Chapter 155
If there was one place where people talked about Do-Jin the most, it was probably the Lotranet Mage Forum. Whenever a new video dropped on his channel, it would turn into a madhouse. More than half the posts would be about him, and that was exactly what was happening now.
[Title: Remember when I said that bastard was zero help to us?]
[The new boss in this video was a textbook mage-killer. Everyone agrees on that, right? But that bastard went and said, “Mages are actually strong against it.” Now every other class forum’s blowing up again, yelling that mages are busted as hell. If you actually tried that strat, you’d need at least three or four mages. That bastard knew this, but he still talked like it was nothing.]
└ So tl;dr is that Do-Jin’s a ridiculous mage who does the work of three or four players by himself, and you’re a dumbass.
└ Nice summary.
└ What the fuck is this clown even saying?
└ Why are you losing your shit? No one’s asking your sorry ass or your discount mage backup to pull that off, dude.
[Title: At this point, I think it’s obvious Do-Jin’s got a hidden class]
[Anyone who’s actually looked into his gameplay can tell he’s way past normal mage limits. Whether he unlocked an advanced class or got some hidden spell, it’s clear as day he’s not just some basic-tier mage.]
└ Who the hell doesn’t know that already?
└ Bro, that theory’s ancient. Nobody’s thought he’s normal in years.
└ Did you even count how much hidden content he’s unlocked across his vids? You’re acting like you just discovered fire or something.
[Title: Out of all the fights in this video, the last one was my favorite]
[The first boss was fun. Do-Jin figured out the gimmick in seconds and completely shredded it. The second one had me dying because the tank wouldn’t stop swearing at the boss. But holy fucking shit, the last one. Once the dungeon started flooding, I couldn’t even blink. Every second felt tight as hell. When Tanto went down and Do-Jin’s expression instantly changed, I swear I busted. Then he lit a mana cigarette before the boss fight, and I lost it again. Once the fight started, I couldn’t look away until it ended.]
└ Dude, what the fuck. Why are you creaming your pants over this?
└ This is one nasty post, but I can’t lie. His timing shows he’s kinda a drip connoisseur.
└ Dip connoisseur? What the fuck are you talking about? That’s just messy.
└ Drip, you idiot. Drip. How the hell did you misread that?
└ Still, that last fight was straight fire. The boss kept spamming patterns nonstop, the timer was almost gone, and Do-Jin just went full kamikaze like he didn’t care if he died. The pacing was insane.
└ Yeah, but what the hell happened after? The video cut right there. Did he fuck up the escape or is he hiding the loot like an asshole again?
└ Bro loves blue-balling us with these cliffhangers. Drop the full run, you bastard!
Everyone had their own way of watching, analyzing, and losing their minds over Do-Jin’s videos. But most importantly, they were all dying to know what happened during the part that wasn’t shown in the video.
***
“Uuurgh.”
There were plenty of reasons that section got cut, but the biggest one was obvious. Nobody wanted to see that shit. No one wanted to ruin an epic boss fight highlight by watching the guy puke his guts out afterward.
Do-Jin pressed a hand to his chest and blood spilled down his chin as he fought to stay upright. His whole body spasmed like it was about to give out.
“Fuck, it feels like I’m about to vomit up my organs.”
He had already used his one daily shot of Limited Reversion, and now he had to endure every bit of pain on his own. His body was wrecked, but at least he was alive. That alone made him the lucky one.
However, Soso got caught in one of Kelluon’s massive lightning blasts and was obliterated on the spot. Meanwhile, Theresa was thrown into a corner, her body shaking uncontrollably. Her right arm had been burned clean off like it never existed.
What a son of a bitch... Who the fuck does that bastard think he is? Thor?!
Do-Jin clenched his jaw as he remembered the fight. Kelluon might have been a blacksmith by name, but he fought like a storm god drunk on his own power.
Now he understood why the dungeon had started filling with water before the battle. Every time Kelluon slammed his hammer, the entire floor turned into an electric pit. The water had made it so much worse. Each time the boss called down a lightning storm, the water in the room vanished into steam. As thick fog filled the room in mere seconds, Kelluon used it as cover to strike from every direction like a ghost.
If I didn’t have this eye, I’d be fucking dead already.
The Magic Eye that let him see mana had saved his life. Even when the mist swallowed everything, he could still see Kelluon’s movements and fight back. Without that, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.
“You okay, sis?” Do-Jin asked.
“I’m better than Soso, I guess...” Theresa’s voice came out barely above a whisper.
He gave a short, bitter laugh. Being better off than someone who got fried alive wasn’t much to brag about.
“Well, whatever. It looks like we actually made it out. The water’s stopped rising, so I’ll take that as a win.”
The dungeon finally went quiet when Kelluon fell, and the system message confirming their clear appeared right after.
“At least we didn’t end up as drowned corpses,” Do-Jin said, looking on the bright side. As he pushed himself up, his muscles screamed in protest, but he forced his broken body to move.
Kelluon’s corpse dropped four S-grade items, which was fitting for a bastard that strong. He had probably missed something during the fight, because the perfect clear message never appeared, but that didn’t matter. The loot was still good. In fact, it was more than great, yet something about it didn’t sit right. The fight was over, but it didn’t feel finished.
Do-Jin limped toward the spot where Kelluon had been sitting before the fight started. His instincts told him there was still something there, and he was right. Behind the massive anvil sat a glass jar that had been hidden the entire time. Inside it, several glowing blue orbs floated slowly, each one pulsing with a faint light.
Do-Jin narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to take a better look. One of the glowing orbs flickered, and an old man’s face appeared inside it. The thing spoke to him like it had been waiting.
“You there.”
What the fuck!
Do-Jin stumbled back in shock and landed flat on his butt. His body was too wrecked to keep its balance, and pain exploded through him all over again.
When I upload the video, I have to edit this part out.
If his body had been in any shape to move, he would have said it out loud instead of just thinking it. While Do-Jin grumbled to himself, the old man inside the jar continued speaking. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to startle you. Though I suppose anyone would be startled by a sight like this.”
The voice didn’t sound hostile. A conversation like this, in a place like this, almost always meant one thing. It was leading straight into another piece of hidden content.
“Was it that blacksmith who did this?”
When Do-Jin pointed at Kelluon’s corpse, the old man nodded and replied, “That’s right. He tried to use us as materials for something.”
Using souls as ingredients wasn’t shocking to him. It wasn’t even a rare occurrence anymore.
“You’re not alone, are you?” Do-Jin asked.
One by one, faces began to appear within the other glowing orbs inside the jar. Some looked like men, others women, and a few even looked like children.
The old man turned toward them before he said, “They are nothing more than remnants. Those who once had their sense of self, like I did, no longer exist in this jar.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Do-Jin asked politely, but what he really meant was whether there was a follow-up quest or not.
“You’ve already done enough. You stopped that bastard from turning us into an object that would have helped destroy the world.”
Do-Jin froze for a moment. He really hoped this wasn’t going to be one of those scenes where the ghost would thank him, say something like, “Now I can rest in peace,” and then just disappear. Luckily, it wasn’t.
“Though... if you could grant one more shameless favor, I would be truly grateful.”
There it was. The quest trigger.
“Tell me what it is,” Do-Jin pressed.
“At the bottom of this jar lies the object Kelluon forged from our souls. It’s practically our remains. I ask that you take it to our sanctuary.”
“The sanctuary? Where is that?”
“The place where we once offered prayers to the stars. The place closest to the Star of Creation... Take us there...”
The old man’s face flickered and his image distorted with a crackling sound. That was the end of the transmission.
[Where the Stars Touch]
Grade: Hidden
Objective: Find the sanctuary and deliver the remains of those who were sacrificed by the blacksmith Kelluon
Reward: ???
In LOST, the word “star” could mean only one of two things. It either referred to Bella or Laves, the twin stars that governed Creation and Ruin. The first thing that came to Do-Jin’s mind was the Church of Bella, but something about it didn’t sit right.
No, that doesn’t make sense. This has nothing to do with the modern one.
The current Church of Bella was a religion built by humans. Whatever the Giants used to believe in before they were wiped out had completely different roots. Their faith in the Star of Creation had nothing in common with what humans worshiped now.
Still, Do-Jin had a feeling he knew where their sanctuary was. It must be the place closest to the Star of Creation.
Ancient civilizations and dead religions loved using places with poetic meaning, but in the end, it was always the same kind of metaphor no matter how it was dressed up.
If I’m wrong, then so be it.
While Do-Jin sorted out his thoughts about the newly obtained hidden quest, the glowing orbs inside the jar slowly began to fade away. The old man’s face flickered a few more times, repeating “the place closest to the Star of Creation” like a broken record before disappearing completely.
The jar, once transparent, dissolved into smoke. What remained was a solid rectangular block of metal roughly the size of Do-Jin’s torso.
[You have obtained the Hidden Quest Item Starlight Soul Ingot.]
Thank fuck it’s an item and not an object.
If it hadn’t gone into his inventory, there was no way he could have carried something that big and heavy.
That should be everything.
Do-Jin looked around the now-empty dungeon. The oppressive energy that had filled the air before the boss fight was gone. The place felt hollow, like it had been drained of everything that once gave it life. Kelluon had spent the entire battle absorbing every soul and every trace of mana in the dungeon. By the time he died, nothing was left.
“It’s over, sis. We just need to get out of here now.”
When he turned around, Theresa’s head was drooping forward. She wasn’t dead, but she had passed out cold.
“Goddamn it.”
He tried pouring a potion down her throat, but she didn’t wake up. Her stamina must have hit rock bottom. There was no way he could leave her behind, so even in his wrecked state, Do-Jin had to drag her out through the escape route.
At least my strength stat’s higher now. He silently thanked the new relic necklace he had just acquired. Soso and Tanto only dropped junk gear when they died, thank god for that.
After collecting their loot and recovering every last item from their death spots, Do-Jin finally reached the surface. He hauled Theresa onto the boat they had docked earlier and dropped her onto the deck with a thud.
“Guh!” The shock of hitting the wooden boards jolted her awake. “Ah—! Do-Jin!”
She flailed like a fish out of water, gasping for breath as she looked around in confusion.
Do-Jin stared at her for a moment before muttering quietly, “I swear she fucking waited until I carried her up here to wake up.”
Anyone who had never carried an unconscious person before would never understand how heavy they were. Now that Do-Jin was completely drained, he was done for the time being. He decided to take it easy in the game for a while. As for that hidden quest, he’d get to it someday.
“Phew...” Do-Jin let out a deep sigh and looked out over the fog-covered sea. The thought of having to steer that boat all the way back made him want to throw himself overboard.
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