Debuff Master

Chapter 315

Supreme Thief was the scout of the second party, and he was out of breath.

“Let’s seek refuge in a building before talking,” Siegfried suggested.

“Yes, let’s do that,” the party leader agreed.

The party went inside a building and listened to the scout’s report.

“How was it? Did you find anything?”

“T-That’s…” Supreme Thief stuttered before he said, “I ran into someone from the third party, but…”

“But…?”

“They said that all parties have been decimated except for the first and third party, but both of the remaining parties have suffered quite significant damage.”

“What? All of them? From the fourth to the twelfth?”

“Yes.” Supreme Thief nodded and said, “The third party entered first, followed by the fourth until the twelfth in random orders, and then our party entered.”

The information provided by Supreme Thief was exactly what Siegfried had deduced.

“But do you know what’s really fucked up?”

“What is it?” Siegfried asked this time.

Supreme Thief’s face turned bright red in anger before he replied, “We won’t die if we get caught by those bastards. Do you know what happens to us if we get bitten by those ghouls? Ha! Damn it…! Is this even possible? Beehive is insane! What kind of fucked up game is this?!”

“Ah, we know about that.”

“Huh? You already met the Adventurers turned into ghouls?”

“Three of our party members turned into ghouls while you were out scouting.”

“Oh?”

“Forget about that. Do you have any news on the other parties? Anything on the first or third party will help us…”

“I have. I heard from that person that the first and third parties decided to merge,” Supreme Thief replied with a shrug.

“And then?”

“They reached and entered the castle where the boss room was presumed to be, but we have no idea what happened that as that person ran away from the battle in front of the castle.”

“So they’re already at the castle… That means they could be fighting against the boss right now…”

It was then.

“K-Keuk…!”

Supreme Thief grabbed his neck and started squirming in agony as his skin started to decay.

“Grreuk…! D-Did I get bitten without knowing…? Damn it…! Gruuuk…!”

Siegfried inspected the convulsing Adventurer and found a small tooth mark on his arm. The wound was tiny, but it seemed to have broken his skin, judging by how there was a speck of blood. It seemed that such a tiny wound was enough to turn him into a ghoul.

“Kreuk…! Gruuuk!”

Supreme Thief’s body rapidly decayed as he started turning into a ghoul.

“Haa…” Siegfried let out a sigh before clenching his +15 Gaia’s Fist.

Pukeok!

He smashed Supreme Thief’s head.

It was the right decision for him to act swiftly and send him off before he could fully turn into a ghoul, but the problem was after that.

“Hey, bastard… You should’ve dropped something useful if you’re going to drop something. What the fuck is this piece of trash? Che!” Siegfried grumbled while picking up the item on the ground.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The entire second party felt scared of Siegfried after witnessing his cruelty.

Siegfried definitely did the right thing just now, as it was the best way to keep the party safe. And it was the right choice for the Adventurer as well, as he could simply respawn after forty-nine hours instead of wandering around aimlessly as an undead for thirty days or until another raid party cleared the Raid Dungeon.

Nevertheless, they could not help but feel that Siegfried was a highly dangerous and evil person. The sight of him killing a fellow party member without a hint of hesitation and picking up the dropped item was—it was probably better to omit this part…

“W-Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face? Hmm? No, there’s nothing?” Siegfried said after seeing the entire party staring at him with fear-stricken eyes.

‘Sigh… This owner punk can’t hide his true colors…’ Hamchi thought while shaking his head.

“Anyway, let’s go since we know what’s going on now. They’re probably raiding the boss right now as we speak since they successfully managed to enter the castle,” Siegfried said.

“Y-Yes! You’re right!” the party leader immediately agreed to Siegfried’s idea.

***

The journey toward the castle located at the edge of the map was not an easy one. Siegfried and the party continuously relied on Meerkat~! and Inzaghi’s Compass to avoid any potential threats, and this greatly slowed their progress.

They traveled for three full hours to finally reach their destination.

~

[City of the Dead: Castle Outskirts]

~

A message popped up in front of the eyes of Siegfried and the party members, informing them that they had entered a different field zone, and it seemed that they were now a step closer to the boss room.

“We need to be all the more careful now that we’re here,” Siegfried said before he suddenly felt a strong, overwhelming pressure.

‘What was that?’

It felt as if he was stuck underwater, and the pressure was pushing him from all directions. Siegfried quickly found out that it was because of his lack of Dimensional Energy Resistance.

~

[Alert: You lack ‘Dimensional Energy Resistance’!]

[Alert: Your character is slowly getting pressured by the dimension!]

[Alert: All stats have fallen by 7%!]

~

Siegfried’s resistance was only at 407 points, but the City of the Dead: Castle Outskirts required at least 450 points to enter.

“What’s wrong?” asked the party leader.

“Ah, I’m a bit short of resistance…” Siegfried replied.

“The boss room might be worse, thought? I think you got debuffed five to six percent already, but you might have to get ready to get at least twenty percent of your stats debuffed there.”

“So that is why they wanted those with 500 resistance points for the first party…”

“Exactly.”

“Tsk…”

Siegfried was annoyed by the fact that his stats were getting debuffed just because he did not have enough resistance. Getting his stats debuffed right now was a massive loss, as he had no idea whether they could clear this Raid Dungeon or not.

“It is a relief that you have more than 350 resistance points. It means the debuff will not shred more than twenty percent of your stats. You can lose control over your character if the stats shred goes beyond twenty percent.”

“Wow…” Siegfried was taken aback. Still, he did not forget to diligently use Inzaghi’s Compass to check for any lurking dangers while chatting with the party leader.

“Huh?”

Something strange happened…

Whiiiiiing!

Inzaghi’s Compass suddenly rotated in a circle.

The compass wasn’t broken. This meant that they were in extreme danger.

“It’s dangerous here. We need to—”

Siegfried’s words were interrupted by someone who suddenly appeared behind the party leader like a ghost.

‘Ack!’

They moved so fast that even Siegfried didn’t have the time to react to it.

Kwachik!

The creature bit the party leader’s neck.

“Aack!” the party leader screamed after getting bit.

The creature that bit the party leader was a Dimensional Adventurer Ghoul with the assassin class, the Grim Walker. It was a ghoul that could use the assassin class skills of the Adventurer it once was, and it specialized in sneaking behind its prey before attacking them.

“Grrr!”

The Dimensional Adventurer Ghoul bit down hard on the party leader’s neck.

C-Chwaaak!

It bit off a huge chunk of the party leader’s flesh and muscles, and the blood from his exposed artery shot out blood like a fountain.

Shwaaaaa!

Siegfried was drenched in the party leader’s blood.

“Damn it!” Siegfried growled. He clenched his +15 Gaia’s Fist while getting showered by blood and charged at the Grim Walker.

However, the Grim Walker’s Movement Speed was extremely high, and it disappeared without a trace like a ghost once again.

“Gwuaaak! Gwuaaaak!”

“Grrr…!”

“Kyaaaak!”

All sorts of Dimensional Adventure Ghouls appeared after hearing the sound of the battle, and dozens of them charged for Siegfried and the party.

They were surrounded by enemies.

Siegfried and the others were suddenly in extreme peril.

***

A fierce battle unfolded after the party leader met his demise.

“Damn it!” Siegfried roared. He took out everything he had in his arsenal to push back the ghouls. Unfortunately, there were too many Dimensional Adventurer Ghouls for him to kill them all at once, and he was slowly getting cornered by them.

“Ack!

“Kyaaaah!”

The worst-case scenario unfolded as the last two remaining party members were devoured alive by the ghouls.

“Kyuuuu! Don’t touch my owner punk! Hamchi will not forgive you! Kyu!”

Hamchi grew larger in size and ferociously swung his paws to keep the ghouls away from Siegfried, but even Hamchi’s help didn’t seem like it would resolve the predicament.

‘Splitting Heaven and Earth? No, they’re just going to avoid it. What about Irradiate? Ah… What good is it going to do against the undead? Using my ultimate offensive skill is also a no-go…’

Touch of Death was definitely a powerful skill that could kill an enemy in a single hit, but it was practically useless against a crowd of enemies.

‘Ah, here goes nothing!’

In the end, Siegfried decided to use one of his most powerful trump cards.

Torrential! Flower! Rain!

Shwaaaaa!

Rainbow-colored petals gently floated in the air before they formed a ferocious tornado that mercilessly swept across the battlefield.

Siegfried’s mana dropped to zero, but it was fine. His mana was useless if he were to die to these ghouls anyway.

Vrooom! Vroooom!

The petals flew back to his hand and combined into two rainbow-colored disks.

Drip…!

Chiiing!

The tornado didn’t leave anything behind aside from the corpses of the Dimensional Adventurer Ghouls and the items that they dropped.

“Phew…! I almost got fucked! Let’s hurry up, Hamchi!”

Siegfried used Flying Sword to gather the dropped items. He shoved them into his Inventory before turning to look at Hamchi, but…

“O-Owner punk…! Kyuu…! Owner punk…!”

Hamchi was crying for some reason.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“H-Hamchi got bitten… Kyuuu!”

“What?! What did you say?!”

Siegfried hurriedly rushed over to Hamchi.

‘NO!’

He despaired after seeing the bite mark on Hamchi’s right arm. His fur and flesh had been ripped off from his arm, and blood was gushing out from the bite mark.

“O-Owner punk… Hamchi feels strange… I feel sick… Kyu…!”

“Hey! Hamchi! Get a grip! Try to push it out with your mana!” Siegfried shouted with Hamchi in his arms.

“Owner punk… Is Hamchi turning into… a… ghoul… Kyuu…?”

“Hamchi! Hey! Why would you turn into a ghoul?! Hang in there!”

“Grr…! O… Owner punk… Hamchi… inside… Grrrkk…!”

Hamchi white fur slowly turned dark into gray and then to black. Even a child could deduce that Hamchi was slowly turning into a ghoul.

“No! Don’t! Fight it, Hamchi! Please, fight it!” Siegfried cried out and felt like he was going to go crazy as he witnessed his trusty companion turning into a ghoul.

Hamchi was not an Adventurer but an NPC. In other words, he would have to say farewell to Hamchi forever if Hamchi turned into a ghoul.

“Owner punk… Hamchi… happy to… meet you… Kyu… Kill me, owner… punk… I want to go back… to the spirit realm… Hamchi does not want… to attack… you…” Hamchi said as tears started welling up in his eyes.

“Shut up! Hey, Hamchi! You’re a Great Spirit, right?! Fight it! Why the fuck will you turn into a ghoul?! Get a grip, please! Why do I have to kill you… Please… Fight it, Hamchi…” Siegfried bawled as he held Hamchi tightly in his arms.

“Kyu! Grr…! Kyurrkkk! Grrrrk!”

However, his pleas fell on deaf ears as Hamchi continued turning into a ghoul.

“Ah…” Siegfried muttered with despair in his eyes.

Ding!

As expected, a message popped up in front of his lifeless eyes.