Chapter 139

Right at that exact moment, the surrounding area seemed to brighten in an instant, and then, kwooooong! a deafening roar vibrated through the air.

Turning my head slightly, I saw massive pillars of fire and light soaring into the sky one after another in the distance, showing no distinction between the inner castle and the outer castle.

‘It started.’

According to the preliminary investigation, there were a total of seven knight orders currently within the Count of Evas’s domain.

Among them, two had their bases in the outer castle, and one had its base in the inner castle. The number of knight orders permanently stationed in the main castle was exactly one. The remaining three were currently deployed in the territorial war.

The three on the outside would probably be swept up in the chaos caused by the guests staying at my house, so the only knight order I had to deal with was this single one right in front of me—the Silver Sword Knights or Silver Axes or whatever they were called.

‘Piece of cake.’

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As I found out later, the knight orders of the Count of Evas were quite famous in the surrounding regions.

It was unusual enough for a single count’s domain to have as many as seven knight orders, but their skills were also formidable, with at least two Blasters belonging to each order.

The strange part was that even just ten years ago, the Count of Evas’s domain was not much different from any other territory.

-Four knight orders with fewer than fifty members each.

-Knight captains who barely scraped into the Blaster rank, and knights who were the definition of ordinary.

However, everything changed about ten years ago when Carmen Sonya Evas, a Master from the dragonkin kingdom known as the Dren Kingdom, suddenly married into the Count of Evas’s family.

As soon as she arrived, she dedicated herself blindly to the Count of Evas’s domain and poured out the secret techniques of her family without restriction.

As a result, the knights grew both quantitatively and qualitatively, transforming the four mediocre fifty-man orders into seven elite knight orders boasting nearly seventy members each.

For the record, there were two incomprehensible points in this process…

First, what on earth was Carmen thinking when she released her family’s secret techniques—the very essence of her lineage—to the count’s domain?

One might say she could do it because it was her husband’s family, but in this era, the secret techniques of a Steel Body school were generally something one wouldn’t spit out even with a blade held to their throat. It meant that leaking secret techniques just because you got married and slept together was completely absurd.

Children? Even if they were your own children, there was no exception unless they belonged to the main family.

If an outsider somehow learned a secret technique, they had to choose one of two options at that very moment: become a part of the family, or die.

That was exactly what a secret technique was. Furthermore, a Master-class Steel Body user had emerged from those secret techniques… To bestow something like that upon another territory, and to other knights who weren’t even her husband, her children, or her family?

To put it bluntly, it was impossible unless someone took out their brain and formatted it like a hard drive.

‘But it actually happened… There are even rumors that Carmen was the most proactive one in passing down the secret techniques.’

Second, what was even stranger… Even after seeing their secret techniques leak like a sieve, Carmen’s original family didn’t do a single thing to stop it.

At this point, it wouldn’t be strange for the family to send assassins with the determination to take everyone down together… Yet they were just leaving it alone with a chuckle, which was truly bizarre.

‘Well, I guess it has nothing to do with me.’

I cut off my wandering thoughts at that point.

The important thing right now was that if I utterly destroyed these guys in front of me, the path straight to the Count of Evas would open up immediately.

“You bastard!!!”

Seeing me swing my sword around with an expression that didn’t hold a single shred of tension, an old knight let out a thundering roar of rage.

A black helmet. Black armor. A flushed face and a flowing beard that reminiscent of Guan Yu.¹

Ha, look at this guy. He looks exactly like the type who would squeal like a little girl the moment he gets stabbed.

He was probably the captain of the knight order… Let’s see, is his skill roughly around mid-tier Blaster?

“So what? What do you want me to do about it?”

The man, momentarily struck speechless by my casual response, flushed even deeper and bellowed.

“Where do you think you are to dare! And to set foot here entirely alone!!”

It looked like he had quite a hot temper. It would be rewarding to tease him.

“Here? It’s the Count of Evas’s castle. Do you think I came all this way without knowing that?”

Just as the man, seemingly consumed by fury, drew the sword at his waist and tried to spur his horse forward,

A knight beside him grabbed his reins.

“Captain. Please wait a moment. They are no ordinary opponent.”

“Of course they aren’t ordinary! They are a lunatic who crawled all the way here alone as if they actually amounted to something!”

“It’s not that, sir. According to the soldiers, they kicked down and shattered the castle gate by themselves, and sliced through the castle wall with a sword.”

“Hmm…?”

Only then did the Guan Yu lookalike turn his gaze toward the castle wall and gate, his brow furrowing deep.

“What of it! I can do that much as well!”

“That goes without saying, sir. But at the same time, it means it is a feat that can only be accomplished by someone of your caliber, Captain. We shouldn’t take them lightly, should we?”

“Mmm….”

“Instead of doing that, let us step forward first. Just as you said, it would only damage your dignity to step up personally against a lunatic like that, Captain.”

“K-Khem….”

The mustachioed man, who appeared to be the vice-captain, soothed the Guan Yu lookalike before looking around and shouting toward the surroundings.

“Soldiers, fall back! Knight order! Squads 2 through 9, surround them. Block their escape, but do not strike first! Squad 1! Step forward and subdue them!”

At that, the seven knights positioned at the very front of the order dismounted from their horses, each drawing their swords and spears.

“All seven of you?”

“Is there anyone among you who can shatter a castle gate with a single kick and split a wall with a single sword strike?”

“…….”

“They are a Blaster at the very least. Drop your pride and attack together. Honor is something you worry about when fighting fellow knights. This person is an intruder. They are not a rival to test your skills against in a fair match, but an intruder to be punished.”

Faced with those words, the knights ultimately surrounded me with displeased expressions.

Four spearmen formed the second row, while two swordsmen stood in the first. The squad leader, the only one equipped with both a sword and a shield, took the absolute front to coordinate the formation. It seemed each squad was structured to form a vanguard in that exact manner.

“A Blaster? I don’t think so. No matter how I look at them, aren’t they just a greenhorn?”

“Tsk, since the vice-captain is taking such a hard line, we have no choice but to damage our dignity a bit.”

“Stop the chatter. Let’s begin then.”

The sword-and-shield knight lowered their helmet and charged forward with a tower shield held out in front, prompting the remaining knights to rush toward me simultaneously.

Proving they weren’t Squad 1 for nothing, judging by their momentum, every single one of them was a highly skilled Aura User.

‘Sure. They are merely Aura Users.’

To the current me, an Aura User was nothing more and nothing less than a standard generic soldier.

Kang! Kang! Kang!

Accompanied by the sharp clattering of steel boots, the tower shield drove aggressively toward me as if intending to crush me under its weight.

When I experimentally took a step to the side, the center of gravity of the tower shield shifted precisely to match my movement.

Considering that a tower shield was originally meant for holding a position and wasn’t something to be swung around as lightly as a round shield, it was a truly adept display of skill. It must have required a long period of training.

Out of respect for their effort, I decided to respond in earnest.

I caught the blade—which was heavily imbued with aura as it thrust out from a circular viewing hole in the tower shield—barehanded.

Grab!

“Gah…!”

Maintaining my grip, I raised my foot and kicked the tower shield with all the strength I could muster.

Kwaaaaang!!

The solid metal shield, thick with aura, split completely apart as my foot buried itself deep into the knight’s armor.

“Keu-heuk!!”

Kwaang! Kwadangtang! Kudangtang!!

The sword-and-shield knight flew through the air like a tin can caught in a kick.

Half of the remaining knights following directly behind were swept up by the flying body, tumbling backward like bowling pins.

It was a strike delivered through pure strength alone, devoid of any technique whatsoever.

While the rest of the knights froze in sheer shock, I let out an impressed exclamation at the sight I had just created.

“Wow… that actually worked. Look at this physical power.”

Though the end result wouldn’t have been any different in the past… I still wouldn’t have been able to produce a scene like this using absolute, unadulterated force back then.

‘If I were to achieve a similar result without a sword… I would have taken a step sideways to evade the blade. At the same time, I would have twisted the shield to disrupt their center of gravity, struck the back of their knee through that opening, and rolled them onto the ground.’

Of course, all of those movements would have occurred as naturally as breathing… but replacing that entire sequence with a single, simple action like ‘kicking them away’ provided a seriously addictive rush.

Mm… Just as I thought, living a good life really does bring its rewards.

When I had previously asked about my physical traits suddenly skyrocketing to the Master class, Bel and Sis gave me a very clear answer.

“There’s only one factor that could boost your physical power like that. It’s obviously because we hunted those mobs and recovered the Pure Spiritual Power.”

“No, I know you guys are usually working hard out there… but even so, it jumped up way too abruptly, didn’t it?”

“That’s because that many mobs died.”

“When?”

“Just recently, when the Sun Giant fought against the chains. At that time, the giant swept across the ground while erasing the chains, didn’t they?”

“Ah… Right, that definitely happened….”

“A massive number of mobs died during that clash. That’s why such a huge amount of Pure Spiritual Power returned to you. Honestly, at this point, your physical attributes probably aren’t the only thing that got buffed.”

“If you guys aren’t coming, I’m coming to you.”

I strode purposefully toward one of the three remaining knights who had managed to stay on their feet. Startled by my advance, the knight reflexively swung their sword.

Kwaek!

True to their rigorous training, a sharply honed aura enveloped the blade and sliced through the air despite the panic,

Grab!

But the aura-laden sword was caught directly by my hand, which was flashing with a brilliant white light.

Kwadeudeudeuk!!

“T-This makes no sense… No matter if you are a Blaster, how can you catch a sword infused with aura using a mere passive aura….”

Actually, this white light was neither aura nor mana.

It was ‘Pure Spiritual Power.’

Yes. I was now capable of utilizing this mysterious force called Pure Spiritual Power for purposes other than simply reinforcing my physical attributes.

However…

‘…It is still a difficult energy to handle.’

This wasn’t a power I could freely manipulate like mana or aura.

Drawing it out required a considerable amount of concentration, and even when I managed to manifest it, coating my hands or my sword in a thin layer was the absolute limit.

‘I feel like there should be other ways to apply it… but I can’t grasp it at all.’

Well, even this alone granted a massive boost to my combat capabilities.

When utilized like a passive aura, it allowed me to contest directly against aura with my bare body. Furthermore, if infused into a weapon, it carried a cutting edge and destructive force that easily rivaled—or even surpassed—aura.

To put it simply, it allowed me to fight exactly like a true Steel Body user.

“Eeeek…!”

The man poured even more aura into his weapon in a desperate bid to wrench the sword from my grasp.

Instead of giving way, my hand—gleaming with that white radiance—overwhelmed his explosive aura and crushed the weapon entirely.

Kwajijik!

The aura scattered into the air as the blade shattered into fragments.

I pursued the flustered knight as he stumbled backward, driving my fist directly into his breastplate.

Kwajijik!

Udeudeudeuk!!

Past the punch that pierced straight through the armor, I could feel the sensation of his ribs splintering to pieces.

“Cough….”

‘That leaves five. I dragged this out for too long. Should I speed things up a bit?’

The moment I pulled my fist free, I cast a spell, detonating a Light Sphere as easily as taking a breath.

Flash!!

In that split second when the knights instinctively closed their eyes against the sudden, blinding glare, I snapped both of my arms out like whips, launching a Recall Dagger and a throwing dagger.

Pubuk!!

Two knights collapsed backward, clutching the daggers newly rooted in their chests. Though I had restrained my power slightly, whether they would survive remained to be seen.

And just like that, within the span of a few brief breaths, all seven knights were completely wiped out…

The Guan Yu lookalike, whose face was already flushed, turned an absolute crimson as he shrieked like a little girl.

“Kill them!!”

This time, none of the knights raised any objections to his order. Instead, they gritted their teeth, radiating a savage, terrifying bloodlust.

Uaaaargh!!

Waaaaaaah!!!

I flashed a wide grin at the rushing wave of knights.

“You should have come at me like that from the very start.”