The Game of a Legendary Genius Dark Mage-Chapter 400

0.

In Mugan, the theme tends to change every ten floors.

It wasn’t that there were no floors that didn’t fit their themes, but broadly speaking they were similar.

However, throughout the stretch from the 1st to the 79th floor, there hadn’t been a single floor with just a lone boss sitting there like this.

It felt strange.

While everyone in Mihael’s party only felt it in that vague way—

Seong alone sensed that something was off.

It was the energy felt from the boss and the entirety of the 80th floor.

For Seong, it was a kind of energy he could not fail to recognize.

The Abyss?

Not the faint, diffused Abyssal energy permeating all of Mugan, but a distinctly perceptible power of the Abyss.

A power of the Abyss that, even for Seong, he still only employed through swordsmanship.

A power he could barely approximate as a lord’s power by borrowing the Faceless Lord’s strength.

Sensing that across this entire floor was, unquestionably, anomalous.

Since when was the Abyss something easy to handle?

Of course it wasn’t.

And yet it was spread across this whole floor, and that boss clearly bore the Abyss attribute; it was peculiar enough that Seong remained thoroughly on guard.

The demon sheep giant began to move.

BOOM!

KWA-BOOM—!

KWA-BAAAAAM———!!!

With each step it took, the demon sheep giant’s movement gave the illusion that all of Mugan was shaking.

It was proof of just how heavy it was and how outstanding its strength was.

At that movement, Mihael stepped forward first, gripping a light-wreathed sword and advancing to meet the creature.

As a parry-type tank, he took point and confronted the demon sheep giant.

The demon sheep giant swung a massive cleaver down at Mihael.

As the cleaver lurched in, Mihael knocked the blade aside with his light-charged sword.

SHI-I-I-IING——!!

As the cleaver, as large as Mihael himself, was flung upward, Noar dashed in, aiming to strike a vital point.

But the demon sheep giant, instead of recovering the raised cleaver, used that momentum to spin its body, striking Mihael with its leg in an instant and backhanding Noar—who had been launched into the air—with the back of the hand that wasn’t holding the cleaver.

THU-U-U-U-U-D———!!!

WHU-U-U-U-U-M———!!!

With sounds like shells exploding, Mihael and Noar were flung away.

In that instant, a black curtain of darkness wrapped around the two, and both were slammed into the wall with no major damage.

If Seong hadn’t promptly defended them with darkness, the impact had the kind of power that could have retired them in one blow, and a chill ran down Mihael’s and Noar’s spines.

A combat sense on a different plane than ordinary bosses.

If it were a normal boss, it would have been rattled by the parry, halted its attack, and Noar’s strike would have landed.

This one was different.

-What is that??????

-Wow, what kind of boss has combat sense like that;;;;;

-Crazy—this is hidden raid-boss tier???

-Feels like the Demon King’s usual opponents, but Mihael’s party can only be bewildered.

-This is insane????

-That combat sense is no joke.

The viewers felt it too and were firing off chat.

Then Mihael shouted:

“E-everyone, be careful!!!”

Mihael called out, and belatedly Lowell loosed arrows to attack the demon sheep giant, but it swung the cleaver again and blocked the arrows with wind pressure alone.

Then it swung the cleaver once more and sent out a cutting shockwave.

As a razor-sharp blade force shot forth, a black curtain of darkness appeared in front of Lowell and blocked the attack.

KRRRRRRRRRRRRR———!!!

A long ripping crash sounded, but the curtain of darkness was unscathed, as if it had absorbed the impact entirely.

The blade force simply dwindled and vanished.

Seeing that, the viewers were still full of awe.

-Wow, the Demon King just blocks that.

-If not for the Demon King earlier, Mihael and Noar would’ve been half-retired already, no?

-The raw power is insane, and the speed’s on the fast side too;;;;

-How are you supposed to kill that?

As the viewers worried, Mihael too was sweating coldly as he watched the demon sheep giant.

Should he say the tier was different?

If his original party’s mage had been here instead of Seong, could they have killed that thing?

No way.

Among the parties that had made it to the ninth region in the first place, there probably wasn’t a single party that could kill that boss.

Especially since Mugan caps out at six-person parties.

All the more reason.

While Mihael was thinking that—

Seong stepped forward and spoke.

“I’ll take it this time. Next time, if you prepare a bit, it’ll be fine.”

Hearing that, Mihael tried to stop him for a moment.

The condition had been not to summon vassals; was Seong about to summon his vassals now?

But Seong simply rose into the air and faced the demon sheep giant’s gaze—five meters up—and before Mihael could stop him, Seong moved first.

Right now, the demon sheep giant was using a power with the Abyss attribute.

That power was using the ground to siphon off a little of every member of Mihael’s party’s strength.

By means of the Abyss.

Watching that, Seong took to the air, and as he did, the viewers typed with mounting excitement.

-Oh, is it starting???

-Isn’t he not allowed to summon vassals?

-People act like without vassals the Demon King can’t do anything lol

-Is the Demon King finally about to go in!?

-This is what I was waiting for lol

Everyone, hyped, fixed their eyes on Seong stepping up.

Sure enough, Seong began to move the darkness.

The long blade of darkness that surged up from the ground was twice the size of the five-meter demon sheep giant, and the demon sheep giant, seeing it, gripped the cleaver in both hands to try to block the blade of darkness.

But in that moment, the darkness at the point where the giant lifted the cleaver vanished, and the blade of darkness slipped through the cleaver and flew toward the demon sheep giant’s body.

KKA-KA-KA-KA-KA-KANG———!!!

Sparks flew as if metal had struck metal, and unable to withstand the blade of darkness, the demon sheep giant was shoved backward.

SSSSSSSS——!!!

As if the difference in power were palpable, two huge furrows gouged the ground; seeing that, Seong fired again, wielding darkness toward the creature.

Countless spikes of darkness surged from the floor.

The demon sheep giant swung its cleaver and batted the spikes aside.

In that instant, the spikes curved like flower stems and shot toward the demon sheep giant, and the moment they burrowed into the body—

It was as if they fed on the demon sheep giant as nutrients and began to bloom.

The beautiful flowers of darkness instantly flared their buds wide—and detonated in massive explosions.

WHOOOOM———!!!

B-B-B-B-B-BOOOM———!!!

The explosions did not end with just one.

With blasts erupting in succession, burn marks and gouged flesh appeared in multiple places on the demon sheep giant’s body—a body that the blade of darkness hadn’t even scratched.

Then—

“KRRAAAAAAAH———!!!”

As if enraged, it let out a roar.

VWOOOOOOOO———!!

The surrounding ground began to heave.

The demon sheep giant’s energy spread outward.

At the same time, an Abyssal pressure that crushed everything radiated out, and Mihael’s party, under the illusion that gravity had multiplied by dozens of times, could barely raise their heads.

The viewers, seeing that, balked and looked to Seong.

If Seong got caught in that, wouldn’t he be forced to give the demon sheep giant a free hit?

But Seong opened an umbrella woven of darkness and remained perfectly fine beneath the pressing Abyss.

Scowling deeply at Seong, the demon sheep giant charged once more.

However, the moment it tried to move, a hand stretched from the abyss seized its ankle; with a sensation like being sucked into the Abyss, the demon sheep giant found itself unable to move an inch.

THOOOOM.

Soon the demon sheep giant was on its knees, stuck to the floor.

Viscous darkness dripped from the ceiling, then hardened into a great awl and thrust toward the demon sheep giant.

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK!!!

Spikes sank into its body, and it let out a scream of pain.

“KRRAAAAAAH!!!”

Seeing the demon sheep giant in agony, the viewers were stunned.

-What on earth is that???

-He’s just toying with it???

-Wow, he can handle darkness like that?

-Not a single Secret Art, and he can do this much.

-That looks like awakened lord power—wild.

-He never showed it till now, and then he just throws it all out there like this—honestly, it’s cool.

While the viewers were that absorbed in Seong—

As if he’d read their chat, Seong glanced toward the live camera Lee Geon-dong was operating and gave a broad grin.

-H-he smiled at me.

-Kyaaaaaaaaa.

-That’s a killer smile.

-The smile before a killing.

-Wow, crazy—he really is handsome.

As admiration spilled out, Seong raised his hand in that moment—

And the spikes embedded in the demon sheep giant’s body sprouted secondary spines, sending spikes branching in every direction.

Spikes spreading through the entire body.

Feeling them, the demon sheep giant’s eyes flew wide—and when Seong clenched his hand in midair—

A massive awl burst from the giant’s chest, caving its sternum inward.

At the same time, as Seong opened his hand again—

The darkness-wrought spikes vanished without a trace.

The demon sheep giant’s form crumbled and rolled across the floor.

SSSSSSS.

Seeing the demon sheep giant’s body turn to dust and scatter, Mihael, Lowell, and Noar all dropped their jaws.

Witnessing something like that firsthand, you couldn’t help reacting that way.

Seeing a hidden raid-boss-tier boss suppressed in an instant, everyone swallowed hard.

Watching how lightly Seong had handled it, one might have wondered if Mihael’s party was simply too weak, but the viewers knew best that this wasn’t the case.

-Mihael’s party can take down your average raid boss; honestly among ninth-region parties, they’re top-tier;;;

-But they couldn’t subdue that thing, and he just did it in one go?

-How long did that take???

-10 minutes?

-Felt shorter than that......

-Crazy—he killed it like this......

As praise poured in for Seong, who had killed a hidden raid-tier boss without a single Secret Art—

Seong looked at them and said:

“There is a strat. If you feel the power it uses, you’ll notice it steals strength from the ground. If it absorbs my strength, it gets stronger, so to make it easier I took to the air and killed it.”

“Ah......? So that’s what it was?”

“I—I didn’t notice at all.”

“N-no wonder—it felt weaker compared to the start.”

As Mihael’s party spoke up one by one—

Seong nodded.

-Crazy—he figured out the strat in that short a time???

-Even if you knew that, attacking from the air still wouldn’t make it easy to kill, would it????

-The Demon King said it’s so—just type ‘fr lol’!!!

-fr lol

-fr lol

The viewers were bewildered too, but that was their reaction.

Seong glanced at the viewers and gave a faint smile, then said:

“Shall we head to the next floor?”

Everyone nodded at Seong’s words.

And so Mihael’s party, with Seong included, was the first to descend to the 81st floor.

Smiling, Seong went down, eager to see what would appear on the next floor.