Chapter 28 (2/2)

Was that around one minute? It was definitely no more than two minutes…. She even felt scared after seeing the expressionless face he had as he walked up to the board and ripped up another parchment.

'What did he choose?' (Odelette Delphine)

When Seol disappeared again, she hurriedly checked the board.

[Survive against a Wendigo! (remaining number of attempts: 14/60)]

Fight a Wendigo inside a forest and survive!

Difficulty: Slightly Hard

When successful: +450 SP

When unsuccessful: Death.

*Cooperation possible (up to 4 people)

”I just heard that this is his sixth time doing that mission.” (Leorda)

Leorda was standing by her side before she had the chance to notice it. He shook his head as a bitter chuckle escaped his mouth.

Delphine counted in her head - one, two, three, four…. When she counted to 57, Seol returned to the plaza. The youth then proceeded to choose another mission.

Rarely did he attempt a mission only once; most of the time, he repeated it twice or three times before moving on. Some missions, he tried them well over five times.

Before she knew it, even she became one of the stunned spectators. Within the span of 20 minutes, she got to hear the sounds of the parchments being ripped in half twelve more times. Each mission was combat-related. No matter how one put it, Seol was clearing each mission at a frightening rate.

Two men watching on from the lounge could only click their tongues in amazement.

”Wow…. Is that even humanly possible?”

”Dunno. But look, there he is. He did it again.”

”How envious, being the Gold Mark and all.”

”Hah. And here I was, wondering why he hadn't done anything until now. It's like everything's a pushover to him, right?”

Gold Mark? A pushover?

Agnes snorted in derision as she listened from the corner of the lounge.

'What a bunch of fools.'

These two could never see the light of truth, even if they were sent to h.e.l.l and back. While they fell for Cinzia's tricks and concentrated on clearing the missions, Seol alone had to endure an unforgiving training regime.

Did Seol not want to clear missions and earn SP? Of course not. He really wanted to clear them as well. But he simply endured. The skills and abilities he piled on for the past two months without complaining were finally bearing delicious fruits now.

As if he had something to prove, Seol continued to appear and then disappear for a long, long time.

A soft, subtle smile floated on Agnes's lips.

[Break through the siege and survive! (Remaining number of attempts: 11/15)]

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)

'Finally.' (Seol)

Seol mopped up the available 'Slightly hard' missions in the next four days. And now, he was about to attempt the first 'Hard' mission. He already made up his mind which one he'd go for, so there was no hesitation.

The place he was teleported to was the underground cavern. Staring at that low ceiling, a strange sense of deja vu flooded in.

”It's been a while.” (Seol)

Dozens of skeletons were glaring at him, just like before. Seol grinned slightly, before the look of resolute focus returned to his face while his body s.h.i.+fted into the correct stance.

The battle arena was small and confined; there was no room for retreat. The correct answer here was to not back off, but push forward.

The moment the skeleton wearing the helmet at the back opened its bony jaw, Seol pounced forward like a leopard.

When he powerfully thrust forward at the area with a large concentration of skeletons, dull cracking noises filled the cavern and shattered bits of bones flew about. He slapped away a blade trying to cut him from the side and thrust his spear at the exposed gap. The skeleton, with its head split open, shook around comically before crumbling into a heap.

He secured some s.p.a.ce for himself in this fas.h.i.+on. Then, he proceeded to speedily kill the skeletons one by one as they attempted to rush to his position.

Seol's style of battle was simple yet effective.

He first swatted away the incoming attack and relied on 'Thrust' to shatter the enemy's head. If another attack came at him at the same time, he rapidly fell back, preyed on the timing when the attacks missed, and stabbed forward. He only aimed at the skulls specifically.

The s.h.i.+ft in 'Strike' and 'Thrust' was as seamless as a flowing stream of water. His hand speed was genuinely quick as he continued to wield the spear non-stop.

The experience gained through hundreds of missions was helping Seol to grow even further than before.

In a blink, the frontline of the skeletons was decimated. And as the second line was getting pummeled into submission as well….

Just as he expected….

Roar!

The skeleton with the helmet let loose a loud roar from the back. It grabbed a huge axe and began madly running towards Seol's direction.

It was at this moment when Seol's heart shook and cried out.

How long….

Just how long… did he wait for this moment?

The number of simulations he ran inside his head amounted to several dozens. He was not going to make a single mistake here.

He swatted away the incoming attack of a small fry and took four quick steps back. At the same time, the helmet-wearing skeleton jumped in the air. The axe was pulled back and then, came down towards Seol's head. Right then, his eyes shone with a dangerous glint.

'Strike!'

The falling axe and the rising, spinning spear violently collided in the air.

*SFX for a loud collision of metallic objects*

The ear-ripping metallic screech bounced around the cavern.

The axe could not descend any further, nor could the spear deflect it away. However, something had changed, compared to before.

Screech…. Creaak!!

Sparks flew off as the axe blade and the spear shaft grinded against each other. A short compet.i.tion of strength soon developed as Seol bore the brunt of the skeleton's attack.

Vuoong!!

The monster's great power, enhanced by its fall, dissipated pretty quickly. However, Seol's Magic Power constantly bubbled up like a spring that never dries, and supplemented his physical strength.

”Keuh-euheuh!”

Seol successfully shoved away the axe, and quickly seized upon the exposed opening; when a grandiose attack failed to connect, the resulting exposed gap would be equally grand.

The skeleton fell from the air after losing its balance, and Seol swiftly stabbed his spear forward into one of the skull's empty eye sockets.

Slam!

The helmet made up of bones flung away after the spear slammed into it. The skeleton began a drunken dance as it crumpled to the ground after more than half of its head was blown away.

”I did it!” (Seol)

Seol seldom shouted, but he did now out of excitement.

Swatting away and stabbing the skeleton - the event he could only dream about pulling off, he'd finally done in reality as well.

His complexion was filled with happiness as he eyed the heap of unmoving bones on the ground. The sense of accomplishment, a victory well earned, ballooned inside his heart. He thought that he'd never ever grow sick and tired of this joy for the rest of his life.

'Hang on a sec.' (Seol)

Suddenly, he pondered on what might have happened if he chose a different method to counter. Since he was aware of the opponent using a jumping attack, couldn't he have tried something else other than 'swatting away and stabbing' and still win in a simple, efficient manner?

Several possibilities continued to enter and leave his brain. He needed to try them out first to see what was what.

'One more time!' (Seol)

The desire to quickly fight the helmet-wearing skeleton filled him up, so he quickly brandished his spear towards the remaining monsters. A joyful smile never left his face, however.

Seol continued to attack the encirclement 'Hard' mission over and over again.

He considered other survivors' positions and left behind enough attempts for other missions, but for this skeleton mission, the thought of being polite not once entered his thought process. Every time he defeated the helmet-wearing skeleton, he felt as if the unseen weight weighing down on his shoulders were lifting up slowly but surely; as if he got to breathe freely again.

Unfortunately, the unavoidable problem eventually reared its head; since he was so enthusiastic about clearing the mission, the remaining number of attempts depleted quickly as well.

There was nothing Seol could do as there were only 12 attempts left to being with. Didn't mean he had enough, though. On the contrary, he thought that he needed to do at least 50 more times before he'd be satisfied.

Naturally, Seol deliberated on what he should do. Then, on the last remaining attempt, he did something completely unheard of.

He defeated every single small fry found in the mission super fast while leaving behind only the helmet-wearing boss skeleton. There were plenty of opportunity to kill it, but Seol made sure not to fatally wound it.

”Get up, you b*stard.” (Seol)

Seol was glaring at the skeleton lying on the floor. On his hands, his spear and the skeleton's axe. He found this sight of the monster not to his liking, so he used the end of the spear to tap its skull a few times, trying to make it stand.

”Stand up straight, Mister Skull.” (Seol)

When he kicked a bit hard, the skeleton noisily rolled away. Its helmet was missing and couldn't be found anymore. It was not hard to imagine the level of torture the monster had to go through simply by looking at the misaligned collarbones or several cracked ribs.

The skeleton flinched and began to shuffle about. It tried to push off against the ground with its trembling bones, and once up, swayed about unsteadily on its feet.

Seol then tossed the axe over to it and strode away, widening the distance between them. His sour expression showed how unsatisfied he was, as he continued to glare at the skeleton that kinda looked like it might keel over at any second.

The idea of one-on-one face-off he came up with was a brilliant one, if he could say so himself. Now, he was able to continuously fight to his heart's content without the pesky remaining number of attempts handicapping him.

For the first thirty times they fought, the skeleton seemed to be humouring Seol's whims. However, past the 50th time, it felt like the skeleton began to desperately resist him. Past the 60th, it visibly lost all motivation to even put up a fight.

Seol too had made several mistakes adjusting his strength during the fight and ended up damaging the skeleton here and there. Even considering that, the disappointment he felt was hard to describe in mere words.

”Please, please! Just do one more jumping attack, dude! A jumping attack, I say! You know, jump? Can you even understand me?” (Seol)

It was unknown whether the skeleton was listening to him or not. It simply raised the axe but then, one of its shoulder bones snapped and fell. The bone finally gave in and broke after the repeated abuse it had to endure.

The skeleton froze on the spot; its empty eye sockets sneaked a quick glance at Seol's direction.

”….Well, you still have your right arm.” (Seol)

Clack, clack, clack, clack…..

The skeleton powerlessly clattered its teeth. No one knew what it was trying to say, but it still sounded like a plea.

”Come on, let's fight. Hurry.” (Seol)

In the end, the skeleton succeeded in grasping the axe as it squeaked and creaked noisily. It was as if it was forcing itself to overcome its limits. Although it was just a measly skeleton….

”Good. Come at me. I heard that an undead monster like you carry around unconditional hatred for all living things. So, show me.” (Seol)

Seol used his spear to beckon the monster.

”I'll end this after twenty more times, okay?”

It was then, Seol momentarily thought that he could see the exposed spine of the skeleton flinch.

The skeleton standing around doing nothing finally moved its legs. It heaved the axe up high and began its rush.

However, its attack had none of its former viciousness nor conviction. No, it only looked wretched and miserable. Seol licked his lips and readied the stance for 'Strike'.

And so, the skeleton unsteadily 'ran' towards Seol, and lifted its remaining arm over its head. Just as he was about to get ready to swat away the falling axe….

The skeleton simply let go of the axe as its arm fell down.

Seol's attention was stolen away by the axe that flew past him. In that moment he wasn't looking, the skeleton grasped the spear shaft as tightly as it could. Then, summoning whatever strength it could still bring forth, it slammed its own head on the spear tip.

The skull disintegrated, and the rest of the bones clattered to the ground. The way its remains piled up like that, one couldn't help but feel that salvation had finally come to the poor monster.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

[You have successfully completed a 'Hard' difficulty mission.] [1000 Survival points have been added to your tally.] [Current SP: 85,280 SP]

Seol just stood there dumbfounded, his eyes blinking nonstop.

”….Huh.”

< 28.=”” mopping=”” up=”” the=”” missions=”” (2)=””> Fin.

(Remaining amount till the next sponsored chapter: $45.)