Chapter 24

Hiro crouched down on the unknown letters to take a closer look at its shape. The letter was clearly included as an important part of the riddle that he had to solve before he could face the Fallen Angel as NPC Fortune Teller said.

Ding!

[Demon’s language has been detected]

[Do you want to activate Demon’s eyes to read the language? [Price 1000LSC]]

“Paid?” He didn’t expect to be offered a paid skill by the system at a tense moment like this.

But he has no choice.

[1000LSC has been consumed]

The letters suddenly looked as if they were moving and changing places, the lines were now changing to form letters of the alphabet that Hiro could read. In a matter of seconds, he could understand the meaning of the seven words on each of the lines.

[Pride]

[Greed]

[Lust]

[Envy]

[Gluttony]

[Wrath]

[Sloth]

“7 deadly sins, huh?”

After finding the 7 meaningful words, Hiro was very sure that the expressions on the faces of the stone statues were different because they matched each word’s meaning.

“I have to move this stone altar so that the lines are aligned with the correct statue.”

Even though he knew what he was doing, it was not easy to distinguish the expressions on the stone statues and he knew that he could not afford any mistakes.

But he has another idea…

“If it’s clockwise, I only need to move 10 degrees. If it’s counterclockwise, I have to push it 30 degrees.”

He deduced that based on the current position of the seven lines on the stone altar.

In addition, he had a hard time guessing which statue was expressing [Pride] and which statue was [Greed], because they both looked very similar at first glance.

Hiro’s ability to read people’s facial expressions is not that good. Moreover, what he was trying to read this time was the expression of a stone statue.

So in the end, he chose to gamble. He decided to use another idea before moving the lever on the stone altar.

After thinking for a moment, Hiro firmly pulled the stone lever 10 degrees, clockwise because it was a shorter distance compared to the counterclockwise one.

The stone lever was very heavy, but he managed to move it. Thanks to the STR points he currently had.

Suddenly, a loud sound like a giant rock sliding under the altar where Hiro was standing reverberated. He immediately jumped down from the altar and drew his greatsword in alertness.

Bzzz!

Not long after, suddenly the eyes of the seven stone statues around him flashed red. It made Hiro startled a bit. But he has another thing to worry about.

Bamm!

The seven stone statues started to move.

Even though their movements were stiff like stone golems, it was clear that they were targeting Hiro who had woken them up. And because he was the only living being in that area.

Thus, he realized that the choice Hiro made to solve the riddle was wrong.

The stone statues quickly target Hiro, trying to attack him with their bare hands.

“Damn it!”

Hiro kicked and hit the stone statue with his sword. Although he used the greatsword given by NPC Rosemary, the blade of that sword was unable to slash the stone statue.

He knew that the statues weren’t bosses, but he felt strange while trying to attack them because the system didn’t show the stone statue’ names, level, HP, or any status.

At that moment, he realized that the statues he currently fought with were included in the category of immortal objects that he could never defeat, no matter how strong he was right now.

And thus, Hiro had a new idea.

He ran far to lure the very slow-moving stone statues away from the altar.

Once the statues were already 10 meters away from the altar because they were following Hiro,

Hiro immediately dashed back to the stone altar to push the stone lever by 40 degrees counterclockwise with all his might.

“HOOAH!”

All the muscles mass on his hands and whole body suddenly hardened. But he once again, managed to finish the task.

Dang!

Once again, there was the sound of a giant rock sliding under the altar reverberating and before the sound stopped, the stone statues who were still trying to catch Hiro suddenly stopped moving, frozen in their current spot.

Hiro’s attempt to restore the situation was successful.

Luckily, he didn’t panic and the quest didn’t fail instantly.

“Phew… I almost failed.” He was relieved to be able to think clearly in such a situation.

However, the stone altar under his feet suddenly shook violently as if an earthquake was happening.

He instantly jumped down from the stone altar before anything bad happened.

Right after he jumped, the stone altar quickly broke into two pieces.

Beneath it, there was a gap, so wide that Hiro was pretty sure that he could pass through it to go deeper underground.

He took a deep breath then hurriedly entered the gap that was like a hole leading to the earth’s core.

As his feet stomped on the ground at the bottom of the gap, flames suddenly appeared to blaze the torches on the walls in unison, revealing a long, neat-looking cobbled passageway.

The imperious yet imposing appearance showed that this was the path to a dungeon.

Hiro started to move forward, walking down the hall. He wondered how the end of the hall was like now.

And after walking for a while, Hiro finally saw a giant iron door in front of him, at the end of the hall.

Once again, an inscription with unknown letters began to move to match Hiro’s language.

“Another demon’s word.” He muttered to himself.

The sentence written on the door should be read aloud as the keyword to open the door.

[He thought He was stronger than God and challenged him.]

[Then, He was expelled from the highest Heaven and dropped into the lowest Hell]

Suddenly, the door shook so violently that the ceiling of the passage above Hiro’s head began to crumble, sending him into a slight panic attack.

But fortunately, the big door slowly opened, allowing Hiro to stare into the thick darkness on the other side of the door.

Before the passage completely collapsed on him, Hiro immediately rushed into the dark room without a second thought. He knew that he had to complete the quest no matter what it took.

Ding!

[You have entered the boss area]

“They sent you to be my dinner? What a skinny-weak-little boy, huh?” murmured a mysterious voice that was heavy and hoarse, hiding in the darkness.

Bang!

The large bonfire in the middle of the room suddenly lit up, instantly heating the cold and damp room where Hiro was standing right now.

He saw a throne chair in the corner of the room in front of him. A human-like figure was sitting on the chair, drooping slightly.

That figure was watching him lazily, looking uninterested..

It was a man with white-long hair. He had red irises with completely black sclera of his eyes, looking very terrifying. No smile could be seen on his face that was as pale as a corpse.

Ding!

[You have unlocked a New monster information]

[Boss: Lucifer The Fallen Angel (Level Undefined) (Weakened)]

[Race: Demon]

The boss only wore ragged clothes to cover his lower body.

Dash!

Hiro’s heart almost stopped beating when the boss suddenly disappeared. It was as if he teleported in a second then appeared right in front of him a second after.

“My precious armor. Did you bring it for me? Those seven high priests stole it from me.”

Lucifer looked at Hiro with his two horrible eyes. His voice sounded very hoarse and husky. His sharp, curved fingernails moved to touch the Crow warrior armor that Hiro was wearing.

However, Hiro jumped back before those terrifying fingernails landed a scratch on him.

WOOSH!

Lucifer’s thin lips curled into a smirk. At that moment, Hiro realized that the boss was floating midair. His feet did not land on the ground, but still, he had no wings.

“Return it to me, and I’ll let you live.”

Hearing the words of the only boss who could speak to him made him understand the meaning of the word ‘weakened’ which was repeatedly mentioned by NPC Rosemary.

“You’re the most talkative demon I’ve ever met.” Hiro trying to keep a safe distance.

The boss demon-type monster in front of Hiro was looking for his armor which was stripped by the high priests who had sealed him in this room.

Hence, the boss monster’s current status was [Weakened].

Hiro felt lucky to see the weakened version of the boss. Because in MMORPGs, usually this information can be a spoiler to fight the same boss in the future, but with very different difficulties.

At least, by fighting the weakened version, Hiro could learn several types of boss’ skills.

“I will end your suffering here, Lucifer.”

Hiro took out his greatsword as a declaration of battle. And, he immediately swung his greatsword at Lucifer with all his might.

However, Lucifer disappeared from the air in front of him right then and there.

Poof!

The boss reappeared on Hiro’s right side and gave him a hard kick in the stomach that sent him flying backwards against the wall.

Bang!

[Health -3500]

Hiro received a very powerful and painful attack, but he quickly got back on his feet.

At that moment, Lucifer raised his right hand into the air and from the void, he drew out an extremely terrifying greatsword.

The sword was almost two times the size compared to Hiro’s sword. Metallic purple and black light radiated from the blade as if there was magic contained within it.

“I will have fun with you, Boy.”

Lucifer dashed forward once more, appearing in front of Hiro.

However, this time, Hiro had quite grasped the trick and he was able to parry Lucifer’s greatsword before it could rip his body apart.

Bang!

“Not bad.” Lucifer said smugly.

“Bring it on!” retorted Hiro, preparing himself for another incoming attack.

But—

Bang!

[Fatal Damage]

[Your HP is below 30%]

[Your Recovery will be slow down]

“What happened?” Hiro was confused by what happened.

How could his HP decreased even if he managed to parry Lucifer’s attack?