Chapter 94
A tremendous explosion rang out as each piece of stone hit my body, sending up a cloud of dust.
“Khhhhhhhhhhh, I’ll make breathing holes all over your body!”
‘A little brat who dared to mock me, ignore me, and try to sabotage the Alliance’s plans.’
As fate would have it, he was also the disciple of Kwak Chun-sik who had imprisoned him in Niflheim.
“Even the great Kwak Chun-sik could barely block this attack by concentrating his aura, can a little brat like you handle such an attack?!”
Just as the faintly visible shadow of Eugene began to be swallowed up by the dirt, making it impossible to discern him anymore, Miner stopped swinging his pickaxe and peered into the dirt.
Through the fading dust, he could make out his form.
It was in the same position as when it was first hit, so he must have died instantly.
“I got rid of the interloper. Now let’s go help upstairs…….”
“I don’t think that’s …….”
“Huh?”
He heard a voice behind him and pokes his little finger in his ear, wondering if he got some dirt in there while swinging.
“I never thought I’d tear my Academy uniform…….”
He can still hear the voice and peered through the dirt only to see the young man, who has been standing there in a daze, stumbling toward him.
“You …… withstood my shotgun swing?”
An attack that even Kwak Chun-sik could barely manage to block?
“Shotgun Swing? What a stupid name for a technique.”
Little by little, he walked forward, stepping out of the dirt.
“You. What the hell are you…….?”
Clearly, the figure that was wearing the Academy’s uniform before the attack had changed.
He’s now dressed in a black suit that looks like it’s made of darkness, and he dusts off his clothes and looks at me.
“Don’t you dare rummage through…….Worm.”
* * *
Shotgun Swing it’s a skill that marks the beginning of Phase 2 when you face Miner in the game.
It’s an earth-shattering, terrain-destroying move, and brutal damage that can reduce an unaware player to rags in an instant.
One thing I forgot to mention, though, is that while in the game I had to cut his health in half to get to Phase 2……this is real life.
I had forgotten that he could use the skill anytime he was pissed off.
And the result was…….
“Ha, how long has it been since I entered the school and my uniform is like this?”
My original uniform was torn to shreds, and my body, which had taken the brunt of the damage from the impact, was constantly throbbing.
The only saving grace was that before I reached the tenth floor, I had worn a layer of DisPater on the inside of his Academy uniform in preparation for combat, which had softened most of the impact.
Kwak Chun-sik might have gotten away with it since he’s an aura master, but I was basically a hard hitter and didn’t have his control.
Still, the Academy uniforms have basic defensive techniques emblazoned on them, so I thought that would be enough, but I didn’t expect to be shattered like this…….
“……To withstand that, are you really an Academy freshman?”
He asks, looking at me with wide eyes, as if he didn’t think I could actually withstand that attack.
“And you’re asking that based on the name tag on the uniform you ripped off?”
To me, DisPater was a sort of combat uniform used for Corleone enforcement activities.
As such, I tried to avoid using it at the Academy as much as possible, but now that things have come to this……I have no choice but to fight with it.
“No, no. It’s rather natural, isn’t it?”
If anything, it’s the organization’s business, as Corleone is also preparing for a war against the villains. Having convinced myself, I clenched my fists and glared at him.
Not Eugene Han, the Academy’s newest student, but Eugene Han Corleone, Corleone’s Hitman.
“It’s the beginning of phase two, so you’d better relax.”
“What?”
“If you stand there like that, you’ll get caught.”
At the same time, I pull the Tommy out of the cube and fire at him.
“A gun……?!”
When he sees the gun in my hand, he makes the ground rise up to form a shield.
The stone, no ordinary stone, but the floor of the dungeon, is standing firm, as if Tommy is a joke.
“You think you can hurt me with that stupid toy!”
“Of course not.”
Taking advantage of the gap in the shield he’d made himself rise, I threw a fist at the shield.
“Huh?”
The crack that started where the fists hit explodes and scatters around, revealing Miner behind it.
“Gotcha.”
I try to pull the trigger again, but instead he ducks his head and runs at me, deflecting the bullets with his hard hat.
“Your stupid toy can’t even penetrate my hard hat!”
It’s a reaction worthy of a veteran villain but,
“Well, how about this?”
“What?”
How dare he close the distance against me?
I slammed my right hand right into his head.
Thwack───!!!
“Khaaaak──!!!”
The honeycomb-like attack sends him crashing to the ground, head first.
As I raise my foot to trample him, he rolls to the side to avoid the blow and swings his pickaxe at me.
“You’re going to get impaled on that pickaxe!”
The pickaxe swings, aiming for my side but as I quickly reach out and grab it with my bare hands, blocking the attack, he starts to giggle.
“Stupid bastard, you really caught that, you think I haven’t seen one or two guys who think they can hold the pickaxe like you?”
Suddenly, the head of the pickaxe in my hand begins to glow purple.
“Melt away with the curse as it is. You son of a bitch……!”
His mouth drops open as he realizes I’m still standing, even though the pickaxe has turned purple.
“Uh, how?”
“Because I’m not wearing normal clothes.”
The pickaxe he’s holding is a cursed artifact called the Aoji Coal Mine Pickaxe, which means that if an unauthorized person touches it, they will be cursed and their power will be absorbed.
But it wasn’t just his pickaxe that was special.
[One of DisPater’s secondary effects, the Unicorn Horn Button, had been applied.]
[Unicorn Horn Button: A button made from the horn of a unicorn. It protects the wearer from demons and interference with spiritual things, and ensures that their clothes are always clean]
“Khaaahhhh!!!”
As if the blockage of his curse was so frustrating, this time he pulls something out of the pocket of his smock and throws it at me.
“Dynamite?”
I look at the dynamite in front of me and raise the bottom hem of my DisPater to cover my head.
Kaaaaaah!!!
A loud explosion knocks me backwards.
I’m unharmed, but the impact knocks the pickaxe out of my grasp.
Waving a palm at the black smoke, I looked over to where he was, but…….
“……hiding again.”
Only a gaping hole remained where he had once stood.
At that moment, my right foot, which I had stepped forward, snapped downward, causing my body to tilt.
I looked down and saw that the ground I was about to step on was caved in.
Quickly, I rolled forward and landed on my feet, sending out my aura to the ground to see where he was.
“……?”
For some reason, I couldn’t quite pinpoint his location like the first time.
All I could feel was the magic on the floor, which had been plain until just a moment ago.
“Are you trying to hide your location by planting magic stones in the ground?”
Uncharacteristically for him, I thought.
No, he’d been caught once in the past, so he’d been preparing for this?
“Hahahahaha, let’s see if you can find me now!”
I heard his voice from behind me and felt a strong impact on my back.
“Kick!”
I kicked at the ground behind me, but the only thing there was an empty hole.
I tensed up in response, watching the holes around me, waiting for him to come out.
“This place is empty!”
He emerges from a new hole, and this time his pickaxe hits me.
“Ouch!”
I felt a surge of anger rise up in me at his behavior, as I stuck my hand out and attacked, but he disappeared again.
“Anyway, the pattern is dirty, annoying asshole……!”
Enraged by its whack-a-mole approach, I attacked the hole it had disappeared through and knocked it down.
It was my favorite pattern for catching Miner, suggesting where he might move but,
“Stupid!”
Suddenly, he popped out of the wall and attacked.
I ducked and dodged and tried to fight back, but he was gone again.
“Well, if you’re going to be so cheeky, I’ll have no choice but to use the latest tactics.”
With that, I stood in the center of the 10th floor cave.
There were holes everywhere on the ground and normally, it would be a choice that would increase his options by giving him more places to hide, but…….
“Even in the game, my motto has always been ‘take no prisoners’.”
Sure, I can catch him if I time it right and counterattack, but who wants to go that route when there’s a……easier way.
There’s a better, simpler way.
Concentrate the entire aura I’ve been keeping in my fist on my right leg.
Take a single step forward.
Not just any footstep, though, but a repulsive one that bunches the aura together and threatens to burst at any moment.
“The best defense is offense. Now, if you keep hiding under the ground, I’ll turn the whole place upside down.”
Crackle── crackle────!
The cracks began to grow as if a spider’s web had formed around the footsteps.
I took a step forward with the intention of crushing the entire floor, although the scope of the crack did not meet my expectations.
“You lunatic!”
Apparently, it was enough to send him up from his hiding place on the ground to attack me again.
“Out again?”
This time, I didn’t miss the opening and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up so that he couldn’t go back down to the ground.
“Arghhhh! Let go of me! Let go of me! Kid!”
He struggles, still suspended in midair.
“I’m Miner! I’m a villain, the ruler of the land! I don’t deserve to be captured by you!”
He stammers, as if there’s some pride in his name, and prepares to strike back with the pickaxe in his hand.
“Then go back to the ground.”
I slam him to the ground before he can do anything else, then stamp my foot down on his abdomen with all my might.
“Kahak!”
Miner shudders and gasps as he realizes he’s been hit.
All the while, he’s still glaring at me with his sharp eyes.
“How dare you, you little bastard,” he said, “try to catch this Miner?”
Miner turned out to be a guy with a lot of pride in himself but as I watched him flailing his arms in defiance, I had a funny thought.
What if I smashed that pride?
“Here’s a fun fact: You seem to think you’re the big guy who fought Mr. Kwak Chun-sik to the death, but that’s just you dreaming.”
“What the……!”
He glared at me as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“There’s no way old man Kwak Chun-sik would remember a guy who gets caught by a freshman like this, right?”
“This……asshole!”
With those words, he finally let go of the strings of reason, and with a shaky body, he barely stood up, using the pickaxe as a cane.
“I’ll kill… I’ll kill you……!”
With a pickaxe in hand, he lunges at me, not using any of his abilities, just his rage.
He was such easy prey for me so I sidestep the pickaxe swing and grab his arm.
“I’d love to play with you more, but I’m busy.”
I placed my palm on the inside of his elbow and used the leverage to snap it off.
“You’ll have to wait for another time.”
──Ugh.