Closed Beta That Only I Played - Chapter 79

Chapter 79: An Example (5)

That’s why this kind of confrontation has been going on for a long time. They are standing in a place where no skills of mine, including my AOE skills, can reach them. Nestled in a safe place, they instantly healed those who were attacked, and also buffed them when needed. It was the perfect sort of party play.

Tramp! Tramp!

Honestly speaking, I regretted setting Stamina as the stat that would experience 100% growth along with my Intellect for the Mutual Growth trait.

So far, I have not benefited from my superior stamina, compared to my willpower, which I chose as the second stat which was experiencing 50% growth.

In the meantime, I was totally defenseless without an Ice Shield amid the enemy’s attack.

The enemies seized the opportunity and ruthlessly attacked me.

Naturally I was exposed to their intense attacks.

Puck! Puck! Puck!

But I ignored their attacks and kept stepping forward.

In the past, I didn’t really care about my defense, whether it was hunting or fighting, for I didn’t have to. But now I clearly showed them why I could ignore their attacks.

So, I used my skills first at the annoying tanks.

“Ice Prison!”

Of course, they were ready for my attack. As soon as the Ice Prison started to emerge, they immediately scattered, so I could only trap two of them. But that was enough.

And I deliberately used the Ice Field behind them instead of at them. Why? Since the Ice Field was located behind them, they couldn’t retreat to the back.

So, all they could do was to move to either side or towards me to avoid the Ice Field.

And for those who approached me?

“Pouring Hailstones! Ice Spear! Multiple Ice Arrow!”

Puck! Puck! Puck!

“Kuuuuuuuuhuk!”

“Damn!”

Behind them was the Ice Field which could be detonated with Ice Blast at any time, and I was attacking in front of them. They were literally caught between a rock and a hard place.

Those who hurriedly stepped toward me after leaving the range of my Ice Field collapsed helplessly without any resistance.

Of course, the enemies didn’t sit idle.

“Tanks and melee attackers move around the Ice Field and charge at him! Ice Blast is useless if you are careful about the Ice Field. Just attack him! That guy is also desperately struggling to get out of here! Attack him mercilessly!”

“Yeah!”

“Okay!”

The guild leader kept cheering them up and gave them special directions.

In response to his order, they desperately attacked me, but it seemed that they were greatly mistaken. Was I desperately struggling? Nope, I was not desperately struggling but simply ignoring their attacks.

Anyway, although it was only for a brief moment, I seemed to have shown my old habit because my attack didn’t work in the face of the enemies’ perfect party play. I had the habit of moving too cautiously in the past. In other words, because of my wizard role in not only ‘Revival Legend’ and ‘Forgotten Legend’ but also all my other games, I had always hunted cautiously without a choice

By design wizards relied on their powerful attacks, so they had poor defense.

In my case, I always hunted alone. I had forgotten about it until now because I had never gone through a situation in ‘Revival Legend’ that was dangerous enough for me to protect myself or move cautiously.

But for the first time I felt I was in a situation, which I didn’t think was dangerous, but rather frustrating, so I seemed to have acted defensively.

But I now moved openly as if I was declaring that I was ready to accept their attacks without defending.

Then I ran towards the enemies. Of course, the enemy’s healers and enchanters also moved hurriedly. Unlike the tanks, they could be killed at any time if something went wrong. Even if they were mages with high stamina and health, they were no exceptions.

So I used my skills immediately.

“Ice Weapon.”

[You have used Level 3 Ice Weapon.

-The sturdy and long 3+ Enhancement Sword is imbued with strong and cold ice energy.]

Clang! Clang!

I swung the sturdy and strong 3+ Enhancement Sword toward the tank blocking me in the front.

Did I do it to inflict damage on him? Of course, he would receive damage to some extent because, aside from the level 3 Ice Weapon, my Strength stat exceeded 1000, which was absolutely impossible for a normal wizard.

However, what I really aimed for was something else. It was none other than frostbite.

I knew that the probability of inflicting frostbite when attacking with the Ice Weapon would be greatly increased. In fact, I had the passive skill called Weak Frostbite as well as the Iceman Trait.

However, I didn’t use this option until now. I didn’t attach any great meaning to it because I had other options, and I didn’t have to use Ice Weapon until recently.

Anyway, just as I triggered frostbite damage with a couple of attacks against the roots of the long-rooted sapling, I also caused the frostbite damage to the tank with only two attacks.

“Damn it! I got frostbite! Heal me!”

The tank slowed down due to the instant frostbite, but I aimed at the damage dealer behind the tank while the healers and enchanters were distracted with the tank.

“Ice Spear! Multiple Ice Arrow! Ice Ball! Ice Bolt!”

I fired every skill at the damage dealer alone. Naturally the damage dealer could not endure my attack and died immediately without the help of the healers and enchanters.

“Thin Ice!”

And I fired Thin Ice, which I usually reserved for the tanks, at the healers and enchanters.

Of course, Thin Ice was not as good as AOE skills, so I didn’t use it separately, and only in conjunction with Ice Field. In fact, that was the standard way to use it.

However, it was enough to cause confusion to the healers and enchanters.

Amid the confusion I fired Ice Spear and Multiple Ice Arrows, whose cooldown had just come back up, at the damage dealers, and not the tanks.

In other words, I changed the way I confronted the enemies.

I decided to kill them one by one.

What about the AOE skills that inflicted large damage at once and which showed the greatest effects? I used it to block off the area or to keep the healers and enchanters at bay.

The reason I could use this new method was because of my confidence that I could hold out and ignore their attacks even though the enemies used their numerical advantage to strike me unceasingly.

“Oh my God!”

Sakamoto was forced to groan at the shocking scenes of the battlefield because he clearly witnessed the collapse of balance.

“This is total nonsense!”

Sakamoto thought that the so-called balance of attack and defense would work, for too excessive attack would lead to vulnerable defense, while too excessive defense would be vulnerable to the enemy’s attack.

From that perspective, Asirante was a type who relied on attack, just like many wizards.

Despite this, Asirante showed extraordinary defense, which embarrassed Sakamoto a lot. But he believed that if his team kept up with the fighting as it was now, they would beat him clearly, because this kind of fight normally ended up with their victory.

However, what was happening before his eyes was clearly different.

Defense? Avoidance? Or move to protect himself? Asirante showed nothing like that.

Rather, he aggressively moved forward and fought them as if he invited their attacks.

So, Sakamoto ordered his team to start attacking him to fulfil his request.

But when the fighting continued for one minute, two minutes, and five minutes, he thought that something had gone badly wrong.

He watched Asirante use that dreadful AOE skill as something to hold his men in check while slaughtering them one by one using single target skills and Ice Weapon.

When five minutes passed, the unity of his team started to crack.

“Damn it! I can’t fight! How can I deal with this monster?”

“I won’t either! I can’t see any way to deal with him!”

Some of his team members began to desert the battlefield.

But Sakamoto couldn’t stop them because in his opinion, there was no way they could stop Asiratne.

Now, it was certain that his team would be defeated.

“Man, is his speciality defense, not attack? This guy has specialises in both attack and defense.”

Sakamoto had no choice but to spit out a meaningless monologue.

And he realized that what he was aiming at was a monster.

Sakamoto immediately rushed at him because the word ‘ escape’ did not exist in his dictionary.

He wouldn’t retreat because his opponent was a Korean that he hated so much.

Ten minutes later, Soktae Kang couldn’t close his hanging jaw.

Then he barely spit out swear words.

“Damn it! Let me give up on this game. I won’t ever play again. Damn unbalanced game!”

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Chapter 80: Don’t Come Home Tomorrow (1)

“Come back again. I’ll be staying here for the time being. Ice Spear!”

After casually spitting out some words at the enemy’s leader who didn’t even try to hide his resentment while he was dying, I immediately fired an Ice Spear.

Puck!

Since the enemy leader had already taken many of my attacks, he was killed with that last blow. And my last words to him were also sincere.

In other words, I would stay here for the time being, unlike before when I left to avoid friction. Did I make this decision because of my confidence?

Of course, it was true that I was confident that I could deal with enemies regardless of their number, but I know that it was not luck or coincidence that they could find me so decisively. Maybe they have some special means to track me down, for example, with something like a special trait instead of a normal skill.

After concluding that they could track me down if they wanted to, I decided to steal the show first by looking completely nonchalant and not caring about how many times they would come to find me.

Even though I said this, I hoped deep down that they wouldn’t come back because I wanted to focus on hunting.

When the enemy’s leader died, I looked at the empty surroundings. Of course I couldn’t kill all the enemies because I could not chase those who decisively ran away as fast as they could.

However, for some reason, I thought that I had just fought more enemies than the 700 I had fought recently. Of course, I won like always.

‘Well, based on the outcome of this battle, it seems that it was not a mistake to choose Stamina as the first stat of Mutual Growth.

This was the first time I fought the enemies relying on my health and stamina not only in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Closed Beta of ‘Forgotten Legend’ but also in all other games.

And I felt that they were much more powerful than I thought.

“Ice Field!”

Now, with the most intense of all the battles behind me, I began to attack the long-rooted saplings again using Ice Field because I was too energized to take a break.

That night I logged out in time for dinner, ate and took a quick break.

Just when I tried to access the game again, my phone rang.

My sister’s name Suyoung was displayed on the phone screen.

‘”I’m going home tomorrow. I have no idea why she is calling me now.’

Curious about her call, I answered the phone first.

“Hey, sis, what’s up?”

“Don’t come home tomorrow.”

“…”

She just told me not to come home without any explanation.

Needless to say, my mother was the one who usually welcomed me the most during my weekly visits to my house in Cheongdam-dong, but my sister also welcomed me as much as her.

Moreover, when I lived in a one-room studio after being forced out of the house because I didn’t go back to the prestigious Seoul National University after being discharged from the army, my sister even threatened to shave her hair before my parents to protect me. She liked and greatly supported me, to say the least. Whenever I had even a financial problem, she also sent me some money without letting my parents know about it. In other words she has been my consistent supporter until now.

So, I could not understand why she suddenly told me not to come back home tomorrow.

“Why?”

“It’s nothing special. Got it? Let me end the call because I’m busy.”

Tu- Tu- Tu-

My sister hung up after saying that, as if she was quite busy at the moment. I felt rather embarrassed. Obviously something unusual was going on.

But I just looked down at my cell phone blankly for a while even after she hung up because I knew what she meant by ‘nothing special.’ I felt something happened to her and my family, but she didn’t want to tell me right now, which made me even more curious.

Whenever I had heard it in the past, I would not visit home per my sister’s request, and I also wouldn’t have cared whatsoever. But this time I was different because I I began to think something unusual was gong on. So, I felt the strong urge to go home despite my sister’s unusual request.

“I have to go home by all means tomorrow.”

Of course, I don’t know exactly when I had a change of heart, but come to think of it, that may have caused it.

At the meeting disguised as a business conference of the top leaders of Myongjin, Daesung and Kusan, and that recent meeting hosted by Mirae Group’s Bora Yon, they invariably mentioned one thing, which was the appearance of new rising stars.

They wanted to develop a talent pool to hunt and hire those who were excellent in playing games. Although I don’t want to brag, I was the first one to be picked.

Honestly, I had some expectations that I would be selected because I was extraordinary enough to have the title of the Only Closed Beta Max Level User as well as the traits of Ice Man, Mutual Growth and God of Reinforcement, so much so that I myself was worried about the collapse of balance.

But now I’m far beyond what I expected back then. I’ve grown so fast and achieved so much until now.

At that time, I didn’t expect at all that I would obtain extra stats by drastically dropping levels by using my titles Scarecrow Destroyer and God of Reinforcement. Moreover, I earned the title of Honorable Name by clearing an A-grade quest.

In other words, I could not be more confident now.

So, this kind of confidence definitely affected my decision to visit home despite my sister’s very unusual request.

In other words, I felt so confident that I wanted to know more about my sister’s matter and my family affairs as a whole, so I could help them if I could.

“I should access the game first.”

Instead of asking my dad, brother, or mom about it, I thought that I could go home tomorrow and find out by myself, so I first accessed the game without thinking about it anymore for now.

Then I immediately opened my inventory. In my inventory, there were more valuable items than all those I had gotten combined in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Closed Betas of ‘Forgotten Legend’.

I was already close to possessing 200 million golden rings, but I had items far more valuable than this.

[Inventory list.

-100% Enhancement Success License. (Increase the Enhancement Level of an item regardless of its grade, level and current Enhancement Level.)

-Maximum Skill Level Increase Stone

-Random box with 1 accessory between the precious and legendary grades.

I placed the 100% Enhancement Success License I had obtained from the level 100 only Enhancement Quest in one corner of the inventory to use it later on when the God of Enhancement cooldown for my Ice Emperor’s guardian sword was more than several hundred days.

Likewise, I also placed the Max Skill Level Increase Stone in another corner of the inventory to use it in a situation where I absolutely needed to upgrade one of my skills.

Although it was not as good as the above two, I left the random box which i got from clearing the A-grade quest of ‘Light the Lamp of Hope to the Salte clan’ unopened even though it could give me a Legendary Grade item. But I’ve never opened it because it could give me a Precious Grade item instead.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that a Precious grade item is bad.

The Scorpion King’s ring and earrings that I’m currently wearing are also Precious grade items.

Anyway I had kept putting off opening the box until now.

But now, I strongly felt that I wanted to open it at last.