chapter 400
400 – Soloing
After finishing my long training, I did not fall to the floor like before.
‘Huuuuu─’
After catching my breath, I swung my great sword in a flow of magical power that was slightly different from the space I had spent a long time in.
Sigh—!
In the air where the sword passed, there is a gap in space that can be noticed only if you look closely.
‘Is it about 20cm? It’s doubled from before, right?’
I had just come out of training, and when my spirit was heightened, the spatial slash showed tremendous power.
The way to untie Yeonhui that Master decided to teach me.
As a condition, the teacher suggested cutting a space of 3 meters.
My cut was still far short of 3 meters, but 20 centimeters would be enough to fatally wound a decent humanoid monster, so it was an encouraging enough achievement.
‘Is the Master God?’
This is what chance means.
I’ve gotten better at loosening bonds now.
‘It’s happening! I’m satisfied with just growing!’
Ignorant training that kills time to show the master’s skill in swordsmanship, which is said to be so poor that he clicks his tongue.
It didn’t seem possible at all, but with the best teacher, Dunjae is improving as much as an ant’s tears.
[Yeah, that’s right. This is what happens… Click-]
‘…’
Even the teacher seems a little surprised.
Didn’t you train me from the beginning thinking it would work?
[Anyway, this time it was a huge success. What is the feeling of turbidity accumulating?]
‘I don’t think it’s even half as good as last time.’
[Ho-Oh, as expected. How can I show my talent in this field as well…]
‘Yes?’
[No. Hehe- I’ll go do research again, so be more diligent during the remaining time.]
‘Yes. Take a look. ‘Master.’
I continued practicing swordsmanship again, watching my teacher disappear in an instant.
‘I need to continue my senses a little longer…’
I swung it with concentration hundreds of times more.
Grumbling-
Fuuuuu~!!
‘Oh?! It feels like the odds are gradually increasing.’
The interval at which black flames appear during normal swings has gradually decreased, and now it explodes about once every five hundred swings.
Pressure- Pressure-
After the training is over, we feed Rainy, who is learning ‘purification’ in an amazing way, and check the area of the tree that is gradually expanding.
‘It keeps getting bigger like this, so where can I use it?’
It may not be possible to occupy all of this infinitely large space, and I have no idea yet.
(Puha- It’s getting more and more delicious!!)
‘Yeah, really? ‘Thank goodness.’
I, who was becoming an increasingly delicious skeleton, was soon sucked into the gate of summoning with Yeonhee’s spell calling me.
*
The morning of dungeon exploration with colleagues dawned.
“Are we still together until today?”
Bae Joo-ah entered the golden pastiche dungeon, pointed at me, and asked Yeon-hee.
“Yes… As I said in the group chat room yesterday, we will be going through the pastiche dungeon until the others reach level 73. And when we enter the new dungeon, Ilwol will be with us for a day or two, and we will play together until we reach level 75. Let’s go back together.”
It seems like there are standards set by colleagues.
Baek A-rin is currently at the lowest level.
Until she reaches level 73, I will be running the dungeon alone.
Splash-
Familiarly, he floats Yurang’s boat on the river and lets Yeonhee board first.
As I moved along the river, I took a quick look at ‘Fibrin’ swimming next to me and asked quietly.
‘Fibrin, have you ever fought a war under Irmana’s banner?’
Fibrin, who was swimming leisurely, widened her eyes at my question.
(Oh… Apostle. I heard that it is a story that has been passed down from a long time ago. Did you participate in that battle?)
‘Well, it’s not like that, I just asked just in case.’
(Ah – it’s definitely a sad thing. Because of that incident, Irmana is still…)
Fibrin stopped speaking and pretended to wipe away her tears with her cotton-like hand.
‘Hmm…’
The countless lakes I saw yesterday when I went back in time.
The size of the lake grew as you went from the beginning where the battle took place to the back. So, if you followed those lakes and reached the end, was it the lake where Irmana was?
‘Irmana clearly exists even now…’
That means that he somehow managed to protect the last lake despite the Blue Eyes invasion, but did he use up too much of his strength and become weaker than the other gods?
‘If you continue to fulfill the revelation, you will find out.’
I continued hunting mainly charging turtles that had the potential to be good food, and finished conquering the final pastiche dungeon with my colleagues.
After finishing the boss battle, I fell down the waterfall, and without fail, a message popped up asking me if I wanted to take on the hidden quest.
‘I will not challenge it.’
The result wouldn’t have changed much if I tried again, so of course I passed.
On the way home after parting ways with my colleagues.
I moved in larger turns than usual and activated [Mimicking] Early on, and for the first time in a long time, I was able to pinpoint the location of the insidious group.
“We’ll go together!”
“I told you to go together first…”
“Anyway!”
Yeonhee clung to my back like a cicada and didn’t know how to let go.
Thinking about the failure starting tomorrow, I feel like complaining for no reason.
Anyway, we hid in a hideout where a small group of insidious people gathered.
‘It stinks. They seem to be the remnants of Blue Eyes… Are there only four of them?’
They were working hard on something in a small office.
As I was looking at it quietly, I saw that a drug called ‘Inbam’ was dissolved in water and fully dissolved.
The book was opened and the drug was carefully soaked in, page by page.
If you make it that way, it’s easy to avoid crackdowns, and addicts can get high just by holding a torn piece of paper in their mouth.
‘I’ve seen this somewhere… Ugh-‘
We subdued them without delay, and I beheaded them without even asking them anything.
‘They’re little brats who do chores anyway. There won’t be any useful information.’
– We have punished the insidious group that threatened the safety of this world!
– Stats increase randomly!
– Stamina: 739(+1)
– Magic attribute: 1378(+1)
– Recovery: 122(+1)
– Resistance: 112(+1)
‘Of course, we have to catch these guys.’
Even the abilities that gradually increased were very precious to me now.
I used my senses and thoughts about removing the evidence that could identify us one by one.
‘I guess I’ll have to check out some other routes on my way home from work for now.’
Yeonhee, who doesn’t want to leave me these days, would be disappointed that she couldn’t spend a hot night, but it was inevitable in order to subdue that monstrous Lizardman.
And the next day.
I took Yeonhee to the front of the pastiche dungeon.
“Ha… Do I really have to go?”
“Tick, tick, tick.”
Time to say goodbye to Yeonhee.
It felt very awkward to go somewhere alone.
I stroked Yeonhee’s head for a while, and as time went by, she even started crying.
‘They say my bond with the summoner is deepening… But it feels like my obsession is getting worse.’
Still, it wasn’t enough to break my promise to send it to me, so it was still cute.
I soon felt that Noh Hayun and Ham Eunyoung were coming together, and after saying hello to Yeonhee one last time, I went into [Stealth] Mode.
“If anything happens, I’ll call you out at any time!”
Yeonhee shouted at me, who had disappeared, and greeted her colleagues who were walking energetically.
*
After breaking up with Yeonhee, I headed straight to the B-level dungeon, where the ‘Living Statue of Strength’ was located.
A place that is rated as one level higher in difficulty than ‘Lucracota’, the B-class lowest level dungeon where I first met Cha Jin-hyuk.
Existing monsters such as Dire Wolf, Pierce Big Boar, and Red Goblin also appear here, but three new types of monsters await.
‘Diva, doppelganger, living statue… They’re all difficult people.’
The living statue in the form of a giant stone statue that will appear as the boss has the deceptive ability of being immune to physical attacks, and the doppelganger is an object of disgust and fear to hunters to the point that it hurts to even talk about it.
But the tricky thing about doppelgangers is when there are a lot of people in the party, and since I’m alone, it probably doesn’t matter.
The target of this dungeon is, of course, a monster named ‘Diva’.
Although she has the body of a woman, her face is full of thorns, so you can’t see any facial expressions, and her hair is on fire.
She has the ability to hide in the dark, uses her telekinetic powers freely, and has considerable attack power, making her a person that many hunters have trouble with.
Yeonhee and I decided to enter the dungeon at exactly 9 a.M.
Yeonhee says she will give you a signal, so all you have to do is wait.
‘Hmm… As expected, not everyone is going in.’
There were strong people around the gate.
There were some people heading straight to the gate, but most were looking closely at the faces of the people who would enter the dungeon with them today.
Some parties seemed to be making their own preparations, such as signing contracts with each other on the spot and pleading to cooperate when hunters or monsters from other countries suddenly invaded the dungeon.
Some of them had pieces of information that came to mind as if they had connections in a past life.
And perhaps because the dungeon’s balance was broken, some powerful guys who were not suited for this dungeon were also seen.
‘That lady must have been in class A, but she came all the way down here. ‘
She doesn’t have any feelings for her juniors.
A hunter named Eun Hyeon-suk.
The party she led stood out the most.
Eun Hyun-sook remains in my memory as a strong tank, but her personality was so perfect that the moment I remembered her, I felt sick of her.
– Ah-oh!! Such a frustrating bastard. They say you can go this route. I put my dick in her ear, why are you so incoherent?
– No… Sister. There was a recent report saying that doppelgängers often appear there, so let’s keep going there.
-This is the shortest route? Just follow me! Because I can identify doppelgangers right away.
– The monsters are different from last year. I also thought about the possibility that I wouldn’t be able to determine it even with my sister’s abilities-
– Is this rebelling against the engineering team leader?
– Ha… I understand. Let’s go first.
-Is it so. I came down to the lower dungeon on purpose. Is anything going to happen?
‘You shouldn’t underestimate your doppelganger…’
Normal doppelgängers are easy to judge because their ability to imitate their appearance is poor, but variants are a different story.
It is difficult to tell them apart by appearance alone, and since they even imitate body odor, if done incorrectly, it can cause a major crisis for the team.
Of course, it is said that high-level doppelgängers that appear in top-level dungeons even copy memories and thoughts, but I have not met them, so that was an unknown area.
The reason she had the best fighting power was because she was a woman with a really bad personality. There were many other hunters with outstanding skills, and those who judged that they were somewhat prepared threw themselves at the gate one by one.
I slowly narrowed the distance towards the gate, to check whether there were any hunters who could detect me and whether the detection devices installed close to the gate were working.
‘······ Also. No one knows.’
This is the moment when the improved stealth ability shines while changing jobs.
No hunter or detection device could filter me out.
And soon, an exhilarating bolt of lightning struck my head.
‘Ah, this is what it feels like.’
I received Yeonhee’s signal and headed toward the gate as if possessed, and for a moment I felt like her body was being pulled in the direction she was in, but the gate of her dungeon pulled me first.
“Just…”
‘Hwiyu~ It was successful.’
– You have entered the ‘Living Statue of Strength’ dungeon for the first time!
– Damage received from physical attacks increases by 20%!
‘The conditions are still the same. Because of this, the difficulty of boss battles increases.’
As always, a message greeted me first, and the backs of several parties who had already started moving came into view.
‘I’m a little excited.’
The only time I went through a dungeon alone was when I was an F-class hunter, so I couldn’t help but feel new.