Chapter 19: Blood-Red Tower (1)

Goblin.

This goblin was different from the virtuous goblins that appeared in folk tales. There were a variety of goblins in the Underworld, however, all of them were strong, yet savage and cruel.

‘The reddening of the skin when angry is the special trait of blaze goblins.’

Among goblins, blaze goblins were known for their foul temper.

It seemed like the previously killed goblin was his mate.

The goblin was angrier than he had ever been before.

The goblin brandished its giant club.

Soon a black fog formed above the goblin.

Blaze!

A flame created from the fog flew in the direction of Muyoung.

Since he was aware of what kind of attack he was going to make, it wasn’t hard avoiding it.

However, he wasn’t finished with just one attack.

Blaze! Blaaaaze!

In a moment, his surroundings became a sea of flames.

“Back off.”

Muyoung grasped Anguish. The flames of a blaze goblin weren’t the kind that could be easily put out.

Until the anger of the blaze goblin died down, the flames would endlessly burn everything in its surroundings.

“I… will help you.”

Muyoung glanced at Taehwan’s current condition.

The hand holding his shield was broken and his muscles were very distorted.

If he pushed himself too hard in his current condition, his arm would have to be amputated.

Slam!

Muyoung kicked Taehwan’s body.

“Get lost. You aren’t of any help.”

This was the truth.

By needlessly pushing himself, he could end up being a hindrance in Muyoung’s battle.

Also, it was better to face the blaze goblin by himself than with a group.

Slash!

Muyoung forcefully cut the neck of the dead female goblin with the dagger embedded in her head.

He then held the female goblin’s head in his hands.

“Do you want her?”

Grahh! GRAHHHH!

As his mate’s corpse was desecrated, the blaze goblin’s red skin incomparably reddened.

Excluding the goblin king, all goblins had lifelong mates.

They were devoted to each other and spent their lives together.

If their mate died, they didn’t look for another. They had a very loyal side to them… His enemy was bad.

“Then take her.”

Muyoung threw the head of the female goblin high above his head.

When the blaze goblin moved to catch his mate’s head, Muyoung threw the dagger, predicting where the head would land, and quickly rushed out.

Others may look at this and curse and point their fingers, however, Muyoung held the opinion of ‘doing whatever it takes to win’.

Someone who was only kind will die.

Only because Muyoung knew to use any weakness, he was able to survive as the greatest assassin.

Even if you were to say his end wasn’t great.

The blaze goblin caught the falling head of his mate, however, a dagger stabbed into his back.

He purposely took the hit.

If he did not step in the way, his mate’s head would have been pierced.

The place where the head would fall and the direction of which the dagger flew completely intersected.

Only if he was to sacrifice his back was he able to protect what he wanted to protect.

‘As expected.’

Up until this point, it was as he planned in his head.

BLLLAAAAZZZZEEEEEEEEEE!

Soon the whole body of the blaze goblin was burning.

After carefully placing the female’s head on the ground, the blaze goblin grinded his teeth and charged towards Muyoung.

Clash!

Anguish bounced off.

Immense monstrous power!

However, as soon as Anguish had bounced off, he twisted his body and arrived at the blaze goblin’s chest.

Flames completely engulfed Muyoung.

‘The Goblin won’t be able to guard his blind spots.’

As he wasn’t able to follow Muyoung’s instantaneous movements, the blaze goblin was unable to set up a guard. Using this opening, Anguish was wrenched into the blaze goblin’s body.

Kraahhhhh!

The problem was the flames.

Even if it was Muyoung, if he was to receive these flames unconditionally, there was no way he was going to survive.

The only reason he was able to last this long was due to the enhancement of a stat after taking the Secret Medicine of the Sage.

‘Magic Resistance!’

The Secret Medicine of the Sage was a liquid medication that would randomly raise one of his stats.

Since it was random, it heavily relied on luck.

However, Muyoung knew of a method to reduce the options.

‘The Secret Medicine of the Sage’s random stat would slightly differ depending on the time and place.’

Luckily, it was a full moon yesterday.

The night of a full moon was the most abundant in magic power. There was an especially large amount of magic power reflected off the lakes.

This was how Muyoung was able to enhance his Magic Resistance.

Magic Resistance.

Just like its name, it was able to raise the resistance against magic and special skills.

It was rare for common equipment to have a Magic Resistance stat. Even related skills were rare and only cleric and support classes were able to raise Magic Resistance a little for a limited time.

However, it was different if the basic Magic Resistance stat was increased.

Depending on one’s effort, it was possible to permanently raise the Magic Resistance stat.

Being one of the strongest depended on if they used the Secret Medicine of the Sage to raise their Magic Resistance, was there anything more to say?

The problem was it was incredibly hard to obtain the Secret Medicine of the Sage.

As Muyoung was satisfied with four classes, he chose the Talisman of Asura, otherwise, he would have chosen the Secret Medicine of the Sage.

However, he was able to obtain the Secret Medicine of the Sage through Merlin.

‘It’s a battle of who endures the longest.’

The dagger was laced with a strong neurotoxin.

Even the blaze goblin would be affected by it.

On top of that, Anguish was ceaselessly draining his blood.

Kraaaaahhhhhh!

He tried to get Muyoung off in any way possible, but Muyoung was also desperately holding on.

If it was only a battle of endurance, it was more advantageous for Muyoung.

As soon as the blaze goblin’s strength weakened, Anguish cut through his chest in a vertical line and pierced his throat.

Slam!

The blaze goblin fell to his knees.

Muyoung drew Anguish and sheathed it.

In the first boss battle, Muyoung had an approximate level of contribution of 80%.

As their group was smaller, it was much easier to monopolize the level of contribution.

It was because he became incomparably stronger than himself 10 days ago.

Just like before, Muyoung shook his head to decline.

< 1st No-name - 98.7%>

< 2nd Alexandro Quintart - 88.4%>

< 3rd Lucien - 86.3%>

Alexandro was already the guild master of one the Nine Great Guilds, the ‘Sun’ Guild, Lucien was someone who was 1st in Solomon’s Hall of Fame in number of humans killed when Muyoung started to assassinate people.

‘Fighting King Lucien.’

At first, he wasn’t too sure, but after looking at the Boss Battle Rankings, he was certain.

Although he didn’t place within the top 10 among humans, he was a monster who came close.

His title, ‘Fighting King’, showed that he was a fighting psycho with strength second to none, never leaving an enemy, a complete wild man.

The two of them both had high levels of contribution, however, there was around 10% difference from Muyoung.

<’Solomon’s Hall of Fame: Blue Temple (2)’ has been added to your History.>

There was no choice as he was forcefully given a skill.

As much as there was no choice, it was bound to be a useful reward.

Muyoung expectantly checked the skill.

Skill Name: Talisman Creation (Rank: Nothing)

Info - Transform something that contains an object, creature, magic or holy power into a talisman. Only items the user ‘possesses’ are able to be used.

It was a skill that created talismans!

Seeing how it wasn’t ranked, it seemed like it could only hold one effect.

‘Not bad.’

Depending on how the skill was used, it was better than most high ranking items.

Its usability was a bit broader than the Infinity Pouch.

In the very least, Infinity Pouch had a size constraint and could not hold living creatures.

However, Talisman Creation could accommodate a larger variety.

‘Something containing magic or holy power, I guess these mean skills?’

This was the part that received most of his attention.

If it was possible, it meant that he was able to convert the Priest’s Blessing into a single-use talisman and use it during hunts!

Also, it would be useful for hiding things.

Simply put, its uses were limitless.

Muyoung lowered his head and gazed at the blaze goblin.

The hand of the blaze goblin fell in the direction of the female goblin.

He could feel his will to be together even in death.

‘I’ll do as you wish.’

A blaze goblin was the best material he could use currently.

Muyoung dragged the two corpses in an attempt to create an undead.

*

Muyoung built a simple log cabin near the temple and locked himself inside.

There was no one who would bother him now.

In fact, there were a quite a few that were happy with Muyoung’s return.

In this place, there was no one who could hunt the boss by themselves.

No, even facing the monster raid every day was too much.

However, Muyoung would be able to take care of these by himself.

If for a while, they struggled to live, with Muyoung, they were able to be more relaxed.

There were even a lot of people leaving food in front of Muyoung’s cabin.

Going beyond leaning against Muyoung, there were some who started to revere his power.

Also, there was a rumor Muyoung was able to handle ‘death’.

This rumor started from the skeleton and zombie guarding his cabin.

The mixture of fear and awe made some even deify Muyoung.

“Muyoung-nim[1]! I killed the wicked woman who slandered Muyoung-nim.”

Late at night.

As soon as Muyoung stepped out of his cabin, a man kneeled and handed him a package wrapped in cloth.

A familiar face of a woman was inside the cloth.

‘Kim Soyoung.’

At one time, she tried to seduce Muyoung and failed, next, she stuck next to Oh Juyoung, who died by Muyoung’s hands, a woman who walked a stray path.

Although he never paid attention to her, it seemed like she was slandering Muyoung when she was alive.

It seemed as though she thought that making Muyoung the bad guy was the only way for her to survive.

And then she died from a man who followed Muyoung as if he was a god…

Soyoung’s eyes were wide open.

How cruel was her death that her face still held a pained expression?

Muyoung frowned.

A human killing another human wasn’t something weird at this point, however, someone killing another for his sake felt different.

Even more, he didn’t feel happy about this kind of attention.

“Clear it away.”

“D-does it not satisfy you? Please do not leave us!”

The man slammed his head on the ground.

His figure showed that he completely believed that without Muyoung at the temple, they would all die.

‘This wasn’t what I hoped for.’

Following something blindly would eventually lead to only being able to see things in black and white.

And seeing things only in black and white was the greatest deterrent in unifying humanity.

While humanity was on the brink of destruction, the Forest of Death’s clients may or may not have increased, but they definitely did not decrease.

He acted so he didn’t have to see that ever again, but to think out that because of him, these same events were happening, made him feel terrible.

“If you don’t leave within 3 seconds, I’ll cut your head off.”

“Ye… YES!”

The man held the cloth and ran away.

Taehwan will punish him in the morning.

Taehwan was trying to maintain rules and protect others in his own way.

Muyoung clicked his tongue as he looked up at the night sky.

An awfully large amount of stars was shooting down.

’10 days from now.’

This was the time left until the gates would open and teleport them into the Underworld.

And before that time, there was something he had to get.

‘After 5 days, I will climb the tower.’

On the 25th day, towers will automatically emerge at the centers of all the temples.

The tower only allowed those who have killed humans to enter.

And once they entered, until they completed a special objective, no one was allowed to leave.

‘I have to obtain the Lunatic Sovereign’s Ring from there.’

The tower was connected to every temple.

The surviving elite would gather there.

And only by massacring approximately 200 people who enter would he be able to obtain the Lunatic Sovereign’s Ring.

Although it was the most savage condition, he had to obtain the ring.

The greatest possible treasure earned from the Blue Temple was that ring.

Also, the Lunatic Sovereign’s Ring was one of the items essential to awakening the S rank weapon, ‘Diabolos’,

A weapon above S rank was almost non-existent in the Underworld.

No more than an amount you could count on your hand.

So… he had to once again become a slaughter to accomplish his goals.

Only those who have killed humans were allowed inside the tower.

It was the start of a blood-red festival for murderers.

Muyoung’s eyes sunk endlessly.

[1] -nim to indicate reverence, high standing or in this case, god