Dungeon Predator (WN)

Kang Oh was a seasoned hunter. He knew that the more information he had on his target, the better his chances.

'I need more information!'

He looked at Kuharap and said, "I assume there's more you can tell me about Talastrum's Demon."

'Information. Give me more information!'

"I'm not sure." Kuharap stroked his chin and paused. Then, he continued, "It was said that the demon was so powerful that it was unbeatable. But it's been sealed for so long that I can't say for certain how strong it is."

That made sense. But he should have a sense of how strong it was based on the challenger 100 years ago.

"How strong was the previous challenger?" Kang Oh asked.

"He beat the champion in a one on one fight," Kuharap said.

"Was the previous champion about as strong as you?"

"Probably."

"Is there anything else you can tell me regarding the challenger?"

"No." Kuharap shook his head.

"Hmm."

Kang Oh was locked in thought. The challenger had beaten the previous Tuslam Champion, who was about as strong as Kuharap himself!

'He was either a Master, or someone on the cusp of becoming one.'

However, he still wasn't able to beat the demon. In other words, the demon was more powerful than a Master 100 years ago.

But how about now?

It was crucial that he find out how much it had weakened in 100 years.

"How much has the seal weakened it?" Kang Oh asked.

"I don't know. It's been such a long time that... The wise sage set up the seal, and the elves constructed the temple. The Tuslam were only meant to safeguard the demon's seal. But..."

"But?"

"The demon's roar sounds a lot weaker now. It was frightening when I was young."

Kang Oh's eyes gleamed. His instincts whispered, 'This is a clue!'.

The demon's roar was an indication of its current strength.

"Kuharap, how does its roar sound lately?"

"I'm not really scared of it," Kuharap said firmly.

"What about you, Mr. Sephiro?" Kang Oh asked Sephiro, who was quietly standing beside him.

"I'm not really scared either..." Sephiro trailed off.

Kang Oh had his doubts; he could 'smell' the lie.

"You have to be honest. It's important."

"It does make me flinch, but... how should I put this. It's the same feeling I get when I encounter a monster that's stronger than me."

Kang Oh nodded his head and stared at Eder. "How about you?"

"I get the same feeling."

"As expected!" Kang Oh nodded his head.

It was at this point that the others realized what he was looking for.

"I see." Sephiro struck his palm with his fist.

"The monster's roar. If it doesn't make you flinch, then..."

"You have a chance at beating it." Kuharap finished the sentence for Eder.

"What about you?" Kuharap asked. He was essentially asking, 'Does the roar affect you?'.

Kang Oh grinned. His confident expression was answer enough.

* * *

Kang Oh wanted even more information on the demon. The more information you had, the better.

However, Kuharap didn't have any more information to give. All he knew was the demon's name.

Vladi!

That was its name.

"I'll kill it when I'm ready."

As always, Kang Oh was extremely confident.

"Be careful," Kuharap said.

"Yeah. If you'll excuse me."

Kang Oh, Sephiro, and Eder left Kuharap's tent, and returned to Altein.

"Good luck." Sephiro bid him farewell. Kang Oh had to face Vladi on his own, so he had no further business here.

Kang Oh grabbed him. "Please help me."

"With what?"

"Please find whatever you can on Vladi."

"I'm not sure anyone even knows about it."

"We'll just have to find out. If anyone knows about the demon, then your information brokers should."

"I'll ask them."

"Thank you. And Eder."

"Yes?"

"You were in the west just a little while ago."

"That's right."

"Did you meet any elves there?"

Deathnely, the city where he'd studied necromancy, was located in the west. The west was where the orcs, trolls, elves, and other non-human species lived.

"I treated a few elves there."

"Then could you ask them about Vladi? As you know, Talastrum was once an elvish city, so they should know about the demon."

At the moment, the elves didn't live in the Great Forest. Almost all of them lived in the western grasslands.

However, what if there were elves still living that fled from the Great Forest and settled in the western grasslands? They may know something about Vladi.

"Understood. I'll try finding what I can from the library too."

"Thanks." Kang Oh tightly grabbed his hand.

"Don't mention it."

"What will you do?" Sephiro asked.

'You're not going to leave all the grunt work to us and just do nothing, are you?'

"I'm going to train."

He planned on increasing his abilities to the fullest prior to fighting Vladi.

"Train?"

"To be more specific, I'm going to increase my stats."

"How?"

"With this." Kang Oh stroked Demon Sword Ubist.

* * *

After capturing Red, Kang Oh had fed the Abyss Snake to Demon Sword Ubist. As a result, the sword itself had been strengthened, and the amount of stats he could steal had increased from 400 to 500.

In other words, Kang Oh could steal 100 more stats.

The most effective way of stealing stats was using Gluttony. If he killed an enemy while using Gluttony, then he would automatically steal stats.

However, the target had to be at a certain level for him to steal stats. It couldn't be something significantly weaker than him.

To put it into perspective, if Kang Oh used Gluttony and killed the slimes that resided in the meadows near Altein, then he wouldn't gain any stats.

The downside to this approach was that Gluttony had a cooldown of 12 hours, and would only last, on average, about 15 to 30 minutes.

15 to 30 minutes. That wasn't much time. Especially in Arth, where battles tended to take a long time.

Thus, he needed to fight in a place where a ton of suitable monsters spawned.

'This is just the place.' Kang Oh passed through an arch-shaped entrance.

[Entering the Saul Graveyard.]

High ranked undead spawned here. It was also a soul dungeon in his possession.

Guooh!

Rattle, rattle!

Hellfire Zombies, Radioactive Ghouls, Elite Skeleton Knights, Mana Enlightened Skeleton Mages, etc. were roaming around in groups. These undead were all over level 400.

Kang Oh stretched out both of his arms. Red spheres appeared in his palms. They were Fire Bombs.

"Alright. Let's begin, shall we?" Kang Oh threw the Fire Bombs to the left and right.

Roar!

Fire 'flowers' rose from the ground, which attracted the undeads' attention.

Kuhaa!

A group of Hellfire Zombies and purple-nailed Radioactive Ghouls came rushing at him first.

Kang Oh gracefully dodged their attacks and rushed forward. He was holding even more Fire Bombs.

Throw!

Roar!

Rattle!

The Skeleton Warriors dashed towards him, their rusty swords dragging on the floor, while the Skeleton Mage's staff radiated dreary energy.

Kang Oh threw as many Fire Bombs as he could, and then drew Blood and Ubist. More and more undead came rushing at him.

'This isn't enough yet!'

Devil Trigger!

In an instant, he gained dark red wings and demonic horns.

"Tasha! Fly me close to the ground."

"Got it." Tasha's voice rang out in his head.

He forcefully flapped his wings, soared into the air, and circled around. Then, he flew low to the ground like a swallow flying above water.

Countless undead were on his tail. It was like a scene from a zombie movie. Or perhaps it was more like an undead version of Pied Piper.

Meanwhile, the slow Skeleton Mages began casting their spells.

Hellfire Ball!

Chill of Death Spear!

Whizz!

Fireballs and ice spears came flying at him, but not a single one of them hit him. There was no way they'd hit him with Tasha controlling his wings.

Kang Oh gathered even more undead.

Abyss Claw!

Fresh Blood Wave!

Boom!

The auras swept through the undead, both enraging and drawing their attention. They too began to follow him.

Some of them rode on horseback like the Death Knights or Dullahans. And some Rag Golems were following him too, which were little more than several corpses stitched together.

Kang Oh unleashed a Tempest Tiger behind him. It was like a present to entice them to keep following him.

Of course, the recipients of this 'present', the undead, didn't feel like it was much of a present.

'Good, good. All of you, follow me!'

A huge mob of monsters was following him.

If a player had done this in a populated dungeon or hunting ground, then they'd get cursed out and might even get PKed too.

Aggroing all the monsters like this took all of the monsters away from everyone else. Plus, if a player didn't execute it properly, then it could become a giant monster wave that spread out and damaged the surrounding area.

However, Kang Oh was the only player here, and there was no one else that could get hurt in the process.

"Hoo. Haa."

Kang Oh kept aggroing more and more monsters for quite some time.

Since the Death Knights and Dullahans were on horseback, they were able to keep up with Kang Oh. They were right on his tail.

Their swords and axes just barely missed Kang Oh, who was flying low to the ground. He also deflected them with his swords too.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whizz! Whizz!

Countless spells and arrows came flying at him. It got to the point that it was hard to deal with them all.

"You can't fly for much longer," Tasha said.

"Got it!"

It felt like he'd caught a ton of fish on his line.

'It's time to harvest!' Kang Oh landed on the floor.

The skeleton horses' rusty horseshoes came at him first.

Red Butterfly's Dance!

Boom!

Their hooves struck his afterimage, nothing more.

After that, a Death Knight's blade came flying at him. With his Hyper Intuition's warning, Kang Oh was able to dodge it with ease.

Kang Oh quickly pulled out a mass-produced steel sword from his inventory.

Gluttony!

All of his abilities were doubled!

The buff would last 15 minutes.

His body swelled with power.

Kuhaaahk!

Shaa!

An undead horde came rushing at him. The sky was filled with magic. The Death Knights and Dullahans kept attacking him too.

However, Kang Oh was as relaxed as ever.

'I have to aggro even more.'

Moon's Protection!

His necklace glowed, and a barrier in the shape of a full moon enveloped him.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Whack! Bam!

All sorts of attacks crashed against his barrier like the Dullahan's axe, the Skeleton Mage's magic, the Skeleton Archer's arrow, the Rag Golem's club, etc.

However, Moon's Protection would protect him from any and all attacks for 3 seconds no matter what.

3, 2, 1...

Moon's Protection was over. At that moment...

Kang Oh's armor glowed with dim light, while his twin blades glowed intensely. However, Blood was coated in blood red energy. He had used Festival of Blood within the barrier.

"Let's go!"

Dragon's Fury!

Gray energy swirled around him like a huge typhoon!

Whoosh!

Those closest to him, like the Death Knights, Dullahans, and Rag Golems, were the first to go. However, this was just the beginning.

Dragon's Fury continuously devoured countless undead.

[You have defeated a Death Knight.]

[Gluttony is active.]

[Stats have been stolen.]

[Physical +1]

[You have defeated a Dullahan.]

[Stats have been stolen.]

[Mental +1]

...

Several system messages popped up, but he didn't have the time to check them right now.

'Let's do it again!' Kang Oh extended his twin demon swords and spun like a top.

Abyss Predator!

Dragon's Fury was like a typhoon that swept through and crushed everything in its path; the most powerful, giant typhoon!

Abyss Predator, however, was like a tsunami. If there's an ocean in hell, then that's where this tsunami of darkness would come from!

Demon Sword Ubist unleashed a giant jet-black tsunami that engulfed the world.

Boom!

It was an unavoidable calamity. To the undead, that is.