Levich secretly used Stealth and went behind Sung Joon’s Hunter sedan.
Contrary to the other members of the Brigade that Sung Joon had fought thus far, he was wearing a suit and sunglasses. His attire certainly could’ve made him look suspicious, but it seemed like they’d tried hard to get an otherworlder to fit into the crowd.
“My lord, there’s someone following us.”
“I know. That’s why I haven’t left yet. I’m thinking about a good place where I can fight him nearby.”
He didn’t do something as stupid as going back home when someone was following him. After thinking about it for a short while, Sung Joon decided where he’d go and departed.
“The target’s moving.”
“Follow him. I’ll send reinforcements.”
“Are you planning on taking care of him immediately?”
“It seems like headquarters wants to take care of Roukel’s disciple as soon as possible. The faster the better.”
Levich, who was speaking to someone through his crystal, followed Sung Joon’s car.
“He’s still following me.”
Sung Joon could sense the presence behind his car. It was a high-level stealth technique, but it couldn’t fool Sung Joon’s superb senses.
“Though we’re only going at 50 km/h, he is managing to maintain his stealth whilst following us,” Rishubalt said.
“He’s definitely strong. I’m curious as to who sent him.”
Sung Joon parked his car at a nearby park. Levich, who was watching from afar, carefully approached when he realized that there was no movement inside the car.
“He’s gone?”
He was shocked. Unbelievably, there was no one inside when just a little while ago there was someone behind the wheel.
‘Is it stealth?’
Levich calmly grabbed the handle of his sword. And his eyes moved busily to survey his surroundings. However, he couldn’t feel a presence anywhere, and became restless.
‘It’s stealth at a level than even I can’t sense? How powerful is he?’
It felt like he could see his death. And that moment had come sooner than he’d expected.
“Ugh!”
Something cleaved through his left arm, and his arm gushed with blood. Both the attacker and the receiver’s stealth were nigh simultaneously released and both could see each other.
“Who sent you!?”
Rather than withdraw his sword, Sung Joon drew his dagger and swung it at Levich’s left thigh. Levich hastily retreated and drew his mana.
“Equip!”
The mana shaped into armor and equipped onto Levich. Simultaneously, aura armor was activated as well.
“My lord. That’s the armor of the Knight Brigade.”
“I know. But there’s no Raid nearby, so how did he get here?” Sung Joon spoke softly whilst being wary of Levich.
“Perhaps the Empire has created techniques to cross between dimensions through the work of a few people,” Rishubalt said with a grave expression. Sung Joon nodded his head and opened his mouth.
“Well, if they can open large warp gates, then I suppose they’d be able to open small ones as well.”
Sung Joon could understand how they did it. The Empire and the Species Alliance already had the means to cross dimensions. He was sure of that. The problem was that he didn’t know the limitations of their ability to do so.
“You’re part of the Knight Brigade aren’t you?”
“…”
Sung Joon pointed his sword at him whilst asking quietly, but Levich didn’t answer him.
“What rank are you?”
“…399.”
As soon as he asked his rank, Levich finally responded.
“My lord, you should be able to take him down within 30 seconds if he’s truly rank 399.”
“Am I that strong?”
“Your current synchronization rate is 52%. Please trust me,” Rishubalt said, and Sung Joon smirked. He gathered his mana and charged at the 399 ranked Levich.
“Shit!” Levich cursed. His left arm had already been severed, and he was still bleeding. Furthermore, his eyesight was becoming faint, and Sung Joon was much too fast for him to respond.
“Ahhhhhh!”
Sung Joon’s sword flashed; Levich cried sharply and spurted blood as his right arm was severed. Sung Joon kicked his legs, forcing him onto the floor.
“Ugh!”
Because both of Levich’s arms were cut off, he couldn’t resist and shamefully rolled onto the floor. Sung Joon placed his dagger right next to his neck and opened his mouth.
“You’ll feel your bleeding stop soon. Since I used ‘Heal’ on you,” Sung Joon said, and Levich’s gaze turned to his severed arms. Like Sung Joon had said, his bleeding truly had stopped.
Because Sung Joon was an SS-rank Hunter, he possessed enough healing power to restore both of Levich’s arms, but he had no intention of letting Levich go; therefore, he skillfully controlled his healing power in order to only stop Levich’s bleeding.
“I can use ‘Heal’. Do you know what that means?”
“I-I don’t know.”
As soon as Levich shook his head, Sung Joon smiled coldly and opened his mouth.
“It means I can torture you for even longer.”
Behind his black eyes, Levich could see a calm and quiet killing intent moving around. It felt like he was being eroded by the cold, but he remained stern.
“I don’t know anything.”
Even if it hurt, he couldn’t give Sung Joon information on his comrades. He acted according to how he was trained.
“Then, shall we get started?”
Sung Joon plugged Levich’s mouth and began the torture process. In between, Sung Joon gave him a chance to spit out some information when he took out the piece of cloth in his mouth, but he didn’t cooperate.
He continued to torture him for ten minutes.
“This is your last chance. How advanced is the Empire’s Dimensional Leap ability?”
“I-I really don’t know about that. I’m not a part of that…”
It was hard for him to endure the awful pain that wracked his body. Levich spoke as though he was pleading for his life.
“It’s highly likely that he wouldn’t know about the Empire’s dimensional techniques unless he were an interested party,” Rishubalt said from beside him. Sung Joon agreed with him, and decided to change his line of questioning.
“How many of you crossed over?”
“Including me, five… Because creating a small warp gate is unstable, I think only a small handful of members could cross over…”
“Alright. Thanks.”
He’d gotten all the information he needed from him, and he could sense four presences quickly approaching with powerful mana. Sung Joon unhesitatingly sliced Levich’s neck with his dagger.
The blood surged like a fountain and Sung Joon looked down upon Levich’s corpse, and opened his mouth with a cold expression.
“Absorb.”
He replenished both his stamina and mana. Because the fight was so short, he was able to restore all of his stamina and mana. There were four powerful enemies approaching, and this was immediately after solo clearing an S-rank dungeon, but his condition wasn’t bad.
Eventually, four men came out from the darkness. They had already completely armed themselves.
“I’m rank 355 of the Knight Brigade, Artux. Let me ask you, Otherworlder. What’s your relation with Roukel?”
He looked like a westerner, but he spoke in Korean, not in the otherworld language, nor English.
“I don’t think there’s really any reason for me to answer you…” Sung Joon responded curtly.
“You don’t seem very surprised when I call you an otherworlder. So there’s something Roukel told you, huh?”
Artux raised his greatsword and activated his aura. That became the signal for the battle to begin. The other three knights raised their swords as well.
“They’re ranked 386, 390, and 400. When you consider their mana quantity, they’re at the level of top tier A-rank Hunters,” Rishubalt pointed at each of them and said. While Sung Joon was readying himself for battle, Rishubalt had been checking the number engraved on either their rings or their necklaces.
“They’re a lot weaker than I’d expected.”
He had been nervous because they were skilled in stealth, but they turned out to be no big deal.
Compared to Hunters, these knights possessed a ton of actual combat experience and were trained and specialized in techniques to kill people.
Though they were at the level of top tier A-rank Hunters, they were definitely a bit stronger than that.
“Petrify!”
Sung Joon attacked first. He accumulated mana into his eyes and yelled, and a red beam containing the petrifying curse shot out towards the 400th ranked knight.
“Ugh!”
The fact that Sung Joon had run around avoiding the Medusa’s gaze didn’t mean that the speed of the beam was slow. To be honest, it was fast enough that it would be difficult for an S-rank Combat Hunter to dodge.
Though he was part of the Knight Brigade, there was no way a 400th rank knight would be able to dodge the beam. He was hit directly on the chest, and weakly fell. His body began to turn to stone starting from his chest, accompanied by a horrific pain.
‘It consumes a lot more mana than I’d expected,’ Sung Joon thought.
“It’s a petrifying curse! Everyone, be careful!” Artux yelled.
“It’s so fast that it’s difficult for us to respond to!”
“If that’s the case, then let’s attack!”
Artux dashed towards Sung Joon with the two remaining knights. They used their high-speed movement and quickly closed the distance; seeing that, Sung Joon infused mana into ‘Roel’.
“Dragon Fear.”
Roar!
The slumbering Evil Dragon soul within Roel awoke and roared. It was still limited, but the Dragon Fear would even temporarily stop S-rank Hunters. The three knights who possessed about a top tier A-rank Hunter’s mana couldn’t endure it.
“Ugh!”
“AH”
“Urgh!”
The three knights were shocked and stumbled. Though they were specially trained in assassination techniques and had plenty of combat experience, which increased their fighting ability, they were still handicapped by the maximum amount of mana they could possess.
“Flash Cut.”
Sung Joon instantaneously closed the distance with the 390th ranked knight. He used Flash Cut and cut deeply into his neck. Though his neck was protected by thick armor, as well as aura armor, Sung Joon’s aura was powerful enough to cut through them both.
“A-Ah!”
“Slash!”
Then, Artux, who had been released from the Dragon Fear, shot an aura slash at Sung Joon, but that was only after the 390th ranked knight was already dead.
Sung Joon ducked his head and evaded the aura slash; while doing so, he used his high-speed movement to get close to Artux. The 386th ranked knight blocked his path, but Sung Joon cut through him with one strike.
“Ah!”
“W-With only one blow?”
The 386th ranked knight weakly fell without even properly receiving Sung Joon’s blade once; seeing that, Artux panicked considerably.
“To think that Roukel’s disciple was this strong!”
Artux blocked Sung Joon’s strike with the side of his greatsword.
“Ugh!”
However, because of the difference in physical strength, Artux was significantly pushed back. Sung Joon didn’t miss that opportunity; he gathered his mana and opened his mouth.
“Gale Sword.”
He charged with the sword winds. Artux focused on his aura armor. His aura armor managed to block the sword winds, but they couldn’t block Sung Joon’s lunge.
“Ah!”
Sung Joon’s sword pierced Artux’s stomach. As he lost his concentration, his aura armor vanished. Sung Joon drew his dagger and cut the tendons of both of Artux’s arms.
Even the aura over his greatsword disappeared and he dropped his weapon. He had lost his will to fight in front of such overwhelming strength.
“Did you say your name was Artux? Shall I tell you something interesting?” Sung Joon asked, and Artux arduously nodded his head. Seeing Artux’s weak eyes, Sung joon opened his mouth with a cold expression.
“I am Roukel.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately swung his dagger and cut Artux’s neck. A fountain of blood spurted from his neck and Sung Joon took a step back, absorbing both their stamina and mana.
-Verifying the existence of a new item.
His measuring tool reacted.
“It seems like it’s time to loot,” Rishubalt said, and Sung Joon smirked.