Chapter 99: Verification of Doom (5)
Before entering this root gate dungeon.
The raid leader had also briefed them on the strategy for the Large Decapitated Demon.
First, he explained the cooldown of its flame emission, and then moved on to describe its physical characteristics.
“Unlike the normal Decapitated Demon, the Large Decapitated Demon doesn’t have any particular weak point. That is, whether you stab it in the center of its chest or the top of its foot, it takes the same damage.”
“Then how can we k*ll it?”
“The method of killing itself is simple. Accumulate damage. If you keep accumulating damage until it dies, it will eventually d*e. However……”
“……?”
“In RPG terms, it’s like, it has an absurdly large health pool, so it takes quite a while to whittle down its health by accumulating damage.”
“Aha……”
“On top of that, there’s the wide-range flame emission that comes every 15 seconds. You have to be prepared for a prolonged battle.”
“A prolonged battle……”
“So don’t try to inflict too much damage during the 15-second cooldown. You’ll end up getting hit instead. It’s best to take it slow and k*ll it without getting hurt.”
……That’s what the raid leader had clearly said.
However, with the addition of Sa-hyeok, the situation had completely flipped.
13 seconds.
The time it took for Sa-hyeok to neutralize the Large Decapitated Demon.
The mid-boss had been knocked out more than 20 times faster than expected.
And the one knocked out like that……
Fwip fwip fwip!
Its entire body was being torn apart by the Mubuchamdo and the Thunderbolt Needles.
The demon’s blood and flesh splattered everywhere the blades and needles passed.
‘Simple. K*ll it until it dies.’
Sa-hyeok looked down at the dying demon with an expressionless, no, a slightly smiling face.
The moment the flowing blood soaked the soles of Sa-hyeok’s shoes.
Sa-hyeok felt the demon’s breath cease.
It was refreshing.
To k*ll a monster.
Click!
Sa-hyeok sheathed the Mubuchamdo and Thunderbolt Needles.
Then he took out a potion from his hip sack.
Mandrake Bile.
Sa-hyeok took a gulp of the bile and looked at the large door located inside the room.
The entrance to the boss room.
Beyond that lay the boss and the stele.
The stele that spoke of the world’s destruction.
He had come all the way down to Hamyang and participated in an unplanned raid just to see this.
“Let’s go.”
Sa-hyeok said to the raid members.
Everyone nodded with tense expressions.
The raid leader spoke.
“Everyone remembers the boss strategy, right?”
“Yes!”
Sa-hyeok pushed the door open with force.
Rumble rumble rumble-
The door creaked open and a wave of hot air rushed out.
The heat was on a completely different level than before.
Soon the door opened completely, revealing the vast interior of the boss room.
The boss room took the form of a giant circular plaza.
Flames intermittently shot up from various spots on the floor, and bubbling lava flowed along the perimeter of the boss room.
The source of this tremendous heat was the lava.
However, Sa-hyeok’s gaze was not directed at the lava.
A tall stele stood in the center of the plaza.
Sa-hyeok’s eyes were fixed solely on the stele.
He had come here because of that stele.
The stele was over 10 meters tall.
And all four sides were covered with dense writing.
And something was sitting on top of the stele.
“That must be the boss.”
“Yes.”
A humanoid monster was sitting cross-legged on top of the stele.
Unlike the other Decapitated Demons, its entire body was jet black, and it wore something resembling a rosary with very large beads around its neck.
To be precise, since this one also lacked a head, it was more accurate to say that it wore the rosary around the place where its neck used to be.
The sight of it sitting cross-legged with the rosary around its neck created a truly bizarre atmosphere.
It was almost reminiscent of an ascetic practicing deep within a cave.
That was the boss, the
Whirr-
The rosary beads it wore began to float and rotate in the air.
The raid leader said,
“Sa-hyeok-ssi.”
“Yes.”
Whoosh!
Sa-hyeok threw one of the Thunderbolt Needles and at the same time-
Crackle!
He released an electric shock.
The Thunderbolt Needle, trailing lightning, flew towards the rosary beads.
Crack!
Shatter!
The Thunderbolt Needle pierced and shattered the rosary beads in an instant.
Four out of the six rosary beads were instantly destroyed.
“Tsk……!”
Sa-hyeok let out a sigh of regret at the fact that he missed two beads.
They were faster than the other beads, so he failed to intercept them.
On the other hand, the raid members who saw this cheered.
“Alright……!”
Two beads of the rosary remained, but it didn’t matter.
With this, he had neutralized the boss’s most troublesome pattern before it could even activate.
The four rosary beads that Sa-hyeok had just broken were objects that shot fire breath.
Although they had a cooldown, the four beads alternated in firing their breaths, making it virtually cooldown-less.
Therefore, the most difficult pattern to overcome was this continuous breath pattern, but Sa-hyeok had stopped it before it even began.
Clatter!
The fragments of the shattered rosary beads fell to the floor.
Only then did Sa-hyeok realize that they weren’t just ordinary rosary beads.
They were heads.
The heads of the Decapitated Demons.
Having lost four heads in an instant, the boss grabbed one of the remaining two heads in each hand.
And-
Crack.
He crushed the two heads with his hands.
Whoosh!
At that moment, a massive amount of flames contained within the broken heads erupted outwards.
The boss began to suck the flames back in and gather them together.
The flames compressed, refined, and began to take the form of weapons.
Flare-
What was completed were two spears.
Two spears of flames, made entirely of fire, from the tip of the blade to the end of the handle.
The raid members, excluding Sa-hyeok, became tense.
They knew the power of those flame spears.
Spears made of pure flame.
The most frightening aspect of these spears was that they were indestructible.
Even if the spear was cut or broken, it would be restored in an instant.
It was natural, considering they were spears made of flames.
Just as a burning bonfire cannot be cut or carved.
Due to this characteristic, ordinary cold weapons like swords or spears could not block or deflect the flame spears.
The moment they collided with the flame spears, the cold weapons would simply pass through them.
Therefore, to counter the flame spears, precise dodging skills and a wide shield were required.
Swish-
The two martial artists wielding the axe and iron club untied the shields from their backs and held them up.
It was time for the boss’s dazzling close-range spear techniques to come crashing down.
Ah, of course…… if he could get close enough.
Whoosh!
The Mubuchamdo and Thunderbolt Needles pierced the boss’s body in an instant.
Sa-hyeok had also heard about the difficulty of the flame spear techniques.
So……
‘Block the approach itself.’
That was the strategy he had devised.
Slash!
Slice!
Thud!
The two Mubuchamdo moved erratically, piercing and slashing the boss’s body haphazardly.
The boss couldn’t react.
Ironically, the reason was his weapon, the ‘Flame Spear’.
A weapon that could ignore the opponent’s cold weapons and inflict damage, the Flame Spear.
However, conversely, it meant that the Flame Spear could not deflect or block cold weapons either.
Moreover, what if the opponent was someone like Sa-hyeok who could control cold weapons from a distance?
He had no choice but to be completely helpless.
The boss’s most powerful weapon had become his worst weakness.
But still, he was a boss for a reason.
He wasn’t just taking the hits.
Sizzle!
The wounds all over the boss’s body began to heal rapidly.
Hot steam rose from the healed wounds, accompanied by a crimson glow.
He was pouring the lava stored within his body into the wounds to seal and reconnect them.
Seeing that, Sa-hyeok muttered.
“What the h*ll is that, d*mn it.”
Using lava to seal open wounds.
An insane self-healing technique made possible by his extremely high fire resistance.
He had heard about it during the briefing, but seeing it in person was quite a bizarre sight.
Thud!
Having healed his wounds, the boss immediately charged towards Sa-hyeok.
Of course……
Slice!
Slash!
The Mubuchamdo were still tearing and cutting through the boss’s body.
He used all the lava in his body to explosively increase his self-healing speed.
And he charged in, somehow enduring Sa-hyeok’s attacks.
A tenacious advance, taking one step at a time while enduring the opponent’s onslaught.
It was a truly desperate movement.
At this point, it was hard to tell who was the monster between Sa-hyeok and the boss.
And so, the boss steadily closed the distance.
Three steps forward.
Three more steps and he would be within reach of his spear.
Of course, Sa-hyeok……
“Hey, you’ve got a needle stuck in your side.”
Did not allow it.
Sa-hyeok activated the Lightning Ring.
Crackle!
Electricity began to sear the boss’s side.
His already black body began to burn even blacker.
Crackle!
Due to the terrifying electrical damage, the lava stored within the boss’s body began to deplete at an alarming rate.
The moment the lava was depleted, his life would also end.
The boss instinctively knew that.
So he had to finish this before he ran out of lava.
In the end, what he chose was……
Thud.
To tear off the side of his body where the Thunderbolt Needle was embedded.
Sizzle!
And he sealed the torn side with the last of his lava.
It was like watching the desperate struggle of a shonen manga protagonist facing the final boss.
Thus, a brief lull arrived.
The Mubuchamdo retreated, and the electricity that had been crackling on the boss’s body momentarily ceased.
The last chance for the King of Decapitated Demons.
The last opportunity to land a final blow on the monster before him.
Whoosh!
The boss’s final move was a throw.
Gathering all his remaining strength, he hurled the flame spear towards Sa-hyeok.
Whoosh!
The sharp spear of fire flew towards Sa-hyeok’s face.
Sa-hyeok felt it.
The heat that suddenly rushed to his face.
If he got hit by that spear, Sa-hyeok would d*e instantly.
Because he had no defenses on his face.
He had to dodge.
Even if he dodged, he wouldn’t be able to avoid getting burned on his cheek.
But Sa-hyeok didn’t dodge.
Without blinking an eye, without moving, he simply stared at the approaching spearhead.
Somehow, he had a feeling that it would be alright.
Whoosh!
The spear came right up to his nose.
At that moment, when it was truly too late to dodge.
Ripple-
Suddenly, the tip of the flame spear crumpled.
Simultaneously, the trajectory of the flying spear sharply changed.
Just like the clubs that had been parried earlier.
Boom!!
The deflected spear crashed into the ground and exploded.
Sa-hyeok’s face was unscathed.
The boss’s last desperate attack had missed.
‘……Success.’
He had pushed away the flying flame spear with telekinesis.
Fire, which he had been unable to control with telekinesis until now.
He had finally succeeded in capturing and controlling even fire with telekinesis.
Constantly encountering flames in this dungeon had been a great help.
‘Now, if I can just control electricity…… I think I’ll have completed the 4th Circle.’
At that moment.
Thud-
Having used up all his strength, the boss slowly began to solidify.
The lava that had been filling his body also cooled down.
And-
Fizzle-
The boss’s body began to evaporate.
The evaporation of the corpse.
A precursor to an artifact drop.
“……Oh.”
In the spot where the boss had died, a thin, elongated, simple double-edged sword was stuck in the ground.
The eyes of the other raid members also widened.
“An artifact……?!”
“Oh my g*d……!”
Sa-hyeok ran his hand along the handle of the artifact.
‘……What a shame.’
Sa-hyeok couldn’t become the owner of this artifact.
From the beginning, it had been agreed that all profits generated from this dungeon would be handed over to Seongan Madang.
‘It’s a pity.’
But what could he do? That was the agreement.
Anyway, what was truly important to Sa-hyeok was something else.
The real reason he had entered this place, that stone monument.
Sa-hyeok passed the artifact and walked straight towards the stone monument.
‘Familiar letters.’
The same characters that he had seen on the walls of the golem dungeon were densely engraved on the surface of the stone monument.
Sa-hyeok took out his phone from his bag and started taking pictures of the stone monument’s surface.
Click, click-
He used telekinesis to lift his phone and take pictures of the parts that were too high to reach.
As Sa-hyeok was engrossed in taking pictures.
The other three exchanged secretive glances.
