248-242 Imitation




 The Spirit of Darkness showed me the past battle between Lord Leinster and the Dark Dragon.
 Both of them had tremendous strength.
 In particular, Lord Leinster's moves weren't ordinary strength, but there were various moves that could be used as a reference.

''That strength is foul. But how great could it have been...''
 Change direction in the air using your entire body, not just your legs.
 The magic attribute of the magic sword is used to probe the opponent's weaknesses, and the various variations of attacks that allow it to do so, as well as movements that are efficient in dealing damage with close-range and long-range attacks.
 However, the most surprising thing is the defense. In the case of Breath, he invoked multiple magic barriers and also invoked recovery magic on himself. I often do that too, but I never thought of setting up a magical barrier.
 Even when attacking at close range, thickening the magic barrier would reduce the enemy's attack speed for a moment. You would have chosen to avoid or counter at that moment.
 That's like a profound ability that can be acquired by having the ability to accurately judge a situation and a body that can keep up with it.

But I've mastered the skills of thought acceleration and body strengthening, and although I'm not familiar with magic barriers, I'm sure I'm not inferior to Lord Leinster when it comes to recovery magic alone.
 I made up my mind to solidify and trace the image of Lord Leinster's fighting and movement style I had seen in my dreams, and I was determined to absorb whatever I could to make it mine, greedily.

 When I woke up my body, Lionel was the only one awake, so I decided to prompt him to take a nap.
'Lionel, now that I'm awake, you can leave the guards to me and get some sleep.
''Luciel-sama, it's time to fight the imperial soldiers, but I'm sure I won't have time to go easy on them. That's why I've decided to slay all of them, except for the ones weakened by Luciel-sama's magic.
'I see. But if you know someone you know and want to help, feel free to let me know.
Ha!
 Lionel told him and moved to the wall.

 And then I realized something.
 The wildly combative spirit that Lionel had been emitting since I told him I was going to attack the Empire had disappeared.
'I hadn't noticed it before, but it feels like I'm back to my normal Lionel. Which means that Lionel's mind might have been disturbed as well.
 Knowing that Lionel, who seemed to be able to do everything perfectly, had his doubts, and that everyone else was stepping on their own, I continued to swing my sword silently until everyone woke up.


 Esther was up first, followed by Ketty and Kefin.
 I decided to have a little mock fight with Kefin until Lionel woke up.
'I'd like to try a few things. Kefin, can we have a light mock fight?
''That's unusual. If you ask me to do something for you, Luciel-sama, I'm always happy to do it.
Thanks, I'll help you. I'll set up my shield and you can hit me as hard as you can. But it would be helpful if you could avoid any deadly attacks.
'I won't attack you like that, but if Luciel-sama is only defending himself, be prepared for your arms and legs to leave your body.
Yeah. Please.
 Kefin looked a little surprised and then readied his sword.

 I also took the shield out of my magic bag and took a quick deep breath once before holding it up towards Kefin.
'Anytime.'
Then I'll go.
 At that moment, Kefin's body shakes.
 As I had expected, I found out that Kefin has acquired a body strengthening ability.

 This one also immediately activates the body strengthening and deploys an area barrier, furthermore it releases its own magic power outside of its body to control and solidify it, creating a magic power barrier.
 Feeling the presence and magic power, I searched for Kefin's movement.
 When I heard a swooshing sound, I felt that Kefin's attack had slowed down, although it was really only for a moment. But in return, his arm was cut off a bit.
 But surely what I'm trying to do is not wrong. Judging that, I will continue with the training.
"There's no need to be shy. Come on in.
 Increasing the magic power that is kneaded into the magic power barrier, and embodying it with the image of a shield that is even denser and harder.
 Then, first of all, I was able to defend against Kefin's attacks with the shield, and as I further hardened the magic barrier, I was able to avoid attacks not only with the shield alone, but really just barely, one or two times out of ten.

''Kefin, do you feel anything when you make an attack?''
''No, I didn't really feel it. I just felt that Luciel-sama's reaction time seemed to increase...
 Kefin nodded his head in agreement.
''I see. With the thickening of the magic barrier, I felt that Kefin's attack speed, which touched the barrier, was slowed down for a moment, but maybe it's because he sensed the danger and increased his concentration. Well, maybe that's why I'm a little tired.
 It will take some time to master this, but I was honestly happy to have a new goal in mind.
"It's just like you, Luciel-sama, to see such an immediate improvement after yesterday.
No, it's all thanks to you guys.
 This time it's the result of the dark spirits that showed me the battles of the past and the magic power manipulation and magic control that I haven't missed since I came to this world.
 It's something I shouldn't have realized sooner but I'll be happy about it now. If I don't die, there's a better chance that no one else will die.

 Next to Kefin, it was Estia who asked for the same thing.
 He decided to check the magic barrier to see what would happen if it were cut by the magic sword, just in case. Then the result was surprising.
 To my surprise, unlike Kefin's attack, the magic sword, when it hit the magic barrier, immediately slowed down.
''Did you feel something?''
'Yes. I felt like I was being held back by something very hard.
Okay.
 Maybe the attacks where the opponent's attacks are filled with magic power will repel each other's magic power.
 Somehow, I think I'm starting to see the image of the complete type of my weapon that my master trained me to use.

 I started cooking to think, and I was almost finished with it, when Lionel woke up just in time to do some thinking.
 However, that short amount of sleep was indeed worrying, so after making him promise to get a long sleep before heading to the Empire, we all began to eat.

 And when we descended to the forty-one level, it was dark, with no more than a meter away from us.
This won't help us disarm the trap. I'm going to shine a light on it. If I'm not good, the demons might come flooding in, but it's better than getting a trap that could kill you instantly. We could walk around with a barrel of worst-case object X, but we'll hold on as long as we can.
If the demons are rushing in, they could be trapped, and that's a good thing.
Okay, let's move up to the 50th level.
""Yes."
 I decided to hold the light as a shield for me and asked everyone to fight.
 And as I projected the light forward, I could see the demons we had been fighting rushing towards us.
 From there on, it was a series of battles.
 As expected, it is not possible to handle all attacks by numbers, and everyone including Lionel received more than a few injuries.
 Even so, while wiping out the demons, they went down the hierarchy.
 When they crossed the forty-fifth level, a humanoid demon suddenly began to appear.
 There was a headless knight demon called Dark Knight, a living armor demon called Shadow Knight, whose living armor appeared from the shadows, and from the forty-eight level, Durahan appeared.
 But it wasn't until the humanoid demons started to appear that everyone started to move better.
 Lionel and Keti originally specialized in interpersonal combat, Kefin and Estia's movements remained the same, but their attacks were easier to read, or they were able to move aggressively.
 And it seems that it was the same for me as well, hitting our attacks to match the opponent's attacks, the timing of counters was easy to time, and I was able to use my magic sword to cut through the enemy.

 But despite the smoothness of the battle surface, I felt uncomfortable with the lack of treasure chests in the labyrinth search.
 And when I finally arrived in front of the boss's room at the 50th level, I heard a tremendous roar from inside.

 A tremendous roaring sound rang out from inside.