The Sword Genius of the Magic Empire - Chapter 14
Only Noblemtl
“We have arrived. Let’s go in.”
The banquet hall that Lien had guided us to was, as expected, empty and shrouded in darkness.
Enoch slowly entered inside.
Squeak… .
The large door of the banquet hall slowly closed on its own, making a faint sound. The banquet hall, illuminated by the light of the increasingly narrow corridor, looked quite large and elegant.
‘This is it, I’ve only seen it a few times in games… .’
A chandelier crafted with gems and glass.
A pure white and luxurious tablecloth.
A long, large table that can seat a large number of people at once.
On top of that, utensils such as spoons and knives were lined up in the darkness in preparation for the banquet. Enoch looked at them for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“It’s too dark to teach table manners.”
“Is that so?”
Behind him, Lien answered with an emotionless expression.
Her slender fingers were already slowly lifting up one side of the maid’s skirt.
Lien’s white thighs were clearly visible through her black and white skirt.
Sarak
Enoch’s pitch-black eyes glared at it sharply. The light streaming in through the crack in the banquet hall door that closed on its own gradually became thinner.
Enoch also pulled the string of the cloth bag that had hidden his sword without making a sound.
Scrub
The entrance to the cloth bag, its knot untied, the sword handle revealed itself in the last ray of light streaming through the crack in the door.
And then the banquet hall doors, which had been slowly closing on their own, finally closed tightly, interlocking with each other.
Kuung!
A dull darkness fell on the room.
As a signal, their bodies moved almost simultaneously.
Phew!
A sharp metallic sound echoed through the air.
Enoch immediately twisted his body and tilted his head to the side. Just in time, something silvery and filled with mana passed by his body.
‘A thin thread. Is it Lien’s magic equipment?’
He dodged the attack momentarily, and Enoch’s eyes narrowed for a moment as he caught it.
‘A fighting style and riding ground I don’t know. It’s a unique magic.’
In the original game, I know all the common types of magic that wizards of level 10 and below can learn.
But I can confidently say that the magic Lien used was not any of those types of magic.
‘… That’s ridiculous.’
Enoch, whose thoughts reached that point, swallowed dry saliva without realizing it.
So, surprisingly, the identity of this maid named Lien is… .
‘A wizard of level 10 or higher!’
A chill ran down Enoch’s spine.
Among wizards, the 10th level is the realm of only those who have achieved .
‘A realm that only a select few among the countless wizards can reach, a realm that requires talent.’
Wizards who reach this rank use their own unique magic, and are portrayed as incredibly strong, without exception.
In the original work, all magicians above Tier 10 were skilled enough to boast performance levels above Tier 1.
‘Even with my mana sense, I can’t tell exactly what level it is. If she really uses her own magic, then Lien is at least a level 10 or higher magician. There’s no way I can win in an all-out war right now.’
Being able to use unique magic means you are a high-level magician of level 10 or higher.
There was no need to mention the difference between a lower level wizard who couldn’t reach there and a wizard of level 10 or higher.
‘It’s a simple comparison, because it’s the difference in strength between an adult and a child.’
At the same time, I had strong doubts.
‘… But a wizard of that level is just a maid.’
It makes no sense for a level 10 or higher wizard to be a maid doing such menial work.
You’re incomparably more capable than Enoch. Why on earth are you working under him as a maid?
There are still many things we don’t know about Lien, but it is clear that she is a character who goes beyond conventional wisdom in many ways.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter right now.’
Still, Enoch smiled leisurely.
He already had a kind of hypothesis about Lien.
‘No matter how strong Lien is, I can fight this battle without any burden.’
Sling
Enoch turned and landed, drawing his sword.
The blade that appeared in front of Enoch’s pitch-black eyes glowed white, reflecting the silvery-white mana that Lien was deploying in the darkness.
Wheeing
A dark blue mana rose from Enoch’s sword, dispelling the darkness.
Silver-white mana and dark blue mana fluttered toward each other, emitting black and white halos in the darkness.
Breaking the brief standoff, Lien reached out her hand. Following her movements, silvery threads shot out quickly in this direction once again.
Enoch calmly raised his sword.
I don’t know if it was her intention, but the movement of that unidentified thread isn’t that fast. If you time it right, you could probably cut it with your sword.
Whirl!
Then, the blade, which had drawn a precise trajectory, cut through the rushing silver-white line─
Kaang!
─I couldn’t do it!
Enoch’s eyes opened wide for a moment.
Rather than cutting it, the silver-white thread wrapped around the dark blue sword like a spider web.
A single thread wrapped around Enoch’s sword in an instant took away his freedom of movement.
‘The metallic friction sound I heard when I brought the sword down just now.’
Of course, it is not a thread of ordinary material.
Then, what is the identity of the silver thread that Lien uses?
‘Wire?’
Metal threads and wires that sharply fill the space.
Moreover, it is a material so strong that it cannot be broken even if a sword is struck with all its might. Just looking at it, you can tell that it is not a simple wire.
Again.
Lien, who had already pulled the wire taut and restrained the sword, was slowly walking towards me.
It was not a good situation at all. But instead, Enoch smiled faintly at her.
‘That’s a good thing.’
This is your chance to use the skills you’ve learned in your inner world.
Kwak.
A sword tied to a wire. Focus your senses on the hand holding the handle.
In the memories of my head, information on the swordsmanship I had inherited from my inner world was suddenly coming to mind.
– ? Type 1 – Explosion Sword
He deploys the mana projected onto his sword to each part of his body, and accelerates his movements by activating it.
Honestly, up until now, the explanations have been too abstract and I haven’t really gotten the feel for it.
Transferring the mana breathed into the sword to your body.
Just two days ago, I was having trouble even infusing mana into my sword, so how could I possibly understand such nonsense right away?
‘But that’s just the impression of an ordinary person.’
He looked down at the sword body wrapped in dark blue mana.
‘With the body of Enoch, the , it is nothing.’
Take a deep breath and let go of your thoughts.
Focus your senses on the hand holding the sword.
The dark blue mana that bloomed and dyed the sword. I engrave that light in my mind and let it flow through my body.
Soon, I felt the flow of mana spread throughout my body through my right arm that was holding the sword.
Before he knew it, the arrangement of mana was flowing through Enoch’s body in a similar way to what he had seen from Geomseong.
Woof
The sword’s mana is concentrated and arranged in the forearm muscles of the arm.
I felt the crystals, made of a dark blue halo flowing from the sword, settle firmly on my right arm like a constellation and emit light.
And the next moment-
The dark blue mana burst out like an explosion, madly accelerating the direction of his right arm.
Kagagagagagagak!
The sword and the wires wrapped around it screamed as if they were going to tear apart.
The dark blue and silver white mana rubbed against each other, sending out fierce flames in all directions.
Soon, due to the sword’s movement accelerating too rapidly, Lien’s wire lost its strength for a moment and lost sight of the sword.
The trajectory of the dark blue sword draws a large semicircle in the air, escaping from the silver-white wire.
Her blue eyes narrowed slightly as if she was surprised at the sight.
However, the distance between Lien and Enoch was still far. Although he had regained the freedom of the sword, the priority of the attack still lay with Lien.
Peeeing─
Then he heard the sound of another wire being ejected, and in the next moment Enoch’s vision suddenly changed.
My back hit the ground hard. The sudden impact knocked my breath out.
“Cough!”
It happened so quickly that I didn’t even know what had happened.
He tried to raise his body, but another strand of wire was ejected and wrapped around his arm.
Jiyik!
In an instant, one arm was completely restrained by Lien.
However, you can still move within the radius of the wire between Lien and me.
Lien swung her arms and fired wires one after another.
Enoch immediately got up, jumping over the table in the huge banquet hall and dodging the additional flying wires.
The impact caused all the plates and utensils lined up on the table to fly into the air.
Then, all the objects that had been launched into the air were shattered, and the wires aimed at Enoch swept behind him in a large semicircle.
Chaenggrang!
Through a storm of shards of pottery, Enoch used his momentum to slide down and land on the ground.
Immediately afterwards, he ran straight towards Lien to close the distance and unleashed the mana he had concentrated in his legs.
Type 1’s explosive mobility began to rush towards Lien.
Shhh!
As if to deny that approach, a wire suddenly rose from the floor.
Enoch barely managed to catch the sword guard on the table and hastily brake his body.
Enoch, who had evaded the unexpected attack entirely by relying on his body vision, quickly turned his gaze to check the surprise attack that had just occurred.
‘Where did the wire suddenly come out of?’
Enoch quickly looked around and assessed the situation, and for a moment, he felt a chill run down his spine.
Although it was a sudden surprise attack, the cause was not difficult to guess.
Enoch’s pupils dilated as he looked around the vast interior of the banquet hall.
‘Could it be the wires I avoided earlier…?’
Silver-white wires tangled like spider webs everywhere.
The wires that had just passed him were now taut in the air, drawing intricate paths between the floor and the table, now immersed in darkness.
Like a tightly designed spider web.
‘All escape routes have now been blocked.’
I was so busy dodging the wires shooting out in my direction that I didn’t pay attention.
The range of action that can utilize Type 1’s mobility has already been significantly reduced.
The method of approaching while using a large space to evade magic like before can no longer be used.
Lien can manipulate those wires freely, so the moment she approaches, those wires will ensnare her.
If that happens, there is no answer.
In addition, his left arm is already bound. Needless to say, his range of action is further restricted.
Even though it was clearly a fast-paced battle, the more I moved my body, the more I felt like I was being cornered.
‘The problem is that it’s not a feeling, it’s reality.’
Beyond the darkness, Lien’s blue-silver eyes were staring at me coldly, as if piercing through me.
Enoch slowly readjusted his sword with tense hands as he stared into those eyes that seemed to be declaring that it was the end.
So this is what happens in the end.
‘From the start of the battle, we were already losing the battle.’
Of course, it was an expected development.
I’ve heard enough in the game to know how strong the 10th level or higher magicians are within the empire, and I’ve also experienced it enough while raising my game character.
But after actually experiencing it, I never thought I would be able to find even this many loopholes.
Phew!
Once again, a silver-white wire filled with mana was ejected with a small cracking sound.
A thread quickly spread across the darkness.
Enoch opened his eyes wide for a moment. Lien’s wire was moving much faster than before.
‘As expected, it hasn’t even reached its full strength yet.’
But still, there was little sense of crisis, because Enoch had one hypothesis that was almost certain.
‘Then where, shall we check?’
Turning his sword to his side, Enoch once again deployed mana into his body.
There is no problem anyway.
Lien’s attacks will never be able to harm us.
‘In the inherited memory, the swordsman used the 1st type to close the distance.’
This means that the utility of Type 1 is limitless.
I concentrate again, recalling the movements that the swordsman had shown in the inner world.
Woof
Deploy mana throughout the body. Mana spreads through the blood vessels and gathers at the lower part of the left leg.
The mana gathered for the trigger hummed fiercely, waiting for the will of the master who would be the trigger.
Taaang!
Soon, mana is triggered.
Enoch’s entire body shot forward with his left foot in a large cloud.
But no matter how fast it was, Lien would have reacted and figured it out quickly.
‘That’s literally the dumbest move Enoch could make.’
An enemy flying in a straight line, accelerating so honestly that you can’t even change direction.
If Lien tries to kill him, he doesn’t have to do anything.
The speed that was so frighteningly attached to his body would pass through the wire Lien had manipulated and automatically rip Enoch’s body apart.
‘If I come out like this, what will you do?’
Enoch’s black eyes racing through the air and Lien’s blue eyes standing in front of him glared at each other precisely through the thick curtain of wire.
But the next moment, Lien’s pupils shook slightly, and a faint moan escaped from between her lips.
She bit her lip, turned her head to the side, and lowered her arms listlessly.
Swish.
Silver-white mana dispersed according to Lien’s will. The wire barrier spread out in front of her was instantly lifted.
Enoch checked it and smiled slightly.
‘As expected, I can’t attack.’
Shhh!
Enoch’s sword crossed the wire that Lien had released and rushed in front of Lien’s eyes in the blink of an eye.
It was already too late to turn back the sword due to the maddening inertia and speed with which it flew through the air as if it was shooting.
A dark blue blade that rushed in a straight line like a meteor cutting through the night in an instant.
Lien’s eyes, facing it, took on the light and turned a bluish color.
And the next moment.
Lien grabbed the wire with her left hand, which she had hidden behind her maid uniform skirt.
Ping, kagagak!
The next moment, Enoch’s sword, which had been striking at incredible speed, suddenly stopped in midair by an invisible force.
Enoch’s arm creaked as if it were about to break, unable to overcome inertia.
Woof
The blade, which was aimed precisely at Lien’s neck, stopped just before piercing her thin, white neck.
But the tip of the sword did not advance even a millimeter further towards Lien.
‘And of course… .’
Enoch turned his head slightly and looked behind him.
‘This guy is no match for me.’
That extreme
Behind him, a space woven with silver threads stretched across the entire banquet hall, immersed in darkness.
The legs of the table.
Chairs and a podium.
Chandelier on the ceiling.
The silver wires that wrapped around Enoch’s sword, with all the things in the banquet hall as pulleys and supports.
Enoch, who realized the identity, burst into laughter at the absurd fact.
‘All the wires you gave me earlier.’
The wires spread out throughout the banquet hall were delicately distributing their power to each other, and delicately holding Enoch’s accelerated sword so that he would not get hurt.
And all of those wires were exquisitely connected to Lien’s left hand, which was hidden behind her back.
In the end, it means that they were calculating this side’s movements until the end and designing a method to subdue them.
Enoch turned his head again and looked at Lien, who had now come up to him.
A tense situation where the tip of Enoch’s sword touches Lien’s neck and Lien’s wire touches Enoch’s sword.
“Answer me.”
It was Lien who broke the dangerous silence first.
She looked at Enoch with cold eyes and asked.
“Where is the real master?”