Chapter 101 - Guerrillas (1)
It was large and bizarre looking... The trees looked like ghosts with its arms wide open, and it looked as if they were letting out a scream. The dense forest itself was giving off an ominous vibe.
There were thick blue fog that was layered in between the tree. It was foreboding instead of being creepy.
It wasn't desirable to battle in such a bleak forest. Moreover, the monsters made this place much more undesirable. It was a monster with a lower body of a lion, upper body of an orc, and the head of a goat.
Moreover, the monster was holding a very rusty halberd. The combination of spear and battle-ax would immediately make the weak turn their head away.
However, these factors didn't have affect the group that was facing off against this monster.
Hoo-oohng!
It was a Cursed monster. The monster was named Voodoo Chimera, and its attack was fierce. A powerful power was being emitted by its bizarre body, and it used this power to swing its Halberd. The Halberd didn't just slice through the air. It ripped through the air.
Kwahng, kwahng!
Every time the terrifying attacks came down against the shield, the sound of the impact made the bluish fog retreat in fright. That was how frightening the blows were.
Koo-uh! Koo-uh!
Moreover, the Voodoo Chimera let out a most peculiar shout as it delivered each strike. It sounded as if the Curse had manifested in its shout. If one went by the sounds of the battle, the Voodoo Chimera sounded as if it was overwhelming its opponent.
However, the eyes showed a slightly different result.
“It's overflowing with strength.”
He was wearing a black armor that could be called a little bit too sturdy. He stood in front of the Voodoo Chimera's attack with a large black shield, and the Tanker wasn't being pushed back an inch. He was calmly blocking the reckless attacks with his shield.
This wasn't the only thing he was doing.
As he was blocking the attack, he was moving. He was slowly baiting the Voodoo Chimera into a position he wanted. His skill was amazing. The sight reminded one of an expert dancer teaching a student the steps to a dance.
He was quite good.
The only thing better was the Magician's skills.
“Hang on a little bit longer.”
While the Tanker was occupying the monster, the Magician finished his Casting, and he threw a fireball.
The fireball was the size of a person's body, and it floated in the air like a balloon. The Magician lightly moved his hand around, and the fire balloon followed the movement of his hand. The fire balloon arrived on top of the Voodoo Chimera's head, and it twitched as if it was getting ready to burst.
At the same time, the Magician invoked a new magic with his other hand. Unlike the magic from before, it was quite intuitive as to how he would use this magic.
Fire Spear!
It was 5 meters long, and the design was like any other normal spear. It was simple.
The Magician threw the Flame Spear as if he was throwing a javelin. It wasn't hard to hit the target. The experienced Tanker's skill gave the Magician the perfect opportunity to hit it on the back. It was like throwing at a dart board. The only thing the Magician had to worry about was how many times he wanted to hit the monster. That was it.
Shoong!
The Fire Spear headed rapidly towards the Vodoo Chimera's spine.
Right before the Fire Spear could land, the Magician clenched the fist that had been controlling the Fire Balloon. He timed it perfectly.
The twitching fireball finally revealed its true nature.
Poo-hwaht!
An enormous Fire Snake unfurled from the fireball. The Fire Snake appeared with its mouth wide open, and it descended with the intent of biting off the Chimera's head.
Duhp-suhk!
The Fire Snake bit the Voodoo Chimera's head.
Poo-hwaht!
The Fire Spear immediately impacted the Voodoo Chimera's back. The Magician didn't end it there. He immediately used both hands to summon as many Fire Arrows as possible, and he launched it all at the same time.
He was skilled enough to manage three magic spells in a single attack. It wasn't an easy thing to do. If one wanted to be a great Magician, it was a level of skill one would need to possess.
When most monsters were hit with magic, they prioritized their attacks on the Magician. The aggro was pulled towards the Magician. This couldn't be helped. If it was inevitable, the Magician had to let out as many Magic on the monster as possible!
The Voodoo Chimera suffered from the magical attack, yet it was still alive. It immediately charged towards the Magician as it burned like a torch.
“Oh-ooh!”
The Magician had a strange smile as he saw the monster charge towards him. There was no fear on his face.
When there was a distance of about 10 meters between the Magician and the Voodoo Chimera, the Striker stepped forward. The Striker had been on standby as she waited for the monster to close the distance.
Poo-oohk!
The hidden striker was a female User. As befitting a female User, she was wearing a stylish yet casual armor. There was a good mix of silver and black colored armors. She didn’t have her helm on. It seemed she had taken off the helm on purpose to boast her long red-tinged hair.
In Warlord, Users like her were categorized as Users, who only cared about their outside appearance. The head was the most important part of the body, yet they refused to protect it. These were idiots, who were drunk on their own self worth.
However, this female User was too skilled to be put in the same category as those idiots. The Voodoo Chimera was charging at a speed comparable to a speeding car on the highway. She had ambushed it, yet she was accurate with her strike. This wasn't an easy feat. This was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was like striking down an arrow in flight.
Moreover, the female User was using the Rush skill to move at high speeds. It was common sense that a speeding car was harder to steer.
When she combined the Rush with here Lightning Strike, the Striker's sword was easily able to pierce through the thick hide of the Voodoo Chimera. Moreover, she was able to create a large wound around the region where she had stabbed. It looked like a wound made by a drill.
Koo-uh-uh!
The Voodoo Chimera let out a horrible shriek as it was sent flying.
The Magician shook his head from side to side as he observed the car crash that had occurred in front of him.
If his comrade was lacking in ability or she made a mistake, the Magician would be the one on the floor instead of the Voodoo Chimera.
Despite all of that, he was relaxed instead of being taken aback. He spoke towards the Striker.
“You aren't wearing your helm again, Lily?”
“Whatever.”
“You'll die someday from having your head crushed. I’ll have to get a footage of you getting your head crushed in the future.”
“You want to die?”
“Hey. The Voodoo Chimera is getting up.”
It was a level 140 monster, yet these Users were relaxed with the Voodoo Chimera in front of them.
It was the Noopy Family.
Their average level was 155. Their levels weren’t enough to break into the top 100 Ranking, but they were semi-Rankers. They maintained the difference of 10 levels between the top 100 Rankers. They were a 4 man veteran party, who were active since the start of Warlord.
The Noopy family focused on regular hunts instead of Raids. Their ability to conduct a Raid was lacking, but on the other hand, they were comparable to the members of the 30 great guilds in their ability to take down the mid-sized monsters. In fact, they were reputed to be better than the 30 guilds. This was how exceptional these players were. If the 30 great guilds increased their proficiency in clearing raids, the Noopy family increased their proficiency in taking down the normal monsters.
At that moment, the Priest spoke.
“An Evil Eye is heading towards us. Hurry up and wrap this up.”
The expression of the members immediately changed when they heard those words. The Tanker once again engaged the Voodoo Chimera, and the Magician started casting his magic. The Striker moved towards a suitable location.
While all of this was going on, short conversations was shared between the group.
“Evil Eyes. We can't stack points, because of those bastards. Whenever we start getting on a roll, those bastards shows up....”
“When will we get the Quest that will allow us to catch those bastards? We've already spent one week here.”
“I've heard from someone else that someone has to reach a predetermined amount of points to acquire the Quest.”
“Really? What's our current Point Ranking?”
“Fourth.”
“Then it won't be possible for us to do it.”
“We can't do it.”
When they were sharing this conversation, all four users immediately thought of one User.
“There's the Hahoe Mask.”
“Let's just pray the Hahoe Mask reaches the required Points. He's already far ahead in 1st place.”
“Let's aim for the 2nd place instead of the 1st. I'm pretty sure the Reward is determined by the Point Rankings.”
After saying those words, they once again focused on their battle.
When the Cursed Domain opened, several rumors started to spread.
The source of today's rumor was an NPC.
“You did well today. If I combine the result of your hunt, it is worth 150 points.”
The User made a sour expression at Sarabo's words.
“I caught a big one, yet it is worth only 175 points?”
“It isn't a big catch. It just looks like a big catch.”
It was the Red Beard Sarabo.
As the name indicated, he was a man with a big red beard. He was 190 cm tall with a robust body, and he always had a sword equipped on each hip. The NPC was skilled enough to easily take down the normal Users.
Moreover, amongst the numerous NPCs in Warlord, he wasn't top 10 in recognizability, but he was within the top 20.
Sarabo appeared soon after the Block Field was released, and he made a temporary town. From the temporary town, he took on the role of handing out Quests to the Users.
Basically, he was an Event NPC!
Of course, the Users were quick to catch on about this fact. The appearance of Sarabo meant the Cursed Domain was a stage for an Event! It was understandable why all these baseless rumors cropped up from his appearance.
The Quest content given by Sarabo was quite simple.
“This place is the Cursed Domain. The barrier had sealed this place up until now, but the power of the barrier was finally spent. Now this place is disclosed to the public. This was why the Subjugation Association is planning on purifying the Cursed Domain. Currently, the Domain has been taken over by the Voodoo Chimeras. Those bastards aren't particularly strong, but there are mutated version of the monster, who can use a special Skill named Evil Eye. The Subjugation Association has no idea how to deal with them. This might be obvious, but the person who kills the most Voodoo Chimera will get a reward befitting the number of kills.”
One didn't have to be smart to understand the content. If one enjoyed playing Warlord, it was a simple content that could be understood in an instant.
One had to avoid any engagement with the Evil Eyes, and it was basically a start to a competition to see, who could catch the most Voodoo Chimeras.
Moreover, the famous parties in Warlord had converged on this location. The users above level 140, who conducted regular party hunting instead of Raiding to raise their levels, appeared in droves. The Users from the Underfoot guilds, and the 30 great guilds came too. However, these Users weren't members of the front line group of these guilds. They had time to spare in their schedule. Also, Rankers with their names up in the Rankings showed up.
This was the war between stars.
Amongst the battle between stars, there was a main character, whose name shone the brightest.
Kwahng!
The Enormous Stone Axe cut the Voodoo Chimera's body in half. The axe was wielded by the Minotaur Golem.
Poo-oohk!
The Skeleton Knight mercilessly stabbed the fallen Voodoo Chimera with its sword. It was equipped with a really expensive Unique defensive gear, and it wielded the incredibly expensive Golden Mantis Scythe Sword.
Poohk, poohk!
Two Skeleton Warriors wearing various Rare and Unique Rank Items were also participating in the battle. They were surrounded by the Bone Armor, and a horn was grown on top of their helmeted head.
Poo-hwaht!
The User's appearance was very simple in design. He was equipped with a one-of-a-kind Chronicle Unique Item named Ivan's Sword. He swung the sword to dice up the Voodoo Chimera's body.
It was the Hahoe Mask.
He was the Cursed Domain's brightest star.
[Your Level has increased.]
[The Skeleton Science Rank has increased to Rank A.]
[Golem Summon skill has increased to Rank A.]
[Skeleton Knight Skill has increased to Rank D.]
[You've acquired the Title 'Butcher of Voodoo Chimeras']
‘This was like eating honey. Honey!’
He leveled up, acquired a Title and his Skills got a Rank Up!
The three consecutive Announcements would make any Warlord dance in joy. Hyrkan had a big smile on his face.
‘This place is awesome.’
It had been 10 days since he started hunting at the Cursed Domain. Hyrkan was at an advantage at the Cursed Domain compared to any other hunting grounds.
The most important skill needed in the hunt within the Cursed Domain was mobility. One had to kill as many Voodoo Chimeras, while avoiding the mutated Voodoo Chimeras called the Evil Eyes! Mobility was crucial to accomplishing this task.
One of Hyrkan's best attribute was mobility. If needed, he could unsummon all his forces.
On the other hand, this wasn’t true for a normal party. The Strikers were mobile. However, the Magicians, Tankers and Priests were poor in terms of mobility. Their Strength Stat was too low. The party had to react to problems before it cropped up.
Hyrkan could move even if a problem cropped up. This difference was huge.
However, problems was something that might or might not occur.
It also helped that the Voodoo Chimera was a perfect monster for Hyrkan. The Voodoo Chimeras were strong, but their defense was on the weak side. If one had a User that can tank decently, they were surprisingly easy to kill.
Lastly, they gave a significant amount of EXP. They were level 140 monsters, but the EXP given by the Voodoo Chimeras were close to those of level 150 monsters. Hyrkan's level was still in the 120s, so this was an enormous amount of EXP.
‘This is why they probably cleared this in secret.’
On the other hand, he could understand why the Cursed Domain had been cleared in Secret.
It was a Points Competition Quest. If less people knew about it, wouldn't there be less competitors? Moreover, this Points Competition held at the Cursed Domain wasn't advantageous to the Users, who were good at Raids. It was advantageous for Users, who like to do regular Party hunting.
‘I should be getting close.’
The end to the hunt for points was coming to end soon. Sarabo would probably tell him how he'll be able the hunt the Evil Eyes. Then the Reward will be handed out.
‘What will come out?’
Of course, the biggest reward would be given to the User ranked 1st in the Point Ranking. It would be given to Hyrkan!
‘I want something like a Skill Book. Skill Book!’
Then the day finally arrived.
“I've arrived at the Cursed Domain.”
- Already?
A soft green light flowed over the User's armor. He stopped for a brief moment to answer the reply he heard in his ears. He looked at the sight that was in front of him.
It was a very ominous forest.
The User opened his mouth after he looked at the forest for a brief moment.
“I'll investigate about the Quest first. That is my main mission. If the situation allows it, I'll eliminate the Hahoe Mask.”
The incoming reply was short.
- All right. Keep up the good work.
“Thanks.”
After the brief conversation, the User wearing the green colored armor disappeared into the blue fog.