Chapter 95
He screams in pain as his arm breaks.
“Oh, don’t be so scared, I’m not going to kill you anyway. I don’t want to draw useless attention to myself by killing you.”
I mean.
“Let’s just settle for not being able to run away for now.”
Once again Miner’s screams echo up on the tenth floor.
Having made sure he couldn’t escape anymore, I stood up and dusted off my clothes.
“This should be enough. You’d better stay right there and not do anything stupid.”
“Mmph……!”
Well, I suppose that’s an acknowledgment.
After I finished subduing him, I sat down on the steps to cool off a bit and examine the ice crystal he was staring at.
“Oh. That one’s getting close.”
‘Snowgirl Parr’ finally succumbs to the onslaught and falls to the ground.
The video of the crawling Snowgirl Parr was cut off by Jin-woo.
Apparently, the video itself was caused by the power of Snowgirl Parr so he should be coming back soon.
Grrrrr-.
At the same time as I thought that, the door began to slowly open.
“Are you sure Eugene is in danger?”
“Didn’t you see me scrambling up from the hole? Boss is fighting Miner one-on-one!”
“Eugene Han is fighting Miner by himself? …… I’m envious.”
“Once we get in, the boss might be in the middle of a battle, so we should rush in……Huh? It’s quiet?”
“You’re late.”
I wave to the kids as they cautiously step inside.
“Eh, boss, did you finish before we did?”
“Look, there’s no way Mr. Eugene is going to get caught, what’s all the fuss? I’ll deposit 10,000 won as soon as we get out.”
“I didn’t mean……million won.”
Apparently, they’d made a bet on whether or not I’d knocked out Miner first.
“Boss, I heard from Young-jae that if we defeat the boss here, all the other kids can leave, right?”
Jin-woo asked about the 10th floor.
“That’s right. Since the dungeon has been upgraded, if you defeat the boss, which is like the main core of the dungeon, the system will naturally create an exit and everyone will be able to get out.”
In the original, when they were attacked, defeating the dungeon boss released everyone, so it was likely to work similarly.
“Great, then we won’t have to wait too long. Can we just dive right in? What about the raid?”
Young-jae, who was holding a fountain pen, asked with a curious expression.
“It shouldn’t be too difficult. We just need to utilize him.”
“Huh?”
The kids look in the direction I’m pointing, where Miner is lying with broken limbs.
“We’re going to use a dying man? I don’t think he’s going to be able to do anything…….”
Se-ah muttered, shaking her head at the sight of Miner in such a terrible state.
Realizing what she was worried about, I smiled and said.
“All we need is his body and a pickaxe.”
Walking over to the fallen Miner, I grabbed his tattered clothes and dragged him to the side of the entrance to the boss room.
“I don’t know if this will work here, but…….”
The trigger for his ability is to pound the ground with a ‘tool’.
He hits the wall with the pickaxe I’ve forced him to hold and the surface starts to give way as if it were pure tofu.
“That works?”
This makes things easier.
I immediately throw my fist at the bouncing wall, and a grin spreads across my face at the sight of it popping open.
I must have swung my fist five or six times when finally a new space appeared beyond the wall.
“This should be enough.”
After nailing Miner to a corner of the dungeon, I gather the kids together and explain what’s ahead.
Now all that was left was to tackle the boss.
“Okay, here’s a quick strategy. The dungeon on the 10th floor is called the ‘sarcophagus’ and the boss is a golem.”
The boss of the final floor, however, is no ordinary golem.
“The core that powers the golem is the core of the dungeon itself. Since it’s a layered dungeon, it should be much more powerful and difficult to defeat than the original golem. Even if we all went in, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”
At this, Jin-woo, who had been listening quietly, raised his hand.
“Huh? There’s no chance of victory even if all of us go in?”
“Nope. You’ll either get swept away or become a stain on the floor. The reason is simple. The strength of the golem depends on the number of people in the boss room.”
This was a difficulty adjustment for solo players without a party.
It’s a simple system: easier difficulty for solo players and harder difficulty for players with a group.
However, there was a flaw in the system.
“That’s where the holes come in.”
Playing the Academy route in the real world, I suddenly had a question.
“What happens if I lure Miner into the dungeon’s boss room?
The Miner is the boss you need to speedrun from floor 1 to 9.
I’ve speedrun dungeons with him many times, but I’ve never actually gotten straight to the boss room. This was because I could just run to the boss room from the 9th floor, where there were no monsters.
As I entered the boss room with him, I noticed something surprising.
The boss doesn’t recognize anyone who enters the room unless they enter through the front door.
This was true even when I came with a party.
If only one of us entered through the front door and the rest of us entered in an unusual way, the golem would adjust its difficulty based on the number of people who entered through the front door, and a group of us could clear it on a very easy difficulty.
In other words, a buggy play was born.
“No, that works? How do you know that?”
Young-jae asked, confused by my explanation.
“We haven’t raided this dungeon yet.”
At that, the other kids started to look at me.
They seemed to think it was weird that I knew so much about the strategy for a dungeon I hadn’t even played yet.
Well, I was insured against that.
“I said before that this dungeon was made by the club who previously used our clubroom, right?”
“Right?”
“And that they disappeared overnight.”
“Well……that’s a myth.”
I looked at the kids, who were paying attention to my story, and gave them my prepared answer.
“Well, they disappeared so fast, but there were some things that stayed. As I was cleaning up, I realized that some of the research materials were among the things I was about to throw away.
“Oh…….”
“There was such a thing?”
Of course, I lied but the other kids nod, as if my explanation made sense.
“Okay, now that I’ve explained, I’ll tell you how to do this raid. It’s simple. Three of us, including me, go in first, take up positions, and then while the other one comes in we all attack as soon as the golem stands up. Any questions?”
I glanced around the room as I said that, but no one had any questions.
“Jin-woo will be the one to open the door while the rest of us will go in first and settle in. Jin-woo five minutes from now, open the door and come in.”
“Okay. Then I can just stand in front of the door, and I’ll open it in exactly five minutes~”
The four of us went inside through the opening first.
When we got to the end of the opening, we saw a giant golem sleeping.
“……It’s really big. Does it move?”
Se-ah finally emerged from the hole, dusting herself off and muttering.
True to her word, the golem was about the size of a two-story building and sat silently.
“I’ll make it simple: when the door opens, the golem will open its eyes. At the same time, the core in its chest will start to light up, and that’s our chance.”
A golem’s core is the equivalent of a human’s vital organs but attacking the core was not easy.
“Once the core is activated, a shield will form around it. It’s going to be pretty tough since it’s blocking a vital part of the golem, but…… I’ll take care of that, and Se-ah can move so we can get in front of the core. I want you to put as many buffs on Choi Yeon as you can.”
“……me?”
Choi Yeon looks confused at the sudden mention of her name.
“Yes. I’ll break the shield, and you’ll destroy the core in the meantime.”
Of the three of us, only Choi Yeon was capable of delivering a proper critical hit to the golem’s core.
“Choi Yeon, have you learned how to use the Celestial Sword?”
“……The basics.”
“Then you can do it……right?”
“Yes. I can.”
“Then that’s it.”
I glanced at the time on my wrist and realized that I had about two minutes before Jin-woo came in.
In the meantime, Choi Yeon is beside me, getting all kinds of buffs from Young-jae.
Her eyes were closed and her grip on the sword was that of an unflappable swordsman.
“Thirty seconds.”
I hear Se-ah’s voice as she looks at her watch.
I insert aura into my gloves in preparation.
It feels like I’m trying to squeeze every last bit of aura out of me for this one shot.
As I begin to force the aura into the gloves, they gradually begin to turn red.
“Ten seconds!”
[Bloodline Ability: “Corleone” takes control of “Midas’ Gloves”]
Seeing the message I was waiting for, I smiled and looked at the knuckles on my hand.
Unlike before, when they were merely in the form of knuckles, my right hand was now sparking with repulsive force.
“Five seconds!”
I grab my right wrist with my left hand and prepare for my strongest punch.
“One second!”
Jin-woo’s voice came from the entrance.
“Boss, can I just come in like this?”
At that moment, the golem’s closed eyes flutter open and the core of its chest activates, glowing brightly.
“I’ll move it!”
At the same time, Se-ah’s magic power comes out and envelops Choi Yeon, and the landscape changes.
In an instant, I and Choi Yeon are transported to the Golem’s eye level.
“Choi Yeon, get ready!”
Leaving Choi Yeon, whose eyes are still closed, behind, I turn on my heel and swing at the green curtain surrounding the core.
Keegeegeegeegeegeegeegee-!
The repulsive force of my fist pounded against the shield, and the surface of the seemingly solid shield began to crack.
At that moment, Choi Yeon’s voice sounded from behind.
“──I’m ready.”
“Blow it up!!!”
-Boom!
Choi Yeon pointed her sword at the purple core beyond the shattered shield.
“Opening Sword.”
──Dawn broke.