Chapter 378: Balrog of Destruction 2
“Hey, it has got that red glow thing.”
“Huh?”
“The red rays that are bouncing up and down.”
“Ah… my Grrr’s unique ability?”
“Yeah, that.”
Remir and Ian took down the Golem and entered the tunnels.
While looking at Grrr that was emitting a red colored magic, Remir asked things out of curiosity.
“What is that skill, an attack factor? Even if it is a Balrog, it doesn’t make sense for a level 250 magical beast to have such an advantage.”
Ian smiled and said,
“3700% factor.”
“…?!”
Remir blinked her eyes.
“3700 you said? The attack factor is that high while having 2-3 minutes cooldown as well?”
Ian laughed at Remir’s question and responded,
“The normal cooldown is seven minutes. But there is another skill that reduces the cooldown of all the other unique abilities.”
“Ahhh…”
Ian told her about the Broken Flame. She listened to Ian’s explanation while nodding occasionally.
Since she was a wizard, she knew about a similar skill that worked the same as Broken Flame.
The two users entered the dungeon as if they were taking a nice stroll since the monster there had been wiped out.
It was because Remir managed to take all the monster down earlier.
Seeing Ian who was disappointed with the scenario, Remir encouraged him.
“Don’t take it so hard. It’s going to start now, it would be better to get your guard up.”
Ian became excited upon hearing what Remir said.
“Oh?”
“Yup. It’ll get different once we go deeper underground. The level of normal cla.s.s monsters starts at 380.”
“Oh oh…!”
Ian’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning when he heard the monsters’ level.
After level 350, he was under the impression that his speed of leveling up would significantly slow down.
‘The monsters here are at least level 380…! This is a huge opportunity, right?!’
The dungeons that Ian had been hunting in so far had level 380 monsters as well. Level 420 monsters would occasionally appear too.
However, he had never seen a mob of level 380 monsters.
There were level 350 monsters at the Tomb of the Forgotten Soul.
Why was there a need for a normal-dungeon monster to have such a high level?
The reason was simple.
It was because it would make gaining experience more efficient.
In Kailan, monsters of a similar level had a different level of difficulty depending on their grade.
Taking down the general-dungeon monster wasn’t advantageous when compared to the benefits that one would acquire when hunting high-grade monsters.
‘The level 380 general-dungeon monsters will be weaker than a level 350 rare-monsters…’
Ian, who was feeling grateful for the high-level monsters he was about to play with, moved into the dungeon while humming a song.
But just right then.
An unexpected system message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.
Tring-!
[You have found the dungeon of ‘Dark Catacomb’.]
[Since the user is in a party with another user ‘Remir’, the original detection buff of the dungeon will be shared.]
[Feel the energy of the ‘Richi King Chalian’.]
[‘Hero, Muran’s Choice’ has been activated.]
Ian who read the message was puzzled.
“Oh, what’s this?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Noona, didn’t you get any system messages?”
“Huh…? The dungeon entry system message?”
“Not that.”
Remir became confused.
She didn’t see a system message even though they were in a party.
Ian mumbled in a low voice,
“Muran huh… I have been hearing this a lot, but I can’t remember where?”
Remir who could hear Ian’s murmuring immediately hit him on the head.
“Idiot. Isn’t that the name of Luspel Empire’s capital—Muran? It isn’t that far from here, but what about Muran?”
Ian was now able to recall that Muran was the capital of the Luspel empire.
“Ah…!”
Ian remembered the time when he had the item that would transform him into the hidden cla.s.s—Taming Master!
‘Yeah, the Crystal of Muran. Why did I forget that?’
When Ian was still in the archer cla.s.s, that item played a pivotal role in making him transform into the hidden cla.s.s.
That was the reason why Muran was seemingly familiar to him.
‘Yeah. Come to think of it… the capital of Luspel is Muran and the Crystal of Muran… was named after the hero of the Luspel Empire…!’
Ian’s head began to work at a high speed.
‘Then the message was only sent to me and not to noona… is this related to the Crystal of Muran?’
The system message mentioned the words ‘Choice of Muran’.
It seemed to be something that was related to that crystal in some manner.
To solve this mystery, Ian asked Remir,
“Noona.”
“What?”
“How did you get the first Hidden cla.s.s?”
“Hmm… that’s top secret…”
“Don’t be stingy now, just tell me. Was it a hidden cla.s.s that was done with the help of a crystal?”
Remir tilted her head and answered him,
“No no. It didn’t. My hidden cla.s.s was activated by doing the quest of the Sun G.o.d.”
“Ahaa…”
Ian was convinced that his speculation was right upon hearing what Remir said.
‘This is a bit exciting I guess…? The hero of Muran. What kind of connection do I have with this hero?’
Ian began to move forward slowly, and with curious eyes, he was scanning every part of the dungeon.
He was hoping to find some kind of clue.
However, there weren’t any clues, and as they reached the end of the stairs… Ian’s eyes saw a very s.p.a.cious ground.
With countless undead waiting for the two.
Remir, while casting all her buffs, said,
“It’s all about power from here, summon all of your pets.”
“Kay, noona.”
Ian instantly summoned all his familiars which weren’t summoned till then, such as Halli and Bbakbbak.
Seeing the undead which filed the whole room, he brought out the Judgment of the Spirit King.
From what Ian could see, they weren’t the level of monsters which could be considered insignificant.
‘Experience is experience… I can smell already the hidden quest from here.’
The undead who discovered the party began to move towards them in slow motion.
“Grrk-!”
“Kek kek, intruders…! Attack them!”
“Keeeek! They look tasty…!”
At the same moment, a huge rock at the corner of the chamber began to move.
Kkkgk- kkkgggk-!
Ian’s gaze moved towards it. He saw purple eyes s.h.i.+ning from that dark corner.
[No one should’ve come… to this place…]
Thud- thud-!
The thing Ian saw was on top of a Hargasus while clad in a glossy armor and had an awful aura.
A legendary undead—Death Knight.
The death knight pointed his spear at Ian.
* * *
In the 20th division of the Devildom.
On top of Daedmon’s temple, the energy of Sekai was descending.
Intense dark energy was swooping the temple as if it was going to swallow the temple!
The users who were hunting around the vicinity started to get stronger.
“I have been hunting for more than a week here in the 20th division, but it’s my first time to see such a strange phenomenon.”
“Ohoh…! What is that? Is that how a war skill comes out?”
A war skill, it could be considered as a Priest cla.s.s Asmodian user’s skill.
The temple was a place that Asmodian users needed to move to.
A magical effect was created around the temple. The users were searching for the one who did it.
One user then said,
“Ah, that. That’s the magical effect that happens when the oracle comes down.”
“Oracle… you say?”
“Yeah. The oracle that the Devil G.o.d Daedmon has.”
“Hu! Is a hidden quest being created…?”
“I’m not so sure. This is only my second time seeing it come down. It’s kind of peculiar. The last time the oracle came down, it was red, not dark.”
Apart from the nervous bickering of the users, the darkness was getting stronger and stronger.
A man with a black cape appeared in front of the temple.
The door of the temple opened and the man walked inside it. The energy that was rattling the temple began to vanish gradually.
The users who were curious at what had happened tried to get closer to the temple but were in vain.
Since the black aura was still around it, the temple didn’t provide any access to the users.
In the meantime, one user read the name of the man who appeared for a short while.
“Cadesra… seems like a name that we’ve heard somewhere, it isn’t a user right?”
* * *
The death knight, known as one of the strongest undead.
The death knight that made its appearance in front of Ian and Remir was a legendary monster that was level 420 with powerful armed forces.
Thanks to that, Ian was about to get involved again in a breathtaking fight after a long time.
Kw.a.n.g- Kw.a.n.g-!
Ian’s golden spear and the death knights silver spear roared every time they hit each other.
The enormous damage that Ian had matched the sound his spear was making.
‘Oho, even if is the last, it is doing such crazy damage.’
Ian was under the impression that no one could block his spear.
Ian’s vitality—which was being reduced—were being recovered right away.
Whenever Ian managed to avoid incoming projectiles his vitality would recover.
This was because of the power of ‘Transcendent Option’ that was attached to the Judgment of the Spirit King.
Remir who was seeing Ian’s stunts began to sweat profusely.
‘Why the h.e.l.l is he playing like that? If it gets any more dangerous, he might die and retry it with a tanker.’
It wasn’t unreasonable for Remir to think that way.
Ian’s vitality gauge was like a rollercoaster. It would go down to 20% then go back to 90%.
As time goes by, the Death Knight’s attack patterns were becoming obvious to Ian to the point where the Death Knight wasn’t landing a hit anymore.
Ian’s vitality gauge which was in danger now began to stabilize. The vitality of the death knight was now beginning to flicker.
[You insignificant human…!]
The furious Death Knight began to wield his spear much more violently.
However, that was what Ian was waiting for.
Though the Death Knight’s attack power was high, it was easy to avoid its attacks because of its repet.i.tive movement.
Like a squirrel, Ian was avoiding the Death Knight’s attacks and was regenerating his vitality.
p.h.u.k- puk- p.h.u.k-!
But just right then, Remir’s voice burst out.
“Ian! Behind you!”
A sphere of powerful violet magic by a skeleton wizard was cast towards Ian.
It was going to be difficult to avoid even for Ian!
Remir cast a s.h.i.+eld spell where the projectile was heading to, but it wouldn’t be able to protect Ian on time.
‘d.a.m.n it! so Ian will be taken out anyway, huh?’
She immediately switched the s.h.i.+eld spell to an attack spell.
It was impossible to prevent that sphere of magic, so attacking the death knight would be the next option one had to take. That was a better call rather than hoping for Ian to be safe.
Kwanng-!
The giant sphere that was headed towards Ian burst into the air.
“…?!”
There was a translucent blue object on the floor with a back that seemed similar to that of a turtle.