People sotis have experiences like this.
When they face sothing beyond their comprehension, they can beco so paralyzed with fear that their mind seizes up, and they can’t move a muscle, as if their entire body has been rendered immobile.
This was exactly the experience Duncan was going through right now.
‘What... what is this?’
How did they get in here?
Duncan prided himself on his extraordinary self-awareness. He was ticulous about assessing his capabilities and only took on tasks he was confident he could handle. For everything else, he strictly followed the organization’s protocols. This ti was no different. He had ticulously and perfectly sealed off this place.
Yet, sohow, the other party had gotten in. And Duncan hadn’t even had a chance to detect anything unusual.
‘It’s impossible to achieve with combat skills or magic.’
It wasn’t just Duncan’s limited knowledge; this was general common sense.
‘Could it be an artifact?’
A regular artifact wouldn’t be sufficient.
At the very least, it would require an A-rank artifact. Considering a more probable scenario, it could be an S-rank artifact, which was extrely rare, heavily monitored by the Exploration Alliance, and regarded as almost miraculous in power.
With an S-rank artifact, a force that could rival the power of a deity, penetrating this completely isolated location was conceivable. Unbelievable feats, which would typically be impossible with ordinary mystic arts, could beco real if soone harnessed the power of the Abyss.
Duncan’s deduction was logically sound.
His gaze drifted toward the staff held by the intruder. Without moving his pupils, he subtly shifted his focus to examine the staff—a high-level skill in focusing one’s senses without alerting others.
‘There’s definitely sothing unusual about it.’
The design was simple, but Duncan’s discerning eyes wouldn’t be deceived by appearances. Hidden sophistication lurked beneath the unadorned surface, a master’s touch evident in its smooth finish, and at the staff’s end, an orb faintly exuded a magical field.
‘At least A-rank... possibly an unregistered S-rank artifact. Owning one would violate Exploration Law.’
Of course, people often ignored such regulations. For instance, the top five guilds, the six major schools, and the three primary clans likely all secretly possessed a few S-rank artifacts.
So, while rare, it wasn’t completely impossible that a novice explorer had, by so freak stroke of luck, acquired an S-rank artifact. However unlikely, it couldn’t be entirely ruled out.
‘No. It’s more likely this person received covert support from a major faction, perhaps even the Grand Duke’s forces.’
The fact that Duncan could identify Roman’s face and na at a glance ant Roman was already on the watchlist. As one of the key figures of the so-called “Golden Generation,” who had erged from the elite training centers over the last decade, Roman was a prominent person of interest.
Although Duncan knew little about him beyond his being a demon warlock, this fact alone marked him as an outlier. He had eclipsed notable newcors, even surpassing figures like the Grand Duchess and the Celestial Sword. Roman’s achievents hinted at sothing extraordinary about him.
Duncan felt he had peeled back a layer of mystery surrounding Roman, a secret he hadn’t previously uncovered.
And Roman was well aware of that too.
The exposure of information. It was a drastic move, completely contrary to Roman’s usual modus operandi.
What this implied was...
‘He’s confident he can suppress the information. Does he intend to kill ?’
All of this deduction took Duncan only about eight seconds. Within that short span, not even ten seconds, Duncan’s back was already drenched in sweat.
“Made your assessnt yet?”
As soon as Roman opened his mouth, Duncan sprang into action. Imdiately, a glow of mana infused Duncan’s body, rapidly structuring a spell.
“[Freeze]!”
Duncan’s class was an Enchanter, a spellcaster who wielded the power of words. The single word spell absorbed his mana and intent, giving rise to a potent magical command.
However, to Duncan’s dismay, Roman was no stranger to enchantnts, having faced them painfully in recent encounters. From the mont he had returned to the city and decided to enhance his magical prowess, countering enchantnts had been one of his top priorities.
A shrill, vibrating hum filled the air as Roman’s mana condensed in the space around him. This wasn’t to compress the energy into a projectile but simply to produce a disruptive sound.
Enchantnt spells were fundantally sound-based, relying on words of power. The resonant hum of Roman’s mana distorted the enchantnt’s effect, significantly weakening its power.
‘How did he develop a counter to enchantnts this fast? Did he target from the start?’
This was Duncan’s misunderstanding, but Roman had no intention of correcting him. Instead, he showed Duncan the courtesy of sparing him from overthinking.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Four bullets of mana struck Duncan’s body in rapid succession.
“Urgh...!”
Three shots were neutralized by Duncan’s mana shield, but the fourth penetrated, leaving a powerful shockwave reverberating through his body.
‘My strength...?’
A litany of possible spells rushed through Duncan’s mind. Weakening, paralysis, poisoning, erosion. There were nurous ways to incapacitate a target, but they all shared a common limitation: few could debilitate a person so thoroughly in a single strike.
‘I’m still okay, for now.’
But he had to dispose of the information here, even if it ant obliterating himself in the process.
“[Burn]...!”
Just as Duncan was about to cast another spell, Roman’s mana bullets shot toward him again. Duncan managed to dodge, keeping his gaze fixed on Roman.
However—
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets connected.
Once locked onto its prey, the homing mana bullets no longer missed their target.
“Gah!”
After the fourth strike, Duncan felt his tongue stiffening.
His strength was slipping away. The first to go were his legs, and he collapsed like a crumbling sandcastle.
‘How is this guy a novice... he’s at least top-tier Senior.’
While the gap between a Senior and an Expert was significant, the fact that Duncan had been subdued so effortlessly ant that Roman was unquestionably in the Senior’s upper echelons.
Roman stepped past Duncan and picked up the docunts Duncan had been trying to destroy.
“A map of the Les Rin underworld?”
Scoffing at its uselessness, Roman shoved the paper back among the scattered files.
Roman started idly rifling through the docunts, like soone aimlessly browsing in a library or bookstore, his fingers brushing over the papers as he strolled slowly.
“You heard why I’m here, right?”
Duncan certainly had. He had listened in on the entire conversation upstairs.
Roman’s request had been simple: he didn’t need elaborate information, just a eting with their leader. But that was a request more difficult to fulfill than selling out the organization’s secrets.
Testing whether he still had control, Duncan managed to move his tongue again.
“Are... you going to kill ?”
Roman replied calmly.
“If you answer.”
In truth, Roman had no concrete plan to kill him. From his perspective, the information would be contained regardless of whether Duncan lived or died.
Roman suspected that Valen Whickerton belonged to one of two groups.
Either he was a lackey following orders from the Cult of Destruction as an Abyss worshipper, or he was a demon warlock drawing upon forbidden knowledge to access information that should have been beyond his grasp.
Though he wasn’t intent on killing Duncan, Roman didn’t hesitate to release a faint killing intent, hinting that he could if necessary.
Duncan’s lips moved heavily.
“Our leader is in the Abyss.”
“Lie.”
Roman’s voice was firm.
It was the tone of soone who believed he held the truth.
“Your leader is in the city. The information from every layer of the Abyss is ultimately consolidated in this city.”
For Valen to make such swift decisions, he had to be in the city or on the first layer. And being in the first layer’s main base would severely restrict his reach.
Valen Whickerton was in the city. A truth that anyone could deduce with a bit of thought.
“I’ll ask again. How do I contact your leader?”
§
In a bright, sunlit room sowhere within the vast, magnificent city of Les Rin, a man and a woman faced each other.
“Third Branch was attacked. There are two intruders: Senior Explorer Yan Bong-Sik and Novice Explorer Roman Son. It’s presud that Branch Manager Duncan was captured by them, and the city’s official force is currently monitoring the situation. What should we do? Should I dispatch a response team...?”
Valen raised a hand, silencing his assistant before he could finish proposing a plan.
Silence quickly settled over the room.
Dispatch a response team? They might handle both Bong-Sik and Roman without much difficulty, but doing so would surely bring down lasting consequences on Shadow Sketch.
The assistant was unaware, but to Valen, Roman was like a tree with a hornet’s nest attached—a nest of giant hornets.
A re shadow like Shadow Sketch wouldn’t stand a chance if a swarm of hornets were to descend upon them.
And Valen had no desire to antagonize Roman.
In fact, he had intended to et him sooner or later.
He hadn’t expected him to move so decisively or so swiftly.
“He’s quite the quick mover.”
If Roman had heard, he might have said it was a trait of his people.
“I’ll go myself. If he’s so eager to et, it would only be polite to show him my face.”
Of course, his “politeness” would be a selective courtesy,
given only to those he deed worthy.
Reviews
All reviews (0)