Chapter 57: The Master Orc

At Revan's provocation, the Black Orcs began to go berserk.

Graaaaahhh!!

The reason I said they were 99% cacao instead of 100% is because, even though their skin is black, their pupils are blood-red.

After provoking them, Revan quickly crouched down.

At that moment, the furious Black Orcs charged and began to mercilessly bash Revan with the clubs in their hands.

Clang! Bang! Clang-clang! Bang!

An incredible din.

But Revan—

‘Doesn’t hurt at all?’

Didn’t feel a thing.

Because his whole body was armored with nothing but Black Iron.

Of course, in exchange, he had completely given up mobility.

Black Iron boasts excellent hardness, but with that hardness comes a tremendous weight.

Clang! Bang! Clang-clang! Bang!

It felt like his ears would fall off.

He didn’t take any physical damage, but because the Black Orcs kept relentlessly pounding his armor, the noise inside felt like it was about to shatter his eardrums.

‘But I can endure this much pain.’

He didn’t know how strong the Black Orcs truly were.

However, the Black Iron armor series, focused solely on defense at the expense of mobility, should withstand attacks even from level-80 monsters.

From that moment, Revan began his full-fledged endurance trial.

Until he passed the 8 hour and 59 minute mark—the second-place record.

At the same time.

With new rankings being updated every ten minutes or so, not just the Scouters, but all eyes across Warlord were glued to the updates.

Because word had gotten out, and Wartutubers were swarming the Tower of Infinity like bees, hoping to interview the new ranker.

Thus, the hottest topic on the Warlord scene was, without question, the massive new rookie who’d appeared in the Tower of Infinity: Revan.

Of course, no one knew Revan’s true identity, nor did Revan have any idea how the outside world was reacting.

Because Revan was still challenging the tower.

‘When’s he coming out?’

‘This is driving me nuts, my playtime is almost up.’

Unlike Revan, who’d received the ranker’s special privilege, some regular users with the 8-hour playtime limit had to log off without ever seeing him.

But the Scouters kept waiting for Revan by rotating shifts.

Finally, after an hour had passed—

[The rankings for challengers on the first floor of the Tower of Infinity are changing.]

A new number two had been born on the first floor of the Tower of Infinity.

[The challenge has exceeded 9 hours.]
[Congratulations! You have set a new record.]
[Rankings are being updated.]

At the end of a grueling hour, the challenge time finally broke the 9-hour mark.

And by passing that 9-hour wall, Revan at last surpassed the 8 hours and 59 minutes record set by second place.

“Yrah-ah!!”

Revan shouted in triumph.

For the past hour, it felt like his ears were bleeding. But by gritting his teeth and enduring, he’d roared into second place with pride.

As the tower celebrated, the Black Orcs who’d been gleefully beating on Revan finally stopped.

Then, they turned to sand and disappeared.

A now-empty cavern.

Revan stood alone in the center.

‘Now it’s the final round.’

The one who would appear after the Black Orcs.

Revan knew exactly who it would be.

Cheonak had told him during the interview.

At that moment—

[Boss monster is being summoned.]
[Pain sensitivity is being readjusted.]

CLAAAANG—!!

“Keugh!”

Notifications appeared at the same time: the boss monster had appeared, and pain sensitivity was being readjusted.

And Revan was sent flying.

A burning pain flared in his side.

Thud-thud-thud!

The pain was so intense, Revan couldn’t even scream as he crashed to the floor.

But he barely managed to keep his wits and stared ahead.

Then, Revan saw it in his field of vision—a pure white Orc, white as snow.

[Master Orc / ???]

‘It’s here.’

An Orc, white as snow.

Its name: Master Orc—the apex predator of the first-floor Orcs, the undisputed master of the floor, whom no one had yet defeated.

Even Cheonak couldn’t beat this boss monster of the first floor.

‘Cheonak said so. The Master Orc has no special skills, but its physical abilities are monstrous.’

Cheonak hadn’t been able to defeat the Master Orc.

But, as a Necromancer, he’d overwhelmed the Master Orc with sheer numbers and managed to last 25 minutes as a result.

‘I’m not even hoping to win. Just 26 minutes. I just have to hold out for 26 minutes.’

The Master Orc, whose entire body was as white as if he had albinism, gazed down at Revan with the calm eyes of a reclusive martial arts master.

That look was somehow deeply unpleasant.

Revan exhaled a long breath and stood up. Seeing that his health had dropped by 8% from a single blow, he frowned.

“Hoo…”

Letting out a deep breath, Revan began to remove his armor.

Because, as Cheonak said, the Master Orc had no special skills but its basic attacks ignored defense, which was just absurd.

‘Black Iron armor is sturdy, but it’s useless against defense-ignoring attacks. Plus, the higher my defense, the slower I get. Might as well rely on my raw health to endure.’

Ready at last, Revan muttered,

“Hold.”

[Hold is activated.]

Pop!

Until now, he’d only relied on pure warrior-type skills. There was no need to use magic.

But against the Master Orc, that wouldn’t cut it.

With nerves stretched tight, Revan started matching the cube.

At that moment—

Shwoosh!

For an instant, the Master Orc vanished.

No, to be precise, it moved at an incredible speed.

The Master Orc appeared before Revan in a flash, and Revan reflexively raised his Stone Shield.

Crack!

The sound of stone shattering.

The Master Orc’s strength was so overwhelming that the rock shards attached to the shield’s surface were smashed to bits.

Revan broke into a cold sweat as he watched his Stone Shield’s durability rapidly diminish, but he calmly triggered his skill.

“Rock Smash!”

[Rock Smash is activated.]

The Stone Shield wasn’t an ordinary item. It was a boss rare-grade item with an embedded skill.

As soon as he activated the skill, the shield thrust forward. But—

‘This crazy bastard…?’

Ordinarily, the opponent’s arm would be snapped back by the launched Stone Shield.

But the Master Orc didn’t even flinch—using overwhelming arm strength, it matched the blow with its fist and slid its entire body backward.

So the skill failed to activate.

The condition for Rock Smash is that the shockwave from the blow must stun the opponent.

Heh.

Realizing the attack had been nullified, the Master Orc curled its lips into a sneer.

That smirk was infuriating.

But Revan had more than one crowd-control skill.

“Hold!!”

[Hold is activated.]

Clang!!

Fortunately, Hold worked as intended.

Hold is a spell that activates just by targeting, after all.

Thanks to that, the Master Orc was frozen in place.

A 7-second countdown appeared above its head.

Its level wasn’t shown, just like the other Orcs, but given the 7-second countdown—

“The level’s probably about the same as mine. Thunder Strike.”

[Thunder Strike is activated.]

Crackle!

Blue current gathered at the end of the jet-black Iron Club.

Grabbing the Master Orc’s frozen forearm like a handle, Revan swung the club at its head with all his might.

CLAAANG!!

Would hitting a metal bell with a hammer sound like this?

His fingertips tingled from the recoil, but seeing the boss’s health drop brought a smile to his face.

Revan said,

“I’ve got defense-ignoring damage too, you bastard.”

Fight poison with poison, and beat barbarians with barbarian tactics.

And sneers deserve to be answered with sneers.

Revan flashed a triumphant grin, curling up one side of his lips, and the Master Orc’s expression quickly soured.

And as soon as Hold’s cooldown ended—

CLAAANG!!

The Master Orc, moving too fast for the eye to follow, drove a shockwave into Revan’s abdomen.

[Critical Hit!]

“Guh-uhk!!”

The shockwave struck his solar plexus, instantly knocking the wind out of him with pain.

On top of that, his health dropped by 15%. Revan writhed on the ground, groaning.

“Y-you… crazy… bastard…!”

It hurt so much.

They’d said the pain sensitivity was readjusted—was it set to 100 now?

Revan groaned and writhed on the floor, but the Master Orc, perhaps still not satisfied, immediately closed the distance and kicked Revan’s forearm.

A textbook soccer kick!

Revan was sent flying through the air once more.

Crash!

There was not a single obstacle in the Tower of Infinity, so once again, Revan crashed down onto the floor in a pitiful heap.

“Waaaagh…! This insane bastard…!!”

It hurt terribly.

It felt like his forearm was about to explode.

What kind of lunatics play the game with pain sensitivity maxed out?

‘Perverts. Those guys are definitely perverts!’

But Revan was no pervert.

So he could only shudder from the pain he’d never experienced before.

Heh.

After landing two consecutive hits on Revan, the Master Orc finally seemed satisfied and regained its composure.

Revan wiped cold sweat from his brow and checked the time—and shuddered in disbelief.

‘Three minutes?’

Is this what it’s like when an amateur boxer meets a pro in the ring?

It felt like at least thirty minutes had passed, but only three had gone by?

‘Cheonak, you lucky bastard…!’

Every Warlord player had envied a ranker or pro at least once.

Revan was no exception.

But today, more than ever, he envied Cheonak—for the simple reason that Cheonak was a Necromancer.

The reason was obvious.

‘So that’s how he lasted 25 minutes against that monster—just overwhelming him with numbers.’

Of course, Cheonak had ultimately lost to the boss. He’d said as much in the interview.

But unlike Revan, he hadn’t fought head-on; he’d lasted 25 minutes hiding behind summoned undead before finally dying. Thinking about that filled Revan with mad envy.

“Huuu…”

As the pain subsided a bit, Revan let out a long breath and stood up.

His health was at about 60%.

But he still had to endure another 23 minutes.

‘No matter how dirty or cheap it gets, I’ll endure somehow.’

He was fired up.

So he pulled out a potion and brought it straight to his lips.

Of course, not the potion that Manager Oh Jaehyun had given him, but a cheap potion that only restored about 10% health.

With his health rising, Revan locked eyes with the Master Orc and began casting magic again.

‘Don’t come, don’t come, please!’

Willing the Master Orc to stay away.

But the Master Orc showed no mercy.

Shwoosh!

The Master Orc vanished again.

Revan immediately twisted his body.

Whoosh!

His guess was spot-on.

The Master Orc’s fist punched the spot where Revan’s head had just been.

He couldn’t track the speed with his eyes, so he just dodged on instinct—and it worked.

Barely dodging the punch, Revan focused and started matching the cube.

But the tension made his hands shake, and it felt like the process took several times longer than usual.

The Master Orc’s punch, having missed, abruptly changed trajectory and came in from a new angle.

Whoosh!

The Master Orc’s fist flew straight at Revan’s face.

Paang!