting this beast-form beastkin, Dojin realized the beast before him wasn't acting merely like a beast.
'Martial arts?'
The beastkin race's uniquely strong muscles and sharp claws flew in along a set trajectory. Dojin felt familiarity in that trajectory.
It was a kind of swordsmanship. Using the body... Perhaps when you reach a certain level, things resemble each other, like how Japanese Goryu swordsmanship and European longsword swordsmanship are similar; the swordsmanship Dojin learned and the non-human race's martial arts had a resemblance.
And being similar also meant it could be inferred.
Chaeng!
Stab—.
"Wh...at."
Rang-in grabbed his own neck, which was pierced by the sword, and retreated backward. The beastkin's hardy vitality avoided instant death even with a vital point pierced, but at that moment, the victory was already decided.
Fights between masters tended to be like this. A difference of one move. Victory or defeat was decided by a very small difference.
'Strong...'
Dojin followed the beastkin with the pierced neck and completely severed the head. It was a novel experience that the corpse didn't disappear, but having taken many lives until now, it didn't come as a great shock.
Rather, more shocking than that was the beastkin's skill, and his own growth that had defeated such a beastkin.
'When did I get this strong?'
The beastkin wasn't weak. Rather, he was strong. More than the monsters you meet on the 10th floor...
Clearly, if it had been him a few days ago, he should have been defeated by the beastkin normally, but somehow he had grown this much.
'That notification sound...'
The notification sound he heard last before losing consciousness, and the excessively light body after waking up. And the skill that had become incomparably stronger than before.
Dojin, thinking that all of that was surely related to the notification sound he heard before losing consciousness, smiled a pleasant smile and headed inside.
Whatever the reason, as he had gotten stronger. There was no doubt it would be easier to get revenge for Ilone.
Cutting down all who block the way.
Sweeping away all the criminals.
And so he headed inside.
To the very innermost part of the building, the workshop where demonic energy was surging.
A mage's workshop is the space most familiar to a mage, and a space fraught with all sorts of traps and magic.
Just as a dog is half-fed in its own home, a mage is likewise more than half-fed in his own workshop.
Therefore, setting foot in a mage's workshop means either being that confident in one's skill, or just being a thoughtless idiot.
Until now, Dajian had thought so.
"What is this now?"
Looking at Dojin who had rudely entered his workshop with just a single sword, he frowned.
There should definitely be numerous subordinates stationed outside, but from the question of how he got here, to the irritation of wondering if they were slacking off...
Various emotions welled up at once.
"How did you get in here?"
"Through the door."
"Do I look like I'm joking? Should I start by tearing off one of your limbs so you understand what I'm saying?"
Simultaneously, a bundle of tentacles flew from the side. Dojin raised his sword and blocked the tentacles, being pushed back slightly, and was inwardly shocked.
At the same time, Dajian, seeing him, also let out a low hum.
'Fuck... why is he so strong?'
'He blocked that?'
By this point, it wasn't that difficult to figure out how Dojin got into the workshop. Dajian released magical power to examine the situation outside the workshop, let out a hollow laugh, and covered his face.
"Haha, you killed them all? This is totally a psycho."
"I didn't kill them all."
"Ah, really? Then they let you pass even though they aren't dead? They're guys who need to be killed anyway."
Dajian said that and used magic. As a life science major, he had no confidence in combat, but instead, he had a plethora of magical lifeforms to fight for him.
Dozens of chimeras summoned by his magic, a giant slime, and even a monster that, at a glance, looked terrifying enough to be mistaken for a demon.
A maestro commanding dozens of monsters simultaneously.
That was Dajian's strength.
"Die."
The monsters moved skillfully under his command and swarmed Dojin. Dojin, who had been watching quietly, lightly uttered a single phrase.
"If this is your full strength."
Fire ignited on the sword. Fire contains the power to purify all evil things. Dojin's fire was also like that.
"You die here."
And then, next, the dozens of monsters were all cut in two with a single stroke.