CH 35

It was exactly as Siegfried thought.

“Looking for a Buffer! Buffer!”

“Priest! We will depart as soon as you join!”

“Urgently looking for a Buffer!”

“Dear Buffer-nims! Please come and grace these peasants with your gracious presence! We, peasants, are waiting for your benevolent… Aaaah! F*ck! Just come, will you? Did all Buffers die or something?!”

The cries of players looking for a Buffer or a Priest rang throughout the area, but that was not the end of it.

“Ah… it seems that we have to give up on hunting today…”

“It seems that Buffers have dried up.”

“Ah… this is stressing me out…”

There were numerous parties struggling after failing to recruit a Buffer or a Priest.

“I give up! These Buffer bastards are acting too high and mighty!”

There were also some players that left their parties after getting into an argument with a Buffer.

‘What the hell? Wasn’t this a low-level area? Are Buffers also treated as royalty in these places…?’ Siegfried wondered. He could not understand the scene in front of him.

Sohoca Ruins was a low-level Level 40 to 60 hunting ground, but was there really a need for people to use a Buffer in this place? Buffers were only useful in hunting grounds at least Level 150 from what Siegfried could recall.

‘I’ll eventually find out why this is happening… So the reason why this party is recruiting me must be because of my class then?’ Siegfried thought. It seemed as if he had already figured out the reason the party approached him after analyzing the situation.

Debuff Master.

His class name could perfectly be misunderstood as a support class based on its name alone.

‘They say that beggars can’t be choosers,’ he thought as he realized that the party had to have definitely failed to recruit a Buffer, so they had to settle for Siegfried, who had the class, Debuff Master.

However, they would have never imagined in their wildest dream that Siegfried was actually an insane DPS.

‘Okay, I guess I can use these people as my guide around the ruin while laying down debuffs and leeching experience points,’ he thought as he decided to take advantage of the party instead of letting them take advantage of him.

He planned to take full advantage of them.

How?

Siegfried did not plan to do anything else aside from placing down his debuff circles, and he planned to fully role-play as a support class player just as Gosran and her party members had mistaken him to be.

“Alright, it’s my first time here, so I was thinking of partying up. Let’s go for a round, shall we?” Siegfried said.

“Really?” Gosran asked.

“Yes.”

“Great! Welcome to our party! I will definitely treat you well!” she exclaimed.

It seemed that Gosran was not only pretty, but she had a bright, outgoing personality that suited her looks. She could also be just pretending to get a support class player to join her party, but Siegfried had no intentions of finding out her motives for now since she did not seem to have any bad ulterior motives.

Siegfried’s hunch about her motive turned out to be correct.

‘It’s my first time seeing such a class. It must be a supporter-type class, right…?’ she wondered.

Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

She found Siegfried by chance when she was flashing her Rune of Insight all over the place.

‘But his level is too low… he’s just going to instantly die the moment he enters the dungeon… I’m certain that’s why the other parties didn’t spare him a glance. Should I just recruit him? We can’t find a Buffer so I guess we should just settle for him. It’s a win-win situation for both of us since he gets to join a party despite being a low-leveled player, and we will get a supporter-type class to assist us…’

This was Gosran’s train of thought…

Of course, there was no way Siegfried would be aware of her thoughts, and neither did he want to be aware of her thoughts.

“Then, shall we make a move?” Gosran asked as she took the lead.

“Let’s go!”

“Phew! It’s finally time to hunt!”

“Go, go, go!”

The other party members followed behind Gosran like a group of baby chicks.

‘It’s been a while since I joined a party,’ Siegfried thought as he walked toward the dungeon entrance.

***

It turned out that Sohoca Ruin was a place so vast that the word ‘vast’ was a complete understatement to describe it. It was around half the size of Seoul in reality, and that was why Siegfried and his newfound party had to use one of the five gateways installed at the entrance to enter the dungeon.

A message notifying Siegfried of his current location popped up in front of his eyes.

[Sohoca Ruins: Western Outskirts]

[Sohoca Ruins]

[Sohoca was a sprawling large city in the past, but when the Lightning Python fell on it and rampaged thirty years ago, it became a vast empty city.]

[The humans have successfully managed to kill the Lightning Python in the end, but the unknown mana possessed by the monster spread all over Sohoca and naturally started raising lightning attribute monsters.]

The mana left behind by the Lightning Python made the place crawling with lightning attribute monsters, and the Adventurers had to exterminate those monsters. That was the concept of this hunting ground according to BNW’s storyline.

BNW placed great importance on the game’s storyline since the entire game ran on one giant story called the ‘Nürburg Saga.’

“Hmm… Let’s go this way for now,” Gosran said as she led the party members and explained, “We can get surrounded if we move too quickly, so—”

Bzzt…! bzzt…! bzzt…! 

Crackling sounds interrupted her words, and then a bunch of shining spheres started to make their way toward the party.

[Ray Zergling]

[Spirit-type monsters born from the remnant energy left behind by the Lightning Python.]

[They are large in numbers and they often form a mob to attack humans.]

[Extra caution is advised when dealing with them.]

[Level: 35]

[Race: Spirit]

[Attribute: Lightning Attribute]

[Special Abilities: Lightning Property Attack (Ranged), Teleport]

The Ray Zerglings were special monsters that could not be found anywhere else on the Nürgburg Continent aside from Sohoca Ruins.

‘So this is why they desperately needed a Buffer,’ Siegfried thought. After seeing the mob of Ray Zerglings, he finally realized why this low-leveled hunting ground required a Buffer.

There were simply too many of them. Adventurers liked more mobs, but there were simply too many of them right now.

Perhaps there were around fifty of them? No, the number of Ray Zerglings that had gathered could easily exceed a hundred.

If the monsters in a hunting ground often formed a mob this size, then it was imperative for a party to possess a Buffer or a Healer, even if it was a low-leveled hunting ground. It was all because the fight would certainly take a while, so someone had to support the Tankers and DPS fighting at the front lines.

The ideal scenario for a party would be to receive buffs from a Buffer and slowly cut down the mobs one by one since the buffs could help them conserve their mana and potions in the long run.

“Prepare for combat!” Gosran hurriedly shouted as she relayed instructions to the party, “Tankers! Block the front! Swordsman-nim, please go and fight at the front while I deal AOE damage!”

Gosran’s party was made up of two Tankers, one physical damage DPS, and one magic damage DPS. It was a standard party setup where the two Tankers would block the mobs while the physical damage DPS would take care of any monsters that managed to get through the Tankers, and the magic damage DPS would unleash AOE spells upon the monsters.

The fight started, and it seemed that the party was getting pushed back by the mob.

Ziiiing! Ziiiiiing!

The Ray Zerglings shot an endless barrage of lightning laser beams, which pressured the party on their back foot, and there were even a few Ray Zerglings that used Teleport to launch an ambush from time to time.

‘The monster’s health and defense are just average, but their numbers make it tricky to deal with them. A Buffer would be very valuable even though this place is just a low-leveled hunting ground,’ Siegfried thought. He analyzed the situation and once again confirmed the importance of Buffers in this place.

While he was analyzing the situation, the party’s line of defense started to crumble.

“Ah! Damn it! There are too many of them!”

“There are too many!”

“I’m running out of mana! I’ll take a potion, so block them off for now!”

Gosran’s party was starting to fall into disarray, and the reason was quite simple. They could not handle the sheer number of Ray Zerglings rushing at them.

‘There’s a lot of mobs, so that’s going to be a lot of experience points but—’ his thoughts trailed off.

Gosran had shouted at him, “Siegfried-nim!”

“Yes?”

“Sorry, but can you cast debuffs on them?! We are struggling here!” she shouted.

“Ah… I’m sorry. I’ll cast debuffs now,” Siegfried said after apologizing to his party members.

Then, he immediately placed down his debuff fields: Circle of Mortality, Circle of Weakness, and Speed Restraint.

The effects were unbelievable.

***

Siegfried’s debuff circles completely turned around the entire battle.

[You have successfully hunted a Ray Zergling!]

[Experience Points +1,700! (5% Party Bonus)]

[You have successfully hunted a Ray Zergling!]

[Experience Points +1,700! (5% Party Bonus)]

[You have successfully hunted a Ray Zergling!]

[Experience Points +1,700! (5% Party Bonus)]

Siegfried’s experience points started to pile up at a frightening pace, and this meant that the battle had swung in their favor.

“Huh? Why did they suddenly become so weak?”

“They died after getting hit a few times…?”

“Wow! Look at how slow they are!”

“Isn’t this too easy…?”

The groans and struggles of the party members had suddenly vanished, and it was replaced by a massacre of Ray Zerglings. It took them less than five minutes to kill the more than a hundred Ray Zerglings that had formed a mob against them.

[You have leveled up!]

[You are now Level 32!]

Siegfried’s level increased when all Ray Zerglings fell.

“Level up!”

“Congratulations!”

“I leveled up as well!”

“Wow! Me too! I leveled up, too!”

It seemed that Gosran’s party members had leveled up as well.

“Siegfried-nim,” Gosran called out.

“Yes?” Siegfried responded nonchalantly.

“I apologize for not realizing it sooner.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just—I never realized you were so amazing…”

She wasn’t the only one.

“Aigoo! I apologize for not recognizing such a precious person!”

“Wow, you’re really amazing. I thought only Buffers were amazing, but the Debuff Master is also an amazing class!”

“I really thought that beggars can’t be choosers, so we ended up choosing you. However, it turned out that we were mistaken after all! Haha! This is amazing!”

The party members tried their best to appeal to Siegfried while openly showing how amazed they were.

‘I hope I didn’t upset him a while ago…’

‘Please stay with us all day…!’

‘Please… don’t go…!’

Siegfried could easily tell what they were thinking since their desperate thoughts were clearly written on their desperate faces.

‘I guess they want to keep hunting with me. Is this why Buffers are all acting so high and mighty? I guess this is why they feel like royalty,’ he thought.

Siegfried was very well aware from his experience with BNW of how different classes were categorized into different categories the higher their level, similar to a caste system. A player would obviously want a dependable ally to entrust their backs to since monsters with higher HP and defense would have even more complicated attack patterns the higher their level. In lieu of that fact, it was only natural for Buffers to be treated as royalty since they could buff and look after the entire party, and a party’s combat prowess could double or even multiply just from the presence of a Buffer.

“I never knew that there was a class that specialized in debuffs. Is it a hidden class by any chance…?” one of the party members suddenly asked.

“There’s no way that’s possible,” Siegfried said as he denied it.

There was no way for them to find that out no matter many times they scanned Siegfried with the Rune of Insight. After all, the system did not let anyone see what type of class a player had until they reached their first awakening; otherwise known as the 2nd class advancement.

“If I had a hidden class, I wouldn’t be here. I would have been with some large guild getting boosted by Rankers instead,” Siegfried said.

“I guess you’re right? I thought you had a hidden class since you were too awesome! Haha!” the party member said before laughing.

“Hahaha… Thank you… hahaha…!” Siegfried replied with an awkward laugh.

He had no idea if the party member were just trying to suck up to him or if he were being sincere, but he could not deny flinching when the party member asked him whether he had a hidden class or not.

Gosran suddenly said to Siegfried in a nervous voice, “S- Siegfried-nim…?”

“Yes?” Siegfried responded.

“You will… continue to hunt with us… right? No, you will continue to hunt with us, right?” Gosran then asked in a manner that sounded more like she was begging rather than asking.