Solo Max-Level Newbie - Chapter 67
Chapter 67 – One Man Legion (3)
“… is that possible? No, are you really going to move like that?”
Elise looked on in disbelief.
This was hard to believe.
Not only had he read through the opponent’s stratagem, but he also saw through Soulless’ character as if he had known the boss monster for ten years.
Above all, the hidden card prepared at the end was something even Elise could never imagine.
“You… What are you? Are you human?”
Elise gulped.
From their first meeting, she knew this man was full of surprises. What was happening here was beyond that.
“I am just one of those people who likes the world.”
Eleven years was a long time, and he enjoyed his time here.
That was why he had clung to this place more than anyone else.
He wasn’t a genius who could learn things instantly. Nor was he born as someone with talent.
He had exhausted and worn himself out.
That was all.
“Phew, it is really like you.”
Elise sighed.
No matter how much she asked, he would never talk about his true identity.
“Protect what is on your head. It is quite expensive.”
“Don’t worry. I am not the kind to lose what I get.”
Smile!
“Anyway, you are going to be miserable, so see you later.”
Jin-hyuk, having said his goodbyes, moved away from Elise.
He arrived at a vast open space across from his primary formation of chess pieces on the far right.
Jin-hyuk whistled.
And…
Dududud.
Heavily armored cavalry units equipped with lances lined up on both sides of Jin-hyuk.
“You called?”
An emotionless voice came from a knight atop a horse.
Unlike the other chess pieces, this was a unique object imbued with intelligence.
These were the knights that he had saved for this moment. From among them, a horse wearing black armor came forward.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve ridden a horse.’
Jin-hyuk stroked the black horse’s mane.
From relatively common types, such as horses and wolves, to mythical beasts, such as a phoenix or dragons.
There were literally thousands of mount types in the Tower of Trials. Naturally, Jin-hyuk had ridden all of those that existed in the game.
In fact, it would be somewhat awkward to ride a horse because it was rare for him to ride such things, yet he climbed up on it anyway.
“Yiiiha!”
The horse shook violently, but it was just for a short moment.
With his gentle and skillful hand movements, the horse stopped acting wild.
“Let’s go.”
Jin-hyuk grabbed a lance.
“Yes, sir!”
The black knight bowed its head.
Dududud!
Three hundred knights began their advance through the bamboo forest, the sound of their movement echoing all around.
At that moment.
“Koooo!”
“Ohhhh!”
Among the stone statues, there were ones with unusually long limbs. They began to run towards Jin-hyuk.
This unit numbered around three thousand. However, each of them were just medium-level units.
‘He is aiming for the base.’
It would be an ambiguous strategy to go back and block it, but there were too many of them to simply ignore them.
Perhaps this was what Soulless aimed for.
“What do we do?”
“Ignore it. As those 3,000 move forward, the defensive wall would become thinner.”
Jin-hyuk pointed to the empty gap in the center of the statues.
“As soon as we dig in, the forces on both flanks will block the escape route.”
“Yes.”
He understood it.
It was a gap that was left intentionally open. The purpose was to lure the opponent and lock them in from the sides before taking the crown from Elise.
The intentions were too obvious just by looking at how large the opening in the center was. However, all the possible plans had been established.
The three thousand-strong units were sent to take the crown.
‘The premise will be that I need to be faster in killing it.’
Dududud!
Jin-hyuk increased his movement speed as the enemy approached.
“We break through at once!”
He shouted loudly with his lance pointed forward.
[Chess pieces ‘Knight’ activates ‘Wedge Formation’!]
[Damage on impact increased by 200%]
His knights took up an assault formation that would generate maximum destructive power even with smaller numbers on their side. Three hundred knights from the right side dug right into the enemy line.
Kwakwakwang!
The stone statues touched by the lance were blown apart, and their fragments dispersed over the ground.
That was how strong Jin-hyuk’s unit was. The layered defense formation was shattered by using a breakthrough at a single point that combined their superior weight and speed.
Jin-hyuk, who was at the vanguard, captured the momentum of the attack and dug deep into the defensive line.
Some of the statues desperately resisted, but they were helpless against Jin-hyuk. Only named monsters would even stand a chance.
In just a minute.
Jin-hyuk and his knights reached the deepest point of the enemy camp.
Jin-hyuk raised his head and saw Soulless sitting atop its bejeweled stone statue.
‘… he is smiling.’
The corners of its lip curled up to a smile, and its face was confident of victory.
“You’ve made it this far, human. You deserve the praise for leading such a small number of soldiers and making it in front of me.”
“Keep speaking nonsense. I know you opened the space up intentionally.”
“Oh? You knew this was a trap?”
“Something like that.”
“That’s funny, but why did you walk in then?”
“Uh? Walk in? Maybe because this looked like the Han river on a midsummer night? Look. There is beer and chicken here.”
“… even in this situation, you act like this. At this point, I think I’ve overestimated you.”
Soulless slowly raised both of its hands.
“Well, that’s enough. Why would you entrust the crown to such a skinny child or why you came straight inside here… it isn’t worth giving you my time anymore.”
Soulless clasped its hands together.
“I need to end you.”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
At that signal, stone statues on either side of Soulless began to move towards Jin-hyuk, making him frown.
‘He even summoned the statue of David and the Clearing the Foul Traces.’
Similar to the monster from yesterday, they were powerful named monsters.
Kwang!
Kwang!
His knights began to shatter without being able to resist much. Their armors split in half, and their lances shattered against the assault.
“Puahahah! There aren’t any people in the world better than Shiva!”
A stone monster burst into laughter.
“Hmm. I see no human with the right proportions.”
A statue of David scanned its foe’s body up and down.
Both combat maniacs and perverts were in one place. This was a rare sight…
Indeed the amount of magic that Soulless possessed was enormous. Seeing that it could control monsters of this caliber, it must have nearly endless magic.
‘After all, a boss is a boss.’
But…
Despite the overwhelmingly unfavorable situation, Jin-hyuk looked unperturbed. In fact, he was smiling.
“Have you lost it? Why are you smiling?”
“I will point out two things that you are mistaken about.”
Jin-hyuk folded his first finger.
“First, the stone statues you sent out. You picked them out thinking you are pretty confident of the win, right?”
“Right. Only the elite was selected, and they are people I can trust with any task.”
“I did the same.”
“What?”
“The one I entrusted with the crown… she is someone I can trust.”
As Jin-hyuk finished his words.
Kwakwang!
Red blood rose up into the air.
“These bastards! How dare you! Try to touch me for real!”
Elise’s face was angry.
[Elise activates Lv?? ‘Rain of Fresh Blood’!]
Hundreds of harpoons made of blood filled the sky. They were many in number, but they were also imbued with tremendous amounts of magic.
The sunlight disappeared as black clouds took their place.
“Die.”
Elise sighed coldly.
And it ended with that.
The stone statues began to crumble under the endless rain of blood.
This was something that was usually seen only in movies.
Even then, the magic supply was still limited. Had she been able to use her full powers, the whole area would have been devastated.
“W-what?”
Soulless, who was watching this, gasped in shock.
He had deliberately sent his best soldiers for the assault. In front of the white-haired girl, they were barely better than paper soldiers.
This was absurd.
J-just how…
As Soulless struggled to consolidate the reality of the situation, Jin-hyuk folded his second finger.
“And next. What you thought was a lure to trap me deep in your formation was instead something I was looking for.”
The trigger conditions were quite tricky, but he had met all of the conditions just in time.
[Loading ‘Memories of the World’]
Jin-hyuk summoned it to review his skills.
Woong!
The abilities that he could use as materials for fusion were Blood Demon Qi and Mandala.
He could easily turn the current situation if he fused those two abilities.
[Unique Ability ‘Blood Demon Qi’ and ‘Mandala’ are fused!]
[You have succeeded in fusing!]
[You have acquired the Double Agent (S) skill!]
[Rank is lowered from S to A because the activation condition is difficult.]
[Double Agent
Acquisition Difficulty: A
Description: You can brainwash enemies, making them point their swords at each other. However, the target of the double spy must be a ‘Summoned beast’ summoned by a boss monster and can be used when the distance from the ‘boss monster’ that summoned them is within 5 meters.]
“Thank you.”
Because Soulless had let him come to the required range that was needed to activate the necessary ability.
[Lv1 Double Agent is activated!]
Psss!
A transparent wave rippled out from Jin-hyuk’s body. At that moment.
“Hooo!”
Strange things began to happen in the tightly packed stone statue formation.
The swords and spears aimed at Jin-hyuk and his knights were now directed to their fellow statues.
Puak!
Kakakak!
Almost half of the stone statues began to run rampant in an instant.
This included even those statues that were considered named monsters.
“I like the proportions of your body, that fucking western body!”
Even David was going crazy.
Kwang!
An unsightly crack appeared on his face.
“W-what is this all of a sudden?”
“Shut up! From the start, I didn’t like your face! Nor your abs or thighs!”
As long as the attack was already made, it was useless to speak anymore.
Now even the named monsters considered each other enemies. The battlefield had changed.
“Damn it. You were doing this on purpose?”
Soulless clenched its fist.
“I dug a trap.”
If you wanted to catch someone with a brain, you couldn’t do it all at once. You needed to plan it step by step.
Well…
“It is round two now.”
