Debuff Master

“In all my years alive, I’ve never encountered anyone as dirty and underhanded as you, you despicable bastard…” Freydlief growled.

He was glaring at Siegfried with such anger in his eyes after being ensnared in the hellish storm of debuffs.

“Right? I’m dirtier and more underhanded than you, right?” Siegfried asked with a grin.

“What…?”

Freydlief was flabbergasted. He was insulting Siegfried, yet the man seemed delighted by the remark for some odd reason.

“D-Do you actually enjoy being called despicable…?” Freydlief asked, blinking in disbelief.

“Yup!”

“...?”

“Honestly, it’s like music to my ears. So, yeah, thanks for the compliment.”

“What in the deep blue ocean is this guy…?”

Siegfried simply grinned in response, accepting the Pirate King’s praise without hesitation. Then, he began drawing cold energy from his Blood Frost Orb, summoning deadly aura blade weapons made out of frost.

Shwiiiik!

The aura blade weapons spiraled into motion, forming a cyclone of spinning blades.

“...”

Freydlief’s face turned deathly pale upon witnessing the Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain. He instantly realized that not even his ghostly form would escape obliteration if he were to get hit by the oncoming deadly storm.

“Grrr! Gaaaah!”

He desperately struggled to escape from the freezing effects of Absolute Zero, but the ice stopped him from moving at any significant pace.

Shwiiik! Shwiiik!

“Kieeeee!”

Adding to the Pirate King’s misery, the Frost Hydras ceaselessly unleashed their icy breaths while the Night Stalkers resurrected endlessly, coming back to pin him in place.

“Hey, you were complaining of being woken up, right? Time to tuck you in for good then!”

With those words, Siegfried unleashed the spinning aura blades toward the Pirate King.

Shwiiiik!

A storm of weapons descended like a deadly vortex of destruction that tore through the air.

“Aaaaarghhh!”

Freydlief screamed at the top of his lungs. Even as a ghost, the damage he received from the Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain caused excruciating pain directly to his soul.

When the storm of the Transcendent Torrential Flower Rain finally subsided…

Thud…!

The Pirate King, Freydlief, collapsed. He was forced to kneel before Siegfried, who would soon become the next Pirate King.

“To think I’d lose to a damn grave robber…” Freydlief growled.

“Yup, you did. Time to die,” Siegfried said nonchalantly and swung his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

Smack!

And with a resounding pop, the Pirate King, Freydlief’s head exploded.

Of course, there was no blood or scattered brain matter of that sort, as the ghostly figure of the Pirate King simply dissipated into smoke before vanishing into the wind.

[Alert: You have defeated Pirate King Freydlief!]

[Alert: You have gained 0 experience points!]

Siegfried had successfully destroyed even Freydlief’s lingering soul.

“Don’t mess with me,” he said casually, acting as if the fight was no big deal. Anyone trying to use debuffs as their weapon was nothing short of laughable in front of him, the Debuff Master.

“Well, at least it’s all over now—”

Or so he thought.

“Wait, what?”

Suddenly, Siegfried’s vision tilted, and he nearly collapsed. He barely managed to steady himself using his +15 Vanquisher’s Grasp as a crutch, but he was struggling to stay on his feet.

‘But why? What’s going on?’ he was both stunned and confused by the sudden dizziness.

And the answer to his question came quicker than he thought.

[Pirate King’s Curse x 16]

Freydlief was defeated, but the Pirate King’s Curse remained. The effect of Scurvy gnawed away at Siegfried, refusing to release him from its grip.

***

“Hey! You cheaters! It's supposed to disappear now that I've defeated him! Damn it!” Siegfried shouted in frustration, and his voice was full of despair.

Under normal circumstances, a monster's abilities would disappear upon their death. In other words, any status ailment or DoT skills acquired from a monster would disappear once that monster was dead.

Unfortunately, there were some exceptions to this rule. For instance, if the monster’s primary weapon was something like poison, then defeating it wouldn't necessarily neutralize the danger.

Many Adventurers had slain such monsters narro,wly only to succumb to the poison moments later.

And this seemed to be one of those cases…

The Pirate King’s Curse was not just a simple curse. Fundamentally, it was akin to a physical disease known as scurvy. Thus, even though Fredylief had been vanquished, the curse remained.

“Argh… Ugh…”

Siegfried collapsed under the effects of Scurvy.

[Alert: Severe internal bleeding has been detected!]

[Alert: Multiple internal organs are hemorrhaging!]

[Alert: Your HP is decreasing rapidly!]

Siegfried was dying from the burden of the stacked curse.

‘If Master somehow finds out… I’m done for.’

Oddly enough, he feared Deus’ wrath more than his own demise. If word got out that Siegfried, the Debuff Master, had succumbed to an enemy’s debuff skill, then Deus would undoubtedly scold him to death.

Well, the Pirate King’s Curse was more of a disease than an actual debuff, but still.

“Damn… My vision is fading…”

It was then.

“Kyuuu! Hamchi is here, owner punk!”

“You little! Where the hell were you?! You rotten furball! Ughh!”

“Kyuuu?”

“Hamchi… I’m dying… I can feel it…” Siegfried muttered weakly, saying goodbye to his trusty companion as his vision darkened and turned gray.

“Kyuuu! Don’t worry, owner punk!”

“Huh?”

“Hamchi went to find a way to help you!”

“Really…?”

“Kyuuu?! Did you really think that Hamchi has abandoned you?!”

“Well, uh, no, but… uh…”

“KYAAAK!”

Hamchi shrieked in anger after seeing Siegfried stammer awkwardly.

“You don’t trust Hamchi?! Ha?! Haaaa?! KYAAAK!”

“You disappeared without saying anything, you dumb hamster!”

“KYAAAAK! Owner punk has no faith in Hamchi! He thinks Hamchi ain’t loyal!”

“What did you just say, punk?!”

“KYAAAK! Shut up and open your mouth!”

“What...?”

“Do as Hamchi says! Open wide! Kyuuu!”

“O-Okay, fine!”

Siegfried opened his mouth wide, thinking Hamchi had found some sort of antidote for the debuff he was afflicted with.

Hamchi pulled out something round and clutched it tightly in his tiny paws. Then, he squeezed it with all of his might, aiming it into Siegfried’s mouth.

Squirt!

A sour liquid sprayed into Siegfried’s throat.

“AAAAARGH! GUWAAAAH!” Siegfried screamed like a wounded beast. The reason for his agony was simple. Hamchi had just squeezed fresh lime juice straight into his mouth.

Lime was famous for being a sour fruit, and it was far more acidic than lemons.

Siegfried’s face twisted violently as the unbearable sourness overwhelmed him, causing him to make funny faces.

“Kyuuu! Open up again! There’s more!”

“It’s… too…. s-s-bleurgh!”

“No choice! Open up now! Kyuuuu!”

“Ughhh…”

Just like that, Siegfried was forced to chug nearly a liter of pure lime juice, leaving his face and tongue utterly numb. The sourness was so intense that he convulsed uncontrollably, and his eyes rolled back as if he had inhaled some sort of nerve gas.

But for all the pain, the results were undeniable.

[Alert: Scurvy mitigated!]

[Alert: Pirate King’s Curse x 16]

[Alert: Scurvy mitigated!]

[Alert: Pirate King’s Curse x 15]

[Alert: Scurvy mitigated!]

[Alert: Pirate King’s Curse x 14]

(omitted…)

[Alert: Scurvy mitigated!]

[Alert: Pirate King’s Curse x 1]

Scurvy would lose a stack with each gulp of lime juice.

This was why Hamchi had vanished in such a hurry, as he knew that the cure for Scurvy was none other than Vitamin C.

Approximately thirty minutes later…

[Alert: You have been cured of Scurvy!]

Siegfried was finally freed from the Pirate King’s Curse, and he recovered promptly. The lime juice had worked like magic even though the top-tier potions he had consumed were useless against the Scurvy.

“Kyuuu! Are you okay now, owner punk?!”

“Yesh… I’b o’kay…”

“Kyu?”

“Tank yuu…”

Unfortunately, having consumed so much lime juice, Siegfried’s tongue was so numb that his speech became slurred, just like a certain person who had suffered a certain medical emergency upon failing to control his temper.

“Kyuuuuu! What’s wrong with your voice, owner punk?! You sound like a moron!” Hamchi cackled at Siegfried’s plight.

“V-Vat… so fanny, you… litta rodin…!”

“Kyuuuu!”

“A-Anyvay… thongs…”

“It’s nothing! Hamchi will always help owner punk! Hamchi will never abandon you! Kyuuu!”

“...Fine.”

“Kyuuu! But you need to eat more fruits and vegetables, owner punk! Hamchi knew you’d eventually get scurvy!”

It turned out that Siegfried’s suffering was partly his own doing rather than the Pirate King’s abilities. As a gamer, he did not have to strictly eat three meals a day nor care about his nutrition intake.

All he had to do was eat something occasionally to satiate his hunger bar, which was not a problem at all. However, the problem was that his diet consisted almost entirely of eating high-protein meat-heavy meals.

Moreover, during the past month of playing pirate on long sea voyages, he barely consumed any Vitamin C, making him highly susceptible to Scurvy. In fact, the effects of Scurvy on him were amplified.

Regardless, with Freydlief defeated and Hamchi’s quick thinking, Siegfried overcame the disease and continued his journey deeper into the cavern.

***

Thirty minutes later, Siegfried finally arrived at the tomb of the Pirate King, Freydlief. There were no guardians protecting the tomb in sight, as he had already defeated Freydlief’s ghost himself.

In other words, Siegfried had already defeated all the guardians.

But a new challenge awaited him, a fork in the path.

There were two large iron doors in front of the Pirate King’s tomb, and which one led to the real tomb was anyone’s guess at this point. Even the maphack ability that he trusted, Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance, couldn't discern which door was genuine.

“Hmm… Which one’s the real one?”

He stood before the tightly shut iron doors, deep in thought.

Then, he shrugged and said, “Oh well, maybe I’ll just open them both.”

Creak…! Creak…!

Just then, both doors began to open simultaneously.

“Kyuuu! The doors are opening, owner punk!” Hamchi exclaimed.

“Huh? Why are they opening on their own?” Siegfried asked.

“Kyuuuu! How should Hamchi know?!”

As the doors opened wider and wider with a creak, the interiors of both chambers came into view, and they showed two starkly contrasting scenes. The left chamber was absolutely dazzling. There were piles of gold and silver treasure surrounding a grand stone coffin that appeared to belong to Pirate King Freydlief.

On the other hand, the right chamber was far from impressive. It contained fishing nets, various farming tools, books regarding agriculture, and a collection of neatly arranged legal texts.

“What the hell is this…?” Siegfried muttered with a frown. He was perplexed by the vast difference between the two chambers. He decided to take a moment before making his choice, but the answer was simply too obvious.

“Is this even supposed to be a choice?” he snorted, dismissing the trial. Then, he boldly walked toward the left chamber.

“Kyuuuu! What do you think you’re doing, owner punk?!” Hamchi shrieked frantically.

“What else? I’m going for the treasure. Why would I need those useless scraps?”

“Kyuuu! You’re an idiot, owner punk! The treasure is definitely a trap! You’re supposed to choose the plain option in these situations!”

“Eh?”

“Reverse psychology! Kyuuu!”

“Huh? What if they are reverse psychology-ing your reverse psychology?”

“Kyuuu! You have—kyu?! W-Wait, what?!”

Hamchi was at a loss for words. After all, Siegfried had a point.

What if it was a trick designed to steer him away from the treasure?

“In moments like this, you just go with what your gut tells you—”

But before he could finish his words.

Creak…! Creak…!

The two iron doors began to slowly close again.

[Alert: It’s time to choose!]

[Alert: Decide which door leads to the real tomb of Pirate King Freydlief!]

[Alert: You will die with 100% certainty if you choose the fake tomb!]

[Alert: You have 10 seconds!]

[Alert: You have 9 seconds!]

[Alert: You have 8 seconds…!]

A countdown had begun.

“Obviously, it’s the money,” Siegfried said with a scoff.

Sticking to his original choice, Siegfried walked toward the left chamber, which was the one filled with treasure, but…

‘Hold on…’

Siegfried froze when a certain memory came to mind.

‘Ah!’

Then, he realized which door he needed to choose.