The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman 1211

 Chapter 1211

 

“Hmm.”

Pressed by Raon, the Tower Master let out a low groan, clearly conflicted.

“Damn it…”

He rolled his eyes back and forth, weighing the gains and losses of the duel.

“Hey! Barih!”

A tall, middle-aged man called out the tower master’s name, waving his hand.

"It’s double, I tell you! Double! Are you really not going to do it?"

He sneered, mocking him for being so coward.

“Your tower would be three times taller than it is now! What’s there to think about?”

“And your opponent’s just a newbie who hasn’t even been in Heaven for a week!”

“There’s no need to worry about being cheated. If Priest Srude guarantees it, then it’s absolute.”

“Never seen a coward this bad.”

“Hey, newbie! Forget that guy and fight me instead!”

Others also mocked Barih as a coward, curling their lips as if wondering how someone could live so pathetically.

“Hmm.”

Raon gave a small nod as he watched the people criticizing Barih.

‘Just as expected.’

I had deliberately shouted loud enough for everyone to hear that anyone who fought me in a duel would receive double the reward. The surrounding crowd, playing right into my hands, was creating an atmosphere where Barih had no choice but to fight.

If Barih refused and ran now, he would be branded such a disgraceful coward that he’d never be able to set foot in Heaven again.

‘Charlie did well.’

Charlie had stepped in at just the right moment and mentioned that Priest Srude was guaranteeing the duel. Thanks to that, the snare had become even more perfect.

“Hey! How long are you going to stall?”

“Forget that coward and fight me already!”

“To pass up an opportunity like this, what an idiot!”

“If you’re not going to do it, just get lost!”

The crowd, having found their fun in mocking Barih, hurled vicious insults at him.

“Damn it!”

Barih grabbed his head and stamped the ground hard.

“I’ll do it! I said I’ll do it!”

Realizing he was cornered with no way to run or avoid it, he shouted hysterically that he’d accept the duel.

“A wise choice.”

Raon calmly nodded as he looked at Barih grinding his teeth.

“Let’s start right away.”

He said he was ready and casually brushed off his hands.

“Wow, just looking at the confidence, it feels like Barikh is the challenger and that newbie’s the tower master.”

“That newbie’s got some serious guts.”

“Yeah! That’s him! The monster who devoured all those newcomer killers!”

“He’s already challenging a tower master? Impressive.”

Even though Barih had accepted the challenge, people poured their praise and amazement solely onto Raon.

“Damn it…”

Barih deeply furrowed his brow, realizing that his image had already been ruined despite accepting the duel.

“Stop stalling and start already!”

He vented his resentment at Raon, releasing dense killing intent.

“You go first.”

Raon beckoned with his finger, indicating he should go first.

“I’ll kill you!”

Barih drew out all the desire embedded in his tower and fired it at Raon. A massive surge of desire erupted, black currents spiraling upward like a tornado.

“I’ll take all you’ve got.”

Raon beckoned him again, pulling forth the desire within his own tower and wrapping it around his entire body like armor.

Booooom!

A deafening roar, like iron hammers colliding, echoed as the immense desires forming the towers crashed into each other.

‘Hmm!’

Raon let out a small exclamation as he felt the intense power contained within Barih’s desire.

‘A tower master really is different.’

An axe-like weight of desire pressed down on my entire body. Unlike the novices I’d faced before, Barih’s desire was well-honed, refined enough to fully draw out its true power.

‘I can see why they don’t stake their towers in duels.’

Since they could lose all the power they had cultivated so carefully in a single moment, I understood a little better why tower masters avoided duels with their towers at stake.

Stop pretending to be impressed!

Wrath crumpled his face in annoyance.

You could crush that guy instantly, so stop spouting nonsense!

He snorted, complaining about why Raon was acting surprised when he had more than enough power to obliterate Barih’s desire in an instant.

‘That’s true, but…’

Raon frowned slightly under Barih’s fierce assault.

‘I really am surprised. Honestly, I completely underestimated him.’

Whether tower masters or priests, I had thought most of the people in Heaven were trash unworthy of being called human. But seeing it now, although different from warriors, they had still honed their own kind of power in their own way.

‘Of course…’

A thin smile crossed Raon’s lips.

‘It’s also true that I could win easily.’

Just as Wrath said, simply condensing my desire and thrusting it forward would be enough to defeat Barih.

Then crush him immediately! Why let this drag on?

Wrath tilted his head in confusion.

‘If I don’t put on an act….’

Raon bit the inside of his lip as he glanced at the spectators watching the duel with keen interest.

‘All the customers will run away.’

Unlike ordinary novices, tower masters are quick to read situations. If I pretended to be weak too clumsily or won outright, there would be no one left willing to accept my challenges in the future. The best approach was to clash fiercely with Barih and then barely win, making it look close.

"You stupid fool!"

Barih, convinced he had the upper hand, curled his lips into a grin and unleashed even more ferocious desire.

“If you’d just stayed quiet, you could’ve lived on being called a tower master!”

Despite knowing that killing was forbidden in Heaven, he raised his killing intent and hurled his heavy desire forward.

“Haa…”

Raon let out a ragged breath, breaking into a cold sweat as if utterly exhausted.

“Is this Barih’s victory?”

“Figures. A newbie’s still a newbie.”

“He wasn’t bad for a newcomer, but you can’t beat experience.”

“With this, Barih will become an intermediate tower master, won’t he? He really hit the jackpot.”

The crowd also predicted Barih’s victory, looking at him with envy.

“Where’d all that bravado go?”

Barih snorted, convinced the duel was already his.

“Die!”

Shouting that this was the end, he unleashed the largest amount of desire he had used so far.

‘Now’s good.’

Drunk on thoughts of victory and reward, Barih was spewing out massive amounts of desire without properly focusing its power.

Booooom!

Raon seized the opening, sharpening his remaining desire into a needle-like point and piercing straight through Barih’s massive wave of desire.

"W-What… Cough!"

Having already poured out all his desire, Barih was unable to block Raon’s final attack, and his soul was pierced clean through.

“Guhhh!”

Barih tried desperately to endure it, but Raon’s desire refused to let go of his soul, twisting and crushing it.

"T-This isn't right…."

Eventually, Barih lost consciousness and collapsed. The winner and loser were naturally decided.

Ruuuumble!

The tower rising behind Barih crumbled like a sandcastle struck by waves, and all the desire embedded within it was sucked into Raon.

“B-Barih lost?”

“He was clearly overwhelming him.”

“How did this happen?”

“That idiot Barih let his guard down at the end, and the newbie didn’t miss the opening. He got lucky.”

“Not luck, skill. Fighting to the very end is an important quality too.”

“Either way, that was an unexpected result.”

The people who had been smacking their lips, confidently predicting Barih’s victory, stared at Raon with eyes blazing in shock at the unexpected outcome.

‘That really is an absurd amount.’

Raon’s shoulders trembled as he felt the sense of fullness from obtaining, all at once, an amount of desire greater than everything he had gained since coming to Heaven.

But this wasn’t all he was meant to receive.

“I didn’t expect you to go straight into a tower-staked duel. As expected, you’re impressive.”

From among the stunned crowd, priest Srude stepped forward, his blue hair fluttering.

“I’m not foolish enough to let a good opportunity slip by.”

Raon tilted his chin slightly, urging him to keep his promise.

“Of course. A promise must be kept.”

As priest Srude clasped his hands together with a faint smile, white wings bloomed behind Raon’s back.

“This is….”

Raon swallowed hard as he felt the desire he had gained from defeating Barih just moments ago double in size. So much desire surged in at once that it was difficult to keep his senses steady.

“There’s too much desire for your body to contain, so as you wished, I’ll add it directly to your tower.”

Priest Srude flicked his finger while looking at Raon.

Snap!

With a crisp sound, Raon’s tower, built of desire, shot upward like a snake lunging at its prey, rapidly rising until it stood three times taller than before.

“D-Did he really double the reward?”

“That’s insane! He became an intermediate tower master in one shot!”

“You can’t even call him a newbie anymore!”

"That stupid Barih! To miss such a golden opportunity!"

The crowd stared at Raon with envy, while showering Barih, who had failed to seize the chance, with ridicule and scorn.

“Not bad.”

Raon nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the tower that had grown three times taller in an instant.

‘But it’s still a long way from reaching the sky.’

The tower had grown quite tall, but since it had started from a low position, even tripled in height it was still far from the sky.

“I look forward to working with you again.”

Priest Srude bowed politely, as if asking Raon to continue dueling, then returned to the temple.

“W-What? This wasn’t just a one-time thing?”

“Every time you duel him, the reward doubles?”

“That’s crazy! What kind of special treatment is this?”

“I heard he’s the only tower master who said he wanted to stake his tower in duel.”

“So that’s why he got that kind of reward? He’s got real guts.”

“Hey! Newbie! How about fighting me next?”

The crowd looked at Raon with envy, while openly revealing their desire to seize his desire.

‘No.’

Raon curled his lips as he looked at the people blooming with desire and the towers of desire they had built.

‘At this rate, I might reach the sky much sooner than I thought.’

*   *   *

“Hmm!”

Priest Srude lifted his teacup, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

“A fine aroma.”

It wasn’t the tea’s scent he was savoring, but the situation itself.

“You seem pleased.”

Baif spoke from behind him, a faint smile on his face.

“How could I not be?”

Priest Srude set the teacup down calmly.

“Thanks to the pig you brought me, the number of tower duels has skyrocketed.”

He nodded, noting that duels involving staked towers, ones that hadn’t occurred even once for months, were now happening regularly thanks to Raon.

“I didn’t expect things to unfold like this either.”

Baif rubbed his forehead.

“I thought people would only flock to Jilpen, but they’re fighting among themselves too.”

He let out a dry laugh, clearly surprised.

“The desire to grow again has been sparked. It seems even trash has a wick.”

Priest Srude sneered at all the humans in Heaven.

“Thanks to that, desire is accumulating faster than expected. The more desire staked in duels, the stronger the energy stored in this land becomes.”

He clasped his hands, remarking that more desire than Heaven’s original quota was being gathered.

“But….”

Baif stepped closer and narrowed his eyes slightly.

“Jilpen’s tower is much taller than expected. If he fights one more opponent of the same rank, it really might reach the sky.”

He coughed lightly, as if asking whether that was truly all right.

“It has grown quite tall, that’s true.”

Priest Srude frowned as he looked at Raon’s tower, now so high it could no longer be fully observed from the temple windows.

“As you say, one more duel and it might touch the sky. But that won’t happen. The final opponent he must face is….”

With a strange smile, he wagged his finger.

“Not an ordinary human.”

*   *   *

“So this is the first tower ever built in Heaven?”

Raon lifted his gaze as he stood before the golden, shimmering tower.

“It’s tall.”

Thanks to continuously fighting and winning in tower duels, my own tower was now the second tallest in Heaven.

However, the tallest tower before me was far higher than mine, so tall it looked as though it were blocking out the sky.

If I were to fight the owner of this tower in a duel and claim even that person’s desire, then it really might be possible to pierce the sky with my tower.

"Then, for the final challenge…."

Just as Raon smacked his lips, preparing to challenge the owner of Heaven’s first tower—

“N-No, you really can’t go here!”

Charlie grabbed Raon by the ankle and shook his head violently.

“The owner of that tower, Kirk, was the first to come to Heaven and has never lost even once! He’s a monster! You’d be better off taking other people’s towers instead!”

He screamed, insisting he couldn’t allow this one.

“A monster?”

Raon narrowed his eyes as he looked back at Kerk’s tower.

“You’re not wrong. That really is a monster.”

Not just any monster. The owner of this tower wasn’t human, but a celestial.

“Still, don’t worry. The ones who hunt monsters are always….”

Raon clenched his fist as if gripping the tower itself, curling his lips into a smile.

“Humans.”

 

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