Chapter 33: Cyberpunk and Mercenary Part 6 (1/2)

“Enemy sighted ahead.”

Everyone took a combat stance at Tori’s words, who was responsible for the vanguard and scouting.

Amon drew his sword, while Yellow and Blue aimed their rifles and machine guns forward.

Paul, instead of wielding a staff, raised his gauntlet embedded with circuits, pointing it forward and beginning his chant.

He was chanting even before the monster appeared because he was sure of what they were facing.

After all, there was only one type of monster that appeared on the lower levels.

“Skeletons, thirty of them confirmed. Proceed as usual.”

Tori gave the command on behalf of Paul, who couldn’t speak while preparing his chant.

Soon, she charged into the enemy line.

The orderly formation of the monsters was shattered in an instant by her charge.

Crash!

The shielded monsters at the front were smashed along with their shields by her tackle.

The scattered fragments clattered as if trying to reassemble.

But they couldn’t get up again after she crushed their spines and heads into powder.

“Get out of the line of fire, Tori.”

Having finished her role of destroying the shield-bearers, Tori retreated.

Immediately, Blue’s machine gun roared to life.

‘Wow, classic weapons still work wonders.’

If this were a low fantasy world, facing thirty skeletons at once would be pure despair.

However, as the saying goes, sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic; in the face of modern weaponry, the skeleton troop was just a ‘routine’ encounter.

In an instant, a whole squad was obliterated.

But the machine gun alone wasn’t enough to finish off the skeletons completely.

Many still had intact spines and skulls.

The task of finishing them off wasn’t Blue’s responsibility.

That was for the wizard, who was deep in his chant.

“Burst!”

With his incantation, a powerful explosion rocked the space.

The acrid smell of gunpowder wafted into Amon’s nose.

‘What kind of magic is this that it gives off such a smell?’

Curious, but he kept silent, knowing it was likely the mage’s secret technique.

When the smoke cleared, not even bone fragments of the skeletons remained.

Amon lowered his sword, feeling almost deflated.

“Was I even needed for this?”

Hearing Amon’s remark, Yellow-haired Even burst into laughter.

“Hey, I’m just along for the ride too. Isn’t it nice to take it easy?”

“No. You’re not useless.”

Blue-haired Hale, the MVP of this battle, spoke up.

His logic circuits whirred, explaining Amon’s purpose without a hint of humor or subjectivity.

“Preserve your strength. We three can handle the entrance skeletons, but we’ll need you as we go deeper. Even, the same goes for you.”

Amon and Even were left speechless by Hale’s straightforward explanation.

‘How do you respond to someone who takes jokes this seriously?’

Regardless, Hale began checking the remaining ammo and the state of the machine gun.

While modern firearms were effective, they were heavy, and the fear of malfunction loomed.

A post-battle check was essential.

The rest of the team waited silently as Hale conducted his inspection.

A faint hum and a click.

Hale’s circuits quickly calculated the remaining ammunition in his ammo pack.

“I used 154 rounds in this fight. There are 1,346 rounds left. Keep it in mind.”

Amon’s gaze instinctively shifted to the enormous ammo pack on Hale’s back.

‘1,300?’

Setting aside the weight, it seemed like a lot, but it was a surprisingly delicate amount.

A single strong monster could burn through 1,000 rounds in no time.

The others seemed to share similar thoughts as Amon.

Keeping Hale’s report in mind, the party moved further into the building.

Fortunately, Amon soon got his chance to shine.

“Enemy sighted ahead! It’s a Tar Slime!”

Immediately, Paul began preparing his chant.

But unlike with the skeletons, Tori didn’t charge forward, and Blue-haired Hale aimed but didn’t pull the trigger, grimacing.

Only Yellow fired at the slime.

Bang! Bang!

Yellow, wielding a shotgun instead of an assault rifle, relentlessly fired at the slime.

The slime staggered back briefly from the shotgun blasts, but continued advancing, dissolving the bullets inside it.

“Ugh… I really hate slimes.”

Tori shuddered.

She despised slimes since hitting them would damage her fists.

Blue-haired Hale felt the same.

No matter how much they shot, the slime remained unharmed.

Considering the ammunition cost, it was a massive waste.

Thus, the job of holding the slime fell to Yellow with his shotgun.

While Paul chanted to deal with the slime, the team turned to Amon.

“Think you can handle that slime?”

“Don’t feel pressured. We brought you here for other creatures, not just that one.”

The team looked at Amon’s sword with anticipation.

Amon wasn’t certain, but he nodded.

‘Well, I’ve got plenty of these at home anyway.’

This sword was one of the many in Amon’s collection.

Thanks to his spoils from the guards of the Hexen Group, his closet was practically overflowing with weapons.

Using up two swords wouldn’t be a problem.

Amon drew two swords and stepped forward.

“I’m going in.”

Yellow paused his shooting briefly.

Amon dashed forward into the area previously in Yellow’s line of fire, swinging his swords.

With a slightly erratic style, Amon displayed dual-wielding techniques, slicing through the slime.

Surprisingly, the swords held up well.

Despite the slime’s corrosive body that could dissolve shotgun rounds, it had no effect on Amon’s swords.

Whether it was the swords’ quality or Amon’s divine power, he couldn’t tell.

However, there was something unusual.

‘It can’t regenerate either.’

Just like the demon he had once cut down, the slime couldn’t heal the sword wounds.

Amon kept pressing the attack, slicing the slime into pieces.

The slime stopped moving once it was divided into thirty parts.

“Is it dead?”

Luckily, the slime didn’t regenerate.

The thirty sections of the slime melted away, leaving behind only an eye-like core, resembling a nucleus, before it evaporated.

With the slime defeated, Paul, who had been chanting, let out a sigh of relief.

“How did you manage that?”

“All thanks to the equipment.”

Instead of claiming divine power, Amon credited his equipment.

The team accepted this explanation easily.

With high-end, next-gen weapons, enchantments like healing prevention or curse binding were basic.

No further excuses were necessary.

“Awesome! I knew you could do it!”

Yellow casually slung an arm over Amon’s shoulder.

Thanks to Amon, the slime was handled much more smoothly than usual.

“Could you handle it next time as well?”

Paul asked, feeling a bit guilty.

“I feel bad for putting so much on your shoulders.”

Amon’s jaw dropped.

‘Kindness like this… in cyberpunk?’

How could such a nice person end up as a mercenary?

Amon, soft-hearted toward people like Paul, turned down the extra bonus offer and agreed to handle any future slimes they encountered.

The exploration went smoothly after that.

The skeletons were taken down as usual by the team, while Amon handled any black slimes they encountered.

They also defeated the other monsters they had brought Amon along for with relative ease.

“There’s a ghoul!”

“Ghoul.”

These were the real reason Amon was recruited.

Unlike slimes, ghouls weren’t completely immune to bullets.

With enough gunfire, they could be reduced to chunks of flesh.

However, they weren’t as fragile as skeletons, shattering into pieces from even a glancing shot.

To truly stop a ghoul, you had to sever its neck from its body, which was challenging with bullets.

They needed someone in the vanguard capable of such separation.

Of course, they had Tori as a vanguard.

But…

“There’s a ghoul on the ceiling! Amon!”

“Yes!”

This was the problem.

While Tori was agile, her reach was limited, and there were constraints to her arm’s length.

Above all, it took time for her to decapitate each ghoul with her fists.

That’s why they needed a swordsman in the vanguard, and Amon was recruited for this reason.

Swish.

Amon’s sword swept through the ghoul’s neck.

A moment later, the cleanly severed head dropped from the body.

“Are you a magic user?”

Paul asked upon seeing Amon’s sword glowing.

Amon answered with a smile.

It wasn’t entirely untrue.

They continued taking down the ghouls step by step.

The machine gun and shotgun tore apart the ghouls’ lower bodies, while Tori’s fists and Amon’s silver sword took care of their necks.

And when Paul’s powerful spell was fully prepared, he would erase the ghouls, leaving not even dust behind.

Despite joining for the first time today, Amon worked seamlessly with the party.

The team even began seriously considering him as a permanent member.

“How about it? Would you consider staying with us?”

Amon felt inclined to accept.

The synergy was great, and the people were kind.

However, he wasn’t sure how they’d react to his personal goals.

He also had many secrets related to his divine powers.

So he couldn’t answer hastily.

“Could I take a little time to think it over?”

The party, who sensed a story behind his equipment, granted him understanding.

“Just let us know when you decide.”