Overpowered Sword Chapter 29

Level up with swords (29)

It was a completely different entity from Living Armor.

Literally evil spirit armor. Armor controlled by an evil spirit cannot be broken until its malice is exhausted. Even if you destroy it with physical force, it will only come back to life again and again.

There are three ways to completely defeat Phantom Armor.

You had to chase away evil spirits with powerful magic, cut the connection between evil spirits and armor with the power of Auror, or purify them with divine power.

“Ah, so the guy I cut couldn’t regenerate.”

The pinnacle of sacred weapons is the holy sword.

Even though it was sealed, the sacred power of the sword itself did not disappear. Since he was cut directly by the blade, it was natural for him to be destroyed without even having time to scream.

El Cid also agreed with that idea.

[It seems that all the living armor in this abandoned mansion was phantom armor. If people who don’t know much about it deal with it, they might just misunderstand it as Living Armor with high regenerative power.]

“Because I couldn’t even see the sword until I was exposed to the light of the holy sword.”

Phantom Armor was actually an ambiguous entity.

An evil spirit resided in the armor, but the armor had not deteriorated and could not be considered undead. Of course, if left in this state for a long time, the evil spirit will transform into ectoplasm to form the body and evolve into a high-ranking undead named <Demon Knight>… … .

Until that happens, there is only one way to distinguish it from Living Armor: divine power. The problem was that since Phantom Armor was such a rare monster, there was no known way to identify it.

“Proper priests usually start from C rank… “I was unlucky in many ways.”

[No, if it weren’t for you, there’s a high possibility that I would have been neglected until I became <Phantom-Knight>. And since the power of the <Demon Knight> is at a level where magical power can be made tangible, there must have been at least a hundred casualties. Rather, I was lucky.]

“Well, I guess you can see it that way.”

Since he had found the spark before the fire spread, Leon rolled his eyes while affirming those words.

The Phantom Armorers did not chase him.

Perhaps because they were far away from the light of the holy sword, their disgust and hostility toward divine power seemed to be opposing them. If you take a few steps from here, it will attack you as fiercely as before.

‘how will we do it.’

Leon thought for a moment.

It’s okay to step away at this point. Unlike Living Armor, Phantom Armor’s power is based on evil spirits. Therefore, it was more advantageous to fight in the middle of the day than now when the sun has run out.

It wasn’t a request with a time limit, so there wouldn’t be any problem if I came back tomorrow at noon.

[hmm.]

At that time, El Cid opened his mouth.

[I don’t think they made it on purpose. The quality of the armor is poor, and it’s unstable enough to cause convulsions from the light of purification. It’s hard to believe, but can it be said to be a product of coincidence?]

“Accident? So does that mean there is no darkness?”

[That’s not it again.]

The causal relationship is not that simple.

Just because the occurrence of Phantom Armor was accidental, it did not mean that the phenomenon was innocent. Not just one or two, but all of the armor in this abandoned mansion was transformed into phantom armor.

Even if you create it using a proper magic formula, it will probably fail, but dozens of pieces of phantom armor were created naturally without a single failure?

It was nonsense.

[After countless failures, only those who succeeded are left. Dozens of them? There is no way. It is clear that hundreds, perhaps over a thousand, of evil spirits have flowed into the mansion.]

“no way.”

Leon carefully denied those words.

“I’ve never heard of a war breaking out around here. Same thing with infectious diseases. Mercenaries and adventurers die quite often, but not many die inside the city… … .”

After saying that, his complexion turned pale.

This is because he first realized what El Cid was trying to say while he was refuting it.

“Inside the city, there are people dying… ?”

[okay.]

“That’s more than a thousand people.”

[Even if we were to guess, there would be thousands of people.]

In the worst case, it is 10,000 units. Leon, who understood the horrific horror, could barely suppress his nausea.

El Cid waited until he calmed down.

[The spirit’s activity is not good. You can’t travel long distances, and you can’t stay in this world for long. It is difficult to even skip one section of the city.]

“… “There will be nothing but slums.”

[Well, I guess so.]

Only slums, places outside of law and order, where you can get anything with money and violence, meet that condition. They say that even the lord cannot be touched because of the relationships that are as tangled as a spider’s web. I heard that prohibited items such as drugs and slaves were also roaming around.

Leon’s eyes sank deeply.

‘This is something that cannot be left alone.’

But it wasn’t something that would happen just because he moved. It takes time to delve deep into the slums, and even after they let down their guard, they may have to wander a few steps.

The final means of moving the religious order with the Holy Sword will only end up being a treason if the purpose and identity of the dark side is not identified.

Leon was still immature.

A true warrior would have gone out alone and defeated all evil, but now he has to be careful of the gangsters in the slums as well.

“then.”

Leon immediately raised the holy sword.

I deleted the option of coming back in the middle of the day. The experience of fighting stronger enemies in dark places will make him grow.

Faster, stronger.

Self-reflection and aspirations take a back seat.

The moment he took exactly the third step, the Phantom Armorers rushed towards him with blood-red eyes.

Clap! Clap!

The joints of the armor shake and make a clanging sound. Perhaps because there was nothing inside, the movements of the Phantom Armor were light. Every time I take a step, a little bit of that body comes to mind.

Leon took advantage of that moment and rushed forward.

The distance to be narrowed is 8 meters.

However, the enemy’s weapon was a polearm, and his was a long sword. The initiative for the preemptive strike ultimately belonged to the other party.

Shoo!

A sharp spear blade and a pair of blades protruding from its base, Spatum, tore through the air and flew in.

Unlike the spear, which has a plain spear blade, it is difficult to climb up against the spear pole, and if you try to dodge at a narrow gap, your flesh will be cut by the two lower blades.

At the same time, Leon’s sword soared.

Wow!

The spatum bounced up with a cheerful sound.

As mentioned earlier, Phantom Armor is light. In any martial art, the lighter the load, the easier it is to attack. This was especially true if the thrust required putting both legs on the ground and thrusting out with all your might.

The crudely made gauntlet creaked, and the index finger with a crack at the joint bent in the opposite direction.

“one.”

Punch it down with the same momentum as when you hit it high.

The difference in speed between the opponent who stopped while stabbing and Leon who maintained his charging momentum added to the power of the sword.

Slash of anger.

Phantom Armor’s upper body was cut in half diagonally. A cleanly struck blow that didn’t even make the sound of tearing metal. As if it had cut down the evil spirit at once, the armor, which had been reduced to a piece of scrap metal, collapsed.

‘Are there two guys this time?’

Leon reacted immediately afterwards.

A glaive that stabs the neck, a birdie shoe that cuts the shin. It attacks the hard-to-defense lower body and critical vital points almost simultaneously. It was a joint technique that would appear in a textbook.

You can’t respond with just one sword.

So he lifted his front leg high… … .

Taaang!

I stepped on the side of the birdie shoe aimed at my shin. The steel crashing into the ground cries loudly, and uses the recoil to bend his back.

Evasive movements bordering on acrobatics.

Movements that I could not do or would not even think about doing during my time at the academy come out naturally. Once I got rid of the stereotypical movements, my swordsmanship quickly advanced several levels.

‘It’s nothing if you’re not surrounded.’

After splitting the weapon in two, step into the gap between the glaives and block the spear.

The length of polearms is both a strength and a weakness.

If the distance is less than 1 meter, the power of the polearm is less than that of the dagger. This is because there is no space to rotate the weapon. Leon hit the guy once in the stomach with the pommel, and the impact caused the guy to step back and split his back as he tried to fight back.

The last remaining one is Halberd.

“It’s obvious.”

There wasn’t much difference from the guy I first dealt with.

Battle over.

Leon looked around at the armor scattered around him, and after confirming that nothing was moving, he took a step forward. Phantom Armor, which had no regenerative power at all, was an opponent as bad as Living Armor to him.

I was a little nervous because I had no experience dealing with the polearm style, but the obvious moves were good fodder for <Anbeop>.

“I guess it would be okay to intentionally fight while surrounded.”

[Because of blindness?]

“huh.”

<Rodrik’s Eyes> is clearly close to invincible within the field of view, but there is a limit to the human viewing angle. No matter how much I roll my eyes, I can’t see the back.

However, you couldn’t always fight with your back to the wall.

Being swayed by conditions is third-class, adapting to conditions is second-class. He said that making even those conditions into one’s strength is top-notch.

“and… … .”

Leon spoke with a firm voice.

“This is a problem that must be overcome before we can fight in the slums.”

It was difficult when fighting in the sewers or underpasses, but it was clear that the slums were even worse. Those who are accustomed to maliciously designed traps, routes, surprise attacks, and assassinations will undoubtedly aim for the blind spot.

If we continue to rely on the <draft> as we have done so far, we will find ourselves in a difficult situation from which we cannot escape.

Sensing his resolve, El Cid said nothing more.

“Okay, let’s go again.”

I put the scrap metal armor aside and entered the dark interior of the mansion. I haven’t even been able to tour the first floor yet. Although it is quite old, it is a large mansion, so there must be a lot of decorative armor.

Leon walked in with the light of the holy sword in front of him.

Determined not to back down even if they had to fight until the sun rose, they moved towards the unfortunate demons.

* * *

Blaine, Free City.

If the bustling side is like light, the slums could be said to be a shadow born from that light.

Leon said it was a place away from law and order, but he was wrong. Although it was far from the ‘order of law’, there was some order of its own in the slums. This is the order commonly used everywhere in the world, the ‘logic of power’.

Among them, the gang members were even more thorough. They bow to the strong, and as soon as they turn around, they trample on the weak. He’s not even ashamed of it.

A diet of the fittest.

In this lawless zone, weakness is sin. Above or below the food chain, that simple hierarchical relationship was everything.

And then a man appeared.

“Are you here!”

“Are you here!”

He is nearly two meters tall, and his muscles bulge out of his leather clothes, writhing menacingly.

Blaine’s strongest gang, the boss of <Bastard>.

A man who was born in the back alleys of the slums and put all the gangsters under his feet with just one fist. There was a time when B-rank adventurers tried to catch him, but it is still famous that they defeated him unilaterally.

The man, ‘Khan’, leaned against the back of his golden chair as he was greeted by the thugs.

“Report.”

“yes!”

The person who quickly jumped out fell to his knees.

Flattery that is blatant, like a servant who knows the king. This is a common sight here.

“As the boss said, we monitored districts 23 and 25, and the slaves who went there never came out again. “The guys around the mansion are dangerous, so I didn’t go any further than that, but shall we dig in further?”

“No, just continue surveillance from that distance. If you accidentally touch it, sparks may fly. next.”

“yes!”

The second person to step forward fell to the floor.

“We have identified water discharged from sewers in districts 23 and 25. It is said that in addition to sewage and wastewater, there was blood and internal organs mixed in. The amount is so significant that at least 30 people die every day… .”

“What did the wizard say?”

“Wilson said something was strange. “The warlock’s sacrificial ritual does not waste life like that.”

“… Tsk!”

When Khan hissed, the grim-looking thugs flinched. After he expressed his displeasure like that, bloodshed often broke out. If you get hit once with a fist the size of a pot lid, your entire face will be crushed, and you won’t be able to get out of bed for a while.

Fortunately, the fist did not move.

Khan, the frowning man, finished pondering for a moment and opened his mouth.

“Collect the things I asked you to research and make a report. The form is pretty good. “Attach evidence and make it at a level that can be moved by any guild or denomination.”

At that, a large executive-level person spoke.

“Look, boss!”

“why.”

“Sorry, but there’s a lot of money at stake! I don’t know what they’re doing, but if they take it down now, the commission they’ll get from the slave traders will be cut by less than half! At least until we get it back… … .”

It was then.

Khan’s left hand, who was sitting on a chair, became blurred, and immediately after that, the head of the brat was torn to pieces.

No one could see.

‘Phew!’ And the headless body spurted blood. Since he had risen to the level of an executive, he must have been confident in his own strength, but he could not even react and died in one hit.

“fool.”

Khan looked down at the corpse with disdain.

“Have you lost your taste for running a gambling house? If you don’t know when to get out, you’ll die. “Like now.”

Still, Khan seemed to feel the need to explain a bit, and continued speaking while looking around at the terrified thugs.

“They are different. You can’t use it, and you shouldn’t use it. Being in a relationship itself is a minus. If we go into a restaurant, we collect a protection tax from the owner and take out the customers’ wallets. You can eat food and not pay. But they start a fire. “The purpose is to start a fire.”

“Uh, why?”

“I don’t know.”

Khan interrupted the conversation resolutely.

“Don’t try to understand such behavior. Whether they are an intelligence unit from another country or cult fanatics, there is no reason to interact with either of them. If the denomination even moves, it’s all over. Just a single record of exchanging money or valuables would be enough to chase you to the end of the continent.”

‘gulp!’ A swallowing sound was heard.

An adventurer’s guild would be better. If you bully a lot, it won’t pay off, so you’ll give up. However, for the Holy Church, it was truly the end.

Seongcheolseo Knights.

It is the only armed group of the cult, and not a single weed survives in the place it passes by. An execution unit belonging to a religious order whose philosophy is ruthlessness. Once you are identified as a member of the Church, Paladins armed with heavy equipment will follow you from anywhere on the continent.

“We take our hands off. That’s the bottom line. “Do you have any objections?”

Who would object when there is a corpse with an exploded head next to it? Everyone kept their mouths shut and bowed.

Unanimity by semi-compulsory agreement.

The thugs, yielding to Khan’s orders, left the room. The body was quickly removed, leaving only one informant who could not find the right time to leave the spacious and luxurious room.

His legs were shaking, but fortunately he didn’t urinate. Because he had a feeling that if he did something like that, he would really die.

“hey.”

“Yes, yes?! Oh no. Yes, boss!”

“Tell me about the new news and then leave.”

The informant immediately grabbed hold of the rope.

“That’s the abandoned mansion near the entrance! There is an adventurer who comes and goes there to receive requests! It’s already been over a week! “It’s about subduing monsters like ratmen and rock slimes, that’s right!”

“Hoo?”

“Perhaps because of its unusual behavior, it acquired its nickname unusually quickly. At first it was called ≪Cat≫, but these days it seems to be called ≪Sweeper≫! “I think it’s because I take on tasks that other adventurers avoid!”

I didn’t expect it, but it was quite interesting.

When I heard that and motioned for him to leave, the informant hit his head on the ground and ran out. Khan laughed at the unsightly appearance, then remembered an adventurer with the nickname “Sweeper.”

Sweeper.

An adventurer who handles difficult tasks that don’t make any money.

“… Should I try it?”

Khan’s eyes glowed once in the dark room.