Chapter 16 Part3 (1/2)
<chapter 16.=”” a=”” joker=”” is=”” born=”” -=”” 3=””>
[Kill him! Kill them all!]
[For the Empire!]
”You said you'd just kill the lord, but what is this...”
Kratia completely froze the wall, ascended to the top, and just stood dumbstruck after confirming the ma.s.sacre. The skeletons were hostile to everything and everyone. It started from the level 4 Skeleton Knights to the ordinary level 1 commoners; all of them had equally fallen into madness.
At this very moment, she heard a jarring, hair-raising scream from somewhere, but Kratia thought that it was a voice she'd heard somewhere before.
”Do the undead periodically fall into madness? No, there's no way that something could happen so suddenly... Then was it s.h.i.+n Woo? But how?”
[The Captain's ordered us to annihilate them! Let us put to rest those foolish and pitiful fools of the Empire!]
[Follow the Commander!]
Though Kratia stood petrified, the Pauls followed behind her into the city, and unhesitatingly rushed forward.
The elite squadron, led by the reborn Paul 41, the level 4 Doom Factor, didn't have even a shred of hesitation and cut apart all of the surrounding undead. They had already finished steeling themselves.
”What could he have done to these guys? How...? Ugh.”
Kratia couldn't get over her doubt at all, but it felt like a waste of time to do so while just sitting there. Ultimately, she stopped mulling over trivial thoughts and went straight into a large scale spell. After seeing Lee s.h.i.+n Woo's use of mana, she'd developed a new technique; she'd made up her mind to test her 'catalyzed magic'!
A large quant.i.ty of mana stuck to the ice artifact that floated before her; Kratia watched as a large amount of mana grew, and smiled.
[The Low Rank Shriek of the Dead skill has become Lv8. Magic has increased by 2. Your skills are affected by your mana and can persist for a longer period of time.]
”Whoa, what's that?”
Meanwhile, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo had finished cleaning up the area, and was using Shriek of the Dead in various areas of the city; he gaped once he saw the spell Kratia had cast.
There was no way an occupant of the city wouldn't be able to see the spell; there was an absurdly large ma.s.s of ice floating in the air!
”Ooh, it's cold just looking at it.”
”The cold's not the issue here.”
The clump of ice floating within the air created a suction force that drew in the surrounding mana; this mana seemed to rotate around the ice and then, transformed into sharp ice spears. And those ice spears poured down upon the enemies everywhere!
He could describe the clump of ice that so slowly advanced into the air, as well as the following ice spears that poured onto the battlefield as 'horrific'. To the point that Lee s.h.i.+n Woo thought that he didn't even need to separately take out the Skeleton Commander if she could use something like that to attack the entire city!
”What kind of huge spell is that?”
”Are all level 6s like that?”
”No way.”
But when he considered the fact that Kratia hadn't been in the Empire for very long and was still a newbie hero, he was just speechless.
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo hadn't expected to influence her to to the point of completing such a grand magic; he decided to be even more guarded against the other heroes from now on. Of course, there was nothing wrong with being careful. He then realized that he hadn't been aware of how amazing he was.
”If you get hit by that, would you die s.h.i.+n Woo?”
”Yep. Fortunately, it seems avoidable, but... No, it doesn't seem like we'll be enemies with Kratia, so we don't need to go into hypotheticals here.”
One week was more than enough time to figure out each others' tendencies. Kratia was only single-mindedly focused on magic, but was also a rational thinker, as well as loyal. He thought she was a trustworthy human.
”I don't think I'll have to make a move with that there. Let's rest.”
As soon as Lee s.h.i.+n Woo decided that the battle was over, he immediately sank down onto the ground.
He grasped the Limited Order Bone Core in his hand. It was the key that would control the Iron Golems that stood before them. They had some spare time now, so he decided to earnestly start studying the core.
”That's what you call resting?”
”We should be able to get to level 5 if we use all of the bones we've acquired from the battle. So, I want to finish the quest before I level up.”
”You're so stubborn it's scary.”
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo could already use the Bone Core much better than the original owner, the lord, could. Considering the fact that he had controlled three Iron Golems simultaneously and made it so that two of the Elder Knights couldn't move an inch (while wielding the Lightning Tooth in his other hand and swinging it at the final Elder Knight), Jin was just shocked!
However, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo wasn't satisfied with just that.
”Arema Steelworker... No, the Empire made a huge mistake. If you hold the remote control, it becomes really obvious how the golems' mana is created, as well as how they move, doesn't it?”
”If anyone could tell that from just a.n.a.lyzing it, they wouldn't have made a remote control like that...”
Regardless of how deep one's magical knowledge was, or how much they a.n.a.lyzed the basics behind it, they wouldn't be able to copy the mana. At least, if they followed what Kratia had told them. However, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo was gripping the Bone Core and struggling against it, so he didn't hear what Jin was saying.
'That's right. Originally, mana doesn't have its own form. The form changes depending on who is using it. ...In some ways, it might be similar to my karma.'
Lee s.h.i.+n Woo closely examined the process that changed his mana within the core, and was repeatedly in awe. It felt like he had tested and confirmed the knowledge he'd memorized until now, and was deeply moved. He also felt a sense of stubbornness, that he wanted to do what the core did all by himself.
”Hoo. Then let's do it in order.”
”It's surprising that you're doing this in order.”
However, it was impossible right now; for starters, Lee s.h.i.+n Woo focused on giving out detailed commands to the golems. There were basic commands recorded in the core, but he wanted to personally inject his will into the golems based on the strange mana pattern change.
This wasn't very difficult, as he had already received all the knowledge from the Original Core.
[Following order. Running in place.]
[Following order. Sparring with I0921.]