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Chapter 24 — Night Shade (3)
Boasting a formidable physique that was around 2 meters tall,
the Night Shade’s dark, endless eyes glared down at JaeHyun.
JaeHyun didn’t flinch away. He met the Night Shade’s gaze.
It was a horrifying experience akin to staring straight into the depths of an abyss.
The rapid torrents of its thick, dark mana was like the vast ocean within the Mana Cube.
‘It’s giving off such a strong mana that it’s giving me goosebumps. If Hel hadn’t sent me out of the dungeon that day, I would surely have been killed by this guy.’
An overbearing and ominous storm of mana flowed out of its whole body.
JaeHyun paused for a moment upon seeing the Night Shade but quickly regained his focus.
‘This is a dungeon. I have my hands full just concentrating on the monsters right in front of me!’
Grrraaaa…
Together with the Night Shade’s loud cry, JaeHyun stomped on the ground.
“Oof!”
He rushed forward without a second thought and shortened the distance between them.
A Night Shade could freely stretch out its fingernails and use them to attack enemies at long distances.
So there was no reason to keep distance in this fight.
‘The fighting style Teacher taught me that only I can use… If I don’t use it, I can’t win.’
The fighting style he’d learned through continuous sparring with Yoo Sung-Eun. Theoretically, the mixture of Combat and Magic was close to invincible.
If not for this, it would be impossible for JaeHyun to defeat the demonic creature in front of him at his current strength.
JaeHyun controlled his breathing, then he swiftly moved behind his opponent.
Boom! Boom!
The Night Shade, which had somehow realized what he was doing, swung its nails at JaeHyun. JaeHyun quickly stepped back and dodged the attack. Then, he punched it in the torso with all his strength.
Pow!
Gaaa…
The Night Shade stepped back after swaying for a moment but stood unharmed.
‘As expected, just a powered punch won’t do anything.’
JaeHyun had strengthened his punch through 《 Mana Weapon 》, a new skill he had learned.
As a result, it was possible to hunt down the wraiths and skeleton soldiers with his fists and kicks like he did when he was a Warrior.
But this method wouldn’t work on the Night Shade.
‘There’s not a lot of damage I can do to this guy with physical attacks.’
The Night Shade was originally a boss monster with a high resistance to physical damage.
So JaeHyun had used as little mana as possible when fighting against other monsters for this moment. He had also saved a few mana recovery potions, so the situation was currently fine.
After JaeHyun quickly gathered the mana in his body, he shot it toward the Night Shade.
一 Active Skill 《Lightning Chain》 has been activated.
Zaaaaap!
Four chains rose from the ground and rushed toward the Night Shade.
The Night Shade lightly parried the attack with its long fingernail, but JaeHyun clenched his fist and continued to control the chains.
Zaaaaaap!
The parried chain started to wrap around the Night Shade again. The Night Shade let out a short cry and shook its body at the continuous lightning attacks.
But JaeHyun gritted his teeth.
‘It’s not enough just yet.’
His opponent was still fine.
The Night Shade screamed fiercely while glaring at JaeHyun.
It was a truly creepy and domineering sound.
<At that moment>
The Night Shade’s smothered mana flowed out.
Grrraaaa…!
Pulling the chains, the Night Shade started to stomp towards JaeHyun. Just like Yoo Sung-Eun had taught him, JaeHyun calmly glanced at his opponent’s path.
‘5 steps to the left.’
Crash!
Together with that thought, JaeHyun accurately moved his body and dodged the Night Shade’s attack.
‘2 steps to the right.’
In the next moment, and the next, it was still the same.
JaeHyun dodged all of the Night Shade’s attacks with the least possible amount of movements.
‘I can’t destroy the Night Shade’s attack with 《 Universal Derivation 》. This guy’s a demonic creature with high physical attributes. I have no choice but to fight with my skills and physical abilities.’
JaeHyun’s body, which was kneeling for a moment, shot into the air. The Night Shade also missed his move for an instant.
“ Haaa! ”
Together with the shout, he shot out several 《 Magic Arrows 》.
It was one of the most basic spells,
and though it couldn’t do a lot of damage, JaeHyun wasn’t intending on that to begin with.
What he was aiming for was the Night Shade’s vital point—its eyes.
Grrrraaaaa…!
Crash!
As the attack hit its target, a crack appeared in the demonic creature’s deep pupils.
<At the same time>
一 Warning!  The Boss Monster ‘Night Shade’ has entered a berserk state.
Landing on the ground, JaeHyun narrowed his eyes. He felt a chill at the system alert.
《 Berserk 》 was a skill that only a small number of monsters above C-rank had, and it was automatically activated when their HP was reduced to less than half. It was a terrifying skill that increased a monster’s Strength and Agility by 1.5 times.
JaeHyun gulped.
Boom! Clank!
Sure enough—
The Night Shade, which had broken the chain, roared loudly at JaeHyun.
Grrrraaa…!
一 The Boss Monster ‘Night Shade’ has used its Active Skill.
一 The penalty 《Sudden Death》 has been applied.
一 If the boss is not defeated in 10 minutes, the User will lose their life.
‘Sudden Death penalty? I’ve never heard of anything like this, though?’
Pretty flustered, JaeHyun looked blankly at the status screen that appeared.
‘I’ve never heard of a Night Shade using 《 Sudden Death 》 in any of the other communities and information bulletins. Does this mean that this guy is different from other Night Shades?’
JaeHyun chewed on his lips.
The Night Shade swung its heavy fist at him as he was standing in confusion. A series of indiscriminate attacks launched.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
‘Damn. It… became faster!’
He could feel that its Stamina had fallen quite a bit, but JaeHyun remained calm and predicted its next moves by observing it.
But contrary to his expectations, the Night Shade didn’t rush toward him. It merely attacked him at a distance with its fingernails.
‘That guy… It’s not attacking with a lot of power. Well, it will win if it just holds on for 10 minutes. As expected of a C-ranked boss, its intelligence is surprisingly high.
Grrrraaaa…!
With the creepy cry that rang out once more,
the Night Shade’s terrifying voice rang loudly inside the boss room.
‘Just hearing it is making me lose my mind… Is it an additional effect of the skill Sudden Death?’
一 The time remaining until the penalty of 《Sudden Death》:  8:32
The hair-raising system alert rang out once more. JaeHyun took deep breaths to maintain his calm and stomped on the ground.
<At that moment>
Grrrraaaaaa…!
The Night Shade let out a much louder roar. At the same time, JaeHyun felt his strength leave his body and started to sway.
一 You have temporarily acquired a ‘Fear’ debuff. You have failed to resist.
‘What?’
JaeHyun furrowed his brow.
Swoosh!
Having its opponent lose his strength mid-air, the Night Shade swung its fist at JaeHyun.
Boom!
“Keuheuk!”
JaeHyun let out a cry as his body hit a wall after getting flung by the attack.
Although it wasn’t enough to kill him, a third of his HP was shaved off.
High risk, high return.
JaeHyun had been investing all the points he’d gotten from his recent level-ups into his Magic and Endurance.
Normally, he would have distributed the points to all his stats, but he thought those two were the most important if he wanted to survive against the Night Shade.
Bang! Bang!
After dodging the series of attacks, JaeHyun stepped away from the wall and checked the state of his body.
A moment ago, his body had stiffened and his movements became sluggish when he heard the Night Shade’s cry. JaeHyun immediately realized what that meant.
‘Is it a CC? If it weren’t for the Robe of Divinity, it would have been fatal.’[1]
《 Robe of Divinity 》, the item he had gotten from the Magic Shopping District. If it weren’t for its ability to resist darkness, at least half of his health would have currently been gone.
He could have been ripped apart and swallowed up into the Night Shade’s stomach by now if not for the item.
The thought made a chill go through his body.
‘Moreover, it’s really strange.’
Of course, he knew that Boss monsters could use a variety of CC skills.
But for the boss of a C-rank dungeon, the skill came too quickly without any warning.
‘Damn.’
一 The ‘Fear’ debuff has disappeared.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Ptui!”
After spitting out a glob of blood, he moved further away from the wall as he dodged the Night Shade’s attacks.
While quickly dodging the rapid attacks that rushed toward him, JaeHyun swiftly moved behind the Night Shade.
一 The time remaining until the penalty of 《Sudden Death》: 4:11
Only 4 minutes remained until the penalty of 《 Sudden Death 》. Even in such an extreme situation, JaeHyun stayed calm and thought of a plan.
‘A while ago, that bastard got hit by an attack in both of its eyes. That’s where the bastard’s condensed Mana core is. Its line of sight is probably narrower than before. If so, that means…’
JaeHyun’s thigh muscles swelled as mana gathered there. Feeling each cell and all the nerve endings there…
一 Active Skill 《Wind Boost》 has been activated.
一 The power of wind fills the User’s body.
一 Movement Speed has increased by 50%.
‘I need to quickly move to this bastard’s blindspot!’
Fwooosh!
He immediately moved to the demonic creature’s blindspot.
Bang! Bang!
The Night Shade’s continuous strikes were launched, but JaeHyun dodged those attacks at the very last moment on purpose and smirked.
Gaaa…!
As the monster turned around, its heavy fist quickly rushed toward him. JaeHyun stared at the Night Shade’s continuous attacks with his hand on the ground.
He already knew. That the monster’s attack would not be able to reach him.
一 Active Skill 《Flash Bomb》 has been activated.
一 An explosion of holy light has temporarily blinded the enemy!
Crash!
The explosion rang out almost simultaneously with the system alert and swallowed up the Night Shade.
In the very short time the attack hit—
一 Active Skill 《Lightning Chain》 has been activated.
Zaaaaap!
Looking at the chains that let out a domineering sound as it wrapped around his opponent, JaeHyun smiled slightly.
‘I can do this.’
Grrrraaaa…!
The Night Shade’s shout filled the boss room.
一 The time remaining until the penalty of 《Sudden Death》: 2:16
“Haa-ap!”
JaeHyun started to run toward the Night Shade to hit it with a final blow.
And then—
Vvvvrrrr….!
Krrrk? Kyyyyaaa…!!
A Magic Circle appeared on the floor of the Boss Room,
and soon, monsters with a lower level than the Night Shade filled the space.
Skeleton soldiers and wraiths, which he’d fought a while ago, and a group of Draugr.
But JaeHyun didn’t get flustered. On the contrary, he smiled and muttered.
“I knew this would happen. All bosses use this dirty tactic.”
Demonic creatures had instantly surrounded him.
However, JaeHyun merely smirked as he watched the monsters rushing toward him.
A golden tint filled his left eye, and a holy aura flowed out of his whole body soon after.
一 Active Skill 《Sacrifice》 has been used.
一 Undead monsters have appeared on the field. 《Sacrifice》 has changed into an attack skill.
一 Active Skill 《Light’s Judgment》 has been activated.
Krrrk?
《 Light’s Judgment 》, a wide-area damage-dealing skill that consumed as much as 500 MP.
Against undead monsters, this skill showed extreme force. Furthermore, JaeHyun was increasing its effect with his 《 Robe of Divinity 》.
Taken aback by the powerful mana flowing out of JaeHyun, the monsters recoiled.
But it was already too late. A light filled with holy aura started to fall from the ceiling before quickly reaching the ground.
Krrrrruuuuu!
Screams rang out simultaneously.
Kiiieeeeek!
Instantly, several beams of resplendent light gathered into a pillar of light.
JaeHyun smiled slightly.
‘This skill,《 Light’s Judgment 》, is…’
Ba-Ba-Ba-Bang!
‘invincible against the undead.’
The undead monsters, purified by the pillars of light one by one, disappeared.
JaeHyun smirked as he looked at the Night Shade rendered immobile by the chains wrapped around it.
一 The time remaining until the penalty of 《Sudden Death》: 0:23
Standing in front of the Night Shade, he quickly lifted his head.
Then—
Ba-Ba-Ba-Bang!
The strands of light from the ceiling shot straight toward the Night Shade.
Grrrraaaaa…!
A desperate yell rang out.
Unable to move with chains wrapped around it, the Night Shade was slowly purified and lost its form.
Watching it disappear, JaeHyun smiled with bloodthirst.
The long-awaited showdown with the Night Shade—
He had won that fight in the end.
Two months ago, he had lost consciousness and almost all his HP from a single punch, but he survived and finally won.
“I did it. The Night Shade… I defeated it.”
Looking at the field which instantly cleared itself, JaeHyun let out a deep breath. Only happiness and a sense of accomplishment could be seen on his face.
<A moment later>
As the pillar of light finished purifying the final boss monster,
he heard the voice he’d been waiting for.
一 The time remaining until the penalty of 《Sudden Death》: 0:03
Ti-ring.
一 You have defeated the dungeon boss ‘Night Shade.’
一 You have received 3,000 experience points.
一 You have obtained the Crafting Item 《Night Shade’s Core》.
一 You have obtained the B-rank Equipment Item 《Shadow Armor》.
一 You have obtained the title 《One Who Has Overcome the First Trial》.
一 All items you’ve obtained have been automatically placed in your inventory.
一 You have gained 3 levels.
一 The User has been transported to the secret chamber ‘Hel’s Temple’.
____