Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Rookie Adventurer Bern (29) - Envelop
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“Ah…”
Blanca realized that when there was too much to say, sometimes no words came out at all.
She had to ask what had happened after the spatial transfer, how he'd ended up in such a ragged state.
She had to explain that the guild master had fallen, that the adventurers had been utterly defeated and turned into prey.
She had to talk about the nature of the lich's magic power, how it had clearly been defeated once yet revived anyway.
And yet, no words escaped Blanca's lips.
Just as tears welled up in her eyes from the overwhelming emotions.
“Please stand, Miss Blanca.”
His voice was soft, considerate of her feelings.
But it carried an even greater firmness as Bern spoke.
“The fight isn't over. You still have work to do, Miss Blanca.”
So get up.
Grip your sword.
You can cry and lament later—that's what the red-haired adventurer was telling her.
It wasn't words of comfort.
If anything, it was closer to stern rebuke.
Bern offered no soothing for her frustration, despair, or dejection.
“This is our adventure, isn't it?”
But if someone asked if that left Blanca discouraged—no, the answer was no.
She wasn't some pitiful, helpless princess, and Bern wasn't a knight from a fairy tale.
They were adventurers.
Comrades who had vowed to turn her delusional dream of slaying the lich into reality.
Her one understanding ally, who hadn't mocked her goal when everyone else laughed it off, was telling her this now.
Let's fight together.
Now's the time to make the dream come true.
Blanca gripped her sword again, the one discarded on the ground.
The heirloom likely left by her father, meticulously maintained by her mother in life, gleamed sharply as if responding to its master's will.
Her eyes, stripped of all frailty, glared at the enemy as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Bern.
“We'll go with the plan we practiced. That okay?”
“Anything else I need to know?”
“At least four death knights. One of them's the guild master. Be careful—they could charge in anytime. The mist is infused with all sorts of debuffs, so avoid touching it if you can. It also restricts your senses.”
Bern nodded, then raised his voice.
“Renya! No specific orders—handle your side however you see fit!!”
“Y-Yes, sir! Brother!! Good luck! Smash that damn skeleton to bits!!”
At Renya's cursing, the lich's irritated gaze shifted that way.
Renya clamped his mouth shut with a gasp and shrank back, but no one scolded him for the unseemly display.
Why complain about the perfect aggro-support pulling enemy attention on his own?
The moment the lich's focus shifted, Bern and Blanca kicked off the ground simultaneously.
Clang!
Two death knights in black armor blocked their path to guard the lich.
Dull, oil-like sword energy surged from the death knights' blades.
Sword energy enhanced by the lich's spells on top of their knightly prowess—near enough to aura.
Blades capable of matching a Rank 5 warrior in sync or overwhelming anyone below that slashed down to cleave Bern and Blanca apart.
And Bern blocked both sword energies at once.
Kaang!
It was like magic.
Bern's sword met one death knight's blade, deflecting its trajectory wildly off-course, and that twisted strike clashed with the other death knight's sword.
Blanca didn't miss the opening, slamming an intermediate fire spell between the entangled knights.
Bern had already leaped back as if it were only natural.
Kwaaaaang!
The overflowing heat and shockwave spectacularly scattered the purple mist creeping back in.
Blanca charged straight at the lich, while Bern swung at a death knight emerging from the smoke.
The death knight countered with a swing, but Bern casually parried it and severed the knight's arm.
Another death knight thrust at Bern's back, but he spun gracefully like a dancer, using the momentum to pierce the knight's chest.
The death knights staggered, each gravely wounded.
Bern moved to finish them without mercy, but in that instant, two blades targeted him.
Spurt!
Bern's shoulder was sliced, blood spilling to the floor and slowly turning to light before evaporating.
Enemy reinforcements: two.
The death knights had somehow become four.
And one was even emanating aura from its sword—Bern inwardly clicked his tongue.
He pressed the attack to deny them initiative, but purple mist surged in again, thickening.
Instead of charging, the death knights vanished into the mist.
Bern focused mana in his eyes to peer through, but the layered fog concealed everything thoroughly.
It was blatant bait, but Bern had no choice but to bite.
He knew the moment he hesitated, those knights would swarm Blanca instead.
The instant Bern plunged into the mist, three black sword strikes targeted him as if lying in wait.
Aimed at neck, gut, and leg.
Bern's eyes flashed sharply.
Slash!
He dodged the neck strike, blocked the gut one, stomped the leg attack.
His chest was nicked by a fourth strike deliberately timed a beat late, but in exchange, one death knight's head flew skyward.
At a glance, he'd reduced their numbers—but the headless knight calmly picked up its head with its left hand and kept fighting.
Bern let out a small sigh.
'Not easy.'
Just being in this mist was steadily worsening his condition.
His side could barely spot or hear enemies until they closed within a meter, while they probed freely from afar.
Three base Rank 4s boosted by spells, plus a fresh Rank 5 mixed in. Fatal wounds to a human? They ignored them.
No matter that Bern was merely Rank 4 on paper but vastly superior in truth—this situation made instant slaughter impossible.
...Of course, worrying about 'not finishing quickly' instead of victory or defeat already marked him as anything but ordinary.
'This'll take time. Hope Miss Blanca can hold out.'
“Foolish girl. Even without guards, you think filth like you can touch me?”
The purple mist around the lich converged into arrows and fired.
Blanca swung her sword to deflect one aimed at her face, but over three more pierced her body.
The mist composing the arrows—and the spells within—tore through her from the wounds.
Her limbs grew heavy, chills like icy water poured over her, vertigo so intense she could hardly stand.
Yet Blanca gritted her teeth and didn't fall.
Healing and reinforcement magic propped her up as she clung to the lich.
And at arm's-reach distance, she unleashed a fireball.
『Tree Burning Magic』
⟨ Low-Grade Fire Spell ⟩
A low-grade fire spell. Fine for small animals or weak monsters, but laughably feeble against the mighty lich.
“Pathetic, utterly pathetic. All your efforts are futile.”
The lich casually neutralized it by condensing purple mist, as if it wasn't worth lifting a finger.
But Blanca wasn't disappointed.
'He blocked it' means it would have some effect if it hit, at least.
Fire, fire, and fire again.
Every attack blocked, but each time the purple mist around the lich thinned.
The lich tried to shake her off with attack spells in annoyance, but potent AoE at this range risked hitting itself.
Thus, only low-power, friendly-fire-safe spells like the prior arrows.
Blanca parried or dodged with her sword, but couldn't respond perfectly—wounds accumulated.
It couldn't be helped. She wasn't a proper warrior, and even her training with Bern hadn't been long.
But she avoided lethals.
Avoid lethals, endure the rest with spells.
...An exchange ratio that seemed unreasonably lopsided at first glance.
No matter how much fire or sword swings from Blanca, the lich took no damage—yet its casual spells steadily wore her down.
Healing wasn't omnipotent; wounds and poison piled up in her body.
But Blanca didn't care.
'I can fight.'
The child she'd been could only cry helplessly.
But now, even at a disadvantage, she was fighting properly.
'With the spells Mom taught me.'
Standing firm against the foe who stole her most precious thing.
'With the tactics Bern taught me.'
That fact, her comrade who believed in her, granted Blanca endless strength.
“Insolent fly, how dare you pester me!”
Thoroughly vexed by her persistence, the lich summoned undead that had been handling other adventurers.
Couldn't spare the death knights on Bern, but lesser forces remained.
Skeleton soldiers and monsters lunged at Blanca's back on command.
Kwaaaaang!
The fireball Blanca fired without even turning incinerated them to ash.
The lich momentarily fell silent, reading her wordless words in her chillingly gleaming eyes.
-Call as many as you want. I'll burn them all.
“You wench! How dare you, how dare you—a half-baked neither swordsman nor mage!!”
The lich felt like its insides would burst.
This situation shouldn't have been possible.
His dungeon brimmed with hordes of undead and traps; he'd seeded disciples in the human world for contingencies; he'd claimed powerful death knights from Birka Kingdom's chaos corpses.
Yet undead and traps fell to the adventurers, disciples were hunted, death knights flailed against one redhead—and were getting dismantled instead.
He needed to reinforce them and crush that redhead ASAP, but this halfwit kept interfering. Maddening.
When overwhelmingly ahead, the lich had shown poise and dignity—but real threat exposed his shallow nature.
Finally, he pulled his hidden trump.
Sacrifices prepped for Rank 6 ascension, now for survival.
“Foolish humans, know that your arrogance dooms your kin!”
With grand declaration, he activated the spell converting sacrifice souls to power.
And, predictably, nothing happened.
“...?! Why, why not! No, could it be!”
Only then did the lich realize Bern's transfer space linked to the 'door beyond' where he'd stored the sacrifices.
The dungeon was labyrinthine by his design—without intimate knowledge, survivors would've wandered forever—but Bern had a courteous guide.
With sacrifices freed by Bern, the lich's prepared spell fizzled.
His meticulously laid ritual a total failure—the lich's last thread of reason snapped.
“You lowly scum!!!”
The purple mist blanketing the area converged in an instant.
Sensing the massive power wave gathering before her, Blanca shivered.
The lich, who'd evaded aggressively till now, was finally unleashing a proper attack spell.
She tried to stop it somehow, but fire and sword strikes ignored, the lich completed the incantation.
A massive black orb plummeting toward her head.
As Blanca braced for death.
Grab.
Someone embraced her.
—Kwaaaaaang!!