ack orb.

Shin and Wilhelm who saw the scene moved to protect Rashia. While wary of their surroundings, they looked at the orb in front of them.

“Sheet, its sucking the demon essence in!”

“Demon essence?”

“Ah! That light, the demon’s essence, is what moves the undead. Because it’s disappeared, it becomes impossible to maintain the body.”

“I see.”

After a while, all of the demon essence that the atmosphere contained was absorbed into the orb. Then the sphere whirled up into the sky and stopped at a height of about 10 mels from the ground. At the same time, a dark aura spread around the orb. It gradually took shape, and bones like a Skull Face were formed. In addition, it expanded to several times the size of a regular Skull Face. It was covered with jet black armor, and the aura filled the space between the bones and the armor. It only took 10 seconds.

A Skull Face more than 10 mels in height appeared before Shin and his party.

If it didn’t have a skeleton head attached, it would remind them of a valor knight. It was unimaginable that the ornament on the armor was made from the aura.

But from the body, there was a sinister aura rising up. It was definite evidence that it was an undead.

And, its burning look in front of Shin and the party caused their bodies to freeze from tension.

―――― 『Lord Skull Face Lv. 804』

When Shin activated 【Analyze ? Ⅹ】, it displayed to him its name and its level.

The level’s numerical value was considered a high ranking enemy, even in THE NEW GATE.

“Level 804. Is it this dungeon’s boss?”

Shin was calmly asking himself this, but Wilhelm intensely responded.

“Oi, the level you said just now, was that true?”

“Yes, no doubt about it.”

“That..it is at a level that can destroy a country!?”

“Kururuuu!!”

Yuzuha openly raised a roar to try to intimidate it, but Wilhelm and Rashia couldn’t hide their shaking from the impossible numerical value. Except those monsters that stayed in the Sacred Place, since the Dusk of the Majesty, the monster with the highest confirmed level didn’t even reach level 600. Moreover, even that monster destroyed several countries at that time.

“B-But there is the seal and it is not possible to get out, right?”

“I wonder.”

When Shin replied to the anxious voice of Rashia, the Lord finally moved.

Its arm of several mels length bent and it clenched its fist. And then, while slightly bending its knee, it drew its fist toward the sky in an uppercut-like form.

A dry sound, “gashari”, was made at the same time its arm finished expanding. The invisible barrier that was thought to be covering the sky made a breaking sound and scattered like the demon essence from before, as witnessed by Shin and his party.

“Damn, the seal is finished.”

“Ah! Perhaps it was shattered by a single blow just now.”

“O-Oh no..”

The seal that was supposed to keep high-level monsters inside was disappointedly broken too easily. Rashia probably lost her strength as she fell backwards onto her buttocks.

The eyes of the Lord which had been sucking the demon essence captured the sight of Shin and the others.

“Hii!!”

“Kuu..”

“Oi, it looked over here..”

Wilhelm swallowed his saliva down.

“Indeed.”

It had no eyeballs, but Shin and the others were certain that they were being looked at. Rashia turned pale and trembled at the pressure.

Wilhelm held Rashia who was at a loss, and got ready to escape.

“GuuuuUUUUUU―――――――GaaaAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!”

The Lord let out a warcry as if it would not let any of them go. Shin put himself on guard as he felt the physical weight from the volume of the voice, while Yuzuha shrank its body, Wilhelm was forced to his knees, and Rashia covered her ears while crouching down.

“That roar, damn, it won’t let us get away huh?”

“No, it’s different. Look at the surroundings!”

Almost at the same time Shin raised his voice, white bones thrusted out, one after another, from the ground.

Obviously it was the arm of a humanoid monster. When the ground was gripped firmly, it dragged out its main body from the ground.

A skeleton that was wrapped in a rustic armor came out. Needless to say, it was a Skull Face. They ranged from the Jack, Queen, and the King class. One by one they emerged from the ground until it became a huge uproar. Additionally, each of the individual monsters was two times larger than normal, as the King class was close to 8 mels tall. The number of Skull Faces filling up the plains had already almost reached that of an army.

The aura that was given off by each individual combined, and the entire plains was dyed black.

The emergence of the Skull Faces was happening all over the plains, the surrounding area around Shin and his party was already overflowing with Skull Faces.

“Will!! What to do, Will!!”

“Calm down! Don’t panic about what we have to do! Oi Shin, let’s break through to escape right away!”

“No, I will stay.”

“Ah? What are you saying, you bastard. Do you want to die!?”

Wilhelm, who was irritated at Shin’s awfully calm speech, tried to grab Shin’s shoulder. Though he put power in it, to make him turn around, Shin didn’t move an inch as if Wilhelm was grabbing a gigantic mass of rock.

Shin, then turned around slowly, while calmly releasing the 【Limit】.

“Uo!?”

“Kyaa!”

Wilhelm and Rashia opened their eyes wide at the torrent of power that was given off by Shin.

“I cannot leave this fellow alone. I will open a path so that Wilhelm and Rashia can go ahead toward the kingdom before me.”

“This power..what the hell are you?”

“There is no time to talk about it now. In addition, I have some personal business with this fellow. I don’t want you guys to be dragged into this because that would be bad, so please just get away as far as you can.”

Shin said that while accumulating magic power in both hands. Wilhelm was not able to argue against the overwhelming density.

“Dammit, it can’t be helped then. I will take Rashia and that fox with me. Do I need to collect the item at the base?”

“If it’s possible then that would be nice, but I’m not bothered if it’s lost.”

“Then let’s start quickly. I will properly hear the circumstances when you come back!”

“Ah, I understand. Because I will put a body strengthening buff on you, your speed will be faster than usual. Don’t fall down, okay?”

“Hah! Who the hell do you think you are talking to!! Hey, this fox, it doesn’t want to be separated from you.”

When Wilhelm pulled on Yuzuha, Shin’s face was also pulled.

“Adadadada! Hey Yuzuha! Don’t cling there.”

“Kuu!! Kuu~!!”

Yuzuha, who disliked it, barked. It desperately clung, as if to say it didn’t want to leave Shin.

“Oi, what are you gonna do?”

“Yuzuha..”

By telepathy, Yuzuha’s strong feeling of not wanting to leave him was transmitted to Shin.

“..Sigh, I guess I don’t have any choice. Do you really never want to be separated?”

“Kuu!!”

Yuzuha, on top of Shin’s head, barked again. It was full of motivation.

“Have you settled your discussion? Then let’s be quick.”

“Ah sorry for the wait! Then let’s do this!!”

The body strengthening buff was put on Wilhelm, and while facing toward the direction of the base, Shin released a skill.

It was the lightning system magic skill, 【Lightning Bunker】.

2 parallel lines of very thick lightning bolts, with several mels diameter, were released towards the group of Skull Faces, and they instantly changed into charcoal. The lightning attack made a path through the encirclement of Skull Faces, while Shin maintained the skill.

“Go!!”

Wilhelm kicked the ground at the signal from Shin’s voice. With his leg strength raised by Shin’s buff, he ran through the breakthrough with enough force to leave an afterimage.

“Kyaaaa!!!――――――――ーーーーーーー..”

Rashia screamed at the excessive speed, but it was immediately inaudible. Since the edge of the seal was close by, with Wilhelm’s speed, it probably wouldn’t take much time to get outside of the encirclement of the Skull Faces army. Though swords and spears were thrown by the separate Skull Faces outside the range of the lightning attack, they were repelled by 『Venom』while their speed was maintained.

“Is he gone?”

“Kuu.”

He confirmed that the figures of the two people had disappeared and cancelled the 【Lightning Bunker】. He had killed dozens of Skull Faces, but a large amount of Skull Faces closed up the holes as soon as he cancelled the skill.

The opponents were the subordinates of the Lord Skull Face; Jack class, Queen class, and King class.

The glaring Lord didn’t pay any attention to Rashia and Wilhelm at all, it was focused on Shin the whole time.

There was no monster called Lord Skull Face according to Shin’s knowledge. There were no monsters that exceeded level 800 that Shin didn’t know of, in other words, it was a totally new monster. It was not an enemy that he could judge just from its level.

However, anything like an unknown enemy could become the key for Shin to return to his original world, so there was a possibility that some new information or something could be obtained. Since those possibilities existed, Shin didn’t have the option to run away.

“Now then, should we go this way?”

“Kuuー!!”

Shin prepared his katana, and while feeling that Yuzuha’s voice was reliable, he began to run toward the large army of Skull Face.

If one could say it with one word, it would be, “slaughter”.

Bones shattering, swords breaking, and armors that became lumps of mere iron fell to the ground.

Several deep cracks and gouges scarred the ground, which were unimaginable, since he caused them without using magic.

It was all due to Shin swinging his katana.

“Woosh!”

He kept swinging his katana without using any skills. He cut the cores right in half, those of more than 10 Skull Faces just like that, and they became demon essences as they disappeared.

In addition, he also crushed the swords and armors.

Whenever the katana drew an arc in the plains, where the moonlight shined, the Skull Faces were knocked down, like a sand castle crumbling.

If it were normal adventurers, to defeat a King class, they must be prepared for dozens of sacrifices. But now, it was just a wooden figure in this place.

Like casually cutting down the grass that grows too much, the Skull Faces were definitely being killed.

“Kuoooooo!!”

Not only was Shin attacking, Yuzuha, who took a position on top of Shin’s head, was also breathing out pale flames from its mouth and burning the enemy to ash.

It was a skill exclusive to monsters, 【Fox Fire】. It was a red flame, but an Element Tail originally spit out blue flames. Though it seemed difficult for the present Yuzuha, a diverse attack could be drawn out from the tails in the case of the adults with the original appearance of level 1000. As for the Element Tail, each one of their tails takes charge of either fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, light, or dark magic skills, as well as physical attacks, and magic system skills. It was like fighting multiple enemies from the opponent’s point of view.

The only tail that Yuzuha seemed to be able to control was the magic system skill, which strengthened the【Fox Fire】. Because it was not a skill that a player could use, it was simply based on the image that Yuzuha imagined.

“Man, there are too many enemies.”

“Kuu.”

Even though Shin and Yuzuha had already defeated more than 100 Skull Faces, they had hardly moved from their original spot. There were too many monsters. Moreover, even though each of them was bigger than usual, the gap from the defeated was quickly filled.

It felt like an eternity as he was doing the same thing again and again, like digging sand from the bottom of an hourglass and putting it back on top.

Apparently the Lord Skull Face, the boss, after making a massive amount of Skull Faces appear, withdrew to the center of the Wraith Plains. The plains stretched dozens of kemels from one end to another. Shin was at the edge of the plains, so no appearance of the Lord came into his range of view.

Having withdrawn to lure in the exhausted Shin, it might have started to prepare something.

Shin thought about how to make the enemy come out, while flourishing his katana and Yuzuha spat out flames. In the plains, which were dyed in black aura, only the circumference around Shin was cut out, like exposed skin.

“We shouldn’t overdo it too much?”

“Kuu!”

It looked like one person and one animal were going to be swallowed by the black muddy stream, if seen from the edge. But they talked in a carefree voice, which was inconceivable in this situation.

While chatting, Shin used a slashing attack to hit the Skull Faces, and the black muddy stream was pushed back on the contrary.

No enemy could break through the barrier-like, slashing attack in this place. Just like the Skull Face who fought with Wilhelm before, most of the Skull Faces were expert classes in footwork and sword techniques, but it could only gain them a little time. Rather, it was pathetic that they were no match for Shin.

“It’s no good, huh? The places where the enemies emerge from is too vast.”

Shin used the detection system skills together to scan the surrounding information. Thanks to his flashy actions, a lot of Skull Faces in the plains were gathered around Shin. But Shin perceived that there were some individuals leaving the plains; ignoring the battle.

And apparently there was a big reaction, so presumably there was a King class among them too.

“I’m gonna kick it up a notch. Hold on tight!”

“Kuu!!”

The powerful 『Red Chidori』 was swung around, and the surrounding Skull Faces disappeared.

While holding the 『Red Chidori』 in his left hand, he extended his arm behind him and made a throwing posture. The lighting that had run through 『Red Chidori』’s blade previously couldn’t be compared to the present. The katana blade, that was clad in red lightning, was completely luminescent in and of itself, and brightened the surroundings as if it emitted light. The sound of metal creaking could be heard; it was the shriek of the katana’s blade due to an excessive amount of magic power being poured into it. With his improved stats, it was impossible for the Legend grade weapon to endure Shin’s magic power.

Maybe sensing high density magic power mixing with the light, the Skull Faces hesitated to approach.

And, that hesitation gave Shin enough room to make his preparation.

Katana technique lightning combined skill, 【Hien Raikiri】*. (Note: Flying Swallow Lightning Cutter)

It was a mixture of martial arts skill and magic skill. Then, the combo was put together into a single blow released by Shin.

The 『Red Chidori』 was thrown with strength that could be called inhuman, while also spreading out a shock wave. There was no kind of resistance in ripping apart the Skull Faces crowded together.

The red lighting immediately spread out in all directions from the katana’s blade, moving toward the Skull Faces that became ashes one after another. The appearance was totally like a Hydra. A lightning-like red Hydra was trampling down the black wave with ultra high speed. It felt like the Skull Faces were voluntarily sacrificing themselves to the jaws of the lightning.

After the 『Red Chidori』 flew, a road with a width of about 10 mels was formed, and the ground was cut into from the shock wave and lightning.

Shin immediately ran on that road.

He aimed toward the center of the plains. To the Lord Skull Face.

If he defeated it or destroyed the dungeon core, Shin expected that this turmoil would be settled.

(If Schnee was here, I could have done something different.)

He thought so momentarily, but there was no point in asking for too much. He changed his mindset into that only he could do it now.

He took out a new weapon, and unsheathed it from its scabbard, while speeding up.

It was a 《Mythology》 grade, extra long katana, named 『Hamon Hirumaki』.

It was Japan’s number one long katana. Its full length surpassed 3 mels, if the hilt was included, and the katana’s blade reflected the moonlight in the darkness. Though it’s a little different from the actual name, depending on the person, they would be reminded of 『Nenekirimaru』* when they heard the name. (Note: Nenekirimaru is an exorcism blade which only harms yokai.)

『Hamon Hirumaki』 has a high anti-undead ability as was expected from that anecdote. It had an attack that boasted a ranged attack which was not inferior to a spear due to it having a very long blade.

“Fhew!!”

It was a simple cut, the same as the katana from before. But the Skull Faces that vanished appeared to be no match from a while ago.

The 『Hamon Hirumaki』 was originally a weapon that needed 800 STR or more for it to be swung properly, and it possessed a cutting ability that could cleave a low-level dragon’s head off only with its own weight. If it was swung by a physical strength that surpassed the max stats by a player like Shin, the power was immeasurable.

The blade cut the air, and even the shock wave was impacted into the surrounding objects, splintering them altogether. The Skull Faces had no chance against it. The magnitude of power was different from the start. It was already a disaster for the Skull Faces. Large scale storms, earthquakes, floods and so on; the overwhelming destruction that one could not go against.

The present Shin was exactly like that.

He charged through the gauged-out ground at a speed faster than the slow progress from the situation before.

Though the Skull Faces filled the gap made by 『Hamon Hirumaki』 , this time he didn’t get stranded or stuck.

“Be gone!!”

Then Shin invoked a magic skill.

Wind system magic skill, 【Air Barret】.

It was a skill that made a about 30 ~ 40 cemels mass of wind that was launched in any direction, it had enough power that it could shoot down small flight monsters. However, Shin was not satisfied with only that much power. All of the wind masses that were fired randomly all around exceeded 2 mels, that power could easily blow away the Skull Faces that wore light armor. The Skull Faces flew into the sky like bowling pins, and there was no dignity as a monster of fear remaining anymore.

As he headed toward the center of the plains, the number of Skull Faces that faced Shin multiplied. The majority of the map displayed in Shin’s view was red, and it was impossible to count the number of enemies.

While the white marker, which indicated himself, broke-through the red dyed tainted map on the edge of the view, Shin rushed forward.

The orb that had absorbed the Pecker Hollow appeared in his mind. Since then, the Skull Faces that emerged were certainly strong. But the abilities to strengthen its subordinates and respawn them was not unusual to some degree for a boss monster. Judging from the standards of this world, it would be extremely brutal, but Shin had experienced a larger scale if put on a scale. For this reason, while Shin swung his long katana, he wondered whether he could defeat the enemy as smoothly as that.

(There is no disadvantage in being cautious.)

He reserved his energy while he annihilated the enemies. It was possible since his stats were raised from the game era. Shin was surely powerful. But sometimes quantity exceeded quality. Regardless of how many of his stats were maxed, Shin was not invincible, nor immortal either. He could do nothing but die if killed.

historical

“――――――――――――――――――――!!!!!!”

A roar resounded throughout the plains. With a high frequency like-signal, a large amount of hands started coming out of the ground.

The origin of the roar was the Lord Skull Face. Due to that roar, no matter how much he reduced the number of Skull Faces by, it didn’t matter. Whenever it made a sound, new Skull Faces emerged from the ground.

“Again?”

He muttered while feeling that the source of the roar was nearby. He had the urge to use a wide area annihilation magic skill to blow off the excessive number that sprang out, but he endured it because he couldn’t use it carelessly.

In this world, range and power were not the same as in the game. Even with the basic magic skill that Shin learned, especially with his stats, its power might be in an intermediate class or higher if he lost control. What scale could it become if he used the wide area magic at the highest class? It was unimaginable. A forest might vanish by mistake, so it was not a laughing matter.

The ability that rose remarkably at this moment, was restrained and became a burden while Shin fought.

(If it was only me here, I might do that.)

While seeing green markers displayed on the map, Shin invoked a magic skill.

Flame system magic skill, 【Ember Flame】.

By the way, the green marker expressed a neutral player or NPC who was neither friend nor enemy. In other words, it showed that this place had someone other than Shin.

Countless fireballs appeared high in the sky above Shin, they rained down over the Skull Faces that surrounded Shin and the green markers. The fireballs generated intense heat the moment they touched an object without exploding and would disappear. The Skull Faces that received a direct hit from the fireballs looked like bee nests and vanished.

Because it didn’t spread flames, there were little flying sparks near the surroundings. And he didn’t need to put up with any clouds of dust due to the explosions. Thus, he didn’t relax on the aiming even if there was a considerable distance.

Though Shin didn’t know it, it was the adventurers who had been dispatched to observe the Wraith Plains, the knights squadron. They accidentally encountered the Skull Faces which had left the plains, and it became a state of war.

“That’s bad.”

The Skull Faces’ bigger physiques that Shin was fighting in his surrounding area interfered with his field of vision, so he couldn’t see well, but they seemed to be receiving Shin’s protection and were fighting well when he saw the movements of the marker. The level of the Skull Faces crowding around the green markers were about 300; fortunately it were the weak classes of Skull Faces that had been strengthened. However, there were Skull Faces exceeding level 500 that were approaching from the rear.

No matter how much he supported them with a magic skill, the distance was too far and there was a limit. Shin had learned to use combinations of skills, so he was able to sense it because the perception range had been expanded. He might be able to go if he could fly, but a skill that enabled flight was nonexistent in THE NEW GATE, so it was not possible to ‘fly’ even if it was possible to ‘jump’ using a skill.

“Why are they approaching in this direction? Did they not hear the roar?”

While clad in the storm of his blade as usual, he changed his course toward the green marker. He didn’t know who they were, but he couldn’t abandon them.

“Kuu?”

“Do you want to help?” As if Yuzuha asked, and answered “They will die before you arrive”, as he defeated the nearby enemies with a magic skill. Though the red marker indicated that the Skull Faces disappeared, multiple individuals of the red appeared immediately from the ground.

“Tsk, there is not enough time!!”

He collected magic power in his hands in order to save those who were surrounded.

The moment Shin was about to release his magic skill, a blue lightning bolt exploded ahead of Shin’s point of view.

It was the same lightning system magic skill that he used when Shin let Wilhelm and Rashia escape, 【Lightning Bunker】.

The lightning passed near the green markers at point-blank range, and defeated the nearby Skull Faces. Not one wound was inflicted on the adventurers, while all the surrounding enemies were destroyed.

Shin felt relief for that situation for a short time, but he was momentarily unable to take his eyes off of it, due to the color of the marker and the name displayed.

The color of the marker was blue. The color that indicated a friend.

The displayed name was 【Schnee Raizar】.

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