Chapter 93 – Elf’s Keepsake (3)
Sweepers Guild.
They were one of the 30 great guilds, but they provided a markedly different content from the other guilds. They possessed killer contents.
The guild used the strong Magicians within the guild to completely wipe out the monsters in a selected region. The guild sweeped the monsters, and this was the killer content offered by the Sweepers guild.
Of course, they didn't clear out the monsters for pure reasons.
Eventually new monsters would appear. However, there were a lot of merits in eliminating all the monster in a set amount of time. This was mainly done when a Block Field appeared. The investigation of the Block Field was more important than the monster hunt. If one was lucky, one could gain hints to the Main Scenario Quest. Moreover, one could earn titles.
The guild also went into hunting grounds where the population of monsters had grown too much. They eliminated the monster, and at times, they effectively controlled the population of monsters for the users.
They were decisive. The guild brought several hundred to a thousand high level Magicians to a hunt. With the help of various potions, they poured out their strongest magic at the same time. It was quite a sight, and this could be only seen within Warlord. It could be compared to fireworks.
In truth, it was hard to gain anything through such a hunting method. It wasn't easy to level up, and the efficiency of the hunt decreased. Once they killed all the monsters, they had to wait for the regeneration of the next batch of monsters. Moreover, it wasn't only the Magicians, who went to these events. Numerous Priests and Swordsman users followed to assist the Magicians.
Even with all of these disadvantages, the Sweepers guild promoted this concept. The reason was the revenue from broadcasting these events. They were one of the top 5 in terms of bringing in profit with their footage in the 30 great guilds. Their contents were that mesmerizing.
Of course, the Sweepers Guild puts out an announcement before they commenced their monster cleaning.
[The Blue Mist Forest was found north-east of the Eagle mountain, and we are planning on sweeping it. We will give a fixed compensation to the users, who are in the midst of a hunt. Thank you for always cheering and helping the Sweepers guild.]
When the announcement came out, it would have been wise to escape this stage. If one died by getting swept up in the magical bombardment, one wouldn’t even be able to collect one’s insurance.
However, not everyone could choose the wise course of action.
‘Shit.’
Hyrkan's expression crumpled when he saw the announcement.
‘I thought I would suck on some honey, since not many users were coming towards this place. I never expect it to turn sour like this.’
While Hyrkan was hunting inside the Blue Mist Forest, a decent amount of users had come to the Blue Mist Forest.
However, amongst all of them, there weren't anyone, who used the Blue Mist Forest as their main hunting ground. The difficulty of the hunting ground was too high. The online community had already judged the Blue Mist Forest to be an inefficient hunting ground.
This wasn't welcoming news to the users.
It was the opposite for the Sweepers Guild. This was a boon.
Now that the Block Field was released, secrets were surely there. Since regular users stayed away from coming here, the Sweepers Guild would get very low amount of complaints as they started their cleaning. The biggest obstacle in proceeding with a monster cleaning by the Sweepers was the existing users.
Of course, the sweep wasn’t going to be easy. The Sweepers Guild was one of the 30 great guilds, yet the Blue Mist Forest was infested with level 110+ monsters. It would be impossible to clear out the place in one go.
There was one thing that was definite. Now that the Sweepers guild was on the move the countdown had started for Hyrkan.
It was time to turn his resolution into action.
‘I must have lost my mind.’
Hyrkan questioned himself as he ran through the fog.
Kooh-uhhhh!
A Smogrian suddenly appeared in front of Hyrkan. Its arms were like sharp blades, and they were swung towards Hyrkan.
However, Hyrkan wasn't surprised by its appearance.
Hweeek!
Instead, he easily dodge its arms, and he ran past as he stabbed the Smogrian on its side.
Pah-kahk!
While he was doing so, Hyrkan quickly swung his sword to separate its upper and lower body.
A crumbling sound was heard instead of a slicing sound as the Smogrian was sliced in half.
Kooh-uh, kooh-uh!
It was cut in half, but its arms and legs were still moving. It immediately opened its mouth, and it let out a horrible shriek towards Hyrkan.
He looked at the scene from the corner of his eyes, and Hyrkan clicked his tongue.
‘I must have lost my mind.’
Hyrkan once again questioned himself.
His gaze had moved past the Smogrian he had cut in half, and it headed towards the far back.
The thick fog was limiting his vision, so he couldn't confirm it with his sight. However, the shimmer of numerous Smogrians flickered in front of Hyrkan's eyes.
‘I must have lost my mind.’
This was the third time he questioned himself.
He made a resolution to cut through the Blue Mist Forest, so he had immediately turned his resolution into action. At first, it wasn't that hard. Smogrians weren't slow, but they weren't fast enough to catch Hyrkan. He had incredible Strength Stat, and he had the Leg Strength Modification(C). His ability to run was amazing.
Moreover, he could easily deal with those, who blocked his path. He just had to destroy anything that appeared in front of his eyes.
However, there was a limit to any course of action!
Hyrkan had repeatedly ran away, and now he had a significant tail behind his back. If one's tail become sufficiently long enough, it will catch up to you. The number of Smogrians following after him had turned into the Rubicon river. He couldn't turn back now.
‘I expected it, but…….’
Of course, he had expected something like this.
However, the number of Smogrians converging on him as he headed towards the center was mind boggling. It was much more than he expected.
‘How can there be so many of them?’
It was so bad that it felt as if he was being swarmed by bugs.
He would have understood if there were a lot of user making the Blue Mist Forest as their preferred hunting ground. This would increase the number of monster being regenerated. However, that wasn't the case at all right now. No, even if he took those factors into consideration, there were too many monsters here.
It meant there was something special going on with the current situation.
Was it a bug?
‘What's the cause?’
There must be a special reason why the population of monsters here had increased in an explosive manner.
From Hyrkan's perspective, he wished for the latter. If it was a bug, this would be endless, and he would eventually get a Game Over.
However, the change Hyrkan had been hoping for arrived after he had been running for 20 minutes.
‘Huh?’
After a certain point, Hyrkan knew something had changed.
‘They aren't following me?’
They had chased after him as if Hyrkan had killed their parents. However, the presence of Smogrians disappeared after a certain point in time.
Smogrians had shown up everytime he took a step, but they were all gone now.
Hyrkan turned to look behind him. When Hyrkan stopped, he knew the monsters should have caught up to him, but there were none of them.
‘Maybe?’
Hweek!
Hyrkan had his suspicions, so he threw a Skeleton Fragment into the distance.
After traveling a long distance, the Skeleton Fragment turned into a Skeleton Warrior.
After taking form as a Skeleton Warrior, it slowly walked towards Hyrkan, since there was no battle present. It just idled as it stared at Hyrkan.
Hyrkan flicked his finger twice. the Skeleton Warrior did nothing, but it got into its fighting stance.
‘Would you look at this?’
It meant there weren't any monsters nearby. Hyrkan tilted his head in puzzlement.
‘What? Then why would it suddenly…….’
Of course, suspicion bloomed within him.
‘Ah!’
Hyrkan's suspicion was answered when he turned his head.
Hyrkan caught sight of a black object.
Hyrkan had finally arrived at the location he wanted. Hyrkan smiled.
‘Yes. This is it.’
After regulating his breathing, he immediately checked his consumable items and his own status. He had brought a large amount of supply, so he still had a lot of consumable items left.
Moreover, the consumable items he had right now were the ones he received from Pelato. These were basically free item, so it tasted really good. It felt as if the the items were more effective than it really was.
He didn't know what would happen, so he put a Resistance Effect Candy in his mouth as a precaution. Afterwards, he shouted out in an overbearing manner.
“Let's quickly end this! Come at me!”
The response to Hyrkan's shout was immediate.
[You've acquired the Title, 'Person who Encounter the Corrupted Comrade'.]
Hyrkan's expression slightly changed.
‘Uh?’
It was an announcement for acquiring a Title.
This was good news. He never expected to suddenly gain a title here.
However, Hyrkan felt an instinctive threat at the word Corrupted Comrade.
‘Corrupted Comrade?’
He had heard those words before.
‘M…maybe?’
The black object revealed itself in front of Hyrkan.
It was close to 2 meters tall. Its shape was clearly humanoid. It wore armor on its lower body, but its upper body was bare. His muscular body was sooty, and it looked as if it didn't have any pupils. Its eyes were hollow.
However, its appearance didn't catch Hyrkan's eyes. It held a rusty and plain longsword in its right hand. Hyrkan caught sight of a gold ring on its finger.
Hyrkan twitched a finger. It was the finger with the Society's Ring equipped on it.
“Fuck.”
Hyrkan let out a sigh, and he started cussing.
Corrupted Comrade.
It was a member of the Secret Society. It probably had chased after the Corrupted Power, and it must have gotten caught. After numerous torture sessions and experimentation, it had been turned into a monster.
Truthfully, he didn't mind such backstories. The important part was that a member of the Secret Society was his enemy, and the ability it possessed.
‘A bomb rolled in instead of a pumpkin.’
It had complete immunity against physical attacks. This was ability of the Corrupted Comrade.
Pooh-haht!
Hyrkan swung his golden sword called 'The Sword made out of Golden Mantis' Sickle'. It bit into Corrupted Comrade's body.
The wound healed each moment as Hyrkan's sword made a cut.
It was like cutting water with a sword. This wasn’t just about having great regeneration ability.
‘Shit.’
Hyrkan clicked his tongue, when his sword couldn't make any wounds. He slid past the Corrupted Comrade, and he created some space. He had his back turned as he tried to widen his distance from the Corrupted Comrade.
Ooh-uhhhhhh!
When he turned his body, Hyrkan felt the presence of the Corrupted Comrade. It had already closed the distance. It swung its sword as it let out a frightening sound.
It was swung from top to bottom. It couldn't even be called a sword swing. It brought down the sword without any form.
However, it was really fast.
Hyrkan was having a hard time dodging. He had to hold his sword horizontally to block the strike!
Kah-ahng!
The rough clang of steel rang out, and Hyrkan's feet was pressed into the ground.
Hyrkan had a unique sword that was so well known for its attack and durability that it was nicknamed as 'The Gangster'. If he had a lame level 100 Rare rank Sword, it would have been shattered into pieces by this blow.
This was how fast and strong the attack of the Corrupted Comrade was. Hyrkan was barely able to fight it.
‘The Skeleton Warriors won't work.’
In other words, he couldn't use the Skeleton Warriors to buy time.
If it was the Skeleton Knight or the Golem, they would be able to buy him some time. However, buying time was the only thing they could do.
If he fought a monster to just buy time, he would just regret it at the end.
In the end, Hyrkan needed some other answer to this problem.
Choooong!
Hyrkan was face to face with the Corrupted Comrade. Hyrkan slid its sword away. This created enough time for him to back away.
Kwahjeeek!
The Corrupted Comrade's sword embedded itself on the ground Hyrkan had been standing on. During all of this, Hyrkan threw a Skeleton Fragment into the distance.
The Skeleton Fragment turned into a Skeleton Magician.
This was the answer. If it was invulnerable to physical attack, he had to get rid of it with magic!
Of course, this wasn't a full solution. However, this was a critical part in coming up with an answer.
Hyrkan took a deep breath.
At that moment, the effort and practice he had done in secret flashed through his mind.
When he returned to the past, Hyrkan had made a promise to himself. He'll do everything by himself, and he would reap the benefits all by himself!
However, Hykran had a lot of homework he needed to finish before he could achieve that goal.
One was finding out a way to defeat a monster, who couldn't be harmed through physical means.
There was only one solution. He had no choice, but to develop a magical attack.
His best option was to learn attack magic like a proper magician. However, unless he wanted to put all his effort into magic, his efforts would be useless.
Even if he bought Skill Books with money, his limitations would be evident unless he was able to rank the magic up to a High Rank Magic.
The only magical attack he could use was the Bone Explosives. Then there was the Skeleton Magicians.
The Bone Explosives were powerful, but expensive. There was also a limit to how many he could use. It was suitable as an aid for damage dealing, but it was impossible to use it as one's main attack.
So there was only one option left, and it was the Skeleton Magicians. Unexpectedly, the attack of the Skeleton Magicians were quite high . As the Skeleton Magician's rank increases, the power of the magic increased. If it received the buff from the Skeleton Knight and the Skeleton Science, the damage would increase further. If he could gain a Skill related to Skeleton Magicians, than their magic could become very powerful.
However, the problem was in how to use them.
Unlike the Skeleton warriors, he couldn't train the Skeleton Magicians to act as he wanted.
In the end, the Skeleton Magicians had to recognize his attack pattern first. Then they would be able to move in sync with Hyrkan.
This was what he had worked on in practice.
He learned how to dance with a monster, while the Skeleton Magician was watching! The fruition of his practice could be seen right now.
Puh-uhng!
The magic thrown by the Skeleton Magician stuck to the back of the Corrupted Comrade. It started to burn, and the body melted. However, the flame disappeared after a little while. Still, the efficacy of the attack was apparent. It had instant recovered after Hyrkan's sword strike, but this wound wasn't closing easily.
Koo-uhhhhh!
The Corrupted Comrade immediately glared at the Skeleton Magician.
Pook!
Hyrkan stabbed his sword into its body to get the attention of the Corrupted Comrade.
Pook!
Then he stabbed one more time.
It hadn't received any damage, but it focused its attention back towards Hyrkan once again. It swung its sword towards Hyrkan.
Shweeeek!
Hyrkan barely avoided the sword.
Hooohng!
However, Hyrkan couldn't avoid the second high to low strike.
Kah-ahng!
He blocked with his sword.
Hyrkan gritted his teeth.
‘I'll move 5 steps to switch location.’
Hyrkan was barely able to untangle himself from the face to face deadlock, then he moved 5 steps. He didn't simply move backwards. He switched position. The Corrupted Comarde moved with Hyrkan.
The two of them stood there as they clashed swords once again
Puh-uhng!
The Skeleton Magician's magic hit a bull's eye on the Corrupted Comrade's back.
If Hyrkan hadn't moved, the Magic spell would have landed between Hyrkan and the Corrupted Comrade.
However, Hyrkan didn't have any time to rest. He was busy trying to draw the aggro of the Corrupted Comrade after they ended their standoff.
'If I die from being hit by my Skeleton Magician's magic, I would have to quit Warlord from the embarrassment I would feel.'
If other users had the chance to see what was going on…. If the audience was the skilled users of Warlord, they would have been shocked instead of being impressed.
Hyrkan looked like a shooting game expert, where one was dodging missiles flying in from all directions. He was on the level of an expert, who could turn the tables by guiding missiles towards the enemy.
He had to repeat this action continuously, and the timing was difficult that it made one feel faint.
This couldn't be achieved only by practising.
Hyrkan wasn’t good at anything in real life. Even though, he was an insignificant being, he was very talented at Warlord. His potential couldn't be compare to anyone.
‘All right. I got the feel of it.’
At that point, Hyrkan summoned an additional Skeleton Magician.
‘Let's double the pace.’
This was the moment when one of the most popular video of Hyrkan was born. The video was called 'The Waltz'.
