Debuff Master

Siegfried was the first to run right after his roar.

“Kyuuu! Screw you, owner punk!” Hamchi cursed while running after him.

“H-Hyung-nim!” Seung-Gu ran as well, but he was slightly delayed because he had to recall his Iron Golems first.

“Wait for me!” Gosran shouted before catching up with her Blink.

The chase started with Siegfried’s party and the Church of Osric running for their lives while being chased down by the mutated creatures.

“Kyuuu! What happened, owner punk?! I thought they were in cahoots?! Why are the monsters going after them?!”

“Hyung-nim! I thought they were on the same side?!”

“Please explain, Siegfried-nim!”

Hamchi, Seung-Gu, and Gosran vehemently protested against Siegfried.

“I thought they were!” Siegfried retorted.

The current situation was in no way Siegfried’s fault, as anyone would have misunderstood it, too. The Church of Osric had always been a shady, clandestine organization, so Siegfried was certain that they were plotting something in the Great Jungle.

The mini-map also showed that the Church of Osric members were mingling with the monsters, so it was only normal for him to think that they were in cahoots.

‘Damn it! How the hell was I supposed to know they were fighting?! This is my fault!’

The Church of Osric were the purple dots while the red dots were the mutated creatures, and Siegfried had just realized that the crossed swords meant they were engaged in battle. Upon adding those two together, he realized...

‘They weren’t in cahoots?!’ Siegfried realized that the Church of Osric and the monsters were most likely not working together.

That was the only plausible explanation for why the Church of Osric was currently being chased down by the mutated monsters. Of course, he couldn't eliminate the possibility of the two working together, as there could be an explanation behind the chase.

‘For example... What if they did cause all of this, but they lost control of the mutated creatures?’ Siegfried thought this sounded extremely dumb, but he didn't eliminate that possibility.

After all, it was not like he had not witnessed other self-proclaimed great beings screwing up and acting like a bunch of morons. A good example was Metatron and his servant, Chaos. Those two were basically the BNW version of Dumb and Dumber.

‘Well, there’s no guarantee that the Church of Osric is capable of controlling every creature they summoned with a hundred percent success rate, right?’

However, all of these were just his theories; he had no proof to back them up.

“Gwuuu Ooooh!”

Bam! Bam! Bam!

“AAAAAACK!”

And that was the end of his theorizing, as Siegfried, who was currently Level 265, had to focus on running away from three Mutated Great Jungle Ogres.

***

The bizarre chase continued, and Siegfried’s party was forced to run away from the mutated creatures alongside the Church of Osric. They had no other choice, as it was guaranteed they would get run over by the mutated creatures the moment they tried to fight each other.

Neither side had the luxury to even think about fighting, as the number of mutated creatures coming for them was simply overwhelming, and evidence of this was the fact that Siegfried was currently running alongside the Queen of Pain.

Well, the Queen of Pain, Ingrid, somehow still managed to find the time to attack while running away.

“You!” Ingrid exclaimed and swung her steel whip at Siegfried.

Chwaaak!

The steel whip cut through the air and headed straight for Siegfried.

“Whoopsie!” Siegfried easily evaded the steel whip.

“You bastard!” Ingrid roared and swung her steel whip once again.

“Daisy!” Siegfried evaded the whip in one fluid motion.

“You little rat!”

“Whoops!”

“Die!”

“Missed me!”

“You pesky rat!”

“Whoopsie, daisy, missed, me!”

Siegfried showed off his control by evading the steel whip while evading the charging monsters.

“I’m going to rip you into shreds!” Ingrid cried out in anger and used Wave of Pain, but she couldn't cast it.

“Gwuuu Oooh!”

“Kyaaah!”

“Kireuk! Kireuk!”

The mutated creatures were right behind them, and she couldn't attack freely.

Meanwhile, Seung-Gu ended up getting separated from the party while running for his life, and it was the same for Gosran.

“Aaaah!”

Flash!

Gosran ripped a teleportation scroll and disappeared a second before she was in complete danger.

It was the same for Siegfried and Ingrid as both of them were busy with each other while running from the monsters. They ended up getting separated from the rest of the Church of Osric members.

In the end, it was every man for themselves.

“Kyu! Run owner punk, run!” Hamchi shouted from atop Siegfried’s head.

“Shut up!” Siegfried lashed out while running.

The wise move for survival was definitely spreading out. The mutated creatures spread out after the scattering Church of Osric members and Siegfried’s party, and it made it easier for them to escape the horde of monsters.

Meanwhile, Ingrid attacked Siegfried nonstop even while they were running, but they managed to widen the gap between themselves and the monsters after the latter's numbers had thinned out.

It was then...

‘The monsters are chasing after the others!’ Siegfried noticed that the mutated creatures were going after other targets, so he decided it was time to settle things with Ingrid.

Siegfried was confident that he could defeat her, as he had already experienced fighting with her in a past that didn't exist for her. In other words, he knew everything there was to know about her while she was clueless about him.

There was no way he would lose against her.

‘Now’s my chance!’ Siegfried threw Hamchi aside and ran up to Ingrid, and then he activated the Grand Duel.

Krwaaaang!

Pillars of flames shot up from the ground, and the Barrier of Victory swallowed both of them up.

***

‘I wonder where Siegfried-nim is...’ Gosran wandered in search of the others after managing to escape from the chasing horde.

However, there was no way she could easily find him in this vast jungle, as she didn't possess something like Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

‘Should I recall out and wait for them outside...?’ Gosran wondered.

It was then.

“Let me go! Let me go you perveeeert!”

A shrill voice reverberated throughout the jungle.

‘That voice is...!’ Gosran had a feeling the voice’s owner was the Queen of Pain, so she rushed over to where the voice came from.

Five minutes later...

“...!”

After seeing something she never imagined that she would witness in her entire life, Gosran froze completely.

“Let go! Let go of me! You perverted bastard!”

“Stay still!”

“I said let go—Kyah! Where are you touching?! Don’t touch me there!”

“This will be over soon if you stay still!”

Gosran saw Siegfried pinning the Queen of Pain to the ground.

In Gosran’s eyes, the scene looked like...

‘I’m so disappointed in you!’ Gosran cried out inwardly, stupefied to find that Siegfried could actually stoop so low just to defeat an NPC. Yes, she was indeed a villain and their enemy, but committing such a thing against an NPC was something only the scum of Earth could commit.

“Siegfried-nim...?”

“Hmm? Ah! Gosran-nim!” Siegfried responded after turning and seeing her standing behind them.

Gosran bit her lips and said, “I’m so... disappointed in you.”

“What?!”

“I trusted you... I thought all those rumors about you were unfounded despite your titles...”

“N-No! This is a misunderstanding! A misunderstanding!”

“I never imagined you’re capable of doing something so despicable—”

“I said this is a misunderstanding!” Siegfried cried out. Once again, he had fallen victim to another misunderstanding that his titles had inadvertently caused.

***

A few hours later, Ingrid was successfully subdued with her body bound by a chain and her mouth gagged.

Siegfried and Gosran dragged her all the way back to the entrance of the Great Jungle.

“Siegfried-nim...” Gosran called out in a weak voice.

“What?” Siegfried responded curtly.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

This was the hundredth time Gosran had apologized, and this was the hundredth time Siegfried had ignored her apology.

Plop...!

Siegfried looked nonchalant on the outside, but he was crying tears of blood inside.

‘Until when do I have to deal with this...? Sniff...!’

This was all because of that damned book. Siegfried thought the Shimiken’s Finishing Moves was a skill book and had opened it, but what he obtained instead were a bunch of strange titles, including "Seggs Stamina King," which made him look like a sex fiend.

Unfortunately, Gosran was not the only one who had mistaken him for a sex fiend.

“W-What’s that?”

“Hey, that guy’s dragging a female NPC somewhere...”

“Wow... What a piece of shit...”

“I know this is just a game, but isn’t that a bit too much?”

A few of the Adventurers whispered among themselves while pointing at Siegfried, who was dragging Ingrid around.

“Then what the fuck do you want me to do?!”

Eventually, Siegfried could not handle the abuse and lashed out at them.

“Why don’t you go and try subduing a Level 300 NPC?! She’s going to go absolutely berserk if I don’t do this, so what do you want me to do?! Did you help me? No! You didn’t!”

Siegfried did not seem to quell his anger, so he even grabbed his +13 Horse Fly and threatened the Adventurers.

“Say one more word! I dare you to say one more thing about me! I’m going to smash your jaw so you eat from a straw for the rest of your life!”

Siegfried's face convulsed and contorted from anger until he started looking like a hideous demon, and his look alone convinced the Adventurers that he meant every single thing he was saying.

“H-Hey, you can just tell us if it’s a misunderstanding... Why are you getting so worked up, bro?”

“Ah~ What a beautiful day~”

“I didn’t know you had your reasons...”

The Adventurers hurriedly changed their tone and tried to get as far away as possible from Siegfried.

“O-Owner punk! Calm down! Kyuu!”

“You shut it, too!”

“K... Kyuu...”

“I’m going by myself from here! Don’t follow me!” Siegfried lashed out once more and dragged his captive all the way to the mobile smithy of the Bavarian Workshop.

“Welcome—! Hmm?” Quandt greeted him enthusiastically but ended up raising a brow after seeing the woman tightly bound behind Siegfried. Then, he asked, “Is that your fetish?”

“Please don’t ask me anything and get out.”

“A-Alright.”

After sensing the sinister aura wafting out of Siegfried, Quandt left the mobile smithy in a hurry.

Thus, Siegfried and Ingrid were left all alone in a room deep inside the mobile smithy of the Bavarian Workshop.

“Eup! Eup! Euuuup!" Ingrid cried out, which was translated to, "Hey! You pervert! Where is this?! Untie me at once!”

“This will be over soon,” Siegfried replied. However, he didn't do anything and simply sat on a chair, seemingly waiting for something.

An hour passed.

“I have arrived, Your Majesty,” Oscar said upon entering the room.

“Ah, welcome, Dame Oscar. You came sooner than expected.”

“How could I tarry when Your Majesty has requested my presence?”

“Good.”

“But...” Oscar muttered while looking at Ingrid. Then, she asked, “Is she not the daughter of Lionbreath?”

“Yes, she is.”

“But why is she...?”

“She is under the Church of Osric's brainwashing. I captured her and brought her here.”

“Oh? Something like that happened to her?”

Fortunately, Oscar did not seem to doubt Siegfried one bit.

‘Thank you! You’re the best, Oscar!’ Siegfried cheered inwardly first before getting to the point. “Dame Oscar.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“Did you bring the sword I bestowed upon you last time?”

“The sword is always with me, Your Majesty. In fact, I sleep with the sword beside me at night, too,” Oscar replied and showed the Fragarach sheathed on her waist.

“Excellent. Then can you pull that sword out?”

“Pardon me, sire?”

“We will now start the interrogation.”

“Ah!” Oscar gasped, realizing Siegfried’s intention.

The Holy Sword: Fragarach was capable of forcing NPCs to tell the truth, and they would obtain valuable information regarding the Church of Osric’s plan if they used it to interrogate Ingrid.

‘Let’s hear what you have to say. Just what in the world are you bastards planning?’ Siegfried thought with a smirk while leering—no, looking at Ingrid.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺