Cooking Swordmaster [EN]: Chapter 135

Melilot

Gold Rush was a town bustling with as many people as the commercial city of Anvil.

Three-tenths of the minerals mined here belonged to the miners.

A condition rarely found in other mines where most are on a salary system.

If you were lucky enough to discover a gold mine, you could become rich in an instant.

In the end, young people dreaming of hitting the jackpot flocked there, and it became one of Britannia’s leading iron ore production areas.

Such a Gold Rush had been booming in a different sense for some time.

The door of a carriage pulled by two fine horses opened, and a man holding a child got out.

He asked a passing miner.

“Excuse me, do you know where I can get curry?”

“Ah, you’ve come to eat curry too. It’s incredibly popular these days. If you follow the road to the central square, you’ll find people gathered there. But your horses look very tired; you must have come a long way.”

“Hoo… It took me two full days by carriage to get here from Aberdeen.”

The man’s eyes were moist. He was that desperate. His son had been suffering from an unknown epidemic for some time and hadn’t woken up.

If he could just see him running around and playing again, he would go to even worse places than Gold Rush.

Like the man, there were hundreds of people who had heard the rumors and came to Gold Rush.

Most of them lived in Crolla, but there were quite a few outsiders as well.

Shadow hid in the shadows of a building, letting out a gasp of astonishment.

‘A holder… A precious holder…’

The number of immortal cell holders he had planted for cultivation for only half a month had noticeably decreased.

At this rate, he wouldn’t even be able to salvage half, let alone the target amount.

Until recently, he had been moving to hunt the Elf Queen.

But that ended with only half a success.

He stopped the planting of the World Tree, but failed to take the Queen’s life.

Count Algedi, upon hearing the news, smiled and said.

― Tsk, to think you couldn’t kill the Queen even after using Meliot. But I’ll give you a chance to make up for it. Just raise a hundred holders on the farm. Surely you won’t fail even that, will you?

That was some time ago.

Those cursed slowly become beings like the Seven Deadly Sins.

And a small amount of immortal cells could be harvested from their bodies.

Dozens of holders were needed to create one immortal.

Of course, that was not a problem at all.

The materials were very easy to obtain.

Shadow became a common miner in Gold Rush and walked to the central square.

Before he knew it, he saw a man making curry. That’s the one. The food that guy makes is eliminating the immortal cells.

“Pests that ruin crops just before harvest…”

Must be eliminated.

Of course, there were other ways, but this method suited an assassin.

Thinking so, Shadow hid in the shadows of the back alley again.

And waited for night to fall. There were too many eyes to kill his opponent now.

When an assassin has a target to kill, they choose the best time and place from three days to a week.

The place was a remote outskirts. And the time was midnight.

In his hand, he already held a poisoned needle coated with potent venom.

It was difficult to kill an Aura user with an ordinary poisoned needle. It was difficult to penetrate the opponent’s Aura and inject poison into the body.

Therefore, to become an assassin, one had to be trained to infuse Aura into the poisoned needle.

Shadow was the best assassin who had perfectly completed all the processes.

He was confident that he could kill even a Sword Master.

So, without any doubt, he aimed for the opponent’s neck and fired the poisoned needle.

Whoosh!

‘Got him!’

A bitter smile appeared on Shadow’s lips.

It was a pity about the pest’s cooking skills, but his mission was to secure as many holders as possible.

Eliminating anyone who interfered with that was also Shadow’s job.

What Shadow used was a poison that even a Twin Head Ogre couldn’t withstand for a minute. Surely that pest would also die in an instant.

‘Even if I kill that guy, another pest will appear, so I have to get rid of that too.’

Shadow retrieved the poisoned needle he had fired and approached to retrieve the curry recipe he might have left behind.

For a perfect assassination, cleaning up was also important.

‘What, what is this!?’

Shadow’s eyes widened in an instant.

The corpse had disappeared before his eyes.

What he thought was a corpse was the clown costume he was wearing.

“… !”

And a sharp blade grazed Shadow’s shoulder.

If he hadn’t dodged with animalistic senses, his arm might have been cut off.

“As expected, it’s true that the best time to catch a beast is when it’s targeting its prey.”

A voice as cold as Durendal’s chill.

The pest who should have died was aiming his sword at him.

@

‘I finally caught him.’

Kainchel had known for days that a suspicious shadow was watching him.

And no new cases had appeared since then.

‘That means this guy was spreading the curse.’

The opponent was a man he remembered seeing several times.

He was wandering around in the group of miners with an indifferent expression.

Maybe he killed someone and stole their appearance.

Shadow was more skilled at hiding his presence than anyone Kainchel had ever met.

‘At this point, he must be a trained assassin. Plus, he seems to have a few magical tools.’

If it weren’t for Fallen Star, he would never have noticed Shadow’s presence.

And he made curry even more diligently.

Curry, made by combining numerous spices, greatly increased resistance to potent venom.

Moreover, the satisfaction of those who ate the curry was also very high.

― Potent Venom Resistance (76.1%)

It was because of this that he could confidently reveal himself to the assassin.

However, Shadow did not give up easily.

Clang-!

Shadow took out a thin sword from his waist and swung it. Hiding a freely bending soft sword was also one of the characteristics of assassins.

From diagonal to straight. From there to a curve again.

Shadow’s soft sword began to dance, aiming up, down, left, and right.

It was a powerful attack that could instantly expose the vitals of someone unfamiliar with it.

However, Kainchel knew someone, or rather an elf, who wielded a sword in the same way.

‘It’s three times slower than a bouquet of roses!’

Kainchel aimed for Shadow’s hand wielding the soft sword and thrust Durendal.

Clang!

Then, the soft sword that Shadow was holding soared into the sky. It was a terrifyingly fast and powerful thrust.

“You…”

It was as if he was asking why a clown was so strong.

Advanced swordsmanship at 13 stars. Aura increased by the consumption of dragon meat. Kainchel had become terrifyingly strong in a matter of months.

Moreover, the cold air emanating from Durendal dulled Shadow’s movements.

Shadow was an assassin who used potent venom and unconventional attacks as weapons.

He could probably handle two or three Sword Knights.

But now Shadow was fighting Kainchel. He couldn’t see any way to win.

However, Shadow did not give up easily.

“Heh. Aren’t you curious why I’m targeting you?”

“No, not at all.”

Kainchel shrugged and activated Onion Swordsmanship as it was. At the same time, four blades shredded Shadow’s body.

The opponent was an assassin trained to kill someone.

Even if he was captured and interrogated, he wouldn’t reveal the information he knew.

Then eliminating him here would be cleaner.

‘If there’s no medium spreading the curse, this place will be safe for a while.’

“Kuhuk!”

Shadow let out a groan like a beast growling.

He clutched his arm, from which blood was dripping. He judged that there was no chance of winning if he fought any longer.

Then…

When he rolled up his sleeve, a tattoo wrapped around Shadow’s hand appeared.

A shape that was all too familiar to Kainchel.

‘….Ma, magic engraving?!’

“I didn’t want to use this!”

Shadow twisted his fingers in an instant.

It happened so quickly that it couldn’t be stopped.

At the same time, a dazzling light enveloped the two.

‘Is he, is he running away? No, this is…’

When the light subsided, a beautiful woman with purple hair appeared.

It seemed that the magical tool on his wrist had changed his appearance.

Her fancy dress was soaked in blood. Even if she changed her appearance, it seemed that it didn’t erase the wounds she had already sustained.

Shadow, who had become Algedi’s daughter Lucia, called out someone’s name in a sharp voice.

“Meliot!”

Before she knew it, a huge giant was standing behind Lucia.

“…Lu, Lucia. My, my love, why are you so wounded?”

“It’s that person. That person made me like this!”

“Oh, Lucia… Don’t worry. I’ll, right now…”

What Lucia activated was a space 이동 [teleportation] magic that summoned the diligent Sword Master Meliot to this place.

If she used other magic engravings, she could escape from this place.

However, the assassin’s instinct was warning her that she had to kill the clown in front of her.

That’s why she summoned the strongest weapon she could use, Berserker Meliot.

“Ooooooo… !”

Meliot, who had literally become a berserker, roared wildly.

At the same time, an overwhelmingly enormous Aura poured out.

It was as if it was constantly flowing out from the pores of his entire body.

The Aura emitted by the Sword Master stopped even the flow of air.

Kainchel bit his lip.

He never thought he would fight a Sword Master so soon. But this confirmed that it was Count Algedi who was spreading the curse.

The high-density Aura emitted by Meliot distorted the surrounding air.

“Oh, my love… !”

Meliot drew the huge greatsword he was carrying on his back and swung it as it was.

Kuuuuung-!

At the same time, a tremendous roar echoed as if lightning was striking.

If he hadn’t reflexively activated the booster to gain explosive propulsion, his body would have been cut in half in one blow.

‘Is it hard to escape.’

Meliot was easily surpassing the speed that Kainchel could only achieve by using the booster.

His already tremendous physical abilities seemed to have been further enhanced as he became a berserker.

But conversely, it meant that he could somewhat keep up with Meliot’s speed if he used the booster.

He wanted to scream.

Instructor Ian, the only one who had believed in him for three years.

The technology he had created with his whole life was demonstrating such great abilities!

A blow that seemed to shatter space covered Kainchel. At the same time, thirty meringues blocked the space between the two.

Meliot’s swing tore the meringues apart in an instant, but it bought Kainchel time to escape.

‘Damn it, he’s a complete monster. No wonder Nymue and Abel were so messed up.’

It was like fighting a giant typhoon or hurricane.

Lucia, seeing Kainchel dodging Meliot’s attack, shouted in embarrassment.

“What, Meliot! Kill him! Kill that fly!”

“Lu, Si, Ah…”

Meliot, who was fighting Kainchel, suddenly turned his body and looked at Lucia.

Berserkers move according to instinct, losing their reason.

It was good to be able to control the Sword Master at will, but the biggest drawback was that he couldn’t be properly controlled.

It was as if he was saying that even though he had lost his reason and become a berserker, his love for his lover remained the same.

Kainchel did not miss that short gap.

‘Glaze!’

A glaze that compressed three types of Aura to the limit could cut even the body of a Sword Master.

Durendal emitted a cold sword light.

And Meliot’s arm, which was holding the greatsword, was cut off from the shoulder.