Chapter 22: 22

Woong—

Magic pooled at the tip of the sword . At the same time, Su-hyeun’s sword stabbed into the Lizardcop’s eyes . Su-hyeun avoided the Lizardcop’s nails while letting go of a scream . He drew his body in, sliding amongst their legs .

Creak—

There was a Lizardcop standing at the back .

Su-hyeun’s new form that had slid along the ground disappeared from that same position .

The Lizardcop lost track of Su-hyeun’s movement, turned its head around, and found him soon after . It was looking in the wrong direction right from the start .

Su-hyeun wasn’t situated left nor right, nor was he under it, but just right above .

Kyaaa—!

Su-hyeun’s sword penetrated both the Lizardcop’s eye and head . The once screaming Lizardcop had started to go on a rampage, but Su-hyeun did not let go of his sword .

Crack—

Su-hyeun wrapped his other arm around the Lizardcop’s neck and strangled it . The Lizardcop shook its body harder to resist the force .

[You used the skill Berserk . ]

It was a skill that maximized one’s physical abilities depending on one’s fatigue, health, and blood loss which Su-hyeun obtained back when he fought the second floor’s boss, the Shayres’ chief .

For a long time, Su-hyeun had been working hard to increase his proficiency with this skill . As a result, though there might have been a slight loss in proficiency, Su-hyeun could now activate the skill at any time .

[Your Strength has been increased partially . ]

[Your Agility has increased partially . ]

[Your Health has been lost partially . ]

Su-hyeun used all of his available strength to strangle the Lizardcop . After being stabbed in its eye and head, the strangled Lizardcop’s body stiffened .

The result might have been different if it was unharmed, but since its head was punctured, it didn’t have much strength .

Flop—

After Su-hyeun let go, the Lizardcop’s body fell to the ground .

The others looked blankly at Su-hyeun, who flushed slightly at their stares .

“What are you doing?”

Su-hyeun looked at the party’s leader, Lee Ju-ho, and spoke .

“Not dealing with the others . ”

One Lizardcop died but the remaining four Lizardcops each lost their only eye and vision .

Moreover, in a situation where his power was predominate, everything had been well set up . The battle against the Lizardcops ended quickly .

As the battle ended, Lee Ju-ho verified if there were any casualties . Indeed, there were none .

“You fought better than I had expected,” Lee Ju-ho said as he approached Su-hyeun .

Su-hyeun was getting rid of the blood on his sword after the battle .

“Is that a compliment? Thank you, I guess . ”

“Are you possibly the Kim Su-hyeun everyone is talking about?” Even if he knew that the possibility was low, all he could do now was clarify . The abilities which he had showcased earlier were unbelievable, much like the acclaimed Kim Su-hyeun .

“Just think of me as an awakener who fights relatively well . ”

“Mm…”

What an ambiguous reply .

But it was obviously not positive . Lee Ju-ho had thought that Su-hyeun probably thought it rude to be asked such a question .

Lee Ju-ho was an awakener with a magic level of four . He could at least sense that the magic properties which Su-hyeun had were not of the same standards as he had .

Regardless of how well Su-hyeun was as a fighter, it was impossible for him as a C-rank awakener to change his ranking .

It was an unnecessary suspicion . Lee Ju-ho thought of it that way and shook his head . Anyway, he was glad to see that Su-hyeun had fought well up until now .

“If you have the chance, do take a special rank evaluation . According to your standards, there shouldn’t be a problem for you to obtain a B-rank . ”

A special rank evaluation does not take into account one’s magic level or factor but instead looks upon one’s stats and combat sense and other attributes to proceed with the assessment . It was the type of evaluation that rarely took place as it was cumbersome and also rare for an awakener to be that capable, exceeding his magic level .

But Lee Ju-ho thought that Su-hyeun had better capabilities compared to his magic level and factor .

At the same time, when Lee Ju-ho was flustered at how strong the Lizardcops were, he was also able to verify his team member’s abilities personally . He was relieved that his ally had such extraordinary abilities, though it might not have been the same if he were an enemy .

“Thank you for saying that . I will definitely consider it after completing this dungeon attack . ”

Su-hyeun looked around after replying Lee Ju-ho . Ever since he showcased his abilities, Su-hyeun was always observing his team member’s facial expressions . He wanted to find out who else felt hostility for the fact that there was a member who had outstanding skills .

After gathering after himself, Su-hyeun turned and followed the party from behind .

The monsters that appeared subsequently were of similar standards as the Lizardcops . Still, the others knew that Lee Ju-ho was stronger than the monsters, so they weren’t too big a deal .

Above all, Su-hyeun’s performance had exceeded expectations . Su-hyeun continued with a similar performance as the B-rank awakener Lee Ju-ho .

“This dungeon attack should be smooth sailing if it continues on like this . ”

“Yeah . As compared to when we first entered, the difficulty has not increased . Rather, the monsters that appeared subsequently were about the same as the Lizardcops . ”

They had let their guards down . Lee Ju-ho, too, had no longer felt threatened nor any danger as compared to the start .

Kim Ye-eun was stuck closely to Su-hyeun .

“Did you know?”

“What is there to now?” Su-hyeun felt uncomfortable with Kim Ye-eun sticking around him and trying to engage in a conversation with him . It was annoying, and the topics were mostly about his personal life .

“Aren’t you acting a little uncomfortable?”

“Because you’re always asking about things that are difficult to answer . ”

“I want to give you a piece of good information . Don’t you want it?”

Good information? Su-hyeun shut his mouth, contemplating whether or not to listen to it . According to his experience up until now, she would continue to speak from here .

And sure enough…

“You know, those two people there . ”

Her eyes darted quickly to Lee Ju-ho and Kim Ba-reun, who were both leading the team in the front .

“I dug up some information about them before; they have quite a bad reputation . ”

“What do you mean by that?”

“There were a lot of problems when they were dividing the resources after dungeon attacks . They either divide resources unfairly to their team members or would request for more resources by coming up with excuses using the accidents which happened in the dungeon . ”

Su-hyeun seemed to have understood where she was coming from . For someone who had experienced dungeon attacks for quite a while, it would be common for him to have done this if he is obsessed with money . They would argue on the distribution of the Ether stones . If some disagreed, they would use violence on them . Such awakeners would never have accepted others stronger than themselves .

“I’ll remember that,” Su-hyeun answered .

Kim Ye-eun gave a curious look at Su-hyeun, who did not respond much to such a sensitive story .

In fact, it was not something that Su-hyeun was interested in .

There were tons of people like them with such evil character . The real dangerous ones were those who created accidents just to reduce the number of resources that would be divided amongst the group .

According to Kim Ye-eun’s words, at least Lee Ju-ho wasn’t that bad . But of course, he wasn’t so nice to be entirely cleared of that possibility either .

Although they had entered quite deep into the dungeon, there weren’t any more monsters that appeared . The scale of the dungeon was more extensive than expected . It seemed that there was no end to it even after having walked for hours .

The dungeon got bigger as they explored further in . The dungeon was initially 20 meters wide but had now grown five times larger .

“There — isn’t that a door over there?” Ahn Min-seok narrowed his eyes and squinted into the distance .

A huge door was located at the end of this dungeon . The thick and dark-colored door seemed to be the entrance to another dungeon .

“A door? In this kind of place?”

It was the type of door that even the most experienced Lee Ju-ho had never seen before .

Although he had entered dungeons similar to this one various times, he had never even heard of one that had an artificial iron door in it .

“What shall we do?” The same anxiousness that he had felt when they first entered the dungeon returned .

Ahn Min-seok hit his chest hard at Lee Ju-ho’s question . “What do you mean? We should obviously enter . What difference does a door make?”

“That’s right . This door might be the end of this dungeon, too . It’s ridiculous to turn back now . ”

Most of the responses were in agreement . Su-hyeun watched them silently .

Lee Ju-ho turned the question to Su-hyeun .

“Mr . Su-hyeun, what do you think?”

“I was hoping to turn back…”

Was it an unexpected answer?

The others’ expressions stiffened at Su-hyeun’s words . Su-hyeun then changed his words slightly . “But if everyone is in agreement, I’ll follow as well . ”

“Phew . ”

“Ha . ”

A thankful sigh of relief .

With this, everyone was in agreement . Although Lee Ju-ho was conflicted, eventually, he had no thoughts to turn back . Lee Ju-ho grabbed the doorknob as he nodded his head .

“Then, I’ll open it now . ”

Creak—

As he pushed forward, the heavy iron door opened . Lee Ju-ho took the lead, and each of the members entered into the dark .

Behind the door was a vast and spacious cave . Su-hyeun’s eyes narrowed as he looked around the dimly lit place .

The others might have thought that this was the end of the dungeon, but Su-hyeun thought otherwise .

The amount of magic felt in the dungeon from earlier was different . The others probably had felt the same, as they started talking with anxiety in their voices .

[Welcome into the dungeon . ]

[The trial will start from this moment on . ]

Suddenly, a message appeared not only in Su-hyeun’s but also in everyone’s minds .

Creak—

Boom—!

The door behind them closed tightly with a massive sound .