Chapter 44: Reaching a Consensus (2)

“During the formation process of certain basic elemental skills, it’s possible to combine them with conventional ammunition to enhance their effectiveness.”

Thirty years ago, when the Great Change plunged the world into chaos, a heated debate raged over whether conventional weapons or Awakened abilities and dropped items were more effective against monsters. It was during this period that a weapons expert made this startling announcement.

The theory proposed that by adding ammunition to the projectiles during the skill’s formation process, mana could be converted into kinetic energy to launch both the projectile and the bullet simultaneously, thereby significantly amplifying the skill’s destructive power.

“Aren’t most Awakened skills projectile-based elemental skills? Fireballs, Ice Bolts, Lightning Javelins, and the like? This means we can double the destructive power of these skills using existing technology.”

Simple elemental skills of C-grade or lower could be manipulated in this way because foreign substances could be seamlessly integrated into the mana clusters before they transformed into projectiles.

“This will be the greatest discovery in human history, completely reversing the current state of the war!” the expert declared with grand confidence.

However, contrary to his bold claims, the theory was quickly abandoned. It turned out that conventional firearms were almost entirely ineffective against monsters, and worse, introducing foreign substances significantly reduced the purity of mana, drastically diminishing the original skill’s power.

Nevertheless, the theory wasn’t entirely useless. It laid the foundation for the weapons we now call Mana Rifles.

The crucial point is this: projectile skills like Fireball are formed from elemental projectiles before they are launched.

It was possible to incorporate “foreign matter” into a mana sphere.

“Kugh, Kuaaah!”

Just like now.

Duke Duas stumbled, clutching his tattered arm. I glared at him and prepared another Fireball.

To be precise, I mentally chanted “Fire,” stopping abruptly.

Simultaneously, azure flames began to coalesce in my outstretched left hand.

Now that the Fireball spell required no gestures and could be activated simply by silently uttering the incantation, I could control its charge level and release timing by modulating the syllables.

By dragging out the “-re” sound in “Fi-re-,” the charge rate would increase by 10% per second.

But if I stopped precisely at “Fire,” as I had done now, the 10% charged Fireball would remain in my hand without launching.

Whirr!

A 10% Fireball.

I glanced at the swirling fire-attribute mana sphere flickering in my palm.

One by one, he dropped silver bullets into the mana sphere. Each bullet sank into the orb with a soft plink, settling precisely at its center.

“H-how is this possible? Where did you even get such holy relics?” the vampire sputtered, his eyes wide with disbelief.

After loading three silver bullets into the fireball—just like the “stone-filled Fireball” he had unleashed earlier—he aimed at the shrieking vampire and began the incantation for the launch.

Silently, he chanted the “ball” of Fireball.

Thoom!

With a slightly muffled thud, the fireball carrying the silver bullets shot across the center of the Lord’s Chamber in a single, swift arc.

“Grrr!”

This time, however, Duke Duas refused to be a passive target.

The moment he spotted the incoming fireball, he abruptly threw himself sideways, narrowly evading the attack.

The sight of the noble vampire, typically so dignified, tumbling clumsily in a frantic attempt to dodge the attack was utterly humiliating.

Yet, it allowed him to narrowly evade the Fireball.

KABOOM!

Instead of striking Duas, the Fireball shattered his throne into splinters with a deafening explosion.

“Grrrraaaah!”

A groan erupted from the thick cloud of dust.

Had he been grazed by a silver bullet propelled by the Fireball’s explosion?

I saw the vampire clutching his left shoulder, where silvery smoke curled upward, gasping for breath.

Hmm.

Observing him, I pondered anew.

Could it be because of the silver bullets?

The Fireball’s velocity had noticeably decreased compared to its usual speed.

Even if the first attack had struck Duas because he was caught off guard, it was unlikely such a tactic would work again, given the current situation.

Four silver bullets left. I can’t afford to waste a single one.

To completely annihilate him, all four bullets needed to be lodged firmly within his body.

With unwavering precision.

Targeting only his vital weak points.

And then, suddenly…

Ah.

Another foolproof method sprang to mind.

He had lost an entire arm, rendering him incapable of mounting a proper counterattack.

He could still evade, but he couldn’t block.

In that case, there was no need to engage him from afar with ranged interception.

“I can’t fall here! My body can’t be reduced to ashes like this!” Duke Duas roared in desperate fury, his voice echoing through the swirling, hazy smoke.

Undeterred, I picked up the remaining four silver bullets and slid them into place.

Where?

Between the index and middle fingers of my clenched fists.

One bullet between the middle and ring fingers of each hand.

“W-what are you planning to do now…?”

Perhaps sensing the inherent danger in my actions, Duke Duas flinched, startled, and stumbled backward.

Unfazed, I tightened the silver bullets between my fingers, creating makeshift knuckle dusters. A sinister grin spread across my face as I spat out one final taunt:

“Hey, as long as I can cram them in somehow, right?”

Lee Seonah stood frozen, her sword hanging limply at her side, staring blankly at the scene before her.

Just a month ago, Taejun had been a mere D-rank porter. Now, he was locked in a life-or-death struggle with Duke Duas, a vampire noble of A+ class danger—one of the most powerful and intelligent monsters.

Or rather, let’s correct that.

Thud!

“Ugh… Aaaah!”

It wasn’t a fair fight where both sides risked their lives. It was a one-sided battle where only one life hung in the balance.

And that life, unsurprisingly, belonged to Duke Duas, not Taejun.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Whack!

“Kaaaah!”

Bang!

The vampire crashed into the audience hall floor, sent flying by Taejun’s kick. His convulsing body was already grotesquely battered, silver smoke seeping from the gaping holes in his chest and thigh.

”…”

Lee Seonah finally lowered her sword completely.

No matter how she looked at it, there seemed to be no room for her to interfere in Taejun’s “hunt.”

Of course, that was beside the point.

She still couldn’t quite grasp how to process this situation.

Just moments ago, Taejun’s Fireball had shredded the arm of a high-ranking vampire noble.

It was just a simple Fireball.

Yet the vampire had been blasted away, his arm completely torn apart as if he’d been mowed down by machine gun fire.

The reason quickly became clear.

Silver bullets suddenly rained from his body, clattering to the ground.

But where on earth had Taejun gotten silver bullets with such devastating power?

If he’d been carrying it all along, why was he only using it now?

Meanwhile, the other questions were piling up.

Wham!

“Ugh!”

Duke Duas, unable to mount any proper resistance against Taejun, could only scramble away, battered and bruised.

When on earth did he learn the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist? And to such a degree that he could unilaterally pummel a vampire like this?

The martial art Taejun was using against the vampire was unmistakably the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist, a technique supposedly exclusive to members of the Hwarang.

While it didn’t feel like a perfect Soaring Dragon Divine Fist, it was undeniably based on that martial art.

Soohyun had told him all about it.

The Soaring Dragon Divine Fist was said to be one of the most difficult martial arts to master, requiring at least two years of rigorous training to use effectively in real combat.

Yet Taejun wielded it with the effortless grace of a seasoned master who had practiced for over a decade. He used the complex martial art with mechanical precision, moving with unnatural freedom.

As Lee Seonah watched the clash between Duke Duas and Taejun unfold, her mind grew increasingly troubled.

“W-wait, just a moment… hold on…”

Bang!

Cornered and pleading desperately, the vampire noble reached out a trembling hand. Taejun, without a word, kicked him brutally, sending him crashing into the far corner of the audience chamber.

Staring at Taejun, Lee Seonah murmured, her voice filled with worry, “Lee Taejun… what on earth has happened to you?”

“Hah.”

He exhaled a short breath and slowly walked across the utterly devastated Lord’s Chamber, heading east toward the corner where Duke Duas lay crumpled.

“Ugh… ughhh…”

The vampire duke was a tattered mess, slumped against the wall of the chamber.

As the eastern wall of the ruined Lord’s Chamber crumbled further, light began to seep in.

The dawn’s first light.

Even in this domain where eternal night seemed destined to reign, morning was finally arriving.

The dawn’s light, now illuminating the Lord’s Chamber, began to permeate the duke’s body.

Sizzle!

His flesh hissed and burned away in a plume of black smoke as the sunlight touched it.

The vampire, silver bullets lodged in his chest, throat, and left thigh, lay paralyzed, only able to lift his head.

”…Cough, you bastard…”

His voice, a tangled mess of terror, shock, rage, and confusion, finally broke the silence.

“What are you? What is your identity? Are you the Son of God?”

“Not exactly the Son of God.”

Of course not. I wasn’t some grand, divine entity.

Well, if I had to put it a certain way…

“More like the son of the Status Window.”

“What the hell does that even mean…?”

Thud!

His sentence died mid-utterance.

My fist had plunged straight into his chest.

The last silver bullet lodged itself in his heart.

The vampire’s eyes widened as if they might burst from their sockets. He gaped soundlessly, letting out a silent scream.

Then, slowly…

Shhhhhh…

Starting from the pierced chest, his body began to crumble into ash, drifting away.

Such an anticlimactic end for a creature who had proclaimed himself a “colossal evil.”

Immediately after dealing with the vampire…

As if he had been watching the entire situation unfold, a chat window suddenly appeared before my eyes.

That lunatic who sold me the silver bullets… No.

The impossibly kind Nonviolent Priest.

The silver bullets he sold were worth far more than their weight in gold. If I’d tried to find something like that on the open market, even offering 3 billion Coins wouldn’t have been enough, let alone 300 million. After all, consumables with such ridiculously overpowered performance simply didn’t exist on Earth.

I nodded with a satisfied smile.

A glowing review? Of course. I’d gotten far more than I’d paid for.

Where Duke Duas had stood, a fist-sized, top-grade Essence Stone shimmered brightly. That alone made the entire transaction worthwhile.

But there was more.

A small notification window popped up the moment Lee Taejun defeated Duke Duas.

The reason for the stat increases was simple: they were rewards for clearing the dungeon.

He immediately checked his status:

A total of 5 stat points had been evenly distributed among his attributes.

This was more than enough to fill the remaining 2% of his synchronization progress.

“Alright, just one more step.”

Only 1% remained to reach the 30% synchronization threshold.

At this rate, I might even obtain the special reward: an upgrade to the Status Window function.

But then…

“Huh? Team Leader, what’s going on here?”

“Ugh, my head… What happened? Why is everything such a mess all of a sudden?”

“V-Vice Team Leader Kim Jihoon?! Ahyeong, check on him quickly!”

A commotion suddenly erupted behind us.

With Duke Duas’s disappearance, the enchantment on the remaining team members completely dissolved.

Yun Ahyeong, the healer, rushed to tend to Kim Jihoon, who lay sprawled on the ground.

The other three members of Team 3 armed themselves with their weapons and positioned themselves protectively around Lee Seonah.

“Team Leader, it turns out that Lord Duas, or whatever his name is, was the boss after all!”

Led by their nervous youngest member, the Team 3 members, now freed from the illusion, began to rally themselves with solemn fervor.

“He doesn’t look like a pushover, but don’t worry, Team Leader! Who are we? We’re Shinwa’s elite, Team 3—the ones who’ve cleared first-tier dungeons over ten times!”

“Exactly! Even though the Deputy Team Leader was caught off guard, if we combine our strength, we can definitely obliterate him!”

“So where is this guy? I’m itching to introduce him to the taste of my shield!”

As the Team 3 members, now freed from the illusion, began beating their chests and banging their spears in a show of bravado,

”…”

Lee Seonah simply shook her head with a sigh.