Chapter 69: Reaping The Thieves Band

Yuna raised her hands as the wind blew at her from the shockwave of the slam, almost pushing her clean off the ground.

Debris skittered across the ruined courtyard around her.

’Master is really strong…’ She thought with awe.

A red-liner was meant to represent a peak of physicality, the kind of power that regular people could never hope to touch and he was competing with one toe to toe, holding his own with a combination of skills and intelligence that made her chest swell with pride. ’And he’s mine.’

Koya gritted his teeth as he held onto the man that he had used to create a crater in the ground.

Even after all that force, even after being slammed into concrete hard enough to crack it in a spiderweb pattern… the guy was barely fazed.

In fact he was grinning up at Koya through the dust and then used his friction ability to make the floor beneath them slippery. Koya focused the Fighting Spirit into his legs immediately to maintain his grip.

The only problem with Fighting Spirit was that he couldn’t maintain it for long periods… it burned through his endurance at a rate that made sustained use impossible, which was exactly why he was planning to train it more intensively.

He forced more of it into his hands to maintain the hold.

“When you let go of me, I’ll fuck you up and then take that girl’s panti-”

“Shut the…” He lifted up the pervert and leaped into the air with another spin and slammed him into the ground. “Hell up!”

Koya let go of him and moved back several steps, there was no crater… it seemed the moment he had touched the ground once more, he had used friction manipulation to slide across the ground.

’Plus his skin is thick as fuck but it seems like he can’t use it for too many times.’ He thought as he raised his hands into position at the man that was standing up slowly, spitting out blood.

“Fu… Fuck…” He breathed out heavily, spitting blood onto the cracked ground.

Friction Manipulation was a genuinely powerful ability but it consumed a lot of mana… something that most red-liners didn’t have an abundance of so he needed to end the battle quickly but suddenly there was a bursting sound as Koya used Blood Burst on him.

He leaned out of the way and Blood Burst shot past him, tearing a hole in the wall behind and then Koya moved it to the left, aiming to cut him however he ducked under it and then Koya gritted his teeth, the beam splitting apart… each finger had their own Blood Burst and he couldn’t dodge it so he used Friction Manipulation, letting them fly off his body and he spread it out into the environment, making the ground slippery.

Koya deactivated Blood Burst and focused fighting power in his legs, however in some quick strides, the man had closed the distance and thrown a fist at him…

Koya raised his hands in a block and activated 「Unique Skill: Pain Suppression (C)」and the fist collided.

The punch was much different from what Koya had expected.

One moment he was standing there with his block raised and Pain Suppression active, braced for a heavy hit… the next he had been shot right out of the base entirely, his body spinning through the air like a cannonball, breaking through the outer wall and tumbling across the street outside.

’The hell… his ability is Friction Manipulation, he said so himself.’ Koya thought with genuine confusion as he shot through the air and the man chased after him in Mana Mode, leaping through the hole Koya had just made.

「Not only does this red-liner have Friction Manipulation but he also has a certain bide ability which is wielded by a little over 30% of Red crest users… The ability to bide damage and store it internally to unleash all at once at a chosen moment. A bide can accumulate from anywhere and any timeframe… he could even be releasing stored damage from over twenty years ago, making every punch an unpredictable time bomb」

’What the hell kind of overpowered ability is that?’ Koya thought with genuine irritation. It felt like a complete asspull but he couldn’t argue with this world’s laws.

The man’s body began steaming suddenly and a green mist rose off his skin, his body actively expelling the poison through sheer physical constitution.

Koya pumped convergence into his legs and landed on the side of a building, his Fighting Spirit keeping him attached to the vertical surface for just a moment.

The man touched the building below him and the whole side became slippery instantly… Koya used a curved Speed Burst to slide along the side of the building in a controlled arc, using the momentum rather than fighting it, as Heal worked steadily on his wounded arms.

He reached the ground and the man blitzed him with a sudden burst of speed, closing the gap with the clear intention of landing a clean punch.

However Sensory read the trajectory before the fist even moved and he leaned back completely, his body nearly parallel with the ground, dodging the punch by a margin so thin he felt the wind from it on his nose.

The force of the punch blew a visible hole in the air where his head had been practically.

’I swear what is with all this bullshit power-ups.’ He thought as he snapped back upright and flipped his legs into a kick aimed below the chin, landing it cleanly and causing the man to stagger backward with a grunt.

He shook his head and spat… Unlike with Numb, he could read this guy’s movements easily with Sensory… the only issue was that a single clean punch from those bide-loaded fists would launch him like a projectile.

The man removed the panties from his head slowly and brought them to his face, taking a long, deep sniff with his eyes closing.

His face became rosy, steam literally escaping from his ears, and when he opened his eyes again they were burning with renewed intensity.

He charged at Koya once more with energy that hadn’t been there a moment ago. The panties revitalized him?

Actually revitalized him?

He took one heavy step forward and turned the entire street frictionless in every direction… monsters in the surrounding areas that had been watching the fight began slipping and sliding into each other helplessly.

’What kind of degenerate ability combination is this?’ Koya thought with genuine despair.

Koya slid backward with a curved Speed Burst, his feet finding just enough grip from Fighting Spirit to control his trajectory, and the man kept up with him by sliding as well, releasing his bide into his legs.

Both of them were moving at terrifying speed across the frictionless street, using the environment itself as an accelerant. As the both of them slid across the frictionless street, the fight erupted between them in a blur of motion.

The man hooked a punch at Koya. Koya slipped under it by a hair’s width and drove a Fighting Spirit-infused punch straight into his gut… the impact thundering through the air with a shockwave that rattled nearby windows.

The man barely flinched… bide was absorbing it after all. He threw a kick immediately after and Koya leaned out of the way, slapping the guy hard across the face with an open palm, the crack of it echoing off the surrounding buildings like a gunshot.

They were heading for a building at full speed now with no way to stop on the frictionless ground.

The man grabbed both of Koya’s hands and locked them together, both of them pouring their full strength against each other in a contest of raw force with neither able to overpower the other while they slid at full momentum toward the concrete wall ahead.

Koya leaned down and twisted his hips, using the momentum to throw him forward through the building wall with Speed Burst and Mana Mode converged into his sword alongside Fighting Spirit.

Time slowed.

The man broke through the wall in an explosion of debris and plaster, tumbling through the air inside the dark building with rubble raining down around him in slow motion.

Dust billowed outward and Koya stabbed forward… the blade aimed directly at the center of his skull.

The man got his hand up at the last possible instant and the sword punched clean through his palm instead with a wet crunch, the tip stopping an inch from his face.

Inside the ruined building, two large monsters were seated quietly at the side, eating something.

The both of them crashed through the opposite wall and tumbled into the street beyond in another explosion of debris. The monsters looked at each other slowly, then shrugged and went back to eating.

The man with the sword still punched through his palm used it as leverage and lifted Koya clean off the ground with pure brute force, sending him flipping helplessly through the air.

Koya was completely taken off guard by the strength and his danger sense screamed.

The man drew his punctured hand back and drove it forward in a punch, the blade still sticking through his palm like it wasn’t even there.

In that instant Koya bounced off the incoming fist using Speed Burst, grabbed the handle of his blade mid-air and flipped once more wrenching it free from the man’s hand with a spray of blood.

The man was forced to the ground by the redirect of force and Koya came down from above like a falling meteor, covering his blade with Fighting Spirit and throwing it downward with everything he had left.

It collided with the man’s chest with a sound like a thunderclap. He tried to increase the friction to make it slide off with mana but it failed him at the worst possible moment. The sword carved through and pinned him to the wall behind with finality.

Koya landed on the ground with several deep breaths.

’That was a hard battle…’ He thought, catching his breath. If only the man didn’t have bide then he could have finished it far quicker and with a lot less property damage.

The man chuckled out a bit of blood as he felt his life slowly draining.

“Why did you attack us…” He stuttered and coughed up blood and Koya withdrew his sword.

“Honestly, I just wanted to test my new power and gauntlet out, and I dislike being spied on and watched…” Koya said and the man managed a chuckle that looked more like a gurgle before dying.

Koya looked down at him.

「Hidden Mission Complete」

「Kill a Red-liner on your own without any help」

「Reward: Mystery Box」

’Nice.’ He thought as he looked at the buff man and took his storage ring. ’Hack this one…’

…

He reached the base of the Thieves Band and several canisters were positioned in the wreckage, letting off the gas into the air and preventing monsters from coming. Yuna was standing at the main door and ran to him.

He had ordered her to remain in the same position in the event that the battle had moved out of the base otherwise she would have been running after him.

She hugged him, her breasts pressing against his chest and he took a deep breath.

She let go and looked very worried.

“Are you doing okay Master…? You blasted out of the place the moment he punched you.” She said while pointing at a destroyed part of the wall that was in his shape.

“I am. Let’s get to looting the whole place before the other bands arrive or something. He mentioned something about high ranking items.” Koya said as he walked through the front door, if there was anything that he loved after a good fight was taking their items.

He entered and the ground floor seemed to have a main hall with high ceilings.

There was a statue here with a woman carved from stone, spreading out her panties triumphantly above her head like it was some kind of trophy.

“It was just a band of perverts…” He muttered and shook his head slowly… He had fought a red-liner for this. “Did you check the place?”

“Yes Boss. They have a general bedroom and the Boss’s bedroom, the kitchen, the treasure room and a different place where they keep their loot.” She said and pointed up one flight of stairs. “That’s the treasure room, the door is enforced with mana so I couldn’t break it but I have gathered their food stuff into my storage ring already.”

He patted Yuna’s head approvingly, making her turn red instantly.

“Very good work…” He commented as he went up the flight of stairs and looked at a slot in the door.

There was an intricate design carved into it and when he looked at the ring he had taken from the boss’s finger, there was the same design engraved on the surface. He lifted it to the slot and the door clicked open with a heavy sound.

The treasures… were panties? There were panties lining the entire floor and they had a very distinct smell, like they hadn’t been washed in months or possibly ever.

However looking past the horrifying display, there were several large chests pushed against the far wall.

He walked in and Yuna followed behind him, scrunching her nose against the smell. He opened one of the chests and saw pure gold… solid ingots of it stacked neatly alongside other refined materials.

Yuna opened another one and found what looked like rubies, uncut but enormous, glittering even in the dim light. It wasn’t enough to fill the chests entirely but there were a significant number of both.

“Did they take control of some kind of mines…? What the hell is this?” He asked. ’System, analyze this.’

「The gold ingots are 99.7% purity… a grade used exclusively for high-tier crafting and cross-city trade. Current market value: 180,000 crowns per block. You have eleven blocks. The rubies are uncut but of exceptional clarity, classified as Grade A. Market value: 45,000 crowns per stone. You have twenty-three stones.」

His throat grew dry.

“Store the chests…” He said and they did, there were about six chests and they stored three each.

In the treasure room, there was also a lot of regular weapons… He had Yuna take about ten swords and even some more bows with a few axes, this way they wouldn’t lack weapons and now he faced the big ones… there were three weapons on pedestals and his throat watered.

「Unique Item: Golden Arch Sword (B)」

「Unique Item: Hereto Mana Daggers (B)」

「Unique Item: Cannon Spear (B)」

Koya knelt on the ground… and pressed two of his hands together.

“Master? What are you doing?”

“We’re rich…” He said as he stood up and now he wanted to suck them inside, however his ring glowed red… that broken Iron Terror was taking space.

He took his hand out of the window and let the corpse fall, it shattered onto the ground. He didn’t even know he was thinking when he was carrying it. “Let’s reap the whole place.”

…

About an hour later, they reached the camp and Koya had a wider smile on his face than he’d had in a long time.

He had estimatedly made off with over 5 million crowns in total value between the gold, the rubies, the B-rank weapons and everything else they had stripped from the place.

They also passed by the Archer Band’s hideout on the way however it had been reaped completely clean already by someone else.

He could see Victoria sitting in the lake water, scrubbing the back of Akemi’s body with care.

“We’re back.” He announced and Akemi’s head whipped around. She made her way out of the water immediately, not even bothering to cover herself, and jumped directly onto him.

She straddled him the same way she had done the monster during training and Koya was completely taken off guard.

The girl was practically naked with soap still lathered across her skin and she was looking up at him with an expression that was somehow both innocent and deeply unsettling at the same time.

“Master… you left for a long time… I didn’t see you when I woke up.” Her voice had a trembling quality to it, like she genuinely couldn’t decide between crying and smiling. “Lady Victoria said I shouldn’t worry but I couldn’t help but worry about you the whole entire time…”

Her breasts pressed against his chest, still covered in soap suds, and she clung to him without any intention of letting go.

“You shouldn’t leave me like that again… I did everything you wanted and I want to grow strong enough to protect you so why are you trying to leave me behind? I ranked up too…” She blinked up at him with wide eyes. “You should reward me for being good.”

“Uh…”

What was she even talking about? He just went to raid the thieves’ base. He was gone for an hour at most.

Yuna gritted her teeth, ready to grab her off… Why was she trying to get ahead so bad?

“Get off, you little whore.” Victoria’s hand shot out and yanked her off him by the arm, throwing her back into the water without ceremony.

Akemi burst onto the surface, sputtering, and looked down at herself in the water, her face going completely red with embarrassment.

’What the hell happened?’ He thought.

Why was she acting like that? It was like Victoria’s possessiveness except cranked up by several degrees and coming from someone who had been perfectly innocent just this morning.

“How was the fight?” Victoria asked calmly, stepping out of the water. She could literally smell the dried blood on him.

“Oh? It was nice, however I have better news, we’re rich.” Koya said. “We got enough loot to live comfortably for a very long time…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep