Chapter 525: A Predictable Story 5

A horde of monsters came charging from far away, howling and roaring. Or more precisely, bizarre life forms wriggling with tentacles—creatures that had likely been humans and monsters used as test subjects—rushed toward us over the ruins of the hut.

Orcs with tentacles where limbs should be, yeti with worm-like heads instead of their own, and wyverns with dozens of hands instead of wings.

Seeing their obviously disturbing appearance, Katie poked Han Se-ah in the ribs and received her family’s armor from the inventory. Katie ignored the ghost’s lament buried beneath the disgusting howls and roars, becoming an ice knight as the wind gathered once more.

“I’ll hit them with a big one.”

“Will you be okay?”

“I’m a bit dizzy, but I need to get used to it. Han Se-ah used a lot of mana.”

“I still have about half left.”

Jacob was still pummeling the witch’s tentacle mass in a frenzy that made it hard to tell if he was human or beast, while Elize continued to spray sorcery while screaming like a madwoman. Thanks to them, what appeared to be Phase 3 was cut short, with the mad witch getting kicked and stomped before she could do anything.

Watching this, I leaped toward the approaching test subjects, and Katie immediately rushed to my side, her ice aura swirling around her.

Though she hadn’t yet resolved the ghost’s grudge, her ice aura had grown noticeably larger and more vivid, befitting a family treasure. As she stood beside me, a pleasant coolness enveloped me… but I was the only party member who found it pleasant.

Gyaaaak—

Grr, grrrrp?!

The test subjects that entered the gently swirling aura of the armor suddenly moved in slow motion, and as they slowed, Katie’s frost blade flew toward their necks, or the tentacles serving as necks.

“They look creepy, but they’re nothing special!”

“Don’t let your guard down, Katie! Some might have sorcery on them!”

Just approaching caused them to slow, and the sword swing stacked another slow effect that froze them solid. Without some kind of immunity or countermeasure, it was an absurdly unfair combo that would make anyone pound the ground and wail in frustration while offering their necks.

While Katie, who had become the nightmare of melee ground units in a different way than flying units, rampaged freely among the tentacled test subjects like a fish in water, the rest of our companions began their own tasks.

It started with Grace gathering another wind arrow. The terrifying strike, powerful enough to be called a typhoon rather than mere wind, flew in a parabolic arc like an artillery shell toward the rear of the approaching test subjects.

Already caught in Katie’s ice aura, the experimental creatures floundered and lay flat on the ground as a violent storm that could flip the earth’s crust swept through.

“Wow, that’s an area-of-effect skill!”

-She doesn’t do much, but it’s still satisfying to watch LOLOL

-A character who went all-in on passives using a weapon-based AoE skill is ridiculous LOLOL

-That must be her tech tree LOLOL Our hunter finished her parts collection LOLOLOLOLOL

-Sprinkling a blizzard on top of ice attributes is just easy mode LOL This is why elemental synergy is important

-Does this mean they share slow stacks? Then maybe taking the frost mage tech tree would be best? Frost/lightning mix?

On top of that came Han Se-ah’s blizzard, drawing mana once more. The blizzard, gathered almost to the point of exhaustion, fell one flake at a time onto the test subjects, freezing them solid as they lay sprawled on the prairie, unable to even approach Katie.

By this point, I sheepishly lowered my shield and warhammer, since my only contribution had been blocking their initial charge. It was too one-sided a slaughter to even warn about staying alert.

“Think we got them all?”

“Probably? Since the witch can’t seem to control them, they all rushed in following their instincts.”

No matter how powerful their charge, they couldn’t penetrate Roland’s shield. Their blocked charge left them bound by Katie, and once bound, Han Se-ah’s blizzard settled on them. Then all that remained was Grace’s free damage, piercing vital points at will.

Though Han Se-ah couldn’t have planned it, a terrifying CC party perfectly built for slaughtering melee mobs had formed.

“Roland! This bastard is smiling!”

“Hee, heehee! Heeheehee!”

The test subjects had been completely frozen and annihilated in their charging posture. As I was appreciating this brutal scene alongside Han Se-ah’s viewers, Jacob’s voice and an unpleasant laugh suddenly echoed across the prairie from behind us.

Did she still manage to transition phases despite getting beaten up and slowed down? Perhaps the death of all the test subjects was the trigger.

Wriggling and squirming, what had once been a tentacled witch and was now just a mass of tentacles planted roots in the prairie with a bizarre laugh. Not in a figurative sense—the tentacle mass literally started spreading branches upward and roots downward, as if it had become a tree.

“…How many phases are there? No wonder they provided two 5★ mercenaries. Including Elize, there was a reason 14 stars were added?”

-Didn’t you use up all your mana? LOLOLOLOL Looks like you’ll just be sucking your thumb

-Didn’t Teacher Roland use his holy sword too? Looks like we’re in for an auto-attack battle

-Knew this would happen when the staff stand got high and blew all her mana at once

-What kind of side quest has more content than a regular boss? LOLOL At this point it’s not a side quest but Empire DLC

-Getting sick of this, want to see her clear the Tower instead LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Over the torn-up prairie, the shattered hut, and the scattered corpses, the bizarre tentacle tree extended wriggling branches as if trying to swallow the moon. Branches reached high toward the moon, while roots spread across the ground toward the corpses.

Anyone could see it was trying to absorb the test subjects, so I frantically smashed the ground to destroy the tentacles, but they were spreading faster than I could destroy them.

Han Se-ah should have blocked them with a blizzard at this point, but she hadn’t expected a Phase 4 beyond Phase 3. With a panicked expression, she frantically pulled bombs from her inventory. Of course, her mana was so depleted she couldn’t even activate her staff skills, so they had little effect.

“Playtime is over!”

“You’re noisy till the end, you fucking bitch.”

“Your mouth still works, you beast!”

The tentacle roots finally reached the test subjects’ corpses and started absorbing them with disgusting wriggling motions. Jacob cursed as he watched the roots swelling up and down like a snake swallowing prey, drawing something from the corpses, but all he got in return was the witch’s mockery.

The corpses absorbed by the gulping roots finally reached the main body, traveling up the trunk toward the branches. As they formed what looked like fruit, everyone tensed up and gathered behind me to form a battle formation.

“Wh-what is this, ah?”

“Hey witch, I guess you’ve never fought the Imperial Army?”

A voice everyone had forgotten while high on AoE skills rang out.

Not from the darkness, nor from behind the witch, but from underground.

“Eat something off the ground carelessly, and you’ll get sick.”

※

5★ scout, ‘Binding Avenger’ Mills.

True to his binding title, his main weapons were iron wire, silver wire, and snare ropes… but of course, that wasn’t all.

Even Han Se-ah, despite being a mage, dabbled in alchemy and pulled all sorts of bombs and chemicals from her inventory. If this were a typical RPG or mobile game, skill slot limitations would have restricted him to just those.

But Mills was a veteran who had spent over ten years in the Imperial Army as a scout, leaving legendary footprints as a soldier, mercenary, and scout.

“Mister? What did you feed it?”

“A bit of the poison Imperial Rangers spread in mountain ranges.”

Scouts were a profession that infiltrated deep into enemy territory ahead of the main force to disrupt and assassinate. In a fantasy world, “enemy territory” often meant “monster lairs,” so it was obvious what Mills specialized in.

In other words, he was the physical damage version of Han Se-ah.

While we were all distracted by the witch’s transformation and the approaching test subjects, Mills had moved so stealthily that neither the witch, us, nor even the camera could catch him. The moment he escaped the sorcery and arrived on the prairie, he burrowed into the soft soil without hesitation.

…I had no idea why someone whose main weapons were silver wire and snares could dig tunnels like a mole, but since he said he learned it from Imperial Rangers, I had nothing to say.

“This, this is impos, impossible―”

“You think you’re the only one in the Empire who gets stronger by feeding on corpses?”

The result was clear.

The terrifying witch who used humans and monsters as toys might have been skilled in sorcery, but she knew nothing about alchemy, especially military alchemy. She had greedily gulped down all the poisons from Mills’ pockets.

The tentacle branches that had been reaching endlessly upward lost their strength and drooped, while chunks of rotten flesh fell from the trunk as thick as a large tree, leaving it gaunt. Seeing this, Han Se-ah quietly muttered chemical names, as if reminded of something.

“Organic solvent for monster byproduct disposal, corrosive for bone cleaning. And judging by how the tentacles are rotting and falling off, he probably mixed in hemorrhagic poison that causes internal bleeding, along with various other cocktails.”

“Hero, you seem quite knowledgeable about toxicology as well.”

-What does alchemy have to do with poison that you’d study that side branch too?

-Shouldn’t we start calling her a pot stirrer instead of a staff stand? Main and sub have switched

-So what did she actually do in this quest besides rolling dice? LOLOLOL

-Did anyone even notice Mills was missing? Maybe it’s because the old man looks so ordinary that he has no presence LOLOL

-For real, I was so busy watching the kid-hunter combo I didn’t even notice he was gone

Thanks to this, Mills climbed out of the ground and curiously watched Han Se-ah, but the situation was relaxed enough to allow it.

“This can’t be! This can’t be! How many sorceries did I master, and yet—gahhh!”

“Heh, hehehe— This is great, Mr. Mills. Really great. I’m so pleased I’ll give you anything you want besides herbs.”

The giant tentacle mass had begun to rot and self-destruct in front of Elize, who was sobbing and laughing like a madwoman.