Former Ranker's Newbie Life-Chapter 23

From a vantage point overlooking Gulak Village, the sound of Baron Lünbern’s curses echoed through the storm.

“Goddamn it! This fucking rain and fog! I can’t see shit, let alone figure out what’s going on down there!” With a frustrated snarl, he kicked a rotting tree stump, which shattered into splinters under the force.

The mage, who had been focusing intently on his magic, glanced at the baron and spoke in a calm, calculated tone. “It seems there were adventurers in the village, likely the ones interfering. But, thankfully, the rain ruined whatever tricks they were trying to pull. And this time, we’ve drawn in far more ants than before. There’s no way they’ll survive this time. They’re as good as dead.”

The mage licked his pale, mana-depleted lips and let out a wicked grin. “All you need to think about, my lord, is how you’ll profit from the ants feasting on their flesh and blood while establishing their territory here.”

“Really? You’re sure this time they’ll be wiped out for good?”

“Absolutely. I’ve poured every last drop of mana I could muster into summoning as many ants as possible. There’s no way they can fend off this swarm.”

Baron Lünbern seemed pleased with the reassurance, his grim expression giving way to a satisfied smirk. Wiping the rainwater from his face, he approached the mage and clapped him on the shoulder.

“If this works out, the position of my personal court mage is yours. Right now, I may just be a lowly baron, but with the profits I’ll rake in from this, moving up to viscount and into the inner circles of nobility is just a matter of time. When that happens, you’ll get your share of the spoils too.”

“Hehe, your humble servant will stake his life on ensuring you rise to even greater heights, my lord,” Zagner said while smirking to himself.

Those goddamn bastards. They couldn’t even qualify as bottom-of-the-barrel trash, and yet they had the nerve to throw me out? Fine, let’s see how this plays out. Let them waste their lives flailing around like headless chickens, stuck as Tier 4 mages until they drop dead. Meanwhile, I’ll use my brains to grab real power and show them who’s truly winning at life.

Though the mage himself had only managed to reach Tier 3 magic at the embarrassingly late age of forty-four, his eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he glanced at the trigger device, the other half of the Lure Orb he’d stolen the day they threw him out.

Just a bit more. The longer I sustain the mana pulse, the more ants I can draw to that miserable little vill...

“Huh?” Zagner’s train of thought screeched to a halt as something strange happened. The rain that had been pouring down moments ago was now flowing upward.

Why the hell is the rain going up? he thought, his brows furrowing. What the—

Before he could make sense of it, a tremendous impact slammed into him like a freight train. The last thing Zagner saw was the ground rushing up to meet him as blood spurted from his neck, his body collapsing in a heap.

***

Do-Jin had spotted his targets and immediately taken cover. The area was barren of trees or foliage, but the rocky terrain provided plenty of places to hide.

You’d think they’d at least put up some kind of defense by now. But no, not even a shred of awareness...

Do-Jin couldn’t help but feel a bit dumbfounded as he watched the mage still laser-focused on maintaining the signal, oblivious to the fact that he was a dead man walking. All the tension he’d carried as he crept through rugged terrain, fully expecting a counterattack at any moment, now felt like a waste of energy.

Well, I guess having an enemy this brain-dead isn’t the worst thing.

Do-Jin activated Night Vision briefly, scanning the group. There were seventeen soldiers in shabby, black-painted armor and one commander with better gear, standing out from the rest. The fat bastard in gaudy clothes was clearly the leader. And then, of course, there was the halfwit mage.

If he’d tried to take them head-on, the numbers alone would’ve made for a hell of a fight. From a distance, however, they were nothing but target practice.

I need to take out the mage and the commander first. The rest can wait their turn.

Having settled on his plan, Do-Jin began casting his spell quietly and carefully. He kept his mana output low to avoid detection, which made the process four or five times slower than usual, though it didn’t matter.

The commander, clearly the strongest of the bunch, was sneering at the baron and mage while spitting on the ground like he had better things to do. The mage was also too busy kissing the fat boss’s ass to notice anything.

[Wind Blade]

Three razor-sharp blades of compressed wind formed and shot through the rain, the storm masking their approach in perfect silence.

Shhhk.

The mage didn’t even get a chance to react. His head was lopped clean off before he realized anything was wrong, his depleted mana shield offering no resistance. The commander at least managed to spot the incoming blades despite his slow reaction, twisting just enough to avoid instant death. However, one of the blades tore into his shoulder and drew blood.

“Enemy attack! We’re under attack!” the commander roared, his voice cutting through the storm.

“E-enemy? Where?!”

“Which direction are they coming from?!”

“Goddammit, you useless pieces of shit! Protect the baron, now!”

The commander unsheathed his sword, barking orders at the panicked soldiers. He squinted into the darkness, trying to pinpoint where the attack had come from.

Fuck, I can’t see a damn thing in this darkness.

His mind raced. Should he charge blindly into the shadows or retreat and get the baron out of here while he still could? Before he could decide, a blinding blue flash of lightning erupted, slamming into him. He gritted his teeth and managed to stay upright, but the force of the strike was enough to momentarily knock the sense out of him.

“Guhh...” The commander groaned in pain, his body wracked with the aftershocks of the lightning strike.

At that moment, he noticed something that sent a fresh wave of dread through him. The rain was freezing midair, turning into tiny shards of ice. Not that being able to see it helped much. His body was still locked up, paralyzed from the shock, leaving him helpless.

Just a little more. Just a little longer and I could...

He clung to the thought that, if he could just move, he could charge into the darkness and drive off the attacker. Even with the storm, he might’ve been able to light a torch and get some visibility. Nonetheless, his desperate hopes and frantic rationalizations were meaningless. Do-Jin wasn’t about to give him the luxury of recovery.

[Whirlwind]

A small tornado spun to life and carried the icy shards of rain like a swarm of tiny, razor-sharp daggers.

“Aaaagh!”

“What the hell is this?!”

“Get down! Something’s flying through the air!”

“It’s divine punishment! We’re cursed!”

The chaotic, swirling storm was nothing short of a nightmare for the soldiers. Though their levels were high enough to survive, none escaped unscathed. Shards tore through flesh, leaving them with piercing wounds as they writhed on the ground.

“Damn, you’re tougher than I thought,” Do-Jin dryly muttered. “With a bit more training, some of you might’ve actually made decent knights.”

The commander, kneeling with cuts across his shoulder, forehead, and side, looked up at the sound of Do-Jin’s voice. His vision, blurred by blood loss and exhaustion, painted a hazy picture of a figure stepping out of the shadows. To him, it looked like Death itself, cloaked in the storm.

“Are you the one who was defending the village from the monsters?” he croaked, his voice rasping with pain.

Do-Jin didn’t bother answering. He glanced around, checking for any remaining threats. Expectedly, there wasn’t a single soldier left standing who could still fight.

“Except for that one,” he muttered under his breath.

In a shallow ditch nearby, a corpulent man in gaudy clothes was trembling, his ass sticking out like a terrified pig. There wasn’t a scratch on him, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out who the mastermind behind all this was. Of course, the bastard who caused this mess had come out unscathed.

Do-Jin couldn’t help but let out a cold chuckle at the absurdity of it. “Figures. Anyway, looks like we’re just about done here.”

He turned, raising a hand to summon a Frozen Arrow. His target was obviously the half-dead commander. Even on the verge of death, the highest-level opponent in a battle was never to be left alive.

“My name is Kuza—”

Thwuck!

The arrow slammed into his head mid-sentence, cutting his last plea short. His body crumpled backward, lifeless and undignified. Do-Jin let out a sardonic chuckle as the commander’s lifeless body toppled backward, hitting the ground with all the grace of a sack of bricks.

“They always try to act noble right before they bite it. Fucking pathetic.”

From behind him, a trembling voice broke the silence. “P-please, spare me! I was just following orders...!”

The desperate plea came from a soldier lying nearby, trembling and clutching his wounds. Do-Jin glanced at the man with a vaguely familiar face. It didn’t take long to place him as one of the assholes from the checkpoint, the same bastards who’d been throwing their weight around. The commander Do-Jin had just killed was probably their sergeant.

He scoffed. This guy wasn’t worth the trouble of sparing. The rain had finally stopped, and it was time to wrap things up before the swarm drawn by the Lure Orb came crashing in. Do-Jin turned toward Baron Lünbern, who was still cowering like a pathetic lump in the shallow ditch.

Is this guy for real? Does he think sticking his head in the dirt is gonna conceal that giant pig body of his? What is this, the brains of a pheasant in the body of a hog?

He let out a dry laugh, then used Psychokinesis to scoop up a mound of dirt and dump it on the baron’s head.

“Pffft! Ack! Gahhh!” The baron thrashed wildly, panicked by the sensation of being buried alive. “W-wait! Stop! You... do you even know who I am?! I’m—”

Before the idiot could finish his self-important rant, Do-Jin flung another pile of dirt into his open mouth. The baron gagged and retched, spitting mud everywhere, only to be hit square in the face with a sharp stone.

“Argh!”

A pair of Wind Blades followed, slicing into his thighs and leaving deep gashes.

“Sto—STOP, YOU FUCKING BASTARD!” the baron screamed, his voice cracking with a mix of rage and terror. “I’m a noble of the empire! You think you’ll get away with this? Killing a noble is an automatic death sentence! You’ll be hanged... HANGED, YOU HEAR ME?! B-but listen, I-I can pay you! As much as you want, just let me go!”

Do-Jin ignored the blubbering dunce and casually tossed the Lure Orb at him. The metal sphere hit the baron’s chest with a dull thud before rolling onto the ground.

As soon as Lünbern recognized it, his face twisted with pure horror. “Shit! Why the fuck is this here?! This thing... this is what attracts monsters, isn’t it?!”

The baron started crawling away, dragging his bloated body through the mud with his one good arm. Do-Jin almost felt sorry for the pitiful display.

Go ahead and crawl... straight into the wastelands, you dumbass.

He let the baron struggle a little longer before activating the trigger device he’d taken from the mage’s corpse. If the signal had been interrupted, the ants might’ve scattered or lost their path. This would fix that.

“A fitting grave,” Do-Jin muttered, turning away and leaving the baron to his fate.

***

Baron Lünbern crawled desperately across the ground. It wasn’t part of some plan or grand idea, however. He wasn’t thinking at all and just crawled purely out of fear, driven by a base instinct to get as far away from here as possible.

“Ugh... gah...!”

Mud filled his mouth every time he gasped for air, his lips parting involuntarily as he struggled to breathe. When he forced his mouth shut to avoid swallowing the dirt, his lungs burned like they were about to burst. Around that time, the first light of dawn began to creep over the horizon. Gritting his teeth, Lünbern lifted his head with great effort to see where he was headed.

“Oh no.”

Out of the thinning mist lumbered a massive ant, its mandibles clicking with menacing precision.

Crunch.

“AAAAAHHHHH!”

The Gulak Ants swarmed him, starting with his arms and legs, ripping him apart piece by piece. Lünbern’s screams echoed through the wastelands, the agony dragging on far longer than any man should’ve had to endure.