Chapter 391
Chapter 391
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 391
Chapter Title: Ranking War - Preliminaries (3)
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‘Inferno Hell, huh...’
The Inferno Hell difficulty. Just glancing at the name and level description made it a choice full of puzzling elements.
Hell difficulty was listed at Lv399, so why was the higher tier, Inferno Hell, also Lv399?
Amid everyone’s despair, only Rokan watched the entities spawning beyond the village with a face brimming with curiosity.
“Ah, that’s it.”
And soon, he confirmed the reason.
[Ancient Twin-Head Ogre][Lv400]
It was the presence of Lv400 monsters lurking like licorice among the Lv399 ones.
In truth, wasn’t Lv399 a sign that they were beings who could reach Lv400 at any moment, as long as they met the qualifications?
That was why Rokan saw Hell difficulty as ‘just Lv399 in level’ and Inferno Hell as ‘Lv399 including some who met the qualifications.’
A satisfied smile spread across his face.
‘Guess I’ll farm some decent experience points.’
Not Lv450, just around Lv400. He was confident he could handle them, unless a dozen or so activated Creation skills and charged at once.
The Song of Fire and Ice was still sealed, but even without the effects of frost or hellfire, he could manage that much.
“Aren’t you going to block them?”
“Damn it... Everyone, get into position! If we’re unlucky, they’ll punch right through us!”
“Fuck, no luck at all. Why’d we end up on the same side as that lunatic...!”
At first, they’d desperately wanted to side with Rokan. But now, the situation had flipped.
Thanks to him, they were in for a thorny path.
They were high masters over Lv350 too, but they had no confidence in easily beating Lv399 monsters.
Sure, if they prepared and hunted, they might take down a few, but with waves crashing in like that, they could burn through their three resurrection chances early. Anxiety was inevitable.
But they couldn’t give up.
In the end, they had no choice but to trust Rokan again.
They could curse this mad choice after Mission 2 ended.
“Ranged DPS, up on the barricade! Tankers! Where are the tankers!”
“Who the hell are you to give orders...? Fuck. Fine, I’m going!”
On the flip side, the desperate situation united even the haughtiest players. If they didn’t pool their strength, they’d all get shredded and wiped out.
Gritting their teeth, they moved to the positions that best suited them.
And Rokan?
He gave no orders, simply standing atop the barricade, silently overlooking the monsters preparing their waves.
[First wave begins in 1 minute.]
Even with just over a minute left until the wave.
“Summon Unicorn.”
Neigh!
When about 30 seconds remained and the summoning restriction lifted, he called forth one of his mounts.
“Huh?”
“Who dropped that buff?”
“Crazy. Someone already used a master skill?”
With it, holy power enveloped everyone.
Some had chosen the demon faction, but thanks to the forced raid formation, they all received the buff equally.
It was a level of power none of them had ever experienced.
A fullness spread through their bodies, like stacked buffs or a priest-class buff master skill.
“It’s coming!”
“Damn, but the power’s surging!”
Some grumbled about burning such a skill early, but they soon focused on the charging monsters.
Without effects like this, the fight would’ve been impossible, after all.
“Don’t go out! Lock the gate and hold... Gah!”
Everyone fortified their defense. The barricade was sturdy, and the village’s fortifications looked solid in defense and durability.
Was this an Inferno Hell effect too? Thinking it like a castle wall, they planned to hunker down—when someone ignored the orders and charged the monster horde.
Trolling that deserved a barrage of curses.
But no one could speak up.
Riding the unicorn and carving through the approaching monster wave was none other than Rokan.
“Fuck, which side is even defending here?”
And moments later, everyone fell into chaos.
Could this even be called a defense game? The charging monsters were turning into minced meat instead.
The battlefield was so gruesome, they wondered if they were even playing the same game as Rokan.
A one-sided massacre.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Tension drained from their taut muscles, leaving everyone staring blankly at Rokan for a while.
[Second wave begins.]
[Third wave begins.]
The second wave, and the third.
Everyone except Rokan was reduced to spectators.
“Fuck, is he telling us not to take any points or what?”
At first, they thought it a relief. The second, impressive.
But when Rokan soloed the third wave too, complaints erupted from inside the village.
This second mission, formatted like a defense game, seemed team-based at a glance, but rewards were strictly individual.
With no telling how many waves there’d be, leaving it all to Rokan was pure loss for them.
Better to struggle, even die once or twice, and snag points near him?
Such thoughts and greed began to creep in.
“We can’t just lose out like idiots!”
“I’m going!”
“You lot guard the guardian tower!”
“You blind bastards! Still don’t get what that Rokan prick’s planning? He’s hogging it all!”
As more leaped the barricade, more left the village.
The monster waves came from one direction anyway, so better to go greet them, circle Rokan, and snatch some kills—that was their calculation.
If monsters popped from another side or Rokan died? Use a movement skill or die once. Done.
Realizing their three resurrections, players vaulted the barricade faster.
Plus, watching Rokan, even Inferno Hell monsters seemed beatable.
A complacent thought ignoring relativity, but persuasive enough now.
All but a few still anxious about Inferno Hell charged toward Rokan.
‘Pretty quick.’
The sudden intruders.
Rokan glanced at them as they flaunted skills and rampaged nearby.
He’d expected this judgment.
Faster than he’d thought—maybe fourth or fifth wave—but even as they nibbled his experience, he let it slide generously.
Because they were fellow players? Shipmates on this mission?
‘As if.’
Rokan swung his battle axe fiercely, crushing monsters, never forgetting they could stab him in the back.
The orders were to block the monster waves—no rule against attacking allies, right?
But he didn’t attack them.
The monsters resisted fiercely, but this was part of his plan too.
As soon as he felt enough had gathered and the front line held without his frenzy, he executed the next step.
“I’m leaving it to you!”
“...!”
“Huh?”
He lightly kicked the unicorn’s belly, launching a charge.
Forward, further forward.
Straight toward the forest depths where more monsters lurked.
“Fuck, block them!”
“Gah! There’s Lv400s too?”
“Don’t slack or you’re dead. Dump everything—master skills, whatever!”
Thanks to that, the players who’d trusted and rushed forward got a rude awakening.
They now had to block the escalating waves, including the Lv400s Rokan had cherry-picked, all by themselves.
Rokan? He’d vanished into the forest.
Not to solo again—the direction he broke through still spewed monsters.
“Get lost!”
As Rokan, abandoning them for a breakthrough, more monsters blocked his path.
The waiting monsters spotted him en masse and turned aggressive.
“Grraaaaaargh!”
But their battle lust didn’t last.
Rokan’s mad roar shattered their minds. When they recovered, he was long gone, out of sight.
They wandered dazed, wondering if it was a dream.
Then resumed their original advance, baring fangs.
“Heh heh, talk about manna from heaven.”
Meanwhile, a triumphant smile filled Rokan’s lips as he cleaved through.
He’d guessed Inferno Hell’s final boss.
The aura from this path’s end felt familiar, though tinted differently.
Dragon.
A dragon was the final boss of the Inferno Hell monster waves.
“Definitely a different color?”
But clearly one he’d never met.
A dragon, yet somehow lacking, with a different attribute.
In a defense mission like this, the defenders charging in was unthinkable—but he knew someone from his past life who’d done similar.
Polten.
The Infinite Necromancer, absent from this ranking war.
He’d heard how Polten turned invading monsters into undead in a similar defense mission and counterattacked.
That gamble succeeded, earning far superior rewards.
With that precedent, Rokan confidently counterattacked.
One issue: since he hadn’t swept all monsters, allies could wipe and the guardian tower fall before he killed the boss. But Rokan trusted.
Not those weak players—himself.
‘No way a Lv400 pops randomly in a Lv399 quest.’
Facing a Majesty Master-grade dragon while not at full strength was burdensome even for him, but if not Majesty Master?
Just a black dragon that couldn’t wield divinity properly?
He could aim for a short decisive battle.
Repeating charge skills on the unicorn, he reached the path’s end.
[Yellow Dragon][Lv412]
And finally encountered the Yellow Dragon.