Debuff Master - Chapter 1157

Chapter 1157

Right after defeating Sigurd.

Ding!

A notification popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: You have cleared the Quest – Heir Duel!]

An old book floated in the air right above where Sigurd had fallen.

‘Oh! Is that the skill book reward?’

Siegfried used Flying Sword to pull the book toward him, as he was too exhausted to even move, forcing him to rely on telekinesis.

[Alert: You have obtained Invincible Spear Art Skill Book!]

As it turned out, the skill book was not a technique from one of Deus’ skill sets, but Sigurd’s spear art.

‘This is… the Invincible Spear Art…?’

Siegfried flashed his Rune of Insight to check the details of the Invincible Spear Art Skill Book.

[Invincible Spear Art Skill Book]

[A skill book containing the spear art used by an ancient martial god.]

[Regarded as one of the closest things to perfection, mastering this art will bring one ever closer to invincibility.]

[Type: Skill Book]

[Rating: Hidden]

[Effect: +50 Spear Mastery]

‘Eh? Spear Mastery will go up by fifty? But I’m already maxed out…?’

Siegfried had learned from the Weapon Master, Shakiro, so all of his weapon masteries were already at MAX level.

In other words, he couldn’t raise them anymore.

‘How does this even make sense?’

Siegfried clicked on the skill book to learn the Invincible Spear Art.

As a result—

[Alert: A new skill has been created – Invincible Spear Art!]

[Alert: Spear Master’s skill level cap has been unlocked!]

Originally, Spear Master had a max level of twenty, but it jumped to seventy, as its level cap was removed.

From now on, any skill points could be invested into Spear Mastery, further increasing its level.

[Invincible Spear Art]

[All basic attacks will be forms of Invincible Spear Art.]

[This skill can be toggled on or off.]

[Effects:]

— Auto-hunt (ON/OFF)

— 50% chance to automatically block attacks that the player has failed to block.

— 50% chance to detect an enemy’s opening upon missing an attack.

— The higher the skill level, the higher the chances of auto-blocking and detecting openings.

“Holy… This is batshit crazy…” Siegfried muttered in disbelief.

He finally understood why it was called Invincible Spear Art.

Why?

It was all because gamers were humans, and humans had limits. No matter how good one’s reflexes were, they were always bound to make mistakes. However, the Invincible Spear Art was meant to overcome that limitation.

It was a martial art that supported the player’s movements by using artificial intelligence, allowing the player to make movements beyond human capability.

‘Crazy… It really is invincible…’

Siegfried was in awe of the Invincible Spear art.

A basic attack skill that surpassed human limitations?

He would probably become untouchable if he kept investing skill points into it.

‘Good. Very good. This is excellent,’ Siegfried thought.

But that was not all…

[Alert: You have leveled up!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 501!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 502!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 503!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 504!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 505!]

The amount of experience points he gained from defeating Sigurd was so massive that he leveled up five times at once.

‘Whoa?!’ Siegfried was shocked after seeing his level rise five times.

He decided to invest skill points in Ten Steps to Invincibility right away.

Leveling up Ten Steps to Invincibility required a ton of skill points, so he had to pour every last skill point he had into it.

The cost was indeed huge, but the effect was worth it.

[Alert: Ten Steps to Invincibility skill level has increased!]

[Alert: Ten Steps to Invincibility skill name has changed to Nine Steps to Invincibility!]

The skill name had changed from “Ten Steps to Invincibility” to “Nine Steps to Invincibility.” As the new skill name suggested, the number of hits required to kill the enemy had changed from ten to nine.

If he kept investing his skill points into it, he would eventually reach a state where one strike would kill just about anything.

The cooldown time had also gone down, so he could truly become someone capable of executing numerous enemies in a single blow.

“Kill them in one blow. It won’t look cool if you have to hit them twice, so it has to be in a single blow.”

For some reason, Deus’ words flashed through his mind.

Siegfried initially found it difficult to believe that Deus’ words could even be achieved, but he soon realized that he was not that far away from it.

The realm he once thought was unreachable was starting to come into view.

At this rate, he could probably—

“Kyuuuu! What the hell are you doing, owner punk?! Stop spacing out and get moving already!” Hamchi’s shrill voice pierced his ear just then.

“Huh?”

“Look over there! Those Coral bastards are swarming toward us! Kyuuu! The wounded are barely patched up! We can’t fight like this! We have to run!”

“O-Okay!”

Siegfried would have loved to stand and fight the incoming Corals, as he could gain a ton of experience points.

However, he was pretty exhausted after fighting Sigurd.

It would be dangerous if he ran out of stamina and got surrounded by the enemy, so he decided to retreat for now.

***

After returning to the command center, Siegfried decided to log out and take a break.

He was extremely fatigued, both physically and mentally. The fight against Sigurd had put tremendous mental strain on him. He was forced to push himself several times his normal limits just to dodge Sigurd’s Touch of Death. He was completely spent.

Thus, Tae-Sung decided to take a short break in the real world.

After a short rest, he decided to go out for lunch with Yong Seol-Hwa later that afternoon.

“Have you heard the news, oppa?” Yong Seol-Hwa asked.

“Hm? What news?” Tae-Sung asked in response.

“Lee Geon has been provoking you nonstop, you know?”

“Oh? I was too busy to care about him lately. What has he been saying?”

“He’s telling everyone that you’re avoiding him because you’re scared.”

“That’s so cliche. Does he really think I’ll fall for that? I mean, there is nothing for me to gain from reacting to such an obvious bait,” Tae-Sung said with a scoff.

He was not riled up at all by the obvious provocation. He was currently putting together the pieces of his plan to catch Lee Geon and his fanatics, one that would completely crush them, so there was no need for him to be riled up in the first place.

“I know you aren’t going to fall for it. But apparently, other people seem to think otherwise.”

“Hm? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“News articles keep coming out,” Yong Seol-Hwa said, showing him the latest headline.

[News: Lee Geon’s Confidence Isn’t Baseless!]

[V-Sports: The Bad Boy “Han Tae-Sung is Scared of Me”]

[Gaming News: What’s the Reason for Han Tae-Sung’s Silence?]

[Hot Issue: Two Geniuses Collide! Han Tae-Sung VS Lee Geon!]

The biggest story in the gaming scene right now was the clash between Tae-Sung and Lee Geon, so the media was flooded with news articles about them.

There was nothing out of the ordinary with the news articles, but the same couldn’t be said for the comments.

[Ph.DDR: Han Tae-Sung chickened out! LOL!]

[HaHahh: Even Han Tae-Sung can’t beat Lee Geon? O_O;;]

[123Florida: It’s obvious he’s scared. He’s been avoiding him ever since!]

[JjakLove: Lee Geon’s comeback is seriously the king’s return. Even Han Tae-Sung is scared of him…]

[SojuOnly: I don’t think even Han Tae-Sung can win this time… o.o]

Most of the gamers seemed convinced that Tae-Sung was intimidated and that Lee Geon would obviously win if they fought.

Of course, Tae-Sung still had a lot of fans. He possessed the largest fanbase in the world among pro gamers, so he had just as many supporters as Lee Geon.

However, this shift in public opinion was inevitable, as Tae-Sung hadn’t made any response to Lee Geon’s provocations while the latter had been streaming and stirring up the public day in and day out.

“It’s not unexpected, so don’t worry about it,” Tae-Sung said with a smile. Then, he added, “We’re the ones who will just end up exhausted if we respond to those obvious taunts.”

“But are you okay, Oppa?”

“I’m fine.”

Tae-Sung was truly fine. There had been a time when he had lived miserably, days when he didn’t have even a shred of hope or dreams.

There was no way cheap taunts and insults could provoke someone like him.

Of course, Tae-Sung wasn’t truly unbothered.

He was simply crouching low right now, just like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on its prey.

‘You messed with the wrong person this time, buddy,’ Tae-Sung thought.

He was using all of the anger he felt toward Lee Geon to sharpen the blade that would end the bastard for good.

‘You can bark all you want. Enjoy it while you can. Because you won’t be having that many days left,’ Tae-Sung thought. Then, he looked at Yong Seol-Hwa and asked, “Should we plan our trip?”

“Yes!”

With that, Tae-Sung spent most of his afternoon planning a two-week overseas trip with Yong Seol-Hwa.

He decided to ignore Lee Geon for now and focus on the issues on the Coral Planet.

Once things had settled down over there, his priority was to go with Yong Seol-Hwa on their very first trip together, just the two of them with nobody else.

***

The next morning…

“The Corals have become more reserved.”

After logging in, Siegfried received an unexpected report during the morning strategy meeting.

“Hm? All of a sudden?”

“Yes, sire,” Hansen replied with a bow. Then, he displayed the enemy movements for Siegfried to see and explained, “Up until now, the Corals have been moving extremely aggressively, trying to retake the strategic points.”

“Right. And?”

“But since last night, their movements have changed. They’ve abandoned highly important strategic points and are building defensive lines around their main base instead.”

“Are they trying to hold out?”

“There are two possibilities in this case. The first would be that they are buying time until something they believe can turn the tide of this war is ready. The second possibility is that they have decided to turtle up and gather their strength to go on one final all-out offensive later.”

“Both are possible, but… We don’t know for sure, do we?”

“Yes, that is the problem, sire.”

“Then, we will keep capturing those strategic points. If we apply enough pressure and shake them up, cracks will somehow begin to show somewhere.”

“As you command, sire.”

“By the way, any word from our spies?”

Siegfried was very eager to know where the Coral Emperor was hiding.

After seeing how Cain had grown stronger through the blessing bestowed upon him by the Coral Emperor, there was no way he could just let the Coral Emperor live.

Why?

It was all because the Coral Emperor was like a factory capable of churning out powerful warriors. Every minute counted against an opponent like that, and he needed to eliminate him as soon as possible.

After all, the Coral Emperor could strengthen someone like Cain, who was a mere Master, into a Grandmaster in just a matter of days. In other words, he was someone who had to be eliminated at all costs.

Based on the things Siegfried had seen so far, it seemed clear that the Corals were using this defensive tactic to buy time for the Coral Emperor to churn out more powerful units.

In other words, they were stalling for time.

“We have not heard anything from them. They say that the Coral Emperor’s location is top secret even among the Corals. He only appears briefly for official events, but no one knows where he stays the rest of the time.”

“Hmm… I guess we will have to find someone who knows where that bastard is and brainwash them, right?”

“I believe that is the only option. Finding the Coral Emperor’s location on this massive planet is no different from searching for a needle in a desert.”

“Then it can’t be helped. We will have to infiltrate the Corals, abduct someone who knows where the emperor is, and brainwash them. That’s the only way to get the information we need.”

“But sire… infiltrating a place to abduct someone high-ranking will not be easy,” Hansen said, sounding concerned. Hansen was feeling concerned because it was nearly impossible for humans to disguise themselves as Corals.

The Corals had noticeably different skin colors, and their body structure was different from humans as well. In fact, the difference was so big that even the Metamorphosis Mask couldn’t mimic them.

“We will just have to find a way,” Siegfried said with a shrug. Then, he smiled and added, “We can’t give up just because it’s hard, can we?”

“But sire…”

“First, contact the empire and call Ninetail.”

As far as Siegfried knew, the best disguise expert in the entire world was none other than Ninetail. She was unrivaled when it came to disguises, so he figured that it was worth asking her for some advice.