Chapter 38: Slam, Charge   

Originally, I planned to use the level 18 dungeon until somewhere around level 150 to 170 .

However, I had already hit level 148 .

The dungeons following are immune to magic .

Since I only had 'Piercing Sword' for physical attacks, I needed a plan .

'Devil Avatar' had a physical based basic attack, but without the magic effect, it was pretty weak .

I had two choices .

First, learn physical attack based skills to go into level 19 to 21 dungeons .

Secondly, skip them and go to the level 22 dungeon .

My classmate Taesung had said that the highest ranking dungeon that was solo cleared was level 28 .

It was done by Korean ranker 'Cheu Hyo-sun', and no one has topped it in the world so far .

Entering the dungeon is different from an online game .

Failing to clear the dungeon in a game would just result in relogging .

But in reality, if you can't hold out for 60 minutes, your cold corpse would disappear with the dungeon .

In 10 minutes, I was able to obtain 2,000,000 experience .

One type of monster gave 200,000 experience, and about 10 to 15 of them appeared, so technically I am actually obtaining more .

Even with the massive amount of experience required to level up from 148, I should be able to level twice a day by focusing only on hunting .

My decision was to stay at the level 18 dungeon until an M/A ranking weapon dropped .

I'm not forsaking growth for a weapon .

And I'm not looking only at the experience and forsaking the weapon .

The boss that appears in the dungeon is a 'hidden boss' .

What this means is that there is a higher chance for Awakened Essences to drop compared to a normal dungeon .

Also there is the guaranteed drop of a skill book .

There was no place safe like this while giving me this many benefits .

* * *

I met the magician ranker Yoon Jong-sun from the time I've hunted with Jong Ho once more .

This wasn't the first time .

After the first time we met, we met in front of the level 18 dungeon 3 times .

Escorting Ilseong's granddaughter, our eyes met only once .

The first words he spoke were…

"You, what kind of an ability do you possess?"

Even if you were an Awakened, you could not stop the ravages of time .

The portals began spawning 40 years ago .

Within a year, Awakened began to appear .

Those with the highest chance of Awakening were at the ages between 15 to 19 .

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Those that became Awakened then now are rankers in the ages of 50s to 60s .

The Awakened age just like normal people .

Of course, only their looks fade .

Their bodies however are still affected by the stats they've obtained .

But they are still people .

Each person had a determined lifespan .

Depending on how well you take care of yourself, there are some differences .

No matter how much ability you had, you could not avoid aging and death . Destiny is inescapable .

I had the appearance of a child, no matter how you looked at it .

And Jong Ho was in his late 20s . He did not appear old .

But with two Awakened entering a level 18 dungeon and coming out within 30 minutes with all the loot .

Yoon Jong-sun probably guessed that one of us had an incredible ability .

Especially with a kid wearing Titan Boots, which not even a total of 5 people own .

It was to be expected that he would become incredibly curious .

After seeing us, he came to the dungeon every day .

Not finding Jong Ho, but seeing me enter it solo, he had come up to speak with me .

"Dunno . Is there a reason for me to tell you?"

"No… Ah . Sorry for the late introductions . My name is Yoon Jong-sun . "

Expecting other's to know his name, he must've had a lot of confidence .

"Yes . I'm aware you're famous . I'm Kim Min-Cheol . "

"I don't know what ability you have, but seems we'll meet again . "

"Since people are unpredictable, suppose that could happen . "

"If that day comes, I hope we are on the same side . "

"… . . "

"Do take care . "

With a gruff voice that matched his looks, he turned and walked away .

I could only stare at his figure aghast .

I felt like I was shaken by something huge .

From what I heard from Jong Ho, he was the person who had stopped the second wave of destruction after the central plant center exploded .

He who had a righteous attitude like that to tell me such had brought many thoughts to my mind .

* * *

Late afternoon . Noblesse' guild building .

The elevator from the underground 15th floor that Park Hyun rode was slowly rising to her office floor .

"Jhin . How goes the work I asked for?"

She spoke as if knowing that he was there .

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Then .

From her shadows, a dark figure rose .

Jhin . An incredibly skilled assassin who used one of the highest S ranking skill called 'Shadow Step' .

Assassins . Called a murderer more often than not, they excelled in something other than hunting .

They could deal massive damage to a single target .

Masking their presence, they could stab into their weaknesses .

With a fake smile, Jhin spoke to Park Hyun .

"Those two? Looks like they're dogs that cannot follow the master's orders . "

"I already know that from the reports . No reason for him to meet Jae Hyuk and he's drifted away from Sangmin…"

"That's why I did something myself . Instead of those two, I spied on the kid Kim Min-cheol . "

"As expected of you . "

"You should probably go ahead with your plan a lot earlier than you think you should . "

"What do you mean?"

"From the two days I've been observing him, he's been heading to the level 18 dungeon . By himself . "

"What? No matter how fast his mana regenerates, he shouldn't be growing any further than being able to clear the succubi dungeon for now . "

"I say only what I saw . The rest is up to you . "

"..."

"How goes the underground project?"

"I was actually on my way from checking the progress of it . "

"Oho… . The result?"

"Failure… But there seems to be some progress . Hard to match the conditions . "

"The brass is waiting for good news . Then… . "

The red glow from his sword reflected his eyes behind the mask .

After finishing his words, he hid himself in the shadows once more .

"The project is enough of a headache, but him too… . . "

* * *

Gwidon was hit on the head with Meteor Call .

It's been some time since it used the barrel in its left hand .

Swinging the iron mace with its last strength, it perished from the meteor .

[500,000 exp obtained . ]

"Hm?"

Something big rose above its corpse .

I wanted to run towards it and check it immediately, but Louver came charging .

"Come forth . Come!"

The level 18 dungeon's hidden boss and the Louver were easy as a level 1 dungeon clear .

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Not even paying attention to its corpse, I turned around and headed towards Gwidon's corpse .

The item dropped from it finally came into view .

And I yelled loudly with my eyes wide open .

I pretty much lived at this dungeon .

Everything was to obtain this item .

"It finally dropped!"

M/A ranking 'Banwol Jincheon' had dropped . 1

It was one of the biggest one hand swords out there .

Living up to its name, it had a crescent shape of the moon and glowed as if moonlight reflected off of it .

The handle had a small hole at the bottom of it without any decorations or patterns .

Even with the size of 1 . 5m, it was incredibly light .

Perhaps it was due having nearly 600 strength .

But I had about the same strength when I was using 'Black Sword' . Something felt different about this sword .

I held the sword tightly in my hand .

Strength: [585+20+400+100] = 1105

I felt the change reflected on the status window .

Banwol Jincheon raised my strength by 400 .

On top of that, it raised total strength by 10% .

I swung it through the empty air .

The large sword's thin and sharp slashing sound filled the dungeon .

Now I had achieved half of what I wanted .

You could equip up to two of single handed weapons like Banwol Jincheon .

Even at Awakened markets, it was hard to see any warriors with this sword .

It was proof that monsters had a terribly low drop rate for weapons .

But compared to others, I could clear faster and much more than them .

And even if the sword dropped, they'd have to share the earnings between the standard 6 people in the party .

If you weren't important in the party, you couldn't even get the sword even if it dropped in front of you .

Gwidon dropped another skill book, and dropped a jewel with the same color as the one from Kelvacore .

It must be a jewel that raised your strength by 30 .

Weapons from monsters can be embedded with a jewel as well .

However, unlike the swords made from blacksmiths, there was no spot for the jewel to be put in .

I would have to get the jewel processed and put it in the small hole at the end of the handle .

The number of jewel I could have processed into the weapon was only one .

It wasn't like the smith's weapon that could have two embedded, but I couldn't do anything about it .

The processed jewels couldn't even be recovered .

But this weapon was going to be with me for a while .

Until I get an M/S ranking weapon that is .

I took all the drops from Gwidon .

Without a thought, I headed towards the center of the dungeon .

But then I felt something was wrong .

Felt like I forgot something important .

There was plenty of time until the dungeon despawned .

"Louver… . . Did I check its drops?"

With a doubt in mind, I went back .

Since I was so hyped over Banwol Jincheon, I hadn't even glanced at Louver .

With the massive movespeed gained from the Titan Boots, it didn't take long for me to arrive .

I was shocked as soon as I arrived .

There was a single ring above Louver's corpse .

"What in the world…"

With one clear, I was able to obtain both Banwol Jincheon and Louver's ring .

I had ran this dungeon hundreds of times, but it felt like I ran it thousands of times .

All the items dropped had been basic stuff .

Of course, there was the mimic .

But now that these dropped, I felt like all the hard work wasn't a waste .

Now I had two pieces from the Louver set .

I was glad that the ring that had incredible synergy with the bracelet had dropped first .

Louver's ring absorbs mana and feeds it to the bracelets .

There were no monsters in the dungeon currently that used magic attacks .

However, the dungeons after and possible attacks from other Awakened could use magic attacks . I could absorb their attacks and use an empowered skill in return .

I put on the ring on my finger .

No stat gains .

However, the ring and the bracelet reacted to one another with a blue glow .

If I was able to obtain the necklace as well, I should have no need to cast shields within the dungeon .

A sword . And Louver's necklace .

If I was able to obtain these, I should be able to rise to greater heights .

I felt strength come to my legs as I headed over to the dungeon once more .

"Let's get to work . "