The World Best Engineer novel - Chapter 25

Chapter 25

“My Lord! We have a huge, h-huge problem!”

It was a sunny noon.

A soldier of the territory hurriedly came running to the mansion, huffing and puffing. He broke into the Baron’s office, disregarding all etiquette and formality.

After listening to him for a while, the Baron’s teacup fell to the floor.

Shatter!

“…. What?” The Baron’s face became pale. “Say that again. Ant beasts?”

“Yes, My Lord, ant beasts have appeared inside the tunnel where Young Master Lloyd has been digging.”

“Then, what about Lloyd?”

“According to the workers who were with him, he stayed behind. He ordered everyone to evacuate quickly….”

“Is he there alone?”

“No, Sir Asrahan stays behind with him.”

“….”

After reporting, the soldier’s face became somber.

Ant beasts inhabited the eastern wilderness beyond the mountain range. They were terrifying creatures. Each individual was much stronger than a wolf. Additionally, there were too many of them. They were also fearless and very organized. 

In other words, there was no way to survive once caught by them. It’d become even more hopeless especially when encountering them underground.

“Sir Bayern first summoned his troops. Right now, they are gathered in front of the mine, starting the preparations to close the mine.”

That was the best they could do.

What if the ant beasts came out of the mine?

The hunting grounds would be destroyed. The residents of this estate would also be annihilated. Not only the people, but livestock would also get hunted and made into meat dumplings. If you got lucky, you would be paralyzed alive and then stored in a warehouse, or become a delicious prey for the ant colony’s larvae.

To prevent this situation, the right thing to do was to close the mine before it was too late. However, for some reason, the Baron fell silent.

“….”

“My Lord?”

“….”

“Sir Bayern told me to ask for My Lord’s command….” The soldier timidly glanced at the Baron. 

The Baron continued to be silent. Then, at some point, the Baron suddenly sprang up from his seat and opened the closet in his office. He took out the armor that had been stored there and began to wear it.

“M-My Lord?”

However, Baron Frontera still didn’t answer. Instead of his answer, only the clinking sound from the Baron’s armor could be heard inside the office. 

Clink, clink! Thud!

He wore a brigandine1Brigandine: is a form of body armor from the Middle Ages, typically made of heavy cloth, canvas, or leather, lined internally with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric, sometimes with a second layer of fabric on the inside. with iron plates attached to it and wrapped his knees with silver-colored poleyns2Poleyn: is a component of Medieval and Renaissance armor that protected the knee.. After that, he wore the demi-greaves3Demi-greaves are greaves that only protect the shin. Greaves itself is another part of armor from the Middle Ages which are used to protect the legs. and a bascinet helmet4Bascinet: a medieval helmet of light steel, fits closely to the wearer’s head and typically has a visor.. An iron-rimmed shield was carried on his back while a long sword hung on the waist of his armor.

In everyone’s eyes, the Baron appeared ready for a battle. However, the soldier was surprised as the Baron hadn’t held a sword even once in the past ten years. 

“Excuse me, My Lord? Right now….”

“Let’s go.”

“Pardon?”

“If you can’t keep up, I’ll leave you behind.”

Wham!

The Baron stormed out after roughly opening the office door by kicking it. He ran through the corridors, down to the horse stable, and climbed on a horse’s back.

“Ha!” the Baron kicked the horse’s sides.

Only one thought occupied the Baron’s mind.

‘Lloyd, wait for a little bit. Please hang in there, by all means!’

His heart beat accelerated as he rushed towards the mine.

Dash dash dash! Swish! 

After kicking the ground to do a rough jump, a sword fiercely slashed the space.

Crunch!

“Kieeeeeek!”

The long sword hit and split the ant’s head. Along with a scream, transparent bodily fluids splattered. 

However, at that point in time, the longsword had been pulled out of its head a long time ago. The sword had already been searching for its next target, beaming calm and cold light.

Slash! Clang! Thud!

Javier turned his body sideways to cut its body. He kicked its bottom part to block it. He stabbed, pulled, and lifted the sword.

Lloyd thought Javier would slash upwards, but then he advanced with his sword moving like a gale.

‘One slash to the left, one slash to the right, a jab to the side on its upper left, then what was next, a downright slash?’

Lloyd left his tongue hanging out as he ran through the narrow tunnel. He had no choice but to do so. 

Javier was running two steps ahead of him, charging forward. Meanwhile, Lloyd looked at Javier’s swordsmanship with eyes full of admiration.

‘Really amazing. This is the skill of a real knight.’

It was on a different level than his previous duel with Sir Neumann. There was no obstruction in all of Javier’s movements. It flowed naturally just like water, yet also fierce and unstoppable at the same time. 

Furthermore, in between his connected movements, Javier also added numerous small movements that were too hard to see with eyes. It went in a flash, just like lightning. A myriad of feints and lethal attacks were brilliantly mixed in. In short, Javier’s swordplay itself was an art. 

The ant beasts got literally slaughtered in front of his elegant but destructive swordsmanship.

“….. Even in this situation, don’t you get tired?” Lloyd, who had been following Javier, cried out. While swinging his sword, Javier glanced at him.

“I’m tired,” Javier answered in a single breath. His breath didn’t seem to be disordered just yet. Everybody wouldn’t know that he was tired just by listening to his voice.

However, Lloyd knew.

‘We don’t have much time.’

No matter how strong Javier was, he was still a human. Humans had limitations to their stamina. He couldn’t fight forever.

If he had reached the level of a Sword Master, the endless cycle of mana could loosen his stamina constraints, but he hadn’t reached it just yet. 

Right now, he was just slowing down the accumulation of fatigue with Asrahan Core Technique. 

“About the brilliant way Lloyd-nim said, are we not there yet?”

Slash slash!

Javier asked while cutting down the ant who blocked his way into three pieces: head, chest, and stomach. Lloyd grimaced. 

“Not yet!”

“Then, when will it be?”

“I also don’t know. I’m searching for it as hard as I can!”

“What do you mean by you’re still searching….” 

“Stop talking to me, just focus on clearing the path. We have to move as far as we can to increase the probability!” Lloyd exclaimed. 

What he shouted was the truth. Even now, he was still activating his Intermediate Survey Skill to its limit. As an optional skill of the survey skill, the ground composition of the ant nest inside the five meters range he’d targeted would continuously be identified.

The thing he’d been desperately searching for was a methane gas layer that must’ve been buried somewhere inside the ant nest.

‘It should certainly be around here. Here, there were bituminous coal beds embedded all over the place. So, the methane gas layer must be here somewhere.’

Lloyd continued to run. With Javier in front of him, they ran from corner to corner inside the ant nest. 

The survey skill was used as optimal as possible to detect all possible directions.

How hard did he search for it?

Finally, Lloyd’s eyes saw something.

‘Found it!’

Five meters under the ground, Lloyd could see some methane gas lurking there. However, it wasn’t the main part of the layer.

Was it a stream of methane gas layer? It was indeed only a small stream.

‘Nevertheless, there was no way we could immediately come in contact with it from here.’

The one thing he was confident about was that this stream of gas was indeed methane and where it was connected to.

Between him and the gas, there was five meters thick of soil and rock. Digging it with a shovel would take a very long time. Even worse, the tunnel wasn’t large enough for Bangul to transform into her giant state.

“Javier! Over there!” Lloyd pointed at one of the passageways. That direction was where the stream of methane gas was connected to. “From now on, just run towards the direction I pointed at!”

“I understand, but-”

“But?”

“We, can we just go outside?”

“….”

Javier’s eyes were calm while he was slicing the ants. He looked like he had already made up his mind to face his end here.

In front of his subdued eyes, Lloyd stopped smiling. “Why? Are you scared?”

“I’m not afraid, just-”

“Just what?”

“I felt a little resentful.”

“Is it because you’re afraid of dying in a place like this?”

“No, it’s not.”

“Then, did you hide any dirty paintings under the bed in your quarters and you were afraid of getting caught?”

“Obviously not. To be honest with you-” Javier sighed deeply and continued, “I’m afraid of dying with someone like Lloyd-nim.”

“Oh my!”

“It was my greed as a knight, I guess. I think the most honorable death a knight can get is when he sacrificed his life for someone worthy and respectable.”

“Hoho, so you feel that dying hand-in-hand together with a scumbag like me is unfair?”

“That’s an accurate summary.”

“Really? Are we going to leave now, just like that?”

“We’re going to die together here anyhow, aren’t we?”

“You’re laying bare your true colors for the last time before we, as companions, are going to the afterlife, aren’t you?” asked Lloyd.

Javier then retorted, “I’m just saying this because I think I’ll be less resentful if I spoke to you frankly regarding this, honestly.”

Clang! Clack! Swish! 

The ants were still running towards both of them. In front of them, large soldier ants blocked the way. Whenever that happened, Javier proceeded to keep on running, cutting, and slaughtering the ants in front of him without rest.

Naturally, Lloyd followed closely behind. With a torch and a steel shovel in both of his hands, he worked hard on stopping the ants that were chasing them from behind.

As such, the two of them fought against the swarm of ants with their bodies. In the meantime, they still quarreled with each other.

“Ha! Okay! Since we’re going to die, let’s do yaja time!” said Lloyd.

Not knowing what that was, Javier asked, “What is yaja time?”

“Say anything you want to say without minding our ranks! Heave-ho!”

“Sounds nice. Hup!”

Clang! Snap! 

They jumped to the passageway located on their left. While brandishing a sword, raising a torch, and wielding a shovel, the war of words between them continued.

“Then, let’s start with me! You, your luck isn’t humane!” said Lloyd.

“How come?”

“You’re very handsome!”

“I was born with this face.”

“That’s what I’m saying, then why am I so unlucky?”

“Say, are you done talking?”

“What if I’m not?”

“Still, I’ll take my turn. It’s unfair to get beaten one-sidedly.”

“Look at this punk, trying to save some time?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s good. Time is gold, my friend. Of course you can’t have all three5Lloyd was talking about 3Ts in life: Time, Talent, and Treasure.!”

“….” Javier suddenly went silent.

“Are you crying? Huh? Why did you stay silent while getting beaten under my attacks?”

“It’s because I suddenly feel sorry for you.”

“Wow, why?”

“Now that I think about it, I think my nipples are more handsome than your face.”

“Hurl….” It was a more powerful shot than Lloyd had initially predicted.

Lloyd clenched his teeth and fought back, “Ha! What have you been doing with that face so far that you couldn’t even get a girlfriend?”

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“I’ve been working hard on my swordsmanship training.”

“Aha. So you’ve been single since birth?”

“Similar to you, I’m sure Lloyd-nim also hasn’t had a single girlfriend yet.”

“What?”

“That’s as far as I know. Besides, I actually-”

“Actually?”

“I’ve received quite a few love confession letters.”

“What? Love confession letters?”

“That’s correct.” Javier was still fighting with his sword. Inside this fellow’s eyes, Lloyd could see unidentified confidence shining through. 

While blocking an ant’s mandibles with his shovel, Lloyd shouted back, “How many?”

“Umm, I think I’ve roughly gotten about two boxes of it. I put them inside my quarters.”

“You’re lying!”

“It’s the truth.”

“Does that even make sense? What is the population of our territory? I think you’d have to get a confession letter from almost every female in our territory to get that many?”

“Pft!”

“Don’t look down on me for being solo!”

“When you brush your teeth, use a toothbrush.” (tl/n: Here, Javier mocked Lloyd by playing with the word ‘solo/솔로’ inside his sentence. He inserted it into the word ‘toothbrush’, from 칫솔 to 칫솔로.)

“….”

“Hello, nice to meet you. You’re do re mi fa solo, right?”

“….”

“Today, are you going to spend another solo night?”

“…. You gorilla in heat, that’s enough!” Lloyd screamed.

Was it because he was being pushed by Javier’s words? No, it was because he reached his intended destination. 

Javier, who was continuing their war of words, also had a different look in his eyes as if he had sensed it.

“Is it here?”

“Uh-huh.” Lloyd examined the ground. With his survey skill, what was underneath the ground was visible. He could see an indentation that was about 1,5 meters big below. However, that indentation wasn’t just an empty space.

‘It’s a layer of methane gas. A very big one.’

Only a small portion of the methane gas layer was visible through the skill. It was like he had found the right Wang Geon6Wang Geon was the founder of the Goryeo dynasty who ruled and unified ancient Korea. He traced his ancestry back to a noble Goguryeo family so he could get a legitimate ground to rise to the throne. He claimed that he was a descendant of Emperor Sukjong of the Tang Dynasty. [tl/n: I think this is what the author refers to with this sentence. I’m not a Korean, so I might’ve misunderstood the author’s intentions.].

Lloyd quickly spoke, “I’ll be digging here starting from now. Protect me in the meantime.”

“I understand.”

They had come all the way to this place. They were in a situation where the only one they could trust was each other. There wasn’t a reason nor a need for questions.

Since then, Lloyd began to frantically dig the ground of the passageway with a shovel. Javier protected Lloyd by keeping the ants that were coming from both sides in check.

But, at that moment-

“Skreeeeee!” A thunderous roar was coming from one side of the passageway.

Then, something big was approaching while stomping all over the passageway. Its head was twice as big as other soldier ant beasts with a body large enough to fill the passageway. Its mandibles were completely longer and sharper than a longsword.

‘A queen ant?’

It seemed likely, but Lloyd didn’t care.

‘The queen ant isn’t the objective anyway!’

This wasn’t a game of the Three Kingdoms, where you’d win if you beheaded the monarch. Even if the queen was to be caught, the rest of the colony wouldn’t be shaken. If you were unlucky, you could provoke them and they’d get even angrier instead.

For now, the best thing to do was to focus on the original objective.

“Hold them back until I’m done digging all of this!”

“I understand.” Javier raised his long sword and blocked the queen ant’s way.

Did it get angry seeing Javier blocked its way?

The queen ant lunged forward. “Skreeeeeee!”

Boom! Thud thud thud thud thud!

The queen ant seemed to almost destroy the passageway. No, actually, it forcibly rushed in by crushing and widening the narrow walls of the passageway.

Even so, Javier didn’t back down.

“Heup,” Javier inhaled. With just a single breath, all of the surrounding mana began to shake. The mana fluctuated, with Javier at its center.

He gathered it to his triple circle, which amplified the circles. Then, he poured it out. 

Clang! Claaang! 

A longsword that contained the rotation of three circles. A pair of super-strong chitin7Chitin: is a fibrous substance consisting of polysaccharides and forming the major constituent in the exoskeleton of arthropods and the cell walls of fungi-coated mandibles. These two collided with each other. 

The first clash was a draw.

Kakakagak!

“….!”

“Skree?”

The longsword and the pair of mandibles confronted each other with similar strength. While both of their weapons clashed between them, Javier’s eyes widened. The queen ant pulled back its jaw in surprise while its cilia8Cilia is the plural form of the cilium, which is referring to the long hairs on an ant’s compound eye. bristled up. 

They both were shocked at each other’s power that was beyond their expectations. 

The first one to move was the queen ant.

“Skree!”

Swoooosh!

The ant queen whipped its pair of giant antennae around. It was like a bigger and heavier club than a baseball bat.

“…..!” 

Javier quickly ducked down. He took advantage of the momentum and raised his longsword. As a response, the queen ant also swung its jaw. 

From then on, Javier and the queen ant—these two archenemies and two beasts—poured all of their offensive instinctively toward each other.

He blocked and slashed, kicked and smacked, chopped and shoved, being pushed and bashed back, dodged and raised his sword, rolled over and then charged forward.

However, things gradually turned against Javier.

‘Dude, he’s exhausted!’ thought Lloyd.

Lloyd’s shoveling became even more frantic. He was tired as well. However, Javier—who continued to fight for their lives, must’ve been even more tired.

‘More! A little more!’

If Javier collapsed, it would be over. When it was over, the plan would fail. The ant beasts would be free to go to the territory through the excavated tunnel.

‘Sh*t! I shouldn’t have made the structure of the mine so strong!’

Now, it was too late to break it down. Even if he tried, only a part of it would collapse. He knew for certain that such collapse wouldn’t be able to stop the ant beasts.

‘That’s why we’ve to succeed.’

Lloyd’s shoveling became more intense. Every time his shovel moved, dirt was thrown everywhere.

Sweat endlessly flowed down his neck and back. 

Finally, his shovel dug the point he’d targeted.

Fwoosh!

‘It’s done!’

Gas began to leak out from the pit. Methane gas erupted from there. 

Lloyd quickly packed up his shovel and shouted at Javier, “Dude! Come here!”

Javier immediately responded to his shout. With a strong single sword slash, he shook off the queen ant and ran to Lloyd.

Lloyd waited for Javier before he started running. Then, they ran together through the opposite passageway while the queen ant chased them fiercely.

When Lloyd looked back, his eyes met the queen ant’s eyes. At that moment, Lloyd chuckled and threw the torch at the queen ant.

The torch hit the queen ant’s head. With a thud, it bounced off in vain.

It flew behind the queen ant, circling round and round in the air, and met the invisible, transparent gas—the methane gas.

The methane gas and the flame mixed. A violent chemical reaction began. 891 kJ per mol of energy was generated. 

Boom!

It resulted in a huge explosion that engulfed everything.

Author’s note: Boom! It resulted in a huge explosion that engulfed everything. The explosion swallowed the earth. The world had come to an end.

Tl/n: I was cackling too hard when I read Lloyd and Javier’s banter. Javier is surely a savage one.

Thank you for your support!