| Author: Starving Wind | Original Source: Joara | Word Count: 5151 characters |
| Translator: Anonymouss | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 3155 words |
| Editor(s): Silva | ||
“[Yulruhrah chamkkae.1]”
Staring at the gigantic door, I used a Korean sentence that I haven’t used for such a long time. It was an incantation(?) that I would often speak out of habit whenever I saw a door that’s closed completely.
Of course, the door didn’t open. It would have been really awkward if it did, wouldn’t it?
“Whatchu doin?”
“What did you say?”
The group started to question what I did just then. As I waved my hand dismissively back at them telling them it was nothing important, they all looked as if they were disappointed.
[What did you say just then?]But it was only Katalina who didn’t let it go so easily.
[Just something that kind of means ‘please open the door’.][I guess it really is nothing.]
Katalina sounded disappointed, I wondered what her intention was in asking me that question. Even so, Katalina probably wouldn’t tell me even if I ask.
“Hmm, since it has a keyhole and everything, perhaps we should hunt down monsters until one of them drops a key?”
Examining the door from top to bottom, Esther cautiously spoke her assumption about the lock.
“It really does have a keyhole. Sigh… I guess we really have to do that.”
Hearing Esther’s guess, Katalina looked over at the hole that Esther pointed at and then sighed as if she found it bothersome.
“Move over a moment.”
As someone who had a long experience in raid dungeons, I’ve tried and done various things to clear them before, which was why I thought this method I had in mind might be worth trying out.
Everyone looked at me with suspicion in their eyes, but of course, stood out of the way for me.
“So that I can break it down.”
Since I feel that I needed to answer their curiosity, I answered as if it was a very simple solution.
“Hah!”
“Hmm…?”
“Whoa…”
Various different reactions came from each of the party members. Though in the past there definitely were doors that I needed to open with a key, I remembered when I once found it a bother to find the key and ended up just breaking down the whole door itself instead, so maybe it works out this time too. Back then I needed to bash at the door repeatedly for a while in order to break it down, but we’re in a slightly different situation now.
Stepping back a bit, I took a stance on the ground. I was barely on the edge of the safe zone of the dungeon.
“Requiem?”
I nodded in reply to Katalina’s question.
And then activated Requiem at the same time. But as opposed to the other times I activated the skill, I took a stance where I practically stopped still with only the sword held up in my hands.
My mana started to get drained at an amazing rate but as I had quite a large amount of mana in reserve which is unusual for a warrior type character, it took 20 whole seconds for me to suck up all the mana I had and convert it to the energy needed for the skill.
The white aura that had been surrounding the sword swirling like it was wreathed in flame slowly turned into a mystical green hue. Even as someone who had often used Requiem, it was the first time I was seeing such a phenomenon.
But I wasn’t able to enjoy the view for long, as I saw my mana reserves hitting the bottom and knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep this up any longer.
Finally getting out of the activation stance for the skill, I swung towards the door.
[True Requiem]The mystical green aura that manifested itself around the Excalibur then rushed straight towards the door. Soon the powerful green sword beam that clashed against the door heated the area a bit before soon disappearing.
As opposed to the astounding visual effect it had, the dissipation of the aura was pathetic and quick. I was about to say that the original Requiem was better when…
“!!”
I was completely astonished. The heavy metal door that seemed to not budge at all started to turn into dust and dissipate into the air. On top of that, there was a row of golem monster remains that stretched in a line behind where the door used to be, making me utterly at a loss for words.
“Balance destroyer.”
“Absolute beast.”
Katalina and Esther came back to their senses relatively fast, as they each gave their short impression of what just happened. Sermian and Ashley in the meantime were still in shock. I mean, even I was shocked, so of course, they’d be astonished…
“In any case, we’ve succeeded in getting through the door, so let’s go already. It will be a pain in the back if they were to respawn again.”
“Ah… ah! Yes, yes.”
“Y-yes… of course.”
The two of them finally snapped out of their stunned expressions and nodded after I urged them to move on.
Even though the path was huge inside, the actual path that we could move in was extremely narrow. The reason was that the remains of the destroyed golems lying around in various places after getting destroyed by my skill.
Just destroying the door itself was an amazing feat, but it had also taken down mob monsters behind it as well. On top of that, they were golems which were considered the top of master tier monsters within the game.
“Looks like most of them were Iron Golems.”
“It seems like this one that died here was a Crystal Golem…”
“There’s a Mythril Golem here too!”
Staring at the remains of the golems as we walked by, the companions spoke about what they saw amongst the bodies. Even though the weakest of all of them are the Iron Golems, they were still much tougher than a Spartoi Knight. So obviously the Crystal Golems and Mithril Golems would be even more of a challenge. Yet every one of them was utterly destroyed together with that gigantic door.
Even though I did make use of every mana point I had available, I didn’t think that it could result in such a powerful attack. True Requiem, huh? Actually, now that I checked, it seemed like I was at 1 HP and 1 MP.
“W… wait! Miss Sermian, Miss Ashley, please stop for a moment.”
I hurriedly asked the party to come to a stop. Then I called for the two healers behind us.
“What is it?”
Sermian and Ashley replied to my beckoning.
“Could you heal me a bit?”
I gave a request, with an awkward smile on my face.
“Hmm? A heal?”
“Yes. When I use the skill that I had unleashed just then, I end up using quite a lot of my health.”
“Aha!”
As if she finally understood, she nodded her head and began casting healing spells to me.
[Recovery]The most powerful healing spell was cast upon me by the two healers at the same time. It was a continuous healing spell that uses as much mana as you are willing to put into it.
“Is that enough now?”
“Are we done?”
As the two of them finish casting the spell, they ask me if it was enough healing for now. I looked over at the health gauge. It would have been great if it was completely filled, but I was only two-thirds full.
“Ahh, it filled up quite a lot thanks to you. I’ll take care of the remaining amount that I need to fill with my potions, so please take these mana potions and fill your mana back up.”
Though it was definitely more efficient to refill your health by getting healed by someone else than to use potions for it, that only applied in a situation where you cannot drink a potion, so I decided to just drink one instead.
“Eh!? You’re saying you’re not filled back to full? No way.”
Taking the mana potions that I handed over to them, Sermian and Ashley both shouted out loud in disbelief.
“I may not heal as much, but I’m definitely sure that the amount of health that Ashley heals with her spells is quite high… On top of that, it was a ‘Recovery’ spell as well.”
“Miss Sermian, you don’t seem to know but Miss Artoria’s maximum health rivals that of a raid boss monster.”
Esther answered Sermian’s question instead for me.
“Eeep…”
Sermian and Ashley both looked at me with frightened expressions on their faces. You know, I feel very sad to see such beauties looking at me like I’m a monster.
I mean, I just have a little(?) more health than most people, that’s all.
I didn’t have much to say to that, so I just pulled out a potion to drink it down instead. Since I needed to not only drink health potions but also mana potions as well, the party stopped and waited for me to completely refill both of the consumed amounts of health and mana.
“Actually, Miss Artoria, is it really okay for you to tell us about how your health is consumed in order for you to use that skill? I’m pretty sure it should be some secret that you won’t share…”
Sermian asked just as I had finished drinking down all of the potions. She was definitely right about that. Though I don’t use that particular skill in case of duels, an unforeseen situation may occur in the future. The more people know of someone’s weakness, the more they are at a disadvantage.
But I also had a plan as well.
“That’s right, of course. But I think it’s an easy problem to solve since all you two need to do is join the Camelot alliance.”
“Ah!”
“Mmmh…”
Two healers who are at Bishop tier. On top of that, they were absolute beauties with no guild attached to their name. There’s honestly no bait more attractive than that.
Katalina gave an annoyed glare at me, while Esther had a vague subtle expression which I couldn’t read But it seems like both of them weren’t against the idea of taking the two people into the guild, so they are probably just agreeing with their silence.
“It’s fine if you don’t wish to take the offer. I would just be thankful if you both could keep it a secret.”
“I… I’ll think about it a bit.”
“Me too.”
“Sure.”
Though I didn’t hear a clear answer to my question, they seemed to be seriously considering it, and I felt that trying to pressure them would be bad so I just left at that, letting them solve the conundrum amongst themselves.
Anyhow, if they were forced to join a guild, from their position there was no better guild to join than the Camelot alliance. Though it was just a matter of time, even Tiara was difficult to persuade, so I wasn’t someone that’s petty enough to be annoyed from being rejected once.
[It seems like you’re improving in your ways of flirting with others every day.]Hearing Katalina’s words which I couldn’t tell whether they were compliments or sarcastic, I just laughed out loud.
[I need to have some guild members under my direct command as well you know. Please understand, Katalina, please?][You’re planning to fill it up with nothing but girls, aren’t you?]
[Hmm…]
Speaking of which, just as Katalina had said, all the people that I persuaded to join the guild had been female. I can’t say that wasn’t intentional but, it’s only two people so far!
[It was just a coincidence that it ended up this way, I didn’t intend for things to work this way. I mean, it’s you that introduced those two girls, right?][Well that’s…]
Seeing Katalina’s reply start to trail off as if she couldn’t find an answer to reply I decided to finish this argument right away.
[Are you doubting me right now? I’d feel sad if you are…][Ugh… Fine. I’ll believe you.]
With my half-joking and half-exaggerated begging, Katalina replied as if there was no helping it anymore.
“Sigh… I feel like I’m going to die at this rate.”
“Same.”
As opposed to the early half where things went smoothly, there was a sudden dramatic increase in difficulty as we went on so we didn’t have any time to even have a proper conversation.
I guess the one thing that’s good is that Esther and I were pretty good at coordinating our attacks together, while Sermian and Ashley had a very smart sense as they supported us in a variety of ways.
And of course, Katalina would sometimes unleash a giant area of effect spell on the enemies from time to time, allowing us to have some breathing room in between. She would also sparingly use support magic such as ‘Hold’ and ‘Paralyze’, but realizing that it was much more effective to cast large-scale magic spells rather than those small support skills, she opted to focus on those instead.
“To think a Dragonian would appear…”
That’s right. The reason why I said the difficulty of the dungeon had risen dramatically was because of this monster that just appeared. It was a monster at around 3 meters in height with the appearance of a humanoid lizard, together with high magic resistance, health, and attack power.
“Definitely seems like a ‘Lord’ tier monster, doesn’t he?”
I nodded in reply to Esther’s question. I also didn’t get to meet this kind of monster often even in my 5 years of playing the game, which was why I always had a hard time against it since I couldn’t figure out its pattern. In the first place, monsters at the ‘Lord’ tier are monsters that are unsuitable for hunting regularly for experience points. Each one of them are as strong as boss tier monsters, and they were powerful enough that they’d turn you into dust if they were to surround you.
If I could have figured out its attack pattern I would have had an easier time against it but I was fighting while having to protect two healers as well as assisting Esther, which made me unable to memorize its attack patterns.
To directly face the Dragonian with poor knowledge of its patterns could end up with me taking an unexpected critical wound so I had no choice but to slowly wear it down.
On top of that, the ‘Living Armor’ monster that appeared together with the Dragonian was an extremely difficult monster. Though the monster itself was placed at the bottom of the ‘master tier’ monsters, the sheer number of them appearing was what made it extremely difficult to handle. The moment I focus a little bit more on Dragonian, I get swarmed by Living Armors immediately.
‘I can’t use Requiem on him.’
If all the monsters were close combat orientated, I could gamble with some risk and mow them all down with a single Requiem, but the problem was with the Dragonian.
Since there was a mix of close combat monsters as well as mages, I may just end up dying if I were to not notice a magic spell being flung my way. On top of that, it hasn’t been that long since I’ve already used other areas of effect skills so I had to wait quite a long time in order to use them again.
There’s no helping it. Coming to the conclusion that it would be hard to deal with the continually increasing number of enemies, I gave up on the idea of dealing with every enemy at once and focused on the Dragonian instead. For my first move, I dashed towards the Dragonian that was right in front of my view. I ran while ignoring all of the attacks that the Living Armors were dealing aside from a few that may end up in a critical wound for me.
Numerous scratches appeared on my body which had never been damaged even once this whole time. However, the amount of health that I lost wasn’t that big.
[Miss Sermian and Miss Ashley, please focus your heals on Esther.]I requested that those two healers focus their heals on Esther who’s having a hard time cutting down monsters instead of me.
[But…][I can simply drink down a potion if I ever get into a bad situation after all.]
Stopping my conversation there, I wasn’t able to focus on hearing any more whispers. The Dragonian’s powerful claw was striking down towards me as if to rend me in half.
“Ugh!”
Barely blocking its attack in time, I kicked away a Living Armor that was trying to attack me while I had my sword locked in a clash with the Dragonian.
Though my attack didn’t damage it much, the impact was powerful enough to send it flying and get in the way of other Living Armors coming towards me.
Using that as a chance, I used my overwhelming strength to smack away the Dragonian’s claw. The Dragonian started to reel back from the sheer force that I exerted, feeling confused by the situation. As expected of a monster with low artificial intelligence, it was confused by the fact that it was beaten in terms of power and strength it normally never lose. Not letting the chance go by, I continued my attack by slashing away the Dragonian’s lizard head right off its neck.
Even though it certainly was a lord tier monster, with its head being sliced off it had suffered fatal damage and died on the spot. After taking one Dragonian down that way, Katalina’s area of effect attack blasted away a portion of Living Armors.
I flinched a bit as I felt a blast of heat from her spell, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be damaged in any way by it so I endured the heat and continued cutting down Living Armors.
- Kkkrgh…
I saw one Dragonian breath heavily in pain as it had half of its body completely burnt by Katalina’s spell, unfortunately, it had been standing in its area of effect. However, a monster misfortune was my fortune.
Without even using much of my strength, I swung towards the Dragonian who became stunned by the impact, to which I followed by immediately stabbing the Dragonian’s heart directly with my sword.
Not able to even let out a pained cry, the Dragonian died right away, finally giving me some space to breathe. However, the small amount of relief I found didn’t last long.
“Kyaaa!”
A sharp scream rang out suddenly. Surprised, I turned my head around to look at where the scream came from. A Dragonian’s claw had penetrated through Esther’s shoulder.
“Damn it.”
Without looking back even once, I immediately dashed towards Esther.
