Chapter 91: Ant Hell (3)
The Shadow members knew all about the Devil's Castle.
That was why they could guess why Kim Minwoo had chosen this gate.
It was a map layout like rat poison for infiltrating assassins.
On top of that, the seven reception rooms in the castle each had only one entrance, but their interiors were extremely spacious.
‘Perfect for a necromancer to run wild.’
It didn’t matter.
He had come prepared to accept this level of penalty.
And so, the group began opening the reception rooms one by one and checking their interiors.
The trainees took turns opening the doors one at a time.
The rest of the members stayed back a bit, on guard.
There could be ambushes from inside, after all.
Four of them were duds.
They just got to slaughter devil-type monsters to their heart’s content.
When they opened the fifth door, everyone froze.
One of the trainees was staring wide-eyed.
‘Is this it?’
The S-rank Awakeners waiting nearby lit up at the completely different reaction from before.
Han Baekgil was no exception.
He gripped his weapon with all his might.
He had his skills activated as well, ready to charge in at any moment.
That was when it happened.
Ruuuush…!
An enormous gust of wind began blowing in front of the door.
A suction like a vacuum cleaner, pulling everything in.
Caught off guard by the unexpected sight, all the Awakeners were sucked toward it.
“W-What is this?!”
“What the fu—!”
“M-Magic!”
Wei Longgang, the S-rank mage dispatched from China, had his eyes gleam.
The standardized flow of mana.
This was definitely magic.
There was no way a necromancer could use magic like this, so he must have gotten his hands on some incredible item.
‘Arrogant bastard.’
[Land of Death activates!]
[It continuously drains your vitality!]
Another message appeared, but it wasn’t important right now.
Probably just some area-of-effect skill.
The damage wouldn’t be that high.
The priority was dealing with this raging wind.
He was a seasoned mage who had seen it all.
He had magic prepared for situations like this.
In an instant, magic activated over his hands.
[Weight Amplification (B) activates!]
[Grasp of the Earth (A) activates!]
It amplified the target’s weight.
Then, massive hands burst from the ground and grabbed the party members’ limbs.
The Shadow members, who had been getting swept away by the wind, let out sighs of relief.
Their bodies stopped midair.
That was when it happened.
[The Great Mage gazes upon you!]
[The source of your magic has been discerned!]
[All magic is dispelled!]
Before even 0.1 seconds had passed, all of Wei Longgang’s magic vanished as if it had never existed.
‘…?’
His eyes went wide at the message he had never seen before.
The source discerned?
And on top of that, his magic dispelled?
What nonsense was this?
‘And who the hell is this Great Mage?’
The party members were all dragged toward the door.
Wei Longgang was no exception.
The party members hurriedly activated defensive skills.
Soon after, a massive explosion erupted.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
“Argh!”
“Aaack!”
The trainees’ bodies turned to rags.
Even the S-rank Awakeners took damage.
The explosive power was that immense.
“There he is!”
Inside the reception room.
Kim Minwoo was positioned there amid a horde of undead.
A massive golem and Cedric.
Skeletons too.
He could see the familiar summoned beasts.
There were specters as well, but that was already expected.
He would have learned C-rank skills long ago, after all.
There was just one oddity.
‘What’s that?’
There was a woman standing beside Kim Minwoo whom he had never seen before.
A woman wearing a pitch-black parasol, smiling faintly as she looked this way.
She looked foreign no matter how he saw it…
‘Who the hell is she?’
‘Did he secretly call in reinforcements…?’
‘No, wait a minute.’
A warning alarm rang in everyone’s heads along with the question.
The maximum entry limit for a B-rank gate was 20 people.
They had already entered with 19 including Kim Minwoo.
In other words, she might look human, but she wasn’t.
“…Summon! Mage! Watch out!”
Wei Longgang shouted urgently in broken Korean.
Cedric, known as the Death Knight.
That summon’s power was beyond imagination.
The woman would be the same.
‘That bitch!’
He instinctively realized who the Great Mage referred to.
An suffocating pressure emanated from the woman.
It wasn’t just mere presence.
It was something more fundamental.
A feeling like every single cell was being dissected.
A sensation of being stripped bare and probed made Wei Longgang’s spine crawl.
“Die!”
The Awakeners gathered at the door unleashed all sorts of attack skills.
The battle had begun anyway.
They were prepared for some sacrifices.
They had to break through the summons and kill Kim Minwoo.
Since they were already at the door, they planned to force a path.
Under the barrage of fierce skills, the charging summon horde died off one by one.
“Watch out! They’re reviving!”
Ilho shouted urgently.
Curiously, Kim Minwoo’s undead were reviving instead of being unsummoned.
[You are afflicted with Curse of Aging!]
[Defense and movement speed reduced by 10%…]
Curses piled on as the brawl continued.
“Wei Longgang!”
Wei Longgang nodded.
He was being asked to unleash a nice area-of-effect spell.
He felt an inexplicable pressure, but he couldn’t just stand there dumbfounded.
[Wei Longgang casts Great Explosion (S)…]
That was when he tried to activate magic once more.
—Fool. So simple.
With the sudden voice.
[Magic Defense (B) bursts!]
[Magic Reflection (A) bursts!]
[Great Explosion (S) cast is canceled!]
“Gah!”
The mana he had moved to cast the spell twisted completely, and he vomited blood as he collapsed.
The defensive magic he had on himself was utterly shattered as a bonus.
“?”
“?”
“?”
The Shadow side tilted their heads.
S-rank mage Wei Longgang.
He collapsed without doing anything.
The damage was so severe he was foaming at the mouth and convulsing.
‘What the…’
Wei Longgang wasn’t some genius among S-rank mages or anything.
Even so, he was an S-rank mage.
He was definitely capable of roasting small fry.
But what was this?
Everyone was bewildered.
The original plan was to sweep away the miscellaneous summons with Wei Longgang’s magic and close in on Kim Minwoo.
But that plan had fallen apart from the start.
“Stick to the original plan!”
Han Baekgil shouted loudly.
Unexpected variables kept popping up.
Hesitating would only get them eaten alive.
They had to push through with grit.
‘Still, one shot left.’
Han Baekgil’s eyes gleamed.
The initial hit.
Even with Wei Longgang down, it wasn’t fatal.
Nine S-rank Awakeners remained.
Wei Longgang could recover somewhat with a potion.
He had come practically emptying the treasure vault for worst-case scenarios.
Naturally, he had brought multiple artifacts to smash the necromancer.
The S-rank Awakeners nodded resolutely.
The path gradually cleared, and the distance to Kim Minwoo shortened.
“Now!”
From Ilho to Chilho.
And Han Baekgil too.
They all activated the artifacts equipped on their bodies.
[Rain of Light (S) activates!]
[Angel's Smile (S) activates!]
[Sacred Flame (S) activates!]
[Sacred Protection (S)…]
The undead’s natural enemy had always been light.
Just shining light on them doubled the damage at minimum.
Especially with specters swarming.
Ghost-type undead took triple damage, so they could wipe out the summons in one go.
A rain of sparkling light poured down.
Sacred energy swirled around Han Baekgil and the others.
It was intense enough to melt low-level skeletons before they could even approach.
‘Break through in one shot and…’
‘Kill him!’
Everyone’s eyes gleamed.
Even a special summon like Cedric couldn’t withstand an S-rank light barrage.
That was when sticky smiles crept onto their lips.
The skulls stared at the Awakeners with blank eyes.
The specters too.
The golem.
Cedric.
The eerie woman.
All of them stared blankly at the glittering party, utterly unaffected by the rain of light.
‘What?’
‘It activated, though?’
‘Why aren’t they dying?’
Even a Death Knight would vanish instantly under this light storm barrage.
For a normal necromancer, their front lines would be broken, and they’d be scrambling to flee.
But why?
The silence didn’t last.
The first to snap out of it was Kim Minwoo’s undead side.
Undead attacked from all directions.
“Gurk!”
“Argh!”
Injuries piled up from the unforeseen situation.
Han Baekgil was just as dumbfounded.
* * *
‘Easy.’
He had seized momentum from the start.
He herded them in and slammed an explosion.
The S-rank Awakeners started resisting, but the summons dragged it out better than expected.
‘Not that strong.’
The average level of the existing Shadow members was nearly 500.
Double experience didn’t mean they hit level 1,000.
Higher levels required far more experience.
‘Around 700, probably.’
Average stats of 700.
Of course, other factors would make their effective power higher, but his summons weren’t pushovers either.
Numbers were key here.
More than enough for stalling.
On top of that, Merhen shone brightly.
‘A total counter to mages.’
Nine out of ten mages in this world were fakes.
They learned magic from skillbooks like auto-casts and used it accordingly.
In other words, their casting methods were fixed.
Merhen, on the other hand.
‘A real mage.’
She freely manipulated mana to create magic at will.
To her, fake mages were just tasty prey.
Just by looking, she figured out how to dismantle their spells.
Block the mana flow a bit, and the fake mages spat blood and dropped dead.
Just like that Wei Longgang guy now.
‘Similar to swordsmanship.’
Like seeing a scrub swing and knowing their next move to slit their throat.
Magic was the same.
Real masters devoured scrubs wholesale.
‘Got a rough read on their skills too.’
That was why he sent summons first.
A stage 6 gate meant lots of variables.
To check if their skills had changed or if they had any unusual ones.
Eventually, Han Baekgil pulled out his ace, but.
‘Sorry, doesn’t work.’
Light magic?
Even SSS holy sword light didn’t faze them.
S-rank light barrage couldn’t do shit.
Thanks to that, the panicked Shadow members were getting properly thrashed.
‘Gotta nab a few before they run.’
That would trigger the hidden piece.
He looked at Merhen.
She nodded.
Kim Minwoo drew his commander sword and charged.
Cedric followed suit.
Yukho, the closest one.
The assassin’s eyes gleamed as he approached.
He thrust his dagger in one go.
‘Not a skill.’
Cedric’s spear hooked in and parried the dagger.
The trajectory veered, creating an opening.
He thrust his sword, and the guy hurriedly tried to use a skill.
His body faded like smoke.
One of the assassin’s S-rank skills: Emergency Evasion.
That was when.
[Merhen uses Aquatic Adhesive (S)!]
Splat!
Some sticky liquid splattered and clung to his legs.
Yukho’s eyes bulged as Emergency Evasion canceled.
Yukho bent at the waist in panic.
The downward sword strike cleaved his body in two.
[Level increases by 3!]
Even S-rank, their level was meh.
Skill-wise, generously put, on par with late-stage disciples from the wuxia gate?
‘Time to die.’
Probably thought that was all after seeing him take down Jo Pilwook and got cocky alone.
Unfortunately, Kim Minwoo’s swordsmanship wasn’t just that.
Two legion commanders.
Plus Kim Minwoo.
Under the joint assault of three supreme masters, the S-rank Awakener dropped dead without a chance to act.
‘Three left now.’
Faced with unimaginable skill, Han Baekgil and the Shadow members began trembling.