Chapter 74 – Level Up for You and Me

We entered the dungeon after cleaning up the mess of alcohol in the cart.

Ho Jin naturally followed into the dungeon at my request.

Jong Ho had his eyes half open in a drunken stupor.

“Ho Jin hyung! Why did we go to the dungeon for our second round of drinking! And it’s not been long since we just finished hunting…. Hic!”

“Woah… I think we’ll have to put Jong Ho hyung to sleep first?”

“Hoho. I think he’s pretty drunk. But Min-Cheol, why did we come to the dungeon?”

“Ah.”

I handed the ring on my finger to Ho Jin and spoke.

Instead of explaining with words, it would be faster if he saw it firsthand.

“This. This is the solution to our problem.”

“Huh? This ring is?”

“What? Me too! I want to put the ring on too!”

“Do you have tranquilizer gun? If not, maybe with brute force… But I’m not sure if I can control my strength.”

“Oh no. That would be very bad. You can just lend him the Titan Boots that you are wearing for a bit. Since being drunk also counts as a status effect.”

“Oh… So there was such a method. Then shall we try it?”

I took off the Titan Boots and had Jong Ho wear them.

Suddenly, Jong Ho snapped out of his stupor almost as if he had never been drunk in the first place.

I spoke to him, who was looking around confusedly as if he had come back from time traveling.

“Are you okay now?”

“Oh. When did Min-Cheol arrive? Isn’t this the level 14 dungeon? I’m sure that I was in the middle of drinking with Ho Jin hyung…”

“That’s not important right now. You can look for the lost films of your memory later. First, take a look at this.”

“What’s so important?”

“Mister, you have the Piercing Sword, right?”

“Yes, I do have it.”

“I’ll draw a few succubi over here, so will you cast it for me? It’ll help in understanding the ability of the ring.”

Finishing my explanation, I cast Mass Stealth Jutsu on Jong Ho and Ho Jin, and then charged at the succubi.

I saw a decently sized group.

Using Explosion, I pulled their aggro.

Despite how Explosion shouldn’t disappear until the target was burnt into nothingness, it must feel like an annoying fly due to their 100% magic resistance.

I received the attacks with my Mana Shield until I got to the entrance.

I spoke to the stealthed Ho Jin.

“Mister. Try using Piercing Sword.”

“Yes. Will do.”

Since it was a skill that only hit the selected targets of the wielder, Ho Jin prepared to cast Piercing Sword without much hesitation.

I wouldn’t be targeted after all.

Even if it hit me, I wouldn’t receive any major damage.

Roughly a hundred Banwol Jincheons floated behind Ho Jin and flew towards the succubi.

With the attack, Ho Jin’s stealth broke and the succubi screamed out pain as they bled.

“You have to at least leave one!”

“Yes.”

“Mister. What’s your skill level right now?”

“32. Thanks to the recent leveling and Banwol Jincheon, they die in about two hits.”

“Hm… The mana cost is roughly 10% of max mana, right?”

“That’s correct.”

I stepped on the corpses of the dead succubi lying around, and it didn’t take long for them to turn into Revival Succubi.

To take out the revived succubi, a total of 50% mana was used, in other words, 5 Piercing Swords were cast.

Even if they both spent all their mana, it was be too much for Jong Ho and Ho Jin to defeat the incubus in one go, since that boss would revive all the succubi in the dungeon.

“Now, try wearing the ring I gave you.”

Jong Ho, who was looking at the entire situation quietly, spoke up in a whining manner.

Since the situation was being dragged away from drinking into the dungeon with Ho Jin, after all.

“Hey. Are you here to spy on our hunting?”

“No way. I’m here to solve your worries.”

“I’ve equipped it.”

It was a ring without any patterns or indentations, half transparent and green.

“Is there any change in your stat window?”

“No. Is it a ring with stats? It feels like I’ve just put on a grandma’s garakji ring? Hoho…..” “Now, please hold onto Banwol Jincheon with the hand that has the ring equipped and wait a bit. I’ll be pulling the succubi again.”

“Yes… I’ll do that.”

Ho Jin’s face was filled with questions as he answered me.

I pulled hundreds of succubi within the dungeon.

Flapping their wings, they chased in a line without end.

Confirming my actions, Jong Ho and Ho Jin couldn’t hide their nervous looks as they clenched their swords.

The monsters neared as they simultaneously poured their attacks on me.

I spoke towards the very nervous looking Ho Jin.

“Mister. Focus as hard as you can on the ring and cast Piercing Sword.”

“Focus on the ring?”

“Yes. You have to continue focusing on it.”

“Min-Cheol, please take the Banwol Jincheon. Ho Jin hyung is almost out of mana, so it’s probably better that you take care of them?”

“Observe carefully, hyung-nim.”

Summoned around Ho Jin was a sword aura that couldn’t even be compared to the previous one.

On top of that, the red smoke that was coming off made it impossible to not notice the destructive force behind it.

It was because a level 200 Awakened Piercing Sword was summoned on standby to annihilate the enemy.

“Wha… What is this!”

“… I’m not sure of it either.”

“Try attacking now, with the goal of leaving roughly two of them alive.”

-SLICE!

Only the sound of the air splitting apart was heard.

However, all the succubi in the vicinity were annihilated before they could even utter a scream.

It was the same with the ones that regenerated.

There was no point to them rising up, as they met the cold floor once more.

“Im… Impossible.”

“How did this happen? Isn’t this an Awakened Piercing Sword?”

The name of the ring was called Balrok’s Treasure Storage.

It wasn’t a ring with an ability that raised any defensive or offensive stats.

It had a far more powerful ability.

It allowed one to save skills into the ring, including the level of the skill.

There was no limit as to how many you could store.

You’re probably wondering how I found out the ability of the ring, since there was no information out there regarding the ring that drops from the level 34 hidden dungeon boss.

It was thanks to the Eye of Insight.

After the skill went through a second Awakening via the defective Awakening Essence, the skill gained the ability to identify objects on top of the original effect of seeing through stealth and identifying weak points.

Just by casting the skill and looking at objects, I would be able to discover the ability of the object and how to use it.

Thus, I would be able to identify all the loot I get from now on with this.

I was trying to Awaken a skill that wasn’t all that important to hunting, but I scored a pretty powerful ability in the process.

“What about your mana?”

“Seems I have 50% left… It didn’t go down at all except for what I used before.”

“What? Your mana wasn’t consumed?”

“How about that? Guess your worries are solved now, hyung?”

“It’s a ring that allows me to use Awakened Piercing Sword?”

“No. It allows me to store any skill I can use.”

“I’ve never heard of a ring that has that ability.”

“Same here.”

“I’ve put in roughly 100 Piercing Swords in there. Now, you just have to take out a Piercing Sword from the ring each time you hunt.”

“…..”

“…..”

They couldn’t help but stare at me blankly, absolutely speechless.

I couldn’t help but laugh, since they looked so funny.

“Ah. I’ll put in Meteor or Iceberg, as well as the whole lot in there, so once you level up enough to have the defensive capabilities, go enter the dungeons that require magic attacks. The wearer can check how many spells are left for each type, so get some refills from me time to time. It would be great if it could store shields as well, but seems it can’t.”

“S-Sure…”

“Yes… I understand…”

“Since the two of you hunt together, I think one will be enough. But if another drops, I’ll give it to you. And that’s the end of the new product showcasing. Let’s go!”

****

Just like that, the explanation of Balrok’s Treasure Storage ring was completed.

Even during the drive back home with the completely sober Jong Ho, I continued to save Piercing Sword into the ring.

Even if they entered the dungeon to the point where the coating of the IDs were coming off, it should be plenty for a couple days’ worth of use.

That’s how the meet up with the hyungs ended, and I arrived home.

Normally I would be so tired that I would just shower and fall asleep, but I couldn’t do that today.

Since I had the Eye of Insight, I could find out about the transparent marble, as well as the condition required to equip the twin blades Joker used.

Taking into consideration that mother had sensitive ears at night, I headed quietly into my room.

On top of my desk were the twin blades and marble.

It’s been a week of transferring them back and forth from the table to my pocket in order to find out what they really were.

Holding the transparent marble in my hand, I began to scan it with the Eye of Insight.

-Pae Wang’s Marble-

*Can be obtained by defeating Alloss in the Unknown Dungeon.

*Recovers all health and mana upon use.

*Body becomes immortal for 1 minute upon use.

*Become twice as powerful for 1 minute upon use.

“This isn’t a joke.”

This item called Pae Wang’s Marble surprised me a lot with its ability.

I suspected that it had recovery properties, since Joker was looking for it desperately when he was nearing his death.

But to think that it was this powerful…

Recovering all of your health and mana, along with cheat-like buffs.

If Joker had consumed this, the tide of battle would have changed in a split second.

But there was one thing that bothered me, the ‘Unknown Dungeon.’

Far as I knew, the dungeons formed were based on the number of growth rings on the portal.

The number of rings indicated the level of the dungeon.

Thus the dungeons were categorized separately depending on their level.

There are exceptions where words such as manticore or succubus can be added to the dungeon name due to the special types of monsters appearing within.

There is a possibility that there is a monster with the name Unknown, but it was more likely that it literally meant of a dungeon that cannot be known.

“Is it a dungeon beyond level 34? Something you could obtain from there… It would be easily plausible with Joker’s offensive and evasion capabilities.”

I questioned it for a bit, then let my gaze rest on the table to check the twin swords he left behind.

-Asura’s Twin Blades-

*Can be obtained from the Unknown Dungeon by defeating Kawuro.

*Strength increased by 600~700. (15% of total strength increased)

*Dexterity increased by 200~300. (15% of total dexterity increased)

*(Seal) Cannot be used by anyone except the one who originally obtained it.

“He blew himself in front of me while holding a weapon like this?”

The weapon I used, Banwol Jincheon, increased my strength by 400 and 10% of my total strength on top of that.

A M/A ranked sword. It’s an A ranking weapon that only monsters drop.

Only a few would have this, and weapons beyond that ranking would be extremely difficult to see.

But this Asura’s Twin Blades had the 600 strength increase, and the bonus percentage stats to boot.

Sadly, this weapon that I suspected to require a special condition to be met in order to be used would not allow anyone but Joker to use it.

I finally understood why there was no change when Jong Ho, Ho Jin, and I held it.

I felt that I could trust the Eye of Insight a bit more now.

Rather than leveling up to increase my stamina stat, it would probably help more in increasing my combat capabilities by obtaining a better weapon, accessories, and armor.

My curiosity and expectation for the Unknown Dungeon increased.

“The marble and even the weapon. Seems this Unknown Dungeon sounds really enticing?”

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