Urban Vagabond: Reload

WHOOOOSH!

Burned corpses lay where the flames had swept through. With a single attack, half the assassins deployed for the ambush were gone.

BBAK......

Apricot shrank back to its original small size and drooped its wings tiredly.

[Good job, our Apricot.]

Kim Bokja lightly patted Apricot on the head and put it back into the bag.

But the fight was not over yet.

“......Kill that one first!”

Using their comrades as shields, the assassins who had pushed through the flames charged at Kim Bokja. Killing intent glittered in their eyes.

As Kim Bokja watched them coming, she remembered the advice Choi Geon had given her.

It had been back when he agreed to help Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon prepare for their license exams.

—I’ll teach you how to fight martial artists too. Learn it. Someday it’ll be a great help.

—......Do I really have to?

At first, she hadn’t wanted to.

The only reason she had agreed to help the two of them with their martial-artist license exams was because Choi Geon had promised her a spellbook as payment.

If I learn spellcraft that controls anomalies and make them fight for me, why would I ever need to fight martial artists myself?

That was what Kim Bokja had thought, and she had tried not to learn.

But Kim Muhyuk had coaxed her along.

—Bokja. Let’s learn together. I’ll buy you something good after we’re done.

—Hey, Kim Muhyuk! You think food solves everything?

—Mala soup after?

—......Hss.

It was true that his bribe had changed her mind to some extent.

Kim Muhyuk had an absurd talent for finding restaurants she would like.

But the bigger reason was that, while watching those two idiots happily beating each other up every day, she had gotten curious what was so fun about it.

—Call out all your anomalies! This great Shin Kangheon will beat every single one of them down!

—It’ll be twice as effective if you link spellcraft and anomalies together, you know?

—Ha, can’t believe I have to sweat with these idiots.......

Kim Bokja naturally learned how a spellcaster fought martial artists.

The problem was that her opponents were not ordinary martial artists, but geniuses of martial arts—and on top of that, both of them were the type who refused to lose.

—Waaahhh! I can’t do this! No! I hate it! It’s scary, you bastards! Don’t you people ever go easy on beginners?!

In just one day, Kim Bokja was crying tears and snot.

Blades flashed right in front of her eyes, and even light contact left blue bruises all over her body.

Her legs buckled dozens of times under the killing intent the two of them gave off. She lost count of how many times she wanted to throw it all away and go home.

But as time passed, a strange stubbornness took root in her.

—Damn it....... Just go a little easier! I’ll try again!

In the end, by training together with Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon, she got used to fighting martial artists by commanding anomalies.

On Jeju Island, she had even built up a fair amount of real combat experience against Tamra Alliance martial artists.

And so now—

[Black Heaven Society isn’t much, huh? Is it because all their elites are fighting over there?]

These assassins rushing at her right now were not even remotely frightening.

Kim Bokja merely tilted her head and gave the order to her anomalies.

[Shaggy Dog, King Snake. Block them.]

With the Shaggy Dog now as large as a compact car and the snake as thick as a utility pole protecting their master, it was like a giant wall had sprung into being.

At that moment, one of the assassins spotted a gap and slipped inside.

“Die!”

A cruel smile spread across the assassin’s lips as he closed in on the seemingly defenseless spellcaster. The short sword he swung aimed straight for Kim Bokja’s heart.

But the assassin could never have guessed that Kim Bokja had deliberately controlled the gap so that only one person could get close to her.

KKAANG!

Kim Bokja’s suddenly lengthened nails knocked the short sword aside. Nail tips hardened with spellcraft like steel gave off brilliant multicolored light.

[I spent time on this manicure. How are you going to take responsibility for this?]

Even though the force difference still pushed her sliding backward, Kim Bokja smiled.

At that very moment, talismans flew out from inside her bag and stuck to the assassin’s body.

“......!”

Only then did the startled assassin try to tear them off—

But Kim Bokja formed a finger gun with her thumb and forefinger, aimed at him, and recited the spell she had already engraved into the talismans.

[Bang—!]

The red letters inscribed on the talismans writhed, then triggered a chain of explosions.

PBBRBRBRBRBOOM—!

“Kugh!”

The assassin coughed up blood and staggered back.

Perhaps he had finally realized that he had walked into a trap, because he immediately tried to flee.

But what awaited the assassin the moment he turned around was a black storm cloud.

[Kkagwi— Bite!]

Kkagwi spread out as wide as a thundercloud and swallowed the assassin whole.

CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!

A sickening burst of sounds rang out as flesh was crushed apart.

A moment later—

KYAKYAKYAKYA—!

Kkagwi spat out the shredded assassin and roared.

The assassins, forced to watch their comrade die while being held back by the other anomalies, muttered in terror.

“A-a witch.......”

“Retreat for now!”

To begin with, they were not even proper assassins.

They were low-level martial artists Black Heaven Society had sent to eliminate Mystic Hall’s spellcasters and buy time.

The enemies had lost the will to fight and tried to run, but Kim Bokja had no intention of letting them go.

—Remember this well. If you show mercy to an evil man who is running away, he will return in the future holding the blade that will stab through your heart.

[Who said I was going to let them run? I’m not leaving a single one of them alive.]

The anomalies tore into the enemies, seized them, crushed them, and mangled them.

“S-save me!”

“Aaaahhh......!”

If Kim Muhyuk had seen this sight, he would have remembered Red Rabbit, the battle spellcaster who would make a name for herself in the underworld at least ten years from now.

But Kim Bokja still did not look satisfied.

They’re all second-rate or third-rate. They’re not even worth comparing to those two idiots.

To eyes accustomed to Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon, second-rate and third-rate martial artists were no challenge at all. Winning was only natural.

Instead, she looked down at her damaged nails.

They were not her real nails, only nail tips she had layered with spellcraft, but the fact that she had failed to make them harder annoyed her.

If my opponent had been a pinnacle expert, my fingers would have been cut off too.

A sense of alarm rose in her.

She was still lacking, and she needed to become stronger.

She wanted to learn spellcraft better suited for combat.

What would it have been like if I’d had someone to teach me spellcraft too?

She had taught herself spellcraft on her own, and not once had she ever thought herself lacking.

But ever since seeing Kim Muhyuk and Choi Geon, it was a thought that came to her from time to time.

Even that monster Kim Muhyuk had gotten stronger after meeting a teacher.

What if she also had a master who could teach her stronger spellcraft?

“I’m vice leader of the crew. I hate being the only one falling behind.......”

Kim Bokja folded her arms and muttered with a sour expression.

That was when—

FWOOOOSH—!

Together with a violent gale, an enormous pulse of energy surged from behind her.

“......!”

Startled, Kim Bokja spun around and took a guarded stance.

An old man floated in midair, his entire body wrapped in bizarre characters, closely examining the traces of spellcraft left behind by the battle.

“You...... did all of this?”

The old man looked at Kim Bokja in open astonishment.

He was someone Kim Bokja had seen once before.

*****

Dr. Man was one of Mystic Hall’s elders, an outstanding spellcaster and a distinguished scholar as well.

He was also one of the foremost spellcasters friendly to the Martial Alliance, and at the request of the Martial Alliance Leader, he had readily joined this operation too.

But the truth was, he had recently fallen into deep turmoil.

My life’s research.......

The research on the artificial lower abdomen.

Ever since first entering the path of spellcraft, he had been deeply interested in the lower abdomen of martial artists.

Why could some people form one, while others could not?

That was why he had established friendly ties with the Martial Alliance as well. It allowed him to closely observe a wide range of martial artists up close.

If someone continuously circulated and trained energy through an artificial lower abdomen and reached a high enough realm, might it not be possible to form a real lower abdomen?

For decades, Dr. Man had researched that method and had even discovered its potential, but because there were so few examples of the artificial lower abdomen, the research eventually hit a wall.

He needed help.

He thought that if the value of the artificial lower abdomen became more widely known, and if more people began using it, then the number of samples would grow as well.

Recently, he had even begun entertaining the idea of presenting his theory on YouTube.

If many people come to understand my theory......!

Then one day, he received a letter.

Astonishingly, the anonymous letter mentioned his theory, which he had never announced anywhere, and said there was already a naturally successful case.

It also calmly described just how many failures had occurred before that one person finally succeeded, along with various side-effect cases from artificial lower abdomen procedures.

At the very end, it urged him to pay a little more attention to the family he had long neglected.

Dr. Man felt as though someone had struck him on the head with a hammer.

In my greed as a scholar, I never even considered that someone could be harmed by this.

It was just one letter.

And yet after reading it, Dr. Man felt as though he had been released from a powerful spell.

To a degree he himself could not understand, the affection he had held all his life for that research cooled with startling speed.

What came afterward, belatedly, was emptiness.

I never took even a single disciple in my entire life because I devoted myself to this research.......

Dr. Man fell into a great sense of futility.

Then, in the middle of that, he received the Martial Alliance Leader’s request for support.

Hoping to break free from that emptiness, he agreed.

And so, while commanding Mystic Hall’s spellcasters from the center and dismantling the enemy’s spell formations—

“Dr. Man! We’ve received word that the spellcasters in Sector A-13 were attacked!”

“......I’ll go at once.”

The moment he heard that assassins had stormed in, he used flight spellcraft and flew there.

And what he saw was astonishing.

“You...... did all of this?”

A spellcaster wearing a Blue Wolf mask, and around her, the fallen martial artists of Black Heaven Society.

And the anomalies she appeared to control were looking up at him and growling.

Then the woman in the blue mask pointed a finger at Dr. Man.

“Oh, you’re that......!”

“You’ve seen me before?”

No matter what school she belongs to, it seems they never taught her proper manners.

That was what Dr. Man thought as he looked at Kim Bokja’s finger, when she pulled off the Blue Wolf mask.

“I saw you at the license exam site. I was there to help dismantle the spell formation back then!”

“Ah.......”

Only then did he remember.

Dr. Man recalled her as a young spellcaster with an exceptionally deep understanding of mechanism formations.

Smiling faintly, he praised her.

“At the time, I thought you were a junior highly accomplished in dismantling mechanism formations and spell formations, but now I see your skill in handling anomalies is impressive as well.”

Like a young spellcaster of the modern generation, Kim Bokja did not shy away from praise.

“I’m kind of amazing, yeah. But since I caught assassins, is there some kind of reward money or not?”

The question was a little burdensome, and Dr. Man cleared his throat.

“Ahem. I’ll make a recommendation once I return. But tell me—who is your master?”

Spellcasters were far more closed-off than martial artists, and because of that, the master-disciple relationship mattered that much more.

If he knew who her master was, he would know at once what sort of spellcraft she mainly practiced and what school she came from.

But—

“I don’t have one.”

“Hm?”

Kim Bokja irritably twisted her hair around her finger.

After all, that was exactly what she had been brooding over just moments ago.

“I just taught myself everything on my own.”

“......What?”

For a moment, Dr. Man tilted his head to the side as though he couldn’t understand what he had just heard.

In front of him, Kim Bokja grumbled on.

“So lately I’ve kind of hit a wall. I need stronger spellcraft for combat. Well, I think I’ll manage somehow even if it takes time...... but finding decent spellbooks on the black market is like trying to pluck a star out of the sky.”

Without a word, Dr. Man looked over the anomalies Kim Bokja controlled, and then briefly at Kim Bokja’s bag as well.

Then he descended to the ground and introduced himself again.

“Let me introduce myself again. My name is Dr. Man. I am an elder of Mystic Hall, one of only five Grand Spellcasters in Korea, and the sole inheritor of Pilcheon Style, a battle-spellcraft school that is now passed down from one person to one person alone.”

“Oh, okay.......”

Thinking he was a rather strange old man, Kim Bokja nodded with a burdened expression.

Dr. Man’s eyes were shining that brightly.

“By any chance.......”

The Grand Spellcaster had lost the greatest purpose in his life and had spent a while sunk in helplessness.

Then, suddenly, before his eyes, a pearl hidden in the mud had appeared.

“Would you consider taking on a master?”

It was the first moment in Dr. Man’s entire life when he became greedy not for academic achievement, but for achievement as a teacher.