The Plunder
The blue team’s ship was protected by a special barrier that prevented the opposing team from boarding.
Activating the magic circle on the island would nullify the barrier, allowing a brief window for infiltration.
The number of people who could infiltrate was determined randomly.
—One Skybird Feather.
Devil’s Dice (Uncompletable)
Use the materials on the island to complete the Devil’s Dice.
The Devil’s Dice can designate one team and add any disaster of your choice.
—10kg of Obsidian Powder.
—Four Four-Leaf Clovers.
“What should we do? The elves snatched the good missions.”
“That Plunder mission can only be used when we leave this island anyway.”
“If they use Plunder, they’ll immediately roll for an extra disaster.”
It was the logical conclusion.
The infiltration rights gained from the sub mission Plunder had to be used on the next voyage without fail.
On the other hand, Devil’s Dice could be kept in reserve.
If the other side announced they would use Plunder,
they could simply roll the Devil’s Dice right away and add one more disaster.
No matter what disaster it was, the side that suffered greater damage would face a huge risk if they tried to cross over to the opposing team.
“Those pointy-eared bastards. Their personalities are something else.”
“How ironic to hear you of all people speak of character.”
“What do you mean?”
“Reflect upon your own words and actions.”
Good grief.
Anyone listening would get the wrong idea from the way she phrased that.
But still.
“Logic isn’t always right, you know.”
To think we would see the Plunder sub mission this quickly.
Lucky me.
On the 61st floor, direct interference with the opposing team was impossible.
It was a pure luck-based game where victory or defeat hinged on dice rolls and sub mission placement.
Among all the sub missions, Plunder was the only one that allowed direct interference with the enemy.
“Savior, will you proceed with the plunder?”
“Yes. Let’s finish this quickly.”
“Our opponents are elves. Even if all four of us attacked together, we’d barely manage to take down one.”
The number of people who could participate in the plunder was also random.
If the dice roll was low, only one person could enter.
“One person is enough.”
You all can just sit back and breathe easy.
What could I possibly expect from people who were getting pushed around by naga pirates?
Though I spoke dismissively, they weren’t actually incompetent.
The problem was the insane difficulty of the trials starting from the 61st floor.
If this were a game, I would have written a 5,700-character complaint post titled “The devs really outdid themselves this time.”
“Alright. Everyone, go find a feather.”
Since hyung is carrying us on the bus,
we should at least pay for the meal.
Obtaining the feather was purely a matter of luck.
It wasn’t about hunting skybirds; we had to find feathers they had shed while flying.
The fortunate part was that we had a teammate with the unique ability Treasure Hunter, which shortened the search time considerably.
Skybird Feather acquired.
Sub Mission - Plunder cleared.
Will you infiltrate the opposing team’s ship?
[Y/N]
Without hesitation, I placed the white feather on the altar.
Clatter—
The dice that had floated into the air dropped down and rolled across the floor several times.
Dice result: 6.
Maximum value. All five members may infiltrate.
“Huh.”
That was more luck than I knew what to do with.
A roll of 1 meant infiltration failure.
From 2 onward, the number of people who could cross to the enemy ship increased by one with each pip.
My luck was showing up in the strangest places.
“They’re targeting our ship?”
“Those worms have no fear.”
The elves snorted in derision.
“Goodness gracious. How could this be?”
“Goddess, why do you look so shocked?”
“Those children should be beings who pursue harmony and possess warm dispositions.”
“I’ll warm them up, alright. By summoning fire elementals.”
Harmony? Warm dispositions?
She clearly had no idea how rude those pointy-eared bastards could be.
The next dice roll after Plunder was confirmed.
The elves would use the Devil’s Dice after seeing our team’s dice result.
Blue Team — Skull 1
Red Team — Lightning 1
Yeah.
This was exactly how the game was meant to be played.
It wouldn’t be any fun if only I got screwed over.
The Red Team has used the Devil’s Dice.
The dice value is set to Pirates.
Adjusted result: Blue Team — Pirates 2
As expected, it followed the standard pattern.
Thanks to that, I managed to reduce my workload.
During voyages, the more overlapping disasters there were, the stronger their effects became.
In other words—
Pirate Appearance Lv2
30 Naga Pirates have appeared.
The number of pirates had tripled compared to a single dice roll.
The elves’ ship would also get caught in the lightning storm, but compared to the ordeal our team would face, it was practically a tailwind.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
“Hold on! Hold the line!”
Just as I thought.
An aura blade shot forward like a ray of light. A player who had nearly gotten a hole in his throat turned pale with fright.
Even ten had been difficult.
Now we had to take down thirty of them and then board the pointy-eared bastards’ ship?
“No wonder those children were laughing at us.”
“They won’t be laughing much longer. They should enjoy it while they still can.”
Giga Impact activated.
Explosive Demon Energy activated.
A shockwave based on the user’s physical strength.
When combined with Explosive Demon Energy, a dark crimson wave swept across the deck.
The naga pirates who had spread their aura blades wide to resist staggered violently.
There was no need to observe this fight slowly like the first engagement.
I had already confirmed the naga pirates’ level.
The faster I finished this and moved on, the sooner I could fold those elves’ ears in half.
Dragon’s Wings activated.
Explosive Demon Energy activated.
Thorns Missile activated.
From the dragon wings that sprouted behind me, dark crimson energy rose like flickering flames.
It was the same kind of aura blade used by demonkind and the dead.
Hundreds of thorns burst from the wide-spread wing membranes.
The moment I flapped them lightly—
they tore through the air with a furious papapapa! and shot forward.
An attack wrapped in Explosive Demon Energy.
The farther the distance, the more the energy would dissipate, but at this range it wasn’t an issue.
“Shhhssshhh……”
A rain of death poured from the sky.
The naga pirates, whose stances had been broken by the combination of Giga Impact and Explosive Demon Energy, struggled to raise their aura blades again.
Even swinging their spears desperately, they couldn’t achieve perfect defense.
It was an onslaught that didn’t allow them to act cocky like Nyx, who could split herself apart and say, “I’ll give you some.”
In just one minute after the pirates appeared, the deck fell silent.
Shadow Domination activated.
Darkness surged up from beneath my feet and covered the deck.
The target was the corpses of the naga pirates.
After absorbing the essence of [Some Snake], I could now use Shadow Domination for predation as well.
There was no longer any need to bend over and touch each corpse individually.
Devoured the essence of a naga pirate.
Essence absorption: 100%
Perfectly absorbed the essence of one species.
New skill — Plunder has been added.
Plunder
Grade: ★★
Type: Passive
Increases the effect of ‘stealing abilities’ by 20%.
Khehehehe.
Perfect. I finally got this one.
“It doesn’t seem like something worth cheering about.”
“The ‘stealing abilities’ category listed there includes predation as well.”
In other words,
the stats I gained through predation would increase by 20%.
Normally, once you completely absorbed the essence of one species, your stats would stop increasing.
So there should have been a clear limit, but I had already entered the Tower’s basement using the Key of the Netherworld and filled every single stat increase option to the max.
Separate from essence predation, my stats would continue to rise.
With an additional 20% bonus applied to that ability,
this was essentially stat duplication.
There were no more worthwhile essences left to collect on the 61st floor.
No reason to stay any longer.
“Then let’s go finish this.”
Nyx, now in spiritual form, climbed onto my shoulder.
—What about your teammates?
“What about them? I’ll just leave them behind.”
If they wanted to follow, I wouldn’t stop them.
If they ended up dying and getting demoted, that was their own choice.
Crash—!
Blue lightning bolts struck the deck.
“Sylion, please block the wrath of the heavens.”
A supreme-grade wind elemental that had taken on a form similar to a human.
With a light wave of Sylion’s hand, a curtain of wind fluttered like fabric.
A gentle veil of wind wrapped around the descending lightning.
The blindingly bright light was swallowed whole,
and the tremendous roar produced by the moving electricity could not escape the wind curtain.
“The 61st floor is so boring. This isn’t fun at all.”
Agnes Gudrødsson.
She was the 5th Imperial Princess of the Alvheim Empire, a central pillar of the World Tree faction.
Despite her young age and noble bloodline, she possessed an affinity that allowed her to contract with supreme-grade elementals.
“Your Highness, please leave such tasks to us.”
“No. I’m bored.”
The accompanying elf gave an awkward, short laugh.
The elf players who had joined the trial with her were far from ordinary.
They were members of the Alvheim Imperial Guard.
Among the strongest in the entire World Tree faction.
Of course,
most of the guards accompanying Agnes were relatively new recruits.
The core forces of the Imperial Guard had long since surpassed Diamond rank.
They were the ones repeatedly challenging the 60th-floor range because they couldn’t fulfill the promotion conditions.
The swordsmen could wield aura blades.
The mages were capable of multi-spellcasting and chantless incantations.
‘The other side was from Earth, right?’
‘It’s a dimension that only recently went through its second erosion.’
‘We can take it easy then.’
Even though they had racial bonus RP, it was strange to be matched against humans from a lower dimension.
But the elves didn’t pay it much mind.
What mattered far more was keeping the princess—who had ended up on their team through random matching—in a good mood.
“Hey, everyone.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Do you think they’ll really come? Those Earth humans?”
“They’ll probably be too busy just dealing with the pirates.”
“Even if they do come, we will handle them ourselves, so please don’t worry.”
Agnes furrowed her delicate brows.
“I’m saying they’re my prey, so don’t touch them.”
The elf warriors glanced at each other and smiled awkwardly.
“Of course.”
“We’ll leave everything to you, Your Highness.”
Crash—!
Lightning struck toward the ship once again.
Just as Sylion was wrapping the lightning in wind and completely neutralizing it—
a shadow illuminated by a streak of light rapidly drew closer.
It was mana of a different nature from the lightning storm.
“They’re here!”
Agnes summoned additional elementals.
Call Elemental — Lulupus x 3
Wolves whose entire bodies were made of flame.
Agnes had summoned three superior-grade fire elementals without any catalysts.
“Lend me a little strength.”
「As you wish.」
Sylion released the wind curtain that had contained the lightning and spun it rapidly.
The vortex that swallowed even the clouds beneath the ship swelled in an instant to a size large enough to devour an entire island.
In terms of magic, it possessed destructive power on the level of a 4-star spell.
For a supreme-grade elemental, it was nothing difficult.
「Woof! Woof!」
The three lupus opened their jaws wide.
The hellish flames comparable to the fires of the underworld were sucked into the vortex.
Instead of extinguishing Sylion’s vortex, the flames harmonized with it and amplified repeatedly.
The resulting inferno soared into the sky, and pitch-black storm clouds formed in its wake.
“This is easily on the level of a 5-star grand spell.”
‘I had heard rumors about Her Highness’s spirit magic, but…’
‘Shouldn’t she be operating at Master rank?’
The elf warriors trembled as they watched the flaming vortex grow larger and larger.
To complete a spell of such power with only two commands.
It was a clear demonstration of just how extraordinary Agnes’s spirit magic was.
What must that reckless human who chose Plunder be thinking as he looked at this flaming vortex?
‘He must be in despair.’
‘Bad luck, human.’
Watching the intruder swallowed by the vortex, the elf warriors clicked their tongues.
At that exact moment—
Kwaaaaaang—!
The vortex created from the harmony of wind and fire was swallowed by pure white light.
A human with wings on his back looked down at Agnes.
“Was it you?”
The human, dyed in ashen gray.
Jinho bared his white teeth in a savage, menacing grin.