Vinny charged in and out of the bandit mob like he was walking through empty air, slaughtering them until not a single piece of armor was left intact. The ambush alone killed five bandits who didnât even have time to draw their weapons. The rest did reactârealizing an enemy had infiltrated, they panickedâbut all they managed was the thought of resisting.
Not a single bandit could stop that ice spear swinging with reckless freedom. The blade flashing with deathly frost was like a scythe cutting wheatâfast, precise, ruthless.
They couldnât even see Vinnyâs strikes clearly. They couldnât take a single move before their lives were harvested, collapsing onto the ground like broken trash.
In just a few breaths, Vinny ended the fightâlike heâd turned on some unstoppable mode.
But it wasnât that Vinny was bullying them. Aside from using [Congealed-Ice Shackles] as a grappling effect to close distance, he hadnât used a scrap of magic. That was already generous. They just hadnât been able to seize the chance.
Now the ruined ancient fort was even quieter than before, as if even the wind had stopped.
Vinny glanced back at the bandits heâd left piled and scattered everywhere. Nothing about it surprised him. If there was anything he hadnât expected, it was only how easy it had been.
An extraordinary being in the Magus realm against bandits who mostly didnât even have a realm...
It was a dimensionality drop.
These bandits who terrorized the countryside every day didnât even get a sound out before they all fell.
Vinny looked up at the shredded cloth fluttering overhead. He had silently emptied this nest.
He went into the battlements to search further. There wasnât anything worth notingâjust a few money pouches with some silver coins and a lot of copper, plus daily necessities and stored food like cabbages and tomatoes.
All of it was loot.
It belonged to the victims.
Vinny didnât touch any of it. He locked the storeroom and took the key.
The fort held by the âFinal Burialsâ had fallen. No one had managed to send word that an intruder had slipped in. Their gate was wide open now.
That made everything afterward much easier. With a hole torn open like this, Vinny could smoothly push into the interior of Gaflei Fort.
He only had one night.
So he had to moveânow.
Passing through the northern gate, Vinny infiltrated the fortress complex and headed toward the central fort.
What he didnât notice was what happened after he left.
The corpses sprawled all over the groundâblood seeped, little by little, into the surface. The fortâs floor was like a living thing. It made a wet, lip-smacking sound, as if it had tasted the blood and wasnât satisfied. Even the bodies themselves sank into the ground and vanished.
Very quickly, there was nothing left.
As if no one had ever come here at all.
Vinny was already close to the central fort. Compared to the outer forts at the edge of the complex, this one was clearly the ancient empireâs main command centerâmassive, imposing, unmistakably the heart of the ruins.
There should have been bandits stationed in other forts too, but since he already knew where the enemyâs heart was, Vinny decided to go straight for itârip out the leader and interrogate him directly.
If before heâd only been catching a glimpse of the outline...
Now Vinny was basically certain this practical assessment wasnât ordinary. If nothing else, something was about to go wrong.
Heâd drawn the jackpot again.
Who was that suspicious black-robed, red-eyed priest? Why was he here at this time? What was he doing?
And the skinny banditâs words had left plenty of details unclearâlike the reason theyâd believed the priest. The skinny man had said he didnât know why; heâd just felt the black-robed manâs words made sense.
Logically, getting a pack of cunning banditsâpeople who were anything but saintsâto obey someone was not easy.
Yet that priest had used a few sentences to make them believe him, use them for the moment, and have them collect human organs for him.
It was absurd.
Vinny had a feeling that the reason these bandits had converged here without coordination also had to do with that black-robed, red-eyeball priest the skinny man had mentioned.
If that was true...
Then the problem might be big.
Bandits were one thingâa pile of small fry. But that black-robed man with the red eye symbol, his face unseenâhis strength was still unknown.
Vinnyâs strength as an Intermediate Magus was enough to handle most âaccidents,â but heâd wandered into too many high-tier lobbies. That had made him cautious.
Once he realized the situation was tricky, he could turn back right now and report it to the academy.
But then the practical assessment mission wouldnât be truly complete.
And if he waited for a Carillian Academy carriage to come pick him up, it would be weeks at the very least. In those weeks, he couldnât guarantee how many people that pack of scum would killânor whether the black-robed red-eyed man would achieve his goal.
Vinny smelled danger. He had a feeling this could become extremely troublesome.
The bandit threat at Gaflei Fort had already lasted for some time. He couldnât tell how far that black-robed manâs plan had progressedâor what would erupt once it was fully completed.
If his leaving meant no one stopped this calamity in advance, and it triggered an uncontrollable disaster...
Vinny knew he would regret it.
And he had nowhere to go to call for reinforcements. His connections... well, anyone who knows, knows. Even in Camella Royal Capital, outside of Mirexia, he barely had any. Forget the Tyrel Empireâforeign territory.
If Isatia were beside him, he could tell Isatia and have her request Tyrel Empire support.
But Isatia was out on her own practical assessment mission right now. Who knew where she was.
And Vinny couldnât return to Carillian Academy yet. Going down the mountain to some imperial city-state to ask for help was a dead end too. Even if he reached a lordâs manor and introduced himself, the guards would probably scratch their ears lazily and say, âVin-what? Never heard of it. Did our lord invite you??â
Even if they had heard of him, theyâd only know his bad reputation. The more aggressive ones might just drive him off on the spot.
This hadnât even drawn the local imperial lordâs attention. Leaving aside whether Vinny could even meet that lord, even if he did, everything he said would be taken as dreamingânonsense, babbling, delirium.
In the end, what he said carried no authority. If it were Isatia speaking, the effect would be completely different.
There were watchtowers around the main fort too, but maybe because that fort Vinny had breached earlier had been guarded, there werenât many watchtowers in that direction. Vinny infiltrated all the way here; relying on an extraordinary beingâs five senses, breaking through was easy.
He wasnât good at stealth.
But hiding his tracks from ordinary peopleâor low-level Sorcerersâwas far too easy. To these bandits, it was like heâd slipped into the wind itself: silent, soundless.
Very soon, Vinny reached the base of a section of battlements. After confirming there was no torchlight above, he extended [Congealed-Ice Shackles], latched it onto a stone pillar on the wall above, and pulled himself upâone flip, and he was on the battlements.
âHuh? What was that sound?â The scraping pull still caught the attention of a few bandits on the wall. They started to walk over to see what was going on.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Halfway there, each of them was bound by an ice chain. Extreme cold fused their flesh to it.
Their eyes widened. These were men who only knew how to bully the weak. When had they ever seen something like this?!
They were just about to screamâ
The spear blade flashing with frost tore them apart.
Vinny moved clean and decisive, leaving no extra noise. After finishing them, he looked down from above, taking in the main fortâs layout.
Gaflei Fortâs main fort was even larger than heâd expected, and the interior was complicatedâwalls upon walls blocking sightlines. He could vaguely see torchlight moving everywhere.
Looks like that red-eyed black-robed guy wasnât some omniscient god. He hadnât organized these rats to flee in advance, and he hadnât predicted their time of death either.
Vinny used [Congealed-Ice Shackles] to lower himself off the wall and dropped into a quiet spot.
This was probably an abandoned stable inside the fort.
Vinny felt that he was, in some ways, a stealth master. The essence of stealth was not letting anyone discover your infiltrationâ
So if you killed everyone who saw you, wasnât that perfect stealth?
âMm?!â âWhoâs there?!â At a corner, Vinny saw bandits wearing deer-antler ornaments on their heads, dressed like savages, with strange tattoos across their arms.
These had to be the âInterpreters.â
The moment they saw the blue-haired young man who clearly wasnât one of them, the five Interpreters froze for a beat, then snapped into action. Three raised sword-and-shield and crouched, while the other two lifted longbows, quickly drawing arrows from their quivers and nocking them.
To be fair, the Interpretersâ combat discipline was at least a star and a half above the Fur Foxes and the Final Burials. They didnât panic. Their physiques were strongâjust look at the muscle on those thick arms. And they even coordinated tactically.
But in front of a true strong one, a higher level of discipline didnât matter.
They still got killed all the same.
In their eyes, Vinnyâs speed was fast enough to leave afterimages. The three Interpreters hurriedly raised their shieldsâ
Shield shattered. Men died.
Their thick wooden shields were as fragile as paper in front of a top-grade [Magic Tool] weapon. Frostfang cut through shield and body in oneâthree slashes in a single stroke, cleaving all three into halves.
The two bowmen didnât even see how Vinny reached them.
And they didnât have time to loose, because Vinny had only needed one spear sweep to kill their three front-linersâ
So killing the two of them also only required one sweep.
Cold light flashed. One Interpreter died on the spot.
The other, in that instant between life and death, erupted with terrifying potential and barely escapedâbut paid for it with an arm severed off.
âMm?â Vinny looked at the frozen blood on his blade, thinking the Interpreters really did [N O V E L I G H T] have something to them. There was actually someone here who made him use a second move.
The one-armed Interpreter didnât even dare worry about the blood pouring from the stump. Like heâd seen a ghost, he bolted.
But he hadnât run more than a few steps when an arrow dropped from above and pierced his throat with perfect accuracy.
Vinny didnât have time to care how the one-armed Interpreter died.
Because he also sensed an arrow flying toward him.
A double-shot.
The archer had nocked two arrows at onceâfiring simultaneously at Vinny and at the fleeing Interpreter.
The Interpreter hadnât reacted at all. The arrow punched through his throat, and he fell to the ground, dying in agonyâwithout even knowing who had killed him.
On the other side, Vinnyâs spear snapped out, knocking the arrow aimed at him in half.
This arrowhead...
It had force behind it.
There was an expert here?
Vinnyâs brows tightened. Heâd fought his way through this entire ruin and no one had been able to take a single move from him.
Now it seemed there really was a skilled opponent inside this fort.
He lifted his gaze toward the darkness overhead.
And at that momentâ
A shadow dropped from the sky.
A ruthless blade-light shot straight for his throat.
Vinny turned his spear sideways and blocked the cold edge. Feeling the force transmitted through the shaft, his expression turned grave.
He had to get serious.
In the darkness, Vinny couldnât see the attackerâs face. The attacker couldnât see his, either.
And after blocking that first blade, Vinny immediately realized something:
It wasnât one knife.
It was dual-wielding. Because on the other side, another razor-wind of steel ripped in.
Strong, too.
Trying to use the nightâtrying to make Vinny misjudge the silhouette and think there was only one weapon?
He was underestimating him.
CLANG! CLANG!
The second blade chopped into Vinnyâs bodyâ
And bounced off without suspense.
In an instant, Vinnyâs entire body armored up in thick, gleaming silver plating, imposing and majestic.
[Armor Fortress]
The attackerâs other hand went numb from the recoil, and he understood heâd struck iron.
And Vinny didnât waste that stiffness.
He kicked the attacker hard in the belly, sending him stumbling, then leapt up like a titan.
[Annihilating Heavy Stomp]
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!
Vinny slammed down like a bomb right in front of him. Earth and stone exploded upward, blasting the attacker away.
Against a strong opponent, Vinny never dared to probe slowly. When he caught an opening, he went straight for a killing move.
If nothing went wrong, the other side shouldâve been blown into pieces by that earth magic.
But strangelyâ
At the moment the blast hit, a dull, earth-gold glow rose around the attacker like a barrier descending onto him.
He was thrown back, but he didnât die.
âOh?â Vinny stared at the figure slowly climbing up from the ground, his eyes turning odd. âYouâve got something. A kick plus a titan drop and I didnât one-shot youâand youâve even got a magic shield? Thatâs lavish. But that thing canât protect you forever.â
âDie.â Vinny drove his spear toward him.
But when the attacker heard him speak, he froze for some reason, then hurriedly shoutedâ
âY-Youâwait! Stop fighting, itâs me!â A tender female voice rang out.
âMm?â Vinnyâs spear stopped mid-thrust and retracted at once, reflexively.
That voice...
It was way too familiar.
How are you here?? x2.
The two of them stared at each other in silence. A moment later, they spoke in unison.