Debuff Master

Chapter 1185

Siegfried’s plan to storm the fortress seemed reasonable at first, but it ended up stirring a hornet’s nest.

“Kyaaah!”

“Kieee!”

“Kikiki!”

The number of goblins pouring out of the fortress was in the thousands, and they charged at Siegfried and Hamchi like a swarm of angry bees.

“K-Kyuuuu?! W-We have to run, owner punk!”

“I-I know!”

Siegfried was forced to turn and run with Hamchi in tow.

There were just too many goblins. He knew that they would be ripped into shreds if he were to choose to stay and fight.

“You crazy bastard! I told you that we should’ve taken a break!” Chae Hyung-Seok shouted in frustration while running for his life.

“How the hell was I supposed to know that there would be so many of them?!” Siegfried screamed back in response.

He felt completely wronged, as there was no way that many goblins could fit in such a tiny fortress to begin with.

The only plausible explanation was that there were underground tunnels that led to the fortress or something, but that was only a vague guess.

“Just shut up and keep running!” Siegfried shouted. Then, he grabbed Chae Hyung-Seok and Hamchi, spread out his wings, and soared into the sky.

He calculated that the only chance they could escape was by flying, as the goblins could not fly, but it turned out to be a gross miscalculation.

Shwiiiiik!

The moment they took flight, tens of thousands of arrows and poison darts took to the skies.

There were so many projectiles that dodging them was literally impossible. He could have been able to weave through the gaps if there had been any, but the projectiles were packed so tightly that there was no room for him to maneuver.

The goblins had basically created a net made out of projectiles.

‘D-Damn it! I have no other choice!’ Siegfried shrieked inwardly and used his ultimate defensive technique.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

He grabbed Chae Hyung-Seok and swung him in front, using him as a meat shield to block the incoming projectiles.

In the blink of an eye, Chae Hyung-Seok turned into a porcupine after being riddled with arrows.

“Aaaack! H-Han Tae-Sung, you bastard! Am I your damn meat shield?! You asshole!”

“Hehehe! Meat shield.”

“You’re a damn psychopath!”

Chae Hyung-Seok was raging at the top of his lungs, but he didn’t actually suffer a lot of damage.

He was a buffer and a tank, so his Defense was ridiculously high. It was so high that this level of attack was nowhere near enough to take him down. Moreover, he could just transform into a living totem and become invincible to all damage if things became really dangerous, so this wasn’t a big deal at all.

Of course, Siegfried knew that and was intentionally messing with him.

‘Now’s our chance.’

After using Chae Hyung-Seok as a meat shield to survive the volley of projectiles, Siegfried immediately teleported away and brought the group back down to the jungle below.

He realized that being in the air with no cover just made them easy targets, so he decided to fight with the cover of the jungle.

Unfortunately, even that did not go as well as he expected.

“Kyaaah!”

“Kiki!”

“Kiheee!”

“Kiki! Kiki!”

The goblins swarmed again like bees, attacking without giving even a moment’s respite.

There were so many of them that it was practically pointless to even fight back.

“D-Damn it! We don’t have a choice! Fall back!”

Siegfried, Hamchi, and Chae Hyung-Seok decided to abandon the fight and retreat.

Unfortunately, retreating was neither easy.

The goblins were incredibly fast; they were so fast that they managed to completely surround Siegfried’s party in the blink of an eye.

‘What the hell?! How are they so fast?!’

Siegfried activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance to scan the area around them, and he was shocked out of his mind.

There was nowhere to run.

They were surrounded from all sides—north, east, south, and west.

The entire map was flooded with red dots.

‘W-We’re seriously fucked…’ Siegfried thought, clenching his fists.

These were not just regular goblins. These goblins were exponentially far more powerful than the ordinary goblins one was used to hunting with their eyes closed.

Even when facing a small group of them, Siegfried and Chae Hyung-Seok had needed time to fight, recover, and wait for their cooldowns before tackling another group.

The monsters in the Ancient Dungeons were that tough, and they had been surrounded by thousands of powerful monsters.

Their demise was inevitable.

‘What do we do…?’

Time was running out.

‘We have to fight, but…’

It was then.

‘Over there!’

Siegfried spotted a small cave nearby and sprinted toward it.

“Hey! Where are you going?!”

“Kyuuu! Wait for me, owner punk!”

“Follow me! Hurry!”

The cave was a naturally formed stone grotto.[1]

“We will hold out here,” Siegfried said, clenching his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

“You’re crazy! Do you want us to get trapped in here?!” Chae Hyung-Seok exclaimed.

“We already are trapped. With the cave entrance acting as a funnel, maybe two or three at most can get in at once. That’s way better than getting swarmed from all sides, no?”

“S-Still…!”

“You guys just keep buffing me. I’ll do the fighting and—”

Before Siegfried could even finish his words—

“Kyaaaah!”

—Dozens of goblins appeared, charging straight at the party.

‘It’s all or nothing now.’

Siegfried gritted his teeth and activated Invincible Spear Art as the first wave of goblins charged at them.

***

Siegfried stood firm at the mouth of the cave and fended off the goblins like Zhang Fei blocking Cao Cao’s army.

The goblins that had recklessly approached the cave entrance were drenched in debuffs and dropped one by one after getting struck down by Siegfried.

The combination of Invincible Spear Art and the buffs cast by Hamchi and Chae Hyung-Seok was simply too powerful.

“Next customer!”

Siegfried held his position and killed every single goblin that dared to enter the cave, defending the entrance for hours on end.

Of course, Siegfried was still human in the end, so he needed to rest from time to time and recover.

Thus, the solution he came up with was to use his Chae Hyung-Seok as a meat shield.

He forced Chae Hyung-Seok to transform into a living totem, plugged the cave entrance with him, and he used that brief moment of respite to chug potions and restore his HP, Stamina, and Primordial Force.

Then, he would unplug the entrance and return to battle again.

As the hours went by, goblin corpses began to pile up at the cave entrance.

[Alert: You have reached Level 509!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 510!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 511!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 512!]

Meanwhile, Siegfried gained four levels and reached Level 512.

‘Ah, I’m still short on skill points…’

Even in the midst of battle, Siegfried tried to level up his Nine Steps to Invincibility into Eight Steps to Invincibility. Unfortunately, the skill points required to level up the skill were several times more than the skill points needed to increase the level of other skills.

‘Looks like I’ll need to hit at least Level 520 to level this up to Eight Steps to Invincibility,’ he thought.

It was then.

“K-Kiie?!”

“Kihit?!”

“Kieeeek!”

Suddenly, the goblins came to a full stop and no longer recklessly charged into the cave. They seemed to have realized they couldn’t just throw themselves at Siegfried anymore and merely growled at him from a distance.

A few of them tried firing arrows and poison darts from afar, but it was futile.

Ting! Tiiing!

The Invincible Spear Art’s automatic function deflected all incoming ranged attacks, even if Siegfried didn’t react to them.

As a result, a bizarre standoff started at the cave entrance.

The goblins were too afraid to engage Siegfried in one-on-one combat and refused to charge into the cave.

On the other hand, Siegfried was hesitant to step out and fight a swarm of goblins all at once.

Neither side wanted to be in a tactically disadvantageous situation, so both just stood there watching each other.

The standoff dragged on, as neither side made a move. The goblins did not retreat from the cave, and Siegfried’s party did not dare to leave the cave.

Time passed, and before they knew it, night had already fallen.

“Hey, are we seriously going to pull an all-nighter like this? I’m so sleepy I could drop at any moment now,” Chae Hyung-Seok grumbled.

“I’m about to drop dead from exhaustion, too, so stop whining,” Siegfried snapped back.

Siegfried was currently in a rough state, and rightfully so.

He had been fighting for over ten hours after poking the hornet’s nest. Now, he was locked in a standoff with the goblins until late into the night.

However, he couldn’t afford to relax, as the goblins would charge in the moment he let down his guard, even for a second. Thus, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep enduring no matter how sleepy or tired he was.

‘I don’t think it would do much even if I unleashed all of my area of effect skills,’ Siegfried thought.

While he was trying to think of a way out of this stalemate…

Gwuuu Ooooh!

A deafening roar echoed from the distance.

“Keh?!”

“Kieeeeek!”

“Kiee! Kieeee!”

Suddenly, the goblins grew wild.

‘Huh? What the hell is going on?’ Siegfried furrowed his brow, wondering what was happening.

After growling for hours on end, they were suddenly hopping and shrieking as if some kind of festival was going on.

However, the bizarre sight did not last that long.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The goblins around the cave parted to the sides just like the Red Sea, and a tall goblin stepped forward.

The goblin was unusually tall for a goblin. It was at least one hundred seventy centimeters tall, and it held a very impressive-looking spear in its hand.

‘Huh? That is…’ Siegfried immediately recognized that the tall goblin was not just an ordinary Champion monster.

[Hero: Nox the Immortal Warrior]

[The Great War Hero of the Ancient Goblin Empire.]

[He is considered to be the greatest warrior in goblin history.]

[Type: Monster]

[Race: Goblin]

[Level: 550]

[Class: Spear God]

[Warning: This monster’s combat capability is far beyond what you can imagine!]

The tall goblin turned out to be a Hero Class monster, which was a tier above a Champion Class monster. Without a doubt, the goblin was most likely a mini-boss of the Ancient Goblin Empire dungeon.

Moreover…

[Relic: Sky Piercer]

[A sacred relic of the Ancient Goblin Empire.]

[A legendary spear imbued with immense power. It is said to reject those who are not true warriors.]

[Type: Spear]

[Rating: Relic]

[Durability: N/A (Requires Appraisal)]

[Attack Power: N/A (Requires Appraisal)]

[Effects: N/A (Requires Appraisal)]

‘That’s it! That’s the one I’m looking for!’ Siegfried exclaimed inwardly, his eyes gleaming. He realized that Nox the Immortal Warrior was holding a Relic-rated spear, which was a weapon that he had been looking for.

“How dare you.” A crude voice snapped Siegfried back to reality. Apparently, being a Hero Class monster meant that Nox could speak the common tongue of the continent.

“You who have trespassed into our empire’s lands… I will not forgive you,” Nox growled. Then, he pointed his Sky Piercer at Siegfried and said, “Come. Duel me, mortal.”

“Sure thing. If that’s what you want,” Siegfried replied with a grin.

Then, he walked toward the cave entrance without hesitation.

A duel?

He had no reason to avoid it.

After all, fighting thousands of insanely powerful goblins swarming at him all at once was a pain in the butt.

But a one-on-one duel?

That was something he would welcome any given day.

***

Just like that, the duel between Siegfried and Nox began.

Siegfried instantly activated his debuffs, Karma Flare and Embrace of Despair, and charged at Nox without hesitation.

‘Come here, Golden Goblin!’

Siegfried had been desperately searching for a Relic-rated weapon, but he hadn’t been able to find any that suited his needs.

The Sky Piercer that Nox wielded was exactly what he needed, so in his eyes, Nox was no ordinary goblin—he was a Golden Goblin.

As proof of it, dollar signs were already flashing in Siegfried’s eyes as he charged at Nox.

However, Nox was no mere Golden Goblin.

Claaaang!

Siegfried’s +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp clashed with Nox’s Sky Piercer, causing sparks to fly all over the place.

Surprisingly, Nox displayed incredible reaction speed, defense, and vitality even after getting riddled with debuffs.

“You have nowhere to run!” Nox roared, unleashing his spear technique.

What followed was a dazzling exchange of Nox’s spear technique and Siegfried’s Invincible Spear Art.

‘W-What the hell?! This guy is crazy strong!’

Siegfried was shocked to see that Nox was far more skilled than he had expected.

Then again, Nox was not an Adventurer, but rather, a monster.

He was an NPC controlled by artificial intelligence, so his actions were dictated by highly advanced algorithms that far surpassed the reaction speed and decision-making ability of a normal human being.

However, Siegfried was not actually being outclassed.

“Y-You…! How… How can you wield such a high-level martial art…?!” Nox stammered, flinching the moment he witnessed the might of Invincible Spear Art.

“Stop whining,” Siegfried curtly retorted. He brushed off Nox’s astonishment and launched a fierce assault with his spear technique.

And then—

Whoosh!

Nox’s Sky Piercer barely grazed Siegfried’s arm.

[Siegfried von Proa]

[HP: ■■■■■■■□□□]

His HP dropped by thirty percent.

“…What the hell?” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

He was flabbergasted that just a light graze had shaved off a third of his HP.

It was neither a clean hit nor a critical hit, yet the damage was absurdly huge.

1. A grotto is a small cave that can either be artificial or naturally made. I had to be specific with “grotto” because author-nim wrote specifically. More info here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotto ☜