Debuff Master

Siegfried clicked his tongue after hearing Quandt’s request. Then, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, “Look at this money-obsessed old man...”

“Money-obsessed old man?!”

“Sigh... That’s very unsightly...”

“H-Hey! Don’t you think you’re being too harsh?!”

“How can you worry about your profits in a place like this?”

“Ahem...”

“I mean, I have to keep this a secret anyway, but don’t you think you’re too money-minded right now?”

‘This is all because of you! You’re the reason our workshop has to go this far just for money!’ Quandt wanted to scream at Siegfried, but he exerted superhuman self-control to stop himself from doing so. However, he felt his blood pressure shooting up and his vision darkening the more he tried to keep his anger in check.

“I’m just kidding,” Siegfried said.

“K-Kidding?”

“There’s no reason for us to teach others this secret we found first. It won’t be too late to reveal it after we've profited enough from it, and even my party members are not sure how to find and harvest the Kautschuk Tree, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“R-Really?!”

“Yes, so don’t worry about it. I’m going to go get you your samples, and I’ll make sure you’d be the first to work on them,” Siegfried said confidently before walking away.

***

This time, Siegfried decided to approach the Great Jungle from a different angle.

“You won’t achieve anything if you stubbornly choose to do the same thing that doesn’t work.”

These were the words of Deus. There was no point in doing the same thing over and over again if it wasn't working. This was the same as how starting with the wrong button would cause the other buttons to be misaligned, and it would not fix itself no matter how many buttons were pressed.

This was the Adventurers' current state. They were challenging the Great Jungle over and over again even though their defensive gear was getting corroded, and their attempt would end in failure every single time they went.

However, Siegfried could no longer be compared to them. He had found a way to prevent his items from getting corroded thanks to Monterey’s advice, and he could proudly say that he was a step ahead of the other Adventurers.

However, he was still not satisfied. He wanted to overhaul his entire party.

“I want to change our party composition,” Siegfried said.

“The party composition? But all of them are really good Adventu—”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Siegfried shook his head. Then, he continued, “This place is teeming with monsters, just like when we partied last time, right?”

“Yes,” Gosran nodded in agreement.

They first met at the Sohoca Ruin, which was a place teeming with monsters, and Buffers and Healers received extremely good treatment from parties.

“This place is just like the Sohoca Ruin.”

“Huh? When are you proposing to recruit Healers and Buffers?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“I want people who can bind the monsters down safely.”

“Ah!” Gosran exclaimed after understanding what Siegfried’s intentions were.

Indeed, having a lot of Buffers and Healers was definitely a good thing, but it wouldn't resolve their problems. Thus, Siegfried opted to go for Adventurers with crowd control skills that could stop the fire ants from moving altogether.

“I mean, why do we have to fight them when we can just hold them down and bombard them from range, right?”

“That’s an excellent idea!”

“We will recruit people with powerful Area of Effect ranged skills and those with crowd control skills.”

“Yes!”

“Seung-Gu will be our main tank, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Siegfried did not want to reveal their secret to others, so he focused on recruiting Adventurers that could fight from range while leaving the tanking to Seung-Gu’s Iron Golems, which were going to be fully coated with the Kautschuk Mixture.

This was the best plan he could come up with, as he would neither have to share the Kautschuk Mixture nor reveal it to others.

“Give me a while. I will go find people that match your description,” Gosran said before leaving to recruit their new party members.

“Are we finally going all the way in, hyung-nim?” Seung-Gu asked.

“Beats me. I think we could go deeper than now, but who knows what’s waiting for us in that place?”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense.”

“We’re the first ones here, so we just have to come up with solutions on the fly.”

“Oh! Hearing that is making me feel excited!”

“Huh?”

“I mean, having to find solutions means that we’re the pioneers of this place, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Wow... I never imagined someone like me would become the pioneer of such a high-level dungeon...”

“Eh...?”

“I’ve always been chasing after others, but it feels like I’m finally ahead of them for the first time.”

“Oh, now that you mention it... So a day when we will be ahead of others is finally here,” Siegfried agreed.

He also could have never imagined that he would one day be ahead of the others, but here he was right now. Of course, the top one percent of Adventurers were probably hunting in dungeons with much higher difficulty than this place, but it was indisputable that Siegfried was the pioneer of the Southern Great Jungle.

“But we have to keep climbing higher. We can’t be satisfied and stop here, right?”

“Yes, I agree!”

“I want to climb to the pinnacle of this game.”

“The pinnacle...?”

“I mean, anyone would want to become the top-ranking player in a game they’re playing, right?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“I want to try climbing to the top,” Siegfried said confidently. Then, he smirked and added, “Isn’t that worth a shot? I mean, being a top-ranking player in this game is definitely something worth bragging about, right?”

“You’re right, hyung-nim.”

“That day will definitely come. It’s not an impossible dream for me to achieve with this power master gave me.”

Siegfried never had any doubts about the potential of his class, the Debuff Master.

***

Siegfried and Seung-Gu spent their time coating the Iron Golems while waiting for Gosran to finish recruiting their new party members.

One hour later...

“Hello!”

“Whoa! Siegfried-nim is really the party leader!”

“Nice to meet you! I will do my best!”

Gosran brought the exact Adventurers required for Siegfried’s plan.

“Thank you for your hard work, Gosran-nim.”

“Have you finished your preparation?”

“Yes.”

“Then, let’s go!”

Siegfried challenged the Great Jungle once again, but this time, he was fully coated with the Kautschuk Mixture.

The party ventured for a short distance before coming across the Mutated Great Jungle Fire Ants, and a battle immediately broke out.

Siegfried’s new party members immediately resumed their roles.

Seung-Gu summoned his Iron Golems and stationed them at the forefront to tank the enemies’ attacks while the rest of the party members cast their crowd control skills and area of effect offensive skills.

The Mutated Great Jungle Fire Ants were destroyed by the bombardment.

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

In addition to obtaining a ton of Experience Points, none of the party members were harmed nor had their gear corroded.

[Alert: Your level has risen!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 271!]

On top of that, Siegfried even leveled up.

“Oh!

“This party is insane!”

“Wow... Those guys just melted away...”

The party members could not believe what they were witnessing, and this was to be expected from them. This wasn't their first time here, and they had been hunting in other parties, so they knew that they were bound to be splattered by at least one or two droplets of the corrosive acid, which meant their defensive gear would inadvertently suffer.

However, they were safe from the corrosive acid, as the Iron Golems stood in front of them and blocked all of the oncoming corrosive acid.

“Huh?”

One of the Voodoo Shaman in the party tilted his head in confusion while looking at Siegfried.

“Siegfried-nim?”

“Yes?”

“Your armor... They seem to be fine? Didn’t you take a shower with that acid just now?”

The Voodoo Shaman looked absolutely shocked.

“Oh? It’s true!”

“How is his armor fine even after that?”

“What the hell...?”

Everyone, except for Seung-Gu and Gosran, was perplexed at the bizarre turn of events.

As expected, Siegfried did not say anything to satisfy their curiosity.

“Shh... Don’t ask. This is my trade secret,” he said with a coy smile. Then, he added, “You could get hurt if you find out, so just be satisfied with the tons of Experience Points you’re getting from this. Okay?”

Siegfried immediately hurried over to the remains of the Mutated Great Jungle Fire Ants just in case a Green Otherworldly Essence dropped.

“Oh! There’s one! Yahoo!” Siegfried exclaimed out of joy after finding one.

“Just what in the...?”

“Hey, do you think he found a solution to this problem...?”

The party members fixated their gazes on Siegfried while trying to make sense of the situation, but he couldn't be bothered by their gazes.

“Lalala~ Lala~”

Instead, he hummed a tune after picking up a single Green Otherworldly Essence.

***

Siegfried was able to venture deeper into the Great Jungle thanks to the coating on his defensive gear, and this was the first deep exploration conducted in the Great Jungle after it underwent changes.

Every single party was forced to retreat after barely making ground due to their defensive gear getting corroded, but Siegfried’s party was able to make progress without much difficulty thanks to their strategy.

Unfortunately, one of their party members met an unfortunate end while admiring a flower the size of a bull, and he was forced to leave the party.

“Wow...! What’s this flower? Why is it so big—”

“Hey! Get away from that flower—!”

Siegfried tried to warn the Adventurer, but it was too late.

Chomp!

The flower suddenly devoured the Adventurer whole and—

Tsssss...!

The sound of something getting melted by powerful acid rang from within the flower.

Thud!

Then, the flower spat out the lower body of the party member.

Burp!

It did not forget to let out a satisfied burp, too.

“...”

“...”

“...”

The party members were speechless at how dangerous the Great Jungle was.

[Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap]

[A Venus Fly Trap that had mutated into something unknown after getting infected by an unknown energy.]

[Type: Neutral Creature]

[Level: 250]

[Note: This creature possesses extremely corrosive stomach acids. It has mutated into a bizarre creature capable of almost immediately digesting a high-level individual.]

“Hey, Seung-Gu.”

“Yes, hyung-nim?”

“Try shooting at that thing.”

“Huh?”

“It’s at least going to yield some experience points, right?”

“Alright.”

Seung-Gu commanded one of the Iron Golems to shoot at the Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap with its cannon.

Poof! Thud!

The Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap exploded, but...

“Huh? Eeeeh?!”

Siegfried was shocked to find two Green Otherworldly Essences on the ground when the Mutated Giant Venus Fly Trap exploded.

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[Alert: You have obtained +11 Ghost’s Shoulder Guards!]

Of course, the dead party member’s item ended up dropping, too.

‘Two essences were dropped from a single mob?’ Siegfried had a feeling the Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap had a higher drop rate of the Green Otherworldly Essence compared to the Mutated Great Jungle Fire Ants.

‘It’s too early to tell... I guess I should try killing every single one of these we come across and see what happens,’ Siegfried decided to test it out first.

One hour later, Siegfried’s party ran into another Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap, and the outcome was...

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

[Alert: You have obtained Green Otherworldly Essence!]

The Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap dropped two Green Otherworldly Essences again.

“So I was right... This guy drops two of these every time...” Siegfried muttered. He was convinced that the Mutated Great Venus Fly Trap would drop two Green Otherworldly Essences with a one hundred percent drop rate.

Then, the party members hurriedly took out their memos and started writing down the information. “Mutated Great... Venus Fly Trap... Two Green Otherworldly Essences... The drop rate is very high... Done!”

Knowledge was power!

The drop rate of Green Otherworldly Essence was unknown, so it only made sense for them to note down this valuable piece of information.

“Let’s continue killing every single one of these we come across while moving forward...” Siegfried told the party. Then, he muttered under his breath, “Hehe... It looks like this game is going to start getting really fun.”

He was dragged around by numerous NPCs, quests, and events that he was unable to enjoy the game in its purest form—hunting. However, the Southern Great Jungle gave him the opportunity to hunt once again while working on his quest, so he was able to enjoy the game after a long while.

Rustle... Rustle... Rustle...

Siegfried turned around after sensing something coming toward them from behind the bushes.

Grrrrr!

A group of large monsters suddenly emerged from the bush and surrounded Siegfried’s party in the blink of an eye.

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