Chapter 210

Name: Kang Jae-Hyeok.

Profession: Knight (Growth Type)

Level: 99

[Strength: 366], [Stamina: 396], [Agility: 274], [Magic: 366], [Insight: 274]

Skills: [Noble Chivalry], [King’s Roar], [Farming] +

Jae-Hyeok’s gains had been great in Reinhardt, and since returning, he’d killed a total of four S-class players—earning a Miraculous achievement each time. His breaking Ji Cheon-Myeong’s tribulation had further earned him a Legendary achievement. The cumulative stats from the titles alone were significant; add to them the stats he’d earned each time he leveled up, and Jae-Hyeok’s power had reached a new realm.

That was the benefit of crossing thresholds to kill high-level opponents.

Killing S-classes as an A-class player was basically farming achievements,

Jae-Hyeok thought.

I’m almost sad to have directly risen to peak A-class.

Jae-Hyeok assessed the man before him.

The man’s words had annoyed him, but part of Jae-Hyeok was also happy; although S-class players were no longer the tonics they once were, they still offered decent experience.

I hadn’t sensed a thing a moment ago. It was the perfect opportunity to ambush me, yet he didn’t. Even now, he’s still yapping...

Jae-Hyeok quickly came to an answer:

He must be a mage using illusion magic.

Jae-Hyeok had heard a thing or two about illusions. Some skilled S-class magicians could create high-level illusions visually indistinguishable from reality. This “man” was likely one of them.

The man went on, “Ah, look at you, so pitiful. Are you trying to act calm, or are you just frozen in shock?”

The man conjured a ball of flames in his hand. “Actually, I don’t care to know. Listen, kid. What you’ve stolen from Young Master Loren were not simple tools. They were his family. I’m here to settle that grudge in kind. That’s why”—the man conjured a ball of flame— “I’ll be turning your old man to ash first.” The fire cast the Yaksha’s gaunt face in dancing shadows. “But don’t be too sad. You’ll soon follow him.”

Crash!

The flowers that Butler Hwang replaced daily withered and curled by the Yaksha’s bedside. A moment later, the potted vase cracked.

Uh, it’s actually real.

A look of surprise crossed Jae-Hyeok’s face. As if amused by his reaction, the mage chuckled before thrusting out his palm.

“Die.”

From the orb floating before his palm, a jet of flames lanced toward the Yaksha.

Not even the Ji Cheon-Myeong had dared to touch the Yaksha directly—a powerful foreign family was indeed different.

Jae-Hyeok’s expression twisted as he lunged forward.

You’re too green, kid.

The smile disappeared from the man’s face, and the line of fire suddenly bent, looping away from the Yaksha’s still figure and heading directly for Jae-Hyeok.

First the bed curtain, then the carpet—several fires caught along the way as the beam of fire closed on Jae-Hyeok.

Jae-Hyeok’s thoughts spun.

This doesn’t feel like an illusion at all.

His Insight was still blaring alarms in the back of his mind, telling him the man before him wasn’t real, but the magic he cast undeniably was.

An illusion casting actual spells? But I’ve never heard of anything like that.

The fire beam arrived. Jae-Hyeok, using Kang footwork, dipped and side-stepped without losing pace. He straightened his stride beside the fiery lance, hot by his ear. A cluster of fireballs swarmed his vision, but he handled them in succession, parting them as they arrived.

It doesn’t matter.

Jae-Hyeok’s brows relaxed. His gaze deepened.

Whatever the nature of this guy’s magic, it doesn’t change what I have to do.

“

Come on, kid. Stop fighting.

Rest assured, the Baus family will treat your corpse well.”

Whether he’s an illusion or not, cutting through him is the answer.

Just then, Jae-Hyeok cut through another fireball, and a smile spread across his face.

[Thunderbolt Sword activated.]

Having conquered a thunder tribulation, he had grown not just in terms of level and stats—as a reward for his achievement, his lightning affinity and resistance had also risen, which in turn dramatically increased the activation chance of Thunderbolt Sword. Previously, it had taken him dozens of swings to trigger Thunderbolt Sword once or twice. Now, it triggered roughly every ten swings.

This change might seem small to others, but for Jae-Hyeok, it couldn’t have been happier.

Thunderbolt Sword was one of his most reliable moves. It not only infused lightning energy into his blade but caused finger-thick bolts of lightning to lash at nearby enemies—in other words, Thunderbolt Sword augmented both his single-target damage and his area of attack.

Lighting crackled on Jae-Hyeok’s blade, tiny arcs appearing and disappearing along its length. Then a cord of lightning lashed out, latching onto the man from afar for a fleeting instant.

“Arg-g-g!... G-god damnit...”

Dazed and staggering, the man thought,

Magic?

Is he a magician?

No... No,

he’s clearly a swordsm—”

Slash!

The man’s head flew, and Jae-Hyeok sheathed his sword without fanfare, but his expression remained pensive; his hand lingered on his hilt.

The body hadn’t disappeared, so the man was real, not an illusion. But for some reason, the swarm of fireballs he’d cast earlier also remained.

No longer chasing him, they’d spread out across the room.

Was it a reaction to the caster’s death? Before Jae-Hyeok could wonder about it, the fireballs swelled and flickered unstably. Jae-Hyeok's expression twisted.

“Father!”

He threw himself toward the bed.

***

Baaaang!

A pillar of flames erupted from the Kang mansion’s roof. Watching the spectacle, Dietrich yawned. “The hardest thing about this mission was the flight over.”

He was one of the elite magicians representing the great Baus family. For a small mission like this, approaching in person was below him.

“I’m shocked the young master was humiliated by that kid. He couldn’t even handle a clone with only thirty percent of my strength.

Sigh

. What a waste of my time.”

In a backwater country like Korea, the death of a little duke and his son meant little to Dietrich. Rather, he was more moved by the day he’d had to waste taking out trash.

“Enemy! There are intruders!”

People rushed out from the backyard of the mansion, among them were quite a few talented people.

Oh, it’s Guardian’s guildmaster.

Park Chang-Cheon, South Korea’s strongest tank, was a celebrity in his own way. Pure tanks were rare; high-level ones even more so.

The more talented a person was, the more they wanted to stand out, and the less they cared to play support roles. That was especially true of tanking, which was hard, painful work.

As rumored, Park Chang-Cheon’s Insight stat is high for his level.

Park Chang-Cheon cast a Skill from afar, ensnaring him in a web of snowy threads. Dietrich smiled, and with a slight exertion, they snapped.

Still, he’s only in the lower tier of S-class.

What could someone who wasn’t even level 120 do against him, who was level 180? In the first place, for tanks, magicians were the worst kind of opponents because although tanks were sturdy, they were also slow and ponderous—which made them sitting ducks for a magician at range.

“Shall I burn or freeze them to death?”

With a thought, mana engulfed his hands—the mana around his left hand blazed, while the mana around his right radiated a bone-piercing chill. He was using Dual Casting, a top-tier passive, which had allowed him to survive three thunder tribulations to date

Hundreds of ice sculptures surrounding a blazing mansion—wouldn’t that be quite a rare work of art?

Dietrich’s lips curled while eyeing the Guardian members and Lion’s Castle students following Park Chang-Cheon. “Ice it is—Blizzard.”

The temperature plummeted, and a violent wind kicked up, accompanied by dense snowfall.

“T-this magic...!?”

“No way!”

How many could cast such large-scale magic? It was only in the double digits at most. This time, a bigshot among bigshots was targeting the Kang family.

Damnit.

Why now, of all times? Jae-Hyeok just started to smile...

The cold was biting, and the temperature only worsened the further Park Chang-Cheon and the others pushed forward.

Ice began to creep up their arms and faces, causing quite a few people to shrink back. Emerging from the ranks, Da-Hee, Do-Jin, and Hae-Rin continued forward, undeterred.

“This fucking bastard is ruining everything!”

“Yes.”

The heat of their anger seemed to resist the blizzard’s chill. Atop the building across the street, even Dietrich raised an eyebrow.

“These kids are pretty talented.”

The children swung their swords as they navigated through the blizzard. The three of them had grown up under Park Chang-Cheon’s protection during Jae-Hyeok’s stay in Reinhardt, and they were already good players. They showed excellent swordsmanship, deflecting and parrying fist-sized chunks of hail.

Dietrich was impressed by the display, which was no easy task.

“If your talent were in magic, I would’ve kidnapped you and made you my disciples. It’s a pity, but you’ll have to die.”

The blizzard’s force became terrifyingly strong.

The roads surrounding the mansion became icy, the walls and fences were covered with several layers of icicles that were larger than humans, and the trees and grass in the gardens shattered into a whirl of ice fragments.

“Damn!”

Do-Jin’s feet were also freezing. He managed two more steps before he was riveted in place.

“Hae-Rin!”

Park Chang-Cheon gritted his teeth and slammed his shield against his feet. Fortunately, a tank’s body was firm—only the ice shattered; his feet were injured but intact. He threw himself around his daughter, protecting her with the little warmth his body had left.

“Hoh...

Um

?”

Dietrich was impressed by Park Chang-Cheon’s resilience and was drawing a new magic circle when he suddenly paused.

He’d noticed it then.

The flames that should’ve burned down the Kang mansion were nowhere to be seen. Not even smoke was rising in the air.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“What...”

By then, the entire mansion would’ve been engulfed in flames—so what had stopped it?

The answer was quickly apparent.

Jae-Hyeok stood on the charred third-floor terrace. He had not a single scorch mark on him as he stared down at Dietrich with arrogant eyes.

Enhancing his voice, Dietrich asked, “How did you survive? The magic I lent to my clone should’ve been more than enough to kill you.”

A voice beside him said, “I can tell you how.”

Dietrich stepped back with a start. Then, he registered the side profile of the young man beside him: Black hair and black eyes—the young man’s features were colored just the same as Jae-Hyeok's. But...

The impression he gave off was completely different. His smile was twisted and cruel—at a glance, he looked like someone with a bad personality.

“Magic, or fire, it doesn’t matter. It’s enough to cut through it.”

“You... Who are you?”

Dietrich was filled with an ominous feeling and backed away. But it was meaningless.

His death was guaranteed

“Me? I’m Kang Dae-Seong.” Kang Dae-Seong settled a hand on the hilt at his waist, and his smile widened. A blinding flash accompanied the sound of a hiss and a click.

Kang Dae-Seong patted his scabbard.

“I’m that kid’s older brother.”

Blood sprayed from Dietrich’s now headless body.