Ian’s commanding abilities were surprising.

The Summoner special stat, ‘Leadership’, displayed a large effectiveness suiting its name when controlling a lot of people, and Ian, who was also normally skilled in multitasking with multiple Familiars, delivered commands to the right man in the right place and was leading them to victory with the least amount of damage.

While continuously fighting, Herz glanced at Ian.

‘This Jinsung, he’s probably really smart. The problem is that he uses that smart head of his in just gaming…’

Figuring out the situation of a messy battleground correctly and moving calmly is not an easy task in any game.

However, in VR games, that difficulty level increased even more.

As if he was looking at a marvelous animal, Herz kept on glancing at Ian continuously.

‘How is he able to pay attention to multiple things at once like that?’

Different from PC games, in a VR game, it wasn’t like you could see the surroundings of your character within the monitor, so in order to figure out your surroundings, you truly needed to rely on your five senses.

Explosions rang out here and there, and it was a chaotic battleground where if you took your eyes off the situation for even one moment, an AoE attack could appear beneath your feet.

In here, you needed to maintain a cool head and being calm was a definite in order to come out with the best results, and at the same time, you needed to pay attention to several things at once.

Herz was always amazed at the form of Ian, who normally looked like he was distant from cool-headedness and intelligence, when he showed a completely different side whenever a battle began like this in the game.

“Ly, Pin! You two go and take care of that tougher one!”

• Understood, owner.

Kku-ru-ruk-!

Ian tied Ly and Pin into one group and made them face the Unique-rank leader-class monsters that appeared in between.

The level of the leader-class monster was around 150-160.

To be honest, as Ly and Pin’s levels were similar to Ian’s level at the second half of the 120- range, when just looking at their levels, it was a level difference that they wouldn’t be able to face even if the two charged in.

It was a level difference of a whopping 20-30 levels.

However, even though they were in the same lv 120-range, because the abilities of Legendary-rank Ly and Pin exceeded lv 150 Common or Unique-rank monsters, they couldn’t be judged from a normal standard.

Especially, amongst the Inherent Ability that Ly had, the ‘Rage of the Fenrir’ which increased the combat stats by 50% was an ability that was basically no different from a passive skill.

This was because although there was a cooldown time, the cooldown time was reduced every time he got in critical damage.

On top of that, the Darkness Encroachment ability that he could use once every 30 minutes almost made Ly invincible.

When the day became dark and his passive ability, ‘Heir of the Moon’, was invoked as well, Ly practically became a zombie.

While looking at Ly, who overpowered the enemies that were over 20 levels higher than him at most, Ian wore a pleased smile.

‘Now I’ve even completely adapted to utilizing Ly’s abilities.’

That didn’t mean that the battle itself was easy.

With this one battle, amongst the 90 royal knights, five had gone into incapable-to-battle state.

As the war situation tilted over enough and they were able to relax, Hellaim approached Ian.

“Good work, Viscount. I didn’t know your commanding abilities were this astounding.”

At Hellaim’s compliment, Ian wore a sheepish expression.

“Haha, well, since the result is good, it’s a relief. As soon as we’re finished here, shall we go down to the basement?”

At Ian’s words, Hellaim nodded his head.

“Yes, I think that would be best. Since our priority is to put the Holy Grail in our hands as quickly as possible.”

Ian’s party, who had succeeded in killing all of the ‘Descendants of the Desert’, immediately went down the stairs and began to move to the basement.

The inside of the grave was incredibly large as expected from the scale seen outside, and because it had a complex structure, it wasn’t easy finding the right path.

Ian glanced at Hoonie, who followed right behind him, and asked.

“Hoonie, by any chance, do you know which room Holdream is sleeping in?”

At Ian’s question, Hoonie responded with a blunt tone.

“How would I know that?”

Ian pointed to the Death Knight floating next to Hoonie as he continued his words.

“I somehow feel like this friend could possibly know.”

A response came from Ballam instead of Hoonie.

• I don’t know the exact location either. I can just feel the energy of darkness.

“Is that so?”

• However, what’s certain is that the direction we are heading towards is right. We are getting closer and closer to him.

Ian nodded his head.

Even knowing the fact that they were headed towards the right direction was enough.

“I see. Understood.”

As Ian, who discovered monsters that appeared at the front line, moved his feet and stood far off at the front, Ballam opened his mouth towards Hoonie.

• I think he’s an uncourteous human, Hoonie. To have such arrogant words and actions towards the successor of darkness.

At those words, Hoonie also nodded his head.

“I agree, Ballam. To think that having no power like this would be such a sad situation…”

Hoonie, who wore a bitter smile like the protagonist of misfortune in a movie, thought to himself.

‘Ian, this dude, if I get a hold of the Power of the Immortal with my hands, I will take revenge on you no matter what!’

However, to see if that revenge went well was something that needed to be watched.

* * *

It was about a thousand years ago from now.

Holdream was the king of a group of giant, god-like people who governed the ancient central continent.

And he had two faces.

One was the good and wise king Holdream, who lead the reign of peace in the central continent.

And the other one was tainted by the power of darkness and became corrupted as the Monarch Holdream that ruined a nation and destroyed himself.

In his last years, Holdream became a puppet of the Immortal and conceived the seeds of darkness in the central continent, and the Immortal recovered his strength little by little through Holdream and dreamt of his revival.

And through that process, there was a medium that the Immortal used in order to control Holdream, and that was his crown.

The Crown of Holdream was also called the Cursed Crown as another name.

In order to recover the strength that the Immortal lost, the Crown of Holdream needed to be found.

Since the power of darkness he had gathered was accumulated in the Crown of Holdream.

‘Finally… I can see the end of the quest!’

The main body had appeared in front of their eyes.

While looking at the Crown of Holdream that was exactly on top of his head, Hoonie grinned.

‘I had no idea that losing my way in the Shikar Desert would return to me as a hidden quest.’

While proceeding with a different quest, Hoonie lost his way in the Shikar Desert, and by coincidence, he was able to meet the revengeful spirit of the Immortal.

The name of the hidden quest that Hoonie received by doing that was the ‘Cursed Crown’.

‘If I can just obtain the power of the Immortal, I would be able to beat someone like that Ian dude…’

Hoonie glimpsed at Ly, who was the strongest amongst Ian’s Familiars.

Because he diligently observed Ian’s fighting power while in combat as if he was investigating, he could feel through his skin how strong Ly was.

‘That Fenrir looks a little strong, but since I have Ballam.’

Hoonie, who wouldn’t have expected that Kaizar was Ian’s retainer even in his dreams, grinned broadly at the thought of winning against Ian.

And separate from Hoonie, who was dreaming of his revenge(?) against Ian, the large-scale Boss battle was about to begin.

• So you’ve ended up coming here, you foolish souls!

Holdream let out a furious sound that came from his chest.

The party kept an eye on the movements of Holdream in a tense state.

• I shall send you all to hell!

A white light and black fog began to wrap and twist around Holdream’s spirit.

As it did so, the ghost of Holdream that had a translucent appearance became richer in colour little by little and began to take a tangible form on the ground.

Thud-!

As if they were seeing the giant of Forlan dungeon, Holdream had a giant body.

And the moment he saw the level that popped up above his head, Ian couldn’t help but break out into a cold sweat.

‘Insanity! He’s level 270? He’s even higher than Kaizar!’

The level written in gold that was shining next to Holdream’s name definitely stated an tremendous value of 270.

‘Still, I never thought of losing… But it seems there will be quite a bit of damage.’

Ian slightly glared at Hoonie.

It somehow felt like he was doing the little brat a favour.

If it wasn’t for him and the royal knights, how would he have thought of attacking Holdream?

However, just when Ian’s stomach was hurting, suddenly, Hoonie stepped forward to the front and lifted his hand straight up.

“Holdream, you haven’t forgotten the Pledge of the Darkness, right?”

While shouting loudly, Hoonie pulled out a round plaque with a skull drawn on it from his chest and lifted it up.

And discovering that, Holdream’s expression turned pale as he froze.

• Why, why is this item here…?

With an expression clearly showing his bewilderment, Holdream stepped backwards while looking at Hoonie.

“I am the descendant of the Immortal, Kanjihoonie. I will carry out the pledge from a thousand years ago right here!”

Hoonie, who let out a powerful(?) dialogue that was so cringeworthy it felt like their hands and feet would shrivel up and all disappear, approached Holdream one step at a time.

Stomp- stomp-.

The rest of the party, who stopped the attack that they were about to do, watched Hoonie with an interested expression, and a gloomy energy began to flow out of the wooden plaque with the skull design on it that Hoonie was holding.

Screee- screech-!

Noises so strange that it made goosebumps rise all over their bodies filled the air, and wearing a pained expression, Holdream shrieked.

• Keu-aaah! This brat…!

And shortly after.

A system message popped up in front of all of the people within the premise.

• The Pledge of the Immortal, the Sovereign of Darkness, has been implemented.

• The energy of darkness has flowed out of the Crown of Holdream.

• For the next 10 minutes, all of Holdream’s abilities will decrease by 40%.

• For a moment, Holdream will lose his eyesight.

Through the Pledge of the Darkness, an outrageous de-buff was placed on Holdream.

As soon as the system message popped up, Ian immediately lifted his staff up.

“Everybody, attack!”

And as if they were waiting, the knights simultaneously charged towards Holdream.

And even amongst them, the one that definitely stood out was Kaizar.

Bang- Ba-ba-bang-!

A giant wave of darkness spewed out from the black Greatsword of the Fenrir.

• Retainer ‘Kaizar’ has used ‘Darkness Emission’, and has dealt 27,684 damage to ‘Holdream’.

• Through the effect of ‘Darkness Emission’, ‘Holdream’s Defensive Power has decreased by 30% for 3 minutes.

As the de-buffs overlapped and powerful attacks struck Holdream consecutively, his Vitality gauge bar began to drop quickly.

• These… Little… Brats!

Holdream, who let out a roar full of rage, began to swing his sword in every direction.

Bang- bang-!

And despite having an enormous de-buff that reduced all of his abilities by 40%, Holdream was not weak.

• Familiar Ddukdae has received critical damage from Holdream.

• Ddukdae’s Vitality has been reduced by 41,209.

Of course, it was a critical hit, but he had just been hit by a sword that was swung around, and a large amount of 40 thousand Vitality was hacked off.

At Holdream’s incredible Offensive Power, Ian gulped loudly.

‘If he didn’t have a de-buff, he would have seriously been incredible. That weird brat was an unexpected help.’

Ian’s gaze automatically turned to Hoonie, and Hoonie was diligently fighting against Holdream.

A slightly interesting point was that Holdream seemed to be avoiding the protective coat of dark purple light that wrapped around Hoonie.

‘He said he was in the middle of a quest and it seems that was true. But then again, if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have even been able to use the Pledge of Darkness or whatever.’

Ian cut off his attention on Hoonie, and began to focus on facing Holdream that was in front of him.

They needed to catch Holdream within the 10 minutes before the de-buff was released no matter what.

Since, if they didn’t do so, he couldn’t promise that the war situation wouldn’t turn around.

“Paulean! Be careful behind you!”

At Ian’s shout, Paulean barely avoided the fireball that dropped from the air, and shortly after, his counterattack followed.

• Retainer ‘Paulean’ has used Inherent Ability ‘Judge of Thunder and Lightning’.

• ‘Holdream’s Vitality has been reduced by 17,649.

It wasn’t as much as Kaizar, but still, compared to Ly and Pin, Paulean showed an Offensive Power that was not the least bit lacking.

While Ian thought that he should at least gift admirable(?) Paulean with equipment if there was a need for him to go to the auction house, he began to shoot Magic Spheres towards the front.

Pung- pung- pung-!

And had about 5 minutes passed like that?

The body of Holdream, who was surrounded by about a hundred people and suffered concentrated attacks, slowly began to crumble.

Even if he was a lv 270 boss monster, he didn’t have enough skill to withstand hundreds of attacks while in a critically restricted state.

Thud-.

As Holdream’s heavy build collapsed onto the ground, a large sound rang out, and a system message notifying of Holdream’s death popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

• You have killed Holdream. You have obtained 3,485,910 EXP.

• As you have punished the monarch of an ancient corrupted group of giant, god-like people, your Fame has increased by 50 thousand.

Even if the NPCs were excluded and despite it being EXP divided between a party of almost 10 people, while looking at the huge amount that was over 3 million, Ian wore a satisfied smile.

‘Keu, it looks like I’ll even be able to hit lv 130 soon, too.’

However, just then, another message popped up in front of Ian’s eyes.

• The power of darkness that resided in the Crown of Holdream was lifted.

The crown that was on top of Holdream’s head floated in the air, and the current of dark purple light that circled around it came out and was sucked into Hoonie’s wooden skull plaque.

And continuing that, a flustering system message popped up.

• The Crown of Holdream has selected a new owner that has the strongest power.

• The Crown of Holdream has selected retainer ‘Kaizar’.

Hoonie’s complexion turned completely pale.