The body of ‘The Nameless One’ transformed into black mist.
‘Here it comes.’
His ultimate move.
Myriad Shadow Kill (萬影殺).
Faceless humans multiplying like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, as if using clone techniques.
Front. Back. Left. Right. Diagonally.
Assassins approached from all directions, surrounding me in a full encirclement.
At a glance, it looked like a clone technique, but the essence was different.
Every single assassin surrounding me was ‘real.’
The question of how one assassin could become many was, of course, absurd.
Yet ‘The Nameless One’ made it possible.
The realm of an absolute master who distorts reality.
That was the kind of opponent I faced.
‘No, what the hell is a guy like this doing in a measly C-rank dungeon?’
I suppose the only reason he even appeared here was that, at the very least, he was humanoid and an assassin.
Since he had a fragile body, one clean hit was all it would take to bring him down.
Stab.
“Kuuaaack!”
Small blades rushing from all directions pierced my heart.
The heart located in my left chest.
It lost its function and gushed blood in thick spurts.
“Lady Laura… Now!”
At that moment, the dozens of assassins stabbing me vanished, leaving only one.
His skill had been dispelled.
I used psychokinesis to pull his hand, which held the dagger, toward me.
His blade passed through my chest, and his hand was dragged right up to my heart.
It’s difficult to immobilize an arm that can move freely.
Because you have to apply force from every direction.
But when you apply force in only one direction, as I was now, you can grip it far more strongly.
The assassin looked flustered when his arm wouldn’t come free.
I grabbed his remaining hand with mine so he couldn’t move it.
Now only one hand remained.
The hand holding the war hammer.
He twisted his body to free his trapped arm and assumed a stance to turn into black mist as he had before, but nothing happened.
“Wh-why?! What sorcery have you used?!”
I grinned.
“You need to take this, don’t you?”
I struck his head mercilessly with the war hammer.
I brought it down, and down again.
I kept bringing it down until the form of a head no longer existed on him.
Before long, a red gem was visible in his chest cavity.
I reached out.
The assassin, engulfed in blue flames.
-------------
[Strength 113 has permanently increased]
[Agility 164 has permanently increased]
[Intelligence 040 has permanently increased]
[Luck 002 has permanently increased]
-----------------------------------
-------------
[You have slain ‘The Nameless One’.]
-----------------------------------
“Keuhuk.”
I collapsed right there on the floor.
The wound from the assassin was severe.
Laura asked me,
[How bold of you to offer up your heart like that. Did you know you wouldn’t die?]
“Yes…. Yongcheonhwa was fine even after getting his heart destroyed, after all.”
Sacrificing flesh to take the bone.
That was the strategy to defeat ‘The Nameless One.’
The flesh wound was a bit severe, but.
That was the long and short of it.
Ever since Laura had possessed me, my body had already ceased to be human.
I had half-dragonized, causing both a human heart and a Dragon Heart to coexist within me.
The assassin hadn’t known that and only stabbed the left side of my chest, and that became his fatal flaw.
[That damned Yongcheonhwa. I’d like to see his face at least once.]
“You’ll see him soon enough.”
Defeating the B-rank boss mob, ‘The Nameless One,’ through standard methods was difficult, so I had agonized over it quite a bit.
And so, this was what I came up with.
The fact that I had two hearts, and the fact that I could seal the opponent’s skill.
I used these two things to pull off a feint.
Psychokinesis was too weak to use in combat, so I saved it for the decisive moment.
If I had used those advantages from the beginning, the assassin might have had time to adequately prepare.
But because I revealed everything at the decisive moment, he had no time to respond.
I forced my collapsing body to move and opened my bag.
I took out a potion and drank it.
Flesh regenerated over my pierced chest.
“Whew… I think I’ll live.”
Potions are all well and good, but from the perspective of someone soloing like me, you can’t drink them mid-combat.
If you try to leisurely take a sip, your neck will fly off in an instant.
I stirred through the assassin’s ashes.
Something caught in my hand.
A book and the dagger the assassin had used.
<< Item Acquired >>
-------------
◈ Name
Skill Book: Muyeonghwanmu (霧影幻武)
◈ Rank
C
◈ Description
A martial art personally created by the genius assassin ‘Mumyeongjijon.’
◈ Effect
Acquires the skill ‘Muyeonghwanmu.’
-------------------------------------
-------------
◈ Name
Yongyeon (龍淵)
◈ Rank
A
◈ Stats
Strength 300
Agility 300
Luck 200
◈ Description
A sword said to have been forged by a legendary artisan. Its authenticity is unknown. Its true power is unlocked upon deepening your bond with it.
◈ Effect
Ignores the opponent’s armor.
XXX.
XXX.
-----------------------------------
“Hehehe.”
A laugh escaped me unconsciously.
Armor ignore.
It was the best against tanks who relied on heavy armor.
‘But then again, with armor ignore, my blade-proof suit probably wasn’t doing much good either.’
It was all just the skull-water of Master Wonhyo.
Well, I won, so who cares?
I’d obtained broken items and skills, so I had now entered protagonist-level territory.
As I picked up the skill book to read it, Laura stopped me.
[Wait. Might I analyze that for a moment?]
“Sure, whatever.”
I put the war hammer in my bag and picked up the Yongyeon sword.
Strength welled up within me.
Was it thanks to the bonus stats?
“Status window.”
------------
◈ Name
n̶̡̡̛̟̠͈͎̟̍͜͝͡͠ų̢̰̭̲̋͒̓͊̀̒́͘͡l̴̳͙͓̞̻̝͇̥͆̋͂̉̕͡͠͠l̨̛̫̖̝͓̮̳͓͆̃̈̈́̈́͆̈̕
◈ Stats
[Strength 914 B](+300)
[Agility 661 B](+500)
[Intelligence 024 C]
[Luck 149 F](+200)
[Overall C]
◈ Skills
[Legacy 811 A]
[Dragon Heart --- A]
[Psychokinesis 623 C]
[Magic Engraving --- B]
-----------------------------------