Chapter 50 – Is This Okay?

A gate identical to the exit appeared.

The color was similar, but the shape was definitely different.

A gate that rarely appeared in level 23 dungeons.

There is no official name for the gate.

But between the Awakened, it is called Hell’s Gate or the Fisherman’s Needle.

Most experienced Awakeneds know the gate very well.

But it was rare for anyone to come back alive after going into it.

For certain dungeons that have hidden bosses such as the level 23 dungeon that can have any one of the 7 different ranks of the Lich Kings appear. In that gate, all 7 Lich Kings would be there.

Of course, the reward for clearing the portal would be amazing.

But the number of people heading into the gate was few at best.

A sweet temptation.

But that would be too much!

They would stare at the gate as if a fish looking at a fat juicy worm on a hook.

Unless they were real fish, they wouldn’t bite into bait like that.

The exemption would be Rankers hunting for the Lich King’s Armor set.

“I’m even happier seeing this more than seeing a mimic.”

For any regular Awakened, this would be too much.

But I was going to enter the gate.

With many level ups, I had obtained a decent amount of stamina.

Even if the red eyed rank 1 Lich King used a skill beyond ranking, my 5 shields would protect me.

And even after casting my shield, I had two free hands.

An exit and a gate to hell.

Looking at each of them back and forth, I moved my feet towards the gate of hell.

* * * *

Inside the gate was another world.

A desolate land filled with igneous rocks as far as one can see.

The lost souls embedded in the ground howled at the skies.

Without eyes or tongues, struggling as if falling deeper into a swamp.

I felt relieved that the dungeon was large.

If the dungeon was small, all 7 of them would aggro at the same time.

Looking at the different colors of their eyes, I planned to pair two a time to take them out according to their ranking.

I had obtained the quick single spells Explosion and Holy Missile — A ranking skills that will perfectly fill the gap between my main attack skills as both skills did not have cast time or cool downs.

Explosion was a fire type magic, shooting a fireball the size of a basketball.

It was similar to the F ranking Fire Orb, but the difference in damage dealt was incomparable.

Once Explosion hits its target, it didn’t disappear until there was nothing left to consume.

So unless healing skills or remove status effect skills were used, the flames would not extinguish until the target turned to ashes.

The next skill I obtained was the Holy Missile.

Magicians, Shamans, and Priests use this skill.

Causing holy type damage, it boasted massive amounts of damage against the undead.

A skill perfect for Ghouls or Lich Kings.

* * * *

Casting Meteor and Iceberg towards my right, I ran at full speed ahead.

From afar, I could see 2 Lich Kings.

It was important to determine the glow of their eyes, so I stayed out of their aggro range and stared.

Green and purple.

Both were low ranking bosses.

“Yah!”

With one fluid motion, I struck one on each of them.

Almost like a welcoming tackle?

Receiving heavy amount of damage, they tried to condense their mana to heal themselves, but I casted Fire Shock, which does more damage the closer you are to the target.

“GWOAHHHH!”

“KURURUK”

They howled and flailed about in pain, unable to even attack once.

Just in case any Lich Kings were nearby, I adjusted the range on the Gravity Laser.

With my continuous attack, I was slowly blowing through the Lich King.

After that I used about 10 Explosions and rained down Holy Missile.

It looked as if light bulbs shattered across the floor.

The holy attribute of the attack, when met with the undead, begins to eat away at their form.

It didn’t take long.

“Ku… uuu…..”

The rank 7 Lich King, now just a ball of flame, had the life from his eyes snuffed out.

Then.

[5,000,000 experience obtained.]

Now there was only one target left.

I stopped using Gravity Laser and began to pour away the new skills that I’ve learned.

Since I did not have a limit on mana, I could spam away without a care.

If I had brought Banwol Jincheon with me, I could’ve made quite the scene.

Soon, eyes that glowed green from the rank 4 Lich King were snuffed out.

[8,000,000 experience obtained.]

“Oh?”

The difference between ranks were made obvious.

You could obtain more experience from the higher ranking ones.

The more you learn about them, the more I find them amusing.

There were 30 minutes left before the level 23 dungeon closed.

But it’s been 5 minutes since I entered the gates of hell.

I didn’t know which the 1 hour limit for the dungeons will apply to.

To be on the safe side though, I considered as if I had 30 minutes left and hurried.

Tossing the loot into the bag, I quickly moved on.

I had arrived at the furthest I could go towards the east, and now headed towards the north end.

The bag became heavier with the drops, but my footsteps only became lighter.

* * * *

“Ha… Ha…”

After taking down the Lich Kings in pairs, only the rank 1 with the red glowing eyes remained.

Trying to catch my breath, I used heal to regain my HP.

Most attacks I absorbed with my shield.

However, any attacks I didn’t recognized I did my best to avoid.

Since high ranking bosses appeared, I was incredibly nervous.

If they made someone like me with incredible amounts of strength this tired, I can pretty much guess how tough they are.

If these bosses weren’t (??) ranking bosses, I would use skills to lower their resistances and prevent healing.

Would’ve have been an easier time for me.

Sadly it didn’t work on them.

Most support and curse skills didn’t work on hidden bosses after all.

The last one.

Out of all of them that I’ve taken down, none of them dropped the armor set.

But I felt that this one would be different.

Meteor and Iceberg were on cool down.

“Come out Blue!”

“KWUHHHHHHH!”

The Devil Avatars appeared.

As I hoped for, both the summoned were of the ice attribute.

Thinking about how long the cool down and cast time for my main spells will be, I had to buy quite a lot of time.

“I’ll break through his shield. Put an icicle in his face for me, will ya?”

Both nodding their heads, they stood next to me on each side.

‘They’d be cute if they didn’t yell all the time.’

I charged at the Lich King.

“Ugh! He doesn’t even have a cast time for that?”

As if the Lich King heard my plan with the avatars, he began to pour down a blizzard on me.

Frosted arrows covered the skies, and began raining down below.

The force from the attack tore apart the ground, leaving holes as if a volcano erupted.

Getting close as I could, I casted Fire Shock and then began pouring skills until his shields fell apart.

“ORAAAAA!”

While pouring down those skills, a Holy Missile was reflected towards me.

Surprised, I twisted my body reflexively to avoid the attack.

To even use a Reflect Shield to reflect my attack.

He definitely deserved the title of grand magician.

-CRACK!

His shield finally broke apart.

The avatars finally moved on my command.

To make sure they didn’t get one shot, I made sure there was plenty of distance between them.

I also commanded them to make sure they spread apart from each other.

The two avatars began to pour away frost magic at the enemy.

“3 more minutes! Then it all ends.”

“KUWAAA!”

“Oh boy. All the bulky ones seem to be always good at yelling.”

* * * *

Finally, the last Lich King slowly lost the glow from his eyes as it collapsed.

The glow from his eyes were like the light from a candle, swaying in the wind.

“Ugh, gah….”

After quite a while, I was able to take down the Lich King.

Then.

The Lich King’s armor and helmet broke free from his body, and began to float around.

The dungeon did not have any sunlight, but the sheer size almost made shadows appear.

Finally, when the glow from his eyes were snuffed out..

The floating armor set fell towards me.

The size began to shrink to fit me perfectly, and I could use it without having to worry about my movements being hindered.

“Oho? So this is how it works?”

It was as if the Lich King’s armor set wandered about to search for its new owner until settling on me.

The shape was a bit different from what magician ranker Yoon Jong-sun had.

There were no unnecessary ornaments and looked similar to sleeping wear, thus, it destroyed the concept that armor has to be thick.

Even if I wore a shirt over this, no one would think that I was wearing armor underneath.

The Darkness armor set, which even consumed the light around it.

While I didn’t care much about the design, the special ability it provided was perfect for me.

“I guess the armor set you can get depends on the ranking of the boss? While the helmet is a bit embarrassing to wear, I made quite a fortune here.”

I was tapping and admiring my armor.

“Wait, this isn’t the time for that.”

I headed towards his corpse.

The skill books are a must, as well as the A ranking stone. But it would be disappointing if it ended there.

Because the main dish of Awakened Essences are left.

Two of them, both the size of my thumb, had dropped.

Since I was short on time, I had hurriedly shoved in all the drops from the other Lich Kings without checking them.

I was thinking about the blissful time I would be spending outside as I checked through all the loot.

There was a chance that while taking the stones and skill books, Awakened Essences might have slipped in there too after all.

* * * *

Through the gates of hell and out the exit portal, I was teleported outside of the dungeon.

Taking the stuffed backpack with me, I headed towards the bench, refreshed as I could be.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of someone stepping on dry branches.

Reflexively, I looked towards the source of the noise.

I saw a man in a suit.

From the bushes, he was staring at me.

As soon as our eyes met, he tried to run away as fast as possible.

‘Huh? Why is he so pathetic?’

In a blink of an eye, I arrived at his location.

“U… Uwa…”

“What is it?”

“….”

Looking at his movements, he wasn’t an Awakened.

He tried to flee as if a regular person came across a dog with rabies.

If I got too excited and grabbed onto him, he probably would’ve exploded into pieces from where he stood.

We only ran for 10m down the hill, but he was gasping for breath.

“Uwa… wew….”

“Who are you? What were you doing here?”

“…..”