Chapter 46: Dimensional knife
Carl took the knife from his [Inventory] and examined it carefully.
The jet-black blade reflected his eyes, gleaming with a gloomy hue. Just by looking at it, he could tell its quality was top-notch. Of course, system rewards were always of high grade.
This time, he had a chance to check its features. Back in the first dungeon, he hadn’t had the chance to test it properly for some reason, in fact, he had a hobby keeping wife’s weapon in safety.
"I should’ve checked all the rewards earlier... My wife always gives them to me for a reason."
Carl glanced at the system screen and read the weapon’s description.
[Short Description]: A knife forged from spatial distortion.
[Effect]: Can only slice through non-living matter and consumes an extreme amount of mana to sustain its form.
Carl smiled, rubbing his chin as he pondered what to do with the knife.
The first thought that came to him was to break through the mana barrier. With the knife’s unique ability, he figured the current situation might be resolved peacefully.
"I can use this to tear the barrier?"
[System Notice]: Yep. If you use the knife, you can pass through the mana barrier. However, with your current mana, I’d say you can only open a small rift and maintain it for a few seconds.
Carl frowned and nodded.
"Indeed. Still, that’s the most effective option I have."
He blinked, then glanced at Roy for a few seconds before speaking.
"I’ll open a small crack in the mana barrier for us to get out. But if I do, we’ll have to get through the monsters first, you understand?"
Roy grimaced and thought about Carl’s words. In fact, he didn’t care what kind of method Carl used to escape from this collapsing town, as long as he could survive.
After hesitating for a moment, he nodded quietly. It seemed he had already understood Carl’s hidden meaning.
"Do you mean you’ll use undead dragons to help us get past the wild monsters safely and reach the mana barrier?"
Carl raised one corner of his lips, then clicked his tongue.
"You smart boy... Honestly, with monsters constantly pouring in from the mana barrier, it’s too hard for us to reach it safely—and there’s barely a chance I’ll have enough time to open it properly."
Roy glanced at the soldiers and hookers who were fighting to protect the town by the wall. He paused for a moment and asked hesitantly,
"So... the people of this town—don’t you plan to cooperate with them? I believe with their help, we could reach the barrier more easily."
Carl nodded.
"That’s another option. However, there’s a variable I can’t change."
He added,
"I’m too weak... I’m not strong enough to open the rift for all of them. With my current limit, I suppose only the two of us can get out of here. I don’t want their help only to abandon them afterward. It’s better for us to leave alone."
Carl signed.
"We’re done with their business here."
Roy nodded, barely having any questions for Carl.
In reality, Carl’s choice revealed his true nature. He wasn’t a hero who would help everyone at any cost. If he did something foolish, things could only turn for the worse—perhaps even cause unnecessary conflict and hatred afterward.
Overall, that was just how it was. Roy, being a scavenger himself, understood Carl’s actions well—he was even more wicked than Carl in some ways.
As for Roy, his choice was always to exploit everything as much as possible. The townspeople didn’t matter much; after all, they would die anyway if trapped here with the monsters.
Without wasting time on meaningless thoughts, Roy quickly gathered all his mana to summon undead dragons from the ground—summoning as many as he could.
Bony dragon claws soon broke through the earth and pulled themselves up from underground. Moments later, seven undead dragons emerged behind clouds of dust, revealing their skulls with hollow, glowing eyes.
Seven undead dragons.
A number quite large compared to the previous times. Carl smiled in amusement.
"Indeed, you’re stronger than before, kid... Hmm, my gift to you wasn’t wasted after all. I hope you’re using that cube properly."
Carl spoke while assessing the undead dragons’ power through the intensity of mana they were giving off. If he were to trigger his [Flame Breath] skill on them now and control it properly, the undead dragons’ strength would definitely grow even more than the last time he’d used it in the abandoned dungeon of the lawless land.
Then, his attention shifted toward a spot along the town wall.
"We will approach the town wall instead of heading for the town entrance, where most of the monsters are gathered. But... that won’t be easy either."
"Let’s go."
Another intelligent choice from Carl. If he went through the entrance of the town—where the slaughter was happening—he’d never reach the mana barrier. That place was at the fragile core of the town, built mostly from wood. Once the entrance collapsed, countless monsters would flood in.
Carl observed the monsters about five hundred meters ahead of their group coming here.
Currently, he and Roy were standing atop one of the undead fire dragons, its body wrapped in crimson flames from Carl’s skill, while the dragon itself glared fiercely at the vile monsters far ahead in the distance.
Sooner or later, the first clash was bound to happen.
Bathed in harmless flame, Carl blinked a few times and looked at the system screen.
[Side Quest]:
– Investigate the Temple of the Stoker Class.
Reward: ??
– Join the Student Council.
Reward: ??
– Escape from the Town of Brothels.
Reward: Mana Thread Skill.
"So many... for some reason, I don’t like having too many missions," Carl thought. Yet, when his eyes landed on the last one, he felt a small sense of relief.
"Mana Thread? That’s great, my love. I’ve been wanting to try one of your combat styles for a long time."
One fighting style was hard to learn and required the highest level of flexibility and skill. Moreover, forming and condensing mana into threads took a long and grueling process. He’d heard from his wife that only geniuses in the Strike Class, with certain unique traits, were capable of creating mana threads. But even then, they still had to practice for many years to master it. Because of that, most of them couldn’t learn any other fighting style — mastering mana threads alone had already taken up their entire youth.
...However, Carl had learned this skill early on without any effort, thanks to the system.
"How ironic. I hope those Strike Class guys won’t be too envious or feel it’s unfair."
[System]: You have slain a Goblin.
You have received 1x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain a Goblin.
You have received 1x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain a Goblin.
You have received 1x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain a Dire Wolf.
You have received 10x Monster Card
...
[System]: You have slain an Orc.
You have received a 20x Monster Card.
..
[System]: You have slain a Troll.
You have received a 40x Monster Card.
The system’s announcements kept blinking in front of him, reporting the Cards that the undead fire dragons had just finished off.
"Good..Too many... At this rate, I’ll reach Rank-E soon."
Carl grinned at the system screen, enjoying the constant flood of notifications. Luckily, he had brought Roy here — and in this case, Roy turned out to be really, really useful.
"Fuck... my mana’s draining out," Roy muttered, his face pale as he grew weaker by the second. Even though his dragons were undead, he still had to pour mana into them to keep them alive.
But he had never seen his dragons shatter so easily—like fragile eggs crushed underfoot. At this rate, his mana would be completely drained, and then his dragons would share his fate.
Carl laughed, eyes gleaming crazily as he watched the monsters clash with the undead fire dragons.
"There’s no need to worry. I’ll make good use of you."
From his [Inventory], Carl took out a bag filled with mana potions and tossed it to Roy, baring his teeth in a grin.
"It’s all yours. Use them wisely. And don’t bother about the monsters—I’ll protect you."
"Damn it!" Roy shouted in anger. For some reason, he had known things would end up like this. But now, there was nothing he could do except accept his wretched fate and quickly grab the mana potions, pouring them all down his throat.
As his mana slowly recovered, Roy managed to regain control of his undead fire dragons, sending them rampaging through the monsters while he moved toward the barrier as fast as he could. Still, every potion he drank felt like mere drops of water trying to fill a bottomless hole.
"Come on, come on..."
Carl, with his spirits at their peak, focused on the monsters coming from both the ground and the air. He slashed rapidly, raining fatal strikes on the creatures while keeping his balance atop the undead fire dragon—even as it roared and fought the swarm around it.
Everything seemed to be turning in their favor.
Until—[ Dragon senses] skill bloomed strongly as ever.