‘The Strongest Monster’.
When the words were heard for the first time, any normal user would immediately think of the name Balrog.
Though everyone knew that the strongest presence in the Kailan during the Dimensional war was the Marion Khalifa. When the case of Khalifa came into the topic which felt like a named boss—it felt a little different from the normal monsters.
On top of that, when the Devildom dimension was opened, everyone knew that the strongest boss was the Balrog, and even for those users who still hadn’t set foot into the Devildom, the Balrog was the strongest enemy they had known.
The Balrog had a very overwhelming appearance.
Its whole body had always been constantly engulfed in huge flames all the time, and two threatening horns on its head were terrifying to look at.
And among those horns that were bent to the front like a goat, it had a horrible face to even look at.
And its size?
The body was huge, which seemed to be made of smoke and flame which moved in their own way, creating fear in the opponents.
And the hands always had magic in them—they were larger than the size of a human males’ hands, they were long, sharp and had nails that were more vicious than a sword that warriors carry around.
It wasn’t visually overwhelming.
Ian was nervous.
He was the monster that Ian had dealt with in the Dimensional war, but it wasn’t an easy situation.
Hoonie asked Ian,
“Hyung, Hyung did you fight a Balrog without the God’s buff?”
Ian nodded his head at the question.
“Huh. Sure.”
“Alone?”
“No, how would I have caught the Balrog with a buff if I was alone? Two of us had to work.”
“With whom? There is no difference if the user is not as strong as the other, right?”
“Shakran.”
At the answer from Ian, Hoonie and Canoel both nodded their heads.
If it was Shakran, then he had enough ability and power to battle alongside Ian.
As the class was different, there was no way that they could compare the battle skills and control of Shakran with Ian, but in the game, Shakran could be a user who was stronger than Ian.
Both Hoonie and Canoel were a bit taken aback, but the words from Ian didn’t end yet.
“What is it, Hoonie? Why no answer, you look freaked.”
“Freaked, freaked! Who is freaked!”
“Why will I talk about someone else? It’s you.”
“…! That Balrog, this Hoonie can defeat them all!”
Ian just shook his head and started to walk once again.
“Seeing you scream and shout, I don’t plan of keeping much faith in you…”
“Wah.”
Right then, Ian was going through the 15th division of the Devildom.
And fortunately, within one hour, they were able to discover the entrance of the dungeon which felt a little different.
In many places, magic spells sprang up and down—the smoke that was coming out of the magic spells seemed like they would give them death.
That clearly looked like the path to the Tomb of the Forgotten Soul.
Hoonie was taken aback, but Ian tried to calm him down.
“Stop it, dude. Although the Balrog is powerful, we took down a Behemoth. On top of that, the Balrog was around 50 to 70 levels higher than the Balrog which they dealt in the Dimensional War.”
“You, you think so?”
Ian’s words continued.
“And the Balrog we dealt with in the Dimensional war was tough but, then that time I’m around 1.5 times stronger now.”
Saying the 1.5 times was a humble act.
Kaizer and Karceus and Bbookbbook.
The three sets of myth ranked familiars, and the level of the party had increased about 20 to 30, so it almost accounted for twice the power.
Now Ian was in the thoughts that he could deal with more than two of the Balrog at the same time.
‘If the level of the Balrog is similar to the ones that made an appearance in the Dimensional war, then it is good.’
But if it was like the Behemoth who was more than the level of 400, then that would be a pain in the a*s.
“Wah, why is the entrance of the dungeon so long? And there isn’t even a single monster.”
“That is so true. The atmosphere is really creepy.”
If the Tower of Commander was eerie and unpleasant, then this dungeon felt like the ‘path of death’, it was creepy, dry, and cold.
Ian and the party walked around 20 minutes along the path of death.
And soon they found a gate that could take them further into the dungeon.
“Kay, One last check…”
“Okay.!”
“Okay, hyung.”
Ian skilfully and quickly checked the status of all the party members and stepped near the gate after taking a deep breath.
“Let’s go! To catch the Balrog.”
* * *
Tring –
[The first to enter the dungeon of ‘Tomb of the Forgotten Soul’.]
[Earned fame of 150,000 points.]
[Over the next week, all the magic stats in the Tomb of the Forgotten Soul will be increased by 1.5 times.]
[Over the next week, the amount of experience gained will be doubled, and the item drop rate is also doubled.]
As they saw, they were accustomed to the first reward messages.
Ian quickly scrolled through the system messages and began to draw a plan on how to deal with the Balrog.
‘Firstly, I’ll have to configure minimum familiars.’
The Balrog’s physical combat has been weak.
Well, it wasn’t just weak, it was very weak when compared to that of the Behemoth. So, maybe it could be a monster that was easy to deal with when compared to that of Behemoth?
But unfortunately, it wasn’t the case.
On the contrary, for Ian, it would be 2x times easy to deal with when compared to Behemoth.
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And the reason for that was the power that the familiars that Ian had.
“Hoonie, this time, we need to focus extremely. So don’t summon all of the Undead, only those whom you can control, that too one after the other.”
“Why? Is it because of the unique ability of the Balrog?”
Ian nodded and answered.
“Yep. You know that too. The Soul Encroachment.”
At the time of the Dimensional war, the reason for approaching the Balrog was difficult because of that, the users of the human race felt depressed due to it.
The Balrog’s unique ability, the Soul Encroachment.
– – – –
Soul Encroachment –
– The Balrog emits powerful magic and temporarily immobilizes the soul of fragile objects within the range.
– It is possible to cast it on a target with vitality less than 5%, and the probability of the success depends on the target and the intellect abilities of the Balrog.
(Balrog Intellect/ Target Intellect * 100)%
– During the duration, the target is moved by the command of the Balrog, and all the attacks are enhanced by 30%. Also, the ‘the Invincibility State’ persists until the Balrog dies.
Cooldown time: 120 minutes
Duration: 30 minutes.
– – – – – – – –
It wasn’t the ability to cast on dozens, as it wasn’t a wide-area, but it was the ability to encroach the small objects that would die within 5 to 7 strikes.
In the case of Ian, if Kaizer, Karceus, and Bbookbbook were encroached by it!
Then at that moment, there couldn’t be any other solutions.
But if the attack was used on the familiars of Ian, then he had the opportunity to block the attack.
But for the familiars with whom the control was insufficient, then the familiars would be lost.
For the normal summoners, that was an attack that they must avoid from the Balrog.
As the results wouldn’t be too good.
Ian who simulated the game in his head started to give out orders to Hoonie and Canoel.
“Hoonie, you should summon Death Knights, two Dark summons, and then 5 skeletons. Ah, and one Iron Golem too.”
“Huh huh? You don’t want me to call out Skelton warriors? I can summon more of the death knights and cast a dark spell too you know?”
While Hoonie was still talking, Ian cut off his words.
“You need to control those pets only, anymore other than that would be just plain burden, so just as much as I ask you to, got it?”
“Okay…”
At the end of the cold remark from Ian, Hoonie didn’t have the guts to refuse.
Surprisingly, Ian’s order was almost identical to the one that Hoonie had thought of.
Ian ordered the same thing to Canoel too and started to concentrate on the inside of the dungeon.
Without much words, Canoel just accepted the order from Ian.
“Hmm, I’ll have to control with a lot of concentration… and run this as safely as possible.”
Ian nodded at the statement from Canoel.
“Yes. In case you notice that the vitality of your familiars has dropped to 10%, then boldly summon it back.”
“Okay, hyung.”
And on the other side, Hoonie who was walking behind Ian suddenly asked,
“But why does hyung get to summon all of them?”
Ian replied as if it was a natural course.
“I can do everything. I can control 100%.”
Ian had nothing else to say!
And soon they were able to meet the foreman of the dungeon ‘Tomb of the Forgotten Soul’.
And surprisingly, the monster that made the appearance, in the beginning, was a Balrog.
Both Hoonie and Canoel were flustered.
“Sh*t, what? Balrog right from the start in here?”
“I thought it would be like the boss in the end when we went to the Tower of Commander…!”
But Ian didn’t seem to have an expression that looked surprised.
A long time ago, he had heard a simple explanation from the Devil King Ricardo about the Tomb of the Forgotten Soul.
[That place… has many species of Balrog in it.]
[Is it a community?]
[So you wouldn’t want to challenge it so easily. Even the Devils wouldn’t like to set their foot in that place. Well, even if it was the Devil Princes, then it’s the same.]
[That… that’s so hard.]
And at that time, Ian had heard something very meaningful from Ricardo.
“And, in the deepest of that place… ah, nope. Well, it wouldn’t make much sense even if I talk to you about it. since you won’t be able to reach that place.”
In that conversation, Ian found it very annoying that Ricardo didn’t let him know about it.
So he had given up but didn’t forget it until the current time.
‘I need to get the heart of Balrog first… and to that mysterious place, I’ll come back again and visit. There isn’t much time right now…’
Ian who was still walking suddenly stopped midway.
And Canoel, together with Hoonie who were behind him too stopped.
“Wait. Maybe he isn’t all alone.”
Hoonie spoke immediately,
“What…? The legendary monster is waiting for another like a normal monster?”
From the standpoint of any user, it can be said that surrendering to a Balrog alone was much better.
But, in the current situation, inside the dungeon, there was no lethal situation when the monster in the dungeon was all alone.
Starting from the formation, all the aspects would get twisted.
So, Ian waited for a while, and soon the red curtain began to grow. Balrog came into vicinity.
Whooong- Whoong-!
A red fog rose slowly with low resonance.
And just a moment later.
Ian couldn’t help but feel surprised at the number of Balrogs that made the appearance.