〈 Chapter 42 〉 Hideout

*

In the rain that kept pouring.

I continued to follow Libero from behind.

I was wearing a raincoat, but thanks to the intense battle from earlier, my clothes inside were already quite wet.

‘I wonder if the word “fight” even applies here.’

After walking for a while.

The clanking sound of a train, the hissing of steam.

Noises that I couldn’t hear back in Basilium mixed with the sound of the rain.

‘Come to think of it, there are quite a few devices around here that we can use…’

As expected of a metropolitan city, there were plenty of juicy quests that were good for earning SP.

But right now, I had no time to turn my attention to such things.

I focused on the man ahead of me.

‘This comes first.’

We soon arrived at an abandoned building.

It was a structure that had likely been left unattended for quite some time.

In fact, the roof had completely collapsed, leaving us exposed to the rain.

“Hmm…”

After surveying the inside of the building for a moment, Libero rested his hand on his chin.

Then he spoke suspiciously.

“There are signs that someone has been coming and going. Recently and continuously. Well, it has been a while since this place has been empty.”

He walked over to a corner of the building and lifted a metal plate that had been placed on the floor.

What lay beneath was not the floor, but a dark staircase.

“There might be uninvited guests inside.”

He said that and stepped onto the stairs.

I began to follow him down the stairs.

Drip, drip.

It wasn’t completely waterproof, as droplets fell from the ceiling.

Just as we were descending the eerie stairs, Libero suddenly stopped.

“Indeed, there’s someone here.”

He closed his eyes and mumbled.

“One, two… four individuals, maybe? Just ordinary thugs.”

I had no idea how he figured that out without seeing anything, but if he said so, it must be true.

‘Whoever they are, they’re the unluckiest bastards.’

I figured Libero would soon make them regret it.

Just then—

“Hey, didn’t you say you wanted to be my disciple?”

“Uh? Y-Yeah.”

I had asked for strength, but it wasn’t like I had promised to do anything else.

However, I regretted that answer the next moment.

“If you want to be my disciple, you should be able to drive those guys away, right?”

Well, I was caught.

Overwhelmed by despair, I tried to ignore him as he began to explain.

“They’ve realized we entered. Thanks to that, two of them are waiting right next to the entrance.”

Even though I hadn’t seen it for myself, he described the situation inside quite accurately.

“In the center of the room, one guy is standing there to draw your attention, and the one who’s slumped in the corner is probably the leader. This much you should be able to drive off, right?”

There was no reason for him to lie to me.

Instead of answering, I drew my sword from the inventory.

‘What the hell, let’s do this.’

No matter how weak I am, I shouldn’t lose to local thugs.

Four of them should be easy enough to send packing without killing them.

…Although, I was a bit worried about the two waiting by the door.

‘So, then…’

I pulled out Night’s Shadow from my inventory as well.

With this, getting in should be easier.

“That’s Night’s Shadow, isn’t it?”

Did he know about it?

I was surprised he recognized this dagger which was only a 2-star relic that had supposedly been excavated near Sakh.

But since he didn’t seem to warn me against using it, I figured it was fine.

‘Night’s Shadow.’

I used it to hide my presence in the darkness.

Then I completely descended the stairs and entered the room.

The darkness was thick, and thanks to Night’s Shadow fully concealing me, they hadn’t noticed me yet.

“Is it time to go back?”

“Maybe it was just a rat after all.”

I carefully passed by the two who were whispering like that.

“Shh, quiet!”

The figure standing in the center of the room warned the two waiting by the door.

“I definitely heard a voice. But now it’s quiet.”

He sounded pretty sharp.

But I had already caught up to him from behind.

‘Starting with this guy.’

I made Relic Gravitas Replicant heavy enough.

Then I struck the back of his head with the hilt of my sword.

“Ugh!”

As an invisible attack took down his comrade, the eyes of the thugs guarding the doorway widened in surprise.

“W-What the hell!”

I rushed towards them without hesitation.

Perhaps it was because of the lamp’s light in the room, but the duration of Night’s Shadow wasn’t all that long.

“Eh?”

I tripped the guy on the left.

At that moment, Night’s Shadow dissipated.

But I was already landing a blow on the right guy’s face with the side of my Relic Gravitas Replicant.

Thud.

With a loud noise, the guy whose face I had hit collapsed to the floor.

‘Then there’s just… that guy over there, huh?’

The one who had been lying down earlier was now standing up.

He was quite the bulky fellow.

I confirmed that the thug I tripped was still down and not getting up.

‘Gotta finish this quickly so it doesn’t get annoying.’

Thinking that, I wrapped my legs with Wind’s Power.

Then I quickly closed in on the bulky guy.

He drew his sword even as I approached.

I put Night’s Shadow back in my inventory, gripped the Relic Gravitas Replicant with both hands, and swung my sword.

I didn’t release the weight. Otherwise, I might lose control and end up killing him.

In fact, the bulky guy couldn’t react at all to my rapid attack aided by Wind’s Power.

“Get out of here.”

I aimed my sword at his neck and said.

However, the bulky guy immediately ignored my command and lunged at me.

He must have thought I had no intention to harm him.

“Who do you think you are!”

But I had to remind him of his mistake.

I don’t hesitate against anyone who tries to hurt me.

‘Relic Gravitas Replicant.’

Swing.

With the weight released, I struck his neck with the sword.

Well, he probably wouldn’t die, right?

I released enough weight to make it heavier than a baseball bat.

‘So…’

I turned around.

The thug I had tripped was now standing there, looking terrified.

I pointed at him and the remaining two who were down.

“Get them all out of here. As fast as you can.”

Fortunately, the guy who had been knocked out first regained consciousness, and they each dragged one of their friends out of the room.

Then Libero, who had been waiting outside, walked into the room.

“You took quite a while.”

Libero entered the room and surveyed the surroundings.

It was a pretty spacious area, but there wasn’t any real furniture inside.

Just some wooden boxes that looked like they had been left by those thugs.

“If you’re going to use someone else’s room, you should at least keep it clean.”

As Libero inspected the room, he clicked his tongue.

“But… how long has this room been empty?”

The entire room was almost entirely covered in moss.

At this point, it could just about be called a jungle rather than a room.

“I can’t remember well, but the last time I found this room was about 40 years ago.”

Considering that, it was impressive that this underground room, which wasn’t even waterproof, had been maintained at all.

Someone must have come in and cleaned it up at some point.

“Shall we do a bit of cleaning then? I don’t mind staying here, but you might have a problem with that.”

He raised both hands.

This time, he didn’t create a sword.

He simply lifted his hands, and all the moss in the room was neatly stripped away.

“You can handle the rest yourself, right?”

Well, of course.

Using Wind’s Power, I blew all the moss debris outside the room.

Finally, the room seemed to regain its shape.

It was still dark and damp, though.

“Now that the room’s tidied up a bit, shall we start talking?”

“Excuse me?”

“About that pathetic battle from earlier.”

Pathetic battle?

I thought it was a pretty efficient fight, but that stung a bit.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t argue with him.

“Putting aside that I would’ve aimed for the leader first…”

He pointed at my sword.

“Your swordsmanship. I could tell even from up above that something was off.”

I had learned swordsmanship by perfectly mimicking Gwen’s technique using Absolute Obedience.

But if he thought it was weird then…

“Are you saying the Reedval Family’s swordsmanship is strange?”

“No, the Reedval Family’s swordsmanship is excellent. Of course, it’s not flawless, but it cleverly emphasizes its unique strengths.”

Then what’s the problem?

Well, I had sensed something was off ever since my ranking only increased from B to B+ after just copying Gwen’s swordsmanship.

Even after that, despite being “precocious,” my swordsmanship rank had not improved.

There had to be some reason why my swordsmanship rank wasn’t growing.

Surely, it might simply be a matter of talent, but I had sought Libero out to discover and overcome the reason.

And Libero ordered me to wield the sword to find that reason.

“Give it a swing.”

I complied with his command and swung my sword.

It was a strike that mixed the effects of Wind’s Power and Relic Gravitas Replicant.

However, Libero shook his head.

“Too many miscellaneous things are mixed in, so it’s difficult to judge. Just swing it simply without any of that extra fluff.”

I withdrew Wind’s Power from the sword.

I also returned Relic Gravitas Replicant to a suitably familiar weight.

Then I swung the sword again.

“Got it.”

After seeing that strike, Libero nodded, as if he had come to an understanding.

“Tell me, are you using some kind of self-suggestion?”

*