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Chapter 78 – I Used My Trump Card

Translator: Kell | Editor: Ryunakama

I Used My Trump Card

「…It’s been a while since I’ve used this spell.」I muttered under my breath as I watched the mist that swirled in the roaring flames.

The Forbidden Spell – Mana Corrosion is one of Sage’s basic Skills. Its effect is to introduce contaminated mana into the enemy’s body and destroy it from within. It’s called forbidden because the quality of the materials you get from the target once it’s killed decreases. Since it’s a spell that destroys the body from the inside, the damage dealt to its parts is immense.

Although, normal Boss-type monsters have incredible magic resistance on their skin so the spell doesn’t even deal much damage overall. And yet, the quality of the materials still drops drastically, so the Forbidden Spell – Mana Corrosion had an awful reputation in BBO and no one used it.

The exception is when facing a Demon Venom. When the Demon Venom extracts mana from dead monsters and beefs up a target, the latter’s magic resistance drops. The whole process is done when the target receives damage.

Which is why using the forbidden spell right now when I’ve inflicted pain on the Emperor Ogre will multiply its effects. If it was a King Ogre that was being buffed up, this would be enough to kill it.

「Gah? Gigoah? Gigoooooooooooohh! Aaaaaaaaaahhh!」

The Emperor Ogre cried out as it had its body torn from the inside. But I relentlessly followed it up with another spell.

「Flame Circle.」
The Emperor Ogre is weak against fire. With its huge build, AoE incineration spells are the most efficient in dealing damage.

It would be great to stack Mana Corrosion, but unfortunately stacking doesn’t work with the spell. I don’t think casting it just once is enough to kill the creature. I might be able to kill it with a second try.

Then the screaming stopped. It seems the Demon Venom is done providing mana. In that case, I need to hurt it one more time or the Mana Corrosion won’t work.

「The flames died out, huh…」

The flames on the ground died before I could kill the Emperor Ogre. The oil must’ve run out.

「Blood Poison.」

Casting poison magic, I distanced myself from the Emperor Ogre. I had the upper hand until now not only because of the critical buffs, but also because the flames played a big part in clouding the monster’s judgment. Fighting it head-on with the fire now out is not a good idea.

「Flame Circle.」

I backed away a bit while casting a fire-type spell. With the flames gone, close combat is not an option. I’ll have to re-evaluate things first.

So I headed to the next trap…

「Gaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Gwwooaaaahhhhhhh!」

The Emperor Ogre hurled stones while keeping a good distance away. After getting caught in traps twice, it has learned that getting close is dangerous. I don’t think I can lure it to a trap that easily anymore…

Using oil to cause forest fires has resulted in most of the forest being burned down. The place where I set my trap survived the fire, but there’s only ash around the Emperor Ogre now. It might be difficult to burn the whole forest like this.

If I keep up the long-range battle, I’ll have about a thirty-percent chance of winning. I can’t trigger critical buffs in a long-range fight so I’ll have awful mana efficiency. I’ll have to somehow deal more damage to the point that the Demon Venom will have to transfer mana again. But it looks difficult to do at this point.

I have no other choice, then. It’s a bit of a waste, but I’ll have to learn a new Skill.

「Learn Skill, Skill Code 1257: Deadly Pain.」

With that, I acquired the Skill that will break me out of this deadlock. I had to spend a lot of Skill Points, but it’s a Skill with many uses anyway.

There’s no harm in learning it. It’s an extremely convenient – to the point of being dirty – Skill to have even against humans.

While dodging rocks, I cast the spell.

「Deadly Pain.」

The next moment, the Emperor Ogre let out a deafening scream. Actually, it was more like a shriek.

The spell doesn’t deal any damage at all to the target. But in exchange, it causes excruciating pain.

Pain makes one lose composure. The Emperor Ogre might have high intelligence, but it can’t keep its cool with this much pain. It took one step in my direction, fully intending to crush me, before it stopped.

It probably thought that it would end up falling for a trap again if it advanced any further.