novelraw Chapter 203 : Ashtaroth - (3)
Chapter 203 : Ashtaroth - (3)
Chapter 203: Ashtaroth - (3)
"This really makes me desperate for the Berserk Charm.
It's a situation where I need to focus on finishing rather than enduring."
At that moment, Sanghyun was forming his thoughts about the area beyond the Red Line while continuing to fight and advance.
Because the existing debuffs were applied in a form that doubled their strength, there were more tricky aspects than expected.
With 2 health points dropping per second, even with Lifestealing Grasp, he couldn't avoid losing 1 health point every second.
While mana recovery suppression continued, mana recovered through monsters was also halved.
Because of this, despite having many stamina-based skills, he felt chased in battles with monsters.
In the end, it was a situation where he had no choice but to keep draining his health, yet had to use stamina-based skills.
The Berserk Charm he asked Han Hyunjeong to look into was a talisman specialized for the Berserker field.
The price was a ridiculous 650 billion won.
Still, if he could just set it up once, it would allow him to demonstrate much greater power than now.
If his current output could be compared to extreme damage, using the Berserk Charm would elevate him to ultra-ultra-extreme damage.
He could become a swordsman capable of putting everything into one strike, literally a one-hit-kill.
"I wonder if the Map of the Labyrinth of Tranquility is selling well."
Thinking of Han Hyunjeong naturally brought thoughts of the map to mind as well.
Since the Map of the Labyrinth of Tranquility had a lot of information, it likely wouldn't be undervalued.
It was more of a hopeful thought than a worrying one. Han Hyunjeong’s ability spoke for itself.
Just then—
KUAOOOO!
A monster appeared from somewhere, and the Wolf Lord let out a powerful roar.
In lower-level dungeons, it was used as a boss monster, but here, it was treated as a regular monster.
It was easy to feel just how different the difficulty was.
【No Fear!】
■ Title Grade: D-grade
■ Title Description: You resist all status effects caused by the howls of wolf-type monsters. Boss monsters excluded.
It had been a while since he benefited from the No Fear! title.
Originally, it was a skill that couldn't be applied to boss monsters like the Wolf Lord, but since it was classified differently now, it was an exception.
Thanks to that, even though the Wolf Lord was howling fervently, nothing changed for Sanghyun.
Instead, in the next breath, the Wolf Lord was neatly killed by a combination of Airborne from a rising current and a single slash from the Sword of Ruin.
"Reminds me of the old days."
He remembered when he first met Kim Miso and encountered the Wolf Lord in a quest.
Back then, the power gap between them had been so wide that he had to grit his teeth and play a strategic battle.
But now, the Wolf Lord had become such a weakling that he didn’t even need to run through a full skill cycle.
And the experience didn’t end with the Wolf Lord.
Next up was the Mad Kobold King, who appeared as if to block Sanghyun’s path. His name alone sounded quite threatening.
【Terror of the Slaughter - Kobold】
■ Title Grade: S-grade
■ Title Description: (……omitted)
All Kobold-type monsters, including boss monsters, fall into a state of despair for 10 seconds upon encountering you.
However, this monster’s fate was even crueler.
As soon as the Terror of the Slaughter - Kobold title activated, the Mad Kobold King’s focus blurred.
The despair effect completely wiped out the Kobold King’s will to fight, and he knelt down and lowered his head.
Truly worthy of being an S-grade title.
The difference in the title’s class resulted in status effects turning into total disarmament and psychological domination.
Taking care of the Mad Kobold King was much easier than the Wolf Lord before.
Beheading a kneeling enemy who had no intention of fighting was nothing at all.
Soon after—
FWOOSH!
A fountain of blood shot into the sky, and the Mad Kobold King died without even putting up a fight.
His level immediately rose to 297. If there was ever an easiest way to level up, it was now.
"For real... only I could do something like this."
That thought crossed his mind.
This kind of creative strategy was only possible for him. His skill composition was just that good.
That’s the same reason why the three members of the Nobility Guild couldn’t stop marveling during today’s raid.
His ability to be packed with status effects and recover health and mana autonomously was definitely not normal.
"Still, it's manageable."
Sanghyun continued to push forward.
The gradually depleting mana could be overcome by the Bottomless Spring effect embedded in the Nameless Sword.
Of the 10 daily uses, 7 remained, so there was no concern about mana.
His health, though barely, was still hovering around the halfway mark.
Time passed.
Eventually, when Sanghyun reached the far end of the Ashtaroth Dungeon, he could finally see the dungeon’s master.
Ashtaroth.
An undead-type boss monster who wielded a greatsword and also used magic skills, essentially a magic swordsman.
In a way, it was similar in nature to Sanghyun, who based his fighting on sword techniques and various skills.
【Guide of the Holy Spirit】
■ Title Grade: SS-grade
Since the enemy was undead-based, it was a very useful title.
Of the three passive skills linked to the title, two were effective here.
The first was Holy Crusade.
It provided a constant 200% additional damage to undead enemies, making it highly valuable.
The second was Divine Protection, which provided complete and permanent immunity to neurotoxins and paralysis caused by undead monsters.
It allowed him to deal more pain to Ashtaroth while nullifying some of the monster’s counterattacks.
"Eliminate the greedy intruder."
Seeing Sanghyun, Ashtaroth lightly swung his greatsword and gave a command to the ghouls scattered throughout the dungeon.
At that moment—
【Ghoul Slayer】
■ Title Grade: S-grade
■ Title Description: (……omitted)
All ghouls fall into permanent despair in front of you, the slayer.
The Ghoul Slayer title began to show its effect clearly.
The hundreds of ghouls drooling and trying to approach Sanghyun all suddenly stopped.
It wasn’t temporary despair with a time limit, but an eternal one as long as the title existed!
The ghouls, who had been animated by Ashtaroth’s energy, stood awkwardly frozen in place.
“……?”
Ashtaroth’s pupils quaked. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The minions he had dispatched to hinder Sanghyun and restrict his movement had all turned into fools.
In the meantime, Sanghyun closed in on Ashtaroth without hesitation.
Since both were swordsmen fundamentally based in swordsmanship, close combat was an unavoidable course.
"Haap!"
Clang!
Their swords clashed.
Sanghyun decided to first gauge Ashtaroth’s strength using basic attacks rather than skills.
Sure enough, Ashtaroth’s resilience was considerable.
There was a heaviness that made him think he might be the one pushed back if he tried to force things.
“Hmph!”
Ashtaroth channeled strength into their locked blades and shoved Sanghyun backward with force. It was a setup for a counterattack.
Zing!
A red dot formed on Ashtaroth’s sword.
Sanghyun couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but he assumed it was a magic skill based on swordplay.
So, he closed in again aggressively.
It was because he trusted in one of the Nameless Sword’s effects—Path of Magic Resistance.
Magical skills that used less than 100 mana would be completely nullified. At the very least, this one wouldn’t exceed that.
Shooo!
Five red orbs, radiating heat, flew toward Sanghyun.
Judging by their fist-sized volume, it seemed like they would explode upon impact.
But as Sanghyun predicted, the magic affected by Path of Magic Resistance harmlessly veered off to his side.
Like magnets repelling each other, the spells twisted off course and zipped past him.
“……”
Before Ashtaroth could even react with a grim expression, Sanghyun had already closed in and unleashed a barrage of basic attacks.
Basic attacks were certainly more persistent in pressuring an opponent than skills.
Perhaps because of that, Ashtaroth, who had been defending while watching for a chance to counter with a skill, finally couldn’t hold back and struck back.
It became a true duel.
The clashing of swords!
It was a melody that only swordsmen could create. But there was a problem.
Clang! Whooosh…!
Clang! Whoosh!
Due to the Nameless Sword’s Either-Or effect, one out of every two of Ashtaroth’s basic attacks ended up failing.
Failure didn’t mean the attack missed, but that the damage output was calculated as zero.
So the failed basic attacks, treated as such, didn’t affect Sanghyun at all—as if they were tapped on him with a toy hammer.
Having anticipated the Either-Or effect, Sanghyun linked together Whisper of the Sage and the Sword of Ruin without hesitation.
Thud!
“Keugh!”
A strike landed squarely on Ashtaroth’s left shoulder.
He had aimed for the left chest, but Ashtaroth twisted his body hard to offer his shoulder instead.
Even when caught off guard, he minimized damage by sacrificing another area as a shield.
Whoosh!
Next, Ashtaroth swung his greatsword with all his might using his right arm, trying to block Sanghyun’s follow-up attacks.
『Back Step』
Sanghyun quickly retreated a bit.
While he could dodge magical skills, he couldn’t avoid physical skills and basic attacks.
Then he attempted to lift Ashtaroth with a rising air current, but even after being swept up, Ashtaroth’s body didn’t lift off the ground.
Perhaps it was because he was the highest-ranking boss in even high-level dungeons—his skill resistance was too high.
‘Applying status effects by chance, resisting them by chance, then breaking through to apply them again... To win this rock-paper-scissors game—’
The only way was to use a move that always wins. A skill with the premise of being "absolute."
The higher the world he would reach, the more important the concept of absoluteness became. Without it, battles couldn’t even function properly.
Sanghyun felt the dread of the world he lived in anew through Ashtaroth.
‘Mana’s fine considering recovery, so I should go all-in with one big move. There’s no benefit to dragging this out.’
As Sanghyun finished organizing his thoughts, Ashtaroth extended his sword toward him.
If this were a player seeing that motion for the first time, they’d think he was simply pointing the tip of his blade.
But Sanghyun could predict Ashtaroth’s next move.
『Restraint Chains』
‘As expected.’
Black chains wrapped tightly around his whole body, rendering him completely motionless.
This was Ashtaroth’s skill called Restraint Chains. Though its cooldown was quite long, once caught, you couldn’t move at all.
As soon as the chains wrapped around the target’s body, Ashtaroth would follow up with a finishing move—similar to Sanghyun’s own style.
The Restraint Chains didn’t just immobilize—they applied layer upon layer of debuffs like stacking afflictions.
So the only proper response was a method that completely removed all debuffs. That was the only solution.
『Rapid Purification』
Clean response!
The Greedy Chains, trying to wrap around Sanghyun while laughing like a demon, disappeared without a trace.
“……”
Ashtaroth’s expression stiffened as he looked at Sanghyun. His chance to unleash a finishing move had been nullified so easily.
“Hey, it’s my turn now.”
In contrast, a smile appeared on Sanghyun’s lips. Now it was time to see if his opponent could respond as cleanly as he did.