CH 40

A fight broke out in an instant.

[Church of Osric Member]

[A normal member of the Church of Osric.]

[Level: 45]

[Race: Human]

[Abilities: Dagger Throw]

Around fifty members of the Church of Osric charged at Siegfried and his party while swinging their daggers, but that was the only thing they could do.

Woooong!

Siegfried laid his debuff circles down.

“Bring it on, you bastards!”

“Come on!”

“The debuffs are cast!”

“Be careful! I’m about to cast an AOE spell!”

The battle shifted in Siegfried and his party’s favor the moment Siegfried laid his debuff circles down. Afterward, his party members jumped into the fray.

[Church of Osric Official]

[An official of the Church of Osric]

[Level: 47]

[Race: Human]

[Abilities: Dagger Throw]

There were three officials mixed in with the bunch, but they couldn’t do anything against the party.

[Church of Osric Low Ranked Priest]

[A low-ranked priest of the Church of Osric.]

[Level: 49]

[Race: Human]

[Abilities: Dagger Throw]

There was only one enemy left. His level seemed slightly higher than the others, but he couldn’t do much against the party.

“W-Who are you?!” the low-ranked priest asked Siegfried while kneeling on the ground.

“Adventurers,” Siegfried replied.

“Adventurers…? Why are Adventurers here…?” the priest muttered, seemingly taken aback.

“I am the one who should be asking questions,” Siegfried said before asking, “I will spare you if you lead us to your laboratory.”

“Cut the crap! Do you really think that I will betray the Church just to beg for my life?!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure!”

“Then, you leave me with no choice…” Siegfried shook his head before he turned around and told his party members, “Gag this guy up. Put something over his mouth, so he won’t be able to make a sound.”

“Leave that to me!” Gosran said. She retrieved a bandage and a leather belt from her Inventory.

Siegfried shoved the bandage into the priest’s mouth so the latter couldn’t commit suicide by biting his tongue.

“Eup! Eupp…!” The priest groaned and squirmed after being gagged.

“Then…” Siegfried muttered and took his steel rod out.

Puk! Pukeok! Paaak!

Then, he proceeded to beat the shit out of the priest without a single word.

***

“S-Siegfried-nim…”

Gosran and the party members were greatly taken aback by his actions.

“Wow… this hyung is scary…!”

“That just gave me goosebumps!”

“Shouldn’t you ask something while beating him…?”

They could not help but be horrified at Siegfried’s cruelty while interrogating the priest. He was not particularly using any torture devices or any torture techniques, but the way he swung his steel rod in a consistent motion was more than enough to send chills down their spine.

Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! 

He struck in equal intervals and force.

Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! 

“…”

He did not threaten or interrogate the priest. He simply continued to beat the shit out of the priest without uttering a single word.

“Eup! Ack! Aaaack!” 

Thanks to that, the priest squirmed as if he was about to spill the beans.

‘Hey! Stop hitting me, you bastard! I’ll tell you already! I said I’ll tell youuuuu!’

The priest could only say these words in his head because his mouth was fully sealed.

Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak! 

However, Siegfried continued to beat him despite his willingness to talk.

After a while, the beating finally stopped, but of course, the priest was already half-dead by the time the crazy Adventurer was done beating him up.

“Ughhh…” The priest groaned in agony.

“Do you want to lead the way or not?” Siegfried asked.

Nod! Nod!

The priest vigorously nodded as if he was showing his complete submission to Siegfried.

“Hurry up and lead the way, then,” Siegfried said without a hint of expression on his face before pushing the priest forward.

‘Wow… how can a human be so cold…?’

‘Is he a psychopath…?!’

‘I should remember not to mess with that hyung…’

‘I never knew Siegfried-nim was someone so scary…’

The party members nervously gulped while following behind Siegfried.

***

The party was able to find the laboratory without getting lost thanks to Siegfried making the low-ranked priest surrender to him.

“I think that’s it,” Gosran whispered while pointing at a flickering torch in the distance.

“I think so, too,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

Pukeok!

Then, he smacked the priest on the head with his steel rod.

Thud!

The priest collapsed to the ground.

“…!”

Gosran and the rest of the party members were stupefied by his actions.

“Let’s go,” Siegfried nonchalantly said without paying any attention to their reactions.

***

The laboratory of the Church of Osric located at the center of Sohoca Ruins was about to enter the final stages of its project.

However, the laboratory was currently in a mess. Anyone would be able to tell in a single glance that a battle had broken out; judging by the pools of blood, ravaged equipment, and the dead bodies across the floor.

Clench!

Romulus, a high priest of the Church of Osric, clenched his fist after looking at the laboratory’s state.

“What a stubborn bunch. How long do you plan on pestering us and disrupting our Church’s plans?!” Romulus shouted.

The stubborn bunch that the high priest was referring to here was none other than the secret organization, the Guardians.

“We will continue to do so for eternity! We will never let your evil plans come to fruition! Forever! Never!” said a member of the Guardians.

“What? Ha!” Romulus scoffed in response and said, “Watch closely as you fail, you foolish imbecile! Your comrades are all dead, and the one who escaped will soon be caught by the ones we sent after him.”

“Ptooey!” the man spat at the high priest and exclaimed, “Don’t even think that this is the last of us! We, the Guardians, will never give up! We will soon—”

Sukeok!

However, Romulus decapitated the man before he could finish.

Shwaaaaa!

The man’s neck turned into a blood fountain.

Thud…!

The man’s head rolled on the laboratory floor.

“Get that out of my sight,” Romulus said in a cold voice.

“Yes! High Priest,” the church members replied. They quickly moved to dispose of the man’s body.

“You might have successfully hindered our plans every single time but not this time. You have failed, and we have become stronger than ever,” Romulus said with a smile before adding, “I will successfully complete my mission today, then our Church shall achieve our—”

It was then…

Fshwooo…!

A red ball flew.

Kaboom!

And it hit one of the five remaining Energy Orbs.

Fwaaaaaa!

The flames from the red ball devoured the Energy Orb.

“Nooo!” Romulus cried in despair as he watched the burning orb.

***

“Nice shot,” Siegfried said while raising his thumb up toward Gosran.

The red ball that destroyed the church’s Energy Orb just now was none other than Gosran’s fireball.

“That was nothing,” Gosran said with a smirk.

“Let’s go,” Siegfried said toward the party members, and his words signaled the start of the battle.

***

“Who are you bastards?! How dare you come and hinder our Church’s plans?!” Romulus cried out in anger.

However, Siegfried and his party members did not utter a response as they immediately proceeded to massacre every Church member in the laboratory.

“You sons of bitches!” Romulus cursed before he commanded, “Listen to me, my fellow believers! We shall pass our judgment onto these imbeciles! Increase power output! We shall speed up the resurrection!”

Every single able-bodied Church member mobilized and blocked Siegfried and his party while the laboratory scientists activated the complex machinery to increase the Energy Orbs’ output.

Bzzt! Bzzzzt!

Then, the remaining four Energy Orbs started to absorb lightning energy across Sohoca Ruins.

Ding!

A message popped up in front of Siegfried and his party members’ eyes.

[Alert: The revival process has started!]

[You will have 5 minutes to destroy all of the Energy Orbs to prevent the boss monster from coming back to life!]

[Remaining Time: 04:59]

[Remaining Time: 04:58]

[Remaining Time: 04:57]

A timed quest started…

***

The battle was fierce. The party managed to easily cut down the normal members of the Church of Osric, but the resistance of the church officials and low-ranked priests was fierce. The church officials and low-ranked priests utilized their numbers advantage and pressured the party members even while on top of Siegfried’s debuff circles.

“Ack! There are too many of them!”

“Damn it! Why are these bastards so strong?!”

“Help me out here!”

The party members were slowly reaching their limits.

On top of that, Romulus, who was a named villain, drove Siegfried’s party into a corner.

[Romulus]

[A high priest of the Church of Osric.]

[Level: 55]

[Race: Human]

[Tier: Named]

[Class: Dark Priest]

[Abilities: Shadow of the Dead]

Romulus’ ability, ‘Shadow of the Dead,’ was a dark magic that extracted the shadow of the dead church members. In short, it was somewhat similar to raising zombies or skeletons, but they were vengeful spirits in this case.

Siegfried’s party was slowly getting driven into a corner because of the enemies’ overwhelming advantage in numbers thanks to Romulus’ Shadow of Death.

“These bastards are standing up again!”

“Damn it!”

“Fuck this!”

They could not overcome the enemy’s numbers advantage since the enemies kept on reviving no matter how many they killed. Most importantly, the countdown timer was still going down even as they were being pushed back.

[Remaining Time: 3:15!]

[Remaining Time: 3:14!]

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[Remaining Time: 3:13!]

They only had three minutes left to destroy the remaining four Energy Orbs; however, that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

“Protect the orbs! Risk your lives to protect it!” Romulus shouted as the Church members protected the Energy Orbs with their bodies.

‘Ah… Is it time for me to step up?’ Siegfried wondered.

If things continued like this, the situation wouldn’t end well. However, Siegfried was still hesitating to make a move.

‘If I fight, my identity will be exposed…’ he thought.

He had been pretending to be a Debuffer all this while to keep his class under wraps, and he was certain that his class would get exposed if he were to go to the front and start dealing damage suddenly. By then, the major Guilds would focus on him, and he was certain that his life would become tiresome for him.

[Remaining Time: 2:31!]

[Remaining Time: 2:30!]

[Remaining Time: 2:19!]

However, time was not on Siegfried’s side.

Bzzzt! Bzzzzt!

In addition, the Energy Orbs started emitting sparks that signaled the imminent disaster.

“Ack!” 

While Siegfried was contemplating whether to fight or not, one of his party members collapsed to the ground.

[Your party member ‘Royal Jelly’ has died!]

That was not the end of it…

[Your party member ‘Nam Thang Mo’ has died!]

[Your party member ‘Chicken Patty’ has died!]

Aside from Gosran, all his party members died before he could even make a move.

‘Damn it!’ Siegfried cursed under his breath.

The death of his party members was unfortunate, and it made the situation turn for the worse. Unfortunately, he just could not risk drawing the attention of the major Guilds, which would hinder him in the future.

A message popped up in front of Siegfried.

[Warning!]

[Hurry! There is only 1 minute remaining before the boss monster is revived!]

[Remaining Time: 59 seconds!]

[Remaining Time: 58 seconds!]

[Remaining Time: 57 seconds!]

[Remaining Time: 56 seconds!]

There were still four Energy Orbs left with less than a minute remaining.

“S-Siegfried-nim! I think we need to make a run for it! We won’t be able to stop them with just the two of us!” Gosran shouted.

‘Ha…’ Siegfried sighed inwardly while looking at Gosran.

He was having mixed feelings about the current situation since it would have been better if Gosran died with the others. Unfortunately, she somehow narrowly escaped death.

‘What should I do…?’ Siegfried thought, conflicted.

There were three choices he could make:

1. Continue to keep his class under wraps and give up the hidden dungeon.

2. Kill Gosran and clear the dungeon alone.

3. Fight and expose his class to Gosran.

He no longer had any time to think as he needed to make his decision quickly.

“Gosran-nim,” Siegfried called out after smashing the head of a church member.

Grip…!

Then, he tightly gripped his steel rod.