Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 194

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 194

Episode 194. Conclusion of the Auction (3)

* * *

[Myu… Myumyu…]

Mukyoo circled around the Brain Core with curiosity, occasionally extending small tentacles to gently touch it.

Crackle, crackle-!

Lightning continuously writhed within the fist-sized crystal. It looked like a miniaturized storm cloud trapped inside a glass bottle.

“It’s magnificent…”

Nod nod-.

Strawberry Latte nodded with satisfaction while blinking his drowsy eyes.

Though fatigue had accumulated throughout his body from the day-long tension, his expression looked satisfied.

“It copied much more cleanly than I expected?”

“Indeed.”

A few days ago from now.

The three treasures we had taken from the Imperial Palace of Rashutku came to mind.

The first was a pendant containing the Tears of the Great Spirit. It was a miraculous item that completely restored MP and sword energy regardless of the user’s stats.

And the second was a compass called The Compass of the Exalted. It was a mysterious artifact that allowed one to track each other’s location at any time.

‘It was a great help in finding Batu’s Hideout with Pean right away.’

Even if its utility might be limited for now, it was a treasure that would demonstrate its value as the scenario progressed.

‘And the third and final one…’

Swoosh-.

I glanced sideways at the subspace backpack placed in the corner of the room.

Though not visible, a small silver hand mirror was carefully stored in its inner pocket.

【Mirror of Division 】

A mysterious artifact with ancient runic letters carved on its surface that rotated while emitting a faint light.

It was a one-time use item that could duplicate anything reflected in it for the first 10 seconds.

‘Of course, it doesn’t copy perfectly.’

For items with effects, the efficiency was reduced by half.

Since it was essentially splitting one into two, attributes like cooldowns were shared.

For example, if we copied the pendant containing the Tears of the Great Spirit into two?

When one was used, the other would also enter cooldown.

‘But the Celestial Dragon’s Brain Core is barely affected by that restriction.’

Since the Brain Core was a pure crystallization of magical power, it existed outside the rules of ordinary items.

As such, it demonstrated the best effect when copied with the Mirror of Division.

Of course, that didn’t mean the Brain Core had no usage effects at all…

‘Rather, if we utilize that characteristic, we can secure a much more advantageous position for our future moves.’

Anyway.

That was a problem to think about later.

After organizing my thoughts lightly, I recalled past memories.

That night when we entered the Ruins of Rashutku, when all our party members gathered around the campfire.

At that time, Selena Servich had said this:

─Whether it’s the Relic Exploration Society or Wintershield. Surely whoever gets the Brain Core will achieve meaningful research results in their respective fields. It would have been nice if there were two Brain Cores instead.

And…

Upon hearing those words, Strawberry Latte and I smiled knowingly.

From the beginning, we had harbored the same thought. The plan to copy the Brain Core using the Mirror of Division.

Inhale, exhale-.

Strawberry Latte took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Then he tapped his cheeks with both palms to sharpen his focus.

Gone was his drowsy appearance from earlier; now his eyes held clear concentration.

“I need to absorb the Brain Core, huh… In the game, I just had to click the mouse, but doing it in reality makes me nervous.”

His voice was clearly tense. When I glanced at Strawberry Latte, I could see his fingertips trembling slightly.

“Think it’ll be difficult?”

I asked.

Swoosh-.

The moment he heard that question, Strawberry Latte’s gaze changed dramatically.

As he began staring intently at the Brain Core, calmness began to settle in his eyes instead of nervousness. Like the eyes of a genius mathematician calculating complex equations in his head.

‘Actually, that guy is no pushover either.’

30 million points.

Though it was incomparably lower than the points I possessed, it wasn’t a number to be dismissed either.

After all, he was ranked 2nd. Excluding me, he knew Lost Elder better than anyone else.

And that wasn’t all.

Unlike me, who had focused all points into one stat, Strawberry Latte had used his points wisely. Thus he had possessed this world as an orthodox yet highly complete hexagonal mage.

Added to that was the body that The Adversary had transformed for him.

His already outstanding talent had become even more complete.

Consequently, when it came to pure magical talent within this world, he could be considered to already stand at the pinnacle.

In Strawberry Latte’s eyes, everything would be visible.

From the Brain Core’s intricate internal structure to the circuits through which magical power flowed, and the complex patterns of electrical circulation.

Everything about how the essence of electrical attribute magical power that the divine beast Celestial Dragon had accumulated over its lifetime was condensed.

“It seems entirely possible.”

Before long, Strawberry Latte answered with a confident voice.

No trace of nervousness could be found in his expression. Only unwavering faith in his own abilities occupied that space.

An electric mage build using the Celestial Dragon’s Brain Core.

The moment had finally arrived to realize the playstyle that Strawberry Latte had most favored and loved over 200 playthroughs.

* * *

Dawn was slowly breaking.

Thick fog hung over the Unexplored Western Regions of Dungard. The smell of rotting water stung the nostrils, and bizarre animal cries from somewhere broke the silence.

Splash, splash-.

Amidst this, light footsteps walking through the polluted muddy path echoed.

It was the Hooded Girl, the Necromancer.

“Hm, hmm~♪”

Humming and hopping around, she looked no different from a child on a picnic.

However, despite running through the sticky marshland, not a speck of dirt clung to her shoes.

The brightly smiling girl began talking to herself.

“Hehe, I’m glad I could communicate well with the ‘First One’ though.”

Her voice was filled with genuine joy. The satisfaction of a long-awaited meeting finally coming to fruition was evident.

“That friend was surprisingly incredibly smart too. He knew information that would be hard to obtain through methods from that world? Indeed, there’s a reason he accumulated such karma?”

[…]

“I didn’t expect him to hand over the Brain Core to us so readily. I thought someone that strong would try to take it by force.”

[…]

“What is it? Confidence? The certainty that he can defeat you no matter how strong you become after obtaining the Brain Core and descending, Black Star? Or… is this also within his calculations? We haven’t fallen into his scheme, have we?”

The girl rambled on like a madwoman talking to herself.

That mad voice dripped with unbearable excitement.

Those who came from that side were not bound by the laws and fate of this world. As such, their actions were utterly unpredictable.

Not only the apostles, but even the gods couldn’t fully gauge their true intentions, which said it all.

That’s why The Girl couldn’t know what Gaon was scheming.

Whether he had handed over the brain core out of simple goodwill, or if there was a deeper calculation hidden within.

Squirm squirm-.

Right then.

The Black Star cradled in The Girl’s other arm began writhing violently.

Small tentacles extending from the flesh tried to reach toward the brain core she was holding.

“Geez! I told you to wait!”

Smack, smack-!

The Girl lightly hit The Black Star.

“How many times have I told you, my friend! We can’t hastily fuse together like this, okay? We need to find Atalaxia and perform the descent with a proper ritual!”

[….]

Grumble-.

The Black Star deflated dejectedly. Like a child who had been scolded by their mother.

“Sigh… Well, anyway…”

The Girl who had let out a sigh suddenly stopped walking. Then she slowly raised her head to look up at the gray sky.

She could see the endlessly spreading hazy mist. A bright smile formed on The Girl’s lips as she gazed at it, and a strange anticipation dwelled in her eyes.

As if she already knew that a welcome guest would soon arrive.

“Now the third one is coming from that side too.”

[….]

“We should prepare to welcome them, shouldn’t we? Hehe.”

* * *

“Phew…”

That afternoon.

Rustle-.

I roughly arranged my hair and got up from the bed.

It was about 2 hours before my meeting with Karayan.

A few hours of brief sleep wasn’t enough for complete recovery, but my condition had returned to some degree. The throbbing headache had also improved considerably.

I stood in front of the mirror and simply straightened my appearance. I smoothed out my wrinkled shirt and shook out the creases in the cloak draped over my shoulders.

‘Strawberry Latte’s brain core absorption ended successfully.’

I turned my gaze to look at the corner of the room.

I could see the level window floating above Strawberry Latte’s head as she lay on the blanket.

【Lv. 40】

A whopping level 40.

She had broken through the walls between 2nd and 3rd tier in one go and reached 4th tier mage.

‘She really got it easy.’

I clicked my tongue inwardly.

How much hardship did I go through to reach that level.

You’re riding high because you met a good possessed senior, you little rascal.

Of course, I had no complaints.

Either way, I had gained one reliable ally.

‘Anyway.’

Setting aside useless thoughts, I carefully organized the situation up to now.

First, all the planned tasks in Dungarrd, the Dark City, had been smoothly completed.

Starting with entering the Rashutku Ruins, forming connections with the Relic Exploration Team, successfully achieving Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword’s true name release and Mukyoo’s hatching.

And finally, defeating Puppet Master Batu and making contact with the apostle.

Each one was an important puzzle piece, and everything had fallen into place according to plan.

‘Now it’s really the final stage.’

There were no events scheduled for a while.

Once I cleanly wrapped up the negotiations with Ruined Guild Master Karayan, all my business in Dawnguard would be finished.

After that, only the journey to the Holy City to meet the great ones of the Heavenly Realm remained.

‘Finally…’

Creak-.

It was the moment I opened the door with such a relaxed mind and stepped into the corridor.

“Ga, Gaooooon!”

Thud thud thud-!

With an urgent cry, someone began running frantically from the other end of the corridor.

It was Adelia.

Her pale complexion and rough breathing. Something urgent had definitely happened.

This was the first time I’d seen her lose her usual composure like this.

‘…What’s going on?’

An ominous premonition flashed through me.

“I, I…!”

Then, Adelia pointed somewhere while gasping for breath.

[Myu?]

Mukyoo was there.

The creature was in the middle of the corridor, crunching and swallowing something.

Though I couldn’t see its mouth, I could definitely hear the sound of it eating something.

“That damn thing ate the jelly I treasured!”

“…?”

At Adelia’s urgent cry, I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.

Compared to the big fuss she was making, it wasn’t as serious as I thought.

‘What? That’s all?’

Adelia particularly loves jelly among snacks.

I’d seen her take them out of her backpack and eat them countless times during our travels.

But…

‘…Is that really worth making such a fuss over?’

Even with the「Glutton」trait, I couldn’t understand why she’d get so angry over eating one jelly among all the food Adelia had brought…

“No! That bastard ate Haewolsumo!”

“…?”

Haewolsumo? What does that have to do with jelly…

─Sorry, but jelly is really off-limits! Please! I worked so hard to tame it!

“…Ah.”

Right.

That was the name Dorico Shiro had given it.

“…”

My mind went blank for a moment.

[Myumyueeeek.]

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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