Debuff Master

“Can you tell me in detail?” Siegfried asked the Adventurer.

“Pardon? Ah, but I’m busy right now—”

“I’ll give you this in exchange,” Siegfried cut interrupted, presenting a Low-Rank Ignite Crystal.

The Adventurer's attitude changed completely, and he proceeded to explain everything in great detail, “So what happened was nothing really special. We were hunting mobs when a Level 300 NPC called Queen of Pain and what seemed to be her minions? Subordinates? Anyway, those women appeared with her.”

“And then?”

“They suddenly attacked us without warning and... Wave of Pain? She used some crazy skill by that name, and that was fucked up. There were ten of us, but only three of us managed to survive.”

“...!”

“We somehow escaped that crazy woman, and that’s it.”

“I see...” Siegfried muttered. Then, he nodded and gave the Low-Rank Ignite Crystal. “Here, thank you for your time.”

“Ah, thank you. Have a nice day.”

The Adventurer then left with his group.

‘What the hell are they doing here? Don’t tell me the changes happening here are all their doing...?’ Siegfried suspected the Church of Osric, and it was a very valid suspicion. The Church of Osric was an organization that did all sorts of things, and they had even gone as far as summoning demons to the continent just to destroy the continent.

The Queen of Pain's presence here was enough justification for Siegfried to think of them as the primary suspect behind the bizarre things happening in the Great Jungle.

‘Hmm... I wonder what they’re up to, but it’s impossible to tell what those crazy bastards are planning. Well, I guess it somewhat worked out in the end though,’ Siegfried thought. He decided to consider this as an opportunity—a golden opportunity to disrupt whatever the Church of Osric was plotting and rescue Ingrid at the same time.

“Hyung-nim! I’ve brought your items,” Seung-Gu said, appearing behind Siegfried.

“Thanks,” Siegfried accepted his Quad-Turbo Shoulders that had been slotted with a High-Rank Ignite Crystal and equipped it. Then, he said, “Let’s go.”

“Huh? We’re already heading back?”

“Yeah, Ingrid’s here somewhere.”

“What?! Ingrid?! Then that means...”

Seung-Gu knew that Ingrid was currently under the Church of Osric's brainwashing.

“Yup, those bastards are in the jungle too,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“Heok!”

“They could be the reason why the jungle is in this mess to begin with.”

It was then.

“Bastards? Do you know something?” Gosran chimed in.

“Ah, that's...” Siegfried hesitated for a second, but he soon remembered that she was aware of the Church of Osric. They had fought together against them when they first partied together in the Sohoca Ruin, after all.

“Do you remember that time? We fought against a group called the Church of Osric.”

“Ah! I remember!”

“I think those guys are here, too.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. I have spoken to a few Adventurers, and they claimed to have seen NPCs that match their description.”

“That’s a huge problem then!”

“Right? That’s why we have to find out what they’re doing here.”

“I’ll help you!”

“Thank you, Gosran-nim. Let’s go!” Siegfried wasted no time and headed for the entrance.

“Wait a second...”

However, Siegfried recalled something and stopped in his tracks.

“Kyu? What’s wrong, owner thug—I mean, punk?”

“I’ll have to make a quick stop at the Bavarian Workshop.”

“Kyuuu?”

“I need something from them. Just wait for me right here, I’ll be back in about thirty minutes,” Siegfried said and hurried to the mobile smithy of the Bavarian Workshop.

***

Siegfried finished his business with the Bavarian Workshop and entered the Great Jungle. The party did not waste time farming essences this time, as they made a beeline for the Ishuka Ruin.

Meanwhile, the magicians from the magic unit of the Proatine Kingdom’s marines along with some soldiers arrived at the Great Jungle.

“This is His Majesty’s command! Move with haste!”

“Yes, sir!”

Carell was the leader of the magicians and soldiers on this expedition.

Carell gathered the troops and made a speech, “Listen up! We are here today on orders of His Majesty to install a gateway between this place and the kingdom. It will be tough and dangerous, but I hope all of you will persevere for His Majesty’s sake!”

“For His Majesty!”

“For Proatine!”

“Long live His Majesty!”

The troops led by Carrell immediately got to work to repair the destroyed gateway in the Great Jungle and to set up new ones as well.

Siegfried had ordered the Proatine Kingdom to set up gateways in the Great Jungle before he went chasing after the Church of Osric.

It was indeed a wise move. The convenience of being able to warp in and out of the Great Jungle would attract even more Adventurers to it, which would make it easier for the monsters to be subjugated.

Moreover, the Adventurers would be able to level up much faster by saving on travel time, and it would also come in handy if a large-scale war ended up breaking out in the future.

Meanwhile, Siegfried and his party sped through the jungle toward the Ishuka Ruin, and they were only five kilometers away from it.

“I should probably scout the area first,” Siegfried muttered and wore the Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance on one eye.

“What’s that?” Gosran asked.

“Ah, this one? It's a map hack.”

“M-Map hack?!”

“Yes, we have no idea what’s lying in wait over there, so we need this map hack.”

“I-Is that even possible...?”

“Yes, it is,” Siegfried replied and activated the active skill of the monocle, Clairvoyance.

[Alert: You have used Clairvoyance!]

[Alert: The durability of Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance has reduced by 1! (99/100)]

A message popped up in front of his eyes, and the Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance shone brightly.

Wooong!

Three seconds later...

“Huh?”

A mini-map appeared in front of Siegfried's eyes. The mini-map covered a ten-kilometer radius around him, and the Ishuka Ruin was included in it as well. He noticed countless red dots all over the mini-map.

‘What’s that...?’ he wondered and tapped on one of the red dots nearest to them.

[Mutated Hunterian]

The red dot around five hundred meters away from them turned out to be a Mutated Hunterian.

‘Then what’s this?’ Siegfried wondered before tapping on the large purple dot near the Ishuka Ruin.

The large purple dot was surrounded by other smaller purple dots, and there were two swords crossed over each other in an "X" on top of the purple dot.

[Queen of Pain]

The large purple dot and the smaller purple dots surrounding it turned out to be the Church of Osric. They were standing in the middle of the red dots, which were monsters.

‘Those cultist bastards and the monsters are together? I knew it; this was their doing all along.’

Siegfried was finally certain that the Church of Osric was plotting something after seeing Ingrid and her minions mixed together with the monsters.

‘Well, that’s not what’s important right now... This is...’ Siegfried turned his eyes toward the center of the Ishuka Ruin, which was the Sun Pyramid.

The Sun Pyramid was an altar built by the emperor of the Ishuka Emperor. A large green dot with the logo of a horned monster was above the Sun Pyramid.

[Hennessey’s Cocoon]

Siegfried had no idea what the Hennessy was, but he could roughly conclude that a monster was sleeping inside it judging from the word "cocoon."

In other words...

‘It’s the Boss!’ Siegfried exclaimed inwardly, deducing that the Boss of the Great Jungle was probably named Hennessy.

‘The Boss with the name Hennessy is sleeping inside the cocoon, and which means it's still asleep... Wait, it managed to transform the entire Great Jungle, even though it's asleep? This is crazy... that Boss has to be insanely strong!’ Siegfried was certain that the boss monster was an absurdly powerful monster judging from how it managed to mutate the entire Great Jungle even while sleeping in its cocoon.

Siegfried looked at his comrades and said, “We have to hurry.”

“Kyu? What did you see, owner punk?”

“Hyung-nim! What’s wrong?”

“Did you find something?”

They were perplexed by Siegfried's decision to pick up the pace.

“The boss monster is at the center of the Ishuka Ruin, and it’s sleeping in a cocoon. The monsters are together with the Church of Osric, so we have to kill that thing before it wakes up,” Siegfried said. Then, he used the mini-map to move toward the Ishuka Ruin.

***

Siegfried had two options on his way to the Ishuka Ruin: rush to the Sun Pyramid and destroy the cocoon before the Hennessy awakened, and the second option was to kill the Church of Osric members led by Ingrid before dealing with the cocoon.

He decided to pick the first one.

“It’s going to be a huge problem if the boss monster awakens. We have to stop it before that happens, so we will ignore the Church of Osric and head straight for the boss monster.”

Siegfried knew it was going to be risky, but he felt that he had to shoulder the risk and destroy the cocoon no matter what it took...

“Eh?” Siegfried was flustered after looking at the mini-map.

Why?

The Church of Osric led by Ingrid was coming toward his party, and the monsters were coming for them, too.

Siegfried turned around and said, “They're... coming.”

“Did we get caught, owner punk?! Kyuu!”

“What? The Church of Osric is coming for us?”

“How did they know we were here?”

Hamchi, Seung-Gu, and Gosran were shocked as well.

“It seems they somehow found out we are here. They’re coming for us, and they’re coming for us like crazy,” Siegfried replied.

“Kyuuu! Can we lose them, owner punk?!”

“I think that will be hard,” Siegfried shook his head and replied. Then, he observed the mini-map and said, “It looks like they know where we are, and they’re heading straight for us. Can we shake them off? I don’t think so. We can get completely surrounded if we attempt to run away.”

“What should we do?! Kyuuu!”

“What else?” Siegfried took out his +13 Horse Fly and asked in response. Then, he smirked and said, “We’ll wait for them here and kill them all. They’re almost here... I think two or three minutes tops... Hmm? Oh, I can hear them.”

“Kyuuu! I can hear them too!” Hamchi replied with his ears perked up.

“Hey, Seung-Gu.”

“Yes, hyung-nim?”

“Get ready and fire at them the moment they appear.”

“Okay!”

Seung-Gu summoned all of his Iron Golems and put them on Siege Mode to fire at any given second.

“You too, Gosran-nim.”

“Okay.”

Gosran channeled her spells and got ready to cast them at any given moment.

‘I should get ready to place my debuff fields down,’ Siegfried thought and prepared to place down Blaze Field and Shadow Swamp. Then, he tightly gripped his +13 Horse Fly to use Splitting Heaven and Earth at any moment, too.

“Heuuuuup!” Hamchi took a deep breath to get ready to shoot his laser ray.

They got ready for combat and waited for the enemies to appear.

“They’re coming,” Siegfried said and prepared to jump into the sky to use Splitting Heaven and Earth.

“Three... two... one—”

It was then.

“Aaaaaack!”

“Somebody help!”

“Run! Run faster!”

The Church of Osric that appeared from the bushes were running for their lives and were calling for help.

“W-What the hell...?” Siegfried was so flabbergasted by the whole spectacle that he forgot to issue the command to attack. He belatedly realized, “They weren’t coming for us?!”

The ground started to tremble as if an earthquake was about to trigger the moment he said those words and...

“Kyaaaaah!”

“Kyak! Kyaaaa!”

“Kwaaaaa!”

“Kyaa Kyaa Kyaaa!”

Mutated monsters of different shapes and sizes emerged from behind the Church of Osric.

“H-Hey guys...” Siegfried muttered. Then, he looked back at his party members with sheer horror on his face and roared, “Run!”

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