◈ Episode 541. O Unchanging Ones (1)
His vision flickered without pause.[You have entered the Second Gate, “Nightmare’s Outpost Fortress.”][The laws of the outpost fortress constrict your body.]……
Kinver swallowed dryly.‘Damn it, my head can’t keep up.’What in the world is happening here?
Kinver stared blankly at Hoyeol’s back. Since even his class had yet to be revealed, he had assumed the man was bound to have many secrets.‘But every last thing is on a level far beyond anything I imagined.’And among them, the most shocking thing of all was.‘……
This is seriously insane.’The vicious fiends that had become meek lambs before him.[Hell Guardian]
Skill, [Stealth]
Having mastered it, Kinver had received a reward.
A new unique skill, [Weak to the Strong, Strong to the Weak].
The effect of the skill, whose very name reeked of vileness, was simple.[Weak to the Strong, Strong to the Weak (Master): You can judge at a glance whether an opponent is strong or weak. When the opponent is strong, all stats decrease slightly; when the opponent is weak, all stats increase slightly.]
Glance.
Kinver turned his head and looked at the Hell Guardian they had passed by. He activated [Weak to the Strong, Strong to the Weak]
once more, but the result was the same.‘No response. Neither strong nor weak.’Beyond that, it was not even a “target.”
Not a monster.
An invincible, special being.
Was that why?
When the thing’s gaze had swept over his body,
even a chilling message had appeared.[※Warning: You are not one of the dead.]
But that extreme anxiety did not last long.
As stated, once Hoyeol stepped forward,
the Hell Guardians obediently opened the path.‘He’s beyond the rumors.’It would have been natural to be flustered.
Yet Hoyeol’s actions had been utterly natural.
Watching him, that thought occurred to him.
Kinver’s eyes darted.‘……
Does he really know something?’About this hell, too.
“Oh-ho. So there was scenery hidden behind the door.”
Even Lorentsk, the romantic explorer, clearly seemed to be walking an unfamiliar road from the Second Gate onward. No matter how great Lorentsk was, he was not one of the dead. There would have been no way for him to pass through the gate while avoiding the Hell Guardians’ gaze.
However.‘No matter how incredible he is…….’Isn’t this physically impossible?
In other words, before the Cataclysm.
Back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
To put it in perspective, the old standard was no more than playing house.
That applied not only to the scale of the events that occurred, but also to the players’ levels, the monsters that appeared with new updates, and the level of newly emerging fields.‘Even if he hadn’t revealed his strength, it still doesn’t make sense.’……
But then again.
When had his achievements ever made sense?
Kinver shook his head.
Questions with no answer only invited greater worry.
Yes, like the circumstances entangled with the Claudi Family.
Kinver reminded himself only of his own purpose.‘Forget it. Just do your part, Kinver, you idiot.’It was the moment he was scolding himself.
As if he would not overlook even the smallest question,
Hoyeol’s voice rang out.
“Yes.”
Huh? What is he saying?
“I knew from the beginning.”
He suddenly knew from the beginning……
Could he be talking about his impressions of hell?
Kinver flinched only for a moment.
The words that followed.
“I merely forgot for a time.”
Kinver’s pupils shook violently.
As expected, he had known about hell from the beginning.
Had he experienced it long ago?
As though answering him, the words continued.
“But in the end, I have returned. That is enough.”
Which meant.
He had returned from hell to reality, then back to hell.
It meant that he had climbed back up from hell several times.
It was then.
All of a sudden.
A rumor surfaced in Kinver’s mind.‘Th-then the resurrection rumor that spread through the Hoyeol Church was true?!’*As expected, I knew it.‘You know, I’m starting to feel hurt these days?’I don’t hide anything from you, Granfell.
How is it that ever since the past,
and now even with the secrets tied to items,
you’ve never been honest with me?‘You treat everyone else well, but only with me.’A rather serious interrogation from me, Lee Hoyeol.
Still, it seemed you had a conscience.
Your loose tongue finished speaking as though making an excuse.
“I merely forgot for a time.”
Forgot, huh.‘Hmm, I find it hard to believe that you’d forget anything with that head of yours…….’Well, if you’re going that far, I have no choice but to believe you.‘So what is it? What’s the truth behind the Hexagram Brooch?’Since he had even admitted it, unlike his usual self,
I thought he would now speak freely.
As expected, our Lord Granfell was not so easygoing, was he?
Granfell’s brazen manner of speech rang out.
“But in the end, I have returned. That is enough.”
As someone who majored in Granfellian rhetoric, I would interpret that as.‘So gathering five isn’t the end, huh?’At any rate, since we had collected the Hexagram Brooch we had searched so hard for, with only one piece remaining, it clearly meant he wanted me to overlook the fact that he had forgotten that much.‘Well, fine.’I do have a good eye for these things, after all.
If you have no intention of telling me, I can just look at the information window and make a guess.
I checked the information on the Hexagram Brooch.
First, let’s examine them one by one.[Hexagram Brooch 3/6][Grade: Unique][Restriction: Lv.666][Effect: Increases resistance to all status abnormalities.][Description: Part of a brooch in which six gather to become one. Because it is only a very small portion, its effect has been greatly diminished.]
As expected, the higher the level restriction rose,
the more significant the effect became.
I seriously evaluated the effect.‘It does overlap with the blessing of the First World Tree, but…….’There was also an additional set effect remaining.[Set item effect is applied.][Currently applied set effect: 5/6][1. All basic stats increase by 2 points.][2. When attacking boss monsters, all damage increases by 10 percent.][3. When hostile to multiple enemies, damage received decreases by 10 percent.]……
The third set effect corresponding to the third fragment.‘Individually, they may not look like much.’But if you considered that it was an item
where six became one……
This was an absurd additional effect.‘At this level, even Epic-grade items rarely have effects like this.’Since that was coming from me, who possessed the Epic-grade set item [One Who Awaits the Dawn], it meant I was not making a needless fuss.[Hexagram Brooch 4/6][Grade: Unique][Restriction: Lv.777][Effect: Greatly increases maximum health.][Description: Part of a brooch in which six gather to become one. Because it is only a very small portion, its effect has been greatly diminished.]
This time, it greatly increased maximum health?
The moment I immediately checked even the fourth additional set effect,
I went beyond flinching and actually gasped.[4. During combat, when maximum health reaches 70 percent, 50 percent, 30 percent, 10 percent, and 1 percent, you acquire the “Awakening” effect.]……
Is this for real?
A special effect like Awakening not once, but five times?!
Even if it was a set effect.
A mere Unique item had an effect like this?‘I’d be lacking even if I bowed to the vengeful spirits in thanks.’It was the moment I was exercising extreme restraint over the joy welling up inside me.
For some reason,
I felt a sense of déjà vu.
It was a sensation the Lee Hoyeol of the past would never have been able to feel.
After awakening as a player,
I was dragged around by Granfell and experienced countless incidents that other players could never experience.
If I had to name the greatest difference among them, it would be that I had experienced countless boss raids that other players could not even watch, let alone participate in. It was thanks to that.‘……
It’s similar.’Up to the third brooch, I had thought nothing of it.
But the set effect of the fourth brooch.
It was merely described in a slightly different way.
Each time health dropped,
it entered a new phase.
A characteristic of.[Boss Monsters]
‘……
What exactly is this brooch?’If I checked the effect of the fifth brooch, I felt I would gain a little more certainty. Maintaining my composure with effort, I was about to move my gaze to the information window of the last, fifth brooch.
“!”
My vision flickered.‘Well, I was wondering why things had been so quiet.’We had entered hell.
Until now, the only things we had encountered were vengeful spirits. I did not know what kind of sins a human had to commit to fall into hell, but there was one thing I knew for certain.
“O stagnant beings.”
That’s right.
Demons hunted by demon hunters.
They were certain to fall into hell.[Skill, “Natural Enemy,” has been activated.]
The Second Gate, Nightmare’s Outpost Fortress.
A small fortress.
Demonic presences erupted all over the place.
At last, the demons revealed themselves.‘……
Huh?’What the hell, those are imps, aren’t they?
Honestly,
it felt so anticlimactic that the wind went out of me.
After all, Granfell and I had hunted not just great evils, but even high-ranking demon kings, hadn’t we? At this point, to hunt lesser demons without even names like imps was honestly…….‘It pricks my conscience to even strike a pose.’But who was our Lord Granfell?
One who looked upon the Ten Thrones as imps, and upon imps as the Ten Thrones; a born demon hunter of Akshan, always utterly sincere when it came to hunting demons……!
“I shall be considerate of you, who remain forever without progress.”
Seriously, that acting cool of yours is really……
Flutter.
Regardless of my sigh, the Dawn Jacket fluttered in mana.
“It means that I, too, shall exert my full strength as always.”*Blood elf.
Elsidore, who never lost his noble demeanor before any foe. Yet in this moment, his cells were in a state of extreme excitement, to a degree that could be called the first time in his life.‘This is dangerous.’That was no mere imp.
Though its appearance was that of an imp,
the force it emitted was not that of an imp.
“They’re just imps, aren’t they? Leave things like that to me and……”
“Shut your mouth, trash.”
“What?”
It seemed Kinver had failed to notice the alien presence. Elsidore did not intend to criticize him. Even he himself might not have noticed if he had not paid attention.‘They harbor malice honed to the extreme over long ages.’They were like the insignificant vengeful spirits of the First Gate’s Hell Village.
In hell, from which no one could escape,
the imps had only burned their malice even hotter.
Elsidore’s gaze turned to Hoyeol.‘You discerned that from the start.’That he would exert his full strength as always.
Hoyeol had already manifested magic.
Crackle.
Electric currents manifested in the air and shone. They extended all at once toward the imps approaching from every direction. But if the battle ended with that, there would have been no need to be tense.
“Kahahahahaha!”
A speed faster than lightning.
The imps of hell were on a different level. Because the magic interfered with the air spread throughout the surroundings, Elsidore had thought the Lightning Bolt would be impossible to avoid, yet they managed to dodge it and were flying toward them.
Slice.
Elsidore swung his sword, and Kinver activated [Stealth]
, avoiding aggro together with Lorentsk. Elsidore chewed over the sensation that had caught at the tip of his blade.‘The attack was shallow.’To be precise, they had avoided his counterattack.
The even greater problem was
that those imps were already dead.
Elsidore grasped the surrounding air.‘That must be why. They haven’t shrunk back in the slightest.’Hoyeol and Elsidore.
Even though combat forces capable of changing
the atmosphere of a battlefield, the momentum itself, merely by appearing, had gathered in one place.
The imps were not shaken.
“You remain as ignorant of your place as ever.”
You spoke as if it were nothing, but…….‘This feeling is a first for me.’Can I move forward?
More than ever, he keenly felt his own inadequacy.
Elsidore once again resented his youth.‘……
If it had been Argentress instead of me.’He could have served at your side.
I am far too lacking to serve you.
But Elsidore gritted his teeth.……
Grind.‘Since I cannot be of help with my head, I must work with my body.’For your sake as well.
I must open the path.
The elf, having made up his mind, spotted a route in his field of vision.‘At the end of that path should be the Third Gate.’There was only one road through the outpost fortress.
Once he made his judgment, his mind grew calm.
If the imps held back your feet,
then it would be enough for me to have my ankles seized in your place.
“C-crazy.”
The effect of [Stealth]
that had reached Master.
Kinver, who had barely avoided the imp’s attack.
Elsidore looked at him as he caught his breath raggedly.
“Haaah.”
Entrusting you to such trash was unsettling, but as stated, trash harbored venom. The stronger the enemy, the more troublesome that trash’s venom would become.‘Do my share as well, Kinver.’Elsidore made his decision.
Tap.
He leaped out in front of Hoyeol.
“I will take charge of this place.”
It was the moment he declared so resolutely.
“……
Hiiiiiiik?!”
For some reason.
Before his killing intent,
and before Hoyeol’s magic,
the imps of hell, who had not shown the slightest change in emotion,
began trembling in terror.
Elsidore flinched.
Then, his large ears twitched.
A metallic sound suddenly rang out.
Clank.
“It has been a long time.”
“……?”
“Akshan, my comrades.”
“?!!”...
-Encounter the demon hunters of hell. (Success)