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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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‘Is it magic?’
Cain wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand as he glanced at the pillar that had barely grazed him.
It had been 10 years since he took the position of 3rd platoon captain.
He had his share of experience in subduing criminals and unruly students, but he had never seen this kind of magic before.
For good reason – most existing magic required complex formulas and calculations, usually needing incantations unless performed by a once-in-a-decade genius.
“…Not magic, but a skill?”
Skills.
Those were even more troublesome.
Skills were harder to predict.
Still, he didn’t think he would lose.
He had rarely been defeated before, except for the monsters who had always been above him.
He gripped his sword tighter and glared ahead.
No follow-up attack came.
Was it a technique that couldn’t be used in rapid succession?
‘The last resort… is still on hold. For now, I need to get out of here.’
He didn’t care about his collaborators who were already scattered on the floor looking like broken dolls.
They were just partners bound by a deal, weren’t they?
Cain wasn’t a sentimental enough person to care for the lives of people he’d never see again after this job was done.
“Hey, are you… thinking of abandoning… us!”
“Don’t get angry at how harsh the world is. Life is about surviving on your own, isn’t it? You have to take care of yourself.”
“Cain!”
Ignoring the voice from behind, Cain infused his sword with aura.
The enemy wasn’t attacking, either assessing the situation or trying to escape.
Just as he was starting to wonder, a voice reached his ears.
“Millia. Take Elisa and go ahead first.”
“Got it! Hnng…”
The sound of footsteps was heard.
Though the passage was long and dark, making it hard to see, Cain realized that the target of his long-planned operation had disappeared beyond the passage.
This was the worst.
Losing the target and facing an unknown enemy in a straight passage with nowhere to hide.
Cain unconsciously swallowed hard.
‘How did things get so messed up?’
He had surely planned the operation, built cooperative relationships with gangs, and succeeded smoothly in the first operation, but where had it gone wrong?
‘…Now’s not the time to think about that. I need to get out of here first.’
Cain gritted his teeth and assessed his condition.
‘My physical state isn’t bad. I have enough aura. But that guy’s ability… is concerning.’
A technique that could block the path in such a narrow passage.
He experimentally crushed a nearby pillar with his hand.
Its strength was weak.
Apparently, it couldn’t change properties like alchemy.
That meant the pillars the opponent created were made of soil.
‘I should be able to nullify them just by wrapping myself in aura.’
Approach and cut him down in one stroke.
Cain lowered his stance and gathered strength in his toes.
The distance to the enemy was about 30 meters.
A distance that was long if long, short if short.
He had to dash forward in one breath like a wolf eyeing its prey.
“As expected of the 3rd platoon captain, you’re quite good-”
Now!
Cain’s body shot forward like a cannonball.
He closed in on the figure in an instant.
The opponent didn’t move despite the sudden approach.
Was he unable to respond due to the overwhelming speed?
A vile smile naturally formed on Cain’s lips.
His arm drew back, and the sword in his hand scattered a grayish energy.
“Die!”
His sword slashed diagonally through the figure.
He felt a light impact in his hand.
It was odd.
The sensation of cutting through human flesh and bone shouldn’t be this light.
He belatedly realized that what he had cut was an earth model of a person, and he gritted his teeth.
“Cheeky bastard…”
“The cheeky one is you, old fart.”
Crafting-
Before he could even think about the meaning of that faint voice, Cain suddenly felt weightless.
He was falling, downwards.
As befitting a skilled knight, Cain immediately drove his sword into the wall.
His falling body came to an abrupt stop, and he looked up while dangling in the middle of the pit.
“So you weren’t made 3rd platoon captain for nothing.”
“You… That time…!”
It was a large-bodied man with a face covered in scars.
The man looked down at him with a lamp in one hand, as if mocking him.
Johann sneered at Cain, who was barely hanging onto the pit wall, looking up at him with his shovel slung casually over his shoulder.
‘How boring.’
It was fortunate that the opponent hadn’t figured out his ability.
He had hastily created multiple branches in the tunnel with his Crafting skill, intending to torment him just in case, but rendering those prepared tunnels useless, he had fallen for a simple bluff and was cornered in an instant.
If he used his skill now, he could take the 3rd platoon captain’s life.
But the situation was too complicated to take a life.
He intended to use his skill to subdue the 3rd platoon captain.
“Craf-”
Johann instinctively twisted his body.
A gray sword energy sliced through where he had been standing.
If he had been even a little late, his upper and lower body would have parted ways.
Johann’s gaze returned to Cain.
“How persistent. It’s already over, why don’t you just give up and let yourself be caught?”
The slightly awkward pronunciation grated on Cain’s nerves.
To be beaten by such a guy wounded his pride.
“…Ha! Nonsense!”
Cain kicked off the wall and soared up to the tunnel above.
At his cat-like agility, Johann clicked his tongue and readjusted his grip on the shovel.
With the small pit between them in the straight tunnel, the two men glared at each other.
“To think you’d prepare such a surprise. Not bad for a young punk.”
“Hey, old fart. That thing between your legs. You won’t be needing it anymore.”
“What?”
“Crafting.”
Cain’s instincts screamed with warnings.
He immediately kicked off the ground and retreated.
Only after landing back on the ground did Cain understand Johann’s words.
“You crazy bastard.”
“It’s not like you’d use it anyway.”
Johann, who had kindly tried to harvest some peanuts, clicked his tongue and filled in the pit with his skill.
There was no need to leave a pit that had already become useless.
If he fell into it by bad luck, there would be nothing more unsightly.
Johann checked the tunnel’s condition while gauging the distance between himself and Cain.
Since it was a tunnel he had created, checking its durability wasn’t too difficult.
‘If I use skills recklessly, it’ll collapse.’
Even for someone as experienced as him, it was uncertain if he could survive in a collapsed tunnel.
“Why don’t you just let yourself be caught?”
“Ha, you think I’d let myself be caught by a young punk like you?”
He was an elite to the bone.
His pride wouldn’t allow him to be caught so easily.
Cain slightly turned his head to look behind him.
If he ran quickly, he could escape.
But Cain’s feet wouldn’t move easily.
When he tried to move, Johann’s words stopped him.
“Demon summoning, huh. You’ve planned quite a big job.”
“…How did you-”
“You shouldn’t leak information carelessly.”
Johann deliberately laughed out loud.
It was an unpleasant laugh.
Cain racked his brain at those words.
How did he know about the work he had put years into?
‘Only the gang and I should know about the plan-‘
Johann approached the confused Cain leisurely.
Steps as relaxed as if he were taking a stroll.
Cain tensed up and adjusted his stance.
‘If I can’t kill him, it’s over anyway.’
End it in one breath.
The middle-aged swordsman recalled his family’s secret technique.
Though he hadn’t mastered it perfectly, it should be enough to crack the skull of someone who was getting cocky over a single skill.
If he could kill him, he could somehow talk his way out of this.
If not, he could at least escape.
If even that didn’t work, he could use his last resort.
He forcibly calmed his heart that was trying to race like a wild horse.
Fight calmly, move heatedly.
It was the first phrase that first-year students in the Knight Department learned.
Cain recalled that phrase anew and smiled crookedly.
He had to finish it quickly and escape outside the Academy.
“Hey. Youngster.”
“Hmm?”
“Consider it an honor.”
His lower body traced a curve according to the prescribed footwork.
At the same time, his upper body drew an elegant curve, exuding a grayish mist.
The secret technique that the Leibniz family prided itself on.
The mist sword revealed its presence in the dark tunnel.
‘To think I’d have to use this on such a guy.’
The second son of a renowned swordsmanship family, no, now the shabby-looking 3rd platoon captain, put strength into his toes and launched his body.
He was approaching even faster than before.
More troublesome was that the aura enveloping his body made his form blurry.
‘There sure are all sorts of techniques.’
“Crafting.”
He erected a pillar between himself and Cain, but Cain wasn’t a fool to fall for an attack he had already avoided twice.
Cain avoided the pillar with acrobatic-like movements and pounced on Johann in an instant.
“Don’t use big techniques in a place like this.”
…Crafting.
Crafting. Crafting. Crafting. Crafting.
Suddenly, pillars shot out from the side of the wall and pounced on Cain.
One, two, three, four.
A total of four pillars restricted his movement.
Pillars blocking the path in a space with limited room for maneuver were troublesome.
“You think this will work?!”
Cain trusted the aura enveloping his body and rammed into the pillars.
The earth pillars broke like cornstalks, unable to withstand the body of a skilled swordsman.
‘As expected.’
Johann felt bitter as he confirmed once again that the earth pillars were meaningless against a sufficiently strong opponent.
Cain had now arrived right in front of him.
Johann didn’t even look in his direction as he rubbed his forehead and muttered irritably to himself.
“What a shitty game.”
“What?”
“I told you to say goodbye to your dick.”
Before he could understand the meaning of those words, a merciless pain engulfed Cain.
When he looked down at the horrific pain he was experiencing for the first time, he saw an earth pillar so small it was barely noticeable, and he saw the flat object that had shattered his groin.
Something had merged with the earth pillar.
‘A shovel…?’
Cain’s gaze moved back up.
There was nothing in Johann’s hand.
“When… did you…”
“You should have listened better. I said it 5 times.”
‘How could you… aim when you can barely see a foot in front of you…’
“This… is… ridiculous…”
‘To think I couldn’t even use my last resort.’
His body staggered, unable to withstand the pain.
Seeing this, Johann used his skill one last time.
“Dismantle.”
Johann picked up the shovel that had fallen to the ground.
He frowned as he wiped off the liquid on the tip of the shovel blade with some dirt.
Cain could only stare blankly at the sight.
“Sleep well.”
Johann raised the dirt-covered shovel.
Cain looked up at the shovel dazedly.
A faint form was rushing at him in the darkness.
He was going to die.
But… he couldn’t move his legs…
“One problem solved, I guess.”
Johann looked down at the 3rd platoon captain who had fallen with his eyes rolled back.
He kicked him a few times, but there was no response.
He seemed to have completely lost consciousness.
He took out a rope from his chest and tied the 3rd platoon captain tightly.
“…Ah, those guys were here too.”
The criminals had lost consciousness, caught in the crossfire of their fight.
It was because Cain had rampaged without regard for his comrades’ situation.
After tying up the kidnappers as well with the spare rope, he dragged the criminals tied up like dried fish and placed his hand on the wall.
“Crafting.”
Light came in.
Johann shielded his eyes from the light coming through the exit he had easily created and looked back at the criminals.
‘It’s funny how the ones who came to hunt a witch ended up being hunted.’
“…I guess it’s time to head out.”
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Nahhh Cain’s lineage ended here 😖😖