novelraw Chapter 154 : The Labyrinth of Tranquility - (2)
Chapter 154 : The Labyrinth of Tranquility - (2)
Chapter 154: The Labyrinth of Tranquility - (2)
‘The provocation is one thing, but the fact that he can instantly kill an opponent with a single blow is even more noteworthy.’
Han Hyunjeong, who had been watching the situation, thought to herself. Sanghyun’s possession of various status effect skills was no longer surprising.
Of course, she hadn’t expected him to have a provocation skill, but she still considered it possible—because it was Sanghyun.
What surprised Han Hyunjeong was the condition of the monster that had died in one hit. That meant the damage dealt was more than sufficient.
Though it was a mental-type monster with low durability, it wasn’t the kind that could be killed so easily.
Usually, creatures that controlled an entire area like this had defensive modifiers for stability.
But Sanghyun’s first strike became the monster’s last.
That meant his value was continuing to rise.
‘In terms of burst damage too, this means Mr. Sanghyun has a solid repertoire. For a swordsman, whether they have burst skills or not is incredibly important.’
Although she had done quite a bit of research on Sanghyun before signing a sponsorship contract with him, it wasn’t like she knew everything.
In fact, the media also focused heavily on his various status effect skills, and public opinion followed suit.
Some even mocked Sanghyun by calling him a status-effect shuttle, devaluing his worth.
But now, the version of Sanghyun that Han Hyunjeong saw made status effects feel more like a bonus.
It wasn’t that he had only status effects—he also had them, in addition to other powerful abilities.
Srrrrrk.
With the monster’s death, the surroundings that seemed full of abundance and happiness all faded away.
In their place stood mountains of corpses piled up endlessly on all sides.
Like viewing the Wailing Wall, corpses were heaped in layers. The stench was beyond words.
“Out of the three paths, two are safe, and one has odorless, colorless toxic gas.”
Han Hyunjeong reminded them.
It was something mentioned during the briefing, but it was good to emphasize it again. People often forgot.
“The advance team took detox potions while moving forward, right?”
“Yeah. There was no way to distinguish them. Similar gas leaked even from safe zones, and it didn’t show up on scans.”
“I have a different idea. Would you trust me? It might take a little time.”
“We came here together—if I don’t trust you, who else would I trust?”
“Just a few buffs, please.”
Han Hyunjeong specialized in scouting, but she was also a buffer. She had a slightly different style from Do Kyunghye, another buffer.
While Do Kyunghye specialized in damage and defense amplification—
Han Hyunjeong specialized in elemental buffs.
For instance, giving Sanghyun a wind attribute buff to enhance the power of updrafts.
So in raids that required maximizing elemental power, her efficiency was top-notch.
◎ Wrath of the Storm
◎ Increases damage of wind-based skills by 50%.
The buff was activated immediately.
Useless to players without elemental skills, but it meant something entirely different to Sanghyun.
“Well then.”
Sanghyun stood at the center of the three-way split path. This area was a safe zone free from toxic gas.
Han Hyunjeong opened her mouth to stop him but closed it again. She wanted to see what he had in mind.
“Let’s keep it simple.”
『Steel Storm』
Sanghyun immediately activated the skill. A precious and powerful skill obtained from the God of Storms!
Rummmble! Rummmble!
As soon as the skill activated, a massive tornado began to form around Sanghyun.
It felt as though the wind was rotating fiercely around him, with Sanghyun as the central axis.
‘Focus, focus.’
With his eyes closed—
Sanghyun concentrated all his focus to amplify the wind energy revolving around him.
His mana continued to deplete by 10 per tick, but under Sanghyun’s active control, the wind remained stable.
How much time had passed?
Roooaaar!
A massive tornado, like one from a disaster movie, began spinning violently around Sanghyun.
It was so powerful that Han Hyunjeong had to step back over ten paces.
Yet Sanghyun, standing at the center, appeared tranquil, as if in meditation.
And then—
Craaaaash!
The now-enlarged Steel Storm began to strike the wall of corpses. It was a head-on collision.
Krrrk! Crack!
Several scratching noises were followed by—
Rattle-rattle-rattle!
As the tightly packed corpses’ rigid formation began to split, the bodies started to scatter in all directions.
“This is…”
Han Hyunjeong’s eyes widened.
It was something she never even considered. In a way, it was the most rational method.
There was no need to proceed while drinking detox potions worth hundreds of millions of won per bottle.
Han Hyunjeong realized what Sanghyun had been aiming for.
‘He’s trying to bring down the corpse wall entirely to lower the concentration of toxic gas. That would create space.’
Kraaaash!
Eventually, the wall of corpses, its center of mass collapsed, came tumbling down like a row of dominoes.
The seemingly impassable wall transformed into a wide-open clearing!
Fssshhhh! Psssshhhhh!
And naturally, the origin of the toxic gas leak was revealed.
Along with it, undead monsters hiding in the corpse wall’s gaps or nearby were also exposed.
They had such low durability that they crumbled just from a brush with Sanghyun’s Demon Cleaver.
“Sometimes, dumb methods like this actually work really well.”
Sanghyun looked at Han Hyunjeong and smiled. He called it dumb, but Han Hyunjeong thought otherwise.
‘This shows that depending on the skills one has, even common sense can be overturned.’
That was it exactly.
Because he had a skill powerful enough to destroy a solid wall, such an unconventional approach was possible.
‘At this rate, I might just fall for him.’
Han Hyunjeong smiled.
Not romantically, but as a fellow player, she admired Sanghyun’s versatility.
How many players would ever think to destroy a wall? Very few.
“Well then, it’s the master’s time now. My eyesight is pretty bad, you see.”
“I’ve just been a buff shuttle riding the bus until now. Finally, time to earn my keep. Hoho.”
Han Hyunjeong stepped forward.
Skill: High-Magnification Observation.
A reconnaissance skill that allowed for ultra-detailed observation, far beyond ordinary scopes.
Even globally, there wasn’t a single player who could observe with higher magnification than Han Hyunjeong.
In a labyrinth, the key was cooperation.
Now that the time for 'strength' had ended—
The time for ‘sight’ had begun.
* * *
The entrance of the labyrinth was always designed in a way that forced players to make a choice.
Usually, they were presented with two or three paths and had to choose one.
One or two of the paths would be safe routes, but the location of these routes changed each time, so there was never a guaranteed correct answer.
Even if the far-left path was safe this time, it could become a trap route the next time.
The path that Han Hyunjeong and Sanghyun faced was no different.
There were three total paths.
Two of them were safe routes with nothing in the way, but they were complete swamplands, so movement had to be cautious.
One path was a trap route, with a carnivorous plant called "Beltas" hiding inside, but it was solid ground.
The problem was that you couldn’t tell whether it was swamp or solid just by looking. It was all covered in illusion.
“I’ve found the safe routes. Left and right. The middle is the trap. There’s a slight dissonance in the texture of the ground.”
“I can’t tell at all. How do you figure that out?”
“Isn’t it rude to ask a player who’s made it to just before level 500 such a thing? Hoho.”
She had a point.
The reason Han Hyunjeong had been able to grow under the severe restriction of her no-kill policy was because of her usefulness.
She could see things others couldn’t.
And with elemental buffs, she made each team member perform like 1.5 or 2 people instead of just one.
That alone made her highly valuable, and she was a player the world paid attention to.
“Shall we change into something more comfortable first?”
Han Hyunjeong removed her outer garment. Because of the swamp.
Since it was a place they’d have to step into anyway, and would definitely get dirty, it made sense to reduce what she wore.
It was exactly the same method as when Sanghyun had to cross a swamp to obtain the blood-drinking sword in the past.
Although Sanghyun had initially gone along with her strategy for practical reasons… something about it left him unsatisfied.
“Master.”
“Yes?”
“I just thought of a good idea.”
“…Why does that suddenly make me uneasy?”
Han Hyunjeong joked.
Since entering the labyrinth with Sanghyun, she had never once felt uneasy. He had been full of confidence from the very beginning.
In fact, she was looking forward to it.
Every time, Sanghyun broke through situations with unconventional thinking, so she wondered if he had another clever move in mind.
“If we go through the path with Beltas, we wouldn’t have to strip down completely. No need to see each other naked, right?”
“That’s true. Are you feeling that shy? Haven’t we passed the age of reacting to nudity?”
“Haha, it’s not that. I think there might be a way to walk through on our own two feet.”
“I always respect your opinion, Mr. Sanghyun. Go ahead! I’ll support you with all I’ve got!”
“Very well then.”
Sanghyun positioned himself on the trap route. Since the path bent midway, Beltas wasn’t visible right away.
Sanghyun asked.
“Just tell me Beltas’s location. A rough sketch or gesture in the air is fine too.”
“Hold on. I’ll use my clairvoyance again.”
Han Hyunjeong inspected the wall using one of her skills, Super Clairvoyance.
It was a rare ability that allowed her to see through anything blocking the way.
And then—
Scratch, scratch. Slide, slide.
She pulled out a crumpled white piece of paper from her pocket, crumpled and flattened it into a rough map shape.
“It’s here.”
She pinpointed the exact location.
“If that thing weren’t guarding the path, this would be a totally viable route, right?”
“It would. The only problem is that Beltas can suddenly change the shape of the path. But if we can kill it, it becomes a completely safe route.”
『Tempest Rampage』
Sanghyun stood firm and immediately began preparing Tempest Rampage.
Beltas was positioned in a blind spot that couldn’t be hit with normal skills.
In fact, previous raids had determined that even curved magical skills with good tracking couldn’t hit it.
But—
‘If it’s my old pool shot skills, that’s a different story!’
Sanghyun wasn’t looking toward Beltas’s location at all—he was focusing on another part of the path.
A perfect ricochet!
He had spotted the perfect angle to strike Beltas directly in the body with a clean hit.
And then—
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The condensed bursts of wind from Tempest Rampage fired consecutively from the Demon Cleaver.
Five hits in total!
A bold combo that consumed 500 mana without hesitation.
Fsssshhhhh!
The sound of wind tearing through the air followed.
Thunk!
A heavy first impact and ricochet.
Clang!
A slightly lighter but still powerful second impact and rebound.
And then—
Thud!
Screeeeeeeech!
A deafening screech unmistakably came from Beltas, resonating from the blind spot.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
The remaining four hits from the Tempest Rampage combo landed perfectly as a bonus.
A strategy for the trap route that no one had even considered. It was the moment Sanghyun opened a new horizon.
“……”
Han Hyunjeong was speechless.