Flustered Hoonie managed to open his lips,

“What is this? How many of those are there? One… two… three…”

Ian spoke with certainty in his voice,

“Seventeen of them in total.”

“…”

Ian who got confused within a moment looked at all the faces of the Balrog.

‘What? Even if it was a community I thought that there would be around five or six of them…’

In general terms, a community meant 50-60 or more monsters together.

But even in such a way, it didn’t mean that all the numbers were accumulated in one place.

Inside it will be 3-4 of them. At maximum, there would be around 7-8 gathered, and all together are considered as a community.

Even the legendary monsters who appeared in the Commander’s Tower didn’t exceed seven at a time.

That was a fact, but it wasn’t any other legendary monster, and no one thought that such a high number of Balrog would make an appearance.

Just a moment ago there weren’t even two in the area, but suddenly the difficulty went up thousands of times.

And Hoonie touched Ian’s hand.

“Ian hyung, by the way… isn’t the name of the Balrog a little weird?”

“Uh?”

At the words from Hoonie, Ian moved a little closer to the Balrog in front of the group.

And checked the monster name that was written on it.

[Junior Balrog / Lv 265]

“Oh ho…?”

It was named as a Junior Balrog and never heard by Ian.

On top of it, its level wasn’t something that will be considered as a junior.

‘Will it be enough if I manage to do this?’

Ian slowly confirmed the other Balrog’s.

In a moment, there were a dozen of Balrog heads whose levels weren’t even checked yet.

Besides, the first one that came into their sight was of level 355 and seemed like a normal Balrog, and some of the new ones’ levels were checked too.

‘264… 271… 252… all the new first time seeing ones are of this level.’

Ian who confirmed the details about all the Balrogs by asking the information from Kaka began to formulate a plan in his head.

“Okay, this… this isn’t enough for us to win. But we’ll have to try.”

And Hoonie had a question regarding it,

“Even if they are the Junior Balrogs of the low level… aren’t they way too many? If the legendary monsters start to join them…”

Ian nodded his head.

“Yes, it certainly won’t be easy. If the situation starts to tangle up… we will surely get there.”

The inherent ability of Soul Encroachment wasn’t an ability that can be avoided.

And if a Balrog uses the soul encroachment on another Balrog with low vitality, then the Balrog will turn invincible and with an increase of 30% attack.

On top of that, 30 minutes duration of the Soul Encroachment wasn’t something that could be dealt with.

Ian was contemplating on the attacks and formation.

“From the low-level junior Balrog, we’ll have to focus on the attack. The variable was that the Junior Balrog may have a unique ability that the normal Balrog doesn’t have…”

And Canoel, who was next to Ian spoke,

“Hyung, maybe the junior Balrog’s ability wouldn’t be much different from the normal Balrog.”

At the end of the confident statement from Canoel, Ian seemed a bit confused.

“Huh? How do you know that? Isn’t the monster name different? Did you by any chance get to meet the Balrog?”

There was no way that could have been possible, which made Ian ask this question.

Canoel with his head down spoke,

“Hyung, do you know of a familiar called Steragon.”

Ian being a familiar owner, nodded his head at once.

“Of course, I know. It is a hero ranked familiar which can be found in the southern part of the Central Continent.”

Steragon was a well-known pet.

It was similar to that of the Drake, and may be called as an affordable dragon?

Steragon, which had great maneuverability, offensive power—was able to fly and had a very great appearance. It was a popular one.

So, the nest of Steragon in the Southern part of the continent, there were always parties that try to capture the eggs or the monster.

Of course, since it was a hero grade dragon type, it wasn’t a pet that could be seen that frequently.

However, the summoner of the level of 170 – 190 could try and capture it. A few summoners of that level could hunt them and then put them in the auction house sale.

Canoel’s words continued,

“I went to Steragon’s nest to catch them, and I met a junior Steragon.”

“Oh…?”

And he started to get interested, both Ian and Hoonie moved close to Canoel to listen to it.

“But he had the inherent ability of the Steragon—and the difference from the normal Steragon was that the abilities were a bit lower I guess?”

“So you mean… the Balrog will be the same too?”

“Yeah. Maybe the Junior Balrog isn’t a different case? The inherent ability of the junior Steragon was around 30-40% lower than the normal Steragon. I caught both of them and then compared them too.”

Ian was intently watching them.

By the things stated above, it meant that the difficulty of the battle would be lower.

“Well, this is some worthwhile information, you surely are amazing.”

Canoel seemed elated at the small praise from Ian.

“I keep all the growth rate and the levels of them with me, Hyung would you like to look at them?”

Ian seemed to be truly grateful for the piece of information that Canoel had given them.

“Keu… our Noel is now all prepared.”

Hoonie looked at two people with a little jealousy in his eyes.

“Uh uh, Hyung what is this.. you were successful in touching Ian hyung’s heart…!”

Ian narrowed his head at Hoonie and responded,

“Touch what, what did he touch?”

“What?! Oh my god, you’re temperamental!”

“Aren’t you talking about yourself?”

While the two were arguing about who was temperamental, Canoel cut their words as he had more to say,

“Hold it, there is more to say.”

Both Ian and Hoonie looked over at Canoel at the same time, and he decided to continue what was left to say.

“But the ‘Junior’ creatures have other characteristics.”

Ian was slightly intrigued with it.

“Oh, What is that? Is there something else?”

Hoonie just put his head down and waited for Canoel to continue his words.

And giving them a moment to process, Canoel opened his mouth,

“I can’t put it in a precise manner, but somehow it feels like the juniors are somehow in contact with their mother.”

“Like connected…?”

“Well, firstly, to say it in a definite way then, they don’t move after a certain distance from the parent’s body. And the mother is very sensitive regarding the death of its offspring.”

“What exactly do you mean by sensitive?”

“Something like a parent-child relationship. If you try to kill its kid, the parent won’t walk away until taking your life.”

“Oho…?”

Thanks to the extra information that Canoel offered them, Ian was able to modify their strategies in his head.

And after coming up with one, Ian let Hoonie and Canoel know what they were supposed to do.

“Well, we can surely win this if we do it.”

Hoonie with his shocked eyes asked,

“What are the odds?”

“Around… 93.3%?”

“What, isn’t it lower?”

“There are some variables. But it is higher than the case of Behemoth, isn’t it?”

If someone else would have heard the conversation it would seem like a joke, but the two of them were actually talking very seriously.

It was because Hoonie knew that the odds that Ian stated weren’t just plain numbers of guess.

And 93.3% is considered to be low because Ian always said that it was 99.9% in most of his cases.

But during the case of the behemoth, Ian only said that the chance of winning was around 70%.

“So, let’s move now. If we delay any more time then the plan won’t be so effective.”

With those last words from Ian, both Hoonie and Canoel understood what he intended to say, both of them nodded their heads and began to implement their plan.

And 30 minutes passed.

* * *

[Kyahhh…! You mere humans dare to raise your weapons against the Marion!]

Except for the Marion Khalifa, Balrog was the only opponent of Ian who was intelligent enough to express itself.

And then, Ian and the party which was dealing with the junior Balrog was all wet from sweat.

“How are we supposed to do, Noel-ah. They don’t seem to mind if the junior Balrog is dead or not, see?”

“Oh, huh? Steragon maybe different?”

No, to state it precisely, it wasn’t that it didn’t care.

Every time a junior Balrog died, the Balrog got furious and the combat power of it had risen.

[Due to the death of the Junior Balrog, Balrog is angry.]

[All the combat abilities of the Balrog are increased by 2% for 150 minutes.]

The Junior Balrog death increased the ability of the Balrog to rise by 2%.

That 2% figure seemed to be nothing in a glance, but that wasn’t the case.

A total of 5 Junior Balrogs have been successfully killed so far.

Thanks to that, the battle ability of the Junior Balrog, it had been increased by 10%, which meant that the Balrog had risen to the level of 35.

The level of the Balrog was around 35 levels higher.

The Balrog’s level was about 350.

‘I feel a little confident.’

Normally Ian’s strategies were very simple.

It was to intimidate the Junior Balrogs and to inflict every possible damage as they could when the mother Balrog come to protect the child.

But the mother Balrog didn’t move whether the Junior balrog died or was hurt.

And the increase of the Balrog after every death was a total improvement.

‘Now it is about 10%, but I still have to do it… after we manage to kill 16 of them, then the battle ability will be increased by 32%.’

The level of 32% increase of the buff meant that it was around 112 levels higher.

If they killed off the Junior Balrogs and made it to the end, then they will be dealing with the Mother Balrog which would be around the level of 450s.

Of course, they would be a little weak when compared to the original Balrog, but even then they would be strong enough for Ian and his party to deal with.

“Bbookbbook-ah, Curtain of Water!”

Swooah-!

Ian who had been trying to defend him and the party from the Balrogs once again began to control the familiars.

That was because the Junior Balrogs were getting very furious every time a comrade of theirs died.

‘If we need to win this battle, we’ll have to deal with the mother of the Balrog…’

But that wasn’t so easy to do.

Unlike the Steragons, who were said to be desperate to protect their young ones, the Junior Balrogs were being desperate to protect their mother.

And if it was an easy situation to be in, then Ian and his party would’ve managed to hunt it down by then.

And right then.

Ian was able to come up with a nice idea.

‘Hold on… Do we really need to catch this Balrog?’

The most important reason as to why Ian and the party had come to the Tomb of the Forgotten Soul was to get the ‘Heart of the Balrog’.

And if they could hunt, then the rewards of the Balrog were known to be great, but if they overdo it, then it was bound to get difficult for all of them.

Ian started to move very quickly in order to avoid the strong attacks that would come from the Balrogs.

“Hyung! Where are you moving to all of a sudden?!”

“Wait and see, but for now stay in the formation!”

The pace where Ian had been moving to was the body of a dead Balrog that was closest to him.

Shak-!

After attacking a Junior Balrog that had come to attack him, Ian managed to get to the dead Balrog on the floor.

And,

Tring-

[Obtained the item of ‘Ring of the Warrior Decap’.]

[Obtained the item ‘Little horn of Balrog’.]

[You have acquired the item ‘intermediate magic stones x3’.]

[You have acquired the item ‘Higher level magic stone’.]

[You have obtained the item ‘Armor of a Vicious Monster’.]

The body of the Junior Balrog had dropped a lot of high-grade items, unlike the deceiving name of ‘Junior Balrog’.

Ian smiled at the last message that he had seen.

[You have now acquired the item(s) ‘Heart of the Balrog x2’.]

And, the final piece of the puzzle that Ian was doing had been fixed, and that too came in very perfectly.