episode_0083

[QUEST!]

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We have finally entered the castle of the Four Heavenly Kings, the puppet masters.

That means they will soon be subduing the puppet government.

To support your future, I will once again prepare a small gift.

The second chapter is coming to a close.

I hope that good luck will be with you on your future path.

Quest Reward: Puppet

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‘I wondered when it would come out.’

As soon as I entered the puppet master’s mansion, a notification popped up.

A subjugation-related quest similar to the one when capturing King Chung. The quest appeared when I entered Chunghoe Castle at that time as well.

I was worried why the quest wasn’t appearing, but it turns out that the conditions had to be met by entering the castle of the Four Heavenly Kings.

The reward is the same as last time, one of the Four Heavenly Kings’ powers. As the difficulty is high, the reward is also very extraordinary.

Thanks to that, we have one more reason to catch him.

“···It’s pretty quiet.”

I was worried that the mansion would be full of monsters, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.

It looks like it was just left empty since it would have been pierced anyway.

Still, I searched the mansion thoroughly just in case.

“I can’t see anything.”

“I can’t even see the puppet.”

“Where did it go?”

“Don’t worry, that doesn’t seem to be the case. I can feel something inside.”

Fortunately, nothing came out. Feeling relieved, we went a little further in to meet the guy.

As I passed through the long hallway, I saw a door with an unusually large design. It was the boss room.

There must be a puppet inside. After taking a deep breath, we went straight inside without hesitation.

“···You finally came.”

The guy was sitting sprawled out on the big sofa.

You can see a luxurious chandelier hanging from the ceiling. You can see various antique furniture installed all over the walls.

The room he was in felt more luxurious and fancy than gloomy. It was a part that gave a sense of his usual disposition.

However, the puppet sitting in the center had a very tired expression on his face.

“Do you know how hard I’ve had to live the past few months?”

I looked straight at the bastard’s chest. It was hard to see because it was covered by his clothes, but I could see the outline of it, as if it was wrapped in bandages.

Okay, it’s not completely healed yet. Having confirmed that, I didn’t hesitate any longer.

“Ulisse, please bless me.”

After receiving the saint’s blessing, he rushed straight towards the bastard. From now on, a boring fight was about to begin.

How does the puppet master’s strategy work?

The best way is to trap him with an AoE and continuously hit him with AoE attacks.

A guy with high evasion but low defense and regeneration was very vulnerable to such attacks.

If you use an attack that cannot be avoided, there is nothing he can do about it.

Whenever I take the wizard route, I always hit him with an area-of-effect skill.

But now it was a hard way.

There’s Lily who has an AoE, but other than that, most are melee combatants.

I also only have one wide-area skill, ‘Blood Power Replacement’. I can hit with that, but I need a wider range skill to catch it.

Anyway, for that reason, I’ll pass on that method.

Another method was protracted war.

By constantly pushing the guy, you will slowly wear down his stamina.

If the guy’s stamina drops to the point where he can’t move, he won’t be able to dodge the attack even if you read it.

The problem is that we have to endure the attacks until the bastard’s stamina runs out, but this is the only way we have right now.

“You still have a short temper.”

In that sense, his injury was very good news.

Depending on the severity of the injury, the level of physical exhaustion will naturally be high. So let’s proceed step by step. Unlike the Chungwangjeon, this time time is on our side.

“Don’t give me a break!”

So we continued our attack. Led by the three melee fighters who had received Yuris’ blessing, we pressed the bastard forward.

Lily also continued to fire light magic instead of big magic.

Of course, he didn’t just sit still.

Drop!

“Ugh!”

Sometimes, it shoots lightning in the middle to paralyze party members.

Kaang!

“Damn, here we go again···.”

“Please purify Yulis!”

They also brainwash party members into attacking each other.

At one point, when that didn’t work, he even ordered them to kill themselves. It was creepy when Adele tried to stab herself in the neck. You have to be especially careful because if you do something wrong, you can instantly become incapacitated.

Still, the battle was progressing steadily.

Since it was their second time fighting, everyone seemed to have adapted to a certain degree. Thanks to this, everyone was able to respond calmly even when an unexpected situation arose.

“If lightning strikes like last time, they all gather in one place. They gather towards Yuris.”

“I’ll deploy the shield.”

So far, so good. In the end, it’s the guy who gets impatient.

I thought that if we continued like this, we would be able to catch him without any problems.

And I couldn’t help but feel a very strange sense of discomfort at that thought.

‘what?’

Is everything going this smoothly?

Me and not someone else? That couldn’t be possible.

This is the game that always hit me hard. An inexplicable feeling was caressing the back of my head.

That was when.

A strong magical power was writhing in the bastard’s grasp. It looked like he was trying to use magic similar to before, but this time the amount he was gathering was different.

As if it were stored in advance rather than being collected within the body.

“!”

Feeling that, I immediately pulled Camilla’s nape back. Camilla, who was continuing her attack, was flustered, but she couldn’t say anything to me.

Kwagagang!!!

Because before that, a loud noise filled the heavens and the earth.

A bolt of electricity shoots out from the puppet master’s hand, like an ascending dragon.

A bolt of lightning strikes against logic, shooting violently from the ground into the sky.

Thud- Thud-

One of the bastard’s attacks ripped a huge hole through the high ceiling. I was speechless.

Because it was a magic that I had encountered quite often. One of the guy’s highest level magic, Thunder Dragon.

There clearly wasn’t enough time to gather magic power or cast it, so how did you do it?

“··· Scroll.”

Lily, who was well-versed in magic, muttered.

As she said, there was a small piece of paper hidden in the puppet’s sleeve.

‘···I see.’

Scrolls are extremely difficult to make, but they can store magical power inside.

Since it’s just activating a pre-planned magic, there’s no need for a long casting time.

“Haa, ha, that’s too bad. I thought you used it with the intention of sending one person···.”

I kind of understand the situation.

The guy’s wounds clearly haven’t healed yet, but he’s probably had plenty of time to recover while we’re here.

As it turned out, the guy was well versed in lightning magic and was also knowledgeable in how to make scrolls.

While we were getting here, the guy was busy making scrolls. Even if he was injured, he could still make scrolls.

Just like us, he was given time to prepare.

So how many scrolls will we have in the future?

5? 10?

The production period for the highest level magic scroll would take at least a month. However, that does not mean that the magic of the upper and middle levels could be ignored.

“Can you guess how many scrolls there are, Ms. Lily?”

“Well··· I can’t guess because it depends on the type of magic and the amount of mana···.”

Whatever it was, it was definitely more annoying.

Of course, that doesn’t change what you have to do. You have to drain his stamina until the very end.

“I’ll just block most attacks. You guys, focus on attacking. Make sure he can’t stay still.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“··· There is no other way.”

Still, it seemed like the ‘brain dragon’ was something the guy had in mind.

This was the first scroll I used after hiding it until now. I guess I used a pretty big one.

An attack of that level is certainly threatening, but… it’s still better for me to get hit than for another party member to get hit. At least I won’t die instantly if I get hit.

But there was a big problem.

The direction of the battle, which had been on the ‘smooth’ side until now, has tilted towards the ‘burdensome’ side just because of the existence of that scroll.

The difficulty of the battle itself has changed.

“Huh?”

He pauses for a moment while swinging his sword. He feels a strange sensation in his body.

I try to move my right arm, but then out of nowhere my left leg starts moving.

The body itself was ‘twisted’ by the bastard’s power. It was his unique way of using his power, allowing him to annoy his opponent for a while without having to stop their body.

In that situation, the guy prepared magic. His signature electric magic that we always see.

Fortunately, I was able to block it with the ‘Mana Barrier’ up to this point. The problem is that the scroll magic came flying right after.

Don’t miss it!

Yeah fuck, there was a way to use it like this too.

Consecutive attacks using magic and scrolls. This is what I mostly used in the game, but it really sucks when I get hit by it.

My muscles contracted, my entire body, including my internal organs, burned, and the smell of smoke rising from my body was quite an unpleasant experience.

Still, it was bearable. It was literally bearable.

It seemed that if I was hit by even the highest level magic like before, I wouldn’t be able to avoid being unable to fight for a while.

‘···Still, it’s worth doing.’

I’m somewhat convinced. That guy can’t kill me with one blow. Unless I get hit with two or three high-level magic hits in a row.

The battle is still early. There are no noticeable casualties, and the guy still has plenty of health.

There was still a long way to go before this battle came to an end.