The Failure Marquis Is A Genius [EN]: Chapter 72

The Earl’s Wastrel is a Genius – Chapter 72 (72/200)

Chapter 10: Hatching – The Wandering Wastrel

I successfully blocked Greed’s attack.

I glanced at the egg in the center of the magic circle, but it seemed to need more time to hatch.

It wasn’t too late yet.

If I could hold Greed here and Ciel and Campbell could break the egg, there was still a chance.

Soon, Tom would likely break out of the tentacle sphere as well.

“Hmm…”

As the situation turned unfavorable, Greed rested his chin on his hand, closely examining the traces of my fight with the Minotaur.

His gaze was fixed on the Stone Shield I had cast in the moment of crisis and the tree roots I had used to bind the Minotaur’s ankles.

“Henon, Henon, Henon.”

The masked gentleman in the fedora muttered to himself as if deep in thought.

“It’s been strange since the Dantalian summoning. It’s already amazing that he reached the Expert level at such a young age, but he’s using skills I’ve never seen before.”

It was understandable that Greed thought so.

In the fight against Dantalian, I had spared no Druid skills.

Seeing me flying through the air and clashing with the demon, Greed must have realized that I was no ordinary swordsman.

Moreover, in the underground battle at City Hall today, I freely manipulated trees and stones against the Minotaur, overwhelming him.

Based on the data he had collected, Greed came to a conclusion about my true identity.

“For all of this to make sense, Henon, you must be the Druid that the main church has been desperately searching for.”

I neither confirmed nor denied it.

But wasn’t silence an affirmation?

The corners of Greed’s mouth stretched to his ears.

“Kuh-ha! Kuh-hah-hah! So that’s how it was! That’s what it was!”

Greed’s words quickened in excitement.

“To be honest, I thought the Pope was chasing a pipe dream. A being who can control the laws of nature at will? That’s cheating, isn’t it? But it really existed. Heh heh heh…”

There was no reason to indulge the enemy’s chatter.

I needed to end this before the egg hatched, so I drew the Cheonma Sword and pointed it at Greed.

Ciel and Campbell also readied their weapons, preparing to charge.

Covered in blood from defeating Killdog, they looked eager to kill Greed, their expressions revealing their desire.

Meanwhile, Greed, having realized that I was a Druid, scanned me up and down with greedy eyes.

“Good. I’ll definitely keep you alive, even if I have to get rid of the others, and offer you to the Pope. Of course, I might have to remove an arm or a leg along the way. I wonder what reward the Pope will give me for bringing you, Henon.”

Leaving Greed to his pipe dreams, I quickly devised a raid strategy.

“Campbell, with his strong defense, will charge straight ahead to draw Greed’s attention. Ciel, with his assassination skills, will exploit any openings. I’ll deliver the final blow.”

It was a textbook strategy based on each of our strengths.

There was a reason I was assigned the finishing blow.

Not only was I the strongest among the three, but I also needed to use the Druid’s power to exorcise and ensure a definite end, given that we didn’t know Greed’s true combat abilities.

“Let’s go!”

“Uwoooo!”

Campbell charged forward with a roar.

What cards was Greed hiding?

I watched carefully and saw him pull a small weapon from his chest, small enough to hold in one hand.

I was shocked as soon as I saw the weapon.

Even if others didn’t know, I, who came from 21st-century Earth, couldn’t possibly not know.

“Campbell! It’s a revolver! Prepare for a long-range attack!”

A revolver with six bullets in the cylinder [the rotating part of a firearm that holds cartridges].

How on earth did a gun end up here?

It seemed that this was also one of the ancient relics.

Campbell, a seasoned warrior with a keen sense, stopped his charge upon hearing my voice and immediately hid, using his broad sword as a shield.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three gunshots rang out.

The first bullet struck the center of the sword’s face, causing cracks throughout the blade. The second bullet shattered the blade, and the third bullet grazed Campbell’s side.

“Campbell!”

Ciel, who had been camouflaged, rushed out and quickly pulled Campbell away from Greed.

Meanwhile, I quickly gathered information about Greed’s weapon.

If it was just a simple gun, it wouldn’t have mattered.

If it were a firearm used on Earth, it could never have pierced Campbell’s mana-enhanced sword.

However, Greed had broken through the mana sword and pierced Campbell’s mana-enhanced side with just three shots.

The reason for this result was that the gun he was holding was not just a simple firearm.

It meant that the bullets were also mana bullets filled with energy.

“This has become troublesome.”

I glared at Greed, who blew away the smoke coming from the barrel of his gun, and checked on Campbell’s condition.

“Campbell, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. It was just a graze.”

The attack seemed to have ignited Campbell’s fighting spirit, as he looked filled with determination.

Ciel also glared at Greed, emitting a chilling aura.

And I seemed to have a rough idea of Greed’s weaknesses from that attack.

“If he’s a gunner who enjoys long-range attacks, then close combat must be his weakness.”

So far, Greed had shown these skills:

Monster summoning through rift generation, tentacle sealing using life force as energy, and gun techniques using mana bullets.

None of them involved fighting up close.

If he were confident in close combat, he would never have fought this way, so targeting that seemed like a way to deal with him within the time limit.

“Ciel, Campbell, change of plans.”

“How so?”

“I’ll take the front. Since that gun is the most troublesome, I’ll handle the ranged attacks while you deliver the finishing blow.”

It was a role reversal.

Ciel and Campbell, who were quick to understand, nodded.

“Kukuku, do you think you’ll achieve anything by putting your heads together? I’ll finish you off now.”

While we were discussing our strategy, Greed quickly reloaded and aimed six more bullets at me.

I wouldn’t just stand there and get hit this time.

I mobilized all the Druid skills I could use.

[Wind Control]

[Activating Haste.]

The wind blowing underground gently wrapped around my ankles. It wrapped around not only me but also Ciel and Campbell. Campbell and Ciel’s eyes widened as their speed suddenly increased.

“Don’t be surprised. It’s part of the blessing I can bestow.”

In this situation, there was no skill better than Haste [a spell or ability that increases movement speed]. The faster the speed, the harder it would be for Greed to hit all of us.

“As expected, the Vice-Captain gains new abilities every time I see him.”

“My body feels much lighter.”

Ciel and Campbell were very satisfied.

The speed buff wasn’t the end.

I then summoned golems.

[Summoning Wood Golem.]

[Summoning Wood Golem.]

[Summoning Stone Golem.]

Having been promoted to an intermediate Druid, the 2-star Wood Golems became golems made of much sturdier wood, and, more importantly, I could summon two of them.

In addition, the Stone Golem, with a hardness incomparable to wood, firmly held the center.

As targets appeared to take the ranged attacks, Greed couldn’t hide his discomfort.

“You use a lot of miscellaneous tricks.”

“I don’t think you’re one to talk.”

Without further ado.

No more words were needed.

As I commanded the golems, the three golems charged towards Greed.

The ground shook with every step the giant golems took.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the gun spat fire, bullets filled with mana pierced the golems’ arms and legs.

The hit golems staggered for a moment and stopped moving, but soon they gathered wood and stones from the surroundings to repair the damaged areas.

In the first place, golems are capable of self-healing by continuously gathering the same materials from the surroundings unless their core is destroyed.

Moreover, the location of the core is random each time they are summoned, so it was nearly impossible for Greed to snipe the core unless he was lucky or had a separate detection skill.

“Damn it!”

Finally, profanity burst from Greed’s mouth.

His main weapon, the revolver, had good penetration and could inflict significant damage even with small wounds, making it effective against people.

However, it was terribly incompatible against large golems that weren’t human.

Perhaps sensing this, he turned his gun and fired one shot each at Ciel and Campbell.

Bang! Bang!

Ciel and Campbell scattered left and right, barely dodging the bullets.

If it weren’t for the speed boost from Haste, they might have been seriously injured.

It was fortunate that I had been promoted to an intermediate Druid.

“He’s fired all six shots. Don’t give him time to reload!”

An opening appeared.

Now it was our turn to hunt.

The golems charged from the front, and Ciel and Campbell attacked from the left and right.

“How dare you!!”

Sensing the disadvantageous situation, Greed shouted loudly for no reason and threw a smoke grenade he was holding onto the floor.

Boom!!

White smoke obscured the vision.

Greed took advantage of this gap to leap backward.

However, the tree roots I summoned wrapped around his ankles.

[Wood Control]

[Activating Bind.]

“Won’t you let go?”

The enemy quickly cut the tree roots with the dagger he had used to summon monsters, but the delay alone was a success.

I was already close to him.

[Wind Control]

[Activating Blink.]

Spot—!

A mix of Haste and Blink [a short-range teleportation skill].

It was a dash skill I was using for the first time.

Although it wasn’t the maximum speed I could achieve because I hadn’t consumed acorns, it was still incredibly fast.

The emerald light flashed.

I slashed down at Greed’s neck.

Followed by a dull sound.

Clang!!

It wasn’t the expected sensation.

Something blocked the Cheonma Sword and Greed’s neck.

I had clearly put in the fully fused mana and even imbued it with the power of exorcism, but I couldn’t kill him.

Turning around, I saw Greed slumped down, panting, with a shattered crystal ball in his hand.

“Hah… Hah…”

He had gone back and forth between life and death in a short moment.

I guessed that the sphere-shaped relic Greed had was what blocked my attack.

“You’re like a peddler. Where do you get so many toys?”

But it didn’t matter anymore.

That ball was broken too.

There could only be one or two rare items that create a barrier to block random attacks, so it would be over if I attacked again.

And there was a question that came to mind during this attack.

“Are you… really a Twilight executive?”

He certainly had skills.

He was knowledgeable in curses and summoning, and his ability to plot, though he often betrayed, was a skill in itself.

Moreover, not just anyone could form such a large magic circle and create an unidentified egg, and he even had many mysterious relics.

However, Greed’s decisive flaw, which outweighed all these advantages, was…

“You’re not a Master. At best, you’re a top-tier Expert.”

His own martial prowess was ambiguous.

His movements? They were okay.

If they weren’t good, Campbell or Ciel would have taken his head off already.

However, the problem was that they were just okay.

For a so-called Twilight’s Seven Executives, his movements weren’t great but simply okay. At this rate, he was no different from Sebastian, who oversaw the household affairs in the Lloyd Fiefdom.

No matter how short of talent the Twilight Church was, I didn’t think the Pope would make someone like him a Great Executive.

“Kukuku! Kuhahahaha!!!”

Greed burst into laughter upon hearing my words.

The way he chuckled seemed as if he had heard something funny.

I wondered if Greed was hiding his skills, but that was unlikely.

His own martial prowess was all he had, and he had used up almost all of his relics, so it was game over.

“Well, it seems I’ve been quite underestimated.”

“At least Niflheim, who fought in the North, was much stronger than you.”

“The criteria for judging strength differ from person to person. That woman, who couldn’t even control her own emotions and was stupid, was disqualified as a Twilight Great Executive.”

“Still, she seems better than you, who lost to us.”

Ciel and Campbell narrowed the gap.

I drew the Cheonma Sword and aimed it.

It was a desperate moment for Greed.

In that situation, he suddenly took off his fedora and mask.

“!!!”

Greed, who had maintained the fedora-masked gentleman concept, revealed his true appearance for the first time.

The revealed face was truly shocking.

A gruesome appearance was hidden beneath the mask.

As if he had been burned, Greed’s facial skin, which appeared to be at least a third-degree burn, was melting like candle wax and had hardened.

“So that’s why he wore a mask?”

But his eyes were beautiful.

Yellowish-brown topaz eyes.

They contrasted with his pockmarked face, emitting an even more dreamlike light.

I felt like I was falling deeper and deeper into his eyes.

In the meantime, Greed opened his mouth.

“Henon… no. Kim Cheol-soo, isn’t it time for you to wake up from your dream?”

I swear, I was the most surprised I had been since entering the game world. Somehow, Greed knew my name from Earth.

“What trickery is this? Did you learn mind reading or something?”

“Kukukuku, that’s impossible. You’re just taking a nice nap.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“If you don’t believe me, try killing me.”

“I’ll grant your wish.”

I raised the Cheonma Sword and stabbed Greed’s heart, and to be sure, I even cut off his head.

With this, I had defeated the Twilight Great Executive.

That’s how it should have been…

Bbrrrring! Bbrrrring!!

The sound of a ringing telephone somewhere.

Then someone shakes my shoulder from behind.

“Hey, Manager Kim! What are you doing?”

I jumped up.

A desk piled high with documents.

The familiar smell of paper.

A monitor with a screensaver turned on.

A telephone ringing loudly.

“Are you tired these days? You still have to answer the phone. Drink this and get to work.”

Turning around, I saw my boss handing me a cup of instant coffee.

I couldn’t believe it.

This place… was the company office.