Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Episode 27. Archduke Oculus (1)

“Besides…”

My head started to hurt. There were way too many things going on at the same time. I could not solve all of the problems at once. When I looked around, I found Oculus and his demons staring at me.

Now there was no excuse. I was somehow involved with the chaos that the Malicious Commander had brought about. Anyone would have assumed that I was the “master” of the Malicious Commander and his army!

The only thing that I could do in this situation was to chop off the Malicious Commander’s head now. I did not know the reason, but the commander was treating me as an emperor. It would not be hard to simply cut his head off. Then another thought struck me.

“The Clue for Awakening.”

That word got stuck in my head. The commander must have known about the heart of the Hell Lord. In fact, the heart of the Hell Lord had been a great help; it had increased my intelligence, which had been my weakest ability, by a large value. Despite the increase, I could not fully awaken the heart, and I did not know how much further I could go.

If I could fully awaken the heart, I could completely solve the problem of my low intelligence. Now, the problem was getting away with this situation…

I opened the Mind’s Eyes first.

Name: Malicious Commander Maxium

Occupation: Emperor’s Knight

Title:

<ul>

Loyal service (U, strength +6)

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*Firmness (U, health point +6)

*Undead commander (Ex U, Agility and intelligence +4)

Statistics:

Strength 85 (+6) Intelligence 82 (+4) Agility 81 (+4) Health Point 88 (+6) Mana 74 Potential (410 + 20/ 410)

Comments: The commander is a loyal knight who had been guarding the treasure house in the abyss for thousands of years.

Skill: Splendid golden sword (Epic), Ruthless leadership (Epic)

[Comparison]

Randalph Bruciel

Strength 95 Intelligence 77 Agility 90 Health Point 96 Potential (392+51/500)

The Malicious Commander Maxium

Strength 91 Intelligence 86 Agility 85 Health point 94 Mana 74 Potential (410+20/410)

The commander’s statistics were impressive. The potential was maxed out, and the total statistics, which included additional bonuses, was 430. The commander also possessed three titles and two epic-grade skills.

“The commander does not have much room for additional growth, but he is almost perfect.”

The Malicious Commander was on par with the highest monsters.

In fact, he was even slightly more powerful than Griffin and Gigantes.

Furthermore, the commander’s soldiers were pretty useful. The regular soldiers were as powerful as intermediate monsters, whilst the knights were as powerful as high monsters.

I became greedy for the commander and his soldiers. However, I did not want to antagonize Oculus.

I was wearing a mask to hide my identity. However, I would not be surprised if the archdukes could find out who I was. After all, Oculus was one of the mighty archdukes, not just a random demon.

Then Malicious Commander Maxium slightly raised his face.

“Emperor, my lord. Grant me permission to join you and wipe out those filthy demons and monsters. Please allow me the honor to support you in this battle.”

His eyes were glowing. I could tell that he was excited.

However, I was still staring at Oculus, who was standing far away.

“What should I do?”

Maxium and his soldiers added up to about twenty thousand in number.

Together with my monsters, the number would be almost equivalent to the number of Oculus’ demons and monsters.

However, Oculus’ demons and monsters were slightly better than my monsters. If I could combat the archdukes and his dukes simultaneously, that would increase the chance of my victory by a little.

However, if I went for a full-fledged combat, I would have to reveal my identity.

I was lost in my thoughts for a moment to come up with the best decision, but the effort was futile.

“Randalph Bruciel.”

I could tell from the shape of Oculus’ mouth that he was calling out my name.

Perhaps I was too naïve to dare deceive an archduke with a mask.

The demons in front of the dungeon in Korea were either marquises or counts, so I could easily trick them. However, Tashumal recognized who I was before she lost her strength. Just like her, Archduke Oculus seemed to be the same.

When it rained, it poured.

“This sucks.”

I sighed quietly.

My identity was revealed even before I could make any move, and there was no way out.

I took off my mask. Then I took out Anger.

“I will first show my full strength. It will show Oculus that if we fight until one is completely crushed, the other will also be heavily damaged.”

Oculus and I were neck to neck. If we go on a full-fledged combat, both Oculus and I would be heavily damaged. The only way to resolve this situation was to change Oculus’ decisions.

After organizing my thoughts, I spoke.

“Maxium, follow me.”

“I, Maxium the loyal servant of the emperor, will support you, my lord, just as I have always done.”

He knelt on a knee and trembled.

The other skeleton soldiers did the same.

It looked as though all of them had epilepsies.

The commander and his army were clearly mistaken, but it was too late for me to go back.

So I let them be. Maxium thought that I had forgotten some of my memories, so he would not mind whatever I did.

I decided to first resolve the situation and then learn about the Clue for Awakening.

I moved forward. The skeleton soldiers moved quickly and made way for me.

“Dark Sword.”

Wooooong-!

Anger turned black.

“Paranormal.”

[You received one of the five blessings of Paranormal, which is ‘increasing all statistics by two for an hour.’]

“Finally!”

For the first time, I received a useful blessing.

Perhaps the blessing was an omen of my victory?

Anyways, getting a useful blessing was good news.

Griffin flew above me, and Spartoi, Liches, and Saber Tigers followed me on the ground.

What about Maxium?

The commander was standing by my side.

“Emperor, do you need a horse? I can gladly give you my horse.”

“I don’t need a horse.”

I could perform much better when I was on my feet.

I could ride a horse if necessary, but I was not familiar with horseriding.

Then I quietly stared ahead in front of me.

Oculus and his demons were charging forward.

“Oculus does not want to let it go quietly.”

Tsk. Who would have known that I would run across such a trouble?

Holding my Anger, which was now black, I spoke.

“Follow me. We will shatter the enemy.”

Boom!

I took a big step forward.

All of my soldiers and monsters began charging forward.

I saw a Two-headed Ogre. The mutated Ogre was a high monster of level four, and it was known to be a strong monster. Three Two-headed Ogres were slashing skeleton soldiers.

Boom! Boom!

Then I saw Genome Flies.

A Genome Fly was a high monster of level five, which could endlessly create self-destructing flies. The length of its body was about a meter, but tens of thousands of self-destructing flies were parasitizing the monster.

The monster was not sold in the store for everything. Furthermore, it never appeared in the previous two Auctions of Devildom. Its absence in both the store and the auction implied that the owner got the monster through special events. The flies should have been the first target, but I could not destroy them.

Boom!

The “Punishment of Nature,” which was a skill of Oculus’, struck the ground. Many green stems sprouted from the ground and attempted to strike me. Next to the stems were three dukes, who were trying to hinder my moves.

“Fighting four at the same time is indeed not easy.”

Had it been my previous life, I would not be able to handle even a single duke.

However, I was powerful. I had become very powerful. Although I was outnumbered, I was not losing against the four demons. I was not dominating, but I became confident that I would be able to defeat them if I fought each one at a time.

“How dare you! You sneaky little dog!”

Bump!

When I quickly turned around, the ground next to me was attacked and a pit was formed.

The attack was from Duke Garque. He was one of the three dukes of Oculus’ and was known for shooting “Lightning Beam” from his eyes. However, my agility was very high and I could dodge the attack. Thanks to the blessing of Paranormal, my agility was now ninety-two. My extrasensory was always activated. Dodging an attack, especially when the offender was yelling during the strike, was a piece of cake now.

However, Garque was not my ultimate goal.

It was Oculus.

I was moving towards Oculus.

There were many obstacles, but I almost reached Oculus. Using the Mind’s Eye, I looked at Oculus.

Name: Oculus

Occupation: Archduke of Devildom (Dungeon Master)

Title:

*The one who manipulates the Nature (Epic, Intelligence +4, Mana +7)

*The largest forest Olmotte (Epic, all statistics +3)

Statistics:

Strength 73 (+3) Intelligence 85 (+7) Agility 83 (+3) Health Point 73 (+3) Mana 87 (+11) Potential (401+26/500)

Comments: Oculus can hear the beating of the forest. He is also the only demon that can manipulate Nature.

Skills: The Punishment of Nature (Epic), Naturalization (Epic), Wise Eyesight (U)

[Comparison]

Randalph Bruciel

Strength 97 Intelligence 79 Agility 92 Health Point 87 Mana 98 Potential (392+61/500)

(Due to the blessings of Paranormal, all of the statistics have increased by two)

Oculus

Strength 76 Intelligence 92 Agility 86 Health point 76 Mana 98 Potential (401+26/500)

No wonder Oculus was an archduke.

His statistics were recovering very quickly.

The statistics of Oculus’ demons were around four hundred.

They were different from me. I had reached the limit with my intrinsic statistics, and I had been increasing the statistics with the help of titles and items. If my statistics were stuck in the current state, Oculus and his demons would catch up in one or two years.

I bit my teeth hard. I would not allow myself to get stuck, and my statistics were superior to those of Oculus’ and his demons’ as of now. I made my mind to declare myself as their “Opponent” here.

Slash!

The Punishment of Nature created green stems, but I cut it off. Oculus’ mana was similar to mine, so my attacks worked well on Oculus’ skills. However, the opposite would be the same; Oculus’ attack would work well on me, too. I needed to be careful.

Now the distance between Oculus and I was less than two hundred meters. With a single leap, I could reach Oculus. I took a deep breath.

It took me forty minutes to get to Oculus in the battlefield.

At that very moment, Oculus’ sharp stare scanned my entire body.

[Wise Eyesight (U) has been activated. The skill is now searching for weaknesses of Randalph Bruciel.]

[The Mind’s Eyes (Ex U) successfully figured out the attack. The chance of defense is seventy percent.]

[You have received an additional bonus from intelligence! However, your opponent’s mana is too high and the effect from the bonus is small. The chance of defense is eighty-one percent.]

[You have successfully defended the skill, Wise Eyesight.]

I frowned. Archduke Ariel, too, had the skill of Kotodama, which was an imaging skill. It seemed that Oculus’ Wise Eyesight was something similar to that. However, the Wise Eyesight was different from Ariel’s skill in that it would look for the opponent’s weaknesses rather than dominate the opponent.

“If I did not have the Mind’s Eyes, I could have revealed my weaknesses.”

I did not know what my weaknesses were, but the Wise Eyesight could have found them out. Anyways, the Mind’s Eyes were helpful.

Oculus’ face twisted a bit. He looked rather surprised.

Keeping my temper, I leaped forward at once and swung Anger.

Slash!

I cut something, but it was not Oculus.

What I cut were many stems that grew from Oculus’ body. The stems shielded Oculus from Anger.

Then Oculus smiled at me slightly.

“Randalph Bruciel.”

Aiming my Anger at Oculus, I spoke.

“You recognized me well.”

“You played your tricks well.”

The tricks were the Malicious Commander and his army. I snickered.

“I hope that my tricks were entertaining.”

“Haha. It sure was entertaining. I have been watching you since the beginning, which was the day you challenged me. You were merely a novice, but you have grown well.”

“…”

I lost my words for a moment.

Back in Devildom, I once challenged the four archdukes.

I was completely crushed by Ariel, and Ufa did not even accept the challenge. Pandemonium? He tortured me and enjoyed it. Oculus, with his unfathomable stare and a single flick of his finger, cut my arm.

I was quite sure that the four archdukes would not remember me. In fact, Ariel and Pandemonium treated me as though they had never seen me before. I had never confronted Ufa in Devildom, so it was only natural that he did not know about me.

However… Oculus remembered me.

My mouth shut and I clenched my fists hard. I thought that no one would remember me. However, Oculus, who did not pretend to know me during the previous life, was saying that he had been watching me.

I felt weird. Words could not describe how I felt.

Happiness, thrill? These were not what I was feeling.

Of course, it was not anger or annoyance. I could not find the right word to describe my feeling.

“You are a jerk.”

Yes, Oculus was indeed a jerk.