Chapter 40: Mysterious Dungeon (3)

TL: Haku

Editor: Hungry Panda

Just then, Carwin, who was checking the list of guild members, called Herz.

“Herz hyung, you’re almost at lv 90, right?”

Herz nodded his head.

“Yeah, by tomorrow, I should be able to hit 90.”

“What about your Fame?”

“My Fame.. is at 190,000.”

Carwin scratched the back of his head.

“Damn, you’re far from it.”

This time, Herz looked at Fiolan and asked.

“Fiolan, what’s your Fame at?”

Even without him asking, Fiolan was checking her Fame out of curiosity and responded immediately.

“I’m at a little over 160,000.”

“I see.”

As expected, Fiolan, who was the ‘Hunting Mania’ in the guild after Ian, had comparably low Fame.

“But is there even a point in someone else other than Herz having high Fame? Doesn’t the Guild Master have to end up meeting the requirements to becoming Lord?”

Herz shook his head.

“As a matter of fact, I checked that part, they said that as long as there’s at least one guild member that meets the requirement, they can become Lord. Even if they’re not the Guild Leader.”

“Ah-ha.”

“The person with the highest Fame in our guild currently is..”

Herz, who checked the guild information, had on a dumbfounded expression.

“What the hell, isn’t this a mistake?”

At Herz’s violent(?) reaction, everybody’s attention turned to him.

Fiolan asked.

“Why? Is there a problem?”

Herz responded with a dumbfounded expression.

“No, it’s just that the person with the highest Fame in our guild is Kroban hyung.”

Carwin and Fiolan had on surprised expressions as they spoke.

“What? Really?”

“Huh, that gangster-like hyung?”

Herz scratched the back of his head as he replied.

“That’s what I’m saying. He looks like he’d have the highest Infamy, but to have him be the one with the highest Fame..”

At their teasing, Kroban glared at them.

“What? These little!”

Kroban flew into a rage, but Herz continued his words without any attention.

“Hyung, your Fame is over 270,000. What exactly did you go around doing to have such high Fame?”

His words were not to tease him this time.

Herz’s eyes truly showed shock.

“I thought you had only hunted..”

Fiolan was just as surprised.

While seeing their surprise, Kroban raised his shoulders proudly.

“Are all of you surprised at the Fame of this body?”

Carwin teased him.

“Herz hyung, are you sure you didn’t see Infamy as Fame?”

“What, you little punk?”

While Carwin and Kroban squabbled with each other, Herz and Fiolan thoroughly looked at over 200 guild members’ Fames one by one.

However, there was no guild member that had a higher Fame than Kroban.

Kroban explained why his Fame was so high.

“When I was around lv 50, I participated in the arena rookie league.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, before I joined this guild, I was quite lucky with my opponents and reached up to the semi-finals. I got 50,000 Fame then, and the rest I got from working hard for my class quests.”

As if they finally understood, all of them nodded their heads.

“Ah-ha, if it’s the rookie league, then certainly..”

The arena was a 1:1 pvp system that opened once at the beginning of every month. And there was a separate rookie league that only users below lv 50 competed in.

Kroban wasn’t a user that was part of the super high rankings, but he wasn’t incapable of reaching up to the semi-finals of something like the rookie leagues.

Herz opened his mouth as he looked at Kroban.

“Then, does that mean Kroban hyung has the highest chance of becoming Lord?”

Fiolan nodded her head.

“Seems like so? Since the rest of the guild members have almost a 100,000 difference from him.”

Herz agreed.

“No kidding.. How interesting. Even if you exclude the 50,000 Fame he gained from the rookie league, why is there such a big difference in our Fame?”

Fiolan shrugged as she responded.

“Well, that’s something only Kroban knows.”

“Ha, that hyung looks like a mountain bandit, but for him to have 270,000 Fame.”

Herz shook his head.

@

Meanwhile, Ian, who was carrying Bbookbbook on his back, fought the ghost monsters that endlessly appeared and wore a big smile.

No matter how many he killed, the ghost lizards that appeared endlessly.

Because they weren’t Ghost Drakes, but Ghost Lizards that were slightly weaker than them at around mid-lv 50s, the EXP was a little lower, but instead, it was a better situation.

Because of the large numbers, if they were Ghost Drakes, he wouldn’t have been able to last long and would have had to retreat.

Puck-!

At the sound of the blunt impact, Ian slightly glanced behind him.

Familiar ‘Bbookbbook’ has received critical damage.

‘Bbookbbook’s Vitality has been reduced by 1.

The attack of the Ghost Lizard, who was eyeing Ian’s backside, was instead blocked by Bbookbbook’s shell.

Despite having invoked a critical attack, Ian had on a satisfied expression at Bbookbbook’s status, which only received 1 damage.

‘Hue, as expected, people need to use their brains.’

Although his appearance was ridiculous, looking like a ninja turtle, he didn’t care.

Whenever an attack that was hard to dodge came up, if he turned his back slightly, Bbookbbook’s shell perfectly blocked the damage.

Bbookbbook showed off defense that was almost at the level of a bulletproof vest. Thanks to Bbookbbook’s shell that was almost a perfect shield, Ian was able to move a little more aggressively and it helped a lot with his fighting power.

The opponents’ attacks that were focused only on Ddukdae were now divided and they were able to hunt more safely.

An hour had already passed since he had entered within the enormous, strange-looking iron gate and during that time, only Ghost Lizards were endlessly created, but Ian had no intention of leaving.

‘I need to see the end of this. I’m positive this room isn’t the end of the dungeon.’

Ian glanced at the rock wall opposing the door that he entered from.

There was an iron gate on that side as well that looked similar to the iron gate from where he came in from.

He didn’t know how long this endless amount of lizards would appear for, but he thought that eventually the door would open while he caught them.

And before resetting, he had multiple experiences with dungeons like this one where waves of monsters would endlessly continue.

And so, as he roughly knew how he needed to handle the situation, he was incredibly relaxed.

‘It should be any time now for the wave of monsters to slowly end..’

Ian, who saw the last ghost collapse after being bitten by Ly, re-adjusted his position.

If the wave was not done, then new lizards would appear again.

However, just then, the area started moving in a different pattern from before.

‘Finally, the wave is over. I wonder what’s going to appear?’

Whoosh-!

A loud noise rang through the inside of the stone chamber and a blue light started to flow along the ground.

‘A Magic Summoning Circle?’

This was usually a pattern that appeared when a dungeon boss was being summoned.

Ian was on edge as he stared at the blue light that gathered in the centre of the stone chamber.

“Ly, prepare to attack!”

Grr-!

As the Magic Summoning Circle in the middle of the stone chamber was invoked, a silhouette started to slowly appear.

However, while watching it, Ian’s eyes slightly grew.

From the Magic Summoning Circle that looked like an enormous boss monster would appear out of, a small elder appeared instead.

With a body that was composed of the blue light and carrying a staff swaying with white light, it was a ghost that had the form of an elder.

While Ian was flustered, the ghost elder(?) spoke.

Ho.. I see you are a Summoner.

Ian was momentarily flustered at the weird elder that appeared and even started talking, but he quickly collected himself and replied.

“That’s right, but.. Who are you?”

Still, it was Ian, who knew how to respect his elders, but as he first treated him with respect, he couldn’t help but think that they could also be a monster.

However, the elder showed no interest in Ian’s question and mumbled on about things Ian didn’t understand.

For the first person to challenge this Oakley’s test to be a Summoner.. Could this also be fate?

“Grandpa, is your name Oakley?”

At Ian’s blunt question, the elder finally nodded and responded.

That’s right. My name is Oakley.

“Why are you here, grandpa?”

The elder, who momentarily thought about it, opened his mouth again.

I cannot tell you that yet.

“What?”

Ian was taken aback.

As he suddenly appeared and spoke of a test and such that made no sense the more he spoke, Ian couldn’t help but be flustered.

However, just then, the elder, who just stared at Ian without speaking, raised the white staff he was holding onto and responded with a low voice.

Challenger.. If you pass my test, you will learn of all the secrets of this structure.

Ian, who felt something unusual, immediately got into a fighting stance.

Thu-Thud- Thu-Thu-Thud-!

The whole dungeon began to shake violently.

‘What exactly is about to come out for this to be happening? It’s making me nervous.’

Oakley, who lifted his staff towards the nervous Ian, shouted out a summoning command with a loud voice.

Drake of Chaos, answer my calling!

And along with his words, a white light burst out from in front of him, and a gigantic drake appeared.

The drake looked similar to the Ghost Drakes that Ian encountered on the first floor of the dungeon, but it was almost twice their size, and different from the Ghost Drakes that had a white body, it shone a dark grey light.

The overwhelming glory intimidated Ian.

However, its overbearing outer appearance was not all.

‘Lv 75? On top of that, Heroic rank?’

Ian was in despair.

No matter how much Ian crawled or flew, he and his Familiars were only in their early lv 40s, and since Ddukdae, who was the highest level was at lv 45, there was almost no way for him to win a lv 75, Heroic rank monster.

‘How does this make any sense? To have a Boss that’s over lv 70 in a dungeon that’s located in a lv 60-ranged hunting ground!’

At the unexpected situation, swear words automatically came out of his mouth.

Of course, this kind of situation wasn’t nonexistent.

There were cases of a dungeon that was interlocked with a quest connected to a high rank, or a dungeon that was related to a hidden piece, having lv 95 Boss monsters appear in a dungeon that was only about lv 60-70.

However, no matter how unlucky, this was truly the bottom of it.

‘Euh.. I tried to not die even once since I reset my character, but do I have to die here?’

Ian slightly looked at Ly and Ddukdae.

‘If I think I’m going to die, I’ll first recall my Familiars.’

Familiars didn’t completely cease to exist if they died.

However, proportionate to their level, they couldn’t be summoned again for a certain amount of time, so at around lv 40, it was only possible to re-summon them after about three days passed since they died.

On top of that, it was obvious that Familiars received a level-down penalty as well.

‘If death is inevitable, I’ll make sure I’m the only one that dies.’

The game over penalty for characters was de-leveling 1 lv and for 24 hours, they couldn’t log in, so even if Ian died, he needed to save his Familiars no matter what.

It would hurt his heart if he had to die, but if he could just save his Familiars, he could hunt again as soon as the death penalty was over.

And above all else, he didn’t want to see the Familiars he bonded with dying.

Roar!

The Chaos Drake that the elder summoned cried out loudly.

Compared to Dragon Fear, it was a joke, but to Ian, who was nothing more than around lv 40, it felt quite threatening.

Your body constricted at the ‘Chaos Drake’s Fear.

For 10 minutes, all of your stats will drop 5%.

Ian tightened his fist.

Even though he reached game over, he had no intention of dying easily.

As Ian lit up his fighting spirit, the elder smiled brightly and put forth his staff.

Drake of Chaos, attack him!

Grrrrr-!

At his command, the Chaos Drake inhaled deeply.

Seeing that, Ian’s eyes slightly widened.

‘What the hell, that thing even uses Breath?’

That preparation movement was surely to shoot out Breath.

Ian ran forward and yelled at Ddukdae and Ly.

“Ddukdae, Ly, separate yourselves to the sides!”

Along with those words, a black Breath gushed out of the Chaos Drake’s mouth.

Hwaaak-!

And Ian quickly turned his body and placed his back against it.