NSE-Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Strange.

The enemy was far too confident.

Did he have some trump card he was counting on?

Wariness deepened in Lee Seo-yun’s eyes.

‘Level? No.’

He was a guy who had entered a Gate for the first time only a few days ago.

Raising a Level took time.

Even at the highest estimate, it would be under 50.

Equipment was nothing to worry about either.

Except for an extremely small number of pieces, equipment performance generally followed Level. Such rare equipment couldn’t be easily obtained even with money, so hers was bound to be the more overwhelming.

‘It’s not even like they’re consumables…….’

Since he was a rich guy, he might have taken doping-type Potions. With those, he could close the Level gap to some extent.

If they were Top-Grade, roughly 50 Levels’ worth. Then at the highest estimate, he’d be around Level 100.

A gap so large it was embarrassing to compare him with herself at Level 300.

The only variables worth mentioning were the special Summon called Cedric and his swordsmanship.

But a Summon couldn’t exceed its summoner’s Level.

However much of an S-grade Skill it was, what could a low-level Summon possibly do?

Swordsmanship was likewise hard-pressed to affect the overall outcome.

Lee Seo-yun had heard the rumors too.

That the Sword Immortal and Kim Min-woo had fought a spar.

‘They said the Sword Immortal matched his body to him.’

Mana, Skills, and even Stats.

Using them versus not using them was truly a world of difference.

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

If the Stat gap was overwhelming, skill meant nothing.

“Scared?”

“……Bullshit. It’s just a bluff.”

Right.

A bluff.

Lee Seo-yun was certain.

Only then did her mind ease.

“You’re not leaving here alive anyway.”

They had already seen each other’s faces.

There was no reason to keep him alive.

“Then stop just yapping and come at me.”

He beckoned with his hand.

“Die!”

Lee Seo-yun charged.

‘Nice.’

Kim Min-woo’s eyes gleamed.

A fight could be worked out somehow with skill, but a Stat gap was not something he could do anything about.

If Lee Seo-yun ran, there was no way to catch her. At most, making her eat prison food in reality was all he could do.

‘That would be troublesome.’

Never mind that his disguise, after all the trouble he’d gone through, would be exposed.

There was the secret organization she belonged to, ‘Shadow.’ They would probably break her out of there.

To deal with her, he had to stick to her no matter what.

Fortunately, Lee Seo-yun chose combat over fleeing.

Then again.

The Level gap alone was over 200.

Normally, a gap this large meant being crushed.

She must be confident in combat.

‘But Level isn’t everything, you know.’

If it were everything, he couldn’t even have caught the Orc Royal Guard at Level 1.

Of course, since Lee Seo-yun was a named character in her own right, she’d surely be far stronger than that guy, but.

‘I’ve gotten stronger too.’

Before she came, he had reached Level 30 by hunting gorillas.

And Cedric was here on top of that.

‘Take her down in one go while she’s let her guard down.’

Kim Min-woo’s eyes gleamed.

Assassin was a Class that had put everything into attack power. Its defense was truly pitiful.

Meaning the blade wouldn’t fail to go in, as it had with the Orc Royal Guard he’d faced last time.

The contest would be decided in an instant.

The armed Skeletons raised their shields and blocked Lee Seo-yun’s path.

She swiped her dagger forward.

The group of Skeletons blocking the front split in half.

“Haha! You think you can stop me with this junk?”

Lee Seo-yun approached, slicing through the Skeletons like radishes.

He charged out together with Cedric.

The distance closed in an instant.

“Die!”

She thrust her dagger.

[Using Vital Point Thrust(B)!]

Skills increase attack power.

But they weren’t purely an advantage. Because using a Skill fixed the motion.

In other words.

It also meant that a hardened veteran like Kim Min-woo could tell which Skill was being used from the movement and deduce the attack direction.

‘Vital Point Thrust.’

An Assassin-exclusive Skill that dealt powerful damage to a single target.

Using it fixed the attack route to one of three.

Head, neck, or heart.

Since the route was honest, the damage increased greatly as long as it connected.

‘Impatient.’

She’d have done better to use an area-type Skill.

Assuming he couldn’t dodge at all, she was thrusting straight at him.

Since the attack route was simple, it was easy to deflect.

He raised his sword.

What the dagger was aiming at was his head.

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

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

He kicked Lee Seo-yun’s body away.

Lee Seo-yun hesitated slightly.

Cedric, who had positioned himself behind her before she knew it, thrust his spear.

He saw her twisting her body quickly.

She seemed to be thinking of dodging casually, taking him for a low-level Summon, but.

‘That won’t work.’

Squelch!

The spear followed exactly and pierced her torso like skewering meat. The spearhead drove deep through a gap in her armor.

A serious wound.

“……!”

He saw her eyes bulge as if in shock.

Her body flinched in pain.

Skeletons already being summoned from the floor grabbed at her ankles wildly.

Kim Min-woo didn’t miss that gap. His longsword flew at Lee Seo-yun’s neck.

Even with a Stat gap, if the neck got cut, death was the same.

Lee Seo-yun hurriedly raised her dagger.

‘Yeah, below.’

Unlike Skills, normal attacks could naturally adjust their trajectory if the force was controlled well.

The sword dug into her flank.

The longsword buried itself deep in her waist.

Mana gathered over her dagger as she flinched in pain.

‘Murderous Sword Dance.’

He let go of the sword and stepped back.

Cedric also pulled out his spear and stepped back.

By contrast, the horde of nearly several hundred Skeletons rushed toward Lee Seo-yun.

Immediately afterward, blades engulfed the surroundings.

Murderous Sword Dance(A).

Lee Seo-yun’s Awakening Achievement Skill.

For an Assassin with few area attacks, it was a truly sweet Skill, as welcome as rain after a drought.

The blades bursting out in all directions cut the Skeletons down.

Skeletons collapsing.

But the sacrifice was worth it.

Because the blades that collided with the Skeletons were rapidly losing force.

‘Too late.’

Seeing her use an area attack, she must finally be getting anxious.

‘If you were going to use it, you should have used it from the start.’

He immediately took a weapon out of his Inventory and charged.

Being B-rank, she’d have a few high-performance Potions.

He mustn’t give her time to drink them.

As expected, a Potion was in Lee Seo-yun’s hand. It was close to her lips, as if she were about to drink it right away.

He couldn’t stop it at this distance.

The moment he judged so, he threw the sword.

The Potion she was about to bring to her lips burst into pieces.

Meanwhile, Cedric’s spear stabbed her body once more.

“You damn XX!”

She swung her dagger at Cedric, her face full of rage.

Clang!

Clang!

Cedric parried her dagger neatly with his spear.

The guy, too, like himself, had excellent skill at deflecting weapons.

‘The game’s over.’

She couldn’t use Stealth either, because of the scatter matter.

On top of that, she was already seriously wounded and surrounded, so she couldn’t create distance either.

The only way was to drink a Potion, recover, and fight again.

But now she couldn’t drink one.

Because she’d be short on Mana to use a Skill to create distance.

‘To use Murderous Sword Dance twice, you’d need to be at least A-rank.’

B-rank Lee Seo-yun couldn’t use that Skill more than once.

If she used a lower-grade area attack instead, it would be a vicious cycle of heavy Mana consumption without creating any distance.

Holding another sword that had come out of his Inventory, he thrust at Lee Seo-yun.

Under the two-sided pincer attack, she was driven onto the defensive in an instant.

* * *

‘Impossible!’

Lee Seo-yun was shocked.

From the moment she had thrust Vital Point Thrust, she had realized that something was wrong.

The Stat gap alone was in the hundreds.

The equipment gap was overwhelming too.

Normally, the sword should have shattered upon collision.

But it hadn’t shattered.

Instead, it had deflected her attack.

It was an incomprehensible sight.

How superb would one’s skill have to be to show such a thing?

From then on, everything had gone wrong.

The Skeleton called Cedric was just as shocking.

Dismissing him as a simple Summon had been a fatal mistake. Who would have thought a mere Summon would possess such astonishing spearmanship!

Thanks to that, she had been seriously wounded in one blow.

‘Damn it! These bastards are countering all my Skills!’

When she used a Skill, they moved to match it, as if they knew in advance which one she’d use.

This was a movement hard to show even for a high-ranking Awakened.

And no wonder, since unless one had memorized the motions of every Skill, it was a movement one couldn’t show!

She couldn’t comprehend at all how a mere low-tier Awakened could move like that.

‘I have to get away…….’

The endlessly summoned Skeletons impeded her movement. Meanwhile, Kim Min-woo and Cedric kept piling wounds onto her body.

She couldn’t escape, as if she had fallen into an ant hole.

She couldn’t counterattack either.

Cedric and Kim Min-woo.

If she attacked one of the two, the other pierced the opening.

She kept missing the two by a hair.

All she needed was to graze them just once with the poisoned dagger!

But that didn’t work.

As a result, her whole body had become a wreck.

‘Damn it…… this bastard…… isn’t S-grade.’

The Skeleton called Cedric.

This was by no means something that could be summoned with the likes of S-grade.

She was realizing it in her skin.

This was far, far more than that.

Lee Seo-yun’s eyes trembled.

She had really run into the wrong guy today.

‘Dying in an E-rank Gate of all places?’

So pointlessly?

That couldn’t be.

She opened her trembling lips.

“……Stop! It was all my fault! Please, just once, spare me!”

“Friend. If you were me, would you spare someone?”

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

“What information?”

“I-I belong to an organization……! I’ll give you all the information!”

“Oh. An organization? It had better be interesting.”

Kim Min-woo’s eyes sparkled as if his curiosity had been piqued.

Fortunately.

If she could buy even a bit of time through conversation, that was best.

“What kind of organization it is, is…….”

Squelch!

Lee Seo-yun stared blankly at the spear thrust deep into her side.

“Why……”

“It’s Shadow, isn’t it? Why listen to what I already know. It’d just hurt my ears.”

“How…… did…… you…… know that…….”

“Nothing you need to know. Goodbye.”

If you’ve resolved to kill others, you have to resolve to die yourself.

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

He had no hesitation in killing her.

He cut off Lee Seo-yun’s head.

[You have won against an Awakened with a Level difference of over 200!]

[You acquire the Title ‘PK Specialist’!]

[Your Level increases by 10!]

Her body collapsed limply.

Even killing an Awakened, not a monster, raised his Level.

Perhaps because the Level gap was considerable, he had power-leveled a whole 10 Levels.

Cedric, staring at Lee Seo-yun’s corpse, said.

―She is a fairly usable material. She seems good for use as Undead later, Master.

“That’s the plan.”

Level was one of the most basic factors dividing the tiers of Awakened.

Then, if anyone kept leveling up, could they someday become an S-rank Awakened?

‘That’s not the case either.’

The limit Level one could reach differed by individual potential.

If potential was low?

The closer you got to the limit Level, the more extremely slow the leveling became, and at some point leveling stopped dead.

As if saying, “This is as far as you go.”

‘For Kim Min-woo, that was Level 200.’

C-rank, a mid-tier Awakened.

Leveling stopped at roughly that range.

No matter what he did, he couldn’t go beyond it.

Thanks to that, he had gone through absolute hell on the Dragon Lord attempts.

On the other hand, Lee Seo-yun was a promising prospect with the potential to reach S-rank given time.

B-rank.

Because she was still not complete.

And because she had let her guard down and been drawn into a psychological battle, he had been able to take her down easily.

If he had met her after she became an S-rank with lots of accumulated experience, it would have been quite a headache.

By then, he would have grown somewhat too, and she wouldn’t have let her guard down as much as now.

‘A body like this should be usable later when I make a high-ranking Undead.’

Kim Min-woo knew a high-ranking Undead that was a perfect fit for an Assassin.

First, though, he’d get some equipment sorted before that…….

Just then.

● You are the ‘One Who Opened the Horizon’ of humanity!

● The change in the world is recognized!

● You have hunted ‘Lee Seo-yun,’ one of the supporting-role Villains!

● The story begins to be partially altered!

● As a reward, the Achievement Shop is activated!

● A faint amount of Achievement Points is granted!

“……Huh?”

What’s this now?