Chapter 66

The fragment of Sebyeongje was extremely angry.

Even more so than when it encountered the human who had inflicted a mortal wound upon it 800 years ago.

It was just one step away from achieving its goal of completion.

How dare you.

How dare you.

How dare you!!!

[This insignificant creature! That’s not something you can swallow!]

The fragment of Sebyeongje, spewing out intense anger, lunged at the seemingly insignificant black squirrel.

It’s fine. It’s not too late yet.

All that’s needed is to sever the neck with the ice scythe and take the fruit.

Whoosh!

As the fragment of Sebyeongje charged, it swung its front leg at Moxiang.

However.

“Squeak!”

Moxiang was a bit faster.

With a slightly annoying cry, Moxiang activated its skill.

Yingyingbu (Shadow Step).

A dedicated skill of Moxiang that allows it to move from its own shadow to its master’s shadow!

Upon activation, Moxiang, still holding the fruit of the World Tree in its mouth, was sucked into its own shadow.

Sebyeongje’s scythe only managed to slash through the air by a hair.

And Moxiang, which had disappeared into the shadow, cried out.

“Squeak squeak squeak!”

It instantly emerged from the shadow of Carpe, who was under the World Tree.

“Good job, Xiang! You really are the best.”

“Xiang. You’ve truly set the highest standard. Hmm. To be honest, I’m a bit envious.”

“Squeak squeak!”

Basking in the praise, Moxiang posed, placing its front paws on its waist.

...Despite its cheeks being puffed up from the fruit, it didn’t look very cool.

“Alright then. Xiang. You need to give me the fruit.”

“Squeak... squeak.”

Xiang’s expression looked much happier than usual.

It was because of the fruit of the World Tree, which filled its mouth.

The fragrance of the sweet flesh was indescribable, and the taste of the skin on its tongue was far from ordinary.

Just imagining the moment of biting into it made its body tremble with anticipation.

For the young Moxiang, it was a temptation that was hard to resist, but...

“Squeak.”

Moxiang displayed superhuman patience.

It nodded with tears in its eyes and spat the fruit of Ludram back into Carpe’s hand.

“Squeak...”

And then it cried.

“W-Why are you crying? Xiang, did I do something wrong? Why are you crying?!”

A flustered Carpe tried to console Moxiang, but large tears welled up in Moxiang’s eyes.

The overwhelming sense of loss upon spitting out the fruit!

It felt as if it had been expelled from paradise, and Moxiang couldn’t help but cry.

“Phew. You really did well. Now we just need to protect the fruit a little longer.”

Despite Moxiang’s actions, the Demon King sighed in relief, and at that moment, another notification window appeared in front of Carpe.

[The quest item ‘Fruit of Ludram’ is a special item that cannot be stored in the inventory for a certain period of time.]

[Remaining time: 6 minutes 17 seconds]

“What? A non-storable item? There’s such a thing?”

-It’s a common format in quests where you have to protect a specific item. If you could just put it in your inventory, the quest would be too easy.

“Now that you mention it, that makes sense... But what do we do with this? We can’t fight with one hand holding it.”

Carpe, Tina, and Dretsch couldn’t fight with one hand occupied.

...In the end, there was only one solution.

“Squeak! Squeak squeak!”

“Xiang, you really mustn’t eat it. Understand?”

“Squeak...”

Moxiang nodded with tears in its eyes, and the fruit of Ludram was once again placed in its mouth.

And at that moment.

[Roar!!!]

The fragment of Sebyeongje, which had leaped straight down from a World Tree branch, landed on the ground.

Boom!

The ground shattered with a tremendous impact, and dust rose into the air.

[I will tear you all to pieces, not leaving a single one!]

The fragment roared with a ferocity that made every hair on its body stand on end.

“...It seems to be very angry.”

-What do you mean, ‘seems’? That anger is about to be directed at you.

“Still, it’s fortunate that it’s much more manageable now.”

Thanks to Dretsch’s final burst of magic, casting Stone Curse, the fragment of Sebyeongje had expended most of its strength.

The molting process of arthropods, similar to insects, consumes an unimaginable amount of energy.

Moreover, the body after molting is extremely fragile.

Insects don’t molt in open areas for no reason.

Being discovered by a predator during or after molting means certain death.

[Abnormal Status Molting: All stats reduced by 50% for two days. However, all stats increase by 10% after two days.]

The fragment of Sebyeongje should have hidden elsewhere and rested for a few days.

[Give me the fruit!]

The fragment of Sebyeongje, in its rage, charged at the group.

Bang!

A bolt of lightning struck the fragment of Sebyeongje on the head.

The damage itself wasn’t great, but it was enough to distract Sebyeongje.

[...You!]

The caster of the lightning was none other than Moxiang.

And at that moment, Sebyeongje’s sanity shattered once again.

Every element that made up its being whispered to it.

Eat the fruit.

And become complete.

An incomplete life has no meaning.

You must obtain it.

[Roar!!!]

The fragment of Sebyeongje roared and, drawing on its remaining life force, unleashed its final attack.

[Perpetual Ice Age!]

An ice field began to form around the fragment of Sebyeongje, and Dretsch cried out in shock.

“That’s impossible! It should still be on cooldown!”

The 9-star skill Perpetual Ice Age was a skill with a long cooldown period, matching its immense power.

Since Mirage had blocked it once at the start of the battle, it should have been on cooldown.

-You don’t think this is the Quarter Life skill, do you? Crazy. What level are we at where a boss mob has two 9-star skills?

The 9-star skill Quarter Life.

The top skill on every skill dealer’s wish list.

Its effect was simple yet powerful.

It reduces the cooldown of all the user’s skills by 75% by consuming 75% of the user’s current HP!

Crack!

A wave of ice swept over.

Its power was far less than the Perpetual Ice Age they had faced before.

This was due to the fragment’s stats being drastically reduced by the molting process.

“Gah!”

“Body?!”

But it was still enough to freeze the surroundings.

Dretsch and Tina were frozen solid from the waist down.

They had been afflicted with the abnormal status ‘Ice Freeze’.

[Unlock activated.]

[Abnormal status ‘Ice Freeze’ has been removed.]

Of course, Carpe, who possessed the unlock skill, could immediately free himself from the Ice Freeze.

[Die!]

But during the brief delay between being frozen and unfrozen, the fragment of Sebyeongje swung its scythe.

The sudden Ice Freeze disrupted Carpe’s balance, and he couldn’t avoid the attack.

Instead, he crossed his arms with his gauntlets to block the scythe.

“Ugh!”

The force in the scythe sent Carpe flying, crashing into a tree.

-Hey, are you okay?!

“Gah. I almost died. Its final attack is fierce.”

Really, among all the enemies they had faced, this was an overwhelming powerhouse.

-Phew. Even a level 300 boss raid isn’t this brutal.

“The difficulty is insane. Was this made to be defeated?”

-Of course not!

“Grr... Should I give up?”

Carpe checked the quest window again.

There was 1 minute and 7 seconds left until the quest completion.

Fortunately, this amount of time was enough for Moxiang to run away.

The fragment of Sebyeongje, swaying and staggering, didn’t seem capable of chasing Moxiang in its current state.

But Carpe had overlooked one thing.

[Come to me.]

“Squeak?!”

As the fragment of Sebyeongje muttered, Moxiang’s body stiffened as if it had been electrocuted.

And with a hazy gaze, it began to walk towards the fragment of Sebyeongje.

“Squeak...”

The 9-star skill Quarter Life, as mentioned earlier, reduces the cooldown of all the user’s skills.

As a result, the cooldowns of all the fragment’s skills, including Perpetual Ice Age, were mostly reset.

This allowed Sebyeongje to use ‘Mind Control’.

Mind control wouldn’t work on elves blessed by the World Tree, but it was possible on non-elves.

[Ha ha ha! My victory!]

Seeing Moxiang slowly walking towards it, Sebyeongje burst into maniacal laughter.

The two humans were frozen, and the unfrozen human was far away.

Thud.

Moxiang walked right up to Sebyeongje and spat out the fruit from its mouth.

[Truly fragrant. Finally... I will be complete!]

“Damn... this bug!”

“Gah. Xiang! No! Snap out of it!”

The two frozen humans shouted, but the situation didn’t change.

It had won.

At the very last moment, the gamble with its life had succeeded!

But.

“Who said you could?”

[What?!]

Sebyeongje couldn’t believe its eyes.

The squirrel had disappeared.

And in its place, the human who had been far away appeared right in front of it.

Startled, Sebyeongje turned its head to look at the tree where Carpe had been.

“Squeak...”

There was a small squirrel there.

“Phew. Good thing I prepared this.”

The reason Carpe could instantly appear in front of Sebyeongje.

[5-star skill – Castling]

[Exchanges the position between the user and a subordinate.]

It was thanks to the best trick skill he had drawn from a card pack not long ago!

“Let’s finish this!”

Carpe swung his hand. The target was Sebyeongje’s right armpit, the area where it had sustained a mortal wound in the battle with the Demon King.

[How dare you, human!]

But Sebyeongje didn’t give up even at the last moment.

An ice shield formed around the weak point.

It’s still okay. If I block this attack, I can immediately counter...

Thud!

[...]

But Sebyeongje’s hope was in vain.

Carpe’s hand now held a dagger, different from before.

<Spell Breaker>

[A dagger that dispels all magical effects on the target. Cannot dispel 9-star level skills. Destroys after 3 uses.]

The dispel dagger Carpe had used to tear through the barrier when he first entered the elf forest.

The dagger pierced through the ice shield and embedded itself in the wound.

“Farewell.”

[No... no! Not here... completion...!]

Crack!

Innumerable cracks formed from the point where the dagger was embedded.

Clang!

Sebyeongje’s body shattered, dropping ice fragments.

[You have defeated the event boss ‘Fragment of Sebyeongje’.]

And where the fragment of Sebyeongje had disappeared, three items remained.

The 10-star player who had become stronger through a draw.