novelraw Chapter 201 : Ashtaroth - (1)
Chapter 201 : Ashtaroth - (1)
Chapter 201: Ashtaroth - (1)
Every time the man blinked, countless bits of information were engraved and stored in his mind.
His glasses, which he only wore when looking at monitors, continuously reflected the unique light of the screen.
Because of that, the attendant who had to read his mood couldn’t guess his feelings and was extremely tense.
"He's an interesting guy."
The man adjusted his glasses.
In front of him were more than ten monitors, and various death match videos were playing.
The footage was mainly composed of matches from South America — places like Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina.
But among them was a video filmed in Korea.
It was the most recent death match.
The death match between Shin Sanghyun and Ma Dongho.
Even though he orchestrated it, he thought it would be less of an intense battle and more of a one-sided massacre.
The difference in objective strength was clear, and the weight their names carried was too different.
But an unexpected turn occurred.
The one who should have died didn’t, and the one who shouldn’t have died, died in vain.
Was it overconfidence?
Or had the opponent used some trick?
Or maybe drugs?
He watched the footage trying to find flaws in Sanghyun’s victory, puzzled by the unbelievable outcome.
That was how it started, but now his thoughts were completely different.
There was no longer any reason to be doubtful.
From the start, it was a fight Ma Dongho was destined to lose.
"The weapon looks crude, but it's definitely not a low-grade weapon.
The roughness is actually camouflage."
The man's eyebrows twitched.
His gaze, filled with curiosity, meticulously scanned every detail of Sanghyun.
He identified the uniqueness of Sanghyun’s artifact weapon — the Nameless Sword.
During the use of skills, although faint, an aura emitted directly from the sword itself had been confirmed.
In other words, the sword was of such a high grade that it could produce its own aura.
Of course, it was only visible to someone like him, capable of detecting even the smallest changes.
Ordinary people or even most players wouldn’t notice any difference at all.
"On top of that, he uses illusion-based skills.
Not only does he force choices onto the opponent, but he dictates the outcome one-sidedly."
The skill that caught his interest was none other than Illusion Arbitration.
There was only one perfect countermeasure against this skill — to believe that both forms were real.
If one tried to deal with only one, they would fall into the dual-choice trap.
"Increased skill damage. Use of clones. Built-in defense.
A high-tension weapon paired with a relatively unknown level.
What a horrifying hybrid."
His brows were furrowed, but the corners of his lips curled upward.
Although Sanghyun had annoying traits, he also found him intriguing.
A tree that grows firmly from a single branch still becomes sturdy if the seedling is healthy.
But Sanghyun was branching out in many directions, and every sprout was rich and full.
What kind of tree would this become?
A giant tree that absorbs sunlight like a black hole.
He saw the potential for Sanghyun to become such a tree.
Ma Dongho had merely been good fertilizer.
The man called for his attendant.
"Red."
"Yes, Mistery-nim."
Red — a codename chosen to suit the attendant’s personal taste.
The man also had one — Mistery.
Yes, that Mistery — the one the world called a mystery.
He was the very person who had thrown Sanghyun into the death match.
Many organizations and agencies had tried to uncover his identity, but none had succeeded.
"I want to add more detail to the data on Shin Sanghyun.
There’s a lot to include, right?"
"Yes. Right now, the report is mostly filled with publicly known Class 4 information."
"Can you get access to Class 1 information?"
Class 1 information.
It referred to dissecting everything about the opponent’s skills and artifact setup.
Typically, such intel was gathered from close aides or by recruiting one of the teammates in the dungeon.
Red frowned at Mistery’s request.
"That would be difficult.
Coincidentally or not, he tends to work with people who keep their mouths shut."
"Such as?"
"Do Kyungsoo or Han Hyunjeong, for example."
"So he’s friendly with people who keep their mouths sealed tight, huh?"
"That’s correct."
"What about others?"
"There are many minor connections, but they were all formed before his real growth began,
So getting Class 1 information would be difficult."
"Still, find a way.
No matter how I look at it, the composition of this guy's skills doesn’t make any sense."
Mistery’s signature red eyes glowed intensely.
Even considering the influence of skill books or artifacts, his setup was too diverse and broad.
To put it nicely, it had great versatility — but in a bad sense, he had every skill imaginable.
According to all the data collected so far, cases like this only happened when the person had an innately special ability.
Mistery’s eyes stayed glued to the death match video featuring Sanghyun for a long time.
It was an uncharacteristically invested reaction from someone who usually lost interest quickly.
Around that time, Sanghyun was putting even more effort into conquering the Ashtaroth Dungeon.
In this dungeon, 1 HP was lost every second, and mana recovery was completely suppressed.
It was a rather difficult place.
Neither Kyle, Sarah, nor Laphern thought that Sanghyun would be able to clear the dungeon so smoothly.
That’s because they themselves were struggling quite a bit due to the dungeon’s harsh conditions.
The only way to recover mana in this dungeon was by killing monsters.
So they had no choice but to be extremely cautious with skill usage — especially when only a small number of monsters appeared.
That was exactly the kind of section they were currently in.
A small elite monster phase.
There were few monsters overall, but each one was powerful, making it a very tricky stage.
But for some reason, Sanghyun was spamming skills like a man with nothing to lose.
Even if he had a passive skill that recovered mana on its own, the barrage made no sense.
‘Over Psychedelic. Sacrifice. Recovery. Backstep. Acceleration. Blade of Ruin… I’m running out of breath just saying them.’
Sanghyun was fully enjoying the reactions of the three, who were astonished at his solo skill showcase.
They wouldn’t know.
That he actually had quite a few skills in his arsenal that didn’t consume any mana.
Sure, many of the mana-using skills were powerful, but not having them wouldn’t be a problem in battle.
Especially the skill Grasp of Vampirism, which provided 1 HP per second recovery if out of combat for more than 100 seconds.
This was one of the main reasons why Sanghyun didn’t find the Ashtaroth Dungeon difficult at all.
As long as he wasn’t in combat, maintaining his health was no issue.
He didn’t need to rely on a healer, and he didn’t have to panic about decreasing health.
And on top of that, the ultimate skill was the icing on the cake.
When he was running low on mana —
Elite monsters would sometimes use powerful magic skills, which served as excellent sources of mana for him.
The monsters, unaware of Sanghyun’s mana recovery mechanism, unintentionally supported his sustainability.
Furthermore, self-healing skills like Solitary Recovery were extremely useful in this place.
『Solitary Recovery』
■ Skill Level: Stage 1 (23.2%)
■ Skill Description: Allows the player to fully recover health while in stealth mode.
Stealth is lifted after recovery, and a protective shield activates during the process.
The stealth is considered ‘complete stealth,’ and the shield endures damage equal to the player’s HP. Cooldown: 6 hours.
‘I haven’t had a chance to use this before, but now I am.
This is why the more skills you have, the better.’
Sanghyun was very satisfied with his skill setup.
He had heard that this dungeon made players heavily dependent on healers.
But right now, he was completely self-sufficient.
He hadn’t asked Sarah for even a single minor healing once.
His level had already reached 295.
He was just shy of level 300, where he could gain skill enhancement opportunities.
And the all-stats-1000 goal he had been aiming for — the condition for the Jack-of-All-Stats title — was also within reach.
He just needed to raise Agility by 263 and Evasion by 134, and every stat would surpass 1,000.
There were so many things to look forward to that there was no reason for his excitement to drop during the dungeon run.
At that moment—
Among the three who had joined back up with Sanghyun from behind, Laphern spoke.
“We’re almost at the Red Line! I feel embarrassed; I’ve spent the entire run just admiring.”
“Oh, we’re already at the Red Line?”
Sanghyun asked in return.
The Red Line was a boundary created arbitrarily by the Nobility Guild as the limit for the Ashtaroth Dungeon.
It was the furthest point pre-agreed upon for dungeon strategy — beyond that, the difficulty changed entirely.
From there on, monster formations would switch to elite units of one or two.
Which meant for players who relied on killing monsters to regain mana, it became a hellish challenge.
With mana potions and other supply methods completely ineffective, even the smartest tactics were useless.
It was starting to feel like wrap-up time.
Since they had come a long way, it was also time to consider the journey back.
Even during the return, the dungeon’s debuffs would still be active, and recovery would need to be continuously managed.
But then—
Kyle suddenly reacted.
“I think something’s behind us.”
As a mage, he was sensitive to the surrounding mana flow.
Plus, as a precaution, he had been scattering detection mana intermittently on their way here.
Now, that mana had picked up an intruder.
The four of them were all accounted for, and all monsters encountered on the way had been wiped out.
That meant the newly detected presence had to be an external entity that joined in along the way.
Tightening the string of suspicion, it could also be a monster tracking their party from behind.
At that moment—
“I’ll be back in a second.”
Pop!
“Huh?”
“Sanghyun-nim?”
With just a few words, Sanghyun vanished from the group’s view.
He had used Safe Teleport, a skill he naturally acquired when obtaining the Nameless Sword.
Just like Kyle, Sanghyun had been updating his teleportation coordinates periodically along the way.
It was mentioned during the pre-briefing that monsters might appear from the rear at any time.
So there was no need to panic or make a fuss — he instantly teleported to the rear.
And sure enough—
A black-robed dark mage was tracking the footprints left by the party.
“Kuhuhuhu…”
Upon detecting Sanghyun’s presence, the dark mage immediately began forming hand seals with both hands.
Fwoooosh!
A massive fireball appeared above his hands, like the embodiment of a hellish inferno.
Within the black smoke rising from it, the distinct shape of a skull formed.
It was a spell that looked so threatening, one couldn’t help but tense up.
‘What should I use? Counter Shroud? Or maybe just pop an ultimate?’
But Sanghyun wasn’t tense at all — he was thinking about how to use that magic spell to mess with the dark mage.
The look of tension on his face was a complete act.
The expression he showed the dark mage, filled with emotion, was fake.
Yes, it was perfect deception.