One Man Army Chapter 57

"d.a.m.n! Why is it so tenacious!"
*Ta-tap, pa-ah!*
Frowning, Sanghyuk pulled on the Ten Millennia Goldbone whip around the Sphinx's neck and jumped upwards using the reaction force.
The Sphinx was definitely tenacious.
Even in this situation, it still held on. Even though Sanghyuk had fully drugged(?) himself, it still held on until the very end.
In the end, time kept flowing and it was now 30 seconds past the 39-minute mark. After another 30 seconds, the Sphinx would go berserk.
Once that happened, its health would rapidly recover and use all of its techniques with the exception of the eyebeam of judgment.
And obviously, Sanghyuk wouldn't be able to endure even 1 second of the Sphinx going berserk.
Meaning, he wouldn't be able to kill it if he didn't kill it here.
"Gaah, you freakin' thing! Let's end it!"
Sanghyuk was already twice his normal size thanks to the skill Enlarge! From the Blood Knowledge 'Giant's Blood', so he threw the Ogreslayer he held with one hand to the head of the Sphinx.
*Flash, Pzzzzt!*
An upgraded version of 'Spear of Zeus', 'Thunderbolt of Zeus', was contained in the Ogreslayer, so it flew like a streak of lightning.
Even in that situation, Sanghyuk was holding on to the Ten Millennia Goldbone whip that wrapped around the Sphinx's neck. He pulled back on the whip with all of his weight so that the boss wouldn't be able to dodge his attack.
This was really his final attack.
If the Sphinx endured even this, Sanghyuk had no other hands to try.
*Creeaaak!*
He pulled back on the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip with all of his strength. Since his strength stat had increased immensely for the short term thanks to various buffs, he could temporarily hold down the Sphinx's neck from moving.
Although it was only for a second or two, it was enough time for the Ogreslayer, infused with 'Thunderbolt of Zeus' to strike the Sphinx's head.
*Crunch, pshhhhhhhhh!*
The streak of lightning, no, the Ogerslayer struck deeply into the Sphinx's head and it started crumbling down.
*Bbbbboooom……*
The sand that composed the Sphinx collapsed and poured down. Then, the system message that Sanghyuk wanted to see so much finally appeared in front of him.

You have defeated the boss named monster 'Sphinx'.
You have cleared the Inferno Pyramid fully for the first time. You have achieved something that no other Dimensional Traveler has done. This will become your achievement and be remembered for eternity.
You have acquired the rare-grade t.i.tle [First Inferno Pyramid Conquerer].
As you have defeated the Sphinx for the first time, the first kill bonus will be applied and you have acquired all 52 items that could be obtained from the Sphinx.
Congratulations. The gathered karma has broken through the limit and you have leveled up.

"Yes!"
*Ta-tap.*
Sanghyuk landed on the ground safely while gripping his fist in excitement. Although he had to put more effort in than he had expected, the important thing was that he defeated the Sphinx.
Not only did he just defeat it, he killed it for the first time.
The single item that only the Sphinx dropped but was really hard to obtain due to the chances of it appearing - the first kill guaranteed its appearance, so he could sweep the items on the ground with glee.
Naturally, the item Sanghyuk wanted was also within those items.
A helmet that was similar in shape to what the Sphinx was wearing…… its exact name was the 'Helm of Judgement', but among the users, it was just called the Sphinx Helmet.
Honestly, the design of this helmet was c.r.a.p. Once worn, the hair would naturally transform into a short, angular-style hair, so it was a little embarra.s.sing to be worn in public.
That was why armors with c.r.a.ppy designs like this usually underwent 'appearance change' to be shaped into something the users wanted.
What was unfortunate, was that right now, there were no 'armor technicians', capable of changing the appearance of defensive items. NPCs didn't do these jobs, so only users could do it…… but that was impossible for the time being.
Though, helmets could be hidden using the 'hide helmet' function, so the embarra.s.sment could be avoided.
Sanghyuk preferred functionality over aesthetics, so he was planning to wear the helmet even if there wasn't a hide helmet function. Honestly, no matter how bad it looked, the options were too good to be forgone.
The grade of the item was unique, but it was usually treated the same as legendary items. The detailed options were as such:

Helm of Judgement [Unique+++]
– The helm worn by the guardian Sphinx of Inferno Pyramid. Sand infused with special powers were refined using the heat of the desert to create this powerful helmet. Also, it is very special thanks to it being the first appearance of the Helm of Judgement.
[Basic stats] All stats +10(+3), vision +20(+6)%.
[Special stats] Fire attribute resistance +30(+9)%, Mentality +20(+6)
[Special effects] >Tenacious sand lion (S) : Damage received decreases by 50% when HP is below 10%.
[Item skill] Small sandstorm : Able to generate a small sandstorm. The wind does not affect or damage allies at all.
[Bonus effect] Health : +10, Agility : +15, Movement speed +20%

"Oh, I expected a double plus at least…… but it's a triple plus! Great."
Most items obtained from first kill bonuses contained one plus or more. If lucky, then double plusses were well within reach as well.
But Helm of Judgement came out with a triple plus attached to it. This was awesome.
The reason Helm of Judgement was comparable to legendary-grade items was because of the two special functions it had.
First, it possessed the pa.s.sive ability of the Sphinx 'Tenacious sand lion'.
This option would drive any tanker characters mad, and even without being a tanker, it wasn't a bad skill to possess.
The more important thing though, was the second function, 'small sandstorm'. The ones who acquired this helm first in his previous life actually didn't know how good this skill was.
It couldn't be helped since they didn't know how to use it. However, a few users later discovered the usages of this skill, and people got to know about how good this skill was.
The skill small sandstorm was more effective against users than against monsters. Not to mention defense and attack, it could even be used as a crowd control(CC) skill.
The reason Sanghyuk wanted to kill the Sphinx badly was also to earn this Helm of Judgement.
To Sanghyuk, both of these skills had meanings to him. He had great endurance thanks to 'Endurance of Giants' pa.s.sive skill, and the tenacious sand lion skill would make him even tougher, while the small sandstorm was a skill that he had experience in using before.
Sanghyuk removed his original helmet and equipped the Helm of Judgement. Since he turned on the hide helmet function all the time, the Helm of Judgement disappeared as soon as it was equipped.
Having taken the Helm of Judgement, he put the rest of the items in his bag and returned to Tune.
The rare-grade t.i.tle he acquired after killing the Sphinx, 'First Inferno Pyramid Conqueror', added 30 to all stats within the pyramid itself, so it was only meaningful inside the Inferno Pyramid.
Of course, Sanghyuk was planning to hunt within the Inferno Pyramid for quite a while. Killing named-tier monsters gave him the most amount of karma after all.
Right now, his level was 53.
Whenever he checked the amount of karma required to level up each time he leveled up, it made him subconsciously shake his head. Even though he wasn't in the true h.e.l.l zone, level 55, yet, it was already taxing on him.
Due to this reason alone, he could only hunt in places that maximized his karma income.
Having returned to Tune, he immediately met up with Ilya. Now that she was in charge of two Hiddenlines, Ilya was looking much different from before.
What was interesting was that as the Ring of Fate grew by one stage, the t.i.tle 'Ilya's Man' had changed slightly.

t.i.tle - 'Ilya's Man'
Grade - Rare+
Description - Ilya has fallen for you quite hard. She is a half-elf that succeeds the blood of elves, as well as a being that succeeded the seal of the Dark Moon. (Locked : Due to an unknown reason, some information is restricted.) Do you wish to know more of her secrets? Then steal her heart some more.
Effect - [Prefix: N/A] [Suffix: N/A] [Constant effect: Ah! My Ilya (A+) : Able to control Ilya perfectly for 2 hours a day. You may use her as a mercenary in your party, and even make her carry out special missions. However, her ident.i.ty is still in a 'locked' state, so her stats are restricted.]

It wasn't a big change. There was just the additional fact that she succeeds the seal of the Dark Moon, and that 'Ah! My Ilya' had been raised to A+ and now he could use her for 2 hours per day instead of per 2 days from before.
Actually, he didn't use her much since her stats were too restricted before, but now that some of those restrictions were lifted, she looked like not such a bad NPC.
Her level was 55, and her Ancient Knowledge was a thief/a.s.sa.s.sin category. Above all, she had high agility-based stat distribution, so it looked like she would be able to keep up with Sanghyuk's movements.
'Looks like I'll have to look into that later.'
Listening to her report, he wondered about how to use her in various situations.
Now that the two organizations were combined into one, Sanghyuk's authority became larger as well. Now, Sanghyuk could acquire more information more frequently, and could manipulate information more freely as well.
Sanghyuk recently was spreading good rumors about 'Gold Mountain' through the Hiddenline.
The more customers he received, the faster Gold Mountain could grow, so advertising like this was very good.
"I think that should do for the work. Hmm, but Ilya…… Can I ask you something?"
"Yes, please speak."
"What is this 'seal of the Dark Moon'?"
Sanghyuk knew that sometimes asking directly worked better than roundabout methods. There was especially no need to go through the trouble of roundabout methods in regards to NPCs like Ilya.
"Oh, that's the proof of soul that I've received from my parents."
Ilya started answering.
"If you ask me to explain about the Dark Moon in detail, then I cannot answer. It's just…… you can consider it a special ability pa.s.sed through the bloodline."
Ilya told him what she could tell him.
Sanghyuk also didn't think about digging further.
Having finished all his work with the Hiddenline, Sanghyuk exited the game for a little. Not everything he had to do lay within the game.
He had a lot to do outside the game as well. Especially nowadays with BJ Gale's streams, so he had to take care of today's content as well.
Today, he was planning to take a few still-cuts from the footage he got from fighting the 3rd to 6th bosses of Inferno Pyramid and broadcast them to the viewers.
He was planning to stream scenes where those monsters were lying on the ground, dead, so he felt like this could attract a lot of attention as well.
Of course, since he was only revealing a few still-cuts, no one would ever know that it was 'Immortal' who killed the monsters and not 'BJ Gale'.
What they would know was that Sanghyuk killed the 3rd through 6th monsters.
Just this would be enough to keep the viewers busy for quite a while.
Now that the live channel selections were closing in, it was important that he held on to the attention of the viewers using whatever means possible. Only that way would increase his chances of being contacted by LGN.

[WTF is this? Are you telling me that he killed all those named monsters? Then there's only the Sphinx now? Wow…… it's actually possible to kill all of those monsters alone?]
[It's possible because it's BJ Gale. But even considering that, that's amazing]
[But couldn't that be photoshopped? He only showed the dead bodies of those named monsters. How do we know if he killed them alone or in a team? No one knows for sure.]
[I'm also a little doubtful about that. But BJ Gale is known for his solo playing…… would he have created a team?]
[The highest-level users know each other, but I've never seen any of them close to BJ Gale. Perhaps Blake from the same guild, but that's all I know.]
[Honestly, I also think that it's hard to say for real if that's from solo playing unless he gives out the actual footage.]
[But why is he not releasing the battle video then?]
[It's too greedy of us to want that in the first place. Honestly, who would want to reveal that? We need to figure out the guide to killing those monsters by ourselves. I think this is the right choice.]
[Well, yeah. Even if he released that, only the large-scale guilds running those raids have it good. What good would it be to us, the plebs?]
[But I do want to see it though.]
[He'll release it when the time is right. And also, even if it's a team raid and not a solo play, isn't that amazing nonetheless? The other guilds are all stuck at the 3rd monster, but he (or they) got through to the final boss. We need to accept what we need to accept.]
[No one doubts BJ Gale's skills.]
[I really wanna enter that One Guild. If I look at Blake's PvP video, I wonder if that's the same human that I am, then I look at BJ Gale and wonder what kind of freak he is…… a small elite force is the guild I've dreamed of.]
[I bet my finger that you are s.h.i.+t.]
[And how good are you?]
[Much better than you, I suppose.]
[Bulls.h.i.+t]

……

24 still-cut photos were revealed through BJ Gale's Pu TV channel. Although there was no battle footage, these series of photos attracted a huge amount of viewers.
BJ Gale selected relatively okay items among the loot and revealed their information to the viewers, so the viewers all watched the video while drooling.
Now that that was done, Sanghyuk was about to finish the stream.
But then.
The message that Sanghyuk was waiting for so much…… came through his Pu TV secret messages box.

[Greetings. I am CP Kim Woonho from LGN. If it does not bother you, I wish to speak to you. I really enjoyed…… (omitted)] (T/N: CP? Content Producer? I don't know) (E/N: Yes, it is.)

It looked like LGN took the bait.