Weyrn.
His full name was Hershan R. Weyrnain.
He was the current head of the Hershan family, a barony with a history spanning over a hundred years.
However, the Hershan family had been unable to adapt to the changing times and was slowly fading away.
No, it wasn’t just fading; it was sinking.
Until he became the head of the family, Weyrnain had never doubted that one day he would restore the family’s former glory.
And why wouldn’t he? He had youth, he had hope, and he had talent.
But it was only after becoming the head of the family that he realized how naive that belief had been.
Unlike the past, when they were praised for being nobles and their dignity was preserved.
By the time he became the head, the world had grown far more ruthless.
Even nobles needed money, they needed fame, and they needed greater talents.
The responsibility that came with being the head of a family was unbearably heavy.
Time had passed, and now in his thirties, all he could do was hold on to the position his father had left behind.
And that was driving him mad.
Because when he was young, Weyrnain had always looked down on his father.
However, as he grew older, all he could do was barely hold on to the fields his father had cultivated.
If it weren’t for the adventurer group “Azure Cloud” which his father had supported, he wouldn’t have even had a voice as a baron.
But even that was uncertain, and he had to live in constant anxiety. A life where he wasn’t sure of when it might disappear.
“If only I hadn’t made that mistake. If only I hadn’t acted that way back then…!”
The various failures he had experienced throughout his life had drained even the funds to continue supporting “Azure Cloud”.
Once, his heart had been filled with great ambitions, but now it was covered in nothing but dark clouds.
And it was at that moment that “they” approached him.
“Serve the new heavens. Break apart this world that has come to a standstill, and in the world that will open anew, only prophets like you will bask in the glory of life.”
At first, he thought they were just a cult.
But at the time, Weyrnain had no other way to keep “Azure Cloud” going without their help.
In the end, he joined hands with them, and slowly but surely, Weyrnain was swallowed by an inescapable swamp.
“Is it really true that there’s an ancient ruin there?”
“Yes, prophet. In that place lies the seed that will break open this closed world.”
It was the hidden piece within the “Temple of the Beast” where the adventurer group “Azure Cloud” had been stationed for years.
Hundreds of years had passed since the Temple of the Beast had been discovered by the world.
Yet the hidden piece that had never been uncovered… the Heavenly Church had revealed it to him as if it were the most obvious thing.
Following Weyrnain’s orders, the Azure Cloud party headed to the Temple of the Beast and retrieved a single book after clearing the hidden piece.
When Weyrnain read its translated version, he felt a shiver run through his entire body.
A hidden stage of a level 1 field that had remained undiscovered for centuries!
“If I can solve this… I’ll be able to surpass my father! This will be the foundation to bring the political dogs of the central government beneath my feet!”
With that resolve, Weyrnain invested everything his family had to secure the level 1 dungeon raid. Once he even enlisted the help of the Heavenly Church, everything started to fall into place smoothly.
The future he had only ever imagined was now right within reach.
But then.
“Failure… I failed?”
The future he had dreamed of crumbled like foam with just one failure.
And it was all because of a mere third-circle mercenary mage.
This was the downfall of someone who had staked everything on an opportunity given by others, not by his own judgment.
“No, no…! There must be a way, there has to be!”
Azure Cloud, the last hope his father had built as the pillar of their family, was dissolved into nothing.
Even the power he had held within Blackout vanished entirely.
And when the Heavenly Church, the very group that had offered him hope, cut off all contact with him…
In a final effort, he mobilized his remaining forces to make contact with the Heavenly Church.
“I will do anything. What do you need? All I have left is my body.”
“Oh… a prophet who has lost his way. In the end, you’ve been blinded by this closed world.”
As always, the follower of the Heavenly Church spoke in cryptic words.
“There is one way… for you to open your eyes.”
The method was to kill the detestable mercenary mage who had thwarted him. And to retrieve something from the dungeon that mage was targeting.
Weyrnain nodded his head and accepted their proposal.
As always, the swamp he could never escape from consumed him further.
***
“Hershan R. Weyrnain.”
“……!”
His real name, hidden under an alias, was now revealed to the world.
But more than that, it was the sight of the mage blocking his sword infused with aura that shocked him even more.
Ziiiiing—
The aura was stopped by a shield with an unmistakable blue glow.
Normally, his aura would have sliced through a mage’s magic with ease, but it was held back by something as simple as [Shield].
“H-How!”
In response to his bewildered question, the mage Jun pointed to his head with his finger and said,
“You just need to use your brain a little.”
Aura.
The ultimate technique that could cut through anything all with equal ease. Whether it was a mage’s magic, a spell from a shaman, or a shield from a shield warrior.
But it wasn’t all-powerful.
If it were, the game <Blackout>would have been dismissed as a “warrior’s trash game” and wouldn’t have enjoyed such popularity.
Actually, was it already considered a warrior’s trash game from the start?
It was true that many players favored warriors for their versatility.
In any case, despite that, a warrior’s aura wasn’t something that worked perfectly in every situation.
Sometimes a shaman’s spell could evade the aura, or a shield warrior’s shield could block it, and there were even times when it couldn’t cut through a mage’s magic.
Those who thoroughly understood the nature of aura and prepared for it could bring about such results.
“Well… just because you know how to do it doesn’t mean you can actually pull it off.”
Just like knowing how to build a nuclear warhead doesn’t mean anyone can make one; it requires preparation and timing.
Fortunately, this place, the “Witch’s Forest” was a location that provided all the conditions Jun needed.
“Magic stone…?”
In Jun’s hand was a fragment of a highest-grade magic stone. This was something that could easily be obtained in the Witch’s Forest.
He also had an old book.
Inside the book were intricate drawings of magic circles, all created using the powder from highest-grade magic stones.
“The reason aura is so powerful is because it’s compressed magical power pushed to its limits.”
Like how carbon is compressed into diamonds, aura is the result of magical power compressed to its very limits.
“So while aura has powerful cutting ability, is it ‘absolute’? Not really.”
It’s like having a limit on how much you can eat in one bite.
As long as there was enough magical power to counter the compressed energy of aura, it could be blocked.
“No way… you’re telling me you can compress that much magical power into something as simple as [Shield]?”
Weyrnain, who once attended the Imperial Academy and had a basic understanding of magic, stared in disbelief at his sword which was now completely stopped.
“Ah, that’s the downside of rote education.”
They say you can’t pour vast amounts of magical power into low-circle spells? Nonsense.
It was simply abandoned because it wasn’t efficient.
But that didn’t apply to Jun.
He had more than enough magical power to spare.
Dumping an excessive amount of magical power into something had become Jun’s signature move, so creating a [Shield] using a highest-grade magic stone through a magic circle wasn’t all that difficult.
Of course it’s not something I could use outside.
Normally, once mined, highest-grade magic stones gradually lose their purity over time.
In other words, it was an extremely rare resource that was hard to come by no matter how much money you had.
For Jun, this method could only be used here, in the Witch’s Forest.
An unexpected variable.
Weyrnain used the sword’s recoil to create distance and regain his stance.
“Yes… I never even imagined that something like that would be possible. But do you really think you can kill me just because you blocked one attack?”
“You’re not entirely wrong.”
Even with these tricky methods, in the end, they were only good for a single use.
The highest-grade magic stone had just been consumed, and there were no more prepared magic circles left.
In this cramped cabin, a standoff between a mage and an aura user was an extremely unfavorable situation for the mage.
“I don’t know how you figured out who I am, but… it won’t matter once you’re dead. Just like how everything crumbled to dust with a single mistake!”
“….…”
In reality, Jun had only realized Weyrnain’s identity by pure chance.
To be precise, it was the connection Jun had built with Chloe that had revealed the truth.
It was from the letter he received from Chloe at the [Checkpoint] of the Ashen Wasteland.
[The noble who sponsored the ‘Azure Cloud’ is called Hershan R. Weyrnain and this man has disappeared.]
[His last traces indicate contact with bounty hunters formerly of the Blackguard; these are likely his old comrades from when he was part of the Blackguard.]
[Based on his disappearance, it’s suspected he fled to the Ashen Wasteland.]
[Considering the grudge he might hold against you, you’d better be careful.]
If it hadn’t been for that letter, Jun would never have suspected Weyrnain, just like Colton or Aiden.
Jun thought about the Korean food he had cooked for Chloe once in the past.
I’ll cook for her next time we meet.
She had asked him several times afterward to make it again, but he had ignored her.
It was because he had become homesick.
Still, after receiving such decisive help from her, he figured there was no reason he couldn’t do it now.
But first, I have to survive this.
Certainly, the situation of a mage facing off against a warrior at this range was beyond what could be called the worst.
Weyrnain clearly believed he had already won.
But no mage would ever willingly let their opponent close in like this unless they had a plan.
“Die!”
With a roar like a cornered beast, Weyrnain lunged with his sword.
Unlike before when he slashed, this time he thrust with aura infused in his blade. This was something a simple [Shield] couldn’t block.
It was a big move, leaving plenty of openings, but there was no better way to kill the opponent.
Just as his sword was about to pierce Jun’s heart, something grabbed Weyrnain’s ankle.
His sword stopped right in front of Jun’s chest.
“What…?”
“Well, I can see it. The curse that curse mage left in this cabin.”
Jun sighed in relief as he looked at Weyrnain’s sword which was frozen right in front of him.
Then, Jun pointed to the blood-red vine that had wrapped around Weyrnain’s ankle and was now consuming most of his lower body.
“[Blood Bind]. A troublesome thing in many ways.”
Before entering the Witch’s Forest.
Right after seeing the curse mage’s spell outside, Jun felt the memories of his past life stir after a long time.
At the time, it had only been a vague sensation, and with the situation being so urgent, he hadn’t paid much attention to it.
But once they entered the witch’s cabin, things changed.
“The corpse that was left in the cabin. That was the catalyst for the curse.”
It was then that the memories of his past life awakened completely.
Just like when he had faced the Goblin Lord, he could now read the curse. He had worked hard to keep his expression in check so as not to reveal this.
The curse cast on the corpse was [Blood Bind].
It was a trap-type curse.
One of the curses he had encountered several times in the game.
A difficult curse to deal with. It’s hard to notice since it’s a trap, and on top of that, it has the characteristic of “contagion”.
If the character affected by the curse wasn’t dealt with, it would spread to all the other party members, which had always been incredibly frustrating.
Weyrnain, for whatever reason, had come to this place and likely rendered his own companion powerless with that curse.
It seemed that Weyrnain’s companions had no idea what his true goal was.
They were likely naive individuals who had fallen for his persuasion to hunt down the Heavenly Church.
However, since [Blood Bind] was a trap-type curse, it didn’t distinguish between targets when activated.
It had been more difficult than he expected, but just like when he had once influenced the Goblin Lord’s spell, he now succeeded in affecting the curse this time as well.
He changed part of the activation conditions, causing it to grab Weyrnain’s ankle.
“H-How did you…!? You! Who… who are you!?”
By this point, Weyrnain had grown fearful of Jun.
It was as if Jun had come from the future, knowing everything in advance.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect things to fall into place this perfectly.”
According to a mage’s reasoning, the plan Jun had executed this time was half a gamble.
Even he wasn’t certain that interfering with the curse mage’s spell would succeed.
Since he had previously managed to twist a spell directly invoked by a shaman, he figured it might be possible to influence a curse without the caster’s awareness.
That guess had proven exactly right.
If it failed, I would have died.
However, as Jun blocked Weyrnain’s sword with a shield and spread his magical power around, he realized something.
His magical power that touched the curse spell could change the spell’s activation conditions.
“Grrr! Don’t make me laugh; don’t mock me! To think I’d end up like this, against some worthless mercenary…!”
Jun chanted a spell.
To sever this ill-fated relationship that continued since the Black Forest raid.
He formed an image in his mind.
What he imagined was a blue streak of lightning.
“Well, what can you do? The world’s unfair like that.”
Jun didn’t know exactly what had brought Weyrnain to this point.
But the hatred and injustice in his eyes were emotions Jun understood all too well.
Once, they had mirrored what he saw in himself.
“Farewell.”
[Lightning Whip]
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