Episode 187
“The answer is ‘Lotus Flower’!”
After a brief skirmish with Moskden, I came to that conclusion. I was immediately looking for the right moment to use it.
But lotus or no lotus. Moskden was dashing around the factory alleys like a rat, making it hard to even get him in my sights. I constantly darted around the factory blocks, scanning my surroundings.
Then came a sharp “Piiing!” Something snagged my arm. Gritting my teeth, I took a quick step back.
“Damn it!”
Swish! Several poison-coated throwing knifes zipped past my eyes. I narrowly dodged them, avoiding poisoning.
“How do I know they’re poisoned?” Because I’d already been hit with one earlier and had to drink three ether potions.
“Paralyzing poison, bleeding poison, petrifying poison, and energy-draining poison. What a hell of a variety.”
I clenched my teeth in frustration, thinking of the water ether I had left – only one. It pained me that I had to use so much ether just on traps. These traps were surprisingly troublesome.
“Also…”
If I messed up my movements and got caught in a trap, whoosh! Dart-like weapons would suddenly fly toward my neck from somewhere.
“Son of a bitch!”
Clang! I deflected them all with Seven Sword Pierce.
Yellow liquid. It’s a corrosive agent. Carefully avoiding contact, I turned my head toward the direction the darts had come from.
“You… keep blocking… Lady Dewey, for you…”
But the figure only left those words, then disappeared in a flash, leaping to the top of a factory building.
There it goes again, disappearing from sight. This has been happening since the start. Always close but out of reach, he keeps circling around the factory. This guy’s driving me insane.
“What the hell is this guy?”
His appearances are too unpredictable.
While the dense arrangement of factories does restrict the line of sight, I’ve been carefully checking while pressuring him. So how is he slipping away so easily?
“Is there a portal or something around here?”
While muttering in frustration, I suddenly fell silent.
“Of course. Secret passages!”
Why hadn’t I thought of that before? It’s only natural they’d exist in this guy’s territory!
“Where would a secret passage likely be?”
Underground. Or indoors.
If indoors, it’s probably inside one of the factory buildings.
“I see…”
I jumped high up onto the roof of a factory building.
Caw! Caw! The surrounding flock of crows took to the sky en masse.
When the black wave disappeared, there it was indeed. A large hole had been cut into the roof.
“A bit higher!”
Not stopping there, I climbed further up by kicking off the factory chimney.
The entire factory area came into full view. That’s when I clearly understood.
There are 12 massive factory buildings in this complex, arranged like a Go board. Every single roof was pierced with a huge hole.
“As I suspected.”
Apparently, they’re all connected to underground tunnels he dug beneath each factory.
It’s a common-sense device when you think about it. But with traps activated every three steps and the guy popping up unpredictably like a mole game, I hadn’t been able to think it through.
“Mole game? Good.”
I grinned and fondled the hilt of the Sword of Ruin.
This isn’t arcade-style Whack-a-Mole anymore. Park Jeong-yong, the son of a former farmer, will show you real Korean countryside mole-catching.
“To be honest, I wasn’t too fond of moles even before.”
Together with wild boars and roe deer, moles are one of the top three pests that ruin farmland.
When I was younger, I used to farm with my father in a remote countryside area where cellphone signals barely reached. I know exactly how to lure out those little moles burrowed deep into the ground.
“Flames of Ruin.”
I entered the factory.
Summoning the greatsword and uttering the activation phrase, whoosh! Flames shot out from the blade.
“Let’s see.”
I glanced around.
It wasn’t much different from a regular factory on Earth. Judging by the machinery, it seemed to be a weapons production facility.
However, there was one clear difference. Blue rune stones, apparently power sources, were visible scattered around.
“Perfect.”
On closer inspection, these stones emitted a radiant light brighter than sunlight. I kept my eyes on them, gradually approaching.
Beeep. A panel materialized naturally.
[Item Info]
[Name: Ether Core (Extra Large)]
[Modifier: Continuous magic power charge]
[Details: An artificial ether aggregate produced by Unterland’s Ivory Tower. Continuously infuses massive amounts of magic power into the connected object. Output is so powerful that living beings cannot directly recharge but require an intermediary.]
Explanation was long, but in short, these runes were the engines that powered the factory.
The cores are still shining, meaning they’re full of mana.
“Thanks to that, things will go smoothly.”
I grinned and swung my sword wildly around the ether core.
Flames rapidly spread throughout the factory interior. Memories of playing with fire when I was younger made me feel oddly cheerful.
Whoosh! Before long, the entire factory was engulfed in inextinguishable flames.
“Come out, you mole. You don’t want to suffocate to death, do you?”
The method to deal with moles burrowed underground.
If you can afford it, you can buy and use fumigation agents. If you want to catch them with sticks, you need some skills.
Someone like me, lacking both skill and money, can just place fire at every entrance to the molehills.
When the smoke fills the tunnels, they will make a choice.
Either suffocate to death there, or make a desperate escape.
“You catch nicely!”
By the way, moles taste absolutely disgusting.
If possible, it’s better to release them far away from the fields. These days, killing any harmful pests in your own field may cause unnecessary trouble from certain groups, even though they refuse to compensate for the damage.
They talk a lot but offer nothing concrete. Damn bastards.
“One down!”
I cheerfully raised my voice and leaped back out through the hole in the roof.
The factory filled with a dense cloud of factory dust, then BOOM! A chain explosion began.
Whoosh! A burst of inferno erupted from the hole I escaped through, sending intense heat waves into the sky.
“Ah~ Damn! This brings back memories!”
I yelled loudly for the mole-men hiding in silence to hear. Jumping around the factory roofs like a madman, I wildly spread fiery destruction.
The surroundings became engulfed in fiery infernos. The dark valley lit up brightly enough to illuminate the old downtown across the river.
“Art is… EXPLOSIONS!”
BOOM! KABOOM! Flames shot high into the night sky from various parts of the factory.
The seismic shockwaves from the explosions rippled across the river’s surface.
“This is the last one.”
Finally, I had set fire to 11 factories. Only one remained.
I calmly extinguished the flames of my greatsword and sat on the rooftop railing, patiently watching the hole while waiting for the mole hunter.
The wait wasn’t long.
“Guh… It… hurts… Save… Lady Dyrus…”
Moskden emerged from the hole, covered in soot and smoke. He was muttering something incoherent, possibly due to lack of oxygen. Click-clack, click-clack. He was clawing and scratching at the metal helmet on his head and his neck with his fingernails.
“If you wanted to live, you shouldn’t have messed with me.”
Using Lotus Flower, I silently approached him from behind.
The sound of my voice nearby might have alerted him. Moskden’s entire body stiffened. The massive figure trembled violently.
He seems to have sensed his fate, just like a smoke-suffocated mole.
“Hunt mark.”
Ung. A clear black skull mark floated above his head.
The skull waggled its jaw, tempting me to finish things quickly.
I was going to anyway.
“Die.”
I spun my dual swords.
Whoosh. I thrust the reverse-grip dual swords simultaneously into his back.
“Guh… uh… Ahh… It… hurts…”
“Tough.”
While Moskden screamed his final agony in a cold tone, I swung both hands in opposite directions.
Crack! The cross-shaped black and white swords intersected through his thick waist. His body was violently torn apart into two.
“My… Lady… I… did… as.. you… ahh… aaah…”
“Shut that mouth of yours.”
I stomped on Moskden’s endlessly murmuring head.
Crunch. The tin helmet he wore was crushed helplessly. Streams of blood gushed out from the crushed helmet gaps.
“Guh… hhe… uuuh… guh…”
Heavy groans resembling cries echoed continuously.
Even at that moment, Moskden’s separated upper and lower halves continued to twitch.
As if an insect, despite his torso being severed, the nervous system was still very much alive.
“Ughh… Monster… spare me… Lady… Monster… Demon… Scary demon…”
The figure kept whining like an idiot.
The red laser dot was on my face. Shaking violently in fear, the focus point continued to wobble.
Well, indeed.
“Monster? I like that term. It’s the truth.”
Surrounded by crimson flames, the person who created that hellish fire might genuinely look like one.
I nodded in agreement, then twisted my lips into a cruel smile.
“However, I cannot forgive being called a monster by someone who looks more monstrous.”
Hearing the insult from someone who looks more like a monster than me is worse than any taunt. Do you even know I hate banter the most these days?
Not that I had much compassion left to begin with, but that comment completely depleted my remaining goodwill.
“Feel my monstrous punch and die today.”
I sheathed my dual swords.
Crack. Grabbing the collar of his coat. I pulled back my fist ready to punch his face.
However, I had to quickly retreat and draw my sword again.
Clang! Together with a metallic sound, a small crescent knife bounced off. I looked up in the direction it came from.
On the railing stood a dark-skinned man clad in a wide-brimmed hat, a crow mask, black goggles, and a tattered black coat.
“…Mos.”
The dark-skinned man muttered the name upon seeing the dismembered Moskden. His voice revealed no particular emotion.
The figure pointed his peculiar crescent dagger at me. A calm voice spoke:
“Monster. Truly a monster. Must kill. You must die. Must kill.”
Even without using the Eye of Mimir, I understood. His identity was clear from that declaration.
Dyrus the Human Hunter. One of the Runaway Knights who escaped with Moskden has now appeared.
“…Ah. So that’s how it is.”
In the old downtown and the abandoned factory complex, there was one each.
If a fight broke out in one location, the other would come to support. That was the framework.
“Even in my past life, I was killed by a surprise attack.”
I roughly deduced how I died in my past life.
I shouldn’t have fought Moskden one-on-one from the start. If someone joined the fight mid-battle, it would have been at least three times harder than the current situation.
Without knowing the enemy’s abilities. With someone lurking in the back, throwing debuffs.
“Let’s write this down.”
I decided to immediately write this newly learned information in the Box of the Dead.
There may not be another opportunity if I don’t do it now.
[One each at junctions. Time delay means combo.]
When I finished writing, I roughly sealed the Box of the Dead and raised my sword. Dyrus had already appeared at close range without any warning.
Clang! Our swords clashed. I caught a glimpse of the burning red eyes behind the dark goggles. I chuckled nervously.
“This guy…”
His rage wasn’t apparent outwardly.
The death glare intending to slaughter. The heavy striking force that made my whole body vibrate even after I blocked it with my blade.
There was no way to misunderstand.
