Chapter 4 - Support's Breakthrough (2)

He had arrived at Kantas Castle, which was in a territory near the 'Magic Country Levia.'

The weakest monster around there was at level 60. It also wasn't among the towns where users started the game, so he was the only player in that place.

The ghost monsters that appeared there were immune to physical attacks—that's why the place wasn't suited for newbies.

Despite all of that, Hyun was smiling while looking at the ghosts.

"Hmm... It feels nice."

The target Hyun had in mind was a level 80 monster called 'Ghost Archer.'

The fortress in front of him was full of them.

"Ghost Archers, huh? They're probably one of the worst possible enemies for newbies."

Those monsters, on their own, were quite stupid. But they shared consciousness, just like the alien race from a certain old classic game.

The worst among those monsters was the elite one that had the skill 'Lead.'

«All-Out Attack».

Since the ghost monsters shared consciousness, under the guidance of an elite monster, they could perform tasks such as attacking simultaneously.

Even players over level 100 had a difficult time deflecting hundreds of arrows at the same time, so they frequently died without being able to heal.

That's why that place, 'The Ghost Fortress,' was called the cemetery of healers.

Hyun was planning to use the «All-Out Attack» in his favor.

"First, I should test my strategy. Just in case."

While walking towards The Ghost Fortress, Hyun found the first Ghost Archer.

He grabbed its attention by throwing a rock to where it was standing. The Ghost Archer immediately reacted by launching an arrow at him.

Swish - The arrow flew towards him, and Hyun activated his skill just in time.

«One Second Immortality»!'

That skill increased his defensive points by 50; that amount was enough to resist up to 500 damage up-front.

That meant that, during the beginning, he was practically immortal.

The Ghost Archer’s bounced away without being able to inflict any damage on him.

'Just as I thought. I don't take any damage.'

Swoop- The second arrow flew towards him.

The Ghost Archer took more than 10 seconds before attacking again. So just like the first time, it didn't inflict any damage on him.

Thuck- Ting -!

Thuck- Ting -!

"Hehehe..."

Just like a masochist, he laughed while being hit with arrows.

“Haha…” Every time he got shot with an arrow, he laughed.

After spending 10 minutes like that, he walked towards Kantas Castle.

Boooo-

The ghosts followed him while making noises, but Hyun just let them be until they reached the castle's walls.

"What is that?"

On top of the walls of Kantas Castle…

A soldier of the Magic Country frowned after seeing a random person and a ghost approach the walls.

"Captain, there's a ghost approaching the wall."

"You don't need to inform me of such trivial things. Just eliminate it!"

"Yes, sir!"

Flash-!

The light of sacred magic covered the area, and at the same time, another light covered Hyun's body.

[Level Up!]

Hyun smiled.

He could level up without doing anything, thanks to Asrian Online's experience-sharing system.

If two people that weren’t in a party killed a monster, how much exp you received depended on how much you collaborated.

—How much damage you'd dealt or how much you've taken from the monster.

Successful healing or crowd control was also counted when distributing experience points. This system was put in place for tankers who took the damage and healers.

Hyun had gained experience because he had received arrows for 10 minutes; that was also why he was smiling while being attacked with arrows.

"The experience I can obtain with one ghost should be around 200."

Hyun looked at his experience bar.

Even after gaining 2 levels, the bar was half-full.

The Ghost Archer gave 4000 experience. That meant he was gaining 5% of it for collaborating.

"It's not bad."

At that speed, he was gaining experience four times faster than a level 1 Warrior.

But he wasn't satisfied with just this.

He was planning to use as much of his knowledge and experience as possible.

Hyun was deep into the Ghost Fortress.

Ghosts were dumb. That's why infiltrating into their territory was relatively easy.

"Going through."

Hyun was walking right behind the ghosts while matching their walking speed.

Since most ghosts’ intellectual ability was at the level of a slime, they didn't notice Hyun.

"Finally, I've found him."

Hyun managed to slip away from the ghosts and discovered one dressed differently.

The 'Ghost Archer Commander.'

It was the only elite mob in the place. Despite that, during the process of developing consciousness, it suddenly stopped. That's why it was just a little bit smarter than a trash mob.

Booo- Boo-

The Ghost Archer Commander that was booing saw Hyun in the distance.

At that moment—!

The consciousness of all the ghosts synchronized with the Commander’s.

Tens of Ghost Archers turned around and looked at Hyun.

Boooo- Boo- Booooooooo-

The cries of the ghosts resonated together and echoed through the fortress.

The ghosts moved in unison and began aiming their arrows toward Hyun.

Even he was intimidated by the sight of a ghost army aiming their bows and arrows at him in unison.

"It creeps me out a little bit..."

He felt like needles were pricking his pores.

He was feeling something like a thirst for blood.

But Hyun wasn't the type of person who would let himself be intimidated by such things.

He mustn't be intimidated by stuff like that.

Hyun thought he should try to get used to how things felt in virtual reality.

Thuck-!

Tens of arrows flew at the same time in his direction.

The «All-Out Attack» skill of the Ghost Archer Commander had activated.

He felt like a prisoner about to be executed.

When countless arrows were about to hit him, Hyun activated one skill.

«One Second Immortality»!

Clang Clang Clang Clang-!

The sound of metal spread through the room.

It was a sound made by the countless arrows loosed in unison by the Ghost Archers.

Tens of arrows had tried to pierce him simultaneously in just one second.

All of the arrows had tried to pierce him in that short frame of time.

Oof- Hyun sighed.

The activation of the skill could be neither slow nor fast.

The situation was different from when he was defending himself from just one arrow. Arrows were flying from all directions. Some were far away, and others were close.

He had to be careful with the timing of the skill if he wanted to be protected from the first arrow to the last one that flew toward him.

Boooooooo-

The hand of the Ghost Archer Commander moved up and down—it was the signal ordering an «All-Out Attack».

Clang Clang Clang Clang-!

The number of arrows flying had increased.

That's because a few more ghosts were attracted to the place.

But it didn't matter.

The flight duration of the arrows shot by the Ghost Archers was less than one second.

If he didn't mess up the timing, he could even block tens of thousands of arrows.

The same scenario repeated all over again.

All Ghost Archers attacked at the same time.

Hyun used «One Second Immortality».

'I still need more.'

Hyun didn't remain in the same place.

While trying to lure Ghost Archers, he also attracted other ghosts.

Soon, he was being attacked with hundreds of arrows simultaneously.

An average player would have already lost.

Even the best tanker, the 'Guardian Knight,' would have trouble with so many arrows if they had no special skill.

It was ironic that a level 2 Support was able to survive a rain of arrows.

"This is actually an OP skill!"

He had to reevaluate the Support job since it could survive a massive arrow attack thanks to the «One Second Immortality» skill.

In certain situations, the Support's advantage could be better than what he initially thought.

Boo- Booooo-

New ghosts kept appearing constantly.

It was as if he was in the middle of a concert catered for ghosts.

The number of arrows coming at him increased accordingly.

Hyun had to defend himself from hundreds of arrows.

Woooooooooo-.

Suddenly, the sound of their cries changed.

The body of the 'Ghost Archer Commander' changed from black to red. Hyun already knew what that meant.

"Next phase, huh?"

The Ghost Archer Commander, who had gotten angrier, ordered a new attack.

«Multiple All-Out Attack».

This attack pattern began when the Ghost Archer Commander got angry.

The attacks from that point onwards would, as the name says, come in groups. Instead of one arrow, they'd shoot five arrows one after the other. And to worsen things, they'd do it all simultaneously!

He couldn't block the «Multiple All-Out Attack» with his «One Second Immortality» because it lasted for more than one second.

But Hyun already knew everything about the Ghost Archers, so he already had a defense strategy that would work against them.

«1 Second Immortality», «Shield»!'

As arrows flew toward him, he activated both skills simultaneously.

«Shield»

He summoned a shield around him that lasted for one second.

All monsters that had attacked the shield were stunned for 3 seconds.

It was easy to explain what the skill did, but using it correctly was another story.

Thuck Thuck Thuck-.

As a rain of arrows flew toward him, the Ghosts lost consciousness.

Thanks to Hyun being attacked, his «Shield» skill had activated. And thanks to it, the «Multiple All-Out Attack» had been canceled.

Watching stars go around on top of the heads of hundreds of ghosts wasn't something you could see every other day.

"Hehe, this is what I call a customized strategy."

The damage was canceled with «One Second Immortality>; The «Multiple All-Out Attack» was canceled with «Shield».

Everyone could do the same if they had those two skills, but coming up with such a strategy was something on another level.

But Hyun's strategy didn't end there.

[The cooldown time of «Shield» has been reset!]

Every time the «Shield» was hit with an attack, the cooldown went down by five seconds. If he had received 120 attacks, that would mean that the cooldown time would go down by about 600 seconds.

The moment the number of ghosts surpassed 120, he could use it without restrictions.

Woo- Wooooo-.

The ghosts had recovered consciousness, and they were preparing for their next wave of attacks.

They placed their arrows on their bows and—at the order of the 'Ghost Archer Commander'— launched their attacks.

Riinnngggg!

After making a refreshing sound, they all lost consciousness again.

You could see stars going around on top of everyone's head.

At the same time, the cooldown for «Shield» went to 0 again.

Hyun and the ghosts kept doing the same thing for a while.

If someone saw hundreds of arrows flying towards one point, and then every one of the attackers became red after being stunned, they would think they were watching a synchronized show.

"Should I end this?"

After a while, Hyun was starting to get tired.

He got the theory right, but if he kept repeating the same thing, sooner or later, he would probably end up making a mistake.

He had already gotten hit a lot, so the amount of experience he could obtain for contribution was probably the maximum amount he could get.

It was time to get the fruit of his hard work.

Hyun kept using «One Second Immortality» and «Shield» to guide the Ghosts that were in the fortress.

As he got closer to the walls of Kantas Castle, the guards started to panic.

"Hey, what's going on?"

"We have problems! An army of ghosts is approaching us!"

"Is this the ambush of an enemy?! Where are they?!"

The soldiers of the Magic Country were getting nervous and causing a ruckus, but as the ones who were in charge of the security of a castle that was in the middle of a dangerous area, they calmed down quickly.

They extended their wands towards the ghosts that were approaching them.

"Why are these guys bothering us again?! Prepare your best attacks! Everyone, get into position!"

At the orders of the Squad Leader, Chris, you could see lamps being turned on everywhere.

They weren’t really lamps. It was a light type spell called 'Erase.'

Next, you could see many spells being casted at the same time from the walls by the soldiers of the Magic Country.

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