Debuff Master

Siegfried felt his heart drop the moment he heard that Lohengrin was injured.

What face could he show Brunhilde if Lohengrin ended up grievously wounded or dead while he was with him?

“Father-in-law! Are you alright?!” Siegfried screamed.

“Yes, I’m alright! I was just hurt a little bit, but I’ll be fine after a few days of rest!” Lohengrin shouted in response.

“That is a huge relief!” Siegfried replied while feeling relieved himself.

Lionbreath then shouted, “Brother! I believe Lohengrin-nim has to retire from this expedition!”

“Huh? What do you mean by that, hyung-nim?!”

“His wounds are quite serious! He can no longer fight!”

Lohengrin instantly retorted, “What are you saying?! I can still fight!”

“Elder-nim! You're covered in blood right now! You need to rest or else you could get really hurt!”

“Stop it! My son-in-law is going to start worrying!”

It seemed that Lohengrin was indeed seriously wounded.

‘Ah... I should’ve brought the Saintess with us...’ Siegfried regretted sending Saintess Janette to the Black Desert rather than with them.

“Father-in-law! What if you return for now?”

“Don’t worry about me! I can still fight!”

Lohengrin insisted, but Siegfried did not let him continue.

“This gate is indestructible, so please stop wasting your strength outside and return to the airships!”

“I said I can still fight!”

“We will be heading into the castle now!” Siegfried shouted. Then, he turned toward Beowulf and said, “We should get moving now.”

“H-Huh?”

“That gate is indestructible, and there is no way for us to go to the other side.”

Siegfried was right. The fact that the gate withstood even Beowulf’s attack meant that there was some sort of protective barrier cast around the castle.

The most ideal situation would be to join with those who got separated by the gate, but there was no point wasting time here, as that was impossible unless they found a way to destroy the gate.

Thus, Siegfried decided it would be wiser for them to march on and destroy the altar rather than waste more time here.

“Okay, we will press on,” Beowulf said.

Siegfried ignored Lohengrin and marched deeper into the castle.

‘I have a bad feeling about this...’

However, an ominous feeling continued to creep up the back of his neck as he walked away from the gate.

***

Meanwhile, the battle at the Black Desert was reaching its climax. The scale of the battle was almost on par with a war between two kingdoms, and it spanned across the vast area of the Black Desert.

Whoooosh!

The sandy winds blowing throughout the Black Desert only made the battle harder, but the overwhelming firepower of the coalition forces managed to destroy the defensive lines of the Church of Osric.

They were now less than one hundred meters away from the altar, but...

“Gwuuu Oooh!”

Their path was blocked by a gigantic monster that suddenly appeared from underneath the sand.

[Kaiser Scorpion]

[A god worshiped by the ancient empire that once ruled over the desert.]

[It is an extremely powerful creature with no equal in the desert, and its existence itself is on par with a natural calamity.]

[Type: Monster]

[Level: 500]

[Race: Giant Scorpion]

[Class: Kaiser of the Desert]

Cheon Woo-Jin’s face turned ghastly pale as he despaired, “N-No...! Why did that have to appear now...?”

The coalition forces had already suffered a lot of casualties from breaking through the defensive lines of the Church of Osric, but the sudden appearance of the Kaiser Scorpion was more than enough to suck the morale out of the entire coalition forces.

There were only two ways to defeat a Level 500 monster. The first option was to have at least two Masters or someone stronger than a Master, while the other option was to throw wave after wave of people at the monster, hoping it would die in exhaustion.

‘I guess we have no choice...’

In the end, Cheon Woo-Jin chose the latter and decided to fight against the Kaiser Scorpion.

“All forces! Focus fire at the Kaiser Scorpion!”

A battle between the entire coalition forces and the Kaiser Scorpion ensued. novelbuddy(.)com

Hours and hours passed until they had already lost track of time.

Cheon Woo-Jin used all of the powers he gained from having the quests cleared just to minimize the allied casualties.

Just then...

Woooong!

A burst of energy shot up into the sky from the altar one hundred meters away.

“Ah...” Cheon Woo-Jin’s face turned ghastly pale at the sight of the altar activating.

***

Siegfried and Beowulf’s party pressed on into the castle.

The journey was indeed far from easy, as all sorts of Mutated Laputains blocked their path. Only Siegfried and Beowulf were able to emerge unscathed, while the rest of their party members suffered at least one injury.

On top of that, the various traps installed all across the castle only made their march more treacherous.

Crack...!

Siegfried gritted his teeth and exclaimed, “Damn it! These stubborn bastards! They even prepared traps?!”

“I agree...” Beowulf replied in agreement.

They were basically in the middle of a minefield. The entire castle seemed to be riddled with all sorts of traps, and they could not afford to drop their guards even for a single second.

“I think we are almost there. Let us press on,” Beowulf said while looking at a small map.

“Huh? What is that thing?” Siegfried asked after seeing the map.

“Ah, this is called... Inzaghi’s Map.”

“What?! Inzaghi’s Map?!” Siegfried exclaimed after hearing the name of the item.

“Do you know about it?”

“I have one, too!” Siegfried said as he took out the compass. Then, he muttered in amazement, “So there was a map, too...”

[Inzaghi’s Pathfinder]

[One of the artifacts used by Inzaghi while he was still alive.]

[You will not find yourself lost if you place your trust on this artifact.]

[Type: Map]

[Rating: Unique]

[Durability: 9/10]

[Effect: There is a high chance the boss monster’s location will be shown on the map when entering a dungeon.]

[Set Item: Inzaghi’s Compass, Inzaghi’s Map, Inzaghi’s Wooden Staff]

It turned out that the Inzaghi’s artifacts were a Unique set item.

“Oh, so it was a set item...” Siegfried muttered. Then, he asked, “How much longer do we have to go?”

“It says the boss room will be at the end of this corridor.”

“Really?”

Siegfried followed Beowulf's finger, and he saw a steel door at the end of the corridor.

“It will take less than five minutes to get there, but we have no idea what awaits us. Perhaps it would be better for us to proceed one by one just in case there is a trap. Getting trapped together in such a narrow corridor will be detrimental to us,” Siegfried said.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Beowulf nodded in agreement.

Siegfried readied his Inzaghi’s Compass and said, “I will go first.”

“Kyu! Be careful, owner punk!”

“Why don’t you tag along if you’re so worried about me?”

“I-I’m sure you can do it alone! Kyu!”

“That damned rodent...” Siegfried glared at the giant hamster before stepping foot into the corridor.

Five minutes later...

“I think you can come one by one now!” Siegfried shouted after reaching the steel door.

The party members walked in pairs through the corridor, and the last of them arrived in front of the steel door.

“We made it safely until here,” Siegfried said.

“Yes, we did,” Beowulf replied.

“I have no idea what lies behind this door, but shall we open it now?”

“Allow me to open it,” Beowulf said as he pushed the door with all of his strength.

Click...! Creaaaak!

The steel door opened slowly.

Creeeak!

It took Beowulf an entire minute to open the steel door.

A vast hall greeted them once the steel door was fully opened, and Siegfried recognized the same device he saw at the Sky Tower located at the center of the hall.

“I think that’s the altar, but where are the ones guarding it—“

It was then.

“It has been a while, Siegfried van Proa.”

A voice greeted him from beyond the Dimensional Communication Device.

***

‘Who was that?’ Siegfried did not recognize the voice. Then, he shouted in response, “Hey! Do you know me? Stop hiding like a rat and show your face!”

“Should I?”

Someone appeared from behind the Dimensional Communication Device.

“Do you still not recognize me, Siegfried van Proa?”

“Ah...!” Siegfried gasped before he tilted his head in confusion and asked, “Who were you again...?”

“...”

“I swear I’ve seen you before...” Siegfried muttered while profusely sweating.

“You’re still finding ways to annoy me...”

“Annoy you...? What did I do?”

“You ran away like a rat last time at the Sky Tower, and you’re now pretending you don’t know me?”

“Ah! Are you Ulcera?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Ulcera replied icily. Then, he growled, “You’re making me want to kill you all the more now... My hands are itching to rip you into pieces...”

“Really? Gee~ Hehe... Hehehe...” Siegfried replied with a stupid grin. He failed to discern whether Ulcera was praising or cursing him.

“Laugh all you want. I’m going to make sure you won’t be able to laugh from now on,” Ulcera replied with a smirk. There was something strange about Ulcera, as he did not even bother getting angry. Instead, he sounded really confident that he was going to win without a doubt.

‘Hmm? Something’s fishy...’ Siegfried thought after seeing that Ulcera did not fall for his taunts. He should have suffered a stroke by now from his blood pressure shooting up, but he seemed awfully calm this time.

“Your days of meddling with our church’s affairs are over, Siegfried van Proa,” Ulcera said.

“Why? Is this the fake one?” Siegfried asked in response.

Ulcera did not bother hiding the truth, “Indeed, this is the fake one, and you were fooled! Either one of you had to be fooled, and it just turned out it was you. Although, I applaud you for coming all the way here so that I can—“

Unfortunately, he was unable to finish his words.

Why? Because Siegfried was already herding his party members out the steel door.

“Alright, let’s pack up and go back!” Siegfried shouted.

“HEY! Siegfried van Proa!” Ulcera roared. Then, he screamed in anger, “Are you having fun?! How does your brain think of playing games even in these kinds of situations?!”

Siegfried turned around and curtly replied, “Hey, why are you getting angry? I thought you said this was a fake one? That means our business here is done, no? We wasted our time, you bought time, we found out that thing is the fake one, and now we have to go to the real one. We both got what we wanted, so it’s time to say goodbye... unless...”

Siegfried's eyes narrowed as he said, “Are you planning something cliché like self-destructing and taking everyone with you...?”

“Oh, you knew?” Ulcera smirked in response. Then, he haughtily said, “You will lose everything you hold dear. You might survive since you are an Adventurer, but you will never get to see your comrades again! You will live a life riddled with guilt for the rest of your miserable li—“

“That’s what you think,” Siegfried cut him off. He turned around and waved goodbye while saying, “Go ahead and explode. I mean, it’s up to you what you do with yourself.”

“What...?”

“I’m going, bye~” Siegfried said cheekily as he walked away.

Beowulf rushed after him and asked, “A-Are we really going to go? Shouldn’t we stop him—“

“No,” Siegfried cut him off and said, “Let us just go back.”

“...”

Beowulf was not the only one taken aback by Siegfried’s nonchalant attitude.

“Are you crazy, owner punk?! Kyuuu!”

“Hyung-nim! What if he really causes an explosion?!”

Hamchi and Seung-Gu tried to stop him, but he continued to walk away without bothering to respond.

“Haha! I’m going to make you regret for acting tough! Live your life in regret from now on!” Ulcera said with a burst of laughter before he pulled the lever on the Dimensional Communication Device.

Woooong!

The Dimensional Communication Device vibrated as soon as the lever was pulled, then...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions was triggered.

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