Ch.21Drive Hunt (2)

# Llywelyn’s Tomb

A place considered a hidden piece by the Apostles, including Frey.

At the entrance, a man was digging with a shovel, constructing fortifications.

“Damn it, what am I even doing here? My earth magic isn’t meant for this kind of work.”

“Stop complaining and hurry up with that wall. I need to reinforce it with magic.”

No, let me correct myself.

The man wasn’t digging alone, nor was he by himself.

Instead of a shovel, he was using magic, and beside him was another person in a similar situation.

What remained unchanged was that, regardless of their methods, they were constructing fortifications.

“Fuck, I can’t believe I’m doing the same shit I did in the military even here.”

“Your country has mandatory military service, right? How unfortunate.”

“Shut up…”

At the sarcastic remark, the man cursed, and the other man sneered at him.

But even the sneering man couldn’t truly enjoy himself. After all, his situation wasn’t much different.

The reason they were doing this was to pass the time that seemed to drag on forever.

Though they looked like they wanted to quit immediately, there was a clear reason why they couldn’t.

“If it weren’t for the quest rewards, I would’ve quit right away.”

“Forget rewards—if there weren’t penalties, I would’ve quit immediately.”

The status window and quests that helped Apostles grow quickly.

While they were certainly weapons for the Apostles, they were also double-edged swords that could turn against them at any moment.

Quests provided rewards upon success, but failure resulted in penalties opposite to those rewards.

Even an Evil God couldn’t grant unlimited abilities, so this was a process of weeding out to create stronger servants.

“Sigh, maybe I should’ve stayed in Melun’s Cave… I came looking for a big score, but it was empty. Total scam.”

“At least you don’t have to do this manual labor. Safety first is always best, but I fell for some lazy guy’s sweet talk.”

“Are you done talking? You were the first to follow when I shared the information!”

The two men bickered but continued working diligently.

They had to do this job anyway, and they wanted to finish quickly, though that was just a secondary reason.

“That Executioner guy got lucky with one overpowered item and now he’s playing king. I’m so jealous!”

“Keep your voice down about that stuff. I don’t want to die because of something you said.”

Behind them was someone who could execute them with proper justification.

That’s why they couldn’t slack off even if they wanted to.

Still, fortunately, their efforts were paying off as the earthen wall gradually began to take the form of a fortress.

“At least we can see the end now that we’re working hard.”

The tall wall and the reinforcement magic cast upon it.

Although the wall was made of earth, it was sufficient to serve as a fortress.

It would stop most soldiers’ spears and arrows.

As long as no bombs came flying, this fortress would hold.

Yes, as long as no bombs came flying.

BOOM!!!

With a massive explosion, part of the nearly completed earthen fortress collapsed in an instant.

The men standing on the earthen wall weren’t caught in the explosion, but they fell to the ground along with the collapsing walls.

“Wha… what…?”

“An… attack…?”

The men, in a state of panic, could barely see a foot in front of them due to the dust and were only able to scan their surroundings.

Then, a voice reached their ears.

It was a voice so enchanting that they could almost be mesmerized by it alone.

“If it had been completed and treated as a fortress, it might have been a bit troublesome.”

“Who’s there?!”

The man tried to regain his composure and cleared away the dust obstructing his vision.

Then, a white-haired succubus appeared.

“First, you two.”

Slash-

The sight of that succubus became the last memory of the men’s lives.

* * *

“I never dreamed they would have completed the fortress to this extent already.”

I shook the blood off my sword and looked around.

Thanks to something one of the Apostles did at the end, the area was clean without a speck of dust.

The view was so clear that it was hard to believe the massive earthen wall had just collapsed in the explosion.

But as if to prove that what had just happened wasn’t a lie, a small hill had formed around the entrance to the tomb.

‘I guess it worked out well in the end.’

If the fortress had been completed, it probably wouldn’t have collapsed with just one magic bomb. In that case, I might have needed to use more of my limited supply of magic bombs.

But in the end, the wall was cleanly destroyed.

The collapsed wall even served to block the retreat path.

It would block my escape if I needed to flee, but I just had to make sure that situation didn’t arise.

“So what now? Do we go inside?”

“That’s one option… but there’s no need to jump into a place that might be full of traps.”

Despite the considerable noise from above, no one came out from inside.

Judging by the feeling of being watched, they were probably using some kind of surveillance magic, but there was no further movement.

It was obvious they wanted me to come inside.

“Then I guess we’ll have to go with that method.”

I had no intention of playing along, and Lilly, as if she had anticipated this, immediately began gathering magic power to control the flow of wind.

I matched Lilly’s actions by taking out a second potion from my chest and throwing it toward the entrance.

The potion I threw was different from the bomb I had used earlier.

Crash.

Rather than the violent sound of an explosion, there was the sharp sound of breaking glass.

Simultaneously, the liquid that flowed from the glass reacted with the air and began to burn vigorously.

“Let’s see how long they can hold out.”

Lilly, who had been controlling the wind flow, supplied air to the fire, quickly increasing its size.

At the same time, she began to direct all the smoke from the growing fire into the tomb.

‘The tomb has no ventilation system, let alone an escape route other than the main entrance.’

Unless they had dug a secret passage, but they wouldn’t have had time for that.

Even if they tried to purify the air with magic, that couldn’t last forever.

Indeed.

“Cough!! Cough!!”

Apostles began to emerge from inside one by one.

“That damn woman…!”

“Some of you deal with her, the rest put out the fire!”

Their strength didn’t seem much different from the Apostles who had been building the wall.

It seemed their leader was sending out pawns first to extinguish the fire and wear down my stamina rather than coming out personally.

One of the Apostles who had escaped from the tomb drew his sword and charged at me.

“Die!!”

“Don’t charge in without thinking!”

Another Apostle behind him tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

Slash.

Before the sword-wielding Apostle could do anything, I was half a step faster and cut his throat.

‘That one must be the commander.’

I looked at the woman who had been giving orders all along.

Small stature. Pointed ears, brown skin, and gray hair.

“A dark elf, I see.”

“Indeed, and quite young by elf standards.”

Elves have long childhoods.

They’re treated as children until they’re 20 and have their coming-of-age ceremony at 50.

At a glance, she looked about middle school age, so I guessed she was around 30 years old.

‘Because her body is young, they trained her in command instead of combat?’

The typical growth path for dark elves was ranger or assassin.

So her command abilities instead of combat skills were quite unique.

How was she raised, and what abilities did she possess?

As a gamer, I wanted to analyze more, but unfortunately, I couldn’t.

“She’s using CC and curses! Get her!”

Attacks aimed at killing me were coming from the front.

Two arrows flying from a distance.

A berserker charging from the front.

Two daggers from an assassin sneaking up from behind.

These attacks would be difficult to counter with my feet bound.

So I needed to remove the debuffs first.

‘Undead Binding and Undead Curse, just an ordinary necromancer.’

I drew upon my aura and made my golden eyes glow slightly.

Instantly, all the undead binding me fell away.

“What…?!”

The necromancer wore an expression of disbelief at what had just happened.

Even I, who prided myself on knowing most things, was surprised when I first realized this ability.

However, instead of being surprised, he should have informed his allies that my debuffs had been removed.

After all, two of them were charging at me, trusting in the debuffs placed on me.

The first to reach me were the two arrows.

I could have easily dodged them by moving my legs, but instead, I cut both arrows with my sword.

Seeing this, the berserker and the assassin smiled as if they had gained the upper hand.

I moved my body quickly, mocking their smiles, freeing my feet that had been fixed to the ground.

First, I grabbed the approaching assassin by the neck and made him collide with the berserker.

The berserker tried to slow down, but their speed was already too great, and they collided. The assassin died instantly.

Meanwhile, the necromancer, having regained his senses, prepared a berserk curse.

The target of the curse wasn’t me but the berserker.

‘A berserker with a berserk curse build is pretty standard…’

“I’ve seen berserk transformations too often since coming here.”

I threw the dagger dropped by the dead assassin at the necromancer.

Perhaps he trusted the berserker in front of him.

The necromancer died with the dagger embedded between his eyes, unable to cast even a basic barrier.

And the berserker, who had been preparing to receive the berserk buff, couldn’t react to my subsequent sword strike and lost his head.

Seeing this, the dark elf who had been busy putting out the fire looked at me as if I were a monster.

“How are we supposed to deal with that…?”

Lilly’s reaction wasn’t as serious, but she spoke with a playful tone, as if impressed by my growth.

“Our Frey~ Maybe it’s because you’re in your growth phase, but your growth rate is incredible.”

“I am a fast-growing sapling, after all.”