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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Cyno
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Old Man Zenbe pointed with Titanía towards the main chapel roof, where Velvoks were continuously emerging. At a glance, easily over twenty of them. The creatures soon spread their wings wide and swooped down towards the plaza.
But something was bothering me. Right now, the Velvoks were strangely crawling out from inside the buildings.
“What kind of bizarre phenomenon is this?”
“Now is not the time to be idle. We must join the fray before greater damage is done.”
“Well, I suppose we should…”
I half-agreed with Old Man Zenbe’s opinion. If there were over twenty Velvoks, the soldiers and paladins gathered here at the Euroa Temple would be hard-pressed to handle them. It seemed the business opportunity had ripened, so it was time to get moving.
“What else?”
At Old Man Zenbe’s question, I looked down regretfully at the half-eaten bread in my hand.
“Can you keep this for me?”
“Human!”
“Alright, alright. Jeez, so impatient… Huh?”
The moment I set down the bread and drew Yōjo, one Velvok made a wide turn and began descending rapidly towards us, targeting us. It seemed to see us as easy prey sitting still.
As it closed in, sharpening its claws, I kicked off Old Man Zenbe’s shoulder, launching myself into the air, and severed the creature’s head along with one of its legs.
The decapitated Velvok crashed successively into the ground and the temple wall before stopping its movement. But its head was still alive, wildly snapping its beak at us.
Its Chaos Piece was inside its left eye, which is why the head was still alive. I immediately used Yōjo to gouge out the Velvok’s eye and pulled out its contents.
“A coin?”
Unexpectedly, where the Chaos Piece should have been, there was a large copper coin. Old Man Zenbe, who had witnessed this scene while keeping watch, let out a low groan.
“Monster Summoning Sorcery.”
Monster Summoning Sorcery is a form of witchcraft that summons monsters. In this world, where monsters are defined as absolute evil, this sorcery is utterly forbidden, and anyone found practicing it is executed in the name of the gods.
However, monsters summoned by this sorcery have one characteristic that differs from normal monsters: they are created and controlled by the sorcerer’s magic, not by a Chaos Piece. Therefore, monsters born from Monster Summoning Sorcery usually have a piece of metal—something with good mana absorption and conduction properties—in the place where a Chaos Piece should be.
It was definitely a deliberate incident. I pointed towards the Lord’s procession for Old Man Zenbe.
“Old man, go quickly and protect the client!”
“Client?”
“The Lord. The Lord. Right now, she’s the most likely target.”
“Ah, right. Then what about you?”
I looked towards the main hall roof where the group of Velvoks had emerged earlier. Right now, three Velvoks not participating in the attack were flying patrol around it, as if protecting someone.
Given the situation, it seemed I should go there. We were attacked unexpectedly, and the enemy’s identity is unknown. With many unpredictable variables, I was too uneasy to send the rigid Old Man Zenbe.
“I have to go take out the Monster Summoner. That’s a hundred times faster.”
“Understood.”
“And you have to handle the aftermath properly.”
“What do you mean?”
Seeing Old Man Zenbe’s blank expression, I let out a long sigh. It seemed I should give up on entrusting the business dealings to him.
“Just… keep the client from leaving until I get back. I’ll come later and negotiate properly.”
“Understood.”
I nodded and sprinted towards the main building. Old Man Zenbe hurriedly moved towards the Lord’s procession.
Kreeeeek! Kreeeeek!
The shrieks of Velvoks came from behind me. Judging by how they were getting closer, it was clear some of them had targeted me and were giving chase.
It seemed my guess was right; the Monster Summoner was likely somewhere inside the main building. Otherwise, the attacks wouldn’t have focused on me the moment I headed towards it.
I smashed through a window and entered the main building. The Velvoks following me couldn’t fit through the narrow window, so they went to the main door and began furiously pecking at the firmly shut wooden door with their beaks.
With a moment to spare, I looked around the central lobby.
‘Two possible routes?’
The lobby had doors leading to the main chapel on the first floor and spiral staircases leading to the second floor on either side. But my dilemma didn’t last long. The main chapel side was quiet, but from the staircase side, groups of bipedal snake-faced monsters were coming down.
“Snakers. Good guides.”
Snakers are weak monsters around Level 10 danger. They’re slightly smaller than humans and are generally evaluated to be about as strong as one well-armed soldier.
I immediately smashed the head of the lead Snaker charging at me and began ascending the spiral staircase, swinging Yōjo widely left and right.
Graaah! Graaah!
I slowly climbed the stairs, causing blue sprays of blood everywhere. The Snakers, shrieking and rushing at me, had their limbs and necks severed by my flashing bladework and slid down the stairs like a gruesome waterfall.
The Snakers’ weak point is their forehead. But I ended things by simply decapitating them. They’re just weak Level 10 monsters anyway; no need to bother targeting specific weak points.
I stomped hard on the head of a Snaker rolling on the floor, its mouth gaping, bursting it, and stepped onto the second floor.
‘Hmm…’
The second floor was quiet. It seemed the Snakers I’d killed on the way up were all of them.
I scratched my head.
“Did I kill them too fast? Now I have no guide.”
The second floor was structured with small chapels spread out on either side of a central staircase leading to the third floor.
It clearly wasn’t the second floor either. If dozens of monsters had just burst out, there should be some sign of disturbed doors, but they were all firmly shut. But I meticulously checked each small chapel and even thoroughly searched the main chapel on the first floor before heading to the third.
I didn’t want to carelessly go to the third floor and risk getting caught from behind by a potential enemy.
‘Huh?’
Reaching the intermediate stairs leading to the third floor, I stopped dead in my tracks. I felt an intense mana reaction from above.
It felt like a magical item. A living being’s energy fluctuates vibrantly, but this energy was only emitting a nearly unwavering residue of mana.
‘A magic item? But why is the energy so strong? It’s even stronger than my Jet-Black Absolute Chord.’
Just then, a Velvok, with its wings folded, hopped towards me to attack. I easily dodged the beak it swung and, moving along the wall, decapitated it.
Velvoks are powerful Level 50 monsters, but once they land, they’re not even as strong as Level 20 trash mobs. Their attacks are two-dimensional, and their movements become very sluggish.
But they have their one trick, so I pulled the copper coin from its left eye, finishing it off completely.
‘Honestly. Catching a Velvok only to get a measly 10 copper leaf coin as a byproduct. This is a business with terrible ROI.’
Clicking my tongue, I finally ascended to the third floor. This was the end. The Euroa Temple’s main building was a three-story structure.
I cautiously entered the hallway, carefully scanning my surroundings.
The third floor had a row of long prayer rooms and an outdoor sky lounge. They were separated by a hallway and arched, circular pillars. Beyond the outdoors, the vast Lake Kara was visible.
“Hohoho. Who do we have here? How honored I am that a celebrity of Kara has graced us with his presence.”
Suddenly, a young woman’s voice came from somewhere. It was subtly alluring and quite a charming voice.
My head swiveled left and right.
But the woman was nowhere to be seen. More worryingly, I couldn’t sense any presence, let alone a trace of mana.
She was definitely an assassin of considerable skill.
“Who are you?”
“But aren’t you a bit slow? I thought you eliminated all the Snakers quite a while ago. Why are you only coming up now? I ended up killing an extra Velvok trying to find you.”
“Could you please reveal yourself? I’m not a big fan of blind meetings.”
“Well, if you insist.”
Soon, a figure slowly revealed itself from the ceiling of the far-right hallway. It seemed she had been hiding using an Invisibility spell.
The woman landed softly on the hallway floor and walked slowly towards me on her long legs.
‘Whoa~. Pretty.’
The mysterious woman was wearing tight, black full-body activewear. Beneath a black hood that cast a shadow over her entire face, I could see a face whose lower half was covered by a red mask. The skin visible around her brow was pale, almost white.
She had pronounced double eyelids and pitch-black pupils. Unlike her long lower body, her upper body was very petite with a slender jawline. Her desirably ample chest stood firm with elasticity, and her waist was so slim it seemed you could hug her deeply with one arm.
I’d need to see under the mask to know for sure, but by all accounts, she seemed a perfect beauty without a single flaw.
But she was holding an unusually large lump of Essence in one hand. It was a spherical object the size of a melon, its surface intricately engraved with complex magic circuits. The energy I felt coming up to the third floor seemed to be emanating from that sphere.
“Where are the other Monster Summoners?”
“Rest easy. I’m alone.”
“Then who summoned the monsters?”
The woman lightly shook the sphere in her hand.
“This. It’s called the ‘Orb of Mortal Sin.’ It’s quite useful.”
“Nice item.”
“Not particularly nice. The really nice item is something else.”
As she grinned, a long, sharp mark appeared on the mask over her lips. A Blood Clan’s fang.
The Blood Clan is a race that lives for 1,000 years, enjoying youth until 950 before passing away after a short old age—a truly blessed race. But where there is light, there is shadow. They have one major weakness.
They are weak to light.
It’s said that if Blood Clan members are directly exposed to sunlight, not only are their eyes dazzled, preventing them from seeing, but all sorts of rashes break out on their skin.
‘A Blood Clan female assassin… I hope it’s not Evelyn Sokos, but that’s probably wishful thinking, right? An assassin who reveals herself knowing my identity can only be Evelyn or a madwoman.’
Evelyn Sokos is a mid-level Master Assassin. She is also the highest-paid assassin on the Prosia continent, and there were rumors she had vicious methods.
But there was one piece of good news: she was supposedly quite a beauty. It’s said men who see her once become captivated by her beauty and can’t break free.
“What is it?”
“The demon blade, Zelsa.”
Saying this, the woman set the ‘Orb of Mortal Sin’ down on the floor and drew a pair of bone daggers sheathed at her waist.
The twin daggers had handles that looked like they were ground from thigh bones. On the bridge of the nose guard, the figures of humans moaning and suffering in hellfire were engraved.
But the color of the blades was strange. They had more luster than ordinary blades, and a spectrum of light swirled across their entire surface.
“Divine metal, Orichalcum…?”
“Hoho~ You recognize it. Your eyesight is far from ordinary.”
Of course, I couldn’t not know. Unlike others, I’ve seen the Seven Divine Artifacts repeatedly. I’ve entered the Hall of Divinity, which others can only enter once, twice, and I see Dalrahan and Talatath every morning and evening.
I dry-swallowed.
“Let me ask one more thing? Are you Evelyn Sokos?”
“You even figured out my identity? You’re not someone to be taken lightly.”
I wiped my face.
“This is maddening.”
“Anyway, this should be fun. I正好 wanted to test my Zelsa, and a quite suitable opponent has appeared.”
I drew Yōjo. Now I had no choice but to fight. If my opponent is Evelyn, my quick movement is meaningless. I’m a fake assassin who only learned skills essential for survival, but she is the world’s strongest assassin.
If I carelessly turn my back, I’m done for.
Evelyn twitched her hand, and a 30-centimeter aura blade sprouted from Zelsa. Ura-qual, it’s definitely Evelyn.
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