We started from the entrance and crossed the winding narrow canyon for about 20 minutes before arriving at a sheer cliff, making me look up at the sky in exasperation.
“The stairs to climb seem wide enough, but they get narrower as we go up?”
The first step was about 2 meters wide. It was spacious enough for three or four adults to move comfortably.
“Yeah. By the time we get to the top, we’ll have to squeeze our backs against the cliff just to get by.”
“What am I supposed to do once we’re in that position?”
Joo-ah growled at Ah-rin, saying, “This is worse than I expected!”
“I mean, we just power through it, you know? The Neos Harpy’s attacks are weak, right? Plus, it won’t take long to get to the boss battle area, so we can just dash up.”
Joo-ah showed an annoyed expression at Ah-rin’s hopeless response.
“This is not what you said yesterday, you fool! You told me to just trust you!”
“This is the right answer. Just look it up online, it’s all there…”
“Oh man… I was the fool for trusting you.”
Ah-rin again expressed that it would be fine, but honestly, I didn’t have much to argue.
‘As long as we avoid the poison from its claws, we shouldn’t be in much danger.’
Even that poison doesn’t usually trigger unless you get seriously injured. Hence, there were hardly any hunters who died from the harpies here.
Still, many hunters struggle in this dungeon, and it’s likely due to internal factors rather than external ones.
The proportion of people with acrophobia is known to be around 7% of the total population. And that kind of issue doesn’t usually get fixed just by awakening.
So, this dungeon automatically narrows down the hunters to about 7 out of 100 even before it starts.
That’s why it’s classified as a dungeon with a seemingly easy difficulty that people tend to avoid.
“Well, shall we go? I’ll summon a creature to create a wall outside.”
“That should give us a feeling of safety!”
Who wouldn’t feel nervous climbing a cliff? Yet, Yeon-hee felt strangely calm with Il-wol by her side.
Especially after having skin contact with Il-wol yesterday when he transformed, they felt much closer now.
Of course, the fact that she had unconsciously pressured Il-wol afterwards still secretly bothered her, but she held his hand more casually.
Il-wol seemed unfazed and held her hand back.
There was one thing left to check when she got home later, but as long as it wasn’t the worst outcome, her feelings for Il-wol wouldn’t change.
‘… If I can teach him to speak in just a few days, maybe we could chat together. Then we could lie next to each other while sleeping…’
She was already lost in her imagination, her mind blossoming with flowers.
Not just Il-wol. All summoned creatures, including the Lizard Squad and Orcs.
She couldn’t be trembling in fear with such steadfast friends protecting her with their lives.
Scurrying ahead, Yeon-hee led the way, with Joo-ah, Ah-rin, and Ham Eun-young hurriedly following her. To be precise, they wanted to stay no further than a certain distance from Il-wol.
– If your magic reserves drop below 100, your magic recovery speed increases by 50%.
‘Wow! This is an insane buff…! I absolutely can’t let it drop. Hehe!’
Joo-ah made that resolution as she saw the message pop up. Maybe because her magic had fallen short causing her to struggle yesterday, this buff felt like a blessing from the heavens.
‘… Ah… I still get chills thinking about it…’
The memory of drinking that mysterious liquid was fresh in her mind.
Shivering—
‘Hah… Just thinking about it makes my body heat up.’
That mystical water. It was truly tempting.
‘… The jug. That artifact seems to be usable only by Il-wol… But can’t the water be sold separately? Why aren’t they thinking of selling it?’
Joo-ah found it baffling. Just opening a potion shop to sell that alone could bring in stable income, so why endure hardship instead?
‘… What a waste. Hah— I want one too…’
If she just had that artifact… No, having someone like Il-wol by her side meant she wouldn’t have to suffer through something like yesterday again.
Joo-ah licked her lips and moved closer behind Il-wol. She had this weird feeling that being with him would lead to good things happening, and for Joo-ah, good things meant the scent of money.
-Kyaaa!!
-Chaaak!!
“Ugh, this is really annoying!”
As Joo-ah climbed step by step, she became increasingly on edge. She didn’t have acrophobia, but among the party members, she was the most vulnerable to heights. Plus, her rock magic wouldn’t work against airborne monsters.
Yesterday’s main attacker was now just a wall shuttle preventing the monsters from getting close.
‘It’s not like it’s my first day! It’s fine, I can handle this.’
She forced herself to think positively. While it was a bit annoying, there weren’t any other significant difficulties. Compared to those damn wraiths from yesterday, this felt more like a cute challenge.
[Fireball]
Whoosh— Bang!
‘Oh! Finally hit one!’
It wasn’t just Joo-ah having difficulty attacking. Whether it was Fireball or Yeon-hee’s arrow attacks, accurately hitting those flying monsters wasn’t exactly easy.
– You have defeated Neos Harpy!
– The trait [Thievery] activates.
– You randomly steal a skill from Neos Harpy.
– You have gained the skill [High-speed Flight]!
High-speed Flight Lv. 1
– Move towards a designated target like a storm when flying or gliding.
– Maximum movement distance: 10m
‘Awesome! So it was a skill with a set distance. But 10m is a bit too short, isn’t it?’
Thinking back, that red-hooded thing that transformed into a mutant had only moved quickly for a short distance as well.
‘I might not have immediate use for it, but it’s unique. Skills related to flight are rare, after all.’
Nodding contentedly at her newly acquired skill, they continued moving.
After about an hour of climbing the stairs, they finally reached the midway point towards the top.
Harpies began to swarm aggressively to defend their nesting area.
“Just hurrying up to the top is the best! Right now, they’ll only be trying to intimidate us from afar, but once we get close to the nesting area right below the summit, they’ll come at us!”
Everyone nodded in agreement with Baek Ah-rin’s words. The summoned creatures meant to act as a barricade were plentiful, and the tactic of provoking the monsters to draw them in was becoming second nature.
[Skeleton Bomb]
[Dagger Throw]
Boom—!
“Ugh, it really makes a huge difference whether I adjust my dagger throw or not.”
As Arin said, the further they climbed, the more aggressively the monsters tried to thwart them. Naturally, the accuracy of bomb attacks and fireballs increased, and the dagger throw skill they had been using for a while had leveled up to level 6, improving its accuracy further.
=====
Dagger Throw Lv. 6
– While throwing a dagger, attack power +30%, accuracy +25%
– When throwing any object, accuracy +20%
=====
‘Should I make a throwing knife out of this bone?’
Heavy items like bombs and fireballs wouldn’t reach the target quickly, so she needed something succinct for distance attacks. It felt like a waste to passively let the increased attack power of her dagger throw go unused.
She decided to check the efficiency of turning bones into daggers when she got home and calculated the remaining distance to the top.
‘Not much left. The harpy attacks aren’t affecting us at all.’
Was last night’s wish for a smooth flow starting to bear fruit?
“Be careful of the worms that pop out from the walls!”
At that moment, Ah-rin warned them about the creatures attacking from the cliff.
“Cliff Worms” only inhabit spots right near the harpy’s nesting area inside the cliff.
They primarily feed on harpy eggs but are also known to drop hunters down the cliffs to devour their remains.
Since they suddenly pop out of the walls, attempting to challenge the boss battle in this dungeon would be impossible without a guide with well-developed senses.
‘Here they come. Three, four…’
“Clap, Clap, Clap!!”
With my signal, the party members instinctively spread out from where I pointed.
They had a tendency to emerge straight from a designated distance, so once we figured out where they’d come from, they were relatively easy to handle.
Boom—!
The four Cliff Worms burst forth from the cliff simultaneously, as if it had been planned.
With a body diameter of 1 meter and a length exceeding 3 meters, their typical shape was that of a ringed animal, but even that size alone was enough to instill fear.
“Kyaaa! Gross—!”
Joo-ah completely blocked the two places they emerged from with the Rock Barrier and hurriedly moved toward the top.
As the other two burst out from the cliff, Ah-rin and I slew them with our strikes.
[Flame Cut]
Swoosh—!
The dagger sliced through its smooth skin, and the disgusting-smelling bodily fluids they held erupted in all directions.
Splat—
Green bodily fluid shot up high into the sky.
However, thanks to the Orcs and the Lizard squad taking the brunt of the dirty stuff, we could move again toward the upper area in a pleasant state.
– You have defeated Cliff Worm!
– This entity does not possess any skills. The activation probability of the trait [Thievery] increases by 5%.
– The trait [Thievery] did not activate.
They were monsters with no skills and only traits. As a result, the success probability of thievery increased by 5%.
Still, the chance of success was low at 18%, so the first attempt ended in failure.
– You have defeated Cliff Worm!
As we climbed for 40 minutes toward the summit, we encountered three more Cliff Worms and ultimately managed to obtain their trait.
– You have defeated Cliff Worm!
– The trait [Thievery] activates.
– You randomly steal a trait from Cliff Worm.
– You have acquired the trait [Cliff Destroyer]!
– The newly acquired trait [Cliff Destroyer] is combinable with existing traits. Do you wish to merge?
It was a message asking whether to merge the newly gained trait with the existing trait [Earth Puppy]’s trait [Tunnel Digging].
The Cliff Destroyer seemed to be a higher-level trait, but what would the result be?
‘I will merge it.’
– [Tunnel Digging] and [Cliff Destroyer] are merging.
Tunnel Destroyer Lv. 1
– You can dig through all terrains similar to earth much more easily.
– Your speed while moving through tunnels increases by 25%.
– Senses for detecting outside enemies increase.
– When charging at designated outside enemies, defense +45.
‘Holy… This changed into a pretty good trait, didn’t it?’
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