Chapter 408

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Squeak! Squeak! Bang! Bang! Squeak!

-Gyaaaah!

-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Thud! Thud! Thud!

[You have defeated the succubus.]

[Acquired a Curse Fragment.]

[Cursed Fragments Currently Collected: 98]

.

.

.

[You have defeated the Succubus.]

[Acquired a Curse Fragment.]

[Cursed Fragments Currently Collected: 128]

‘They should arrive soon.’

Myeonghu thought as he watched the endlessly falling succubi and the messages appearing. The succubi met their deaths the moment they appeared, killed by Carrot and Praminus.

Because of this, Myeonghu and Haran never once stopped walking, advancing toward the pillar of curses at an incredible speed. At this rate, they would reach the pillar of curses very soon.

-Monsters are approaching…

A moment later, Haran opened his mouth. But he couldn’t finish his sentence. No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t; it was that he didn’t need to.

Scratch! Scratch! Bang! Bang!

-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

-AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[You have defeated the succubus.]

[Acquired a Curse Fragment.]

[Cursed Fragments Currently Collected: 129]

.

.

[You have defeated the succubus.]

[Acquired a Curse Fragment.]

[Current Cursed Fragments Collected: 144]

Before Haran could finish speaking, Carrot and Praminus acted, and the succubi plummeted to the ground with screams, just as before. A message appeared, and after confirming it, Myeonghu opened the quest window.

The cursed castle of Bartash. You have destroyed the cursed pillars embedded in the south, west, and north, greatly weakening the curse upon the castle. The cursed pillar you must now destroy lies in the east. Go east with Haran and destroy the cursed pillar.

Quest Difficulty: SSS

Quest Reward: ???

Quest Cannot Be Cancelled

‘What kind of creature could it be?’

Haran’s words, and the fact the quest name was different, suggested the entity guarding this cursed pillar would be unlike any divine avatars encountered before. It piqued my curiosity and filled me with anticipation.

It was right then.

Thud!

Haran, who had never once stopped walking since the beginning, halted his steps. When Haran stopped, Myeonghu closed the quest window and looked at him. Haran was staring at Myeonghu and pointing somewhere.

-It’s over there.

As Haran spoke, Myeonghu turned his head to look where Haran was pointing. There, a pillar stood towering high. It was quite a distance away, so he couldn’t be certain, but it was clearly the Cursed Pillar, the destination of this quest.

Thud, thud

Myeong-hu and Haran began walking again. As they neared the Cursed Pillar, the number of succubi appearing steadily increased.

Squeak! Crash! Crash! Squeak!

Of course, their numbers didn’t matter. The succubi fell the moment they appeared, and Myeonghu was able to acquire fragments of the curse.

[You have defeated the succubus.]

[Acquired a fragment of the curse.]

[Current Cursed Fragments Collected: 200]

[200 Cursed Fragments have been gathered.]

[Completed Condition 1 for using the Curse Key.]

[You can no longer acquire Curse Fragments.]

Soon after, the 200th succubus fell, and a message appeared.

He froze!

The moment he saw the message, Myeong-hu couldn’t help but freeze.

“…?”

Something felt off. Wondering if he’d misread it, Myeong-hu checked the message again with a puzzled expression. But he hadn’t misread it. Realizing this, he tilted his head, then resumed walking while thinking.

‘The condition is complete…’

Naturally, since he had gathered 200 fragments of the curse, Myeong-hu assumed Haran would be able to use the Key of the Curse.

But that wasn’t the case. The message only stated that Condition 1 was complete; nowhere did it mention anything about being able to use the key.

‘Is there another condition?’

Judging by the number 1 after the condition, it seemed several more conditions were required to use the Curse Key.

Swish swish

Myeong-hu turned his head to look around. They would soon reach the pillar of the curse. He had to complete the key usage conditions before that.

But as Myeong-hu scanned his surroundings, he couldn’t help but frown. It was no wonder—the area was eerily quiet.

It didn’t seem like any more succubi would appear, nor did anything else besides succubi seem likely to show up. If things continued like this, it looked like he would enter the cursed pillar before completing the conditions.

[Warning!]

[You are close to the Cursed Pillar.]

[You are cursed.]

[All stats reduced by 10%.]

[Damage dealt to enemies is reduced by 20%.]

[Damage received from enemies increases by 20%.]

Myeong-hu’s prediction proved accurate. Nothing happened, and no message appeared.

‘What’s going on here?’

The Curse Key cannot be used. Having entered the pillar’s sphere of influence, Myeonghu turned his gaze away from the message and looked at the pillar itself, contemplating how the situation would unfold. He wanted to confirm who was guarding the pillar.

“…?”

And upon seeing what stood before the pillar, Myeong-hu couldn’t help but tilt his head in confusion.

‘What on earth is that?’

A massive sphere composed of thick darkness floated before the pillar.

‘Is that the entity guarding the pillar?’

Myeong-hu shook his head. No matter how he thought about it, it didn’t seem like a guardian of the pillar. Its presence was far too weak to be considered a guardian.

-Please.

Meanwhile, Haran stopped walking and opened her mouth to speak.

[Haran used the Key of Curse.]

Whoosh!

A message appeared, and light burst forth from Haran’s body.

“…?”

Seeing the message and the light, Myeong-hu couldn’t help but feel a little flustered.

‘What? You can just use it?’

There was no mention of being able to use the Curse Key. Only the message stating Condition 1 was completed had appeared. Therefore, Myeong-hu naturally assumed he couldn’t use the Curse Key. But that wasn’t the case. Haran had just used the Curse Key.

‘But why aren’t the other messages popping up?’

Of course, it wasn’t without its oddities. There was something strange. It was the message that appeared after using the Curse Key.

Previously, when using the Curse Key, messages had appeared not only confirming its use but also detailing the remaining time until the pillar’s destruction. Yet now, no such message appeared.

Swish

Myeonghu turned his gaze away from the message and looked at Haran’s light. Haran’s light was rapidly flying toward the pillar of curses.

‘It can’t end like this…’

It couldn’t possibly end this easily. Myeong-hu thought, staring at the dark sphere before the pillar.

‘There must be something there…’

It wasn’t just sitting there in front of the pillar for no reason. He couldn’t tell what it was, but the dark sphere definitely held something. And just as Haran’s light was about to reach the pillar of curses, Myeonghu knew his hunch was right.

[The Eye of Evil awakens.]

With the message, a massive eye appeared on the dark sphere.

Sssshhh…

Then, thick darkness poured forth from the dark sphere—no, from the Eye of Evil. The darkness it emitted blocked Haran’s light, which had been flying toward the pillar of curses.

Crackle crackle crackle!

Soon, light and darkness collided, plunging into a battle of forces, and tremendous sparks erupted. Yet, even as time passed, Haran’s light could not pierce the darkness.

Far from breaking through, it began to be gradually pushed back by the darkness. Myeonghu turned his gaze away from the retreating light and looked at the evil eye that was spewing forth the darkness.

‘Do I have to destroy that thing?’

It seemed that to destroy the pillar of the curse, I would have to destroy the Eye of Evil.

“Protect Haran.”

Myeonghu instructed Carrot and Praminus, who were standing by.

-Understood, Master.

-We obey.

Karot and Praminus answered, and Myeonghu began walking toward the Eye of Evil.

Swoosh

Was it because the distance had closed? Some of the darkness the Evil Eye had been emitting shifted direction and began flying toward Myeonghu.

Seeing the darkness hurtling toward him, Myeong-hu accelerated his movement. The distance closed rapidly, and the darkness enveloped Myeong-hu’s body.

Crackle!

And just like light, sparks began to fly. Seeing the sparks erupting around him, Myeong-hu confirmed his vitality.

‘Hm?’

After checking his vitality, Myeong-hu couldn’t help but feel a little flustered.

‘Why isn’t it decreasing?’

The reason Myeong-hu was flustered was precisely because his life force wasn’t decreasing at all. Even with incredible life force recovery, it would decrease and then rise again—it wasn’t like this, where it simply didn’t decrease at all. Something was off about the current situation.

‘Could it be because of the belt?’

Feeling something was off about his undecreasing health, Myeong-hu recalled one item he was currently wearing. Hulek’s Belt, possessing an incredibly overpowered option that made it immune to any area-of-effect attack skill lasting over 5 seconds. It seemed the reason his health wasn’t decreasing now was definitely because of Hulek’s Belt. No, it was certain.

‘Nice.’

Myeong-hu smiled contentedly at his undecreasing health, then turned his head to look at the Evil Eye. Having kept moving, the distance between him and the Evil Eye was now less than 10 meters.

‘Better save the Teleport Strike just in case.’

It was a distance he could reach instantly with a teleport strike. But Myeonghu, suspecting the Evil Eye wasn’t the end, decided to save his teleport strike and closed the distance quickly.

Whoosh!

Myeong-hu arrived before the Evil Eye in an instant. The moment he arrived, he unleashed a flurry of punches toward its enormous eye.

Thud! Thud!

[The Eye of Evil has been destroyed.]

After two punches, a message appeared. It stated the Eye of Evil had been destroyed. Of course, the messages didn’t end there. More messages followed.

[Completed Condition 2 for using the Curse Key.]

[Haran can now use the Curse Key.]

[10 minutes remain until the Curse Pillar is destroyed.]

[Protect Haran for 10 minutes.]

‘So the second condition was the end.’

Through the message that appeared next, Myeong-hu realized that destroying the Evil Eye was the second and final condition. Myeong-hu averted his gaze from the shrinking Evil Eye and looked at Haran’s light.

Whoosh!

Haran’s light, previously blocked by darkness, could now fly toward its original destination—the pillar—as the darkness vanished. Myeong-hu watched the cursed pillar turn white under the light and thought.

‘This can’t be the end.’

The beings guarding the pillar were all incarnations of the gods. The Eye of Evil was inferior in rank compared to the incarnations of the gods. There was clearly something more besides the Eye of Evil.

It was at that very moment.

-Hohohohohoho!

A voice, sticky and alluring beyond comparison to any succubus encountered before, echoed out. Simultaneously, a message appeared.

[Chaos, the Great Demon of Seduction, Succubus Queen Elgab, has appeared.]

============================ Postscript ============================

Next week, the exams end.

And the following week, the make-up classes and team project will be over too!

After that, I’m free!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.