Chapter 82

Chapter 82: Ham Jiyeon - (2)

"Flame Mage? This is my first time seeing one."

"Wait. Let's stop for a moment. Since this seems to be a safe distance, let's go over what we need to before engaging in battle."

"Safe distance? Is the Flame Mage a type of monster you know, Sanghyun? It does seem like a fire mage."

It was natural that Ham Jiyeon didn't know about the Flame Mage.

It was draped in a black robe, and its face was like a rotting corpse.

One could roughly describe it as a mage that resembled a ghoul—a grotesque appearance.

Normally, when thinking of a mage, one imagines a wise and dignified figure from a fantasy movie.

But not all mages look like that. Some have an appearance as if they came straight from hell.

Whoosh!

Wherever the Flame Mage’s gaze landed, flames ignited. Sanghyun emphasized this point.

"That thing has an ignition ability. The scary part is that it continuously causes combustion on a designated target."

"Continuously?"

"As long as it maintains its concentration, the fire won't stop."

"What if someone continuously maintains a freezing effect on themselves?"

"They wouldn't suffer from combustion, but if even a single other magic attack lands in the meantime..."

"They'll die."

"Since ignition is ultimately a status effect, dealing with it is tricky. More than you’d think."

Sanghyun's gaze deepened.

Even in the past, the design of the Flame Mage had been a point of contention among players.

There had been debates about whether it should be classified as a mid-boss monster due to its difficulty.

Of course, since the developers wouldn’t listen, those arguments ended as empty complaints and grumbling.

"……"

He simulated various scenarios in his head.

Imagining himself approaching with just defensive measures, only to be engulfed in flames and perish.

Imagining Ham Jiyeon using her freezing skill on him to approach, only to be torn apart by an out-of-sync magic attack.

Only bad outcomes came to mind.

There was just one possible method, but speed was the key. And he had only five seconds to execute it.

"Jiyeon."

"Yes?"

"The moment ignition is cast on me, can you freeze me immediately? Even to the point of completely encasing me in ice."

"I can. How much freezing do you want?"

"Since it’s freezing the outside of my body, not the inside, it doesn’t matter."

"But then you won’t be able to move at all, Sanghyun."

"I have a plan, so trust me."

Sanghyun patted her shoulder.

"Any precautions?"

"Freeze me only once. If you do it again, it'll be a headache."

"Understood."

With their final strategy set, the two assumed attack positions.

The distance between Sanghyun and the Flame Mage was about 100 meters! Close if close, far if far.

'Its main ability is ignition, so it'll use that first. I'll counter it there and end this immediately.'

For this plan, there was no second option—no backup plan. That’s why Sanghyun was tense.

If they didn’t have a strategy to break through the Flame Mage’s section, today's gate conquest would end here.

There was no way only one of them would be placed here.

He activated acceleration for ten seconds.

Before the effect ended, there would be a decisive outcome.

At that moment—

"……!"

As soon as Sanghyun entered the Flame Mage’s detection range, it immediately stretched out its hand toward him.

Whoosh!

'Damn, that was fast!'

The moment it extended its hand, ignition was triggered.

As if there was a device embedded in Sanghyun’s body that caused ignition.

Crack!

At that moment, Ham Jiyeon immediately cast freezing.

From the tips of his toes, his body instantly froze—it wasn’t an ordinary ability.

'At this level, it's almost complete freezing. Ham Jiyeon is specialized in freezing. She's stronger than I thought.'

Even with Sanghyun’s high evasion and defense stats, which granted him strong skill resistance, his body froze in an instant.

But just before he was completely encased, his accelerated body moved a few more meters.

By rough estimation, he had covered 50 meters.

Chijijijik.

Smoke rose from Sanghyun’s body.

It was a rare sight created by the clash between the force trying to burn him and the force trying to freeze him.

For now, Ham Jiyeon was still stronger, so the frozen state had not been lifted, but she was gradually being pushed back.

A calculated move activated!

Sanghyun used Recovery to simultaneously remove both the burning and freezing effects.

//s_win

//win_h ◎ Complete Immunity

◎ For 5 seconds, maintains a state that is immune to all status effects.

//e_win

‘From now on, it’s a real battle against time.’

He had been given a five-second opportunity.

If the Flame Mage used a different type of magic instead of ignition, it wouldn’t be much of a chance.

But Sanghyun was certain.

There was no way the Flame Mage would not use ignition, which was the very core of his identity.

Turning around, he used Back Step to move forward 5.75 meters in an instant.

With Back Step at level 4, it had greatly improved from the previous level 1 range of 5 meters.

Mixing in Brave Charge, he closed the distance even further and then sprinted with all his might.

In an instant, the 25-meter gap was narrowed.

The time remaining before his Complete Immunity was lifted: 3 seconds.

The time left before his acceleration wore off: 5 seconds.

If he had not possessed acceleration skills, he wouldn’t have even been able to attempt this maneuver.

His superhuman movements, far beyond human limits, painted a breathtaking spectacle.

“To think he’d use Complete Immunity like that… If he has that ability, even I wouldn’t be able to handle him.”

Watching Sanghyun’s skill utilization and resource distribution, Ham Jiyeon was amazed.

Freezing was her main ability.

But if there existed a skill that guaranteed victory in the status effect battle, like rock-paper-scissors, she had no chance.

“Kwaak!”

At that moment, Sanghyun’s surprise attack with Whisper of Darkness struck the Flame Mage off guard.

Success in inducing blindness.

It was the result of the Flame Mage’s preconceived notions.

Not expecting Sanghyun to use a skill similar to magic was his critical mistake.

Whoosh!

Even while blinded, the Flame Mage calmly cast a spell, spraying fire forward.

But Sanghyun had already anticipated such a response—it was too predictable.

“Kurgh!”

With precise positioning, the Crushing Airflow fixed the completely blinded Flame Mage in place.

And then.

Sanghyun played his prepared card.

He considered using the Crushing Blade, but its high mana consumption made him decide to save it—he couldn’t predict all the variables yet.

‘The distance is perfect.’

The distance he could close with Full Charge matched the time it would take for the Flame Mage’s blindness to wear off.

He gripped his greatsword tightly.

His determination to finish this in a single strike was imbued deeply into the blade.

The moment the Flame Mage regained his vision—

Slash!

Sanghyun dashed forward and cleanly beheaded the Flame Mage with his greatsword.

The head, severed along with the robe, floated in the air for a moment before falling back to the ground with a dull thud.

His face remained frozen in shock, permanently preserved at the moment of death.

“Wow….”

Even Ham Jiyeon’s mouth hung open.

To be honest, from the beginning, she had no idea how he planned to counter that overwhelming ignition ability.

Wasn’t burning supposed to be one of the most excruciating pains a person could endure?

If caught in ignition for more than a second, suffering burns was inevitable.

Yet Sanghyun completely nullified that possibility and swiftly decapitated the Flame Mage.

The clean execution and outcome were beyond Ham Jiyeon’s expectations.

‘I thought he was just a swordsman specialized in inflicting status effects… but he’s also specialized in countering them.’

Excelling in both offense and defense.

That was a trait difficult for any type of player to achieve.

Ham Jiyeon was the same.

She showed strong defensive abilities, but she had many weaknesses when it came to aggressive attacks. She felt it herself.

"What are you doing? Hurry up and come!"

Sanghyun shouted loudly to snap Ham Jiyeon out of her daze.

Only then did she come to her senses and ran toward Sanghyun.

Just standing next to Sanghyun made her feel much more reassured.

After that.

Using the same method, Sanghyun and Ham Jiyeon advanced while dealing with the Flame Mages.

It seemed like the entire path was a section where Flame Mages were placed at regular intervals.

Each of them looked slightly different, but their attack patterns were similar, so they were not difficult to counter.

The total number of Flame Mages they eliminated was ten.

There was also a guaranteed drop whenever one of them died.

It was one high-grade magic stone and an essence of mana. As promised, Sanghyun gave all the magic stones to Ham Jiyeon.

Essence.

A stat crystal that could be safely absorbed without any loss.

Simply inhaling it through the mouth and nose was enough to complete the absorption. It did not cause any pain or discomfort.

Each time they defeated a Flame Mage, they obtained an essence of mana that increased the mana stat by 7.

They had collected ten of them.

Thanks to the essence, Sanghyun's mana stat increased to 347.

'With this level of stats, isn't my mana similar to that of a level 140 mage player?'

He made a rough estimate.

Aside from players armed with capitalism, an average mage player would have about that much mana.

However, despite being a swordsman, Sanghyun had a mana stat that was nearly on par with a mage.

That meant he had been raising his stats evenly by consuming numerous artifacts along the way.

'Farming 70 mana is insane.'

To raise mana to this level with artifacts, he would need at least two platinum-grade items.

Artifacts that specifically boost mana stats were rare to begin with.

Sanghyun looked ahead at the open space and, for the first time, sat on a rock to rest.

After passing through the dense area of Flame Mages, they finally reached a spot where they could catch their breath.

Ham Jiyeon sat down right next to him and looked at him with curious eyes.

Since she had also exerted all her strength to assist, sweat was forming on her forehead.

However, as she closed her eyes and focused for a moment, a chill enveloped her forehead, making the sweat disappear.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Fire-based abilities are really tricky. Isn't it strange that a swordsman, who isn't a mage or a buffer, can counter them?"

"That's just a stereotype."

"But stereotypes exist because most cases follow a pattern, right?"

"Why make it complicated? Just think of me as an exception."

"Now that you say it, that makes sense."

Ham Jiyeon smiled awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. It was just a matter of acknowledging Sanghyun’s uniqueness.

"Dungeons and gates are always best when tackled first."

Sanghyun was more than satisfied.

In a regular dungeon, no matter how difficult the enemies were, they would never yield such abundant rewards.

Want to obtain essences or artifacts that increase mana by 70?

Then, in dungeons of similar levels, one would have to defeat the boss monster.

However, in this gate, simply defeating these tricky mage monsters yielded ample rewards.

'It has only been two years since the Player Era began. There are still countless privileges for me to claim.'

Sanghyun felt happy about that.

The fact that there was still so much left to enjoy.

In the past, as a latecomer, all he ever found were the remnants left behind by those who came before him.

But now, things were different.

Fresh rewards and opportunities were waiting for him in uncharted places.

'Everything I've secured so far is just the beginning!'

Because there was so much more to look forward to, he felt even happier. Of course, he had no intention of letting his guard down.