Chapter 72 – The Road Leading Up To Fate (3)
The dungeon core was a hunting ground where lots of skeletons came out, so even if you were with a full party, you had to fight non-stop.
There had been many cases of parties making a mistake regarding the route taken, grabbing the attention of a massive crowd of undead monsters, and ending up dying.
However, Hyun was focusing on fighting against only a single skeleton at a time.
Hyun’s movements were more complex than what TarrTarr thought.
Not only that, but there were some things Hyun still hadn’t told him.
[You’ve knocked down the same kind of monsters using a similar patron.]
[You won’t get any more combo from a skeleton soldier for the next 5 minutes.]
He received a system message when he defeated the 5th skeleton warrior.
There were more restrictions to making a combo work than what TarrTarr had initially thought.
For example, TarrTarr didn’t know that there was a restriction to the number of combos you could obtain by fighting the same kind of monsters.
‘Okay, next.’
Hyun had already planned out the entire thing, so he started moving without doubting for a moment.
Swipe- Clang!
[251 combo! You’ve dealt 21 damage!]
The novice dagger he threw hit the ‘skeleton warrior.’
After grabbing the weapon from the floor, he began hitting it with his fists.
[280 combo! You’ve dealt 3 damage!]
[281 combo! You’ve dealt 2 damage!]
[New Record! You’ve broken the previous combo record!]
While doing that, he broke TarrTarr’s previous record.
TarrTarr was so overwhelmed by what he saw that he just watched while trying to hold his breath.
Before, it was against the ‘skeleton soldier,’ and now the target was the ‘skeleton warrior.’
There didn’t seem to be an end to Hyun’s combos.
[300 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Skilled Soldier’!]
[400 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Veteran Weapon’s Specialist’!]
One of the skills of a Thief, «Combo», had the characteristic that it increased the speed of your attacks as the number of combos increased.
That meant that, while hunting, the speed of the attacks increased, the number of combos also increased, and at the same time, that made the speed go up even more.
That’s how Hyun looked at that moment.
[500 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Mercenary Master’!]
[You won’t get any more combo from skeleton warriors for the next 5 minutes.]
‘Okay, next!’
Hyun’s sight was rapidly placed on the next target.
That time, it was the skeleton sentry’s turn!
770 combo, 771 combo, 772 combo.
TarrTarr felt more scared than chills while the number of combos increased.
‘How long is this going to go on for?’
He felt an alien feeling.
For a moment, he had forgotten that he was recording a video and had become a spectator.
[1000 combo! Critical Hit! You’ve dealt 792 damage!]
[You won’t get any more combo from skeleton sentries for the next 5 minutes.]
[You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Frenzy of Consecutive Attacks’!]
[Your Agility has increased by 1!]
‘It’s the first time I’ve seen a thousand combo in real life!’
TarrTarr had seen many videos of famous Thief rankers, but he had never seen someone reach a thousand combo so easily.
There were videos of some users that had surpassed the 1000 combo mark.
But the gameplay of those people, rather than clean, looked desperate.
On the other hand, Hyun’s gameplay made him think that maybe he would be able to copy it one day.
‘Although I’m sure I won’t be able to do it if I try it…’
And there was another thing that TarrTarr noticed.
From the moment the number of combos surpassed a thousand, it became even harder to maintain it.
[The speed is too fast!]
[Only attacks faster than 0.8 seconds will count towards the combo!]
That was when Hyun began properly moving.
While running, he threw the weapons in his hands.
Clang-!
[1001 combo! You’ve dealt 53 damage!]
The dagger, after hitting the skeleton mage, bounced into the air.
Hyun then proceeded to reduce the distance between them.
He grabbed the dagger that was in the air and slashed it three times with both hands.
[Critical Hit! You’ve dealt 803 damage!]
[You’ve dealt 573 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You’ve dealt 803 damage!]
From the moment the skeleton mage became dust, the real battle began.
The dungeon’s core was the place where monsters respawned faster.
As he jumped right into the middle, he caught the undead monsters’ attention, and they began charging toward him.
“Ugh…!”
TarrTarr was overwhelmed by the hellish sight.
There was an army of hundreds of undead monsters in front of him.
That was probably how the only human to survive a fight against monsters felt.
“Oof…”
After taking a deep breath, Hyun began moving.
He slashed again and again and then cut the incoming army of skeletons.
While fighting an army of undead, you didn’t need fancy techniques.
Enemies that weren’t afraid of receiving attacks were the perfect target for accumulating combos.
‘I just need to be careful about being surrounded.’
Whoosh-
Suddenly, there was a blue aura coming out of TarrTarr’s feet.
Hyun had used the Support’s skill, «Powerless Wave».’
Thanks to its effect, the defense of enemy monsters became 0.
Even if there were some elite monsters mixed among the crowd, thanks to that skill, they were no different from normal monsters.
[1157 combo! You’ve dealt 703 damage!]
[1158 combo! You’ve dealt 1053 damage!]
As the speed went up, the number of combos increased exponentially.
[1300 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘High-Speed Run’!]
[1500 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Reaper’s Blade’!]
[Your Agility has increased by 1!]
Notifications of new achievements kept appearing.
To Hyun, the decimal point appeared rounded up.
[Your Agility has increased by 2!]
“Woah…”
A muffled sound came out of Tartar’s mouth.
He couldn’t keep track of what was happening.
How many times per second did he change direction?
Swipe- As the sight changed instantly, he felt he was about to get motion sickness.
It was hard to keep an eye on the screen. The only thing that he could clearly see was the current number of combos.
The number of combos was increasing ridiculously fast.
TarrTarr began wondering about something.
‘How can he increase the number of combos so fast?’
‘Ah… That’s it!’
He finally understood after a while.
—The snowball effect of combos!
A snowball that rolls on a slope grow in size more rapidly as time goes on.
—Increasing the number of combos was no different from that.
Now that the number of combos had surpassed a thousand, the speed had reached a point wherem with TarrTarr’s current abilities, he wouldn’t be able to control it.
Translator – Daniel Shin
Proofreader – ilafy
* * *
But if he could do it, the speed would just keep increasing.
[2000 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Subconscious Multiple Attacks’!]
[It’s getting harder to be aware of the speed…!]
[Only attacks faster than 0.7 seconds will count towards the combo!]
The army of the undead was defeated and scattered away, but they were constantly respawning.
That was the scary thing about the core.
If you couldn’t defeat the monsters faster than the speed at which they were being respawned, you would end up surrounded by them and ultimately die.
Whoosh-
As a spooky sound echoed through the entire place, hundreds of small skeletons rose from the ground.
‘Skeleton Dwarves.’
After discovering the identity of the new enemies, Hyun smiled bitterly.
Although they were cute on the outside, they were one of the most brutal opponents that appeared in that dungeon.
Not only were they faster than the other undead, but they were also fearless and came in a group of tens.
—They were like the piranha of the undead dungeon!
Hyun smiled after seeing the group of hundreds of undead coming at him.
‘This is fun.’
Fwoosh-
When the number of combos surpassed two thousand, a brilliant light appeared and covered both TarrTarr’s hands.
—It was the Thief’s passive ultimate attack, «Trance».
That skill that increased the damage depending on the number of combos had started to emit a luxurious effect.
How much was the damage now that the number of combos had surpassed two thousand, and on top of that, «Powerless Wave» was active?
‘Good, I can kill everyone with one hit!’
The swords shone in both of TarrTarr’s hands.
As a silver wind blew, tens of skeleton dwarvess fell, and many system messages appeared.
[You’ve dealt 1338 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You’ve dealt 1912 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You’ve dealt 1848 damage!]
[Critical Hit! You’ve dealt 1859 damage!]
[You’ve dealt 1295 damage!]
One hit, one kill!
The scene resembled one of an action movie in which the speed of reproduction was increased by two.
There was one reason why hunting in the dungeon’s core was so hard.
—It didn’t matter how many monsters you’d killed, they kept appearing one after the other.
And once the party’s formation was broken and their mana plummeted down, the party would naturally die.
But right then, TarrTarr was fighting alone against the undead army and was in an advantageous position.
In other words, he was as effective as a full party.
Thuck- Thuck-
While fighting against the monsters in front of him, an arrow came flying.
Even in the midst of a frantic fight, Hyun saw the new enemies that had appeared in the distance.
‘Long-range mobs?’
Hyun quickly changed the movements.
He began moving shorter, faster, and irregularly.
He moved in zigzag and leaped forward and backward. He never stayed still.
And then he jumped to where the skeleton archers were standing.
The dual swords shone.
As he cut and stabbed, the skeleton archer disappeared.
Two cuts were enough!
Normally, level 65 skeleton archers wouldn’t die so easily, but thanks to the combo’s effect, his damage output had been multiplied to more than ten, so a critical hit was enough to kill them.
As the two swords cut through gracefully as if they were dancing, the skeleton archers began dying in masses.
[3000 combo! You’ve obtained the achievement ‘Road of the Swordsman’!]
[Your Agility has increased by 1!]
[You can’t control the speed anymore…!]
[Only attacks faster than 0.6 seconds will count towards the combo!]
‘Finally, the three thousand combo…’
Hyun stopped fighting after receiving that message.
After seeing skeleton mages approach him, he quickly took a decision.
‘I’m going to get out of here.’
He quickly changed the direction and started running away.
While doing that, he maintained the combo.
TarrTarr’s movements got slower.
—The speed had been reset after breaking the combo.
But that only happened after they reached an area with no monsters.
“Uhmm…”
TarrTarr made strange noises with his mouth wide-opened.
Hyun smiled and began explaining.
He thought that TarrTarr was wondering why he had suddenly stopped fighting.
“With your current specs, it’s harder to go beyond the three thousand combo safely. It would’ve been different if you’d learned passives related to attack speed or moving speed. Without those, it’s hard to maintain 0.6 seconds.”
But TarrTarr wasn’t hearing Hyun’s explanation.
After ordering his thoughts, he finally asked him.
“Can… I really upload this video?”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t we come here to record a video to upload?”
“Y-yes! That’s true, but…”
TarrTarr got immersed in thoughts.
He remembered what had happened after he uploaded the footage of the hidden named boss monster. The members of the guild he used to belong to had criticized him for doing that.
“If I upload this video… Won’t everyone learn about your know-how? And just for a little bit of money…”
“You were worried about that?”
After «Disassimilating», Hyun appeared in front of TarrTarr and made an unpleasant smile.
