Chapter 24 - Skill Combination (2)

Clatter- Clatter-

A creepy-looking doll was walking fast while limping.

The agility of the doll, which was 15 at base, had gone up to 85 once Hyun assimilated into it.

Normally, the amount of damage each job dealt was based on its main stat.

Just by using «Assimilation», the average damage had gone up nearly six times.

"Hehe, I've been saving up skill points for this day."

Hyun had no intention of being satisfied with just that.

He had saved up so many skill points to create the best possible synergy between his skills and the ultimate attack.

As a result of checking out the Support's skill list, Hyun discovered one that combined well with his ultimate attack.

Without thinking about it twice, he spent 20 skill points on it.

[«Powerless Wave» Lv.2]

- Surround yourself with a wave two meters in length. Reduce the defense of all opponents touched by it by [Empathy] x 2.

- Lasts for 10 minutes.

Hyun had 130 Empathy.

He could reduce an opponent’s defenses by 260.

Unless it was a level 200 or 300 boss, there were no enemies with so much defense. That meant that it made the defense of most enemies 0.

'It works very well with «Assimilation».'

Usually, a Support had to take a considerable risk to get within two meters of the enemies because of the low HP it had.

But by using it in combination with «Assimilation», you could debuff all enemies around yourself just by standing still.

'I guess this much preparation is okay.'

Hyun purposely looked for areas that had monsters with high defense.

The habitat of giant rock crabs.

The monsters that appeared there had a very high defense, so even a level 50 warrior couldn't leave a scratch on their surface, which was as hard as steel.

Not only that, but since it also had a very high defense against magical attacks, there were almost no parties that hunted there.

From time to time, there were Magicians or Priests that went there for solo playing. But even those kinds of players could rarely be seen.

'There's no one.'

After looking around, he immediately charged toward the monsters.

«Powerless Wave»!

Paf-

The moment he activated the newly learned skill, he began to swing a sword as small as a toy, but the results it produced were no joke.

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 2182 damage!]

It was an amazing amount of damage, considering that it had come from a normal attack!

Whir-!

It began to spread slowly from the body of the Acrobat in all directions.

It was the effect of «Powerless Wave», a skill Hyun had used after using «Assimilation».

The defense of all enemies touched by the wave was at 0, so their strong armor had no purpose.

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 2284 damage!]

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 2556 damage!]

Also, the more he attacked, the more damage he dealt!

That was thanks to the Acrobat's passive skill.

Hyun had chosen the Acrobat among all the other dolls because it had the best possible synergy with his «Assimilation» skill.

'Isn't this amount of damage better than what an average party can do? Still, it isn't as high compared to the Close Range Magician's attack.'

Hyun charged toward a group of stone crabs once more.

Smash- Smash-

As he swung the two-handed sword, he began cutting the shells of the monsters as if they were tofu.

The sensation he received from his weapon was that he was cutting water.

On the face of the Acrobat, a creepy smile appeared.

It was Hyun's smile leaking out.

"Yes, it's this sensation!"

Every time he slashed the enemies, defeated them, and obtained EXP, he felt the sorrow of everything he had gone through as a Support was being washed away.

It had been a while since he felt the excitement of being a damage dealer!

Of course, he had gotten used to the playstyle of a Support, but he missed his previous playstyle.

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 4702 damage!]

Sometimes, a giant stone crab shouted and turned into light dust after just one hit.

It was a side effect of receiving more than 33% of damage.

Thanks to the passive of the Red Acrobat’s «Open Wound», the damage he dealt had increased by 130%.

Hyun kept moving forward while his hands moved constantly.

Every time the sword shone, the opponent's shell and claws were split and scattered through the air.

'I can go a little bit deeper.'

After hunting for a while, Hyun moved to the next area.

Judging by the darker color, those monsters probably had a higher level.

Even though they looked very similar, their specs were better.

The biggest difference was that they had more defense, but that wasn't really a problem for Hyun.

Whoosh-

The moment the two-meter aura touched the opponents, their defense was decreased by two times Hyun's [Empathy] stat.

The only strong point of those monsters was their high defense.

But the moment the Support's skill touched them, their defense went to 0 instantly.

There wasn't much difference between fighting them and the slimes around starter town.

[Level up!]

It had been half an hour since he began hunting.

A light came out from the body of the Red Acrobat.

'Oof... Good.'

Endlessly hunting opponents that were strong on the outside but slow could be fun at first. But as time went on, it started to get boring.

The level-up news, which came once in a while, was what motivated Hyun to keep doing that repetitive and boring hunting.

'Should I hunt the field boss?'

Hyun entered a little bit deeper.

After walking for a few minutes, he saw a 3-meter tall stone crab inside of the canyon.

—King Lashir.

It was a level 70 named monster.

Usually, he wouldn't have dared to hunt it alone, but because he had rented that doll's body, he felt that he would be able to beat it.

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 190 damage!]

Hyun became surprised after slashing its shell.

'I was able to damage it?'

The boss had used a skill that increased its defense three times and, at the same time, reduced the incoming damage by 1/10 of the total.

If the boss curled up, most users under level 100 weren't able to deal any damage to it.

—But Hyun had clearly dealt a three-digit damage number to it.

'Don't tell me...'

The reason why he was able to deal damage, despite his attack being reduced to 1/10 of the total, was because Hyun's «Powerless Wave» was having an effect.

'It was able to cut the boss's defense down to zero?'

The skill didn't have a detailed explanation, so he wasn't 100% sure, but it seemed like the debuff even worked on boss monsters.

In Asra and Asrian, there were almost no skills that modified the monster's defense.

It was the same for users and NPCs.

Some skills increased or decreased the defense by a certain %, but skills that modified the defense by an absolute value were quite rare.

But he already had two skills that modified the opponent's defense.

«One Second Immortality», «Powerless Wave».

That reminded him of the fact that Support was a hidden job class.

'This is no joke!'

Whish- Whish-

The Acrobat's short sword cut through the weak flesh of the rock-type boss.

While crying out loud, it used numerous special moves, but because he had successfully neutralized its defense, it was all pointless.

Boom- It took only a few minutes for king Lashir to fall.

[Level up!]

The boss that had died dropped only one item.

He didn't see any new achievement message, which meant he wasn't the first to defeat it.

He decided not to hold onto it since it didn't give stats points as an achievement.

As he left the area, the doll disappeared since its time had run out. And naturally, the «Assimilation» was canceled.

"Hmm... So in three hours, I've leveled up two times."

Hyun seemed satisfied with the results.

Since the rock-type monsters had a lot of defense, they gave a lot of experience.

If he stayed in that place for an entire day, he would probably be able to level up 10 times at a minimum.

'But the cost of renting a doll is too high.'

The problem was that renting a high-quality doll like the Red Acrobat cost 50 gold for every three hours.

It wasn't like he didn't make money back, but if he kept spending 50 gold, it would eventually become a fortune.

'Well, I guess it's okay to use it only when Ain isn't here.'

He was sure that «Assimilation» would work the best while using Ain's body.

Hyun looked at the time that appeared on the bottom of the system.

Soon, Ain would log in.

"Is it here?"

"Yeah. It looks like we're in the right place."

They were at the entrance of enormous old ruins.

A giant ice golem was solemnly standing in front of it.

It was a level 150 mid-sized monster.

It wasn't an opponent that level 50 users could fight against and win.

Even if Hyun were self-confident in his skills, he wouldn't dare fight against it recklessly.

If that were their former selves, they wouldn't be able to do it.

But they had completed their respective awakening skills and obtained an ultimate attack.

"All right, let's break it."

After saying that, Hyun activated his ultimate attack. He instantly became light dust and scattered away.

Hyun and Ain.

Incredibly, they had become one person.

Her outer appearance looked the same as usual, but inside her, there was Hyun.

When Hyun extended and raised his hands, Ain's hands went up.

「This still amazes me.」

Two people controlling a character was a setup that had been previously seen in other games, but Asrian was a cutting-edge virtual reality game.

「I know, right?」

Ain was excited at the thought that she could share senses with Hyun.

It was the perfect chance to see Hyun's movements from a first-person perspective.

From some point onward, she couldn't keep up with Hyun.

Ain always said that she was better in PvP, but the main advantage she had was that she was better than him in psychological warfare. She was in no way overwhelmingly stronger than him.

But in many vs one, many vs. many, named monsters, dungeons, etc... In all areas except dueling, he was better than her.

The reason why she began to have an interest in him was that he was better than her in almost everything.

Maybe she could finally learn the secrets to catch up to him with this skill.

While Ain had a lot of expectations, Hyun was dealing with a weird sensation.

Sharing the body of someone of the opposite gender was weird.

In the first place, the body structure was different.

Hyun wanted to put his hands on his chest but stopped.

At that moment, Ain saw Hyun's hands and laughed slyly.

"Fufu... What was that? Did you want to touch my body so much?"

Hyun felt flustered by what Ain had just said.

From time to time, Ain used to say embarrassing words.

While pretending to be okay, Hyun replied to Ain.

「Don't push yourself too hard.」

"W-what...?"

「You always make jokes like this but become shy soon after telling it and then stay quiet.」

"Th-that's not true."

「What...?」

Hyun suddenly felt his, no Ain's arm going up by itself.

At that moment, he felt something in the palm of his hands.

There was a sudden pause.

But since there wasn't a mirror, he couldn't see Ain's expression.

Hyun asked something he had been wondering about.

Maybe he was imagining things.

He couldn't help but ask a question just in case.

Maybe he was imagining things…

「Ain, do you like me?」

"W... What are you talking about?!"

「It's... Just that I wanted to hear your thoughts.」

"Oh, hmm..."

Fwoosh- Instead of answering, her whole body got wrapped by a fire, and the flames covered her face.

Hyun's breathing became faster, and he could feel his heartbeat speed up.

No, since he was in Ain's body, was that the state of her body?

Since he was using «Assimilation», they were having a hard time distinguishing each other's bodies.

'Damn it... This is all because she suddenly did something weird...!'

Hyun tried to calm down.

He tried to focus on the main goal. He tried to concentrate on the opponent that was in front of them.

Fwoosh-

—A technique that covers the whole body with fire.

Yes, that was the Awakening Skill she had obtained.

[«Prepared for Extinction» Lv.0]

- You take the appearance of a wolf.

- Your HP gets drained little by little while you're maintaining the form of a wolf.

- While you're converted into a wolf, you can't recover HP with an ally's skill!

- All fire-type attacks deal three times more damage!

- All the levels of fire-type skills are increased by 1 level!

- If it isn't forced to cancel, it can last for an hour at maximum.

Fwoosh- Fwoosh-

Ears made of fire appeared on top of the head.

When he looked around, he saw a tail.

Because Ain was so small, she looked like a fox rather than a wolf. But she seemed satisfied with the result.

They took a step forward.

Ain didn't seem to have the intention to move. So she gave control of it to Hyun.

Crack- As soon as he thought about the skill, giant, hot claws came out.

[«Efret's Claw» Lv.5 (+2)]

- The flame condenses and evolves into a giant set of claws.

- Apply [Magical Power]x7 as damage.

- Spend 15 mana per second.

A level 7 skill!

Thanks to the skill level going up because of the ultimate attack, Ain's fire claws had evolved.

Now that she had a set of giant claws, she began looking like a real wolf.

It was the same skill that the shadows on the fifth floor had used against them.

Hyun wondered how much damage they would be able to deal.

'I guess I'll find the answer once I hit it.'

He jumped over the golem and used the claws to scratch its surface.

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 15485 damage!]

[You've dealt 8805 damage!]

'...?'

Hyun started to think that he was imagining things.

The reason was the unbelievably high amount of damage.

'Is the damage bugged?'

The damage couldn't be compared to the damage they did in the awakening quests, in which they received a lot of bonus stats.

Rather than being based on boosted event stats, it used the normal stats to calculate the damage.

Hyun had never imagined seeing damage so high that even a level 250 user couldn't easily do.

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