The worst was avoided. Although the famous veterans had been left behind, an overwhelming number of troops did not expect us. The enemies we had to face were only three. Not to mention, as a manifestation of their trust or something, these guys didn't shoot us at point-blank range even when we walked out the doorway and took training.
[Abed Necrapeto has released Puppet].
However, the situation remained not positive. Although we could now fight alongside them, a prolonged battle was more disadvantageous for us. Necromancers were like that.
«¡Gruhhhhh!»
It was a massive battle where the death toll was counted in quick succession. The flesh was torn by the hands of the corpse soldiers, and the headless bodies of our companions rose again to attack us.
¡Crujido!
Even at this moment we were diligently crushing corpse heads, but at this rate, we would be the outnumbered ones.
Ha, what a combination.
I couldn't help but moan. Although there were only three of them, their synergy was too good, between the Corpse Collector's action, Blue Mane's man-to-man battle, and Fallen Scholar's wide area ability and overwhelming variable creation ability. If these veterans were just great fighters, the odds would have been much higher.
Rather, it must be because of this synergy that the rest has risen.
I shook off the regret that overwhelmed me. Just as no one in the world was without flaws, not everything in this was necessarily bad. Rather, since the opponent was the Corpse Collector, there were some parts that were also advantageous to me.
[You used Wasteland Outlaw.]
I didn't think I would use the item I got from the Doppelganger Forest in this place.
«Behell-aaaaaaaaaa!» At the front of the front line, I repeated once again what I had done countless times throughout this day, clearing the way.
¡Crackkk! ¡Kwa claim!
Every time I brandished my mace, corpses carrying various types of equipment were swept away like autumn leaves. The reason was simple. The Wilderness Outlaw was an extreme counterattack object of the necromancers.
[In proportion to the number of humanoid monsters, physical damage in close combat has temporarily increased].
The damage rate in close combat increased in proportion to the number of troops. He was sure that he had already reached the maximum rate of increase. So the maximum was... ten times?
[Current increase rate: 1,000%.]
¡Crunch!
Is this how Lü Bu of the Three Kingdoms felt? He didn't even need to use Swing as they exploded with each forceful blow of the mace. Well, using it would help a little more, but saving my limited PM and investing it in Gigantization was the right decision.
«Ha, what kind of rank 5 scout...?»
«A great warrior!»
«Follow him!»
Once I began my mindless assaults, the scouts naturally followed me and formed a breakout formation.
Well, that takes care of anyone who attacks me from behind.
«He's a suicide soldier!»
The Meat Explosion had caused great damage at first, but was slowly being eliminated. That was because they were veteran explorers and raids were an everyday occurrence for them. Even without my instructions, they had naturally learned to deal with it.
« ¡Mago! »
«Dertu Teiran!» That was rank 8 auxiliary magic, Burst.
¡Bang!
As soon as a suicide soldier's body swelled, they were knocked back or pushed with magic or skills. Of course, even so, damage occurred from time to time within the formation and among them, I was the one who suffered the most.
¡Chhhhhhh!
The poison of the suicide soldiers clung to my entire body. However, it didn't sting as much. It wasn't because my tolerance for poison had increased much; After all, Dungeon and Stone was a team game.
[Arua Raven has cast rank 7 support magic Neutralization].
It was a support magic that reduced poison damage by half.
[Rebecca Eisel has launched Share.]
Sharing was an active ability that took one-third of the target's damage.
[Khan Algon has launched Collective Immunity.]
It was an aura-type ability that shared half of the caster's tolerance stats with everyone within a 15-meter radius, whether friends or enemies.
[Folton Cassel has released Fountain of Blood. When the character takes damage, a regeneration orb is created].
There were now healing tokens that came out of my body when I took damage and filled the blood of my companions. With hundreds of mid-range 5 scouts in one place, no skills were missing.
¡Whoom!
Just then, dozens of the spheres of light that filled the sky above the Goblin Forest disappeared, obscuring the surroundings. I perceived it intuitively.
«Be careful, he'll be moving soon», Kyle said.
Yes, the Fallen Scholar wouldn't sit there and watch forever.
¡Whoosh!
The sky darkened as if a solar eclipse had occurred. Above, a red orb appeared that rapidly increased in size.
«It is the Orb of Destruction».
That was an attack spell I had never heard of in the game, and rightly so. That summoning magic was the Fallen Scholar's signature spell, created entirely by him down to the formula.
Did you say it was rank 2?
My heart was squeezed. He knew the abnormal strength that higher level attack magic possessed. Of course, it didn't mean much. Even if he didn't know it, he would have roughly guessed how dangerous that magic was.
«Crazy old man! Are you going to kill me too?» The bastard wolf shuddered at the sight of the orb in the sky and tried to flee. Even Clown wasn't that different. He was shouting something from afar with a perplexed face. He couldn't hear the sound, but it wasn't difficult to deduce the contents, because the army of corpses located on the outskirts was retreating.
Damn sea.
As companions of the Fallen Scholar, they had judged that if that spell fell here, friend or foe, everything would disappear without a trace. But so what?
«I will stop him, you go ahead!».
I struggled with my anxiety and focused on clearing the way for now. «What are you doing?! Don't sit still and keep moving forward!»
«But that falls apart...!»
«And where are you going to run? Let's fight!»
Now, without me needing to say anything, the scouts encouraged each other and renewed their fighting spirit.
«It's coming...!»
I raised my head at someone's murmur. Already, the ominous orb that had grown enough to fill the entire sky fell vertically towards the ground.
[Kyle Pevrosk has cast Rank 3 Piercing Steel attack magic].
At that moment, Kyle completed the spell to mark the Fallen Scholar.
¡Shaaaaa!
He must have drawn the magic circle in advance to prepare for this, as an intense gray light bloomed from behind.
¡Flash!
As the momentarily flashing light faded, a giant arrow pierced the huge meteorite.
¡Kabooommmm! ¡Shaaaaa!
A deafening shock was heard. A strong gust blew and devastated the outside world.
«¡C-Run!»
From that moment on, hundreds of large and small pieces of rock were engulfed in flames and fell like rain. The explorers fled, scared to death, but not many of the fragments ever touched the ground. This was also attributed to Kyle.
¡Pum! ¡BUM! ¡Bang, bang, bang!
The hundreds of falling pieces were blocked by a translucent barrier, after which they exploded and disappeared into thin air. Not even a rank 3 mage could spread a shield over such a wide area.
Did he control them all?
Reading the trajectory of all the pieces, he had successfully blocked each of them with minimal mana. That would be the reasonable assumption. In fact, Raven watched the show with her mouth open.
«Is that... possible...?». As a mage, she felt more strongly how high the previous ability really was. But, unfortunately, the opposing magician was not an ordinary one either. No, rather, the Fallen Scholar was a Great Sorcerer considered even more powerful than Kyle.
«Damn old man».
The falling meteorites spun their orbits like breaking balls and hit the ground, avoiding the barrier.
¡Boom!
Meteorites did not discriminate between friends or enemies. In the center of the army of corpses unleashed by Clown or behind and to the sides of me, crushing my comrades, they then took the form of golems and stood up.
Rank 5 Summon Magic, Fire Giant.
Raven shouted in disbelief: «Mr. Pevrosk! How did this happen? There was definitely no summoning formula...!».
«He used the mana he had left to create a new formula to give to the remaining pieces».
«A rank 5 spell, in that short moment... and dozens of them...?» Raven muttered in a mixture of amazement and admiration.
However, Kyle didn't seem to have time to respond kindly. «Yandel! I have to prepare for the next attack, so deal with the end!». The transmission cut off abruptly.
Ugh, he said he'd take care of the Fallen Scholar, but I guess cleaning is up to me. Well, not even that man can face a monster like that alone.
Not to mention, Kyle had used Mass Teleportation on the first floor and was missing mana. I was beginning to realize that we were still at a disadvantage.
Melter Fend was in charge of Blue Mane, Kyle had volunteered to take on Fallen Scholar, and I was leading hundreds of scouts to crush the Corpse Collector. The moment one of these sides lost, the game would be over. The precarious balance would collapse and the entire world would be swept away in an instant. But, in other words, the same was true for opponents.
Slide.
I charged at the Fire Giant, who had fully stood up and was looking down at me, holding a gigantic mace in his hand.
Dash.
I jumped high and, even using MP, lowered my mace. One hit was enough to destroy the essence of a rank 5 Fire Giant.
¡Kwaaaaaaclaim!
The Fire Giant turned into mana particles and flew away. I fixed my eyes on what lay beyond. In the distance, I could see Clown.
That bastard kept laughing.
If I could kill him, I would have the advantage. Step by step, I moved forward slowly, crushing, trampling and sometimes pushing corpses with my shield.
¡Aplastar!
He was paving the way to survive.
¡Shaaaaa!
From the sky, a rain of fire shot by the Fallen Scholar fell non-stop.
¡Kablam!
Kyle diligently spread defense magic and fought back fiercely, but it wasn't enough to block everything.
«Aaaaaah!» Screams sounded from everywhere. Bodies that had sought life so desperately to reach this place collapsed on the ground wet as burnt coal.
[Abed Necrapeto has released Puppet].
Looking like that, they stood up and brandished their weapons against us. Seeing that, I couldn't help but think that if hell existed in the human world, maybe it was here.
¡Bang!
From a distance, a pile of corpses shot out like cannonballs and broke through the formation. This was a change that occurred a few minutes ago. The Corpse Collector began to draw more summons from the subspace.
Damn, I thought we were almost there too. How many have you supplied?
The curses did not stop, but, even so, my feet did not stop moving. Although I was already far from the main team and surrounded by the army of corpses, I continued advancing. I didn't know how many were left. Many would have died.
«Behell-ahhhhhhhhh!» But despite that, when Ainar cut down a corpse and screamed, chants echoed from behind and to the sides.
«Yes, Behellahhhhh!» He was not a barbarian. Humans, dwarves and even beast people shouted at the same time. Yes, there was something addictive about this.
¡Boom!
A pile of five united corpses flew up and stood in front of me. I frowned at his grotesque appearance for a moment, but quickly located a familiar face in the pile.
Hansen Calders.
It was a man I met while wandering down the passage on the first day. That was before I met Clown, when I still hadn't realized what had happened. At that moment, he offered to join forces and I rejected him because I couldn't trust him.
«The careful is the one who lives the longest. I hope to see you again in the future».
Despite being rejected, the man had laughed as he left.
«Gruhhhhh...»
That's how we met again... So he was really on our side.
Hansu Lee would have vomited everything in his stomach just from watching this show. Turning my mace towards him, I thought to myself, What if I trusted him then? And if we traveled together... Would he be fighting on our side instead of the enemy?
¡Crunch!
Yes, possibly. Only one thing was certain. I was wrong then. The decision wasn't even the best option there was. I didn't try hard, with the excuse that I was a stranger. If I had tried harder, I could have found reliable evidence.
«Sorry.» Stepping on the pile of corpses, I rushed forward. As I did so, I thought briefly, wondering what kind of person he was. If he was alive, what could he have done?
There was no way to know anymore. It was possible that I possessed extraordinary potential that could have been of great help to me. Even Dwalkie's first impression was mediocre. At first I thought he was just a weirdo. But in reality, he was the sweetest of us all, and the greatest wizard of all I've ever seen.
I shook off those thoughts when I heard Kyle's voice. «Yandel, how long until?»
«It won't be long».
It really wasn't long away. Just a little more and it would catch up with Clown, although he was an agile poison necromancer, so hand-to-hand combat wouldn't be so easy. Still, the necromancer's weakness was obvious. Furthermore, having invoked a military counter of this size, his MP consumption would be no joke. As long as Kyle kept Fallen Scholar at bay and Fend kept that bastard wolf at bay, there would be nothing unexpected.
«Please move a little faster. Something doesn't seem right to me».
Doesn't it feel good? Is it also the intuition of a magician?
Thinking that, I was about to brandish my mace once again.
«Gruhhhhh...!» From among the corpses with bad breath, a group of strange explorers appeared. One team, two teams, three teams... The number was too high to count.
«We came to see what the fuss was about, but what is this...?»
«We will help too!»
«Remains of Rafdonia! Kill them!»
«Woahhhhhhh!»
They were Noark scouts who were hunting on the second floor.