Debuff Master

Chapter 38

Gosran teleported with Siegfried to a secluded forest on the outskirts of Sohoca Ruins.

“You’re saying that… rumors of me have spread?” Siegfried asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Gosran replied.

“And there is a video of me uploaded to New World?” he asked.

“Yes. Here, look,” she replied before passing a link to him.

It was a link to a video on the Community forums of BNW—the New World—under the ‘Sohoca Ruins’ tab.

[Best Post: Cheat Class Appeared at the Outskirts of Sohoca Ruins! (Likes: 12,311) (Comments: 1,191) Hit!]

[Here, take a look at the video of the Debuff Master before you go ???]

[Looks like the Buffers are going to be jobless soon! Kekekeke!]

[Wow! Look at the damage!]

[The monsters instantly die the moment that Debuffer places those circles… (??;;) ]

[I think hunting with that Debuffer-nim is way faster than having two Buffers in a party…?]

[That can no longer be considered as a party hunt… that’s just boosting…;;]

[I was able to power level for four days thanks to this person hehehe…]

[Does anyone know if this guy has a hidden class?]

The post depicting Siegfried garnered more than 12,311 likes and 1,191 comments.

“What the hell… why the hell did someone upload this without my permission?” Siegfried grimaced.

Then, he slowly observed the video to look for the perpetrator who uploaded the video.

“Itzu filmed it.”

He was certain from the angle of the video taken that the one who filmed the video was the DPS of Gosran’s party, Itzu.

“Why the hell did he take a video of someone else without permission? Tsk…?This is souring my mood,” Siegfried said, clicking his tongue.

“Yeah… It’s quite unethical of him,” Gosran said while shaking her head.

“Do you know where he is right now?” Siegfried asked.

“I don’t. I remember him saying that he would move to another zone yesterday.”

“It’s a hit and run then. No, wait… is it a film and run in this case…?”

“There are all sorts of people out there, right??Haha…”

“So… They are after me because of that video? Is it because they want me to join their party?” Siegfried asked while massaging his temples.

“That’s because Siegfried-nim’s debuffs are overpowered. They obviously want you in their parties since your debuffs can increase the hunting speed by more than twofold! The monsters practically melt the moment you debuff them.”

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“Still, I think they are getting too worked up.”

“It shows how sick and tired they are of the Buffers acting high and mighty.”

“There’s no guarantee that I won’t do the same, right?”

“I’m sure some of them are curious as well. The Debuff Master is a rare class, right? I tried searching for it, but it said that there’s no such class. Even I couldn’t help but think that it’s a hidden class.”

“There’s no way,” he said, feigning ignorance.

His life would become troublesome the moment everyone found out that he had a hidden class.

Why?

The top ten Guilds would never stop harassing him with their recruitment offers.

‘Things might become comfortable if I enter a Guild since they will boost me for free, take me on boss raids, and equip me with items,’?Siegfried thought of the astonishing benefits he would stand to gain if he were to enter one of the top guilds.

However, he knew very well that there was no free lunch in this world.

‘They will squeeze me dry until I cough up everything I had received from them.’

He would quickly reach Level 200 if he were to join a top Guild, but he would end up just being another cogwheel playing the game solely for the Guild’s benefits afterward. He had to give as much as he had received. No, he had to give more than what he had received.

‘Let’s keep things under wraps until my first advancement…’?

Siegfried made a decision to hide the fact that the Debuff Master was a hidden class.

It was impossible for anyone to know the rank of a class before the particular player completed their first class advancement. It was because the names of everyone’s classes after their first advancement would be covered in a color, which would specify their class type, and the colors were as follows: purple for Normal, pink for Unique, emerald for Legendary, and gold for Hidden classes.

Nobody would know his class rank unless he told them about it.

“It’s a Unique class that’s only good at debuffing. I can’t do anything aside from casting debuffs,” Siegfried lied, and then he added some words to sound even more convincing, “I would have fought on the frontlines if I were a hidden class owner, you know? Why would I stay behind and just place my debuff circles?”

“Ah…” Gosran muttered.

“Anyway… I wanted to go hunt today, but I guess that’s not going to happen today since it’ll be impossible to enter the ruins while avoiding all those people…” Siegfried said.

“That is not the case at all! In fact, you now have the right to decide,” she said.

“Right to decide…?”

“You can just party up with strong people, right? Siegfried-nim can be considered a noble of this area now, so you have the right to select whom you are going to party up with, and you won’t have to worry about being bad-mouthed as long as you don’t start bossing people around like those Buffers,” Gosran explained.

“That’s too bothersome…” Siegfried muttered.

It was exhausting to check and vet each and every party applicant and then compare them to other candidates. It was a job that required attention to minor details.

“I will do all of that,” Gosran suddenly said.

“You will?” Siegfried muttered in surprise.

“Yes,” Gosran replied with a smile, and then she continued, “I will make sure that Siegfried-nim will be satisfied with the party I will form if you leave it to me, but you have to let me join the party, okay?”

It was an interesting proposal. After all, Siegfried wanted to hunt, but he found the whole process of setting up a party bothersome, while Gosran wanted to stay in a party with him. It was a perfect situation where they both wanted something from each other. In addition, they could satisfy each other’s needs as well.

“Then, can I leave it up to you?” he asked.

“Yes! Just give me thirty minutes, and I will make sure you’re satisfied,” Gosran said with a confident smile.

***

After thirty minutes, Gosran returned to the secluded forest with three other Adventurers with her.

“Siegfried-nim! I’m back!” Gosran called out.

“Is this guy the Debuffer?”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Your debuffs were awesome! I’m looking forward to working with you! Haha!”

The Adventurers greeted Siegfried in their own ways.

“It’s my pleasure to meet you as well,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

However…

‘What’s up with these guys…?’?he thought while inspecting them.

The Adventurers Gosran brought with her were all equipped with not-so-ordinary-looking equipment.

“Now, it’s time to pay up,” Gosran said toward the Adventurers.

Then, the Adventurers each retrieved a silver—was worth five thousand won—and handed them over to Siegfried.

“What… is this…?” he muttered in confusion.

“It’s the boost fee,” Gosran said with a smile.

“Boost fee?!” Siegfried exclaimed in disbelief.

A boost fee was usually paid by low-level players so that high-level players would accompany them into dungeons and hunt the monsters in their stead, so they could level up faster. However, it was unprecedented to see a player paying such a fee to someone on the same level as them.

“Yes, boost fee,” Gosran confirmed.

“Why should I charge a boost fee?” Siegfried asked, seemingly confused.

“That’s because hunting with you is as fast as hunting with a booster,” Gosran explained with a smile.

“…!”

“However, I charged them less than the market rate since they will have to kill the monsters themselves,” Gosran added.

“Oh my god…” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

“There’s no need to be burdened. Look at them; they are all financially better than you,” Gosran whispered to him.

‘Yeah… I can tell from their equipment alone…’?Siegfried could tell that she was right since they were armed with expensive equipment despite being low-leveled players.

“It’s a silver per person, so that will be three silvers because there are three of them, and three silvers should be worth around fifteen thousand won, so you are earning the minimum wage in real-life per hour while hunting. They also promised to hand over all of the Shard of Lightning to Siegfried-nim, so you are profiting off of that too,” Gosran explained.

“Wow…” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

It was safe to assume that Gosran was Siegfried’s manager at this point.

“Now, shall we get moving? Just give me ten minutes,” Gosran said before she started drawing a teleportation magic circle on the ground. She no longer had a teleport scroll, and she was a low-leveled magician, so she could not instantly cast the spell.

After ten minutes, she finally completed the magic circle and extended her hand toward Siegfried.

“Shall we get going?”

***

Siegfried became a booster through a strange turn of events as he entered the [Sohoca Ruins: South] with them to start hunting.

The hunt proceeded quickly…

“Wow! They’re just melting! They’re melting, I tell you!”

“This is crazy… It took us less than ten minutes to take care of a wave…”

“Wow… I’ve never seen anything like this before…!”

The Adventurers could not help but be shocked at the insane hunting speed thanks to Siegfried’s debuffs. The hunting proceeded much faster than the previous party since the party members this time around were armed with better equipment.

However, they weren’t the only ones benefiting from the hunt.

[You are now Level 41!]

[You are now Level 42!]

Siegfried’s level rose incredibly quickly as well.

‘This is amazing…!’?Siegfried thought. He couldn’t help but acknowledge Gosran’s idea.

He was literally killing two birds—no, three birds with one stone since he was leveling up and earning gold on top of the Shard of Lightning dropped by the monsters.

After the hunt…

“Thank you for your hard work today.”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

Siegfried and Gosran bid goodbye to their party members and headed for the Intervention Hotel.

“S-Siegfried-nim…?”

“Yes?”

“Will you be hunting tomorrow as well?”

“I have to...”

“Then…”

“I’ll be in your care tomorrow as well.”

“R-Really?!”

“Let’s meet tomorrow at ten in the morning. Goodbye, then,” Siegfried said before he went into the hotel lobby.

“Ah, right. I…!” Gosran shouted. She called out to him, but Siegfried had already vanished into the lobby and logged out of the game.

“I wanted to ask for your number…” Gosran could only say to herself.

***

Siegfried’s boosting services quickly spread through word of mouth.

And it resulted in…

“Double!”

“Double on the double!”

“Double on the double? Then, I’ll double on the double of that double!”

The number of Adventurers wanting to party with Siegfried appeared from all over the place.

‘Ah… what the hell is going on?’?Siegfried thought. He could not make heads or tails of the situation.

However, the Adventurers’ response was only natural.

Most players hunting at Sohoca Ruins were sick and tired of the tyranny of the low-leveled Buffers, and they were quite frustrated by the fact that they had to kowtow to those people. In fact, there were even a few Buffers brazen enough to charge exorbitant boosting fees.

Siegfried’s appearance in the midst of everything was like rain in a drought.

He did charge the same boosting fee as the Buffers, but his debuffs made the hunting speed as fast as the boosting services provided by high-leveled players, and this made the Adventurers want to party with him no matter what.

“Siegfried-nim,” Gosran called out.

“Yes?” Siegfried asked in response.

“I will start handing out queue stubs, so please rest assured,” Gosran explained.

Siegfried had nothing to worry about thanks to Gosran, who had basically volunteered to become his manager.

‘I wonder when I can fill this lightning attribute energy up…’?Siegfried wondered while Gosran was busy handing out queue stubs to the Adventurers lining up.

‘It’s already over forty…’?

He had absorbed every single Shard of Lightning he came across, but there were no signs of any of his skills being enhanced. He was starting to notice that it was becoming a pattern. The Debuff Master’s skill tree was vague like it was hidden behind a veil, which made it extremely difficult for Siegfried to plan things out.

Gathering lightning attribute energy was a grind more laborious than doing repeating quests since he did not get much energy from the lowest-grade, low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade, and highest-grade Shard of Lightning. He could speed things up by focusing on only gathering the highest-grade shards, but their drop rate wasn’t that great compared to shards of the lower ranks

‘How much more do I have to pour into this…?’?he inwardly grumbled.

“Let’s get moving, Siegfried-nim,” Gosran said, interrupting Siegfried’s train of thought.

It seemed that she was done handing out queue stubs to the Adventurers in that short period of time.

‘Ah… screw it. Something should happen if I just keep on doing it…’?Siegfried thought.

He decided that he would be patient for now and continue the grind.