Debuff Master

‘What the hell is wrong with this monkey?’ he thought while watching the boss monster crawl on the ground like a soldier in basic military training.

However, what baffled Siegfried even further was the fact that the Hunterian King seemed quite serious as it crawled. It tried not to make any sound, and it was fully concentrating to make sure that even the smallest movement was calculated.

The boss monster looked as if it was an artist focusing on its art right now or something along that line.

“Hey, what…” Siegfried was about to ask when he suddenly stopped upon realizing something. ‘Don’t tell me…? Does this monkey think it’s cloaked right now?’

Siegfried decided to observe the Hunterian King for a bit longer.

Seuk…

The Hunterian King finally stood up, and it seemed to be looking for an opening to attack Siegfried.

“Pfft…! Pffft…! Eub…!” Siegfried almost burst out into laughter, and he had to cover his mouth just to barely suppress it.

“Grrrk!” (Boss!)

“Grrk! Grrrk!” (Boss! Boss!)

“Kyaa! Kyaa! Kyaa! Woo! Woo!” (You’re not cloaked right now!)

The Hunterians noticed what was going on, and they screamed, trying to warn their leader, but it was to no avail. The Hunterian King couldn’t hear what they were saying as the barrier formed around the Ishuka Ruin was preventing any external interference in the Great Jungle Challenge.

Hence, the Hunterian King was completely unaware that it was not cloaked right now, and it discreetly moved about trying to find a gap in Siegfried’s defense.

‘Argh…! I shouldn’t laugh… Deep breath… Hooo…’ Siegfried calmed himself down and pretended to look around for the Hunterian King.

“Oh, no. Where did it—pfft! go?” He feigned ignorance and pretended the Hunterian King was still cloaked so as not to hurt its feelings.

Thanks to Siegfried’s kind consideration, the Hunterian King fully believed that it was cloaked, and it continued moving discreetly in a bid to find an opening.

Meanwhile, the Hunterian King roamed around Siegfried or stopped a few meters from him sometimes as it bided its time looking for the optimal opening, ‘Allow me to smash your head in this time… Hehehe!’

Meanwhile, Siegfried continued to play along to the boss monster’s antics, “W-Where are you?! Come out, coward!”

“Kyu? What’s wrong with owner punk?”

“I… I have no idea…”

“That’s quite interesting... Hmm…”

Hamchi, Seung-Gu, and Gringore were baffled at Siegfried’s strange actions and tilted their heads simultaneously.

The duel was certainly strange in the eyes of a third party. The Hunterian King was acting as if it was cloaked when it was not, while Siegfried was looking for his opponent as if he could not see it.

The duel was more like a charade of fools now.

“What’s going on? Both of them look dumb…”

“Maybe there’s some magic cast between them?”

“But I don’t think there’s any magic…”

Hamchi, Seung-Gu, and Gringore tried to come up with an explanation for their baffling behavior.

“Die! Human!” the Hunterian King exclaimed as it finally decided to attack.

“O-Owner punk!” Hamchi shouted.

Whoosh!

The Hunterian King was about to swing its Morningstar of Infinity at Siegfried’s head, but he beat the boss monster to the punch by using Quick Draw and fluttering his Blood Butterfly’s Dance.

Sukeok!

The Hunterian King’s armor and thick chest muscles were cut.

Fwaaaaah!

Then, a fountain of blood gushed out from the wound.

“Kweek!” The Hunterian King screamed in agony.

Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk! Puk!

However, Siegfried paid no regard and mercilessly beat the Hunterian King’s head with his +15 Gaia’s Fist.

Machine Gun Smash!

It was the single-target skill of the Debuff Master that unleashed a barrage of attacks at the target.

***

Right after Siegfried dealt significant damage to the Hunterian King…

“K-Kyu…?”

Hamchi had question marks all over his face.

“Don’t tell me… Hyung-nim was just acting…?”

“Ahem! No wonder there was something awkward about it! His Majesty was just acting all along!”

Hamchi, Seung-Gu, and Gringore finally realized what was going on.

“Grrrrk…! H-How did you see through my cloaking?!” the Hunterian King lashed out and refused to believe that Siegfried saw through its skill.

The cloaking used by the Hunterian King was an overpowered skill that completely erased its presence, and its carefulness made it even more overpowered.

“Who knows? I could see you just fine,” Siegfried acted coy.

“L-Lies!”

“Nope, I’m not lying.”

“You just got lucky! I refuse to accept that you saw through my—Kwek!”

The Hunterian King let out a scream halfway.

Pukeok!

Siegfried did not wait for it to finish talking as he swung his +15 Gaia’s Fist and sent the boss monster flying.

“Keuk…!”

The Hunterian King stood up.

“You just got lucky! Don’t get all cocky!”

“Who knows? Maybe I’m just good? Or maybe I’m just lucky?”

The Hunterian King growled at Siegfried before attempting to erase its presence once again.

Wooong!

Siegfried immediately activated Wave of Oppression to stop the boss monster’s skill from activating, followed by a convincing act.

“W-Where are you?!”

Siegfried grimaced and put on an act as if he were looking for the Hunterian King while trying his best to stop himself from laughing.

“Kyaaaak! Kyaaaak!” (Boss! You’re not cloaked!)

“Wooo! Wooo! Kyaaak! Kyaaak!” (Don’t get fooled, boss!)

The Hunterians desperately screamed at their boss, but it was once again to no avail.

‘You won’t see through my ability this time!’

The Hunterian King was not able to hear the desperate screams of his subordinates, and he crawled on the ground while biding his time—thinking that he was invisible.

Thirty seconds later…

‘Now!’

The Hunterian King saw a gap in Siegfried\'s defense and tried to attack, but…

“Found you!” Siegfried exclaimed as he swung his +15 Gaia’s Fist first.

Pukeok!

The +15 Gaia’s Fist struck the Hunterian King’s chin in a magnificent uppercut.

“Kuheok!”

The Hunterian King was flung to the ground after getting its chin smashed.

‘Tsk… This guy is too tough; I can’t deal much damage to it…’ Siegfried clicked his tongue.

It seemed impossible to kill this monster with basic attacks, and he needed a powerful attack to finish it off.

Wooong!

Siegfried placed down his debuff fields.

Bzzt! Bzzt!

And a powerful force enveloped his +15 Gaia’s Fist…

“Do you know what this is?”

“Grrrk!”

“It’s called the Touch of Death,” Siegfried said. He immediately cast Touch of Death and swung his +15 Gaia’s Fist at the Hunterian King’s face.

Bam!

The moment Touch of Death connected with the Hunterian King…

Shwaaak!

Its entire upper body disappeared…

The force behind the skill was so powerful that the Hunterian King’s upper body was directly disintegrated.

Thud…!

What remained of the Hunterian King fell to the ground.

“WAAAAAAH!”

The barbarian tribes roared triumphantly at the sight, and their voices echoed throughout the Ishuka Ruin.

***

[Alert: You have obtained Experience Points!]

Siegfried obtained a ton of Experience Points, but he still didn’t manage to level up. The experience points he obtained from killing the Hunterian King was only a meager five percent of what he needed to level up, but this was still considered a lot, as leveling up from Level 240 onward was ridiculously difficult.

[Alert: You have won the Great Jungle Challenge!]

[Alert: You have obtained a new title!]

[Alert: You have obtained the title – Ruler of the Great Jungle!]

The effect of the new title was the same thirty levels the Hunterian King had obtained, and the restriction was the same as well. It would only be active in the Great Jungle.

However, Siegfried paid no attention to the messages. He was unwittingly transfixed on one thing.

‘I got it!’

He picked up the Morningstar of Infinity on the ground.

[Alert: You have obtained Morningstar of Infinity!]

[Alert: You have completed the Quest – Search for the Devil’s Fruit!]

[Alert: Disassemble the Morningstar of Infinity to obtain the Dragonian Mango within it!]

He had finally obtained the cure for Brunhilde’s illness.

“Kyu! Good job, owner punk!”

“Hyung-nim! Great job!”

“Your Majesty! You were so cool!”

Hamchi, Seung-Gu, and Gringore congratulated Siegfried for his victory.

Then, the chieftain of the Amazoness Tribe, Antiope, approached and paid her respects to Siegfried, “You are truly powerful… Oh, New Ruler of the Great Jungle.”

“All hail to the new ruler!”

“I greet the new ruler!”

“I swear loyalty to the new ruler!”

“Salute to the new ruler!”

The chieftains of the other tribes paid their respects to Siegfried as well.

The way they treated Siegfried was completely different from how they treated the Hunterian King. The Hunterian King and his lackeys had taken over the Ishuka Ruin thirty years ago by force, and they did not do it in an honorable way.

The Hunterian King was nothing but a hooligan who had ambushed the previous ruler and took control of the Great Jungle by force. Hence, the chieftains didn’t really recognize the Hunterian King as the Great Jungle’s rightful ruler.

In fact, the chieftains were even preparing to go to war at any given moment against the Hunterian King if the situation called for it.

However, it was different with Siegfried. He had defeated the five chieftains fair and square, and he had even defeated the Hunterian King at the Ishuka Ruin.

In other words, Siegfried was the rightful ruler of the Great Jungle.

“Great Chieftain,” Antiope said as she knelt in front of Siegfried.

“G-Great Chieftain…? Me?”

“Yes, Great Chieftain. You are now the Great Chieftain of our five tribes.”

“Huh?”

“The Chieftain of the Amazoness Tribe, Antiope, greets the Great Chieftain and…” Antiope said before she suddenly uttered something shocking, “My beloved husband.”

“H-H-Husba—whaaat?!”

“Our Amazoness Tribe has given birth to the Great Chieftain’s children for generations.”

“Eh?”

“It is the age-old tradition of the Great Jungle for the Great Chieftain and the Amazoness Tribe’s chieftain to rule over this place as king and queen.”

“E-Eh…? Huh? B-But…” Siegfried noticed that there was something wrong. He merely wanted to find a cure for Brunhilde, but it seemed that he had found himself a burden along the way.

“My Great Chieftain and my husband… Please allow me to serve you!” Antiope exclaimed.

What was Siegfried’s response?

He responded by using his legs to… run away!

He chose to run as fast as possible to save himself from whatever was about to happen.

“The Great Chieftain is running away!”

“Oh no!”

“Catch him!”

“Great Chieftain!”

“Please don’t abandon us, Great Chieftain!”

The barbarian tribes chased after him.

***

At a six-bed ward in a university hospital…

“Hyung!”

A kid approached a young man lying motionless on the bed.

“Hyung… I’m sorry for bothering you when you’re sick, but can you give me your autograph…”

“Fook up… bashta…”

The young man, Chae Hyung-Seok, couldn’t speak properly because his face felt numb.

“Befo I kwill you…”

The kid’s face turned ghastly pale at Chae Hyung-Seok’s warning and left.

The other people in the ward started whispering among themselves, but Chae Hyung-Seok didn’t give a damn about them.

‘Han Tae-Sung…’ He was only thinking of one person and one person alone. ‘Han Tae-Sung… Han Tae-Sung… Han Tae-Sung… Han Tae-Sung…’

The name he kept repeating in his head soon came out of his mouth.

“HAN TAE-SUUUUNG!”

Chae Hyung-Seok’s scream filled the entire ward.

“I will kweel you… Ha Tae-Su… Kill… Ha Tae-Su… Kill… Han Tae-Su… Kill…”

His eyes suddenly darted to the knife his mother had used to peel apples for him.

“Keke! That wight… I kill him…!”

Chae Hyung-Seok muttered like a madman—no, as a madman.