At my words, she immediately wrapped six small ‘circles’ around her arms, taking a battle-ready stance.
It was just like loading bullets into a gun.
And that comparison wasn’t just a metaphor—this really was the process of preparing to cast spells at any time.
“You… bastards!”
At that moment, a furious shout rang out from behind us.
When I turned around, I saw the guard captain, drenched in booze, gritting his teeth and glaring in our direction.
“Screw the merchandise or whatever, I’m going to kill every last one of you!”
He shoved aside the person trying to escape in front of him and charged forward, kicking off the ground with force.
The other guards didn’t matter.
But if we faced that guy right now, we wouldn’t stand a chance.
My level was, at best, 2.
Even with my 30 Charisma stat and the skill “Mockery,” I could only one-shot level 4 or 5 guards.
And my ‘companion,’ who was at a similar level, was in the same situation.
Meanwhile, that guy was level 6.
On top of that, he was treated as the dungeon boss, with way more HP—what we call a “meat tank”—than regular mobs of the same level.
So no matter how charmingly I might land a guaranteed critical hit, finishing him in one blow was simply impossible at this point.
On the other hand, if someone like me or my ‘companion’ took a single hit from him, it’d be an instant kill.
In short, even if I used Mockery on him, I’d be dead by the next turn.
So—
“Mister! Get back!”
This was a fight for people of the same level.
Clang!
A man dashed in and blocked the guard captain’s sword.
Sparks flew as the two blades clashed.
“Out of my way!”
The guard captain pushed forward with even more force, trying to overpower the man with sheer strength.
“Guh…!”
The man was clearly struggling.
If a muscular woman hadn’t rushed in and brought her blade down, he would’ve been cut in half.
“Damn slave bastards…!”
Those two were allied NPCs in this hidden dungeon, and their levels were about the same as the guards.
So while those two held off the guard captain, we had to deal with the rest of the guards.
That was the only way we could clear this dungeon.
“Forget the rest—just make sure you don’t scratch that Northern Elf! She’ll lose value—”
Fireball!
-BOOM!
An explosion sent the shouting guard flying.
“H-Hyaaack—!?”
A few stray fire sparks hit the alcohol-drenched floor and ignited instantly, engulfing the guard in flames.
The two allies already looked exhausted.
They wouldn’t be able to hold out against the guard captain for long.
We needed to wrap this up quickly.
The spells my ‘companion’ had available were the ones she had used earlier: “Gale,” “Fireball,” “Water Bomb,” “Stone Shield,” and “Lightning”—all basic 1st Circle elemental spells.
After casting another Fireball, the number of ‘circles’ left on her wrist dropped to five.
That meant she could cast five more 1st Circle spells in this battle.
Aside from the guard captain, there were six guards remaining.
“Got one over here!”
One of them pinned a slave to the ground to stop them from escaping.
[You coward, bragging about picking on the weak!]
“Gugh!?”
Now five remained.
The guard collapsed after hearing my “Mockery,” and the pinned-down slave quickly slipped away into the fleeing crowd.
“It’s his mouth!”
Suddenly, the guard captain shouted.
Even while fighting two people at once, he was scanning the battlefield and issuing commands.
“Someone shut that guy’s mouth!”
His sword pointed at me.
The guards, who had been confused and scattered while chasing down fleeing slaves, all turned to look at me at once.
“What are you doing!? Shut him up, dammit!!”
At his roar, the nearest guard sprang toward me.
“Mockery” wasn’t ready yet.
“Fireball!”
BOOM!
A fireball exploded in the guard’s face just in front of my ‘companion’s’ hand, and sparks scattered in all directions.
One of them landed in a puddle of alcohol—WHOOSH!—and flames erupted.
And then—
[Burn!]
“…!”
I heard the incantation and quickly turned my head.
A blazing fireball was flying straight at me.
“Stone—”
BOOM!
The Fireball exploded.
But it was blocked by a large “Stone Shield” that had suddenly risen in front of me.
The resulting sparks fanned the flames even higher.
“Click…!”
I heard the guard who cast the Fireball click his tongue.
At the same time—
“WAAAAHH—!!”
A guard let out a roar of rage and charged at my ‘companion’ with axes in both hands.
He probably thought she wouldn’t be able to respond while casting “Stone Shield.”
He was wrong.
“Gale!”
Fwoosh!
A powerful gust of wind burst forth.
Her right hand, still extended toward me to control the “Stone Shield,” barely moved while her left hand flicked slightly—and the wind responded.
Still, the charging guard didn’t get blown away.
Because the effect of “Rage” prevented him from being forcibly knocked back.
Well, the nearby flames weren’t so lucky.
“Aaaargh!!”
The wind-whipped flames surged into a raging inferno and swallowed the charging guard whole.
He stopped in his tracks and thrashed around trying to put the fire out, but it didn’t last long.
Soon, he collapsed to the ground, still burning.
Now only three guards remained.
One of them kept firing “Fireballs” and “Mana Arrows” at me, but each time, the “Stone Shield” floating in front of me shifted to block their path.
As for the remaining two—
“You little punks really went wild…!”
They had apparently circled around and were now behind me.
“I’m gonna crack your skull open!”
From the sound of footsteps and voice, I figured that no matter how fast I turned around, there was no way I could stop the attack.
I’d probably get hit with a sword the second I moved.
So I didn’t turn.
“Water Bomb!”
Splaaash!
“Guh!?”
A loud splash echoed as the guards were doused as if from a clear sky, slipping and skidding where they stood.
“You little rats with your tricks…!”
When I finally turned, one of them was flat on his butt, and the other was already scrambling to his feet.
“Lightning!”
Ka-BOOM!
A real bolt of lightning crashed down, frying the two drenched guards so hard their bones showed.
Just like that, all five of the remaining circles on my companion’s arm were spent.
Boom!
Meanwhile, another Fireball exploded as the “Stone Shield” blocked it once more.
Clang!
Elsewhere, steel clashed with steel again.
“…!”
The muscular woman who blocked the guard captain’s sword looked even more strained than before.
And it wasn’t just her face.
In the time we had been dealing with the other guards, she and her partner had sustained several visible injuries.
Her right eyelid was completely torn, her eye smeared with blood, and it looked like she didn’t see the guard captain’s left punch coming in time.
Thud!
With a dull thud, she staggered.
Then the captain lifted his leg and kicked her in the gut.
“Ugh!”
The force bent her body forward, and both feet left the ground as she collapsed hard onto the floor.
The captain raised his sword high above her.
Thud!
If the man who had just been lying on the floor hadn’t leapt up and tackled him, that blade would’ve pierced the back of her head.
But there was no time to worry about them now.
The “Stone Shield,” which had been holding up under constant attack, began to crack—crack, crack—and finally—
[Pierce it!]
Crash!
It shattered into pieces, blown apart by a Mana Arrow.
“Ha!”
Through the broken stones, I locked eyes with a grinning guard.
He was a mage, so he must’ve realized my companion had used up all her circles.
He knew we had no more way to block his spells.
“This time for sure—”
But he didn’t realize something else.
Because the large “Stone Shield” had been blocking his view the whole time, he hadn’t seen my face.
“-!”
He gasped suddenly.
His eyes, staring at me, turned a soft, rose-pink hue.
He was “charmed.”
And my “Mockery” was already ready.
[You call yourself a mage, but casting that trash and pretending it’s magic—honestly, that’s the most magical thing of all!]
“Guh!?”
That line was fatal to someone under the “Charmed” effect.
And with that, the final guard fell.
All the dungeon’s regular mobs had been cleared.
Only the boss—the “Guard Captain”—remained.
“Ah…”
Realizing this, the captain roared in rage.
“You worthless scum!”
It wasn’t grief over his subordinates’ deaths.
“If it’s come to this, I’ll kill all of you myself…!”
The moment I turned my head, he twisted his blade and knocked away his opponent’s weapon, creating an opening—and slashed across the man’s torso.
“No!”
The woman screamed and charged at him, but the guard captain slammed the butt of his sword into her and sent her flying.
The “Guard Captain” didn’t stop there.
He immediately charged toward us.
“I’ll cut out your tongue first!”
Just a few more steps and he’d make good on that threat.
“Mockery” wasn’t ready.
All the prepared circles had been used.
Even if I could use “Mockery” or my companion had spells left, it wouldn’t have been enough to bring him down.
We had no way to stop him now.
Like I said earlier, this dungeon wasn’t meant to be cleared at our level.
His level was 6.
Even the regular guards had been level 4 to 5.
Since my first level up, we had taken down twelve guards.
In other words—
Level up!
Lv.2 → Lv.3
We’d earned enough EXP to rise another level.
Please select a skill to learn.
As mentioned before, at level 3, I could learn another core skill in the Bard build.
The reason I said this was the only way to clear the dungeon.
The name of the skill is—
[Kneel.]
‘Word of Command.’
Simply put, it’s a skill that lets me control my opponent through speech.
Cliche Novel 