Debuff Master - Chapter 1215

Chapter 1215

“…!”

Caught off guard, Siegfried flinched but barely managed to dodge the attack.

The blade grazed dangerously close to his forehead, slicing off a few strands of hair.

It was indeed a close call, as his forehead could have been cleaved in two if he had reacted a split second late.

“Heup!”

Siegfried hurriedly drew his +10 Sky Piercer to counterattack, but the enemy was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh?”

Siegfried blinked, doubting his own eyes as the assailant who had nearly killed him with a perfect ambush had vanished without a trace.

‘What was that?’

Siegfried’s vision was extremely sharp. In fact, it was already in the realm of a superhuman. His eyes could distinguish shapes with laser-accurate precision even in places devoid of light.

However, he actually couldn’t see the assailant?

‘Where are you?’

Siegfried steadied his stance and heightened his senses in preparation to strike back at any moment.

His sight was not the only thing that was in the realm of a superhuman. Every single one of his senses had reached an extraordinary level, but if there was one that stood out among all of his senses, then it would be his hearing.

An enemy could fool his eyes, but they couldn’t so easily deceive his hypersensitive ears.

Rustle

‘From below!’

After hearing a faint sound that most people wouldn’t be able to hear, Siegfried pinpointed the assassin who was sprawled out flat on the ground right at his feet.

Without hesitation, he thrust his +10 Sky Piercer and hit his target with pinpoint accuracy.

Puuuk!

The spear pierced the assassin’s back.

Shwoom…!

The space warped, revealing a humanoid monster.

Surprisingly, the monster had a shimmering skin in the colors of the rainbow that resembled a chameleon.

[Chameleon Assassin]

[A humanoid monster with superb stealth abilities.]

[They possess no emotions, and their only goal in life is to assassinate other living creatures.]

[Type: Monster]

[Level: 400]

[Class: Silent Killer[

[Note: They possess weak Defense, but their Attack is extremely high.]

[Warning: Getting ambushed by one can be fatal.]

The Chameleon Assassin was truly a monster befitting a place like the Illusion Village, where one’s eyes were rendered useless.

“Damn… That was a close one.”

“Kyuuu! Be careful, owner punk! You never know when another ambush will come!”

“Yeah, you’re right. One mistake and I’m dead.”

Siegfried decided to pull up the minimap generated by Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance. Even if the Chameleon Assassins were invisible to the naked eye, the minimap would still display them as red dots, making them easily detectable.

No matter how sharp Siegfried’s hearing was, it was not something he could perfectly rely on. If the Chameleon Assassins had stayed perfectly still, then even his hypersensitive ears would pick up nothing.

“You be careful, too. There are plenty around us,” Siegfried warned after checking the minimap.

“Kyuuu! Got it! Let’s be careful from now on, owner punk!”

“Yeah, good idea.”

With that, Siegfried and Hamchi pressed onward, following the green arrow.

While walking, Siegfried couldn’t help but wonder about the fate of the last surviving true heir to the Marcioni throne, Caiphos.

‘Could an ordinary NPC with no abilities possibly survive in a place like this?’ he wondered.

To be honest, he doubted it. Without extraordinary luck or a protector, the chance of survival for an ordinary NPC was close to zero in a place like this.

Even for someone like Siegfried, who had reached the realm of Grandmaster, this Ancient Dungeon forced him to be alert at all times and proceed with extreme caution.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before a normal person like Caiphos would be dead.

Fortunately, the fact that the green arrow was pointing the way had not disappeared meant that he was, for now, still alive.

‘I have to move faster, but I can’t rush here. All I can do is hope that he stays alive somehow… I’m going to come save you, so just hang in there.’

With that thought in mind, Siegfried continued to follow the green arrow.

***

Five hours had passed since Siegfried had set out to find Caiphos.

“Phew! Let’s take a short break, Hamchi.”

“Kyuuu! That’s a great idea! Hamchi is tired!”

Siegfried decided to rest for a moment.

The reason was simple. He was practically blind inside the Illusion Village, and even walking around was extremely difficult. While Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance showed him the way, it couldn’t create a 3D map for him.

There was no way for him to tell whether the path ahead was uphill, downhill, a slope, or a cliff.

Due to that, Siegfried and Hamchi often crashed into walls or went tumbling down when the ground suddenly collapsed beneath them, making it extremely difficult to make any significant progress.

Still, if it weren’t for Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance, then they would be forced to crawl to move forward, so in a way, they were still fortunate.

“This is damn disgusting—absolutely disgusting… Are all Ancient Dungeons supposed to be like this?” Siegfried grumbled.

“Kyuuu! Hamchi was thinking the exact same thing just now!”

“No wonder those bastards were locked away in Purgatory. Even Michael must have had a hard time dealing with them if they were this despicable.”

“Kyuuu! That’s right! Even Michael would’ve snapped at these fools!”

“Ughh… I don’t even want to imagine what kind of monster the boss will be…”

Siegfried was shaking his head and complaining when–

“Kyu? Look over there, owner punk! There’s something over there!” Hamchi exclaimed, pointing toward the corner in the distance.

“Hm? What is it?”

At Hamchi’s words, Siegfried decided to check their surroundings using Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

“W-What?!”

Siegfried was shocked to find that there were red dots nearby, but these weren’t the monsters inhabiting the Illusion Village. They were knights of the Marchioni Empire.

Why were the Marchioni Empire’s knights here? This was not even anywhere near their territory.

This could only mean one thing, and that was…

‘Ah, I see…’

Siegfried realized that the Marchioni Empire had discovered the existence of Caiphos von Posteriore and was here to eliminate him.

Other than that, there would have been no reason for the imperial knights to come all the way to some rural fief in another kingdom, especially when that place had fused with an ancient dungeon.

The imperial knights were clearly dispatched with the intent to find Caiphos or recover his remains if he had perished in the dungeon.

‘Tsk… Things just got really troublesome,’ Siegfried clicked his tongue and grumbled inwardly.

But that was not all…

The imperial knights were not the only ones sent by the Marchioni Empire.

‘T-That’s—!’

Siegfried flinched when he saw a red dot labeled with “Beowulf” nearby.

He knew that the Marchioni Empire had recently formed close ties with him and made him a hero of the empire, but he did not expect to see him here, of all places.

‘The Marchioni Empire definitely knows about Caiphos. That’s the only reason they have sent someone like Beowulf. He’s here to help them with the dungeon.’

No matter how strong the imperial knights were, it was nearly impossible for them to clear an Ancient Dungeon alone. Beowulf had to have been sent here to clear the Ancient Dungeon, while the Marchioni Empire’s knights would search for Caiphos.

When he calmly analyzed the whole situation, he arrived at that one and only conclusion.

‘Damn… This is dangerous. If they find out I’m here to rescue Caiphos, then it will be a disaster. I can’t let myself be seen by them,’ he thought, deciding to keep a low profile.

Unfortunately, hiding in the Illusion Village was no easy task.

Everyone was practically blind here; even those right in front of each other would probably not notice one another, but by the same logic, he could still be spotted by them, no matter how good he was at hiding.

Unless he was a Chameleon Assassin, hiding in this place was basically impossible.

Just then, Hamchi tugged at Siegfried’s pants.

“Kyuuu! Can’t you just skin that and use it, owner punk?”

He pointed at the corpse of a Chameleon Assassin, the one that Siegfried had killed just now.

“Skin it?”

“Kyuuu! Yeah! Maybe we can camouflage like them if we skin it and cover ourselves with their hide!”

“Oh?”

Siegfried decided to give Hamchi’s idea a try, as there was nothing for him to lose by giving it a shot anyway.

“Hold on.”

Siegfried took out a knife from his Inventory, the kind used to strip monster hides, and skinned the Chameleon Assassin. He had hunted all sorts of monsters and sold their hides back in the day, so he had plenty of experience skinning them.

“Hmm… Doesn’t look like there’s enough to cover my whole body.”

“Kyuu! But didn’t you kill a few more earlier? I think it will be enough if you skin them all!”

“True. You’re right.”

Siegfried skinned three Chameleon Assassins in total and stitched the hides together.

Ding!

A notification popped up in front of his eyes.

[Alert: You have successfully crafted — Shoddy Crude Chameleon Suit!]

His crafting level was low, so the result came with adjectives like “shoddy” and “crude.”

[Shoddy Crude Chameleon Suit]

[A very crude suit made from the hide of Chameleon Assassins.]

[It is somewhat usable even though the workmanship is poor.]

[Type: Cloak]

[Rating: Uncommon]

[Durability: 1/1]

[Effect: Conceals the user by blending into the scenery of the Illusion Village: Javiern.]

“Oh?”

Even Siegfried was surprised at his success.

He hadn’t expected it to work, as he had no crafting skills whatsoever. While he was skinning monsters for their hides back in the day, he only sold them and never bothered crafting anything from them.

“Kyuuu! Try it on, owner punk! Hamchi will see how good it is!”

“Okay.”

Following Hamchi’s suggestion, Siegfried put on the Shoddy Crude Chameleon Suit.

“K-Kyuuu?! I can’t see you at all, owner punk!”

“Really?”

“Yes! I can’t find you at all! Kyuuu!”

“Good, good!”

Siegfried was satisfied with the Shoddy Crude Chameleon Suit’s effectiveness. He hadn’t expected much from it, as he was the one who crafted it, but he ended up with a useful item, which was a pleasant surprise indeed.

“Let’s go.”

“Kyuuu! Let’s go, go, go!”

With that. Siegfried, clad in the Shoddy Crude Chameleon Suit, set off again and followed the green arrow.

***

Siegfried continued to monitor the movements of Lee Geon and the Marchioni Empire’s knights through Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

‘Hm? They’re meeting up?’

Siegfried saw that Lee Geon and the imperial knights were heading toward each other, as if they were gathering in one place.

‘Do they have something to talk about? But they could’ve just moved as one from the start, no? Why were they separated when they’re on the same side? Did they split up when they entered the dungeon?’

‘E-Ehh?!’

Siegfried was shocked after looking at the minimap.

The red dots representing the imperial knights were disappearing one by one.

‘A battle? With whom?’

He looked carefully at the minimap and did not find a single monster around. Even if the Chameleon Assassins excelled at hiding their presence, they couldn’t hide from Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

In other words, there were no monsters around the imperial knights right now.

And yet the red dots representing the imperial knights were disappearing one by one while Lee Geon’s dot was moving around them.

‘What in the deep blue frozen hell is going on?!’

To his absolute shock, Siegfried realized that Lee Geon was the reason behind the dots disappearing from his minimap.

Lee Geon was slaughtering the imperial knights.

Why? What reason could there be for Lee Geon to kill the imperial knights when they were supposedly on the same side?

Siegfried was certain that they were here to capture Caiphos von Posteriore or at least recover his remains, but he was not so sure anymore after seeing what happened just now.

‘Just what in the world is going on here…?’

He tried to make sense of the situation, but he couldn’t make sense of it at all.