The Ripper

The next night.

“Room service.”

As if he had been waiting, Solomon opened the silver cloche the hotelier brought. Thankfully, unlike yesterday, there was actual content on the plate.

──
Target Capture Contract
──

──
Contract Issuer: Wallachia Co., Chairman Vlad Țepeș

Capture Target: the Red Artist, “Jack the Ripper”
──

Capture. At that unexpected word, Solomon frowned. Well, a vampire wouldn’t be tearing out the heart of a dead corpse. Considering his gourmet obsession, it wasn’t even surprising.

‘This got annoying.’

And on top of that.

──
The capture target (hereafter referred to as “the Ripper”) is a Blood Mage of the Blood-Red Mage Tower. After failing the Elder Examination and refusing to accept the result, he was expelled from the Tower….
──

‘A Blood Mage of the Blood-Red Mage Tower.’

A Blood Mage. And even if he’d been expelled, he was skilled enough to sit for the Elder Examination.

The same class Solomon had obtained through the heart in the bottle. “Coincidental” didn’t even begin to cover it.

──
After his expulsion, to vent his rage under the pretext of “artistic activity,” he has repeatedly kidnapped and murdered male and female prostitutes at least three times in the red-light district of Raspberry Street, Downtown District 7.
A Sword Watch Second-Grade Bladesman is investigating, but due to Wallachia Co.’s information operations, the arrest is expected to take additional time.
──

More information followed. A Sword Watch bladesman was already on the trail, and Wallachia Co. was the one obstructing the investigation. It was another reminder of what corporate power meant in this city.

──
We have located the Ripper’s blood traces and placed a tracking spell. This can be used through the enclosed Bloodstone Necklace.
Detection range is within 500 meters. Based on analysis of the target’s behavior, there is a high probability of detection around Redflower Station at midnight tonight….
──

It even included a careful means of tracking him, and spelled out exactly where to go. This was what people meant by “easy as eating rice cake while lying down.”

‘I can’t let my guard down.’

He was a Blood Mage bold enough to aim for an elder seat of the Blood-Red Mage Tower. And the contract issuer was from the Black Museum, no less. A request from Chairman Vlad Țepeș, the one who led a downtown megacorp guild.

A contract he would stake his greedy desire on as payment meant there was definitely a danger Solomon didn’t know about.

‘This changes nothing.’

Solomon checked his gear one last time.

The Sun Ruby Blade and the Ghost Whale Bone Blade hidden in each sleeve.

And the Nightfall automatic crossbow, reborn as his staff through Deadlock Workshop’s new modification.

After gathering everything, he took the Bloodstone Necklace resting on the silver plate. Then he left the room at once.

Through the Door Room, to the red-light district of Downtown District 7.

In front of Redflower Station, Bloom Street 94.

A fortress of pleasure where red lamps danced, a city landmark hailed as a holy ground for every kind of entertainment and gambling.

Even as the night deepened, the streetlights showed no sign of dimming. If anything, they burned redder than ever.

Solomon’s hometown, Raspberry Street.

For him, there was a clear “past” here. A past etched by his own two hands.

And it didn’t just exist. It was the eye of a storm where the King of Hell, the Five Great Houses, and every major figure in this world kept their eyes wide open.

‘…Not something to worry about right now.’

After thinking, Solomon shook his head.

He came here for a different reason. For now, it was time to focus on the contract in front of him.

Solomon stepped toward the packed street in front of Redflower Station.

To hunt the villain who roamed these night streets as his hunting ground.

Blending into the crowd, Solomon crossed Bloom Street 94. After walking along the area wrapped around the station for a while.

Faintly, he felt the Bloodstone Necklace’s magic ‘pulling.’

As if drawn by a magnet, the jewel seemed to strain toward a specific direction.

There was no reason to refuse. Solomon moved without hesitation, following where the necklace led.

Before long, Solomon turned from the main road into a small alley, heading into a ‘back alley’ that felt clearly out of place even on Raspberry Street.

Like peeking behind a lavishly decorated stage, the brightly glowing red lanterns and powdery scent vanished as if they had been a lie.

Even in broad daylight, the towering structures blocked the light, leaving it dark like night, and the gas lamps glowing in the gloom barely counted as lighting at all.

The pull of the Bloodstone Necklace had grown incomparably stronger than before.

It was being dragged ferociously toward a spot ahead, like it might snap the string and fly off.

‘Here.’

From the outside, it looked like an ordinary lodging house. Solomon opened the door without hesitation.

“Welcome. Staying the night? And the girl….”

The man at the desk spoke around a cigarette, addressing Solomon in a businesslike tone.

Solomon didn’t answer. He simply climbed the stairs in silence, following the necklace’s pull.

“Hey, this guy, not saying a wor….”

Cheolkeok-cheolkeok!

As he was about to grumble, Solomon silently pulled the automatic crossbow from his Quick Loader Belt.

Ttak!

As the crossbow’s frame and drive found their places, the toothed locking mechanism that fixed the axle, the ratchet wheel, moved and locked with a sound.

With that sound, Solomon hooked a finger on the trigger and drew it in.

The Nightfall XR-10, an automatic crossbow that gave off a sharp sheen like the night sky.

The moment he saw it, the man stopped mid-grumble and shut his mouth.

Solomon crossed two floors in silence and stopped before a room. Room 305. This was the one.

‘.’

Without hesitation, he activated a Level 1 spell. Solomon’s eyes shone black and inorganic like obsidian. The scene inside was revealed.

A woman with her mouth stuffed full of cotton, her arms and legs bound with rope, struggling.

And right behind the door, the presence of the Ripper poised to launch an attack at Solomon at any second.

‘I can see everything.’

He desperately wanted to drive in a sneak attack like this, but unfortunately, he couldn’t.

The contract’s objective was capture. Meaning he couldn’t deliver a “fatal blow.”

And the bigger problem was figuring out how far he could go without killing him.

For instance, the ‘Bleeding’ Solomon inflicted with a sneak attack wasn’t normal Bleeding.

──
「Induce Excessive Bleeding」
: On a successful melee sneak attack, the status ailment Bleeding lasts longer and does not fade easily.
──

Because of that subclass with the same name as the target, Ripper, he was far beyond “normal Bleeding.”

Solomon had seen that power clearly when he fought the Priest of Pain.

‘I guess there’s no other choice.’

At times like this, going in dumb and hard was also a method.

Kwaang!

So Solomon kicked the door with all his strength.

For the bastard hiding behind the door and watching carefully, it was the greatest strike imaginable.

“Keoheok!”

In pain, the Ripper’s body tumbled across the floor.

The bound woman’s eyes turned this way.

Eyes desperately pleading for help, clinging to life. And that face felt very familiar.

‘The blonde neighbor next door….’

The neighbor next door at 17 Grimlow Court 2, on the outskirts of the Lowlands.

— Mister, you were alive?

She had said that while puffing cigarettes, and now she was in a position where she had to worry about her own life.

“Lucky. We’re both alive.”

Solomon said.

Then he turned toward the Ripper rolling on the floor.

After tumbling, the Ripper quickly pulled something from his clothes.

A knife. Regripping the blade that gleamed cold and blue, he kicked off the ground at Solomon.

A brief scuffle.

No, it wasn’t even worthy of being called a scuffle.

Solomon easily knocked aside the wrist holding the knife, then grabbed it and twisted.

Hard enough that the elbow bone jutted outward.

Udeuk.

With an impossible sound, flesh, blood, and bone bared themselves outward.

“Kkeuaaaak!”

With one arm disabled, Solomon kicked the falling knife and shoved it under the bed, then kicked his knee and forced him down.

A scream that echoed without end.

No matter how much of a Blood Mage he was, was he helpless against pain in his own body?

At least it was clear he was a stereotypical frail mage, not skilled at using his body.

“You’re not a kid. Hold it in.”

As he said that, Solomon was about to chop the Ripper’s neck with a hand blade again.

Pungdeong!

The Ripper’s body collapsed on the spot.

As if flesh and bone lost their shape and slumped.

At some point, the pool of blood spread there was writhing like a living creature.

“!”

Kwajik!

A blood-red blade shot up from the blood pool.

Solomon rolled quickly to avoid the strike, and from far away, a faint sound echoed.

It was the sound of dice rolling.

‘Dice? Why….’

Why was there the sound of dice rolling in this situation?

He didn’t know. He didn’t want to know.

The Blood Mage’s body was melting into a pool of blood right in front of him. He didn’t have the leisure to focus on dice sounds by his ear.

Drip. Drip.

That was when it happened.

Blood droplets ran down Solomon’s stealth coat. It wasn’t his blood.

It was the blood that had sprayed everywhere when he broke the Ripper’s arm.

Right after, a shock that felt like it would stop his heart slammed into his mind.

[Insight success!]

When he realized it, Solomon was already yanking off his blood-soaked coat and flinging it far away.

The blood on the stealth coat blazed into flame and exploded on the spot.

───
Unique Class Trait 「Blood Explosion」
: Once per day, you can ignite a target’s blood to make it explode.
───

A Blood Mage’s class trait. The Ripper in front of him was no exception in being able to use it.

Soon, the pool of blood under his feet pulled away like a living creature and rose up.

Taking a human form again.

Even the wound on his arm was cleanly restored.

“Heh-heh, you slippery little eel!”

Jack the Ripper, a Blood Mage, grinned.

“Do you think I, an elder of the Blood-Red Mage Tower, would let myself be done in by back-alley trash like you…!”

An elder of the Blood-Red Mage Tower. Solomon was dumbfounded, and added.

“Wait, you failed the elder screening, didn’t you?”

“……!”

“You got expelled for refusing the result, so what’s this about being an elder?”

Recalling the detailed info he had read through room service.

“A hooligan like you! What do you know about me that you’re running your mouth…!”

“Ah. So that’s your boiling point.”

The moment Solomon mocked him, the self-proclaimed Elder Blood Mage of the Blood-Red Mage Tower, the Ripper, moved.

“Back-alley trash like you dares, what could you possibly know about me, about my art…!”

Blood splattered all around floated up, defying gravity.

Separate from his uncontrollable rage, countless droplets shaped themselves into bullets and shot forward.

‘!’

Fast.

And the accuracy and lethality imbued in each drop of blood couldn’t be dismissed either.

Whatever else, he was a Blood Mage skilled enough to aim for an elder.

‘, .’

The baptism of blood charging in like suppressive fire.

His bluster wasn’t a hundred percent bluster.

The rush of blood-red bolts surging in couldn’t be avoided unless he used spells to immediately reposition himself.

“You, you were a shadow mage…!”

As a mage, you answered spells with spells.

Seeing the shadow rising, the Ripper cried out in panic.

By the time he shouted, Solomon was already behind him.

“—.”

There was no leisure to trade calm words.

No leisure to hold back either.

So Solomon stayed silent, and with that silence, his blade point shot forward.

An assassin’s blade driving between vertebrae from behind. It had to be that way.

Kaang!

Then a sound rang out. The sound of something rebounding.

At some point, blood-red armor plating had taken shape and wrapped around his back.

.

‘…’

It was nothing to be surprised about. Nothing changes.

Solomon adjusted his grip on the hilt he had driven in, kicked off the ground, and opened distance.

Even so.

‘!’

Chwaaak!

The coagulated blood forming scattered in all directions like bullets.

Solomon couldn’t dodge it. More precisely, the ‘victim’ within its range couldn’t dodge it.

— Mister, you were alive?

It was the neighbor next door whose face he barely knew. That was all. Truly.

‘Damn it!’

Solomon kicked off the ground at once.

A shower of blood droplets scattering in all directions.

Not to avoid it. To take it.

“!”

Puuk!

Blocking the blood-red bullets being fired right before the eyes of the neighbor whose faces he didn’t even know, the victim who couldn’t offer any resistance.

“……!”

The blonde neighbor screamed a soundless scream.

“You….”

“!”

Even so, Solomon didn’t blink once as he murmured evenly.

Ignoring the bleeding that poured from the hole in his chest, he fixed his gaze on the mage.

“Don’t think you’ll die an easy death.”

With a voice so cold it could freeze, without a shred of emotion.