Acquired the Scam Rune in the Academy

Zone 6 – A Land Touched by Death (4)

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Death Knights are notorious monsters among the undead.

They have appeared occasionally in necromancy-related dungeons that various clans have been tackling, and each time they appeared, they shocked the Holder community.

Tremendous strength and high speed.

Excellent swordsmanship and magic utilization.

Their physical abilities were almost on par with beast-type monsters, and their flashy techniques closely resembled those of warrior-class Holders.

‘Almost… As if they were originally human.’

Through this, the Holder community could clearly define Death Knights.

Death Knights are undead who have been resurrected through special magical processes and alchemy, having been knights in their previous lives.

Their combat style that looks unmistakably human.

Their hand-to-hand combat experience that doesn’t falter in the face of variables.

Looking at other factors of their abilities, it was easy to guess this fact.

And accordingly…

The monster grade of Death Knights couldn’t be clearly measured.

This is because their power varies depending on how strong their soul was in life, and the strength of their body varies depending on the level of their creator.

So while some Death Knights are A-grade monsters,

Some Death Knights are S-grade, or even beyond that grade in some cases.

Clang!

Cla-clang!!

And from the impact felt in the clashing swords, I could tell.

‘…At least S-grade.’

The Death Knight before me had at least the skills of an S-grade monster.

I had coated my sword generously with divine power manifested through [Madness of Faith], and when we clashed, I used the principle of [Brave Eternal Wave].

In other words, I wasn’t simply trying to clash swords, but attacked using variations of legendary martial arts…

And the Death Knight fellow received all of this, resulting in our swords clashing.

That fluid swordsmanship and instantaneous judgment, overwhelming reaction speed.

The fact that it even withstood all of my divine power told me that this opponent was no ordinary foe.

-Filthy traitor…!! We meet again here!

But the state of the clashing Death Knight was strange.

‘What is it saying?’

The fellow’s words flowing through the [Language] rune.

Mixed with a rough metallic sound, I couldn’t hear clearly, but the word ‘traitor’ came through distinctly.

When did it ever see me to call me a traitor?

-Just because you received baptism from those pathetic priests, do you think your essence has changed! You are a knight of Termen to the bone!

The words coming in shouts one after another.

Of course, it’s nonsense that’s hard to understand.

It seems to be mistaking me for someone else… I regretted that my [Language] rune level was too low to convey my thoughts, even though I could understand his words.

Clash-

Cla-clang-!!

Grrr-.

All I could do was fight hard, clashing swords.

Since it wasn’t a situation where I could afford to show mercy to the enemy in the first place, I focused all my strength on annihilating him.

‘Chane Strike.’

After lowering my body from the clashing state, I use [Change Strike] towards the opponent’s waist.

It should be a skill with no effect on an S-grade monster like a Death Knight, but [Change Strike] coated almost excessively with divine power was no ordinary skill.

It receives support from various divine-type runes like [Madness of Faith], [Silver MoonShadow], and the item [Sword of Penitent] has excellent resonance with such divine power.

But.

-It’s useless!!

Clang-!

The enemy Death Knight counters [Change Strike] with that sound.

As I saw earlier, it’s a truly surprising reaction speed.

‘This bastard, he’s damn good with a sword.’

I can’t help but praise highly.

Although its appearance is that of a rough skeletal knight, its swordsmanship and movements were quite flexible and smooth.

Above all, the divine power.

This fellow blocked my attack as if immune to divine power, showing no sign of damage.

No, it’s not immunity.

The divine power is definitely eating away at the surrounding darkness and inflicting damage.

It’s just forcibly blocking this by exerting a power that transcends attribute compatibility.

-All traitors of Termen shall die by the sword of Neilid!!

Neilid, revealing his name, drives me back.

I thought while blocking the sword in a slightly defensive stance.

‘This bastard, he talks way too much….’

Why is a Death Knight so talkative?

Moreover, he keeps calling me a ‘traitor of Termen’, but honestly, I don’t understand a word of what he’s saying.

Still, I can clearly see that this fellow is no ordinary warrior.

His abilities are excellent, and he has the power to withstand divine power.

He was an opponent not easily killed by conventional methods.

-Master, I have cleared the path as you instructed.

‘Well done, Jaten.’

-I’m at my limit now. There are too many enemies all around.

‘Alright. You can return.’

[Contractor ‘Jaten’ has used ‘Emergency Escape’, a derivative skill of the ‘Law of Contract’ rune.]

So I prepared a more definitive way to kill him.

Along the straight path that Jaten had created, pushing himself to the point of needing to use [Emergency Escape],

A snow-white woman was approaching.

And.

“Bloom a single flower.”

Her trademark ultimate skill is activated.

[Snowfield Descending Blossoms].

A skill that instantly explodes magic in one’s body and sword, attacking the enemy as if dancing.

The movement is fast but so smooth that it looks as if white snowflake flowers are blooming from the enemies.

Master Yoo Eun-seol.

She had arrived right in the middle of the battlefield where I was.

-Ugh, argh…!!

Neilid immediately let out a scream of agony.

Even for an S-grade or higher monster, it’s not easy to block the ultimate skill unleashed by an S-grade Holder.

I would find it difficult to block that attack, let alone a Death Knight without any special defensive measures.

‘If divine power doesn’t work, just overwhelm it with magic power.’

Divine power is merely an auxiliary means.

When dealing with dark attribute monsters, if you can unleash a magical attack powerful enough to overwhelm them…

Divine power wasn’t necessarily needed.

“Jae-hyun, are you alright?”

Master, who had struck Neilid, asked casually as she came towards me.

“I’m fine. The other clan members…”

“Except for the rear personnel, everyone has pushed inside. Especially thanks to you breaking their formation, area-of-effect magic is being effectively applied in each sector.”

Master quickly explained the current situation.

As she said, the sound of clan members’ wide-area magic exploding could be heard here and there.

The warrior-class clan members had already arrived where we were and were guarding the surroundings.

“Now let’s fight together. There are too many to fight alone.”

I nodded at Master’s words.

Solo play was enough up to this point.

-I’ll deal with Termen’s betrayer with my own hands…!!

Crack-!!

I thrust the [Sword of Penitent] into the chest of Neilid, who was still spouting nonsense about Termen.

For an undead already battered by Master’s [Snow Falling Flower], a sword strike imbued with divine power was a fatal blow.

It was the pathetic end of the Death Knight that had been relentlessly pursuing me.

But then something strange happened.

When I stabbed the sword into its magic stone, which acted as its power source, the [Sword of Penitent] suddenly glowed with an odd light.

A unique color blending white and black.

It was as if…

The dense darkness enveloping the Death Knight was being sucked into and absorbed by the sword.

‘What’s this?’

It happened too quickly for proper analysis.

Is it just a phenomenon that occurs when a Death Knight dies?

Or did some magical process left by the Ludenark School react to the sword?

All sorts of thoughts crossed my mind, but…

Unfortunately, there was no time to dwell on this further.

“Jae-hyun, in front!”

“Yes!”

Although we had killed Neilid, probably the most powerful being in the legion, thousands of undead still remained before us.

***

Ippotranslation

***

How many tens? No, how many hundreds of undead had we swept through?

By the time countless monster corpses and debris were piled up like mountains around us, we noticed a strange phenomenon.

“The enemies are retreating!!”

The undead legion, which had been fighting with overwhelming numbers, suddenly began to withdraw.

Slowly at first, then bit by bit…

Until they turned their backs completely and fled as if charging in reverse.

It was as if…

They had received a ‘retreat order’ from someone.

“We should chase them right away…!!”

“Stop. We’ll halt here.”

I simply raised my hand to signal a stop.

Some warrior-class clan members seemed eager to pursue them, but I didn’t think it would be very meaningful.

After all, our objective in coming to the 6th zone <Land Touched by Death> was to conquer the area, eliminate the Ludenark School members, or find more related clues.

Killing a few more undead here wouldn’t change anything.

“We’ll take a moment to regroup and then depart.”

More important was rest and planning for what’s ahead.

So I decided to calm the clan members and take time to regroup.

Sufficient rest was needed after fighting a sudden, long battle without much preparation.

“Master. You should see this.”

While resting in one corner of the dungeon,

Lim Hyun, the leader of Team 2, approached me and spoke.

“You should see this.”

In his hand was a dark-colored magic stone.

“This is the magic stone from the Death Knight that Team 5 leader Holder Park Jin-woo killed. It’s like a heart that acts as a kind of drive mechanism… Even though we definitely killed it, this strange dark energy is still swirling around it.”

A magic stone with an oddly dark energy flickering around it.

It was clearly…

The same type of energy that had been absorbed into the [Sword of Penitent] earlier.

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