The Absorber of Darkness
It was such a crucial moment that he held his breath, focusing intently.
Catch him, catch him...!
Zikera and the chimeras drew rapidly closer.
Gulp.
He swallowed hard without thinking.
At that instant, Zikera entered striking range. Right after, those hidden nearby revealed themselves. The scene was captured with thrilling dynamism.
A perfect encirclement formed.
Yes!
This was more than enough to raise his expectations.
As anticipated, Zikera wore a grotesquely twisted smile.
His robe obscured a clear view, but Mu-hyuk could tell. He was plenty rattled.
You dog bastard.
Thinking of all the experiments he'd endured made his teeth grind.
Let's end this, please.
He was done being a lab rat.
The wasted time.
The time yet to be wasted.
His declining physical abilities.
Thinking of his diminishing capabilities made his head shake involuntarily.
Some chimeras embraced each other.
Merging?
They fused into one, radiating a far more potent presence as they charged at the surrounding knights and players.
But the wizards' barrage soon shredded the chimera's body.
It was the strongest thing he'd seen yet.
The battle reached its climax.
Suddenly, Zikera began to glow.
A spectacle of destructive magic erupted.
Boom! Kaboom!
The knight orders struck by the blasts suffered heavy losses.
That’s...!
Mu-hyuk’s brow furrowed.
It wasn’t just a display of overwhelming magic.
Zikera had bought time with that powerful spell.
In the interim, darkness blanketed everything. The screen itself turned pitch black.
The brief darkness lingered.
-------!
Then a deafening ring filled his ears, accompanied by intense vibrations. The screen shook violently as blinding light flooded the view.
Some fallen NPCs came into view.
Fortunately, the wizards and spirit mages had layered protective spells everywhere, limiting the damage more than expected.
In contrast, Zikera heaved his shoulders, looking utterly spent.
A raspy metallic screech echoed faintly.
Whoosh.
The bastard turned and fled.
The darkness had punched holes in the encirclement, letting Zikera escape effortlessly.
Pursuit teams formed belatedly, but Zikera was already far away.
The program ended with the pursuit team charging on horseback.
*
Even after the 24-hour penalty lifted, word came that the chase was ongoing. Mu-hyuk delayed logging in as long as possible.
But another day passed without capture, leaving him no choice but to connect.
Welcome to Illusion.
He opened his eyes to see Zikera's haggard form and the vials in his hand.
"Consciousness returns. A few seconds later and I'd have dumped every potion here on you. Heh heh."
Tension surged at his words.
Good... I got lucky.
He despised himself for the thought.
Hah, considering this lucky.
Of course, he couldn't deny that a small misfortune beat a catastrophe in this situation.
Still, anger and disbelief boiled over.
"Won't change much, of course."
"What...?"
"Situation's dire. No choice."
Zikera pulled out four vials, all pitch black.
"Hope it works. Hold."
He poured all four liquids into Mu-hyuk's mouth at once.
Gulp, gulp.
A burning sensation rose slowly.
You drank the Potion Advancing into Darkness.
Attack power permanently decreases by 20.
You drank the Potion Hardening in Darkness.
Defense permanently decreases by 15.
Magic defense permanently decreases by 20.
You drank the Burning Potion.
Your whole body is aflame.
You take continuous damage.
You drank the Cooling Potion.
Your whole body freezes.
His stats plummeted.
Way too many.
Rage filled his head, but he was powerless.
More potions poured in.
You fall into a confused state.
For 3 seconds...
How many more vials?
You drank the Potion Making Wise in Darkness.
Knowledge permanently decreases by 5.
Wisdom permanently decreases by 5.
More stats dropped.
As dread mounted over how much more he'd lose—and whether he'd have to abandon this character—
A different message appeared.
Power of Darkness...?
The created, not born, Power of Darkness mutates during fusion. Balanced stat increases shift to new directions.
HP permanently increases by 3,000.
HP recovery rate permanently increases by 300.
Defense permanently increases by 150.
Magic defense permanently increases by 200.
Shock absorption rate permanently increases by 5%.
You acquire the skill Dark Spirit Summon.
You acquire the skill Power of Darkness.
You acquire the title Absorber of Darkness.
The sudden influx dizzied his mind.
What the hell is this?
Mu-hyuk's eyes widened as he checked each line.
HP and defenses skyrocketed. New skills too.
Not enough to fully offset the losses, but better than nothing.
A fair trade.
Relief washed over him—no need to scrap the character.
"Wonder how fun you'll be this time. Heh heh."
Zikera muttered, but Mu-hyuk didn't hear.
What about the title?
With faint hope, he checked the options.
Attack speed +15%
Movement speed +15%
All abilities +5%
All stats +20
All skill levels +1
Attack power +40
Defense +40
Magic defense +50
??? (Sealed)
His breath caught.
Holy...!
The options far exceeded expectations. This single title changed everything. All the stats lost as a lab rat had ballooned instead.
All abilities +5%.
All stats +20.
Even accounting for permanent losses, it was immense.
He felt the overwhelming power right now—uncomparable to before.
And that final line.
Sealed.
It set his heart racing.
Thump, thump.
Mu-hyuk shook his head repeatedly to snap out of his daze.
Check skills.
New skill info appeared.
Summons a spirit wielding the power of darkness.
Spreads dark energy around you, inflicting continuous fixed damage (20/sec) on hostile lifeforms within range (10m radius). Absorbs 10% of damage dealt as HP and MP.
-Consumes 100 MP on use, 1 MP/sec to maintain
Dark Spirit Summon was vague enough to skip, but Power of Darkness was detailed.
The more he internalized it, the clearer its uses and potential outcomes became.
Overwhelming.
Mu-hyuk closed his eyes without realizing.
"Heh heh, given up?"
Zikera laughed, examining Mu-hyuk's changing physical stats.
Mu-hyuk ignored it entirely, simply basking in the euphoria rising from his toes.
The stress from Zikera's experiments melted away at once.
Only when Zikera began to panic did Mu-hyuk open his eyes.
"Wh-what is this...!"
Zikera shouted.
"This, how!"
His raspy screech rang out, but Mu-hyuk just smiled.
"What?"
"Y-your physical abilities. How are they...!"
"Your doing, dumbass."
Zikera scowled at Mu-hyuk's crude words.
"No, wait. Right."
He nodded soon after.
"Tormenting you was fun, but..."
His true goal was chimera enhancement.
"Yes, apply the exact sequence I tested on you to the chimeras. Then I can topple the continent with far stronger children. Heh heh, you're useless now—time to die."
Immense power gathered in Zikera's hand.
"When you wake again, you'll taste despair."
"Despair?"
"Yes, I'll make sure of it before I leave."
He wasn't one for empty words.
What now...?
Anxiety surged as Zikera raised his hand.
"Then die."
As his hand swung down—
"Guh!"
Zikera twisted suddenly.
Thuk.
An arrow from somewhere had pierced his shoulder. He'd dropped his shield for the attack magic.
"You dare...!"
The surrounding space warped violently.
Rumble.
The lab wall crumbled as an NPC pursuit team burst in.