There was another ability I gained from defeating the werewolf.
– Trait [Thievery] activates.
– You have acquired the skill [Wolf’s Howl]!
– Achievement [Pioneer] activates!
– All attributes increase by 1!
– Skills [Ferocious Roar] and [Wolf’s Howl] merge.
I stumbled upon a group of ogres in the dungeon.
After defeating those guys, the [Ferocious Roar] I gained merged with the new ability.
“Merge! This means the Pioneer can activate once more!”
– You have acquired the skill [Rage Howl]!
– Achievement [Pioneer] activates!
– All attributes increase by 1!
[Rage Howl]
– A rough howl filled with rage that instills fear in the opponent.
– Forces opponents of equal or lower strength into a state of chaos.
– For each enemy under the status effect [Fear], all physical abilities of allies within a 30-meter radius increase by 1%.
“Wow… I can debuff and buff at the same time? Plus, it’s been upgraded to affect equal-level enemies.”
Definitely seems like merging is better in many aspects than just strengthening. The more it merges, the more powerful the skills become.
“This is why I keep hitting the dungeons.”
The only new monster I could meet in this dungeon was the werewolf. All other monsters were ones I had already faced, so I’ve practically achieved my biggest goal of gaining new skills.
Crackling──!
“Ugh…?! Damn! The dungeon is messing with me again!”
The armor melted and healed repeatedly.
“I thought I was okay, but here we go again.”
This time, perhaps due to the attributes gained from [Thievery], the dungeon was attempting to push me away. Thankfully, my recovery stat had risen to nearly 200, so I seemed to be holding it together.
“This much is manageable… It probably will get much better if I level up to a B-rank dungeon.”
“Are you okay? You’re not melting down like last time or anything, right?”
Yeon-hee noticed something was wrong with me immediately and looked up at me with a worried expression.
“Clap, Clap, Clap.”
“You’re not just pretending to be okay, are you? If it’s tough, just say so. I’ll get you out right away.”
Honestly, I’m not okay. My body can bear it, but it feels like my head is burning in real-time.
Still, there’s a strange feeling that I can hold it out? I don’t think it’ll be like last time in the Golden Pastiche dungeon where I had to succumb to an unstoppable force.
“And there’s one more thing I have to get in this dungeon.”
I was concentrating on my senses as much as possible, covering for my companions’ blunders every so often. That was to find the hidden artifact in this dungeon.
“There must be a destroyed palace somewhere… The terrain has completely changed compared to what I saw in my past life, so it’ll take some time, I guess?”
As time passed, the location of the artifact I remembered diverged more and more. This was also one of the phenomena caused by the cracks forming.
I thought I would find it in the morning, but by the time we had arrived at the boss battle in the afternoon, I still hadn’t found the hidden artifact’s location.
“Oh— it was behind the boss battle. I couldn’t sense it because the barrier diluted my perception. First, I need to finish the boss battle neatly.”
[Next team, please prepare.]
As the dungeon manager’s voice came out mechanically like a subway announcement, we marched toward the boss battle as if in a trance.
“A total of 200 participants! Just like the group battle in the Orc dungeon, right?”
“Exactly. With Yeon-hee’s summoned creatures, I’m not too worried, but we can’t let our guard down. Once caught, it’s over.”
The boss battle was inherently dangerous, as hundreds of werewolves blessed by the moonlight rushed in together.
“There are too many participants. Our share is getting smaller.”
“Should we consider ourselves lucky to have faced the Creeper Guard? I already miss the times when the experience points were exploding.”
“I think the experience points in this dungeon aren’t too bad either…”
‘We’ve gained a lot of confidence now.’
Back when we were tackling Bezel’s dungeon, I wasn’t this calm, but the Great Beast Expedition had definitely helped our companions grow in many ways.
“They’re coming!!”
The werewolf that caught the most attention was smaller than a regular werewolf, with its remarkably neat white fur.
Even to me, this boss monster from the dungeon gave off an incredibly noble vibe.
‘It looks gorgeous even upon a second glance. It’s not easy to think this way about a beast.’
“What do you think of that werewolf from a beastman’s perspective?”
“As I heard, it looks incredibly beautiful. It must be quite popular among male beastmen.”
“Pfft— really?”
– Grrrrrraaaah!!
The male werewolves surrounding the pretty werewolf were already at the peak of excitement.
Their unwavering determination to protect the boss monster was evident.
But less than 20 minutes later, the victory or defeat was neatly decided.
‘Not much to do now.’
“Hah— hah— that took longer than I expected.”
“But still, we won decisively.”
It was a fairly fierce battle, but the intensity was pleasantly manageable.
‘No Steel trigger.’
While I had hoped that the [Thievery] would activate again, I defeated quite a number of regular werewolves, but the anticipated outcome didn’t occur.
“Great job, everyone!”
“No, what the heck was with such high resistance? My skill that froze even the B-rank Creeper Guard didn’t work.”
‘When it’s a full moon, the moon tribe is nearly immune to status effects.’
Of course, Noh Ha-yoon was likely aware of that information, but the reality of experiencing it firsthand must be different enough for her to complain.
“Grades are something we decide ourselves. And one of the reasons monsters’ auras have been growing stronger lately is…”
“Still, there were no other dungeon monsters invading today.”
“That was fortunate.”
‘On the contrary, I was hoping for that.’
Right now, I feel like I could try the ‘Dragon Turtle,’ but it would be difficult to move back to the same place.
We headed straight toward the exit after finishing the boss battle.
We kept a slight distance from other parties on purpose.
Then, as we suddenly turned sharply to the left, my companions briefly looked around and then closely followed behind me.
(Is Il-wol discovering something again?)
(Oh, seems like it.)
(No golden goblin in sight. Hehehe.)
We moved far off the formal route and maneuvered through densely tangled terrain.
“Ugh… How much longer do we have to go around? I don’t even remember the way I came.”
“Clap, Clap, Clap.”
“They say we need to hold hands. There’s a barrier, and if we’re not careful, we’ll get lost.”
“Wow- how do you know that? Do you see the future or something?”
“What?!”
“Puhahaha— Yeon-hee, I’m joking. Just joking.”
“Aha ha…”
“Being top-tier among guides and having significantly stronger combat power than us… Il-wol is ridiculously OP,”
“Hmph… One day, I’ll catch up.”
‘Please let that happen, Ha-yoon.’
Following the conversation sounds of my companions, I moved for about another 20 minutes and finally arrived at a place no one had set foot in.
‘Huh- that damned barrier made it impossible to move quickly. That was torturous.’
I played the guide role calmly.
But I had traversed through a mind-boggling maze that would send me back to the start if I deviated even slightly.
“Wow—!! What is this? An ancient ruin?”
“Feels like a palace? There are crescent moon motifs everywhere carved in relief!!”
“Amazing…”
It was an immensely colossal structure. Though it was damaged in places, if I imagined how it must’ve looked intact, it was at least the size of two football fields combined.
It’s mysterious that a structure of this scale wasn’t discovered, but considering the intricately woven barrier, it was understandable.
“Hey? That statue. Isn’t it the boss monster from earlier?”
“Oh- it really looks the same.”
“Even the statue is beautiful…”
A beautiful, well-formed werewolf with pure white fur. Given that the statue was prominently placed at the entrance, it seemed likely that it had been a being of high status.
‘That guy from the boss battle was just pretty but had terrible combat abilities. Perhaps he’s a noble or of royal blood?’
“Ah, Il-wol! Wait for me!”
I headed straight into the building’s interior.
‘Left here, go in a bit further, then right…’
After moving for a while through the ever-changing anomalous space, I finally discovered a silver, sparkling door.
“Huh?! This door wasn’t here before?”
“It seems like a hidden room that only appears when you walk according to a certain rule.”
‘Exactly. But Joo-ah certainly follows the rules well.’
Creeeak─
I swung the door open without hesitation, and together with my companions, I entered a brilliantly shining space of starry worlds.
“Ahhh-!”
“Ah, it’s blinding.”
In an instant, a dazzling light flashed almost to the point of blinding, and when we regained our senses, we found ourselves in a completely different space.
“W- where is this…?”
‘This is the space hidden by the fallen moon tribe.’
Yeon-hee and I were on one side.
Joo-ah, Noh Ha-yoon, and Baek Ah-rin were each on one.
And Ham Eun-young and Azraelon were together on one side.
Everyone stood scattered at the vertices of a pentagram, facing toward the center.
And in the center, a round stone slab shone brightly, elegantly rotating in the air.
“”Ah──””
Everyone erupted in awe, overwhelmed by the artifact’s extreme beauty and purity.
‘What’s… Why has it grown so big? Do the numbers of artifacts change, or do their appearances change as well?’
I was astonished by the artifact’s size, which had significantly increased compared to my past memories.
My companions began to step forward toward the center, realizing the fact.
“What, why is this so big?”
A stone slab the size of a small car.
‘This… I should attach it to the castle. It’s a buff-type artifact after all.’
The patterns on the slab seemed to intertwine like moonlight and shadows continuously moving.
‘Still gorgeous.’
I slowly brought my hand closer to the artifact.
[Silver Shakiras]
– A stone slab created to prove the moon tribe to the supreme goddess of the moon. Over many years, it absorbs moonlight and creates remarkable effects to grant positive effects to allies within a certain radius.
– Allies’ health continuously recovers within the range, and their resistance to status effects is enhanced.
– After receiving the artifact’s influence for three hours, their attack power greatly increases.
– After six hours of being affected by the artifact, they become immune to status effects.
– The moment they leave the range, all effects are nullified.
‘It appears that all the effects have been enhanced. Previously, being immune to status effects required staying within range for a whole day… now it’s been changed to ‘greatly’ increased attack power.’
I remembered barely holding out at the beginning of the Orc Legion Commander invasion, thanks to this artifact. Of course, that was only temporary. Now that the effect has improved, it would surely be a lot more helpful.
“It looks big, but it might not be heavy at all. Let’s try pushing it together.”
“Uugh- Uuugh! It won’t budge.”
Even if Yeon-hee and Joo-ah were getting weaker, the two were still beyond regular humans. Yet, the slab didn’t budge an inch from midair.
Swoosh-
“Huh?”
I held the slab up with one hand and reflected it against the moonlight coming through the ceiling.
‘There’s another picture on the opposite side.’
“Whoa- that’s beautiful.”
“Is the werewolf tribe this aesthetically gifted?”
“Hehe.”
Just as I was about to show the artifact to my companions and put the slab into my space…
– The Moon Goddess ‘Larmishiel’ senses the aura of the moon tribe. The blessing of ‘Larmishiel’ activates temporarily.
‘The Moon Goddess’s blessing? Suddenly?’
Even if it’s temporary, the thought of receiving a blessing makes me feel a little excited.
Wondering what ability it might be, I waited, but then I was startled by the sound of my armor cracking.
‘W-what?! Oh my God?!’
“Il-wol! Your body!!”
“Ah?! Oh my!”
Suddenly the armor I was wearing disintegrated into smoke and vanished, leaving only my bones behind, making my face feel hot with embarrassment.
‘No… It’s embarrassing to suddenly reveal my bones that were hidden. But why all of a sudden? Is this the blessing that takes my clothes off?!’
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