Chapter 152
“Graaaahhhh!”
Hwang Dongseok.
His soul was trapped in the darkness, weeping tears of blood and screaming in agony.
Every part of his body, except for his face, was bound by chains soaked in blood.
These chains did not merely coil around his body in layers; they pierced through his very soul, with some of them embedding their roots deep within him.
This was the curse of judgment branded upon his soul by Harmakan, the prison of sin that would confine him for eternity, even in death.
“Graaaahhhh…!”
Hwang Dongseok howled in torment.
There was no way to escape this infinite suffering.
The only thing he could do was—
Scream.
Wail.
Suffer.
With his soul crushed to its very core, he could do nothing but grit his teeth and weep blood within this hellish prison.
And then—
“Rise.”
A voice of salvation finally called to his soul from above.
Hwang Dongseok, still shedding tears of blood, lifted his head.
Snap.
In that moment, the chains broke.
The curse that had seemed eternal began to unravel.
His limbs were freed.
Hwang Dongseok pushed himself up.
However—
“Graaaahhhh…!”
The blood tears streaming from his eyes did not cease.
Though the chains had shattered, the prison of sin that confined him still clung to his soul.
The Cursed Armor of Wraiths.
A Death Knight’s curse, specially crafted by Harmakan to imprison vengeful spirits.
Even though the chains were broken, the armor continued to wring his soul, inflicting excruciating pain.
Yet for a Death Knight, pain was power itself.
Ironically, the more agony Hwang Dongseok endured, the stronger the armor became.
Thus—
[Shadow Slave Soldier Lv.1]
Elite Rank.
His soul, clad in the Cursed Armor of Wraiths, rose from the shadows, still shedding tears of blood.
Even after becoming a Shadow Soldier, the pain remained unchanged, and more wraith-like soldiers began to emerge around him.
[Shadow Slave Soldier Lv.1]
[Shadow Slave Soldier Lv.1]
[Shadow Slave Soldier Lv.1]
……
“Graaaahhhh!”
Black mist rippled around their full-body armor.
Dozens of Death Knights, clad in Harmakan’s cursed armor, let out horrifying screams.
It was a cry of agony—yet also a roar of fury toward Harmakan, the one who had bound them in this wretched armor.
“Attack.”
At that moment, Suho’s command fell upon them.
“[Kraaaahhhh!]”
“[Kraaaaaaahhh-!]”
With ferocious bloodlust, the Death Knights surged forward, launching a frenzied assault.
Harmakan could not help but panic.
“T-This cannot be…!”
He frantically commanded his wraiths to counter their attack.
Squelch!
At the same time, he tore his horn from his body, causing blood to gush out.
Using that blood, he wove a sequence of hand signs in the air and chanted a curse.
“Wretched spirits who dare defy me! May you all be damned!”
Instantly, the stench of blood spread across the battlefield.
[Harmakan, Grand Chieftain of the Demon Clan, has used ‘Skill: Damage Amplification.’]
[All cursed enemies will receive increased damage.]
[Even normal attacks will inflict fatal wounds.]
“Damage Amplification?”
As the system messages flooded in, Suho’s eyes narrowed.
Harmakan’s curse had affected all the Shadow Soldiers.
As a result, the wraiths’ attacks inflicted significantly greater damage upon them.
Simultaneously, Harmakan unleashed another curse.
“Let the land of death descend upon this place!”
[Harmakan, Grand Chieftain of the Demon Clan, has used ‘Skill: Drain.’]
[Harmakan recovers 2% of the damage he deals as health.]
Shwoooosh!
Each time his wraiths struck the Shadow Soldiers, the wounds left by Vulcan’s Horn on Harmakan’s body began to rapidly heal.
Watching this, Beru let out an exclamation of awe.
[Young Lord! This one is highly adept in curses!]
“So it seems. And his skill synergy isn’t bad either.”
It was fitting for a grand chieftain.
First, he amplified the damage his enemies received.
Then, he absorbed a portion of that amplified damage to heal himself.
A troublesome combination.
However—
“That doesn’t work on me.”
Suho smirked as a series of system messages popped up before him.
[A curse has been detected.]
[Effect of ‘Blessing: Grand Shaman Kandiaru’s Blessing’ has begun purging the curse.]
[3, 2, 1… Curse successfully dispelled.]
Shwoooosh!
In an instant, Harmakan’s curse was wiped away from Suho’s body.
The blessing of Grand Shaman Kandiaru had completely nullified the grand chieftain’s hexes.
“Well, I guess we know who ranks higher.”
At the same time, Harmakan realized what had happened and turned to Suho with a look of pure shock.
“Kandiaru’s blessing?! So you really are connected to the Shadow Monarch! Are you… his successor?!”
His initial shock quickly transformed into greed as his eyes glowed with sinister hunger.
“Kuhuhu! What a fortune! I thought I was suffering losses today, but I never imagined I’d find such a rare specimen for my research!”
At that moment—
Fwoooosh!
All the wraiths surrounding Harmakan were suddenly sucked into him.
As their essence was absorbed, Harmakan’s presence began to swell, his form growing more and more imposing before Suho’s eyes.
Rumble!
[Harmakan, Grand Chieftain of the Demon Clan, manifests his true form.]
“……!”
Harmakan had abandoned the body of the Yamiri Village Chief, fully revealing his true self.
“[Graaaahhhh!]”
“[Graaaaaaahhhhhhh!]”
At that moment, the Death Knights and Shadow Slave Soldiers, now freed from their spectral chains, roared with explosive fury and charged toward him.
BOOM!
But shockingly, every single one of them was repelled by a force even greater than their own charge.
“Kahahaha!”
At the center of it all, Harmakan laughed maniacally as a sinister energy spiraled around him.
[Harmakan, Grand Chieftain of the Demon Clan, has used ‘Skill: Thorns of Agony.’]
[All pain and damage received by Harmakan will be shared with his attacker.]
“Thorns of Agony?”
Suho frowned as he watched his Shadow Slave Soldiers instantly annihilated in a single attack.
‘A skill that directly reflects all received damage and pain back to the attacker…’
Of course, even Harmakan himself was not immune to the suffering.
But the problem was his prior curse skills—Damage Amplification and Drain.
‘He shares his pain, increases the damage his enemies take, and then heals himself using the Drain skill?’
His skill synergy was ruthlessly efficient.
“…You’re an amusing one.”
Suho smirked and withdrew the shattered Shadow Slave Soldiers to the rear.
Then, he commanded all remaining Shadow Soldiers to eliminate the Death Knights that still filled the village.
“Esil!”
Now that the boss monster had been identified, it was time to go all out.
Shwoooosh!
The very same Vulcan’s Horn that Harmakan had ripped from his body and thrown away soared through the air, landing in Suho’s grasp.
Hearing Suho’s call, Esil rushed forward without hesitation and activated her spectral fusion ability.
[Vulcan’s Horn devours the soul of a demon.]
[Item: Vulcan’s Horn equipped.]
[Buff: Destructive Urge activated. Physical damage increased by 300%.]
“A-A demon’s horn?!”
The sight of two large horns suddenly sprouting from Suho’s head filled Harmakan’s eyes with shock.
“How is the Shadow Monarch’s heir wielding the power of a demon noble?!”
But his shock was premature.
Body Strengthening.
Giant’s Armor.
Wind of the Plains.
Suho activated every skill in his arsenal.
With each activation, Harmakan’s eyes widened further in disbelief.
“This… this is absurd! No matter how much of a successor to the Shadow Monarch you may be, how can a mere human body withstand so many powers?!”
Fwoooosh.
Suho, his form now towering and his silver hair billowing, strode toward Harmakan.
“You know, my father was a Necromancer. So what do you think that makes me?”
Step. Step.
The closer he got, the wider his grin became.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Suho’s fists, reinforced by Body Strengthening, slammed into Harmakan.
Each strike caused a deafening explosion, sending shockwaves that upheaved the entire battlefield.
“Y-You fool! It’s useless!”
Harmakan clenched his teeth and braced himself, enduring the relentless onslaught.
“Even if you have Kandiaru’s blessing, Thorns of Agony is my curse alone!”
[Harmakan, Grand Chieftain of the Demon Clan, has used ‘Skill: Thorns of Agony.’]
[All pain and damage received by Harmakan will be shared with the player.]
Splurt!
In that moment, blood gushed from Suho’s mouth.
The stronger he became, the more forceful the backlash.
Seeing this, Harmakan let out a twisted grin.
“Kuhuhu! Yes, you are strong, I’ll admit that! But let’s see how long you can endure!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Of course, Harmakan himself was also bleeding profusely.
But he remained confident.
“Did you know? This instance dungeon was created from Kandiaru’s legacy! And I am the ruler of this dungeon! That means every spirit that dies in this land adds to my power!”
An Instance Dungeon.
A relic of Kandiaru, discovered by pure chance within the Rift.
Ever since Harmakan began studying it, his strength had surged exponentially.
It was thanks to this discovery that he, once just a mere chieftain, had risen to the rank of Grand Chieftain.
“You have nothing but Kandiaru’s blessing. But I am different! I, Harmakan, am the disciple of the greatest sorcerer of the Demon Clan, Kandiaru himself!”
Kandiaru’s disciple.
The weight of that title was immense.
Kandiaru, the Grand Sorcerer who had once designed the Level-Up System, was so powerful that even the future rulers of the Demon Clan had feared him.
Just inheriting a fraction of Kandiaru’s legacy had been enough for Harmakan to become Grand Chieftain.
So no matter how much Suho’s blessing protected him—
This land of death, this instance dungeon, was Kandiaru’s creation as well.
“Kahahaha! Come, keep fighting! The stronger you become, the more you will consume yourself—”
At that moment.
“You talk too much.”
A chill ran down Harmakan’s spine.
‘Wait.’
Something felt wrong.
Now that he thought about it, Suho had been continuously attacking without stopping, despite sharing all of the pain.
Does it hurt?
Of course, it does.
But—
‘So what.’
Even as blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, Suho was smiling.
“I can take a hit.”
Whenever Suho lay down to sleep, Beru would sit beside him and recount old tales.
Most were stories of battles Beru had personally witnessed, but some were about Sung Jinwoo’s youth—stories Beru had only heard secondhand.
‘My father once had something called a Job Change Quest.’
The first job given to his father had been Necromancer.
It had likely been an intermediate stage, designed by the system, to allow his father’s power to grow until he became a suitable vessel.
But Jinwoo had surpassed the system’s expectations, immediately evolving into the Shadow Monarch.
And at that time, his level had only been 40.
Yet now, Suho was surpassing Level 50, and still, no Job Change Quest had appeared.
The reason was obvious.
The Level-Up System existed only to create a vessel for the Shadow Monarch.
The Job Change Quest had been nothing more than a disguised stepping stone for Jinwoo’s evolution.
Thus, Suho could never become a Necromancer, a Shadow Monarch, or anything else.
[Class: None]
His status window had always remained blank at the top.
But Suho’s gaze burned with determination.
‘…So what.’
Even without a class.
Even without a Job Change Quest.
It didn’t matter.
‘I’ll decide that for myself.’
Right now, he had this body, inherited from his father.
And he would use it to crush every enemy in his path.
That was all that mattered.
“So for now—I’m a Barbarian.”
Dududududududududu!
A Barbarian.
A warrior who endures all pain with sheer durability, unleashing their full strength against their foe.
“I decided that.”
Ding!
[Skill: Martial Arts Lv.1 has been acquired.]
Suddenly, his fists surged with even greater power.
“Graaaaahhhh!”
At last, a scream of pure agony erupted from Harmakan’s throat.
