Chapter 61: The Thief’s Breath (1)

Deeng──!

Deeng──!

“Hmm. Time had already passed like this. Alright, I’ll wrap up the lecture here. Tomorrow is the outdoor activity, right?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Be careful and have a good trip, and make sure to eat a delicious dinner. Good work.”

“Thank you, Professor!”

As soon as the history professor, Kaltz, stepped out, the kids rushed to pack their things and flooded out of the lecture hall.

I slipped into the crowd and made my way outside the building.

Then, I spotted Yuria sitting on a bench and stopped in my tracks.

Ah, right.

I had forgotten to tell her.

“Senior. You’re done?”

Seeing Yuria approach with a smile, I felt guilty first.

“Ah, uh. Yuria.”

Yuria stood in front of me and started chattering away.

“What should we eat today? Hmm. I’m fine with anything. But I did think of a few options while waiting. First…….”

“Sorry, but you might have to eat alone.”

“Again today?”

“Yeah.”

A flicker of disappointment crossed Yuria’s face.

Since becoming her mentor, we had been eating together every day, so now it had become like an unspoken promise to eat together unless there was something special.

But this week, the promise had already been broken twice.

All because of me, and today would be the third time.

“Why?”

I quickly came up with an excuse.

“My stomach doesn’t feel good.”

“Really? Have you been to the hospital? What about the healing ward?”

As if she had never been disappointed, Yuria checked on my condition with a tone full of worry.

“I was just about to go see Professor Ilai.”

“Go quickly. And rest well after.”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

The place I went after parting with Yuria wasn’t the healing ward.

It was the green area next to the dormitory.

The place where I met Luis, and also where I was growing Lumigan Grass.

This place, which also led to the western outskirts, was one I had been visiting frequently lately.

The reason was [Dark Sprint].

[Dark Sprint].

It was the main culprit tormenting me these days.

I was floundering, obsessed with this thing, to the point where I couldn’t sleep, skipped meals, and was going crazy.

The reason I deliberately sent Yuria away was to secretly train this thing.

After all, [Dark Sprint] was a thievery technique.

No matter how full of trust Yuria was toward me, there was nothing good about showing it to her.

The problem was that [Dark Sprint], which I thought I’d grasp in less than two days, was dragging on unexpectedly.

It had already been three days since I clung to [Dark Sprint].

If I couldn’t master it today, I’d have to come here again tomorrow, but now I was out of excuses to make up.

“Ah. Come to think of it, tomorrow is the day Yuria meets Chaser and Professor Ronica for magic training? That’s a relief.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

Then, seeing myself like that, reality hit me.

“Fuck. This won’t do. I really have to master it today no matter what.”

At least grasp the feel.

Or else bite my tongue and die.

Swoosh.

I simply loosened up my body.

As I breathed in the fresh air deeply, a full energy flowed through my body, and my mind cleared.

The target point was the tree on that hill over there.

The distance was roughly 500 meters, and there were no signs of people around.

“Hoo. Good.”

I took a short deep breath.

Following the core principles of the [Dark Vision] that I had seen countless times and now were ingrained in my brain, I sent mana flowing and stomped my foot, and my body shot forward.

Pang!

[Dark Sprint] was a light body technique.

It could be expected to have various effects like lightening the body, increasing jump power, and maintaining body balance, but simply put, it was a vision that helped lighten the body to run fast.

Among them, [Dark Sprint] was one of the top light body techniques on the continent.

I hadn’t done comparison experiments with other light body techniques, but according to Dayle, who had learned it himself, it was.

It seemed right to me too.

But, it was ‘conditional’.

A light body technique that only exerted its full power when the surroundings were filled with darkness.

That part was regrettable, but since most operations happened at night anyway, it was a restriction that didn’t matter to me.

Not long after launching my body like that, the crisis came.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As the speed exceeded control, the mana consumption increased like some geometric sequence.

Soon, my breath rose to my chin, and my concentration started to scatter.

The mana that had been pushing my physical activity to the limit was running out, and my body was gradually losing control.

So I quickly used [The Thief’s Breath], but the result was the same as yesterday.

Kudangtang!

In the end, I sprawled out flat.

“Dammit. Again.”

I sat with my back against a tree and took out the [Dark Sprint] secret tome from subspace and opened it.

“That’s strange. I operated the mana exactly as written, and did the breathing in the written sections, but why is the mana insufficient?”

It’s not like my mental strength was lacking either.

“Dayle uses it freely too. It doesn’t make sense that I, who even consumed ‘Fierce Conviction’, can’t use it.”

In other words, the conditions were perfect.

I had mastered the prerequisite [Ghost Step] right on the day I received the secret tome from Dayle.

There was nothing wrong, but being stuck made my head throb.

“Dayle, that bastard, did he give me the wrong one? Or maybe he erased some important passages. Huh?”

It was then.

I quickly put the secret tome into my bosom and stood up.

In the spiderweb-like spread of my senses, I felt someone approaching this way.

I hid my body and only poked my head out to look that way.

I saw a female student swinging a long staff, batting away branches as she walked toward me.

“Shit. You bugs! Get away! I said get away! I’ll burn you all!?”

I looked at her with dumbfounded eyes.

“What is she doing there.”

Her identity was Karina.

If she was going to stalk, she should do it quietly.

She’s practically advertising that I’m here.

“Where the hell is this guy!? Why did he come in here anyway? This is so annoying!”

I shook my head side to side.

Actually, this wasn’t the first time something like this happened today.

After the meeting at the lodge café last time, Karina had been secretly following me around like that.

Enchanted by my charm…… of course not.

It was to directly find evidence that I was a thief.

“The threat of reporting to Royal Dream must have scared her, huh?”

For her, who had to avoid any scandals until the successor decision, that method was the best.

But, I’m not some idiot fool; would I go around spilling evidence?

“Follow me for a hundred days.”

I watched her for a moment, then circled around the green area and returned to the dormitory.

Further self-study was meaningless anyway.

I had been putting it off because it was embarrassing, but now that it had come to this, it wasn’t the time to cling to useless pride.

“That guy would know what’s wrong.”

I decided to go find Dayle.

* * *

The dawn when everyone was asleep.

When I arrived at Lunatic, there was no one inside.

No.

I thought there was no one, but when I went down to the underground liquor storage, Dayle was there.

“What. You were here?”

“…….”

“Where’s Luis?”

“He went out.”

Dayle answered without even looking at me.

If Luis went out at this time, the purpose was obvious.

‘Either to meet Guartes, or to monitor Rachel.’

It had been 4 days since Narsi died, but the world was still buzzing about Bandarok and Narsi.

About that mysterious swordsman too.

But separately from that, the cult that had to achieve the grand goal of ‘raiding the academy’ had to push forward steadfastly.

What needed to be shaken off should be shaken off quickly.

They couldn’t stay silent forever.

‘But this bastard, even though the master came, he’s not even looking and what is he doing?’

Seeing him barely greeting, it seemed he was doing something important.

Dayle, who had remodeled the liquor storage like a workshop, was sitting in a chair, carefully handling some object.

I tapped Dayle’s arm.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

“Can’t you see? I’m working.”

“So what work are you doing?”

“Hehe. Wait and see. I’m in the middle of making something astonishing for our guild…….”

Pueong!

“Uwaak!”

Dayle, who screamed at the explosion sound, looked at the table with a vacant expression.

An unidentified magitech device shattered, leaving only soot.

I didn’t know what it was, but it was obviously a failure.

Dayle scratched his head and looked up at me.

“Were you surprised?”

“…….”

“Hehe. You were surprised, right? I told you it would be astonishing. Success.”

What the hell is this bastard trying to do with me.

“Are you joking?”

“Kuh, kuhm!”

“It was a failure, right?”

Dayle scratched the back of his head and nodded.

“The materials all blew up too. Luis will nag when he comes. I need to clean up quickly before that.”

Dayle jumped up and hurriedly cleared away the broken parts and scattered debris.

Somehow, he looked quite familiar, as if he had done it several times.

“Does Luis say a lot?”

“How can I not? It’s to the point where blood comes out of my ears. I can’t do anything because I’m mindful of him. If you think about it, this failure can be seen as because of that guy’s nagging.”

“How does that make sense?”

“My confidence dropped, right? Invention always requires courage not to fear failure. But since I’m already scared of hearing that guy’s nagging, isn’t it natural to fail?”

It was bullshit, but plausible bullshit.

“Still, it’s strange. I clearly told him not to spare support for you. He’s not the type to nag over wasting materials a few times.”

“What are you saying? Really, it’s the first time I’ve seen such a cheapskate in my life? Invention and investment are high risk high return by nature. That guy doesn’t know that.”

“Hmm.”

“Anyway, boss, say something good for me. Tell him about the agonies of an inventor too. He doesn’t listen to me at all.”

Suddenly curious, I asked.

“How much does it cost per enhancement?”

“About 1 gold?”

1 gold was roughly about 500,000 won in our money.

In other words, 500,000 won had just flown away right in front of my eyes.

“……How many times have you failed.”

“About ten times? No. Including just now, eleven times.”

At that moment, something snapped in my head.

“Wanna die?”

I grabbed the guy’s collar.

“Why, why are you doing this?”

“This bastard, there’s a limit to lacking economic sense. Do you know whose labor that money comes from? If you fail one more time, know that I’ll sell all the magitech devices you have. Got it?”

“Kek! Ah, alright. Alright, so let this go!”

I released the guy’s collar I was holding.

Dammit.

I still had to repay the loan for Lunatic, and a money-eating hippo had come in.

‘Ugh. Leaving the whining Dayle alone, I fell into worry.

Our Shadow’s funding source was ultimately from the Beltus Cult’s commissions anyway.

We were doing liquor business at Lunatic as a disguise, but after all, this was a side job, and since it hadn’t been open long, it wasn’t making much money yet.

But that said, I couldn’t tell Dayle to stop what he was doing.

I didn’t know what Dayle was trying to make, but it would definitely be something helpful for the guild.

Wasn’t that why I brought him into the guild in the first place.

“Umm.”

While I was lost in thought about the guild’s finances and Dayle’s disposal like that.

Dayle, who had been timidly watching me, asked.

“But boss.”

“What.”

“Why did you suddenly come to Lunatic?”

“Ah, right. I forgot.”

I grabbed Dayle’s collar again.

“Ugh! Why again!?”

“Just lend me your eyes for a bit.”

“Eh? My eyes?”

I dragged the bewildered Dayle outside.

* * *

A hundred hearings are not as good as one seeing.

Like the saying ‘Better to see once than hear a hundred times’, I directly demonstrated [Dark Sprint] in front of Dayle.

The result was the same as before.

Mana depletion and hyperventilation due to mana circuit overload came.

I looked at Dayle while sprawled flat on the ground.

I asked with my expression.

What the hell was the problem.

In return, Dayle asked.

“Boss, are you an idiot?”

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