The Overwhelming Power of a High-Rank Adventurer
Ian felt as if he were walking straight into the jaws of death of his own free will.
“Haa…! H-hah…!”
Even as he gasped for air, it didn’t seem to properly fill his lungs. The dark mana crushing down on his body had long since gone beyond a mere heavy pressure. Now it felt like a massive boulder or slab of iron was physically squeezing his entire frame, sending waves of real pain through him.
But he didn’t stop. He kept pushing forward. He knew all too well that collapsing here would accomplish nothing.
All around them, the thorny vine shields traced dizzying arcs through the air, intercepting the skeletons that charged with bone swords raised. It was nothing like before, when they had simply knocked enemies aside. The shields now interlocked like interlocking gears, spinning relentlessly as they tore the approaching foes to pieces without mercy. Thanks to that impenetrable defensive network, Ian was able to climb the mountain range as safely as if he stood in the eye of a storm.
The Shield of Thorny Vines guild members had formed up around Ian, brutally smashing apart the bone monsters that grew stronger with every step. Lucas’s ice magic in particular flashed endlessly, encircling Ian in a vast ring of frost.
“Blizzard Bind!”
At his shout, a freezing blizzard infused with blue light swirled outward in every direction. The bone monsters that had been pouring down like a massive army were instantly trapped inside the vortex.
“Grrrrrgh—! Grk—!”
The monsters lifted into the air couldn’t even resist. They froze solid in an instant and shattered into countless fragments. It was an overwhelming area-of-effect spell that dominated the battlefield. The reassuring sight gave Ian a surge of strength, and he forced power back into his trembling legs.
Before long, the duration of his Detection skill ran out. He activated it again immediately.
Detection
A golden wave rippled outward from him, racing toward the distant horizon once more. In that moment, Ian stepped on a moss-covered root and stumbled.
“Ugh!”
He squeezed his eyes shut in terror, expecting to tumble to the ground—only for a strong arm to suddenly catch him around the waist.
“Whoa!” “Careful there.”
It was Celine. She had appeared as if she’d leaped through space itself. Supporting Ian, she picked up speed. Every time his feet touched the earth, his body shot forward as if riding the wind. Celine was holding him steady while bounding over every uneven patch of ground in long, effortless strides.
That was when something ambiguous brushed against the edge of Ian’s Detection skill as he raced ahead.
Huh…? Is that a dark crystal? But its presence feels way too faint!
He could definitely sense the crystal’s energy, yet its shape remained hazy. Instinctively realizing he had reached the target point, Ian shouted.
“Wait—stop!”
Celine came to an abrupt halt with astonishing braking power. The ground beneath her feet actually sank inward by about five centimeters from the force. As the party stopped, the guild members who had been watching their surroundings gradually closed the distance.
Ian’s legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground. Then he drew the golden waves that had spread in every direction back toward himself. Without realizing it, he had discovered another way to use the Detection skill. He condensed the golden light and fired it straight down, driving it deep into the earth below.
The light pierced the dark ground and sank deeper and deeper. It finally reached roughly 150 ser—about 150 meters—underground.
Ian clearly captured a wicked, horrifying wave that made his heart drop to his feet. It was a top-grade dark crystal, buried at the very heart of the land and activated to its maximum power.
In a voice mixed with both joy and shock, Ian cried out urgently.
“Zenon! I found the dark crystal!”
At his shout, Zenon swept the floating thorny vine shields aside and strode over.
“Where?” “Right here, underneath my feet. But it’s buried much deeper than I expected.”
Zenon narrowed his eyes and stared coldly at the ground Ian was pointing to.
“Exactly how deep?” “Roughly… about 150 ser below!” “Hah. They hid it even more annoyingly than I thought.”
Zenon had Ian retreat a good distance away. As their protected target moved back, the thorny vine shields followed obediently through the air, but no one was paying attention to that sight right now. Ian watched with wide eyes, wondering how on earth they were going to dig through such solid bedrock.
Once he was far enough away, Zenon seemed to exchange a few brief words with the other guild members, then had everyone except himself pull back toward Ian’s position. By now, the bone monsters in the area had been completely wiped out by the Shield of Thorny Vines guild’s merciless assault. Thanks to that, Zenon could begin his work without any interference.
He gripped his twin blades and stood tall, staring down at the ground beneath his feet with an indifferent gaze. For a moment, silence fell. Then his twin swords began to vibrate violently and burst into roaring, deep crimson flames. At the same time, the air all around them twisted as if screaming. Finally, Zenon pointed the tips of his blades downward and slammed them into the ground with a destructive force that left afterimages in their wake.
KWAAAAAAAAANG—!!!!
The earth screamed and shook violently in an instant. The massive tremor racing up through his feet made it impossible for Ian to stay upright. The explosive shockwave that erupted from the sword tips spread outward in concentric circles, shattering the solid strata as if they were thin sheets of glass.
“Ugh!”
Ian instinctively dropped to the ground and covered his head with both arms. A massive cloud of dust and rock fragments surged up like a tidal wave, sweeping across the area. Trees ripped out by the roots and enormous boulders were tossed about like scraps of paper in the storm. Even then, three thorny vine shields formed an iron wall in front of Ian, brutally deflecting the incoming wooden debris.
—THUD! Clang! Clang—! THUDUDUDUNG—!
By the time the deafening roar and storm finally began to subside, Ian lifted his pale face and looked toward where Zenon had been standing.
But Zenon was gone. In his place yawned a bottomless abyss, as if a giant meteor had crashed down—an endless pit that seemed to have no end.
Ian stared blankly at the crater, about to approach the deep chasm, when—
“?!”
The presence of the dark crystal transmitted through his Detection skill had changed completely from before. He had thought it was merely a mana-infused mineral, but now the vitality he sensed writhed as if it were a living creature. As Ian stood with his mouth agape, staring at the mouth of the pit, Bartin clicked his tongue beside him in disbelief.
“Well, well. That black magician has gone completely off the deep end, hasn’t he?”
While Ian tilted his head in confusion, something like a black flash shot up from inside the crater.
“?!?!”
The sight before him left Ian’s jaw hanging open. Filling his entire field of vision was a skeleton wrapped in pitch-black demonic energy so dark it stung the eyes, its tattered cloak fluttering wildly. Around its neck hung a black stone necklace that spewed ominous black flames.
That’s the dark crystal! Then this skeleton is…!
As Ian stood frozen in shock, Lucas spat out the words like a groan.
“The black magician finally sacrificed himself to become a perfect lich.”
Lich! The name of an undead sorcerer who had transcended death—something Ian had only ever read about in fantasy novels—flashed through his mind.
“The black magician turned himself into an undead? How do we kill it?!” “Don’t worry. It’s only about as strong as a boss monster on the thirtieth floor of a labyrinth. Once the captain destroys that crystal, it’ll be over quick.”
Lucas’s voice remained light, but Ian watched the battlefield with tension so thick it felt like his chest might burst. By now, Zenon had leaped out of the crater and was facing the lich head-on.
The moment Zenon erased his presence and swung at the lich’s chest, black flames shot from the creature’s bony hand like a laser. Zenon spun in a half-circle in the blink of an eye, letting the flames slide past him, then used the momentum to slash fiercely into the lich’s side.
Kagagagang—!
It wasn’t the sound of sword meeting bone. A sharp metallic clang like two massive steel masses colliding rang across the area. The lich leaped backward and hurled even fiercer black flames at Zenon.
Kwagwagwagwang!
Zenon lightly jumped to avoid them, but the giant boulders and ancient trees behind where he had stood melted instantly and scattered into ash. From the air, Zenon’s twin blades glowed with a brilliant crimson flame. In the next instant, a massive paired flame slash exploded toward the lich.
Kwakwakwakwa—!
It happened in the span of a breath. The lich had no time to dodge and took the slash head-on.
“Kuaaaaaagh—! You insignificant little adventurer trash!”
Screaming, the lich tumbled across the scorched ground. Its two bony arms had already been shattered and burned away, scattering into the air. Zenon didn’t miss the opening. He closed in above the creature’s head and brought down another vertical slash from midair.
Kwakwakwakwa—!
But the lich had already regenerated its arms. It instantly summoned dozens of skeletons to form a solid bone wall.
Puuuung—!
The skeletons acting as shields exploded and flew in every direction. Taking advantage of the gap, the lich pulled back and released black flames from both hands once more. At that exact moment, Ian caught the cold, delighted smile on Zenon’s lips.
Huh…?
Zenon’s form vanished, leaving only an afterimage. As if he had finished a tedious warm-up, he plunged into the lich’s personal space at a speed beyond imagination.
Kaaang! Kwaaaaang! Kagagagak! “Kuaaaagh—!”
The lich’s limbs began to be mercilessly shredded by Zenon’s twin blades. Even though its recovery speed outpaced the rate at which it was being cut apart, Zenon seemed to be enjoying even that.
Like a red-furred lion toying with a mouse under its paw, every time Zenon’s blades flashed, the lich’s body was broken, regenerated, and crushed again. Ian could only watch the scene of overwhelming domination in stunned silence. Before long, the exchange between Zenon and the lich had gone beyond a simple battle and become something closer to one-sided destruction.
The lich’s black flames melted the earth and sent up thick black smoke, but Zenon simply slipped through the hellish inferno as lightly as mist. Several afterimages sliced through the air, and finally Zenon’s true form came to a halt directly in front of the lich.
The moment the lich let out another grotesque scream and reached out with its bony hand—
Zenon’s twin blades gathered crimson light and traced the simplest, most lethal trajectory. That decisive strike, without the slightest hesitation, tore through the lich’s barrier like paper and drove inward.
The tip of the blade wasn’t aimed at its heart or its head. It was aimed solely at the dark crystal hanging from its neck, radiating pitch-black power.
—Kiiiing!
A piercing resonant sound that stabbed the eardrums shook the entire area. The instant the crimson blade pierced straight through the crystal, the black flames that had seemed as if they would never go out froze in place.
After a brief silence, fine cracks spread across the surface of the dark crystal like a spiderweb.
—Paaaang!
The crystal shattered into tens of thousands of particles without even a scream, scattering into the air. Having lost its source, the lich’s body collapsed limply to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The dark mana that had been violently swirling around the mountain range receded like an ebbing tide, and the entire area fell into cold silence.
Zenon lightly shook the flames from his twin blades and murmured in a low voice.
“It’s over.”
Watching that overwhelming conclusion, Ian finally let out the breath he had been holding. It was the moment the devastating power of a high-rank adventurer was burned indelibly into his heart.