How to Survive as a Genius Spy in the Game

Children of the Desert (7)

“These guys won’t die!”

It was Aron’s urgent cry. I knew it. This was a technique Denif used to use.

Denif’s Mystic was sand. It was also the reason he could gain notoriety as an imperial terrorist.

Not only were Denif’s exploding bombs a problem, but the sandstorms covering the capital and the soldiers were also a hassle.

The ones here now even had weapons made of sand, but Denif had given them real weapons.

The fewer sand soldiers there were, the more refined swordsmanship they could use. Even Denif’s swordsmanship.

They were quite tricky opponents.

Increasing numbers was also a problem. Even if the quality dropped, having the capital full of undying soldiers was an issue.

Of course, the soldiers would panic, and it would block the routes through the capital itself.

‘It was hard to go stop the terrorism or deal with the aftermath.’

We had to sweat it out dealing with the sand soldiers until Denif left his post.

My brief reverie is interrupted by Jofor’s shout.

“Should we spray some water!”

“We barely have enough drinking water, what are you talking about!”

Namir immediately rebutted. He’s right. Water wouldn’t be a perfect solution anyway.

The time for reconstitution would be longer, but the soldiers we’d be facing would actually become harder.

Still, it does reduce the effect somewhat. Even Denif didn’t carry out operations on rainy days.

In any case, the truth is that even the Empire couldn’t come up with a clear solution to deal with these sand soldiers.

‘They tried to get rid of all the sand in the capital.’

They attempted to replace all the floors with hard tiles. But how could that be possible?

The Empire in the game was nearing collapse, so they didn’t have the money for that either.

“Carlyn!”

As the situation became more urgent, Denif called my name too. The problem was the soldiers who reconstituted even after dying.

The battlefield space was rapidly shrinking.

“Wait! I’m thinking!”

The feeling of being visually overwhelmed was also significant. I’ve been through quite harsh wars too, but…

Not being able to create space was quite an important issue.

‘Usually when you deal with an opponent, space should open up there.’

But not now.

Sand soldiers that endlessly regenerate even when they crumble. The group was actually on the verge of panic.

I quickly racked my brain. How should I handle this? How did Denif pass through here?

Did he just run straight ahead?

‘Maybe he did.’

I could see another space far away, outside our field of vision. We might be okay if we just get out of this area.

But I couldn’t just charge ahead recklessly with the group here now. It’s not a good solution.

Seven seconds passed like that. The solution seemed simpler than I thought. I immediately moved my Winds.

I sent the sand flying up into the sky with full force.

I’m not sure what kind of situation this is, but it wasn’t someone using Mystic Power.

If it really was, it would become a battle of Mystic vs Mystic, and who knows what would happen then…

‘It seems like this ruin is controlling it.’

Fortunately, as I thought, the sand sent up into the sky didn’t reconstitute into soldiers.

Of course, there was so much sand around that soldiers kept being generated, but still.

“Run!”

Anyway, space opened up. Denif kicked off the ground. The newly generated soldiers were Denif’s responsibility.

I sent the sand flying into the air as soon as it crumbled.

We ignored the soldiers behind us. Sand soldiers rising from where we had passed chased after us.

It felt like we had entered a horror movie.

It was a sprint of nearly 700 meters.

In front was an arched passage different from before. It was a bit larger, but not long.

There was space right outside the passage. Golden shining stairs were visible.

‘We need to get there first. It might be a bit of a headache if this happens again up ahead.’

Then should we retreat to where we first came from? Well, let’s think about that later.

The sprinting Denif passed through the arched entrance. Then me and the group.

At the same time, the sand soldiers behind us crumbled. It was a simpler solution than I thought. I lowered the sand I had been holding up with my Winds.

Whoosh-!

A considerable amount of sand fell heavily. I prevented the sand dust from enveloping us.

Even after watching for a while, the soldiers didn’t regenerate. It seemed to be limited to that space.

The group breathed heavily.

“Huff. Huff. Is it over?”

“For now.”

I turned my head. It was like a square room, much smaller than before.

Of course, it was still about the size of a soccer field.

There was a path in the middle. At the end of the path were stairs, and above them was something like an altar.

The interesting point was that all of it was made of platinum. It was shining golden in the sunlight, though.

“…Will these guys be okay?”

However, on both sides of the path were terracotta figures that looked like clay, similar to the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang.

There weren’t that many, but they were holding real weapons, not sand ones.

‘If they’re still here now, they must be of quite good quality.’

Spears, swords, curved swords, halberds.

The weapons were diverse. They certainly showed signs of age, but the fact that they were still intact until now meant they were extremely high-quality items.

I scanned the surroundings with Winds. I couldn’t sense any hidden spaces. There was no other path behind us either.

This was the last place. It seemed unexpectedly simple.

‘Hmm. No, that’s not right.’

I saw bones crumbling and disintegrating in the trapped corridor. Was that really all there was to it?

If you consider the ones that had turned completely to dust, there must have been even more traps.

Moreover, with those nonsensical sand soldiers we just saw. It’s not simple at all.

It wasn’t a place you could easily enter and pass through.

“What do you think, should we keep going?”

Denif turned to look at me.

“Yes. Keep the formation as it is.”

“These guys look like they might move suddenly too.”

“We’ll just have to take them down.”

Denif nodded and moved forward. The ground we were standing on was sand.

Denif stepped onto the platinum path first. Nothing changed.

And the moment I stepped on it, sand suddenly surged up from all around.

It was much faster than before.

Since we were all already holding weapons, the group immediately went into a state of tension.

But this time, the sand didn’t form into soldiers.

‘What’s this?’

Instead, it was just floating sharply in the air, as if ready to shoot at us at any moment.

Could it be that only one person can go?

When I took one step back, the sand that had risen all settled down at once. Dust scattered.

When I moved forward again, the sand shot up once more.

“It looks like only one person can go, huh?”

I was certain this was the process of obtaining Mystic Power.

“Denif, can you go alone? I need to protect the kids.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Go ahead. See what’s there and tell me.”

“Okay.”

Denif nodded and moved forward again. That’s when the stationary terracotta figures moved.

It was one at the very front, holding a sword. Denif raised his sword.

“What’s this? Do we have to deal with them one by one?”

***

“Haha!”

Denif’s laughter burst out over the crumbling terracotta warriors. They didn’t reconstitute like before.

However, they were getting stronger and increasing in number as time went on.

From one to two, from two to three.

It really seemed like some kind of test. I didn’t bother helping with Winds. This was Denif’s trial after all.

‘They’re quite good.’

This was directed at both Denif and the terracotta warriors. I’m not just saying that. They seemed much trickier than the sand soldiers.

Not only their skill, but the fact that they didn’t flinch at most injuries was significant.

They would keep attacking even with one arm cut off, as long as their body wasn’t half destroyed. Denif was fighting seriously too.

Real combat is indeed different from sparring. Even I was seeing movements I’d never seen before.

“Whew.”

Denif caught his breath after beheading three terracotta warriors. He took another step forward.

This time there were four.

Denif charged first. He rushed through the space and rolled on the ground. Then he thrust his sword hidden between his body at an angle.

It was a fierce and brutal movement, typical of Denif.

“Wow…”

“Insane, absolutely insane.”

Aron and Jofor marveled. Namir was watching with wide eyes, as if afraid to miss even a single detail.

Aron and Jofor were gaping, seemingly in a daze. Then they suddenly turned to look at me.

“What?”

“Brother Denif said before that he and you were on the same level. It just struck me again how amazing you must be.”

It was Aron speaking.

“Haven’t you seen me fight a few times?”

“With Brother Denif it was just sparring, and before that you didn’t have any opponents to really show your skills against.”

Fair enough. It was mostly just pushing through against multiple weak opponents. Jofor did see me fight the devil, though.

In any case, it seemed to be a shock to these kids who were constantly growing. They probably never thought such movements were possible.

“But it’s kind of creepy too.”

“Why?”

“He keeps smiling while doing all that. I would have been super tense.”

That’s right. Denif had a constant grin on his face. He was enjoying the battle as usual.

Of course, it might look strange to others.

“Should I try to copy that?”

“…Don’t.”

I firmly dissuaded him. In any case, watching this was getting me fired up too.

The level of the terracotta warriors was considerable.

Moreover, these were martial arts from before the founding emperor.

Techniques generally develop over time, but that’s not always the case.

Even to my eyes, there were brilliant movements. It was impressive even beyond just swordsmanship.

I focused on remembering each and every move. It would be worth reviewing again when I’m in top condition.

“Ugh!”

Suddenly, a groan escaped Denif. His opponent was the last five. The tip of his arm was cut by a long halberd.

But even in that moment, he was smiling.

He seemed the happiest I’ve seen him recently. Denif deflected the halberd and thrust his sword.

Then he demonstrated a technique among the falling terracotta warriors.

As a warrior thrust a spear, he raised his foot and precisely stomped down on the shaft of the spear.

Thud-!

Then he stepped on the fixed spear shaft and leaped up. His sword flashed left and right. He had cut down two in mid-air.

“Wow…”

Even Namir, who had been quiet, let out an exclamation at this movement.

Combat over. There were no terracotta warriors left now. Denif caught his breath and smiled at me.

“Hey, this is really fun, you know?”

“Looks like it.”

“Just a moment.”

After saying that, Denif focused on the ground for a while. It was Denif’s own way of reviewing the battle.

Even if he acts stupid sometimes, his combat mind is top-notch.

His eyeballs moved left and right, and his body twitched. He even raised his arms as if trying to reenact something.

After about 2 minutes passed like that, Denif raised his head.

“Shall I go up?”

“Yeah.”

When I checked with Winds, there was sand filling a slightly larger desk-sized altar at the top of the stairs.

Denif climbed the stairs.

“Is it okay to just touch this?”

“I think so, we’ve cleared everything.”

But before Denif could even raise his hand, the sand on the altar slowly began to rise.

Denif’s body twitched, but it didn’t seem to be a harmful movement.

The sand moved left and right, then wrapped around Denif’s body from feet to head before returning to the altar.

‘It worked.’

I could tell from that that the Mystic had been transferred to Denif. It was the same sensation as with Cedric.

Denif realized it too.

“Hey…”

“What?”

“…How do I use this?”

“Use what?”

As I pretended not to know, Denif scratched the back of his head with a really bewildered look.

“It gave me Mystic Power?”

“Really? What is it?”

“It says I can move sand.”

Behind us, the group exclaimed in shock, “Mystic Power?”

“What’s the problem? Isn’t that good? Congratulations.”

“No, I feel like I shouldn’t have gotten this. We wouldn’t have even found it without your Winds, right?”

It was originally yours though. His fidgeting appearance was a bit amusing. His face was full of apologetic looks.

I shrugged nonchalantly.

“What does it matter? The map was given by Toun anyway. Good things are good.”

“Still… I really don’t think we could have found it without you…”

It seemed like the first time I’ve seen Denif so apologetic. Is it really something to be so sorry about?

“Then just buy me a meal sometime.”

Denif scratched the nape of his neck.

“What? You’re not bothered at all?”

“It’s a good thing when a brother gets Mystic Power, right?”

Only then did Denif show a smile.

“…Yeah. Thanks, really.”

“By the way, is there no treasure or anything up there? I don’t sense anything particular with my Winds.”

“No, just sand.”

“Should we at least take some of the glowed stones?”

Just as I said that, it happened. Crumble- The ground began to shake. It was a tremendous earth tremor.

And at the same time, sand began to pour down from all directions of the ceiling.

As if trying to fill this room with sand. The sand rising from our feet reached our knees in just 1 second.

I had a sense of déjà vu. This happened in Leocran’s ruin too. The ruin was collapsing.

“Denif! Do something!”

I shouted at Denif who should have gotten the Mystic Power of sand, but Denif was also flustered by the pouring sand.

He frowned and stretched out his hand, then turned to look at me.

“I can’t move this?”

Author's Thoughts

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