The Fall of the Specter of the Ancient God
The Specter of the Ancient God stopped attacking and spread its body wide to wrap around the altar. It had gone on the defensive, afraid magic might damage it.
Kim Tae-hyun didn’t miss that opening.
Ratatatatat—
If you barged in while magic was flying around, even allies could get caught in it and be hurt. Area-of-effect magic was never kind enough to spare friendlies.
But Tae-hyun charged in without even blinking.
Your astonishingly brave action raises your Fame!
Your standing within the Atali Kingdom Navy’s 3rd Fleet has increased!
You have obtained the title: One Who Knows No Fear.
One Who Knows No Fear: Even when dangerous magic crashes down in front of you, you do not flinch—you charge forward. No matter how powerful the enemy, you never run. Your fearless courage has moved many who witnessed it.
Immune to fear-related skills.
It was a passive skill so absurdly broken it was practically a scam.
Tae-hyun had never imagined something this good would pop out in a situation like this.
But he didn’t have time to be happy about it.
The Specter of the Ancient God was already stretching out its body, trying to check his advance.
Crack!
Crack!
Kwakwakwak!
Evasion successful.
Evasion successful.
The Specter of the Ancient God unleashes Specter-Fired Shockwave across the entire dungeon!
“...!”
“Aaaagh! Move!”
“Oh, damn it!”
Shockwaves began raining through the entire underground hall.
The soldiers who had been fighting the Specter Warriors panicked and started dodging for their lives. The two blacksmiths shrieked and ran this way and that.
“Help! I’d be so pissed if I died here!”
“You know how hard it was just to get this far?!”
Tae-hyun considered dodging too, then just kept running forward.
He believed his Luck would let him evade it.
Thud—
“...!”
But this shockwave couldn’t be dodged.
Tae-hyun clicked his tongue when he felt his body jolt and watched his HP drop in a long chunk.
“Yeah, that’s more like it!”
As soon as Tae-hyun reached the altar, the Specter of the Ancient God focused solely on him again.
Countless shockwaves flew at him, smashing up the surroundings.
The trajectories are simpler than I thought.
At times like this, the worst habit was closing your eyes.
Because this was a virtual reality game, the shockwaves hurtling right at your face made it almost impossible not to shut your eyes.
But Tae-hyun didn’t close them.
He stared all the way through.
And at the final instant, he moved and evaded.
It was the kind of stunt high-Agility rogue players sometimes pulled off, but Tae-hyun was doing it with Agility nowhere near that high.
His dynamic vision and reflex speed were monstrous.
Pak!
Papak!
The Specter of the Ancient God drove Tae-hyun in and poured shockwaves on him.
Attacks from the front, the back, both sides—everything at once.
Shadow Leap
Tae-hyun used the skill he had been saving and saving for exactly this moment.
He burst upward and landed, in an instant, on top of the altar.
The Specter of the Ancient God didn’t have a face, but Tae-hyun felt as if their eyes met.
And in that instant, he could feel what the other side was feeling.
It was panicking.
Chiiik—
“Think you can block all of this too?”
As he spoke, Tae-hyun began dropping a pile of bombs.
Now that the bombs were falling point-blank against the altar, the Specter of the Ancient God hurriedly tried to get rid of them.
Tentacles lashed toward him, and Tae-hyun cut them away with his sword.
“Ha! Explosion time! Explosion!”
“Sorry, but I’m pretty confident I can dodge it!”
Chiiiiiii—
One bomb fuse burned all the way down.
Then a message window appeared.
Because of the unstable crafting process, the bomb fails to detonate.
“...?”
The Specter of the Ancient God and Tae-hyun both stared at the pile of bombs.
“No, I made it to go off late!”
“Then come closer and see for yourself.”
The Specter of the Ancient God, realizing Tae-hyun’s bomb hadn’t gone off, sneered and lunged in.
That was the moment the other bombs began to explode.
Because of the unstable crafting process, the bomb’s firepower increases explosively.
Kkwakwakwakwakwang!
With a thunderous blast, the bombs started detonating. The dud from earlier exploded with them.
The upper part of the altar the Specter of the Ancient God had been trying to protect shattered and blasted away.
Even then, the explosions didn’t stop.
Because of the unstable crafting process, the explosion radius becomes fixed.
Kwa-kwa-kwaang!
As the full force of the blast hit its torso dead on, the Specter of the Ancient God writhed in agony.
Because of the unstable crafting process, the bomb teleports.
“What?”
Tae-hyun froze in shock.
He’d expected penalties like misfires or extra-powerful blasts, but teleportation?
No, that’s complete nonsense!
If it teleports into the middle of the soldiers and blows up...!
That would be the all-time greatest teamkill.
But the bomb teleported inside the body of the Specter of the Ancient God and exploded.
Whew.
The bombs exploded one after another.
Even the altar, which had held out for a while, finally collapsed.
The altar protecting the source of the Specter of the Ancient God’s power has been destroyed.
The Specter of the Ancient God grows weaker.
From between the wreckage of the altar, Tae-hyun walked out, brushing dust off himself.
Despite that monstrous explosion, he hadn’t been hurt in the slightest.
Absurd Luck.
Shrring—
Tae-hyun drew his sword and began walking forward.
He knew it instinctively.
This was his chance to finish the Specter of the Ancient God!
“Guess it’s time to end this miserable fight, don’t you think?”
The Specter of the Ancient God began shrinking its body.
The huge mass drew in on itself until it was the size of a Specter Warrior.
Gathering its power?
The Specter of the Ancient God shrank its body down and formed a sword, shouting those words.
But Tae-hyun was doing something else entirely.
“Huh? What was that?”
In Tae-hyun’s hand was the leather waterskin holding the holy water he’d made earlier.
Instead of answering, Tae-hyun charged.
Lucky Strike!
Lucky Strike!
Lucky Strike!
Circle of Attack!
The Specter of the Ancient God, though smaller now, had become faster.
It avoided Tae-hyun’s attacks swiftly and countered in turn.
Tae-hyun locked blades with it, closed the distance—
and burst the waterskin.
Fwoosh!
The Specter of the Ancient