Chapter 22 (1/2)

[Break through the siege and survive! (Remaining number of attempts: 15/15)]

Survive the encirclement of the group of skeletons!

Difficulty: Hard

When successful: +1000 Survival points.

When unsuccessful: Death

*Cooperation possible (up to 6 partic.i.p.ants)

'A siege? Skeletons?'

The mission parchment screamed 'danger' even through a cursory glance. The fact that the mission allowed up to six people to form a party told the same story, as well. Quite likely, Seol would find himself surrounded from all sides the moment he ripped the parchment in half.

However, no matter how long he stared, the mission's colour remained yellow. And that colour, without a doubt, signified that he should pay attention. Seol stood there, hesitating somewhat thanks to the word 'siege', but then, he remembered that Kahng Seok also glowed in yellowish colour as well. If the creatures he'd encounter were on that guy's level, then….

'I have to take the risk.'

If he could survive and succeed, then potentially, he might be able to swallow up 15,000 points. He'd get to ama.s.s almost half of his goal of 34,000 points with this one mission alone. Besides, other survivors showed no sign of even touching this parchment, so wasn't this just perfect for his current situation?

'I should still be careful, though.'

After making up his mind, Seol pulled out all the spell b.a.l.l.s in his possession.

'Will poison work against skeletons?'

Seol deliberated for a while, before deciding to use them even if they proved to be ineffective. He did confirm the crucial fact during killing the Gaeg-gwi, that the poisonous fog seemed to possess some elements of explosive gas. If he combined that with Ignite, then there was a good chance that he'd reap huge benefits - just like the last time.

'So, it should be better to combine these two….'

He carefully checked each of the spell b.a.l.l.s and divided them into two groups - ones that would be used in combination, and the rest that would be used by themselves. It was a shame that there were no spell b.a.l.l.s related to holy or divine magic, though.

It'd be a lie if he wasn't feeling nervous. Still, he shoved the spell b.a.l.l.s inside his pockets and grasped the steel bar as tightly as he could, before ripping the parchment up with his teeth.

The already-familiar sensation brushed past him and the scenery changed in an instant.

The location for this mission was set inside an underground cavern-like s.p.a.ce. His vision immediately took in the ceiling above that seemed far too low for his liking.

And, right in front of his eyes…. Several dozens of skeletons stood there, as he expected they might, and were glaring at the intruder.

'They all look rather hostile, don't they….'

The disparity between what he saw in things like video games and that of reality was as great as heaven and earth.

Whatever the case may have been, his plan was to start his a.s.sault with a bang. Seol pulled out the combination of Poison Fog and Ignite - the very combo that worked so splendidly against the Gaeg-gwi - and was about to throw the two, before his hands hastily froze mid-action.

”….Huh.”

Suddenly, he had a thought. He was standing in a completely different environment compared to when he was killing the Gaeg-gwi. He glanced behind him and saw a solid wall. There wasn't a lot of s.p.a.ce around him, and worst of all, there was no room to retreat.

But, he was thinking of using a poisonous gas here? And to make it explode, too?

He nervously swallowed down his saliva after realising how close he got to inadvertently killing himself. From the very beginning, things were going sideways.

Kwaaahhhaaa!!!

Right at the back of the undead horde, a skeleton wearing a battle helmet roared out. Then, dozens of 'normal' skeletons began to repeatedly clatter their teeth in unison; they raised their weapons and began inching closer to Seol's position.

Realising how urgent his situation had become, Seol quickly chucked the Ignite spell ball first. It caused a small explosion and knocked out two skeletons. Maybe because it was used independently, its overall prowess was far lesser than what he was hoping for.

Seol tried to remain calm and pulled out his second combination from the pocket - Spiderweb and the Hydrochloric Acid.

The thrown spell ball rapidly spun in the air, before tens of silvery threads exploded out. Ten-odd skeletons were tied up by these threads. Seol chucked the Acid ball a beat later; the acidic liquid rained down on the immobile monsters. The skulls, ribs, pelvic bones, femurs, etc, got melted in the blink of an eye, taking care of the first wave.

The overall effectiveness was more or less acceptable, but the problem was that he still had to take care of twenty-plus remaining skeletons. These monsters continued to advance forward while their teeth noisily clattered, even though the flames from Ignite spread around and caught a few of them on fire.

All these were still within Seol's calculations, though. He had to decrease their numbers as much as he could, before he was pushed up against the wall. While cautiously retreating, Seol pulled out more spell b.a.l.l.s from his pocket.

Strong beams of light exploded out from the fourth ball he threw in the air.

With a loud Bzzz!, the ball exploded in a blinding shower of arcing electricity which spread out to everywhere, causing a chain reaction of sorts. The skeletons trembled non-stop before they collapsed to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. Somehow, Seol managed to bring down the second wave.

Guoouwaack!

It was here that the skeleton with the helmet at the rear roared out in anger once more. Since it seemed to be the leader of this undead horde, its anger was more or less understandable, what with its subordinates decreasing by over half in only a few breaths' time.

The leader skeleton grasped a large axe and rushed forward, before powerfully kicking off from the ground.

The axe-holding boney hand arced back and then, shot downward as if the monster wanted to slice apart the rude intruder in one go.

Seol didn't expect the enemy to perform an aerial a.s.sault like that and stood there blinking in a daze. Meanwhile, the distance between him and the monster shrunk rapidly. He was about to pull three more spell b.a.l.l.s out, but had to urgently raise the steel bar to defend himself, instead.

Although he was slightly caught off-guard, as long as he could defend this attack and hit the skeleton with lots of spell b.a.l.l.s, then he'd be….

CLANG!!

Seol's body tilted to one side rather unexpectedly. His eyes grew wide in disbelief.

The airborne attack that carried the downward momentum contained destructive power that easily exceeded his expectations. The angle of defense allowed him to deflect the descending axe, but at the same time, the impact force shoved his own arm away as well.

The axe was swung again in a diagonal line and smacked away Seol's steel bar like it was nothing. Then, it swung back towards his now-exposed ribcage.

His eyes instinctively spun and took in the sight of the powerful arc the axe was drawing. Seol's head blanked out, then.

I'm going to die here?

Just like this? Really?

But, it was only 'Attention Required', wasn't it?

I still have spell b.a.l.l.s left to use, and I am not in a disadvantageous position yet….!

As thousands of thoughts entered and left his head, his instincts screamed out. It told him it was too late now.

Right away, Seol gave up on counter-attacking and spun around with what little reflex he could muster up. While exposing his back, he crouched forward as much as he could.

Slice!!

The sharp blade of the axe didn't cut the intruder's back, but sliced up the object slung across his shoulders - the thick bag that contained pretty much every little thing from a certain convenience store.

At the same time, the skeleton's head was reflected on the smooth, polished surface peeking out from underneath the gap cut open by the axe.

Suddenly, a light beam shot out from the bag and penetrated the skeleton's eye sockets.

*SFX for the skeleton's extremely loud scream*

Seol nearly toppled over from the impact, but managed to prop himself up by placing his hands against the wall. He turned his head around to look. Although he was dazed and stunned silly, he still got to see the skeleton screaming out in pain as it was burning away. The moment of quick thinking had saved his neck from detaching itself from his body. However, he was definitely not prepared for this very sudden change in the current situation.

'W, what is going on here?'

In any case, he was alive. Of course, that wasn't the end to his deadly problems, though. He quickly pulled the bag that served as a wonderful s.h.i.+eld, to his front and rummaged through its contents, before figuring out the cause of the change: a beam of bright light coming from the sliced gap of the bag.

”….Oh.”

It was from the Mirror of Understanding. The item listed under SPECIAL from that drawing machine, supposedly for those Deceased that attacked out of malice.

Thinking what if, Seol pulled the mirror out and s.h.i.+ned its light on the still-burning skeleton with the helmet. Every single bone on its body began to change colour right away. Very soon, the monster completely became ash and scattered away like dust.

It wasn't the only that monster, though. Even the ones trapped within the Spiderweb, even the ones hastily retreating… as soon as the light touched them, they turned into ash while crying out in sorrowful wails.

He only had to s.h.i.+ne the light once around the cavern, but the tens of skeletons all became dust in less than one minute.

When all of its targets were gone, the mirror's surface cracked as if to signal that it had achieved what it was designed for.

[You have successfully completed a 'Hard' difficulty mission.] [1000 Survival points has been added to your tally.] [Current SP: 28,100 SP]

When Seol returned to the plaza, a small commotion rose up.

After the 'first placed survivor' vanished from the plaza, the crowd quickly checked what mission he had chosen, only to be shocked out of their minds. Not even one person among them dared to attempt a Normal difficulty mission yet; but this youth was challenging a Hard difficulty already? Not only that, all by himself?

The opinions were evenly split. Some were saying that he had bitten off more than he could chew, while others said that they should wait and see. And as everyone could see, Seol returned to the plaza in less than five minutes.

Since there was only one possibility upon failure of the mission, which was death, his re-emergence meant only one thing.

”I can't believe it.” (Hao Win)

Hao Win muttered out softly in disbelief.

It could be said that Hao Win's surprise was on a different level compared to other survivors here. He had managed to complete a few missions already, and while doing so, he got to form a certain view, an educated guess of sorts, regarding how one should go about surviving in the Neutral Zone.

He was convinced that, if he wanted to undertake missions, then he would have to make adequate preparations first by purchasing various items through many stores found here. And also, even if he could form a party with other people possessing similar level of abilities as himself, he should not, under no circ.u.mstances, attempt to clear missions that had difficulty rating higher than 'Normal', at least not for now.