Chapter 111

Once inside the castle, Tanker glanced around with a puzzled expression before glancing back at Ming Hu and shaking his head, then pushing past him to draw aggro from the gargoyle soldier.
Dada dada dada!
Soon afterward, Tanker began to run toward the entrance, leading his gargoyle soldiers. Ming Hu smirked to himself as he watched the gargoyles run behind the tanker. Soon the tanker was out of sight as he passed the entrance, and Ming Hu attacked the gargoyles.
Puck! Puck!
The two gargoyle soldiers running behind the tanker crumbled to dust. Ming Hu quickly reached for the dropped item.
-You have earned the Mark of a Lesser Gargoyle Soldier.
After picking up the token, Ming Hu opened his inventory and put the token in. As soon as he placed the token, a tanker appeared at the entrance.
“…?”
Tanker walked in, looking around with a very strange expression on his face, his pace considerably quicker than the first and second times. After passing the entrance, Tanker looked at Ming Hu, then furrowed his brow and shook his head. Then he walked past Ming Hu again, heading back inside, and a moment later, he began to lead his gargoyle soldier toward the entrance.
Puck! Puck!
As the tank disappeared from view, Ming Hu attacked the stone soldier, and after quickly picking up the dropped items and placing them in his inventory, Ming Hu looked toward the entrance. As if waiting for him to look, the Tanker appeared at the entrance, frowned, and stormed inside. He looked around, and then came straight at Ming Hu.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
“Did you happen to see what happened to the gargoyle soldiers who were following me?”
“Nope. They just left.”
Tanker shook his head, still frowning at Ming Hu’s words, and began to walk inward.
“I don’t think I’d mind getting hit, but slow down!”
Ming Hu shouted at the tanker’s back. At Ming Hu’s shout, the tanker stopped walking for a moment, turned around, and glared at Ming Hu. Ming Hu smiled at the tanker as it glared back at him. The tanker began to walk back inside.
“That’s it.
After seeing the tanker’s reaction, Ming Hu decided to stop still and started walking inward. Of course, it was a different path than the one the tanker had taken.
Jab!
As Ming Hu walked inward along the path, he spotted a stone soldier and stopped.
‘He wasn’t just holding a sword.
The stone soldiers you’ve captured so far have all been carrying swords, but the one in the distance is carrying a bow, not a sword.
“But I don’t think there’s an arrow.
Ming Hu shook his head. The arrow was nowhere in sight.
“…I don’t think so.
Ming Hu shook his head with a bloodless smile at the thought. Then he started walking toward the gargoyle soldier. A few moments later, the gargoyle soldier came into range and began to run toward Ming Hu.
Stop!
Ming Hu couldn’t help but pause for a moment as he saw the gargoyle soldier running toward him. The gargoyle soldier was carrying a bow. Not a sword.
“You can’t be…
Ming Hu frowned slightly as he saw the stone soldier running toward him, bow in hand. The unthinkable was about to happen. The gargoyle soldier arrived in front of Ming Hu and swung the bow he was holding.
Wham!
“…was it really for this?
Ming Hu looked at the bow flying toward him and thought. I didn’t see the arrow, but I really didn’t expect this. Ming Hu quickly raised his arm to block the arrow in his face.
Wham!
The gargoyle soldier swung his bow again when Ming Hu blocked it, but Ming Hu’s fist was a little faster.
Puck! Tsk tsk.
Ming Hu’s fist slammed into the stone soldier’s face. The gargoyle soldier shattered as he was about to swing his bow.
“…Huh.”
Ming Hu let out a wry laugh as he watched the remnants of the stone soldiers disappear, leaving behind items at a rapid pace.
Sigh
Ming Hu looked up and saw the stone soldiers in front of him.
“I wonder if they’re the same…”
The number of gargoyle soldiers totaled three, one holding a sword, one holding a staff, and one holding a bow.
“He’s a lowly statue anyway.”
Of course, charging at them with it wouldn’t cause any trouble; they were the weakest monsters here anyway, and it was easier not to use magic or shoot arrows at them.
Ming Hu walked toward the gargoyle soldiers. When he was in range, the three gargoyles began to run toward him.
Wham!
The first thing he encountered was a stone soldier with a sword. The stone soldier swung his sword at Ming Hu’s head. Ming Hu ducked low to avoid the sword, dug into the gargoyle’s arms, and punched him.
Puck!
Seeing this, Ming Hu slipped to the side and threw a punch at the stone soldier with the bow who had just arrived.
Puck! Tsk tsk.
The stone soldier about to swing his bow stopped dead in his tracks, and the stone soldier holding the sword shattered at the same time. Ming Hu walked back to where the stone soldier with the sword was. As he walked, he saw the stone soldier with the staff running toward him.
‘I’m slower than I thought. Is it because you’re using a cane?
Ming Hu thought as he watched the stone soldier with the staff. It set off after him, just like the others, but unlike the others that had already been smashed, it moved considerably slower.
Sigh
You have mastered a lower-grade marble sculpture
Ming Hu picked up the dropped item and walked toward the gargoyle soldier running toward him.
Facing the gargoyle soldier, Ming Hu couldn’t help but laugh as he watched the gargoyle soldier try to swing his staff. It wasn’t just that the stone soldier with the staff was slower. Compared to the stone soldiers wielding swords and bows, they were also slower to attack. Ming Hu saw the staff flying toward him and threw a punch at the stone soldier.
Puck!
Ming Hu’s fist touched the stone soldier’s body before the staff did. The stone soldier, who tried to swing his staff, was smashed to pieces. Ming Hu looked at the quickly disappearing remains of the stone soldier and checked to see if any items had dropped.
“That’s a terrible drop rate.”
No items were visible. The only items I could find from the gargoyle soldiers were a token and a marble chip, and even that didn’t work well.
Jumbled
Ming Hu cleared his throat and walked back inside.
* * * * *
“Mr. Ferrero, there are no other mobs.”
“Yes?”
Whip
Ferrero turned around in surprise. The stone soldiers, who had obviously been following him closely, were nowhere to be seen.
“Uh-oh, come on.”
Ferrero looked at his party with a puzzled expression.
“Sorry.”
“Oh, no.”
“It can be hard to pull mobs.”
The party members said it was okay, but Ferrero could tell they were never okay with it.
“I’ll pull it back up.”
Ferrero made his way to the entrance of the black castle and stepped inside, glancing around. There was no sign of the stone soldier. Ferrero looked at a user standing off to the side of the road. A player who came here even though he wasn’t good enough to be here, could he be a Stealer?
‘No way…’
But then Ferrero frowned and shook his head. There was no way a user like that could have captured the gargoyle soldier they were partying with.
Jumbled
Ferrero pushed past the user and headed inside, and was soon running toward the entrance with a gargoyle soldier aggro in tow.
“Isn’t there another one of these?
As he passed the entrance, Ferrero turned around, just in case.
“…”
Still no sign of the gargoyle soldier. Ferrero frowned and re-entered the black castle, looking around. Once inside, Ferrero looked around once more, then approached the user who was looking at him.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
“Did you happen to see what happened to the gargoyle soldiers who were following me?”
“Nope. They just left.”
“Bugungha…
Ferrero shook his head at the user’s words. It didn’t make sense to him that the stone soldiers who had been following him so well would suddenly turn back.
Jumbled
Ferrero walked back inside.
“I don’t think I’d mind getting hit, but slow down!”
‘…’
Hearing a voice from behind him, Ferrero stopped walking and turned around to glare at the user, but the user returned the favor with a smile.
“What does a newbie know.
Ferrero frowned and walked back inside.
“I’m going to have to drag this out a bit…
The maximum number of gargoyle soldiers your party can take is three, but as the monsters kept circling, it seemed like you’d have to drag around five.
“Maybe two will follow.
Ferrero thought to himself as he walked along, and then he saw them. There were six in total, three in the center of the street and three in front of the building. Ferrero pulled a bow from his inventory.
Sigh
He then shot an arrow at the gargoyle soldiers in front of the building. As the arrow flew, the gargoyle soldiers began to run toward Ferrero.
“AoE Taunt!”
Seeing the gargoyles running toward him, Ferrero cast AoE Taunt on the gargoyle in the center of the path. Ferrero quickly turned around and began running toward the entrance. Six more Gargoyles began to chase after him.
“Is it dead?
Upon reaching the entrance, Ferrero scratched his head when he couldn’t see the user standing off to one side of the path, but his attention was quickly drawn to the entrance and he began to run past it to where his party was.
Sigh
Once the party was in sight, Ferrero turned slightly to make sure the gargoyle soldiers were following.
“Huh?
However, upon seeing the stone soldier, Ferrero could not help but be greatly perplexed.
“Why are you all following me?
Six stone soldiers followed close behind. Ferrero quickly looked at his party. They had seen the gargoyles, too, and their faces were stony. Ferrero quickly turned around. He couldn’t continue on this way to where they were.
“Huh? Huh?”
“Mr. Tanker!”
But at the sound of his party members’ voices, Ferrero turned to them and shouted.
“I’ll kill myself.”
Ferrero was about to say that he would sacrifice himself, but he couldn’t finish the sentence. The number of gargoyle soldiers following him had surely been six, but now it was down to four. The two that had disappeared were running toward the party.
“What do I do?
Ferrero was torn. The party didn’t have a backup tank, but he didn’t want to go back and tank himself, and the four gargoyle soldiers following him were a concern.
“Yikes! Heels, please.”
“The priest is already dead. Billion!”
While Ferrero was contemplating, his party was killed by the Gargoyles. After killing the party members, the two Gargoyles immediately charged toward Ferrero.
‘Ha. Fuck.’
Ferrero had a premonition of death as he watched the stone soldier slowly close the distance. That’s when it happened. Four users spotted him and quickly began to approach him.
“Huh…?
When he saw the gear of the users approaching him, Ferrero felt like he could buy it.
“Bangtan Stern.”
“Okay, runaway shield!”
“Leren, give him some heels, and you, Ice, slow him down.”
The apparent leader of the party spoke to the others and cast a spell, directing it at the gargoyles. It didn’t take long for the six gargoyles following Ferrero to die.
“Thank you.”
Ferrero walked up to the users who had saved him and bowed his head in gratitude.
“No, thank you.”
The users who rescued Ferrero replied that it was no big deal and started walking toward the black castle.
“Is it harder here than the monster fox?”
“I wouldn’t be here if it was harder than a monster fox.”
“Monster fox?
Ferrero shook his head as he listened to the users entering the black castle.
“Ah!
Then a thought occurred to him, and he looked toward where his party had been.
“Ha.”
Ferrero let out a long sigh.