118. Hidden Boss + Mimic = ? (4)

“KUWUHHH!”

“Jewel Goat King? At least the name is accurate. But to think that I’d meet the boss at my first visit…..”

When I turned around, the Jewel Goat King was standing before me.

The size was about the same as the level 1 dungeon boss, Goat King.

It was much bigger than the average Jewel Goat and carried a halberd that scaled with its size.

To think that I’d be able to meet the boss of the level 39 dungeon at first entry.

However, I did not know if it was a hidden boss or not.

There was a chance that it was just a regular boss that appears 100% of the time like some dungeons have.

I could probably tell if it was one or not by the grade of the artifact it dropped.

“Guess I’ll find out by beating it down.”

“KUWUHH!”

As expected, it sprayed poison as it charged me.

It had an attack pattern that had poison followed by self destruction.

Against me, who was far superior in terms of combat capabilities, this monster was easy as the Goat King from the level 1 dungeon.

No matter how it struggled, it would be sliced apart from a single blow from me and perish.

And with how slow it moved, none of its attacks would connect with me.

I didn’t even give it a chance to attack.

As if it was a one on one battle between generals, I used all my strength to kick off the ground and charge towards the Jewel Goat King.

I gripped tightly onto the handle of my sword.

A quicker kill meant that it would increase the chances of me obtaining an artifact.

That’s why there was no time for me to rest.

I aimed Butcher’s Sword towards its lower body.

“KUWECK!”

It was a perfect strike that went cleanly through.

The Jewel Goat King that was charging at full speed could not slow down, and its body rolled across the floor helplessly.

The lower part of its body squirmed around as if it was still alive.

Its green blood sprayed out of its body and hit the floor, spreading toxins nearby.

It seemed that any liquids expelled from its body had toxic properties.

Ignoring inertia, I jumped away in the opposite direction where the monster had rolled towards in an instant, faster than the time it took for its body to come to a rolling halt.

“KIRI! KIRII! KUWUH!”

“It’s arrogant for a goat, whether big or small, to be walking around on two legs.”

“KUWUWUH!”

As if it was trying to blow out our eardrums, it let out a mighty Fear.

After that, its body began to swell up like a balloon.

My guess was that it was its final act of resistance.

I assumed that its body would swell up and explode, creating some poison smog.

At least that’s what I thought until I was about to stab down my sword into its head.

As I gripped the handle and was about to strike down…

The red colored floor began to tremble slightly.

Almost as if magma was erupting, something bubbled up from each of the crevices in the ground.

It was poison.

The green colored poison filled up the crevices and spilled out, covering the nearby area and began spreading out.

It must be a skill that the Jewel Goat King used.

“Little goat bitch! Should’ve died peacefully!”

My panic against its little trick didn’t last long.

If it dies, it should stop casting its skill.

Without hesitation, I immediately plunged the sword into its head and turned it.

It died without making a sound, and massive amount of artifacts dropped before me.

Skill books and Awakened Essences were a given, but I also saw a sword and armor, as well as an Essence of Transcendence.

Almost as if it was spilling out all the bloodstones that didn’t drop from all the other monsters, a massive amount of stones piled up.

However…

“What…. Why isn’t it stopping?”

The tide of poison that rose up didn’t show any signs of stopping.

In that short amount of time, it had already submerged me up to my ankles.

Since I had my Mana Shield, I didn’t receive any damage.

And even if I did cast away my shield, I still had my Titan Boots that made me immune, so there was nothing to worry about.

But it was then I remembered about a single person.

It was Jong Ho.

With this much poison flooding out, it wouldn’t take long for for whole surface of the dungeon to be covered in it.

Even as I thought about it, it had already rose up to my ankles in such a brief moment.

This dungeon was huge.

The exit must have formed, but I did not know where it was.

I had to find Jong Ho immediately and get to the exit safely.

“Shit!”

I tossed the artifacts to the side and ran.

No matter what skill book or items dropped, Jong Ho was my priority.

The skill he had was the strongest defensive skill for a warrior called Otherworldly Skin, which only lasted for 5 minutes and had a cooldown of 15 minutes.

And on top of that, it did not block all forms of damage, which meant that he wasn’t completely immune.

It may decrease the amount of damage he took at the start, but it wouldn’t block it completely.

Poison would be rising up even at the entrance where he was waiting at.

With one hand on my Butcher’s Sword and the other holding onto the pair of Titan Boots I hurriedly took off, I ran.

I ran while praying that his ridiculously high stamina stat would allow him to hold out the entire time.

****

“Hyung! Are you ok?”

“……..”

“Wake up!”

“…….”

-SMACK!

“Open your eyes!”

“Kuhu….. Hey! Stop hitting me.”

“Thank goodness. Thank goodness. But why is your skin all black. Scaring me like that!”

“Can’t help that the skill effect gives off this color. I casted Otherworldly Skin in an effort to survive, you know. But why did a pool of poison start rising out of the ground? I almost died.”

“A hidden boss appeared. It was a skill it used as it died.”

“That shitty goat should’ve died peacefully.”

“I also said that.”

“Pretty cool telepathy we have.”

“For now, I put Titan Boots on you. You shouldn’t be receiving any more damage from the poison.”

“Thanks. But why does my body feel so heavy. It’s hard to breathe as well…..”

“I think it’s because you’re already poisoned. This is a huge problem, since I don’t have any recovery skills for status effects…….”

“Bro, you are lacking in brains. Aren’t situations like this why you learned Status Denial?”

“…..”

Jong Ho recovered, being restored back to a time before becoming poisoned.

If anymore time had passed, the situation could’ve turned dire.

There was enough poison now to cover up to our torsos, but it wasn’t that bad.

I lead Jong Ho towards the loot that the Jewel Goat King dropped.

Since Jong Ho wasn’t taking damage from the poison now, we had to take what we came for.

“This dungeon is quite lethal.”

“I agree. While we’re at it, you should use the Titan Boots from now. I don’t really need it.”

“I’ll pass, you fool. I’m not coming back here at all.”

“You’re really stubborn, like the level 38 dungeon. Whew! Just suffocating.”

Jong Ho spoke with a rare serious expression.

“We need to go the demonic realm and end all of this.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden? Weren’t you just complaining about how you didn’t want to go?”

“You said it yourself. As more magical energies gather on Earth, higher level portals will explode. And magical energies will continue to increase due to Awakened like us.”

“……..”

“Imagine what would happen if this a portal like this level 39 exploded due to the ever increasing stockpile of magical energies on Earth. The monsters wouldn’t be too difficult to subdue, but…. think about the poison these guys would leave….. and the damages the poison would inflict. We don’t even know how long the poison would persist for in the slightest.”

“That’s true.”

“I must follow suit on your resolve…..”

“Oh! I see it over there.”

“Hey! Hyung-nim is speaking! But why is there so much loot that dropped?”

“Most of them are probably stones. Let’s hurry up and gather them, then head for the exit.”

“Alright.”

We bicker like this all the time, but when it comes to loot, we show synergy like a power couple that’s been married for 30 years.

After all, it didn’t take a single minute for us to finish looting and start looking around for missed loot, if any.

Our gaze met and we couldn’t help but laugh.

“At times like these, we really act as if we’re brothers.”

“I know. Now let’s go find that exit quickly, hyung-nim. We can’t just take our time either.”

“Right. Let’s spread out. The one who finds the exit fires off a signal.”

“Yes.”

****

“What? Did you still not find it?”

“Yes. It wasn’t over here. Hyung-nim, are you sure that you didn’t just search haphazardly?”

“No way! Are you sure that you were searching every nook and cranny?”

“Oho! Let’s swap our search locations. Hyung-nim will take the side I searched this time, and I will take the other.”

“Okay. The one who made the mistake will be starving tonight. I feel bad for the food! You aren’t worthy enough to eat the food!”

“Just you wait and see. You can just stand back and watch me eat.”

Just like that, I was given the area that Jong Ho had searched.

However, no matter how hard I looked, I could not find the exit.

‘Did I really miss it…. Not sure why I acted that way. Now I’m going to miss dinner.’

Thinking about my mistake, I headed back to the center of the dungeon.

However, I was able to see that Jong Ho did not appear happy either.

Jong Ho carefully spoke first.

“Um….. No matter what, eating is important, right?”

“Of course? Of course. Eating is important, no matter what mistakes are made.”

“Yep. Thanks. So where is the exit?”

“Huh? I thought it was on your side?”

“What are you talking about. No matter where I looked, I couldn’t find one.”

“It’s the same for me. I didn’t find a single trace of the exit.”

“……”

“……”

In a single moment, a smile formed on both of our faces.

This situation was a familiar one.

After all, it had appeared during our hunts before.

We were both absolutely sure, but tried our best to hide our excitement with an awkward smile.

“No way. Do you really think that it would appear again?”

“Right? You should really search better. Even though you’re young, you can’t find the exit?”

“Ahaha. Right. I apologize. But why are you suddenly fumbling around with Balrock’s ring?”

“Ah, well, you know. Just in case.”

“Do you really think that it would be though?”

“So what is that Meteor falling down above you?”

“Just in case! Just in case! We don’t know for sure, so I’m just checking for a bit.”

“You really are greedy. We’re going to check just for a bit, okay? Just to see if there really is a mimic or not.”

“Yes!”

The swamp made from the poisonous liquid trembled at the shockwaves caused by the Meteors.

The green sea of poison that we believed would not dissipate easily disappeared before the flames of the Meteors.

No matter how toxic the liquid was, it was nothing before the level 300 Meteor.

Jong Ho and I casted Meteor all over the place.

It was to find the mimic.

There were traces of madness in both our expressions.

It was because we had tasted the bliss the insane amount of artifacts a mimic had dropped before.

It happened when the distance between us had increased significantly.

“Min-Cheol!”

“…..”

“Over here, over here!”

“……”

“Oh boy.”

I received a sudden attack.

It was such a strong attack that it made me think that another hidden boss was out roaming instead of a mimic.

Preparing to counter, I turned around and was greeted by both relief and happiness.

The attack was a Holy Shock that Jong Ho casted towards me.

To think that the skill I stored myself would come back to hit me.

Due to the increase in skill level and the magical energy bonus, the attack was very destructive.

Looking at Jong Ho, he was making gestures in an attempt to inform me of something.

It was probably to let me know that he found the mimic.

“Did you find it? I’m on my way!”

Feeling as though it was my lucky day, I walked with light footsteps.

I couldn’t forget the joy of finding a mimic.