First Encounter
Five dark spheres rose into the air.
The seething black-and-red flames spat out a foul, ominous soot.
Everyone stared into the blaze with their own measure of apprehension.
Five elite trolls will be summoned in 60 seconds. After that, one final variant troll will be summoned in about ?? minutes. The type and summoning location of the final entity will be revealed only after all elite trolls have been eliminated.
Ho-yeong stared at the churning void, searching for some way to exploit it.
Wait. Only one final variant troll? What the hell kind of thing is coming out of there... Whatever. For now, just wipe the elite trolls fast. They said the identity of the last one will only be revealed after every single one of them is dead.
The soldiers watched the dimensional rift with tense faces.
Was the blessing of the frontier finally over? Were the angels truly abandoning the lower world?
"O High Angel who watches over us from the lowest place. Bind us all together with a thread of hope."
The Holy Knights held the black mist in check as they prayed.
"Father, do you think Lord Tamer's words are true? That he can make trolls possess mana...?"
"It's hard to believe. How could someone who isn't even a mage do such a thing?"
The young mages looked on with suspicion.
"We'll know in a moment. I trust Lord Tamer. Besides, there is no other way."
The old mage gripped his staff tightly and watched the distorted mana.
"If that young man really can make mana flow through a creature that was born without any... then perhaps we may dare to hope. Restoring mana that was once possessed and then lost would be far easier."
His youngest son's face rose in the cracks between dimensions. Garza, a promising mage who had lost all his mana to post-resurrection aftereffects.
They had tried every method under heaven and earth, but they had never been able to restore the boy's mana. The more time and wealth they poured into the effort, the more his wife's eyes swelled with tears. But if he was a Byeonbangbaek...!
"Marquis Iorid, you must concentrate."
"Ah, yes."
The marquis steadied himself and raised his staff once more.
The summoning of the elite trolls will begin shortly.
Ho-yeong held one hand out in the air as if casting a spell. It was partly to drag the status windows all at once, and partly to signal the marquis.
- Trrraaaal!
The elite trolls burst out of the five wormholes.
They were clearly larger and more solidly built than ordinary trolls, yet their movements were far quicker and lighter.
"[Area Conversion]!"
The EP consumed was a full 100.
The elite troll has been temporarily converted and is freed from the binding force of the Totem of Unity. However, the conversion will last for about 3 minutes.
It was only a momentary conversion, not a permanent one, but Ho-yeong paid it no mind.
- Trraal?
Seeing the elite troll's wildly bulging eyes soften into round confusion, Ho-yeong raised his hand at once.
"[Mana Torrent]!"
The spell Marquis Iorid cast had the effect of drawing external mana into mana already dwelling within the body.
Normally, it was used when casting magic on a target with weak mana, to ensure the spell took hold smoothly. In simple terms, it was a buff that amplified magical effects.
"Can't you use some kind of mana-sucking spell on the trolls?"
"It is possible. Are you asking to strengthen the spell that will be cast on the troll? But as I said earlier, the mana around the dimensional wormholes is corrupted, and its flow is extremely unstable."
"Yes. That's exactly why I want to use it."
This time, he used it for the opposite purpose as a debuff and an attack spell.
- Trraaal?!
The trolls were thrown into confusion as torrents of mana crashed through their bodies. When vast amounts of mana flood inside at once, a host of side effects follow.
And as the marquis had explained, this mana was heavily polluted mana.
- Trrraaaagh!
The trolls stood there with their eyes rolled back, convulsing. Their organs and blood vessels could not withstand the runaway surge of mana and magical power, and they burst apart from within.
"Then regeneration won't matter much."
In an instant, four elite trolls turned into corpses.
Even so, one unusually tough bastard survived, twisting his limbs wildly.
- T...trraaaagh!
But the moment he was touched by the aftereffects of the dimensional rift, his legs were burned black.
"What? Trolls weren't affected by the wormholes, so why are they suddenly taking damage?!"
"The troll that had grabbed Bray a moment ago was burned too."
"That was one of the trolls native to this area. It's different from the variant trolls. Those ones were fine even after touching the wormholes when they were summoned."
The watching Holy Knights were stunned.
"It is the result of Lord Tamer's mysterious power, Conversion."
Demis Ezef said calmly.
"As you said, the unholy force produced by the dimensional rift distinguishes friend from foe. That elite troll has become one of our allies, so the wormhole must have identified it as an enemy. Was that your aim, Lord Tamer?"
"Yes."
Ho-yeong nodded blandly as well.
In truth, it had been less a calculated trap than an experiment.
I wasn't sure whether it would work either, but you don't know until you try.
The remaining Elite Troll #001 clutched its legs and howled as regeneration and burning took turns tearing at it.
"And while it's converted, the effect of that mist should apply to it too."
The black mist, which had been drifting in the air, wormed into the troll's nose and mouth.
Just as he had guessed, the troll abandoned its legs and clutched its head instead.
Elite Troll #001 has been consumed by the high-grade status effect Despair. Unless this status effect is purified, its mental strength will continue to decrease.
- Tr...traaagh...!
The creature thrashed like an infant throwing a tantrum, all its bulk flailing uselessly.
So being a low-intelligence species doesn't mean they're any less despair-ridden. Still, I think I’ve got a rough idea now of how the black mist and the wormhole debuff work. It’s not that the monsters from the uncharted lands are unaffected by the black mist... rather, they’re probably given some kind of protection or immunity buff in the process of being summoned through the dimensional rift.
The goblins from Stage 1, the Hogrifon, the Mino Centaur, and the Fog Hog had all been the same way.
But what does it mean that they’re affected by the black mist after being converted? Like Demis Ezef said, the wormhole debuff and the mist probably work by distinguishing friend from foe. Still, if I think about it a little more, maybe the protective effects the monsters receive when they’re summoned simply disappear along with the conversion.
The completion rate for the B condition of the major quest Black Hand - Discovering the Effect of the Black Mist has increased from 70% to 85%.
Strictly speaking, Ho-yeong had not dissected the black mist's mechanism down to the last detail. That wasn't because his insight was lacking. Even the angels in charge of the system had not fully figured out the black mist themselves.
But Ho-yeong had inferred the crucial point: creatures tainted by malice are protected from the negative effects of malice upon the enemy, but once they are converted and come to hold good will, they lose that protection and are exposed to those effects.
On a more cynical note, it could also be a safeguard against people cheesing everything with Conversion. If you convert a monster the instant it appears, the dimensional rift or the black mist might very well kill it or leave it combat-ineffective. Though depending on the situation, you might also be able to turn that around and use it for a spawn kill like this...
But the true value of Conversion lay not in simply reducing the enemy count by one, but in turning enemies into allies. It was not only useful in the immediate battle; it could also be used in countless ways afterward, in later battles and in the development of the territory itself.
So if a converted monster dies immediately, that's a huge loss in the long run. Unless Conversion could be used without limit, that is. It has a cooldown, and it consumes EP as a resource.
Even as he thought it through, the troll kept screaming in despair.
- Trrraaaagh!
Because it had been converted, perhaps? The troll's anguish and emotions came through to Ho-yeong with startling clarity.
You bastards may be man-eating monsters, but I almost feel sorry for you. You were living fine in the uncharted lands, then got summoned out of nowhere and ended up getting dragged into this. If I trace it back to the source, the one at fault is whoever summoned you.
Rather than blindly hating the monster in front of him, he had to identify the true enemy behind it.
That said, it's still a problem if I start feeling pity for monsters. If I can't convert them, I have to kill them in the end. Otherwise they'll kill us.
Ho-yeong hardened his heart and drew his sword.
This is all the mercy I can give you. I won't drag it out and make it painful. I'll end it in one stroke.
He drove the blade deep into its heart to stop its movement, then beheaded it.
All elite trolls have been eliminated. You have obtained 35 KP as a reward.
"Incredible. They were clearly not ordinary trolls, and yet you took them down so easily..."
"If we had met them with halberds, would we have stood a chance?"
The soldiers felt both shock and relief.
"To think he really could implant mana into trolls..."
The Iorid marquis's sons wore expressions of disbelief.
"This is wonderful, Father! Now we have a way to cure Garza."
"Yes. If we just bring Lord Tamer to the youngest, everything will work out."
The older brothers were overjoyed at the hope of solving their brother's mana loss.
"Using Mana Torrent as an attack spell... The idea of reversing the mana flow distorted by the dimensional rift is astonishing. And you even tested the wormhole's incineration effect and the black mist? How many spells can you possibly manifest with a single strand of mana? Your ability is... no, who exactly are you?"
But the marquis, who had cast the spell, was astonished in a different way.
"If not for Your Lordship's superb command of magic, this would not have been possible. It isn't something just anyone could do, instantly casting a spell on five trolls at once."
Ho-yeong gave the credit to the marquis and shouted to the sons and soldiers alike.
"The battle isn't over! One more variant troll is coming! And it's an exceptionally powerful one."
He was uneasy.
The final summoned entity was Giantroll. As the name implied, it was an enormous troll.
"A Giantroll isn't just a troll that happens to be large. It has three hearts, which makes its regeneration absurdly monstrous."
But what made him uneasy was not only the appearance of the Giantroll.
"They said they would reveal the final one's location once all the elite trolls were dead, so why isn't anything showing up?! And why isn't the time showing either?"
The status window still displayed two question marks.
"And why haven't these dimensional rifts disappeared? The elite trolls are all dead."
The five wormholes still burned, refusing to close.
"Daliha? What's going on?!"
Instead of answering Ho-yeong's question, Daliha flashed a warning.
Unknown event occurring! Hostile NPC encountered.
In that instant, dark spheres gathered in the air. The black mass spread wide and took on the shape of a disk.
Above it, a human figure appeared.
Who is it?!
A silver robe embroidered with gold thread and a hood. Platinum hair falling from beneath silver rings set on the forehead. Beneath that, pointed ears and white skin came into view.
"An... elf?"
It was a race he had often seen in the game, but never once met in person within it.
"Lo-Lord Byeonbangbaek!"
Rio shouted in a panic.
"That woman is Lingling!"
The elf smiled at Rio and the soldiers, whose eyes had widened even more than the dimensional rifts.
"How surprising. I had no idea insects like you were still alive and struggling."
Then she turned her gaze to Ho-yeong and let her smile fade.
"Are you the one interfering with our extermination, claiming you mean to rescue these vermin?"