Debuff Master

Siegfried went around the forest and either moved the location of the landmines or tampered with the traps. He considered either tampering or destroying the motion-detecting alarms and the spatial distortion devices before escaping from the Tundra Forest, but he decided against it, as the risk was too high.

Instead, he decided to focus on things that he could do and spend all of his energy on them. Of course, this wasn't the end of his guerilla tactics. He'd pick out the zealots moving in groups of three and assassinate them. Then, he'd bury their bodies in the snow to hide all of his traces.

Siegfried moved discreetly at all times. He managed to assassinate thirty zealots, but the Church of Osric had yet to realize what was happening.

This was the main difference between someone who was looking at every single detail on a mini-map and someone without access to the same information.

It would take the Church of Osric a very long time before they would finally realize that Siegfried had returned to the continent and was using guerilla tactics against them.

There was no need to mention that they'd suffer more damage the later they realized what was happening.

‘Let’s keep moving. I just have to be careful of the alarms, and it should be fine,’ Siegfried thought while weaving between the trees. He decided to be more proactive yet careful of triggering the alarms. He continued to wage guerilla warfare against his enemies when something caught his eye.

‘Hmm?’

One of the three Mercenary Kings, Casillas, was walking in his direction.

Siegfried was in a dilemma. The Mercenary King, Casillas, was Level 299, so he was not someone he could easily kill. Picking a fight with a Mercenary King right now was akin to announcing to the entire Church of Osric his current location.

‘I think I can pull it off though…’

However, Siegfried had confidence that he could assassinate Mercenary King Casillas.

‘Hey, you three over there,’ Siegfried said to the three nearest Night Stalkers.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The three Night Stalkers emerged from the shroud of darkness and appeared beside Siegfried.

‘Attack that guy,’ Siegfried commanded while pointing at Casillas.

Seuk… Seuk…!

The Night Stalkers rushed toward Casillas while holding daggers made out of shadow.

“...!”

As expected of a Mercenary King, Casillas easily evaded the ambush of the three Night Stalkers. Then, he counterattacked—no, he was about to counterattack, but he couldn't do so, as Siegfried had jumped down from the tree above Casillas and swung his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp in the form of a saber.

Shwik!

The +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp dug into Casillas’ trapezius muscles as a result, slicing through the latter until it reached his heart.

“K-Kuheok…!” Casillas gasped with his eyes widened in shock.

Siegfried pushed his face against his victim’s face and revealed a cold smile as he said, “I’m sure you were ready to get cut down the moment you pulled out your sword, right?”

“Y-You bastard…! Kuheok! T-This was just business… It was… just a request—!” Casillas retorted, gasping for air.

“Hey, that’s not cool. You’re a Mercenary King, yet you’re trying to get a pass for your own actions?” Siegfried sneered in response.

“Argh!”

“Tsk… Such double standards.”

“A-argh…!”

“Goodbye,” Siegfried said with a smile. Then, he tightly gripped his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

Swoosh!

Siegfried put his weight behind his weapon and split Casillas chest into two, with his weapon exiting the latter's right hip.

Thud…! Thud…!

Casillas' two halves fell to the snowy ground.

One of the Mercenary Kings of the continent had just suffered a tragic death. He was split into two halves and would forever be buried beneath the snow.

“Ah, he bled too much,” Siegfried grimaced and grumbled while looking at the mess that Casillas had created.

Siegfried proceeded to loot everything Casillas had in his possession before transforming his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp into a shovel. Then, he started digging until a hole deep enough to put the dead Mercenary King was made.

“An NPC is always sweeter than an Adventurer. Hehehe!” Siegfried said, grinning from ear to ear. Casillas was an NPC, so he dropped all of his items when he died, unlike the Adventurers.

Siegfried buried Casillas in the hole, covered his tracks, and left the scene of the crime.

It was then.

“Ah, right…”

An idea suddenly popped into his head that made him stop in his tracks.

“I could’ve done that.”

Siegfried muttered something under his breath before hurriedly making a hideout and logging out from the game.

***

Meanwhile, the Proatine Kingdom was turned upside down.

– All forces in the kingdom! I repeat! All forces in the kingdom!

– The kingdom is now in a state of emergency from this moment onward! I repeat! The kingdom is now in a state of emergency from this moment onward!

– All forces are to prepare to mobilize immediately!

The Adventurers who had seen Siegfried’s livestream went to the kingdom to deliver news of his predicament.

“Dame Oscar.”

“Yes, Sir Michele?” Oscar responded.

“You must save His Majesty. Do whatever it takes,” Michele said. Then, he added, “If His Majesty is not rescued in time, then he will be unable to descend onto our world for six months.”

“Yes, Sir Michele! I will rescue His Majesty even if it costs me my life!”

“You must. At all costs,” Michele said sternly. Then, he looked solemn as he added, “If His Majesty is absent for six months… My workload will increase by three—no, fourfold.”

“Huh…?”

“It seems like His Majesty does not do much work, but there is a ton of paperwork that requires his approval.”

“S-Sir Michele…?” Oscar could not help but be in disbelief upon realizing that Michele was not concerned about Siegfried’s safety at all but was worried about his workload instead.

“I'm kidding,” Michele said. Then, he continued, “His Majesty is our king. How can our kingdom function properly in the middle of the king’s prolonged absence?”

“Ah, yes…”

“Then, I wish you good fortune.”

“Thank you, Sir Michele.”

Oscar received Michele’s command and headed for the barracks, where the soldiers and knights were gathered.

***

The Proatine Kingdom mobilized to rescue Siegfried.

“Hello, everyone. This is a map of the field. Please make sure to take a look first before coming.”

Meanwhile, Tae-Sung shared the map of the Tundra Forest with his viewers. This was a screen capture picture of the minimap created by Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance, and it listed in detail the dangers that were lurking in the snowy forest.

In other words, Tae-Sung provided the viewers coming to his rescue with the map that could potentially reduce casualties.

“Please relay this map to the Proatine Army, too, if you run into them,” Tae-Sung asked the viewers.

He ended the livestream after that, and his phone rang the moment he switched his computer off.

“Hello, Seung-Gu?”

– Hyung-nim! Are you alright?!

“Yeah, I’m still alive.”

– I’m sorry, hyung-nim! I was busy raiding the Great Rift, so I missed your call.

“It’s fine. I’m glad you called me back now rather than later.”

– I’ll log into the game now and come rescue you!

“Alright.”

– Woo-Jin hyung-nim went on his way as well after hearing the news.

“Alright, I’ll be waiting.”

– Oh, right, hyung-nim?

“Hmm?”

– There’s severe interference preventing us from using warp magic to reach that area.

“What?! You can’t use warp spells, too?! It’s not just teleportation but also warp?!”

– Yes, hyung-nim. Those devices emitting interference waves are preventing us from warping over there, so it will take us two days at the earliest to reach the Tundra Forest.

The only option the Proatine Kingdom had as of current was to use the nearest Warp Gate and travel on foot to the Tundra Forest, which was going to take a long time.

“Then is it the same for the Adventurers coming to help me?”

– It most likely is. They are willing to help but it's too far for them to get there on time.

“Then…”

– You will have to destroy the spatial distortion devices.

Quite a few patial distortion devices were installed across the Tundra Forest together with the alarm devices. He had to go and destroy the spatial distortion devices to make it possible for his allies to warp into the forest, and he needed to do it fast.

“Hold on. I’ll send you some coordinates,” Tae-Sung said. Then, he went to the minimap and picked a coordinate that the Proatine Army and the Adventurers could warp safely into.

“Did you receive them? I’m going to try and destroy the spatial distortion devices here, so get ready to warp over. The terrain is wide open, so it will be possible for us to regroup over there with an army.”

– Yes, hyung-nim. But… will it be alright?

“We have to try,” Tae-Sung replied. Then, he added, “We have no other choice. I’ll be banned from the game for six months either way if I continue staying here or die.”

– Hyung-nim…

“I’m hanging up now.”

Tae-Sung ended the call and logged into the game.

‘Hmm…’

Siegfried closely observed the minimap and counted how many spatial distortion devices he had to destroy. He needed a wide area to warp in an army, and that meant he needed to destroy quite a few of the devices.

He proceeded to count how many spatial distortion devices were near the coordinates that he had sent to Seung-Gu.

‘Each device is capable of covering this much area, so destroying twenty of them should be more than enough…’

While Siegfried was busy formulating a plan in his head, something caught his eye.

“Huh?”

He looked at the minimap once again and was stunned.

Red dots.

The warp gate being guarded by Vladimir had tens of thousands of red dots pouring out from it, and this meant that—

“T-Those crazy bastards!” Siegfried exclaimed.

—The Church of Osric brought a massive army just to stop him from leaving the Tundra Forest.

“These bastards are really out to get me,” Siegfried grumbled under his breath. He could tell from a single glance that the Church of Osric brought reinforcements to stop his allies from rescuing him, and he was absolutely right.

The Church of Osric had no plans to let him leave this place alive, and they were willing to use whatever resource they had at their disposal.

Crack!

Siegfried gnashed his teeth in anger and summoned his Night Stalkers.

‘You go here and you go over there. Make sure you focus on destroying the spatial distortion devices,’ Siegfried commanded.

This was nothing more than a diversion tactic. He sent his Night Stalkers to destroy the spatial distortion devices located far away from the coordinates he had given Seung-Gu to lure away as many of the enemies as possible.

‘This is the best I can do right now to buy time…’

Siegfried hurriedly went to the area where the Proatine Army and the Adventurers would be warping into. He hid behind the bushes and waited for around thirty minutes.

Boom!

The sound of explosion could be heard in the distance and a red flare shot high up into the sky. This meant that the Night Stalkers had finally destroyed the first spatial distortion device.

‘Good,’ Siegfried smiled after seeing the glowing red flare in the sky.

However, he did not move from his spot. He waited until his enemies were drawn to where the Night Stalkers were destroying the spatial distortion devices.

When a substantial number of enemies had finally moved toward where the flare was shot, another flare took to the sky.

Boom!

The Night Stalkers struck again and destroyed a second spatial distortion device, but that was not the end of it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three more explosions occurred followed by three flares shot up from different locations.

‘Now’s my chance!’ Siegfried exclaimed inwardly and got moving.

His plan was to hide the truth behind a stack of lies, and he rushed toward the spatial distortion devices that he had to destroy while dozens of flares were floating in the sky, painting it red.

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