The Orc Shaman (2)
Jin-soo and Shin Sua kept to a simple circuit—sweep the monsters out of one city, then move on to the next. They didn't even balk at sleeping rough between stops. Time slipped past that way, until a call came through from Ogawa.
"Well done."
With Ogawa as Guild Master of the Minamoto Guild, gathering intelligence would become a great deal easier.
Time to call the Shadow Summons back.
Now that Ogawa held the guild master's seat, there was no longer any need to keep the Shadow Summons stationed at his side.
"I'm recalling the Shadow Summons. From here on, report to me regularly with whatever intelligence the Minamoto Guild collects."
"Do not leave out a single detail on any monster suspected of being Out-of-Spec or a variant. Ah—and if you have any materials on orc habitats, send them back with the Shadow Summons."
"Good. Keep handling things properly on your own."
Jin-soo cut the link on that grimly earnest reply.
Here's hoping there's something actually worth using.
Once the Shadow Summons returned, he meant to take every orc habitat the Minamoto Guild had mapped and strip them bare.
"Ogawa became Guild Master of the Minamoto Guild?"
"Yeah."
"Gathering information should be a lot easier, then."
"It should."
One of the great advantages of a massive guild was that it kept a branch in every city of the Tower and could stay in contact through communication stones. For intelligence work, that was an enormous edge—and now, at least on Tower Floor 150, Jin-soo could obtain information on par with those giant guilds.
"For now, we keep hunting. Leo."
"Nyaaaang!"
Leo unleashed a vigorous wide-area taunt roar. The ground thudded under a rush of feet, and orc cries tore the air—krrrk, kuwaaargh—as a pack charged in from every side. Flame roared up. A blast cracked the field. Arrows hissed, and bodies dropped in a drumbeat of impacts. The orcs never even reached Jin-soo and Shin Sua. Magic and elemental arrows swept them away like chaff.
We've been razing every orc settlement the moment we see it, and there's still not a whisper.
Swallowing his disappointment, Jin-soo moved on to the next settlement Kkami had found and kept the hunt going. He and Shin Sua were deep in the dull grind of it, just starting to think it was time to pitch the tent and get supper ready, when the four Shadow Summons he had sent to Ogawa returned.
Chk.
The shadow assassin dropped respectfully to one knee and offered something up.
"Huh?"
Jin-soo was more than a little thrown by what it held out.
"This is a treasure pouch."
"It is, isn't it?"
How big could a map of orc settlements possibly be, that he'd gone and stuffed it in a treasure pouch? Wearing a puzzled look, Jin-soo drew the contents out.
"Ha. Would you look at this."
The pouch held the map of orc settlements he had asked for—and packed in with it, a massive haul of job-advancement books, skill books, elixirs, and every kind of equipment.
"The grade isn't exactly low."
Nothing in there, to Jin-soo's eye, was worth keeping for the long haul. Use it once and throw it away, maybe. By the standards of Tower Floor 150, though, they were top-tier goods that would make even a highest-ranked player's eyes roll back in his head.
The job-advancement books and skill books can go toward Skill Synthesis materials.
The elixirs he could feed to Shin Sua, and the gear, sold off at the auction house, looked as if it would bring in a considerable number of points.
"Didn't you only ask for a map of the orc habitats?"
"Yeah."
Jin-soo nodded at her question.
"Then why send all this?"
"He's flattening himself on his own."
There was a good chance Ogawa had misunderstood why Jin-soo had made him guild master.
He probably skimmed a fair share for himself, too.
It hadn't been the intent, but there was nothing wrong with it. The more items and points, the better.
"Eat these first."
He handed every elixir over to Shin Sua.
"You're not having any?"
"They'll do you far more good than they'd do me."
Even if he drank them and raised his stats, the gain to his blessing's growth would amount to little more than killing a handful of monsters. Pouring the elixirs into Shin Sua was the efficient use.
"Still..."
"If I need them, I'll look after myself. When I'm giving them to you, eat."
"Thank you. Really."
Wearing a face full of apology, Shin Sua took the elixirs he passed her and drank them down.
Let's see.
While she took them, Jin-soo studied the map from Ogawa.
This side's already been combed clean... We missed this one. We'll have to go back.
He marked the habitats he had skipped. So long as there was even a speck of a chance of hunting the Out-of-Spec monster of Tower Floor 150—the orc shaman—he could not let a single habitat slip past him.
Jin-soo and Shin Sua threw themselves into the hunt determined not to leave even one orc habitat untouched.
Having a Bone Dragon makes travel ridiculously convenient.
Being able to fly was a truly tremendous advantage. Jin-soo hunted in person, of course, and he also turned his summons loose to subjugate the habitats. The Bone Dragon's mobility, paired with simultaneous hunts by a host of summons—and with Leo's wide-area taunt roar and Kkami's scouting laid over the top—set the pace of the hunt properly on fire.
If there was one problem...
I feel like we've swept more than two-thirds of the orc habitats. Why is there still nothing?
They still hadn't found the Out-of-Spec monster of Tower Floor 150, the orc shaman. Ordinary orc shamans, they had met in plenty. Every last one of them had been nothing more than a run-of-the-mill boss.
That bastard wasn't just blowing smoke, was he?
He could not rule out the possibility that the man, too ashamed to admit he had brushed past death at the hands of an ordinary boss-monster shaman, had simply lied and claimed he had nearly died to an Out-of-Spec orc shaman.
With his personality, he'd do exactly that and then some.
Jin-soo's teeth ground together. If the man had been lying...
Next time we meet, I'll tear that habit of blowing smoke clean out of him, so that restless mouth never runs wild again.
He forced the anger down and kept searching.
An orc shaman.
He had found a settlement that held both an orc chieftain and an orc shaman.
Let's finish this fast.
He launched himself lightly forward. The orcs howled and swung blades and axes at him, but to Jin-soo their movements were slow enough to draw a yawn. In a blink they were cut down, one slash after another.
This range will do.
The moment the distance fell inside bow range, he switched weapons. The bow creaked as he drew it with everything he had. An arrow charged with an explosive attribute screamed toward the orc shaman, and a tremendous blast erupted. Shaman and chieftain alike were swallowed in a great sheet of flame.
Done.
All that remained was to clean up the rest and move on.
"Kuwaaaaaargh!"
Then, from within the flames, a roar burst out, packed with mana so fierce it sent a prickle racing through Jin-soo's body. The orcs answered in a ragged chorus, and a red heat haze rose off their bodies as both eyes flooded a deep blood-red.
"Huh?"
He stared, startled, at where the shaman had stood. Contrary to his expectation that a single hit would kill it, the orc shaman and the orc chieftain were perfectly fine.
"So it was real."
He had thought the man was puffing himself up with a lie. He wasn't. A genuine Out-of-Spec orc shaman had been mixed into an ordinary pack.
Come back.
He gave the order to his summons and broke into a run at the same time.
The more monsters there are, the nastier this gets.
The safest course was to cut the shaman's breath off before it could call more monsters in and feed them buffs. Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword poured out streams of white aura and blood-red aura, and the twin auras swept the orc warriors at the front away with terrifying force. Huge orc great-warriors charged him, roaring with killing intent—and died all the same, split where they stood.
They've definitely gotten stronger under the Out-of-Spec shaman's buff.
But a strengthening of this degree was nowhere near enough to stand in his way.
Freeze Proclamation
Frozen Hell
Frost erupts and locks every foe in reach.
Frost surged up around him and wrapped the charging orcs. Their bodies froze solid in the very postures in which they had been rushing him. Jin-soo kicked off with Leap and shot into the air, and in the same breath he swung Baekcheonsingeom—its Skill Nullification permanently active—straight at the orc shaman.
This is the end.
Unlike other Out-of-Spec monsters, the orc shaman's own combat power was extremely poor. It was a mage type rather than a warrior to begin with, so its defense was weak as well. Even if it threw up a defensive hex, it could not stop Baekcheonsingeom while Skill Nullification was constantly in effect.
Steel rang—and the strike he had thrown with absolute certainty bounced away in an instant.
"Huh?"
What is this? How is this possible?
His eyes flew wide. The orc shaman had not blocked the attack.
The attack itself doesn't work?
The shaman hadn't even been able to react. It had simply taken the blow with its bare body. The problem was that Jin-soo's attack had failed to touch that body at all.
The moment it was about to connect, it bounced off.
It looked exactly as if some invincibility skill had activated.
"Damn it!"
It really is an invincibility skill.
Through his senses he felt the presence of countless orcs, linked as one through the shaman's mana.
So long as every being linked by mana still lives, the caster cannot die.
It was one of the invincibility skills: until every existence bound by that mana had been extinguished, death simply did not take.
Out-of-Spec or not—a monster on nothing more than Tower Floor 150 is using an invincibility skill?
This was balance-breaking on a scale that beggared imagination.
What, it doesn't matter, because it was never a monster meant to be caught in the first place?
He was sick to death of the Tower's malice.
So it wasn't bluster.
To attack an Out-of-Spec orc shaman that wielded the Curse of Immortality, survive, and escape—that had been a genuinely astonishing feat.
"Kuwaaaaargh!"
The orc shaman roared again. The axe in the chieftain's hands came down with the force to split Jin-soo's body in two.
"Awful bold of you. And from where, exactly?"
Baekcheonsingeom met the axe and sheared straight through, cleaving the orc chieftain's body left and right.
"Krruk?"
When the chieftain—slathered thick with every buff imaginable—died in a single blow, the leisurely look on the orc shaman's face faltered. Only for a moment. It soon lifted the corners of its mouth, bared its tusks, and grinned at him.
"So long as every monster under you is still alive, you're immortal, and that leaves you plenty of room to relax. I'll make you regret it."
Immortal, so long as a single monster linked by mana still existed?
Whether the shaman understood him or not...
"Kuruk! Kuruk! Kuruk! Kuruk!"
It threw its mouth wide, clutched its belly, and burst into roaring laughter.
"Fine. Let's see who wins."
Jin-soo clenched his teeth and gripped Baekcheonsingeom and the Blood-Sucking Sword tight.
Pretty confident in a long fight and a war of numbers. That makes two of us.