The Young Son Swordmaster
eps 44s
'What the fuck-!'
Jin suddenly turned around and unsheathed his dagger.
The unconscious mercenaries regained control of their bodies.
"They're red?"
Moreover, the two of them growled like wild beasts and breathed heavily inconsistently. It sounds almost like an orc or troll breathing pattern.
Jin had no time to ask himself how this could happen.
The steel armor of this former human mercenary was bulging. The rapidly swelling muscles on the inside tore the metal apart.
The crack!
As the armor was torn apart, Jin reflexively chanted a spell.
'Holy Wind!'
The mana gust directly engulfs the inside of the shed and forms a thin hemispheric layer.
It was a 4-star spell that reduced all sounds within a 15-meter radius. Jin had decided not to use magic before because he did not want to risk being detected by the witches in the area, but the situation had changed.
He could not avoid fighting the mercenaries who had turned into monsters. They had already extended their hands towards Jin. Their fingers had grown sharp and long claws, like those of the Red Tiger Tribe.
"I can only hope the witches out there don't notice us."
Kraw!
Both of his enemies had already pounced towards him simultaneously.
Jin didn't even have time to wield Bradamante. The monsters swung their hands one after another, taking turns so that their targets did not have time to breathe.
Swish!
The claws sharply tore through the air as they drew the bow. Jin dodged the attack by crouching down, and stabbed one of the monsters in the ribs with his dagger.
He had aimed at his heart, but the monster barely managed to avoid being killed by twisting its body. However, Jin must have felt the sensation of flesh being torn apart and bones breaking.
“Graa!”
The monster screamed horribly.
It did not seem to be a fatal injury. The monster did not bother to release the dagger on its body and continued to swing its claws.
Fortunately, Jin took advantage of this short breath to create a distance between them and the unsheathed Bradamante. As he hurriedly enveloped his blade with aura, the dark warehouse became slightly bright.
The monsters seemed to sense that the aura was a dangerous power. As Jin adjusted the distance between them while keeping his sword straight, the black feathers covering the monster's body stood upright.
“Krrr...!”
“Kraagh.”
The wounded monster belatedly released a dagger in his chest.
Seeing what happened after that, Jin inevitably let his face show his surprise.
'They can even regenerate?'
The monster's deep wound on his chest quickly healed and closed. The dark red blood quickly stopped radiating out after a few seconds.
This kind of high-speed regeneration could only be seen in high-ranked and powerful monsters.
However, Jin's opponent was not an ordinary monster born naturally. These enemies were undoubtedly humans even a minute ago.
With each passing second, all sorts of thoughts and hypotheses passed through Jin's mind. However, he lacked the necessary knowledge to understand exactly how this mysterious and strange incident happened.
He had never seen anything like it in his total 43 years of life.
Fortunately, while he cannot understand how it happened, Jin can somewhat understand the basics behind it, thanks to his life as a witch in his past life.
'It was very possible that this was a live golem created through forbidden magic. That bastard Zippfel... Did they use the Kollon Ruins as a trial facility for forbidden magic?'
Holy hooch!
The monsters continued their attack.
Jin could only dodge the previous attack because he was shocked, but now that he regained his composure, his enemy's movements looked awkward. They had the strength and speed of a low-leveled 4-star warrior.
However, there was a huge difference between a trained 4-star knight and a monster that only had 4-star physical abilities. Jin easily fended off and dodged the monster claws and counterattacked.
"It's not too hard to face them."
Whenever Jin made a trick or moved irregularly, the monsters always did. He could see their legs entangled, resulting in the monsters losing balance.
"There are three core places to be found: the heart, head, or lower abdomen."
When it came to these magic weapons called golems, they never stopped moving no matter how much they were destroyed. In fact, Jin had sliced off one of the monsters' wrists and shoulders, but there was no change in his behavior.
On the other hand, if their core was destroyed, it would be over for them. This was the case even for the live golems made with forbidden magic.
Stab!
Jin retreated and changed his attack pattern, easily stabbing one of his heads. The aura surrounding his sword spun rapidly, so there was a huge hole the size of a fist on the monster's head.
"So it's not the head."
If Jin fought like he was facing a human, he would be in trouble right now. After delivering a deadly blow to one of the enemies, most of the fighters would shift their focus on the remaining enemies.
However, the golem with a hole in its head continued to swipe its claws. His speed and strength were not affected in the slightest. Instead, it became more violent and aggressive.
Jin turned around to dodge the attack and thrust his sword again, this time in the lower abdomen.
But this time, he raised his hand with a sword until he reached the heart. This kind of attack was almost impossible for ordinary people to carry out. It is at times like these that Jin is grateful for his Runcandel bloodline for giving him a body blessed with superhuman strength.
A scriieaakch!
The disgusting sound of the monster's flesh being torn apart and its ribs breaking resounded. As soon as he pulled out his sword, Jin realized that the point lay in the heart.
Instead of an actual heartbeat, there is a blue mana ball in the center of the chest.
However, it was a core that looked completely different from what Jin was familiar with. Instead of mana, it almost looked like a huge glass marble filled with blue liquid.
Moreover, it was much more difficult than what was supposed to be a normal human heart. Through the recoil that Jin felt while cutting through his core, he realized that he had just managed to break it despite the 5-star aura covering his sword.
Pffff!
The dense-looking mana ball exploded and a foul smell spread in the air.
The dead monster was now slowly turning back into a human. It cannot return to its original shape perfectly, as swollen skin and torn muscles cannot be changed.
Nevertheless, the corpse that withered on the ground was undoubtedly a human.
As soon as he saw that, a complicated sentiment grew within Jin, and anger suddenly began to boil in his heart.
'How dare they do something like this to fellow humans ...'
Anger at Zipfels.
The screene!
His claws slammed and scratched Bradamante, creating an unpleasant sound. Jin put his right leg back and pushed with all his strength to stand upright.
His enemy's claws aren't as strong as Bradamante's. Although it seemed to be stronger than ordinary steel, it could not compare to the powerful ancient sword blades from thousands of years ago.
The crack!
As the two opponents clashed, the five claws detached, disturbing the balance of power. The monster lost its footing and fell face down onto the floor.
Jin stomped on the back of his head and stabbed his heart from above.
He sensed the dense ball of mana breaking at the tip of his sword. The body of the fallen monster trembled, and soon, it returned to its human form as well.
“Fiuh.”
Only then could Jin finally sigh and relax. He looked around and saw that the floor was drenched in the dark red blood of the monster. The Silent Wind Spell he used before was still there.
Fortunately, it seemed like the witches in the area did not feel the use of magic.
“K-Ki..”
Jin suddenly heard a voice. It came from a fallen monster, no, from a human squirming on the floor.
"Kill me…"
He hurriedly crouched down and examined the second victim. Surprisingly, he was still breathing. Almost, but breathing. However, he still had a somewhat inhumane appearance.
Clearly their entire body was swollen and torn beyond the limits of their abilities. Jin soon comes to the conclusion that he cannot be saved.
He has a lot of questions to ask. How and why they became live golems, who was behind all this, how they became the subjects of the Zipfels experiment.
However, those mercenaries had no more strength to speak. All Jin could do was free him from pain and suffering.
Poked.
Jin stabbed the man in his extremely thin neck, and the victim closed his eyes calmly.
Jin also closed his eyes for a moment and raised his head.
He did not know about their circumstances, but no human in the world wanted to become a golem living willingly.
Especially if they were made to turn into monsters and be treated as expendable items.
A fire lit up in Jin's eyes as he gritted his teeth.
But this is not the time to lose his cool.
An unexpected incident has occurred, in which Jin witnesses the horrific acts committed by Zipfels behind the scenes. And now, Jin is suspicious of his older sister, wondering if they knew this truth when sending her on this mission.
However, he still had a task to complete.
He couldn't just go home and tell his brothers 'I can't complete the mission because monsters attacked me'. Otherwise, his entire clan would mock him.
And even if Runcandels decided to bear the disgrace and publish the details of this mission—about the terrible experiments secretly conducted in the Zippel— Clannothing will change. Runcandels can sue the Vermont Empire to conduct an official investigation into Zipfels, but the witch clan will never admit to having used forbidden magic.
Creating a live golem was a terrible crime. Finding signs of a live golem alone was more than enough to pressure the empire to conduct a formal investigation. However, Zipfels could only pretend to be innocent even if conclusive evidence was found.
In that case, no one could hold them accountable for this crime. That was how much power and authority Zipfels had.
'First, I have to take some shards of mana balls and quickly complete my mission.'
After a while, Jin regained his composure and picked up a few pieces of mana clumps. He then walked to the entrance of the warehouse and checked the situation outside.
'...The witches did not move. In other words, most of the witches here did not know about this living golem and were only told that the warehouse was just an ordinary warehouse.’
If the witches knew that the live golems were placed as guards outside this building, the security here would not be too weak. There would be at least twenty 7-star mages constantly watching this place.
In other words, not every personnel stationed at Kollon Ruins was involved with the use of forbidden magic in the clan.
'I just need to steal the relic and escape as originally planned.'
Jin carefully removed the Silent Wind spell he used and searched around the warehouse.
Finding three stone slabs was an easy matter.
They were all stored away on the first floor of the warehouse. He also found the bronze bowl very quickly.
(TL/N: Last reminder for people living in a country where you have a 'ground floor': Korea calls the lowest floor a 'first floor' like the United States. Remember when you see another future "x floor" in this novel.)
However, unlike the stone slab, the bronze bowl was protected by an elaborate spell. It is set to activate when the bowl is removed from its display box.
This entire protective spell was the reason why the difficulty of the mission was so high.
'The standard procedure is to spend a few hours trying to eliminate magic like removing the knot of a rope, but ...'
Oooooong junks.
Jin sheathed his sword and gathered the mana in both hands.
'I'll steal it using more extreme methods. Since there were already two live golems lying here as corpses, no matter what crazy thing I did in this building today.’.
Holy hooch!
The mana in his hand gained the fire attribute.
But Jin then infused the mana with spiritual energy. The flame mixed with darkness projected a huge shadow in the room.
"The Zipfels family had no choice but to sweep under the carpet."
The ancient relics he had to steal were only stone slabs and one bronze bowl. Even if it was stolen, the Zippel family had nothing to worry about.
Nevertheless, Zipfels would usually do his best when trying to find the culprit as the dignity of the clan was at stake.
However, the situation is different if you add a live golem made with forbidden magic into the equation. They had to hide the incident and not let the rumors spread in any way.
'Fire Explosion.'
Therefore, causing a commotion would actually benefit Jin while fleeing. He planned to light a fire that engulfed the entire building and escape while hiding his body inside the fire.
Holy hooch!
The burning mana ball in his hand floated in the air. They glowed bright red as spiritual energy had strengthened them.
After the preparations were completed, the two mana balls exploded.
Boooooooooom!
The inside of the warehouse was engulfed in flames in just an instant, and the ceiling collapsed from the explosion.
Kiiie! Kiiie!
The protection spell given to all items and the relic display case is activated simultaneously. A shrill voice echoed everywhere in the warehouse. However, Jin ignored the spell and simply picked up the bronze bowl and quickly left the front door.
The Zipfels may have disguised the incident as an accidental fire.
