Chapter 72 – The Land Where None Have Stepped On (2)

The dungeon I entered was like a track field covered in a layer of snow.

The walls and ceiling too. It was almost as if someone painted everything in pure white.

It was to the point where it was hard to believe that any monsters were in here.

I couldn’t even tell where it ended.

Since the walls and floor wasn’t distinctly separated, I wouldn’t be able to tell that this was the entrance without touching the wall behind me.

-CRASH!

-BOOM! BOOM!

I spammed fire attribute magic such as Explosion and Meteor around the entrance.

It served the same purpose as the bread crumbs in Hansel and Gretel.

Soot and blackened dirt were left at the entrance because I really did think I could possibly lose my way in this dungeon.

The current situation was that I had zero intel on this level 34 portal.

Firstly, I headed towards the 9 o’clock bearing relative to the entrance in order to check the strength of the monsters.

Since it was highly dangerous to run forward recklessly and aggro a bunch of monsters to herd them before taking them down without a plan, I planned to check the strength of the monsters before coming up with a course of action.

Casting the instant cast Explosion around me, I continued forward.

It was also to confirm one end of this dungeon, where a wall would be.

-BOOM!

“Hm? Did I already reach it?”

It didn’t even take 3 minutes before Explosion is burning on the wall in front of me.

Despite being only a short distance and time, I wondered how come I didn’t see a single monster.

I guess the level 18 dungeon was similar with the griffon and poison naga, only 20 monsters or so appearing inside the dungeon.

My suspicion lasted only a moment, and I continued to head deeper into the dungeon.

****

Towards 12 o’clock. Then turning to 3 o’clock.

Like that, I went full circle back to the marked entrance after covering a square piece of the dungeon.

Despite going in a circle for 15 minutes, not only did I not see a single monster, but I couldn’t even hear their howling either.

I felt like something was off.

“Perhaps…..”

The worry I felt made me wonder if it was possible for the monsters to be stealthed.

Because of that, I’ve been casting single fire magic continuously until now.

All the stealth skills used by the Awakened become undone when hit by attacks or the duration runs out.

The monsters up to now haven’t used any stealth skills, but I didn’t know what could happen here.

I casted Eye of Insight.

“I had my doubts, but it’s true.”

The center of the dungeon.

A lot of red dots were there.

Eye of Insight showed stealthed targets, but when used on monsters, it also showed their weaknesses.

All those red spots that I could see must be their weaknesses displayed to me.

And since they were stealthed, their form would become visible to me as well.

I ran forward to the center where they were gathered.

In the center, monsters were moving in pairs of 2 to 3.

They didn’t move in any predictable patterns, resembling feathers swaying in the wind.

I looked at them carefully.

“What should I call them…?”

Keeping a sufficient amount of distance, the form I gazed upon was something so vague that it was hard to describe with words.

It didn’t have a solid form, and it was hard to call it a lifeform of any kind.

If I have to put it into words, something that looks similar to the oval portal I’ve entered through?

Yeah. They looked like sky blue pastel colored portals, floating in the air.

I couldn’t feel any threatening pressure from them.

On top of that, they seemed to go along with the dungeon’s background so well that I felt like they were ornaments.

The red dots were on the center of their bodies.

It was the weakness that the Eye of Insight was showing me.

If I focused my attacks on that location, I should be able to take them down faster.

“Shall I see how well you fight?”

I casted Lightning Spray towards 3 monsters separated from the main group.

-ZAAP!

Lightning Spray hit dead center.

The enormous amount of electricity not only hit them, but was flowing through them.

However, it didn’t seem that it took much damage.

Afterwards, they began to head towards me.

However, they moved at speeds far slower than what anyone could have imagined.

They flew towards me at the speed of a trolley.

Every time they moved, they gave off a static like sound that would get on one’s nerves.

Looking at how they moved, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m not sure who made you, but they must’ve dozed off when they did.”

They had finally arrived near me.

Then.

-ZAAP!

“What the!”

My Mana Shield shook violently.

A massive amount of electricity had poured towards me.

It was the exact same Lightning Spray that I had casted moments ago.

Also, its form was that of a level 200 Lightning Spray.

“It copies the attack it receives?”

Unless they copied an attack that was beyond ranking, it wouldn’t go through Mana Shield.

To understand more about them, I began to follow up with stronger attack skills.

I used Explosion and Holy Missile once each on them.

-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The result was the same.

They fired back the attack they received.

“You passed up to A ranking single fire attacks. How about this one?”

The surround area was covered in a transparent fire.

Perfect for disposing corpses… I mean, a high damage spell called Fire Shock.

The egotistical lizardmen that possessed immunity towards physical damage and even a little magical resistance had received massive amounts of damage by Fire Shock.

However, not only did they received it with their whole body, but they were absorbing it, making some kind of screeching scream.

“KEERIIICK!”

“Oho? Looks like this one hurt? And their size shrunk a bit.”

Their height, which was similar to mine, seemed to shrink by a bit.

It seemed that the more damage they took, the smaller they became.

“So they aren’t able to reflect attacks beyond A ranking AoE attack ski-…”

-WOOSH!

As if making fun of me and ignoring my words, massive amounts of fire poured down on me.

“Aren’t they a taunting bunch? I don’t think I’ll be satisfied until I crush them. Time to stop playing around. It’s time for total annihilation!”

-CRASH!

-BOOM!

My strongest attack skill, Meteor Call. I spammed it down on them.

The pure white dungeon was covered in black flames.

Everywhere, chunks of the intense flames were scattered about.

“KE-KE-KEERICK.”

Once again, they emitted a sound similar to that of mice.

Around 6 to 7 Meteors later, their sizes shrunk to that of peas.

My guess was that the next Meteor would be the last one I needed to cast before they were annihilated.

-CRASH!

Just as I predicted, they returned 3 times the amount of presents I gave them.

My Mana Shield shook more than any attack I’ve received with it so far.

Mana Shield depleted mana instead of health equivalent to the damage taken.

It was okay because my mana was infinite, but if it wasn’t, even Yoon Jong-sun would be annihilated on the spot if he was to receive this kind of attack.

The damage from the level 200 Meteor Call that hasn’t existed in this world before was absolutely insane after all.

Then.

[Experience 2,000,000 obtained.]

[Experience 2,000,000 obtained.]

[Experience 2,000,000 obtained.]

“Wait. Why are there so many zeroes? One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand……. Millions?”

“Wait a min. How many are there?”

Roughly 30 red dots were present.

Each gave out 2,000,000 experience?

60,000,000 experience if I get all the monsters in the dungeon?

I remembered the saying ‘The dungeon is large and the experience is amazing.’

Currently my level was 315.

Like a snowball rolled atop of a hill adding up as it went down, the experience pool I required to level had reached to the point of requiring 230,000,000.

However, each time I defeat all the monsters in here, I gain 60,000,000.

Thus, I would be able to level up once by clearing this dungeon 4 times.

“Guess I’m not sleeping today.”

****

I defeated all the monsters inside and exited.

All of them were gathered in the center.

When I cleared the dungeon, an exit had appeared in the center of the dungeon.

I saw Jong Ho and Ho Jin sitting in front of the portal, letting out smoke from their cigars.

Seeing me appear, Jong Ho fanned away the smoke with his hand and spoke.

“Came out faster than I expected.”

“What. Why do you sound like you weren’t worried at all?”

“Huh! What are you saying. I was definitely worried.”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

“Hey! I was very worried for the monsters inside. The monster butcherer had entered, so how could I not be worried for them?”

“Hohoho. I was also hoping that you wouldn’t be covered in too much blood as well when you came out.”

“I didn’t do that. Not at all! Also, the dungeon here is a lot cleaner than I thought.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Not a drop of blood even after hitting the monsters until they are annihilated. And of course, they still drop bloodstones.”

“Oho… How are the monsters? Do you think they’ve become a lot stronger?”

“Hm… I think it’ll be best if you two come in first and see for yourselves.”

Taking a step backwards, Ho Jin spoke.

“… Do I have to go as well?”

“Of course mister, you have to come as well!”

“Then… let me make one phone call to someone at home… Ahh!”

I pulled Jong Ho and Ho Jin by their hands.

Since the portal was cleared already, the shape was changed to that of a dungeon entrance.

However, I could enter it right away since there was no intercom or a fingerprint scanner I’d have to go through.

It was equivalent to a theme park that didn’t require an entry ticket.

Just like that, the three of us entered.

****

“Is this okay like this?”

“My words…..”

“Did you level up a lot?”

“After 27 years, I have reached level 100.”

“Oh! I just hit level 100 as well.”

In just 3 hours, both mid-level 80s had reached level 100.

Despite the experience being split between three people, each clear gave 20,000,000.

20,000,000 experience every 10 min. It was an amount that was hard to believe even for me, so I was wondering how these two felt.

Looking at how these two were staring blankly into space as if they had lost all awareness, I had a feeling that I understood a little bit.

“Hey. Min-Cheol. You told us to stay put so I’m doing that but I have to ask. I only see the explosive Meteors and I don’t see anything, but why are we obtaining a ridiculous amount of experience?”

“Same here. I can’t see the monsters.”

“The monsters here are stealthed. Even if I use Eye of Insight, hyung and mister aren’t able to see them.”

“A monster that uses stealth? But it looks like you’re the only one attacking. Aren’t these monsters weak?”

“Ah, that’s probably because you can only see the Meteor. They perfectly copy the skills I use and return the attack. Even the skill level is copied.”

“Wow… If I get closer to spectate, I don’t think I could stand up due to my fear.”

“Right. Mister! You said that you would call your wife?”

“Ah. Nope. No news is good news.”

“Pfft. Since you already came out all the way here with me, collect some rewards before you go.”

“I’m always thankful. But Min-Cheol, I don’t think I can pass this up.”

“I-I will also be in your care for a bit.”

“Now you two sound like real people! Let’s go!”

Just like that, a crazy leveling spree unlike anything in the world began.