The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 87

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 87. Ambush
Whoosh.
Carving the third spell’s inscription was effortless.
Clink-clink.
A flash of light.
In that instant, I could sense the change that had occurred in the bare blade at my back—feel it without even looking.
And what I could do with it.
‘A one-shot move…… And it’s going to drain a lot of mana.’
But my Spirit Magic had begun with this blade in the first place.
‘It’s worth keeping as a trump card.’
That alone meant my overall strength had climbed to the next level.
And more than that.
Crackle-pop.
Along with a sound that only my mind could hear.
New roots sprouted from the ‘seed’ in my heart, beginning to connect not through my legs but to my fingertips.
Thrum-thrum-thrum.
As I ran, a tingling sensation spread across my entire body—but it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling; it was almost exhilarating.
And soon.
The moment those roots connected fully to my fingertips.
Zing.
The mana pathways rooted throughout my limbs synchronized with one another, and my sensory perception across my entire body amplified several times over.
Simultaneously, all the metal around me began to register far more vividly than before.
“Huh!?”
The sensation was so unfamiliar that my feet tangled mid-stride for just a moment.
“What’s happening!?”
“Ah, no—I’m fine!”
But my recovery was swift.
‘So that’s why…….’
My Metal Detection range had more than doubled, and my control over metal seemed to have grown even beyond that.
Moreover, the metallic mana flowing through my body had become far purer in a single moment.
Thud.
The instant I lightly patted my armor while running, I could sense that mana was now flowing perfectly not just through my body but into the armor itself.
Without me even deliberately directing it.
‘Its resilience and strength have increased markedly.’
And that wasn’t even the end of it.
– What changes? Plenty. A very great deal changes.
– In any case, you’ll experience it firsthand.
– Let me give you one hint for now: our Spiritsmith Users aren’t physically frail like mages are. Well, of course we’re nowhere near Hard Body Practitioners.
Crack.
Power surged through my loosely clenched fist.
Whoosh.
My footfalls pushing off the ground became far lighter than before.
Not quite as much as when I’d evolved through Enhanced Body Arts, but my physical abilities felt like they’d risen by at least thirty percent.
More precisely, my life force had increased by that much.
As the foundational energy of my body surged outward, my physical movement capabilities rose somewhat in turn.
‘So that’s why High-Rank Spiritualists live so much longer than ordinary people.’
And for a Spiritsmith Knight like me, this transformation held special significance.
Besides, the growth I’d achieved wasn’t limited to that alone.
Snap.
With a single light gesture of my hand, the connecting loop on the scabbard at Tureen’s waist—the one he’d been carrying while running ahead—snapped clean off.
Clang.
“Uh!? Damn it!”
True to his standing as a 2nd Class Knight, Tureen caught the falling scabbard at remarkable speed, though his face couldn’t help but flush red.
“So I picked up a defective piece in my haste, curse it.”
With just my Metal Control ability alone, I could now easily break down small metal objects.
– Evolution through Enhanced Body Arts doesn’t violate the order of the world like magic does, but spirits struggle to accept even that. They perceive it as foreign.
– That’s also why Spiritsmith Knights are so rare. The higher your mastery of Enhanced Body Arts, the more you’ll feel limitations in your Spirit Magic growth.
– If you overcome that problem, you become a truly legendary Spiritsmith Knight—one spoken of only in stories.
Rashmia’s advice came to mind, but at this moment, I felt no signs of any clash between Enhanced Body Arts and Spirit Magic whatsoever.
‘Perhaps…….’
Even the legendary Spiritsmith Knights recorded in history—might they not have possessed unique abilities specialized in particular elements, just as he did?
“Please don’t look at me that way. I’m embarrassed enough as it is.”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
A small sound escaped him.
He owed Tureen an apology, but there was no time to explain the situation properly now.
“I’ll report to His Majesty that you’ve cooperated so actively in the subjugation effort.”
“…I’d appreciate that very much.”
“Of course.”
So he’d simply muddle through with a bit of social grace and move on.
Fortunately, just then.
“There it is.”
The two of them arrived at the City Wall, where the volunteer duty guards were posted.
Even before meeting them in person, Munno could already sense something alien emanating from them.
‘I can feel them. These vermin.’
His heightened senses seemed not to be limited to Metal Detection alone.
Even his ability to sense Demonic Energy had expanded dramatically in range.
And not long after.
Ten of the twelve duty guards at the Eastern Guard Post became rotting corpses, reeking of decay.
“Damn it, how in the hell did you bastards manage to—”
Fury and panic. Regret and resentment.
How could anyone begin to untangle the tangle of complex emotions burning in Tureen’s eyes as he stared at the Cultists’ remains?
But Munno was hardly in a position to offer hollow comfort now.
There was only one thing he could say.
“Please give your testimony to the Steel Knights when they arrive. I’ll take my leave—”
A deep sigh.
Leaving Tureen to his breath alone, Munno turned and began running south once more.
Patter-patter-patter.
Bang!
“Who’s running across the rooftops—!”
“Oof!”
Crack.
“My apologies! The Steel Knights will cover the repair costs—!”
By now, the damage to the roofs beneath his feet barely registered.
The lingering presence of the Steel Knights pursuing him had long since faded.
Even the exhilarating thrill of achieving 2nd Class in Spirit Magic would have to be shelved for now.
His attention was fixed on a far more pressing concern.
‘There are far too many Mages hiding in the Capital.’
Far more than he’d expected.
Just today, he’d already disposed of thirty-five of them.
It was shocking enough that so many Cultists were operating covertly in the Capital of the Iron Kingdom, where discovery of being a Mage meant immediate execution—but this couldn’t possibly be all of them.
‘If these are just the expendable pieces…’
The thought that his enemies’ true power might be far greater than he’d anticipated filled his chest with dread.
‘Did the royal family see this coming?’
If they hadn’t, the fallout from today’s events would likely be far worse than he feared.
‘Still, for now—’
Focus on the current task.
Whoosh.
Munno extended his Metal Chains again, looping them around a chimney to vault across another plaza.
But in that instant.
Clang!
A black-masked figure suddenly burst from the rooftop, striking his chains and tearing them free from the chimney.
‘What—?’
In the moment his balance faltered in midair.
A keen arrowhead flashed before his eyes like a bolt of lightning.
An arrow fired at his head, without warning, from nowhere.
But.
‘Get out of here!’
Hum.
With just a slight manipulation of the arrowhead’s trajectory through his unique ability and a quick turn of his head, the lethal arrow sailed harmlessly past.
Of course, the added loss of balance sent him careening toward the ground below.
Clink-clink-clink.
In that instant, he barely kept his balance by extending the remaining metal chains.
Bang.
“Ugh!”
And in that brief moment.
Thwap-thwap-thwap!
Three arrows came flying again, but Munno shielded his face with both arms and deftly deflected them using his innate ability without a trace.
Only then did the civilians near where he’d fallen begin to scream.
“Kyaaaah!”
“It’s a fight!”
“The knights…!”
The street had descended into chaos.
‘Damn it, what kind of bastards….’
As Munno surveyed his surroundings amid the pandemonium.
Whoosh.
A shadow approached silently from behind, slashing a blade toward his throat.
The movement was utterly spectral—soundless and without the slightest trace—but.
‘Hmm.’
As long as that blade was made of metal, it couldn’t escape Munno’s senses.
Clang!
Crack.
He ducked to evade the attack, and simultaneously drove his elbow backward in a fierce counterattack.
“What the hell—!”
As he lunged toward the enemy sent flying back.
Again he felt that sharp killing intent targeting the back of his skull.
‘An arrow!’
He jerked his head back immediately.
Screech.
Clang!
The arrow passed overhead and struck the stone pavement ahead, then bounced away.
But the masked figure who’d been hit by his elbow and driven into a market stall had vanished in the confusion.
“It’s a fight!”
“Arrows!”
“Run!!!”
Crash-bang-crash.
The tension coursing through his entire body wasn’t from the chaos around him.
‘They’re not Magic Knights…?’
Those attacking him now were pure Hard Body Practitioners—he sensed no magical power in them.
Yet their movements were entirely different from those of ordinary mercenaries or knights.
Methods he’d only ever heard about.
‘Assassins!’
Fortunately, he had a way to counter them.
The moment he sharpened his awareness, his senses as a 2nd Class Metal Control Spiritsmith began detecting the positions of metal moving abnormally fast in his vicinity.
‘Found you!’
Dash.
Munno immediately burst into the building.
“Kyaaah!”
Without breaking stride, he slashed his blade diagonally across the space above the screaming fruit vendor’s head.
Slash.
His blade cut clean through the shabby cloth behind the stall and the masked figure hidden there in one stroke.
“Kuh…?”
The eyes barely visible through the black mask widened in shock.
Spurt.
Thump.
The figure collapsed, blood pouring from the wound.
“A… ugh… ah…”
The vendor, his face drained of color at the gruesome sight, scrambled backward on his rear.
But there was no time to console the vendor.
‘Three more….’
The moment he moved toward the enemies now positioned around him.
– Munno!
– What’s happened?
Familiar voices of Steel Knights called out from a distance.
And at the same moment.
He felt the metals that seemed to be lying in ambush to capture him suddenly retreat at speed.
‘You bastards?’
His mind spun for an instant, but he couldn’t simply let them escape.
‘Not so fast!’
Thud.
“Hah!”
Munno drove his full weight into the ground with a sharp stamp.
Wringing every muscle in his body to forge raw energy, he hurled his massive Two-Handed Sword toward the empty air inside the vacant building like a bolt of lightning.
As if he faced the adversary of his lifetime there in that void.
‘I never thought I’d use it like this the first time.’
And simultaneously.
Screeeech.
Mysterious letters of light seemed to etch themselves into the blade of his ‘sword’.
Shatter!
It exploded in a torrent of fragments.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.
His third spell, Blade Burst, created a synergy with the wind-cutting beyond imagination, sweeping the surroundings like a tempest when—
‘Split in two!!’
The scattered blade fragments divided into two directions according to his will.
And.
Crash!
Bang!
Boom!
One stream of fragments pierced through the walls of several buildings and engulfed the ‘metal’ that had been vanishing into the shadow of an alley a block away.
Crash!
The fragments in the opposite direction likewise broke through two building walls and swept out, engulfing the other metal that had been disappearing into a sparsely populated alley.
Even from a great distance, Munno felt the entirety of it.
And he confirmed that the metals ceased moving after that.
But.
“Hah…….”
Complete control was beyond his reach, it seemed.
He could only grimace as he looked at his trembling hands—hands that watched the ‘sword’ vanish and felt the enormous expenditure of mana.
No matter how much strength was his own, it was impossible to fully command blade fragments carrying such tremendous energy with his unique ability alone.
All he could do was divide the explosion into two directions and impart trajectory.
“……There’s much to refine.”
As he twisted his mouth in a bitter smile.
“Munno!”line>
“What in the world……!”

“There was an assailant. Over there…….”
The moment the Steel Knights’ eyes fell upon the masked corpse Munno indicated, their expressions hardened completely.
“There should be two others collapsed about a block back. They’re part of the same group.”
“A block back?”
The Steel Knight who tilted his head in confusion narrowed his eyes as he examined the corpse again.
“……It doesn’t seem to be a Mage or a Magic Knight?”
“Indeed. But I was assaulted—that much is fact. Many witnesses have already seen this.”
As he glanced around, he could see the broad-shouldered onlookers peering over again, having sensed the fighting had ended.
“Well. Another incident to report, it seems.”
“There were such people…….”
As the Steel Knights’ expressions grew grave, Munno too found himself frowning, lost in thought.
The moment he felt them attempting escape, he had poured his strength into stopping them.
“……That’s strange.”
“Sir?”
They launch an assault with many people watching, then flee the moment the Steel Knights arrive?
It couldn’t be mere fear of their martial power.
‘They were aiming for when I was completely alone.’
Had he lacked his Metal Control and Metal Detection abilities, these were enemies who could have overwhelmed him in an instant.
What unsettled him most, even in retrospect, was how silently those arrows had come—materializing at point-blank range without a whisper of warning.
The archer was surely long gone by now.
‘Why…?’
What could it mean?
Men without a trace of Demonic Energy, yet cautious of crossing the Crown?
Then.
‘They’re not Cultists?’
Then who…?
As his thoughts spiraled outward, beginning to form some shadow of a shape, a voice interrupted him.
“Regardless, Munno. Please, I’m begging you—could you refrain from demolishing buildings as you go? And why are you charging the Steel Knights for the damage…?”
The eminently practical concern cut through his musings.

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