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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Just as I had done upon entering this dungeon, I used Riding Qi to Defy Gravity to soar into the sky, rose to the same height as the leader Wyvern, and then used Walking on Air to charge towards it.
Then, the leader Wyvern, startled, took flight and began to flee from me.
“…What…?”
It’s suddenly running away…?
It was to the point where it was hard for me to believe that this was the same creature that had roared at me just a moment ago.
No, this wasn’t an incomprehensible action if it had felt the difference in our levels, but….
I thought that as I chased after it.
A few dozen seconds after I started chasing it, I was able to realize a few facts.
‘As expected, it’s no ordinary creature…!’
As if to prove that it wasn’t a boss monster for nothing, the leader Wyvern’s specs were on a different level from the other Wyverns I had killed just before.
‘First, the speed.’
Its speed was slightly faster than my running speed while using Walking on Air.
The distance wasn’t widening because I was minimizing my movement path as much as possible, but there would be no end to this if I just kept chasing it like this.
‘And it’s smart.’
The creature wasn’t just simply fleeing.
While flying as if it was running away, it was also keeping an eye on me.
As if it wanted me to keep following.
“……”
Having thought that far, I slowed down.
Then, it also slowed down and observed me.
‘Hah… To think that it would even control the distance between us.’
This meant that the creature wasn’t just running away from me because it didn’t want to die by my hand, but that it was luring me with some kind of purpose.
In that case, there was a high probability that a trap was waiting for me.
Moreover, while it was controlling the distance between us, it also didn’t try to get closer to me than to a certain degree.
It had roughly grasped my effective range.
Of course, the effective range it knew was the range that resulted from me not only temporarily sealing everything except my martial arts, but also from me sealing all the actions that would let me make long-range attacks, such as firing sword energy, in order to train my lightness technique.
‘…Interesting.’
A trap set by a monster.
A trap set not by beings like goblins or orcs, who were famous for having enough intelligence to use tools, but by a Wyvern, which was famous for acting solely on instinct.
I became interested in it, so I decided to follow its lead for now.
“…Krawrrr…!”
As I increased my speed again, the creature hurriedly increased its speed, perhaps afraid that it would be caught.
I, who was headed to where the creature wanted me to go while pretending to chase it, soon understood why it had brought me here.
…Unlike my expectations, the monster wasn’t bringing me to a trap.
It had just brought me to its nest.
And in the nest….
“Kyaaak!”
“Kieeee…!”
There were numerous Wyverns, far outnumbering the ones I had killed.
Well, of course.
‘In fact, the place where I slaughtered the Wyverns was as good as the entrance of the dungeon.’
It was only natural that there would be more Wyverns gathered in the center of the dungeon… in this case, the leader Wyvern’s nest, rather than at the dungeon’s entrance.
“Krawrrr…!”
The leader Wyvern that had brought me here turned its body and roared at me.
It made a face that seemed to say ‘You didn’t expect this many of my comrades, did you?’
Though it wasn’t like I could read a Wyvern’s expression.
“…Haaaah….”
“…Kruk?”
But that was that, and being disappointed was being disappointed.
“Don’t tell me you thought you could beat me just by calling a lot of your friends…?”
I asked the creature.
Though there was no way a Wyvern would understand my words.
“Grrrr….”
“……”
I looked at the numerous Wyverns that were surrounding me from above, below, front, back, left, and right.
‘…Dealing with all of these honestly would be quite tiring.’
It didn’t mean that I didn’t think I could win or that it would be difficult for me to pull off.
It was just that there were so many of them that it seemed like it would take me quite a long time to cut them down and kill them one by one with my own hands.
“…Well, I think I’ve done enough lightness technique training while chasing the leader.”
Shall I undo the seal on my other techniques?
While muttering that, I let go of the sword I was holding.
But the sword I let go of, though it left my hand, didn’t fall to the ground.
Instead, it began to move, tracing a sword path as if I were swinging it normally.
‘Sword Control.’
A skill that lets a person freely handle a sword by infusing it with qi.
It was similar to, yet slightly different from, Void-Grasping Hand, which was close to simply moving objects with telekinesis.
Because when using Sword Control, I could also use sword energy as if the sword were in my hand.
Of course, I had no intention of going that far against Wyverns.
In any case, the sword that had left my hand began to move according to my will.
Chwaak!
And it pierced straight through the leader Wyvern’s head.
“Kyak…?”
“Grrr…?”
The leader Wyvern, whose head had disappeared in an instant, began to fall from the sky, and the Wyverns that were surrounding me couldn’t keep up with the sudden change in the situation.
And that brief opening was enough for me.
Chwaak!
Chwaak!
Chwaak!
My sword, which had erased the leader Wyvern’s head, continued to fly and pierced the heads of the Wyverns in an instant.
A few Wyverns that belatedly grasped the situation tried to flee, but unlike before when I had sealed most of my other techniques for the sake of lightness technique training, now I had no reason to let them escape.
“Stop.”
A word-command magic was uttered by my mouth.
Due to that, the Wyverns, whose bodies had stiffened, fell straight down.
Because the flapping of their wings, which the Wyverns had been doing to stay in the air, had also stopped.
“Ah.”
That wasn’t what I had intended.
But since the result was good, it didn’t really matter here.
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After putting only a part of the numerous Wyvern corpses into the subspace artifact, I headed straight to a nearby market.
Even with a subspace artifact, since the space inside wasn’t infinite, there was a limit to the amount of corpses I could bring with me.
As for the remaining corpses… I burned them all with Samadhi True Fire.
A Wyvern, even if it was just a subspecies, was still a type of dragon, that is, a draconic species.
As such, there was nothing to throw away from a Wyvern’s body.
Right away, the scales and teeth were good for use as materials for armor and weapons, and I knew that the meat and blood were purchased at high prices by magic-related businesses.
Even so, I couldn’t just hand over what I had caught to those who had done nothing.
‘Ah, I should cover my face before entering the market.’
And so, before leaving the dungeon and entering the market, I put on a mask.
Though it was a mask, it wasn’t one I had prepared in advance.
It was an artifact that I received as a reward for clearing the dungeon this time.
As long as I wore this, other people wouldn’t be able to recognize my face.
Most Awakeners wouldn’t even notice that my doll was wearing a mask.
Of course, a mage or psionicist above a certain level might be able to notice the existence of the mask.
‘Before the mask came out, I was thinking of changing my face with the face-altering technique, so this worked out well for me.’
The face-altering technique was a technique that forcibly twisted the bones, muscles, and flesh of the face to change its look, so using it often wasn’t good for the body.
Although the one here right now was a doll whose bones were made of ten-thousand-year-old cold iron, and whose muscles and flesh were made out of a branch of the World Tree, if there was a substitute, it would be better to use that instead.
While thinking that, I entered a trading post in the market.
“Welcome. Buying or selling?”
“Selling.”
I said that and took out a few Wyvern teeth from the subspace artifact.
Though I didn’t take them all out.
This market was a place where shops run by civilians and Awakeners were concentrated.
And those who used this market were usually those who found it troublesome to go to the market run by the Association, or….
‘Or those who have circumstances that prevent them from going to the Association market.’
In other words, this was a place that could also be used by criminals designated as Villains by the Association.
How could a place like that be of good quality?
Naturally, I had to go around several trading posts and compare prices.
‘In the first place, I don’t know the selling prices of this era well either…. And above all….’
The Wyvern byproducts in my subspace artifact were too much for a single trading post to handle.
And that was despite the fact that my subspace artifact was small, so I couldn’t put in many Wyvern corpses.
If I had sold them to the Association, they would have handled this amount of byproducts quickly, but… my doll, which had no identity, couldn’t go to the Association.
“Hmm, hmm… These are good quality teeth. Are they from an orc’s necklace?”
“……”
I sighed inwardly and snatched the Wyvern teeth from the shop owner, who was holding a magnifying glass.
I had no goods to sell to someone who had no eye for things.
“Wait… What are you suddenly….”
I ignored the shop owner who was trying to grab me and headed to another trading post.
Fortunately, it seemed like the first trading post I had visited was the only strange one, as most of the trading posts I visited after that recognized that the teeth I brought were Wyvern teeth. Even those who didn’t know that they were Wyvern teeth at least recognized that they were draconic teeth.
And so, I sold the Wyvern byproducts at a trading post that offered me a reasonably good price for them.
Ah, of course, I didn’t forget to spread them among several trading posts as I sold them.
“Ugh… Negotiating is hard when I haven’t done it in a long time.”
I checked the money I had earned and started walking through the market.
I wanted to see if there was anything worth buying here.
However….
“……”
There were people who had been tailing me for a while now.
Were they just trying to pickpocket me… or were they trying to extort or threaten me….
I didn’t know their purpose, but at least it didn’t seem like they were tailing me for a good reason.
No, in the first place, from the moment they started tailing me, there was no way they were friendly to me.
I thought that as I slowly began to head to a deserted place.
A place with no shops, where there was no reason for people to come.
Only after I had come this far did the ones who were tailing me pop out and begin to surround me.
“…Hee… hee hee….”
“You came to a quiet place on your own?”
Hmm…
They’re small fry.
As I said a moment ago, this market was a place where those with circumstances preventing them from going to the Association market went… That is, the people who gathered here were mostly criminals.
But even such criminals, for the most part, didn’t commit crimes inside the market.
Because if they caused trouble in the market and the market merchants, who took it badly, said that they wouldn’t trade with them anymore, it would be the criminals who would be in trouble.
It was a kind of unwritten rule.
‘But to think that they’re trying to attack me just because I came to a deserted place… It means that they’re small fry who don’t even know that unwritten rule.’
At the same time, it meant that they had no backer to teach them such an unwritten rule.
This meant that I could just take care of them here without having to worry about any sort of backer they may have.
Having thought that, I took out my sword from the subspace artifact.
“What, you gonna fight? We don’t want to make a big deal out of this either, so if you just share your pocket money, we’ll let it slide.”
“Yeah, that’s right. In the first place, do you really think you can take on all of us with a dull sword that’s just big, right?”
Some of the guys who saw my action said that and sneered at me.
However….
“…That sword… Don’t tell me… The Artist?”
There was also a guy who recognized my identity by looking at my sword.
“The Artist? What’s that?”
“…Wait, you don’t mean the one from Yeouido, right…?”
Thanks to the guy who recognized me, the other guys also began to get agitated, and then I said to them.
“I’ll count to three. Everyone, get on the ground.”
If even one person doesn’t get down, it’s joint responsibility for everyone, right?
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T/N – Damn, these robbers got hella unlucky, to try and mug the MC, of all people. They kinda deserved it though, considering that they didn’t even notice that the MC was luring them to a deserted area.
Also, poor leader Wyvern. Smart enough to lead the MC to its gang, but not smart enough to realize that numbers mean nothing to the MC. Could have been a good tamed beast.
Lastly, for a tricky dungeon like a Wyvern dungeon with a canyon terrain, the reward of a mask that hides one’s face seems to be a bit underwhelming. Though I will admit, it does fit the MC’s current needs.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
