Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Spendthrift Necromancer (20)

Something was strange.

The enemy was too confident.

Did he have some trump card he was relying on?

Wariness deepened in Lee Seoyoon's eyes.‘Level? No.’He'd only entered his first Gate a few days ago.

Raising levels took time.

Even being generous, he had to be under Level 50.

There was no need to worry about his equipment either.

With only a tiny handful of exceptions, equipment performance followed level requirements. Those few exceptional items weren't easy to obtain even with money, so her gear had to be overwhelmingly superior.‘Not consumables either…….’Since he was rich, he might have taken doping potions.

Those could close the level gap somewhat.

If they were highest-grade, maybe around 50 levels worth.

Even then, at best he'd be equivalent to around Level 100.

The difference compared to her Level 300 self was embarrassing.

The only variables were the special summon called Cedric and his swordsmanship.

But summons could not surpass their summoner's level.

Even if it was an S-rank skill, what could a low-level summon possibly do?

Swordsmanship likewise wouldn't have much effect on the overall result.

Lee Seoyoon had heard the rumors.

The fact that the Sword Immortal had dueled Kim Minwoo.‘They said the Sword Immortal matched his body to Minwoo's.’Mana, skills, and stats.

Using those and not using those were worlds apart.

Naturally, she had no intention of matching him like the Sword Immortal had.

If the stat difference was overwhelming, technique meant nothing.

“Scared?”

“……

Bullshit. Bluffing.”

Right.

It was a bluff.

Lee Seoyoon was convinced.

Only then did she relax.

“You're not leaving here alive anyway.”

They had already seen each other's faces.

There was no reason to leave him alive.

“Then stop flapping your mouth and come at me.”

He crooked a finger.

“Die!”

Lee Seoyoon charged.‘Nice.’Kim Minwoo's eyes gleamed.

He could manage a fight through skill, but there was no way to overcome the stat gap if she ran away.

At best, he could only send her to prison once they got outside.‘That won't do.’Putting aside the fact that his disguise would be exposed.

The secret organization she belonged to, ‘Shadow.’

They would probably rescue her.

If he wanted to dispose of her, he absolutely needed her to commit to the fight.

Fortunately, Lee Seoyoon chose battle instead of fleeing.

Well.

The level gap alone exceeded 200.

Normally, this would be an overwhelming slaughter.

She was confident in combat.‘But level isn't everything.’If it were, he wouldn't have killed an Orc Guard at Level 1.

Of course, Lee Seoyoon was a named character, so she was much stronger than that Orc.‘But I've gotten stronger too.’He had reached Level 30 by hunting gorillas before she arrived.

And he had Cedric too.‘I'll take her down in one shot while she's careless.’Kim Minwoo's eyes flashed.

Assassin was a class that poured everything into attack power.

Its defense was utterly terrible.

Unlike the Orc Guard he'd faced last time, his sword wouldn't fail to penetrate.

The battle would be decided in an instant.

The armed Skeletons raised their shields and blocked Lee Seoyoon's path.

She swept her dagger forward.

The Skeletons blocking her were sliced cleanly in half.

“Haha! You think trash like this can stop me?”

Lee Seoyoon approached while cutting through Skeletons like radishes.

Minwoo charged with Cedric.

The distance vanished in an instant.

“Die!”

She thrust her dagger.[Using Vital Strike(B)

!]

Skills increased attack power.

But that wasn't purely an advantage.

When a skill was used, its motion became fixed.

In other words.

A veteran like Kim Minwoo could infer both the skill being used and the direction of attack from the movement.‘Vital Strike.’An Assassin-exclusive skill that dealt powerful damage to a single target.

When used, the attack route was fixed to one of three options.

Head, neck, or heart.

Because the route was straightforward, landing it massively increased damage.‘Too impatient.’She would've been better off using an area skill.

But she'd assumed he couldn't dodge at all and was simply stabbing honestly.

With such a simple attack route, redirecting it was easy.

He raised his sword.

The dagger was aiming for his head.

The instant his longsword collided with the dagger, he slightly twisted the flat of his blade.

The dagger skimmed past the side of his head by a hair.

He kicked Lee Seoyoon hard.

She staggered slightly.

Cedric, who had already taken position behind her, drove his spear forward.

She quickly twisted her body.

It looked like she planned to dodge casually because she thought he was a low-level summon.‘Won't work.’Stab!

The spear followed perfectly and pierced deep into her torso like skewering meat.

The spearhead punched through a gap in her armor and sank deep.

A serious wound.

“……!”

Her eyes widened in shock.

Her body flinched from the pain.

Skeletons were already being summoned from the ground, grabbing wildly at her ankles.

Kim Minwoo didn't miss the opening.

His longsword flew toward Lee Seoyoon's neck.

Even with the difference in stats, losing your head still meant death.

Lee Seoyoon hurriedly raised her dagger.‘Nope, lower.’Unlike a skill, a normal attack could naturally change trajectory as long as you controlled your strength properly.

The sword plunged into her side.

The longsword sank deep into her waist.

As she flinched in pain, mana gathered around her dagger.‘Murderous Sword Dance.’Minwoo let go of his sword and stepped back.

Cedric likewise withdrew after pulling out his spear.

In contrast, nearly hundreds of Skeletons rushed toward Lee Seoyoon.

Immediately afterward, blades swallowed the surroundings.

Murderous Sword Dance(A).

Lee Seoyoon's Awakening Achievement skill.

For an Assassin with very few area skills, it was an incredibly valuable skill.

Blades erupted in every direction and cut through the Skeletons.

Skeletons collapsed.

But the sacrifice was worth it.

The blades that struck the Skeletons rapidly lost force.‘Too late.’Seeing her use an area attack, she must finally be feeling the pressure.‘Should've used it from the beginning.’He immediately pulled another weapon from his inventory and charged.

She was B-rank, so she probably had several high-quality potions.

He couldn't give her time to drink one.

As expected, there was already a potion in Lee Seoyoon's hand.

It was almost at her lips.

He couldn't stop her from this distance.

The instant he judged that, he threw his sword.

The potion about to reach her mouth shattered.

Meanwhile, Cedric's spear pierced her body once again.

“You son of a bitch!”

She swung her dagger at Cedric with a furious face.

Clang!

Clang!

Cedric deftly parried her dagger with his spear.

Like Minwoo, he was exceptionally skilled at redirecting weapons.‘Game over.’She couldn't use Stealth because of the shrapnel.

She was already badly wounded, surrounded, and couldn't create distance.

Her only option was to recover with a potion and fight again.

But she wouldn't get to drink one anymore.

She didn't have enough mana left to use a movement skill and widen the gap.‘You'd need to be at least A-rank to use Murderous Sword Dance twice.’At her current B-rank, Lee Seoyoon couldn't use it more than once.

If she tried a lower-rank area skill instead, she'd only repeat the vicious cycle of burning mana without gaining enough distance.

Minwoo grabbed another sword from his inventory and thrust at Lee Seoyoon.

Caught in a pincer attack from both sides, she was rapidly forced onto the defensive.* * *‘Impossible!’Lee Seoyoon was horrified.

From the moment she'd used Vital Strike, she'd realized something was wrong.

The stat difference alone was in the hundreds.

The equipment gap was overwhelming too.

His sword should have shattered the instant they collided.

But it hadn't.

Instead, he had redirected her attack.

It was incomprehensible.

How refined did someone's technique have to be to produce something like that?

From there, everything had gone wrong.

The Skeleton called Cedric was equally horrifying.

Ignoring him as a mere summon had been her fatal mistake.

Who could have imagined a mere summon would possess spear technique this astonishing!

Thanks to that, she'd suffered a serious wound in a single blow.‘Damn it! These bastards are countering every skill I use!’Whenever she used a skill, they moved as though they already knew exactly what it would be.

Even high-ranking Awakened had difficulty moving like this.

Unless someone had memorized the motions of every single skill, it should've been impossible!

She couldn't understand how a mere low-ranking Awakened could move like that.‘I need to get away…….’The endlessly summoned Skeletons obstructed her movements.

Meanwhile, Kim Minwoo and Cedric kept piling wounds onto her body.

It felt like she'd fallen into an ant pit and couldn't escape.

She couldn't counterattack either.

Cedric and Kim Minwoo.

Whenever she attacked one, the other stabbed through the opening.

She kept missing them by a hair.

One graze from her poisoned dagger would be enough!

But she couldn't land it.

As a result, her entire body became a wreck.‘Fuck…… This bastard…… isn't S-rank.’The Skeleton called Cedric.

There was no way something like this could be summoned by a mere S-rank skill.

She could feel it in her bones.

This was much, much higher.

Lee Seoyoon's eyes trembled violently.

She had picked the wrong target today.‘I'm going to die in an E-rank Gate?’So pointlessly?

No.

She couldn't.

Her trembling lips opened.

“……

Stop! I was wrong! Please, just once, spare me!”

“Friend. Would you spare me if our positions were reversed?”

“I-I have information! You'll definitely find it interesting!”

“What information?”

“Th-There's an organization I'm part of……! I'll tell you everything!”

“Oh. An organization? Better be interesting.”

Kim Minwoo's eyes gleamed as though curious.

Good.

If she could buy even a little time by talking, that was best.

“The organization is…….”

Stab!

Lee Seoyoon stared blankly at the spear buried deep in her side.

“Why…….”

“It's Shadow, isn't it? Why would I listen to something I already know? My ears hurt.”

“How……

do…… you…… know…… that…….”

“None of your business. Goodbye.”

If you were prepared to kill others, you should be prepared to die yourself.

She was a murderer who would go on to kill countless people if left alone.

He had no hesitation about killing her.

He cut off Lee Seoyoon's head.[You have defeated an Awakened more than 200 levels above you!][You have acquired the title, ‘PK Expert!’][Level increases by 10!]

Her body collapsed.

Killing Awakened instead of monsters also granted levels.

Perhaps because the level gap was so large, he gained a full ten levels at once.

Cedric stared at Lee Seoyoon's corpse and spoke.―A fairly useful specimen. She would make good undead material later, Master.

“That was the plan.”

Level was one of the most basic factors used to divide Awakened into tiers.

Then did that mean anyone could eventually become S-rank if they simply kept leveling?‘Not quite.’Every individual had a different maximum level depending on their potential.

If their potential was low?

The closer they got to their level cap, the more brutally slow leveling became, until eventually it stopped completely.

As though saying, this is as far as you go.‘For Kim Minwoo, that was Level 200.’C-rank.

A mid-ranking Awakened.

That was roughly where his leveling stopped.

Nothing he did could push him beyond that.

It had made attempts against the Dragon Lord absolute hell.

Lee Seoyoon, on the other hand, was a promising talent with enough potential to reach S-rank given time.

B-rank.

She was still incomplete.

On top of that, she'd been extremely careless and had gotten dragged into his psychological game, which was why he'd been able to kill her so easily.

If he'd met her after she'd become an experienced S-rank, she would've been fairly troublesome.

By then, he would've grown somewhat too, and she certainly wouldn't have been this careless.‘A body like this should be useful later when I start making high-ranking undead.’Kim Minwoo knew a high-ranking undead perfectly suited to Assassins.

Before that, though, he'd take her equipment first…….

Then.● You are humanity's ‘One Who Opened the Horizon’!● Detecting a change in the world!● You have hunted ‘Lee Seoyoon,’ one of the supporting villains!● The story begins to change in part!● As a reward, the Achievement Shop is activated!● You are granted a small amount of Achievement Points!

“……

Hm?”

What the hell is this now?