Chapter 149
“You want me to stay back and watch?”
The middle-aged member of the White Night Squad couldn’t hide his confusion.
He was about to turn sixty and was a veteran of countless battles. Few people had seen more wind and rain than he. If White Night Seol Su-Ah hadn’t personally recruited him to her White Night Squadron, he would’ve been famous as a commander of another combat unit by now.
Yet, even with his deep experience and extraordinary insight, the middle-aged man was at a loss with his current orders.
Quietly watch as the Austrian National Treasure candidate kidnaps a student of Lion’s Castle?
He couldn’t be convinced, no matter what explanation he heard.
To make matters worse, the actions of the Baus family had crossed the line. They seemed to forget this place was another country’s territory and used force without restraint. They had blood on their hands—most of the damage was to the armed forces, but in some cases, students were involved after trying to intervene out of reckless bravado.
“How can we stand idly by? Shouldn’t we at least help the children?”
The middle-aged man eventually raised his voice.
He was ready to break his stealth and enter the battlefield. However, the captain of the White Night Squad, Go Eun-Ju, stared him down calmly. “Since when did you start questioning orders?”
The White Night Squad was often mobilized for Seol Su-Ah’s private business. What use were they if they hesitated when doing unpleasant things? Their role was to obey, not to question.
“The student who was kidnapped is also a child. You say we should help the children... but Baek Do-Jin is also a child. Do you mean to defy Her Excellency’s orders?”
“I only mean that I want to help the two children before us.”
“One exception proceeds another, and things will only unravel from there. Don’t you know that?”
“Apologies, Captain.” The middle-aged man bowed his head and stepped back.
Go Eun-Ju’s gaze softened as she read the lingering worry on the middle-aged man’s face. Inwardly, she sighed. Do you think this is easy for me?
—Captain!
At this moment, there was an urgent radio transmission.
—K-Kang Jae-Hyeok! The Yaksha’s son clashed with Loren!
“What?”
Kang Jae-Hyeok... Before entering Lion’s Castle—no, long before that, Seol Su-Ah had been keeping a close eye on him. Go Eun-Ju had served Seol Su-Ah for over twenty years, and she knew what Kang Jae-Hyeok meant to her master.
The White Night squad member radioed again, his tone careful.
—Should we intervene?
In the background, Go Eun-Ju heard the other squad member tasked with protecting Jae-Hyeok. He was urging his teammate for a response.
Are they both so attached already?
Indeed, according to the members’ reports, Kang Jae-Hyeok was an exemplary student. He was the first to leave the dormitory every day to devote himself to personal training; he was equally diligent in class and went to bed on time.
Even his relationship with his teacher is close.
A student who respected his teacher indeed deserved to be liked by the older members of the White Night Squad.
—Captain?
“Umm.”
Go Eun-Ju frowned in a troubled manner.
The order to protect Jae-Hyeok and the order to stand by irrespective of Loren’s actions were in direct conflict—no matter what she chose, she would be disobeying her orders.
Go Eun-Ju breathed slow and reassessed.
What is the priority? In the past, Seol Su-Ah regarded the Yaksha as her teacher and received many favors from him. To her, Jae-Hyeok was the son of the benefactor she was indebted to, and she intended to keep him by her side for a long time.
On the other hand, Loren is the key piece to the beginning of a great plan. Despite all types of criticism and opposition, Seol Su-Ah had accepted Loren as an exchange student because she knew of Loren and Baek Do-Jin’s relationship. She’d predicted today’s incident and intended to use the diplomatic outrage between South Korea and Austria to substantiate her plans and gain the justification for killing those pigs who filled their stomachs on the Yaksha and the Kang family’s downfall.
Go Eun-Ju weighed the value of Kang Jae-Hyeok against Loren and came to a conclusion.
“Stand down. Don’t interfere with Loren.”
—I under... Uh?
Go Eun-Ju’s brow arched. Her subordinate’s response was strange. Do they understand? Or do they intend to rebel?
Just then, another radio transmission came through.
-...Kang Jae-Hyeok is... interfering with Loren.
“What was that?” Go Eun-Ju burst out laughing. “You mean that Kang Jae-Hyeok is competing with Austria’s National Treasure candidate and holding him back? Huh? You must like Kang Jae-Hyeok a lot, judging by the tales you're spinning to try and intervene.”
—No, that isn’t it—
“Stop scheming and get back here immediately. We must capture all the remnants of the Baus family the moment Loren escapes.”
—...Yes.
“Since when did the discipline of the White Night Squad become so lax?” Go Eun-Ju sighed after cutting off the radio. Of course, she was familiar with Kang Jae-Hyeok’s abilities. He was surprisingly at the top of the first-year students. His performance in the duel evaluations and the terrain adaptation training, as well as his victory over the head of the Shooting Club and Noble, were all extraordinary.
For a child who was raised alone to have such strength... it really is a testament to great talent.
However, National Treasure candidates were monsters in human form. Go Eun-Ju recalled Seol Su-Ah’s past as a National Treasure candidate and shook her head.
It was impossible for Kang Jae-Hyeok to interfere with Loren.
***
Skeletons were a low-level undead summoned by necromancers. They had various strengths, such as absolute obedience to the summoner and no sense of fear or pain. As long as they didn’t die, skeletons would carry out their master’s orders and fight to the end no matter how badly they were damaged. They could also be equipped with items and trained in skills, such as spear, sword, or shield techniques.
Moreover, thanks to their resistance against illusion and taming Skills, summoning them in large numbers carried little risk.
They were bound to become an object of fear.
No matter whether it was a player or a monster, they naturally felt intimidated before a large, near-immortal army. Once the order was given, skeletons would not rest until their target was dead—and usually, that was the only outcome.
Today, however, the successor of the Kang family demonstrated the profundity of his family’s sword-drawing technique.
Every time he drew his sword, the skulls of the surrounding skeletons tumbled. The lethal speed and accuracy of his sword-draw was the perfect counter to the skeletons’ undying tenacity.
One after another, the skeletons fell like puppets with their strings cut. And yet—
“I haven’t granted you eternal rest!” Loren shouted and waved his hand.
Bone fragments reassembled, and one after another, the skeletons returned to unlife and rose again.
Such a sight was enough to make any enemy fall into despair. In war, Necromancers reigned supreme. Luck can’t save you every time, Loren thought.
Inwardly, he was disturbed.
Minutes ago, Jae-Hyeok had returned from the brink after killing a couple of his skeleton summons and leveling up. That was something that shouldn’t have happened. Player-summoned monsters gave several times less experience than normal monsters; moreover, Loren had his Commander’s Ring that artificially raised the level of his skeletons. In reality, the actual experience his summons gave wasn’t much different from a summons whose level was in the mid-to-high 40s. Yet somehow, just killing a few of them had been enough for Jae-Hyeok to level up?
Common sense dictated that Jae-Hyeok had to be below level 50 for him to have gained any significant experience from his skeletons. But... No, that can’t be possible. Loren couldn’t believe it. Jae-Hyeok’s abilities were comparable to an A-class. How could his level be in the 40s? He had to be at least level 80; even assuming Jae-Hyeok had maxed out his stats before awakening—which Loren doubted—Jae-Hyeok’s prowess should still only be possible after level 60.
That could only mean one thing: He must’ve been lucky enough to have been on the verge of a level-up.
A player’s experience increased even when killing lower-level monsters. Of course, the amount of experience was minuscule, but if Jae-Hyeok’s experience bar had already been 99.99% full, then even then it made sense that he’d leveled up from killing his skeletons.
“Continue attacking!” Loren shouted. He had lost some of his usual indifference.
Every time Jae-Hyeok drew his sword, several skeletons fell apart. Worst of all, Jae-Hyeok’s swordsmanship was a technique, not a Skill. It cost Jae-Hyeok no mana to swing his sword, while Loren’s mana dwindled with every skeleton he resurrected.
A necromancer’s greatest strength was in their endurance, but now Loren was actually falling behind. As the skeletons’ respawn rate slowed down, the speed at which Jae-Hyeok killed the skeletons gradually increased.
Why did he have to level up at that time?
For the first time in his life, Loren blamed the heavens. A crack formed in the pride he’d built up after awakening the Baus family’s Bloodline Skill and becoming the successor.
“Crush him!” Loren waved and more skeletons flooded forward. But before he knew it, dozens more skeletons fell for the last time.
As the skeletons’ encirclement grew looser, Jae-Hyeok’s attacks grew fiercer, and the more damage the skeleton army suffered.
Enough! Loren raised his hands and summoned a ghoul lord.
Among the undead, ghouls had a very high resistance to physical attacks, and their entire body was a weapon; they were fast and spewed venom from their mouth, so it was a natural counter to swordsmen. As for a ghoul lord? That was a commander-level being, many times more powerful than a normal ghoul.
The ghoul lord took off in a sprint, bone fragments crunching beneath its powerful footfalls.
Jae-Hyeok was surprised and took back his sword.
The ghoul lord was Loren’s trump card; he’d originally intended to save it for the captain of the armed forces. But at this point, the armed forces were unlikely to catch up with him. Loren thought it was better to use the ghoul lord to overpower Jae-Hyeok quickly.
It was a hasty judgment.
Jae-Hyeok summoned his inventory and threw out a pouch of poison powder, which exploded into a fine mist around the ghoul lord.
The ghoul lord instinctively stopped and inhaled the poison. Ghoul lords had an affinity for poison, and normally, its behaviour only benefited allies by preventing them from being poisoned.
Today, however, the ghoul lords' habits proved lethal.
Just as the ghoul finished absorbing the poison, Jae-Hyeok arrived in front of it and slashed down, unleashing Two Scythes Block a Cart.
Faint black marks appeared on the ghoul’s hard neck and head. The ghoul sneered—when suddenly, its vision went white.
As thunder energy ripped through the ghoul lord's body, tendrils lashed out from the tribulation thunderbolt and struck down the surrounding skeletons, opening a path directly to Loren.
After the lightning dissipated, the ghoul lord collapsed to its knees, blackened and unmoving.
Flash!
A pillar of light fell.
Did he level up again? Loren’s eyes were bloodshot. He trailed behind his two Named skeleton warriors as he threw himself at Jae-Hyeok. He had no choice but to ignore his pride and acknowledge Jae-Hyeok as an opponent.
Jae-Hyeok held back the skeleton warriors’ onslaught and laughed. “Do-Jin!”
Only then did Loren realize that the pillar of light hadn’t been coming from Jae-Hyeok, but from behind.
That’s right: Do-Jin—the boy whose level was so low that others in his year treated him as inferior. He’d been following behind Jae-Hyeok, cleaning up his skeleton scraps, and quickly leveled up.
“Loren, you bastard!”
Do-Jin’s first words were distant, but Loren heard the final ‘bastard’ right next to his ear.
Loren tried to react, but competing with Flash Steps in speed was virtually impossible. Before he could so much as tilt his head, Do-Jin’s elbow slammed into Loren’s face.
“Cough!”
“Y-Young Masteeeeeeer!!”
Loren’s groan and Wolfgang’s screams intertwined to create further confusion on the battlefield.