Owner of Twilight Intuition – Chapter 51

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 51

Pababat!-

As I moved into the dungeon, I naturally looked around. Fortunately, this dungeon wasn’t dark. And perhaps because it was a shrine, the interior was a brick-walled space.

“Please be careful. There might be traps.”

“Right.”

The message window said it was a solo dungeon, but Rayan was next to me. Perhaps this dungeon was meant to be cleared with Rayan.

‘The problem is the traps, huh?’

If only I had the Exploration Skill, I wouldn’t have to worry about traps.

Anyway, I move carefully. If I get caught in any trap, things will become difficult. Also, this is just my guess, but I have a feeling that if Rayan dies next to me, the reward will disappear too.

Krr.

Kirik.

“……?”

Why does that sound familiar?

Tilting my head, I moved a little closer and saw two monsters looking at me with a wary attitude.

“A Werewolf and a Lizardman.”

“Why are they here?”

“The Bamut Cult possesses the power to control monsters. They are probably using the monsters around this shrine to guard it.”

‘So that means I have to fight the monsters?’

That’s no big deal.

Werewolves and Lizardmen are still easy to deal with. Things would be different if their boss-level appeared, but I could handle a few of these ordinary monsters alone.

‘Before that, should I check out this knight’s skills?’

Quickly organizing my thoughts, I immediately spoke to Rayan.

“Take care of one.”

“Understood.”

I asked her to handle only one, but Rayan immediately ran forward. At the same time as Rayan’s action, the two monsters roared and charged, and I decided to deal with just one Werewolf.

Tat!-

“Shield Bash.”

Quickly approaching the Werewolf, I struck its head with my shield.

[Skill Damage! 271.]

“Kyaang!”

The Werewolf, hit in the head, yelped and immediately swung its claws at me. It was impressive how it counterattacked right after being hit, but since I had experience fighting it before, I blocked the attack without any worry.

[Overwhelming Defense! You take no damage!]

‘This is the power of the Blue Stone Set.’

My current defense is 565. Not only this Werewolf, but even the Lizardman next to it couldn’t inflict any damage on me even if they hit me. However, unaware of this fact, the Werewolf launched a desperate attack.

Krrr!

“Shield Bash.”

[Skill Damage! 268.]

[Combat Experience 600 acquired!]

‘Now then.’

Let’s see Rayan’s skills.

Chaeng!- Chachaeng!-

Compared to the Werewolf, the Lizardman was a bit stronger. After all, it was wielding a weapon. However, Rayan pushed the Lizardman back without much difficulty, and the Lizardman, after blocking Rayan’s attacks several times, eventually fell to her sword.

‘No experience points.’

Either way, Rayan’s skills weren’t bad. She defeated the Lizardman alone. At least I thought she wouldn’t be a hindrance, and I nodded inwardly, deciding to proceed with this dungeon in earnest.

“You have impressive skills.”

Suddenly, Rayan spoke to me in a surprised tone.

“It’s nothing. More importantly, do you know the way?”

“No, I don’t know the way.”

“Then we’ll have to search one by one.”

I said that, but there wasn’t even a fork in the road. This meant we could just follow the path, right? It felt a bit too simple for a dungeon, but since Rayan didn’t know anything about this place either, we had no choice but to move along the visible path.

After walking for a few minutes like that.

Kuku……

“Huh?”

“Who’s there?!”

Someone’s laughter echoed. Even looking around, it was difficult to find the owner of the laughter. On the contrary, the laughing bastard seemed to know my current location.

━So it was the knight who desperately ran away earlier. Did you run away just to bring one comrade?

“Show yourself instead of hiding!”

━I can’t do that. Instead, I’ll give you a suitable gift.

Woong woong-

‘What’s this?’

Suddenly, some light appeared from the nearby floor and walls. It was a light with a disturbingly deep purple hue, and I was wary of it, but it seemed I was already too late.

[A trap is activated.]

[The Power of Bamut partially dominates your body.]

[You have no stats, skills, or equipment to resist the Power.]

[Strength and Agility decrease by 20%.]

“Status Information Window.”

At the message that my Strength and Agility had decreased, I quickly checked them in the Status Information Window. Upon checking, I saw that my Strength and Agility had actually decreased by 20%.

Strength：248 (211+99) (-20%)　Agility：102 (104+24) (-20%)

The minus figures displayed in red. My face naturally frowned, but I quickly composed myself.

‘……It’s still okay.’

These stats weren’t so low that I couldn’t fight. My defense hadn’t decreased, so if I used Shield Bash well, I could easily handle a Lizardman. However, the only thing I was worried about was the boss that would appear at the end, since this was a dungeon.

“Damn it! You coward!”

━Kuku. I’d like to capture both of you, but I have enough sacrifices.

Pababat!-

‘Magic circles?’

Looking around, magic circles appeared in front and behind. There were about 20 of them. And from those magic circles, Werewolves and Lizardmen popped out.

━Now, please die.

The voice disappeared after those words. Instead, the Werewolves and Lizardmen that popped out of the magic circles were glaring at us.

‘Is this…… dangerous?’

Of course, I didn’t think I was in danger. My defense was intact, regardless of my stats. However, if Rayan died, there was a high chance that this quest would end in failure.

“Ugh, they’re coming!”

“Kueong!”

“Shield Bash!”

Kwang!-

I struck the head of the Werewolf that charged first. Because of that Power or whatever it was, my Strength had decreased, so attacking with a sword was meaningless. Striking with my shield like this was the best option.

[Skill Damage! 268.]

The problem was that it didn’t die in one hit. I had to hit it with Shield Bash at least 2-3 times to kill it, and this took more time than I expected.

[Overwhelming Defense! You take no damage!]

‘But I can’t leave Rayan’s side either.’

If I rushed madly with Giant’s Sprint, there was a high chance Rayan would be defeated in the meantime. Therefore, caught in this dilemma, I fumbled for a moment and allowed a brief attack.

Kwajeok!-

[You have taken damage! -450.]

“……!?”

Damage I couldn’t believe even after seeing it. I felt a slight pain in my right foot and looked down to see a Werewolf biting my leg.

Penetration damage?

‘Crazy.’

“Spinning Strike!”

[Skill Damage! 119.]

[Skill Damage! 122.]

I spun around with my sword in hand. Due to the quick rotation of my sword, the surrounding monsters stepped back, and I seized the opportunity to strike down at the Werewolf biting my leg.

[Penetration Damage! 369.]

‘It’s damn hard to kill!’

“Shield Bash!”

[Combat Experience 600 acquired!]

I finished off the Werewolf that didn’t die from the Penetration damage with Shield Bash and kept an eye on the surroundings. Even if I continued like this, winning wasn’t a problem. Except for the Penetration damage, their attacks didn’t work on me.

Kwaaang!-

[Combat Experience 650 acquired!]

‘Have I dealt with three now?’

“Aaack!”

“Huh?”

I turned my head. Behind me, I saw Rayan being attacked by two monsters. I was trying to protect her from behind, but perhaps because of the decreased stats, Rayan was struggling against even two monsters.

Then……

‘I’ll finish this quickly.’

There was no other answer.

“Elsyke’s Phantom Shift!”

[Insufficient Magic Power.]

[Stamina consumption doubled.]

Pat-

The monsters were surrounding us from front and back. I thought I should escape this encirclement and protect Rayan first, so I left a phantom behind and moved to the back where there were no monsters.

I’ll blow them all away!

“Giant’s Sprint!”

Kwakwakwak!!-

I used Giant’s Sprint with the intention of blowing away all the monsters in a straight line. If it worked properly, it wouldn’t be impossible to eliminate all the monsters. Just like that, my body, defying the decreased Agility, shot towards the monsters in an instant.

Kwaaang!!-

[Skill Damage! 928.]

[Skill Damage! 899.]

[Combat Experience 650 acquired!]

[Ding!~ ‘Lizardman’s Leather’ acquired……]

Lucky.

I couldn’t defeat them all, but their numbers were reduced to less than half. I thought I could pull Rayan back and fight alone now.

“Fall back!”

“I, I can’t do that.”

What do you mean you can’t do that!

At this moment, I couldn’t understand Rayan’s stubbornness, but the situation had become much easier. Thanks to a phantom skillfully wielding its sword, it was doing enough to cover for one person.

‘Should I increase the number of phantoms?’

Considering my remaining Stamina, I could create three phantoms. With three, I could handle the remaining monsters relatively easily, but on the other hand, there would be limitations on the skills I could use.

[Phantom Hit Damage! 47.]

‘……No, phantoms won’t do.’

The damage was too low to deal with them using phantoms. Should I just wipe them out with Phantom Explosion? However, I couldn’t deny the fact that Rayan was having an easier time thanks to the phantom blocking for her.

‘Damn it, I’ll go with this.’

“Giant’s Sprint!”

Kwaaang!!-

I used Giant’s Sprint to sweep away all the monsters Rayan was dealing with and quickly turned around to sweep away the monsters the phantom was handling with Giant’s Sprint as well.

Due to using it twice in a row, only three monsters remained.

I felt relieved with this number. I breathed a sigh of relief inwardly and started to finish them off one by one using Shield Bash, and soon I was able to turn all three remaining monsters into experience points.

[Combat Experience 600 acquired!]

[Ding!~ F-rank Skill ‘Shield Bash’ has leveled up.]

[Stat Stamina increases by 2.]

‘Level 3.’

I leveled it up once before entering the dungeon, so it was correct that it was now level 3. Anyway, I finished the battle with the level up of Shield Bash and sat down to rest. To recover the consumed Magic Power and Stamina.

“Haa, haa.”

Well, Rayan was also tired.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“Well, it’s okay.”

I had already expected this dungeon to be quite difficult based on the reward. However, the fact that the difficulty was due to Rayan weighed on my mind.

Wouldn’t I have been able to clear this dungeon easily if I were alone?

‘I’m a bit uneasy.’

Furthermore, I didn’t know how much HP Rayan had left. I had to rely purely on my gut feeling to estimate Rayan’s HP and finish this dungeon. And I could also tell that Rayan’s skills, with her decreased stats, were only slightly better than a Lizardman’s.

By the way, this curse doesn’t seem to be going away.

Sigh.

I sighed and drank two bottles of Intermediate Magic Potion from my Item Window. I also handed Rayan a bottle of Intermediate Healing Potion and made her drink it. Thinking that our HP had recovered to some extent, I stood up.

‘Was the Magic Power recovery of the Blue Stone Ring 1 per second?’

I couldn’t help but think that I needed to level up Phantom Shift quickly.

“Let’s move.”

However, since I had come this far into the dungeon, I would have to refrain from practicing Phantom Shift. Giant’s Sprint was much more efficient. So, for now, I just had to proceed and hope that nothing else would happen.

After walking for a long time, Rayan and I suddenly had to stop.

“This is……”

“A dead end.”

It was a dead end, but there were four orbs embedded in the wall. Magic circles were drawn around each orb, and I had a feeling that we had to do something with these four orbs.

‘Should I touch them?’

Wouldn’t it be better to touch them when things were unclear? Thinking that, I approached the orbs.

“What are you doing?”

“The orbs on the wall look suspicious.”

With a simple answer, I touched an orb. It felt like it was structured to be pushed inward.

‘Should I press it?’

If this dungeon was designed to progress by pressing orbs, I decided that pressing them was the answer no matter what happened, so I immediately pressed the first orb.

Kkuuk-

“D, did you just press it?”

“Yes.”

“What if it’s a trap……?”

She seemed quite anxious.

Pat-

“Hmm?”

Just as I was about to reassure the restless Rayan, I saw an ominous light emanating from the magic circle near the pressed orb.

Boom! Boom! Boom!-

“Something’s coming!”

At the same time, a heavy sound echoed from the opposite side, indicating that something was approaching. Since this was a dead end, there was no way to avoid whatever was coming. Whatever it was, we had to deal with it here.

“Kuoooo!”

Translator’s Blog

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