59 — The People Of Baengnyeong Forest (20)

Milena’s skill completely swallowed the lich’s form. Judging by its visible power alone, it looked like it could kill the lich in a single strike.

‘Of course, there’s no way it’s that simple.’

Hyeonseong did not lower her guard. The Baengnyeong Forest people—Milena’s original comrades—were the same.

‘Even to them, taking it down in one hit is impossible.’

Milena was an A-rank Awakened as well. In pure rank terms, she matched the lich.

But when it came to dungeon bosses, no matter what they were, they always had some trump card to preserve or extend their life—thick hide, a powerful barrier skill, or something similar.

‘And if it’s a lich, it usually has a barrier or elemental resistance. Or…’

At that moment, the pillar of light that had engulfed the lich died down. Hyeonseong tightened her grip on the pickaxe.

The lich was still standing where the light had vanished. In its chest, the blood jade scattered a dark crimson, bloodlike aura.

“Tch. I knew it.”

The Baengnyeong Forest people clicked their tongues.

“It was expected anyway.”

“Going in!”

Their disappointment was brief. The next attacks followed immediately.

Kkaang—

Ivan’s sword collided with the lich’s staff, sealing off its movement as it tried to lift the staff.

Starting with Ivan’s strike, attacks poured onto the lich.

Rather than big, flashy skills, small, near-basic attacks continued at a fast tempo—meant to prevent the lich’s specialties: magic and summoning.

‘Then they’ll wait for an opening and someone will land a big one.’

At this point, there was no gap for Hyeonseong to enter. She decided to watch the fight and analyze the lich’s traits.

‘When Milena used her skill at first, I didn’t see anything like a barrier.’

If it had blocked the attack with a barrier, there would usually be some obvious sign—an attack bending, or a collision sound as it shattered.

But when the lich endured the pillar of light, there were no such traces.

‘Then that leaves two possibilities….’

One was a trait related to elemental resistance. If its holy resistance was abnormally high, it could survive the light pillar head-on.

‘But even then, it doesn’t feel like damage is accumulating.’

Kkagang

Ttak

The lich swung its staff to block blades and knock away arrows. Without even checking, it was obvious not a single debuff had landed.

‘It’s annoying enough that a lich isn’t losing in close combat.’

“Damn it, there’s no opening at all!”

“This bastard… it’s more than I thought….”

Others were already venting plenty of frustration. Hyeonseong decided she didn’t need to add her own.

‘…If it’s neither resistance nor defense, then there’s only one answer. Something is taking the damage in its place.’

Hyeonseong’s eyes went to the lich’s chest. The fist-sized blood jade was still there, radiating its presence.

‘That’s probably functioning as an extra life.’

Unless there was something hidden elsewhere, the odds were overwhelming that the blood jade was doing exactly that.

‘That blood jade item has been in our faces the whole time. There were hints everywhere like it was important—there’s no way it’s only for opening a door and that’s it.’

She had, at least, inferred that the blood jade embedded in its chest was acting like a special life vessel. If so, there was only one task left.

‘We’ll have to break that blood jade to kill the lich.’

Just as Hyeonseong reached that conclusion, an arrow someone fired flew straight at the blood jade.

Tiing—

The arrow struck the blood jade and bounced off. The arrow was coated in white frost, but the blood jade remained completely unharmed.

Uuuh… uu…. Uuaaaak!

As Hyeonseong tried to think further, the lich screamed—then whipped its limbs around even more violently, desperate to shake its enemies off.

“Damn!”

“Don’t back off! Stick close and keep pressuring it!”

Those directly attacking the lich did not retreat. They dodged its strikes, but refused to give up distance, continuing to hammer it.

Aaaak! Aaaak!

The lich refused to give up, trying to shove them away. Each time it strained, a wave of bloodlike aura burst outward.

“Ugh, it’s so damn loud.”

“What kind of lich does nothing but scream?”

“Don’t ignore it. That’s Fear, even if it looks like that.”

They were right. Its indiscriminate screams were a Fear effect that inflicted weak status ailments. Each time it shrieked, minor ailments appeared and vanished repeatedly.

‘So the cold feeling wasn’t just in my head.’

Hyeonseong narrowed her eyes.

“Hyeonseong! Do you see anything?”

Kwon Seojin shouted.

“The blood jade! I think we have to deal with that first, somehow!”

Hyeonseong answered immediately.

“You see it the same way, Hyeonseong?”

“That’s obvious to anyone with eyes….”

“Then how do we break it?”

Another Baengnyeong Forest person cut off Ivan’s grumbling and asked.

“Not sure yet. For now, we should probe it with a stronger skill—”

Uuuhhh… aak!

As she tried to think of a way to hit it harder, the lich screamed again. A denser aura burst out than before.

Kyaaak!

The moment the new status ailment appeared, the lich swung its staff hard.

“Ugh…!”

“Damn it!”

The Baengnyeong Forest people flinched, trying to swing their weapons—but before their attacks could land, the lich created distance first.

‘Damn—so they got hit with the status ailment too?’

The instant the lich pulled away, their reaction speed was subtly slower. It was clearly the ailment’s effect.

Of course, the ailment on them wasn’t strong. But it could make someone hesitate for a moment, or slow them down briefly.

‘That’s exactly what the lich was aiming for.’

Even a split-second gap could be fatal on a battlefield.

“Damn it—close in again!”

Swaeeaek—!

The ailment faded quickly. As soon as the debuff disappeared, they tried to press in again.

Kyahahaak! Krahahahaak!

The lich burst out in a sound that might have been laughter and raised its staff. Dark crimson energy began to whip around it.

“Stop it!”

Someone shouted urgently. Faster attacks rained down toward the lich.

Ttak

But this time, the lich completed its skill even faster.

The moment the sound of its staff striking the ground rang out, icy air surged from every direction. At the same time, pale shapes appeared all around.

Uuuuh…….

H-hic…….

The wide chamber filled with eerie sobbing. Ghosts had been summoned.

‘A summoning spell of this scale finishes that fast?’

Hyeonseong swept her gaze around warily. Even by a rough count, there were well over ten.

‘And the ranks are B to A.’

When she checked a few at random, B-ranks and A-ranks alternated. Both the numbers and the average rank didn’t match the lich’s rank.

‘It’s not impossible for an A-rank, but usually not this fast. And…’

Hyeonseong swung her pickaxe to drive off a ghost rushing her. The ghost fled from the consecrated axe and Hyeonseong glared after it.

‘What is that?’

Rope-like dark crimson energy was wrapped messily around the ghost’s body, as if it were forcibly tethered to something.

‘There was some kind of binding status on it, but…’

Even though the summoned ghosts were high-rank, they did not turn into Grudge Wraiths.

Given that they had a binding-type special status, that dark crimson energy clearly served some role.

‘This isn’t something an A-rank lich can do in a short time. That really is the biggest problem…’

Hyeonseong’s eyes fixed again on the blood jade embedded in the lich’s chest. Whatever the strategy, the solution to every problem would be there.

But gathering even basic information was impossible right now. The blood jade could not be inspected. When she tried to view it, the lich’s status window opened instead.

Meaning it was recognized not as an item, but as part of the monster’s body.

‘If I could inspect it, I might’ve been able to figure out how to destroy it…’

Uuuhhhhh…….

Kyahakak!

Through the ghosts’ wails, the lich’s own cry rang out. It almost sounded like it was mocking the raid party—or giving orders to its summoned ghosts.

“Tch…!”

“What kind of summoning is this…!”

The Baengnyeong Forest people gritted their teeth as they fought the ghosts. It seemed they had noticed the same strange point Hyeonseong had.

“At least it’s better than the ones we met on the way down. They’re not rampaging.”

“They’d probably hit it too if they rampaged, so it bound them.”

Two Baengnyeong Forest people, combining attacks on an A-rank ghost, spoke.

“So there’s one good thing. They’re not only attacking Ye Hyeonseong.”

Another person spoke while firing an arrow at a ghost.

As they said, this time there were no enemies that were focused on Hyeonseong alone. That, too, was likely due to the dark crimson energy wrapped around the ghosts.

“That could change at any time.”

“Yeah. While nothing’s going wrong, we have to clean up as much as we can and kill that thing.”

A few spoke in cold voices. For now, the ghosts were attacking them, so it was right to stay clinical about it.

“Pull them together into one spot as much as possible!”

“Got it!”

Hwiiii—

Kwaaang!

Wind charged with holy power pinned several ghosts in one place. Immediately after, lightning and white radiance blasted into the clustered group. A pack of ghosts was cleared in an instant.

‘For now, it’s fine…’

Hyeonseong kept thinking as she threatened a straggling ghost with her pickaxe.

Right now—what you could call Phase One—it was manageable. There were many ghosts, but nothing truly dire had happened yet.

But what came next was the problem. Once enough ghosts were cleared, or if they stalled too long, the lich would obviously attempt a new attack.

‘We need to find a way to neutralize that blood jade as fast as possible.

…Wait.’

Something suddenly flashed through Hyeonseong’s mind.

‘There’s an item we still haven’t found a use for.’

She managed to drive one ghost away toward the others.

In that opening, she opened the Infinite Corridor item list and found the item she had just thought of.

‘The rank, and the descriptions—this looks like exactly what we’re supposed to use here.’

The problem was how.

‘Usually you insert something like this into a slot somewhere.’

But inside this chamber, there was no obvious place to insert or hang either of the two items.

‘So either it’s not that kind of mechanism… or we have to find a hidden device.’

Unfortunately, it looked like they would need to keep fighting while gathering more clues.

“Looks like we’ve cleared out the ghosts to some extent.”

Someone spoke after a few groups were eliminated.

“More importantly—can we still not land real damage on that bastard?”

Someone asked after cutting down a ghost that charged them.

“No.”

“And that blood jade doesn’t even get a scratch.”

Those who had been striking the lich between waves answered through clenched teeth.

“It feels too strong for the level it’s supposed to be.”

“More precisely, that’s the problem.”

Someone pointed at the blood jade while purifying a ghost in flame.

“What about that holy relic?”

Someone else asked.

“I was already thinking about how to use it.”

Hyeonseong replied.

“Then why not bring it out for now?”

“Yeah, that’s better. Earlier, there was a difference between when it was out and when it wasn’t.”

“Ah—should we try that?”

At those suggestions, Hyeonseong immediately pulled the holy relic out of Infinite Corridor. If she held it in her hand, maybe she could see a different reaction.

Krrrk…!

Sure enough, the moment the relic came out, a reaction appeared. The lich turned its head toward Hyeonseong.