The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

Chapter 39 Night Hunter Experiment

While Ferga's group battled the monsters, Turan helped them with all his might from unseen positions.

He mixed his attacks with others' magic while invisible, engaged in close combat with small monsters using his dagger, and even took some dangerous attacks in their place by activating his Guardian magic device.

This was necessary because otherwise, the noble side would have been completely overwhelmed.

But despite such efforts, the nobles died one by one during the fight.

While they might have managed in normal condition, it was difficult to exert even half their usual power due to the combined fatigue from the darkness blocking vision and long underground life.

After fighting like this for a while, only Turan and Ferga remained alive.

Since the opponent too had some leeway with all the small monsters dead, Turan considered how to take down that creature while watching Ferga face the giant monster one-on-one.

[Dieee!]

Though the labyrinth leader had lost one arm and had its leg crushed along with numerous other injuries, it still displayed overflowing vitality.

How could he defeat that thing...

What first caught his eye were the magic devices left by the dead nobles, particularly the weapons.

Bow, staff, dagger, and axe.

Among these, he first excluded the bow.

Not only would it be inefficient due to unfamiliarity, arrows would be hard to find, and above all, it didn't seem much stronger than his sling.

The staff appeared to be a defensive magic device based on how its user had wielded it, so this too was excluded.

The dagger was an item that allowed use of the Pyromancer bloodline's power, but seeing how its user had died while wielding it directly, its daily usage limit had probably been reached.

Finally, the axe had already proven its sufficient power just earlier, but-

'It's too heavy.'

When he secretly approached and tried lifting it, it was impossible to properly wield.

Given its excessive weight even for its size, the magic attached to it likely had something to do with that.

Someone with a bloodline suited for physical combat could probably lift and swing it sufficiently.

The moment he thought this, he suddenly recalled what the door's eyeball had said earlier.

That the ability of Turan's holy relic was 'Mimicker'.

Combining that information with the History bloodline's magical power contained in the item, he could draw one conclusion.

'Probably I can mimic the History bloodline's power using this liquid.'

He had roughly guessed how to use it since first seeing the liquid.

He had just postponed it due to lack of certainty.

Click, Turan opened the lid and immediately downed the rippling pale green liquid.

'Ugh.'

The first sensation was an icy coldness flowing down his throat.

But that soon burned hot like flames and began heating his entire body, until finally an enormous power he had never felt before surged up.

It wasn't an increase in magical power, but a pure physical ability enhancement.

'So this is the power of the History bloodline.'

Crunch, when he clenched his fist, he even felt afraid his hand might be crushed by its own grip strength.

At that moment, perhaps from depleted stamina, he saw Ferga finally fail to dodge the labyrinth leader's attack as hook claws pierced his stomach and chest.

Seeing this, Turan picked up the huge axe and immediately leaped toward the monster.

Though his trajectory was slightly off due to the weapon's weight shift and increased leg strength, fortunately the axe managed to reach a vital point.

[You! Fake Night Hunter-!]

Though he had guessed it, like its brethren, this monster too could easily see through Zahar invisibility.

Turan dropped invisibility to save even small amounts of magical power consumption as he swung the axe.

Thud, with a heavy sensation transmitted to his hands, the giant axe buried more than halfway into the creature's neck.

'Damn, still not enough to kill in one hit I guess.'

[Dieee!]

Perhaps because its left hand was already impaling Ferga, the labyrinth leader swung its severed right arm to strike Turan who was hanging from the axe.

He was thrown back faster than he had leaped, crashing into a wall of the labyrinth.

"Kugh..."

Though his whole body ached, unlike when he had been struck by magical beasts before, it was reasonably bearable.

Thanks to both the Guardian magic device's power and the physical enhancement from the History bloodline power.

Of course, this was only because he was hit by the severed arm - if he had been struck by those claws, it wouldn't have ended so simply.

Seeing Turan stand up unharmed, the labyrinth leader threw away Ferga's impaled body and charged.

[Fakeee-! Dieee!]

Shortly after, through the holy relic's senses, he felt the flame remaining throughout his body fade and gather.

'He's dead.'

Turan stood up and looked behind him.

Over a hundred small dead monsters, about ten nobles, and the labyrinth leader.

Setting aside personal gain, if he didn't want to see all of them revive as undead, it was time to harvest.

==

Turan first absorbed the magical power from the small monsters.

Since the stronger a wizard was, the more meaningless it became to absorb power from weaker ones, it was efficient to absorb power in order from weakest when possible.

As expected, despite absorbing a total of one hundred forty-five creatures, his power barely grew.

It was unavoidable since they had little magical power compared to their abilities, barely reaching an intermediate level between knights and nobles.

Next were the dead nobles.

Since the holy relic's detection ability could see even dead people's magical power, he could absorb in sequence without having to separately remember how strong each was in life.

As he absorbed the nobles' power, the holy relic also began separately absorbing and storing magical power.

Barrier Maker, Illusion, Berserker, Healer, Hunter...

The liquid containing dissolved magical power according to each bloodline separated into layers inside, making it easy to separate specific powers when controlled with magic.

What would happen if he swallowed multiple bloodline powers simultaneously?

Though he became curious, considering times when he might really need it, it didn't seem necessary to experiment carelessly.

Each time he steadily absorbed magical power like this, Turan's flesh and soul were tempered stronger and stronger.

Five were much weaker than him so weren't very helpful.

But four were slightly weaker or similar levels so were sufficiently beneficial.

And the decisive ones were the labyrinth leader and Ferga Zahar.

When he absorbed all the magical power from these two who each had about twice his power, an intense pleasure struck his mind.

This was a sensation on a different dimension from temporarily gaining the History bloodline's power earlier.

When he focused consciousness inward, he felt magical power slightly less than double what he had when first entering the labyrinth.

This was a level of power that ordinary nobles would need to accumulate for several decades to a hundred years or more without special situations like war.

Of course, most would hit their growth limit before accumulating this much power.

'Come to think of it, I might be getting close to my growth limit too.'

Typically, the magical power growth limit was several to dozens of times the innate amount.

Though he couldn't remember exactly how much magical power he had during his time at Hisaril Hill, roughly estimating, his current power seemed to be between eight to ten times that of back then.

It seemed about time for that locked bloodline to open at this point, or did he perhaps need to become as strong as a great house head?

After brief consideration, Turan soon shook his head and stood up.

It was time to leave this labyrinth.

'I'll have to give up the magic devices of course.'

The ones investigating these deaths would be none other than Zahar, specialized in tracking.

Having used much tracking magic himself, he knew that while finding any magic device wasn't possible, specifying particular types of magic devices was.

If dozens of Zahar nobles searched for them, he would be caught within days no matter where in the Enril Desert he was.

It wasn't an option he could choose unless he planned to run away his whole life.

Afterward, Turan walked around the empty labyrinth using tracking magic several times to track and remove any traces from his body like hair, blood, and anything else.

Finally, he headed to the door with the eyeball.

"I killed the leader."

Though he spoke to it, the eyeball didn't answer.

Perhaps its functions had stopped as the door opened wide.

After trying to speak to it several more times, Turan eventually shook his head and stepped inside.

"Oh."

The room inside was like a great hall, and in its center was a pitch-black whirling space like the one from when they entered.

That must be the exit.

Instead of escaping immediately, Turan decided to look around a bit more.

'Mostly useless decorations... no, there's something up there.'

A small book was placed beside what looked like a throne-like chair.

Though it looked closer to just a few pages of paper sewn together with thread rather than a book...

A somewhat rough title written on the first page caught his eye.

[Night Hunter Class Change Process Recreation Experiment]