“Ha ha ha! This is really incredible! I can actually block those damn skeletons like this?”
Yeom Tae-seok seemed deeply impressed by Yeon-hee, who controlled the summoned creatures that acted as a suicide squad.
He kept giving her thumbs up and laughing heartily, but unfortunately, Yeon-hee wasn’t in a very good mood.
Throwing away her beloved children in exchange for the enemies’ lives was something that wouldn’t sit well with someone like her who cared for her summoned creatures.
Of course, the Lizard Squad and Orc Squad seemed proud to have such a duty, but that was because of their battle-crazy species trait. Yeon-hee was more delicate.
“… Still, it was possible to respond as I thought, so it’s fine. We’re improving little by little…”
Yeon-hee calmly expressed her thoughts and placed her hand on the orb, beginning to concentrate.
Then, the summoned creatures in the front line of the Lizard Squad and Orc Squad rapidly started to regain their forms.
‘I envy the infinite resurrection.’
It seems greed knows no bounds.
Joo-ah and Ah-rin, who had momentarily been tormented by the bizarre dancing skeleton, waited for Yeon-hee’s magic power to recover and asked me.
“Does Il-wol understand what those guys are saying or something?”
“Clap, clap…”
“Why? Aren’t they the same undead? Why can’t they communicate?”
“……”
I really wished it was the case. I was severely curious about the thoughts behind the reckless behavior they displayed.
If they were at least good dancers… but a bizarre dog dance?
I cursed them in my mind as I defeated them and read the message that emerged.
– You have defeated ‘Bone Dancer’!
– Trait [Thievery] activates.
– You randomly steal a skill from the Bone Dancer.
– You have acquired skill [Blast of Madness]!
‘Madness… the skill name really fits.’
Their explosions had a certain madness to them, just like the name of the skill.
[Blast of Madness]
– Launches a powerful bullet imbued with the 【Weight of Existence】 toward the designated enemy.
– You will die immediately upon using the skill.
– It will hit without fail.
‘Whoa~ This is it! This is it!’
It was a skill I had in mind since the moment I was summoned, but I couldn’t be 100% sure about its greatness.
What if it wasn’t as impressive as I expected? That was the anxiety I had.
However, I didn’t have to worry about that any longer.
‘Three abilities. [Sacrifice] [Weight of Existence] [Guaranteed Hit]. Incredible…’
[Sacrifice] is the ability to bring miracles at the cost of a body part, a portion of life, or even one’s life.
‘Weight of Existence… I remember hearing about this during my hunter days.’
It’s the power gained as a price for the achievements the caster has accumulated or potential they possess.
The ability to draw value from the past and future and explode it in the present without leaving a trace.
And on top of that, there is the ability [Guaranteed Hit] that ensures you hit the designated enemy. In fact, the guaranteed hit was an unexpected ability.
‘This is amazing. Really amazing!’
I was so excited I’d sacrifice a life just to use it right away.
It was a bit disappointing that it didn’t merge with Fireball, but since they were completely different concepts outside of just exploding, it probably wouldn’t be easy to combine.
While I was lost in thought, Bae Joo-ah subtly threw a question at Yeom Tae-seok.
“That self-destruct thing… seeing it in person makes it really seem like a powerful skill… How many can you handle, Sir Knight?”
‘Knight…’
For some reason, Yeom Tae-seok was referred to as ‘Sir Knight’.
He had asked us to call him that, and our team members were calling him just that.
And Joo-ah’s cautious question was indirectly asking if it was okay to have Yeom Tae-seok take the hits when those guys showed up.
In some ways, it was a question that could be seen as unpleasant, but Yeom Tae-seok responded with a hearty laugh.
“Ha ha, you must be joking? Their skills are not something to deal with within the same level of strength. If I think ahead and prepare… I could handle maybe two, but my shield wouldn’t survive.”
‘He’s being dramatic.’
Sure, the self-destruction of the ‘Bone Dancer’ was indeed powerful, but since they’re monsters, the destructive power of a skill at the cost of a sacrifice seemed diminished.
I figured it was probably because the weight of existence was extremely light…
‘Then shouldn’t I keep my expectations low? Given that I’ve only been alive for a month and a half…’
I mustn’t think like that. My only way to fight back against Jo Gi-man was this skill and the disposable artifact I could acquire in this dungeon…
If the system has any thoughts, maybe it would factor in the merits of my past life as well.
Anyway, what Yeom Tae-seok said was indeed an exaggeration.
A strong person, who could be classified as C-Class, shouldn’t have trouble enduring two attacks from the Bone Dancer. Sure, they might approach incapacitation, but still.
We gazed for a moment at the bone fragments of the Bone Dancer scattered haphazardly on the ground before we set off again. When I kicked a bone, it turned to ashes and vanished without a trace.
What a hot-headed bunch, huh?
Unfortunately, there were no loot other than mana stones from the ones that self-destructed.
Would it have killed them to drop a rune?
Those guys leave nothing but disappointment after they die.
After that, we made our way to the exit, diligently hunting monsters. The numbers were a little high, but given that a squad of ten was manageable, nothing particularly troublesome occurred.
The Bone Dancer also suddenly jumped out one by one to keep us on edge.
However, since I always preemptively intercepted them, we took no damage.
But despite all the effort I put into it, I failed to acquire any other traits or skills from the Bone Dancer.
Ghouls had at least one of each skill and trait, so why did these guys only have one skill?
Hmm…
But thinking about it, aside from self-destructing, the abilities they had were merely mesmerizing people with their nonsensical dance. That would indeed count as a skill…
‘… honestly, I don’t want such a skill.’
I didn’t want to show Yeon-hee my awkward attempts at dancing. I’d rather they lacked any other abilities.
“Il-wol! Bone Dancer!”
(The bomb bastards!)
The summoned creatures that had experienced the bone dancer’s attack would instinctively rush out just at the mention of it.
‘They definitely understand the danger.’
They’d experienced the explosion firsthand, so how could they be anything but on alert? That instinct must be acting up with their first response being to protect Yeon-hee.
Seeing all the summoned creatures, including myself, moving in unison for Yeon-hee, it sometimes gave me a strange sense of affection. Hm… we truly have a tragic fate.
Three more hours passed. The dungeon clock now pointed distinctly to the afternoon.
As the battles continued to flow smoothly, Noh Ha-yoon’s face became increasingly dissatisfied.
Occasionally, she’d fixate her gaze on me, but I stubbornly ignored it.
What on earth was she expecting from being here?
Since I probably wouldn’t be partying again starting tomorrow, she should manage to hold on until then.
At some point, Noh Ha-yoon had stopped using Ice Field and was merely lazily casting ice spears.
Were these just the sort of monsters she found easy to handle, making it boring?
Seeing her like that made me realize that Noh Ha-yoon also had less experience.
Dungeons have this frustrating trait of never giving you what you desperately want when you need it, but always throwing gifts at times when you least expect it.
I thought about that.
*
In the infamous dungeon of Nargul.
Of course, we were merely tasting the first basement floor, but even so, many hunters faced hardships here, yet we thrived. As we became accustomed to the environment filled with morale,
‘What is happening that makes people flee like that?’
I had taken precautions by keeping my party’s distance from others, ensuring that no more than three parties entered my range at once, but now, a party racing toward us looked to have more than eight teams.
There were over eighty members.
What could be chasing them at such a speed?
‘Giant Skeleton. It’s enormous. Is something that big really on the first floor?’
It was a bone monster that was likely seven to eight meters tall. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t human-shaped, and its long arms and legs didn’t even match up.
Nevertheless, it was charging toward us at an incredible speed, accompanied by ghouls, a squad of skeletons, and a few Bone Dancers and Specters in a mixed package.
‘Phew… at least it’s not the Skeleton Knight. Damn, I’m scared now!’
But if they asked if I was going to fight back.
“Run away!! There are too many!!”
“Damn it! Why is it chasing us so accurately!”
We were already hastily fleeing. I could deal with the Giant Skeleton, but the sheer number of the smaller ones was overwhelming.
Even the smaller Giant Skeletons, which were about the same size as the biggest one, had emerged late, coming in at a double-digit number.
“Clap, Clap, Clap!”
Although we were the ones being chased, we rather found some relief. A wave of relief washed over me for having avoided the worst-case scenario.
I figured this must be the biggest challenge we would face in this dungeon. I believed that.
“Over here!!”
Clearly feeling a sense of comfort, those who were being chased also helped out.
“How about we do what we did back then!!”
The suggestion came from Bae Joo-ah, and while running, we judged it wasn’t a bad idea.
In the end, we decided to reuse the tactics we employed in the Orc Canyon.
‘There were a few spots like that on the way here.’
After running madly for about five minutes, we reached a similarly structured area. While it wasn’t a canyon, the sides were blocked by enormous piles of rocks.
The width was much wider than before, but since our opponents had gotten larger, the effect would likely be similar.
‘[Corrupted Breath]… would have diminished its impact.’
Although there were a few ghouls around, most were skeletons, so we decided not to use it this time.
– RROOOAAAR─!
The largest of the Giant Skeletons let out a roar that echoed within the confined space created by the rocks on either side.
The ground shook from the immense resonance, causing a few hunters at the rear to panic and sit down in confusion and fear.
Swish—
‘This is annoying as hell.’
I quickly shifted directions and swapped to the Rune of Levitation, activating [High-speed Flight].
It’s a splendid combination to gain speed momentarily.
Reaching the target point quickly, I gathered the hunters affected by the status ailments into my arms, dodged the rock wall, and swiftly returned to the rear of our formation.
The entire process was conducted so quickly and smoothly that I felt quite pleased with myself.
– Wow… what the heck is that…
– That’s the ‘Grim Reaper’ people talked about… just as terrifying as I heard.
– When did he get that far?
‘Why is the Grim Reaper involved again…?’
I felt irritated for a moment, and then I roughly threw the four hunters I was carrying onto the ground.
– Aaaah!
– Ugh…
The hunters I tossed screamed, but I did that on purpose to snap them back to reality, so I hoped they could contribute a little now.
“We’re alive!”
“Huff- huff-”
The hunters who had closely followed our party hunched down in the back and finally recovered their breath.
“Damn it! This dungeon is insane!”
“This is really too much… Damn!”
“Shit! I don’t mind other things, but what the hell is that giant one? This is over the top!”
That’s when they finally unleashed the pent-up frustration. Everyone said this dungeon was a place of blessing for hunters, but that was just someone talking nonsense during peaceful times.
This may be the true nature of it. The way foul language flows so naturally, and comrades who’ve teamed up die. A heartless space.
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