episode_0123

Death Heaven’s 10th-ranked, Betzdo.

Betzdo was the first Necromancer to appear in Croaca.

However, he was more famous as a newbie shredder than for being the first Necromancer.

* * *

[Damn it, how do you even catch that Cabbage-guy or whatever he’s called?]

I’m a newbie who just dipped their toes in, since he’s been popping up a lot on the community lately. I was enjoying the game so far, but damn it, did the difficulty suddenly jump like this?

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ lol newbie, welcome It’s Betzdo, not Cabbage-do. Original Poster) Stop laughing and just tell me how to beat him. The game hasn’t been out long, so I can’t even find any strategy guides. Well, if you use ‘that thing,’ you can easily beat him without even looking at his patterns. Original Poster) What is ‘that thing’? Indeed, if you use ‘that thing,’ even my 4-year-old nephew can clear it easily. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Me too, I tried to beat him normally, got my ass kicked, then used ‘that thing’ and cleared it in one go. Original Poster) You f*cking bastards! What is it?! It’s… It’s, well… It’s just ‘that thing.’ For real, lol. Original Poster) ugh;we;nuh;imnyuh;uh;mnywe Hey, check out the post I just uploaded.

[Whining loser newbie who couldn’t beat Betzdo. Look at this.]

You’ve already seen the patterns, right? He’s not a boss meant to be beaten normally in the first place.

Of course, you don’t need to dodge every single pattern.

First, the biggest problem is the constantly spawning skeletons, right?

If your hunger drops to just before you die of starvation, the skeletons will ignore your character.

And before you fight, throw down a Molotov cocktail.

You need to use a special Molotov cocktail that burns continuously for a certain period, not a regular one.

And here’s proof, in case you don’t believe me.

(A screenshot roughly showing story progress far into the game.)

Thank you! Thank you! Ah, he’s telling it so easily. Boring. That guy just spills all the advanced info we struggled to learn every time he sees a newbie. For real, lol. Shut up, Loki-nim, thank you, thank you. That Cabbage bastard is totally dead. It’s Betzdo, you damned ass. I’m craving cabbage pancakes tonight. Ah, this makes it boring;; completely ruins the game. Did you go? Going? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㅋㅋㅋ Damn it, that’s hilarious. Lord, another one is coming up today. Lord: Stop sending them, there’s no more room. It’s almost time for him to come up…

[Thank you, Loki-nim, who kindly told me earlier!]

Thanks for making me quit this game, you f*cking bastard.

Skeletons won’t attack if your hunger drops? A skeleton hit me once and I died instantly.

And because of the fire constantly on the ground, I couldn’t get out, and all my items burned.

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ You actually did that? Original Poster) Where did that Loki bastard go! ? Original Poster) What do you mean, question mark, you bastard! You ruined everything for me! I’ll smash your head in with that question mark. ! Original Poster)……….

* * *

Betzdo had patterns that were, to put it mildly, vicious, or as users called them, terrible.

‘Of course, I had memorized all the patterns.’

I turned my head and looked around, and the area was already filled with the skeletons I had created through illusion.

There were skulls with four arms, skulls moving on all fours, skulls with arms several times longer than normal, and so on.

Some skeletons maintained a human form, while others appeared in animal forms.

At this point, they were more than 95% similar to the skeletons Betzdo used.

“………………..”

Sepia seemed surprised by the sudden appearance of so many skeletons, her mouth slightly agape as she stared blankly at me.

Now, once Sepia came to her senses, I just needed to have her experience Betzdo’s patterns one by one.

‘But I feel like I forgot something…’

I remembered to bring my handsome face, potions in case Sepia got hurt, simple food for when she got hungry in the middle, and my world’s most handsome face…

Oh, right! The mask.

I forgot to put the Clown’s Mask on Sepia.

I took out the Clown’s Mask that I had put in my subspace earlier.

Feeling the texture of the mask in my hand, I slowly walked towards Sepia.

‘Come to think of it, Sepia seems to be the only one who has worn this mask.’

Johanna saw my face without the mask every morning, but she only slowly stroked my face and didn’t show much interest in the mask itself.

I slowly extended the hand holding the mask towards Sepia.

Sepia flinched when I suddenly reached out but didn’t move.

“Ugh…”

I put the mask on Sepia and took a step back.

Sepia brought her hand to her face and fiddled with the mask.

She probably wasn’t uncomfortable; it seemed more like she found it awkward or intriguing.

Even the spirits seemed curious about Sepia wearing the mask, sticking to it and wriggling around.

‘Thinking about it, both of us are wearing masks.’

Sepia wearing a white mask, me wearing a black mask.

Come to think of it, there were cases where couples wore matching accessories, like couple rings, right?

Couple masks. Not bad, actually.

Should I start a big business later?

If I put masks on all the special class students, I could probably make it a trend somehow.

“Sepia, doesn’t it feel like we’re lovers, with both of us wearing masks like this?”

“Lo-lovers?! Ha! How absurd. You and me? Ha!”

Sepia was clearly wearing a mask, but her expression appeared in my mind.

Her trembling lips in embarrassment, her slightly reddened face, and her eyes secretly glancing at me, perhaps worried I might be hurt by her words.

‘Is this too much?’

On the contrary, having her face covered by the mask made me imagine the face and expression inside the mask.

Did other people feel this way when they saw me?

I was curious about Sepia’s expression, but.

First, I had to do what needed to be done.

“Ugh! Sepia, you denied it so strongly that my heart has a huge hole! Couldn’t you have even taken it as a joke?”

“I didn’t exactly deny it… No, you’re the one who brought up something strange in the first place!”

* * *

“Haa…”

After letting out a loud sigh, which released some tension, Sepia looked around with wary eyes.

Horrifyingly realistic skeletons still filled the surroundings.

Although she knew in her head that Hogu’s illusions were fake, their gruesome appearance was very real.

‘I really knew nothing.’

She had thought that all she needed was to find the location of the one who killed the villagers, but now that she thought about it, it was too reckless.

Even if she had found him somehow without Hogu’s help, if she had known he was a Necromancer, she would have panicked and died without even putting up a proper fight.

‘Snap out of it.’

Sepia slapped her cheeks with both hands.

It was enough that she knew now.

“What do I do now?”

“As I said earlier, what you need to do, Sepia, is simple. Study. And then review what you’ve learned from studying for a month.”

“So, what exactly do I need to study and review?”

“Hmm, Sepia, just stay still for a moment.”

Loki said that, then moved one of the illusory skeletons to attack Sepia.

Sepia could have easily dodged, but she stayed still as Loki had told her.

The illusory skeleton’s attack passed right through Sepia’s body.

“As you can see, they’re all illusions, so even if they attack you, you won’t get hurt.”

Loki said that and then used Shadow Walk to distance himself from Sepia.

Sepia stared blankly at Loki, who had instantly created a distance between them.

“Sepia, you only have one thing to do. Dodge the skeletons that attack in various ways and attack me here.”

As soon as Loki finished speaking, the skeletons turned their heads towards Sepia all at once, creaking and groaning.

“Also, if you get hit by an attack even once, you have to start over from the beginning.”

* * *

How many hours had passed trying to dodge the skeletons’ attacks?

“Haa…”

Sepia lay on the ground, panting heavily, forgetting that Loki was even there.

In the end, she couldn’t even get close to Hogu and got hit by the skeletons.

What kind of skeleton attacks by sticking out its tongue that long?!

“Good work.”

Loki made all the illusory skeletons disappear.

His mana was barely remaining.

“Shall we stop here for today?”

“…I can still do mor…e.”

“Sepia, I said I’d push you hard, but your stamina has its limits. And it’s getting late.”

Loki pointed a finger at the sky.

They had started training after school, and so much time had already passed.

Sepia had no stamina left, and it was almost time for her to call Yerika.

Sepia nodded, not saying anything further.

“…Can I take off the mask now?”

“Yes! You can take it off now. You worked hard.”

Loki looked at Sepia as she took off the mask and stretched.

‘It seems she hasn’t realized the mask’s effect yet.’

Well, that made sense.

The only thing she could gain from wearing the mask during this special training was stamina.

And even that was hard to notice during strenuous training.

“Honestly, I don’t know why you told me to wear this, but you used it well for now.”

Sepia handed the removed mask to Loki, but Loki shook his head.

He hadn’t lent Sepia the mask just to increase her stamina.

Dodging patterns was important, but Sepia’s talent wasn’t evasion; it was Spirit Arts.

“Sepia, you still have one more thing to do.”

“What?”

“That is to practice Spirit Arts in your dormitory while wearing the mask.”

Sepia felt a question rise in her mind after hearing Loki’s words.

Did she really have to practice Spirit Arts while wearing the mask?

But Sepia ultimately nodded.

She had no stamina left to argue, and she had decided to trust Loki’s words.

* * *

And the next day.

“Hogu! How could you just hand me something like this without explaining anything! I can’t stand this!”

Sepia, who had put the mask in a safe and brought the entire safe with her, scolded Loki.