Debuff Master - Chapter 1200
Chapter 1200
Siegfried fought an all-out, massive battle by himself against a horde of seemingly endless enemies.
More than three thousand enemies, each with different combat styles, were charging at him nonstop, so he could not rest for even a single second and was forced to fight continuously without pause.
However, it was in this battle that the true worth of the Invincible Emperor class became evident to him.
Siegfried weakened his enemies by unleashing every debuff skill in his arsenal, and then he pressed forward and cut them down one by one with his +10 Sky Piercer using Invincible Spear Art.
After about thirty minutes of nonstop fighting, not a single enemy around Siegfried was left alive.
He had wiped out every one of the thousands of enemies in just thirty minutes.
As a result—
[Alert: You have reached Level 527!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 528!]
[Alert: You have reached Level 529!]
He leveled up thrice in a single battle.
‘Tsk… Such a shame…’
Although he had leveled up three times, he didn’t obtain enough skill points to level up the Eight Steps to Invincibility. Not only did it require an enormous amount of skill points, but it also required him to reach Level 540 to level it up.
‘Tsk…’
Putting his disappointment aside, he invested his skill points into Karma Flare and Invincible Spear Art, leveling them up while leaving some skill points unused.
The skill points required to upgrade Eight Steps to Invincibility into Seven Steps to Invincibility were so great that he needed to save his skill points until he hit Level 540.
However, he needed to clear this dungeon first, so he had no choice but to invest some skill points into leveling up his other main skills.
“Let’s go, Hamchi.”
“Kyuuu! Let’s go!”
Thus, Siegfried cleared the first stage of the Eye of the Storm: World of Chaos dungeon[1] and set off to find the boss monster, Gricale.
However, finding his path in Eye of the Storm: World of Chaos was no easy task.
The landscape of the dungeon continued to change. It mixed together every kind of terrain, such as desert, forest, city, urban, rivers, and sometimes all of it together into one chaotic jumble.
As a result, the variety of enemies that appeared was quite diverse.
‘The fields and the monsters appearing are quite different. Are they the things swallowed by the storm?’ Siegfried wondered.
This dungeon, the Eye of the Storm: World of Chaos, might well be a place where everything swept up by the storm had been mixed together.
Perhaps that was the reason, but Siegfried was unable to find the right path to proceed forward.
The scenery continuously changed while he walked, but he couldn’t really sense whether he was going toward the boss monster or not.
After wandering for nearly eight hours, Siegfried finally decided to use Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.
He had a strong feeling that he would never be able to reach Gricale, even if he searched for a lifetime, unless he stopped roaming aimlessly through the dungeon.
‘Where the hell am I exactly supposed to go?’
Siegfried entered Gricale into the Search function, attempting to find the location of the boss monster.
[Alert: Searching…]
[Alert: Gricale has been found!]
Immediately, a green arrow popped up and pointed the way to the boss monster’s location.
‘Aha! Found it!’
Siegfried followed the arrow, but then—
‘Eh?’
The arrow was pointing at the back door of a nearby building.
‘The boss monster is inside here?’
He couldn’t help but have the ridiculous thought of whether the boss monster was sitting alone in a shabby tavern and sipping whiskey.
Creak…
As soon as he opened the door…
“What?!”
He was shocked to find a jungle forest inside the building.
Though it had been the back door of a small building made out of stone, there was a vast, expansive jungle on the other side of it.
‘Whoa… I would have wandered here forever if not for Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance…’
He would have gotten lost here without his artifact, and it would have taken centuries for him to finally encounter Gricale.
Who would have thought that opening a door would lead to an entirely different area?
‘As expected of Inzaghi…’
Siegfried couldn’t help but be amazed by the powers of Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.
With that, he followed the green arrow and hoped that it would eventually lead him to the boss monster of this dungeon.
***
While Siegfried was running around here and there, Lee Geon’s fanatics were still committing atrocities across the continent.
The completion of the prison that was capable of imprisoning Adventurers, the Aoji Prison, was the solution Siegfried had come up with to wipe out Lee Geon’s fanatics.
After the completion of the Aoji Prison, the Proatine Empire’s knights and the Head Crushed Guild captured all of Lee Geon’s fanatics active within the empire and its surrounding nations in one quick sweep.
Those captured were imprisoned in the Aoji Prison, and not a single one was active within the Proatine Empire’s borders.
Unfortunately, that was not the case in other places.
Lee Geon’s fanatics still ran rampant in regions beyond the Proatine Empire’s reach, and they constantly committed brutal atrocities.
Thus, the battle between the Head Crusher Guild members and the Paladins of the Church of Heroes against Lee Geon’s fanatics spread out across the continent.
Needless to say, the main stage of their conflict was none other than the Marchioni Empire.
The Marchioni Empire was the ideal place for Lee Geon’s fanatics to run amok, as the influence of the Proatine Empire did not extend within the Marchioni Empire’s borders.
The Marchioni Imperial Army intentionally turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed, allowing Lee Geon’s fanatics to do as they pleased.
In fact, there were some moments when the imperial army even helped them.
For instance, when Lee Geon’s fanatics were caught while committing atrocities, they would simply be let go without any punishment, as though nothing had happened.
As days went by, the anger of the Marchioni Empire’s citizens toward the fanatics grew by the day.
Just when the people’s wrath was about to explode, a hero appeared out of nowhere.
This hero was none other than Lee Geon himself.
His exploits within the Marchioni Empire were nothing short of a miracle.
Lee Geon cleared countless Ancient Dungeons, killed fearsome monsters, and purged the Evil Adventurers.
His actions earned him the admiration and respect of the people, some even praising him as a hero.
Of course, the people were unaware that the so-called Evil Adventurers were, in truth, Lee Geon’s followers.
Thanks to the full support and scheming of the Marchioni Empire, Lee Geon was able to build up immense fame in a short span of time.
And today was just another one of those days…
Lee Geon defeated the monsters attacking the city with ease, receiving love and adoration from the people.
“Beowulf! Beowulf!”
“A great hero has come upon us!”
“He is my hero!”
“I love you, Lord Beowulf!”
The citizens, unaware that Lee Geon was actually the demon who had tried to destroy the world multiple times, blindly worshiped him as a hero after being dazzled by his exploits.
Ironically, most of Lee Geon’s so-called exploits were nothing but fabrications, except for the fact that he had indeed cleared those Ancient Dungeons.
Since the Marchioni Empire had decided that they needed a hero to oppose Siegfried, it was inevitable for them to manipulate public sentiments by setting the stage for Lee Geon to shine.
While most people would be revolted by the mere idea of doing something like this, Lee Geon did not care in the slightest.
‘These NPCs are nothing more than insects. Hold on, are they worth less than insects? Keke!’
He sneered inwardly at the NPCs who were showering him with love and adoration.
Though he was cooperating with the Marchioni Empire due to his rivalry with Siegfried, his ultimate goal was still to destroy the world.
His aim was to destroy the current world and start the second season of BNW, so it was only natural for him to be cold toward the NPCs.
Lee Geon and the Marchioni Empire were working together right now, but the moment their common enemy, Siegfried, was eliminated, they would inevitably turn against one another.
‘Tsk… They’re just damn NPCs, but I have to bow to these insects…’
Lee Geon despised having to kneel in respect before Emperor Stuttgart.
For someone as prideful as him, being forced to kneel to an NPC, a mere creation of artificial intelligence, was a source of unbearable and immense stress.
Yet to defeat Siegfried, Lee Geon knew that he had no other choice but to endure and show respect to Emperor Stuttgart—for now.
“Beowulf.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“Can you truly defeat Siegfried von Proa?”
“…Pardon me?”
“I asked if you could defeat Siegfried von Proa.”
“Of course I can,” Lee Geon answered with absolute confidence.
This confidence was not baseless, as he had ceaselessly replayed his previous battle against Siegfried.
He reflected and studied their battle until he had found his own solution—just like Siegfried did.
“Are you truly confident?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Good,” Emperor Stuttgart said with a smile. Then, he issued an order, “Hear me, Adventurer Beowulf.”
“I am listening, sire.”
“Prepare for battle against Siegfried von Proa.”
“…Huh?” Lee Geon doubted his ears.
He was always ready to fight Siegfried, but the problem was that Siegfried was not alone.
Siegfried had established his own power base and ruled the world’s second most powerful nation, one that now rivaled even the Marchioni Empire.
Yet the emperor was telling him to prepare to fight Siegfried outright?
‘Is he planning to wage war?’ Lee Geon wondered.
It was then.
“Soon, the Proatine Empire will fall,” Emperor Stuttgart said.
“What does my lord mean by that…?” Lee Geon asked.
“It is an inevitable outcome,” Emperor Stuttgart replied.
Then, he proceeded to explain that a colossal storm would soon swallow the Proatine Empire whole and turn it into nothing but ruins.
“Therefore, fight against Siegfried von Proa and bring him down.”
“Oh?”
“Can you truly win against him?”
“Yes, I certainly can.”
Though Lee Geon gave that reply, he was feeling uneasy.
‘This isn’t good. It’s still too soon,’ he thought.
The reason for his thoughts was quite simple.
If the Marchioni Empire crushed the Proatine Empire, then Lee Geon would be left to face this massive empire all alone.
Lee Geon knew very well that the Marcioni Empire would turn their swords on him the moment Siegfried was no more.
***
Siegfried wandered within the Eye of the Storm: World of Chaos for around three days.
He had merely followed the green arrow that indicated the location of the boss monster, yet that much time had passed already.
This was a testament to how vast the Eye of the Storm: World of Chaos truly was, and how difficult it was to reach Gricale’s location.
Over the past three days, Siegfried had been forced to pass through all sorts of bizarre terrain, including some grotesque location not for the squeamish.
He ventured into wells, sewers, chimneys, caves, lakes, and places that one would hardly believe could lead to another area.
The longer he followed the green arrow, the more he realized that he would never be able to find the boss monster if it weren’t for Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.
“Am I even going to reach Gricale today…?”
He couldn’t help but get the feeling that he might fail once again to arrive at Gicale’s location, as he opened a janitor’s closet inside a grand mansion.
The moment he opened the closet, a white world spread out before his eyes, and a notification displaying his current location popped up.
[Eye of the Storm: World of Nothingness]
Just as the name implied, there was truly nothing there.
“Kyu? Did we just walk into a mental hospital, owner punk?” Hamchi asked.
His question perfectly summed up the nature of the World of Nothingness.
The entire space was so white that one could not tell where the walls, ceiling, or floor even were.
‘Is this the boss room?’
As soon as that thought came to his mind…
“Hello. Have you come looking for me?”
A man with azure hair appeared, greeting Siegfried with a faint smile.
[Gricale of Annihilation]
[The incarnation of a mighty wind that sweeps away all things.]
[A terrifying being that once destroyed the First World in the Age of Genesis.]
[His very essence is destruction itself.]
[Type: NPC (Incarnation)]
[Level: 750]
[Class: Millennium Typhoon]
[Note 1: He holds no malice against others.]
[Note 2: His nature itself makes him sweep everything away.]
“I never expected anyone to make it here,” Gricale said with a hint of amazement. Then, he asked, “Have you come to stop me?”
“That’s right,” Siegfried replied with a nod, firmly gripping his +10 Sky Piercer.
“I’m afraid that’s impossible. The only one who can stop me is the Chief Archangel, Michael. You are not strong enough to stop me,” Gricale replied with a smile.
“We won’t know until we try. Don’t you think so?”
“It’s futile.”
“Then how about this?”
With those words, Siegfried shot forward at Gricale with terrifying speed.
He had no plans on mixing words with him anymore, as Siegfried’s sole objective was to kill Gricale.
That was the only way he could stop this storm and save the Proatine Empire. Of course, it was also the only way for him to get his hands on the final material he needed to complete Herbert’s masterpiece.
1. The author suddenly referred to it as a dungeon. I’m not sure if this is a separate dungeon from the Hill of Storms dungeon. ☜
