Debuff Master

Chapter 137

Siegfried went to the storeroom and took all the potions with him before leaving.

“Just in case…”

The Dimensional Rift was a high-ranking dungeon that was extremely difficult to solo-clear, so he had to thoroughly prepare for the worst-case scenario and take with him every bottle of potion he could find.

HP…

Mana…

Stamina…

It didn’t matter whether they were Low, Intermediate, High, or even the Highest Grade potion. He took them with him before making his way toward the Dimensional Rift.

There were fifty Renoma Kingdom magicians standing in front of the Dimensional Rift with their hands on a Mana Amplification Device. They started turning the Dimensional Rift into a dungeon.

Turning a Dimensional Rift into a dungeon was a process that would ensure that no more monster waves were going to emerge from it for a while. The dungeon’s opening would only occur once every hundred days.

What would happen once a Dimensional Rift became a dungeon?

A group of skilled Adventurers would have to enter the dungeon and kill the boss monster to ‘clear’ it, which would reset the monster wave timer back to zero. However, this was something that had to be done unceasingly until a method to fully ‘close’ a Dimensional Rift was discovered.

In short, with the current technological and magical level of the Nürburg Continent, it was still impossible for anyone to close Dimensional Rifts.

However, the main problem at hand was the fact that it would take at least two weeks before the Dimensional Rift could be turned into a dungeon.

In addition, the magicians working on turning the Dimensional Rift into a dungeon could be slaughtered if a monster wave emerged out of it. Therefore, Siegfried had no choice but to enter the Dimensional Rift and prevent any monster waves until the magicians were done turning it into a dungeon.

“Halt!” a knight tasked with protecting the magicians blocked Siegfried’s path and explained, “Please turn back. A Dimensional Rift is currently being turned into a dungeon here. Only authorized personnel is allowed beyond this point.”

“My name is Siegfried van Proa.”

“…!”

“I believe you have received orders from above.”

“Y-Yes…!”

Siegfried showed his identification card, and the knight almost reacted by pulling his sword out.

Why?

It was all because Siegfried was the monarch of the enemy kingdom that abducted King Fitzgerald, and there was no way that a knight was going to simply let someone who painted their throne room red and even abducted their king go without a fight.

“Don’t you dare pull that sword out. I’m sure you won’t be able to rest in peace if you were to die after simply pulling your sword out.”

“…”

“Please continue what you were doing,” Siegfried said before walking past the knight.

‘Who could have known that the day where I would have to solo play a Dimensional Rift would come…’?he grumbled inwardly.

Just as he stepped right in front of the Dimensional Rift’s entrance…

Gwuooooooh!

The energy around the Dimensional Rift started ferociously spinning like a vortex, and it started emitting a bright red light as well.

“…!”

Everyone’s eyes widened.

The energy spinning out of control and the entrance glowing bright red could only mean one thing. The Dimensional Rift was preparing to unleash another monster wave.

The worst-case scenario was happening right in front of Siegfried.

***

They knew it could happen, but the Renoma Kingdom magicians and knights were still shaken at the sight. After all, a monster wave was about to emerge at the Dimensional Right standing just right in front of them.

“Aaah…!”

“We’re screwed!”

“We’re all going to die…!”

The magicians despaired and lamented their impending doom.

Their ability to run away became moot the moment they started turning the Dimensional Rift into a dungeon, and they would be nothing but sitting ducks for the monsters of the monster wave.

Why?

Their mana hall was connected to the Mana Amplification Device, and it would take them at least thirty minutes before they could disconnect themselves from it.

What if they forcefully unplugged their mana hall from the Mana Amplification Device?

Their mana would run wild and explode, which would obviously lead to their deaths.

Tragically, one of the magicians could not withstand the fear of the incoming monster wave, so he forcefully disconnected himself from the Mana Amplification Device.

“Kwuaaaaaak!”

Blood immediately gushed out of his seven orifices, and he soon dropped dead.

However, they were all going to die anyway, so his death didn’t really matter in the eyes of the Renoma Kingdom magicians and knights here.

“Knights…!” muttered the knight who blocked Siegfried’s path earlier before shouting, “Retreat!”

It was a decision the knights had to make. They had no way of helping the magicians here, and staying here was suicide, so it was better for them to retreat while they could still run.

“I wish you luck,” the knight said before they hurriedly left the scene.

The knights left, and the magicians had already accepted their cruel fate.

However, one person didn’t give up.

“Hey, old man! Are you the one in charge here?” Siegfried asked the oldest-looking magician.

The old magician’s name was Decimato de Mickelson. He was a viscount and the Head Magician of the Renoma Kingdom.

“That is correct; I am the Head Magician of the Renoma Kingdom,” Decimato replied.

“Is it possible for you to narrow the entrance of the Dimensional Rift?” Siegfried asked.

“You mean to narrow the gate?”

“I know it’s impossible to stop the monster wave, but is it possible for you to narrow the gate? We can prevent the monsters from flooding out all at once if we do that.”

“…!”

“Is it possible or not?” Siegfried asked.

“What if it’s impossible?” Decimato asked in response.

“Then I’m going to escape by myself,” Siegfried replied without a hint of hesitation.

“What if it’s possible?”

“I will stay and fight.”

“W-What absurdity is that?!”

“It’s worth a try, right? We should fight until the bitter end and exhaust all of our options. I can fight all day long as long as you’re willing to fight as well.”

“…!”

“Time is not on our side, so hurry up and answer me. Is it possible or not?”

“It’s possible, but it’s impossible right now.”

“Why?”

“As you might be aware, It is impossible to stop a Dimensional Rift from churning out a monster wave, but it is possible to narrow its gate…”

”There are cases where a monster wave occurred while they were converting a Dimensional Rift into a dungeon, and they bought time by narrowing the gate. However, we need a powerful artifact to do that.”

“A powerful artifact? How powerful does it have to be?”

“It has to be strong enough to withstand the Mana Amplification Device and our amplified mana, and it should have excellent mana conductivity—”

“Will this work?” Siegfried extended the Magic Sword of Vengeance: Avenger over to Decimato.

“Ack!?T-That’s…! That’s a magic sword gifted by a demon lord!”

As expected, Viscount Decimato instantly recognized the magic sword. It seemed that he truly was the Head Magician of the Renoma Kingdom.

“However, that sword alone wouldn’t be enough. It already contains so many souls that it wouldn’t be able to withstand our amplified mana—”

“Then, what if we add this?” Siegfried retrieved a lengthy stick.

[Rod of God]

[A rod created to imitate the rod used by the Lord of Chaos, one of the main gods of the continent’s mythology.]

[Type: Rod]

[Rating: Mythic]

[Durability: Unlimited]

He couldn’t really find any use for the artifact after obtaining it, but it seemed that the artifact had finally found its purpose. Although its purpose had to be a bit different from what Legendary Blacksmith Herbert envisioned.

***

‘Is today the day?’?Siegfried wondered if it was time to use his trump card.

After all, the second monster wave was imminent.

[Abilities: Scourge of God]

[Allows the user to launch the Rod of God into the air and drop it at the desired location. The range is eight thousand kilometers with a ten-meter margin of error. The Rod of God will wreak absolute havoc within a fifty-kilometer radius from ground zero.]

[The Rod of God weapon will automatically return to the user once used. (Cooldown: One Year)]

Using the Scourge of God was the only method Siegfried could think of to stop the second monster wave. It was the only method he had to guarantee a clean sweep.

‘I wanted to give this rod’s first time to the Genesis Guild as a gift. What a shame…’?

Siegfried clicked his tongue in disappointment.

He originally planned to use Scourge of God and sweep the Genesis Guild off the face of the continent at least once if they ever got into a fight.

What he meant by sweeping them off the face of the continent was killing all of the Genesis Guild members and preventing them from logging into the game for forty-nine hours.

Now that he thought about it, Siegfried suddenly found it a waste to use such a precious skill on a mere monster wave.

One year. The skill’s cooldown was an entire year, and it made him hesitant to use this skill, even though it would guarantee massive destruction on the target location.

In the end, he came up with another solution…

‘I can just narrow the gate and beat down whatever jumps out of it one by one, right? It will be impossible to win if they overwhelm me with numbers, but it should be possible if I reduce their numbers…’

’Yeah, I can fight without getting exhausted, so it should be possible. The only issue is if they can really narrow the gate. Let’s ask,’?he figured that it wouldn’t cost him money to ask, so he decided to ask Decimato.

***

“What in the world is that rod? I can’t tell what it is, but I can feel an extremely powerful force in it! Even my shallow knowledge can tell that it is the embodiment of strength itself!” Decimato exclaimed in awe.

“Is it possible?” Siegfried asked.

“Hmm?!”

“Stop the useless talk and just answer my question, will you? Is it possible or not?”

“It should be possible, but we should use both artifacts just in case…”

“Sure.”

Siegfried walked over to the Mana Amplification Device and placed the rod and magic sword on its pedestal.

“What should I do next?” he asked.

“Connect those cables to the artifacts,” Decimato replied.

Whiiiiiiii!

All of a sudden, the Dimensional Rift’s energy started spinning faster and faster.

Crack… Crackle…!

Then, the space around it started to warp as the gate gradually came to view.

“We don’t have much time! You need to hurry up! Hurry!” Decimato shouted urgently.

“Don’t rush me!” Siegfried retorted as he tried to connect the cables to the rod and magic sword.

Bzzt…! Bzzzt!

The Mana Amplification Device suddenly unleashed a huge amount of mana.

“Listen! Pour out your mana and focus on narrowing the gate! This is the only way we can make it out of this alive! Squeeze every single ounce of strength you have!” Decimato shouted.

The magicians gathered all of their mana and poured it onto the Dimensional Rift.

Ding!

A message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

[Alert: Quest: ‘Endure to the Bitter End!’ has appeared!]

[Endure to the Bitter End!]

[Stop the monster wave coming out from the Dimensional Rift!]

[Progress: 0% (0/1,000)]

[Rewards: Useful recruits, Loot dropped by the boss monster.]

Thankfully, the second monster wave wasn’t as big as the first one, but Siegfried did not even have the liberty to read the quest in detail. He had no time to read it, so he immediately accepted it.

[Alert: You have accepted the Quest: ‘Endure to the Bitter End!’]

The monsters could come out at any moment, so there was no way Siegfried would spend time reading the quest details. The magicians tried their best to narrow the gate, but they were a step too late.

The monsters were already pouring out.

In addition, the first thing the monsters targeted as soon as they emerged from the gate was none other than the Mana Amplification Device.

“No…!” Siegfried shouted and ran like the wind to stop them.