Chapter 32

C32: Step towards the Truth (1)

Rudger headed towards the entrance to the secret laboratory, which was decorated with a large wastewater pipe. The rust and stench everywhere looked real, but as soon as he went a little deeper, that changed.

The inner wall became clean and even the stench that was wafting disappeared.

Rudger immediately killed his presence and moved slowly.

"I'm bored to death. How much longer do we have to stay here?"

"We still have more than two days left, so shouldn't you wait a little longer?"

"I mean, why did those damned subjects have to escape?"

"Maybe it'll be okay because they haven't caught the tail yet. They're trying to organize everything and leave."

"Still, it would be better to stand guard like this. It's crazy to organize the equipment inside right now."

"If only those dog-like bastards didn't escape."

Rudger leaned his back against the wall, listening to their conversation. The two of them, who were bored of standing by the guards at the entrance, did not stop chatting.

"I was out then, how did that happen?"

"They must have made a mistake. It was said that the kidnapped kid didn't get his medicine well, so his cryptidization was incomplete. Maybe it happened because he was young."

"So?"

"When I pulled him out to give him more test drugs, resistance developed."

"I heard that medication is very painful, is that true?"

"The problem was that his parents interfered."

"What? Parents? You said they were already werewolves, but they were trying to protect their cub?"

"Yes. Scientists didn't even know that could happen. They did more than expected, and the inside was a mess."

"Damn. So did they escape? Isn't it a bit dangerous then?"

"Pooh! The risk is bullshit. Do not worry because someone they trust was asked to deal with them. Anyway, if he had been there then, those bastards would have been unable to escape. We would not have to suffer like this."

Rudger felt he no longer needed to overhear their conversation because he knew everything about how things went.

At the sound of Rudger stepping on the stagnant water, the two men, who were chatting, immediately shut their mouths and stared in his direction.

"Who is there?"

"Maybe rats?"

Magic lamps were illuminating around the entrance, but the place where Rudger was standing was relatively dark and invisible.

The two pulled out guns from their waists but before that, two rays of light flew out of the darkness and pierced their foreheads. Without even screaming, the two men guarding the entrance collapsed from their seats.

Rudger slowly walked out of the darkness. From shin-high leather boots, black pants, a gray vest with full pockets with a shabby brown coat over it. A black hood was draped over his face, reaching up to his nose, and covering his head.

* * *

"Aww! Help me!"

The man patrolling near the entrance desperately ran away from the monster that appeared from the dark and killed all his companions.

Like a mirage, he appeared out of nowhere and instantly killed all of his comrades patrolling with him.

'What did the bastards who guarded the entrance do?'

The moment he thought about it, his vision changed.

"Uh?"

His body leaned forward and fell.

"Why?"

He looked down at his legs and only then did he realize. His two legs were cut off under the shin. The moment I realized it, the pain came.

"Agh!"

He clenched his teeth and glared at the darkness behind him. Beyond the huge passageway, all the lights were off and it was pitch black.

There was the sound of footsteps. His back became cold and the hairs all over his body stood up.

It was the intruder who suddenly appeared and killed all his companions, he's already been chasing him.

The intruder slowly emerged from the darkness. He appeared through the black veil, and his identity was unknown because his face was tightly covered but looking at his strong physique, it was clear that he was a man.

He warned in a trembling voice.

"Did you think you will be okay if you touch us? I don't think you know who you are, but you're dead."

The man had no reaction, rather, the eyes seen through the shadow on the hood became sharper.

His lips were dry and his throat burned. The moment he was wondering if he should beg for his life, a large number of people rushed through the passage.

"Over here!"

He saw mercenaries approaching this way with magical lamps from afar. They were all carrying firearms, and among them, a particularly heavily armed figure stood out.

"This way! Hahaha! You are finished now!"

Rudger thrust his dagger into the man's mouth. As he drew his dagger, blood spattered and his body fell to the side. It was at that time that the troops that arrived just in time discovered Rudger.

"There! Shoot it!"

As it was a well-trained force, they aimed their guns straight at Rudger without asking anything. Rudger, meanwhile, remained silent.

"Shoot!"

They pulled the trigger right away.

"Uh?"

"What?"

No matter how hard they pulled the trigger, their bullets didn't go out. It wasn't that the gun itself was broken, it was that the gunpowder had stopped working.

A cold sweat ran down the cheek of the captain who gave the order to shoot, he knew from his own experience.

"[Silence of fire]! A wizard!"

A considerable amount of time has passed since the appearance of weapons made of gunpowder as the world changed. But even so, wizards and knights maintained their positions with one of the best powers in this world.

It was because guns were not a threat at all to knights and wizards. Knights with superhuman physical abilities could easily dodge or cut through ordinary bullets. Conversely, the wizards did not need to do that because the magic called [Silence of fire] made it possible.

[Silence of Fire]

Literally, it is a magic that suppresses the performance of gunpowder within a certain range centering on the wizard. Its power can be used to neutralize even machine guns when used by a 3rd-level wizard. If it is used by a rank 5 or so, it can neutralize cannons.

If it was used by a Lexorer-class wizard of the 6th rank, the war would change from then on. Even when the age of guns and gunpowder came, the wizards and knights were able to keep their place.

However, the magic that Rudger can use ended at the 3rd level. Then, Rudger realized that he could not go any further and made up for his weaknesses by strengthening his existing magic.

When a normal 3rd-tier wizard uses [Silence of Fire], the maximum effective range is a radius of 20m. And the effective range of [Silence of Fire] used by Rudger was 200m.

"Damn it! Pull out the knives!"

Those who belonged to the Shamsus School were quick to judge. They threw away the meaningless firearms and immediately took out their swords and clubs and grabbed them.

An electric current flowed over the clubs. Rudger looked up and raised his hands. In each hand he held a revolver.

"You idiot! If you use [Silence of Fire], your weapons are useless......!"

The man who was laughing at Rudger fell backwards, blood spraying from his forehead.

Everyone watched the scene with a pale complexion. What just happened?

"What?"

"How......?"

Rudger shot him but it wasn't a bullet he fired, to be precise it was magic in the shape of a bullet, therefore was not affected by [Silence of fire].

"This person......!"

"Did you want us to have an equal fight?"

Rudger laughed at the soldiers and fired magic bullets at random.

"Bang! Bang!"

But even though it seemed like rough shots, his muzzle was aimed precisely at the forehead and blew off the mercenaries heads. Blood and screams erupted in an instant.

"You idiots! Everyone out!"

A figure dressed in huge armor stepped forward. The reinforced armor made of black synthetic metal easily deflected the magic bullets Rudger fired. It was an external suit called reinforced armor made thanks to the development of engineering.

Although the speed was slow, it was very sturdy and produced an enormous amount of power to be used exclusively against knights.

"Die!"

The warrior in reinforced armor ran towards Rudger with his arms wide open. Rudger wasn't frightened and after retrieving the lifted revolver, he pulled out two crescent-shaped karambit daggers from his waist and held them.

"A wizard fighting with daggers?"

The moment he stretched out his arm to almost grab Rudger by the neck, Rudger disappeared.

'What? Where did he disappear?'

The moment the man in reinforced armor was bewildered by the sight, a terrible pain ran down his forearm. Blood gushed out through the gaps in the armor.

"Aww! What!?"

It was because a dagger was pierced through the seams of the armor.

"How? No, it was so fast I couldn't even see it......"

The moment he tried to move his left arm, there was no force in it. It was because something cold and sharp grazed past his armpits.

"Uh, what......"

Then it was both ankles.

Before he could come to his senses, the tendons in both of his legs were cut off and he knelt on his knees and lastly cold steel touched his neck.

"Live......"

Rudger listened no further and cut off his throat with a karambit dagger.

"Damn it! Gabe died!"

"Move! I'm out!"

What came out this time was a slightly different form of reinforced armor. He was wearing brass armor that was more yellowish than black and white steam gushed out from behind his shoulders.

A reinforced exoskeleton made from a steam engine. He held a giant barrel in both hands, and the tip of the barrel was connected to a large Tesla coil hanging from his back.

"Die!"

A purple current engulfed the passage. The high-voltage current of the Tesla gun, which cannot be suppressed by [Silence of Fire], spread in all directions.

"Kah ha ha! How about this?"

But he had to stop laughing.

It was because the high-voltage electric current he had fired was not moving as if it had been blocked in front of Rudger's nose.

"What?"

No, to be precise, it was seeping into a single piece of metal that rose in front of him. Was that metal magic with alchemy? Perhaps he was a wizard who handled metal among the elemental elements?

The Tesla gun that fires high voltage does not work against wizards who use metal elemental magic. He realized that, but it was already too late. Rudger pulled out his revolver and shot. It hit the muzzle of the Tesla gun and it exploded.

Electricity spread all over the place, and everyone nearby was charred. The only one who managed to survive, leaning his back against the wall, stared at Rudger, who was slowly approaching him. His half body was already charred and he was barely breathing.

"This crazy bastard. Why are you doing this to us?"

He asked that because he didn't understand, but Rudger didn't even respond and just passed him by.

He couldn't survive in that state anyway, so he decided to leave him in the pain longer.

'How many people have I dealt with so far?'

About twenty people so only half are left inside. Seeing that they weren't coming this way, it was clear that they were preparing to fight him inside.

Most of all, I felt the gaze. The gaze pierced through the cracks in the pipes that filled the wall.

'Is it black magic using worms?'

Hans said there were two warlocks inside. Some of the warlocks share vision with worms so they can explore hard-to-see areas. It's probably one of them watching him right now.

"Whoa."

Rudger exhaled lightly and lifted his right foot, rolling it lightly to the ground.

"Tung"

The sound of crashing the floor was heard and it became a wave that spread wide.

* * *

Inside the laboratory the scientists had no choice but to tremble with great anxiety.

"Is this okay? We need to destroy the data right away and get the experimental drugs......"

"Oh, it's okay because I said it's okay."

It was a blond man with a tattoo on his neck that stifled the ill scientist. His attire was also quite light, and he didn't even have a weapon, so it looked as if he was out on a picnic.

But everyone knew that this man was the most influential warlock in the laboratory. The same goes for the tall, bald-haired man who was quietly standing next to him.

The bald man's name was Veron and the blonde man was called Bruno. Although they were not related by blood, the two were called worm brothers.

"After all, there is only one opponent."

Bruno divulged the information he had discovered.

Surprisingly, there was only one intruder. Only one person wiped out an army equipped with firearms and two people in reinforced armor alone.

"Damn, who......"

"Well, we don't know. Perhaps the Imperial Security Agency noticed us."

An organization made up of only the most elite of the Empire, they even had a knight order belonging to them, the Nightcrawler Knights.

Of course, they are slightly different from the ordinary knights. The scariest thing about them was that their individual force was powerful, but they used any means and methods to achieve their goals.

Although they're knights, they don't act as sternly as other knights. Rather, they thoroughly scrutinize the opponent's weaknesses, dig into them, and kill them. They can mercilessly kill even a three-year-old child if judged to be harmful to the country.

"The way he fights is a little bit strange. I wanted to see more with the bugs, but I don't know what kind of trick he used, that all the signals from the bugs were cut off."

"Maybe he noticed that you were watching."

"Brother we need to prepare."

"Yes."

The older brother, Veron, got up and the men guarding the laboratory were also very nervous and raised their shields and weapons. They stared intently at the passage from the entrance to the center of the laboratory and got ready to meet the intruder.

A strange wave swept through the interior of the laboratory, then all the lights went out and darkness fell.

"What?! Come on, turn on the lights!"

"Use the reserve generator!"

Seeing the men moving in haste, Bruno turned to his older brother.

"Brother, I think he must have done his tricks."

"......"

"Brother?"

There was no answer from Veron.

Bruno looked at Veron and even in the dark, his bulky figure was clearly distinguishable by his silhouette but his head was cut off and rolled on the floor.