by Elan Wang
GRAAWRD!
CRASH!
My whole body vibrated. Eum Hyunjoon and I immediately locked eyes.
“It’s him.”
“I’ll go get him.”
Eum Hyunjoon hurriedly turned to try and run toward the sound. I grabbed ahold of his arm.
“Wait just a moment. I’ll go.”
“What?…”
“It’s only right that I should go. Your responsibility as the party head should be to lead everyone out of here safely and quickly.”
“But this is my burden”
“The person with the strongest ability in this entire team is me.”
“But…”
“Do you really want to waste time we already don’t have?”
“…Then I’ll entrust this to you.”
I nodded, turned around, and said.
“Manager Kim. Please take care of our team members.”
“I don’t think it’s right.”
“What is?”
“You going this time. It’s an irregular but that one’s different. It’s not just a boss. If you go, you’ll die. I’m sure.”
“You might be right.”
“But you’re still going to go?”
“Compared to the risk, the reward could be amazing.”
“What do you mean reward? What reward is there in fighting such a monster?”
I left Manager Kim standing with a puzzled expression and walked to Jung Sooah.
“I’ll ask you just one thing. Can you please go with me?”
“Ok.”
“You don’t want to ask me why?”
“Do I need to know?”
“I mean. No. I guess not.”
She wouldn’t be in any danger.
I gave her a great big hug.
***
“Woohoo!”
“You’re being too loud.”
“You’re really fast though!. How on earth can you run so fast?”
“It’s not even all that amazing.”
It wasn’t. Of course thanks to the effort skill, I was able to improve my abilities tremendously, something like this could be easily replicated by a special skill or equipment. High level hunters being able to move with almost inhuman speed is all thanks to the aid of their equipment.
If you looked at it that way, my ability was probably now at the same level as a level 3 equipment.
“But do you have a plan on how you’re going to kill the level 4 monster?”
“I was thinking of borrowing a bit of your skill.”
“Oh. That?”
In the case of a particular skill, when proficiency increases, their ability either increases in accuracy or they could even gain a new ability. In Jung Sooah’s case, when her proficiency clocked in at 10, it produced the latter.
She could now pool her entire buffer ability and give it to just one person.
“But if I use it one time, I can’t use it for an entire day.”
“If we kill that thing, then we’re done for the day so don’t worry about it.”
Jung Sooah’s one person buffer gave one person a 50% boost in their abilities for 10 minutes. Unlike the buffer given to 5 people in a party, this one had a much longer cool time. But the 50% increase was worth it.
It was especially worth it in circumstances such as this where I would have to go against a monster that is way above my level. This buffer could put me at enough of an advantage where I would have a fighting chance. On top of that, the skill was not adding to my current ability, but multiplying it. If a person’s normal strength was at 200%, then instead of it being just 250%…it would be boosted to 300%.
“If that was the case, why couldn’t we have done this in the first place. We would have been able to get help from everyone else too.”
“Then we would also have to do the contribution split with everyone. Come on. Use your head.”
“What would be split?”
“Item.”
“How can you be sure it’s going to drop an item?”
“Well…it’s not really a definite thing. But the probability is very high.”
All the irregulars that had shown up, in my experience, have dropped an item. The first and second ones both dropped a level 0 skillbook. The third one dropped the escape scrolls. So it was only reasonable to think that this one would drop something too. And this one was high level. I was almost positive it would drop something really cool.
“Oh. I’m starting to get excited.”
“We don’t know yet though. It might be smart to not even start a fight with it. We aren’t even fully prepared.”
“But you don’t think it’s going to be too dangerous right?”
“Well…if it gets too tough, there’s always the escape scroll.”
I’m not stupid to think of running in blind without a back up plan. I was only doing this because I had a sort of insurance. This was also a great chance for me to rack up more reward points if possible. This one used its strength and its long reach to its advantage. But it lacked in agility.
This meant I would have enough time to run away if need be.
***
The monster was jumping about as if it were crazed. Right in front of it, the helmet wearing hunter was trying to fight the beast with just one sword. He looked and moved as if he was already running out of energy. I don’t know when they started fighting but I thanked the lord he was able to stay alive at least this long.
The monster struck out with its long arm and helmet guy rolled out of the way. The monster struck out its arm one more time, clawing a fist full of dirt into the air, and helmet guy rolled out of the way once more. It looked like he was doing a good job of dodging but who knows. The monster might just be playing around with him.
If the monster really wanted to kill him, helmet guy probably would have been long dead. Nonetheless, it was a relief he was alive.
I let Jung Sooah down in a safe spot and ran toward the monster.
“Sooah, stay ready!”
“Ok!”
Helmet guy and the monster turned in my direction at the same time. I could hear that helmet guy was saying something, but I didn’t hear clearly enough to know what.
“Graawrrr”
The monster yelled out loud.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
In just three steps, I ran in between the monster and helmet guy.
The beast swung out its long arm. What. It couldn’t think of any other move? Its long reach was definitely its strength…but it was also a weakness. The longer the reach, the weaker it was in close combat. I ran head on to close the gap and swung out my longsword.
But I couldn’t even make a dent in its hard leathery skin. Well, it was a level 1 weapon. I immediately swung out with my bloodsword. This didn’t work either. I guess the bloodysword couldn’t do its job right since it didn’t have any blood to increase its piercing power.
“Watch out!”
I heard helmet guy yell behind me. I made a backstep and created distance with the monster.
Tap.
This time it swung out its leg at the area I had been in just a second before. Its big body made it easy for me to see every one of its movements.
“Take this.”
I pulled out one page of the escape scrolls and handed it over to helmet guy. I needed him to leave so that I could properly concentrate on the fight.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s going to take you out of the dungeon. As soon as you rip it, it’ll transport you out!”
“I need to kill that bastard!”
“You know that’s impossible!”
I grabbed helmet guy and tumbled away. The monster’s claw just grazed by us. I didn’t feel like arguing with him.
“I came here just for you. Eum Hyunjoon wanted to come, but I was able to just barely talk him out of it. Who else do you want to come and risk their life?”
“I won’t live long anyway.”
“What…?”
; Helmet guy raised his sword and dashed toward the monster once more.
There was no reason for me to keep trying to persuade him to do otherwise.
Chop!
“Keuk?”
I made a chop to the back of his neck. I guess I didn’t properly control my strength because I heard a small sound, but it was fine – he didn’t die. I tossed his unconscious body gently to the side and drew my sword.
As soon as I raised my hand up, Jung Sooah made an OK sign in return. A bright light came down over my head.
Beep.
[10:00]
The 10 minute timer had been set.
I kicked back on the ground and ran. Reflex 225%. I just needed 1 second running in top speed.
The monster’s body came almost to my nose.
Grawwwr!
Its strength was its sheer power, its reach…but also its defense. The longsword and bloodysword were not enough to pierce this bastard’s skin.
Its weakness?
Eye.
I used the momentum of my run to climb up its body.
I could feel the 300% in strength boosting my legs to run so fast it felt like I was flying.
I swung my sword straight into its neck to lever myself up onto its shoulder. From there I jumped up and stabbed it in the eye.
KRAWWWWR!
So close. But I didn’t put enough force behind that attack to pierce it. I jumped off the monster and jabbed at it with my longsword. It yelled out once more and stepped back.
I rolled my shoulder a bit and moved to the side.
This time the monster raised both its arms to try and slam them down on top of me.
Should I rush in?
I’m rushing in!
It slammed down both arms.
I barely missed being crushed, but the ground shook – and I shook with it. A big plume of dust rose into the air, and I could see its head poking out from within the brown cloud.
“Haa!”
I jammed my sword into its head.
It felt as if my spine were about to snap.
I could see its claw rushing toward me. I couldn’t miss this chance. I watched the path of the claw and and stepped forward.
The sharp claw just barely missed my ear.
Everything was dim because of the dust that was still in the air. But that was the same for the beast.
I kept slamming at the monster again and again as if I were chopping wood with an ax.
The monster finally seemed to crumble. But another claw came flying at me. This time as I moved out of the way, I stabbed upward with my sword.
KRWAWW!
The monster hollered. It wasn’t able to follow my quick movements – especially with all this dust.
I kept at it.
Though I still wasn’t able to pierce its tough skin, it could still feel the blunt trauma I was delivering with each blow. I needed to sap it of all its strength. Then when it couldn’t move well anymore, I would stab at its eye again.
The dust clouds finally settled.
“Krrr.”
“SunbehOppa’s the best!”
During the time I stepped back to catch my breath, I heard Jung Sooah yelling out loud.
I made a small smirk and ran at the monster once more.
Again the sharp claw!
I dodged left, right. Two times, before I moved to the side. An opening.
I slammed my sword into it again, and it seemed be ready to topple over me. I made two more quick blows before stepping back.
Slam!
It finally collapsed to its knees.
[9:31]
Only 31 seconds had passed.
I still had a lot of time left to keep dealing it damage.
***
[01:51]
“Whew. whew.”
“Krrrr…”
I bowed my shoulders to try and catch my breath. 8 minutes had passed. The monster looked just about worn out now too. I had been dealing the blows this whole time, but it was still not down. I was able to truly appreciate the ferociousness of a level 4 monster.
But I would be victorious.
I ran behind it.
The monster slammed the ground where I had been, but the force behind it was much weaker than when we had first started out.
I slammed another blow and it flinched – but wasn’t able to dodge. It was too big to be able to evade any of my blows. So I continued to deal him blow after blow all over its body in this manner.
And finally, it began to throw up blood.
The blood that was spurting out splattered onto the blade of my bloodysword.
Slice!
This time, I was able to make a slight cut. It wasn’t a big one, but it was enough. I jammed my bloody sword into that opening.
KRAWWWR!
It yelled out viciously and rolled around. Now that the bloodysword was lodged into its body, its time was ticking. But then again, time was almost up for me too.
The timer was telling me I had 8 seconds left.
I ran toward the monster and jumped up high. Falling from the air was a dangerous move. Because there was no way for me to dodge any oncoming attacks.
For this reason, I was trying to use the element of surprise by attacking quickly.
This was my chance to stab it in the eye.
It swung out with its claw. Did it still have energy to fight back?
Smack!
Ah. Shit.
Slam!
Hit by its attack, I flew about 10 meters in the air and fell to the ground. Hard.
“Keuk.”
I can smell blood from inside my mouth. My stomach felt queasy but I could still move. Thank the lord for my armor.
[00:00]
Bee beep.
Slam!
At the same time the timer went off, the monster made a giant noise as it collapsed. My longsword was sticking out of its eye. Right before I was hit, I was able to succeed in connecting my sword with its eye.
“Whew…”
“Krrr…”
Seeing as it was still alive, it was a sturdy one. Under usual circumstances, I would immediately run up and slice its throat or twist the sword in its eye. Because a monster had amazing healing abilities. But I didn’t need to in this case. My bloodysword was lodged into its body – sapping away its lifesource.
The more I thought about it, the more I took a liking to that weapon. It was pretty great. Though its attack power was a bit lacking, it made up for it in other ways such as this.
“Eum…”
I could hear helmet guy starting to wake up behind me.
Great for him. Waking up after all the good stuff is over.
“Are you awake?”
“Keuk. What the hell did you…”
“If you want to commit suicide, just jump off a bridge. Don’t you know it’s an awful nuisance doing something like that in a dungeon?”
“What the hell do you care? …Anyway, what about the monster?”
“I took care of it.”
“Wh…what?”
He looked to where I was pointing. The monster was collapsed face down and taking its last breath.
“Did it die?”
“Almost.”
“That’s good.”
He drew his sword and started walking toward the monster. I stood in front of him and blocked his path.
“Move. I need to kill it.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Why is that?”
“I was the one who took care of this monster. If it happens to drop an item, then there could be a conflict in who claims ownership.”
“Whatever comes out, I’ll give it to you so move.”
“I said I can’t let you do that.”
If he kills it, then all my reward points would fly right out the window.”
“I said move.”
Helmet guy pointed his sword at me. I didn’t respond.
“Why the hell are you blocking my way…”
“I hav
e my own reasons…”
“This is my brother’s revenge. What bigger reason can you have than that?”
“That’s my business.”
“Keuk…”
His sword began to quiver.
Tap.
He ultimately dropped his sword and fell down to his knees in front of me. I could hear a thick voice coming out from his helmet.
“Would you listen to my story a bit?”
“No. Take this, rip it, and get out of here.”
I handed over the escapee scroll to him.
***
[+400]
I sent helmet guy out and got my reward points after about 10 minutes. It was a pretty crappy amount compared to the 10 minutes of hell I went through. I felt kind of ripped off since it was way more than twice as strong as a wolf boss…while only giving me double the reward points.
“You know that no matter what drops…I get a piece of it too right?”
“I know. I’ll pay you with money.”
“I don’t need money. I already have a lot from what you paid me this past month…”
“Then?”
“Buy me dinner. Something expensive.”
“Something like that is easy.”
It wasn’t hard to do. And no matter how expensive dinner was, how much could it really be? To think that she would be fine with just that. Good for me. If it wasn’t for her buffer, I would have had a real tough time against this monster. I was planning on giving her at least 10%.
If it was just ores, then it wouldn’t have been much. But if it was an item, she could have made somewhere upwards of several thousand to several tens of thousands of dollars.
“You promise?”
“I promise. And we can take this opportunity to even invite all of the party members so I can buy something real expensive.”
“Ah really. Are you that slow?”
“What do you mean?”
“Whatever. It’s nothing.”
I couldn’t figure out why but it seemed like she was really pissed off. Oh well.
It took a long time for the monster to evaporate. Was it because it was a level 4 monster?
After a good and long time, it was finally done. It probably took close to 20 minutes.
Tap.
“Huh? It’s a book?”
“Is it a skillbookk?”
I grabbed the book that had fallen to the ground. It wasn’t a skillbook.
There were two ways to identify a skillbook. The number that denotes the level of the skill. And a subtle light that glows out of it. The book in my hand had neither of those.
