Chapter 63: Second Evolution (5)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

Ian, who read down the Clopia's information window, smirked.

'As expected, it was as I a.s.sumed.'

Ian's eyes were fixed onto the Clopia's outstanding Agility.

Half of its total combat stats belonged to its Agility stat, and because of this part, Ian had captured the Clopia.

Ian summoned the Clopia.

"Clopia, summon!"

Ian decided not to separately name it and just use the name Clopia.

'Since I'm only going to use it for a while.'

The reason why Ian caught the Clopia was because he needed a monster that he could use the Possession skill on to explosively raise his Agility.

However, he couldn't use it for a long time. Because the level of the monster being Possessed couldn't be raised, when there was a large level difference, he needed to catch a new monster and use it as a Possession shuttle.

'By pointlessly naming it, I might get attached.'

In other words, the Clopia was the perfect monster to raise his 'Possession' skill's skill level and to help him raise his Agility stat.

Ian used the Possession skill on Clopia.

"Ooh, this is better than I thought."

Since he had just been using any monster and Possessing them to raise the skill level of Possession, he could feel the difference of Possessing a monster with handsome stats.

'Since it'd better if it's more useful while I'm raising the Proficiency anyways.'

He proved that it was more efficient to have his main force Familiar directly fight rather than use Possession on them while hunting.

However, he needed to constantly raise the Possession skill's Proficiency because it was effective in many ways. For example, he could use the Possession skill when his main force Familiar's Vitality is running low and help raise his character's stats, or when his character's Vitality is running low and it becomes dangerous, he could Possess a Familiar like Ddukdae and gain maximum Health and Defensive Power temporarily and evade the critical situation.

Ian, who gained a decent Familiar unexpectedly, headed towards the centre mountain fastness again with lightened footsteps.

Ku-ohhh-!

A blue vortex began to rage around Ddukdae.

His Abyss Hole skill was invoked.

Ian quickly put the bow he was holding into his inventory and switched his weapon to his knuckles.

'Ever since Abyss Hole has been invoked, I feel like the knuckle's efficiency is definitely better.'

There were two reasons why the knuckles were better compared to the bow.

The first being that there were two electric spheres created when using Current Proliferation, and the second being that he could use his Familiars' skills with Induction.

If he got lucky and was able to invoke Abyss Hole once more with Induction immediately after it was activated, then for 20 seconds, he basically invoked an AoE Mez (Originating from the term Mesmerize, in games, it defines an action or skill that incapacitates an enemy or opponent).

An amazing synergy effect appeared if he threw the Current Proliferation in the centre of the enemies that were gathered together from being sucked into the Abyss Hole, because it was easy to hit multiple opponents with the follow-up attack, where the spheres spread out, and it threw the enemies into chaos.

Just like now.

"Current Proliferation!"

The spheres of electricity that Ian threw with both his hands flew into the centre of where the bandits were gathered and exploded.

To Ian, who was already a pro at hitting the target with Current Proliferation, it was a piece of cake to hit targets, whose movements were restricted because of Abyss Hole.

Because it was a situation where the bandits were huddled together around the proliferated currents, the follow-up attack constantly exploded almost to its limits.

Ian poured out Current Proliferation continuously until his Spirit Magic was completely consumed.

Za-Zap- Za-Za-Zap-!

Ian, who was happily wiping out the bandits, fell into narcissism.

'Keu, as expected, battue is the best kind of hunting.'

He felt a pleasant sensation that he couldn't feel when hunting as an Archer before resetting, back when he had to frustratingly hunt one by one.

Of course, there were attacks that he could deal AoE damage with as an Archer, and he could hunt multiple enemies by installing traps, but it wasn't a situation where he could hunt as large of a number in one go like now.

'Still, as expected, the lack of AoE damage-dealing is slightly disappointing.'

Despite hunting this smoothly, Ian once again felt disappointment.

And he suddenly thought of the Lava Witch that he saw in the New Monster Information.

'If it's according to my original plan, it was a monster that I wasn't planning on catching before I reached lv 80, but since Ddukdae also evolved, should I go to catch it once I wipe the mountain fastness?'

Before you went all the way to the end after going over Forcal Mountains, a map called 'Scorching Land' appeared.

And Scorching Land was a bas.e.m.e.nt dungeon, and that place was where the Lava Witch was apparently discovered.

Originally, Lava Sp.a.w.ns inhabited the Scorching Land bas.e.m.e.nt dungeon.

Just like its name, the Lava Sp.a.w.n was a monster that you could call 'an egg that gives birth to lava'.

It was a zombie monster that normally deals long-distance, fire-type attacks, but once its Vitality drops below half, it divides into two and recovers about 1/4th of its Vitality.

This Lava Sp.a.w.n's level was around its early 70s, so it wasn't that much higher than the bandits, but it would have been hard to face them if it was before Ddukdae evolved.

Since Ddukdae was incredibly weak to fire magic before evolving and received a large amount of damage even at the Bandit Sorcerer's low-rank fire skills.

However, Ddukdae, who now evolved into an Abyss Golem, didn't have any weak point at fire magic, and because of that, he could easily penetrate through the Lava Sp.a.w.ns after just hitting lv 70 and try grinding to capture the Lava Witch.

"Eut-cha!"

Ian, who got excited at the thought of catching a new monster, swept up the enemies, driven by his enthusiasm.

'Shall we change back to a bow right about now, then?'

After smoothly hunting all of the bandits in one group, Ian changed his weapon again.

Now he needed to lure the bandits that were scattered here and there in the mountain fastness, and he decided that it was more efficient to walk around with his bow and attack them from a far distance while luring them. In addition, he could quickly reduce the cooldown time.

"Ddukdae, Ly. Let's go this way."

Ian shot arrows at a couple of bandits that he could see from a distance, luring them, and began to move slowly towards the heart of the mountain fastness.

And he was finally able to meet the creditor of the mountain fastness, the Boss Bandit.

'Found him!'

Ian, who saw the words 'Forcal Bandit Boss' written in a distinct purple light, inwardly let out an exclamation.

Shortly after he did so, Ian felt that something was strange.

'What the h.e.l.l, why is his level like that?'

Ian hesitated.

For a moment, a cold sweat dripped down his back. The Bandit Boss's level was a whopping lv 80.

'No, I remember it definitely being around lv 75 when I caught it before resetting.'

However, he was fl.u.s.tered only for a moment before he calmly decided.

'It's worth trying.'

He felt he could quickly escape if need be as his character's reflexes increased a lot thanks to Possessing the Clopia that he gained while on the way to the centre mountain fastness.

And Ian's attention turned towards the weapon of the Bandit Boss.

The Bandit Boss was holding a bow. He was a long-distance type monster.

'If he appeared as a tanking-type boss, it would be better to escape here, but if it's a long-distance type monster, I just need to attack him first and catch him quickly!'

The biggest characteristic of long-distance type monsters was their low Vitality.

'It is a boss monster at around lv 80, but since it's a long-distance type… Its Vitality should approximately be about 30 thousand.'

Ian, who decided to fight, let out a command to Ddukdae.

"Ddukdae, Abyss Hole!"

Keu-reu-reung-

As Ddukdae began to tie down the bandits with Abyss Hole, Ian fired Current Proliferation at random.

Before he caught the Bandit Boss, he needed to tie down the feet of the normal bandits nearby that would bother him.

And as the Paralysis skill was activated even on the Bandit Boss, Ian quickly let out the command he had thought of.

"Ly, jump over Ddukdae and let's catch the Boss first!"

Ian let out the command, and Ly promptly threw his body towards the Boss.

However, the Bandit Boss didn't just stay still either.

"These brats, you underestimate me!"

As the Bandit Boss yelled loudly, a yellow wave spread out around him and an AoE buff was placed onto all the bandits.

'd.a.m.n it, I didn't know that he would have an AoE buff.'

Because AoE buff skills were normally skills that mainly tanking-type bosses had, it could be considered a slightly unexpected situation.

'I need to catch him as quickly as possible.'

If he just properly allowed an attack skill at a long-distance, lv 80 boss mob, its Vitality would instantly drop lump after lump.

Ian invoked his Weak Point Capturing skill.

"Ly, Potential Capacity Explosion! Berserk!"

Ian activated all buffs onto Ly. And Ly temporarily gained an unbelievable amount of Offensive Power.

Ian slightly checked Ly's Offensive Power after receiving all those buffs, and saw a whopping value of 2260.

'Ly, show them!'

In order to distract the Bandit Boss that Ly was targeting, Ian quickly pulled his bowstring.

Whoosh-!

Ian's arrow that split through the air lodged exactly into the wrist of the Bandit Boss, who was aiming for Ly.

If the fact that he didn't have the Archer's Accuracy Rate Correction skill was taken into consideration, he had an almost fascinating ability.

Grr-!

And Ly wasn't one to lose that opportunity.

"Alright!"

Ian, who let out an exclamation while looking at the system messages that constantly popped up, dealt supporting fire from the back.

If it was up to his heart, he wanted to change his equipment to his knuckles and help at a more closer proximity, but Ian, who didn't have a jumping ability like Ly's, couldn't penetrate the bandits and get inside.

That was an issue different from his Agility.

"This mutt!"

The Bandit Boss raged and swung his fist.

However, Ly easily dodged him and succeeded in dealing his additional attacks.

Critical damage continuously popped up.

Thanks to the additional Offensive Power increase due to Berserk, an even stronger amount of damage went through.

Because Bleeding was an effect that didn't overlap, it wasn't additionally invoked, but Ly had dropped the Bandit Boss's Vitality by over half in an instant.