Chapter 157: Determined Move

< Chapter 157: Determined Move (2) >

One day before departing from the ancient Dragon’s Lair.

After finishing the final equipment check, I was taking a walk in a nearby park to get some air into my brain.

“Sigh.”

I’m getting nervous.

I went out for a walk to relieve tension, but the more I walked, the more nervous I became.

‘It will be fine, right?’

This is a golden opportunity.

A golden opportunity to deal with the Unknown. I did my best to seize this golden opportunity.

I have some confidence in victory.

I have the last fortress called the Stone of Creation, and I have prepared a variable called Maestro.

‘I really did everything I could.’

But being anxious was inevitable.

The fact that I have to face the Unknown at a pace faster than the national competition.

The fact that, thinking about what has happened so far, nothing has gone as planned.

Having physically felt the momentum of the Unknown (Master) at the airport.

Now that the decisive day is approaching tomorrow, the trembling is growing more.

I have to calm this trembling.

“Hoo....”

I took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.

The stars look quite clear. A beautiful sight that can’t be seen in the original world that uses fossil fuels as the main energy source, not magic.

Staring at that sight, I stood still for a long time.

Until my mind calmed down, I kept looking up at the sky.

About an hour passed like that.

“Let’s go back.”

Finally, I had sorted out my mind.

* * *

July 29th.

The day of the decisive action has arrived.

It took 1 hour for over 40 guild members of The One to complete their individual preparations.

2 hours to brief them on the operation.

30 minutes to reorganize the ranks.

After a total of 3 hours and 30 minutes of preparation, we safely entered the ancient Dragon’s lair.

“There’s nothing special at the initial part, just as reported.”

“Don’t be complacent. We knew that there was nothing special at the beginning from the reports of the previous raid teams, didn’t we?”

Chatter from The One guild members around me reached my ears.

It seems everyone has somewhat relaxed compared to the beginning.

Everyone seems to be not letting their guard down, maintaining the best condition with the appropriate level of tension.

“Four gargoyle statues spotted!”

“To the front line, first squad!”

At Luke’s words, everyone moved as one body. There wasn’t a single superfluous movement in their actions.

“Two are immune to magic. The other two are confirmed to be immune to physical attacks!”

“I marked the physical immune gargoyles!”

There was no need for separate orders. Everyone seemed to know what they had to do, initiating actions simultaneously.

“The gargoyles with the marks have been defeated!”

“Next! To the front, third squad!”

I couldn’t help but admire their movements.

That superhumans with a minimum rank of A could show such perfectly coordinated actions.

This is why they are called the strongest guild in the world. I realized that in real-time.

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Was my expression quite amusing? Tay smiled slightly and asked me. I closed my half-open mouth and replied,

“Yes. It’s tremendous.”

Well, there is no room for me to step in. In reality, even without the intervention of the four single-number members including the master, the raid is going smoothly.

“How is it? Don’t you feel like joining the guild after seeing this in person?”

“...Hmm. Rather, I think I did well to refuse.”

“Huh? Why?”

Tay opened his eyes wide.

“...I don’t have the confidence to fit in and match the timing and combinations precisely.”

“Aha.”

Tay nodded his head with an expression that seemed to say ‘So that’s what it was?’.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Anyway, superhumans with a unique battle style like yours can’t fit into those ranks.”

“...My style is unique?”

“Yeah. When I went back to the U.S. this time, I watched your battle videos, it wasn’t at a level that someone could control, you know?”

Susan chimed in.

“You’re like a wild animal. Very free, yet sharp.”

Susan looked far away at the one-man army, Luke, who was controlling the formation, and chuckled.

“The boy might be more suited to a position like Luke’s.”

“Luke?”

“You’ll see.”

At that moment, Luke’s magical power surged as if exploding.

“All members retreat to the fourth row!”

“Retreat!”

Simultaneously, all members except Luke began to retreat.

...Since Maestro is careful in every matter, is he taking some time to assess the situation?

As I was pondering this with slightly pursed lips,

“Up front! Two all-type element guardians confirmed!”

“They are lion-shaped guardians!”

Finally, the genuinely dangerous guys have started to pop up.

“If they are lion-shaped....”

Tay sharpened his eyes and looked at me.

“They are completely immune to fire and ice attributes. They are assigned random weaknesses from the remaining eight attributes.”

“...The most annoying ones have appeared.”

Tay clicked his tongue.

Next to him, Susan was also frowning. It was natural, as these were like arch-enemies to the two who mainly used fire and ice attributes.

“They also ignore about 90% of physical attacks, right?”

“Yes.”

“...Then Luke is also useless.”

Now all three Single Numbers have become useless.

“Then I guess it’s my turn to step forward this time.”

In other words, it was my turn.

After catching the Master’s eye, I took a step forward.

“Step back.”

The master, who had somehow moved next to me, grabbed my shoulder to stop my movement and said.

“I will handle it.”

He stepped forward.

“There’s no need for the boss to step in necessarily...”

“It’s okay.”

Master interrupted Luke’s words.

“I also wanted to try something out.”

The master looked straight into my eyes. Clearly emotionless, yet his pupils carried a strange warmth.

‘...Expectation? Excitement?’

His eyes seemed to be expecting something from me.

“Everyone, step back.”

As the master took a step forward, the entire space trembled.

“...He’s serious.”

Susan mumbled seriously and then shouted.

“Everyone, evacuate!”

At the same time, the guild members retreated quickly with pale faces.

“Boy, we need to move back a bit more.”

“...Even from here?”

“I’ll explain later, hurry!”

“Oh, yes.”

I quickly flew back.

At that moment, the magical power of the master that had been pressing down on my body quickly diminished.

“What is that?”

No, he must have gathered the magical power that was naturally being emitted.

I activated my Dragon Eye.

“...My God.”

Could that be the amount of magical power that a single person can possess?

That magical power was clearly far surpassing S-rank.

...How on earth?

Even if he had opened the transcendental system, it was an unimaginably immense amount of magical power.

What was surprising was that it wasn’t the end.

Huuuuuuung-!

The wind started to flutter in the master’s right hand.

There was a rustling sound heard from all directions.

“Ma, Master has wind attribute?”

“My God... He became even stronger?”

Not just me, everyone was surprised.

The master was a superhuman who stood above everyone with just physical abilities.

Now, he had awakened ‘attribute magic’, a privilege called the chosen ones. It was natural to be shocked.

Of course, I was also among those shocked people.

“...Wh, what is this.”

But the reason I was surprised was a bit different from theirs.

‘That flow of magical power....’

It wasn’t because he used the ‘wind attribute magic’, but because the flow of that ‘wind attribute magic’ showed a movement similar to a certain ‘attribute’ I knew.

‘The musical staff called Sky?’

That was,

Maestro’s ability.

‘Why... does Unknown have Maestro’s attribute?’

My eyes trembled tremendously.

‘What is that?’

Is it an illusion?

In the view seen with the Dragon Eye,

It seemed like I could see something like Maestro’s soul behind Unknown.

< Chapter 157: Determined Move (2) > End