Debuff Master

Chapter 39

The hunt disguised as a boosting service continued. Siegfried reaped quite the profit after devouring the experience points and the boosting fee on top of the Shard of Lightning his party members gave him.

However, that did not last long…

‘I’m slowly getting bored…’?Siegfried thought. His body started itching since what he had been doing so far was basically just placing debuff circles from the backlines.

[You are now Level 43!]

[You are now Level 44!]

His level continued to increase in the midst of his boredom.

[Alert: You will soon be able to learn a new skill once you reach Level 45!]

[Alert: You may check the details of the new skill you may learn from the ‘My Skills’ page in your status screen.]

Then, the veil surrounding the details of his Level 45 skill was finally lifted.

“Let’s take a five-minute break. I have something to do,” Siegfried stopped his party from going onto the next stage.

The party members immediately agreed to take a break.

“Of course, we do need to take a break from time to time!”

“Hyung, just let us know once you are ready!”

“No one here will object! Haha!”

It seemed that nobody was willing to go against anything Siegfried would say.

‘Let’s see…’?Siegfried inwardly muttered as he tapped on ‘My Skill’ and checked the Debuff Master’s Level 45 skill.

[Flying Spur]

[An offensive skill that allows the user to set a target before throwing their weapon.]

[The weapon thrown will follow the target for five seconds.]

[You may retrieve your weapon after using this skill.]

[This skill deals twice the damage of Smite, and the damage inflicted increases the further away the target.]

[This skill’s cooldown will be three times the cooldown of Smite.]

The Debuff Master’s Level 45 skill was a ranged skill that reminded Siegfried of a homing missile.

‘Oh, it follows the target and comes back to me? And it deals twice the damage of Smite. Isn’t this perfect for sniping?’?Siegfried thought as his expression brightened after reading the skill description.

The fact that the skill had a long cooldown was a minus, but it was still a huge boost to him since he had no ranged attacks until now. Still, it wouldn’t become one of his main offensive skills since the Flying Spur’s main use was to attack a target from a distance when it was necessary.

“Let’s go,” Siegfried said with a smile.

Whenever he gained a new skill, he would always be on cloud nine. It was no different this time around.

“Siegfried-nim, did something good happen?” Gosran asked.

“Not really,” Siegfried replied with a shrug, and then he said, “Come, let’s go hunt.”

He wanted to reach Level 45 as soon as possible so that he could learn Flying Spur and test it out.

***

[You are now Level 45!]

Siegfried finally reached Level 45 the next evening while hunting deep inside Sohoca Ruin, and he could finally learn ‘Flying Spur.’

Clap! clap! clap!

His party members clapped and congratulated him.

“Congratulations!”

“Hyung, you are Level 45 already? I guess you will graduate from this place soon?”

“Wow! Look at his leveling speed! Awesome!”

Then, one of his party members suddenly said, “Hyung! You need to reach Level 50! Shall we hunt till the morning? Let’s go, go, go!”

Unfortunately for them, Siegfried had other plans.

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‘I’ll go for another round, then it’s time to hunt solo,’?Siegfried thought. He no longer wanted to continue hunting as a party.

He could feel that his instincts as a DPS player would go berserk sooner or later because he basically didn’t do anything in the past few days. Hunting as a party was the most efficient method of leveling up for him, but today would be an exemption. Siegfried was itching to try out just how strong he was as a Level 45 Debuff Master.

***

Five minutes before their hunt was supposed to end for the day, an incident occurred.

Bam!

When one of the party members slammed their warhammer toward a ‘Lightning Shadow,’ cracks suddenly appeared on the ground.

Crack…!

“Huh…?”

The party members tilted their heads in confusion while staring at the ground.

Drruuu!

And it suddenly collapsed…

***

“What the hell…” Siegfried muttered. He was shocked when his vision suddenly turned black.

[Status Ailment!]

[You are stunned!]

All of a sudden, he was stunned.

“The ground collapsed, and I fell, so I got stunned… Is that what happened?” Siegfried grumbled as he assessed the situation. After all, the person in the VR capsule would not get stunned just because their in-game character got stunned.

[5 seconds remaining!]

[4… 3… 2… 1…!]

[You have come back to your senses!]

His vision slowly came back, but he could not help but feel nauseous all of sudden.

“Ughh…”

“W-Where are we?”

“What the hell happened?”

“Are you guys alright?”

“What happened just now?”

The party members seemed confused.

Then, a message suddenly popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Sohoca Ruins Underground: Laboratory of the Church of Osric]

He could not understand the message.

“Church of Osric…?” Siegfried muttered in confusion as even he, who was a veteran BNW player, had never heard of the Church of Osric before.

“Don’t tell me… This isn’t a hidden dungeon, right?” Gosran muttered.

Her words shocked everyone else.

“Hidden… dungeon…?”

“Don’t tell me!”

“No way!”

“Awesome!”

The party members exclaimed in surprise.

‘Is this really a hidden dungeon?’?Siegfried thought in surprise.

Just as its name stated, a hidden dungeon was a secret place with special monsters or quests waiting for those who discovered it first.

‘If this is really a hidden dungeon, then… we hit the jackpot…!’?

It was a tremendous opportunity for him since there was a chance that the quest or the special monsters in this place would give them generous rewards.

“What should we do now?” Gosran asked Siegfried.

“What else can we do? We should push on,” Siegfried replied.

“But…” Gosran hesitated.

After all, a hidden dungeon was usually the most dangerous and difficult area to clear on a map.

“Then, should we just give up even though we just found a hidden dungeon?” Siegfried asked.

“…”

“We need to clear a hidden dungeon as soon as we find it, or other people will snatch it away. And...” Siegfried said before he leaned forward and whispered into Gosran’s ears, “Can you trust all of them?”

“What?” Gosran muttered while seemingly taken aback.

“Do you really think those guys will just back off just because we decided to back off? If I was them… I would call everyone I know to come here and monopolize this hidden dungeon,” Siegfried said.

“Ah…!” Gosran gasped. She finally understood what he was trying to say.

A hidden dungeon was finder's keepers, and it was usually best to clear it as soon as it was found, so one could monopolize the riches and rewards.

“Another party could come while we dilly-dally here,” Siegfried added.

“You’re right,” Gosran replied with a nod.

“There’s a saying that perfectly fits our situation,” Siegfried said as he started walking forward before turning around and saying, “It’s all or nothing.”

There was no way he could simply walk away from an opportunity like this just because it was going to be dangerous.

***

The party members agreed with Siegfried’s ‘all or nothing’ reasoning and decided to try and conquer the hidden dungeon that they had chanced upon. Not one of them raised any objection.

‘Items! Let’s go and get some items!’

‘A hidden dungeon… I wonder how much I can earn from this…?’

‘Who knew a day like this was going to come to me?!’

They were all excited at the prospects of striking it rich.

“Huh?” Siegfried muttered. He squinted his eyes and looked into the darkness before saying, “There’s someone over there.”

“What is it?” Gosran asked.

“A person,” Siegfried replied while pointing about fifty meters in front of him.

“Keuh…”?the person Siegfried found was lying on the ground moaning in pain.

“Are you alright?” Gosran asked.

She tried to approach the person, but Siegfried suddenly stopped her and said, “Wait.”

“Did you want to approach that person?” asked Siegfried.

“Huh..? But that person is—” Gosran started.

However, Siegfried cut her off again and said, “This is a dungeon.”

“…!”

“Don’t trust anyone except for your party members,” Siegfried added.

“Ah…!” Gosran exclaimed upon realizing what he meant.

Yes, this was a dungeon, and they obviously had to be careful of anyone or anything they encountered here. This unwritten rule applied especially to a person since they could just be something pretending to be a ‘human.’

‘In fact, I can’t even fully trust my own party members...’?Siegfried muttered inwardly.

He learned that nobody could be trusted the hard way by going through all sorts of hardships on the Nürburg Continent. However, he didn’t feel the need to say that out loud.

“Are you alright?” Siegfried asked the person from about five meters away.

“Keuh…?W-Who are you…?” the man asked.

“We are Adventurers,” Siegfried replied.

“Adventurers…?” the man muttered before looking at the back of Siegfried’s hand. There, he saw the mark that differentiated an Adventurer from a Nürburgian.

A player would possess the Rune of Insight which allowed them to access their status window, and the Rune of Transcendence which allowed them to level up.

“I see… So you people are Adventurers… That’s a relief, that’s really a huge relief…” the man muttered.

“What do you mean?” Siegfried asked.

“I’m a member of a secret organization called the Guardians. We exist to protect the continent from evildoers and maintain peace throughout the land…” the man explained.

“Hmm…”

“I came to this place, Sohoca Ruins, after receiving a report that there was a seed of evil growing in this place, but I ended up failing my mission… Keuhuek!”?the man suddenly grabbed his chest and groaned in agony. He collected his breath before continuing, “We almost succeeded… but their resistance was too fierce… We had no choice but to retreat… However… we still have a chance… we might be able to stop them if we go now. Y-You… will you go and stop the Church of Osric in our stead?”

Then, a message popped up in front of Siegfried and the others.

“What do we have to do?” Siegfried asked.

“Destroy their laboratory… destroy the five remaining Energy Orbs and kill the snake in the incubation room. A disaster will fall upon the continent if that snake is revived… Cough! Cough!”?the man coughed blood. He gasped for air and squeezed the vestiges of his strength to ask, “Will you… do it? We don’t have much time left…”

“I will,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

Ding!

The quest details appeared.

[Stop the Church of Osric]

[Type: Hidden Quest]

[Destroy the Energy Orbs at the Church of Osric’s laboratory and stop their evil plans by killing the boss monster.]

[Progress: 0%]

[Energy Orbs Destroyed (0/5)]

[Boss Monster Killed (0/1)]

[Rewards: The rewards will be bestowed after the boss monster’s death.]

[Caution: The boss monster will grow stronger the longer it takes you to destroy the Energy Orbs.]

Siegfried and the party members reviewed the quest details.

“Will you really do it…?” the man asked.

“Yes, I will,” Siegfried replied.

“T-Thank you! Thank you very much—Cough! Cough!”?the man said before coughing up more blood. He wheezed for a while before he collected himself and said, “Be careful… those Osric guys are strong, and they are evil as well…”

“I will keep that in mind,” Siegfried replied.

“May luck… be with you all… You must succeed no matter…” the man said his last words.

Thud…!

And then he died…

“S-Siegfried-nim!” Gosran exclaimed.

Siegfried shook his head and replied, “There’s no need.”

“A dagger pierced his heart, and his intestines were spilling out. Even a high-leveled ranker can’t heal him,” he said.

“But…” Gosran muttered.

“The only thing we can do for him is to clear this dungeon,” Siegfried said as he paused for a moment and looked at the man lying motionlessly before continuing, “That’s why we should hurry up and—”

While he was speaking, a ruckus from within the dungeon interrupted him.

“Over there!”

“Catch them!”

“Kill them all!”

A bunch of people draped with dark robes and cone hats on their heads with hideous-looking masks ran toward them with torches.

They were from the Church of Osric.