Debuff Master

“So something like that happened to you…?” Yong Seol-Hwa asked.

“Yeah. I was just a nobody back then,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

“I can’t believe it.”

“I don’t believe it either. But it turns out that life can change for the better, too.”

“Oppa…”

“I think the saying that having a little bit of skill and a ton of luck is true. Well, I guess it was more like all I had was luck in my case.”

“No, I don’t think so. I think your hidden potential was awakened, oppa.”

“Nah, that’s highly unlikely.”

“I’m serious. What’s the point of having an overpowered class if the player is hopeless?”

“Yes, I do.”

“But I still think I just got really lucky. Haha!”

Unfortunately, Siegfried was wrong this time. Yes, being spotted by Deus was one hundred percent out of pure luck, and he wasn't wrong with that part.

Who would have thought that a Level 999 Hidden NPC had been keeping an eye on him? The fact that Deus had seen him out of pure coincidence and was intrigued enough by him to grant him the class, Debuff Master, could be considered a big coincidence.

However, Deus keeping an eye on him was not a mere coincidence nor a stroke of luck. What caught Deus’ eye was none other than his inextinguishable fighting spirit, grit, and thirst to strive for his goal.

These qualities were what made Deus "choose" him out of numerous people, and this meant that he was prepared to grab this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity rather than it simply falling on his lap.

“You’re way too humble, oppa.”

“I’d rather say I’m objective.”

“O-Objective…?”

“Do you know how many monsters are around me? They’re all Masters or Grandmasters,” Siegfried grumbled and pouted like a sulking kid. He was indeed surrounded by monsters that he did not even have to go looking for Deus to find one.

Then, he added, “I thought I was already strong, but I’m still ten thousand years behind.”

“No way.”

“It’s true,” Siegfried said with a shrug. Then, he smirked and said, “that’s why I’m not going to sit still and do nothing. I need to at least be a Master, so nobody can call me a weakling. But… forget about being a Master; I haven’t even hit Level 299 yet.”

“Time will solve everything.”

“You’re right, but the problem is whether I can hit Level 300 or not.”

“I am certain you will, oppa.”

“Do you think so?”

“I believe in you.”

“Thanks.”

“Hehe~”

Siegfried’s eyes suddenly shot wide open after he realized something, “But… I think we stayed out all night.”

“Oh!” Yong Seol-Hwa exclaimed out of surprise.

It was already past eleven in the morning in South Korea, which meant that they had stayed up all night crafting the Wood Fire Sword and chatting about various things.

“Let’s go sleep.”

“Eh?! B-Both of us?!”

“Yeah.”

“I-It’s too early for us to—”

“Huh? What do you mean by that? I know it’s eleven in the morning, but we need to sleep, you know?”

“Huh? A-Ah!” Yong Seol-Hwa shrieked. Her flushed face red after realizing that she had misunderstood what he meant.

“Are you feeling sick?”

“N-Not at all!”

“What’s wrong?!”

“N-Nothing! I’m sleepy now, so I’ll go to sleep first, oppa!”

Yong Seol-Hwa did not even wait for Siegfried to respond and hurriedly logged out from the game.

Siegfried was left all alone, confused, scratching the back of his head.

“Maybe she was too sleepy to function properly. Ah, did I keep her up all night when she’s tired? Tsk… I guess I should go to sleep too,” he grumbled before logging out from the game too.

Right after Siegfried logged out from the game…

“Hmm…” Yong Tae-Pung crawled out from a burning bush.

He was not alone.

Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle…

The four Legends appeared behind him.

“Tsk… That dense punk.”

“He was so focused on the item he didn’t even spare a glance at Seol-Hwa!”

“Damn it! He can’t even seize the opportunity laid out for him?!”

“That’s what happens if a young man stays home all day playing video games.”

They spared no criticism of Siegfried for "missing out" on a golden opportunity.

“Shut it, you bastards! You’re talking about my precious daughter right now!” Yong Tae-Pung lashed out at them. Ironically, he felt conflicted. He wanted Siegfried to become his son-in-law, but he couldn't help but feel jealous after seeing how head over heels Yong Seol-Hwa was with Siegfried.

He was relieved that Siegfried only knew how to play the game and was dense about everything else. On the other hand, he wanted to tell him to man up and just embrace Yong Seol-Hwa, so that she could finally be happy.

However, he couldn't bring himself to do that, as the sheer thought of his precious daughter becoming someone’s lover was too painful for him to bear.

“Sigh… This is so difficult… Too difficult…” Yong Tae-Pung let out a sigh.

A father with a daughter was bound to be conflicted at times like these.

***

“Kyaaak! Alright, I got it! Items! Items are the way to oppa’s heart!” Yong Seol-Hwa shrieked out of joy right after logging out. She could still vividly remember how Siegfried's eyes were flashing as he watched her craft the Wood Fire Sword.

Siegfried was a man obsessed with BNW, so the key to his heart was none other than the game itself.

“Alright! I’ll find a way to become an even better blacksmith and craft items that will steal oppa’s heart! I’ll make sure he can’t play the game ever again without me!”

This was the strategy Yong Seol-Hwa came up with to capture Siegfried, and it involved her becoming the best blacksmith the continent had ever seen.

“No, only the game is not enough. Oppa is crazy about working out, so I have to start working out too. I can’t just be another girl at the gym. I have to be the girl at the gym!”

Yong Seol-Hwa decided to even undergo intense weight training and pilates to capture Siegfried’s heart. She had been working out for the sake of her health, but she decided to kick it up a notch from now on.

There was an age-old Korean proverb about how the thirsty would have to dig the well.

In this case, Yong Seol-Hwa was thirsty for Siegfried.

***

After taking over the Burning Forest, the Mandate of Heaven Guild seized the momentum and charged all the way to Hell’s Staircase, where the Oberg Guild had set up their defensive lines.

Hell’s Staircase was where the Cheyenne Plateau’s hot springs were mostly found, but these were no ordinary hot springs, as the water here reached more than five hundred degrees Celsius.

The terrain was also made up of limestones descending like a staircase, making the boiling hot spring water cascade down like a waterfall.

This was the reason this place was called Hell’s Staircase.

Meanwhile, Diesel was overjoyed in front of the Geyser of Life.

“Bwahahahaha!”

Shwaaaa!

The Geyser of Life’s miraculous water started gushing out. The drilling proved to be successful, as the water that spouted out from the Geyser of Life was unending compared to when it would only give around five hundred liters every two hours.

“Connect the pipes! Hurry up!”

“We can’t miss a single drop! Move faster!”

“That’s liquid gold right there!”

The Oberg Guild members ran around frantically. The water that could be distilled into the Topaz Potion and sold to both NPCs and Adventurers was their ticket to immense wealth.

In fact, the Geyser of Life could be the key for the Oberg Guild to catapult itself as the most powerful guild on the continent.

“Beautiful…!” Diesel exclaimed in awe as he allowed the Water of Life to shower down on him.

[Alert: Your HP has recovered!]

[Alert: Your HP has recovered!]

[Alert: Your HP has recovered!]

A message would pop up in front of his eyes whenever the water rained down on him. The water was so potent that it recovered one’s HP just by skin contact.

“I have to protect this no matter what…” Diesel growled under his breath, swearing not to lose this cash cow. The Geyser of Life’s value was simply immense that it was worth giving up the righteous public image he had been working so hard to maintain until now.

“Hey! Diesel!” shouted Exhole, the Vice Guild Master of the Oberg Guild.

“I found something interesting over here!”

“What? Did other guilds side with the Mandate of Heaven Guild?” Diesel asked.

“No way. Do you know how busy everyone is these days?” Exhole replied with a shrug.

This was the perfect time for the Oberg Guild to take action, as none of the top ten guilds were free to get involved in this fight for the Geyser of Life.

“What’s interesting then?”

“Look at this.”

Exhole showed what seemed to be dust from some sort of red metal on the palm of his hand.

“What’s that?”

“They found it while drilling, but we have no idea what this metal is. We broke eleven drills because of this metal.”

“Eleven drills? Then that means this metal is extremely tough?”

“Not only that, we weighed the dust and found that it's at least twenty-five percent lighter than steel.”

“Really?”

“I believe there’s a huge deposit right underneath the Geyser of Life.”

“...!”

“You’re a lucky guy, Diesel,” Exhole said with a grin. Then, he congratulated him, “Congratulations on getting not only the Geyser of Life but this new metal too. I think you can soon buy numerous private planes if you want.”

“Wow…” Diesel muttered in amazement after hearing that there was a huge deposit of rare metal underneath the Geyser of Life. In addition to being tougher than steel, the metal was twenty-five percent lighter, too!

This meant that he could dictate the price of this metal yet people would still have to buy them from him. In other words, the metal could be worth much more than gold itself.

“Tell them men to keep digging. We need to find out how big the deposit is to decide whether to start mining or not.”

“I’ll tell them to get started immediately.”

“Thanks.”

Diesel turned around and walked away after putting Exhole in charge of the affairs.

***

Siegfried logged into the game and teamed up with Yong Seol-Hwa and Seung-Gu, who had been scouting the Hell’s Staircase.

Sseuuuu!

The steam from the hot springs made it difficult to get a clear view of the Hell’s Staircase, and the only thing they could hear was the sound of boiling hot spring water cascading from above.

“This is a natural fortress… We can’t attack them if we can’t see them.”

“I agree.”

“If we tell our men to attack, then… Ughh… I don’t want to even think about it…”

Siegfried, Yong Seol-Hwa, and Seung-Gu shuddered at the thought of what would happen if they attacked this place. They could handle a variety of tricky terrains or environments, but they all agreed that an environment with such low visibility was the worst and most dangerous environment for a fight.

“What should we do? Do you think we can get past them?” Yong Seol-Hwa asked.

“Hmm…” Siegfried pondered for a while. Then, he replied, “It’s not going to be easy, but we have no choice.”

“Yes, but the problem is that it won’t be easy breaking through their defenses.”

“Then we just have to break through the hard way.”

“Huh?”

“Hey, Seung-Gu.”

“Yes, hyung-nim?”

“Summon all of your golems and put them in Siege Mode.”

“As you wish, hyung-nim.”

Seung-Gu summoned all of his golems and put them on Siege Mode just as Siegfried asked.

“Shall we start?” Siegfried said with a smirk.

He aimed the cannons on each shoulder of the Iron Golems.

“Hmm… Is it too high? Should I lower it a bit? This seems perfect. Alright, next will be thirty-seven degrees… Next is just an arching shot I guess? Ah, this one will be tricky… let’s go with forty-eight and a half degrees.”

Yong Seol-Hwa tilted her head in confusion after seeing what Siegfried was doing. Then, she decided to ask, “What are you doing, oppa?”

“Aiming.”

“A-Aiming?”

“Yeah.”

“But you can’t see anything because of the steam…? Can you see them?”

“Yup. I can,” Siegfried replied, nodding.

“H-How…?”

“I just can?”

“...”

“Hold on. I have to finish aiming,” Siegfried said and proceeded to aim the cannons on the Iron Golems once again.

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