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“Watch your footing!”
In battles unfolding on rocky mountains, nerves were bound to be on edge. Unlike flat ground, one wrong step and you’d fall straight to your death. It was a place where even retrieving corpses would be difficult.
A massive horde of magical beasts blocked the only crossing that connected the rocky mountains. From a distance, you might have thought they were human. But could you really call those blue-skinned creatures with eight eyes, no mouths, and arms that dragged along the ground human?
They had to be called magical beasts named ‘Ground-type Phantoms: Silent Monks’ according to the Veritas System’s designation.
Saaaah—.
Kim Siwon was in charge of the first strike. Cold air quickly gathered around him. However, unlike before, the ground didn’t freeze solid. This was a level impossible without delicate mana control backing it up.
‘I absolutely can’t let another disaster happen because of my skill.’
Kim Siwon’s skill freezing the ground whenever he used it wasn’t a recent development. However, a few days ago, an absurd mistake had occurred where Kim Chansol slipped and dropped his weapon artifact from his hands. It was because the floor had frozen from the aftermath of Kim Siwon’s skill.
‘This really was my mistake. I’m sorry. It’s a mistake that even beginners don’t make these days, so I have no excuse.’
Kim Chansol had apologized politely to Doun with a face that didn’t know what to do with his guilt. Dropping a weapon during a high-floor conquest. It was the kind of mistake only novice hunters who had just awakened would make.
‘…These things can happen. But let’s try to hold onto weapons properly when possible. I’ll be more careful going forward too. I’m sorry for making the atmosphere uncomfortable for no reason.’
The axe had been safely avoided, but as a result, Doun’s stomach had been pierced. Yet not only did he accept Kim Chansol’s apology, but he also apologized himself. If only Doun had firmly said to do better going forward, the guilt would have been less.
After hearing Doun’s apology, Kim Chansol became even more distressed and went home to down a whole bottle of soju. It was a moment when he found that kind and gentle Magnetic particularly hateful.
Kim Siwon and Kim Chansol, who had ended up sharing the guild building’s sleeping quarters for the Floor 55 conquest, talked a lot while recalling that day’s Doun. And Kim Siwon resolved to pay much more attention to mana control.
Paaaaat!
After summoning a massive ice sphere, Kim Siwon unconsciously glanced at the floor. The floor was dry, not even damp.
‘It didn’t freeze. Good.’
Right in the center of the magical beasts blocking the group’s path. The massive ice sphere floating proudly there reflected light mimicking the sun, brilliantly illuminating the surroundings. Then it swooped down quickly like a bird targeting prey.
The magical beasts’ gazes were drawn upward in response to the condensed mana. The mouthless magical beasts that couldn’t make any sound tried to take defensive positions. Their long arms dragging on the ground writhed. It was a disgusting sight.
‘Now’s the time.’
The massive ice crystal responding to Kim Siwon’s will exploded with a thunderous roar.
KUGUGUGUGUNG!
Thousands of sharp ice fragments pierced hide and tore through muscle. Writhing in pain, the creatures collided with each other as they flailed, creating dull noises instead of screams.
But the power was insufficient to kill them instantly. Even so, there wasn’t a trace of disappointment on Kim Siwon’s face. Tower conquest was team battle, not individual combat.
Starting with Kim Siwon’s attack, the curtain rose on the large-scale battle that was considered the greatest obstacle in the early section of Floor 55. The movements of the monsters with ice shards embedded in their bodies rapidly became sluggish.
Cold air continuously leaked from the ice fragments that had burrowed deep into their skin, freezing their muscles. From the magical beasts’ perspective, Kim Siwon would be a very troublesome and difficult enemy.
In Kim Chansol’s assigned area, corpses piled up continuously. The blood-soaked floor squelched with every movement. In the past, this would have been the timing to change weapons, but Kim Chansol still held a longsword in his hands.
The results of his efforts to suppress frequent weapon changes were showing. He had a nature that loved flashiness. He liked receiving attention and enjoyed praise. But he knew how to exercise restraint when necessary.
His mistake had nearly caused a teammate to be seriously injured. Saying the floor was slippery was just an excuse. Because he changed weapons frequently, he had a habit of meaninglessly gripping and releasing his hands.
‘If I make another mistake here, I’m deleting my StarStar account!’
Kim Chansol was more concentrated than ever. Meanwhile, from Samin’s direction, the eerie sound of bones being crushed continued without end.
All his body-enhancing skills were concentrated in his limbs. A single lightly thrown punch was far more powerful than using skills while holding artifacts.
Samin was a fighter who extremely well utilized the physical characteristics of S-rank hunters that far exceeded ordinary people’s physical abilities. His innately gifted dynamic vision and boxing he’d learned as a hobby created synergy.
His two arms, enhanced with shock-absorption buffs cast by supporter Choi Jiyoon, left blood-red afterimages as they smashed the disgusting magical beasts’ skulls.
‘They’re not even zombies, how does it make sense that they keep moving if you don’t crush their heads?’
Slashing heads with a sword didn’t suit his disposition. The swing radius was too large, and he was anxious about not knowing where fragments would fly if the blade broke.
Whoosh!
Samin lightly shook off his fist that still had a faintly sticky sensation and downed a mana potion. The thin bottle crumbling in his fist turned to powder and scattered through his fingers.
Doun watched Samin focusing on battle while feeling the mana gradually replenishing with worried eyes.
‘He’s already drinking a mana potion?’
Potions weren’t almighty. Even if severed limbs could be reattached without scars, that was only possible if you had at least part of the severed limb. Moreover, potions consumed excessively in a short time caused various side effects, large and small.
Having been someone who downed mana recovery potions like water, Doun knew the side effects of potions better than anyone.
‘I’m worried…’
After pouring out skills for a while without leaving their respective positions, the tedious war of attrition entered a lull.
As if proving that reaching the floor boss without Doun wasn’t a lie, the group that had defeated the mid-boss had reached the floor boss where they’d had to drink the bitter cup of conquest abandonment.
The accumulated entry time so far was 3 hours and 50 minutes.
Considering that the three-guild alliance that first succeeded in conquest had a clear time of 4 hours and 30 minutes, it seemed like a new record wasn’t far off.
[Notification: Floor 55 floor boss ‘Sage of the High Mountains’ has appeared.]
The Floor 55 floor boss was evaluated by Yeoun and other guilds as a magical beast whose health itself wasn’t that high. However, the biggest problem was that it constantly scattered and led to prolonged battles, ultimately forcing conquest abandonment due to potion side effects.
It seemed like it would die but didn’t die. It was the type that scattered into an untargetable gaseous state, accumulating hunters’ fatigue and ultimately making them self-destruct.
Doun, who had been mulling over its characteristics, muttered in a tense voice.
“I’ll try casting silence when it turns gaseous.”
The group nodded. Separate from boldly saying he’d try it, Doun was half-doubtful.
It might have worked on the Floor 54 mid-boss, but many floor bosses had their own immunity skills. Right now, Choi Jiyoon and Hong Chan’s movement speed reduction debuffs supposedly didn’t work either.
[Notification: Potion effects are temporarily halved.]
A familiar notification appeared before his eyes and disappeared. Choi Jiyoon calculated while checking buff maintenance time.
‘The skill needs to work…’
The higher the floors, the more advantageous it was in decisive battles with floor bosses to have many hunters who could fight long without relying on potions. In other words, Yeoun Guild conquering with a small number was definitely at a disadvantage.
However, they didn’t think they were at a disadvantage. Especially now when they had a cheat key-like hunter called Magnetic with them.
‘Even if the skill doesn’t work, it’ll probably work out somehow.’
Choi Jiyoon harbored reasonable confidence. After casting buffs on each individual in the front-line attack group according to their combat styles, she fell back. Of course she’d join the attack, but just maintaining buffs and calculating time was giving her a headache.
Concentrated attacks poured toward the magical beast.
Kugugugugugu—.
Just as ranged attacks ceased and the swirling smoke and dust cleared, beginning to secure visibility. The floor boss ‘Sage of the High Mountains’ bent its body downward. Strange mana movements rippling around its flesh could be felt. Parts of its legs were already losing form and scattering.
‘The posture before gasification…!’
Doun immediately shot his skill toward the strange creature.
Silence.
For something possessed by Magnetic, who was called the epitome of attack-type hunters, it was an excessively miscellaneous and inefficient support-type skill. It could cancel magical beasts’ skills, but for high-grade skills, stopping them for a few seconds was all it could do.
The skill itself wasn’t flashy either, so there was no reason for attack-type hunters to pay attention to it. The current reality of South Korea’s hunter community was mainstream conquest through ranking whose skills were more powerful and flashy, with the parties themselves showing off by overusing rare skills.
Among the thousands of skills, how many would be interested in a skill that even support-type hunters didn’t consider?
This was a solution discovered only by someone who had repeated generating and dismantling optimal skill combinations countless times, to the point where one eye had changed from overusing thought acceleration skills.
“…Ugh!”
Was it because the target was a floor boss? More mana than expected evaporated. A short groan burst through his teeth. However, Doun was smiling.
Because the skill had been effective as he expected. Conquest success was right around the corner. Doun racked his brain in a more concentrated state than ever. His head felt like it would explode, but he was rather happy.
Because the thought came to him that now, from here on, he could properly earn his keep.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
