Debuff Master - Chapter 1152
Chapter 1152
One’s stats defined one’s strength.
A character’s Strength, HP, Attack Power, Defense, and everything else were higher the higher one’s stats were.
In that sense, Cain was definitely powerful.
The Forced Blooming bestowed upon him by the Coral Emperor allowed him to obtain a whopping one hundred forty levels. He ascended into the realm of Grandmaster in an instant.
With that, he became one of the top Adventurers on the continent.
Of course, that was when only his stats and level were taken into consideration.
Siegfried was still far stronger than Cain.
In addition to possessing higher stats than Cain, he also had a Hidden Class, while Cain only had a Legendary Class.
Their classes were in completely different weight classes, so the gap in their growth was far too great.
In addition, the paths they walked were very different, too.
Ever since Siegfried became the Debuff Master, he had to fight countless battles with his life on the line. He was a true battle-hardened veteran walking the path of brutal carnage.
On top of that, his skills had grown exponentially stronger, and he was also standing at the peak of his career.
In comparison, Cain lived a completely different life. Of course, it wasn’t like Cain had been living an easy life as if he were some sheltered flower in a greenhouse. He went through his fair share of struggles, too.
However, his struggles were nothing when compared to Siegfried’s. After all, Siegfried crushed the Church of Osric, stopped the Celestial Realm’s invasion of the Middle Realm, and saved the world countless times.
The Forced Blooming boosted Cain’s level and stats, but it couldn’t magically grant him the combat experience he never had in the first place.
In other words, the gap in their experience was not something that could be bridged by the Coral Emperor’s blessing.
As a result…
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Siegfried pummeled Cain like a punching bag with nothing but his bare fists, proving the difference in their weight classes.
“Agh! Ack! Kaaah!”
Cain couldn’t land a single counterattack, and he was forced to eat every single punch thrown at him.
What about his stats? The only thing his stats could do right now was to help him endure more punches.
He was nothing more than an extremely durable punching bag, as he was bound to get beaten to a pulp without the experience and skills to put his overwhelming stats to use.
“Do you have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused? Ha?!” Siegfried said, throwing a punch straight into Cain’s head.
“Aaargh!”
“I told you not to be a pain in my ass, didn’t I?”
“Kaaaagh!”
“A good beating is what punks like you need.”
“Aaaack!”
Thus, Cain suffered a one-sided beating at the hands of Siegfried. To make matters worse, it was right in front of viewers around the world.
It was the worst kind of humiliation one could suffer.
Why?
It was all because he started his live stream by bragging about how he would tear Siegfried apart, and he even used that to clickbait people into watching his stream.
However, he ended up showing everyone how badly he was getting torn apart instead.
[JihunHong: LOLOLOL]
[Eric_1: What happened to tearing Han Tae-Sung a new one? LOOOL!]
[OingOing: LOLOLOL! HAHAHAHA!]
[KLEStudio: He’s the one getting a new hole torn! Lol]
[MilkyWay: LOL! I doubt he’ll stream after this.]
What about the billions in donations he had hoped for?
There were no donations. All he got was mockery from the viewers. He boldly challenged Siegfried, but all he got in the end was an ass-whooping that he would never forget.
Siegfried grabbed Cain by the hair and asked, “Hey, can you feel it now? The gap between us?”
“U-Ughh…”
“You’ll still lose to me even if your grandpa was a Grandmaster. What’s the point of having a strong character when the pilot is pathetic, right?”
“S-Shut up!”
Cain was still in denial and couldn’t bring himself to admit it despite even after getting beaten up so badly. Of course, this was not something that one would find easy to admit in the first place.
He had just received the Coral Emperor’s blessing, the Forced Blooming, and stepped into the realm of Grandmaster. With his newfound powers, he was sure he could easily beat Siegfried and make a public spectacle out of him.
Unfortunately, reality was far different from what he had imagined. No, he never could have imagined that he would lose so pathetically against Siegfried in terms of pure gaming skills.
“Come back stronger next time, so you can at least entertain me and not waste my time, okay?”
“G-Gaaaah!”
“Well, not that I have any expectations from you.”
With that, Siegfried crushed Cain’s head with his bare hand.
Thud!
Cain collapsed to the ground, dead.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Right afterward, his five most expensive items dropped to the floor.
[Alert: You have obtained +15 Celestial King’s Sword!]
[Alert: You have obtained +11 Herringbone Necklace!]
[Alert: You have obtained +12 Skull King’s Cuirass!]
[Alert: You have obtained +10 Ring of Silence!]
[Alert: You have obtained +10 Bracelet of Stillness!]
As a top-ranking Adventurer, the items Cain dropped were worth a fortune. Selling these five items alone would easily net Siegfried about thirty billion won minimum.
“Burp! Thanks for the donation, man. I was wondering if I should go buy another building,” Siegfried said, casually picking up the items and stashing them in his inventory.
He figured he would sell the loot Cain had donated to him and go real estate shopping later.
Whoosh…!
“…!”
The World of Despair receded, and the Elite Coral Knights waiting outside froze in shock when they saw Siegfried emerge unharmed while Cain was lifeless on the ground.
“Who wants to go next?” Siegfried asked, drawing his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp and walking toward the knights.
***
After teaching Cain a lesson, Siegfried went and massacred the Elite Coral Knights. He easily overpowered the Elite Coral Knights and turned the entire battlefield into a site of utter carnage.
While this might seem like a victory of individual martial prowess, it was actually a victory of tactics.
Before they commenced this operation, Siegfried had summoned Gringore and Duke Decimato over from the Proatine Empire.
He ordered Gringore to sing a lullaby to put the enemies to sleep, and then he had Duke Decimato bombard the entire area with Meteor Swarm.
Thanks to that, Siegfried only had to deal with the Elite Coral Knights and Cain, which made the fight far more manageable.
Even though he was outnumbered, the World of Despair prevented him from being surrounded by enemies, which made it possible for him to take them down one by one.
And as a result…
[Alert: Congratulations!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 500!]
Siegfried finally succeeded in hitting Level 500.
The growth stimulant helped him reach Level 495, and he continued grinding until he reached Level 499.
However, he had been stuck for days without leveling up after that, as the amount of experience points required to reach Level 500 was enormous.
But after killing so many elite enemies, he finally managed to reach Level 500.
[Alert: Congratulations!]
[Alert: You have advanced from Lord of Despair to Invincible Emperor!]
A string of notifications popped up before Siegfried’s eyes as his body was enveloped by the class change effect.
[Invincible Emperor]
[A being who pursues invincibility above anything else.]
[This class is the one closest to the concept of invincibility.]
[The Invincible Emperor wields combat power so overwhelming that even a dragon could be defeated in a one-on-one battle.
[Role: Physical DPS]
[Type: Hidden Class]
[Rank: Grandmaster]
After advancing to his third class, Siegfried also obtained new skills.
[Alert: A new skill has been obtained – Domination!]
[Alert: A new skill has been obtained – Shield of Malice!]
[Alert: A new skill has been obtained – Ten Steps to Invincibility!]
“Ooooh!”
Siegfried was delighted to see that he had gotten not just one, but three new skills after his class advancement. He wanted to test them out immediately, but unfortunately, he couldn’t do so.
“Eh? There’s nobody left?” Siegfried muttered in disappointment after looking around the supply depot.
He realized only now that all of the enemies had already been wiped out.
“Kyuuu! I’m exhausted! Let’s go back now, owner punk!” Hamchi exclaimed.
“Y-Yeah, okay.”
In the end, Siegfried had no choice but to head back without even trying out his new skills. He needed a target to test his new skills out, but with everyone dead, he had no choice but to head back for now.
‘Damn…’
Siegfried clicked his tongue and prepared to head back.
He figured that stronger enemies would show up eventually, and he could just test his new skills by then.
***
Meanwhile, the Corals fell into a state of panic when they received the report that Cain had not only failed to eliminate Siegfried but had also fallen in battle.
The number of Elite Coral Knights stationed at the supply depot was increased three times just for this ambush. They also increased the number of Coral Soldiers stationed by the same number, and it was all for the sake of capturing Siegfried.
On top of that, Cain mobilized his entire guild for the ambush.
However, the report stated that every single one of them was actually killed in action? It was truly bizarre and absolutely ridiculous.
“Unbelievable…” Chancellor Maximus was so shocked by the report that he could only shake his head in disbelief. “Is Siegfried von Proa actually a god or something? How could he wipe out so many troops without suffering any injuries?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
The senior officers of the Corals just sat there in silence at Maximus’ words. They, too, were so dumbfounded that they couldn’t utter a single word in response.
“What about sending them out?”
At that moment, a general carefully offered a suggestion to Maximus.
“It might be a bit early, but if it’s them, surely they could easily take down Siegfried von Proa.”
The ones the general mentioned were none other than the secret weapons of the Coral Race, those blessed by the Coral Emperor through Forced Blooming.
“No, that’s out of the question. They’re not ready yet. And the emperor will be the one to decide whether to mobilize them or not, not us.”
“But we cannot just keep losing battle after battle. If we do not stop Siegfried von Proa then—”
“Let us deploy our most powerful knights and try to capture him.”
“Those ragtag bunch won’t be able to catch him,” Sigurd suddenly chimed in. He had been leaning against the wall all this time.
“And what do you mean by that?” Maximus asked.
“I have told you already. He is a disciple of the Invincible One, just like me. No matter how foolish he looks, you can’t hunt him down and capture him with those pathetic knights of yours.”
While Sigurd refused to acknowledge Siegfried as a disciple of Deus, he wasn’t underestimating him, either.
Despite how pathetic Siegfried looked in his eyes, he knew that dismissing him based on his appearance was a foolish thing to do, as Siegfried, too, had received Deus’ teachings.
Even though Siegfried was not a true disciple of Deus in his eyes, dismissing him would be no different from dismissing Deus and his teachings as well.
For Sigurd, anyone who received Deus’ teachings, regardless of their identity, was an opponent he had to take seriously.
“I’m the only one who can take him down. I’ll handle him myself,” Sigurd said confidently. Then, he walked over to the map and continued, “Mark five places you want me to destroy.”
“Hm?”
“I’ll crush all five places within twelve hours.”
“What? Are you certain you can do that?”
Maximus remained composed but was actually quite shocked by the confidence Sigurd showed. He couldn’t begin to imagine just how powerful this individual was for him to make such an outrageous claim so confidently.
“Mark them. And I’ll destroy them.”
“Then… here, here, here, here, and here.”
Maximus marked five spots on the map.
“I’ll head out immediately.”
“How many troops will you need?”
“None.”
“What…?”
“I can do it alone.”
“What?! That’s absurd! The locations I marked are strategic strongholds with at least tens of thousands of troops garrisoned each! How can you possibly crush them all alone with a single soldier?!”
“I can do it.”
“Even an army of our warriors struggles to conquer a single one of those places!”
“Sure, it is impossible with those incompetent fools. But I’m different.”
“What? But still—”
“Just wait and see.”
Leaving those words behind, Sigurd walked straight out without even waiting to hear what Maximus had to say.
“Just what in the world…” Maximus muttered to himself as he watched Sigurd walk away. Then, he sat back down and said, “Fine. Show me what you can do.”
The Corals had no other choice until those blessed by the emperor were ready for battle. Their only option was to let Sigurd do as he wanted and see if he could really crush the Marchioni Imperial Army.
After all, he had confidently claimed that he could destroy all five strategic strongholds by himself.
