Black Sword

The level 5 he’d been waiting for so long. That didn’t mean this was the time to relax and take it easy. And it was even less the time to sit there and listen to his Mastering, slow as molasses.

“…Cut the bullshit and hand over the level 3 spell right now. I already know everything I can learn.”

[Well, you’re in a hurry.]

“You know better than anyone why.”

Solomon swallowed a curse and continued.

“I hit level 5, and the bonuses I’ll get are as follows.”

Because he didn’t have the leisure to listen to the Game Master’s drawn-out nonsense for even one more second.

───
· Two Aptitude Points I can allocate freely. (6 points total held)
· Available Level 2 spell slots increase from 2 to 3 (⚁⚁⚁).
───

“Right?”

[Wow. At this point, you seem to know better than I do.]

Solomon didn’t care, even at the Game Master’s mocking tone.

“I’ll learn the level 3 enhancement spell, <Black Sword>.”

[Well now, you haven’t even looked at the list of spells you can learn…]

“So what? I know everything I can learn.”

Solomon said, tamping down the fire in his chest.

“Next, I’ll spend all 4 Aptitude Points to learn the trait ‘Survivalist,’ and save the remaining 2.”

[Ah, Survivalist.]

The Game Master smiled as if amused beneath his robe.

[Now that’s a wise decision.]

Where a person’s mouth should have been, rippling darkness split open long like a crescent moon.

───
Trait 「Survivalist」
: During rest, heals injuries and status ailments that normally cannot be recovered
───

By this game’s rules, rest was only rest. Devastating internal injuries and bleeding, or a curse or status ailment someone put on you, didn’t just cleanly disappear.

So right now, Solomon desperately needed that trait.

It was a trait that went against the plan he’d made at the start. Because there was something else he’d planned to learn with the 6 Aptitude Points he’d saved up.

But a build only meant something if you survived.

“Now I’ve done everything, right? It was filthy working with you, and let’s never see each other again.”

[Oh, you’ll see me again soon.]

Solomon spat it out impatiently. At that, the Game Master whispered in a voice that sounded utterly unhurried.

[That is, if you can survive here… safely.]

“What?”

With that, a sound was heard. The sound of dice rolling.

[Ambush Detection Success!]

A chill deeper than anything he’d felt in his life clenched his heart tight and ran down his spine.

His eyes opened. And the moment they did, his body was already moving. District 1’s underground reservoir. And it was already there.

‘Of course…!’

An attack that happened during rest. This wasn’t a room at Hotel Snark. Resting in a danger zone always carried risk. Even so, in the end, that decision had been right.

‘My wounds… healed.’

They weren’t 100% perfectly healed. Even so, he could clearly feel that the wounds had ‘healed.’ A fracture and internal bleeding didn’t recover just because you shut your eyes for a bit. That was far from the rules of the world.

It was the game’s rules.

The trait 「Survivalist」, which healed a certain amount of injuries and status ailments that normally couldn’t be recovered during rest.

And along with spell slot recovery, the existence of the new level 3 spell he’d learned.

───
「Black Sword」
Tag — Level 3 spell, Shadow attribute
: Uses shadow magic to hone a blade and add sharpness, adding Damage 4 on hit
: Deals double damage on ambush attacks
───

Used normally, the damage was only 4. It was hard to call that high for a level 3 spell.

But the core of this spell came after that. The fact that it dealt double damage on ambush attacks.

“<Black Sword>, <Veil of Darkness>, activate.”

───
「Veil of Darkness」
Tag — Level 2 spell, Shadow attribute, Enhanced Attunement (Lord of the Veil)

: Spreads a veil of darkness, treating all of the caster’s attacks within the area as Lesser Ambush
: Within the veil, the caster’s defense and evasion increase, and enemies’ accuracy decreases
───

Solomon didn’t hesitate, activating a level 3 spell and a level 2 spell in succession.

───
Available spell slots
: Level 1 spell slots 5 uses (⚀⚀⚀⚀⚀)
: Level 2 spell slots 2 uses (⚁⚁■)
: Level 3 spell slots 0 uses (■)
───

Chwaaak!

Within the veil, a shadow blade drove down into the creature. In the instant a fountain of blood burst up, Solomon didn’t hesitate.

“<Shadow Mimic>.”

Right after, a shadow surged up behind its back and became a human shape. To mimic, exactly as it was, the ambush Solomon had just shown inside the veil.

And as a bonus, drawn by that magical power, the creature switched targets.

He wouldn’t use the invisibility spell. Because he couldn’t waste spell slots recklessly.

More than anything, there was no need. From that last fight, he’d gained an experiential understanding of ‘how much damage he needed to put in.’ About how many hit points the thing roughly had, and how he could carve those hit points down.

‘The veil is up, and I used Black Sword, so the damage itself is enough.’

As the shadow mimic replayed that strike, Solomon delivered another blow as well. At that point, the damage needed to kill it was more than sufficient.

The ambush blades from both sides shredding the creature happened in an instant. He didn’t even take much damage.

‘Too easy.’

To the point it was hard to believe it was the same monster as before…

[Insight Success!]

“?”

Solomon was dumbfounded. No wonder things were going so easily.

[Things in this world aren’t that easy.]

“……”

‘Then there was no need to use Black Sword in the first place.’

After thinking it through, anger surged up.

‘Whew. Proper and nice thoughts. Proper and nice thoughts…’

Solomon calmly checked the situation. Thankfully, Black Sword itself was a sustained enhancement spell, so it wouldn’t disappear that easily. As long as he didn’t just collapse like this, it would definitely help in the next fight too.

‘Since I already used it, I can’t waste time.’

That was all the more reason he didn’t have time to stand around. Just as Solomon was about to move straight into the underground labyrinth.

Koong!

A sound echoed. Did another monster pop out from somewhere? Solomon forced out a breath that felt stuck in his throat and turned his head toward where the sound came from.

“Ah.”

After turning, he spat out a string of curses.

It was a ladder.

A ladder connecting the surface and the underground had just come down.

Showing off an elegant shine like a brand-new car fresh off the line, like a newly lowered lifeline. As if offering Solomon a saving hand.

For the record, someone was hanging beneath the ladder, and judging by the work clothes, he seemed to have come to repair the facilities here.

With this, it wouldn’t be wrong to say Lord Bowery’s test was basically cleared.

“Loo-loo-loo, shit job, shit workplace…”

That worker came down to the floor while humming, then noticed Solomon and immediately dropped, falling onto his butt.

“W-what is it?!”

“A lost duck egg in the Nakdong River.”

“What…?”

“Nothing to worry about.”

Solomon answered like it was someone else’s business, leaving the creature’s corpse sprawled at his feet behind him.

“Anyway, I want to borrow the ladder.”

“Uh, uh, go ahead.”

He didn’t want to spend even one more second in a shithole like this. As he climbed the ladder up to the surface.

[You feel the gaze of the deep…]

An unidentified message rang out, making his back strangely go cold.

Solomon left the nightmarish underground reservoir and came straight out into District 1, looking for the ‘door’ that led to Hotel Snark.

A passage installed in back alleys of the city, in various shady spots where people’s eyes didn’t reach. A gray-zone hotel where the boundary between life and death grew blurred.

A place you couldn’t enter by ordinary means, and therefore, a place you could only come and go through by unordinary means.

“Oh boy.”

The moment he returned to the hotel, someone appeared in front of Solomon as if they’d been waiting.

“Wow. No way. Look who it is.”

“……”

It was Yuria, the elf broker with a monocle.

“Well, would you look at that. It’s Lady Yuria, who personally looked ahead at future threats for my sake and even warned me!”

“……”

The most proper and nice words yet spilled out of Solomon’s mouth.

“So what could you possibly be here for today? Did another new future threat I don’t know about show up again? I’m so honored, I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“That’s correct.”

“?”

Solomon’s sarcastic words cut off dead.

Like a crying child stopping at the story of the sack-carrying old man.

“And…”

Yuria trailed off and fell into a short silence.

“I won’t ask you to forgive me. I know I can’t.”

At the end of the silence, she knelt. In front of Solomon, on the cold lobby floor where quite a few of Hotel Snark’s people were watching. It must have been a rare sight, because even the walking corpses and skeletons were startled enough to show emotion for once.

“Since I received my first oracle as the Shaman Priestess of the Lake, in my life, an unerasable, most…”

Even amid the murmuring, Yuria lowered her head further and continued.

“Actually, not the most. Not the next either… not the one after that…”

“?”

“It was roughly the fourth most irreversible mistake.”

“You’ve lived a truly irreversible life.”

Solomon was even more dumbfounded. So that’s why they say fortune-tellers get people killed.

“You caused three even bigger disasters than this?”

“…Because I’ve lived a long time.”

“You cause disasters like that with divination and no one says a damn thing?”

“That’s why I’m doing this job now.”

“Ah-ha. So that’s why you’re like this.”

Solomon said, unable to hold back his disbelief any longer.

“No, you even wrote your resignation letter, so why did you do another reading? You were going to get fired anyway. Did you just stop caring what you saw?”

“…Kheuk.”

Maybe it was humiliating in its own way, because Yuria bit her lip hard in a way unlike her usual self. At this point, it almost made him curious what kind of massive disaster she’d caused in that long elf life of hers.

“The rest… let’s talk it over in the tea lounge.”

After the confession(?), Yuria rose to her feet.

“I’ll take responsibility and properly handle the aftermath for you.”

“…I don’t know if I can trust that.”

Solomon asked with a doubtful expression, and Yuria didn’t answer. He only noticed her ears were dyed red with more humiliation and shame than usual.

[Insight Success!]

It was an Insight that could go to hell. Especially for Solomon, who’d already booked an express train ticket to the afterlife thanks to her foresight.

‘And she said there’s one more future threat now.’

And the ticket in his hand was two tickets.

He had ended up like this in the first place because of her foresight, so was it really right to get after-service from her again in this situation? Solomon hesitated for a moment, then followed Yuria as she walked toward the tea lounge.

Because too much had already been spilled to hesitate now.