Chapter 7
“The slum is originally quiet.”
All that can be heard are sighs and laments.
It’s just the way it is.
Most of the folks who have drifted in here carry a lot of baggage.
Indeed, they all have stories that are tough to share.
As a result, they’ve tacitly decided to keep their mouths shut.
Anyway, whatever they say just ends up being complaints.
So they all agreed to just keep quiet instead.
But today’s slum was a bit unusual.
A car pulled up into a more secluded area deep inside the slum.
Suddenly, a bunch of people dressed in black rushed in, and a fight broke out.
– What on earth is happening?
– Should we call the guards?
The residents who had been hiding started whispering amongst themselves.
In the distance, massive snakes and giants were attacking people.
Though I couldn’t tell exactly, it was clear that something dangerous was unfolding.
The residents agreed, thinking it would be best to quickly inform the guards.
However, one casual comment flipped the script in an instant.
– Wait, isn’t that… Enoch?
– What? What nonsense… Is it really him?
– Haven’t seen him around lately. Guess he’s got himself into some trouble.
Enoch’s name was quite well-known in the slum.
The kind gentleman who secretly dropped off food and essentials.
If it hadn’t been for his generosity, the dwellers might not have survived last winter’s cruelty.
So maybe that’s why, the moment Enoch’s name was mentioned, the minds of the residents shifted.
They now rallied around their benefactor, Enoch.
A black-clad figure? What does that even matter?
Dead or alive, it’s one of the two, right?
– If Enoch’s involved… maybe it’s fine?
– He must be closer to the guards than we are. If he hasn’t given them a heads-up, there’s probably a reason.
– Oh look, someone’s dead over there. Or are they still alive?
– Someone go drag the body over. Let’s take what we need and handle this quietly.
The residents stealthily moved to drag the fallen black-clad figure. Surprisingly, there was still breath in them.
“I-I’m… alive…”
– Pshh!
The residents, armed with broken weapons, stabbed the fallen figure indiscriminately.
A brief scream and desperate spasms followed.
This was a familiar sight in the slum.
@
The steel serpent whipped its tail.
The black-clad figure was crushed under the white tail.
– Ugh!
– Crash!!
The serpent’s tail turned red.
Another figure leaped from the tail and charged at Enoch.
– Slash!
“Die!”
– Kaang!
The charge was blocked.
A Ruby knight nearby parried the charge with a shield.
The knight was a creature born from Enoch’s jewel ring.
– Crack!
The shield cracked like a spider web.
A rustling sound filled the air.
The knight thrust forward with his sword.
– Clang!
The black-clad figure quickly retreated after parrying the sword.
He discarded his damaged sword and threw a dagger at Enoch.
The dagger flew towards its target but was intercepted midway.
As the serpent twisted its body, Enoch’s figure was suddenly concealed.
“Damn, what the—”
– Boom!!
The steel giant struck hard.
The black-clad figure was shattered into pieces.
His last words were pathetic curses.
‘That was easy.’
Enoch, protected by the serpent, watched the situation unfold.
He had summoned a total of five beings.
The enemy’s main force included three scroll-level fighters and one commanding wizard.
The rest were not even at the level of a fighter or clown.
Of course, it seemed they had trained in their own right.
But by any definition, they were not worthy of being called warriors or assassins.
And this world was not one to be taken lightly just because you had a strong body.
– Clash!
The ambush began anew.
One black-clad figure slipped through a gap.
He threw away his Lancesnek dagger and pressed a button on his wrist, activating a hidden switchblade.
– Slash!
– Clang!
The blade was blocked in mid-air.
The one who stopped the attack was a long-stretched stiletto.
Enoch had summoned a sword and struck it down.
‘Where did that come from?’
“Where did it come from? Right here, of course.”
Enoch pointed at his finger.
This wasn’t a lie; it was the truth.
Just like he had moments ago used a real-world object as a medium to cast a summoning skill, now he was applying his equipment setup function to swap the positions of the ring and weapon in no time.
‘Can’t control every hero like a game. But I can manage one like myself just fine.’
Enoch thrust the stiletto.
– Kaang!
The black-clad figure blocked the sword with his gloved wrist and stepped back.
In that moment, Enoch’s stiletto vanished in an instant.
The tense black-clad fighter unintentionally firmed up his defense.
What would come next? A sword? A dagger?
“No, it’s a gun.”
– Bang!
A single shot pierced through the chest.
The black-clad figure crumbled, unable to keep pace with the situation.
Enoch brushed off the smoke with his hand, stowing away his pistol.
They were not even up to the level of scrolls, let alone clowns.
It only took a single MM-1 Lightshot round imbued with magic missile to take down such ordinary people.
‘The end feels near… but wait, with that kind of confidence, he must have one more trump card hidden away.’
Enoch aimed his gun as he took stock of the battlefield.
At this point, most of them had fallen, leaving only five.
– Boom!
Another giant’s blow took one more down.
Now there were only four left.
Carefully observing were three scroll-level figures and one commanding-grade wizard.
‘So that’s what they were doing since earlier, preparing magic.’
– Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!
The barrels spat fire again.
One black-clad figure fell backward as the shield burst apart.
“Ugh!”
– Thud!
“…Captain! Everything’s ready!”
“Execute it quickly!”
The remaining scroll-level fighters shouted in unison.
The captain nodded briefly.
“Understood.”
The captain stretched his left hand forward.
A faint magic engulfed his fingers. Eventually, his mouth opened.
“Break!”
– Crack!
With a quiet word, the spell activated.
The five outstretched fingers of his left hand broke simultaneously.
This was the risk of magic.
The caster’s body was used as a price to trigger the bizarre giants surrounding him.
Giants, snakes, and knights.
All their bodies twisted at once and collapsed in chaos.
– Crash! Bang!
– Boom!
– Collapse…
The giants fell one after another.
Simultaneously, the scroll-level black-clad figures spilled blood and fell.
– Guh, uh… Ack…
“I see. It’s chanting magic. Looks like a transmission-grade wizard, not from a magic tower.”
Enoch observed the spectacle with interest.
Not a knowledge tower, but individuals who sought out reclusive wizards to learn directly from them.
The leader of the black-clad figures was indeed a transmission-grade wizard.
“Surprisingly skilled. Of course, that risk seems pretty significant.”
“……”
Enoch chuckled as he glanced at the black-clad figure.
He was clutching his broken hand, gritting his teeth against the pain.
This was not simply about a broken hand.
The fact that scroll-level wizards under him had fallen suggested that there were risks that Enoch was unaware of at play.
“…This isn’t exactly a moment to be happy, is it?”
The black-clad figure staggered to his feet.
“With that, all your magic has been nullified. There’s no way you could launch that many spells in a row.”
“Not magic, but skills.”
“Shut up.”
The black-clad figure immediately drew a gun from his coat.
Just like the one Enoch used, it was a pistol that fired bullets imbued with magic.
“I’m done listening to your nonsense. Die quietly.”
“Really? You’ll regret it.”
“Shut up.”
The black-clad figure cut off Enoch’s words.
With a yell, he pulled the trigger.
– Boom!!
“…Huh?”
The black-clad figure belatedly realized something.
It was supposed to be his attack, yet somehow, he found himself rolling on the ground instead of Enoch.
‘What the hell happened—’
The black-clad figure struggled to rise.
His left arm and one leg had already vanished somewhere.
Using his remaining right hand, he desperately pushed against the ground to rise, only to hear an annoying voice in his ear.
“Your magic was pretty impressive. There’s a big risk involved, but the power behind it was definitely deadly.”
“…You.”
“But that’s all there is to it. From what I can see, dealing with living targets seems to require greater risks. So you went for machines first. Am I wrong?”
‘It probably wouldn’t have worked in the first place.’
Enoch approached.
The black-clad figure then realized what had attacked him.
It was the serpent.
The identical white mechanical serpent that had just been shattered was now restored back to its original state.
– Rolling…
“…What the hell just happened? I saw it shatter right before my eyes…”
Enoch chuckled and pulled out a watch.
It was the same type of watch he had tossed into the forest at the start.
The peculiar thing was that there was not just one watch appearing, but multiple.
Enoch’s ability was a magic that wasn’t exactly magic.
A blend of skills, traits, and passives, a sort of outcome.
Perhaps because of that, the performance varied depending on the type of medium, leaving behind a rather gambling-like risk.
But he couldn’t just spill all that out.
It was already a hassle explaining the concept of skills to these otherworlders.
So Enoch merely waved the watch in plain sight while providing a vague answer.
“As long as I have a medium, I can use magic as much as I want. Just keep that in mind.”
The black-clad figure glared at the watches swirling before him as if he could kill them with his stare.
After a moment’s silence, he squeezed out a response.
“No, that’s impossible. A human’s magic can’t be infinite. At the very least, it should be at a wizard tower level—”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
Enoch cut him off mid-sentence.
He pointed to himself boastfully as he added,
“I don’t actually use magic.”
“…What?”
“You heard right. I don’t have magic to begin with.”
In the world of Eoin, players mainly used other resources to get their skills off rather than magic.
For instance, they might use a limited number of uses or cooldowns each turn.
Yet Enoch was not satisfied with that.
And so he concocted a little trick.
Rather than just wait for cooldowns, he massively increased his skill slots.
‘It wasn’t easy. But I didn’t think it was impossible.’
Functions to enhance hero equipment.
The imbue magic function.
And a player’s skills.
Enoch combined these into one.
Using the imbue function, he reserved the player’s summon skill onto a specific object as if it was magic itself.
The experiment ultimately succeeded.
It turned out that not just anyone, but the status window recognized each medium as distinctly separate skills.
Thus, there were no global cooldowns shared among them.
‘There’s no way I can explain all of this.’
Enoch chuckled, shaking his head.
Then, he tossed the watch behind him.
At that moment, two mechanical snakes rose back to life.
– Rooaarrr!
“Now do you believe it?”
“……”
The black-clad figure fell silent.
As he raised his head again, his eyes glinted with a feral light.
“…This is dangerous. Very dangerous.”
“What do you mean?”
“You. I feel like I absolutely must kill you right here.”
– Crack!
The black-clad figure’s fingers snapped again.
The snakes coiled around him as if to protect.
With a crackling explosion, the head of one snake was severed.
“…I must eliminate you. For future endeavors, absolutely…!”
“That’s just touching. You don’t even have two fingers left now. What’s next? A toe to sacrifice?”
“If necessary, I’ll gladly do so.”
The black-clad figure answered resolutely. Enoch snorted.
“Yeah, well, I don’t think the total from both your fingers and toes will add up to anything.”
“What?”
The black-clad figure’s eyes twitched. Enoch exaggeratedly pointed at himself again.
“You don’t know something. I’ve got loads of money. A whole lot. Whatever amount you can imagine, I’ve got way more than that.”
As Enoch said, he rummaged through his coat.
Countless accessories poured out from the opened status window inventory inside his coat.
– Clatter…
“The minimum cost to create one serpent? That’s just this watch right here. The price is… about 370,000 kro, I believe?”
Enoch lifted one watch and clenched it in his fist.
Magic imbue, and skills.
He completed yet another new medium by combining the two.
“Congrats! You’ve successfully robbed my pockets.”
“……”
“What are you doing? Get right back to that earlier momentum. Just 5,946,000 more to go!”
Enoch once again shook the watch mockingly.