I Became a Mafia in the Academy
chapter-245

Chapter 245

Sinking to the ground, Jin-woo shakily began to organize his thoughts.

‘It was a monster that dragged me here……That means this is a dungeon, and the one in front of me is a boss monster…….’

Jin-woo stared at the dragon king.

However, he quickly lowers his head in response to the powerful aura emanating from that terrifying and stern face.

‘I can’t take on that thing alone, no way, no way!’

Then there’s only one option left.

To hold out until the others arrive.

‘Okay, plan B!’

“Yes, you are. Why would you do such a thing so close to our Dragon Palace jurisdiction?”

The voice was so stern that it vibrated the water around it but Jin-woo first thought was what the ‘deed’ was.

‘What were we doing on the beach, just playing in the waves when Young Hoham made them like a wave pool……?’

“You don’t mean pounding the sea, do you?”

“Yes. Although it may be the outer shell of the territory, it is our Dragon Palace’s territory, and for what reason did you commit such a deed!”

Jin-woo’s mind froze white at the increasingly heated atmosphere and once again, his mind raced.

The opponent was the Dragon King. Surrounding him were sea monsters dressed like humans.

Surely, it was a scene he had heard of before.

‘……No way?’

Jin-woo remembered that dungeons based on myths and old stories are sometimes created both abroad and in Korea, and he immediately started writing a new scenario in his head.

And so a new story was born.

Jin-woo’s arms spread out exaggeratedly and a thin voice spoke through his slightly open mouth.

“If the dragon king, the mother of the sea, the ruler of the East Sea, the source of all things, is ill, how can we, as a people, stand idly by?”

Jin-woo tongue teased as if in rhyme.

The sealed demonic talent finally spread its wings.

“Alas, conflicting hearts, what a sad state of affairs, but I disloyally pummeled the sea only to find a medicine to cure the dragon king’s illness, so please forgive me with a heart as merciful as the Pacific Ocean!”

Jin-woo’s booming voice echoed across the throne room, and silence fell.

The corners of Jin-woo’s mouth curled up in thought.

‘Huh, I did it.’

His performance was perfect.

Not only had he been training to skip school since middle school, but he had also been shouting with all the emotion he could muster, and his opponent had no choice but to fall for it.

And finally.

“…… small fish.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The fruit of his labor was──

“This king says he doesn’t have a sore spot.”

“Eh?”

──collapsed.

* * *

“It seems to have gotten a lot quieter since the magic storm a while ago…….”

Settling down in what appeared to be an empty room, we were currently holding our breath, waiting for Se-ah’s mapping to be completed.

“That’s a good thing. In my experience, anything that makes a civilization out at sea likes to show off.”

Young Hoham crosses his arms in silence.

“From what I’ve noticed in all the seas I’ve sailed, these guys have some peculiar characteristics.”

There were three characteristics of the creatures he spoke of.

1. 1. They “must” have a king.

1. 1. Killing foreign captives is a big deal to them.

1. 1. An unusual individual among them has a higher intelligence than humans.

“That’s why it’s good that it’s so quiet now, so we can keep it that way.”

“I’m done with the map.”

At Se-ah’s exclamation, the others all turn to look at the massive castle in front of them.

It looks like a scaled-down version of the dragon palace we saw when we first arrived here.

“Unfortunately, the mana content of the surrounding waters is too high, so I was unable to pinpoint Jin-woo’s location.”

Despite her words, the detail of her map was beyond my imagination.

“No, I think this should be enough.”

Thinking about the proportions of the model in front of me and the dragon palace we’ve seen, I quickly plot a route, calculating the distance from our location to the center of the castle.

“The left path would be too exposed to the guys inside, and the middle path would be too open, so they’d be able to see us from above. That doesn’t mean we should go right…….”

“Right doesn’t lead to the castle, so we can’t take it.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll have to choose between the left and the middle.”

So how can we sneak in without being seen, I think to myself.

“Let’s go down.”

Choi Yeon, who had been staring at the map in silence, suddenly spoke up.

“Go down?”

When I couldn’t understand what she was saying, she stepped in front of the model and pointed down the middle path.

“We’re in the water anyway. We can swim to the bottom of the middle road.”

“Huh?”

She was right. I forgot for a moment since I could breathe normally, but this was the ocean, not land.

The path is not as flat as it seems.

Here, we can swim and move freely underwater.

“Hah! You’re right. We can go under here.”

Young Hoham slaps his forehead as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him.

“Choi Yeon. Not bad.”

“I’m smart.”

She replies confidently, as if my compliment is no big deal.

Come to think of it, she did get good grades, didn’t she?

“Then let’s get on the road, and I want you to cast a spell to hide our presence just in case.”

“It’s my first time using it underwater, but……I think I can do it. I’ll give it a try.”

Just as we’re about to stand up with our perfect plan.

“Wait!”

Se-ah grabbed us as we started to move away.

“It’s great that we’re going to the castle, but what are we going to do when we get there?”

Huh? Oh, that’s what she wanted to know?

But before I could answer her question.

“You’re asking the obvious.”

Young Hoham replied with a confident look on his face.

“I’m going to wipe it out.”

“You’re ……?”

“Master. We must first capture the king.”

“If we take the king hostage, do you think they’ll give Jin-woo back to us?”

In other words, capture the opponent’s king before anything happens to Jin-woo.

Apparently, everyone had similar thoughts when they heard that there was a ‘king’ here.

“This Ham will take care of the king, and you guys can take care of the barnacles.”

After all, he was in charge of this operation, so he’d take on the strongest guy.

“King. I’ll get him.”

“As long as the others catch his men, can I join you?”

Neither Choi Yeon nor I wanted to give up on the ‘king’.

I mean, he’s a boss monster, you never know what he’s going to spit out.

“Huh? Hahahahaha, yeah, do whatever you want if you can. Kang Hyun, you’ll support the others, while Young-jae and Se-ah will move fluidly. Got it?”

With that, we were fully assigned our positions.

We walked out of the small room and started to walk.

“Master. Enemy on the left side of the second alley ahead.”

“Ugh. You take care of it.”

“Yes, sir. Master.”

At the same time, a “pop!” is heard from up ahead, and red blood begins to mix with the clear water before dissolving into thin air and disappearing.

“Dealt with.”

“Yes, keep checking your surroundings, you’re the only one who can detect the enemies right now.”

Is this the result of my efforts to minimize contact with other enemies? We made it to the middle bridge to the castle without much fighting.

“Okay, everyone, move slowly under the bridge.”

He takes the lead and ducks under the bridge with a light gesture.

We followed suit, ducking under the bridge as we slowly approached the castle.

And then.

“Young-jae, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

Young-jae’s magic enveloped us.

“Tranquillo.”

The ink created by the magic mixes with the water, erasing our form from the surroundings.

“Hoh. Young-jae has a higher level of magic than I thought, who is your master?”

“This is……Arcobaleno.”

“Huh? That strange one is your teacher?”

He looked at him like he couldn’t believe it.

But then Young Hoham’s head nodded slowly, as if he understood.

“Alas, he’s definitely the best in the world at scattering all kinds of magic, so that’s why he’s using so much magic. Alright, then Kang Hyun should save Jin-woo and show this Ham something, right?”

We finally reached the end of the bridge.

He suddenly lowered his body and started to angle his fist, and asked Kang Hyun behind him.

“This angle. How’s it?”

“Nope. It’s all empty space.”

“Okay. One punch.”

-Whoop!

He took a deep breath and pulled his fist back.

Young-jae, Se-ah, and Choi Yeon didn’t seem to know what he was doing, but I, seeing it in the game, grabbed Se-ah and Choi Yeon by the collar as soon as the motion started and yanked them back.

“You’re going to get hurt.”

“Eh? What’s that?”

“……This is going to be fun!”

And then, finally, Young Hoham shot forward.

“Marlin!!!”

The water around him begins to curl around his fist.

A mass weapon, created by his powers, looks like a giant drill.

It shoots out.

───Kwagaga-ga-ga-gak!!!

Bright sunlight shines through the hole drilled in a straight line along the angle of his fist.

Yes, it was a clean ‘piercing’.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, but he’s just as powerful as ever.

If my memory serves me correctly, the path up there leads to the center of the castle, the highest point of it all.

“Degazight!”

With a powerful shout, he swims up the hole.

At the same time, the water around us swallowed us up and pushed us straight up the hole.

In an instant, as if we were railgun bullets, we passed through many rooms and reached our destination.

There was──

“Brother Youngho?! Boss?! You came to save me!”

Holding a dragon dagger in each hand and his entire body covered in gaping wounds, Jin-woo was looking at us with tears in his eyes.

“Jin-woo you…….”

“I…… really thought you were going to find me!!!”

The fact that Jin-woo was there was more surprising than the fact that he looked like that.

The place we’d arrived at, what appeared to be the “battlefield,” was littered with countless monsters, many of them slashed with swords.

There seemed to be some pretty strong ones in the mix, but it’s hard to believe that Jin-woo took care of them all by himself.

Speaking of unusual…….

My eyes naturally went to his right hand.

[Name: Dagger of Thought (Dragon)]

[Rank: Unique]

[Type: Dagger]

[Description: A dagger imbued with the thought of a dragon, causing a Fear effect against monsters and a Corruption Curse against those it slashes]

The dagger, which was given to Antonio by me in the past, emits a fearsome violet light.

At the same time, the surrounding landscape begins to explain itself.

It seems that the dagger from Fafnir has come into play after all.

For a creature that lives by the sea, the Curse of Corruption is a perfect match.

“……You’ve done well. Now go back and rest.”

“Yes……!”

Jin-woo relaxed as soon as he came in behind us.

Somehow, we’ve accomplished our goal. Now that we had him, our next step was simple.

Since Jin-woo had lived up to our expectations, we should return the favor.

“Young Hoham.”

“Yeah, Eugene.”

“──Let’s get this over with and go get some sashimi.”

“Sashimi? Sounds good!”

It was time to hunt the ‘Dragon King’.