Debuff Master

Siegfried went over to Lieutenant General Overlock at the command center tent.

“Welcome, Lieutenant Colonel Sieg! Did you rest well?” Overlock warmly welcomed Siegfried with a smile.

“I rested as much as I could, sir, but who are these people…?” Siegfried asked while looking at the people sitting at the meeting table.

“They are Adventurers just like you. Why don’t you greet each other first? This is Lieutenant Colonel Sieg, who obtained quite the achievement recently.” Overlock introduced Siegfried to the Adventurers.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Hello.”

“…”

“Ah, so you’re the famous guy everyone has been talking about.”

“Pleasure to meet you.”

The Adventurers greeted Siegfried one by one, except for one of them.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Sieg,” Siegfried greeted the Adventurers.

“Hmm… shall we get to the topic now that all of you have gathered? The reason why I called all of you here today is—” Overlock trailed off.

Gulp…! Gulp…! 

The Adventurers nervously gulped, waiting for what the corps commander had to say.

‘Haaa… I can hear you all gulping…’ Siegfried thought while looking at the thirsty Adventurers expectantly waiting for a quest.

It seemed a quest truly was the greatest motivator for Adventurers.

These Adventurers definitely received the same message, and that was probably why they were waiting like a bunch of hungry animals for what Overlock had to say.

‘Hmm… For him to build up suspense, I wonder just how amazing the quest he prepared for us…’

Siegfried was also curious about what Overlock had prepared for them.

“—to give all of you a very important task,” Overlock said.

“What is that important task?” asked the Adventurer who didn’t greet Siegfried.

“You will have to go and investigate how the Cryptid’s hierarchy works. The way they operate has become much shrewder and more careful in recent days. They weren’t like this just six months ago. Thanks to that, our forces have faced consecutive losses, and we have lost a lot of good men.”

“What are the exact details of our task?” asked the Adventurer once more.

“Infiltrate the Cryptid Greater Colony and find out what is going on inside. Find out the main reason behind their sudden change. We have to know our enemy if we want a chance to beat them, right?” Overlock replied.

A message popped up in front of the eyes of all of the Adventurers present at the meeting.

[Alert: Quest – ‘Investigate the Cryptid Greater Colony’ has appeared!]

However, none of them instantly accepted the quest. The reason was that infiltrating a Cryptid Greater Colony was no different from committing suicide.

How the hell were they supposed to infiltrate a place crawling with those mutated creatures? It was probably better to ask them to jump off a cliff and die.

“Ah… Is this some sort of a bad joke?”

“Why don’t you go yourself, sir?”

“What is this? Mission Impossible?”

“Excuse me, Corps Commander-nim… you should probably ask for something that at least sounds possible, sir…”

“This is a bit… insane…”

The Adventurers reacted quite negatively to the quest given—except for one person.

Someone raised their hand and said, “I will do it.”

“Oh! As expected! I knew I could count on you, Lieutenant Colonel Sieg!” Overlock exclaimed in delight while smiling brightly at Siegfried.

***

Siegfried’s thoughts were completely different from the Adventurers’.

‘Since when did people become so picky with quests? Well, they can continue picking only the easy ones if they want. I mean, how do you plan to become stronger like that? Anyway, I’m going to give this a try, at the very least,’ Siegfried thought.

His mindset was basically different from the other Adventurers.

‘This is an opportunity. I have to grab this regardless of whether it’s easy or difficult,’ Siegfried considered Overlock’s quest as an opportunity.

He could tell from experience that there was no way that a quest of this difficulty would simply be given without a corresponding and appropriate reward, and these kinds of difficult quests were actually a privilege reserved for those who showed that they were beyond a certain level. In short, this quest was actually a blessing in disguise.

“Good! Excellent! I can’t ask for anything else if you are going to be the one volunteering for this task! Hahaha!” Overlock exclaimed before letting out a burst of boisterous laughter when Siegfried accepted the task.

[Alert: You have accepted the Quest – ‘Investigate the Cryptid Greater Colony’!]

The quest acceptance message popped up in front of Siegfried’s eyes.

“So, Lieutenant Colonel Sieg has accepted the task. Is there anyone else?” Overlock asked the Adventurers.

“That is…”

“Hmm…”

“It’s a loss if I die while doing the task, so… haha…”

The Adventurers seemed hesitant to accept the quest.

The Adventurer, who ignored Siegfried earlier, suddenly asked, “How much?”

[Pyo Cheol-Ju]

[Type: Adventurer]

[Level: 171]

[Affiliation: Camellia Guild/Continent Coalition Forces 3rd Corps, 9th Infantry Division, 3rd Infantry Battalion]

[Position: Guild Master/Regiment Commander]

[Class: Knife Fighter]

[Title: Another Legend: 776, God of the Battlefield: Martial, Ambush Master]

Siegfried could tell from the adventurer’s ID and face that he was a Korean in his thirties. The man had square jaws and sharp eyes that made him give off a merciless and cruel impression. His hair was in a pomade style with tons of gel applied to it. It was inevitable for Siegfried to be reminded of a gangster just by looking at him.

“Let’s hear it out. How much are you going to pay us?”

“Are you talking about the reward? Without a doubt, it’s certainly going to be pretty generous. I plan to award one hundred thousand gold to the Adventurer who successfully completes this task,” Overlock replied.

“…!”

“In addition, whoever completes this task will receive a medal from the kingdom on top of the gold. A very good artifact you Adventurers seem to love is also one of the rewards.”

“Forget about your medal. What artifact is it?”

“Have you heard of the Book of Absorption?”

“Book of Absorption…?”

“It’s a mysterious book imbued with the Authority of Absorption. Whoever completes this task will receive the book that will allow them to absorb another person’s ability.”

A message popped up in front of the Adventurers’ eyes as soon as Overlock was done speaking

Ding!

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

[Investigate the Cryptid Greater Colony]

[Type: Limited Quest]

[Infiltrate the Cryptid Greater Colony and collect information.]

[Progress: 0%]

[Rewards: 100,000 gold, Book of Absorption: Chi]

[Caution: You will have to thoroughly investigate as only information with concrete evidence will be counted to complete this quest. This quest will be completed on a first-come, first-served basis, and only the first one who brings the information to Lieutenant General Overlock will be rewarded.]

It was an insanely difficult quest with a proportional and appropriate reward. Forget about the ‘Book of Absorption: Chi’, the one hundred thousand gold reward was already an insanely huge reward by itself.

Who could have imagined that clearing a quest in the game would net a player five billion won in real life?

“One hundred thousand gold…?”

“Crazy…”

“I’m kind of getting tempted now…”

The Adventurers started to waver when the immense rewards were brought up.

“Aren’t you trying too hard to get a discount?” Pyo Cheol-Ju suddenly said with a smirk that seemed to imply that he was looking down on Overlock before adding, “As you said, this will decide the fate of the entire coalition forces. In that case, don’t you think one hundred thousand gold is far too cheap?”

“I won’t deny that you are right, but we cannot afford to give more even if we wanted to. We have taken a hit from the continuous string of defeats, and we barely managed to scrape this one hundred thousand gold together to give as a reward,” Overlock replied.

“Hmm…”

“We wanted to hire stronger Adventurers, but their buttocks are simply too heavy to move with this amount.”

Siegfried understood what Overlock meant by his words about how stronger Adventurers had heavier buttocks.

‘Figures. Every level counts starting from Level 200, so dying once or twice just for five billion won won’t make sense to them,’ he thought.

Leveling up once an Adventurer was above Level 200 was incredibly difficult, and most of them could barely level up after a month of continuous grinding. However, the penalty for dying at their level was losing three levels.

“Well, if you insist. I’ll do it. I’m not the type to be so picky over work anyway,” Pyo Cheol-Ju said with a nod, seemingly hinting that he was doing Overlock a favor.

Pyo Cheol-Ju became the second to accept the quest after Siegfried among the Adventurers. However, the other Adventurers were still split 8:2 regarding the matter.

“These kinds of quests are just a waste of time.”

“I’d rather go out and hunt another monster than waste my time on a quest like this.”

“Have a nice day, I’m out.”

Quite a few of them directly gave up on the quest.

“Shall I try my luck?”

“I guess I can give it a try…”

There were some who got enticed by the discounted yet still immense reward promised by Overlock.

“Now, the equipment you will need to infiltrate is in here, so take one with you before you go,” Overlock said as he passed a sack to the Adventurers.

“Then, I will see you soon,” Siegfried said.

“Lieutenant Colonel Sieg.” Overlock called out to Siegfried before he could leave the tent.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for, sir?”

“Hmm… that is… I mean… you know… there’s something like that…”

“…?”

“Don’t despise me. I’m doing this for your sake…”

“What are you talking about, sir…?”

Siegfried couldn’t understand what Overlock was mumbling about.

“You will have to speak clearly for me to understand you. I will not be able to understand you if you keep mumbling like that…”

“No, it’s nothing. Never mind.”

“Ah… alright…” Siegfried left the meeting tent while a bit displeased about the whole exchange.

A few days later, Siegfried would come to learn why Lieutenant General Overlock had been acting funny toward him.

***

Siegfried opened the sack Overlock gave him as soon as he went back to his battalion.

There were five items in the sack.

[Cryptid Ghillie Suit (Orc)] × 1

[A disguise created from the hide of a Cryptid. It can fool the Cryptids, but it will not be a hundred percent effective at all times. The user is advised to act discreetly while the item is equipped.]

[Elixir of Haste] × 3

[The user’s Movement Speed, Attack Speed, and Casting Speed will increase by 25% for thirty seconds after consuming this potion.]

[Memorize Monocle] × 1

[A magical monocle that may record the user’s memories.]

[Tactical Map] × 1

[A map made by the coalition forces with the Cryptid Greater Colony marked out.]

[Confidential Note] × 1

[A confidential note with the list of Cryptids guarding the colony.]

The provided items were just the ones he required to complete his task. These were important items, but they were just the bare minimum required to infiltrate a Cryptid Greater Colony.

“What should I do…? I’m just going to instantly die if I were to carelessly approach this…” Siegfried muttered. He was in a dilemma.

“What’s the matter?” Carell asked.

“Ah, that is…” Siegfried explained the task he received from Overlock.

“It is indeed a difficult mission…”

“That’s right, and that’s why I will need to find a way to successfully complete it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty will have to prepare a concrete plan since if you were to carelessly enter a colony, then… ah… just thinking about it is already too morbid…”

“I’ll be eaten alive until not a body part remains.”

“Yes…”

“Well, I wonder if there’s a good plan… a good plan…”

“May I suggest something, Your Majesty?”

“What is it? Do you have a good idea?”

“It is not a good idea per se…. but I think it will make it easier for Your Majesty to move around…”

“What is it?”

“What do you think of diverting the attention of the Cryptids at the Greater Colony?”

“How?”

“A battle.”

“A battle, you say…”

“If we bring the whole battalion and pick a fight with them… I think they will come crawling out, right? Then, Your Majesty can use that opening to infiltrate the Greater Colony.”

“That doesn’t sound bad at all, even though it’s a pretty rash plan…” Siegfried seemed to agree with Carell’s plan.

‘Yeah, this is the only way I have unless my class magically becomes a high-ranked thief all of a sudden…’ Siegfried thought.

The Debuff Master didn’t specialize in infiltration. After all, it didn’t have even a single skill that would allow him to hide. As such, Carell’s plan was the only viable option he had right now.

“Alright, I will leave it to you then, Carell.”

“Are you sure, Your Majesty?”

“Yeah, and you will command the battalion while I’m infiltrating the colony.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Of course, it will be you, who else is there? You are the Vice Battalion Commander of our battalion, after all.”

“But I’m—”

“I’ll leave it to you, then,” Siegfried quickly patted Carell on the shoulder.

“Y-Your Majesty! I cannot do it! How can I command a whole battalion?!”

“Just do it if I say so, punk.”

“…”

“Do you want to be court-martialed for insubordination?”

“Your Majesty…” Carell muttered, seemingly on the verge of crying.