“Cough!”

At some point, Sung Joon’s stab had pierced the Mage’s heart.

This Mage was higher-ranked than the previous Mage in the storehouse, but he wasn’t skilled enough to overcome a Mage’s weakness at close combat.

“T-The Mage is..!”

The Mage, who could use powerful magic that could dispatch dozens of enemies in a single spell, was killed instantly, thus agitating the soldiers.

However, that was all.

“Line up! If you’re spread out you’ll die!”

They were well-trained, elite soldiers. As they followed the noncom officer’s command and formed their ranks, they momentarily forgot their fear. They leveled their spears at Sung Joon and raised their shields.

But their actions were all meaningless.

“Slash.”

Sung Joon recited the activation word and swung his sword in a large arc; an aura slash flew forwards, breaking their battle formation.

“AH!”

“S-Save me..!”

In a single blow, eight soldiers spurted blood and fell.

The defensive force at the rear, which had been preparing, noticed the chaos of the battle and had immediately moved to Sung Joon’s area, but by the time they arrived, the dispatched soldiers had already been annihilated.

“Ugh!”

“An aura-user?”

Through the dim lighting, the advancing soldiers discovered a brightly shining aura from below and hurriedly stopped in their tracks.

“Battle positions..”

The noncom officer commanded, but a dagger was suddenly lodged in his throat. The noncom officer vomited a handful of blood and helplessly collapsed.

By the time the other noncom officer tried to take over command, Sung Joon had already penetrated deep into their ranks.

“He’s gotten through?” someone said and died.

By the time they had realized that he had infiltrated their ranks, several soldiers had already died.

Sung Joon sprayed the blood on his blade into the air, and said, “Be careful.”

A cold thick killing intent spread, accompanied by beads of blood fluttering through the air.

“There won’t be any mercy if you block my path,” Sung Joon declared.

The soldiers were swept away by his continuous storm-like attacks. Their battle formations had long since crumbled. The soldiers had no means of retaliating against Sung Joon.

They simply died in vain.

“You’re not running?” asked a honestly curious Sung Joon to the last remaining soldier.

Even though their formation had crumbled and their commanding officer had died, the soldiers didn’t cease his retaliation..

“We stand at the forefront as vanguards of the Knight Brigade for his Imperial Majesty! We will never retreat!”

After the bloodied soldier responded, Sung Joon belatedly recalled that the Knight Brigade regarded dying for the Empire as the greatest honor.

“What a useless act..”

Sung Joon cut the last remaining soldier’s neck with a dejected expression.

Since he knew the result of blind loyalty to the Emperor, he could do nothing but shake his head at the soldier’s loyalty.

“You cannot pass!”

A heavily armored knight blocked Sung Joon’s path.

“He is Kert, a part of the Knight Brigade. It seems like he was lucky enough to survive from the Ridonia Great Plains,” informed Rishubalt.

“And his rank?” Sung Joon asked softly.

He didn’t have any memories regarding Kert. Rishubalt narrowed his eyes and sifted through his memories. After he was done, he said, “He was rank 489 at the Ridonia Great Plains. I don’t know what he’s at right now.”

Sung Joon nodded his head.

Several knights in the Knight Brigade had died at the Ridonia Great Plains and even if they had reformed their ranks, Sung Joon didn’t think that Kert’s rank would’ve dropped much.

“His rank may be low, but he’s part of the Knight Brigade. Within the Empire, Kert is quite skilled.”

Rishubalt was beating around the bush, but he was essentially saying that he couldn’t be careless. Sung Joon smirked.

“You’re worrying needlessly.”

“What are you muttering about over there!” yelled Kert.

Kert moved first and used his high-speed movement.

He closed the distance between them quickly, but Sung Joon easily detected his movements.

Sung Joon took half a step back, avoiding Kert’s diagonal slash.

“That’s impossible!” Kert declared.

He must’ve not expected Sung Joon to have so easily avoided his attack and he was obviously flustered.

Still, he was an elite knight with plentiful combat experience. Therefore he was only briefly flustered and immediately withdrew his sword, preparing for Sung Joon’s counterattack.

“Ergh!”

Kert had successfully blocked Sung Joon’s stab, but he was pushed back and staggered from the brutal strength behind Sung Joon’s sword. Sung Joon’s eyes gleamed as he grasped the opportunity.

Rather than withdraw his sword, he drew his dagger to initiate a quick follow-up attack.

“Ugh!”

Sung Joon threw his dagger, piercing Kert’s left thigh. He had thrown it in close combat, so it seemed like Kert hadn’t been able to easily avoid it.

Armor was pointless before his aura-clad dagger.

“Shit!” Kert cursed and instinctively swung his sword. Sung Joon’s left arm became injured from Kert’s reckless attack.

Kert smirked when he saw the injury.

“Does this make us even?” Kert said.

“No,” Sung Joon coldly responded and drew forth his mana.

“Heal.”

The white light healed his injury. Kert had retreated in order to reorganize himself, so Sung Joon had the time to use his Heal.

“A, a priest knows swordsmanship..? What exactly..” wondered Kert.

When Sung Joon used his ‘Heal’, Kert was astonished. Sung Joon’s swordsmanship was too exquisite to call him a Battle Priest.

Kert was agitated and left a small opening; Sung Joon aimed for that opening and utilized his high-speed movement. He pushed deep into Kert’s position and forcefully stabbed with his sword.

“AH!”

At the end of the fierce battle, Sung Joon’s sword pierced through Kert’s abdomen. Kert screamed in agony and vomited blood.

‘T-this swordsmanship is Sir Roukel’s..?’

His blood spread, staining the floor. Once Sung Joon turned his sword that was lodged in Kert’s stomach once and pulled it out, Kert staggered.

His defensive stance had completely crumbled and Sung Joon could grasp victory with one final strike.

“I won’t listen to your pleas of mercy, since there’s no mercy for a traitor.”

“W-what are you talking about..”

“This is self-defense.”

Kert looked clueless and Sung Joon grasped his sword, aiming it at Kert with a cold expression.

“I don’t need to explain anything more to a traitor.”

His merciless blade slashed Kert’s neck, spurting blood.

Sung Joon yanked the Knight Brigade ring from the weakly falling Kert’s hand.

He didn’t forget to absorb the mana as well and Rishubalt reported that his synchronization rate had increased by 1%.

Sung Joon examined the ring thoroughly.

“He was at the 466th place. The knights that reformed the Knight Brigade must be really skilled. The Brigade had almost been annihilated, yet his rank didn’t go up much,” Sung Joon said.

“It’s a truth I don’t want to admit, but the Empire has several talented individuals,” Rishubalt replied.

“It seems that way.”

Sung Joon nodded his head and requested Rishubalt to merge the rings together. The number 465 was the higher number so when they were fused, the number wouldn’t change.

When they finished merging, Sung Joon used his measuring tool and checked the report.

[Knight Brigade’s Ring +3]

B-rank.

Verifying Aura Persistence effect.

Sung Joon put the ring back on with a satisfied expression.

“Let’s go.”

“My lord, although your mana was replenished through your absorption ability, you don’t have much mana left. If you want to use your aura in the next fight, you must not use your stealth ability.”

As Sung Joon had fought fierce battles for several days in the Great Labyrinth, he had consumed more mana than he had absorbed. He nodded in agreement to Rishubalt’s suggestion. Since Sung Joon wasn’t using his stealth item, he lowered his presence as much as possible and moved slowly. Just a little while later, he saw a huge clearing that he hadn’t seen until then.

“This is the training supervisor’s office,” Rishubalt said.

He saw a few buildings within the vast clearing. There were around five buildings that looked like they were being used as barracks and there was a sole two-story building in the center of them.

“It’s the training supervisor.”

Rishubalt pointed to the two-story building with his index finger. There were armed soldiers gathered there. A knight that appeared to be the training supervisor gave orders regarding this and that to the soldiers.

Five robe-wearing Mages were in the midst of guarding their surroundings with their magic.

“I feel the flow of mana,” Rishubalt said.

Sung Joon nodded his head and said, “It seems like at least three of them are maintaining Searching Magic. It doesn’t seem like recklessly charging in will be a good plan.”

“Wouldn’t it be best to divide their attention with your Slash and then infiltrate using your stealth? If their attention is scattered, it’ll halt their Searching Magic. If it’s you, my lord, you should be able to approach before they recast their Searching Magic.”

Rishubalt looked at Sung Joon with confidence.

Sung Joon wordlessly drew his sword.

He was outside of the range of the Searching Magic, but as soon as he manifested his aura, the Mages sensed the flow of his mana and directed their gaze at Sung Joon.

“It’s an enemy!”

The five Mages altogether created dozens of fireballs without an incantation and shot them at Sung Joon’s location. At the same time, Sung Joon swung his sword and an aura slash flew forward.

His aura slash flew in a straight line towards the Mages and Sung Joon threw his body to the side to evade the fireballs.

He couldn’t deal with the fireballs with his Spell Breaking Sword, due to the sheer number of them.

“Protect!”

“Shield!”

The Mages hurriedly cast defensive magic, but the powerful aura slash tore through the defensive magic at the forefront.

The Slash didn’t stop at separating the Mage’s upper and lower body, but since the force had greatly diminished, it collided with the next round of defensive magic and disappeared.

“Sir Dyke! Please cover us while we’re casting!”

“Defense line forward! Delay him!” the Training Supervisor, Dyke, ordered, and the soldiers raised their spears and shields and advanced.

However, they couldn’t find Sung Joon.

“We can’t see the enemy, sir!”

“It’s stealth! Hurry with the Searching Magic!”

“Protect the Mages!”

Sung Joon had aimed for the Mages in his stealthed state, but the soldiers acted as human shields and formed a perimeter around the Mages, so it wasn’t easy.

‘It seems that it won’t be easy to pass by them, unless I collide with them.’

Sung Joon bit his lip. He didn’t really have much time to think. Even now, the Mages were in the midst of casting their Searching Magic.

It may have been different if there were only one, but with five Mages casting Searching Magic, it was only a matter of time before his stealthed location was discovered.

‘I have no choice but to crash into them..!’

Sung Joon stepped on and ran up a soldier’s shield, infiltrating deep into enemy lines, and swung his sword. As soon as his stealth was released, the Mages suspended their Searching Magic and cast their offensive magic.

The guided offensive magic, which could display an outstanding effect in a melee, was aimed at Sung Joon. Although it was weak, it didn’t damage anyone else, and persistently aimed for Sung Joon.

‘They have plenty of combat experience..!’

Most of the Mages that aided the Knight Brigade were part of the royal family’s Magic Tower and were famous for having plentiful combat experience.

“Argh!” Sung Joon yelled out briefly.

He tried to evade them, but he couldn’t evade all of the soldiers’ spear attacks as well as the dozens of guided magic attacks. The sharp wind slashed through Sung Joon’s waist on his left.

“Your wound isn’t deep!”

Sung Joon was busy dodging the guided magic attacks so he hadn’t been able to examine his wound; Rishubalt reported in his stead.

“Damn it!” he cursed.

The Mages must’ve passed specialized training since their guided magic attacks were gradually closing in, like a net.

Though it was called guided magic, it poured down like a sudden shower, so even a few of the soldiers were hit and they collapsed. However, they didn’t mind it.

They were elite soldiers, but they were nothing more than consumables that could be replaced.

‘It’s exactly as they say: if you take down one, two more take his place.’

Sung Joon laughed bitterly as he remembered one more thing about the Empire.

“Ugh!”

“AH!”

The magic raged on like a storm and the waves of the guided magic attacks caused the soldiers to drop like scarecrows. The Mages gradually poured their guided magic on him, just as they did on the infantry in the battle line that were caught in the crossfire.

There was no time to take a break.

There was too much guided magic to use his Spell Breaking Sword. He was in a pinch. Sung Joon felt as if he had broken into a cold sweat.