𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟓𝟐
‘In a way, it stimulates desire.’
Anyway, as we were talking like that, we arrived at the dungeon and saw guild members hunting near the entrance.
“Huh? Hey, if you want to enter the dungeon, you need to switch your ID display……”
“Hey, hey! Be quiet!”
The ID display switch is a system that displays your name above your head, just like monsters. The guild member was about to yell at me for not having it on, but someone next to him quickly stopped him.
“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden?!”
“Don’t you know who that is? It’s the Vice Master!”
“Vice Master?”
At the mention of the Vice Master, he turned his gaze back to me and checked the symbol on my chest. Then, with a surprised expression, he bowed his head apologetically. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I tried not to mind and moved on.
“By the way, what brings the Vice Master to the dungeon?”
“Well? More importantly, did you hear that? There’s a rumor that the raid boss, Deronak, has been defeated, though it hasn’t spread yet.”
“Deronak? Who on earth could have……?”
“It seems the Vice Master took it down solo.”
“Nah, that must be a joke. Soloing Deronak?”
“It’s true that no one actually saw it happen…… but still, isn’t it strange that Deronak disappeared overnight?”
“If that’s true, it’s a huge deal.”
Suddenly, listening to their conversation, it seemed that the guild members who first encountered Deronak had spread the rumor. But since there was no proof that I was the one who defeated it, I thought I could just pretend I didn’t know anything. Then I noticed a guild member looking at me with an expression of respect.
“Vice Master, did you really defeat Deronak?”
“……That’s impossible.”
I clearly denied it, but judging by his eyes, he didn’t seem to believe me. Why wouldn’t he believe me? Honestly, if someone told me they soloed Deronak, I would be suspicious too.
It’s not like everyone has Intuition like I do.
“More importantly, what kind of mobs appear here?”
“Ah, that’s……”
Thump-
But before I could hear the answer, a heavy footstep echoed from ahead. Sensing the approaching footsteps, I raised my shield, ready to attack, and checked what kind of monster it was.
“Krrr……”
“Yes! Th-that’s the kind of mob that appears here.”
I’m looking at it too.
[Purom’s 1st Experimental Subject]
Whatever it was, it was different from any monster I had encountered so far. It stood on two legs like a human, but its arms were long blades, and its body was covered in steel like armor.
“Step back.”
“Y-yes!”
“Thunder Strike.”
As soon as the guild member stepped back, I used Thunder Strike and waited leisurely. As the name of the skill suggests, faint yellow sparks flew; someone who didn’t know might mistake it for a lightning attribute skill.
Anyway.
‘Let’s see how long it can endure.’
Kwaaaang!-
[Skill Damage! 5,374.]
‘Oh, I didn’t expect it to survive that one hit.’
While I was thinking it might even survive a second attack, the 1st Experimental Subject immediately charged at me. It swung its bladed arms wildly, attempting to attack, but its speed was slower than my full-powered movement.
‘It won’t last through a third attack.’
Its stats might be high, but they didn’t seem to be higher than mine. Realizing this, I dodged the Experimental Subject’s attack once more and swung my shield.
Kwaaaang!-
[Skill Damage! 6,271.]
[Acquired 1,500 combat experience points!]
‘As expected.’
Seeing the Experimental Subject collapse after the second attack, I felt a slight pang of regret. I wanted to see it get blown away and stunned after landing all my hits. But at this rate, I wondered if that would be possible against anything other than boss monsters.
‘Should I aim for the boss?’
The problem was, there was no guarantee the boss would still be there. Who knows if an executive who logged in early in the morning might have already killed it and left? In other words, there was a possibility that the boss wouldn’t be there even if I reached it.
‘Should I change my shield to something else…… No, then my stamina won’t recover.’
Thunder Strike is a shield-type skill, so it recovers health and stamina with each hit. In other words, I could fight endlessly as long as I landed my attacks. But if I changed my shield, I would lose that advantage.
I can’t just hit a few times and then rest until my stamina recovers, can I?
“Vice Master, is there something wrong?”
“Ah, the monsters are weaker than I expected.”
To put it another way, my answer implied, “Isn’t there a stronger dungeon than this?” Fortunately, the guild member seemed to understand what I meant and replied with a troubled expression.
“Um, I’m sorry. There are some in the Contribution Point consumption list, but I don’t know their locations. I don’t know every dungeon.”
‘Then I guess I’ll just have to raise my skill level in this dungeon.’
Based on how it felt to use so far, it seemed like it would become my main skill. I might even use it more often than Giant’s Sprint. So, raising its skill level now might be helpful later.
‘My level is over 80 now, too.’
In other words, the skill level cap had been raised to 25. It would take quite a bit of time to raise all my skills to level 25, though.
“Let’s keep going for now.”
“Yes. But, do I need to fight too?”
‘Was he just planning to watch?’
I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I was currently in a party with the guild member…… the one with the ID ‘Luter’. If I hunted alone here, wouldn’t that be like power-leveling him? On the other hand, I didn’t think Luter would be of much help, but it was better than him just standing around watching, so I nodded.
“Yes, please do.”
“Understood.”
As we continued walking with that answer, we soon encountered more Experimental Subjects, and I prepared Thunder Strike upon spotting them. I also saw Luter, who had asked if he could fight, moving into action.
“Wild Bear Summon!”
‘Summon?’
Simultaneously, a bear larger than myself appeared in front of Luter. It was a brown-furred bear, and after summoning it, Luter shouted confidently.
“Beast Rush!”
“Are you a Summoner?”
“To be precise, I use both summoning and magic.”
Listening to him, it seemed like his style was to use the bear as a front-line tank while he attacked with magic. Just looking at that, it seemed…… not bad? I thought it was a decent combination, but this time, his opponent wasn’t ideal.
Swish!-
“Huh?”
The Wild Bear collapsed after two swipes from the Experimental Subject’s blades, and even though the bear was dead, the Experimental Subject didn’t stop attacking. It seemed like his strategy might have worked reasonably well in previous dungeons, but it was clearly not effective here.
‘Tsk.’
After turning the Wild Bear into bear shabu-shabu, the Experimental Subject immediately charged at me, and I swung my shield at the right moment.
Kwaaaang!!-
[Skill Damage! 5,381.]
‘In the end, I’m fighting alone.’
Moreover, this damn Experimental Subject didn’t even flinch, counterattacking even while getting hit by my shield. Of course, I had already anticipated this and easily dodged its attack before swinging my shield again, bringing the Experimental Subject down.
‘But it feels like I don’t have enough skill uses.’
Generally, the more you use a skill, the faster its level increases. But with the current Thunder Strike, the monsters were evaporating one by one with each use.
If it were the F-rank skill Shield Bash, I would have hit them at least 10 times.
Thinking that raising the skill level wouldn’t be easy, I continued deeper into the dungeon, and by the time I reached the 3rd floor, where the 4th Experimental Subject appeared, I was able to raise Thunder Strike to level 2.
[Ding!~ The level of S-rank skill ‘Volcus’ Thunder Strike’ has increased.]
[Strength increased by 7, Agility by 5, and Stamina by 7.]
‘It’s finally leveled up once.’
I didn’t expect much to change with just one level up, but I still wanted to check, so I opened the detailed information window.
[S-rank Voltes’ Thunder Strike Effect] (LV2+2)
━Strength increased from 140 → 160.
━Attack Speed increased from 140 → 160.
━Applies Strength and Defense as damage.
━Second hit deals 12 → 13% increased damage.
━Third hit deals 24 → 26% increased damage.
━Third hit knocks back enemies with lower Strength than the user.
━Stuns for 1 second if all hits connect.
━Can only be used while equipped with a shield.
*Consumes 300 → 600 Magic Power per use.
*Consumes 10% Stamina per use.
‘Well, the damage might have increased a bit.’
At this rate, if I reach level 30, the third hit will deal 78% increased damage. Should I consider this good? However, the damage of Thunder Strike I had used so far was considerable, so I had some expectations.
As expected of an S-rank skill.
‘It’s a shame it doesn’t give a title, but it can’t be helped.’
To receive a title for an S-rank skill, the total stat increase needed to be 20. Unfortunately, the total stat increase for Thunder Strike was 19. It was just 1 point short of getting a title.
Anyway, while I was looking at the skill, I saw Luter grinning from ear to ear.
“Vice Master! Look at this! The attack power is incredible.”
Luter, who had been summoning Wild Bears and using various magic spells to provide unhelpful help, was rejoicing as he showed me a spear he had obtained from the 4th Experimental Subject. I wondered how nice it would be if I could be as carefree and happy as him.
Just then, a voice called out from somewhere.
“Huh? Isn’t that person the Vice Master?”
“That’s right. He’s the only one who wears that armor.”
“……?”
Turning my head towards the voice, I saw about five guild members looking this way and talking amongst themselves. Then, a guild member who made eye contact with me gave an awkward smile and greeting before cautiously approaching me.
“Hello, Vice Master. If you don’t mind, could we hunt together?”
“Hunt?”
“Yes, we’d like to try and defeat the boss…… If you’d accept us, we’ll work hard.”
Honestly, this is good.
Even so, the fact that they were hunting here meant they were reasonably skilled. However, it seemed they were making this request because they couldn’t defeat the boss on their own.
I looked at the guild member who was making the request for a moment, then turned to Luter.
“Is that alright?”
“There’s no need to ask. You can do as you please, Vice Master.”
Well, he had gained a tremendous amount of experience and items by entering this dungeon thanks to me, so he wasn’t in a position to object.
“We won’t ask you to defeat the boss. Just leading us there would be……”
“Go ahead. Then.”
“Yes? Ah, thank you.”
Why are they thanking me?
It’s not my dungeon, and it’s not my boss.
If it were a dungeon I discovered myself, like Raz’s, it would be a different story. But I was also just using a dungeon discovered by another guild member, yet the guild member was expressing gratitude. I looked at him, unable to understand, before adding him to the party I had created.
“By the way, you’re using a blunt weapon, as the rumors say.”
“I heard no one uses blunt weapons because they have no penetration.”
“But they have high attack power.”
The guild members were chattering amongst themselves, seemingly fascinated by the weapon I was using. Indeed, most players used weapons with penetration, as penetration damage ignored defense.
‘Penetration attacks are definitely good.’
But that was irrelevant to me, currently wielding a blunt weapon.
“Shall we go now?”
“Yes, please take care of us.”
As we progressed through the dungeon with a party of seven, I realized it was more complicated than I had expected. Even so, I was leading the charge, taking care of the oncoming monsters, and the newly joined guild members were much more skilled than Luter, even taking down some monsters before they could reach us.
“Thunder Strike.”
However, if I just stood by and did nothing, my skill level wouldn’t increase, so I tried to use Thunder Strike as much as possible to attack. When the attack killed a monster in one hit, everyone seemed surprised.
Kwaaaang!!-
“Whoa.”
“One hit?”
Technically, it wasn’t one hit, but the ranged attackers had already whittled down the monster’s health considerably, so it ended in one blow. To begin with, my Strength and Defense were so high that it didn’t even take three hits.
“How can a Shield Bash skill be so strong?”
“Shield skills are affected by Defense, right?”
“I wonder what his Defense is?”
Moreover, the guild members seemed to have noticed that the damage of Thunder Strike was unusual, realizing that my Defense was relatively high.
“Is Defense the issue? At this rate, he might even be able to easily defeat the boss.”
“Ah, that’s right. I’m actually going to see the boss in this dungeon.”
‘Hmm.’
Their skill level, which allowed them to hunt here, and my skill damage. The combination of all these factors seemed to have boosted everyone’s confidence, creating a positive atmosphere as we descended to the 5th floor where the boss resided. Seeing them walking so confidently, I felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
‘But has anyone here actually faced the boss in this dungeon?’
Leave a Reply