Debuff Master - Chapter 1148
Chapter 1148
Siegfried led the Proatine Force straight toward the Glembay Shipyard.
The shipyard lay about five kilometers inland from their landing point, and its scale was nothing short of staggering.
After all, this was where the Corals built their battleships, or rather, their massive spacecrafts.
Thus, it was only natural for the place to be colossal.
The spacecraft of the Corals was very different from the ones used by the nations on the Nurburg Continent. Instead of being battleships, they were called motherships.
One spacecraft could carry dozens of smaller fighter aircraft, which meant that a single mothership basically was an entire fleet by itself.
Those motherships were so powerful that they could go toe-to-toe with dragons.
Based on the intel acquired by the imperial army, three of these Coral motherships were currently under construction in the Glembay Shipyard and were about eighty percent complete.
‘There’s no way I’m going to let you finish them. I’m going to destroy every single one of them. Keke!’ Siegfried thought with a smirk, as he had zero intention of letting those motherships see the light of day.
Moreover, he was also convinced that this was the perfect timing.
Rather than stopping the Corals before they even started building the mothership, he preferred waiting until they were nearly done with it before blowing the whole thing up.
He planned to wait for the table to be set nicely before flipping it over.
With that, he would be dealing massive damage to the Corals, as the time and resources they invested in these motherships were definitely astronomical.
This was the reason the destruction of the Glembay Shipyard was one of the imperial army’s top priorities.
However, there was a problem. The shipyard was crawling with guards, and the security was airtight.
‘There’s no way we can sneak in undetected,’ Siegfried thought, realizing that infiltrating the shipyard was off the table.
The whole place was practically a hive crawling with enemy troops.
‘Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped,’ he thought as he reached into his inventory and took out a flare.
Shwoooong…
He fired the flare high into the sky and—
Poof!
It illuminated the sky.
“Plan B! Blanc Warriors! Move out!”
“Change of plan! Follow my lead, mighty Nordic Warriors!”
The Nordic Tribe and Blanc Clan dropped everything they were doing and sprang into action at once upon seeing the flare in the sky.
“Hold position,” Siegfried ordered the Proatine Force.
Their Plan B was simple. The Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors would draw enemy attention while the Proatine Force would slip in and plant bombs throughout the shipyard.
In other words, the Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors would serve as a diversion to stir chaos while the Proatine Force would blow the whole damn place into the sky.
About thirty minutes later…
“Kill them all!”
“Leave not a single one of these bastards alive!”
Thousands of Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors stormed the shipyard.
“Proatine Force, move out,” Siegfried commanded.
“As you command, sire.”
On Siegfried’s command, the Proatine Force moved immediately, slipping through the chaos and moving toward the nearly finished motherships. Once they reached the motherships, they planted the C4 High-Power Miniature Explosives, which were one of the greatest inventions of the Proatine Empire.
“Let’s go too, Hamchi.”
“Kyuuuu!”
Siegfried left the sabotage to the Proatine Force and charged toward the chaotic battlefield with Hamchi.
He intended to join the fight himself, partly to minimize casualties among his allies.
However, he had an even bigger reason to join the fight.
‘I have to farm Experience Points!’
What mattered to him the most right now was raking in as many Experience Points as possible before the growth stimulant’s effect could wear off.
***
The battle was nothing short of brutal.
It was only natural that the Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors would struggle against the Coral Warriors, given how powerful these aliens were.
The sheer gap in their stats was simply massive that even these warriors hardened by the harsh climate of their habitat were failing to overwhelm their enemies—no, they were actually getting pushed back.
However, the entire tide of battle flipped the moment Siegfried joined the fray.
‘Time to test this baby out!’
Siegfried immediately activated Karma Flare.
Thanks to his new item, the skill’s level had jumped by a whopping twenty levels, so he was dying to see how much stronger it had gotten.
Fwaaaaash!
A fearsome blaze erupted across the battlefield.
“Aaaagh!”
“Aaack!”
“F-Fire! Fire!”
“Aaaargh!”
The Coral Soldiers were set ablaze by the raging flames. They were burned until they were charred black and incinerated to dust. The massively upgraded Karma Flare was no longer just a debuff. It was now a deadly offensive skill in itself.
Against low-level enemies like the Coral Soldiers, Karma Flare was lethal.
But that was not all…
The higher the skill’s level, the more powerful Karma Flare’s debuffing effects became. It was now to the point that the Coral Soldier’s Defense and Magic resistance did not just drop to zero but plummeted to negative two hundred.
All damage taken when one’s Defense was zero wouldn’t be reduced at all, and this was what gamers often called True Damage. What if one’s Defense was in the negative? They would receive amplified damage.
In other words, a single tap could be equivalent to being hit by a cannonball.
And that was exactly what was happening on this battlefield.
“Ackk!”
“Aaaah!”
The Coral Soldiers fell like flies at the axes of the tribal warriors, which was quite a peculiar sight given that these powerful aliens were dying to mere basic attacks.
“Holy shit…” Siegfried muttered, a shiver running down his spine after witnessing just how overwhelmingly powerful his skill had become.
The Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors were strong, but they were not this strong. As a matter of fact, they had been struggling against the Corals just moments ago.
Thanks to the massively buffed Karma Flare, they were ripping through the Corals as if they were made of paper.
‘Oh damn… Did I just perform a miracle?’ Siegfried wondered, still reeling in shock. Then, he shrugged and thought, ‘Meh, I might as well call Hyung-Seok.’
Siegfried wasted no time and summoned Chae Hyung-Seok onto the battlefield. He seemed to have been online, as he arrived through a portal almost instantaneously.
“Hey, you. Start casting buffs,” Siegfried commanded.
“Yeah, yeah, boss man,” Chae Hyung-Seok grumbled in his usual sarcastic tone, but he obeyed right away.
“GRAAAAH!”
“Kill them! Slaughter them all!”
“Bwahaha! These aliens are just a bunch of weaklings!”
“Power overwhelming!”
With Chae Hyung-Seok’s buffs cast, the Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors rampaged across the battlefield, tearing through every single Coral they found.
And with every kill, Siegfried’s experience bar filled up dramatically.
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
(omitted…)
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]
All Siegfried did was unleash Karma Flare, but it seemed that the system counted it as a valid contribution and provided him with Experience Points.
[Alert: You have leveled up!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 478!]
With that, he leveled up once more.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Kaboom!
A string of explosions erupted one after another, devouring the nearly-completed motherships.
While the Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors were “buying time,”the Proatine Force had completed their mission flawlessly.
‘Just a bit more!’ Siegfried decided to hold out a bit longer.
He wanted to squeeze out every last drop of Experience Points he could get from this place until the Coral reinforcements arrived.
But that did not take long…
Flash! Flash! Flash!
One after another, Coral reinforcements began warping in.
“Kyuuu! We gotta move, owner punk!” Hamchi shrieked, frantically looking around the battlefield.
“I know! Let’s get outta here! Yipee!” Siegfried shouted in response.
He sounded quite happy, and there was a good reason for it.
[Alert: You have leveled up!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 479!]
He managed to gain another level just when the enemy reinforcements started warping in.
“Retreat! We’re pulling out!”
At his shout, the allied troops started retreating from the battlefield like a receding tide.
“After them!”
“Don’t let a single one escape!”
The Corals chased after them, hell-bent on running down the intruders and killing every single one of them.
However, Siegfried had a different plan in mind.
Flash!
A bright white light flashed and—
C-Craaack! Craaack!
A wave of icy blue frost surged out, freezing the Corals in their tracks.
“Run! Just run for it! Don’t look back!” Siegfried shouted.
All that was left for them to do was run as fast as they could to the shore, where their Aqua Runners were waiting to whisk them away to safety.
***
While Siegfried was busy wreaking havoc at the Glembay Shipyard…
Bam!
The gates of the Mercedes Workshop were blown off, and a battle started inside the workshop.
“Aaaack!”
“Aagh!”
The guards stationed to protect the Mercedes Workshop fell without even putting up any resistance before the overwhelming might of the intruder.
It was truly shocking.
The Mercedes Workshop was one of the three greatest workshops on the continent, and it was still lauded for being the best one among the three.
Naturally, its security was airtight and its defenses ironclad.
But all of that meant nothing against the intruder, as their barricades and guards fell in the blink of an eye.
Baaam!
“Good heavens…”
The head blacksmith of the Mercedes Workshop and the head of the Cradle of Genesis, Wilhelm, gasped and went pale after recognizing the intruder.
“S-Sigurd?! H-How are you here?!”
The intruder was none other than Sigurd, the tyrant captured decades ago by the Marchioni Empire and imprisoned in Alcatraz.
“I trust that you would not want any more needless bloodshed, Wilhelm,” Sigurd said, sounding calm. Then, he walked forward and demanded, “Hand it over.”
“W-What are you talking about?!”
“My spear and my armor.”
“W-Why would we have your spear and armor here at our workshop?!”
“Are you lying to me right now?” Sigurd asked, his voice carrying a faint hint of threat in it.
“I-I’m not lying!”
“The Marchioni Empire took my spear and armor. They handed them to your workshop to research and study, no?”
“…!”
“Lies don’t work on me, Wilhelm. Your trembling eyes have already given you away, yet you dare try to lie to me?”
“T-That’s…!”
“Give me my spear and armor. And I won’t spill any more blood here today.”
Wilhelm’s mind raced. If he were to hand over Sigurd’s spear and armor, then the Marchioni Empire would surely come for answers later with their blades drawn at the Mercedes Workshop.
If he were to refuse, then this whole workshop would be reduced to nothing but dust before the Marchioni Empire could get anywhere near it.
Of course, the tyrant who once drenched the entire continent in blood, Sigurd, was capable of doing something far more horrible than the thing Wilhelm feared.
If he were provoked, this could be the end of the Mercedes Workshop.
“So, what will it be? Will you choose bloodshed or…” Sigurd asked nonchalantly. Then, he continued with an eerie calm in his voice, “Will you just return what rightfully belongs to me?”
Wilhelm stood frozen for a while until he finally replied, “Wait here. Give me a moment.”
It was the only choice he had left.
Whatever wrath the Marchioni Empire would unleash on him was a problem for another time. Right now, they had to overcome this danger first so that they could live to see another day.
Wilhelm disappeared into a room and returned after a short while.
A spear and armor both belonging to Sigurd were in his hands.
Wooong!
The spear and armor began to resonate violently as they neared Sigurd. They hummed loudly as if they were living objects that sensed their master’s presence after a long while.
“Come to me,” Sigurd commanded.
It was then.
Whoosh!
Click! Clack!
Click! Clack!
The armor split open and streaked across the air before fastening itself to Sigurd.
Shiiiing!
The spear shot into his hand, letting out a faint metallic sound as it cut through the air.
