Chapter 75: 75

Swordmaster Healer – Episode 75

TL: Boko

Editor: Ren

Chapter 25: Item Get! (2)

As Rishubalt shook his hand, the background melted away. When the change was complete, Sung Joon was in darkness. However, his eyes soon became acclimated to the darkness, and he regained his sight.

‘Isn’t this a fortress?’

The walls in the dark passageway looked like they were made of solid rock.     

‘It seems like I won’t need to use stealth.’

He wasn’t originally an assassin, but he at least knew how to hide himself in the darkness and completely conceal his presence. Because stealth consumed a lot of mana, he had to use it only when necessary, like Blink.

After Sung Joon had completely concealed his presence, he slowly advanced forward. Although it was dark in front, at some point, there were torches lining the walls.

‘It’s a presence.’

Sung Joon detected a presence from far away that was pacing around. Sung Joon turned his attention to Rishubalt and asked, “Rishubalt, can you scout?”

Although he had felt the presence from afar, he spoke extremely softly. Because he was so far, it was difficult to accurately make out the enemy’s location, as well as their numbers.

If it were possible for Rishubalt to scout, it’d be helpful against ambushes.

“I’ll be back.”

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like there was any mana interference since Rishubalt scouted as soon as Sung Joon finished speaking. Sung Joon gripped the hilt of his sword and slowly advanced forward.

After he had walked for about five minutes, Rishubalt, who had gone ahead in order to scout, returned.

“It seems like the soldiers’ destination is indeed the fortress. I only checked the nearby places, but there were quite a lot of soldiers.”

“How many enemies are in front of us?”

“There are two knights and twenty-one soldiers.”

“Are they normal knights?”

Just because they were knights didn’t mean that they could all use aura. Even in the Empire, aura-users were uncommon and were mostly a part of the Knight Brigade or another elite combat group.   

Most of the normal knights in the Imperial Army couldn’t use aura.

“The knights and the soldiers weren’t part of an elite unit.”

“Then are they part of a regular group…? Then it shouldn’t be difficult.”

“However, since there are so many, you cannot afford to be careless,” Rishubalt advised, and Sung Joon nodded his head.

“How big is the fortress?” Sung Joon asked.

He had prepared plenty of food, but it would be best to know in advance.

“Since I only scouted the surrounding area, I don’t know the exact scale of the fortress. However, if we take into account the architectural style, I assume it’s the Empire’s ‘forward base’,” Rishubalt replied.

“Then it should be really big,” Sung Joon said, furrowing his eyebrows.

Sung Joon could remember information regarding their forward bases. They were fortresses that were created in strategic positions and called forward bases, though they were actually much larger than a forward base.

Eventually, Sung Joon arrived at where the first enemies were gathered.

‘Is this a waiting room…?’

His black eyes gleamed in the darkness and he calmly drew his sword. His sword didn’t even make a sound as the blade grazed the sheath.

Sung Joon intruded into the center of the room and ambushed them silently.

“Ugh!”

“AH!”

Sung Joon first swung his sword at the knights, who he assumed were the greatest threat, and killed the two knights first.

The soldiers on standby inside couldn’t even see Sung Joon. The only thing they could see was the knights spurting blood and falling.

“I-It’s an enemy… Ugh!”

The soldier that had hurriedly rushed towards the sword stand died helplessly, and his severed head rolled on the ground.

“It’s an enemy attack!”

“Countermeasures!”

By the time the soldiers had drawn and raised their weapons, more than half of the soldiers had already fallen.

“AH!”

Something had quickly passed by. Another soldier spurted blood.

“W-Where the hell is he?”

The soldier was alone by the time he had gotten a hold of himself. Fear invaded his entire body. He couldn’t do anything, despite Sung Joon revealing himself in front of him.

“Long live the Emperor!”

The soldier lunged at Sung Joon with his dagger, but Sung Joon would never allow such an attack. He easily avoided the dagger stab and swung his sword, cutting off the soldier’s head.

“You’re weak.”

When compared to the elites of the Knight Brigade, they were much weaker.

“It seems like I won’t even have to use my aura.”

“A wise decision. When fighting against several weaklings, it’s best to keep your mana consumption at the bare minimum.”

“That’s because it’s highly likely that there’ll be elite troops right behind them,” Sung Joon replied.

Rishubalt smiled, then nodded.

“That’s true.”

At first, they would send out several weak soldiers, prompting him to use his mana, and then they would send out the elite soldiers. This was one of the Empire’s typical strategies.

“What will you do with the bodies?”

“I’m not going to move them. I plan to neutralize the area as much as possible before the patrolling troops discover them.”

Rather, Sung Joon thought there was a high possibility that while he was moving the bodies, he would be discovered, or it would just take a lot of his time. Therefore, he didn’t move the bodies and instead decided to make it a battle of speed; he would neutralize the area as quickly and as much as possible.

“Rishubalt, scout. Report to me the enemies closest to me.”

“I understand.”

“I want at least fifteen or more. If there are too few of them, it’ll just be a waste of time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Sung Joon sent Rishubalt off to scout, absorbed the mana from the bodies, and hurriedly began walking.

He didn’t know the route, but he couldn’t just sit and wait for Rishubalt. He planned to slowly scout out his surroundings and cut down the enemy’s numbers.

“They say the entire army’s going to be put on alert.”

“I heard that too. I think it’s probably because of the Kingdom Alliance.”

Sung Joon walked in the direction towards the presences that he had felt, and heard them converse.

‘There are two knights.’

The knights’ heavy armor rattled. Sung Joon put out the nearby torches and melded with the darkness.

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“The torches over there… Ugh…!”

It was already too late by the time they realized the unexpected event. Sung Joon’s dagger flew and lodged into the middle of the knight’s forehead.

“How dare you!”

The last remaining knight was furious at his comrade’s demise and drew his sword. However, Sung Joon was a little faster, and pierced the knight’s throat with his returned dagger.

Burp.

The knight weakly fell, accompanied by a gruesome sound.

“Absorb.”

Sung Joon finished with absorbing their mana and started walking again, but Rishubalt appeared right before him.

“They’re not close by, but I found the room where the Communication Squad is standing by. The communication equipment is set up and the messengers are on standby.”

If he destroyed the communication equipment and incapacitated the messengers, Sung Joon would be able to disrupt the system of command inside the fortress.

“Lead me.”

Sung Joon decided that it’d be best to neutralize the Communication Squad and so ordered Rishubalt to guide him there.

“It’s this way.”

Rishubalt lead Sung Joon outside of the building. Because the building was so large, he had to walk for about thirty minutes just to get outside.

The sky was dark and it was difficult to even see the moonlight. Just a little while ago, he had seen a few buildings that were about the same size as the one he had just left.

He saw a building with the Communication Squad’s flag in the center of those buildings. It was just like a small fortress, and was made up of solid rock.

“There are three patrols with ten people each. And the next guarding troop numbers fifty…”

It wouldn’t be a problem taking them on in a frontal assault due to how weak they were, but it would be impossible to kill them all without being caught.

The night sky was dark and the moonlight was silent, but since the fortress was in the center, there were several soldiers patrolling.

‘I have no choice but to use my stealth…’

After Sung Joon had examined his surroundings once, he opened his mouth.

“Stealth.”

Sung Joon’s body melted into the darkness. He walked carefully and went inside the Communication Squad building.

As he opened the door, his stealth was released. The knight that was guarding the entrance turned his attention to Sung Joon.

“A-An enemy…! Ugh!”

However, Sung Joon stabbed him with his sword, piercing through his abdomen.

“It’s an enemy!”

Since this was the most important place in the fortress, it was guarded by elites. As soon as the knight fell, armed troops flocked from everywhere and poured into the room.

“Protect the communication equipment!”

The soldiers, who raised their shields, attempted to block Sung Joon to protect the magical communication equipment, but it was pointless.

“Slash!”

Sung Joon swung his sword in a large arc and recited the activation words, shooting out an aura slash. The aura slash split the soldiers who had raised their shields in half and destroyed the communication equipment.

“A-An aura-user?”

“Don’t panic! Buy time until reinforcements arrive! Lay down your lives for it!” a certain knight yelled.

While the soldiers constructed their ranks, the Communication Mages, who didn’t have any combat abilities, hurriedly evacuated.

However, Sung Joon had no plans to just sit still and watch.

“No one’s getting out of here.”

His icy voice was accompanied by the release of his killing intent. The front soldiers who had met his gaze widened their eyes and fainted.  

Sung Joon’s killing intent was much too strong for these normal soldiers, who weren’t even elites, to handle.

Sung Joon stepped over the unconscious soldiers and threw himself towards the escaping Communication Mages.

“H-How dare you!”

When the knight who was guarding the Communication Mages drew his sword, Sung Joon slashed his neck and blood spurted out.

“AH!”

“Ugh!”

The Communication Mages suffered the same fate as the knight. Whenever Sung Joon swung his sword, a stream of blood would spill from them.

“Where the hell did this monster come from?”

Everyone shook in fear. Even the knights couldn’t track Sung Joon’s movements with their eyes. It didn’t even take ten minutes before the entire Communication Squad was annihilated.

“There are no survivors in the building,” Rishubalt reported.

Sung Joon nodded his head. He couldn’t feel any presences within the buildings at all. However…

“They’re really rushing over here.”

They had fought noisily, so the noise would have obviously leaked outside the building.

“I’ll go scout and come back.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

As soon as Sung Joon nodded his head, Rishubalt briefly went outside the building and returned.

“The amount of soldiers they’ve gathered numbers over two hundred. If they combine with the follow-up troops, it could number more than five hundred,” Rishubalt reported.

Despite Rishubalt’s report, Sung Joon opened his mouth with a calm expression.

“The number of weak soldiers doesn’t matter. How many Mages are there?” he asked.

To Sung Joon, who could utilize Mana Absorption, their strategy of sending several weak soldiers against him, prompting him to consume his mana, wouldn’t be effective. Since he had confirmed that the knights’ skills were also unskilled, the only ones who were dangerous to him right now were Mages.

“I assume that there are around nine Mages.”

“What about their level?”

“I didn’t feel strong mana from them.”

“Good, I can do this.”

Sung Joon swept the blood off his sword in one stroke and walked towards the door.

“Do you plan to engage them?” Rishubalt asked. Sung Joon nodded his head and opened his mouth.

“I have to kill them before more gather.”

Sung Joon kicked open the door and as he rushed out, utilized his high-speed movement. The Mages shot their casted magic at the area that Sung Joon had just been at.

“W-Where did he go?”

“I didn’t see him.”

“I’ll use Searching Magic.”

“Protect the Mages!” the noncom officer commanded and the soldiers moved busily.

“H-How is this possible?”

However, by the time they had finished forming their ranks, the Mages had already been killed.

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