novelraw Chapter 166 : Blood Tower - (2)
Chapter 166 : Blood Tower - (2)
Chapter 166: Blood Tower - (2)
Sgald.
A humanoid rhinoceros monster.
It was a walking reinforced fortress, clad in steel heavy armor and walking on two legs.
It was also the only obstacle in the process of Sanghyun reaping the benefits of the “777” title.
An epic-grade reward could be obtained from the seventh Artifact.
But the round where this guy would drop an Artifact was the sixth. Still, it was a mountain to cross.
Wohoooh! Wohoooh!
Sgald locked eyes with Sanghyun and snorted heavily, letting out the roar of a brave warrior.
A massive build.
Fully armed with heavy armor, it was hard to tell where to strike—his gaze couldn't find a weak spot.
Most likely, many Players had despaired after facing Sgald.
That’s because most Players hated monsters with high stamina or defense, the so-called “meat shields.”
It wasn’t out of any other reason—they just hated how long the fights took.
The longer the fight dragged on, the more it drained their energy and focus.
And that could ultimately lead to unpredictable variables.
Since the battlefield was one where a tiny mistake meant life or death, it was only natural to dislike Sgald.
“Hmm, just killing you feels like a waste, doesn’t it?”
But Sanghyun spoke something entirely unexpected toward Sgald.
A single line that flipped Sgald’s insides—thanks to the system’s interpretation that allowed him to understand human speech.
Wohooh?
Sgald tilted his head.
He had already killed dozens of humans who had entered this dungeon and devoured their flesh.
He had even eaten entire groups of four without leaving a single one behind. So if someone came alone?
It was like saying, “Please eat me,” and walking in. And yet this guy was talking about a waste?
Wurgh!
Sgald pointed his thick right index finger at Sanghyun. It was the gesture of, “You’re dead now.”
‘I haven’t had many chances to face charge-type monsters. Might as well test a few things while I’m at it.’
He tensed his body.
In truth, Sanghyun had long since finished calculating how to defeat Sgald.
But he had left Sgald alone because the monster was quite useful for training.
If he could dodge Sgald’s charge and parry its basic attacks with ease?
That meant he had the skill level to handle sword-based Players in the 300 to 350 range—especially those specialized in melee combat.
In short, to Sanghyun, Sgald was a kind of combat gauge. A very rare one at that.
“Come on. I’ll even close my eyes.”
Sanghyun taunted Sgald.
The guy was brave.
Which meant he was simple-minded.
If you tell him to come, he comes. If you tell him to go? He gets even more pissed and comes harder.
Thud!
Sanghyun planted his Frenzied Demon Blade deep into the dirt and gently closed his eyes.
Kugogogogo!
As expected, Sgald charged, furious. Like a scene from a bullfight, his charge had no retreat.
Paaang!
His speed was so fast that the air twisted momentarily and let out a bursting sound.
“Hmm.”
With a short grunt.
Fssst!
Sanghyun shifted his body lightly with quick footwork, using a sidestep evasion skill. It was a backstep.
Sgald had been certain that their bodies would collide.
But there was something he had missed.
Sanghyun’s backstep was much faster than Sgald had anticipated.
By the time Sgald’s front foot kicked off the ground, Sanghyun’s body had already moved far away.
Waaaargh!
Fuming with rage, Sgald crossed his massive arms together and tried to ram Sanghyun head-on.
Beast Charge.
It was a charging skill that Sgald mainly used.
This skill couldn’t be blocked with a sword or dodged with basic movement. It had a tracking function as well.
“Kgh!”
Sanghyun let out a deliberately panicked breath, letting out a raspy metallic sound. A smile curled at Sgald’s lips.
Of course.
Maybe you could dodge once or twice with tricks, but no more than that.
Because he was Sgald.
The eternal guardian of this dungeon and a warrior of the brave Kultros Tribe!
In the next moment.
Whooosh!
Sgald, who had charged with full force at Sanghyun, suddenly felt his body slicing through empty air.
Kugh?
This couldn’t be.
Beast Charge was a targeted skill that absolutely pursued its target.
Even if the target turned invisible, once the tracking was activated, it would chase them to the ends of hell.
And yet the tracking had vanished.
There were only two reasons tracking would fail. Either the target had completely disappeared—or died.
But where had he disappeared to?
Just as Sgald looked around to locate Sanghyun—
Puuuk!
Kwoooooah!
Sanghyun’s Demon Blade stabbed into the back of Sgald’s thick neck, slicing through his flesh.
He didn’t sever the head in one strike, but the wound was deep enough to tear the flesh and expose the bone.
It had been a split-second combination attack using the Sage’s Whisper and the Sword of Ruin, making it impossible for Sgald to withstand.
Fssshhh! Splat! Splurt!
Blood gushed from the deeply torn neck wound like a broken dam.
『Whisper of Darkness』
A blinding skill followed immediately.
Already severely wounded and distracted, Sgald didn’t even realize that the blinding skill had activated.
Soon, the dark energy engulfing Sgald’s head completely robbed him of his sight.
Woorgh!
Nothing instills fear like blindness. Especially for creatures that rely on vision.
『Eyes of the Abyss』
Then fear was layered on top of it.
Plunged into darkness through blindness, Sgald naturally fell into fear. His expression twisted grotesquely.
Because he was suddenly trapped in the illusion of falling endlessly through a hole in the ground.
Right at that moment.
『Updraft』
Sanghyun deployed Updraft toward Sgald.
Every monster had a peculiar weakness—something that made them especially vulnerable to certain status effects.
Sgald’s weakness was being airborne.
Having lived his entire life as a hulking mass, the experience of being lifted into the air was completely foreign to Sgald.
Swooooosh!
A rhinoceros, flying.
Was there any phrase more fitting for this moment than that?
Because of his weakness, Sgald received the full effect of being airborne without resistance, and his body floated up.
It was a sudden ascent like a roller coaster shooting into the sky.
Woorghhh!
Consumed by fear, Sgald flailed his limbs in every direction, but continued to rise.
Sanghyun didn’t let him feel the moment of falling—he kept stacking Updrafts one after another.
“How’s that refreshing breeze slapping your butt? First time feeling that since you were born, huh? Bet you can’t even reach to scratch it!”
Sanghyun mocked Sgald, staring up at his now fully exposed lower body.
As for Sgald…
Hiiieeek!
His face had already turned an ashen gray.
For a rhinoceros with a fear of heights, there was no situation more suffocating and terrifying than this!
Weeegh! Wuegh! Blegh!
Sgald thrashed his entire body and looked at Sanghyun with desperate, pleading eyes. A silent request to please let him down.
“Sgald. ‘Blowing your nose without using your hands’—this is exactly when you use that saying. Remember it well. You’ll need it in the afterlife.”
Kwagwagwag!
Sanghyun added Steel Storm to the mix, forcefully sending Sgald even higher into the sky.
By now, he was so far up that he looked like nothing more than a dot. A massive monster, reduced to a speck.
Weegh! Wuegh…!
And then, all of a sudden.
Sgald, who had been squealing like a pig about to be butchered, fell completely silent.
Sanghyun, who had been having fun with Updrafts, tilted his head slightly.
Thlop!
Sgald’s tongue lolled out of his mouth midair, lifeless.
He had died from a heart attack.
“That’s why weaknesses are terrifying.”
Sanghyun shrugged as he watched Sgald’s corpse plummet endlessly.
He had taken out the mid-boss of Zone 1 without even a real fight. Something no one else had managed.
It made him realize how scary it was to know the future.
If you knew what lay ahead, you could always prepare the perfect solution—unless you were a fool.
Thud!
With Sanghyun’s indifferent expression as a backdrop,
Sgald’s eyes had rolled back, and his face slammed into the ground with full force.
His pulverized face had exploded so thoroughly it was enough to make one never want to look at it again.
“Nice EXP!”
Sanghyun smiled with satisfaction as he looked at his experience bar, which had landed at 199.6.
He was truly just a step away from level 200.
If there were no big issues in dealing with the mid-boss of Zone 2, Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara, the level-up was practically guaranteed.
But that wasn’t the only good news.
“Mana Recovery Talisman? I was starting to feel like Mana Recirculation wasn’t quite enough. Perfect timing.”
The talisman Sgald dropped was an Artifact that doubled total mana recovery speed.
In other words, it applied a multiplication effect on top of the mana recovery already enhanced by Mana Recirculation—an ideal compound effect.
Post-clear bonus!
Thanks to it, mana recovery speed increased dramatically: 4.6 times during dungeon daytime, and 9.2 times at night.
Compared to the average Player at his level who recovered about 10 mana per minute—
Sanghyun had basically reached a realm where mana regenerated just by breathing.
Mana was the foundation of all skills.
So, with this kind of recovery acceleration, he could now spam skills endlessly.
“If I can stop the dark future Valentin wants to bring, and fill that place with my own light…”
Nothing could be better.
Humming a tune without realizing, Sanghyun quickly moved to the next zone.
Zones 2 and 3 still remained.
Only after finishing them would he have fully conquered the Blood Tower. This was still just the beginning.
At the same time—
“Seriously, don’t you guys know how to tone it down?”
Nietzsche swept back his black hair as he browsed through posts on the Predator Network.
[Me, Jay, and Roel have already finished listing the ones we’re gonna devour in Korea.
There’s more tasty ones here than we expected. Don’t even think about drooling—
we’re gonna eat them all.
I locked eyes with that Shin Sanghyun today, and I think he might’ve sensed something.
Well, who cares?
The guy’s going to die anyway. Flailing won’t change a thing—he’ll just die in more pain.
Everyone, stay tuned for the follow-up.
If we get enough likes, we might even live-stream the moment he dies.]
It was a post by a group of Predators who roamed the globe hunting promising individuals.
Kay, Jay, Roel.
Like Nietzsche, they all used aliases, and they were quite notorious.
Nietzsche disliked them.
They were reckless and left traces everywhere.
They were cocky, relying solely on their skills, and because of guys like them, the existence of the Predators was gradually becoming known.
Thanks to them, a troublesome opponent named Do Kyungsoo had emerged.
Now, it looked like they had clearly picked a target this time.
Like announcing a murder in advance—
At the end of the post, Kay named their chosen prey.
[Shin Sanghyun. Our first hunting target.]
Before the storm of blood began.