Debuff Master

The expedition team sprinted toward the base that was shooting a pillar of light into the sky, but…

Ssseuuu…!

A dense black mist emerged out of nowhere and pervaded the entire Suzdal Empire Ruins: 458.

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

[Alert: You have been afflicted with Silence!]

[Alert: Skills may not be used within the Void Mist!]

The dense black mist was called Void Mist, and it was the manifestation of the Void Soul’s power. No skills could be used as long as the user was within the mist.

“What overwhelming energy this is… Hohoho…” Daode Tianzun muttered with a chuckle. He stood at the pinnacle of magic, an Archmage, yet even he, with his mastery over magic, struggled to cast spells within the mist.

“Eh? A mist that seals the use of skills?” Siegfried grumbled, stunned by the power of the Void Mist.

This silencing mist was a crushing blow for classes reliant on casting magic or skills, as their only option to fight was to rely solely on basic attacks powered by mana.

To make the situation even worse, when the mist appeared, monsters imbued with the powers of the Soul Fragments of Apocalius emerged from all directions and swarmed the expedition team.

“Kyaaah!”

“Kieeek!”

“Grrr! Waaah!”

The worst-case scenario was ongoing. These monsters posed an immense threat to the silenced expedition party. Even though they had the Archmage, Daode Tianzun, on their side, the fact that they couldn't use their skills rendered the majority of them useless.

Gosran also found her combat capabilities reduced significantly, as her main strength was in unleashing devastating ranged attacks with her skills. In the mist, her skills were sealed, leaving her with no choice but to rely on her normal arrows.

She took out an old-fashioned quiver and began firing arrows at the monsters.

“Hmm? Who is this girl? Isn’t that Windforce’s bow? Could she be a descendant of Windforce?” Deus[1] grumbled, frowning while watching her.

He watched her intently for a while, clearly fascinated, but that was about it.

“Meh, for a supposed descendant of Windforce, her skills are quite lacking,” Deus murmured bluntly with a shrug. Then, he turned to crush the invading monsters with basic attacks that were far more devastating and destructive than most people’s skills.

Siegfried was not sitting idly by; he struck down the monsters with absolute brutality using his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The monsters struck by the + Vanquisher’s Grasp couldn't withstand the brunt of its damage and died, proving that the enormous investment Siegfried had made to enhance the weapon from +13 to +15 had paid off in spades. ＲαŊοＢЕṠ

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 Experience Points!]

Although he fought off waves of powerful monsters, he didn't obtain even one Experience Point from them.

‘I guess I’ve really hit the max level,’ Siegfried thought grimly. He had just realized that he had truly reached the level cap, and it was proven by how his experience bar was refusing to budge, no matter how many monsters he killed.

The battle raged on.

Everyone was fighting as fiercely as they could in the midst of the suffocating mist, but there was one person who shone brighter than anyone else.

That person was none other than Seung-Gu.

Each dungeon had unique characteristics, so some would favor a certain type of class while limiting others. In this case, Seung-Gu’s class proved immensely advantageous to their current predicament.

“Die, foul beasts!”

“Kill them all! Shoot every last one of them down!”

Seung-Gu mounted Golem King Reventon, who was wielding a massive greatsword on one hand and a heavy-duty cannon on the other.

The Golem King caused absolute mayhem on the battlefield whenever he fired his hand cannon and swung his great sword, and the cannon fire from the pre-summoned Iron Golems devastated the incoming hordes of enemies.

For Seung-Gu, the limitation of not being able to use skills was barely an inconvenience. He had already summoned his golems before the mist had set in, so he could fight as he normally would by commanding his Iron Golems to decimate the enemies with their powerful cannons.

Thanks to his remarkable performance, the expedition team's lack of firepower was supplemented, making the battle progress smoothly—until a new threat appeared.

“For the New World!”

“Punish those relics of the past!”

“We are the Angels of Genesis!”

Reinforcements from the Church of Osric had arrived. These beings were empowered by the Almighty Soul, and their appearance alone was enough for anyone to tell that they possessed terrifying combat prowess.

They were clad in +15 artifacts from head to toe and were all Level 299. However, what made them dangerous was the fact that there were nearly two thousand of them. These zealots surrounded the expedition team and launched a relentless barrage of attacks.

‘T-This is bad!’ Siegfried cried out inwardly, gritting his teeth.

The zealots were formidable opponents, as their gear, levels, and numbers proved to be quite difficult to deal with. The crippling penalty of the inability to use skills within the Void Mist had made things even worse.

Siegfried and his comrades now had to face waves of hideous monsters alongside the zealots all while restricted from using their skills. Even abilities that could nullify and incapacitate the zealots, such as the Wave of Truth, were sealed.

However, they had come too far to surrender.

‘It’s do or die!’ Siegfried gritted his teeth and gripped his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp tightly.

He then swung with all of his might.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Every strike of his weapon unleashed devastating damage upon the enemy, and his basic attacks were almost as powerful as other people’s skills. The +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp proved its worth once again, enabling him to hold his own even in the suffocating mist.

Unfortunately, his efforts were not enough.

The endless waves of monsters and the overwhelming power of the zealots battered the expedition team.

‘I need to get rid of this mist first!’ Siegfried thought. He activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance and scanned his surroundings. Then, he found the source of the mist. The mist was coming from monsters called "Void Smoggers," and they were nearby.

‘Over there!’

Without hesitation, Siegfried dashed through the suffocating darkness and charged in the direction of the Void Smoggers to confront one of them head-on.

***

Siegfried found the source of the Void Mist. A monster called "Void Smogger" was hiding near a pile of rocks three hundred meters away from where the expedition team was standing.

[Void Smogger]

[An otherworldly creature that produces Void Mist, a mist that causes the Status Ailment: Silence.]

[Type: Monster]

[Level: 220]

[Note: Possesses exceptionally high defense.]

The Void Smogger resembled a large gym ball with its spherical body that was riddled with crater-like openings. From these openings emerged streams of Void Mist, which was the reason behind the Status Ailment: Silence.

“Gwaaaah!”

The Void Smogger noticed Siegfried and spat more mist in an attempt to retreat into its cover. However, Siegfried’s keen instincts locked onto the monster, and he swung his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp into the thick smoke without a hint of hesitation.

Boom!

The Void Smogger exploded the moment it was struck by the +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp, as its enhanced raw power made the monster’s defense obsolete.

“Next!” Siegfried shouted and immediately searched for the remaining Void Smoggers.

There were precisely seventeen of them scattered throughout the entire area, and he planned to eliminate every single one of them to stop the Void Mist. The key to turning the tide of this battle was eliminating the Void Mist.

While Siegfried was running around striking down the Void Smoggers one by one, he was keeping an eye on Deus’ movements through the Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

As expected, Deus had also realized that eliminating the source of the Void Mist was the key to tipping the scales of this battle in their favor.

‘I knew it. Master has noticed it, too,’ Siegfried thought, brimming with pride.

With newfound determination, Siegfried hunted down the Void Smoggers.

Gradually, the thick Void Mist thinned out until—

Baaam!

The Void Mist dispersed completely as soon as Siegfried killed the final Void Smogger.

Deus, who was busy killing the nearby monsters, turned to him and smirked. “Your sense of judgment is not bad at all. I guess being weak means you have to compensate for it with your head. Keke!”

“Of course, Master!” Siegfried replied with a broad grin, feeling proud of himself.

With the mist gone, Siegfried channeled his mana and unleashed Wave of Truth.

Rumble!

The powerful burst of mana rippled outward, enveloping the zealots buffed by the Almighty Soul.

When Siegfried’s Wave of Truth swept across them, their buffs were instantly weakened.

The Almighty Soul’s buffs were not completely nullified, as it was too strong for a single Wave of Truth to dispel completely. Still, it managed to strip more than fifty percent of the buff’s efficacy, making the zealots much weaker.

The expedition team then launched a fierce counterattack that made the vulnerable zealots and monsters fall like flies.

“A-Arghh!”

“Noooo!”

The two thousand zealots of the Church of Osric, who had proclaimed themselves to be Angels of Genesis, were decimated in the blink of an eye.

Of course, the monsters did not fare much better; they were incinerated en masse by Archmage Daode Tianzun’s spells.

“Let’s move!” Siegfried rallied his comrades and headed toward the enemy’s headquarters.

But before they could advance—

Flash! Flash! Flash! Flash!

Shwoooooong!

Four beams of light shot down from the Heaven’s Eye.

***

Each beam of light was of a distinct color, green, black, purple, and white, and they landed directly in front of the expedition team. Figures familiar to Siegfried then emerged from the lights.

From the green beam of light emerged the spectral form of Hennessy Venom, the Venomous, wielding the power of the Ignite Soul…

From the purple beam of light emerged the phantom of Death Fog, the Immortal, wielding the power of the Requiem Soul…

From the white beam of light emerged the projection of Seraph, the Omnipotent, wielding the power of the Almighty Soul…

And from the black beam of light emerged the manifestation of Pluto, the Void, wielding the power of the Void Soul.

These were the specters of the Soul Fragment of Apocalius that Siegfried had vanquished so far. However, there was something different about them this time, and it was their levels.

Hennessy, Death Fog, Seraph, and Pluto were all Level 500. They were around Level 300 when Siegfried had faced them in their original forms, but their specters had exceeded even the threshold of a Grandmaster, which was at Level 450.

Of course, it wasn't just their levels.

Sseuuuu…!

Pluto, the Void, unleashed a wave of Void Mist, shrouding the surroundings in a suffocating darkness that silenced everyone and everything within it.

[Alert: Status Ailment!]

[Alert: You have been afflicted with Silence!]

[Alert: Skills may not be used within the Void Mist!]

“Kyaaaaah!”

“Kieeeeek!”

As if that was not enough, an overwhelming number of monsters emerged. They numbered in the millions, and they charged at the expedition team with frenzied looks.

Unfortunately for Siegfried and his comrades, the battle seemed to be far from over.

1. Author-nim suddenly switched to Deus instead of Siegfried, so that’s the end of the confusion. ☜

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