Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 118

Leon and Karen had entered the mineshaft B38-5. “B” stood for black iron, while “38” meant it was the thirty-eighth mine to begin operations. The “-5” recorded the sequence of tunnels—sometimes just a few, sometimes dozens.

According to Irexana, this mine most closely resembled the site of the operation scheduled in four days. Both the monsters and the terrain were said to be nearly eighty percent identical.

Which means the other twenty percent accounts for unknown variables, Leon thought as he lit up the Holy Sword, trailing Karen by a few steps.

Unlike her, who could see clearly even in darkness, he needed at least a bit of light to secure his vision. The soft glow from the blade drove back the darkness, revealing the desolate mine before them.

“His Eminence said it was abandoned for poor yields, but still... What a mess.”

Just as Leon muttered, the interior of the tunnel was a wreck. The rails for the minecarts were twisted and torn as if bitten by a beast.

Lamps that should’ve lit the path were long shattered, and the pickaxes and hammers stuck into the walls had lost their heads, leaving only hollow handles behind.

Karen, moving ahead, nodded in agreement and said, “Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if undead monsters popped out.”

Then she twitched her sharp nose and sniffed the air and added, “The ventilation system’s still running, so the air’s okay. But if we stir up the settled dust, breathing could get rough.”

“What about a dust explosion?” Leon asked.

“Unlikely. Not impossible, but it’s hard to ignite a blast with mineral dust, let alone regular earth dust like this. If we dig into any active mining zones, though, we’ll need to be cautious.”

True to her A-rank rogue status, Karen swiftly assessed the environment and pinpointed the key concerns. They were things Leon, a layman in this field, wouldn’t have known.

He listened closely, then lightly tapped the wall with his fist, just enough to transfer the impact without creating sound or vibration. He hadn’t used Aura, or even full strength, yet the wall split with a faint hiss of crumbling dust.

The mine’s structural integrity seemed poor. If he unleashed a heavy hitter like the Grand Chariot at full power, he might end up burying both of them alive. This environment was forcing him to fight in ways that minimized stress on the walls and ceiling.

I’ll actually have to control my strength this time.

Until now, Leon had always fought at full power. When facing the exolaw priest in Blaine, the black mage in Rubena, or the drake in the Titan Mountains, he had to go all out just to survive. Naturally, that left him with little practice in moderating his strength.

Grand Chariot is out. It’s not a technique suited for this place.

His strongest move was sealed away from the start. And with neither sunlight nor moonlight reaching underground, the regenerative power from the Stigma of the Guardian was greatly diminished.

He’d never fought under such unfavorable conditions, and it left him feeling more stifled than ever before. That was when he realized something, and El-Cid caught it.

El-Cid asked, —You get it now?

Yeah...

While creating a favorable environment was an average warrior’s skill, a Hero had to dive into danger knowing it was unfavorable. To break through adversity head-on, to perform what might seem suicidal—over and over—was the mark of a true Hero.

If they couldn’t see, they had to learn to fight without sight. If they lost their weapon, they’d have to fight with their bare hands. They’d have to attack a fully fortified defense straight on. Even when surrounded by many foes, they had to overcome them alone.

—Figure it out. Learn how to survive in this. Learn how to maximize your strength even in conditions like this. This is where we really begin.

Before Leon could even ask, dozens of monsters burst out from the walls ahead and behind them with a loud rumble.

It was a herd of Crag Mutants. Their danger level was unknown, and they appeared in large-scale mining zones. Each carried a mana-infused core within their ore-like bodies and attacked only organic life. Their power varied wildly depending on their composition, and there was no consistent way to deal with them.

“No way. I didn’t sense a thing...?!”

Even with their advanced senses, Leon and Karen had been surrounded. Karen, unfamiliar with battles in tight areas like this mine, clearly looked shaken.

Leon was the first to step forward.

This is my first time seeing Crag Mutants.

They were practically living boulders. They varied in size and shape, in behavior, even in core placement.

Some looked like beasts. Others resembled humans. It was easier to treat each one as an entirely separate monster.

The ones before Leon paused briefly and then began to charge using their blunt lower halves with a threatening thumping. The weight of the monsters’ steps echoed down the mine with thunder. Being from a black iron mine, they clearly had the mineral in their bodies, each easily over four hundred kilograms.

Their speed was nothing to scoff at, either. Not quite up to par with Aura wielders, but comparable to well-trained soldiers. That kind of weight and hardness alone made them a serious threat.

Let’s try slicing one.

No Aura. Just raw physicality, swordsmanship, and the sharpness of the Holy Sword. Dodging a beast-like charge of a Crag Mutant by a hair’s breadth, he targeted its hollow head. Leon raised the sword in a high grip and brought it down in a vertical slash, mimicking El-Cid’s demonstration from the Machina Forge.

With a blast, the blade struck the rock creature, and its form shattered. The strike that hit the head through to the body must have hit the core by sheer luck, and the monster reverted to a pile of ore.

Leon’s face, however, didn’t brighten at the one-hit kill.

Tough. I didn’t slice it—I crushed it. Without Aura, my sword won’t cut it.

It was only because it was a Holy Sword that the blade didn’t chip. Even a mithril sword would have bent after the previous strike.

To take down Crag Mutants reliably, he had to use Aura Weapon. One wasn’t a problem, but dozens—hundreds—would drain him fast.

I need a more efficient method.

Separate from that thought, Leon’s body was already moving. His sword flowed like water, tracing a golden line in the air that cut down three Crags. With Aura Sword, even black-iron-infused stone cut like butter.

Leon fell two more and then stepped forward for a horizontal slash, causing the others to hesitate. The slain crags crumbled into stone fragments behind him, and in that brief pause, Leon turned to look behind.

“Tch, guess poison doesn’t work on rocks.”

Karen was in the middle of a completely one-sided massacre. She tried using poison, aimed for relatively weaker spots, and even attempted to split open their bodies to locate the cores, but none of it had much effect.

“They’re just not a good match for me.”

After finishing off the downed ones, Karen kicked aside the remains with a grumble. Ore-type monsters weren’t even living beings, so poison didn’t work on them, and the assassin’s approach of targeting vital points was meaningless unless it struck their mana core. The only method left to Karen was overwhelming with sheer power.

“Maybe it’s time to practice the new technique.”

Avoiding things one couldn’t do would become a weakness. However, if they could turn them into things they could do, they might become an unexpected asset.

Shadow swelled up in Karen’s palm, swirling around one of her daggers, reshaping it. A string of shadow, like a bowstring, stretched between her thumb and pinky. The dagger sat taut on the string, drawn back.

If she gave it elasticity and launched the dagger like an arrow, just like when she had traversed the Titan Mountains...

With a loud thwack! The dagger shot out like a flash of light, piercing through four crags, smashing the head of the one behind them, and embedding itself into the wall. Even Karen was at a loss for words at the sheer power.

“This is actually pretty decent...!”

Aura consumption had dropped significantly, too. As if she’d stumbled on a breakthrough by accident, Karen conjured more shadow bows in both hands and began launching daggers rapid-fire.

Watching her, Leon came to a realization of his own.

I need to learn how to fight in a different way than I have until now.

He didn’t need to shoot daggers like Karen, but he did need to make his fighting style more flexible. He, however, couldn’t change his main weapon. A Hero was strongest with the Holy Sword in hand. So, his adaptability would have to come in some other form.

El-Cid offered advice, approving of the thought.

—A swordsman is someone who uses the sword, not someone who uses only the sword. There’s nothing dumber than being a slave to your own tools. Don’t you think?

Leon smirked at that remark, just as more crags began charging at them again. Unlike biological monsters, Crag Mutants had such primitive instincts and intelligence that even if they recognized a power gap, they forgot it within seconds.

Fifteen meters. As the enemies entered striking range, Leon let his sword drop, dashed forward, and struck—but not with his sword.

He had thrust his palm forward to stop a crag’s charge and pushed Aura into its rock-hard body, thin, like a thread. He stirred it briefly inside, probing its body before pulling back.

Leon’s Spacework wasn’t yet refined, so his palm worked better than a sword blade with a limited contact surface.

“Tch!”

It didn’t work. After that failed attempt, Leon dodged the next wave of crags and dove aside.

Ore-type monsters had strengths and weaknesses. They lacked joints, nerves, and muscles, which made them durable, but their movements were clumsy like wooden mannequins. As long as there was space, Leon could run from them for hours.

Again!

He didn’t give up. He slammed his palm into the crags’ torsos. As their bodies quivered from the impact, Leon realized he didn’t need to shape his Aura like a thread.

A wave. Invisible ripples that spread in concentric circles would work. He could use their echoes to read what was inside.

Sometimes he misjudged his force and knocked the Crags flying with a thunk. Other times, he injected too much Aura and shattered them completely with a crash.

Come on, one more!

This wasn’t like when he broke a spear in the forge. Now he had to dodge attacks from dozens of Crags and operate within a one-second window. Pulling off in that instant was exponentially harder.

However, Leon never gave up. With palms torn raw and bleeding from smashing into stone, he fixed his eyes on the next target and thrust his hand forward.

Even with Aura shielding his hand, smashing into stone like that peeled the skin and jarred his bones. Anyone else would’ve groaned or clenched their teeth.

Leon, of course, didn’t waver an inch. He just adjusted his stance and tapped the next Crag with his palm.

Extreme overtraining wasn’t new to him. Pushing himself to the limit was an old habit of Leon. It was just another part of his daily routine for the past three years.

Once. Twice. Ten times. Twenty.

And then, after countless failed attempts, Aura finally resonated from Leon’s palm and shook the Crag’s body. Leon had manifested Spacework.

The wave swept through the creature and returned, revealing the location of its mana core. It was in its right shoulder. Leon struck the exact spot with his sword.

This time, a sharp crack rang out as something solid shattered.

“Did that do it?”

The giant Crag Mutant collapsed the moment he pulled out the sword. It was a clear sign that Leon had hit its mark.

It was just one success, but the experience gained from success far outweighed what came from failure. Remembering the sensation still lingering in his left palm, Leon turned toward the remaining few monsters.

“Again.”

Spooked by his intensity, the crags backed away a few steps—but soon forgot their fear with their goldfish-level memory. Once again, the Hero and the monsters clashed in the depths of B38-5.

“Hehe.”

Watching him struggle from behind, Karen giggled. She’d already smashed dozens of crags herself.

That relentless drive was one of Leon’s hidden charms. He never gave up, no matter the challenge, never lost his fighting spirit, no matter the enemy. Watching his back sparked hope in those who followed him.

“You’re trying to get even stronger, aren’t you, Mr. Hero?”

A faint light shimmered in Karen’s hollow eyes. Emotions that had worn away during her life as an assassin were slowly returning as she stayed by his side. A rope of light descended into the darkness where she had once given up, and the frozen blood in her veins seemed to thaw in its warmth.

I can’t afford to be happy at this level either.

She might’ve reached the threshold of a Master, but she was a half-baked one who couldn’t even use Aura Blade yet. Compared to the cardinal she met yesterday, she hadn’t even scratched the surface.

Showing off with some shadow-formed bow wasn’t good enough. A true Assassin Master was the embodiment of death—capable of killing even other Masters. Once she mastered Aura Blade and Aura Skill, few would survive in her presence.

“You’re not getting away from me, slab heads.”

Her eyes flared with blue light as she turned. Dozens more Crag Mutants had appeared, fixing their sights on the intruders who had dared to enter their territory after so long.

B38-5 spanned a total of 34 kilometers. The number of monsters inhabiting it reached into the thousands.

Then, a terrifying shriek echoed—one that could only come from a rare mutation. A Crag Header, mimicking the structure of a specific creature, had appeared.

Its ultra-low frequency rippled out, exerting pressure on every living being around it. With mana imbued in the sound, it was more akin to mental magic. Anyone with a shaky mind would feel their knees give out.

Karen, however, just smiled sweetly as she faced the wave and said, “Was that a greeting? Hello! Nice to meet you, too. And—”

With an innocent grin, she set the blades of the daggers between her fingers ablaze in teal light. Aura Fire, further condensed and strengthened.

“Die for the Hero and me!”

A moment later, a meteor shower of ghostly flame tore through the mine’s darkness.