Chapter 55: I Hate Being Stuck

“Uh, um…”

I was planning to toy with him a bit and then finish it, but the situation ended abruptly.

*CRUNCH.*

Anyway, what the hell is this branch?

Something suddenly touched the back of my neck and broke my concentration. When I looked, a single tree branch had stretched out in a bizarre way.

At a glance, it might look like I can create a Mana Shield without any restrictions, but using magic always requires intense focus. If I’d been distracted by something like that, I might not have been able to deploy the shield. Of course, that doesn’t mean I would’ve just taken the hit.

‘…’

I turned my gaze toward the egg. Should I say I got help…? Thinking about it left a bad taste in my mouth. It feels like I won by luck.

‘No.’

I did cast Gravity System magic on that egg, so could I say this was all according to plan?

Yeah, let’s go with that.

Anyway, I have a lot of questions for that thief bastard.

How did he know where we were?

I’m guessing, but he’s likely allies with that Transfer Mage. What’s his relationship with that guy?

And…

Did he really kill people?

The bastard said with his own mouth that he could control the Demon Beasts he dominated.

And the Earth Dragon that was dominated by a human told me before.

It said that after it was teleported, a human was teleported next, and it was dominated by something unknown, forced to kill all the humans against its own will.

And I’m certain that the one who dominated that Earth Dragon was that man. In other words, he committed murder with his own hands. I want to ask him why he did something like that.

I reached out my hand. A violet aura flowed around the egg, and the massive egg began to lift slowly.

And underneath it…

‘Gone?’

Nothing. The bastard who should’ve been crushed is nowhere to be seen. He escaped while being crushed?

I looked at the ground — he didn’t dig a tunnel. It should be impossible to dig a hole while pinned down in the first place.

That means…

*CRACK!*

Before I could even think, a crack formed in my Mana Shield with the sound of sparks flying.

*WHOOSH!*

I twisted my body just barely to dodge a dagger swinging swiftly toward me.

“Tch, you noticed that?”

The man clicked his tongue and put distance between us again. I studied his appearance.

‘I thought he was crushed under the egg, but he wasn’t?’

But if that were the case, his clothes wouldn’t be covered in dust. So he *was* crushed, but he couldn’t have dug through the ground in that state. How did he do it?

While I was wondering, the man adjusted his grip on the dagger and charged again.

‘…Hmph.’

An ordinary mage would choose to run away here.

But that’s the amateur move. That bastard’s mobility can’t be shaken off with ordinary speed magic or high-speed movement.

[ Mana Sword Lv.7 ]

I gripped the highest-level Mana Sword I could use.

[ Fireball Lv.7 ]

[ Fireball Lv.7 ]

[ Fireball Lv.7 ]

At the same time, I extended my other hand and created dozens of fireballs.

WHOOSH—!

I fired off all the flames I’d created and simultaneously kicked off the ground, sprinting forward.

I planned to attack him along with the blaze.

“Haha! You think you can fight me in close quarters, a mage like you, young lady?”

The man laughed as if it were ridiculous.

Well, if a mage suddenly charges at an assassin, anyone would react like that.

But what if that mage isn’t an ordinary mage?

*WHOOSH!*

It was the moment the first flame reached the man. He swung his dagger swiftly, splitting the fire in two.

The second, the third — all split in half the moment they touched his dagger. Meanwhile, the distance between us slowly closed.

I didn’t stop casting. I kept creating fireballs and firing them at the man until the distance between us shrank. Of course, each time, he casually split the flames apart.

Before I knew it, we were within arm’s reach of each other.

*SWISH!*

I’ll admit what I have to admit.

*BANG!*

The speed of the man’s dagger swings is far faster than my Mana Sword swings.

*CRACK!*

Well, I’m a mage, not a swordsman or a thief.

*CRACK!*

But just because I’m slower doesn’t mean I’ll lose. I have a nearly invincible Mana Shield.

*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!*

Every time the bastard swung his dagger, my Mana Shield was destroyed and regenerated in a cycle.

Even though it was just a single dagger stabbing at me continuously, it felt like it was raining down.

But just as rain can’t pierce an umbrella, his dagger couldn’t pierce my endlessly manifesting Mana Shield.

The tiny gap created when his dagger broke my Mana Shield—I aimed for that gap.

The moment his dagger swung, I immediately swung my Mana Sword in a counterattack.

“Ouch.”

Tch, if I’d been just a little faster, I would’ve hit him.

That was when I let out my frustration.

This guy had been learning from the fight too, and he started pulling tricks.

‘So that’s what that tree branch was about.’

I was wondering how he used that ability to dominate living things.

He was dominating every living thing around him to disrupt my focus.

This place is a jungle. Every tree around here is a living thing he can control.

Long tree branches swung at me like whips. Dodging them wasn’t hard.

*CRACK!*

Even so, the man’s dagger rushed at me. I deployed my Mana Shield in time to block it, but it was destroyed in a single blow again.

*Whoosh!*

In that moment, a tree branch that had stretched to close range swung at me. The man aimed for the brief lapse in my concentration as I dodged them.

*SWISH!*

This time I dodged without getting hit. If I’d been a little slower, his dagger would’ve cut my flesh, but I have body enhancement magic too.

I deployed my Mana Shield again.

*CRACK!*

Of course, it was broken by a single dagger strike again.

‘He’s a persistent bastard.’

After that, I re-manifested my Mana Shield several more times, and each time it was destroyed by the man’s dagger.

Of course, I tried to counterattack. The problem was that the tree branches kept interfering, so I couldn’t find a timing to strike back at him.

*CLANG!*

‘Fuck…!’

In the end, while resisting the man, I lost hold of the Mana Sword I was gripping. Cut off from its master and the mana supply, the Mana Sword vanished into thin air.

“What are you going to resist with now?”

With the weapon in my hand gone, the man approached with a sneer, like a beast slowly savoring a cornered prey.

“What, you piece of trash.”

“…?”

“What’s a piece of trash who couldn’t even break my Mana Shield saying?”

“Ha, hahaha…! All you’ve got is a big mouth!”

Vasquez, who had already closed in front of me, swung his dagger.

*CRACK!*

“You can’t resist either, can you?”

*CRACK!*

“How long are you going to just defend?”

*CRACK!*

“The piece of trash is the one who can’t do anything but defend, isn’t it?!”

…That pisses me off.

I want to correct him. Saying I can’t do anything but defend—that’s not true.

I just wanted to finish this quietly, you know? I was holding back so Deneb wouldn’t notice.

To take this guy down, I’d need to use a higher-level spell, and that would inevitably make a lot of noise.

If that happened, Deneb would catch on. That’s why I was restraining myself.

‘…No choice.’

Even if I get caught, I can’t afford to lose here.

Thinking that, I brought both hands together before the man could come at me.

*BOOOOOOM!*

That was when it happened. The ground rumbled as if an earthquake had struck, and the sky began to darken.

‘What the hell?’

I hadn’t even activated it yet? I turned my head, wondering what was going on, and a massive hole came into view.

‘A Gate? Did they already subdue it?’

It’s the Gate that appears when the boss is defeated. Looks like Deneb succeeded in taking down the boss.

I gave him two days, and he already subdued it. Faster than I thought?

Now that the boss is defeated, this dungeon will close soon. The moment that Gate shuts, there’ll be no way out.

In other words, this fight needed to end soon too.

“Hey, young lady. If you just hand over that egg, I’ll back off quietly.”

The bastard must have realized the Gate was closing too, because he suddenly made that offer.

“What’s this egg?”

“It’s something you don’t need to be curious about, young lady.”

“Oh, really?”

So that’s how it’s going to be.

[ Mana Sword Lv.7 ]

I immediately shaped a Mana Sword and aimed it at the egg.

“Wait, wait, what are you doing?”

“If you’re not going to tell me, well, I was thinking of smashing it.”

Of course, that’s a lie. If I got caught breaking it with my own hands, I know exactly how Deneb would react.

“Wait, wait, hold on!”

The man seemed desperate too, because he quickly tucked the dagger in his hand into his bosom and spoke.

“Talk. If you don’t, I’ll really break it?”

“This fucking… fine, I’ll talk, alright? That thing is an incredibly important item to us. That’s all I’ll tell you.”

“Us?”

“Yeah. Us.”

“And who’s this ‘us’?”

“I can’t tell you that eith—”

“You sure have a lot of secrets.”

*Tuk.* I lightly tapped the egg with my Mana Sword.

“Wait, what’s the rush?!”

“I hate being kept in the dark, you know?”

I said that and tapped it once more.

“Alright, alright! To be honest, I don’t know much about that egg either. But Karelin said this.”

‘Karelin?’

“That egg is a god’s egg that exists in the world of the Demon Beasts.”

A what that exists in the world of the Demon Beasts?

It was the moment I tilted my head, confused by the incomprehensible words that came out.

“Ms. Verdi!”

I heard Deneb’s voice from afar. The Gate was about to close, so it seemed she’d come looking for me on her own.

“Ugh, no help for it. I’ll just back off for today. You’d better treasure that egg. I’ll be coming to take it back!”

“Uh, hey, wait?”

It must have been something he couldn’t let anyone else see, because it was just as I was about to activate a spell to grab the fleeing man.

The man reached out into the air, and a hole opened up in front of him.

‘A Gate?’

A hole that looked just like a Gate. I was startled by the sight and hesitated for a moment.

“Wait!”

I shouted belatedly, but it was already too late. The man had long since slipped his body into the hole. The Gate he’d entered vanished soon after.

‘A god’s egg?’

Left alone, I mulled over the man’s words and thought.

What’s this ‘world of the Demon Beasts,’ and what’s this ‘god’ that exists there?

It’s all full of things I don’t understand. Still, it’s not like I got nothing out of it.

Karelin. That’s definitely a person’s name. It might be the name of the teleportation mage behind those bastards.

‘…I’ll have to cancel the plan to sell the egg.’

I turned my gaze toward the egg. The egg, which looked at least three times bigger than my body, at first seemed like an ordinary… well, you can’t really call a dragon egg ordinary, but anyway.

I’d just thought of it as a dragon egg, but now I felt like it might contain something even more ominous than that.

‘Karelin… a god’s egg…’

The scale suddenly feels way too big.

For some reason, I felt like I didn’t want to get caught up in this.

But even so, if I’d just handed it over meekly, would they have backed off like nothing happened?

‘No.’

I can say NO with certainty.

They’re a group that takes other people’s lives without a second thought.

There’s no way those bastards would let us go just because I returned this egg.

I already know too much. From the moment I faced the Earth Dragon and survived, I’ve been put in a position where I have no choice but to oppose them, one way or another.

“Ms. Verdi, there you are!”

“Yeah.”

I turned around calmly, as if nothing had happened, and greeted Deneb.

“I’ve been looking all over for you!”

“Right.”

Unlike me, Deneb is still weak. If she ran into them, she’d be taken down without even catching her breath.

‘…I’ll have to protect him.’

Deneb, and Marcel, who isn’t here either.

To protect everyone from them, I have to secure this egg no matter what.