Taming Master

“Gulp.”

From the speakers that were connected to the TV, the sound of a gulp was heard.

The whole battlefield went quiet in an instant.

In addition, the commentators were at a loss for words.

Unusually, even Hines, who immediately narrated the scene every moment, had nothing to say.

It seemed almost as if time had stopped for a while.

“Yah, Semi!”

“What now?”

“Please explain what’s happening.”

“Hmmp, you didn’t understand?”

“Ah shh, I feel like I’m going to faint any moment here so explain it! What just happened? How did he use the skill alternatively seven times without the cool time?”

“I can’t explain.”

“…?”

“Even I didn’t understand.”

“Awoo.”

In the corner of a small seminar room at Korea University’s Virtual Reality Department.

Semi and Young-hoon, along with four other first graders, were watching the broadcast of the YTBC on the screen.

Especially, Semi and Young-hoon were on the verge of getting sucked into the screen.

On the TV, the voices of Lucia and Hines could be heard.

– Hines, could you please let us know about the skills?

– Wouldn’t that be better?

– In order to explain what just happened, I think it is a good idea to give out the information about the skill for starters.

– Kay. Blood Split is a unique ability that is already known quite widely, so it’s not hard to understand.

Following the dialogue between Hines and Lucian, the skill information window of ‘Blood Split’ popped up at the corner of the TV screen.

A very detailed information window starting from the attack count of the skill up to its additional options could be seen.

Semi and Young-hoon, who confirmed it sounded very excited.

“Oh, the skill information is out!”

“Oh oh, this was all possible without the cooldown because of the conditional options.”

“Young-hoon, can you not pretend like you expected that to happen?”

“Nasty girl.”

But even with the information window out, the doubts that they had weren’t completely gone.

They couldn’t understand how the alternative conditional trigger options could be used.

“Initialize cooldown treatment. Did he use that option?”

“I think so? Each time it gets activated, it looks for the exact angle and seems to hit the other undead that has only a little vitality remaining.”

“Seven times?”

“Uh… when you think about it, it doesn’t seem like that is possible. I don’t see the picture correctly, but it was triggered five to six times without the skill.”

“Three undead with Macta?”

“Right.”

“Oh, shit…? How is that even possible? Was it a bug?”

“If it wasn’t a bug, then there is only one way…”

“Are you talking about the 3rd option? The reset cooldown on 3 consecutive strikes.”

“Yeah. That option. Ah, I’ll rewind it and check it again…”

The other students who had less understanding of the game compared to Semi and Young-hoon were just listening to their ongoing conversation.

But then, Hines, who was still on the screen, finally opened his mouth to speak.

Let’s go back to that screen. Dear viewers, please focus on this now.

As if they had an understanding, Semi and Young-hoon turned their heads toward the screen.

* * *

Actually, the Blood Split skill was a very famous one.

It was because of its unique ability that was like a symbol of Limlong; it appeared every time Limlong activated it in his battles in Devildom.

The main weapon of Limlong—the number 1 assassin class user—was very powerful and had eye-catching skills. There was no way it wouldn’t be famous.

The Blood Split first became famous during the episode of the rebelling ‘Large ferocious Battle’.

There was a scene like the Mad movie, where Limlong killed five wandering Asmodian NPC’s who appeared as rebels at that time, and the main skill used during that time was Blood Split.

The control of the Blood Split that Limlong showed at that time was incredible and difficult.

He displayed perfect damage calculation and targeting.

His hit rate was perfect.

It was a scene that would perfectly fit in the ‘mad movie’. It was something only a few rankers could easily imitate.

Interestingly, Hines was the commentator for the Mad movie of Limlong.

Hines shook his head and tried recalling the scene that happened at that time.

‘However, that time, the scene was indeed creepy, but it is still explainable.’

Limlong’s play at that time was quite simple to explain.

The Blood Split was used to correctly align the five demons that had little vitality remaining.

Each time an Asmodian got killed, the cooldown time was reset, and hence the skill could be used continuously.

Just before the red energy disappeared, the skills were activated five times, and the fact that he could hit all five was the amazing part.

In other words, it was a play that anyone could think of, but it was impossible for the play to be put into action, and they realized that they were seeing such things.

But the play which Ian showed didn’t make sense from the very beginning.

If seven Blood Splits were played in a row, at least seven or more Undead should’ve died, but only three of them were killed.

The only way that such a thing could be achieved without bugs was due to the 3rd conditional option.

The Blood Split resets every time after 3 consecutive critical hits.

However, Hines didn’t understand how Ian struck three critical hits in such a short time and how he managed to stack the calculation.

He began to focus on the battle of Ian and wiped his cold sweat.

He watched the video in slow motion and gave a compelling comment to the viewers at the same time.

Hines had a serious expression when he opened his mouth to give a commentary.

“Okay, this is where the first Blood Split was played.”

The moment Ian shined with red energy, the screen moved slowly.

Ian passed through Arianes, and at that moment, there was no critical hit.

Fatal damage has been done to ‘Arianes’ the Death Witch.

Ian’s new red weapon passed through Arianes and passed through the skeletons that were behind it as well.

The skeletons which were behind it had less than half of their vitality, which was why they died.

[Fatal damage was dealt to the ‘Skeleton Knight’!]

[You have successfully defeated the Skeleton Knight!]

[Killed enemies using the unique ability ‘Blood Split’!]

[Cooldown of the ‘Blood Split’ unique ability has been reset.]

Hines, who had seen that on the video that was in slow motion, started to feel goosebumps.

‘That… there were already two critical hits, yah…!’

Hitting one of the targets was something that most rankers could do without much difficulty.

However, hitting more than one target at the same time with a non-target skill that stretches in a straight line?

It was a theoretically conceivable development.

Hines’s head started to work very fast.

‘If he got 2 stacks of critical hits here, he can get 3 stacks right away.’

Ian just got 2 critical strikes, killing the Skeleton Knight. That allowed him to reuse Blood Split.

That meant, if he used Blood Split to Arianes again, he would be able to hit once more, and his critical hit would stack to 3, and the cooldown would get reset again.

As Hines had just predicted, Ian’s Blood Split dealt a critical strike.

[Fatal damage has been done to ‘Arianes’ the death witch!]

[Hit three attacks in a row with a ‘critical’ hit.]

[The cooldown of unique ability ‘Blood Split’ has been reset.]

The second skill reset succeeded even as the first option ‘Reset cooldown on enemy kill’ wasn’t even triggered.

Now that the mechanisms were understood, Hines couldn’t help but shout out loud.

“This was it! It was the critical hit stack that made it possible to cast seven consecutive skill use against the same enemy during the time when no enemy got killed!”

On the screen, Ian spurred and moved his position lightly.

It was to raise his position in accordance with his next target and to advance Arianes forward.

And from there, the same pattern could be repeated.

Just as Hines was screaming with realization, Ian used an attack in the middle of stacking critical hits.

Seven bloody flashes came in a row and Arianes turned red.

After the video was done playing, Lucia who understood the situation jumped up.

“This is a huge deal, Hines!”

Lucia opened her mouth with amazement.

Hines was also speaking on top of his lungs.

“Oh, the fact that I got to see this scene live today makes me very happy!”

“Ian God! After all, it was a desolation!”

“Surely. How is it possible to have such control of the game? No, before that… How could such thoughts even enter his mind?”

“Isn’t it natural? It’s gaming sense, right?”

“Ha… this isn’t a game but an art! It is art!”

Hines continued to explain and admire the control Ian had on the Blood Split until the afterglow was gone.

No viewer was bored.

Many of the users were able to understand it because of the explanation, and those who understood it couldn’t help but exclaim.

The battle was going on in the meantime.

Another named boss had died while the screen was displaying the video that was in slow motion, and the remaining five named bosses’ vitality was decreasing rather quickly.

Of course, there were a great number of impactful scenes in the process, but none of it were strong enough to cross the Blood Split scene of Ian.

Apart from that, the enthusiasm of the relay had been getting hotter and hotter every second.

An hour passed.

Thud-!

The Ghost Dragon that was standing in front of the Lich King to protect him had been taken down at last.

This meant that they were halfway through the Lich King Raid.

It was clear that the Lich King himself would become more powerful as time passed, but it wouldn’t be much difficult than the seven minions that they had dealt with.

The Lich King who was still in the air went in front of Ian.

Thud-!

“Kulkul. Humans are indeed subjects of fuss.”

Around the place where the Lich King had landed, dark energy began to spread around.

Ian and the expedition users quickly avoided it and looked at the Lich King with nervousness.

They weren’t aware of what kind of phase the next part of the raid would be.

After a while, the dark energy spread around everywhere, starting from the Lich King, and system messages popped up in front of Ian and the other users.

Tring-!

[Killed the minions of Lich King Chalian!]

[Fame increased by 150,000!]

[Contribution increased by 1.4 million!]

[The dark energy that was protecting Chalian has disappeared completely.]

[You can now attack Chalian.]

Right then, the eyes of Ian, which were reading the messages, went wide for a second.

It wasn’t because of the content of the messages.

As the messages appeared, the level of Chalian was disclosed.

[Lich King Chalian: Lv 500]

‘What? How can that be?’

The all-powerful Chalian’s level was exactly similar to the minion that he had just killed.

Ian had expected the level of Chalian to be above level 550.

It was something that was hard to understand, even with common sense.