“Uoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!”
The first one to move was Oishi.
Raising his large shield, he unleashed a tackle towards Keiichiro.
A charge from the warrior-type [Soldier] class.
An attack that the physically inferior [Trapper] should have no way of stopping.
However—
“Trap Set—[Arrow].”
Keiichiro met Oishi with the back of his hand.
Immediately after, the Trap activated.
“Guooh!?”
The activation of the Arrow sent Oishi flying sideways.
Oishi rolled violently across the rocky ground.
“W-What the…!?”
Not understanding what had just happened, Oishi wore a bewildered expression.
Keiichiro gazed coldly at him.
“You probably chose a tackle because you have a power-focused class… but frankly, it’s underwhelming. You lack speed, making you easy to react to, and you don’t have enough power to be called a heavy tank, so you lose to simple tactics.”
Keiichiro spat out the words.
Strong Adventurers.
It wasn’t just about levels and Skills.
—It was about understanding your own aptitude.
Adventurers like those in the Demon Capital knew how to utilize 100% of their power.
That was the difference between the mediocre and those who could break through their limits.
“You… piece of trash class!”
Oishi let out a roar and charged at Keiichiro again.
Confident in his superior physical abilities, he blindly believed that alone was enough to overwhelm him.
That was why he couldn’t search for other methods.
“What’s a tank doing abandoning his allies?”
Oishi, who should have been the tank, was fixated on Keiichiro.
At that moment, he was disqualified from his role of protecting his allies.
“Trap Set.”
An upward-pointing Arrow appeared on Keiichiro’s palm.
Then, he slammed a palm strike into the approaching Oishi.
Although Oishi blocked with his shield, the Arrow launched his body, shield and all, into the air.
“Trap Set—[Arrow] + [Flame].”
As Keiichiro clapped his hands, a pillar of flame assaulted Oishi.
“Uooooh!?”
Oishi, with no footing on the ground, had no way to dodge it.
The pillar of fire gouged powerfully into his stomach.
The flames tore a large hole in his armor and sent his body flying far away.
“That was some excellent armor compared to your actual skill. You won’t die, probably.”
Using the [Slash] Trap would make killing them easy.
But he had no intention of doing so.
If their story was to be believed, this wasn’t their first offense.
There must have been other Adventurers stripped of everything, who vanished along with the Dungeons.
In that case, he needed to keep them alive—and make them reveal everything.
Make them live and face punishment.
“Tch…!”
As Keiichiro shifted his gaze, Tashiro readied his bow.
Perhaps due to impatience, his hands were shaking, and his aim was a beat too slow.
“Five seconds too slow to ready it.”
Keiichiro had seen many Adventurers in the Demon Capital.
Even without combat prowess himself, he had continuously felt the atmosphere of the front lines firsthand.
Therefore, in terms of experience, he was far superior.
Oishi and the others didn’t know the kind of tense battlefields where a moment’s delay meant death.
Their tactical awareness was far inferior to Keiichiro’s.
“Trap Set—[Duet].”
Keiichiro launched a pebble using the Arrow deployed on his fingertip.
The shot, like a shooting star, struck and broke the bow Tashiro had been holding.
“[Duet].”
He followed up by shooting Tashiro between the eyes with a pebble bullet.
The [Archer], with his low physical strength, was knocked unconscious by that alone.
“Just one left.”
Keiichiro faced the last remaining man—Kurata.
The distance between them was twenty-five meters.
This was Kurata the [Wizard]’s range.
“Don’t act so damn cocky, [Trapper]!”
Kurata yelled furiously.
Then, he grinned, his mouth stretching wide.
“Don’t you dare lump me in with them!”
Kurata raised both hands.
His ten fingers were adorned with a multitude of rings.
“Look! This is the D-Rank [Attribute Enhancement Series]!”
The [Attribute Enhancement Series] referred to rings imbued with the ability to strengthen elemental attacks.
They were the same type as the ring Keiichiro had given Akino, albeit one rank lower.
“Completing the [Attribute Enhancement Series] has boosted my magic power to B-Rank! No! It rivals an A-Rank [Wizard]! I! I am different from those guys who are stuck at C-Rank!”
Kurata proclaimed loudly.
Series equipment granted bonus effects when equipped as a set.
The bonus effect for the [Attribute Enhancement Series] was increased magic power.
Attribute-enhanced magic unleashed with abundant magic power.
That would certainly be formidable.
Kurata shouted, deploying a magic circle.
What he unleashed was fire magic.
Boosted by the attribute enhancement, the power of the flames was immense.
It could certainly be called fire magic equivalent to B-Rank or even A-Rank.
“Don’t say such sad things. You guys were quite similar.”
Keiichiro drew his daggers.
The Twilight Dual Swords.
He affixed an Arrow to one.
“Tch…!”
Keiichiro slashed at the roaring flames with his Dual Swords.
The Arrow activated, reversing the direction of the approaching flames.
“My magic…!”
The reflected flames shot past Kurata’s side.
To his eyes, it must have looked as though Keiichiro had reflected the magic with his Dual Swords.
“Impossible! That’s right, impossible! Because my… my magic! Not even a B-Rank [Wizard] can break through it…! That cheeky woman who reached B-Rank faster than me, even though I was nice to her… I took her down too!”
Kurata clawed at his head as if driven mad.
Only sickeningly selfish words spilled from his mouth.
“I’m not the kind of [Wizard] who should be stuck at C-Rank! That’s why I instigated those guys, to get equipment worthy of me—”
Kurata thrashed his hair about.
His frantic movements were… full of openings.
By the time Kurata noticed, Keiichiro had already closed in on him.
The distance was one meter.
It was no longer a mage’s range.
“Shut up already. Like you said—you won’t be staying at a comfortable rank like C anymore.”
Keiichiro raised his Dual Swords.
Kurata let out a pathetic scream, covering his face with both hands.
But there was no mercy.
“Trap Set.”
“—[Trio].”
The Dual Swords scraped against each other.
The Arrow affixed to the left-hand dagger activated, accelerating the right-hand dagger.
The dagger swung at the absolute limit of controllable speed.
“Gueeeeeeh!?”
The pommel of the rapidly descending dagger shattered Kurata’s arms and slammed into his face behind them.
His face caved in.
He could feel the sensation of the nose bone breaking.
Kurata collapsed on the spot, unconscious.
And so, Keiichiro was the only one left standing.
“This is why disputes between Adventurers are such a pain.”
Keiichiro muttered, looking down at the three fallen robbers.
Keiichiro subdued the criminals.