Chapter 63

Deep Canyon Spring (2)

Sura Canyon .

After its discovery by the Red Bulls Guild, many people began to visit the Devil Goat-filled canyon . However, there were still many places unexplored by anyone .

Currently, there was no one that knew about the small spring located deep within the Sura Canyon . Even if there was, it was unlikely he would think too much about it . The fact that the spring was 30 meters deep, or that a cave could be found at that level, or that a secret area existed inside the 100-meter cave was something no one knew .

That is, until now .

“Puhu!”

Someone had discovered the secret .

After finishing up a long swim, Hyrkan inhaled a deep breath of air . Then, he crunched down on the candy in his mouth, crushing it into pieces . The 50 gold item that made one freely travel underwater disappeared just like that .

As a side note, the Undine Tear Candy tasted like a lemonade and made his breath carry the scent of lemon .

‘I’m finally here . ’

After finishing up the candy completely, Hyrkan climbed out of the pool of water back to land .

When he stepped on the ground, he naturally closed his eyes and focused on hearing .

[You have entered a dungeon . ]

[You have obtained the title, ‘One Who Discovered the Hidden Secret . ’]

[You have obtained the title, ‘Dungeon Explorer . ’]

The expected alerts popped out, and Hyrkan nodded with satisfaction .

‘I can never get used to hearing these alerts . ’

Although the titles he received weren’t particularly good, but no Warlord players would refuse them .

The worth of a dungeon wasn’t just this either .

Unlike field-type hunting grounds, one could obtain additional experience points or rewards in dungeons . Discovering a secret area within the dungeon, realizing the identity of the dungeon, completely exploring the dungeon, etc . Rewards and EXP could be received based on one’s results, and the EXP received as such bonuses was proportional to one’s level . That is, the amount of EXP one could receive was limited, but there was a definite percentage gain .

It was also the reason why Hyrkan came after hitting level 69 .

‘Alright, let’s get this over with . ’

Hyrkan didn’t stop to dawdle and prepared himself for exploration immediately . First, he started up the Light app, making his watch light up the dark cave .

‘Let’s see…’

He could see a tunnel, one that seemed like a gigantic ant had made . Hyrkan looked around and nothing special entered his eyes .

‘It’s going to take a while to go through the entire dungeon . ’

It didn’t seem like a dungeon he could completely explore in just one sitting . Time was gold, and Hyrkan wished to clear the dungeon as fast as possible . A tunnel style dungeon was an okay dungeon by Hyrkan’s standards .

‘I’ll give it a 70 . ’

Hyrkan was particularly good at fighting in a narrow space . His Golem could block the path and he could quickly get his Skeleton Warriors behind the enemy by throwing the Skeleton Fragments to its back . Considering the limited space for fights, he would be facing quality over quantity . Hyrkan’s Skeleton Warriors were especially good in this area .

Simulations of battles quickly flashed through Hyrkan’s mind, causing him to smile . It seemed that the result of the battle he imagined was satisfactory . With his smile still intact, Hyrkan threw a Skeleton Fragment on the ground . The fragment immediately turned into a Skeleton Warrior .

The Skeleton Warrior made from a Black Orc was carrying a scimitar-like sword, and its black bones easily blended into the darkness . Hyrkan drew a cross on its forehead, and two horns sprouted out from its skull .

Madness Helm .

In addition, Hyrkan casted Bone Armor on the Skeleton Warrior . White bones filled the Skeleton Warrior’s empty upper body, and its arms became covered by gauntlets . The D-Rank Bone Armor was now able to create both the breastplate and gloves .

Then, Hyrkan imbued curse magic onto the sword it was holding . Demon Curse, Slow Curse, Corrosive Ghost, and the recently learned Blind!

Once Hyrkan was done with his preparations, the Skeleton Warrior looked unlike a Skeleton Warrior . The black Skeleton Warrior wearing the white Bone Armor made it look like a knight . Its sword, imbued with several curses, also gave off a mysterious glow .

Watching his Skeleton Warrior, Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile bitterly .

‘There goes my magic power . ’

As he wasn’t facing a boss monster, it was a waste of mana to use so much magic power . It was unlike Hyrkan who was trying to save as much magic power as possible . In other words, his situation had taken a complete turn, as compared to when he had begun .

To replenish the lost magic power, Hyrkan began to chew on a 30 gold magic power recovery gum .

‘It’s literally raising proficiency with money . ’

In the past, he was frugal with his magic power due to having no money at all . Now, it was different . Although it wasn’t to the point he could change his car to a sports car, he had enough to buy any skillbooks or consumable items he wanted .

Thus, Hyrkan’s focus fell to raising his skills’ proficiencies . The only way to do so was to use the skills repeatedly . The magic power lost because of it would then have to be filled with magic power recovery items . It was truly buying skill proficiency with money .

As such, Hyrkan couldn’t help but laugh at himself .

‘You don’t even eat a 3,000 won per half a gram pork in real life, but you’re chewing on a 30,000 won gum in game . You are one crazy bastard . ’

His laugh quickly turned into bitterness .

★★★

‘Oh?’

After entering the dungeon, Hyrkan began to explore it with his Skeleton Warrior in lead .

The tension on his face could be felt behind his hahoe mask, and it wasn’t until his first encounter with a monster that his expression changed .

‘A slime?’

The monster he encountered was a slime .

Slimes were common monsters in Warlord . Although they weren’t like pebbles on the side of the road, anyone could find one if they desired . However, slimes whose insides glowed was a different story .

The slime Hyrkan encountered was such a slime . Its translucent body glowed with a red light . When Hyrkan saw the slime, he knew what he was up against .

‘This is a spirit-form monster dungeon!’

Spirit-form monsters were one of the rarest monster types in Warlord . Appropriately, they were quite expensive for a rather simple reason . The items they dropped were used in creating attributed items .

Attributes were an important part of Warlord . Rich players didn’t just buy 1 item set, but rather multiple with different attributes .

Because of this, attributed items were always high in demand . A level 70 Rare item would easily go for 3,000 gold in the market . This would be the weakest item amongst them, and decent items would of course cost much more .

‘This doesn’t seem good . ’

As such, Hyrkan felt an ominous foreboding before he felt happiness .

The dungeon map he luckily received had the rare spirit-form monsters?

He was incredibly lucky .

He had been lucky quite often in recent days . The view count on his Bear Warrior video was piercing through the heaven, and the crafting material he obtained sold for an enormous sum of 50,000 gold . He had expected them to go for 20 or maybe 30,000 gold, but he had ended up receiving double the amount he expected . The reason was clear . It was because the Bear Warrior was Hahoe Mask Hyrkan’s first monster . The value of items changed depending on the designer and person who obtained the material . It seemed like one of Hyrkan’s rich fans purchased the Bear Warrior crafting materials .

‘Aren’t I just too lucky?’

Now, he was facing another incredible fortune .

‘I’m the type that the luckier I am early on, the unluckier l become later . ’

Hyrkan’s life had always been full of ups and downs . If he was lucky at one point, he was bound to be unlucky at another .

Hyrkan knew this better than anyone else .

As such, Hyrkan was scared how his string of incredible fortune would backfire .

Of course, his worries didn’t last long . His expression quickly loosened .

‘Well, I can’t say no to this . ’

It wasn’t like he could refuse thinking he’s too lucky .

‘Even if some disaster strikes me, how bad could it be? I doubt a truck would come flying through my window . ’

Hyrkan walked deeper into the dungeon with joy .

★★★

After his continuous string of encounters with slimes, Hyrkan arrived at a dead-end .

In this place, he encountered a spirit-form monster as he expected .

Salanmanda .

The Salamanda was a level 80 spirit-form monster . Its body changed length from as long as 4-meters to as short as 50 centimeters depending on the situation . Its body was made of fire, and thus it could only be damaged through continuous damage over time .

Considering the forces Hyrkan had available, it wasn’t a particularly good match .

Since the Skeleton Warriors had to close in to attack, it was ill-suited to fight against the Salamanda . Even if their evasive maneuvers were good, they couldn’t possibly dodge the Salamanda’s body heat . The Skeleton Warriors melted under the Salamanda’s intense heat, and the damage ate away at Hyrkan’s magic power .

Furthermore, ‘Salamanda’s Rage’ was activated whenever its HP fell below a certain level . Its heat then became high enough to melt even the Golem .

The Skeleton Magicians also did very little in the fight against the Salamanda . The D-rank Skeleton Magicians could only use fire-attribute magic, which obviously was ineffective against the Salamanda .

In a way, the Salamanda was a natural enemy of Hyrkan .

However, Hyrkan had one of his most peaceful battles in fighting the Salamanda .

“Good . Now cut his tail from behind! Well done!”

The battle itself was a close combat battle . Although the battle couldn’t be described bloody with the lack of blood, it was still a fierce battle .

Hyrkan did not participate in the battle . He simply watched on from the back while sucking on his candies .

He participated in just two cases . One was to imbue curse magic onto the Skeleton Warriors’ sword…

“Hey, don’t approach from the front, go from side . Also, stabs don’t work well, so go for slashes . Got it?”

While giving commands no one could possibly understand .

The other…

“Come on, Golem . The skellies are doing well, what’s wrong with you? Stop! I’ll do it myself . ”

Was to furiously shadow box, controlling the Golem with Copy Mode .

That was it .

Of course, he used up most of his magic recovery items because of it, but Skeleton Fragment, Golem Summon, and Skeleton Magician skill proficiencies went up greatly as a result .

Just like that, Hyrkan killed the Salamanda without swinging his Orc Hero’s Sword even once . While tasting the Salamanda’s strawberry flavored ice-cream, Hyrkan couldn’t help but think…

‘Rich Lich… you must have had one hell of a time . ’

It was the first time Hyrkan felt the joy of being a necromancer .