The closer they got to the centre of Pascal Prison, the more guards there were, and stronger opponents began to be mixed in the middle as well.

Especially when chief guards or officer-rank NPCs appeared, there were quite a lot of cases where they had a harder time dealing with their opponents.

However, Ian was humming.

“The EXP is killer.”

For some odd reason, the NPCs in Pascal Prison didn’t drop items or gold.

Instead, they poured out EXP that reached several times the amount that would have been received from common monsters that were the same level.

Thanks to that, Ian was lv 122 before he knew it.

Despite having repeatedly fought battle after battle and not yet reaching their goal, it was the reason for Ian’s good mood.

‘On top of that, this new capsule model’s assimilation rate is definitely noticeable.’

The virtual reality assimilation rate for the new capsule model was known to be 2% higher than the older capsule model.

It may just be his imagination, but Ian could feel that his movements had definitely gotten lighter.

‘Although I’m a little worried about Harin, who is probably gaming right next to me…’

After finishing the capsule set-up, Yoohyun returned home, while Harin, who said she would game on Jinsung’s older capsule model for a bit before leaving, just logged onto the game.

It was an impossible act to just ignore Harin, who was with him in his house where he had always been alone.

‘Still. For some reason, it feels better than when I was just alone. Should we eat dinner together later as well?’

Just when he was thinking of this and that, and was proceeding with the quest in a good mood due to a variety of reasons, Paulean stopped in his tracks as if he had discovered something.

“Baron, I think we’ve finally found it.”

And as they turned the corner, the giant iron gate that was blocking the entrance into the prison caught Ian’s eyes as well.

The iron gate looked to be almost 10 metres high, and in front of it, there were NPCs wearing uniforms with Kaimon Empire’s symbol drawn on them who were wandering around it.

“Three high-ranking guards, as well as two officers… The fighting power has definitely gotten stronger than before, Lord.”

At Celia’s words, Ian nodded his head.

“That is true. But it doesn’t matter.”

Ian grinned as he pointed to the ceiling.

“Since I can even summon Ddukdae now, and Pin will be able to fight properly as well.”

As they entered the middle of the prison, the space opened up.

The inner court wasn’t just opened up, but rather, its structure was similar to a giant colosseum, so his Familiars would be able to demonstrate their own strengths.

Thanks to that, Ian was confident.

“Paulean, just like how we’ve fought up until now, please tie down the strongest opponents down. Then I will take care of the remaining enemies as quickly as possible and then help you out.”

“Understood, Baron.”

As Ly’s force became overwhelmingly powerful, Ian’s fighting power in personal battles had become quite strong as well, however, still, Ian’s abilities shone even more when he fought against many opponents.

“And I think from now on, we’re probably going to have to dig through the front…”

At Ian’s words, Paulean nodded his head.

The minute a battle occurred in this open space, they wouldn’t be able to hide the fact they had broken into the prison from being known.

“By the looks of it, probably.”

“If that’s the case, an intensive surprise attack!”

Ian handed over the flare that he received from Laurent to the two crewmembers.

“The moment we pierce through here, I’m going to break into the inside and begin the operation of releasing the prisoners. Then please shoot this flare up into the air.”

“Understood, Baron.”

Ian summoned all of his Familiars, excluding Halli.

He was planning on summoning Halli a little later, when he broke into the inside.

“Let’s go.”

Along with Ian’s short signal, the party got into their respective positions just like how they had done up until now and moved swiftly.

“Ly, get the guards first!”

• Understood, owner.

Lake’s Breath struck the opponents first, and Ly charged in afterwards and started to slaughter the guards, whose Vitalities had been greatly reduced.

Chwaaak-!

The leather armour that the guards were wearing was brutally torn by Ly’s sharp claws, and Paulean was doing a good job in facing the officer-rank NPCs, whose fighting powers were stronger in comparison.

“Current Proliferation!”

As the opponents were a much higher level than Ian, the damage from Current Proliferation didn’t get embedded in very effectively, but the ‘paralyze’ effect was still terrific.

• You have hit the target with ‘Current Proliferation’. You have dealt 4172 damage to the ‘Pascal Prison Guard’.

• The ‘Pascal Prison Guard’ has gone into ‘paralyzed’ state.

• The ‘Pascal Prison Guard’s movement speed has slowed by 30%, and they will receive an additional 50% damage from ‘lightning’ type attacks.

• The cooldown time for ‘Current Proliferation’ has been reset.

The Current Proliferation skill was invoked more effectively the higher the number of opponents because the number of additional occurrences went up.

With the guards’ feet tied down from the activation of paralysis, the one-sided slaughter began.

‘Should I push off completing the quest and just hunt more here?’

At the terrific EXP, it was to the point Ian even thought of pushing off the quest for a bit.

However, it wasn’t like Ian was able to fight this easily from the beginning as well.

He got used to the movement pattern of the guards through repeated battles, and above all else, he balanced well with Paulean the more he progressed with him, and a synergy appeared from it.

On top of that…

• Familiar ‘Ddukdae’ has received critical damage.

• ‘Ddukdae’s Vitality has been reduced by 8764.

Whenever his Familiar’s Vitality dropped because of a concentrated attack…

“Familiar Healing!”

‘Familiar Healing’, the Inherent Ability of Celia, who buffed and supported from the back, was invoked.

• Retainer ‘Celia’ has cast ‘Familiar Healing’.

• Familiar ‘Ddukdae’s Vitality has been recovered by 60% (47,398).

Ddukdae’s tanking, which felt like it lacked a little whenever they faced a high-level monster that was over lv 120, became significantly sturdier through Celia’s healing.

Of course, there was a cooldown time of 5 minutes for Familiar Healing, but even with just that, it was an incredible help to the fighting power.

• You have killed the Pascal Prison Guard. You have obtained 134,215 EXP.

• You have killed the Pascal Prison Guard. You have obtained 321,132 EXP.

While looking at the opponents that were taken care of at the blink of an eye, Celia was astonished.

“It’s definitely much easier with Pin and Ddukdae here.”

Especially Ddukdae, whose Vitality was close to 80 thousand, by receiving Celia’s healing and holding out, they could definitely notice that the battle had gotten easier.

“I told you so.”

Ian wore a pleased expression as he nodded his head.

However, just then.

A loud sound of a drum began to ring out from within the prison.

Boom- Boom- Boom-.

At that, Paulean’s complexion slightly hardened and he asked Ian.

“It seems that they’ve detected us from the inside. Baron, what should we do?”

“Hmm…”

Ian was momentarily trapped in his thoughts.

However, he wasn’t flustered.

Since it would have been weirder if they didn’t know from the inside when such a noisy battle happened this close.

‘It’s a little early, but I should get through to the inside just like I planned.’

And Ian called over Pin and got on top of his back.

Seeing that, Celia’s two eyes slightly grew.

“Lord, what are you planning on doing?”

“While you buy some time on this side, I’m going to go inside and rescue the prisoners. Since whenever a prisoner gets rescued, our fighting power will increase.”

Paulean nodded his head as he agreed.

“If it just goes as you say, Baron, then the work will definitely be resolved easier.”

Ian was planning on leaving Ly, Lake and Ddukdae.

This was because, although Paulean was strong, he was too worried to go inside with all of his Familiars.

‘It should be good enough with just Halli and Pin, as their Agilities are the highest. Since the goal is rescuing anyways.’

Ian, who roughly finished preparing, spoke to Paulean.

“Paulean, please try and grab as much of their attention as possible.”

“Understood, Baron. However, I don’t know how many troops there will be within… You must rescue the prisoners as fast as possible.”

“Yes, got it.”

And Paulean added on.

“As long as Kaizar is rescued, the situation will probably come to an end.”

Ian nodded his head.

“Kaizar, huh… I will try to remember.”

Ian, who was on top of Pin’s back, carefully flew up to the bottom of the prison’s fortress wall.

As he did so, Paulean yelled loudly.

“The royal guard Paulean of Luspel Empire has come to rescue the prisoners!”

Paulean’s roar loudly resonated throughout the whole prison.

In an instant, all of the attention of the soldiers poured onto Paulean.

‘Now!’

Ian, who checked to see that Ly, Lake and Ddukdae charged towards the front with Paulean, quickly flew into the inside of the prison while on Pin’s back.

And while looking at the watch towers that were set up all over the prison, Ian let out a sigh of relief.

‘Whew, if we infiltrated through the air, it would have been like a beehive.’

When they first arrived at Pascal Islands, he seriously contemplated getting inside the prison through the air.

However, Pin wouldn’t be able to carry all of them at once, and because there was too big of a risk for Ian to just go in by himself, so they didn’t attempt it, but after coming inside and taking a look like this, he was able to realize how good of a choice that was.

“Pin, I think it’s that way.”

Ian was now quite used to Pin’s back.

Even though Pin’s speed had quickened quite a bit, his form was quite stable.

Boom- Boom- Boom- Bbooo-!

It seemed that the battle now started from the front, as the loud sound of a drum and bugle continuously rang out from within the prison.

As that happened, naturally, Ian and Pin were also exposed to the enemies.

“Pin, go as deep within as possible and drop me off!”

No matter if he was a Griffin, it was impossible for the Pin’s characteristic to fly vertically downhill when his structure was to fly straight using his wings.

But to slowly fly down diagonally right now, when their position was exposed, they would helplessly suffer an arrow baptism.

Kku-ruk-!

Pin cried with a worried expression, but Ian, who arrived at the location he wanted, jumped down from Pin’s back without hesitation.

And at the same time, he summoned Halli.

“Halli, Summon!”

Roar-!

Halli, who was summoned near the spot where Ian would fall to, quickly climbed the structures and caught Ian onto his back.

Puck-!

It wasn’t like there was no impact, but Ian, who succeeded in getting on Halli’s back in a quite steady position, wore a satisfied expression.

Since this was the reason why he didn’t summon Halli up until now and saved him.

“Okay, good!”

Ian’s gaze turned towards the front.

The deepest part of the dungeon.

He felt that if he just destroyed that stone gate, Kaizar would be there.

“Pin, block the soldiers so they can’t get close to us!”

No matter how large of a number of soldiers there were, while Pin used his Crush skill, it would be hard for them to get close.

And right on cue, the shouts of the soldiers, who swarmed from all directions, was heard.

“Intruder! The intruder is trying to get into Area A!”

At the right time, Pin’s Crush skill poured out onto the battlefield.

Kwaaah-!

Ian, who checked that the soldiers were unable to easily get close and were flinching, hurriedly shot his Magic Spheres onto the stone gate continuously.

Bang- Ba-bang-!

And with Halli’s continuous attacks as well, the giant stone gate began to crumble while letting out a boom.

Ku-reu-reung- Pu-ung-!

‘Alright, it’s not as thick as I thought.’

And as he broke through the stone gate, a giant circular stone chamber was revealed within, and an unidentifiable white-haired mystery man, whose legs and arms were tied down, sat right in the middle.

A background that felt as if a boss monster would appear and a strange atmosphere was created.

Ian, who saw that, was convinced.

‘That person is definitely Kaizar…!’

Ian hurriedly approached him.

He felt as if the end of the quest was right in front of his eyes.

‘If it’s just like the words of Hellaim, he said he was an incredibly strong swordsman, so if I just rescue this dude…!’

However, just then, a different voice rang close to Ian’s ear.

“Whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. This is somewhat interesting.”

And a figure walked out of the shadows.

Ian’s gaze naturally turned towards that direction.

Stomp- Stomp-.

Footsteps that rang through the silence.

As they had completely come out of the darkness, their figure was revealed, but their whole body was still covered with a dark red light.

Ian, who saw that, let out a deep sigh as he grumbled.

“Ha, I was wondering if it would end a little easy, but as expected, there’s no way that would be the case.”

Ian studied the man with a nervous gaze.

He was planning on immediately getting out of this place using Space Distortion if he felt it wouldn’t turn out well.

Since he wouldn’t be able to face the incredibly strong looking opponent in a situation where he only had Halli.

The guy, who had approached Ian and stood in front of him before he realized, unsheathed his sword from his waist and lifted it up.

Seu-reu-reung-.

And with a voice that gave the illusion like it was ringing, he asked Ian.

“What… the hell are you?”