The item called ‘Small Sacred Water’ that Baek Ah-rin handed out at the entrance. It was water that had been imbued with attributes by classes like Priests and Paladins who draw power from gods of the light attribute.
Because the light attribute has exceptional compatibility compared to other attributes, this was made possible.
Even if it’s weakly infused, the attribute’s energy allows physical warriors like Baek Ah-rin to strike incorporeal monsters like ‘Ghosts’ for a brief moment.
In fact, it’s a rare item, but Ah-rin and Joo-ah manage to obtain it relatively easily due to their connections with their academy peers.
Yeon-hee received the sacred water as soon as she arrived at the dungeon in the morning and tested it on her summoned creatures. The result was that Spirit Ran, Lizardman, and Kobold could use the sacred water, but the other monsters panicked when even just a bit touched the sacred water.
Of course, the Lizardman and Kobold did show a rather unpleasant look while looking at the sacred water smeared on their weapons, but compared to the other monsters, they were doing significantly better.
Sure, Lizardman being blessed by Irmana makes sense, but why does the Kobold show no aversion to the sacred water? Given its appearance, it should clearly have a dark attribute; it was puzzling.
Currently, they had only two bottles of sacred water per person. Since they couldn’t supply all the summoned creatures with the limited sacred water, they planned to only coat the weapon of Lizardman 3.
Considering the number of summoned creatures, more sacred water would have been needed, but they thought two bottles would be more than enough, as this was the quantity decided among the party yesterday.
No matter how variable the dungeon may be, who would have imagined that they would face a Mimic and lose Il-wol?
Of course, there was another reason for not purchasing extra sacred water.
“This is so damn expensive.”
One small palm-sized bottle, half-filled with water, costs 1,500,000 won. A price far too burdensome for D-rank Hunters.
That was a discounted price from the original 2,000,000 won. This one bottle barely lasts them half a day in this dungeon, so it’s no wonder Hunters tend to shy away from it.
Yeon-hee and her party members would have an income from the mines starting a few months later, but they didn’t want to increase their unnecessary expenditures in a dungeon that served no purpose after a day’s worth of income.
“Sigh… If only I had awakened as a monk, I could make sacred water and live comfortably.”
“Well…”
While it’s common for others’ rice cakes to look larger, Joo-ah and Ah-rin weren’t completely satisfied with their classes.
So they hoped for something dreamlike like a second awakening, but that was an area they couldn’t control themselves, leading them to occasional complaints like this.
Fortunately, this dungeon wasn’t unnecessarily vast, and given the high number of monsters, it was possible to earn profits comparable to other dungeons if their abilities allowed.
Ghost-type monsters may not drop any monster byproducts, but the rune drop rates and the quality of mana stones are significantly better than in other places.
“Let’s just give it a shot. Let’s fight once and if things go well, we’ll deal with the boss battle!”
“Yeah, yeah!!”
“Even without Il-wol, we can do it! Let’s go!!”
“Ugh…!!”
* * *
Four hours later.
“Ugh… Ugh… Shit, I swear, I’m never coming back here again.”
About 200m away from the boss battle site at the ‘abandoned school’, four party members were panting and trying to catch their breath.
After spouting curses for a while, Ah-rin spoke in a somewhat subdued voice.
“… It feels like we’re really in big trouble. Shouldn’t we go back now? That might be the wise choice. Ghosts become more numerous the closer we get to the abandoned school.”
Bae Joo-ah shook her head at Ah-rin’s suggestion.
She seemed to have no idea when things started going wrong as she held her head in her hands and said.
“No… I’ve committed too much mana. I’ve hit the floor so many times that my recovery speed has dropped. It’s already too late to turn back…”
The problems facing them were twofold.
One was Bae Joo-ah, the clearly core wizard of the party who had issues with her mana supply.
Summoning massive boulders consumed a significant amount of mana than expected.
Irmana’s lake water.
Yeon-hee deeply regretted not having collected that water for Il-wol. Seriously, why did she neglect such simple preparation?
“It’s because of me… I should have taken care of it.”
In truth, that wasn’t the fundamental issue, but she scolded herself. The second problem was a critical variable.
“Why, why are there so many ‘Ghosts’? Was it like this when you came here a month ago?”
“No way! There are at least two times as many as before! What the hell is going on today…”
“Is it possible that the appearance of the Mimic had an influence?”
“Ah, that could be… Just like when the number of monsters decreases, the probability of facing mutants increases…”
“Damn… Is it really like that…”
Bae Joo-ah felt bad that the party members were suffering because of her and thus felt overwhelmed during the battles they fought to get this far. The result was mana exhaustion.
“If we reach the abandoned school, at least there will be an administrator, and we could take a breather. We just need to get that far.”
“We’ve been surrounded… surrounded…”
“… Are we about 200m away?”
“Yes, that seems about right.”
It was a close distance, but considering the remaining mana amounts for Bae Joo-ah and Yeon-hee, it wasn’t easy to gauge that they could return safely.
‘Failed to control mana…’
Though not as severe as Bae Joo-ah’s situation, Yeon-hee was also running low on mana. Thanks to the artifact given by Il-wol, she hadn’t reached mana exhaustion, but her mana recovery had noticeably slowed down.
‘When Il-wol isn’t around, I should have a summoned creature that can use magical attacks… I’ve become too lopsided.’
Her summoned creatures didn’t particularly help with attacking but were deemed adequate for the traditional tanking role.
Thus, as they were surrounded by ghosts, summoning and resummoning repeatedly led to rapid mana depletion. In the end, the best defense is a good offense. Just blocking wouldn’t get them anywhere.
Fortunately, Ham Eun-young’s dispelling ability was consistently proving effective.
Her song applied without aversion even to the monsters, allowing the tanking monsters to last longer in battle.
“Eun-young, are you okay?”
“… I-I’m fine.”
She said she really liked this dungeon, was that helping her utilize her abilities? Ham Eun-young didn’t show any signs of struggle at all.
– Kiyahhh!!
“It’s starting again. Now it sounds as if it’s right next to us…”
It wasn’t an illusion. The screams of the ghost horde were echoing from a very close distance, irritating their nerves.
“Damn… This is truly a disaster. At this rate, I’ll become a virgin ghost.”
“Tsk… Yeon-hee, where’s Il-wol?”
“About 84 minutes left.”
“Ugh…”
“I miss Il-wol…”
“……”
They say when you have it you don’t appreciate it, but when you don’t, you want it.
A summoned creature that could use magic attacks and attribute-based attacks. Il-wol’s presence was desperately needed.
She thought that the current party strength would be enough even without Il-wol, but once actually deployed to the field, it was clear the balance of the party quickly fell apart.
Taking a wrong turn into a place where monsters were particularly clustered was an experience she hadn’t had when Il-wol was around.
Especially during battles, summoned creatures and party members often tangled together, leading to confusion. This too was something that hadn’t happened when Il-wol was present.
If Yeon-hee was the squad leader controlling small units of summoned creatures, Il-wol had played the role of a deputy helping her.
Opening paths when summoned creatures needed to be deployed at the right time, assisting summoned creatures facing a larger group of enemies, or issuing commands to those moving inefficiently.
And organizing the movement routes for seamless action between party members and summoned creatures was also Il-wol’s role.
That lubricating type of role had been overshadowed by large skills like Skeleton Bomb, but it was only now, after Il-wol’s disappearance, that she recognized it.
‘Il-wol did a lot of things.’
Despite her body swaying from mana exhaustion, Bae Joo-ah was thinking about it.
She had only thought of Il-wol as a particularly strong summoned creature, but she realized that he was the centerpiece of the party.
– Kihihihihit
– Iheeheeheeek
The ghosts didn’t give them a moment’s respite. Faintly, the human form remained on the incorporeal monster Ghosts. They started tightening their encirclement around the party.
“We need to decide… How about just rushing into the abandoned school?”
“Hmm… That sounds better. Can you resummon the creatures?”
“Yes. Since I don’t know how long I can maintain it, hop on right away.”
“Got it!”
Once Yeon-hee summoned Lizardman 2, 3, and 4, the hunters quickly climbed onto their shoulders.
“Let’s go!”
As soon as the summoner gave the command, the four Lizardmen dashed toward the designated target.
Thud thud thud thud!
As they crashed through the withered forest, the heavy lizards attracted the attention of the ghosts and the other monsters caught in [Stagnation] and they began to swarm after them.
But the horde didn’t just follow from the back. They closed in from the sides and the front, coming from all directions. Yeon-hee finally summoned additional summoned creatures to build walls around her party members.
Even then, they couldn’t completely avoid the ghosts’ attacks.
– You have entered the abnormal status [Stagnation]!
– The effect of [Calm Mind] is activated! The abnormal status [Stagnation] has been removed!
– You have entered the abnormal status [Stagnation]!
– [Calm Mind] is ······
Moments later, they reached a stage where they were continuously exposed to ghostly attacks, repeatedly falling into a sense of helplessness and fear that felt like it would last forever, their mental strength hitting rock bottom.
“Rock barrier… rock barrier! Damn it!”
Bae Joo-ah was now in a situation where not even her magic could manifest.
She managed to use provocation skills to outrun the pursuers, and now there were about 50m left to the abandoned school.
“Damn it, why isn’t there a single Hunter passing by!!”
Normally, when approaching areas where boss battles occur, there are Hunters crowding around, which would provide a moment’s respite, but in this damned dungeon, they weren’t enjoying even that advantage.
However, as she caught sight of the ominous, medieval-looking castle becoming ever larger before her, she encountered the very monster she had been most worried about in this dungeon.
“Why! Why does it have to appear now after all this time!”
“This is the worst… Please, lizards, save us! Run!”
“Huhhh…!”
In this dungeon, named ‘Abandoned School 1’, the monster that Hunters feared even more than the boss monster ‘Dread Ghost.’
“Cack-cack-cack-cack-”
It was a Wraith. At first glance, it looked similar to a Specter, but it still retained a bit of human form, and being incorporeal made physical attacks impossible.
However, what made Wraiths particularly tricky to deal with was their skills.
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