Chapter 77: Yuria (4)

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Yuria possessed two types of magic: the wind-attribute [Storm Blade] and the water-attribute [Freeze].

Both were low-circle spells, but their utility was maximized when used in conjunction with swordsmanship.

In simple terms, they were a perfect match.

Just like now.

Unable to use an aura sword, Yuria instead enveloped her blade with [Storm Blade].

By wielding it with high-speed swordsmanship, even a golem with swift movements couldn’t evade her strikes.

Moreover, Yuria used [Freeze] on the golem’s lower body and joints, steadily slowing its movements.

The result?

Boom! Bang!

The battle was one-sided.

The golem’s body began to be chipped away at an incredible speed.

Its pace was akin to being shredded by a blender named Yuria.

Watching the scene, I couldn’t hold back a chuckle that escaped my lips.

“Yeah. That’s a magic swordsman.”

It was exactly the image I had envisioned and desired.

I had anticipated this scene even before we came here.

Originally, this ‘Room of Cooperation’ was among the more challenging trials in the underground dungeon.

The reason was simple: it wasn’t easy for two cadets to move as one and face an enemy together.

Such synergy was only possible between those who had trained together for a long time, but how common were such partnerships in the academy?

There was a second-year course called [Synergy Technique], where cadets finally learned proper teamwork.

That improved golem was the sacrificial lamb used in that course.

But Yuria didn’t need synergy techniques.

She was a magic swordsman, after all.

When facing magical beasts, there were moments when a mage and a swordsman had to combine their strengths.

Yuria was a specialist who could fully showcase her uniqueness in such situations.

“Still, I was a bit worried she might flounder due to her slump, but that was unnecessary.”

The problem was that Yuria was genuinely immersed in this staged scenario.

In fact, she was pushing herself quite hard right now.

I could sense a palpable urgency in the ferocious swings of her blade, as if she were being chased by something.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

If she was deliberately putting herself through this to break her slump, then Yuria was truly remarkable in a different sense.

It meant she was willingly driving herself into a corner with her own resolve.

Her fervent sincerity reached me, making my chest burn with intensity as I watched.

‘But this is real combat. The consequences of her choices are hers to bear.’

If she overcame this, she would gain much.

But if she failed…

‘She might never rise again… huh?’

My worries were unfounded.

Utterly pointless.

Rumble!

The golem’s body was collapsing.

“…”

Panting beside the golem’s wreckage, Yuria suddenly widened her eyes and turned her head.

The moment our gazes met, she came running toward me.

“Are you okay?”

“Huh… what?”

“No! You were injured until just now… ah.”

Yuria, who had been frantically checking my body, gradually regained her composure.

Then came the flood of embarrassment.

Of course, that was hers to bear.

“…Pretend you didn’t see that.”

“I already saw everything, so how can I pretend I didn’t?”

“Then don’t laugh.”

Since she couldn’t even meet my eyes properly, I decided to let it slide.

“Alright, alright. By the way, your emotional control is no joke. You’d be amazing at acting. If you trained properly, you could probably outshine an entire theater troupe by yourself.”

I wasn’t lying—it was genuine.

“…Thanks to you, I guess.”

“What was that?”

She mumbled so softly I couldn’t catch it.

“Nothing, it’s nothing. Anyway, go check it out. How is it?”

I examined the golem’s wreckage.

Honestly, there wasn’t much to check.

Complete destruction.

Truthfully, I was stunned.

‘I didn’t expect her to pull it off this perfectly.’

Of course, the most impressive one was me, who had discovered Yuria’s potential.

“Senior. Senior? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. You did great. Perfect.”

Yuria didn’t hide her joy.

“But what do we do now?”

“About what?”

Yuria glanced around.

“The fight made quite a mess. Should we just leave it like this? If the adults find out tomorrow, it’ll be chaos.”

My answer to that was the same as always.

“It’s fine. As long as we don’t get caught.”

“But we’re probably the only cadets training this late, right? If the dorm supervisor checks the entry log, they might figure out it was us.”

Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.

Yuria was pretty sharp.

‘And the one who discovered her is none other than me.’

Even someone as great as me had to ponder this issue for a moment.

“Hmm.”

It didn’t take long for me to come up with a decent excuse.

“Just say a thief did it.”

“A thief?”

“Yeah.”

It wasn’t even a complete lie.

I was a real thief, after all.

“For example, like that guy over there?”

I clapped my hands as I looked where Yuria was pointing.

“Oh, right. Exactly like… huh?”

There, a dark figure was stepping through the opened door.

“…What’s that guy?”

A real thief.

* * *

A turban covering the head and a mask draped from the mouth to the neck.

Dark attire and a jet-black sword gripped tightly.

The shadowy figure who appeared out of nowhere was none other than a cleric of the Death Council.

Our eyes met briefly.

But the silence felt agonizingly long.

After all, we had assumed we were the only ones in this dungeon.

It seemed the intruder thought the same.

Both of us needed a moment to process the situation unfolding before us.

I was the first to move.

Whoosh!

The longsword I drew and threw in an instant left my hand, hurtling toward the figure.

Just as he was about to speak into something he held, my blade nearly pierced his forehead.

Crack!

But at the last second, he deflected it.

‘He blocked that?’

Damn it.

I quickly kicked off the ground and shouted back.

“Yuria! The guy…”

But before I could finish, Yuria had already cast a spell.

Freeze.

Crackle──!

The figure’s mask and mouth froze solid.

Nice catch!

The startled figure, eyes wide, clawed at the ice crystals around his mouth.

In that moment, I grabbed my fallen sword and thrust it toward his heart.

Stab!

The impact sent him stumbling backward, dragging me a meter further as he fell with me on top.

When I looked up, he was already dead.

As I pulled out the sword and stood, Yuria, who had rushed over, asked,

“The villain?”

“Dead.”

“Did I… do well?”

“Yeah. Amazingly.”

I gave her a thumbs-up, and Yuria, who had been holding her breath from tension, let out a sigh.

“Phew… What was that, anyway?”

I searched the figure’s body as I answered.

“A thief.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. For now?”

That’s what I said, but in truth, it was the cult.

From the academy’s perspective, a cultist or a thief was pretty much the same, so it wasn’t entirely wrong.

Still.

‘Why was this guy here?’

Could it be that today was the day of the ‘dungeon explosion terror’?

No, that wasn’t it.

That event was supposed to happen after the midterms.

That’s when it happened.

A communication rang out from the figure’s hand.

[Berak! What are you doing? Why’d you stop talking?]

Hearing the communication, I was certain.

This was definitely the prelude to the dungeon explosion terror.

Berak.

That was the name of one of the clerics who had planned to trigger the explosion.

‘As expected, my actions have jumbled up the main story’s events.’

Since I had intended this, I wasn’t particularly surprised.

What was more shocking was that I had come to help Yuria and ended up entangled in an unexpected incident.

‘Man, what are the odds of this coincidence?’

As I searched the body, I quickly recalled information about the dungeon explosion terror in my head.

First, there were four enemies infiltrating the dungeon.

But since one had just died here, that left three.

Their goal was to plant flame explosion scrolls here and, when cadets visited the training ground, detonate them to collapse the ground, burying the academy facilities and cadets alive.

Sure enough, searching the dead cleric’s body revealed four flame explosion scrolls.

His mission must have been to place the scrolls here in the Room of Cooperation.

“What are those?”

“Scrolls imbued with flame explosion magic.”

“Why would he… Oh. No way?”

I nodded at Yuria.

“See that wall where the golem was standing? It looks like a wall, but it’s actually a massive pillar supporting the dungeon’s ceiling. There are four more pillars like it in this underground dungeon, and I bet his accomplices are planning to blow those up.”

Yuria’s expression hardened.

“Then shouldn’t we go out and alert the guards right now?”

“No. That won’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Because the moment we go out to call for help, they’ll realize their ally was taken down faster than we can act.”

What would happen next was obvious.

Realizing their plan had gone awry, the enemies would immediately detonate something—either the underground dungeon or the training ground—and escape.

“We have to stop them.”

I nodded.

At that moment, another communication came from the corpse’s hand.

I opened his hand and removed the communication ring from his finger.

[Hey, Berak? Berak!]

[What? Don’t tell me that guy got done in by a golem?]

[Hah, what an idiot. He said golems were nothing, and now this? Unbelievable!]

[Doesn’t matter. He was the weakest among us anyway. We proceed with the plan.]

I focused on the last voice.

That was the leader of the group.

If my memory was correct, his name was something like Mudan or Mudang.

[You two, go check.]

[What? Why me?]

[I don’t want to go with that guy, Mudin.]

Mudin, that was it.

[I’m the farthest away, and you two are closer. Put personal feelings aside. The mission comes first.]

The communication ended with the grumbling of the last voice.

It was a short exchange, but it gave me enough information to piece things together.

The timing might have shifted, but the forces involved in the terror seemed the same.

Mudin, Berak, Galton, Bomed.

Mudin was a high cleric, and the other three were clerics.

But as I’d heard, the power gap between the three, excluding Berak, wasn’t significant.

In essence, they were all practically high clerics.

‘Hmm.’

I looked at Yuria, deep in thought.

High clerics had skills comparable to knights who had graduated from knight school—roughly at the level of beginner aura experts capable of forming aura swords.

In other words, their forces were stronger than ours.

‘If I used my thief powers, it’d be no problem…’

But with Yuria watching, that wasn’t an option.

‘The key is how long Yuria can hold out.’

The good news was that the strongest, Mudin, was far away and would arrive later.

‘Take down the two who come first, then deal with Mudin alone.’

With that rough plan in mind, I explained it to Yuria.

I was about to ask if she could handle it but stopped myself.

Standing beside me, Yuria gripped her sword, her eyes blazing with determination.

It was hard to believe that just hours ago, she had been utterly dejected.

‘This is an unexpected turn of events, but… well, it seems I’ve achieved my original purpose for coming here.’

Just then, footsteps and bickering voices echoed from beyond the door.

The voices matched those from the communication ring exactly.

Yuria and I exchanged glances.

She nodded with a resolute expression.

Moments later.

Creak──

The door opened, and two heads stepped inside.

At the same time, a blinding flash of swordlight sliced through the darkness.

Clang!

A sound that shouldn’t come from a human echoed through the chamber.

As expected, one of the clerics was blocking my sword.

It was a failure.

I quickly checked on Yuria.

No scream there either.

Clang, the sound of clashing swords rang out.

Then—

“You damned wench!”

I saw an enraged dark cleric ferociously attacking Yuria.

“Heh heh. So it wasn’t a golem after all?”

A sinister laugh came from ahead.

Did they know?

Well, it didn’t change anything.

“How dare you interfere with our ritual! I’ll kill… ugh!”

The cleric blocking my sword turned pale at that moment.

“W-What kind of strength does this guy…?”

I pressed down on him with full force.

“…Arghhh!”

“Bomed!”

A whooshing sound came from the side, forcing me to redirect my sword.

With a clang of metal, a dagger fell to the floor.

The cleric attacking Yuria had noticed his ally’s danger and intervened.

“You okay, Bomed?!”

“Huff! Huff! Thanks, Galton!”

I clicked my tongue in frustration.

I could’ve finished him off right there.

“Who… who are you?”

The dark cleric named Bomed asked, panting heavily.

I didn’t answer.

‘Quick and decisive. We need to end this before Mudin arrives.’

Now was the time to face them with full force.

I channeled mana into my fingertips.

A fleeting glimmer.

Then—

Whoosh──

A faint glow starting at my fingertips flowed up my arm, enveloping my entire body.

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