NSE-Chapter 048

Chapter 48

“Where can I see those missions?”

“They’re posted on a board. But…… even if you aim for 10th place, there won’t be a mission that gives that many points at once.”

“I still have to look first.”

“Then please come with me.”

Jang Sam opened the door.

He left the room.

Magnificent buildings could be seen lined up in rows.

“Wow, it looks fancy.”

“It’s the largest organization of the Unorthodox Sects, after all.”

Just then.

Bang!

A sound like something exploding burst out from the building next door.

Soon a section of the wall was punched through, and a man could be seen bounced out, spewing blood from the corner of his mouth.

Jang Sam’s eyes widened at the sight.

“T-That person is…….”

“Someone you know?”

“……I-Isn’t that the Fourth Young Lord! Your half-brother, Young Lord!”

Soon a figure appeared through the shattered wall.

A woman walked out with a menacing aura, knuckles cracking.

“Where the hell do you think you’re touching, you pervert bastard?”

“……Huh?”

Kim Min-woo tilted his head.

A familiar voice.

He looked at the face.

“……Ms. Seo Ye-rim?”

When he called her name, her eyes widened.

“Mr. Kim Min-woo! You were nearby?”

She beamed.

Only then could he tell who had barged in.

Sword Phoenix Seo Ye-rim.

It was her.

“Why did you come here?”

“To rescue you.”

“Why?”

“Because if you died, Grandfather would be sad.”

Wow.

He had known she liked the Sword Immortal, but he never expected it to be this severe.

He was inwardly impressed.

Just then.

The Fourth Young Lord, who had staggered to his feet, began to look back and forth between him and Seo Ye-rim.

“Hmph. Baek So-cheon, you wretch, don’t tell me you’ve laid hands even on my maidservant who just arrived?”

“Maidservant?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. You vermin bastard……”

The Fourth Young Lord glared at him and Seo Ye-rim with blazing eyes, as if he had gravely misunderstood something.

He probably had an affair drama playing in his head. Soon warriors began to swarm in.

“Fourth Young Lord!”

“Are you all right?”

“……Let go! I’m fine. Do you think this one would collapse over a single slap from a mere maidservant!”

Ah, so he’d been slapped and sent flying?

It seemed Seo Ye-rim’s strength had reached some vicious figures.

‘Well, of course.’

As an Awakened called beyond A-rank, her Stats had to be no joke.

Even the Stats she had built from training so far must be beyond imagination.

“Ye-rim, are you a maidservant?”

“Ha. I don’t know either. It seems the role turned out that way, but I got assigned under some pervert bastard……”

“If you’re going to do it anyway, be my maidservant. That’ll be better.”

“……No, is there no option of not being a maidservant?”

“Isn’t a status hard to escape in the first place? Even more so in an era like this.”

At those words, the Fourth Young Lord nodded vigorously.

“Vermin, well said! How dare a mere maidservant slap this one in the face? Insolent wench! I’ll twist your limbs off!”

The Fourth Young Lord drew his sword with burning eyes.

The warriors’ auras turned menacing too.

Kim Min-woo took a step forward.

“By the way, you keep saying vermin, vermin since earlier. Doesn’t it annoy the one hearing it?”

“What’s wrong with calling vermin a lowborn wretch who doesn’t even know who his mother is? Don’t you all think so?”

The warriors fell silent.

Even so, he was a descendant of the Unorthodox Alliance Master.

If it were blood relatives cursing one another, fine, but it was out of the question for them to respond to those words directly.

They weren’t even first-rate warriors, just second-rate warriors at best, weren’t they?

Still, they could show a degree of tacit agreement.

For example, showing a subtle sneer.

The Fifth Young Lord was, after all, merely a weakling who couldn’t show a single proper Martial Art. A libertine who drank liquor every day and called for courtesans.

His influence in the Unorthodox Alliance was so weak as to be practically nonexistent, so at this level there was no need to worry about the aftermath.

Because the Fourth Young Lord would protect them.

Just then.

Kim Min-woo looked at his servant.

“Hey, Sam.”

“Yes, Young Lord.”

“You saw it too. Those guys sneering at me.”

“Uh…… well…….”

Jang Sam rolled his eyes around.

It seemed the Hand of Truth was needed.

He lightly gripped the shoulder of the hesitating fellow. At a grip strength beyond imagination, Jang Sam’s face turned bright red.

“You saw, right?”

“Eeyow! I saw, sir! This Jang Sam saw it clearly with both eyes!”

“Good.”

He let go of Jang Sam’s shoulder.

With that, a witness was secured.

He drew his sword.

“A minion laughed at his master, so they have to die, right?”

“But has this vermin gone mad……”

He stretched a hand out toward the Fourth Young Lord, who sneered coldly.

At that moment.

“Huh?”

“What is this!”

Nearly 30 warriors were horrified. Hundreds of snow-white bones were gripping their legs wildly.

Squelch!

“Aaargh!”

Weapons thrusting in from all sides killed 5 or 6 warriors in an instant.

“B-Block them!”

Mana rose over the warriors’ swords. Weapons swung in many directions.

They were Martial Arts.

‘Roughly Level 200, it seems.’

Being martial artists didn’t mean they had some off-the-charts strength or anything like that.

They used Mana and swung weapons the same way. It was just a slightly more refined style.

‘Then they can’t win.’

The Skeleton horde now had an average Level of 51, and on top of being wrapped in the Magic set items made in advance, their average Stats had shot up through Bone Exchange.

And that wasn’t all. They had accumulated some combat experience too.

With hundreds of such guys starting an ambush from beneath their feet, it was out of the question for a mere 30 so-so warriors to resist.

Wounds multiplied across the warriors’ bodies. Even counterattacking the Skeletons was a problem.

Because even when killed, they came back to life and counterattacked without fail.

The Fourth Young Lord pointed this way in a panic and shouted.

“It’s Necromancy! We have to take out the caster first! Baek So-cheon, that guy! Stop that guy!”

The warriors who had knocked away the Skeletons charged with fierce faces.

At that moment, Cedric, who had been waiting quietly at his side, swung his spear.

The warriors swung their weapons with a snort, and.

Splat-splat-splat!

The heads of 5 charging warriors burst like fireworks.

The warriors who had been about to rush in hurriedly stopped in their tracks.

A single move.

That alone was enough to roughly tell.

“Good heavens…….”

“A-A master!”

A bone-fellow wielding a spear.

That creature, half again as large as the other bone-fellows, was a tremendous master.

And a master so formidable that they weren’t even fit to be his opponents!

The second-rate warriors all fell.

[Level increases by 1!]

The only one left alive was the Fourth Young Lord.

“Sam.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Jang Sam stared in a daze at the sea of blood before him.

He asked the fellow.

“Is it okay to kill that guy?”

“Uh…… I don’t think the Alliance Master would like it…….”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Killing warriors of that level is no big deal, but personally killing the Fourth Young Lord, his son, would be a bit……”

“Got it.”

Nodding, he approached the Fourth Young Lord. The man’s body had already been stabbed by all sorts of weapons and turned to a rag.

“Kneel him down.”

The disarmed Skeletons forced the fellow to his knees.

Grabbing the guy by the hair, he met his eyes.

“Hey.”

“E-Eek……!”

The smell of urine wafted over.

The floor could be seen soaked wet.

“Why do you think we fought?”

The fellow rolled his eyes.

He slapped him across the cheek once.

3 or 4 teeth could be seen rolling across the floor. The Fourth Young Lord’s eyes bulged as if startled by the tremendous force.

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“G-Got ith! I-I wath in the wrong! I d-didn’t know my plathe!”

“You won’t act up again, right?”

Nod!

The Fourth Young Lord nodded frantically.

“But where do you get off just bobbing your head, you bastard? Rude.”

Smack!

He slapped him across the cheek once more.

3 or 4 teeth rolled across the floor again.

“I-I won’t act up! R-Really!”

The fellow wept tears freely.

He seemed to have finally taken a repentant posture.

“That maidservant, I’ll keep her under me. That’s fine, right?”

“Th-Thake her! I’ll thive her!”

Consent obtained.

Now it was time to settle the account properly.

“Right. But, you see, big brother was in a really bad mood earlier. Because you called me vermin.”

“I-I wath wrong!”

“I know, I know. Still, you have to pay for your crimes, so let’s just cripple your legs and call it done. Isn’t it lucky enough that you won’t die?”

“N-No!”

“Tsk. Want your arms crippled too?”

“Uuuh……!”

“Stay still. Otherwise you’ll get hurt more.”

He gently placed the fellow’s ankles together.

Just then.

“Fifth Young Lord, are you really going to stomp him?”

A voice came from behind.

He turned his head.

An old man was staring straight at him.

“And who might you be?”

“Hoho. Have you already forgotten this old man’s face? I am the Second Elder. You’ve set up quite a scene, haven’t you?”

Mana of considerable size rose behind the old man who laughed with a hollow chuckle.

An angle was visible at a glance.

‘A master?’

In terms of Level, at least 400.

The real deal.

“Elder. If I don’t stomp him, are you going to give me anything?”

“No? Why would I?”

“Then I’ll stomp him.”

Crunch!

He stomped both ankles cleanly.

The bones must have been completely shattered, as the ankles could be seen hanging in tatters.

The Fourth Young Lord’s face went slack as if he had fainted.

He flung the guy’s face onto the floor.

“Hah…….”

He looked at the Second Elder, who blinked in astonishment.

“What’s the matter? It’s not as if this were some stuffy Righteous Sect.”

“True, but…… well, never mind. That’s not what matters. Fifth Young Lord. You must come with me.”

“Why?”

“The Alliance Master summons you.”

“Let’s go.”

He had to meet the Unorthodox Alliance Master at least once anyway.

He walked over beside the Elder.

“Follow me.”

The Elder’s figure glided smoothly forward.

Since he had no movement Arts or anything like that, he wasn’t that fast. So he had no choice but to follow by knack.

Fortunately, he could manage to keep up well enough.

In the place Kim Min-woo and the Elder had left.

Seo Ye-rim, left alone, stared blankly ahead.

The situation had ended before she could do anything.

That was why she was dumbfounded.

‘……How is he that strong?’

Those warriors from before.

And even the Fourth Young Lord.

They had strength enough to be summoned as a boss and minions in a C-rank Gate. Yet they got smashed to pieces by a mere wave of Kim Min-woo’s hand.

The Skeletons alone were beyond imagination in level. Even ordinary Summons knew how to fight to some extent.

And that Cedric guy, even…….

‘It’d take me some time to take him down too.’

If their physical abilities were similar, she would be certain to lose.

That’s how refined his spear skill was.

A monstrous Summon.

That was why doubt couldn’t help but arise. The picture should have been an ordinary commoner forcibly sucked into a Gate and being rescued.

‘Isn’t it that he schemed to get in here from the start?’

From loitering at the Gate entrance, to being nudged forward after merely stumbling around despite having that kind of skill.

It felt like he had set up the whole thing with deliberate intent to enter.

“……No, but what am I supposed to do, leaving me here alone?”

Just then.

The servant called Jang Sam had come up beside her at some point and was clearing his throat.

“Ahem! Pleased to be working together. I am called Jang Sam. As the Fifth Young Lord’s only loyal retainer, the Young Lord has depended on me and followed me a great deal.”

“……Ah, okay.”

“You said you were a maidservant, correct? You and I are of similar standing, but depending on when one takes up duties, there is a senior-junior relationship. Senior, no, that’s too stiff, so Older Brother is a fine form of address too. If you could call me Older Brother Jang……”

“Excuse me.”

“You called, miss?”

“Stop pointlessly deepening your voice. Older Brother, my foot. How old are you?”

“Well, 20 years old, I am?”

“20, not 40?”

“F-Forty, what is that supposed to mean……”

“I’m 22, so just call me Big Sister. Without any skill, what’s with expecting to be treated like a senior……”

“No, what? What did you just say……”

Soon Jang Sam’s eyes bulged.

Because her hand had somehow reached his throat. A chilling sharpness could be felt over that hand.

Jang Sam’s heart turned cold.

‘S-She holds sword energy in her hand?’

This maidservant was a master.

And a master to a degree that an ordinary person like him couldn’t even imagine!

“Am I wrong? Isn’t it that in martial arts stories, the strong one is the big brother or big sister?”

“……You are right, Big Sister.”

Come to think of it, she had sent the Fourth Young Lord flying far away with a single slap.

Jang Sam’s attitude naturally turned respectful.

“Show me the way. I don’t know where I’m going.”

I don’t know either, though…….

Swallowing the rest of his words, Jang Sam walked ahead. For now it seemed he just had to move wherever his feet took him.