Swordmaster Healer - Episode 45
TL: Boko
Editor: Ren
Chapter 15 - rank Healer Hunter (3)
In an instant, the Lizardmen recon party had been annihilated. The monsters had mostly spread out, excluding a part of the main force, because the battlefield had widened immensely.
Sung Joon had cleverly avoided the main force and slowly advanced upon the warp gate.
Rishubalt already knew where the warp gate was because he had previously scouted ahead and returned.
"Absorb."
Sung Joon raised his hand and absorbed the mana.
There had been another fight between him and a Lizardman recon party. He had encountered a few recon parties on his way there and had fought against them, but this time, he had faced the largest group yet, of twenty-one.
"Doesn't it seem like the size of the recon parties are growing more and more?" Sung Joon asked, sweeping away the blood on his sword.
Rishubalt replied, "They're located near the warp gate."
"What about the Raid Boss's minions?"
"The Raid Boss was a Stone Golem. The minions consisted of Lizardman Mages and Armored Soldiers."
The Stone Golem was a monster that was mostly found in the rank dungeons, but they would sometimes appear as a Boss in a B-rank dungeon or Raid.
Aside from the 'core', because the rest of its body was composed of solid rock, it was one of the monsters that was most difficult to take on.
"How many of them are there?" Sung Joon asked.
Rishubalt recollected what he had seen just a little while prior.
"There's one Lizardman Mage and there are around twenty Armored Soldiers."
"That sounds about right," said Sung Joon.
If they excluded the Stone Golem, there were twenty-one B-rank monsters, but there was no hesitation in Sung Joon's steps as he approached the warp gate.
In the middle, he had encountered a group of twenty Lizardmen that were part of a recon party, and had fought against them, but they didn't pose much of a threat and so he arrived at the warp gate.
"The Lizardman Mage is casting its Searching Magic," Rishubalt reported.
"What a pain."
Sung Joon was observing the situation from slightly afar and he furrowed his eyebrows. While the effectiveness of the Searching Magic depended on the user, the Lizardman Mage, it was certainly still an annoying trick.
"What will you do?" asked Rishubalt.
"A frontal breakthrough," Sung Joon said briefly, dashing out and throwing his dagger.
His throwing dagger flew in a straight line towards the Lizardman Mage.
The Lizardman Mage shrieked and casted defensive magic. He protected his front with a flaming red shield, but Sung Joon's throwing dagger was clad in aura.
He put up the flame shield in vain, as Sung Joon's throwing dagger pierced through it. His aurclad throwing dagger moved unceasingly, piercing the the Lizardman Mage's throat.
The Lizardman Mage screamed briefly and as soon as he collapsed, the thickly armored Lizardmen Armored Soldiers glanced at the direction that the throwing dagger had flown from.
Sung Joon was there.
"Come on," Sung Joon said, gesturing towards them.
They were provoked by just a simple hand gesture. While he couldn't speak to them, his provocation was effective. The Lizardmen Armored Soldiers dashed towards him.
The Stone Golem that was standing beside the warp gate and protecting it, let out an odd cry and raised its giant three-meter body.
"It doesn't seem like a normal Stone Golem…?"
The golem he had fought in the past was comprised of inconsistent pieces of rock and looked rough. However, right now, the Stone Golem guarding the warp gate was not only composed of even rock, but there was a familiar crest drawn on it.
"Is that perhaps…"
When he had ascertained the identity of the crest… a beam shot out of the golem's chest.
"My lord!" Rishubalt warned with a sharp voice.
Sung Joon threw himself to the side and avoided the attack. The place that Sung Joon had just been was now completely melted.
"I've seen that several times before somewhere…"
Sung Joon was certain that that crest was from the Empire, but he couldn't recall where exactly he had seen the golem before. However, Rishubalt seemed to have remembered, since he had a calm expression and opened his mouth to speak.
"It's a Stone Golem that the Empire's Siege Troops use. The beam that it had just shot out of its chest differs from magic so it will be difficult to defend against it with aura."
"It looks like it'll hurt if I get hit by that."
"However, since the recharge time is long, if it's you, my lord, you can definitely break it apart," Rishubalt explained.
Sung Joon nodded his head. The Lizardmen Armored Soldiers ran towards him to buy time for the golem to recharge.
"Return."
Sung Joon raised his hand, spoke the activation words, and grasped 'Returning Hatred' in his left hand. Sung Joon threw his throwing dagger at the Lizardmen Armored Soldier who appeared to be the commander and hit its head.
Monsters also obeyed a chain of command. The Lizardmen Armored Soldiers had instantly lost their commander, and Sung Joon seized the opportunity while they were momentarily flustered.
He advanced deep into their lines and swung his sword without rest.
Roukel's combat swordsmanship.
It cleverly utilized feints that seemed to aim at vital areas while actually aiming for the most painful of vital areas that would disable his opponents, rendering them incapable of battle.
This was swordsmanship that the knights of the Empire had difficulty dealing with, so the Lizardmen Armored Soldiers couldn't resist it. Even if they tried to block it with their swords, before aura, their swords were nothing but paper.
The twenty Lizardmen Armored Soldiers were annihilated in less than one minute.
"Absorb!"
Sung Joon didn't forget to absorb their mana in order to recharge the duration of his aura.
Eventually, Sung Joon turned his attention to the Golem.
Did the Golem feel Sung Joon's killing intent-filled gaze? The Golem roared for a while and then got into a fighting stance. It seemed like it still hadn't recharged enough mana in its chest to use its beam.
After seeing Sung Joon's speed, the Golem had given up on recharging its mana. It raised both of its arms and several dozen blades came out.
The golem swept across Sung Joon's surroundings once and bowed its body, swinging both its arms. It was an aggressive attack designed to eliminate his escape paths, but with a single leap, Sung Joon reached the top of its head.
The 'core' was at the top of its head.
The golem became extremely flustered and moved both its arms towards its head, but Sung Joon's sword dropped down and slashed the core much faster.
"The golem has deactivated!"
The 'core' had been eliminated. As soon as Rishubalt had confirmed that the golem had deactivated, Sung Joon leapt off and and moved some distance away from the golem.
"Absorb."
Sung Joon absorbed the mana from the golem's wreckage. Eventually, he turned his gaze towards Rishubalt. He didn't say anything, but Rishubalt had realized what Sung Joon wanted to ask.
"Your synchronization rate has risen by 1% and is now at 16%."
"Nice."
Sung Joon, nodded his head with a satisfied expression.
- Verifying the existence of a new item.
The measuring tool responded.
"It seems like the item, 'Roel', has raised in rank. The other seems to be an item that the golem left behind," Rishubalt said.
As the golem's remains dissipated, a red bead-like object remained in its place. Since the magic stores were distributed equally amongst the Hunters during a raid, they weren't allowed to collect the magic stones, but items were different.
Firstly, Sung Joon brought his measuring tool to his sword, Roel.
[Awakened Roel]
C-rank.
Verifying Lightweight effect.
Verifying Bleeding Curse effect.
Verifying Dormant Abilities effect.
Verifying Past Life Awakening effect.
There weren't any additional abilities. It seemed that it had just raised the level of the pre-existing abilities and strengthened them. Sung Joon, who had been observing Roel's state, picked up the red bead located where the golem's remains had been.
[Unknown Core]
Unknown.
As he had expected, the measuring tool wasn't able to appraise the item. Sung Joon turned his attention to Rishubalt, wordlessly extending the bead to him.
"I will appraise the item."
Rishubalt took the item that Sung Joon had extended towards him into his hand and ejected his mana into it.
"The appraisal is finished," Rishubalt reported.
Sung Joon took his measuring tool to the item once more.
[Mana Core]
B-rank.
Verifying Explosion effect.
"Explosion?" Sung Joon read the item's effect out loud.
"I cannot tell you exactly of its explosive range but seeing the concentration of condensed mana, I can assume that the force of the explosion will be extremely powerful," Rishubalt said.
"I'll find a use for it someday if I keep it with me."
Sung Joon pocketed the 'Mana Core.' It was so small that it fit inside the palm of his hand, so it didn't take up a lot of space.
Sung Joon quickly destroyed the crystal maintaining the warp gate. As soon as he destroyed the crystal, the warp gate closed down.
"The monsters are being unsummoned," Rishubalt reported.
Sung Joon nodded his head, took out his phone from his pocket, and called Hyun Sung.
Eventually, the call connected and Sung Joon immediately opened his mouth and spoke.
"Please get the stealth item ready."
It was time for him to get his reward.
Since they hadn't blocked the wave properly, the downtown area was a mess. It had been a critical situation where if Sung Joon hadn't intervened, one of the cities would've been annihilated.
The mood in the city was also a mess, so Sung Joon took his father, Soo Hyuk, back to Seoul earlier than they had planned.
Sung Joon had decided to put off his dungeon runs and rest until his father was hospitalized in order to receive his treatment.
"Are you going to the Hunter Bureau?" Rishubalt asked, seeing Sung Joon hurrying to go out.
Soo Hyuk had fallen asleep.
"Yeah, since they have something they owe me."
Sung Joon took a taxi and travelled to the Hunter Bureau. He had contacted Hyun Sung previously and so Hyun Sung was waiting at the entrance for him.
"Mr. Kang Sung Joon!"
"You brought it out with you, right?" Sung Joon questioned.
Hyun Sung nodded his head. He took out the stealth item, 'Veil of Darkness', from the inside of his suit, passed it to Sung Joon and spoke.
"You know what I'm about to say, right?"
"I won't use this outside of the dungeon," Sung Joon responded.
Hyun Sung sighed.
"Then it seems like you'll be using it outside of the dungeon in the near future."
"What are you talking about?"
"This is something I just heard today but… The Namhae County Governor is looking for a contract killer."
"A contract killer?' Sung Joon asked.
Hyun Sung nodded his head.
Powerful Hunters didn't just attack dungeons.
Hunters like the ones affiliated with the Hunter Bureau were controlled and some were employed by the private militia companies. There were also Hunters in the back alley, who decided to live as contract killers.
"Is this accurate information?"
"Yes. But because this case involves a politician, it'll be difficult for us to intervene."
The country didn't have much strength, but the Bureau had even less. It was difficult for the Bureau to interfere if the issue involved a politician.
"Who is he hiring?" asked Sung Joon.
"They say that he's hired an rank Hunter. It seems like they'll move next week. We weren't able to figure out the details."
Even if he was a politician, there was a limit to the Hunters that he could employ: rank. There were only fifteen S-rank Hunters in Korea and even the country was beneath their feet.
"Do you know where the Contract Killing office is?"
"We figured out its location, but we won't be able to manipulate the evidence this time around," Hyun Sung responded.
Manipulating the evidence was also considered intervening.
"If you move first without us manipulating the evidence, there's a chance they might mount a counter-offensive."
He was saying that the Namhae County Governor might first employ some cowardly tactics. However, Sung Joon smiled and shook his head.
"That's fine. Please just give me the address."
"I-I understand."
After Hyun Sung wrote down the address, Sung Joon called someone.
"It's me. I'll send you an address, so please kill them all."
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