Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Mysterious Dungeon (1)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

Sponsors: Kennedy P . and Anonymous

The inside of the dungeon was a corridor-like structure that was neither that narrow nor was it an open expanse .

‘I like that it’s not complex and simple instead . ’

It was good to fight a narrow and complex dungeon with other party members, but because it was easier to get caught in traps and ambushes, so Ian didn’t prefer that sort of configuration .

‘But it feels a bit spooky…’

Ian, who felt the same feeling as when he first went to a haunted house at an amusement park when he was younger, made Ddukdae take the lead and carefully moved his feet one step at a time .

There was no way of knowing what kind of dangers lurked in an unidentified dungeon .

Kyahhh- .

A sound similar to a ghost-calling rang out, riding the long and wide corridor .

‘Damn, since nothing is appearing, it’s making me even more nervous . ’

Ian grumbled at his stifling heart .

And just then, as if they had heard his complaints, the wall to his left broke down and monsters appeared .

Koo-reu-reu-reung- .

The monsters that appeared through the broken wall had a ghost-like form that matched the dungeon’s atmosphere very well .

An interesting point was that they were not ghosts with a human-like form, but ghosts with a drake-like form, like a lizard with wings .

“Ddukdae, Ice Wave!”

As Ian did not let down his guard, he immediately reacted .

Thud- Thu-Thu-Thud-!

Along with Ian’s command, Ddukdae stomped his foot with strength .

And a blue ice wave spread out into its surrounding .

The Ghost Drake has suffered 175 damage .

For 10 seconds, the Ghost Drake’s movements will slow down by 30% .

The monster’s name was ‘Ghost Drake’, just like how it looked .

There were a total of three Ghost Drakes that appeared and they immediately charged towards Ddukdae, who had attacked them .

‘Err, I still need to wait a little more for Ly to use Berserk…’

Ian moved quickly as he thought about how he should fight .

Familiar ‘Ddukdae’ has received 1466 damage from the ‘Ghost Drake’ .

Ian slightly flinched at the Ghost Drake’s Offensive Power that was even stronger than the Ice Trolls .

‘This could be a little harder than I thought?’

If it was about one or two of them, he wouldn’t have been as nervous as now, but as he had to face three at the same time, a cold sweat slid down his spine .

However, it wasn’t as if he was seized with fear because of that .

Ian was discovering as he hunted up until now that the Summoner’s fighting spirit had a big influence on their Familiars’ fighting spirits as well .

“Ly, deal with the left one! It’s alright if you can’t attack, just buy as much time as you can and hold out!”

Grr-!

Ly, who understood Ian’s words, immediately threw his body at the drake on the left .

And Ian moved shortly after as well .

Along with the invoking of his Weak Point Capturing skill, he lodged his fist exactly into the drake’s weak point and landed a critical blow with his first hit .

You have dealt critical damage to the ‘Ghost Drake’ .

The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 905 .

The ‘Ancient Summoner’s Steel Knuckle’ invoked the ‘Response’ skill .

As the steel knuckle’s inherent ability, Response, was invoked, Ian let out a shout of delight on the inside .

‘Alright! Lucky as well!’

Familiar ‘Ddukdae’s ‘Ice Wave’ will be borrowed .

He inwardly anticipated for Berserk to pop up but Ice Wave was just as helpful as well .

Ian’s fist lit up blue and a large wave spread out .

Thu-Thu-Thud- Thud-!

The Ghost Drake has suffered 635 damage .

For 10 seconds, the Ghost Drake’s movements will slow down by 30% .

Thanks to Ice Wave popping up one after another, the slowing effect overlapped each other, and although it was only for a moment, the Ghost Drake’s movements noticeably slowed down .

And Ian knew very well that within that momentary time, he needed to successfully land as many hits as he could .

“Ly! Come over here and let’s attack this one first!”

After receiving a hit and also landing one, he roughly got a sense of what his opponent’s stats were like .

His opponent was an Offensive-type monster .

Their Offensive Power was on the strong side, but he discovered that their Defensive Power and Vitality were low in comparison .

‘I thought they were a lot stronger than the trolls because they dealt a shit ton of damage, so I freaked out . ’

The Ghost Drakes’ Offensive Powers were significantly stronger than the trolls’, but their Defensive Power was on the low side by quite a lot .

And Ian, who confirmed this, chose the method to quickly remove one of them first .

And right now, where the slowing effects were overlapped, was a good opportunity .

Puck- Pu-Puck-!

Ian and Ly’s attack hit multiple of the drake’s weak points in an instant and Ddukdae, whose fists looked like they were swinging around carelessly, were quite sharp .

Screech-!

The Ghost Drake let out a horrible shriek as it twisted its body .

By the looks of how its name started to blink, it seemed like its Health dropped below half .

However, just then, the other two drakes attacked from the back .

Hweeek-!

“Ack-!”

After Ian barely dodged the drake’s tails that rushed towards him, he gasped for air .

“Huff… Huff . ”

He only felt a difficult battle would continue if left like this .

He needed to find a solution . Ian discovered Bbookbbook, who was dazing off in a corner .

‘Bbookbbook… Let’s do at least something!’

And he gave a command to Bbookbbook .

“Bbookbbook, attack those two and grab their attention!”

He wasn’t expecting much .

It was simply a command he gave in the off-chance .

Bbook!

However, surprisingly, Bbookbbook crawled valiantly towards the two drakes .

Bbook- Bboo-Bboo-Bboo-Bbook-!

Because Ly disappeared from their sight, the two drakes, who were immediately looking for another opponent to attack, turned their heads shortly after at Bbookbbook’s strange noise .

Glare-!

Bbookbbook glared at the drakes with a frightful(?) gaze and fortunately, the two drakes charged towards Bbookbbook at the same time .

‘That’s right . Good job, Bbookbbook!’

Ian attacked the one drake altogether with Ly and Ddukdae, while glancing slightly at Bbookbbook .

He did believe in Bbookbbook’s incredible Defensive Power, but it was because he was concerned .

However, Bbookbbook was doing an incredibly good job .

Sook- .

As the two drakes attacked, he quickly slipped into his shell .

Familiar ‘Bbookbbook’ has received critical damage .

‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1 .

‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1 .

Despite receiving critical damage, he only received 1 damage, so Ian was completely reassured and was able to focus on the one drake . And the result, Ian was able to kill the drake shortly after .

You have killed the Ghost Drake . You have obtained 3078 EXP .

Ian wanted to cheer while seeing the EXP that was written .

On top of its base EXP being higher than Ice Trolls, with the effect of being the very first discoverer of the dungeon overlapping, he had received an incredible amount .

As he checked the EXP, the drakes that were burdensome just a moment ago, were looking like EXP lunchboxes .

Ian, whose fighting spirit grew more, began to pour out his attacks more violently .

You have dealt critical damage to the Ghost Drake .

The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 912 .

The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 562 .

The Ghost Drake’s Vitality has been reduced by 557 .

Gaining strength from Bbookbbook’s active role, Ian, who killed all three of the drakes in an instant, gasped for air .

It was only for a moment, but since he moved with all his power, he was out of breath .

“Ha, ha . ”

In the middle, Ly allowed a couple of attacks on him, receiving enough damage to almost kill him, but because the reward was as sweet as honey, his fighting spirit lit up .

‘But drakes are normally high-level monsters that are over lv 90… Is it because these ones are ghosts, so they can’t be that strong?’

These Ghost Drakes were around lv 65 .

Another reason why Ian was first intimidated was because drake monsters in general were strong monsters that were hard to hunt before he had reset .

“First Aid!”

While Ian collected his breath, he restored his Familiars’ Vitality with First Aid .

And he didn’t forget to praise Bbookbbook .

“Good job, Bbookbbook . You just need to do things like this!”

Bbook-!

Bbookbbook’s triumphant expression!

Ian gave Bbookbbook another meatball for doing a good job for the day and started moving again .

‘Huehue… Good, good!’

Ian grinned like a Cheshire cat .

Battles repeated without end, but it seemed as though he got used to it as he went on, as he was able to go around the dungeon, exploring without hesitation .

His hunting speed got faster as well .

And shortly after, a delightful message popped up .

You have leveled up . You have reached lv 43 .

“Alright!”

It was an alarm that was nice to hear whenever .

Ian, who was having fun, made up his mind to abstain from eating and drinking and just hunt until his buff for being the very first discoverer of the dungeon ended .

‘If I hunt like crazy until then, wouldn’t I be able to reach about lv 49?’

If he could maintain this pace, it seemed possible enough .

Monsters that were a little stronger than the Ice Trolls appeared, but as their Vitality and Defensive Power were much weaker, his hunting speed was instead faster .

In return, though, it was that much more dangerous…

Ian, who continued to hunt, discovered something and momentarily stopped .

‘Oh? It wasn’t a one-floor dungeon?’

Normally, dungeons formatted like this, with wide corridors that continued windingly, finished with one floor in a lot of cases, but he had discovered an entrance that went down lower .

‘There’s still a lot of monsters leftover… Should I go down after I’ve wiped them all?’

Ian momentarily thought about it, but shortly after he moved his feet towards the entrance to go down lower .

‘Still, since clearing the dungeon is number one priority . ’

Because he could only focus his mind on hunting with a comfortable heart once he checked what was at the end of the dungeon and cleared it, Ian had the mind to clear the dungeon first and foremost .

And along with the endless hunting, another day passed by .

@

“Wow, as expected, Himenes, you’re amazing . You’re already at lv 45… Even though Black Magicians are supposed to be fast at leveling, that’s really incredible . ”

Im Eunyoung, YTBC reporter, was logged onto her Kailran character ‘Lucia’ and was interviewing the Black Magician user Himenes, who made an exclusive contract with the broadcasting company .

“Haha, it’s nothing . It was only possible because the Titan guild is fully supporting me . Of course, I didn’t ride a bus[1] or something like that . Hoho . ”

Himenes was currently the highest-level user between the known Black Magicians .

And Lucia received a bonus from the broadcasting company as the price for getting an exclusive contract with him .

Even though Black Magician was a class that was faster in leveling up compared to the other classes, a lot of people’s attention was on him for reaching lv 45 within 3 weeks since the server opened up .

‘His snobby actions disgust me, but since I’m even getting a bonus thanks to this guy, I’ll endure this much . ’

Lucia knew that Himenes had leveled up quickly through the ‘hunting ground gathering’, which was not much different from bussing[2], but she didn’t nitpick about it .

‘It pays to be nice, so…’

Lucia continued with a bright smile, just like a pro reporter .

“Well then, Himenes, please tell the many users that are watching this a tip or something of the sort that they should know in order to level up a Black Magician quickly . ”

“A secret, right?”

“Yes!”

Himenes cleared his throat as he continued .

“Hmm, because I need to survive as well, I can’t reveal all my know-hows, but starting now, I’ll reveal some pretty good tips . Haha . ”

Lucia held back the urge to lodge a fist into Himenes’ face and continued with a smiling face .

“Hoho, then viewers . Shall we now listen to the tips that Himenes, the number 1 ranking Black Magician, will tell us?”

“Firstly, Black Magicians, that is . ”

Himenes’ self-praise began .

However, while Himenes chatted excitedly, Lucia was thinking of something else .

‘Was it Loren? The lv 37 Summoner, I need to find that person fast . ’

Loren was the name of the highest-level Summoner user that she had discovered from asking around .

And if they were lv 37, there was a high chance they were the highest-level Summoner amongst the existing ones .

Just like how she grabbed a contract with Himenes, she needed to find Loren before any of the other employees in the broadcasting company and clinch a contract with them .