Chapter 58: The End of the 3rd Floor, the Heartless Army (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 58: The End of the 3rd Floor, the Heartless Army (4)
The gate located to the north of the temple.
A powerful magic energy could be felt from there.
It wasn't a raid team from a large guild.
He had already made it clear at the meeting that he would handle this alone.
Vrrrr!
A sticky, unpleasant energy clung to his skin.
Jinhyuk's eyes narrowed.
There was no mistake.
Necromancers. More specifically, they were definitely from the Demonic Human Association.
'I guess they have no intention of giving up.'
To untangle the Demonic Human Association's completely ruined schedule, Cadric had personally come here, leading his subordinates.
Things were starting to get interesting.
"I'll turn the stream back on later if I can."
Jinhyuk spoke to the empty air.
-dead998: What do you mean? I'm not impotent... but a sudden stream end?!
-Twitch Viewer Outranks the Unemployed: Hyung. Don't you see your viewer count skyrocketing right now? You gotta ride the wave while it's here.
-Pizza and Sweet-and-Sour Pork Are Damn Good: FR. You're totally on track to hit 1 million ViewTubers.
-Veteran Detector: A BJ who ends their stream at a crucial moment like this actually exists?
-Sae Yeong Eon Hwan: At least tell us what time you'll turn it back on.
The viewers were just starting to find the stream fun and get used to Jinhyuk's concept.
Naturally, the backlash was fierce.
"I don't know what time I'll turn it back on either, so just check in whenever you want."
-dead998: Is this how you bait people into turning on notifications?
-Pizza and Sweet-and-Sour Pork Are Damn Good: He acts so aloof but still gets everything he wants.
-Sae Yeong Eon Hwan: I love the selfishness. That's a true veteran for you lol.
-Veteran Detector: I'll fall for it just this once. Looking forward to the boss raid.
With that final chat,
[The stream has ended.]
The chat window, which had been scrolling at a dizzying speed, came to a halt.
"That was more tiring than I thought."
Jinhyuk scratched his head.
He thought he was quite used to streaming after doing it for so long, but leading a few dozen people was on a completely different level than tens of thousands of people going wild.
Still, he'd get used to it eventually.
No one was famous from the start, after all.
Now that there were no watching eyes, it was time to play with Cadric in earnest.
'I hope they worked themselves to the bone preparing for this.'
Maybe his personality was a bit twisted, but he found nothing more entertaining than tearing down a tower someone else had painstakingly built.
Especially if that "someone else" was trash.
* * *
The temple's north gate, "Taehwamun."
Dozens of necromancers were struggling desperately to reach the four-story stone pagoda where the key to the inner chamber was kept.
They had been pushing forward for nearly an hour, but the path refused to open.
It was because the defensive wall of the stone statues was incredibly thick.
"Concentrate your forces! We must break through a single point!"
Cadric shouted, the veins in his neck bulging.
He was pouring in mana, but with no results to show for it, his frustration was mounting.
If this dragged on any longer, the necromancers would be completely exhausted before they even reached the boss.
"U-Understood!"
"Put the Dullahans at the very front! The high-defense ones need to draw the aggro!"
"Cast curses, and pour on every debuff we have!"
[Cadric activates Lv5 'Night of the Corpses'!]
[Yohan activates Lv3 'Weaken'!]
[Setsuna activates Lv2 'Fatigue'!]
"Kieeeek!"
"Kieee!"
The undead army roared wildly.
Most were skeleton warriors or archers, but mid-sized monsters like Dullahans could be seen here and there.
'It's certainly quite a spectacle.'
Jinhyuk pulled out some popcorn and cola he had stored in his dimensional subspace inventory.
A grand spectacle of such massive forces clashing was not something you saw every day.
In particular, a group battle of necromancers, who specialized in controlling large numbers, was truly a sight to behold.
"Groooar!"
"Kwooooh!"
There were over hundreds of the small stone statues like the ones he had defeated at the entrance.
But they were different from the ones that merely swung their fists and legs.
Armed with armor, shields, and spears, they looked like a fully-fledged army.
Right then.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The first rows collided.
"Kraaa!"
"Grooo!"
Bone dust flew, and rock fragments crumbled.
Two different armies.
Yet, their goal of wiping out the opponent was exactly the same.
A chaotic battle ensued, making it difficult to distinguish friend from foe.
How many minutes had passed?
The tight balance began to tilt to one side. It was incredibly subtle, yet impossible to ignore.
'Oh? Are they actually going to break through?'
Surprisingly, the necromancers and the undead army were putting up a good fight.
It was as if they had made a desperate last stand, prepared for death.
A fierce determination could be felt in their venomous eyes.
"Hmm..."
That was a bit of a problem.
He wasn't particularly pleased with the idea of Cadric obtaining the key here.
Of course, obtaining a single key wouldn't change the overall outcome, but...
'I'm the only one who needs to be in the spotlight for this raid.'
The best answer was to eliminate the competition early.
Rustle.
Jinhyuk stood up from his seat.
If one side were overwhelmingly dominant, it would be different, but since they were evenly matched...
Just a little...
Even a tiny intervention would cause the tight balance to collapse in an instant.
'I should target their most painful spot first.'
He had already identified exactly where to strike to make them weep tears of blood.
Vrrrr!
Jinhyuk gathered his mana.
And at that moment, a new variable entered the battlefield.
"W-What?"
A necromancer, who had been frantically casting black magic, gasped.
There were two reasons for his shock.
First, a human had suddenly appeared from the flank.
And second, a blindingly bright Aura Blade had erupted from the sword the human was holding.
He had to deploy a shield.
Only then would his chances of survival increase by even 1%.
Instantly, a black barrier unfolded around the necromancer's body.
He had activated the best defensive skill he could.
Of course, a barrier like a sheet of glass...
was as good as useless.
"...Huh?"
Slash!
A fountain of blood sprayed from his cleanly severed neck.
The headless man stumbled a few steps before collapsing face-first.
It was a few seconds after the other necromancers noticed Jinhyuk's presence.
And of all times, it was right when Jinhyuk retracted his Aura Blade to conserve mana.
By a cruel twist of fate, in the eyes of the necromancers, he looked like nothing more than a foolish moth fluttering around with a single dagger.
"It's an ambush!"
"Is it a Player? How many of them?"
"He's alone! There's no one else around!"
"How ridiculous. What does he think he can do alone against a force of this size?"
At best, he was just a pest.
They just had to clean him up quickly and refocus on the battle.
"Kill him!"
Along with the irritated command, the skeleton archers aimed their bows at Jinhyuk.
The bowstrings were pulled taut.
Poison, frost, and fire.
Magic arrows imbued with three different attributes were fired simultaneously.
But just before the arrows could hit,
Rumble!
[Lv2 'Glacial Shaping' activates!]
[‘Blessing of the Stars’ activates!]
A completely different class of mana surged.
Ice pillars engraved with snowflake patterns completely shattered the incoming arrows.
A thick mist of ice dust scattered.
"Ugh."
"What kind of cold is this..."
The necromancers gritted their teeth and took a step back.
It was a cold so severe that it made every hair on their bodies stand on end.
Furthermore, due to the light pouring down from the sky, several high-ranking undead broke free from their control.
"Graaa!"
The Dullahans began swinging their axes like madmen, smashing everything in sight.
"Aaargh! Why are these crazy bastards attacking us?!"
"Focus on thoughtform control again! The divine power made them all lose their minds!"
"H-Help me!"
In an instant, order and control collapsed on the battlefield.
This was a declaration of war to Cadric.
'I've rung the doorbell loud and clear. Let's see how well you entertain your guest.'
* * *
Cadric, who was commanding all his forces from the very rear, felt as if he had been plunged straight from heaven into hell.
"Why does that bastard always show up at the absolute worst possible time?!"
Victory had been within his grasp.
If they pushed just a little more, they would have been able to obtain the key hidden inside the four-story stone pagoda.
Only a single step remained to reach their goal.
But because of that masked Player, all his plans had been dragged completely into the mud.
"C-Cadric-nim. Even our third base has been destroyed."
"He's definitely targeting only our bases on purpose. At this rate..."
"We can't possibly stop him with just skeletons or Dullahans."
The four bases they had set up to efficiently maintain the undead monsters.
These precious outposts, designed to provide temporary mana supply, were collapsing one by one.
"Aaaaargh!"
Cadric let out a frustrated shriek.
What truly infuriated him wasn't just that his weak spot had been hit.
Currently, there were as many as three Death Knights here, created by investing an astronomical amount of resources.
They were secret weapons brought along to deal with both the Aura Blade-wielding Player and the boss monster.
The problem was that the opponent also knew this and was exploiting it.
"Over here, over here!"
After thoroughly ravaging the bases, Jinhyuk headed toward the stone statues.
And then, he drew the attention of something with all his might.
Specifically, the large-class type with the strongest magic power among the stone statues.
The 'Moai statue.'
"How do you expect to catch me when you're that slow?"
After Jinhyuk taunted it, he dove straight into the middle of the undead.
"Groooar!"
"Graaa!"
The giant stone statue, consisting of only a face, soared high into the sky.
A dark shadow loomed over the undead monsters and the necromancers.
"Aaargh! Why are you coming this way, you crazy bastard?!"
"Get out of the way! If you get crushed, it's instant death!"
At that very moment, amidst the screams and shouts, the Moai statue plummeted.
BOOM!
A massive crater formed on the ground, as if a meteor had struck.
There was no need to explain what happened to the undead monsters and necromancers crushed beneath it.
Of course, Jinhyuk, the culprit behind this disaster, was perfectly fine.
"Wow, that's gotta hurt. No matter how strong your bones are, you can't survive that. That's a level of damage that even a calcium overdose can't fix."
The skeletons' bones had been ground into dust, as if they all suffered from severe osteoporosis.
As expected, ordinary undead wouldn't cut it.
To stop the Moai statue, they would have no choice but to deploy the Death Knights.
Cadric was bound to fall into a dilemma.
'If he targets me, his entire force could collapse in an instant. But if he leaves me alone, he'll slowly bleed to death like this.'
No matter which option he chose, there was no bright future for him.
In the end, unable to hold back any longer, Cadric screamed at Jinhyuk.
"Y-You bastard! What kind of grudge do you hold against us to ruin everything when we're so close?!"
"Huh?"
"We didn't do anything to harm you! So why do you keep spoiling everything we do?!"
Ah.
Was that what this was about?
Jinhyuk shrugged, as if asking why he was even questioning something so obvious.
"Because I already called dibs on this place."
But since you guys came along and tried to swallow the candy I already claimed, of course I had to ruin your appetite.
"Besides, why are you guys, of all people—demonic humans—complaining about someone spoiling your plans?"
Did they expect people to say things like, 'Haha, I reserved this spot first,' and 'Oh, is that so? I didn't know. Please let me reserve it after you're done hunting' inside a dungeon?
Like that would ever happen.
In this world, finders keepers, and backstabbing is always on the table.
The weak die and are buried in the dirt, while the strong survive to climb the Tower.
That was the single, absolute rule permitted by the Tower of Trials.
"Stop whining. If you have a problem, speak with your strength."
Jinhyuk beckoned Cadric with a curl of his finger.