Chapter 18 - Deathmatch (1/2)

Since there were no longer any items to be found on Paradise Lost, he decided to go salvaging treasure underwater for the rest of the day.

With Triton as his subordinate, salvaging had become that much easier. Despite him being exiled and bound to the Temple, they were able to bypass such restriction by taming him and summoning him outside the Temple.

Although he was half human, he was still classified as a monster by the system so taming was possible.

Triton had naturally been beyond himself with fury, but now had no choice but to obey Woohyuk’s commands. After all, he was capable of training any monster within the Primordial Forest, and in the eyes of the system Triton was just that.

He continued this underwater exploration for a total of three days, causing several rumors to fly around in Woohyuk’s sector.

Sightings of a giant squid or cursed ghost ships, as well as wreckages of sunken galleys appearing on the lake’s shores.

Since then, adventurers wouldn’t even dare approach the lake, since any self built vessels that had ventured out had never been seen from again

On the morning of the 15th day, Woohyuk returned to base camp. He had some last minute preparations to take care of before leaving for the next stage.

“All of your instructions have been taken care of.”

“Good work”

Lee Jaesung had continued to send out reports on any important changes. Ma Gwangpil had constantly increased his numbers, and they now far exceeded the maximum one hundred.

‘The more people the better.’

At least that was the case until the end of their second boss fight. Woohyuk then gave out instructions to his party for the upcoming final battle.

“Did you get along with the others in the party?”

“Yes, we are now completely at ease with each other.”

Since he hadn’t been confident in leading the party when Woohyuk wasn’t around, he was given a simple task.

To first establish some lines of communication and to get to know each other. To that end, he had everyone introduce themselves and say about their life before coming here. Only then did they go hunting together in order to strengthen that bond and trust in Lee Jaesung’s leadership.

Woohyuk hadn’t at all been worried about him, because he knew full well about the past Lee Jaesung’s abilities. Not to mention that if they were to find themselves in a bind, they could just communicate through their party chat and Woohyuk could use the Call to Arms skill to summon them to his side.

“Show me the things I asked you to collect.”

Ghost mushrooms, Fire grass, Oriental Arborvitae bark, Fox’s blood, Ash Tree sap, Lavender, Red Coral reef.

These were the ingredients he needed to concoct the Hermit’s Elixir.

Woohyuk then retrieved 3 silver coins and purchased an Alchemist kit from the General shop. Placing the ingredients inside in a specific order according to the recipe.

It wasn’t only a matter of knowing the right order. If you didn’t have the right timing, proper heat control, or the correct ratio of ingredients, even if you managed to place them in the right order, the result would on be an inferior or even unusable elixir.

Despite him not being an Alchemist, Woohyuk still knew several recipes. For one, he had memorized quite a few of them before choosing to return, but he had also picked up a lot of them as he learned to survive in this world.

The Hermit’s Elixir was one of the latter, and was useful in many ways if you knew how to properly concoct it. Woohyuk examined the light blue liquid within the vial with a satisfied expression.

“This…”

“Please hand them out to everyone, you will need it for the upcoming battle.”

In order for them to be able to move around within the fierce setting of the Canyon Battle, he wasn’t willing to lose any of them in the upcoming tribulation. Woohyuk then explained to Lee Jaesung his next steps.

* * *

“It’s already the last day! If you happen to still have some Ancient Coins left, don’t bother saving them since they’ll just be scrap metal in the next stage.

Any Ancient Coins bearing the forest stamp wouldn't be legal tender within the Canyon. Hearing Eve’s recommendation, the players were quick to access the General Shop function.

“So, shall we get started with the second boss fight?”

In the distance they spotted a giant lizard with dark blue scales approaching.

[Basilisk]

I led an army of hundreds of Vipers.

“Wow.”

“Too Ma...many.”

Several of the players took a few steps back in fear. This was on a different scale than the Minotaurs since there had only been about a hundred of them in that wave.

Regardless, there was no place to run to. Today was the last day, and if they didn’t manage to defend the camp, they would disappear along with the Forest.

Waiting behind some barricades they had erected from felled trees, the players raise their weapons.

“Uhm, what are you going to do?”

Ma Gwangpil asked nervously as he looked to Woohyuk. Rather than responding, he raised his hand and sent out a spell. A ten meter long wall of flame appeared in front of the barricades.

He had made use of Yoo Kayoung’s spell, Fire Wall. She and the rest of the party weren’t involved in the battle and would remain hidden using Hermit's Elixir.

The searing flames made it impossible for the Vipers to cross, as they had to take a detour and before aiming for the camp. The Basilisk however did not have that problem.

Due to its high magic resistance, it simply swung its tail aggressively, stamping out the fire and clearing the barricades.

It had been its signal to attack, as the Vipers flanked the camp from either side, a chorus of hisses marked their arrival. As Woohyuk felt them come under pressure, he summoned 100 Cocatrices.

Although he wished he could have caught more, he simply hadn’t had enough time to do so. Also, there was a limit to how many he could use because it did require some mana to summon each of them.

“Caw Caww!”

The group of Cocatrices engaged the incoming Vipers as they crowed like roosters. Of course they alone wouldn’t be enough, so the other players joined in the melee.

All the weapons they had collected so far were on display. Others simply used their magic spells or shot arrows.

The battle with the Vipers was going better than expected, but the Basilisk was still a problem. Opening its mouth it unleashed a dark green cloud of poisonous gas on the nearby adventurers.

“Gguuuk”

“Ugh, I can’t breathe….”

The afflicted players dropped to the ground as they groaned. Among them, there were even some that had been turned into stone statues.

The Basilisk had an innate ability to cause paralysis and even petrification if one were to gaze into its eyes.

Then there were the scales. Dark poison would be transferred to you through your weapon if you tried to attack its scales. The amount of poison one received was proportional to their damage output.

As such, everyone had to attack together and share the burden, else even if they had ingested a herb like Rosemary, their lives would still be in danger.

Thud!

As the Basilisk was busy stomping down on some Cocatrices, it stepped on a pitfall and fell into the trap. Of course, its size was such that only its front legs had fallen inside. At the very least however it would buy them some time.

‘It’s time.’

Woohyuk removed a yellow flower from his Pouch and placed it in his mouth.

[Rutaceae Flower].

A type of flower that neutralized certain poisons and raised your resistance to petrification.

With the Alchemist kit it was possible to brew an elixir that would have been more effective, but he simply hadn’t had the time. Woohyuk raised Grandia as he watch the Basilisk struggle to lift its legs out of the trap.

* * *

“Wow, you guys have many more survivors compared to other camps!”

Eve had her usual bright smile as she stepped out the black portal. The battle’s survivors however stared back with a blank face.

The camp was a huge mess. Corpses upon corpses of Vipers had been stacked up and resembled small hills. All the camp’s defense that they had worked so hard on had all been destroyed.

There had been 35 casualties, leaving behind 120 survivors. It was a situation where there were 20 people too many. Reading the unease in the players’ expressions, Eve spoke up.

“Don’t worry too much about it, you only need to settle things by this time tomorrow, so there’s no need to cut each other up this very moment.”