Chapter 71: That's How It Was Shot

“Someone must be talking about me. My ears are itching,” I muttered, scratching my ear. Manager Mi, hovering near my head, shook the chat window.

“The broadcast isn’t over yet, Manager Mi. Keep quiet before I put you on strike.”

After silencing Manager Mi, I stared down at the desolate dungeon landscape sprawled out below the hill. The “peaceful Kobold village” had been utterly devastated, as if it had been bombed. The Kobolds’ mud huts were gone without a trace. The ground was completely covered in sludge that had poured out from a purple Dimensional Gate, with pockets of untamed flames still burning here and there.

Screech!

The Dimensional Gate reactivated, and thirty Void Spiders surged out at once.

Whoosh!

The moment I spotted them, I conjured a fireball in my hand.

I immediately launched the baseball-sized sphere of flames swirling in my palm.

But my target wasn’t the swarm of Void Spiders advancing up the hill.

It was the sky, now stained violet by the Dimensional Gates.

Whoosh!

The fireball streaked upward, leaving a comet-like trail across the heavens.

Boom!

At its peak, it erupted with a blinding flash, shattering into dozens of fiery sparks that rained down below.

Screech?!

The Void Spiders wailed in panic, their ghostly shrieks rising as the shower of fire descended upon them.

The tightly woven Flame Net left the Void Spiders no room to evade.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

Each fiery ember, far surpassing the power of a standard Fireball, slammed into the spiders.

Screech!

The monsters shrieked as if pelted by hailstones. Any Void Spider directly struck by the embers melted away into a puddle of nothingness. A few managed to deflect the embers with their carapaces or legs.

Whoosh!

Wherever the embers touched, colossal flames erupted, incinerating the Void Spiders whole. After all, the Fireball had been designed precisely for this purpose.

In the spot where thirty Void Spiders had been reduced to ashes in an instant, I gazed at the shimmering essence stones and nodded in satisfaction.

“Impressive performance, as expected,” I muttered.

The newly upgraded EX-Class Archmage’s Fireball had demonstrated its extraordinary power.

As the skill description promised, I could freely manipulate the Fireball into any shape I desired.

I had already combined two mechanisms—“Splitting” and “Combustion”—as demonstrated earlier.

It was even possible to launch Fireballs with multiple mechanisms functioning simultaneously.

In other words:

The Fireball that had just wiped out twenty Void Spiders at once might have appeared to be a mere Fireball on the surface.

But in reality, it was a miniaturized version of Fire Rain, an S-Class flame skill.

Frankly, I considered the upgrade to Fireball to be an even greater boon than the restoration of Ellikroid’s gauntlets.

“I wish I could, but I can’t.”

Even with the increased range of transformations and the addition of various functions, the exorbitant Mana consumption remained unchanged.

Therefore…

“It’s about time Ellikroid showed up,” I muttered, glancing back at the raging Mana storm behind me.

I still had enough Mana for four more Fireballs, but I needed to conserve it as much as possible.

For one reason alone:

Screeeeeeech.

Because of that thing sprawled out in the center of the dungeon.

The massive spider, once charred black and lying motionless, had somehow regained its vitality and was now slowly rising to its feet.

“How am I supposed to deal with this zombie spider?” I clicked my tongue in frustration.

My Fireballs had struck it.

But that was precisely the problem—they had only struck it.

No matter how many times I incapacitated it, the creature would lie still for a moment before swiftly recovering and resuming its rampage.

Ellikroid’s safety was my top priority.

It was too risky to leave the hilltop and engage the monster in close combat.

Kreeeeeeeee!

The colossal spider’s eight eyes, now blazing with renewed vigor, locked onto me with unnerving precision.

As the creature began to move slowly, its eerie cry echoing through the air…

Whoosh!

I charged a Fireball in my hand.

Should I just engulf the entire thing like a baked potato this time? Or forge a sharp spear of flame to pierce its core?

After a moment’s hesitation, I launched the Fireball.

The crimson sphere streaked across the air, hurtling toward the giant spider, leaving a fiery trail in its wake.

Whoosh!

In mid-air, the Fireball expanded dramatically, spreading like a fishing net to engulf the creature’s entire front.

Kreeeeeeeee!

Acrid smoke, horrifying screams, and a mass of flesh writhing before collapsing into a bloody heap.

Yet I narrowed my eyes.

This was merely a stalling tactic. The creature would swiftly regenerate and resume its rampage.

Precisely at that moment:

“Heh heh, I must apologize for this.”

Whoosh.

A chilling wind brushed my neck.

“I never expected it to summon even that one. It seems the Void Spiders found my Mana particularly appetizing.”

A kindly voice pierced my ears.

When I turned, the violently raging Mana storm had vanished as if it had never existed.

The Archmage had returned.

“Lord Ellikroid?”

I couldn’t help but gasp in shock. Ellikroid’s appearance was utterly haggard.

“Your body…”

His once bronzed, muscular physique had withered like a deflated balloon.

His muscles looked as if they had completely melted away.

“It took far more time and Mana than I initially anticipated. The knuckles you brought me turned out to be an Artifact of a much higher caliber than I imagined.”

Ellikroid chuckled bitterly, gazing at his severely atrophied physique. “Thanks to them, I not only exhausted all my Mana but ended up in this state.”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. My muscle fibers will naturally regenerate as my Mana recovers.”

That at least offered a sliver of relief.

“So, you successfully completed the restoration?”

His gaze shifted to a single point: the blue sphere floating beside the Archmage.

“Check it yourself,” Ellikroid replied with a wink.

He cautiously reached out to touch the sphere made of Mana.

Crack!

Cracks spiderwebbed from the point of contact, the Mana encasing the knuckle shattering like an eggshell and scattering into the air.

And inside…

“This is…”

It was no longer a rusty scrap of metal, nor even the original form of the Dragon Spirit Iron Wire I knew so well.

A golden gauntlet.

Its surface shimmered with an iridescent aura. The back of the hand was adorned with intricate wave patterns, punctuated by tiny, perfectly round holes. Every trace of its original appearance from when I first commissioned its restoration had vanished without a trace.

As I held the Dragon Spirit Iron Wire, now transformed into a gauntlet, Ellikroid explained, “The Artifact you entrusted to me for restoration was never a knuckle guard, but a gauntlet. Its Durability had been completely exhausted, leaving only the bare framework, which made it appear like a knuckle guard.”

I had never anticipated this.

In fact, Ma Daechun, the previous owner, had actually used it as a knuckle duster.

In other words, “The previous owner acquired and used this item after its durability had been severely depleted, causing it to lose its original form.”

If its original durability had been 100, it likely had less than 20% remaining.

Yet Ma Daechun had still managed to subdue countless S-Class and Calamity-Class monsters by harnessing the power of the Dragon Spirit Iron Wire, even when it was more than half-destroyed and reduced to its skeletal frame.

Now that the Dragon Spirit Iron Wire had been fully restored to 100% condition, what was it capable of?

Swallowing hard, I brought up the item’s Status Window.

“Activating Item Analyzer.”

The item’s rank was two levels higher than the initially expected S-rank.

While the stat bonuses were significant, the “Unique” rank was likely due to the additional option: “Fist Energy Forging Gang.”

Checking the information immediately revealed:

This ability was so powerful that Manager Mi’s emoticon felt inadequate to express its impact.

Many monsters possess formidable physical defenses. To defeat such creatures with bare fists alone, one would need to circulate a massive amount of mana throughout their arms, legs, and entire body, hardening it to amplify their destructive power.

Matthew, the master of the Soaring Dragon Divine Fist, one of the three great martial arts, was consistently underestimated compared to Che Soohyun and Seo Yeon-hwa when it came to handling large monsters.

However, the Fist Energy Forging Gang perfectly compensated for the most glaring weakness of such close-combat martial arts.

As if sensing my thoughts, Ellikroid grinned knowingly and asked, “Do you like it?”

”…Yes. More than words can express.”

“I’m relieved to hear it. In that case, I’ll entrust the task of handling that beast to you while I take a short rest.”

At his words, I turned my gaze down the hill.

The colossal Void Spider, its burns healed, was rising to its feet once more.

“Leave it to me,” I replied with a nod and a smile.

“Then I’ll rest for a bit.”

“Ah, but Ellikroid-nim, by any chance…”

”…”

I quickly turned back, but Ellikroid remained slumped in his seat, eyes closed and motionless. He looked every bit the office worker utterly burned out from a night of overtime.

I’d been about to ask him about the Void Spider’s weaknesses.

Well, since I got such an amazing item, I guess I’ll have to figure it out myself.

Click.

I immediately slipped the Dragon Spirit Iron Wire onto both hands.

A status window popped up before my eyes.

Great, great.

But I’m too busy dealing with this zombie spider right now to check out the new feature. It probably won’t be immediately useful anyway.

”…Huh?”

That’s what I thought.

Until this line appeared:

“MonMon Wiki?”

I returned to the main screen of my Status Window.

A new icon, resembling a leather-bound encyclopedia, was flashing urgently.

I need to check this out right away.

Kreeeeeak!

The ear-splitting screech of the house-sized Boss Spider echoed through the air. Simultaneously, newly spawned Void Spiders began swarming toward me.

They’re clearly not going to let me investigate in peace.

But I had just the right summon to buy me some time.

I summoned a Growing Skeleton (C).

A diminutive skeleton materialized from the purple Dimensional Gate.

“You called, Master?”

“Iratu, I need to check something quickly. Hold them off for me.”

“Those… things?”

His glowing eye sockets fixed on the Boss Spider, ten times his size, and the horde of Void Spiders. Then, with a resentful glare, he asked, “Are you openly using me as a meat shield now?”

Well, I couldn’t deny it.

“That’s just how my skill tree developed.”