85 – 21st Floor: I Will Protect You.

“Oh, what do I do?”

“Let’s get you dressed first. They won’t be able to enter the cave anyway.”

I pull myself together and prepare for the attack.

I can feel my body recovering after the deed. The <Tireless Onahole> effect has activated.

‘Even better. At least I don’t have to worry about being surrounded by cavalry here.’

There are no horses to protect, and Irene can just stay behind me.

“They’re near here!”

“Search the area!!”

At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before we’re discovered.

‘Guess I’ll have to strike first.’

I use the <Stealth> skill on the Asanagi Armor, which I’ve never used before, and sneak out of the entrance.

Then, I slowly approach the direction where the commander’s voice is coming from.

“Commander! We’ve found a cave here!”

The moment the commander turns his gaze towards the cave,

I calculate my remaining divine power, activate all buffs to level 3,

[Full Charge Overspear]

[Sonic Spear]

Using these two skills, I simply stab with strength and speed.

“Hmm!?”

The commander notices something is wrong and turns his head, but he can’t block or dodge it.

As his head turns, the spear pierces through his armor and shatters his heart.

Crack!!

“Ugh!”

He doesn’t even scream, blood gushing from his heart as he dies.

“The, the commander is down!! It’s this way!”

Ignoring the enemies quickly forming a siege, I rush back into the cave.

“Kyaaah!!”

It took a little time to break through the siege, and a soldier who carelessly entered the cave was trying to drag Irene away.

Crack!

As I pierce his neck from behind, killing him, I see Irene in her modern clothes.

She’s wearing black dolphin shorts and a white crop top, which is a bit awkward, but it suits her in its own way…

‘No, this isn’t the time to admire her…’

Quickly regaining my senses, I hand Irene the dead soldier’s sword.

“Irene, just in case, if anyone attacks, fight back.”

“Huh…? F-fight?”

Leaving the slightly dazed Irene behind, I rush back to the cave entrance.

“The enemies are trapped!! Kill the escort knight, and bring the princess back alive!”

I thought they would be flustered by the commander’s death, but the adjutant immediately took command and quickly recovered from the confusion.

The enemies are pushing into the cave in perfect formation, maintaining two rows.

The width of the cave is about 2 meters.

It’s a size that can be considered narrow or wide, depending on your perspective.

Before they can get any further in, I rush out and attack.

Thwack!!

The spear flashes in the dark cave.

“Ugh!”

“Aaargh!!!”

‘You’ll regret coming in here…’

Every time the spear moves, the soldiers who entered first fall one after another.

[Light]

A mage creates light, illuminating the cave, but it doesn’t change much.

They couldn’t beat me on flat ground while protecting Irene, so they have no chance now.

I grind up the soldiers and knights entering the cave like a meat grinder.

“……”

“Th, this is…”

“A, a Spearmaster…?”

Thump…

“You shall not pass.”

I stand at the cave entrance, holding my spear, guarding the entrance.

In an instant, a mountain of corpses piles up in front of the cave, and bright red blood flows out of the cave like a stream.

I can feel the enemies hesitating, overwhelmed by my imposing presence and the corpses scattered on the ground.

“Go in!! She’s alone. She’ll eventually get tired!”

The adjutant shouts desperately, but the enemies are frozen, not moving an inch.

Who would knowingly walk to their death, especially when it’s not even an honorable death, but just a dog’s death?

The soldiers and even the knights are staring at the commander as if they’ve planted roots in the ground, begging for their lives.

“Tch, damn it… Forget going in. Unleash ranged attacks!!”

Whether reinforcements have arrived or not, they start shooting arrows and magic again, but I block them all.

I blocked attacks aimed at the horses from all directions, so why wouldn’t I be able to block this?

“Tch… That damn bitch…”

While the adjutant is just gritting his teeth,

Thud thud thud…

I sense a larger number of troops approaching.

‘What is it, reinforcements? Whose reinforcements?’

If it’s our side’s reinforcements sent by the Empire, the trial will be over.

And finally.

‘Oh… Is it our side?’

I can see knights with the Arcadia Empire emblem, but…

“…….?”

Why aren’t they fighting each other?

Rather, they seem to recognize each other, the attackers waving at the Imperial soldiers.

“Support has arrived!!”

But the Imperial side doesn’t seem too happy about the greeting.

“Tsk tsk tsk, you still haven’t taken care of it!! Do you know how furious His Majesty the Emperor is right now!”

The middle-aged knight from the Empire shouts, and the leader of the attackers protests as if he’s been wronged.

“No, this is partly your fault. You didn’t say the escort knight was such a superhuman.”

“Shut up, you useless trash. Well, this works out just fine. We’ll say the Princess was killed by your Servion Kingdom, not the Luxendark Kingdom. Well, you were our next target anyway.”

“Wh, what…?”

Suddenly, the situation changes.

‘What is this…’

Shick!

“Kill all these useless vermin!!”

“Aaaaargh!!! Why!!”

“We were just following orders… Cough!”

‘What the hell is going on…’

I thought they were allies, but the Imperial soldiers are suddenly slaughtering the ones who attacked us. Due to the overwhelming difference in skill, the Servion Kingdom soldiers can’t even put up a proper resistance and are all killed.

Completely terrified, two of them come to the cave, so I feel sorry for them and let them go. They don’t even care about Irene and run away like crazy in the opposite direction.

‘What’s going on…’

One thing is for sure.

Those Imperial soldiers are not on our side.

“Pichina Ibenstein, surrender. The Princess must die here.”

“What nonsense are you spouting? I have no intention of backing down, so just report that she’s dead and move on.”

I go into the cave and throw out a torn and bloodstained piece of the Princess’s dress.

“Here, use this as evidence. You don’t want to risk it either, right? I’ll take care of the Princess in a quiet mountain. So don’t bother us.”

Resolving the trial with brute force isn’t always the answer.

‘Besides, this isn’t a trial that’s meant to be solved with brute force…?’

If the previous opponent was a combination of knights and trained soldiers, this time it’s a combination of knights and knight commander-level individuals.

There are even mages who look like a magic corps lined up behind them.

I’ve seen them in the data I researched.

The Empire’s special forces that operate in the shadows.

They’ve all come here.

“We don’t need that. We need the Princess’s head alive. There will be no further negotiations, so decide carefully. We are showing you mercy.”

‘They’re very firm…’

I’ve never thought that I lacked strength, and I didn’t think it would happen in the future either.

‘Why are such skilled people appearing as enemies on just the 21st floor…’

At least two Swordmasters.

A Swordmaster is an existence that cannot be compared to a knight who simply uses aura.

Each one is a transcendent being that can be considered a national power.

I thought there were only five in the Empire, but I happened to meet two of them here.

With my current strength, I can barely handle one. I’ve been fighting since yesterday, and I’ve used up all my divine power, so I’m running on empty.

‘Is this a trial designed for someone to fail…’

It feels like the heavens are forcing Irene to abandon me and run away.

“Hoo… I understand. Give me a little time to think.”

“I’ll give you exactly 5 minutes. If I see any signs of you running away, the negotiations are off, so keep that in mind.”

5 minutes.

That’s enough time.

First, I recover my almost depleted divine power by drinking breast milk. Although I can’t recover properly due to the potion addiction symptoms from the 3rd one, I still recover as much as possible.

‘I roughly understand the situation.’

It seems the Empire has chosen the Princess’s death as a means to start a war. If the justification is clear, other allied nations will be reluctant to participate.

There’s a high probability that they were planning to use the Servion Kingdom guys to kill the Princess the moment she crossed the Luxendark border.

‘But those guys said they would save the Princess…? Did they have different ulterior motives…?’

5 minutes later.

I check the remaining amount of divine power.

Divine Power (351/2887)

‘I have no choice. I couldn’t recover as much as I thought, but I have to go with this.’

“I’ll hand over the Princess.”

I can feel the Princess flinching in the cave at my choice.

And immediately, I turn around, lift her by the waist, and…

“Pichina… I, I’m… Huh?”

Taking advantage of the fact that the guys outside are momentarily off guard, I quickly run towards the opposite side of the cave.

“…Huh?”

“She’s running… away? Catch her!!”

They hesitated for a moment at my lie, buying me about 5 seconds.

“Eh…?”

And Irene, thinking she was really being abandoned, looks up at me with wide eyes. I can’t help but smile at her innocent expression.

“Hahaha!! Did you really think I would abandon you, Irene? Don’t worry, I’ll protect you no matter what.”

‘I don’t want to fail this time.’

The trial on the 21st floor doesn’t have a high mortality rate. But it’s one of the trials with the highest mission failure rate.

And the trial on the 21st floor is the trial where I experienced failure for the first time in my previous life.

At that time, I had no choice but to kill Diana with my own hands to survive. I can still feel that vivid sensation in the hand holding the spear.

‘I don’t want to feel that helpless feeling again.’

If it was just a casual relationship like yesterday, I might have been able to abandon her, but how can I abandon a woman whose virginity I took!

I kept telling myself not to get attached to the virtual characters in the Tower, but when the moment of choice comes, it’s difficult for anyone to make a choice without emotion.

But I have a plan.

I also have more strength than in my previous life.

‘I have to do it… No, I will definitely do it.’

I can feel someone quickly following me right behind.

‘He’s fast…’

Bang!!!

While running through the cave, I hit the ceiling of the cave, causing stalactites to fall.

“Do you think you can stop me with that!”

Someone is chasing me quickly on their own.

‘Is it a Swordmaster?’

The young Imperial Swordmaster with blonde hair and blue eyes is chasing me closely. True to his energetic youth, he rushed out alone.

Even though I didn’t have much time to properly investigate the Empire, I think I know that guy’s name.

The youngest Swordmaster in the Empire’s history.

A commoner who became a Swordmaster at just 21 years old.

Sword Saint Kyle.

The fact that he’s accurately following me through the cave where even light doesn’t properly enter means that his senses are at least on par with mine.

Swoosh!!

“Kyaaaa!!”

Irene screams as she sees the sword swinging from behind.

He’s catching up to my speed and swinging his sword.

‘Damn it…’

He’s not the only one I’m afraid of.

There’s also the Swordmaster with similar or even greater skills, and the numerous knights and mages supporting him.

‘I have to avoid encountering the main force at all costs.’

Bang bang bang!!

I keep hitting the ceiling.

Kyle dodges the stalactites and chases after me.

“Stop your meaningless resistance and die!”

Whoong!!

I barely dodge his sword filled with blue aura and hit the ceiling.

Bang bang bang!!!

“With just this…”

And then,

Thump… Crash!!!!

“What!?”

The ceiling of the cave collapses, burying Kyle.

 

86 – 21st Floor: Sword Master Kyle

Kugugugugung…!

My aim wasn’t just to drop a stalactite to obstruct his path.

The cracks in the ceiling.

Even in a cave, there are bound to be underground water veins or empty spaces in the ceiling.

The reason I kept hitting the ceiling was to feel the sounds and vibrations as I struck it, to find those weakened areas.

Kwagwagwagwagwang!!!

Kyle escapes through the collapsing ceiling, but this was exactly what I was aiming for.

Now the enemy is divided.

Divide and conquer.

The battlefield I wanted has been created.

“Haha… Did you think you could win with just yourself?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing? Do you really think you can beat me alone?”

I put Irene down and properly grip my spear.

He also holds his sword straight and takes a ready stance, staring at me.

We stare intently at each other through the ominous blue aura. I feel like his blue eyes are piercing through the darkness and seeing right through me.

Gulp…

A tense moment.

I made the first move. I scrape together the remaining divine power, stacking all the buffs four times over, and charge forward.

[Sonic Spear]

Using a skill, the spear flies towards him incredibly fast, but

Clang!

As if expecting it, the spear is smoothly deflected, and

Kagagagagak!!

He uses his sword to ride my spear and charge forward. He’s coming at me with the speed to tear me apart in one go.

It’s too late to dodge. My center of gravity is already leaning forward.

Just before the sword rides up and cuts my hand, I release the spear and push him aside.

Swish!

My shoulder is slightly grazed as the sword passes, and I catch the spear spinning in the air again, blocking his backswing.

Clang!!

Because I blocked it in an unstable position, I’m pushed back and crash into the wall.

Thwack!!

Ignoring the pain in my head, I regain my senses to see a blade shining with blue aura right in front of me.

‘Crap…’

I hurriedly roll to dodge, but as if he expected it, he retracts his sword and slashes my back.

Swish!

“Kugh…”

The wound is shallow.

Calmly, I grab my spear again and aim it at him.

“What the hell do you do to make your body so tough? You’re the first one to survive after being grazed by my aura. You should have been cut in half…”

‘Damn it…’

I was careless.

Having won against hordes of Sword Masters in my past life, I underestimated the title of Sword Master too much.

‘It’ll be different now.’

This time, he charges at me.

He zigzags, stepping from side to side, and approaches at high speed, even launching aura blades vertically.

I take two steps back, dodging the aura blades, and lightly stab the spear into his path.

Just like before, he tries to ride the spear and slash, but I lightly stab the back of his hand with the already retracted spear and pull back.

He protected his hand with aura, but my spear pierces through his aura and wounds him. Seeing the blood flowing from his hand, his face slightly contorts, and he looks at me with serious eyes.

Now we’re back to an equal footing. We’re wary of each other, not letting our guard down.

This time, I move first.

I feint an attack, pretending to stab his right leg, but aim for his wrist, but he doesn’t fall for it. Instead, I barely manage to stop him from riding the spear and charging again.

‘He’s not easy…’

An unparalleled genius swordsman.

Sword Saint Kyle.

His pure agility and strength seem slightly higher than mine. Even his swordsmanship and improvisation in close combat are flawless.

I don’t give him time to think and thrust my spear.

In the end, the fight between a spear user and a swordsman inevitably comes down to a battle of distance. No matter how fast the speed increases or how high the level, the reaction speed and prediction of movements also increase accordingly.

Of course, Kyle knows this too.

He tries to close the distance, even at the cost of taking minor injuries. If he can close the distance just once, he can inflict a fatal wound on me.

I desperately maintain the distance. I concentrate all my mind to maintain a range where I can attack, but he can’t.

I don’t use excessive force to thrust.

I pretend to thrust, pretend to approach.

I pretend to give up the distance, pretending not to, gradually wearing down the opponent.

Even just maintaining the distance and applying pressure will cause the opponent to collapse first.

-That’s the case for ordinary swordsmen, but Sword Saint Kyle didn’t collapse easily.

‘Damn it.’

I think I know why he was given the title of Sword Saint.

The brilliantly shining blue aura.

And those blue eyes that shine brightly, trying to find a solution even in a frustrating situation.

He constantly approaches me, but minimizes the damage from my attacks. He’s gradually adapting to my attacks and trying to find a way to break through.

Dozens, hundreds of exchanges have passed, but the biggest wound is the one on the back of his hand at the beginning, and the rest are just slight scratches.

Now I have almost no divine power left to use buffs. As time passes, I’ll only be able to maintain a mere 1-2 stacks.

But the same goes for him.

Aura is originally a power for short-term battles. It seems he’s also minimizing the use of aura, but even that is already a huge amount by ordinary swordsman standards.

The fight is prolonged.

Now it’s become a battle of who gets tired first, rather than who defeats the other.

And that was what both of them were aiming for.

The moment he became accustomed to the simple and repetitive movements, Kyle moved first.

The aura of his sword grows, and a huge cross-shaped aura blade flies towards me.

Kwagwagwagwagwa!!!

The aura blade fills the cave, tearing through the walls as it flies wildly. The only places to dodge are the lower right and lower left.

No, I don’t need to dodge downwards.

I jump upwards, dodging into the upper right space.

The secret technique of the Mecarto family, Space Footwork.

With the mysteries of Space Footwork, sticking to any wall as if it were the floor is a piece of cake.

“What?”

Looking down, the horizontally flying aura blade splits into two, sweeping away the space below.

Aura blades that split with a time difference.

“……”

To deliberately create a place to dodge and set a trap there… Even though he’s an enemy, there’s a lot to learn from that technique.

Even if I had blocked the aura, Kyle would have probably struck my neck at that moment.

It was his hidden ultimate move, but unfortunately, it misses.

He aims for me in the air, but I naturally parry and move smoothly along the wall.

“What is that?”

He seems quite flustered as I move along the wall, but he calmly blocks the spear.

But it doesn’t end here.

[Divine Power Release]

[Stealth]

I release all the remaining divine power and hide my body with stealth.

Normally, even if I used stealth, I would be easily detected by a Sword Master like Kyle, but the divine power scattered in the air temporarily disrupts his senses.

Of course, if I move, he’ll immediately notice the difference, but at least I can hide my body for a few seconds.

And from above him, I look straight at him,

[Full Charge Over Spear]

A skill from an equipment item that doesn’t use divine power, along with stealth.

It has an absurd restriction that requires me to stop moving for 5 seconds, but it’s a skill that can unleash twice the power at once. If successful, I can kill him instantly with overwhelming power!

‘Please…!!’

1 second.

Kyle looks around in confusion.

2 seconds.

He spreads his mana to find me, but fails as it collides with the residual divine power in the air.

3 seconds.

He swings his sword at the spot where I disappeared, but of course, I’ve long since left that spot.

4 seconds.

Kyle closes his eyes and concentrates.

‘It’s over now!’

0.1 seconds before 5 seconds…

Kyle, who is aiming his sword in front of me, flies towards me.

“…!”

I release stealth and quickly dodge.

Swish…

I get another wound on my side, but it ends with only the outer skin being slightly peeled off.

‘Damn it, what a shitty skill… How can 5 seconds be justified!!’

It was a gamble, but unfortunately, it failed. If I had just 0.1 seconds more, he would have been pierced by the spear and died, but I was unlucky.

“Haha, is that all you’ve got!!”

Kyle, pleased that he saw through my plan, swings his sword.

I barely escape his range and parry with my spear. After exchanging hidden cards, the situation flows similarly to before.

But time is not on my side.

I don’t know when Kyle’s mana will run out, but my buff duration is running out.

‘No, don’t get impatient.’

A spear user must be calm. Rather, I must make the opponent impatient.

‘The opponent will also be impatient.’

Kyle doesn’t know when my buffs will end, or even if they were applied in the first place. He’s calculating his mana and wondering when to gamble again.

Time passes.

Our fight shows no signs of ending at all.

‘How much mana does he have?’

Even for a Sword Master, is it possible to emit aura for almost an hour?

‘If this goes on, I’ll lose…’

Since I lack divine power, it’s hard to create variables.

With techniques, I can inflict minor wounds, but I can’t overwhelm the opponent.

The opponent is also the greatest genius on the continent, although not as much as me. He’s not an opponent I can easily defeat with minor tricks.

To defeat me, he also shoots energy made of aura like bullets, adjusts the shape of the aura to make it look like there’s more, or even fakes like he’s run out of aura to try to break my stance.

But we don’t achieve any major results, and the stagnant battle repeats.

Then, a variable arises.

“Damn Imperial bastard!! Die!!!”

The two soldiers I let live.

Irene brought them.

They’re trying to stab Kyle in the back, who’s conveniently showing his back…

“You maggots, how dare you!”

Swish!

‘Crap…’

He naturally dodges my spear and swings his sword, killing the two soldiers without even giving them a chance to make an opening.

But the problem isn’t the soldiers.

“Irene!! Run away!”

Irene is fearlessly running towards him with a sword.

‘Damn it…’

I quickly run towards her, but Kyle’s sword is faster.

Clang!!

“Hmm?”

Even though he swung it lightly, Irene deflects the Sword Saint’s sword.

‘This is my chance!’

A small opening created by Irene.

I gather all my strength and thrust with a rapid stab at the confused Kyle.

“Kugh!”

He sensed his death.

Turning backwards in a disrupted stance.

The spear is already approaching at a distance that would inflict a fatal wound even if he dodged.

And his decision is immediate.

“Let’s die together!!!”

To kill the princess in front of him!

And his sword…

Thwack!

Stops 1cm away from Irene’s neck.

His heart is pierced by my spear, fixed like a chicken skewer.

“Ah… I must… kill all the Kingdom bastards…”

Clang!

The strength leaves his hand, and he drops his sword to the ground.

“Hoo…”

Swish!!

As I pull out the spear again, his body limply follows and falls to the ground.

“Yay! We won!!!”

Irene cheers and rejoices.

I’m happy too, but right now, I have more questions than joy.

‘What, how did she do that?’

“Ah, Irene? How did you do it?”

“Oh? Ah, that! Well, I was hiding in the corner so I wouldn’t get caught up in your fight, and it just so happened that the two soldiers you let go were there. So I convinced them, ‘If you help us, I’ll go to your kingdom! Then you’ll be the top contributors to this event!'”

“Yes…?”

“How’s my brain? You didn’t know I was this smart, did you?”

Seeing the triumphant Irene, I feel a bit annoyed, but that’s not the important thing.

“No, not that… Didn’t you deflect the Sword Saint’s sword earlier?”

How on earth?

“That? You taught me, right?”

‘What are you talking about… I never taught a normal girl how to deflect a Sword Master’s sword…’

Of course, the Sword Saint was serious about distributing his strength and magic power, so he didn’t use aura blades and adjusted his strength weakly.

But even so, he’s a Sword Saint…

“You taught me a cool technique! That, what was it… the technique to use the opponent’s strength by going ‘Whirly-whirly!!'”

I definitely taught her something about how to deal with stronger enemies, but I just roughly explained it.

But to use it in actual combat right away…

I don’t know either.

“Anyway, good job. Thanks to you, we survived.”

“Hehe, you’re welcome?”

“Ah… Yes, th, thank you…”

Scratching my head, I give Irene the Sword Saint’s sword, which shines blue even without aura.

“It’ll be perfect for a torch.”

“Yeah, yeah! This is amazing!”

The sword of Kyle, the youngest Sword Master of the Empire.

Became Irene’s torch.

***

I’m carrying Irene on my back and running quickly through the cave.

“I wonder if this has an end?”

“Yes. As soon as we came in, I felt the wind flowing subtly in one direction. There must be an entrance on the other side.”

The cave wasn’t particularly special.

It would be nice if there was some kind of opportunity, but it’s unlikely to come out easily.

After running for about 30 minutes, I start to see light.

“Where should we go now?”

“I don’t know… Shouldn’t we go into some mountain and hide?”

She’s not stupid either.

She knows very well that the Empire, her father the Emperor, was trying to use her as a disposable pawn.

“……..”

Feeling Irene’s slight dejection, I quietly head outside.

And the moment I go outside,

A large sword surrounded by aura suddenly appears from the empty air.