novelraw Chapter 180 : One-Sided Massacre - (2)
Chapter 180 : One-Sided Massacre - (2)
Chapter 180: One-Sided Massacre - (2)
A Curse of Restraint—
It meant that the ownership and influence of the Artifact itself belonged to the one who had placed the restraint.
In other words, the wearer held no authority. They were simply wearing it.
If an Artifact was cursed, and that cursed Artifact had been worn continuously, it meant the wearer had long been exposed to that curse and restraint.
The trio probably regretted their current lives and wanted to return to the past, but it would’ve been impossible.
Because curses cast by evil-aligned Constellations weren’t something that could be shaken off by mere change of heart.
“Hmm.”
Sanghyun took out the Artifact.
He had briefly touched it back when he had first taken down the trio. Just for a moment.
In that instant, he had felt as though even his soul was being sucked in, so he had pulled his hand away.
Since his concentration had slightly dropped due to the fast-paced battle, he had been extra cautious.
But now, he was in a state where he could focus solely on the Artifact, so he started direct contact.
Right at that moment—
KWAHHH!
‘Whoa, that startled me.’
The moment Sanghyun fully grasped the Artifact, what entered his vision was a massive eye.
A volcano, constantly erupting with magma.
At the peak of it, a massive eye was staring straight at Sanghyun.
For a brief moment, it felt as if he were in a completely different world—not a Gate.
“……”
As Sanghyun moved to the left, the eye followed his movement. It was an unsettling gaze.
– So it was you.
In that moment, Sanghyun realized what that eye represented.
It was the being in direct opposition to the Constellation ‘God of Storms’. It had to be the Eye of Calamity!
“You’re the cowardly Constellation?”
Sanghyun threw out a sharp remark.
He felt there was no reason to be cautious. After all, wasn’t he already on the same boat as the God of Storms?
Even if his contract with the God of Storms was severed, it wouldn’t improve his relationship with the Eye of Calamity.
In that case, it was better to score points with the God of Storms. At least that side was clearly an ally.
– How impudent.
“A Constellation so scared of being betrayed by Players that they place Curses of Restraint. Isn’t that obviously cowardly?”
– You should not have trusted the God of Storms.
“Then what, if I trust you instead, things will change?”
– I can grant you power even greater than what the God of Storms can offer.
“You’re saying you’re stronger than the God of Storms?”
– Do you even need to ask?
“That’s weird. Then why do you just flap your mouth instead of trying to win in a fight?”
– You ignorant fool!
KWAGAGAGANG!
With the roar filled with the Eye of Calamity’s fury, a massive heatwave swept over Sanghyun.
If he hadn’t been in a soul-like state in this space, the searing wind would have burned him away instantly.
A Constellation was still a Constellation.
Naturally, Sanghyun didn’t take the title of ‘Constellation’ lightly.
‘There’s no doubt the Artifact is cursed. To undo this, I’ll have to turn my eyes to Japan.’
A distinct figure emerged in Sanghyun’s memory.
Someone who, like Han Hyunjeong, was bound by the restriction of ‘non-killing (不殺)’ yet could wield holy power like no one else.
‘Katsuragi.’
He needed to meet him.
Then he could identify the true source of the curse on this Artifact.
And furthermore, dig deeper into the hidden darkness—the Eye of Calamity. With him, it was possible.
After taking sufficient rest—
The two set out again.
In this assault, Sanghyun minimized his movements, while Do Kyunghye moved around actively.
The reason was simple.
There was a section where, if monsters were taken down with a kind of ‘reverse buff’, it made them extremely easy to deal with.
It was something even Sanghyun couldn’t do—only Do Kyunghye could execute it in Korea.
It involved completely reversing the mechanism of the amplification buff she cast on Sanghyun.
From a broad perspective, it was a debuff.
But on a detailed level, it was a twisted buff that gnawed away at the opponent’s life force even more destructively than a debuff.
The buffs Do Kyunghye mainly used were defense boost and combat power enhancement.
When applied in reverse, the monsters’ defenses plummeted and their combat abilities dropped significantly.
Sanghyun didn’t even need to bother using skills.
As long as he moved quickly and casually swung his sword, they fell like autumn leaves.
Some tried to endure the reverse buffs.
But that was when Sanghyun would simply use the mana and skills he hadn’t deployed in a while. The process was straightforward.
“I don’t get why a Gate like this wasn’t cleared earlier so we wouldn’t have to take the turn. Right?”
“Pfft.”
Do Kyunghye laughed at Sanghyun’s words.
They say you laugh out of disbelief when you’re dumbfounded—and this was exactly that.
She added more.
“This ridiculous situation is happening because you’re ridiculously strong, Sanghyun. You don’t realize that?”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Very. Extremely. Overwhelmingly obvious.”
“Hahaha.”
“Kekeke.”
There had been no real danger so far.
Honestly, they could have felt satisfied at this point, but instead, Sanghyun looked even more solemn than before.
‘I need to go to a dungeon that can grind me down harder if I want to grow faster than now.’
That was because, unlike others, Sanghyun constantly looked up toward a limitless sky.
Though he had acquired a greatsword Artifact of Almighty grade, that wasn’t the end.
Looking out into the world, there were players who casually wore two or three Artifacts like that.
Jerron Decay was the prime example. In front of him, Sanghyun still felt like a minuscule existence.
That’s why he couldn’t be satisfied.
That was the reason this Gate conquest, which had been filled with one-sided slaughter, wasn’t fulfilling.
If he had conquered a much more advanced dungeon in the same amount of time, the rewards and experience would’ve been far greater.
Of course, the Gate conquest wasn’t over yet, but at least until now, it had been smooth sailing with wings.
“So the monster we’re facing now is the last mid-boss monster. That’s the end of the known intel, right?”
“Yeah. The mage Idraine. He’s the last confirmed monster.”
“There’s no information on the boss monster, so we’ll just have to worry about that when we face it directly.”
“Yeah. We do have the option to retreat if we want.”
Do Kyunghye said it was ‘possible’ only in the technical sense—because she knew Sanghyun would never retreat.
Sanghyun shared a surprising similarity with Oppa Do Kyungsoo in terms of competitiveness and desire for conquest.
That’s why Do Kyunghye thought there was no way Sanghyun would give up.
She was also mentally prepared.
“It seems like it’d be best to quickly take down Idraine first. What do you think?”
“Is there any player who wouldn’t want to take them down quickly?”
Because Sanghyun asked the question so calmly, as if it were obvious, question marks appeared in Do Kyunghye’s eyes.
The magician, Idraine.
All the players who had previously tried to strategize against him ended up clicking their tongues in dismay.
There was just one reason.
It was because of a special magic called the Idraine Hole.
Like a black hole, it sucked in everything around it.
Players?
Of course, they weren’t exceptions.
Everyone died here.
If anyone survived, it was because they had run away.
There simply wasn’t a viable method to counter it.
How could anyone resist being sucked in?
The only option was to escape faster than the suction speed.
The problem was that if you focused entirely on escaping, Idraine would hurl more magic at you for extra damage.
In short, no matter what you did, death was inevitable, so there was no real solution.
That’s how destructive the Idraine Hole was.
‘There is a detour route, though.’
Her gaze shifted from Sanghyun to a side path that extended northeast.
Taking that path would mean a full day’s detour, but they wouldn’t have to deal with Idraine.
“Ms. Kyunghye. Let’s not even consider the detour. There’s a way to counter that guy.”
“Counter… him?”
The word “counter” carried weight.
In other words, there was a way to nullify the Idraine Hole. But how?
Ever since she’d started getting to know Sanghyun, one keyword constantly filled Do Kyunghye’s mind.
It was a question mark.
Sanghyun never said or did things that ended with a period. In other words, he wasn’t ordinary.
Whenever she watched him, her thoughts always ended with an exclamation point or a question mark. Almost every time.
“Ms. Kyunghye.”
“Yes?”
“You’ve got that ultimate buff, right? The one with a one-day cooldown.”
“Oh, you mean ‘Rampaging Chaos’?”
“Yeah. Use that on me. Right as we move out.”
“But… if I use it now, I might not be able to use it when we really need it during the boss monster fight.”
“It’s fine. I have a cooldown reset skill. I can reset it whenever we need it.”
“…What did you say?”
Another exclamation point appeared.
Could someone really say they had a cooldown-resetting skill so casually like that?
Even Do Kyunghye, who had been through thick and thin, had never heard of such a skill before.
“Just use Rampaging Chaos on me. After that, you can just sit back and watch. This time, it’s my turn to go wild.”
“Are you really sure about this?”
“You don’t trust me?”
As if.
She trusted him so much, it was almost a concern.
What surprised her was that he had such a sure strategy against a mid-boss monster—especially one as infamous as Idraine.
Even Oppa Do Kyungsoo had never spoken so confidently, as if certain of victory.
At that moment—
Idraine, who had been scanning the area, locked eyes with Sanghyun. The battle had begun.
“Exactly one second from now!”
“Got it!”
Paaang!
Before she could even finish her reply, Sanghyun’s figure had already shot far away from her side.
The intense storm created by his acceleration and charge pushed Do Kyunghye’s body slightly backward.
Then—
“Hm?”
Idraine tilted his head upon seeing Sanghyun charging in recklessly, like a moth to a flame.
What had become of the players who had charged in so fearlessly before?
They had all died. Every single one.
They had been sucked into the Idraine Hole, vanishing into a hidden dimension where even their corpses could not be recovered. Evaporated.
And now, there was another foolish soul trying to repeat the same mistake.
Ignorance must be met with a fitting punishment!
A smile crept onto Idraine’s lips.
Gwagagaga. Gwagaga.
He immediately activated his trump card, ‘Idraine Hole.’
In an instant, a black sphere left his hand, rapidly growing in size as it flew toward Sanghyun.
If someone had miniaturized a black hole and brought it along, it would probably look exactly like this.
‘Even if you are wearing the title of mid-boss monster… the mana you use can still be calculated.’
Unlike the anxious expression on Do Kyunghye’s face, Sanghyun had already done his calculations.
It was a firm and accurate prediction based on data.
It was the maximum amount of mana that Idraine’s magic could possibly consume.
‘No matter how powerful he is, he can’t use more than 2,000 mana.’
The calculations were already complete.
And Sanghyun had a skill that could completely devour the Idraine Hole within those predicted parameters.
It was Extreme Demon.
A magic-devouring skill that had naturally been implanted in Sanghyun when he obtained the Nameless Sword.