Editor: Sotheno

‘How did you not see this?’

Why did Roa not see the massive magic circle which itself was emitting shimmering light?

‘Am I able to see this because of the quest?’

Maybe, this quest is the only way to see the magic circle. Soo Hyuk stepped back and thought about what had happened.

“Fire Storm.”

Soo Hyuk took a few steps backward and cast ‘Fire Storm’ upon the Recovery magic circle.

Suaak!

A whirlwind of fire appeared, engulfing the magic circle.

It slowly swallowed the magic circle. Soon, the magic circle distorted, losing its light, not long after, a message appeared before Soo Hyuk.

[The Recovery Magic Circle has been destroyed.]

[The quest ‘Destroy the Magic Circle’ has been completed.]

[The Chimera Summoning Circle will no longer be restored.]

[The Recovery Magic Circle has been destroyed, resulting in the Trap magic to be revealed.]

“Trap magic?”

Seeing the message, Soo Hyuk started checking the floor beneath him. Exactly as he hoped, he was able to see several small magic circles spread all over the floor.

“This must be it.”

Looking at all the small magic circles, Soo Hyuk could guess how Roa died.

“This is what killed her.”

Clearly, these small trap magic circles were the cause of Roa’s death.

“But why didn’t it go off when I entered?”

Soo Hyuk looked at the magic circles while tilting his head. When he entered the pathway, he had definitely stepped on these circles. Though at that time they weren’t revealed, they were still set in place and should have gone off. But why didn’t they?

“To activate them, do I need to reach the end?”

He wondered if he needed to reach the end of the pathway where the recovery magic circle was located to set them off.

‘Let’s see.’

Soo Hyuk, who was thinking about the trap magic’s mechanism, walked away. He had no reason to be here anymore, his quest ‘Destroy the Magic Circle’ was completed. The reason why the trap magic didn’t go off, he could think about it on his way back.

It was just then.

-Kamian: Soo Hyuk!

He got a voice message as soon as he passed the first trap magic.

***

“Did you find anything?”

Ketoto said.

“Well, I’m sure he did find something..”

Garan shook his head and voiced out his thoughts.

“Did you find the recovery magic circles?”

“Yeah, most likely those things were magic circles..”

Just then Ketoto cut off Garan’s words and asked a question.

“There’s got to be a trap, right?”

“I think so. Well, now that Roa’s dead..”

Just as the conversation was going on, then.

“Huh?!”

K-Cross exclaimed.

“..Woo!”

Hearing K-Cross’s voice Ketoto and Garan, who were having their own conversation, looked at him with a confused face. As they looked at him, they found that K-Cross’s entire face was distorted with anxiety.

“What’s wrong?”

Kamian, who was looking at the pathway with K-Cross, turned to ask.

“What happened, did chimeras show up?”

K-Cross didn’t answer the question immediately, though his silence didn’t last for very long as he soon answered still in shock.

“Yes, they have appeared.”

K-Cross had been using his skill ‘Hawk’s Eye’ to keep a lookout focusing on the summoning circles. He watched movement through a small screen only he could see. To his surprise, he watched as chimeras came out of the summoning circle.

“How many?”

Kamian asked again.

K-Cross wouldn’t have been this worried if there was only one, so how many chimeras were being summoned for him to be this concerned?

“....At least ten. I can’t see how many there are exactly, my ‘Hawk’s eye’ isn’t working properly. But there are at least 10 of them.”

K-Cross replied.

Till now, K-Cross could only figure out that there were at least 10 chimeras, he had even verified it with his ‘Hawk’s Eye.’ But that was all he could find out.

He couldn’t get more information, as his skill was blocked. But he could guarantee that there were at least 10 of them, or at least more.

“Ten? At least?”

Kamian almost cried out when he heard K-Cross, especially when he didn’t deny anything.

“What about their health?”

“Well, it’s a relief that all 10 of them have less than 1.5 million health.”

“If it’s less than 1.5 million..”

‘We can’t destroy them, but we can stop them.’ Kamian silently calculated, trying to figure out what they could do.”

To prevent any external attacks with a shield in a certain zone for a period of time was the ultimate defense skill of a priest. But it was impossible to defend against attacks from the inside of the skills range. This skill would only be activated as a last resort in dangerous situations or when time was needed. Now was the perfect time to use the skill.

‘I think we’ll be able to hold on until Soo Hyuk comes.’

Kamian and his guild couldn’t even move an inch from this place as Soo Hyuk was still in the left aisle.

He planned too, at first they would use the skill ‘Absolute Defence’ to block the entrance from the right pathway with the skill and hold onto it till Soo Hyuk returns.

If the chimeras’ health were less than 1.5 million, he would be sure, the shield could hold out. He was positive they wouldn’t be able to break the defense shield because they had already experimented on that fact.

“Garan!”

Thinking some more Kamian called out.

“Yes!”

Garan replied.

“Can you cast the spell?”

“Absolute defense?”

“Yes, we’ll have to block the entrance. We will have to hold out until Soo Hyuk comes.”

“Okay, but will he be here in 10 minutes?”

The maximum period for the absolute defense zone was 10 minutes. Will Soo Hyuk come out till then?

“Let me ask him.”

Soon after Garan’s question, Kamian’s voice called out to Soo Hyuk.

-Kamian: Soo Hyuk!

-Kamian: We’ll try holding on, so you will have to come out fast!

-Soo Hyuk: I’ll be there soon. Please avoid the attacks as much as possible.

-Kamian: Ok!

Soo Hyuk, after knowing what was going on in the frontline, picked up his speed.

Kwang! Kwang!

And soon after, Soo Hyuk was able to hear the roar from the other side of the wall. It seemed that the chimera had begun their attacks.

‘At least ten..’

Soo Hyuk while moving forward opened his character window. Then looking at the experiences, he thought.

‘I think I can do both.’

Currently, Soo Hyuk’s experience was at 99%. In other words, 1% more and he would level up; he closed his character window before he reached the entrance.

“Guys I’m here!”

As soon as he exited the pathway, Soo Hyuk called out to the Koma guild, instantly moving to check the right pathway.

‘So this is how it looks like.’

Soo Hyuk, who had only heard what the ‘absolute defense’ was like, saw a transparent barrier blocking the entrance and a chimera outside trying to break the shield.

Kwang! Kwang!

The chimeras who had the upper body of an orc pounded on the shield with their full force. Despite their explosive power, the shield wasn’t affected.

“Should I get rid of the shield?”

Kamian asked while approaching him. Though the conditions for the Guild Quest were met, that can’t be said for Soo Hyuk’s individual quest.

Soo Hyuk still had to go to the Magic circle located on the right pathway. Put differently, they had to break through the chimeras that were trying to force themselves inside the defensive zone.

“No, I’ll cast behind the shield.”

Soo Hyuk shook his head. Though the shield didn’t allow him to cast spells like Fire Spear, Poison Spear or Fireball. That didn’t mean he had no other means of casting magic through the shield.

“Poison Storm.”

Soo Hyuk cast Poison Storm at the other side of the shield.

-Shiaak!

-Chiiwg?

-Aaooowwwww!

The poison whirlwind created a storm, beginning to stir around the chimeras. The several chimeras who had been attacking the shield began letting out painful roars.

“K, can you use your ‘Hawk’s Eye’ now?”

Listening to the screams of the monsters in front, Soo Hyuk asked.

But there was no reply.

“...”

Soo Hyuk turned around to see what K-cross was doing and to his surprise, he saw K-Cross’s eyes were filled with shock.

“K-Cross?”

“Huh, yes.”

K-Cross, who was still in shock responded to Soo Hyuk’s second call.

“I-I’ve already turned on my ‘Hawk’s Eye’.”

It seems that K-Cross had already activated his skill before Soo Hyuk cast ‘Poison Storm’.

“I think they are about to die.”

He was shocked, the reason was because of Soo Hyuk and the spell he had just cast. The chimeras were pulled into the storm despite how high their health was.

‘Weren’t they supposed to have strong immunity against poison?’ He thought as the chimeras themselves attack with poison, they would have the resistance.

But now as he looked at their health and how their health was rapidly diminishing, he couldn’t imagine that this was being done by a poison spell.

“Really?”

Soo Hyuk turned toward the shield, seeing the chimeras that were screaming on the other side of the shield.

‘Well, I didn’t need to use Fire Storm.’

Soo Hyuk was about to wipe out the whole area with the spell. But then he heard from K-Cross that it wasn’t necessary.

-Mutated Orc Skin

-Mutated Wolf Skin

After some time passed, a notification window appeared, which was soon followed with more windows. It seemed that the chimeras were dying.

-Mutated orc skin [7]

-Mutated wolf skin [11]

After the seven orc skin messages and the eleven wolf skin messages finished popping up, another notification appeared.

[Level Up!]

‘Only once?’

Looking at the message Soo Hyuk narrowed his eyes. At first, when he killed just a few of those monsters he had gone up to 99%, but even after killing so many of them his level just caught up the other 1%.

‘But I’ve caught quite a few of them..’

Maybe the problem lay in the number of chimeras killed by Soo Hyuk. He had collected eleven wolf skins, so he was sure there were at least eleven of them killed. After a moment, Soo Hyuk opened his character window to check his experience, after he confirmed it, he couldn’t help but laugh.

‘50%?’

Yes, it was 50%, let alone getting close to 100% at this rate it would take forever to gain more experience.

‘Were they just low-level creatures?’ From his calculation, his experience had at least risen by 7% when he had killed a chimera whose health was 1.8 million. So, no matter how it seemed, the chimeras that he just killed must have had health lower than 1.8 million.

“K-Cross, what was their health anyways?”

Soo Hyuk closed his window asking K-Cross about their health.

“The strongest had a health of 1.5 million.”

Listening to K-Cross’s answer, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but let out a sigh.

“Shall we get rid of it?”

Kamian asked as soon as he approached them.

“Yes, please do.”

“Garan!”

At Soo Hyuk’s response, Kamian called Garan to remove his spell and the protective barrier that blocked the entrance soon disappeared.

“I’ll be right back. So, you all should wait here.”

Seeing the protective barrier vanish, Soo Hyuk said.

“Well, the Poison Storm is still activated, will you be alright?”

Kamian couldn’t help but ask in concern. Though the protective barrier may disappear, the Poison Storm inside remained.

“Yes, I’ll be fine.”

Soo Hyuk was sure because of his title ‘Master of Poison’. He was positive his title wouldn’t let him get poisoned, and the spell caster was himself, not others, so he wouldn’t be harmed.

“So, I’ll be right back.”

Moving out of the defensive range, Soo Hyuk was met with the Poison Storm. Inside the storm’s range, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but move along the wall of the narrow pathway.

Soon after, Soo Hyuk came out of the Poison Storm. Removing his hands from the wall, he used as a support, Soo Hyuk looked around to check his surroundings.

He was being cautious because he didn’t know if a chimera would appear. Because as soon as the recovery magic circle was destroyed, the chimeras were summoned at an explosive rate. So, he was alert as that attack might not be the last.

However, contrary to Soo Hyuk’s worries, the circle didn’t summon any more chimeras and he soon reached the summoning circle.

‘I guess this is the end.’

Looking at the summoning circle beneath him, Soo Hyuk thought the attack was summoned only because the recovery magic was destroyed.

After a moment, he opened his mouth to cast a spell.

“Fire Storm.”

A whirlwind of fire appeared and soon the summoning magic circle was destroyed.

Then after some time, a message popped in front of him.

[Chimera Summoning magic circle has been destroyed.]

[The Wolf-Orc chimeras that were summoned from Chimera Summoning circle were summoned from Chimera Summoner A] [1]