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chapter 147




Once they became Doom Knights and rode skeletal horses, the Ricardo brothers used a skill called Charge of Ruin.
The skill was so powerful that other players said that ‘if it even touches you, you’re dead.’
But there was a player who thought of it a different way.
What if a player forced the two brothers to use that skill against each other, allowing the player to take them down in one fell swoop?
After some trial and error, the player succeeded in making the Ricardo brothers crash into each other.
However, something happened that was outside the player’s expectations. The Ricardo brothers wouldn’t finish each other off using Charge of Ruin.
Something much more interesting happened instead.
The brothers turned against each other and fought to the death!
All the player had to do was wait for one of them to die, and then finish off the remaining, severely weakened brother.
After that, the player sent the footage of him using this method to GBS Producer, Park Jin Cheol.
That player’s ID was Kang Oh.
‘It was me!’
Anyway, Kang Oh used the same method on the Minotaur brothers, causing the two to fight each other.
Clang!
The brothers’ gold and silver axes clashed, causing sparks to fly like firecrackers.
As soon as its axe was blocked, Gold Horn pushed forward with its horns. Not one to be outdone, Silver Horn responded with its own horns.
Their horns rammed into each other and became interlocked; each side tried to push the other away!
Once they began their power struggle, things started to get exciting.
“Mr. Sephiro, please keep an eye on their HP. If one side loses too much HP, then we’ll have to attack the other side and keep them relatively even,” Kang Oh said.
Sephiro nodded his head.
“Understood. Their HP is pretty much even right now.”
“We’ll take them out when they’re on their last legs. That’s the only way we’ll get any experience out of this.”
‘Mm, this is the easiest way to get experience!’ Kang Oh thought, smiling wickedly.
‘You’re terrible!’
‘You’re evil!’
The two thought upon seeing Kang Oh’s smile.
“Hey, Eder.”
“Yes?”
“Do you have any popcorn?”
Popcorn was a must when watching a fight!
* * *
Ma!
Eu!
Gold Horn and Silver Horn pulverized the ground, used rotating slashes, stomped on the floor, and even used jump attacks that they hadn’t used in either the first or second phases.
As soon as their HP dropped below 10%, they went berserk and tried to kill each other as if their life depended on it.
“Jeez, they’re even going berserk too!”
Eder looked sick of this. These guys were way too powerful!
“If your strategy hadn’t worked, then we might not have been able to beat them,” Sephiro said.
“No, we still would’ve won.”
Kang Oh still had a ton of options.
If his strategy hadn’t worked, then he would’ve used Gluttony and Devil Trigger, and taken them down by force.
“I really wanted to try this out…”
Sephiro removed a purple tipped arrow from his inventory. This particular arrow possessed the ‘Trump Card’ ability.
“I’ll just have to wait until next time,” Sephiro grinned.
After that, Kang Oh’s party ate some jerky while watching the two bulls fight it out. They started some idle chatter and waited until the brothers’ HP came close to 0.
How long did they wait?
The time had finally come.
Whack!
A silver axe was embedded in Gold Horn’s chest!
Bam!
A gold axe pierced Silver Horn’s side!
“Silver Horn has about 2% HP remaining, while Gold Horn has about 3% left in the tank,” Sephiro yelled.
‘Now’s the time.’
Kang Oh drew his demon sword.
“Let’s go and finish them. Attack as much as you can!”
“Roger.”
Kang Oh’s party entered into the brothers’ fight.
“Die!”
Kang Oh attacked Gold Horn from behind.
It’d been fighting Silver Horn, so its back was completely exposed.
Slash!
Red shards of light burst from Gold Horn’s body.
Despite that, Gold Horn completely ignored him in favor of attacking Silver Horn.
‘He’s completely ignoring me, huh.’
Kang Oh continued to pour on the attacks.
Meanwhile, Eder and Sephiro attacked Silver Horn.
Eder’s mace struck its butt region.
Heavy Blow!
Then, he swung his shield, striking the minotaur with the corner of his shield.
Shield Bash!
‘How long has it been since I’ve been able to just one-sidedly attack something!?’
In his excitement, Eder attacked even more diligently than before.
“Attacking Silver Horn is the right move here.”
Sephiro, who’d checked the brothers’ remaining HP, let loose an arrow at Silver Horn.
Thwock! Thwock! Thwock!
Three violently spinning arrows pierced Silver Horn’s arm.
But like Gold Horn with Kang Oh, Silver Horn completely ignored Eder and Sephiro, and focused entirely on its brother. How foolish!
Sometime later…
“Gold Horn has less than 1% of its HP left!” Sephiro yelled.
‘Good!’
Kang Oh swung horizontally.
Tempest Tiger!
The tiger-shaped aura pounced on Gold Horn’s back as if it were a real tiger hunting its prey.
Boom!
The mighty attack instantly depleted Gold Horn’s remaining HP!
Euuuu!
The force of the blow pushed it forward, causing it to fall flat on the floor.
[You are the first to defeat Minotaur Brother, Gold Horn.]
[As a reward, it will drop its highest rank items.]
As you can plainly see, Gold Horn was the first to die.
Kang Oh expected Silver Horn to be greatly empowered by its brother’s death. That’d be fine. It didn’t have much HP anyway…
“Huh?”
‘What’s going on?’ Even though Gold Horn had just been killed, Silver Horn hadn’t changed at all.
It was still berserk, and had just switched targets from Gold Horn to Eder.
“Tch. I guess it doesn’t get a lot stronger when its brother dies,” Kang Oh scratched the back of his head.
When one of the Ricardo brothers died, the other would become overwhelmingly powerful, but the Minotaur brothers differed in this regard.
‘We could’ve just focused all of our attacks on one of them.’
How best to describe it? He supposed he had overthinked it for nothing.
“Guess it doesn’t matter as long as we beat it.”
Kang Oh rushed at the lonesome Silver Horn and swung his sword.
His party focused all of their attacks on it. As a result, it died rather quickly, as it didn’t have much HP left in the first place.
[You are the first to defeat Minotaur Brother, Silver Horn.]
[As a reward, it will drop its highest rank items.]
Kang Oh picked up the dropped golden and silver axes.
“Item appraisal.”
[Gold Axe that Drives Away the Wind]
The double-bladed axe that the Guardian of the Parmarl Underground Labyrinth, Minotaur Gold Horn used.
It seems to be made of some sort of gold alloy. Whenever the axe is swung, a strong gust of wind will blow.
+ Gust: Whenever the axe is swung, a gust of wind will be blown, restraining an opponent’s movement.
+ Air Slash: Whenever the axe is swung, there is a fixed chance that Air Slash will be unleashed.
+ Brotherly Love: If a companion wielding the Earth Pulverizing Silver Axe is near you, then this weapon’s abilities and power increase.
Rank: AA
Abilities: Attack Power +380, Physical +50, damage of wind-related skills and spells +7%.
Minimum Requirements: Level 250, Physical 500
[Earth Pulverizing Silver Axe]
The silver axe that the Guardian of the Parmarl Underground Labyrinth, Minotaur Silver Horn used.
It seems to be made of some sort of silver alloy. When swung downwards, the axe will be even more destructive than usual.
+ Pulverize: When the axe is swung downwards, it becomes even more destructive. If the axe hits the ground, the earth may be upturned.
+ Earth Slash: When the axe strikes the ground, there is a fixed chance that an Earth Slash will be unleashed.
+ Brotherly Love: If a companion wielding the Gold Axe that Drives Away the Wind is near you, then this weapon’s abilities and power increase.
Rank: AA
Abilities: Attack Power +376, Physical +50, damage of earth-related skills and spells +8%.
Minimum Requirements: Level 250, Physical 450.
“They’re good.”
It felt like he’d gotten the two axes from a mountain god.
“I’d like to see them too.”
Sephiro smiled and stretched out his hand. ‘20% is mine!’.
Kang Oh passed him the gold and silver axes, and picked up another item the bosses had left behind.
They were the minotaurs’ gold and silver horns, which greatly resembled an elephant’s ivory tusks.
[Gold Horn]
Minotaur Gold Horn’s golden horn. Not only is it durable and light, but it is also aesthetically pleasing.
Material Rank: A
[Silver Horn]
Minotaur Silver Horn’s silver horn. It gleams like a star, so it’s a great decorative piece for a home.
Material Rank: A
“The materials ain’t half bad either.”
After all, he could sell these for a high price to those in search for never-before-seen materials.
In any case, that was all of the items that the Minotaur brothers had left behind.
Kang Oh took a look around.
There was the door that his party had come through, as well as a passageway through the wall that led somewhere else.
“There’s a passageway over there.”
Although the items were nice, his final goal was still Grande Loxia’s grave.
He strode forward towards the passageway.
* * *
Although the passageway was large enough for them to pass through, it wasn’t large enough for the minotaurs.
‘Which means that someone created this passageway, and created the room at the end of it…’
Who else but Grande Loxia could’ve done this? Kang Oh was absolutely certain that Grande Loxia’s grave lay at the end of this passageway.
Kang Oh was proven right.
There was a room at the end of the passageway, and he received a system message when he arrived.
[You have discovered Grande Loxia’s Grave.]
[The quest, ‘Find Grande Loxia’s Grave’ has changed to ‘Inherit the Demon Sword’.]
[Inherit the Demon Sword]
Overcome the trial set forth by Blood, the demon sword once used by Grande Loxia. Inherit his demon sword!
Difficulty: Unknown
Minimum Requirements: Link Quest
Reward: Demon Sword Blood, Demonic Swordsman skill
Failure: You will be controlled by Demon Sword Blood.
After going over the details, Kang Oh grinned.
“Sure, whatever you want.”
He’d welcome any and all demon swords!
“But where is the demon sword?” Kang Oh looked around.
There was an unadorned coffin made of rock that lay on one side of the wall. Kang Oh looked inside, as there was no lid.
It was completely empty.
‘Grande Loxia died hundreds of years ago, so he would’ve turned into shards of light by now.’
In Arth, dead bodies turned into shards of light after some time had passed.
Even if Grande Loxia’s body had been here before, there was no way his body would’ve lasted for hundreds of years.
‘If the demon sword’s not in here, then…’ Kang Oh turned his head around.
There was a closed drawer made of rock on the other side.
“Is that it?”
Kang Oh went over there, and Eder and Sephiro followed him.
“There’s something written on it,” Eder said.
There was indeed something written on the lid, which was as follows:
Some called it a monster, and others called it a demon. But to me, it was just a tortured soul.
To you, whose name I don’t know, please be merciful.
“Was this left behind by Grande Loxia…?”
Kang Oh carefully read the message once more.
This being that some called a monster and others called a demon was definitely Blood. At least based on what the Nuwak Tribe had told him about it.
‘And ‘me’ must be referring to Grande Loxia himself.’
However, Grande Loxia described Blood as a tortured soul, and had asked whoever read his message to be merciful.
‘Is this some sort of clue that’ll help me overcome the trial?’
Kang Oh kept the words in mind, and opened the drawer.
‘Come out, demon sword!’
A mysterious, red light seeped out of the opening.
And…!
There was a new demon sword within.