Chapter 146 – Dullahan (6)
Translator: Seven
Editor: Ana_Banana
Every living creature has a survival instinct which gives them a sign whenever they encounter a crisis.
[Moving on to the next floor.]
The first time the players received a signal was when the second floor of the dungeon was suddenly cleared.
‘Someone caught the Earth Turtle?’
‘Was there a signal?’
Players couldn’t help but be shocked at the sudden appearance of the floor clearance notification.
And it was in such a state that they arrived on the third floor where all they could see was Black Fog.
[The Black Fog is consuming your vitality.]
Black Fog.
The players’ survival instincts sent them an even stronger signal when they entered this Black Fog that was slowly consuming their vitality.
‘This Black Fog is dangerous.’
‘Did we prepare enough for poison?’
‘If we make the wrong move then we might die before we even get a chance to fight.’
The players moved in response to the repeated signals from the survival instincts telling them to get out of these as fast as possible.
“First we’ll need to search for the boss monster.”
In order to get out of there as quickly as possible, they started looking for the boss monster on the third floor.
So they could know.
“Dullahan?”
The monster that had wounded America’s pride.
…
Dullahan.
This monster, who was only around two meters tall, wore black armor and carried its head around did not give off a strong sense of intimidation from its appearance.
It might sound ridiculous to the general public, but for the players who had to face giant monsters like the Golden Lion or Ogres, this two meter tall monster did not seem that threatening.
Nevertheless, the Dullahan was recognized by the players as an object of fear from the moment its presence was revealed.
There were several reasons for this.
The biggest advantage that undead monsters had was that they didn’t have any known weaknesses.
When a Dullahan killed a player, they would become a zombie that would be under the Dullahan’s direct control.
Moreover, when exposed to the baleful aura exuded by the Dullahan’s head for too long, the player’s skin would begin to rot and come apart…
However it wasn’t just the fact that it was a horrific monster to fight, it was also because of the words left behind by the very first player to successfully slay a Dullahan.
“It wasn’t easy.”
The Dullahan had become a monster that the players never wanted to face after the First Dullahan Hunter and Guild Master of the Messiah Guild, Lee Se-jun, said those words in an interview.
Rattle…
And it was a Dullahan that was now wandering around the Dead Forest dungeon’s third floor atop a skeleton horse.
Uhhh….
Guhh…
Followed by a horde of zombies made from the players he had killed before.
“This is the worst.”
This was why no one refuted Jay Jackson’s words.
“A Dullahan is a Dullahan, but the zombies are just as troublesome.”
The Dullahan itself was already incredibly difficult to hunt but the three hundred or so zombies that trailed behind it were just as big of a problem.
Zombies weren’t exactly difficult monsters to hunt.
It wasn’t that their attack was much higher than the average monster or their defense was better.
Instead, it was the fact that, like other undead type monsters, there were no obvious weaknesses.
It would still be alive even if you cut off all its limbs, it didn’t feel pain and it couldn’t die from excessive bleeding or poison.
“It would take a lot of time to hunt them all…”
In other words, the zombies weren’t particularly difficult to kill, they just took a lot of time and stamina.
“There are faces that I recognize.”
Moreover, among the faces of the zombies, the players noticed other players who had entered the dungeon before them.
Naturally, these zombies were properly armored.
They couldn’t be compared to ordinary zombies as they had items and armor that were at least of the rare quality.
Of course, there was nothing that couldn’t be hunted if necessary. If given enough time, these players were confident in their ability to successfully hunt these zombies without receiving much damage.
[The Black Fog is consuming your vitality.]
But now the Black Fog had made it clear to the players.
“The problem is, we don’t have much time.”
They didn’t have much time at their disposal.
“How long can you hold on?”
When she heard Jay Jackson’s question, Ellis Highton replied immediately as though she had already completed the calculations.
“Up to a week. After that, we’ll have to reduce stamina consumption. What about you?”
“We are in a similar situation. We have plenty of food but there isn’t enough cure for this poison. Our healers’ cure skills are also limited.”
It was then.
“Isaac Ivanov has made a move.”
At the words of the scouting team, Jay Jackson and Ellis Highton looked at each other.
In that state, Jay asked a single question.
“What do you wanna do?”
He asked Ellis Highton if she was ready to throw the dice, to which Ellis calmly replied.
“We don’t have much time, so we need to make him fail as quickly as possible.”
When he heard that, Jay nodded.
“Then let’s lure the monsters.”
They threw the die.
…
When Isaac Ivanov began his battle with the Dullahan, the other players had the same expectations.
“Isaac Ivanov started hunting?”
“He’ll probably work to reduce the number of zombies first.”
That Isaac Ivanov’s primary goal was to reduce the zombie population.
As they expected, Isaac Ivanov and his skeletons launched their attacks against the group of zombies instead of directly at the Dullahan.
“But it will be much more difficult if he just leaves the Dullahan alone, so he’ll probably do something to buy time.”
“Will it be his teammate Siba who takes on the job?”
“It could be a Skeleton Knight.”
In addition, they predicted that Isaac would distract the Dullahan so that he could hunt the zombies more easily.
Isaac Ivanov behaved just as they expected.
The Skeleton Knight and Lee Jin-ah alternatively faced off against the Dullahan to buy some time while the Skeleton Soldiers slowly and steadily whittled down the number of zombies in the group.
So the players who were watching the battle were able to commentate easily.
“It will take a long time.”
“Time is time, but there can’t be any mistakes. Even the smallest gap will make it all collapse.”
What weaknesses could be found in Isaac Ivanov’s battle and what moments were the most dangerous.
“The worst part is that it takes time to get rid of all the zombies and then it takes even more time to handle the Dullahan, which might cause variables to appear.”
“For example, if a group of roaming monsters heard the battle and showed up.”
They predicted the worst situations that Isaac Ivanov could encounter.
In fact, they expected it.
‘There’s no way the Great One Guild wouldn’t know that.’
‘For the Great One Guild who has the most to lose, they will definitely do something.’
Someone would deliberately organize the worst possible scenario.
Of course, they didn’t utter these predictions out loud.
‘If Isaac Ivanov fails…’
‘We will have a chance too.’
Therefore they hoped for the worst outcome.
And their wishes soon became a reality.
“Over 200 monsters have entered the battlefield!”
The worst situation unfolded and everyone turned their eyes to Isaac Ivanov.
They wanted to see how Isaac Ivanov, who was faced with the worst possible situation, would react and what choices he would make.
Faced with such a situation, Isaac Ivanov acted without hesitation.
“He’s retreating!”
“The skeletons are falling back!”
Isaac Ivanov retreated.