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Chapter 172 - Automatic Defense (Thank you for your support, Iron Knight!)
🕑 Added 2024-11-12 10:36:41 +0000 UTCI didn’t know what their abilities were, but they were similar to vampires… so they would be hard to deal with. In essence, the Forsaken are failed experiments of the vampires. They can’t reproduce that often using normal means, so they turn others they found interesting into lesser vampires to serve them.
Still, pretty often, the experiments don’t work and then some vampires end up with deformities. I shouldn’t think about that… it was clear that those guys came to this area with no good intentions, and they didn’t have to worry about anyone.
‘They must have warlock classes… Some of them summoned other undead creatures as mounts. I guess this is why Glacien is angry at them.’
In any case, I had to decide what I had to do… making myself an enemy out of those guys was no small thing. The best option would be to trail them and see their abilities, but they were all heading in different directions. That would be too difficult. I had to make them stay in a single place, or at least make them give up on their goals.
Truth be told, I didn’t want to fight them… I felt like our positions were similar, after all. In the end, I made up my mind… while those guys were moving away, I enchanted some arrows and slowly approached their ships. I could see one of them in each ship, but that wouldn’t be enough to stop me.
Before long, even while they were hundreds of meters away from me, I fired explosive arrows at the sails and masts of the ships. Explosions echoed in the area and then the flames began to spread as well, despite the cold environment.
Parts of a ship are often coated with whitewash or lime to create a fire-resistant barrier, but that was only so resistant against magic. Thanks to the explosion, the parts hit easily broke apart and then fell off.
The attacks got the guys on the watch duty off guard, so they didn’t have the chance to look in my direction… when they did, I had already vanished. I attacked four of their five ships… all in order to give them the chance to escape once they realize that they had been found. It was better than killing them all when I wasn’t their enemy yet.
Before long, those guys returned and then took a defensive formation around the ships while some of them tried to extinguish the flames. Still, it was useless…
I watched them for a couple of hours and couldn’t help but click my tongue. It looked like they weren’t planning to leave. They had a single ship to escape. They should know that I was being lenient to them, but it looked like they didn’t accept my generosity.
‘What now? Should I just kill or try to talk with them?’
The second option was pretty much insane given that I made them lose some valuable resources. It wasn’t like it was impossible to repair the ships, but it was unlikely that they would have the skills to do so.
While I was thinking about that, those cloaked guys summoned a bunch of undead wolves and soon those creatures began to sniff around and look for me. Even if they had died, it looked like they still could do that much.
‘I guess I will give them another chance… after this, even if I can sympathize with them, I can no longer be merciful.’
My thoughts were confirmed when I saw what had happened a few moments later. A hawk looking bird was flying over the area when one of those cloaked individuals noticed it. The guy raised his hand, and a tentacle emerged from it. The tentacle then flew to the hawk and grabbed it in the blink of an eye.
The creature was still squeaking while it was being pulled by the weird tentacle and toward the interior of the guy’s cloak. After that, it didn’t make any noise.
‘Perhaps I shouldn’t take my chances with them…’
After not so long, the hawk-looking bird returned… a lot different from before. It got a lot bigger and now it looked like the previous undead bird that I had seen before. The pieces of the puzzle were slowly finding their places. Those guys had come here to get some more undead minions… I couldn’t say if they could do the same with the people of the Skarnash Tribelands, but I didn’t want to satisfy my curiosity and let them try that.
I moved away from the area and then looked for a vantage point as well, I climbed the closest mountain to the labyrinth and then got ready to snipe the enemies. I couldn’t help but sigh while aiming… I was too naive. Perhaps I would have to get close to death against them to be more merciless.
Using my technique of tossing arrows in the air and then fired them as they felt, I targeted the monsters… the arrows were enchanted with the flames, and also were silver arrows, so they should be twice as effective against the monsters, I soon confirmed that when my targets exploded… the undead bird or the undead wolves were killed instantly.
You received 250 experience points
You received 200 experience points
You received 250 experience points
You received 200 experience points
I blinked several times… that was a lot more than random dungeon mobs ever gave me. Was it because they were summoned creatures and enhanced by dark magic? Maybe my aptitude as a Demon Hunter was working here as well.
Hunter’s Resolve: Gain extra experience by dedicating yourself to tracking, studying, and defeating demonic entities. This can involve researching demon weaknesses, crafting demon-slaying tools, or honing your senses for better detection of such threats.
If that was true… perhaps I had the chance to use Demon’s Snare as well. The second effect of mana drain of it could only work against those types of enemies. Regardless, I could worry about that later since those guys finally had their eyes on me.
The cloaked figures summoned their undead birds and then grabbed their ankles to fly as the birds began to soar in the sky and toward me as well. I let out another sigh. It looked like they wouldn’t make things easier for me.
Before long, those guys raised their arms and then fired some purple spheres from their lands, I jumped to the side and avoided them… the spot I had been in exploded into several parts and a dark miasma began to rise from the land as well.
“Stop right there! I don’t want to fight you all! I left one boat intact for that reason!”
The cloaked figures didn’t say anything in response and instead of a sigh, I clicked my tongue. It was time to take off the kid’s gloves. When the enemies began to fire those weird spheres at me again, I used Roll and then got up firing several silver arrows at one of them. The guy didn’t have time to react, but a tentacle left its robe and then blocked the arrows.
The tentacle began to shake as if it was in pain since the arrows were made of silver… it was something like an automatic defense, it seems. This would make things a bit harder.
The enemies began to move around, but I kept running until I fired an arrow in front of me and a curtain of snow was raised. When it dissipated, I was nowhere to be seen, at least from their perspective.
Those guys looked around for me in confusion, but soon they noticed the signs of footsteps in the snow… when I realized that, I turned around and then used Power Shot, Shadow Mark and Precision Mark on an enemy. The tentacle came again to defend the target, but the arrow pierced through thanks to the wind enchantment and the skills in it. The head of the target exploded…
You received 1500 experience points.
I felt bad for a moment, but soon several tentacles came from under the cloak of the enemies to grab me… there was no use pitying them. I can’t say that I suffered as much as them, but I didn’t have a very easy life either. Still, even if I had, it wouldn’t be enough reason to make me go full psycho, even in a world like this.
The tentacles hit nothing but the snow since I used Shadow Step and then targeted another enemy with another combination of skills. When my target noticed that, they summoned a purple shield in the air. I fired the arrow, but when it hit it, it turned into dust…
‘The heck?’
I never heard of a spell like that… turning a projectile into nothing. Fighting them in the open wasn’t a good idea. They had dozens of them on their side, so I decided to dash to the labyrinth. It was a dangerous gambit, but it was better than letting them surround me.
I took the Shadow Step amulet and then charged toward the labyrinth. I could see the surprise in their behavior since I used the skill a bunch of times. They took some time to follow me. I reached the entrance of the labyrinth and frowned a bit… it looked like the place had been cleared once, but…
The entrance of the labyrinth had a massive gateway carved directly into a glacial wall. The icy exterior glowed with an otherworldly blue light. The temperature fell as I approached, each breath creating a visible puff of mist.
The entrance itself took the form of an enormous archway, its edges adorned with icicles as sharp as daggers. Above the entrance, a grand phoenix frozen mid-flight was carved into the ice, its wings spread wide, and its head turned downward, exuding both majesty and menace. Frigid air flows steadily from the depths of the opening, carrying a faint, unearthly hum.
Two massive, frost-covered statues flank the entrance, depicting armored guardians holding spears of ice. Their expressions are focused, as though daring intruders to proceed. Snow swirls constantly around the area, yet the ground leading to the entrance was unnaturally clear, revealing frostbitten stones beneath, a subtle warning of the treacherous path ahead.
‘This should be at least a draconic level labyrinth… this will be a lot harder unless I deal with those guys, but they will make my work hard. Well, not as hard as they could do it outside.’
Comments
Joshua
This chap makes 0 sense. Like he's acting like he's letting them off and being kind but he's attacked them unprovoked. What does he expect they are going to do? Complains about making enemies but then does this. Honestly don't mind it if he just accepted his own actions.
j3t
take out the kid’s -> take off
j3t
was so resistant -> was only resistant
j3t
I was enchanted -> I enchanted
