Emperor of Solo Play

Chapter 162 - Anugas’ Necklace (1)

1.

[Anugas' Power is fading away.]

[Your soul has regained its original strength.]

The Crying Sword thrust forward by Hyrkan pierced Anugas' gem-like eye.  It even pierced through its enormous head.

At that moment, the Announcement was heard within his ears.  It informed him that he had won this perilous battle.

It was basically the news of his victory.  Afterwards, Hyrkan heard the praise given only to the victor.

[The souls taken by Anugas was saved.]

[You've gained the Title 'Rescuer of Heard Fortress' Souls.']

[You've gained the Title 'Reclaimer of the Heard Fortress.']

[You've gained the Title 'Destroyer of Anugas.']

[The Quest 'Visit the Blacksmith Olf' has started]

The consecutive praise was heard through Hyrkan's ears, and it hammered away inside his head.

While this was going on, Anugas' body started to smoke, and it started to melt into a sticky liquid.  Hyrkan detached himself from Anugas' body.

Hyrkan's expression hadn’t changed.  It hadn't changed as he heard the consecutive Announcements in his ears.

[Your Level has increased.]

The Level Up Announcement was what caused Hyrkan's expression to change.

When he heard the announcement, Hyrkan raised his head. On the right edge of his vision, he could see a mirage-like blue gauge.  He checked the magic status window.

‘Magic recovery...  Ok.’

Until a moment ago, there hadn't been a single iota of blue light present on the magic status window, but now it was full.  It was shining like a blue bulb.

Of course, the timing of his Level Up was planned out by Hyrkan too.  He estimated how much EXP he would gain when he caught Anugas, and he hunted until he would immediately level up when he killed Anugas.

This wasn't a strategy often used by Users, but it was a well known method.  It was a method used to recover health and magic during a hunt...  Anyways, the Level Up Bonus was more effective than any magic recovery Items in his arsenal.

Moreover, at that moment, the Level Up Bonus was more important to him than any other time in this game.

‘Restoration....  Ok.’

When Hyrkan recovered his magical energy, he started mending his Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Knights.  The fractured bones started to mend, and the Skeletons, who weren't able to move, could move again.

[The Special Ability 'Undying' has activated.]

Then he activated the Special Ability of the Death Knight.  There were Skeletons that were too damaged that they would revert back into being Skeleton Fragments if left alone for several minutes.  These Skeleton Warriors were quickly regaining their shape under the Undying skill of the Death Knight.  They stood on their own two feet in an imposing manner.

He retained 15 Skeleton Warriors, 3 Skeleton Knights and a Death Knight.

These 19 Skeletons were veteran heroes.  It took them only 1 minute to regain their imposing figures.  They were letting out breathes full of frost.

After the Skeleton army regained their dignified appearance, they created a perimeter around Anugas, and Hyrkan stood in the middle of this imposing group.

“Hoo-ooh!”

Hyrkan let out a sigh.  It contained many mixed emotions.  After putting his sword into his sheath, he raised his left arm.  

Ggee-reek, ggee-reek.

The short sound of the dial turning on his wristwatch was heard.

“Slot on.”

After the sound ended, Hyrkan punctuated it with his low words.  Accompanying his words, a striking silver armor with black spots started to surround Hyrkan's body.  In 3 seconds, Hyrkan took on the form that was most familiar to the other Users.  He changed into his strongest form.

‘It take about 3 to 5 minutes for Anugas' eye to turn into its Ingredient form.’

He had killed Anugas.

‘I caught it, so I can't lose out on this.’

Hyrkan prepared himself for battle.  He was now going to protect the prey he had killed from the  other Users.

2.

- Hahoe Mask was successful in his Raid.

When Shir received the report, a sea of fire was unfurled in front of her.  It reminded one of hell.

Zzuh-juhk!

The flames continued to burn, and the gigantic trees split open.  They had been barely holding their shape against the heat.  The trees let out dull sounds, which sounded like screams.  No other sound could be heard.  

Shir swung her sword in a wide arc.

Shweek!

A crescent sword energy burning with intense flame was emitted when she swung her sword.

Hwah-roo-roo!

The sword energy pushed itself forward as if it was a flood.  Devastation could be seen trailing behind the road made out of fire.

She had combined the Crescent Cut and the Ancient Power of Flame.  It looked flashy, and its power was terrifying.  The large trees and boulders, which had been barely holding onto their original form, was cut down.

This was a raging inferno.

After creating the devastating sight in front of her, Shir turned her back against it.  If the Users wanted to chase after her, they would have to go through the fiery hell she had created.

When Shir took couple more steps, her subordinates gathered around her. The first one to speak was Hahui.  She respected Shir more than anyone else here.

“The Poker team is quick to run away.  Their talent for running away isn't normal.  It is as if they had practiced running away before.  If they had stuck around, I'm sure I could have taken all of them down.”

It seemed Hahui was feeling guilty.  She hadn’t been able succeed in the mission given to her.  As always, Hahui brought up words that would deflect away from her actions.  

However, Shir just spoke briefly to Hahui.

“Good job.”

“Yes!”

Hahui put on a bright smile.

- I've caught around 70 of them.  I think I took down around 50 magicians.  They were all bunched together, so it was quite easy to kill them.  Of course, this mission would have been impossible if it wasn't for me.

Hatch butted in on the conversation.  It wasn't a coincidence.  Of course, he hadn't overheard the conversation through Voice Talk by accident, and his words were calculated.

- I was able to perform admirably unlike someone.

Of course, he spoke his words to needle Hahui.  Hahui's expression cooled.  She didn't know about anything else, but she couldn't let Hatch get the better of her.  However, she couldn't come up with any words.  

Hahui's body shook, and if Hatch was in front of her, her fist would already be planted in his face.

The most galling part was the fact that she knew Hatch knew this, and this was why he was needling her from afar.  In many ways, Hatch was the most cautious member of the Stormhunters.

“Good job.”

Shir also spoke plainly to Hatch.

- Yes.

Instead of coming up with more words to make fun of Hahui, Hatch gave a short answer.

“We'll head towards the Ravine.”

Their mission hadn't ended yet.

The battle had ended.

However, the game hadn't ended yet.

3.

- What should we do?

- What happened to the Diamond unit?

- We lost three. The rest escaped towards the back.  What should we do?  Should we meet up with additional troops for a head on confrontation with the Stormhunters?

- Where's our support troops?

- We are on the move.  Give us 20 minutes.

- I think it'll take us longer to get there.

- The damage to the normal Users was much larger than the damage to the Diamond unit.  Ballista's magic took out close to 50 Magicians.  This is a loss that can't be glossed over.

- We couldn't even track down Ballista.  That man basically became untouchable once he learned the Blizzard Shooting Star.

- So what?  We should do nothing?

Sinclair frowned when endless chatter poured out of the Voice Talk.

‘Shit!’

He had crumpled his face so much that it seemed impossible to frown any further.  However, he did just that.

His face looked deformed.  Sinclair made a face that he dared not show anyone else as he let out his annoyance.

‘I've never seen a mess of this scale.’

Sinclair decided not to worry over it.  It wasn't a problem that could be solve by him worrying over it.  This problem had ballooned beyond his capability.

The problem they faced was simple. Hahoe Mask had attempted the Anugas Raid, and the Stormhunters guild had helped the Hahoe Mask.  This meant their opponents were pretty sure they could succeed in the Anugas Raid, and these two forces had allied themselves.

‘I put in one redundancy after another, yet none of them are working.  What more could be done?’

The problem was the fact that they had already formulated an answer to this problem.  This was why a thousand of their troops were sent to the Heard Fortress.  They were sent to interfere.  They also put in contingency plan that dealt with either the Stormhunters guild or the Hahoe Mask.  They had prepared a mobile unit called the Diamond unit to deal with them.

‘Instead of the Diamond unit, we should have brought the entire Poker team.  Every member of the Hands guild should have been gathered here.’

However, their contingency plan had failed.  The Storm Queen had gathered her elite members, and she had turned the table on them.  She had hunted down the Diamond unit.  The Diamond unit was supposed to delay any groups they met for 10 minutes, yet they weren't even able to pull that off.  The Storm Queen was also a possessor of the Deposed Prince's Sword, and she possessed the Ancient Power of Flame.

Basically, they had a problem, and they had put forth an answer.  However, the answer wasn't working.

This was it.

There was no point in them agonizing over the solution.  The wise thing to do was to wash their hands of this debacle

‘If this was the previous Hands guild, we could have taken out our enemies no matter what the cost.  In the past, a single order was enough to gather everyone.’

Sinclair's annoyance started from this fact.

Hands guild.

The Hands guild operated under the notice of the world, and death in battle used to be an acceptable option.  If needed, everyone would die to further their agenda.  No one would have been averse to it.  Even in death, they would have dragged down the enemies by their ankles.  There would have been reward and benefit that would drive the Hands guild Users to make this sacrifice.

If everything operated like the past, they would have considered a suicidal death with the Storm Queen to be a great opportunity.  The forces needed to take down the Storm Queen would have been gathered without any fuss.  If the Hands guild needed them, they would have gathered in a single location to become a chess piece on the board.

However, things weren't like that any more.

The members, who had originated from the Hands guild, were starting to enjoy the spotlight.  They had too much to lose if they weren't able to enter the game for 48 hours.  One couldn't lose something, one didn't have.  However, they now had something to lose, and it was a bitter feeling to lose what they possessed.  This was why they weren't able to mobilize on command.  Power and rank had become shackles.

‘This will allow the Hahoe Mask and the Stormhunters to take a step forward further away from us.’

Their body was getting bigger.

They were becoming more powerful.

Their opulence was getting larger.

However, they were becoming slow and sluggish.

‘If we want to block them, we have to put our life on the line.  We have to be prepared to take them down with us.’

At that moment, Sinclair clicked his tongue from the bitterness he felt.

“It's all right.  Let's just take a step back.”

He couldn't keep his bitterness out of his voice.  He spat out his words.

- What are you saying?

“Let's leave a portion of our forces behind.  They can follow behind the Stormhunters guild, and they could monitor the Heard Fortress.  Even if we stake everything on this single die cast, it isn't as if we'll gain a solution.  What happens if the Stormhunters guild runs away?”

- We'll just drive them towards the Heard Fortress....

- No.  Sinclair is correct.  If the Hahoe Mask has caught Anugas, there is a high probability of the Block Field beyond the Heard Fortress dissolving.  Then there would be no point in driving them towards the Heard Fortress.

- Then we should just overlook our losses?  If we end this business here, we'll look like idiots.

- Do we have a viable plan?  

- We have to find a way!

The Voice Talk channel showed signs of becoming loud again.  Sinclair became annoyed again.  This was why he deliberately took a breath to calm himself down. He used his acting skill to make his voice sound calm.

“The only thing we can do now is to sacrifice several members to grab the ankles of the Stormhunters or the Hahoe Mask.  We don't have any other answers beyond that option.  If we have volunteers, who are willing to become sacrifices, I'll gladly help with the plan.  For your information, it'll take me 3 hours to arrive there.”

No one had an answer to those words.

No one wanted to become the sacrifice.  At that moment, Sinclair spoke into the Voice Talk channel.

He couldn't hold back his bitter words anymore.

“In the past, we fought through fire and water.  Now we are all busy worrying about our own hides.”

He spat out the bitter words.

“Fuck······.”

He was also guilty of doing this.

4.

It was a world where a news originating from New York could be spread in 10 seconds around the world.

- Something big is happening at the Black Continent!

- ㄴ What's going on?

- ㄴ Don't give us bullshit.

- ㄴ The Hahoe Mask and the Five Stars are fighting each other!

Of course, the incident in the Black Continent attracted the fans of Warlord.

Everyone interested in Warlord was now focused on the Black Continent.  The enormous guild alliance called Five Stars was acting with high-handedness in this region.  The Black Continent was overflowing with monsters above level 200.  The Stormhunters guild and the Hahoe Mask was also there.  Then there was the mysterious existence called Anugas.  All of these factors attracted attention to the Black Continent.

It was pretty much impossible to hide events occurring in the Black Continent when everyone’s focus was on this region.  Of course, this was why no one tried to hide what was going on.

- Hahoe Mask is conducting the Anugas Raid!

- ㄴ What the hell is an Anugas?

- ㄴ Anugas is a magic-eating monster.  When it appears, all Class Skills become unusable.

- ㄴ Wasn't that a false rumor?  There has been no footage released corroborating this fact.

- ㄴ I have a friend in the V&V guild.  He said it is true.

The situation was updated in real time online as information was relayed to others.

- It seems the Stormhunter guild is helping out the Hahoe Mask.  My friend is in the Blossoms guild.  They went to interfere with the Hahoe Mask, and they are now fighting the Stormhunters guild!

- ㄴ My friend is in the V&V guild.  He never mentioned anything about this.

- ㄴ I'm in the V&V guild.  OP is right.

- ㄴ My friend is in the Big Smiles guild.  He said the Storm Queen and the Hahoe Mask is conducting a Raid, and the Five Stars is helping them.

- ㄴ I'm affiliated with the Sweepers guild.  We are just hunting right now.

- ㄴ I guess all the busy people are on here including the Five Stars and the Stormhunters.  If so, I'm the Hahoe Mask, you retards!

Of course, in the beginning, false stories came out.  It took people time to filter out the false rumors.  As time passed, the stories that were coming out was getting closer to the truth.

- Hahoe Mask attempted the Anugas Raid.  Five Stars tried to interfere, but they failed.  The Stormhunters guild blocked them, and the Five Stars are retreating.  It seems the Hahoe Mask has succeeded in the Anugas Raid.  FYI, I'm affiliated with the Stormhunters guild.

- ㄴ Proof?

- ㄴ You should click on the Instagram account linked to my profile.

- ㄴ Wow!  He is the real deal!  Wow!

Now the stories didn't have any falsehood mixed in with it.  It was as close to the truth as it could get.

While this was going on...

Hahoe Mask's Youtube page was uploaded with a battle footage.  It was his fight with the Skull Collector at the the Voodook's Tunnel.