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  “You have brought the sacrifice?” The monster repeated.

  The Monster’s three heads spoke as one. However, each tongue spoke at a slightly different pitch; adding onto the whole creepiness factor by threefold. Yet, when it spoke there was no emotion behind it. When someone speaks, there’s a hint of emotion and intent. When this monster, it had none of that.

  Like a recording, being replayed over and over again.

  Something inhuman disguised as human.

  It was just enough to make the party hesitate.

  Just enough.

  And in that slight instant, the ten-foot tall siamese triple humanoid monster lunged towards us with unbelievable speed for something of its size.

  Countless adventurers probably fell the same way. Stunned into silence at the bizarre act and then killed in the first few seconds as their puny mortal brains tried to make sense of this spectacle.

  And if it wasn’t for me, my party would be nothing but another drumstick for the monster to gnaw on. But I had been ready for a trick like this.

  So I met the monster head on.

  I surged forward, mana and steel answering my call in equal measure. The exchange probably took seconds, but it felt even quicker somehow –like my brain’s perception of time could barely contain the overabundant information of the fight.

  CLANG!

  ?Lock Slaveborn casts [Share the Load] ?

  ?Lock Slaveborn casts [King’s Guard] ?

  My aura-covered sword met the monster’s chisel in an explosion of sparks that lit up the dimly lit space. At the same time, the Lunar Shield snapped into place right above my head as the monster formed a sledgehammer with four arms and crashed into it. One moment, my Lunar Shield had been drifting around lazily and the next, it reverberated from the blow.

  God, I had felt my bones shake from the recoil of that block.

  I twisted like an eel, leaping back as its sixth hand tried to stab into me.

  A second, maybe two. That was all it was.

  But in that exchange, I’d seen the monster close up. It’s rancid meat-rot breath washed over me like a fine-mist but I dared not shake my head. It’s hands ended in sharply-filed nails, five to six inches long and there was an instinctive knowledge not to get close to the nails, even though my game-knowledge told me there was nothing really special about them. That’s the issue with being a gamer in this world –I know the monster’s weaknesses and strengths but that calm-part of my brain is rarely in charge in moments like this.

  More than that, I’d seen its eyes.

  Intelligence.

  Doror had been right in a way. He was wrong about the speech, the monster couldn’t converse. Well, maybe it could. But from what I could tell?

  It didn’t give a shit what it was saying. All it felt was the fear drawn over our faces when its spat out our language.

  And it loved us for it.

  “Move!” I screamed out seeing the Samsoogook’s three faces grin towards me with stained teeth.

  The Samsoogook whooped out something guttural, like a primate beast and ran towards us.

  And as it did, all six of its arms spread out in the shape of a jumping spider. Six individual small portals opened up in the space above its head, and when the Samsoogook reached in and out, it was carrying a different weapon in each hand.

  ?Samsoogook casts [Divine Ornament] ?

  Each of them gleaming with a deadly edge.

  And if I wasn’t wrong…

  Two of them were [Unique] items that I recognized. The Spear and Dagger, to be exact.

  Before I could appraise the other four, Aurora met the Samsoogook’s charge with her own.

  CLAAAAAAAAAAAAANG

  Her Tower Shield met the Samsoogook’s weapons and another blindingly bright display of sparks flew around the opening. Aurora actually yelled out loud, her face set for war, as she pushed against the blow. But the impact drove her back –one, two, three and five feet.

  But she held.

  Barely.

  “Ssssshit!”

  “Help Sis! I’m loading!”

  “Kyrian! Light!” I jumped backwards towards our backliners, rotating with Skaris as he rushed past me.

  One of the reasons why my party members had been so slow to react was due to the lack of light. This entire place was being lit by a torch, and unlike me, none of them had [Darkvision].

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  ? Kyrian Tricilan casts [Lightning Wisps] ?

  Tiny motes of electricity, barely larger than my thumbprint came to existence. Nowhere enough to light up this place. Except Kyrian summoned hundreds of them, and the air buzzed with electrical humming as the rest of my party saw what was here at the bottom of the stairs for the first time.

  Bones.

  Just bones and bones and bones.

  Small bones. Too small to be down here.

  Really small.

  I had been expecting this since we spoke to Doror. That’s what MSS is about after all, it only gets more depressing and darker. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. The monsters get increasingly more evil and demonic –and the ones who look like angels are just that. They only look like angels. After all, the setting of MSS was that it was a grimdark RPG. Playing as an adventurer who went out into the dark to hunt the things that made your bed go bump.

  So I was ready for this. It’s not like it’s the first time I saw it. Even though it filled me with a sense of revulsion, disgust and anger, I set it aside for this raid.

  But not my comrades.

  Unlike Aurora and Kyrian, both Skaris and Stole were relatively new to this scene.

  Skaris’ body exploded into blue flames as he screamed in anger.

  “MONSSSSSSSSSTER!”

  Skaris leapt forward, whirling his spear in large arcs. The heat from his body was warning enough for Aurora to back away as the seven-foot tall beastman entered the fray. He slammed his spear down on the ground, causing a large flowery explosion of blue flame that stopped the monster in its tracks. But it was only momentary.

  All three faces were still smiling.

  The Samsoogook’s Phase changes could be seen through its facial expressions. Since it had three faces…

  ‘Three phases. As long as we can get to Phase Three…’

  I had to set up the battlefield before he entered Phase Two.

  “Skaris! Aurora! To the right!”

  As the two frontliners bolted towards their right, I ran the opposite way. Kyrian’s chanting began to fill the cavern and I recognized the spell as [Lightning Arrow]. A powerful single-target spell that he used on the Hwacha before.

  Pzzzzt

  Bolts began to whistle through the air, as Stole started to snipe at the monster.

  I chanced a look back, seeing that Stole had climbed further up the spiraling staircase again. She was lying flat on her belly, tucked snuggly into a corner. And each time her Arbalest bucked against her shoulder, I saw a bolt hit the monster’s thick hide.

  And they bounced right off.

  Damn, if only Stole had a few more Cores…

  As it was, it was up to the three of us to buy time for Kyrian. We circled the monster and it was smart enough not to lunge at the first opportunity.

  “We need to buy time for Kyrian.” I said to Skaris and Aurora.

  And even as I said it, the one of the head’s looked towards Kyrian.

  Holy hell, it wasn’t enough that this monster was smart enough to use speech as a scare tactic. Doesn’t that mean it also understands our language? Which, when combined with the fact that it could perfectly imitate our words…

  “Skaris! It’s legs!”

  The Samsoogook bent its legs to jumped towards Kyrian but Skaris trucked in bulletspeed. He’s spear flickered out with the speed of a snake-strike. The wound on the Samsoogook’s thigh immediately burst into flames and it turned to Skaris, brandishing the six weapons.

  And became a whirlwind of weapons.

  There was no form. No art or style. It just swung its weapons randomly– and at the last second, the weapons flashed with light.

  ?Samsoogook casts [Random Swing] ?

  ?[Random Swing] transforms into [Double Stab - Spear] ?

  ?Samsoogook casts [Random Swing] ?

  ?[Random Swing] transforms into [Cut - Sword] ?

  ?Samsoogook casts [Random Swing] ?

  ?[Random Swing] transforms into [Bash - Shield] ?

  Aurora acted decisively. During the lull, she had taken out her lance and used it to keep the monster at bay. But even with Skaris, Aurora and I combined, we only had one weapon each. Meanwhile, the Samsoogook could swing each arm over and over and over again, all six of them. Every single swing turned into a [Weapon Skill], more deadly than the one before.

  “We need to stop it from attacking!” One of the Samsoogook’s Passive, [Press the Attack!] raised its [Attack] stat with every ability cast.

  And it was raining blow after blow down on Aurora’s shield.

  Skaris let out a hiss, his eyes widening as he cast [Hand in Hand]. Clone-Skaris came into existence just outside of Aurora’s shield. The Samsoogook saw the clone and before it could even do anything, all six weapons stabbed into it, erasing it from reality.

  Aurora took advantage of the break, her body twisting as she slammed her lance into the creature’s stomach sideways. Following through, she shield-bashed the monster’s knees.

  ?Aurora Candrian Vetilian has cast [Capsize] ?

  A precious opening.

  A precious opening wasted on a shitty skill.

  [Capsize] isn’t fixed at a 100% success rate. It starts with 50% and steadily climbs up towards 100% depending on the creature’s weight. At ten-feet tall, the Samsoogook should be more than heavy enough to qualify for a 90% success rate. It was a worthwhile gamble…

  Except, a gamble is a gamble because it sucks.

  And once more, I’m reminded why MSS was so difficult.

  In that crucial moment, Aurora’s ability failed on her.

  Leaving her wide open.

  A mistake. A small one, based on the fact that [Capsize] probably never failed her before. A mistake pre situated on the fact that I ordered Skaris and her to stop the monster. A mistake based on the fact that the ability was a crappy one which could fail… at the worst possible moment.

  ?Samsoogook casts [Random Swing] ?

  ?[Random Swing] transforms into [Concussion Blow - Mace] ?

  ?Samsoogook casts [Random Swing] ?

  ?[Random Swing] transforms into [Hamstring - Sickle] ?

  ?Samsoogook casts [Random Swing] ?

  ?[Random Swing] transforms into [Flurry - Dagger] ?

  Aurora’s body bent forward as the mace landed right on her back. Even in that situation, Aurora had the sense to make use of the [Cheonma] passive. She flew backwards and slammed into Skaris, both of them ending up on a tangle of limbs on the far wall. The weapons glanced against the front of her armor –the chest part of her platemail bent inwards. Her face began to turn purple as she struggled to get it off.

  The monster was smart enough not to chase.

  One of the faces looked at Kyrian again, readying to jump.

  One kept an eye on Aurora and Skaris, assessing the situation.

  And the other faced me.

  Three faces, all keeping an eye on us.

  And as it’s weapons plunged down towards me…

  …I waded right into its range by myself, casting [Lingering Darkness].

  Wings of a Crow enveloped me for a millisecond and there was a distant cawing in my head. Then the darkness exploded outwards from my body, creating a thick fog of pure black between me and the monster.

  The monster was effectively [Blind].

  My [Lingering Darkness] skill from the Crow Totem isn’t limited to Magical Attacks… Nor is it limited to sight.

  This is the real world, and your mind is a weapon just as everything else is.

  So like all things with thought, when the Samsoogook became [Blind]... it stopped.

  He was smart, he was cunning and he was cruel. So he knew that he had to leave the [Darkness]. But I’m the Sword Saint’s Disciple, and the monster’s intelligence worked against it. As it stood stupefied, stuck in place like my party had been –that one crucial second where his brain chugged along and tried to make a decision, that one crucial second when his six arms stopped moving…

  Oh, he reacted like all monsters did, and the halt in its movement was barely noticeable to a novice.

  But I’m not a Novice anymore now, am I? I came a long way from the Dokkaebi Tunnels.

  I cut into the monster like butter.

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight-

  My new sword, [Snow Scream] sang with blood as the Monster screamed, reaching a crescendo.

  –quadriceps, Hamstring, Calves, Ankles–

  [Aura] cleaved into the Monster’s thighs, revealing whites of its bone beneath. The monster tried to back away, out of the darkness where it could see again.

  ?Lock casts [Tidal Force] ?

  But my Lunar Shield was already charged up, and the monster flew towards me due to the power of Moon’s gravity.

  ? [Lunar Shield] decreases [Defense] ?

  ? [Lunar Shield] decreases [Defense] ?

  ? [Lunar Shield] decreases [Attack] ?

  …

  ? [Arcane Masochism] cancels [Lunar Shield] ?

  ? [Arcane Masochism] raises [Attack] ?

  ? [Arcane Masochism] raises [Speed] ?

  –buffs flowing into me as I cut into the shin, parry the dagger, step aside from the shield–

  [Snow Scream] left patches of ice, which turned the monster’s skin brittle around the edge of every single cut I left. The skin ripped and teared as the monster thrashed in futility.

  –the monster’s skin ripping from the ice, trees of ink growing inside every wound, Aura gliding through muscle and sinew–

  [Artisan of Battle] from the [Royal Oni] summoned up tree branches that gutted the thing from the inside out.

  –finished with a cast of [Hateful Wound].

  Physical Damage. Magic Damage. Elemental Damage. True Damage.

  Yeah, I’d been surrounded by some powerful adventurers on this voyage. I think subconsciously, I had been feelign a little down.

  But in terms of damage output? DPS alone?

  There’s nothing better than my Knight Build.

  “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

  It backpedaled, each face looking around wildly. But I stalked, prowled and scurried around like a cockroach, nipping at his heels and legs with my blade. When the monster seemed to get too far…

  Well, I dealt enough damage to get another charge of [Lunar Shield].

  The Lunar Shield yanked the monster towards me with another cast of [High Tide].

  The monster was in complete panic now, it swung its weapons without purpose. The Samsoogook reached too far with its mace and sword, trying to guess where I was. Overeaching the same way that Aurora did…

  THUD

  THUD

  Two pieces of meat –the Samsoogook’s Arms– fell in the darkness.

  Only two of its faces were smiling now.

  We were in Phase Two.

  Of course, I’d cut off two of its arms. There were countless wounds on its body, holes made from the inky branches, cuts made from Aura and frostbitten pieces of its flesh looking black and rotted.

  Ah, I should mention.

  Unlike Skaris, whom I chose the fire-type Weapon mod, I chose the water-type.

  The Samsoogook was soaking wet.

  Meaning it’s Lightning and Ice Resistance was in the negatives now. An interaction crucial for stripping away Elemental Resistances in the late-game…

  “Lock!” Kyrian’s voice bounced off of the walls. “I’m ready!”

  Right, he didn’t have [Darkvision].

  I dropped the darkness.

  The room was lit up like Time’s Square. That was because it was filled to the brim with beads of lightning, flashing blue-white so bright that it hurt to keep my eyes open.

  “Kyrian, fry him.”

  ?Kyrian Tricilan casts [Lightning Rain] ?