Reader - Chapter 88
Chapter 88: Twin Ogres
-Kuooh?
-Uooooh!
Shortly after beginning his search, Soo Hyuk heard the roar of ogres in the distance, then began heading toward the source.
‘There’s two twins.’
There were five ogres in front of him, and among them were two Twin Headed Ogres.
‘Hmm, then I can’t kill them all in one shot.’
Normal ogres would be instantly killed by the Poison Fog+Firebolt combo, but Twin-Headed Ogres were tough enough to survive the combo.
“Poison Fog.”
Deciding to change his methods, Soo Hyuk first cast Poison Fog.
Shuaa…
As the fog descended on the area, the ogres began to stumble around in a panicked manner.
“Poison Chains”
After Poison Fog, Soo Hyuk cast Poison Chains at the ogres, who were desperately trying to escape the poison. A dark green chain flew towards the ogres and bound them together. When the chain wound itself around the ogres, their movement speed slowed down to almost a crawl.
Exactly 3 seconds after the spell was cast, the three normal ogres collapsed on the ground, dead. Then 3 seconds after that, the twin-headed ogres fell as well.
And so, Soo Hyuk defeated all the ogres and continued searching after collecting the drops.
-Uh! Uh!
“Poison Storm.”
-Kuaaah!
“Flame Dance.”
Soo Hyuk picked off all the ogres he encountered on the way.
[Level Up!]
Soo Hyuk smiled warmly as he looked at the occasional level-ups.
‘At this speed, I might reach 190.’
It was at that moment.
Bang!
“Hmm?”
The ground shook as he lost his balance and stumbled.
-Kuooooong!
A deafening roar incomparable to any other echoed throughout the mountain, and that wasn’t it. A notification appeared as well.
[Warning!]
[The King of the Crimson Mountains, the Tripled-Headed Ogre Orem has appeared!]
Soo Hyuk’s eyes widened to their limit as he stared at the notification.
‘Wow.’
Orem, the King of the Mountain Range had appeared. Keeping his eyes on the notification, Soo Hyuk opened his quest window then checked the quest.
[King of the Mountain Range]
The reason ogres of the Crimson Mountains are moving in groups, is because a king has appeared on the mountain range. Find out who the king is and report to the agency!
[Triple Head Ogre Orem: 0 / 1 ]
[Quest Reward: B-Rank Promotion]
[The quest will be considered complete once Orem is found.]
[The quest will be canceled on death. Note: if the cause of death is from Orem, the quest penalty will not apply.]
‘Do I have to see it myself?’
Soo Hyuk, who initially expected that the mission had been completed because of the message, discarded the thought and looked towards the roar. It seemed like he had to see Orem with his own eyes.
Bang!
Soo Hyuk carefully advanced towards the source of the roar, watching out for the periodic earthquakes. Then when he finally arrived, he couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.
‘Whoa…’
There weren’t any big physical differences between Orem the Triple Headed Ogre and Twin Headed Ogres. Their sizes were similar so the only difference that stood out was that Orem had one more head and an extra pair of arms, as compared to a Twin-Headed Ogre, which had four arms.
But was it because of that one detail? Its aura was different from other monsters. The pressure Orem gave off completely overshadowed the Twin-Headed Ogres so far.
‘Should I try?’
Soo Hyuk pondered as he stared at Orem. His quest was already complete, but to go back like this, his previous 3 days felt like a waste.
‘It looks really strong…’
In the Crimson Mountains, the ogres were around level 200~250. That meant Orem was a level 200~250 named boss monsters, whose race an ogre, renowned for their crushing strength.
‘I probably won’t die in one hit.’
The current amount of health Soo Hyuk had was around 110,000. No matter how weak his defense, or how strong Orem’s attack power was, he wouldn’t be able to reduce his HP to zero in one hit.
‘I also have the subspace.’
Soo Hyuk also had the emergency escape skill ‘Archmage’s Subspace’.
‘Let’s test the waters first and run away if it goes badly.’
He just had to escape to his subspace if things went wrong. Resolving his worries, Soo Hyuk slowly approached the king.
However, Soo Hyuk had to stop in place before he could take his tenth step.
[You have been discovered by the Triple Headed Ogre Orem.]
Soo Hyuk was startled at the sudden message. Returning to his senses, he quickly turned to look at Orem and locked eyes with one of its heads.
-Kuooooong!
The moment the head saw him, it roared powerfully and caused the other two heads to look at Soo Hyuk as well. Meanwhile, under the gaze of 6 eyes, Soo Hyuk muttered under his breath,
“Poison Storm.”
Shuaa…
The Poison Storm erupted around him, engulfing Orem.
-Kuoooong!
However, before even 3 seconds could pass, Orem barreled out of the poison with a ferocious roar. It then turned towards Soo Hyuk and started charging wildly.
“Poison Chains, Pool of Poison.”
Soo Hyuk continued to fire spell after spell at the approaching Orem. The first spells he fired were ones that restricted movement speed.
Bang! Bang!
But Orem’s speed didn’t slow at all as if the special effects didn’t trigger or it was just immune.
“Poison Frog, Poison Sphere.”
Frowning, Soo Hyuk didn’t cease his stream of spells even as he started retreating with.
‘Not being able to see its health is really…’
Soo Hyuk thought as he stared at the shortening distance in between him and Orem. It was regretful as a visible health bar for monsters would make it easier to make decisions in battle.
-Kuouong!
Soon, the distance narrowed enough for Orem to swing his giant trunk-like arms. Meanwhile, Soo Hyuk’s frown only deepened as he faced the fist rushing towards him like a bullet train.
‘Crazy.’
The problem was that there wasn’t only one fist; there were three, and each of them was the size of a small car. There just wasn’t enough space to dodge them.
Bang!
Soon, Orem’s fist smashed into the spot where he was standing and he was flung backwards from the force of a single fist. In the air, Soo Hyuk quickly checked his health.
‘80 thousand?’
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but panic at his remaining health. He only had around 80, 000 HP left.
‘That means he did 30 thousand from a single fist?’
That was approximately a fourth from his 110 thousand health pool. All from a single fist.
‘F*ck.’
Orem’s health could also be near the bottom, but after finding out his attack power, Soo Hyuk didn’t want to take the risk.
“Archmage’s Subspace.”
[Warping to the Archmage’s Subspace.]
And so, after realising Orem’s power, Soo Hyuk immediately teleported into his subspace.
“How does it deal 30,000 damage in one hit?”
Soo Hyuk muttered in irritation when he arrived at the chamber. He then opened his quest window before heading to the tunnel.
“Now I just have one rank left.”
He would ascend to be a B-rank after completing his quest at the agency. The end of his quest to enter the Hadrac Library never seemed closer than now.
Arriving at the warp circle, Soo Hyuk teleported straight to Hadrac, and from there, headed to the Mercenary Agency. Then upon arriving at the agency, Soo Hyuk climbed the stairs to the 2nd floor and walked up to one of the operating empty counters.
But when the NPC received his token, he jumped in his seat.
“…”
Noticing the NPC’s little reaction, Soo Hyuk stared suspiciously at him. Then as if realising his fault, the NPC hurriedly fixed his posture and asked,
“W-was there really a Triple Headed Ogre?”
“Yes.”
Were Triple Headed Ogres that feared? Soo Hyuk wondered as he replied with a nod.
[You have completed the quest ‘King of the Mountain Range’.]
A notification appeared the moment he answered.
“Could you please wait a moment? Excuse me…”
The NPC stood up as his voice trailed away. He then entered the room behind him, presumably to change his token into a B-rank one.
After a few minutes, the NPC returned to Soo Hyuk.
“…?”
Soo Hyuk was confused when he noticed what the NPC was carrying.
‘What’s that box for?’
In the NPC’s hands was his new token, and a mysterious box.
‘I’m sure there was no reward for the quest though?’
He could distinctly remember feeling annoyed because the reward of the quest only said ‘B-Rank Promotion’.
‘Then is it for someone else?’
That was a possibility, but there wasn’t anybody around him waiting for their reward either. But at that moment, an idea struck his head.
‘Is it for the previous quest?’
The original mission he picked for his promotion, ‘Unusual Ogres.’ The reward for that quest was, he remembered, was [???].
The NPC placed the box and the new token on the table, then pushed them towards Soo Hyuk and said,
“These are the rewards for your mission.”
The NPC’s words confirmed Soo Hyuk’s idea. This box was the reward for ‘Unusual Ogres’.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Soo Hyuk bid farewell as he stored his new token and the box in his inventory.
At that moment.
“S-Soo Hyuk-nim!”
“…?”
Soo Hyuk, who was about to climb down on the stairs, froze at the NPC’s shout then looked back.
“Umm, could you please follow me somewhere?”
“…Excuse me?”
Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but ask back in response. Follow him?
“There are some people that want to meet with Soo Hyuk-nim.”
[A Sudden Meeting]
The executives of the Mercenary Agency want to meet with you. Follow Karlot and head to the executive room!
[Quest Reward: ??? ]
A sudden quest. Soo Hyuk, who was about to reject the quest, changed his mind upon reading its contents.
‘The executives…’
The executives of the Mercenary Agency. A wrong move here could come back to bite him tenfold.
“…I understand.”
Making his decision, Soo Hyuk replied to NPC Karlot.
[You have accepted the quest ‘A Sudden Meeting’.]
“Then this way please…”
Karlot started to lead the way while Soo Hyukfollowed behind him. After a few minutes of walking, Karlot stopped in front of a certain door.
Tap. Tap.
“Soo Hyuk-nim is here.”
After he knocked on the floor, Karlot stood aside and gestured to Soo Hyuk,
“You can go in now.”
At Karlot’s words, Soo Hyuk opened the door and walked into a room.
[You have completed the quest ‘A Sudden Meeting’.]
A notification appeared the moment he set foot in the room. However, Soo Hyuk’s gaze was not on the notification.
‘Those two…’
There were two men inside the room. Considering the quest was completed, they seemed to be the executives of the agency. Meanwhile, the two men stood up when Soo Hyuk entered the room, and proceeded to introduce themselves.
“Hello, I’m Ian, the master of the Drak Guild.”
“And I’m Alex, the master of Lime Guild.”
