Chapter 151
Following Do-Jin’s instructions, Theresa raised her shield and advanced cautiously. Now that she thought about it, the Twin Knight Statues really did seem suspicious. Her senses sharpened, and her grip on the shield tightened until her knuckles turned white. She was ready to move the instant anything so much as twitched.
However, even when Theresa came close enough for the statues’ spears to reach her in a single thrust, they didn’t move an inch.
They really do look like statues, she thought, tilting her head back to take in their massive frames. Each stood at least ten meters tall, motionless and silent, their empty eyes fixed forward.
“Ah!” Theresa gasped as the statue’s pupils rolled downward.
Its gaze dropped just enough to notice the small figures standing at its feet, as if it were acknowledging insects. In that same instant, both statues moved. Without a hint of preparation, their spears sliced through the air with terrifying precision. Theresa held her breath and braced herself, every muscle in her body locking tight.
Boom!
The impact struck like a thunderclap. Her relic shield held firm. The enchantment absorbed and diffused the blow, scattering the force into harmless ripples that spread through the air around her. That didn’t mean she was safe, though.
The two metal giants lunged again and again, stabbing with brutal speed, their massive weapons raining down like a storm. No matter how much the shield absorbed, she could not even think about counterattacking. The shockwaves alone sent tremors through her legs and nearly knocked her off balance.
“Hey, you—! Stop for a second—! Cough, cough!”
Her shouts were completely ignored. A cold system message appeared before her eyes.
[The Twin Gatekeepers have awakened.]
Theresa cursed under her breath. “It would’ve been nice to warn me before they started trying to kill me!”
Before she could say more, a blazing orb of fire slammed into the helmet of the statue that had struck first. The blast hit so hard that the steel rang like a bell.
That’s right... Our party’s got one hell of a mage. Let’s see how you like that, Theresa thought with a triumphant grin.
But her satisfaction vanished almost immediately as the statue staggered back. Its armor had been glowing red-hot from the impact, yet the color never faded. The crimson glow deepened, crawling across its body like molten veins. The tip of its spear began to shine the same color, burning bright like a brand.
Wait... what? she thought, her stomach sinking.
A moment later, the creature lunged again, its entire frame now wreathed in flames.
“This is cheating! Seriously, hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”
While she was busy fending off one flaming knight, the other turned its gaze past her toward Do-Jin and the others.
Theresa frantically swung her shield and activated every taunt skill she had, desperate to pull its attention back.
“Aren’t we supposed to help her?” Tanto muttered, watching the chaos unfold. He looked restless, ready to jump in, but Do-Jin raised a hand to stop him.
That left him standing awkwardly beside the mage. Forced to watch Theresa fight for her life like this, Tanto squirmed as if he were sitting on a bed of nails.
“Hold on a second,” Do-Jin reassured him. “She doesn’t look like she’s in any real danger yet, so let’s observe for a little longer. Besides, you don’t seem to match up well against those things anyway. Soso, Theresa’s health is fine, right?”
Soso gave him a long, expressionless look before glancing toward Theresa, who was frantically swinging her shield and yelling.
“Yeah. Her HP’s dropping a little, but nothing I can’t keep up with,” she replied casually.
Soso leaned on her staff, watching Theresa scream and flail while the two massive knights hammered down on her shield. It was oddly satisfying. After all, this was the same woman who had dragged her out of bed at dawn. Hearing her shriek now felt like karmic justice.
So they can absorb magic, Do-Jin thought, studying the crimson-glowing knight.
The original party that had failed to clear Forge of the God in the past had not included a single mage or anyone capable of using elemental abilities. Because of that, even he had not known that the Steel Knights could absorb magic and adapt to the element they were struck with.
If they absorb every type of magic, do they change depending on what hits them?
Having a tank as durable as Theresa made things easier. It gave him time to analyze, observe, and experiment without worrying about the front line collapsing.
Do-Jin extended his hand and cast an ice spell toward the knight that was burning red-hot.
The moment the spell struck, the knight’s hue changed again. The fiery glow disappeared, and frost began to spread up its metal frame. The tip of its spear shimmered with a pale blue light, freezing the air around it.
“What—ugh?!” Theresa made a noise somewhere between a shriek and a groan.
Just moments ago she had been screaming about her hair catching fire, and now she was yelling because her nose and ears felt like they were about to freeze off.
“Don’t just stand there! Do somethin—!” she yelped, her voice cutting off mid-cry.
During the absorption and elemental shift, there was perhaps half a second of stiffness, but it wasn’t enough to count as a real opening.
If we just keep hammering them with spells, we’ll probably make things worse, Do-Jin thought, narrowing his eyes.
The two knights continued their relentless assault on Theresa, their movements mechanical yet perfectly synchronized. They ignored everyone else entirely, attacking only the tank as if they were bound by invisible rules.
Every so often their glowing eyes flicked toward the back line, but it was nothing more than a reflex. There was no real aggro shift, only the illusion of awareness, like some part of them still remembered what it meant to hunt. It almost looked as if the knights were inviting the party to strike them harder, begging for more magic to absorb.
Yeah. These kinds of bosses always have gimmicks like that. If we rush in without figuring it out, then we’ll get wiped in seconds.
Do-Jin replayed the sequence in his mind, going over every detail from the moment he had first cast a spell.
After being hit by magic, the transformation happens in about two to three seconds. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Tier 1 or a Tier 5 spell. The reaction time is always the same, so power isn’t a factor. Once an element is applied, it triggers an immediate change. So what happens if the same element keeps hitting them?
He tested it right away. The knight, now imbued with ice, stood unmoving as Do-Jin fired another frost spell. It didn’t flinch. The chill rolling off its body only intensified, frosting the ground and railing in a widening circle.
“Her HP’s dropping faster,” Soso called out flatly.
Do-Jin nodded. That was exactly what he expected.
So, what about the opposite element?
He cast Ignition. The knight, still radiating frost, began to tremble violently. Within seconds, the freezing mist surrounding it evaporated, replaced by waves of searing heat.
And now... this should happen.
He waited until the armor glowed red-hot once more. The transition between elements caused a brief flicker of instability, a perfect opening. Do-Jin took the opportunity to cast Frost Explosion, and a series of cold detonations ripped through the air, engulfing the molten knight in a storm of icy blasts. The creature convulsed like an overloaded machine, its joints grinding and sparking as the shock traveled through its frame.
Then, with a heavy metallic clang, it dropped to one knee. When it rose again, all traces of heat and frost had vanished. Its surface dimmed back to dull steel, neither burning nor frozen. Now in its original state, the motionless figure raised its head. Its eyes flared crimson as they locked onto Do-Jin.
“So that’s it,” Do-Jin murmured, a faint grin tugging at his lips.
The knight let out a roar and charged, the ground quaking under its massive weight. It looked as though it intended to crush the man who had just unraveled its secret.
“Hey! Your fight’s with me!” Theresa shouted, slamming her shield into the creature’s shin with a sharp metallic crack.
It was not enough to pull full aggro, but the knight’s head twitched toward her for a moment.
“Just keep one of them busy, Theresa! Focus on the other one!” Do-Jin shouted.
He didn’t need to give any orders to Tanto. The assassin already understood.
“You saw that, right?” Do-Jin asked quietly.
Tanto nodded once, his eyes narrowing. “If you can open a window, I’ll take care of the rest.”
His form shimmered and vanished, the faint ripple of stealth fading into the air. Do-Jin turned back to face the enemy. He had been holding back until now, but it was time to let loose.
He slipped into a steady rhythm, opening with ice, switching to fire, then chaining two more fire spells and three ice spells. Each sequence layered a new element over the knight, forcing it to adapt. In the brief instant of transition, Do-Jin unleashed the opposite element, striking during the instability.
It was a simple trick in theory, but almost impossible to execute in practice. The timing had to be perfect. Every cast needed to land in the exact fraction of a second when the element shifted. Normally, breaking this mechanic required several players coordinating their spells together. But Do-Jin did it alone, compressing every burst of elemental damage into a few seconds of flawless precision.
The knight barely had time to react before another shock hit. It stepped forward once, only to freeze mid-motion. It tried again, but stopped cold once more. Every attempt to move was interrupted by another perfectly timed elemental strike.
Each time the knight stiffened, Tanto appeared from nowhere, silent and precise. His relic hand axe gleamed with a poisonous shimmer, every strike amplified by his stealth-enhanced damage setup. The sound of steel biting through steel echoed again and again as the knight’s health bar plunged in chunks.
This almost feels unfair, Do-Jin thought, watching its HP melt away.
While Do-Jin observed with detached analysis, Tanto’s thoughts were less composed. He felt like he wasn’t contributing enough. The tank was tanking, the healer was healing, and Do-Jin was creating perfect openings. All he did was follow instructions: slash, retreat, repeat.
Before he realized it, Do-Jin’s voice cut through his thoughts. “One left. Theresa, good work. Step back and catch your breath. I’ll finish it.”
Tanto blinked. One of the Twin Gatekeepers was already gone. He had not even noticed it die. Do-Jin’s final spell had struck the killing blow.
That was... fast, Tanto thought, lowering his axe.
No matter how he looked at it, these were not enemies that were supposed to fall so easily. The Twin Gatekeepers were infamous for their difficulty, capable of wiping out entire raid groups in seconds when handled poorly. Yet here they were, staggering like drunks, twitching like convicts struck with a taser before collapsing helplessly to the floor.
“Still,” Do-Jin said with a small exhale as the second knight froze under another spell. “Good thing they’re weak to magic. Works in our favor.”
After the final knight collapsed, he straightened and said, “See? They’re actually a good match for mages.”
“What?” Tanto blinked. “You’re saying these things are good against mages...?”
He could not agree with that. Any mage who had fought monsters like these would have been cursing nonstop. They absorbed elemental attacks, converted them into power, and hurled that power straight back at them. Calling that good compatibility was absurd.
But Do-Jin just nodded, entirely serious. “Of course. If you weren’t a mage, you wouldn’t be able to lock them down like that. You saw what happened.”
“I mean... yeah, I saw it, but still...” Tanto’s voice faded out.
What Do-Jin had done didn’t really qualify as synergy. It was closer to breaking the game’s mechanics entirely.
Yeah... I can kind of understand why some mages call him their natural enemy.
The number of people who used that nickname had gone down over time, but there were still players who referred to Do-Jin as the mage killer. Watching him turn an elemental-absorbing boss into a practice dummy, Tanto couldn’t argue with it.
While he was sympathizing with the struggles of mages everywhere, Theresa trudged over, sniffling. “Ughhh! My hair’s fried!”
After tanking a monster that had alternated between fire and ice for several minutes, she looked like she had crawled out of an explosion. Her bangs were half-burned and half-frozen, unevenly chopped and sticking out in every direction like a bird’s nest.
Do-Jin glanced up from the corpse of the fallen knight, took one look at her, and barely managed to stifle a laugh. He cleared his throat and managed to get out, “Right... good work, Theresa.”
Tanto shut his eyes and clenched his jaw to keep from laughing. The mask hid most of his face, but even he knew that if he made a sound, he would not survive the look Theresa would give him.
“Pfft.” Soso, on the other hand, didn’t even try to hide it. She let out a single flat, unapologetic syllable of laughter.
Theresa froze mid-motion, still rubbing her bangs in a futile attempt to fix them, then turned slowly toward Soso to say, “You’re laughing because I woke you up this morning, aren’t you?”
Soso’s silence told her everything she needed to know.
Do-Jin finally stepped in, clapping his hands lightly. “Alright, enough of that. If everyone’s good, let’s head inside.”
The mood shifted at once. Beyond the shattered remains of the Twin Gatekeepers, a massive iron gate stood open, its gears still humming faintly. As the group approached, their footsteps rang softly against the metal floor. Peering inside, they saw a long passage sloping downward, vanishing into the dark. It looked less like a tunnel and more like the open maw of some enormous beast waiting to swallow them whole.
