Chapter 118: Ruler of Darkness (1)

Ian, who had returned to Ollibus Village again after many twists and turns, immediately went to Ikael's house.

Ikael warmly greeted Ian, who had returned.

"That's right, I definitely think preparations are complete."

After checking the pattern that was engraved on Ly's forehead, Ikael wore a satisfied expression.

"Yes. I think I've done everything that I can do."

At Ian's words, Ikael nodded his head.

"Good work, Ian. I should show you the place where Orvil is now."

Ikael paused a moment to take a breath, and Ian waited patiently for his next words.

His words continued.

"Orvil is sealed at the top of Moonlight Peak."

"Moonlight Peak?"

"That's right. Moonlight Peak is at the southernmost part of Forlas Plateau."

Ikael, who paused to take a breath, opened his mouth again.

"Have you never seen the peak that rises above the clouds, which is so sharp it's incomparable to any other peak?"

"Hmm..."

There was a place that Ian roughly assumed was correct.

He already knew the geography of Forlas Plateau well because of Harin's cooking ingredients.

'I think it's that place that Harin and I needed to turn around from last time after trying to go up because there was no path...'

Of course, he could go up if he just rode his Griffin, but at that time, because there was no reason to go up there like that, they had just passed by.

"Then if I go there, will I be able to find Orvil right away?"

Ikael shook his head.

"No, of course not. Wait a moment."

After speaking, Ikael pulled out a small pebble that let out a dim light from his chest and handed it to Ian.

"If you go up the peak and into the centre of the open space at the very top, there is an altar that will go up to about your waist. If you stick this stone in the middle of that, the barrier that surrounded the whole peak will lift."

Ian received the white pebble from Ikael and lifted it up.

The interesting thing was that he could barely feel a weight from the pebble.

"But do you have a way to go up there? It won't be easy to go up by climbing the wall."

Ian nodded his head.

He had Pin.

"Yes. I have a method, so you don't have to worry about that."

"Good, good."

"Anyways, by any chance, is there anything that I should be cautious of?"

"Hmm... Things you should be cautious of..."

After thinking about it for a moment, Ikael spoke.

"First of all, you'll need to go as fast as possible."

"Huh?"

Ikael pointed to the sky.

As it was the evening, they could see the round moon that hung high in the sky all by itself.

"That's because two days from now, it will be a full moon. Once it's a full moon, all of Orvil's abilities will increase by almost double."

"I see."

It was definite that he was an opponent that would be a burden to face just as is, but for his stats to increase double the amount.

'I need to finish this before then no matter what.'

Ikael's words continued.

"However, don't go this instant, but go after the sun rises tomorrow morning."

"I'm assuming he gets stronger when it's just night as well."

At Ian's assumption, Ikael nodded his head.

"That's right. It's not necessarily that his stats become stronger at night, but he has an Inherent Ability that he can only use in darkness. If possible, fight him during the daytime."

"What is that ability that you're talking about?"

"It's an ability called 'Darkness Encroachment' that turns his whole body into pitch black fog. If Orvil goes into Darkness Encroachment state, it nullifies 70% of the attacks received."

"Ah..."

Ian, who heard those words, grumbled to himself.

'I have no idea how long the duration is, but isn't this a fraud skill? Can I get this skill somewhere? This Darkness Encroachment or whatever...'

Ian, who heard a couple more matters that he needed to be careful of afterwards, firstly moved towards Forlas Plateau.

He had no intentions to fight him immediately right now, but because he was planning on going right up to the location and log out to try to fight him right away after logging in tomorrow morning.

'Orvil or whatever, I'm going to catch him quickly.'

* * *

"What? A festival?"

"Yeah, a festival."

"What does that have to do with me?"

While looking at Jinsung, who stared at him blankly with a puzzled expression, Yoohyun wore a dumbfounded expression.

"What do you mean what does that have to do with you, dude, are you not a student at this school?"

Jinsung slightly frowned.

"Is attendance mandatory? The time I spend attending classes is a waste for me right now as well, so do I really have to attend such a thing?"

At Jinsung's complaining, Yoohyun wore a troubled expression.

'What should I do? I don't know about the other guys, but I need to make Jinsung attend no matter what...'

The festival went on for three days, and although there was a lot of different things going on, there was one event that Jinsung was absolutely needed for.

That exactly was the E-sports competition that was opening on the second day during the track meet.

The E-sports competition was an event where departments were ranked based on their score with a total of ten different types of games, and there was an awards ceremony depending on the highest-ranking departments, with the prize money and benefits being quite big.

'Even if we don't get the prize, the expectations of the professors is quite big as well...'

As much as it was the first year that the department was formed, the professors were hoping for the existence of the VR department to become widely known in the school through the festival.

Yoohyun began to slowly persuade Jinsung.

"They're doing a E-sports competition on the second day at that festival, and if we win there, then a portion of scholarships will come out for the next semester..."

Had about ten minutes passed like that.

At Yoohyun's long and persistent persuasion, Jinsung eventually promised to come to the festival just on the second day.

'Still, since I'm a little interested in the E-sports competition.'

From hearing the explanation, there was not one game amongst the ten events including Kailan that Jinsung hadn't played.

With the intentions of playing the games from his past for the first time in a while, Jinsung also accepted Yoohyun's suggestion.

After actually thinking about it positively, he was looking quite forward to it.

* * *

"You could say all of the darkness cleared at this rate, right?"

Ian, who quickly ran home and logged onto Kailan as soon as his morning classes ended, mumbled as he looked up at the sky once.

It was about 11 o'clock in the morning, and the sun was already high up in the sky.

"Alright."

Amongst his Familiars, Ian summoned just Pin for now.

"Pin, Summon!"

Kku-ruk- Kkuk-kkuk-!

Pin, who was summoned, happily flew up to Ian and sat down.

As he was now bigger in size than even Ian, he couldn't sit on his shoulders or anything like that, but Ian still thought Pin was cute.

"Pin, please take me up to the top there."

Kku-ruk-!

As Ian got on top of his back, Pin carefully began to flap his wings.

Flap- Flap-.

He wasn't as skilled in riding on Pin's back yet, but still, compared to before, his posture had become more stable.

"Pin, do you want to try flying with a little more speed?"

As if Pin was waiting for Ian's words, he began to flap his wings faster little by little.

"Umph!"

At the strong wind that suddenly blew in front of him, Ian quickly lowered his posture.

'Whew, Pin is really fast once he starts gaining speed.'

As the wind that blew from the opposite direction was too strong, he thought that he could just fall like that at the slightest slip up.

'If I fall from this height, then I will immediately fall to death.'

Ian moved the balance of his body here and there as he tried to adjust riding on Pin's back.

And shortly after, he was able to step foot on top of the incredibly high mountaintop.

"When you look at it from the bottom, it looks really sharp, but coming up here now, it's quite spacious. That's a relief."

From Ian's perspective, where he needed to manage multiple Familiars, it couldn't help but be unfavourable the narrower the space.

It was even more so at a place where it was immediately a thousand-mile cliff if they broke away from each other.

Ian summoned all of his Familiars.

And from his chest, he pulled out the pebble that he received from Ikael.

'So, this is the key that will lift the seal, huh?'

Ian strode up to the centre of the empty space.

And just like Ikael said, an altar-like thing that was short in height was there.

And as he approached it and checked the top of it, Ian was able to know the place that the pebble went into right away.

'It must be here, right?'

As he placed it in a small, round, groove-like place, the pebble rolled and was sucked into a place like a helix-type hole in the middle of the altar.

Keu-Keu-Keung-!

As a mechanical noise rang out from within the altar, Ian became slightly nervous.

However, as nothing else happened, he wore a flustered expression.

"Hmm...?"

However, just then...

A white light began to ooze out from within the altar.

• The Sealing of Forlas Darkness is invoked.

Whoong-!

'What the hell? The seal is not lifted but invoked?'

Something was a little weird, but Ian, who checked the system message, took a couple steps backwards.

"Everybody prepare for battle!"

As he did so, in the next moment, a completely unexpected phenomenon began to arise.

Crack- Cra-cra-crack-!

Beneath Ian's feet, it began to crack.

"What the hell is this?"

And didn't the high-rising mountaintop begin to collapse downwards?

Thud- Thu-thud-!

Ian couldn't help but firstly Summon Release Ddukdae.

Ly, Lake, and Halli could ride the collapsing boulders here and there and not fall, but in Ddukdae's case, not only was his Agility too low to do that, but he was too big in size.

"Ddukdae, Summon Release!"

Ian, who Summon Released Ddukdae, hurriedly got on Pin's back.

And he diligently watched the Familiars, who jumped around frantically on top of the collapsing altar.

It was in order to immediately Summon Release them if they looked like they were going to even accidentally fall.

Ba-ang- Bang-!

As the giant peak collapsed, incredibly loud booms and clouds of dust spread out in every direction.

However, even despite that, Ian couldn't lose his mind.

'Since the seal has been lifted, the Orvil will definitely appear from somewhere!'

It was a situation where it was truly a relief that he could ride on top of Pin.

Ian eventually couldn't help but be forced to even Summon Release Lake, who was unable to move as nimbly as Halli or Ly and was falling between the boulders.

'Whew, this is a big problem. To have to fight Orvil without Ddukdae or Lake...'

And had about ten minutes passed like that?

The peak that had completely collapsed to the point that even its shape was unrecognizable had become a giant hill made of piles of stones.

"Pin, let me down."

And Ian also came down from Pin's back and stepped foot on top of the pile of stones.

'No, but when exactly is Orvil coming out?'

It was at that moment.

Whoong-!

As a bizarre sound rang out, incredibly strong beams of purple light began to be sucked into the middle of the pile of stones.

Kwaah-.

'...?'

With a dazed expression, Ian watched that scene.

This was because the beams of light that were being sucked in from every direction was presenting a grand sight much like a meteor shower.

The beams of light gathered in the middle of the boulder pile and formed a giant sphere.

And in the giant sphere of light, a dark shadow began to faintly appear.

'Is that... Orvil?'

Just when Ian was about to strengthen his eyesight and check the identity of the dark shadow within the light, the rays of light burst out in every direction while letting out a loud boom.

Ba-ang-!

The boulders that flew out in all directions because of the explosion continuously smashed into Ian and his Familiars.

• You have received a large impact. Your Vitality has been reduced by 970.

• You have received a large impact. Your Vitality has been reduced by 1225.

It wasn't a large amount of damage, but as his Vitality was cut down even before the battle began, Ian frowned.

'Damn it, what the hell?'

However, that wasn't the end.

Awhooo-!

A giant shadow rose from the spot where the pile of stones burst out from.

As Orvil's howl rang through the air, a shock wave exploded out in all directions.

Pung-!

• 'Dark Fenrir Orvil' has used Inherent Ability 'Darkness Emission'.

• As you have been afflicted by 'Darkness Emission', your Vitality has been reduced by 6718.

Ian shouted before he even realized.

"No, what kind of crazy damage is this?!"

Ly had gone into a critical condition from just one hit.

Because Halli and Pin didn't have as paper-like bodies as Ly, they still had over half of their Vitality left, but they had still definitely received a huge amount of damage.

And lastly, a system message that was just one line long additionally popped up.

• The world has been encased in darkness.