15 Rematch
[You have slain your enemy!]
[You have gained experience!]
[You have leveled up!]
[Hidden Quest has been completed!]
[Calculating…]
[You have defeated all the enemies!]
[Additional stat points +10 will be given as a bonus!]
[Would you like to accept rewards? (Y/N)]
Wiping the little bit of sweat on his forehead, Jin Woo said aloud.
"Yes."
As soon as he finished his words, a white stone with mysterious etchings formed on his hand. It was almost as big as his hand. Bringing up its information, Jin Woo couldn't help but be surprised.
[Rune Stone: Stealth
Type: Rune Stone
Description: Breaking this Rune Stone will grant you a skill.]
"Stealth…It is the skill that the assassins were using?"
He remembered how troublesome his fight had been because of this skill. Not only locating the enemies before they attacked was almost impossible, but it also made the battle much more confusing and dragged out than it should have been.
Everything considered, Stealth was a fraudulent skill and Jin Woo wouldn't like to miss the chance to get it.
Exerting force in his hand, he crushed Rune Stone in his palm.
[You have learned the skill <<Stealth>>!]
Without wasting any time, he brought up the skill information.
[Skill: Stealth (Lv. 1)
Description: It allows the user to physically blend in with their surroundings and hide all traces of their presence, essentially turning themselves both physically and magically invisible.
Resource Consumption: 100 mana per activation, 1 mana per second after activation.]
"Great! It really is the same!"
Jin Woo was delighted and immediately decided to test it. His resources were already restored thanks to the earlier level up.
[Skill <<Stealth>> has been activated!]
He could feel his body melding into the surroundings before it gradually faded until it turned fully invisible.
Not only his physical appearance but the sound of footsteps as well as his scent was completely erased.
'The effect is much better than I thought.'
If a "Medium-Grade Rune Stone" gave such a cheat skill, he could only wonder what would the "High-Grade Rune Stone" that was promised at the end of the dungeon world give.
Stealth was a skill with great utility, and just possessing it increased his prowess severalfold depending on certain situations.
Still, there was one issue.
'The mana consumption…'
With his MP full, he could keep it activated for roughly 6 minutes and that was not accounting for the other skills such as <<Sprint>> alongside it.
In the end, Jin Woo sighed, shaking his head.
'Fuu, it is mainly because I have not touched my intelligence stat even once, making my MP very low. I wouldn't have such an issue otherwise…'
He could only decide to invest in it continuing on, nothing could be done about what had already happened.
Exiting the assassin's lair, Jin Woo found himself in the familiar corridor yet again, and after a few minutes of walking, encountered the same familiar iron gate with a big 50 written on it.
The only difference from before was that it was open, with debris and the like visible from outside while the huge monster just stood idol, as though in standby mode.
Recalling the memory of getting demolished within moments, he sighed and opened his profile.
He first took a mana potion to recover the lost MP in the test and then invested the additional 10 stat points he had gotten from the quest, all into strength.
[<Status>
——————
Name: Sung Jin-Woo
Level: 39
Class: None
Title: The One Who Judges[+1]
HP: 5762/5762
MP: 480/480
Fatigue: 42
——————
Strength: 86
Agility: 74
Sense: 58
Vitality: 67
Intelligence: 48
——————
Remaining points: 0]
Previously, he had failed to penetrate the defense of the huge monster and as such, in addition to being careful to not get hit by its devastating attacks, he needed to make sure his own attacks were effective.
He knew that increasing his strength only this much might not be enough, but this wasn't all he had in mind.
"Item Shop.
Open Dagger list."
Jin Woo scrolled up to the topmost expensive item in the list and brought up its information.
[Item: Knight Killer
Type: Dagger
Rarity: B
Price: 2800000 Gold
Attack +75
Description: A dagger made to have a tough and pointy blade, able to pierce armor. As the blade is serrated, it does not slip easily on armor.
Effect: Deals an extra +25% damage against armored opponents.]
This was something he has had his eyes on ever since the Item shop was unlocked. But he could not buy it at that time because of its price - a huge 2800000 gold coin.
Jin Woo looked at the top of the screen where his current amount of gold was listed.
[Gold: 2850000]
After selling almost all of his drops to the system, he had managed to barely amass enough gold to buy his desired weapon.
Without hesitation, he clicked on the "Buy" button and after confirming, saw the amount of gold rapidly drop.
When the gold finally hit 50000, a dagger appeared in his hands along with system notifications.
[You have successfully bought <<Knight Killer>>]
The blade of the dagger was long and serrated, with a distinct gleam that accentuated its sharpness. From the hilt to the end of the blade, blood-red lines were engraved that seemed to glow slightly.
Jin Woo weighed the blade in his hand to get a better grasp of it and swung it lightly at the stone wall next to him.
Although he didn't put much strength behind the swing, it still left a deep cut on the wall, surprising Jin Woo a little bit.
Knight Killer lacked special options like Poison or Bleed in Rasaka's Fang, but this deficiency was without a doubt fulfilled by its raw power alone.
'Not to mention, it can do additional damage against the monsters in this dungeon...It is definitely worth it to buy!'
As for its expensive price, he did not regret it. Even though he felt pain seeing his hard-earned savings reduce so fast, at least now, after seeing its convenience, he didn't have such thoughts anymore.
After all, the gold could be earned back, but if he lost his life due to being a miser, there would be no solution then.
Jin Woo held the Knight Killer in one hand and as for Rasaka's Fang, he put it in his inventory.
It was not that he was not confident in dual-wielding two daggers but rather, between his own physical raw strength and a dagger could not even pierce through the boss's defense, he believed the former to be much more helpful.
Of course, this was only the case with the current boss monster and Rasaka's Fang still had much use thanks to its special options, and as such he did not plan on discarding it.
After that, he also equipped the [Assassin's Boots (B)] that had the option of "increasing movement speed by 20%".
With this done, Jin Woo had finished his preparations, and there was nothing more he could do.
Everything to follow was entirely dependent on Jin Woo.
As soon as Jin Woo stepped through the doors, the red light behind the visor of the giant knight.
It wasted no time in disappearing from Jin Woo's sight and appearing right above him, bringing down its huge hammer on him.
'Good, it's following the same pattern.'
Unlike last time, Jin Woo, who was prepared and expected it, easily got out of the area of impact in time.
He did not rush at the giant, not wanting to get caught in the follow-up attack.
Jin Woo planned to patiently wait for an opportunity, so as to not make blunders. The last time he got lucky, but this time might not be the case anymore.
This was one of the reasons why he didn't just use Stealth from before the start of the battle to sneak up and land a surprise attack. Not only was the mana consumption high to make it effective in a prolonged fight, but he also did not know whether Stealth would even work against a high-level monster such as the one in front of him.
After all, if Jin Woo could sense and deal with the assassins using the Stealth skill, what said that the monster that was clearly higher level than he would not be able to do so? It only raised the chances of error, which he could not quite afford.
[Skill "Sprint" has been activated]
[All movement speed will be increased by 30% and 1 mana will be consumed per 1 second.]
Using the opportunity when the giant had dragged the hammer in a half-circle on the ground, Jin Woo leaped towards it and swung Knight Killer at its ankles, the blade piercing through the armor without much resistance.
The giant was shaken slightly but did not fall. Its endurance was clearly much higher.
'If once doesn't do the trick, I just have to keep at it.'
Jin Woo circled the giant and kept targeting both ankles whenever a window of opportunity presented itself, without getting swept up in its pace.
All this time, he barely received any damage because he kept dodging each and every strike of the huge hammer. It was certainly not easy, but not too difficult either. As long as he kept his eyes open and attention focused, he could do it.
The only concerning thing was that his stamina wouldn't hold up if the fight continued without rest at the same pace due to accumulating fatigue. Not to mention, his MP was also under stress due to continuous usage of <<Sprint>>, without which he would be flattened. He had a bottle of mana recovery potion attached to his mouth whenever he had a short breather.
He was wondering if he should retreat for now and come up with a better plan of course, but he noticed the movements of the giant knight named Blue Tempest General getting slower, and under his relentless assault, it finally fell, unsteady on its feet.
Without missing a beat, Jin Woo leaped towards its head and unleashed a flurry of attacks. The giant knight tried to counter but was helpless as its attacks kept getting avoided by Jin Woo. Its headgear was almost shredded into bits and pieces, chipping away a lot of its health.
'This is the end.'
Just as he thought that and was about to deliver the final blow, an ominous feeling overcame Jin Woo, and jumped back, retreating as far as he could.
"What is this?"
Even though he had retreated as far as he could, near the farthest wall, his senses told him it was still not enough.
Meanwhile, blue sparks sizzled around the large hammer held by the giant knight, with the runic structure glowing in a similar color, and the red light behind the visor turned into a light blue bubbling with sparks of lightning.
Dark clouds filled with thunder formed above in the dome, overlooking the whole expanse below. A wind started to blow and drops of water fell.
The Blue Tempest General stood straight once again, ready to demonstrate why it was called Tempest!
