191. The Orc Lord of the Balleu Mountains - (2)
191. The Orc Lord of the Balleu Mountains - (2)
***
"ROOOAAR!!!"
The Orc Lord let out a thunderous roar and tried to drive its greatsword down again, but Serin's skill activation was faster.
Already airborne, Serin was driving her Crescent-Moon Weight straight toward the Orc Lord's chest.
Whoosh!!
—Heavy Spike.
Serin's hand, gripping the Crescent-Moon Weight radiating deep crimson, plunged down toward the Orc Lord's heart like a streak of red lightning.
BOOM!!
The moment the Crescent-Moon Weight struck the Orc Lord's heart, its massive body briefly lifted off the ground with a sound like hide bursting.
"Ghk!!"
As if the colossal impact to its heart had knocked the breath out of it, the Orc Lord couldn't right itself.
Thud! Thud-thud-thud.
The Orc Lord crashed down and rolled heavily across the cave floor, unable to shake off the aftershock.
Thud!
Only when it slammed into the cave wall did the Orc Lord's massive body finally stop.
Step.
Serin landed lightly on the ground, rolled with the impact, and took in the Orc Lord pinned against the wall, letting out an involuntary murmur of admiration.
"...That didn't kill it?"
Among the Crescent-Moon Weight's many techniques, Heavy Spike was one of the highest in destructive power.
It even carried the restriction of having to grip the Crescent-Moon Weight's blade directly to execute, and in exchange, its destructive force was top-tier.
But even after landing Heavy Spike directly on the Orc Lord's heart, she hadn't finished it in one blow. That alone showed just how high the difficulty of this Cave of Trials was.
'Just what level have they measured me at?'
Serin was baffled. No matter how high her level was now, for the monsters to be this strong was almost unbelievable.
Scrape.
The orc's whole body was a wreck from rolling across the ground and taking the blow to the heart. Serin glanced at the Orc Lord as it pushed itself up, its eyes burning even more savagely than before, then flicked her gaze to its hand.
Even while tumbling helplessly across the ground, it hadn't let go of its greatsword. As expected of a monster bearing the title of Lord, it had the fundamentals down.
—Bloodstained Step.
With her stamina gauge now showing the bottom from consecutive skill use, Serin took only two steps before deactivating the skill.
One step to close the distance to the Orc Lord.
The other step to build the momentum to leap into the air.
Using the crimson step, Serin launched herself into the air once more.
Whoosh.
Airborne again, Serin naturally rotated her body while keeping the Orc Lord, now righting its stance, in her sights.
"ROOOAAR!!"
The Orc Lord rose and let out a furious howl, raising its greatsword high.
Hummmm!!
As the black aura over the greatsword deepened further, Serin completely abandoned any thought of enjoying this any longer.
Whoosh!!
Glaring at Serin's slowly rotating form in the air, the Orc Lord took a large step forward and twisted its waist.
THUD!!
"ROOOAAR!!"
With a rage-filled howl, a massive slash carved a huge black line through the air, swung with terrifying speed.
—Wave of Death.
The greatsword, wreathed in black aura, drew a great diagonal line as if to cut the airborne Serin in two.
Serin activated her skill only then, as if she had been waiting for exactly that move.
—Single Kick.
Following her slowly rotating body, a pale white leg lashed out through the air. With a burst of sound from the end of her extended leg, Serin shot forward as if dropping straight down.
WHOOOOSH!!
The greatsword, carving its massive diagonal arc and churning up a black wave, grazed chillingly past Serin's cheek.
Serin slipped past the Orc Lord's strike by a hair's breadth and surged toward the Orc Lord.
WHIIIIISH!!
Following her wide-swinging right hand, the Crescent-Moon Weight traced a crimson crescent through the air and struck the defenseless Orc Lord's body.
Thwack!
The Crescent-Moon Weight slammed down once more into the same chest area already struck by Heavy Spike.
Having dealt a follow-up blow to the heart, Serin didn't stop there. She immediately righted her stance and twisted her right hand, connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Creeeak!!
As the crimson cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight pulled taut, the weapon embedded in the Orc Lord's heart sank even deeper.
"GRAAAAGH!!"
This time, the Orc Lord dropped the greatsword it had held onto even through the first Heavy Spike, writhing in the horrific pain boring into its heart.
As it thrashed, trying desperately to pull the Crescent-Moon Weight from its heart, Serin deftly twisted the connected cord, adjusting its tension.
"ROOOAAR!!!"
The Orc Lord went nearly mad, flailing and swinging its fist straight at Serin, and in that instant she activated a skill.
—Wail of the Dead.
From the Crescent-Moon Weight lodged in its heart, crimson energy burst forth like an explosion.
Creeeeak!!!
As the cord pulled taut once more, Serin used both hands to pluck and pull at the cord connected to the Crescent-Moon Weight with deft, almost musical movements.
Rustle.
Following her skillful touch, the Crescent-Moon Weight vibrated eerily.
Wail of the Dead.
A technique named for the idea that even the already dead would writhe in that agony. It could only be used after striking a wound, and it was also an extremely brutal technique.
The Crescent-Moon Weight, fixed in the Orc Lord's heart like a nail, was engulfed in an ominous pitch-black energy.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!!
Immediately after, a series of explosions rang out from the Crescent-Moon Weight, and at the end, a massive burst of light erupted.
"Huu."
Serin twisted her head and pulled back her right hand.
It was a habitual movement to avoid the monster's flesh as she retrieved the Crescent-Moon Weight.
Thud!
Something mosaic-censored grazed past her white hair and slammed into the ground.
"..."
But for some reason, Serin's eyes seemed to see the uncensored original chunk of flesh in vivid detail.
Ding!
*
————
Red Blood effect activated.
(Red Blood: Damage taken increases by 20%, but Attack Power increases by 30%.)
9 minutes 59 seconds.
————
*
The effect of the Legendary Crescent-Moon Weight, Red Moon, activated, signaling the Orc Lord's death.
Serin glanced at the Crescent-Moon Weight, which glowed with a vivid crimson light even without her channeling energy into it, then shook out her hand.
Watching the scattered mosaics on the ground turn into light and vanish one by one, Serin smiled faintly and parted her lips.
"...Was that too brutal?"
It had been censored, sure, but that didn't mean the entire scene had been hidden.
The sight of the Crescent-Moon Weight vibrating violently while lodged in a monster's heart made her wonder if she should have set the stream to 19+.
[Wait, you could kill an Orc Lord that fast?]
[I've never seen an Orc Lord suffer like that, what the hell?]
[An Orc Lord stacked with extra modifiers, dead just like that lol]
[It is pretty brutal though lmaooo]
[Maybe you should've set it to 19+ first, seems kinda gory]
[How do you watch a sword graze right past your face like it's nothing every time I see you?]
[Even a real man couldn't do what Rin just did]
The chat showed a variety of reactions.
Some people were shocked at how quickly the Orc Lord was taken down, while plenty of others called it brutal.
Serin watched the chat for a moment, took in the general consensus, then made up her mind.
"Just in case, I'll go ahead and check the 19+ setting. There's bound to be more brutal scenes from here on."
As she was changing the stream settings, a notification popped up.
Ding!
—A '???' item has been added to the Cave of Trials reward list.
Seeing the hologram text reading '???', Serin couldn't help but twist the corner of her mouth.
'What are they going to give as a reward?'
She knew the reward was random, but with the perceived difficulty this high, she couldn't help but look forward to it.
Step.
With that, Serin moved on with light steps again.
***
Of the Cave of Trials' five branching paths, Serin had now entered the second fork.
Another massive hologram appeared in her vision.
*
————
Left.
Ice Witch's Curse: Item rarity increased by 50%, but a permanent 15% slow debuff is applied until dungeon clear or death.
Right.
Troll Blood: Item rarity increased by 50%, but all monsters encountered receive a massive boost to their regeneration.
————
*
"Hmm..."
The moment she saw this choice, Serin couldn't help but hesitate.
A permanent slow curse on her movement was an infuriating option in itself. On the other hand, Troll Blood would also become incredibly annoying if she ran into a named monster that didn't die in one hit, like the Orc Lord.
From her experience with troll regeneration, it meant that taking down a named monster in under ten minutes like she'd just done would become practically impossible.
In the end, both options were equally disgusting.
And since even the reward was the same—a 50% increase in item rarity—choosing was all the more ambiguous.
"Should I put this to a vote..."
Just as she opened her mouth with a sour expression to start a vote.
Ding-a-ling!!
『kyhoo donated 100,000 won!』
《Go with 2 gogogogo》
A donation alert popped up.
"kyhoo, thank you for the 100,000 won donation. Oh, should we go with option 2 then?"
Serin, feeling like either choice was fine, spoke without much thought.
Then donations started bursting in one after another.
Ding-a-ling!!
『gaedol donated 50,000 won!』
《Option 1 let's go!》
"gaedol, thank you for the 50,000 won donation. And seriously, why are you all donating over something like this?"
Serin laughed in disbelief at the unexpected donations and checked the chat. Surprisingly, the chat was neck and neck.
[11111]
[222]
[Wow but these options are genuinely dogshit lmaooo]
[Isn't 1 the lesser evil?]
[Rin's a Dancer, wouldn't a movement debuff ruin her?]
[I feel like 2 might be better]
[11111111]
[Honestly, for a Dancer, 2 is better]
[If the Orc Lord had that trait, we'd still be fighting right now]
Serin, who had been about to start a vote, simply walked toward the right fork.
"Oh, it's not like I'm going with 2 because you donated more~ I just didn't like option 1."
She half meant it.