Debuff Master

Chapter 138

The monsters that came out of the Dimensional Rift were unidentified humanoid aliens. They were creatures that certainly didn’t exist on the continent.

[Mirmic Race]

[A combat race from an alien planet that evolves by mimicking stronger races.]

Some of the Mirmic Warriors that flooded out of the Dimensional Rift immediately charged at the magicians who were working on narrowing the gate.

[Greater Mirmic Warrior]

[A high-rank warrior of the Mirmic Race.]

[They possess abilities equivalent to an Intermediate sword expert, and they exude an aura that amplifies the stats of nearby Lesser Mirmic Warriors.]

Viscount Decimato and the other magicians were now in danger of getting killed by the Greater Mirmic Warriors.

“Hey! Hamchi! The magicians can’t die at all costs!” Siegfried shouted urgently.

“Hamchi only has one body! Huff! Huff! Huff!”?Hamchi retorted.

Siegfried and Hamchi were moving as fast as they possibly could to defend the magicians, but their efforts were nowhere near enough as the number of Mirmic Warriors that had exited the gate was probably close to two hundred by now.

They couldn’t possibly protect all of the magicians along with the Mana Amplification Device.

“Protect the magicians! We need to protect them at all costs!”

The knight squadron that had run away a while ago returned and jumped into the fray, but even with them, there still wasn’t enough manpower to protect every magician.

The Mirmic Warriors were far too powerful for the knights of a small kingdom like the Renoma Kingdom.

“King… Siegfried…!” the knight captain reluctantly addressed Siegfried in a desperate voice. “D-Do you have a plan? We won’t be able to hold them back much longer! We will be annihilated at this rate…”

Woooong!

Siegfried replied by activating Circle of Mortality.

His debuff circle spread out around the battlefield, and the knights’ morale was greatly boosted.

“Oh!”

“The enemies are getting weaker!”

“Now’s our chance!”

The Renoma Kingdom knights started pushing back the Greater Mirmic Warriors. In addition to protecting the magicians, they were also launching a counteroffensive against the Mirmic Warriors.

However, Siegfried wasn’t done just yet. He followed up by casting Speed Restraint and greatly slowed down the enemy’s Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Casting Speed.

However, this Speed Restraint was different from the ones he usually cast.

The color of this Speed Restraint was different.

The Speed Restraint that Siegfried often cast had a bright sky-blue color, but this one had a pitch-black color that seemed to be signaling the advent of something sinister.

Sssssss…

Moreover, there were a bunch of silhouettes arising from the debuff field which looked like the shadows of the Greater Mirmic Warriors.

***

This new skill was the enhanced version of Speed Restraint that Siegfried gained after absorbing the essence of darkness from the Immortal King.

[Shadow Swamp]

[Speed Restraint enhanced with darkness attribute energy.]

[The skill’s effect, cooldown time, duration, and range are the same as the original Speed Restraint.]

[Enhanced Effect: Materializes the shadows of the enemies standing on the field. The shadows will possess 20% of the enemy’s stats, but they will continue to materialize even after dying. The Debuff Master may command the shadows as he sees fit.]

A new skill!

However, the Renoma Kingdom knights had no idea that the shadows were born from Siegfried’s skill, and they couldn’t help but panic.

“T-There are more enemies!”

“Are they evil spirits?!”

“W-What should we do now…?”

“We barely managed to turn the tides in our favor, so what’s with this now?!”

While the knights were panicking, the shadows looked toward Siegfried and knelt down on one knee to pay their respects.

They appeared as if they were a royal army waiting for Siegfried’s command. However, Siegfried did not have the luxury of playing king because he was busy smashing the heads of the Greater Mirmic Warriors.

“I don’t.”

Bam!

“Have time.”

Bam!

“For this.”

Bam!

“So you better.”

Bam!

“Start fighting!”

Bam!

The shadows immediately moved and attacked the Greater Mirmic Warriors.

‘Siegfried… Just who in the world are you…?’?

The knight captain couldn’t help but wonder about Siegfriend’s true identity.

Siegfried possessed the ability to paint the walls of a kingdom’s throne room with blood despite his young age, and he even showed cunningness by abducting King Fitzgerald and using him as a hostage to manipulate the Renoma Forces as he pleased.

He also possessed a stubborn grit that remained steadfast even in the worst of situations. Moreover, his amazing skills had never been seen or even heard of before on the continent.

“You are the enemy of my kingdom…” the knight captain muttered under his breath, but he soon realized that he did not have the time to think about anything else. “What are you doing?! Get a grip! Push back the enemies!”

The knights flinched when the knight captain screamed at them.

The battle to protect the magicians became somewhat easier thanks to the debuff fields that Siegfried placed, but the enemies were still pouring out of the gate with no end in sight.

“Uay! Uay!”

“Lokhtar! Ogar!”

“Lic ma!”

The gate had narrowed quite a bit, but it was still wide enough for the Mirmic Warriors.

‘I have to stop them at the exit. That’s the only way we can win!’?Siegfried thought.

He was about to rush toward the gate, but Hamchi interrupted him.

“Hey, owner punk! Hamchi will help you!”

“How?”

“Watch closely!”

Hamchie inhaled a huge amount of air.

“Haaaaaaaap!”

He started growing in size…

“KYUUUUUUUUU!”

…then he shot out a golden beam from his mouth at the Dimensional Rift.

It was one of Hamchi’s skills, Kyu-Beam!

***

Zaaaaaaap!

The golden beam decimated the Mirmics coming out of the gate.

‘Is he a dragon or what?’?Siegfried thought in disbelief at the sight of the golden beam that resembled a dragon’s breath.

However, he quickly woke up from his stupor. Siegfried knew that he couldn’t just stand around and watch.

‘Now’s my chance!’

Hamchi’s Kyu-Beam! was preventing the Mirmics from leaving the gate.

Tak!

Siegfried kicked off the ground and rushed toward the Dimensional Rift.

Hamchi’s Kyu-Beam! was about to end, but Siegfried was already standing in front of the gate. The gate had narrowed down to the size where only one or two Mirmics could pass at once.

In short, all Siegfried had to do was kill whatever Mirmic emerged from the gate as fast as he could in a one-on-one or one-on-two battle.

‘Bring it on!’?Siegfried stood in front of the gate.

“Sakh Talakar!” A Greater Mirmic Warrior came out from the gate and rushed toward him.

Wooong!

Siegfried activated Elemental Shower and reduced the Greater Mirmic Warrior’s elemental resistance.

Bzzt… Bzzt…!

He infused his hammer with lightning attribute energy and struck the Greater Mirmic Warrior.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

More accurately, he smashed the lightning energy-infused hammer into the Greater Mirmir Warrior’s head.

Thud!

The Greater Mirmic Warrior fell to the ground.

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 171!]

[Alert: You have completed 23.1% of the Quest: ‘Endure to the Bitter End!’ (231/1,000)]

Siegfried finally had time to read the system messages.

‘Only 231 of 1,000? That’s too little… that means there are still 769 of them left. I don’t have time for—no, that’s not it…’?Siegfried shook his head after the thought of retreat flashed across his mind.

[They exude an aura that amplifies the stats of nearby Lesser Mirmic Warriors.]

This specific ability of the Greater Mirmic Warrior bothered Siegfried. It meant that the Greater Mirmic Warriors were something like Knight Templars. As such, the Greater Mirmic Warriors possessed not only combat capability, but buffing abilities as well.

On top of that, the effect of the buff was excellent. It would be a massive problem if all this escalated into a full-scale war.

‘If the first wave were the foot soldiers, then… this wave should be the command center and the commanding officers. It will be disastrous if they manage to group up. I have to cut them off here.’

He couldn’t just let them group up with the first wave that served as the vanguard. Siegfried had to wipe out the second wave. He couldn’t let even one of them reach the vanguard.

Shwik!

All of a sudden, a different type of enemy appeared from the gate. Its front legs resemble scythes.

Shwik! Shwik!

Siegfried avoided the attacks before counterattacking with his own combo.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Siegfried’s hammer smashed the weird-looking Greater Mirmic Warrior’s head.

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

“Thank you, next,” Siegfried said after killing another Greater Mirmic Warrior.

The so-called battle had turned into something like a fan meeting event for some odd reason.

***

The knights successfully managed to kill all of the stragglers and protect the magicians while Siegfried was blocking off the Mirmics coming out from the gate.

There were a total of seventy-six magicians working on the Mana Amplification Device.

Unfortunately, seven of the magicians died, so there were only sixty-nine of them remaining. However, they still successfully narrowed the gate, which enabled them to control the situation.

“Haa… Haa…”?the knight captain finally caught his breath, but his gaze was fixated on Siegfried, who was currently making quick work of the Greater Mirmic Warriors coming out of the gate.

This unbelievable result was all thanks to Siegfried. He had initially swept through the battlefield with his unbelievable martial prowess, and then he had suddenly started summoning weird circles that completely shifted the battle in their favor.

What could have happened if Siegfried hadn’t been here? The magicians could have been massacred by the Mirmic Warriors, and the second monster wave could have wreaked havoc across the land.

The second monster wave could have joined up with the first monster wave and wreaked havoc on the Proatine Kingdom as well.

“C-Captain…?” one of the knights whispered to the knight captain.

“Yes, Carlisle?”

“What do you think of making a move on that guy after the battle ends?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“He’s the monarch of the enemy kingdom. He is also the culprit that not only shed blood in our throne room but abducted His Majesty the King. Yes, we did fight together as comrades for a short while, but he is our enemy in the end, right?”

“Hmm… I see…”

“Captain, I am not sure when this battle will end, but he will definitely be tired once this battle ends. Of course, he is an Adventurer, so we will not be able to kill him in the truest sense, but we will be able to stunt his growth by killing him…”

“At the same time, His Majesty would be able to recover his face,” said Carlisle.

However, the knight captain did not respond as he continued observing Siegfried.

“Next!” Siegfried shouted as if he was asking for the next customer in line…

***

The battle lasted for a long time, and Siegfried couldn’t even count the Greater Mirmic Warriors that had fallen by his hands anymore.

‘Ugh. This is getting boring…’?he inwardly grumbled while killing whatever came out from the gate. The nerve-wracking situation that had him on his toes had suddenly devolved into a tedious grind.

The magicians were safe and sound while the knights made quick work of the Mirmic Warriors outside of the gate thanks to Siegfried’s debuff fields.

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 172!]

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 173!]

[Alert: You have gained Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have reached Level 174!]

Well, the idea of doing almost nothing and getting Experience Points for free was pretty appealing to Siegfried, but he couldn’t help but feel bored and sleepy. However, Siegfried couldn’t really be blamed. After all, he had been doing this for three consecutive hours by now.

[Mirmic Elite Knight]

[A Mirmic of noble blood and elite genes.]

[It exudes an aura that greatly amplifies the stats of Lesser Mirmic Warriors within a five hundred meters radius.]

It was another Mirmic that seemed to be stronger than the Greater Mirmic Warriors, but there was nothing exciting about it. It was just a bit tougher than the average Greater Mirmic Warriors, but it wasn’t that strong enough to endanger Siegfried in any way.

The only thing that Siegfried felt from this was boredom and nothing else…

“Snore…?Snore… Snore…!”

In fact, Hamchi seemed to be having a good nap on the ground with his belly facing up.

‘That little rascal… How dare he go take a nap when his owner is working so hard…’?

Siegfried glared at Hamchi.

‘Anyway, it’s a relief that there are only a thousand of them… I would’ve mentally given up first if there were tens of thousands of them.’?

Siegfried shuddered at the thought of killing them tens of thousands of times in such a monotonous way. Well, if he had to fight tens of thousands of them, he probably would have just used Scourge of God.

Fortunately, this mundane task was about to end.

[Alert: You have completed 99.4% of the Quest: ‘Endure to the Bitter End!’ (994/1,000)]

He could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel—he only had to kill six more.

Bzzt…! Bzzt…!?

However, powerful sparks suddenly emerged from the Dimensional rift.

“…!”

Siegfried’s eyes shot wide open.

Shwiiiik!

The energy around the gate started to grow stronger.

Woooong!

A powerful burst of energy exploded from the gate.

Thud… Thud…?

A creature exuding a mighty aura stepped out from the gate. It was a creature that was leagues above the mob that Siegfried had been killing in the past few hours.