Faceless Phantom 16 Chapter 14 - Astral Artisan 2

A faceless being was staying still while looking at me. I could felt it even though there was nothing on his face. His body was vague and blurred, but then it slowly becoming vivid and clearly grotesque. It was bent in a strange way which was really illogical, and sometimes blood gushed and dripping. Even his limbs were oddly placed. Black smoke was coming out and it slowly formed the body into humanoid figure. If I looked at it intently, it seemed like the skin was peeled off. Some bones were out, and ribs could be seen on the chest.

The Dimensional Envoy raised his sword and swung it down afterward. I jumped backward multiple times. The sword missed me and the impact made the ground explode. Concerned if there would be air slash, I rolled to the left.

Boom!

"Mirage!"

I shouted while looking around. However, Mirage was nowhere to be found. I looked around once again and my eyes slowly widened.

'What?'

The only one remained inside the room was me and the boss.

'Where is she?'

Of course I told her to run away if something worst happen, but up until now she always supported me. Moreover, there was no way she disappeared from this room since the door was tightly shut.

She vanished without a trace.

'Is this an instance zone?'

Instance Zone.

It was an isolated s.p.a.ce which was typically a dungeon. When one or a certain number of players entered the area, other players outside the instance zone wouldn't be able to interfere with what happened inside. In most games, another party could still enter the instance zone, however they would be sent into another s.p.a.ce instead of the same one. In my case, it was a boss room instance zone.

'Still… Isn't Mirage my party? Why is it just me?'

When I was thinking, I was caught off guard. The dimensional envoy was already behind me. Shocked, I immediately evaded its attack.

Boom!

's.h.i.t! I need to focus.'

The situation was confusing but I had no time to think. For now, I had to face the boss and defeat him. If not, I didn't know what would happen.

I checked my inventory to see how many supplies left I had. 18 lesser HP potions and 24 lesser MP potions.

'Ugh…'

The number was good enough for hunting, but for a boss fight without healer? You know the answer. It was certain even if I didn't know the boss capability.

'I'll just attack carefully…'

The dimensional envoy was quite fast to maintain his distance in melee range. He swung his sword immediately when I was already within his sword range. However, compared to Ilkaav, I felt his attack was lacking. I didn't know why, but it was probably because I got used to consecutive attack.

The Dimensional Envoy swung his sword to the right and left repeatedly. I dodged while walking and jumping backwards. Suddenly, he thrust his sword straight. Seeing that, I ducked in reflex. Then he raised his sword and swung it downward. I rolled to the right.

Boom!

'Okay, this is my chance.'

I kicked the ground and rushed forward. I swung my sword towards the dimensional envoy's side.

Swoosh!

I couldn't feel anything when my sword went through his body. It felt like I was slicing air. Also, the system message didn't even show a thing. My attack didn't damage him.

'What? Is it a skill?'

I was sure my attack was precise. I attacked again and again. My sword still went through his body. The system message also didn't show anything yet.

'Don't tell me he is a ghost.'

Ghost type monster.

Such as specter, phantom or banshee. They were immune to physical attack, which was pretty much had to be damaged by magical attack. If that the case then I didn't have a chance to win because I didn't have any magic attack.

I sighed.

'Now I miss how Uruzak always casting spells on me.'

I evaded while observing the dimensional envoy attack, searching for his weakness.

'There must be a way to damage that boss…'

He kept damaging the floor and wall. When the sword hit the ground, I noticed the explosion was delayed. It might be a few milliseconds but I was sure it was not because of lagging. And then I saw the ground. There was no trace of line damage, instead craters were everywhere.

'Let's try it…'

I let him swung his sword at me. I gritted my teeth and kept my eyes wide open. In case the damage I got was too much for me to handle, I used my sword to parry. Parrying was the least thing I do since it sc.r.a.pped my sword durability. However, not for this case. I needed to confirm if the being I was against was real or not.

Swoosh! Clank!

The sword clashed mine, it was real. It was light for a moment, but then an overwhelming force was felt and it was ridiculously strong. Followed by an explosion, my body was sent flying low and rolling backward until stopped by the wall.

[You have received 862 damage from Dimensional Envoy]

I coughed up blood. Trying to get up, my eyes suddenly widened. The boss was right in front of me, ready to hit me again with his sword. As if my survival instinct controlled me, I rolled and successfully dodged.

Boom!

If it wasn't for my good reflex, I would be dead on the spot. If this was a story, it was probably because of plot armor. But I was not a main character in a story. I was just lucky. It was probably because the games I played in the past made me having good reflex.

'If this was a real world, what I just did would be impossible.'

Indeed. This game provided me artificial body with stats which made my body to do what I think quickly without delay. Sometimes I was wondering why there was no lag and this game went smoothly as if I saw more than 60 fps video. Well, technology always improved. As a player, of course I was happy.

'I need to improve. I have to overcome this boss.'

It was the final challenge after all. The quest might be failed if I lost. If it wasn't, I could die now and prepared to win for the next battle. However, I didn't want to gamble. It was a risky move and thinking like that right now wouldn't bring me any good.

'I'm really curious about this job after all.'

In the end, the idea of Astral Artisan piqued my interest.

'If I can't use magic then I have to learn one, right?'

At least, I needed to learn enchantment magic to be applied to my sword. If I couldn't do it, then I had to think all possible methods.

・・・

"Hahahaha! This is nice… We got plenty today. Loot them before they resp.a.w.n!"

"Alright boss!"

A wolfman, elf mage, sleethar rogue and human warrior began to take everything from three lying bodies on the ground. The party leader, a heavy armored human, was smiling while watching his grunts doing their job. He was satisfied with today's catch.

They were known as Player Killer party which often seen near Orbania. Even though they were called player killer, their method was actually agitate their victim to attack them back so it would be considered PvP instead of PK. Still, if they had to kill their prey then they didn't hesitate to do it.

"I don't understand why new heroes kill each other. Aren't you all supposed to save this world?"

Among the trees, a voice was heard. Surprised, everyone turned their head at the source of the voice. A man with black trench coat and fedora suddenly appeared behind them. Everyone immediately raised their weapons.

"Who are you!?"

The man in black was smiling looking at their expression.

"I am just a pa.s.serby…"

Anxious, the boss made eye contact with his underlings.

"It seems we catch another fish boys."

The wolfman, sleethar rogue and human warrior began to do as their boss intention. The boss was grinning, so was his underlings. The boss made an eye contact with the human warrior. He nodded to his boss and readied himself for a surprise attack.

"[Power Slash]!!!"

The human warrior suddenly charged without warning.

"That's lame…"

However, the sword hit something midair and bounced back as if there was an invisible spring. The warrior lost his grip and his sword was flying backward.

"[Fury Claws]"

The wolfman suddenly appeared behind the man in black. Raising his arms, thick claws were sent towards the man in black.

"I've heard that so many times already…"

The claws. .h.i.t something hard midair and stopped. A fist suddenly hit the wolfman in the gut. He was sent flying backwards by the man in black.

"C'mon… Show me some interesting skills."

Sweat could be seen on the boss face. His eyes were sharp, thinking hard about what he should do.

'This b.a.s.t.a.r.d! He has barrier skill.'

Barrier. It was a skill which could be learned by mystic or support. However, the way the man in black use it was beyond human understanding, and the boss didn't know that. What the boss see was just a prey who happened to have annoying barrier skill. He thought the man was just a support or mystic with low HP and defense that depended on his magic.

'Doesn't matter, once his mana is empty… He won't be able to do anything but beg for his life.'

It made sense. It was a law that mana was needed to make magic happen. If one's mana was gone, they wouldn't be able to chant magic. So what they could do after that just using their physical ability. No matter how strong he was, the man in black was just a single person.

The wolfman and warrior kept attacking him for minutes. But it seemed the man in black still had no indication that he was running out of mana.

'This crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How much mana does he have?'

The boss began to feel nervous and impatient. He looked at the female sleethar and also gave a signal to someone behind him, it was the elf mage. They both nodded and began to do what their boss commanded.

The female sleethar slowly walked away, she was sneaking under a tree. Suddenly her body became one with the shadow. She was completely invisible. Noticing that, the man in black was smiling.

"Oh… I wanna try that one."

When the man in black distracted by the sleethar disappearance, the elf mage finished his chant. A fireball as big as volleyball was formed in front of the elf mage. Then the fireball was shot, it was sent flying in an arc toward the man in black.

The man in black noticed the fireball, but it was too late. The fireball hit him. Big explosion shook the ground. The harsh wind from the explosion made the trees around dancing for a while. Thick black smoke and cloud of dust filled the area where the explosion occurred.

The player killer party felt anxious while looking at the smoke which slowly faded. Their eyes widened when they saw a shadow within the smoke.

The dust was cleared, and the man in black was still standing there unhurt. He brushed his shoulders, trying to get rid the dust off his clothes.

"That's amazing. I really want to use magic too."

He said as he finished dusting, and then he was looking straight to the boss.

"I'll kill you last…"

・・・

A black figure was floating. Every time he was moving, smoke which coming out within his body made him look like black snake. He was chasing another figure that seemed running away from him.

It was understandable. The black figure had grotesque body which sometimes twitched and bent in illogical way. Moreover, he was faceless. One would be scared seeing a faceless ghost chasing after them. They would be either running away or frozen. However, the one who got chased didn't show any fear at all. Instead, his expression showed that he was frustrated.

'I don't understand. I can't use magic no matter how I try.'

I read countless books and watched many movies and series. I recalled their information about the basic to learn magic which most of them rooted from the very essence of magical energy called mana. And they also had the same idea. It was about picturing the magic.

'I tried everything, but still…'

I tried to imagine fire materialized on my hand. I tried to control a pebble and made it flying like a bullet. I tried everything, but everything was fruitless. I didn't want to brag that I was an expert at imagining stuff. Even though it was not something good to brag about. Nonetheless, I failed. Perhaps I was lacking the fundamental of magic knowledge in this game. Maybe I had to learn from NPC or read some magic books, and then I would understand.

Let aside learning new skill or producing magic, I couldn't concentrate. Either because I did it in a hurry or because I was under pressure, so I couldn't grasp the knowledge. Learning while being chased was hard after all. There might be a chance that the method was different from what I knew. People said that life and death situation gave you unexpected strength. Even there was a real news about it. Well, since I didn't afraid of death and I knew I would be resurrected, it was pointless.

'When I was done with this boss, I promise I'll learn magic.'

I sighed and looked at my skills. And there I realized something.

'Come to think of it… My Wind Blessing skill is magic, isn't it?'

What would happen if I used it to my weapon? What did I do when I got this skill? I recalled my memory and attempted to learn magic for one last time.

First, I pictured the wind. Thanks to Uruzak, his harsh wind attack still stuck in my mind, and I still could feel it on my body. So I imagined his wind attack. It was wild and uncontrollable, then I tried to picture it slowly became gentle. I pictured it as vividly as possible, and felt the coolness of its breeze. When I grasped the feeling, I pictured and felt the wind wrapped my sword. I needed to focus and concentrate while evading when the dimensional envoy attack. I did it multiple times. And it was draining my mind.

Still, I smiled when my hard work was paid.

[Wind Blessing level has increased!]

[Wind Blessing has been updated]

[Wind Blessing's effect can be felt]

[Wind Blessing]

Level 10

Active: Increase Speed and Evasion. If it's chanted to weapon, it will add wind element to attack. Cannot be stacked.

Effect:

+5 AGI

+10 Wind attack

Duration: 50 minutes

MP Cost: 50

Cool Down: 5 seconds

'I see… I must feel too, not just picture it. Imagining and feeling the wind, so the mana will be materialized. Now that I understand the feeling, maybe I can learn another magic as well.'

I shook my head and sighed.

'It's not the time for that.'

I had to defeat the Dimensional Envoy first. It was hard enough to do it while being chased. I was. .h.i.t when I lost concentration. Five times, and two of them put me in critical condition.

My sword had wind enchantment buff now, so it should land damage on him. Time to counter attack.

I dodged his sword while rushing forwards. When I saw an opening, I swung my sword towards him. The wind that covered my sword made it easy to swing. Moreover, it was faster and precise.

Swoosh!

My sword went through his body. I cut him half, and the cut was still visible. Because of that, his body bent sideway. I expected new system message to appear. However, it didn't show anything yet, so I checked his HP.

His HP was still 100%.

The cut was healed and the Dimensional Envoy's body back to its previous form.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

'Back to square one again…'