Chapter 60
Chapter 60
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 60
SHAAA-.
The moment Seo-jin's party set foot in the Ice Palace, the air froze.
It wasn't simply that the temperature had dropped.
Whether the palace itself was trying to drain their life force, an eerie chill stabbed at every nerve in their bodies.
Then.
PAT-.
In the deepest part of the palace, the giant who had been sleeping on a massive ice throne opened her eyes.
As long eyelashes covered with blue frost lifted, cold eyes like an empty abyss were revealed.
[Ice Queen Glize LV. 150]
UUUUU-!
As the boss opened her eyes, a chilling noise like a wailing ghost struck their ears.
[Unique characteristic 'Blizzard' is being deployed.]
[Area-wide debuff: Movement speed reduction (High)]
[Area-wide debuff: Cold resistance reduction (High)]
[Area-wide debuff: Continuous health reduction (Medium)]
[Area-wide debuff: Magic casting speed reduction (Low)]
A blizzard that struck the moment the Ice Queen opened her eyes. And debuffs that appeared one after another before their eyes.
In the chilling cold of the blizzard that made it difficult to breathe, he could feel not only his movements but even the flow of mana within his body slowing down.
Seo-jin endured the debuffs that seemed to tightly constrict his entire body and fell into thought.
'Boss monsters that appear on the 10th floor and above each possess unique characteristics unlike other monsters.'
Such unique debuffs cannot be dispelled by ordinary methods, but their effects can be temporarily nullified with special materials obtainable on each floor.
Seo-jin grasped the Fire Seed he had brought from the underground bunker.
HWARYEOK-.
[You have used Fire Seed. The influence of 'Blizzard' is temporarily nullified.]
As hot energy spread throughout his body, the influence of the debuffs that had been constricting his entire body disappeared.
He had brought several other items just in case, but this seemed to be the right one.
Glize slowly looked over Seo-jin's party with cold eyes.
From between her lips, a sharp voice like ice crystals colliding flowed out.
[In the past, you sought my help, but now you have come to destroy me.]
Hearing her speak, it seemed certain that Glize and the three families had made some kind of deal.
One who sought to solidify power in endless cold and one who sought to cover all the land with snow.
There couldn't be others whose interests aligned so perfectly.
"They already got beaten up. Now it's just your turn."
At Seo-jin's arrogant words, the Ice Queen's eyebrows twitched slightly.
[How confident you are. Do you really think you can survive here?]
HWIOO-!
A blizzard that struck even more fiercely with an angry cry.
Through it, Glize's voice filled with rage could be heard.
[This cold is the world's anger created by you humans' arrogance. Sleep eternally in this cold! You parasites of this land!]
Glize's voice carried hostility toward humanity.
Seo-jin didn't know about the history and setting of this Primgard, but through Glize's words, he could infer the general story.
'This is a steampunk worldview where steam engines and engines are key.'
Highly developed giant steam engines, befitting their massive size, would endlessly spew black smoke.
This world too, like the Earth of today, would have been heated and polluted by human desire.
Glize was a boss monster that emerged as a reaction to this.
If she had the will to cover this land with cold instead of heat and to exterminate humans, the parasites of the world, everything would be well explained.
While Seo-jin was lost in thought, Ha-yeon, facing the blizzard battering her entire body, asked Seo-jin.
"Do you happen to know the strategy?"
"I don't know."
Glize was a boss monster that even Seo-jin was seeing for the first time.
Ha-yeon opened her eyes wide as if surprised, then smiled mischievously.
"I thought you were a know-it-all, but there are things even you don't know."
At her somehow joyful appearance, Seo-jin sighed.
"What fun would there be if I knew everything? Sometimes there should be things you learn by directly confronting them."
"That's true."
Although he had no information about Glize, Seo-jin had experience and data accumulated through countless battles and tower climbing.
Boss monsters' behavior patterns, mechanic changes according to situations, and even timing for delivering decisive attacks.
Thanks to the accumulation of long experience, he could instinctively read the flow of battle.
[Rise!]
Glize finally moved.
As she slowly raised her staff made of ice, sharp ice pillars shot up from the floor with explosive sounds.
KKUDEUDEUDEUK-!
Those ice pillars writhed and soon transformed into the shapes of human soldiers.
Hundreds of ice soldiers armed with transparent ice armor and spears slowly approached Seo-jin's party.
Seo-jin shrugged his shoulders as he took in those approaching like a zombie horde.
'A typical mob summoning pattern.'
There was no need to waste stamina and mana here unnecessarily.
If he endured to an appropriate point, it would lead to the next pattern.
'The best response to mobs is with mobs.'
Seo-jin's shadow stretched long, and pitch-black darkness bloomed from its end.
A skeleton mage with blue light glinting in its eyes from within the darkness.
"Rise."
Seo-jin also summoned the Lich King and raised skeletons.
DALGEURAEK DALGEURAEK-.
The Lich King's bone army clashed with the ice soldiers.
JJAENGGEURAENG! KAGANG!
The sound of ice and bone colliding.
Axes infused with cold air smashed skeletons, and strong military boots crushed bones to powder.
Skeletons being destroyed helplessly.
Since there was originally a level difference between Glize and Seo-jin, the ice soldiers' ability values far exceeded those of the Lich King's skeletons.
However.
DALGEURAEK- DALGEURAEK-.
As long as the Lich King's mana didn't run out, the skeletons would take shape and rise again and again.
For use as meat shields, they were more than sufficient.
While the explosive sounds of bones and ice colliding echoed through the palace, Glize's next attack followed.
[My knights!]
What responded to her cry were the giant ice pillars supporting the palace's ceiling.
JJEOJJEOK-.
Soon complex cracks appeared on the pillar surfaces, and with heavy movements, they transformed into the shapes of giant ice giants.
Not simple soldiers but elite monsters, Ice Golem Knights.
The intimidating presence of the golem knights armored entirely in ice was incomparable to the previously summoned ice soldiers.
KUNG- KUNG-.
Golems approaching Seo-jin while shaking the earth's axis.
'This time it's an elite summoning pattern.'
Even so, there was no need for Seo-jin to step forward directly.
"Deal with them."
KEUREUREU-.
When Seo-jin gestured, this time Baduki and the Minotaur Scout stepped forward.
UOOO-!
Baduki charged with fierce momentum and bit into the golem's massive leg, and the Minotaur also began smashing the Ice Golem Knights with its giant axe.
KWAANG-!
Thanks to their activity, Seo-jin could quietly observe the situation from behind.
KWAGWAGWAK-! JJAENGGEURAENG-!
Explosive sounds that shook the underground palace enough to make eardrums ring.
Seo-jin's sharp gaze sweeping the battlefield amidst it all.
More important than entering the chaotic battle to defeat enemies was the eye to grasp the war situation.
If one was a commander, they had the duty to see through the battlefield and open a path.
While Seo-jin was examining the war situation, Glize, who had been sitting leisurely on the throne, rose from her seat and began battle with Ha-yeon.
PEOEONG-!
Glize's body shattered like ice from Ha-yeon's fist.
'At first glance it seems advantageous, but...'
The reality was different.
Just as Seo-jin's skeletons rose infinitely, those ice soldiers were also continuously rising thanks to the mana supplied by countless Eternal Snow Ice embedded throughout the palace.
'A boss monster's territory is an environment where they can exert their strongest power.'
As long as this severe cold continued, Glize's mana was nearly infinite.
Glize instantly regenerated the body that had burst from Ha-yeon's fist and shouted.
[I will not fall! As long as the cold of this land continues, I will exist eternally!]
With that cry, the palace's air froze even more. In proportion to that, Glize's blue eyes emitted an even deeper light.
'The Eternal Snow Ice and this land's eternal winter.'
This relationship naturally originated from Glize.
The Eternal Snow Ice was merely a byproduct.
As long as the Ice Queen existed, Primgard's winter would not end, and the longer winter continued, the more powerful she would become.
No matter how much Ha-yeon was there, continuing a war of attrition like this was disadvantageous.
Moreover, this fight was originally for Seo-jin's own tower climbing.
He couldn't just leave it to Ha-yeon.
Seo-jin made a decision and lifted his palm that had been against the ice floor.
KKULLEONG-.
'Analysis results show there are three large Eternal Snow Ice providing mana to Glize.'
The giant Eternal Snow Ice were a kind of spare mana container and life vessel that held Glize's cold air and mana.
While Ha-yeon and the summons bought time, he had been able to identify each location.
Destroying these could completely reverse the war situation.
Seo-jin spoke to Ha-yeon.
"Stop beating up that innocent boss mob and attack here. Its regenerative power will drop significantly."
Ha-yeon, who had briefly stopped fighting, nodded after seeing the coordinates Seo-jin had carved into the ice floor.
PAT-!
Glize opened her eyes wide as she looked in the direction Ha-yeon was heading.
[How, how?]
Because Ha-yeon was running precisely toward the giant Eternal Snow Ice that was the mana supply source.
"How would I know? When you're so obviously receiving mana supply, how could I not notice?"
[Stop!]
PABABAK-!
Sharp ice chunks extending from Glize's hands aimed for the back of Ha-yeon's head.
However.
CHAREUREU-.
The chains of mana that Seo-jin spewed forth shattered the flying ice chunks.
Ha-yeon, having received cover, smoothly went to the location Seo-jin had indicated and smashed the palace's ice wall.
KWAGWANG-!
As white ice powder scattered and the broken ice wall crumbled, the bright blue Eternal Snow Ice hidden beyond was revealed.
Eternal Snow Ice that, without a word of a lie, boasted the size of a house.
It was a size that would cost at least tens of billions.
But in Ha-yeon's eyes, having grown up wealthy, it was merely an obstacle to be smashed.
JJEOEOK-.
"First one!"
Ha-yeon, who had broken the Eternal Snow Ice with her bare fist, immediately moved to find the next Eternal Snow Ice.
[Stop, stop it!]
Despite Glize's desperate cry, Ha-yeon continued to find and smash the Eternal Snow Ice.
"Two!"
KWAANG-!
Seo-jin approached Glize in time with the third timing, then grasped one of the mana circuits flowing within his body.
KKUDEUK-.
"KKEUEUK."
With tremendous pain, a mana circuit was torn from his body.
This was forbidden black magic that offered part of one's life source as a sacrifice.
'Even though the giant Eternal Snow Ice have been destroyed, an enormous number of Eternal Snow Ice remain underground.'
There was no need to confirm with his eyes.
In this mine, there would be an enormous amount buried, enough to be responsible for Primgard's finances.
That reserve amount was Glize's mana.
To neutralize the regenerative power stemming from this, overwhelming firepower was needed.
The torn mana circuit condensed while emitting dark red light above his palm.
[Lotus Fire.]
With Seo-jin's quiet recitation, a dark red mana mass bloomed like a lotus flower above his hand.
HWAREUREUREUK-!
Twelve petals burning black as if absorbing the surrounding light.
This was a cursed flame that burned life force. Hellfire that would never be extinguished until the target died.
TADAT-.
Seo-jin, holding the flame in his grasp, called Baduki and the Minotaur Scout and climbed up using them like stairs.
Seo-jin, who had jumped to where Glize's mana core was located.
"Three!"
KWAANG-!
As Ha-yeon smashed the last giant Eternal Snow Ice, two opposing forces of ice and flame shook the space.
CHIIIIK-!
Steam that seemed to explode, and flames that instantly melted through Glize's ice armor.
The lotus flame, having melted the armor, began to instantly penetrate the mana core hidden within.
[KIEEEEEEE!]
Glize screaming as if her eardrums would tear from the terrible pain.
The Ice Queen drew all the mana and cold air from the surrounding Eternal Snow Ice to resist the flames.
She supplied cold air to the melting mana core and shot out blizzards and ice spears convulsively, trying to shake off Seo-jin.
PEOBEOK PEOK-.
While the Minotaur blocked those fierce attacks with its body.
HWAREUREUK-!
Finally, the endless flames held by the Lotus Fire completely burned Glize's mana core.
CHWAAA-!
Glize's body began to melt and flow down like a waterfall.
[KKEEU...]
Then black cracks spread across Glize's giant body, and finally she crumbled into pieces.
KUREURU-.
As the giant ice giant's form collapsed, her summons shared the same fate as their master.
The ice soldiers that had endlessly regenerated and pressed the Lich King's skeleton army lost their blue light and crumbled as if melting.
KWAREURU-.
The Ice Golem Knights that had boasted massive presence also collapsed and returned to ordinary ice piles.
Silence settled over the palace where only traces of the fierce battle remained scattered.
"Huu. Huu."
"Haa, haa."
Seo-jin and Ha-yeon breathing heavily at the end of battle.
And Baduki.
"KEUREUREU- KEUREU-."
That pleasant silence was soon filled by the system's notification sound.
TING-.
[You have defeated the 10th floor boss monster, Ice Queen Glize, for the first time.]
[You have achieved the 'One Who Brings Spring' achievement.]
[You have achieved the 'Song of Ice and Fire' achievement.]
[You have achieved the 'Novice Commander' achievement.]
.
.
.
Seo-jin smiled as he looked at the pleasant system windows endlessly filling his vision.