CH.97 Stained Rock Pile (9)
After checking all the information and coming back, only Kim Chae-eun was there, not Yoo Eun-seol.
Kim Chae-eun looked at me and asked with a tilt of her head.
“What took you so long?”
“Sorry. I was just checking the Holder information for a moment. Where is Holder Yoo Eun-seol?”
“She said she would go on a brief reconnaissance. She woke up when you left, Jae-hyun.”
As she said, Yoo Eun-seol came back in no time.
She was standing on the path over the hill.
We moved quickly towards her.
“I’m sorry for being late.”
“No, it’s okay. I did a little reconnaissance and…”
Yoo Eun-seol pointed to the rocky mountain on the right.
“It looks like the boss room is over there.”
Wow.
I couldn’t help but admire her.
Is an S-grade Holder who mainly solos really different?
The direction Yoo Eun-seol pointed out was exactly towards the boss room.
The highest hill in the middle and the rocky mountain on the right.
That was the direction of the Stained Rock Pile’s boss room.
She’s an assassin, so she wouldn’t have any exploration runes, but it was amazing how she found out in such a short time.
She didn’t actually go there herself, did she?
I nodded my head and asked,
“Shall we get going then?”
“Yes.”
The journey to the boss room was comfortable.
The same battle structure continued as before.
A new B-grade monster called ‘Silver Wolf’ appeared after the Gray Wolf and Black Wolf… but for our party, with Yoo Eun-seol as the main dealer, there wasn’t a hint of danger.
Of course, my body was itching as I took on tanking at the front.
‘I want to check out my new rune.’
[Descendant of the Barbarian King].
I wanted to quickly understand the power of my newly acquired legendary rune.
I was curious about how much ‘Law of Beasts’ effect, which increases ability when fighting multiple enemies, would be and how powerful [Rage] skill would be without almost any penalty.
But now it’s not solo hunting but party hunting.
There are eyes watching, like Yoo Eun-seol, and it’s hard to fully utilize the power of runes.
It seemed like I had to postpone checking out my new rune for a while.
“It’s the boss room.”
Standing on top of the hill of the rocky mountain again, Yoo Eun-seol spoke softly.
Right below the hill of the rocky mountain.
A certain area was dug out like a crater to form a space.
And in the center of it.
Grrrr-!!
Awoooo-!!
There was ‘Barg’, the boss of Stained Rock Pile.
Like ‘Asthena’ we saw at the entrance, he had a larger body than a normal wolf and had dazzling golden fur.
He also had all the characteristics of wolf monsters we’ve encountered so far.
From fangs sticking out of his mouth to tough wolf skin and claws ready to tear prey apart.
Just by looking at his appearance…
He looked as wild as a lion monster could be.
That’s not all there is to it.
As Barg’s huge roar spread enough to shake the entire rocky mountain, I felt my body stiffen slightly.
‘It’s a status abnormality!’
It’s similar to [Oppression]’s [Declaration of Domination] that Grizzly Drake used before.
My body hesitated at just one roar he let out.
It was a status abnormality that could be predicted as ‘fear’ or ‘stiffness’.
“Is everyone okay?”
Is her willpower stat high?
Or does she have a special rune?
Whether she was completely out of range of status abnormalities or not, Yoo Eun-seol moved lightly and took care of us.
“I’m fine.”
Fortunately, I didn’t have any major problems either.
This was thanks to [Ice-Cold Focus]’s special effect.
[Ice-Cold Focus] is a rare rune that I acquired from Min Chae-hwan, who used to be a spy in Hunting Team 5 before.
It not only assists in hitting long-range attacks more accurately but also helps to recover quickly from status abnormalities. It’s a mental type rune.
Although it wasn’t immune to everything, so I did stiffen up for a moment, but I quickly recovered from the status abnormality and could move my body.
“Eh….”
But it seemed like Kim Chae-eun had a bit of trouble with status abnormality.
Even though Barg and other wolf monsters around him started rushing towards us, she couldn’t move her body or use magic power.
Yoo Eun-seol looked at her and turned her gaze towards me.
“Can Holder Do Jae-hyun take care of escorting her? I’ll deal with this quickly.”
“Ah, yes. Got it.”
Awoooo-!!
The battle began.
Barg, an A-grade monster, and a few wolf monsters protecting him rushed towards us.
Yoo Eun-seol showed off her martial arts skills once again and reached Barg in no time.
It was a move to take out the boss, who was considered the most difficult, first.
Seeing her, I also drew [Penitent’s Sword].
My task is to escort Kim Chae-eun and tank.
It would be more efficient to hold a shield for escorting, but there are six wolves rushing towards us.
It might be a better defense to wield a sword and attack them as it’s hard to block attacks from all directions.
Awoooo-!!
Three Silver Wolves rushed towards us first.
Out of the six, three were Silver Wolves.
Two were Black Wolves, and one was a Gray Wolf.
The three types of wolf monsters each had clear characteristics.
All three had high physical stats, but Gray Wolf was more focused on toughness, Black Wolf on strength, and Silver Wolf on speed.
So the ones that came at us first were…
The Silver Wolves with the highest speed.
‘There’s no time to use magic attacks….’
My innate skill [Divine Slash].
Or other magic attacks didn’t have enough time to utilize.
The best thing right now is physical attack.
Although I couldn’t deal a big blow, I had to control their movements with physical attacks.
I cut down the wolves using the techniques of [Water Sword Technique].
Pabat-
Pat- Ssak- Ssak-!
Awoooo…?!
But something strange happened.
The initial purpose of wielding the sword was rather for defense.
Since I couldn’t block the wolves rushing in from all directions with a shield, I planned to strike first with a sword and calmly wait for Yoo Eun-seol’s support.
I never thought I could hunt them all with physical attacks.
‘What’s this?’
But it works well.
It works too well.
I need ‘magic attacks’ to inflict damage on B-grade monsters.
My physical stats, which are still at the top of C-grade, were insufficient to inflict damage through ‘physical attacks’, so when hunting B-grade monsters so far, physical attacks were merely for defense or counter-attacking.
Physical attacks that normally take several hits to inflict damage.
Suddenly, it worked too well.
The three Silver Wolves fell to the ground with a miserable howl after being hit by my [Water Sword Technique].
‘This time with Wave Sword Technique….’
I didn’t miss that opportunity.
I used the technique of [Wave Sword Technique] to deliver an additional hit of ‘stabbing’ to the fallen Silver Wolves.
The same was true this time.
The effect of physical attack was definite.
The Silver Wolves couldn’t withstand my sword attack and died on the spot.
What’s left are three wolves of different species.
I moved towards them like a machine.
‘My body feels so light.’
It’s a strange feeling.
The speed of moving my body and swinging my sword.
The force when stabbing into the wolves.
Everything felt light and overflowing.
My attack relentlessly pushed the remaining wolves.
I cut down two Black Wolves at once with [Combo], and I mixed in some magic power to deliver a strong blow to one Gray Wolf.
Awoooo?
‘Lucky.’
Heaven is helping me.
[Gaze of Stiffness], which had made Red Drake ‘rigid’ before, was activated again.
The Gray Wolf, frozen in place, had to take all my attacks as they were.
I stabbed hard into its abdomen.
“Hoo….”
After defeating the most durable monster, the rest was easier.
And now I have time to use magic attacks.
I slightly raised [Penetrating Brain Strikes] on my sword and cooked the two Black Wolves that I had cut down earlier.
Just like that, the battle ended.
‘How many seconds did it take to do that?’
Even if I roughly calculated the time, it was around 10 seconds.
I went out tanking to escort Kim Chae-eun who was affected by status abnormality, but instead, I killed them all.
After the short battle ended,
As my body returned to normal…
Only then could I realize it.
‘It’s a rune special effect!’
[Descendant of the Barbarian King].
One of its special effects is ‘Law of Beasts’.
When facing three or more enemies alone, you receive additional stats in strength, speed, and toughness.
I didn’t know because I only tanked in front during previous battles and Yoo Eun-seol took care of dealing damage, but when I held a weapon myself and fought mainly with physical attacks, I could feel its effect.
‘But that’s not all.’
The stats corrected by [Descendant of the Barbarian King]’s special effect is 15%.
My strength, speed, and toughness are 45, 44, 40 respectively…
Approximately 6 stats increase.
All three main stats are close to 50.
And in that case…
The stat correction of [Oppression] is applied again.
<Rune Information>
◎Name: Oppression
…
…
◎Special Effect: –
: When fighting an opponent with lower stats than you, you receive an additional 15%(Lv.3) of that stat as support.
…
…
[Oppression] supports your stats when fighting opponents with lower stats than you.
Since the rune level is 3, the correction is 15%.
My stats pumped up by [Descendant of the Barbarian King] seem to have surpassed those of wolf monsters temporarily.
Thanks to that, [Oppression]’s correction was activated and another nearly 7 stats increased.
‘…It’s like a bug.’
Almost 13~15 higher than before in three main stats.
Of course my body feels light and physical attacks work well.
‘The synergy effect is amazing.’
I predicted that the special effect ‘Law of Beasts’ would be good.
Because my main hunting is soloing and the stats being corrected are physical stats that I mainly use.
But I never thought about synergy with [Oppression].
Once you get stat support through [Descendant of the Barbarian King], your stats take one step ahead and you get support from [Oppression] again.
It was an amazing synergy effect for me and a terrifyingly unfair effect for opposing monsters from their perspective.
“Holder Do Jae-hyun? What happened….”
Yoo Eun-seol, who quickly defeated ‘Barg’ as much as possible and came to support us, also looked at me with a surprised face.
She must have tried to defeat the most dangerous boss monster first and come to support, but all the hunting was already over.
The sight of a warrior who introduced himself as a C-grade Holder hunting six B-grade monsters alone without any support.
Even if she saw it herself, it must have been hard to believe.
“Ah, haha….”
I scratched my head and looked at her.
It’s a shame I couldn’t touch Barg.
Should I have just driven the bus…?
