Chapter 42 – Buffalo Dungeon (6)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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It was an unbelievable sight.

Speed Weapon was so shocked that he nearly stopped the melody he had been struggling to keep going.

Shaking his head hard to pull himself together, he forcibly blew harder into the recorder. But his gaze would not leave Kang Geom-ma.

“Holy shit.”

Saki Ryozo let out an exclamation of disbelief on Weapon’s behalf. Even Chloe, who had been cheering Kang Geom-ma on without pause, had her mouth hanging open. Their faces were full of shock.

Weapon turned his head back and looked at Kang Geom-ma and the monster.

From the joints of his fingers onward, something had wrapped around the sashimi knife in his right hand. A faint blue sword aura rising from it.

What Kang Geom-ma had clearly raised before their eyes now was aura. And not just any aura, but one deep enough to illuminate this entire vast chamber that had just fallen into darkness.

‘…Kang Geom-ma, every time I look at you, you smash apart common sense.’

Pushing the air dragged up from his lungs into the recorder, Weapon kept his eyes fixed on Kang Geom-ma. He could feel blood-tinged phlegm boiling up in his throat, but his eyes were shining.

Eyes filled with awe and reverence. His heart pounded violently at the fact that he was able to witness the scene of a legend.

Fwoooosh.

The aura wrapping around the sashimi knife flared even more fiercely. As the aura intensified, tiny cracks like spiderwebs began to form along the blade. The current Murasame was not enough to contain Kang Geom-ma’s aura.

Steeling his resolve, Kang Geom-ma hardened his expression and held the sashimi knife straight.

“Mooooeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

The Cow King roared. A cry like the shout of a warrior resolved never to retreat from battle.

The monster snorted loudly and scraped at the ground with its hooves. Its one remaining arm raised the upright double-bladed axe high. Its movement was not ordinary.

At the same time, a sinister blood-red hue spread across the double-bladed axe.

Tadadak.

“!!!”

Shock filled the whole chamber. Only Kang Geom-ma narrowed his eyes in mild amusement. An unpleasant sensation prickled across the skin. It was unmistakably mana.

“That’s impossible. How can a monster use magic…!”

Saki Ryozo said in a trembling voice. Chloe, who glanced that way as well, swallowed dryly.

Monsters could not use magic. That was an immutable law. The demon race ruled monsters as their subordinates through magic, which was their exclusive domain.

But the strange energy wrapped around the Cow King’s double-bladed axe before their eyes was unmistakably mana. The sinister light that began at the blade flowed down along the shaft.

Then how? That fleeting question was soon answered. The Cow King had burned mana by using its own life force as the price.

Using its own body as firewood and pouring in the oil called life force to light mana aflame. Saki Ryozo could not continue speaking.

The fighting spirit of a monster prepared to die. Combined with the immense power drawn by scraping together the last dregs of its life force, it was knocking at the door of magic.

Kwa-gang.

Kicking off the ground, the Cow King ran savagely forward. The sinister light wrapped around the axe scattered outward.

Without retreating, Kang Geom-ma steadied his breathing. His eyes met the enemy charging straight at him with fierce intensity.

Speed Weapon’s melody had become precarious. Thin streams of blood were running like spider silk from the lips clamped around the recorder. His cheeks were hollowed in. It was a wonder he was still standing.

Speed Weapon raised his half-open eyes. Without letting the words rising to his throat leave his mouth, he repeated them to himself.

‘…I trust you.’

Certainty lingered in the eyes of those watching.

“Moooe!”

The Cow King cut its cry sharply and swung the axe. The red mana flashing around it spread outward along the outline of the axe blade in the shape of a half moon.

An attack with an overwhelming range, born from the tremendous difference in size. If he got caught in it, he would be torn to pieces beyond recognition.

Kang Geom-ma closed his eyes and opened them again. Jet-black pupils half-covered by his lids. The cheers of his party members, which had sounded like background noise, stopped at his ears. A perfect state of no thought.

There came the sharp sound of air being cut. Together with a scorching heat, the Cow King’s attack reached Kang Geom-ma’s feet.

In a moment of life and death that lasted less than a tenth of a second, Kang Geom-ma’s eyes contained the death of existence. Red lines rose onto his retina.

‘If you cut it, it will be severed.’

He now understood anew the meaning of those words, which had only felt hazy before.

Kang Geom-ma then forced strength into his half-lidded eyes.

Next, his shoulder and arm swung of their own accord. Following the path of the sashimi knife, the afterimage of aura whipped through the air like a lash.

Shiiiiiiiiiik.

Kang Geom-ma’s aura and the Cow King’s mana collided and clung to each other. His slash cut through the mana that had stretched out. Murasame moved only toward one result.

Cutting and severing.

Even amid the disturbance of mana, his artless swordplay accurately dug into the red lines and split them apart. Each time it did, the traces of mana scattered away like crimson dust.

Kwa-gwa-gang.

Violent explosions one after another filled the chamber.

For an instant, warmth spread through the air that had been cold. When the wind reversed direction, Chloe’s and Saki’s skirts fluttered. Just the aftermath of the exchange scraped at their skin.

Then.

Thuk.

As the sound of rupture reached her ears, Saki Ryozo raised her arm to block the blowing dust instead of grabbing her skirt, securing her field of vision. Her body gave a jolt.

A sashimi knife buried halfway to the hilt in the Cow King’s chest. Kang Geom-ma twisted the blade like a key.

Shwaaaaaangak.

Beginning from that hulking chest, a blue sword aura swirled up and swallowed the monster’s massive body whole.

“Moomooooooooooooooo!”

The Cow King let out a great cry of pain. Kang Geom-ma twisted the sashimi knife once more. The aura-laden blade scraped through the monster’s insides. There came the sounds of bone breaking and snapping.

The whites around the Cow King’s eyes were gradually turning gray. The monster’s cry, which had echoed through the chamber, also sank low.

Boom.

One of Minotauros’s knees struck the ground. Because of its clouding vision, the monster could no longer see clearly ahead.

The monster raised its head. The victor of the fierce battle was looking down at it.

But for some reason, the human’s complexion did not look especially bright. Rather, his face was filled with gloom. It almost seemed as though he were deeply consoling the enemy that had opposed him.

“Moomoooo….”

The Cow King let out a faint groan tinged with tears. Moisture pooled in its bovine eyes.

Before it completely lost consciousness, the Cow King drew out the last of its strength and struck the butt of its shaft hard against the ground.

Boom.

It was its final request.

Human and monster.

They could not speak to each other, but sincerity still found a way to reach.

The human, who had silently looked down at it, nodded once and raised the arm holding the blade.

For the first time in its life, the Cow King bared its teeth and showed emotion. The raised blade flashed brightly for an instant.

Shhk.

The sound of slicing was crisp.

The blade slipped horizontally through the Cow King’s neck. It felt no pain.

The monster’s two ears twitched once, and then there came a wet thump. The sword path had been so clean that it could not even realize it had been cut.

Only afterward did Minotauros’s head fall to the floor. The monster closed its eyes in satisfaction.

At the end of its lonely life, there had been one human.

* * *

“Huff, huff.”

Speed Weapon pulled the recorder from his mouth. Regulating his ragged, off-beat breathing, he struggled to catch his breath. The moment he bent his upper body and braced his knees, nausea surged up and he covered his mouth.

His body was in tatters. There were no external injuries, but the backlash from the Blessing of Pain Reduction had rotted his insides.

It felt as though his entire body was being stabbed from the tips of his toes to the top of his head with pointed awls. Even when he tried to straighten his waist, his body, ruined of balance, tilted to the side.

“Hey, breathe. Breathe.”

Saki Ryozo came over beside him and patted the staggering Weapon on the back. Soon his legs gave out, and Weapon collapsed onto the floor.

“Haa, haa.”

Weapon took deep breaths. White breath puffed out heavily.

He spat bloody phlegm onto the floor, then braced himself with one arm and barely managed to raise his upper body. Then he turned his gaze toward Kang Geom-ma.

Kang Geom-ma was staring blankly at the monster’s corpse. It was not the kind of expression a victor should have worn.

Weapon had been planning to let out a triumphant shout, but instead he awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

“Weapon.”

“Uh, what?”

Saki Ryozo, crouching beside him, spoke first.

“…I think I get what you meant earlier.”

“What I meant earlier?”

“That legend and all that.”

“Ah, that.”

Saki leaned her head back and looked up at the ceiling.

“And I think I get why you keep tagging along after him too.”

“Huh? Since when do I do that!”

Speed Weapon stretched out an arm and protested. Saki let out a faint laugh from the corners of her eyes, then fixed her gaze on Kang Geom-ma.

“For some reason, I kind of want to try hanging around Kang Geom-ma too.”

“…Did the shock fry your brain? Or did something possess you? Since when does Saki Ryozo ever want to do anything?”

Saki Ryozo let out a hollow laugh as if she herself found it absurd. Then she shook her head, sorted out her thoughts, and asked.

“Weapon, under the academy rules, it’s impossible for Kang Geom-ma to skip a year this year, right?”

“Uh, right. It’s stated clearly in Rule 2, Clause 4.”

Speed Weapon replied with a shrug. At that, Saki touched her temple with her index finger and pondered, then continued.

“Then what about the opposite? There’s no clause saying that can’t happen, right?”

“Saki, don’t tell me you…?”

Weapon stared at Saki. She only smiled brightly and held her tongue.

* * *

Minotauros was dead.

Even with Speed Weapon’s Blessing of Pain layered onto me, the agony crashing over me made my body sway. I laughed shortly.

‘At this level, it’s not that bad.’

I had faced an enemy without the Blessing of Painlessness. That alone was a sufficient result. If I went back to the academy and rested thoroughly through the weekend, I would at least recover some of my condition, even if not completely.

“Geom-ma!”

Chloe came running over in a hurry and threw herself into my arms. I was grateful, but….

I stood still, trying to steady my ragged breathing. If I so much as coughed from choking, it felt like my lungs would tear apart.

When I gestured for Chloe to step back for a moment, she blushed as if embarrassed and pulled away. I let out a short breath.

While I was suppressing that extreme fatigue, a status window suddenly appeared before my eyes.

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[NEW! Congratulations. You have manifested a new blessing.]

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The fortuitous opportunity that, by rights, should have gone to the protagonist Leon.

I smiled bitterly. There was not much point in regretting what had already happened.

Besides, there had been no choice but to face the Cow King anyway if I wanted to cling to my life.

With my trembling index finger, I touched the newly appeared line of text.

Pa-at.

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[Blessing of Transference]

You could transfer one of your held blessings to a living being or an object.

[※ However, your body must touch the target.]

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Yeah, a simple explanation like this was better than a long-winded one. It felt familiar, since this was also a blessing I had manifested during my playthrough of Miracle’s Blessing M.

A synergy-type blessing that showed its true performance when combined rather than on its own. Its rank was none other than spirit-class, one of the rarest in this world.

‘Let’s think about this positively.’

I let out a deep sigh. At that, the tightly shut stone gate opened its maw and swung apart. A figure appeared in the gap.

Creeeak.

It was the employee from the checkpoint. His face held a mix of complicated emotions. He was smiling, but because his expression was twisted, he looked even more unsettling than a monster.

Chloe blinked. She looked between the door and me, then tugged on my sleeve and spoke.

“…Geom-ma, earlier, to me….”

“Chloe, that thing I asked you before.”

I gave a low laugh and tilted my head.

“Now’s the time.”

“Yes!”

Nodding hard, Chloe rushed at the employee with her brows flaring.