Chapter 72 – Mercenary (3)
by Heavenly CatThe explosion that started from the pillar incinerated the entire hall, and the heat spewed out even beyond the door.
And at the moment of explosion, a tremendous tremor struck the underground base. Emergency lights shattered everywhere and the emergency bell stopped ringing.
Countless cracks appeared in walls and ceilings too, and water flowed down through them. Pipes buried between floors seemed to have burst.
In the middle of the wrecked corridor, the figures of Sun-woo and Michael lying on the floor were visible. Fortunately, both seemed not to be dead.
“Ugh, are you okay?”
Sun-woo barely raised his body and asked Michael.
“Aside from the fact that it’s been a while since I was covered by a man, I’m passable.”
Michael made an absurd complaint while lying on the floor. He seemed to be fine.
Sun-woo who stood up sighed at the emptiness felt from his back. It seemed he had ruined his clothes again.
But thanks to the clothes, he could be safe. Though he had drawn up <Body Enhancement> and internal energy fully, without clothes with bulletproof function, it definitely would have been difficult to be safe from the explosion.
“It seems the bomb wrapped around the pillar was a delayed fuse or time bomb. It looks like they set it up before we came in.”
Sun-woo agreed with Michael’s story. Fortunately, because he trusted Michael’s senses, otherwise it really could have been a big disaster.
Only now did his dazed mind feel like it was returning. Sun-woo who was checking if his body was abnormal got goosebumps all over at a thought that flashed through.
‘Pillar?’
At the same time, the sound of something cracking came from inside the hall.
“Damn! I forgot about the pillar.”
With a rough shout, Sun-woo rushed toward the hall.
The reason for detonating the bomb must have been to destroy the pillar, but from the bomb’s shock, Sun-woo hadn’t realized immediately.
Michael who remained behind also turned pale, then ran frantically into the hall following Sun-woo. Still in a dazed state with survival instincts not returned, he planned to stick close to Sun-woo first.
In Sun-woo’s eyes as he jumped into the hall, corpses that had become charcoal lumps were visible. They were summoners who hadn’t avoided the explosion.
Normally, he should have recovered them first, but now there was no time for that. Sun-woo checked the pillar first.
Fortunately, the pillar was still maintaining its form. Half-destroyed with steel frames exposed, and even now making bizarre sounds while gradually sinking, but still holding on.
Well, if the pillar had shattered, Sun-woo and Michael wouldn’t be alive either.
Fortunately, the explosives didn’t seem to be enough to completely destroy the pillar. Of course, even with the current amount, it was sufficient to collapse from its own weight.
But right now, Sun-woo was here.
He who rushed to the pillar in one step placed his hand on the pillar flowing with water. Sun-woo began pouring sorcery into the collapsing pillar.
Though it would have been ineffective sorcery on an intact pillar, with it broken like this, the sorcery actually exerted power.
Grrrrrind.
The noise from the pillar grew louder. But the pillar was experiencing the exact opposite phenomenon from before.
Fragments stopped pouring from the pillar, and the cracks that had been gradually widening now conversely narrowed.
And fragments scattered on the floor began gradually climbing up the pillar to fill broken places.
“Wow, that’s even possible?”
Then Michael who entered the hall made a dumbfounded expression watching the gradually recovering pillar. He hadn’t expected Sun-woo’s ability could enable even such things.
Sun-woo felt similarly to Michael. He had done it by brute force because he didn’t want to die. Moreover, supporting pressure while trying to return it to original form required several times more concentration than using existing sorcery.
If he hadn’t tried making a sand tsunami a few days ago, he probably wouldn’t have even attempted it.
“I’m barely holding on. It seems we need to call people quickly.”
At Sun-woo’s words, Michael giggled.
“Does that mean you can’t even take your hands off that pillar? Eventually, you have to stay like that until I bring engineers?”
“Michael…”
“Got it, got it. I won’t tease.”
Michael raised both hands with a laughing face.
“Tsk, how urgent was this mercenary bastard that he came running abandoning even his gun.”
He looked pathetically at his raised hands, then with a slightly sad face looked at the summoners who became charcoal.
“More infamy will be added.”
A mercenary who throws comrades’ lives to the devil and returns alive alone. But Michael soon shook his head to blow away the gloomy mood. It was infamy already stacked to the end of the universe anyway. One more addition wouldn’t change anything.
“Well, should I pick up a usable gun first then go request help?”
In Michael’s eyes looking around for a gun, an old but quite usable sniper rifle was visible.
But that sniper rifle still had an owner, and also that gun was currently in use.
A blood-covered man was standing at the hall entrance aiming the sniper rifle at Sun-woo.
Surprised Michael urgently tried to draw his pistol, but the opponent was already about to pull the trigger.
And at that moment, Sun-woo was also pointing his finger at the blood-covered man.
Unfortunately, using all sorcery to protect the pillar, only when the man appeared at the hall entrance could Sun-woo discover him.
The blood-covered man aimed the gun at Sun-woo right away while standing at the entrance, but Sun-woo couldn’t dodge or use sorcery to stop him.
The pillar that appeared somewhat intact on the outside was now being maintained by Sun-woo’s sorcery.
If Sun-woo took his hands off or cut off the sorcery, the pillar would definitely collapse immediately.
But Sun-woo calmly raised his hand toward the man.
Sun-woo’s raised right index finger was accurately directed toward the man’s head, and water drops flowing down the arm formed droplets at the index fingertip, reflecting the blood-covered man.
The blood-covered man stopped breathing and began pulling the trigger, and Sun-woo muttered softly.
“Water Ball.”
Thunk.
As a short sentence completed from Sun-woo’s mouth, the water droplet at his fingertip shot like a beam of light and lodged in the man’s head.
Thud!
A stream of blood spurted from the man’s head and he collapsed on the spot without even pulling the trigger.
When the man fell, Sun-woo looked at his finger and breathed a sigh of relief. At his fingertip, a small magic circle floated up.
The magic just used was a skill obtained by killing the mage in the desert mission… <Water System Magic>. It was an advanced skill requiring 100 points to raise one circle.
Though the points were extremely precious, thinking he should at least match the basics, he spent 300 points to raise it to 3 circles, and was seeing the benefit now.
Water Ball was only using 1-circle water system magic that threw a water mass to make wet, but thanks to Sun-woo at 3 circles compressing and shooting the water mass, he could take down the opponent.
Unfortunately, it was about the power of a somewhat strong air gun, but at a distance of only several dozen meters, it was no different from regular guns.
The mission ended. The same voices as before were heard, and following that, a window unfolded before Sun-woo’s eyes.
[Min Sun-woo: 6-Star. Achievement Rate 98%]
It seemed insufficient to rise to 7-Star.
Fortunately, no special incidents occurred after that. Very surprised Michael fortunately quickly recovered from shock and brought people, and Sun-woo could take his hands off the pillar with the engineers’ help.
After that, the association quickly wrapped up matters. They sent an investigation team inside the underground base to begin searching everything down to a speck of dust, and used abilities and bribes on the US military and political circles to prevent backbiting.
And the support team including Caroline modified the memories of soldiers who participated in the operation. They changed the appearance of summoners exceeding humans that they saw into ordinary special forces.
According to the investigation team announcement that Sun-woo heard after time passed, unfortunately the underground base was indeed an empty shell.
Major facilities and materials that had been at the base were already all withdrawn or disposed of, and the remaining people and beasts were brainwashed suicide squads to draw in association summoners and die together.
The information obtained at best was only the extent that they would conduct a large-scale operation in the near future requiring use of most facilities and tremendous manpower.
But with that degree of information, nothing could be done. Only enough to warn summoners and the entire association.
Unlike the association that suffered great losses in this mission, Sun-woo received fairly substantial compensation.
With the mission completed, he earned an additional 500 points, and received considerable bonus from the association.
Sun-woo, who obtained a new coat for free again this time, began looking for detached houses near the training ground in a pleasant mood.
***
One week later, Dimension Beta. Also called Gaia.
Imperial capital Rheinland.
A boy was standing on one side of a corridor that looked gorgeous but solemn. He was a somewhat pale and sharp-featured Slavic boy.
The boy was now taking deep breaths while looking at the door before his eyes.
And behind the deeply breathing boy, people rapidly passed through the corridor. They all seemed not to make sounds and only think about passing the door as quickly as possible.
Hayden tried to recall the reason he was called here while looking at the door.
But it wasn’t easy to recall why he was called here. Because there was no reason for an ordinary academy student to receive a summons from the Imperial Intelligence Bureau chief.
If there were only two reasons, there was his somewhat dark personal circumstances or the mysterious events he had been experiencing lately.
But if either were connected to this place, good results couldn’t come out.
Anyway, it was something he couldn’t avoid or run from. Hayden knocked on the antique door and entered inside following the guidance of the secretary who came out from inside.
Hayden who passed the secretary’s office and entered the intelligence director’s room could relax at the unexpectedly ordinary atmosphere of the room.
A bookshelf occupying one wall and an ordinary desk attached to the window.
And across the desk, a middle-aged man with ordinary features was reading a book.
But Hayden had no choice but to tense up again after confirming the ordinary-featured man.
He was exactly Count Zeid, the director of this empire’s only intelligence bureau.
When Hayden waited in front of the desk for a moment, the director put down the book he was holding and looked at Hayden.
“Nice to meet you. Student Rode.”
When he called him by his original name ‘Rode’, Hayden inwardly let out a small sigh. But his face soon hardened stiffly.
“Or would it be better to call you Prince Hayden von Bayern?”
Hayden whose expression had briefly stiffened soon released his tension. It was the Imperial Intelligence Bureau’s work anyway. There was no way Hayden’s dark secret could be hidden before them.
“The illegitimate child of the empire’s most prestigious family and the sole survivor of a family exterminated on rebellion charges… Originally, you could have been in the Bayern young duke’s position now, but thanks to your mother’s family, it became absurd.”
“Did you call me because of my birth history?”
At Hayden’s calmly questioning appearance, the count made a slightly surprised expression.
“Oh, I was rude. Thanks to this fucking personality, I always seem to be misunderstood.”
But from his excuse, Hayden couldn’t shake the feeling that he had spoken deliberately.
“Anyway, the extermination happened during the previous emperor’s time, and officially your status has no problem, so don’t worry. The duke really hid it diligently.”
The count who scratched Hayden’s insides once more brought out the actual reason for calling Hayden.
“A mission has dropped. Thanks to the intelligence bureau diligently searching around, we could find the places where those bastards are hiding. We plan to catch them all at once with large-scale summoning soon.”
Hayden’s eyes became round at the unexpected story.
“At such a time, I as the head of the empire’s summoner organization can’t leave behind good summoner material.”
He threw a notebook and documents toward Hayden.
“Early graduation. From now on, you’re an active officer.”
Hayden checked the notebook. The second lieutenant mark engraved on the notebook’s front sparkled dazzlingly receiving sunlight.
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