Chapter 771: Raising Corruption, Idle-Style

Just as Hong Hyeona, the former-former, former-former-former, former-former-former-former Ruby Mage Tower master, sometimes came to mind when I looked at Hong Yeonhwa,

Cha Jongmyeong sometimes came to mind when I looked at Cha Hyeonju.

Starting with their surname, they had more than one or two points in common.

Especially the fact that their personalities are both rotten to the core.

Even now, Cha Jongmyeong was glaring at me with his eyes bulging.

He had evolved several stages beyond rabid chihuahua, and had now reached the realm of cursing violently with nothing but his gaze.

Then he evenly scattered eye-curse abuse everywhere else too.

He’s just dissatisfied with everything.

Maybe that was why, or maybe there was some other reason.

Back when I had played <Dragonslayer Academy> as a game, Cha Jongmyeong had been niche at best, and if I was being cold about it, he had occupied a position somewhere around Warehouse Keeper No. 183.

Not that his performance was bad.

I had put my heart and soul into raising him, and had outfitted him with solid equipment too, so he should more than earn his keep as an S+ ranker.

Especially in a situation like this.

[Duration 00:00:09]

[Manifestation] lasted only ten seconds.

Within that time, he had to kill the fleeing Witch of Decay, or at least inflict a fatal wound.

GLOOP-GURGLE-GURGLE!!

The problem was that the ublek were still surging in like a tidal wave.

They might look like that, but they were a mass of undead created by someone at the very edge of A+ rank, after spending months pouring everything she had into them.

Even an S+ ranker would have no choice but to be held up for a moment.

Most long-range attacks would either be blocked outright, or land with their power drastically reduced.

Most, anyway.

With Cha Jongmyeong’s particular specialty, he should be able to break through those problems.

A moment later, he stretched a hand toward the Witch of Decay as she drew farther away.

A tremendous surge of blue energy shot out, took the form of a wolf pack, and rushed in.

AWOOO—!

A chorus-like howl rang out.

The next instant, a sharp-fanged mark appeared above the witch’s head.

[‘Wolf King’s Fang(S+)’ has been carved into the target.]

A mark-type skill similar to [Concussion Mark].

Of course, as the name suggested, the Wolf King version was far more aggressive.

Effect No. 1 is shooting support.

It drastically increased the accuracy of long-range attacks.

Once the mark was placed, even I would not be able to block or dodge easily.

Effect No. 2 is tracking.

[Witch of Decay, deep layers of the dungeon wing, 62%]

It allowed the target’s location and condition to be grasped.

Not only by the user, but by all allies as well.

It was like the whole pack joining the hunt once the alpha wolf selected its prey.

And the duration is infinite.

Unless the user or target fell, or it was removed through extremely limited methods, it would continue to remain.

That meant it had been more than worth placing the mark first.

[‘Manifestation’ duration 00:00:05]

But the best result would be killing the witch.

Cha Jongmyeong seemed to know that as well, because he immediately moved into his next action.

WOOOONG—

A tremendous amount of mana gathered toward him, then changed into a long, thick arrow like a spear.

He nocked it to his bowstring and leaned his whole body back, drawing it with all his strength.

As if he were trying to pierce the ceiling, not the witch.

The next instant, just as the arrow seemed to leave the string, it vanished cleanly.

Then a roar thundered from somewhere below.

KWAAAAAANG—!

KYAAAAAAAH—!

A ripping scream followed too.

[Witch of Decay, deep layers of the dungeon wing, 62%]

[Witch of Decay, deep layers of the dungeon wing, 28%]

Thanks to [Wolf King’s Fang], the shot had all but leaped across distant space and struck home.

From the witch’s perspective, it must have felt like something had suddenly dropped straight onto her head out of nowhere.

[‘Manifestation’ duration 00:00:02]

Cha Jongmyeong immediately prepared his next shot.

There truly was almost no time left, but he saved even hundredths of a second as he compressed and loaded another mana arrow.

Then the arrow left the string and disappeared again.

Another roar and scream echoed from below.

KWAAAAAANG—!

KYAA—AAAH—!

[Witch of Decay, deep layers of the dungeon wing, 28%]

[Witch of Decay, deep layers of the dungeon wing, 6%]

I felt slightly disappointed.

She survived.

Then again, there had not been enough casting time for the second shot, so its power had naturally dropped by that much too.

There was still a chance the principal might land the finishing blow, but—

[‘Manifestation’ duration 00:00:00]

SSSSSSS……

Cha Jongmyeong’s body soon began to fade away.

While that was happening, he sent me an intense glare worth about 2.5 Lee Sudoks, as if he wanted to say this:

—Do not call me for this kind of worthless nonsense again.

Even if I wanted to, I can’t.

The same hero could not be resummoned.

If I used [Manifestation] again, I would be choosing from the remaining 999.

And so, while Warehouse Keeper No. 183 was completely reverse-summoned,

I felt disappointed in another sense as well.

He could’ve let me use [Copy] while he was here.

I had tried, just in case, but not even a success or failure message appeared.

As if the target had never existed in the first place.

Well, there were 1,000 heroes, so if I could bring over whatever I wanted, it would be no different from a skill or trait selection voucher.

Just as I was feeling twice as disappointed, I saw the principal returning.

He too clicked his tongue, apparently regretful.

“Sorry. She got away.”

[Witch of Decay, Endless Field of Madness, 2%]

He must have landed an additional blow, since her health had fallen a little more, but it seemed he had not managed to finish her off in the end.

Judging by the updated location information, she had entered Dungeon No.9, <Endless Field of Madness>.

If he blindly chased her in there, even the former Hero could not guarantee he would return alive, so he must have decided to stop the pursuit for now.

The principal let out a deep sigh and pointed upward.

“Let’s go up and talk.”

*****

Soon, we moved to the principal’s office.

As everyone received a cup of coffee or tea,

the principal asked me something he had seemed curious about for a while now.

“So what was that at the end?”

He seemed to be talking about how I had summoned Cha Jongmyeong with [Manifestation].

I shrugged and answered.

“I had a hidden card.”

“How many hidden cards do you have that they just keep coming out? That guy looked stronger than me.”

“I can’t just call him whenever I want. There are more than a few restrictions.”

“I see.”

The principal bobbed his chin as if convinced.

If Cha Jongmyeong had been able to display his full strength, he would have been more than enough to beat the Witch of Decay to death.

But he had stopped shooting after firing only a few arrows, and by the time the principal returned, he had already vanished.

If some sort of restriction had applied, that explained quite a lot.

The principal soon looked around at everyone present and offered praise.

“In any case, you all worked hard. The situation must have been sudden, but you handled it well.”

We had cleanly cleared the designated dungeon and come out.

Even when the deep layers had turned into a complete mess because of the ublek, I had quickly circulated ★All-Poison Immunity★ and minimized the damage to the faculty.

At the end, we had even inflicted a fatal wound on the witch and driven her into an S-rank dungeon.

It was a shame we had failed to bring her down, but simply preventing her from escaping the dungeon wing counted as a good result.

Still, the principal let out a troubled hum.

“But we can’t just leave her like that.”

“She’s a ticking time bomb.”

[Witch of Decay, Endless Field of Madness, 2%]

For the time being, the witch would focus on recovery.

She had only 2% health left, so if someone so much as poked her from the side, she would drop dead.

And even if she recovers, her odds of surviving aren’t exactly high.

It was an S-rank dungeon, of all places.

A place where even several S-rank heroes, entering fully prepared, would struggle not to clear it, but simply to survive.

In other words, even if she had nearly reached the very edge of A-rank, it was not a place she could break through alone.

The Witch of Decay must have known that perfectly well, but she had probably felt she had no other choice.

If she did not go in, she would be caught and killed anyway, so she might as well gamble on even the thinnest thread of possibility.

But if she breaks through that thread of possibility…

If she hides well, recovers to some degree, crosses the wall of S-rank, then devours the S-rank monsters inside before coming out?

An unprecedented catastrophe would occur at Dragonslayer Academy.

That was what the principal was worried about too.

“If possible, we should deal with her before that happens… But an S-rank dungeon isn’t anything to take lightly.”

Going in and dealing the final blow worth 2% was something even someone other than the principal could do.

The problem was coming back out alive afterward.

Clearing the dungeon was out of the question for now, since there was no telling how many S-rankers it would require.

“How many [Emergency Escape Scrolls] do you have?”

To stop a dungeon raid and come out, one had to use an escape scroll matching that dungeon’s rank.

Naturally, an S-rank dungeon required an S-rank scroll.

At that, the principal’s expression darkened slightly.

“Exactly two.”

Our school had plenty of money and threw around magic scrolls freely when needed, but S-rank ones did not seem easy to acquire after all.

Considering it had such a long history and still had only two, that said enough.

“That’s awkward.”

“It is.”

Two was exactly the kind of number that invited accidents.

Just because it was an escape scroll did not mean it could be opened anytime, anywhere.

You have to open it in a safe zone, no matter what.

In the case of <Black Serpent Fang>, the abandoned house we had entered on arrival had been the safe zone.

That was why, after obtaining the hidden pieces we wanted, we had gone all the way back to the abandoned house before escaping.

Safe zones like that became more and more limited the higher the dungeon’s grade rose, and by S-rank, they could even disappear for set periods or change location.

Even worse, with S-rank, escape isn’t 100% guaranteed even from a safe zone.

There was a low chance of failure.

A chance that the escape portal would not open at all, or that it would lead somewhere completely different.

It would most likely succeed.

But what if both scrolls failed?

Then the only option would be to clear the S-rank dungeon.

In short, there were not enough chips to gamble with our lives.

The principal let out another troubled hum and said,

“I’ll try contacting people for now. The Sword Empress, my old classmates, and my junior too.”

By his classmates, he probably meant his former party members, and by his junior, the current Hero.

Considering the chaos in the recent world situation, though, there was no telling how many would come or when they would arrive.

I slowly nodded.

“At least I put a minimum measure in place.”

Then I explained [Wolf King’s Fang].

The reason I had chosen Cha Jongmyeong instead of the other heroes.

Even if things went wrong, it had been possible to secure the minimum safety device.

At that, the principal’s expression brightened at once.

“Wow, you had something like that? That’s a load off my mind.”

Rather than being swallowed by anxiety because we had no idea when she might come out,

it was psychologically much easier to prepare when we could think, She’ll probably be coming out soon.

“I’ll check from time to time and let you know.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks a lot, really.”

And even aside from [Fang], I had confidence in my own way.

The Witch of Decay breaks through the S-rank wall, clears the dungeon, and comes out?

Then all we have to do is get stronger.