Chapter 191
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: Harma Mind's Will
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Harma Mind's Will.
Collecting that will required far greater difficulty than with Raplanta.
Raplanta was a plant-type monster with predictable attack paths, so he'd memorized the routes and sliced it apart with Leviathan in an instant. But to take down Harma Mind, he had to break through a specific pattern.
Fail to break the pattern, and it would trigger an instant-kill move. No matter how strong Jeong Hoon was, he risked going down in a flash.
'What insane ability.'
An instant-kill from a mere boss monster.
The way to neutralize that instant-kill was to overwhelm it with levels.
If the level gap was 30 or more, it only drained 20 of health instead of 100.
But Jeong Hoon's level was 226.
Unable to neutralize the instant-kill, breaking the pattern was the only viable strategy.
Whoa... We have to wait until it curls up?
Muk Ho clicked his tongue.
The thing curled up every five minutes.
That's when it exposed its vital spot, and targeting that was the only way to deal real damage.
Until then, it was invincible, as they say.
Take a certain amount of damage in that invincible state, and it triggered the instant-kill.
That made subjugating it take far longer than Raplanta.
You have acquired Harma Mind's Will.
But Jeong Hoon didn't rest and took it down anyway.
After a total of 163 kills, he finally gathered 10 wills.
"Whew, now all that's left is the axe."
King Raust's Axe.
Now it was a battle against time.
From 0.05, ten times over was just 0.5.
In probability terms, that meant hunting 5,000 times for one drop.
Only one left now?
'...It's going to be that brutal.'
Anima was quick on the uptake.
"Yeah. Drop rate's a whopping 0.5."
0.5? What a shitty drop rate.
'Doesn't the Drop Rate Explosion Potion boost it to 5? That'd be one every 20 killsnot bad at all.'
Jeong Hoon chuckled at Anima's words.
"It's 0.5 with the potion. Without it, 0.05."
'...Fucking hell.'
The NPC guarding the Hall of the Heavens stared boredly at the sky.
The first human to reach this place had headed into the dungeon for the quest he'd given.
With such abysmal drop rates, he wouldn't be back anytime soon.
'By then, the process will have started.'
The outsider pursuing the quest would be forcibly ejected.
'What a shame.'
He had no idea how the guy had gotten here, but the Power of the Heavens would remain out of reach.
Time wouldn't allow it.
'The drop rates are 1 normally, and the final material's 0.05, right?'
With bad luck, it could take over a weekmaybe even a month.
Yet the outsider who'd left to gather materials returned after just two days.
The NPC's lips curled up slightly.
'He's giving up, looks like.'
Of course. Subjugating the bosses was tough enough, and the material drops were nightmarish. Success would be the weird part.
"I've got them all."
"Fail... What?!"
The NPC's eyes went wide at the claim of having all the materials.
He'd set out just two days ago.
Gathering materials was secondarythe monsters themselves demanded high difficulty.
Subduing them alone should have taken ages, yet he'd not only done that but collected every material in two days?
Impossible!
But the outsider laid out all the gathered materials.
"I've got them all."
"No way... How...?"
"I just hunted hard, and they came together."
"Impossible... How many times did you kill those monsters?"
"Hmm, Raplanta took 178 subjugations. Harma Mind was 163, and King Raust dropped it after just 8."
"Bullshit!"
The NPC bellowed.
Raplanta's seed drop was 1, Harma Mind's crystal will was also 1.
King Raust's cherished axe was 0.05.
With those ridiculous odds, succeeding after so few kills?
"I got lucky."
"Don't give me that crap. Trying to brush it off as luck?"
"Isn't that why I could gather everything in two days?"
"..."
He had nothing to say.
The materials were unmistakably gathered from hunting the monsters.
No signs of any tricks.
"Well then, what's the second quest?"
Damn it, was he going to claim the Power of the Heavens before the countdown ended?
Unease crept in.
The NPC pondered briefly.
Unlike the first quest, the second wasn't a time battle.
It all depended on raw physical prowess.
'Let's up the difficulty.'
He couldn't hand over the Power of the Heavens that easily.
The NPC grinned and snapped his fingers.
'He's scheming to keep it from me no matter what.'
The NPC's thoughts were transparent.
If the first quest took five days, the number in the sky would hit zero.
Jeong Hoon in the capsule would be forcibly logged out, and he'd have to challenge the Power of the Heavens again after reality-ification.
'Retrying isn't the issue. It's the Heavenly Energy dropping to 0.'
The Power of the Heavens could be challenged at 100 Heavenly Energy.
Fail, and the penalty reset it to 0.
Reaching 100 again was no easy feat.
He had to succeed on this quest.
Prove your worth.
-Subjugate 030 Frost Lycanthropes
The next quest was to subjugate 30 Frost Lycanthropes.
'Vicious.'
Jeong Hoon's lips twisted into a smirk.
Normally, it'd be just 5 of those monsters.
That's what his second quest had been pre-regression.
Far fewer than the first, but for good reason.
The Frost Lycanthrope in the second phase was notoriously tricky to subjugate.
A pattern-breaker like Harma Mind.
But with even tougher patternsfail to break them, and no method could kill it.
And its level was 310.
This wouldn't be easy.
"Subjugate 30 and come back?"
"Yeah. Simpler than the first, right?"
The NPC smiled brightly.
As if asking him to appreciate the mercy.
A face that makes me want to spit.
'How about threatening him to hand over the power?'
Muk Ho and Anima weren't fond of the guy either.
No way a jerk who'd thrown insane difficulty from quest one would go easy now.
"Well... Even at a glance, it looks tough."
"Hm? Why think that? No materials to farmjust subjugate the boss 30 times."
"That means the difficulty's that much higher."
"...You're sharp."
The NPC's benevolent facade twitched.
Jeong Hoon chuckled and turned away.
"I'll be right back."
No time for complaints.
If he'd jacked up the difficulty, he'd just end it even faster.
Jeong Hoon hurried out of the hall.
Frost Lycanthrope.
To reach its dungeon, he took the portal next to King Raust's.
Enter the Lv.310 Frost Lycanthrope Dungeon?
'Enter.'
Accepting, his vision went black, then shifted to frozen wastes.
A brutal minus 47 degrees.
Thanks to his stats and Legendary gear, Jeong Hoon barely felt the cold. But a pure level 226 player stepping here would struggle environmentally.
'This is basically Antarctica.'
Jeong Hoon advanced.
The ground was iced overlose balance, and you'd slip instantly.
Where's the thing?
'This place is huge too. Any regular mobs?
The frozen land dwarfed the dungeons of Raplanta, Harma Mind, and King Raust.
Of course, no regular monsters here either.
But the closer to the boss, the colder it gotplunging past minus 60 in moments.
Cold enough to freeze a person solid.
Yet Jeong Hoon marched straight to the boss without flinching.
"Grrr."
There it wasthe Lycanthrope.
A beast cloaked in white fur.
Hard to liken to any single animal a mashup of many.
Tiger-like face with a mane.
Stood upright on two legs, feet like a restored T-Rex.
Worse still: twelve arms.
Each a different shape.
Some elongated bear paws, others eagle wings... Simply put, a monster patched from every beast imaginable.
That crude assembly meant it wielded a multitude of abilities.
Lycanthrope uses Spatial Dominion.
Unable to neutralize the ability.
Item special abilities are sealed.
It struck first.
Locking Jeong Hoon's item special abilities.
'Pulling some interesting tricks.'
Jeong Hoon smirked.
Item specials restricted.
He couldn't use his equipped items' specials, but his learned skills were fair game.
Black Field activated.
All stats boosted 1.5x.
Monsters invading Black Field territory have all stats reduced 10.
After activating Black Field, Jeong Hoon drew Anima's string.
'Ultimate Arrow.'
Releasing, a 1,700 damage arrow shot out.
But it whizzed past the Lycanthrope.
Hey! What the hell at a crucial moment?!
'Always dead-on before... What's up now?
Muk Ho and Anima gasped as it missed.
"I did it on purpose."
On purpose?
'So there was a reason.'
The arrow embedded in the wall behind the Lycanthrope.
The wall crumbled, smashing the hidden energy source.
Deprived of its power, the Lycanthrope looked puzzled at the wall.
First pattern skipped successfully.
'The patterns are similar.'
Pre-regression, Jeong Hoon had challenged the Power of the Heavens.
In that process, he'd subjugated the level 620 Frost Kaleos.
Mastering its patterns had taken a full month.
One death ended everything, so he'd approached cautiously, dragging it out.
'Still, doesn't look as nasty as Kaleos.'
Kaleos required smashing two hidden wall energy sources to skip the first pattern.
Lycanthrope had just one.
Its first pattern: chain attacks powered by the energy source.
The straightforward break was enduring them, then unloading when it recharged.
Repeat to whittle 30 health, triggering phase two.
Jeong Hoon skipped it by destroying the source upfront.
'Now.'
He drew and released again.
This arrow nailed the Lycanthrope's neck perfectly.
Heavenly Strike activates.
Arrow rain poured on its head.
"Krraaah!"
It screamed under the barrage.
Jeong Hoon kept firing, pressing the attack.
The Lycanthrope's health plummeted 30 to 70 in a blink.
Lycanthrope enters Phase 1 Frenzy.
Phase two alertits body flushed red.
"Here we go."
Second pattern: no skipping.
Pure physicals to endure from here.
Jeong Hoon swapped from Anima to Leviathan.