Chapter 38: Mysterious Dungeon (1)
TL: Haku
Editor: Hungry Panda
Sponsors: Kennedy P. and Anonymous
The inside of the dungeon was a corridor-like structure that was neither that narrow nor was it an open expanse.
‘I like that it’s not complex and simple instead.’
It was good to fight a narrow and complex dungeon with other party members, but because it was easier to get caught in traps and ambushes, so Ian didn’t prefer that sort of configuration.
‘But it feels a bit spooky…’
Ian, who felt the same feeling as when he first went to a haunted house at an amusement park when he was younger, made Ddukdae take the lead and carefully moved his feet one step at a time.
There was no way of knowing what kind of dangers lurked in an unidentified dungeon.
Kyahhh-.
A sound similar to a ghost-calling rang out, riding the long and wide corridor.
‘Damn, since nothing is appearing, it’s making me even more nervous.’
Ian grumbled at his stifling heart.
And just then, as if they had heard his complaints, the wall to his left broke down and monsters appeared.
Koo-reu-reu-reung-.
The monsters that appeared through the broken wall had a ghost-like form that matched the dungeon’s atmosphere very well.
An interesting point was that they were not ghosts with a human-like form, but ghosts with a drake-like form, like a lizard with wings.
“Ddukdae, Ice Wave!”
As Ian did not let down his guard, he immediately reacted.
Thud- Thu-Thu-Thud-!
Along with Ian’s command, Ddukdae stomped his foot with strength.
And a blue ice wave spread out into its surrounding.
The Ghost Drake has suffered 175 damage.
For 10 seconds, the Ghost Drake’s movements will slow down by 30%.
The monster’s name was ‘Ghost Drake’, just like how it looked.
There were a total of three Ghost Drakes that appeared and they immediately charged towards Ddukdae, who had attacked them.
‘Err, I still need to wait a little more for Ly to use Berserk…’
Ian moved quickly as he thought about how he should fight.
Familiar ‘Ddukdae’ has received 1466 damage from the ‘Ghost Drake’.
Ian slightly flinched at the Ghost Drake’s Offensive Power that was even stronger than the Ice Trolls.
‘This could be a little harder than I thought?’
If it was about one or two of them, he wouldn’t have been as nervous as now, but as he had to face three at the same time, a cold sweat slid down his spine.
However, it wasn’t as if he was seized with fear because of that.
Ian was discovering as he hunted up until now that the Summoner’s fighting spirit had a big influence on their Familiars’ fighting spirits as well.
“Ly, deal with the left one! It’s alright if you can’t attack, just buy as much time as you can and hold out!”
Grr-!
Ly, who understood Ian’s words, immediately threw his body at the drake on the left.
And Ian moved shortly after as well.
Along with the invoking of his Weak Point Capturing skill, he lodged his fist exactly into the drake’s weak point and landed a critical blow with his first hit.
You have dealt critical damage to the ‘Ghost Drake’.
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 905.
The ‘Ancient Summoner’s Steel Knuckle’ invoked the ‘Response’ skill.
As the steel knuckle’s inherent ability, Response, was invoked, Ian let out a shout of delight on the inside.
‘Alright! Lucky as well!’
Familiar ‘Ddukdae’s ‘Ice Wave’ will be borrowed.
He inwardly anticipated for Berserk to pop up but Ice Wave was just as helpful as well.
Ian’s fist lit up blue and a large wave spread out.
Thu-Thu-Thud- Thud-!
The Ghost Drake has suffered 635 damage.
For 10 seconds, the Ghost Drake’s movements will slow down by 30%.
Thanks to Ice Wave popping up one after another, the slowing effect overlapped each other, and although it was only for a moment, the Ghost Drake’s movements noticeably slowed down.
And Ian knew very well that within that momentary time, he needed to successfully land as many hits as he could.
“Ly! Come over here and let’s attack this one first!”
After receiving a hit and also landing one, he roughly got a sense of what his opponent’s stats were like.
His opponent was an Offensive-type monster.
Their Offensive Power was on the strong side, but he discovered that their Defensive Power and Vitality were low in comparison.
‘I thought they were a lot stronger than the trolls because they dealt a shit ton of damage, so I freaked out.’
The Ghost Drakes’ Offensive Powers were significantly stronger than the trolls’, but their Defensive Power was on the low side by quite a lot.
And Ian, who confirmed this, chose the method to quickly remove one of them first.
And right now, where the slowing effects were overlapped, was a good opportunity.
Puck- Pu-Puck-!
Ian and Ly’s attack hit multiple of the drake’s weak points in an instant and Ddukdae, whose fists looked like they were swinging around carelessly, were quite sharp.
Screech-!
The Ghost Drake let out a horrible shriek as it twisted its body.
By the looks of how its name started to blink, it seemed like its Health dropped below half.
However, just then, the other two drakes attacked from the back.
Hweeek-!
“Ack-!”
After Ian barely dodged the drake’s tails that rushed towards him, he gasped for air.
“Huff… Huff.”
He only felt a difficult battle would continue if left like this.
He needed to find a solution. Ian discovered Bbookbbook, who was dazing off in a corner.
‘Bbookbbook… Let’s do at least something!’
And he gave a command to Bbookbbook.
“Bbookbbook, attack those two and grab their attention!”
He wasn’t expecting much.
It was simply a command he gave in the off-chance.
Bbook!
However, surprisingly, Bbookbbook crawled valiantly towards the two drakes.
Bbook- Bboo-Bboo-Bboo-Bbook-!
Because Ly disappeared from their sight, the two drakes, who were immediately looking for another opponent to attack, turned their heads shortly after at Bbookbbook’s strange noise.
Glare-!
Bbookbbook glared at the drakes with a frightful(?) gaze and fortunately, the two drakes charged towards Bbookbbook at the same time.
‘That’s right. Good job, Bbookbbook!’
Ian attacked the one drake altogether with Ly and Ddukdae, while glancing slightly at Bbookbbook.
He did believe in Bbookbbook’s incredible Defensive Power, but it was because he was concerned.
However, Bbookbbook was doing an incredibly good job.
Sook-.
As the two drakes attacked, he quickly slipped into his shell.
Familiar ‘Bbookbbook’ has received critical damage.
‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1.
‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1.
Despite receiving critical damage, he only received 1 damage, so Ian was completely reassured and was able to focus on the one drake. And the result, Ian was able to kill the drake shortly after.
You have killed the Ghost Drake. You have obtained 3078 EXP.
Ian wanted to cheer while seeing the EXP that was written.
On top of its base EXP being higher than Ice Trolls, with the effect of being the very first discoverer of the dungeon overlapping, he had received an incredible amount.
As he checked the EXP, the drakes that were burdensome just a moment ago, were looking like EXP lunchboxes.
Ian, whose fighting spirit grew more, began to pour out his attacks more violently.
You have dealt critical damage to the Ghost Drake.
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 912.
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 562.
The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 557.
Gaining strength from Bbookbbook’s active role, Ian, who killed all three of the drakes in an instant, gasped for air.
It was only for a moment, but since he moved with all his power, he was out of breath.
“Ha, ha.”
In the middle, Ly allowed a couple of attacks on him, receiving enough damage to almost kill him, but because the reward was as sweet as honey, his fighting spirit lit up.
‘But drakes are normally high-level monsters that are over lv 90… Is it because these ones are ghosts, so they can’t be that strong?’
These Ghost Drakes were around lv 65.
Another reason why Ian was first intimidated was because drake monsters in general were strong monsters that were hard to hunt before he had reset.
“First Aid!”
While Ian collected his breath, he restored his Familiars’ Vitality with First Aid.
And he didn’t forget to praise Bbookbbook.
“Good job, Bbookbbook. You just need to do things like this!”
Bbook-!
Bbookbbook’s triumphant expression!
Ian gave Bbookbbook another meatball for doing a good job for the day and started moving again.
‘Huehue… Good, good!’
Ian grinned like a Cheshire cat.
Battles repeated without end, but it seemed as though he got used to it as he went on, as he was able to go around the dungeon, exploring without hesitation.
His hunting speed got faster as well.
And shortly after, a delightful message popped up.
You have leveled up. You have reached lv 43.
“Alright!”
It was an alarm that was nice to hear whenever.
Ian, who was having fun, made up his mind to abstain from eating and drinking and just hunt until his buff for being the very first discoverer of the dungeon ended.
‘If I hunt like crazy until then, wouldn’t I be able to reach about lv 49?’
If he could maintain this pace, it seemed possible enough.
Monsters that were a little stronger than the Ice Trolls appeared, but as their Vitality and Defensive Power were much weaker, his hunting speed was instead faster.
In return, though, it was that much more dangerous…
Ian, who continued to hunt, discovered something and momentarily stopped.
‘Oh? It wasn’t a one-floor dungeon?’
Normally, dungeons formatted like this, with wide corridors that continued windingly, finished with one floor in a lot of cases, but he had discovered an entrance that went down lower.
‘There’s still a lot of monsters leftover… Should I go down after I’ve wiped them all?’
Ian momentarily thought about it, but shortly after he moved his feet towards the entrance to go down lower.
‘Still, since clearing the dungeon is number one priority.’
Because he could only focus his mind on hunting with a comfortable heart once he checked what was at the end of the dungeon and cleared it, Ian had the mind to clear the dungeon first and foremost.
And along with the endless hunting, another day passed by.
“Wow, as expected, Himenes, you’re amazing. You’re already at lv 45… Even though Black Magicians are supposed to be fast at leveling, that’s really incredible.”
Im Eunyoung, YTBC reporter, was logged onto her Kailran character ‘Lucia’ and was interviewing the Black Magician user Himenes, who made an exclusive contract with the broadcasting company.
“Haha, it’s nothing. It was only possible because the Titan guild is fully supporting me. Of course, I didn’t ride a bus[1] or something like that. Hoho.”
Himenes was currently the highest-level user between the known Black Magicians.
And Lucia received a bonus from the broadcasting company as the price for getting an exclusive contract with him.
Even though Black Magician was a class that was faster in leveling up compared to the other classes, a lot of people’s attention was on him for reaching lv 45 within 3 weeks since the server opened up.
‘His snobby actions disgust me, but since I’m even getting a bonus thanks to this guy, I’ll endure this much.’
Lucia knew that Himenes had leveled up quickly through the ‘hunting ground gathering’, which was not much different from bussing[1], but she didn’t nitpick about it.
‘It pays to be nice, so…’
Lucia continued with a bright smile, just like a pro reporter.
“Well then, Himenes, please tell the many users that are watching this a tip or something of the sort that they should know in order to level up a Black Magician quickly.”
“A secret, right?”
“Yes!”
Himenes cleared his throat as he continued.
“Hmm, because I need to survive as well, I can’t reveal all my know-hows, but starting now, I’ll reveal some pretty good tips. Haha.”
Lucia held back the urge to lodge a fist into Himenes’ face and continued with a smiling face.
“Hoho, then viewers. Shall we now listen to the tips that Himenes, the number 1 ranking Black Magician, will tell us?”
“Firstly, Black Magicians, that is.”
Himenes’ self-praise began.
However, while Himenes chatted excitedly, Lucia was thinking of something else.
‘Was it Loren? The lv 37 Summoner, I need to find that person fast.’
Loren was the name of the highest-level Summoner user that she had discovered from asking around.
And if they were lv 37, there was a high chance they were the highest-level Summoner amongst the existing ones.
Just like how she grabbed a contract with Himenes, she needed to find Loren before any of the other employees in the broadcasting company and clinch a contract with them.
[1] ride a bus/bussing = to get carried by a stronger player