episode_0029

After explaining the timing to Linus, I ended the communication.

I thought I would need to persuade him, but it was surprising that he just nodded once and lowered his head.

Well, now he must truly believe in me.

If not in an old-timer like me, then who can you trust?

Watching Linus draw the aggro of anger after the communication barrier disappeared, I descended from the back of my mount, Ahhlak, and walked towards that direction.

“Where are you going?”

Alice.

Where else?

“I’m going to that guy.”

Isn’t the direction quite obvious?

In response to my words, Alice, like Linus nodding in agreement, furrowed her brow briefly before relaxing and saying,

“I’ll go too.”

“…Huh?”

Where to?

There!

Pointing with my finger, Alice just nodded without any change in expression.

Hmm…

Of course, Alice would be helpful.

It’s because she’s a top-tier tank in the game.

Coming from a fallen family, honing her skills for revenge, and transforming herself through numerous real-life experiences and desperate efforts, the in-game Alice must have been brought along.

At least when it came to tanking, Alice was an incredible talent.

But not right now.

She hasn’t even enrolled in the academy yet, hasn’t grown immensely like in the game, nor has she experienced much.

In reality, bringing her here was akin to bringing her along to gain experience points.

Investment is necessary for the future.

But she wants to come with me.

I smiled at Alice, who was looking at me eagerly, and replied,

“No.”

Should a complete newbie who hasn’t even enrolled in the academy follow an old-timer on this path? At least master three essential tanking skills before coming along, rookie!

Before Alice could react, I looked at Ahhlak and Rain and said with my eyes,

“Hold her back so she can’t follow.”

Faced with the unfair task of suddenly having to restrain the youngest daughter of a powerful figure, they protested with their eyes, but since they had received such good weapons as rewards, they had no choice but to hold Alice from both sides.

“What is this?!”

“I’ll be back.”

Ignoring Alice’s farewell, I walked steadily towards the guy.

Watching the guy stomping around, destroying the ground, I pondered.

First, I need to draw the aggro… But since the guys are busy trying to kill each other, will the aggro be easily drawn?

Approaching close enough that shouting should be quite audible, I finally spoke up.

“For thousands, no, tens of thousands of years, abandoned and exiled, unable to accept it, I found my way into the smelly orc’s body only to end up like this. Isn’t it truly an empty life?”

『….Nenooo–!!!!!!!!』

Wow, the aggro is serious.

How did a single word manage to attract so much aggro?

Truly the provocation skill proportional to our magma sensei, Yakuzha-like face.

To completely distract him, I continued speaking.

“We were not abandoned!!!”

“Heh heh… If you weren’t abandoned, why isn’t your father appearing at this moment? You know the truth deep down…”

“Die!!”

【Parry】

-Kwahng!!

Seething with anger, emitting an even more ominous aura, I precisely parried the guy’s fist as he tried to interrupt.

-Thud

Without a 0.0001-second error, I perfectly parried, yet even so, a slight shock caused my left arm to break.

Well, is it because of the intense anger or is my body too fragile?

Come to think of it, they seem similar.

But just now, as I let my left arm hang and checked with my right hand, I confirmed.

I can do this.

Leaving my less mobile left arm behind, I stood to the right of the guy, facing him.

He swung his fist with his left hand, which was fine, but what I aimed for was his right hand.

If he swings with his left hand again, it might get tricky, but since I’m here, I won’t bother swinging my left hand, which is planted on the ground.

“Crush them like insects—!!!!”

And fortunately, this time I swung my right arm.

Like a cactus, with various weapons stuck in it, my broken right arm.

As my right arm swung, naturally, calmly with my right arm, I paired up.

Ignoring the broken right arm, I tap one of the weapons stabbed into my right leg with a charm (破魔).

What’s needed is not overwhelming power but control.

Using the charm (破魔) energy at its peak like when the guy first arrived to strike his neck is foolish.

There’s no certainty that he’ll be hit, it’s too much of a gamble.

And once all the charms are used up, arrogance definitely surfaces.

I’ll try to control it my way, but arrogance unconsciously changes my thoughts and values.

If I let it change me bit by bit, it’ll be a big problem.

For now, except for Elise and Gumsung, I don’t intend to kill anyone.

So, I came up with this method.

It started with blessing the weapon stabbed into the guy’s right arm with a charm.

First, when I let go of his arm, I confirmed the energy maintaining its form within the weapon stuck in his arm.

Second, after letting go of his arm and hitting a weapon while infusing new energy into it.

It’s for resonance.

As I mentioned before, there’s a moment when his energy depletes every time he attacks when he’s enraged beyond a certain point.

Resonance targets that depleted moment.

The energy from the charm I tapped creates a ripple like throwing a stone into a lake.

Each ripple touching a weapon becomes a new starting point, creating a new ripple, colliding, vanishing, advancing together, amplifying.

Collide, vanish, strengthen,

Gather self-power, interfere, resonate, triggering an explosion from within.

Wave Energy 波動氣 Vihaan-style

Resonance Interference – Burst 共鳴 干涉 – 爆

-Splish..Boom!!!!

The supreme energy bursts forth, shattering here and there, twisting and exploding his arm.

With minimal effort, I devoured one of his arms.

If I were to do this alone, I would have broken all my limbs and crawled around, but thanks to those who prepared the groundwork, I succeeded.

“What have you done..”

-Kwaaang!!!

In a moment of anger and confusion, a hidden arrow flies towards his heart like a dagger.

Instinctively or predictably, using his remaining left arm, he blocks the arrow, but it wasn’t an easily blockable arrow.

His only remaining arm, the left one, suffers a wound severe enough to expose the bone.

“At this level..!!”

Losing one arm, with the other arm crippled, calling this ‘at this level’ might seem absurd, but we know.

That insane monster can’t be defeated at this level.

But everyone forgets one thing.

Our guild’s dealer isn’t me, nor is it a high elf shooting arrows like that.

“To have this level of skill twice in one day… Phew…”

Appearing behind the guy who’s lost his mind, a woman grabs her sword and breathes out sharply before swinging the sword.

Yuria Style 改

Power Slash – Sever 斬

Sword Master Linus Noisden.

She is our main dealer.

———————!

For a moment, it felt like the world had stopped.

Blinking, breathing, even smiling, everything seemed to slow down along with my actions.

In this slowed-down world, Vihaan saw it.

In the frozen world, the only moving figure, the woman slowly extending her sword.

‘…Could it be?’

Watching the slowly moving sword swiftly sever the neck of rage, I locked eyes with Linus wielding the sword.

She looked at me, the only one moving in this frozen world, her eyes widening in surprise, then softening as she smiled.

And at that moment, the world began to reclaim its original time.

-Degururu.. Tuk.

To others, in the blink of an eye, a head that could cut through the sky and roll on the ground.

In the paused world, I saw the failed anger expressed by many emotions as I looked at the sword splitting my neck.

A world beyond the boundaries that only transcendent beings can properly perceive and act upon.

Although my head throbbed from briefly experiencing that world, inwardly, I cheered.

[I experienced the boundary without transcending…]

This is an achievement as well.

I’ve said it before, but the more achievements you gather, the better.

Achievements are ultimate material later, right?

Should I say they’re conditions, not materials?

Anyway, what I mean is this.

As I watched those cheering with throbbing heads, I mentioned something I had remembered earlier.

“Why is there a hill behind…? Oh, is it because this guy destroyed all the land? Impressive, really. Anyway, isn’t Akat passed out behind there? Please kill that guy even if he wakes up. He won’t be in his right mind.”

I asked the exhausted Linus and the trembling High Elf for one last favor.

Even if he’s unconscious, it’s better to ask another transcendent being for help since Akat is a transcendent being too.

Linus just acknowledged it and left, while the High Elf glared at me but immediately ran over when I mouthed ‘Dryad.’

…Simple-minded kid.

Thinking I was finally done, I felt like collapsing and sleeping right away.

The cleanup… Well, the subordinates and the other gentlemen will take care of it.

After going this far, they wouldn’t ask me to clean up, would they?

Even though the items are empty this time, thinking about other achievements brings a smile to my face.

And maybe I can enter the academy without any issues… Why is it so noisy?

I need to stop mishearing things when I concentrate. I turned my head towards the noisy people around me and

“Back! Back!!!!”

I saw them shouting at me slowly as if in slow motion.

With a chilling sensation down my spine, in the slowed-down world, I turned my face back and

‘…What?’

I saw the enraged corpse swinging its left arm, which was severed like a guillotine, towards me, like a ghostly apparition.

It wasn’t a resurrection of anger.

I don’t know why, but I was sure it wasn’t that.

So… a final outburst?

A trickster?

Does he want to take me as a trickster, moving with a missing neck and one arm?

Taking advantage of both transcendent beings going towards Akat.

I feel like I provoked this situation quite a bit; a bitter smile crept onto my face.

As my head pounds and blood drips, I continue to consider my options.

Evade?

If my physical abilities can dodge that, then all my struggles were for nothing.

If my body blocks it, I’ll just die.

Shall I go hand in hand with anger to the afterlife?

Spill it?

This is the most likely option, but time is running out.

My left and right arms are badly broken, lacking strength, and all that remains are my legs, but 【Paring】 is a skill 20 times more delicate than I thought.

If not used perfectly at the perfect timing, spilling is no different from just getting hit.

But now?

Can’t do it.

Can’t match perfectly.

Yeah.

What came to mind was sacrificing one leg.

Even if I can’t match perfectly, just enough so that fist doesn’t crush me.

Even if I lose a leg due to not parrying properly, I’ll walk around with a prosthetic like Redfoot.

Honestly, wouldn’t a sturdy prosthetic be stronger than the original leg?

Thinking that way, I feel much better.

I’m doing this to get a sturdier leg. As I brainwash myself and lift my leg, a voice filled with pure and intense emotions reaches my ears.

“【Sprint】”

Accompanied by my favorite sprint, appeared… Elise??

Why are you here??

Zooming through the distance at breakneck speed, was I really that close by?

Wait, how did I manage to dash like that?

I gazed at Alice with widened eyes.

Time resumed its normal course as my final punch struck, sending Alice flying with her shield in place instead of me.

After that final act of defiance, his body and head scattered into dust, vanishing into silence.

Someone crashed into me, driving me towards the rising dust, shouting,

“Alice—!!!!!!!”