畅想听吧

Chapter 99: Lynel’s Dungeon (2)

"Dealers, prepare for focused fire!"

Boom!

The Rush guild’s dungeon raid progressed smoothly.

Getting boosted is definitely nice, and the XP is coming along nicely, too.

Kai could now understand why usual players wanted guild support. Soloing produced more XP, but soloing wasn\'t for everyone.

Moreover, fastly hunting monsters higher level than himself was an abnormal playstyle that only someone like himself could manage!

I guess there\'s not gonna be much for me to do while getting boosted.

Occasionally healing Balter and applying buffs was all Kai had done since entering the dungeon.

Well, Min-Soo did ask me to look after these guys...

The new recruits of the Rush guild were positioned next to him, but as someone who was also getting a boost, there wasn\'t much he could do for them. He just made sure they didn’t get lost every now and then.

"It’s a dullahan!"

"That\'s the floor guardian!"

"As reported, it’s level 125. Just one should be easy."

The living armors on the first floor were quickly dealt with, leaving only the dullahan guarding the stairs.

It was a powerful elite monster, even considered a named monster in the field. However, under the focused fire of the Rush guild members, it couldn\'t put up much resistance and was quickly defeated.

“You... cowardly... humans... I will not... forgive... in the name of darkness...

"It\'s going to blow!"

"Prepare yourselves!"

"Brace for impact at the front!"

Looks like it\'s going to blow up.

When a dullahan died, it exploded, sending pieces of its armor and weapon flying in all directions.

If one was unaware of this fact and rushed in for loot, they could get caught in the blast and be killed due to its overwhelming power.

Of course, the guild members were well aware of the dullahan\'s pattern and didn’t let their guard down and prepared for the explosion.

However, the direction of the flying armor and weapon pieces was always random! Even with preparation, it wasn’t always possible to block all the fragments completely, and this was one of those situations.

Boom!

"Missed it!"

"Damn, two fragments are heading to the back!"

"Dang it, the newbies are back there...!"

The Rush guild members turned back in alarm, and Kai looked ahead of him with an annoyed expression.

Why is it coming at me?

Unlucky people would trip and break their noses or drop their wallets down the sewer while walking down the street, and that seemed to be Kai’s case.

Kai lightly clicked his tongue and moved quickly.

At the same time, he let out a startled exclamation, "Oh...! Oh no!"

He currently looked like someone whose feet had gotten tangled while trying to dodge the weapon fragments in a hurry.

Thud!

Kai tripped over his own tangled legs and fell to the ground. However, as a result, he was able to avoid the two fragments of the dullahan\'s weapon.

The boosters who watched him sighed in relief.

"Phew, that was lucky."

"Wasn’t he the friend Balter brought? His reflexes aren\'t half bad."

"Fortunately, his stumble saved him. That was blind luck."

At least they don\'t suspect anything...

Kai looked at the message window in front of him, tilting his head in confusion.

[The first knight has fallen. Lynel shows no reaction.]

The raid members discussed various opinions about the strange message, but ultimately decided to go to the lower floor and continue hunting.

Kai slightly shivered as an uneasy feeling crept up.

Why do I feel like this? I’m starting to get nervous...

It was strange to encounter something unusual from the first floor. Moreover, Kai\'s predictions had been eerily accurate in foreseeing bad outcomes lately.

Eh, it\'s probably just my imagination. What could possibly go wrong with simply getting a boost?

Kai tried his best to dismiss his concerns.

***

"Hmm? Something feels off."

After dealing with the dullahan guarding the first floor’s staircase and taking a brief rest, the Rush guild went down to the basement level.

As they did so, the expression of their leader, Black Bear, turned grim.

Something really is strange.

They had only gone down one floor, but the dungeon\'s atmosphere had completely changed.

"It\'s kind of eerie, isn’t it?"

"Wasn\'t this dungeon supposed to just have a lot of living armors?"

Everyone felt the oddness.

The color of the walls and even the structure of the dungeon had changed. The first floor had typical brown earthen walls and solid dirt floors seen in many dungeons. However, the basement floor\'s walls were made of blueish bricks with strange symbols carved into pillars at intervals.

After a moment of contemplation, Black Bear made his decision.

"...Let’s stay sharp and do a sweep."

Despite the changed atmosphere, this was just a dungeon found in a hunting ground for players under level 100.

Although the current group wasn’t the elite members of the Rush guild, everyone was at least level 120, so clearing the dungeon wouldn’t be a significant challenge.

"Hm?"

"Living armors!"

"But their levels are...?"

Encountering the first monsters on the basement floor, the party members noticed something peculiar as they checked the levels.

There\'s quite a difference in level compared to the upper floor.

Even though dungeons with floor systems often have notable differences between levels, this is...

The living armors on this floor were a whole five levels higher! This naturally made the hunting process take longer.

"Huff, huff. Black Bear, shouldn’t we request support?"

"Support, huh...?"

Having defeated all the living armors and even the dullahan on the second floor, Black Bear’s face showed signs of deliberation.

It\'s still manageable, so is it really necessary to request support?

The new guild members\' levels were rising steadily. He didn’t want to disrupt this good momentum, and it was also an opportunity to demonstrate the guild\'s reliability because that was why they gave new members a boost anyway.

“Let’s go down a few more floors, and if it seems too much, we’ll request support then.”

“Well, if it’s just that, it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

“If it comes to it, we can always run back upstairs too.”

While they were deep in serious deliberation, the new guild members were filled with excitement.

“Wow, I’ve heard guild boosts were great, but this is really raising my XP.”

“It feels like we’ve been in the dungeon for only about four hours, and my XP has already increased by nearly 60%.”

“At this rate, I might level up today.”

The new guild members, all with elated expressions, quickly bonded with each other as they looked forward to playing together.

Despite being asked to look after them, Kai felt more like an outsider.

As he stood apart from the group, he was lost in thought.

When we defeated the dullahan this time, another message appeared.

[The second knight has fallen. Lynel’s consciousness is slowly rising to the surface.]

“This kind of message wouldn’t appear without a reason...”

Though he wished he could thoroughly and carefully explore the dungeon’s interior, circumstances didn’t allow it.

As someone getting boosted, I can’t act on my own.

Swallowing his disappointment, Kai quickly caught up with the departing group.

***

[Level increased.]

[Acquired 5 stat points.]

On the fourth basement floor of Lynel’s Dungeon, the XP gained also increased significantly as the monsters became stronger.

But this floor seems to be the limit.

There was no longer any sense of ease among the Rush guild members giving the boost.

It was no wonder, as the living armors’ levels ranged randomly from 112 to 117, and the floor guardian, the dullahan, was at level 140.

“Black Bear, I think we should...”

“...Yeah. Let’s just take down that dullahan and call it a day.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at the clear retreat announcement.

The dullahan may be level 140, but it’s just one monster.

We should be able to take it down quickly.

The Rush guild members swiftly engaged in battle and the dullahan crumbled into gray polygons after a thirty-minute fight.

Or course, a message appeared before them once again.

[The fifth knight has fallen. Lynel now clearly senses the presence of intruders.]

[Lynel’s Test has begun. All challengers please proceed.]

“What is this?”

“Lynel’s Test?”

“Lynel must be the boss of this dungeon.”

“What does it mean to proceed?”

After a brief discussion about the message, Black Bear firmly shook his head.

“No. The fifth basement floor is beyond our current party’s capabilities. It’s better to leave now before we suffer any casualties.”

"Tsk, it\'s a shame we can\'t see what this Lynel looks like."

"But isn\'t this a pretty big deal? There aren\'t many floor dungeons with more than five floors. We\'ve definitely secured a place to boost new guild members."

"We couldn\'t level up the newbies much, though. Each one only went up about two levels."

"We can just go through it again once the monsters respawn."

The raid party, having completed the raid from the first floor to the fourth basement floor, turned back with some regret.

Until that moment, everyone was smiling, satisfied with the successful dungeon raid. However, the problem arose when they tried to go back up to the upper floors.

"Huh? What\'s this?"

A stone door firmly blocked the stairs, which hadn’t been there on their way down. It was a tightly sealed door that wouldn\'t budge, no matter how much they pushed or pulled.

"This won\'t open."

"When we touch the door, it just shows a message saying \'Please proceed.\'"

"Maybe it has to be opened from the other side?"

"I’ll ask our nearby members if they can come and open it."

They spent thirty minutes waiting to see if the Rush guild members outside could open the door for them, but the answer was a firm no.

"Damn, they say they can\'t even get down from the first floor. There\'s a stone door blocking the stairs there, too."

"Ugh..."

In short, they were trapped in the dungeon with no way out!

Faced with this unexpected situation, Black Bear bit his lower lip.

I didn\'t anticipate something like this.

Judging by the situation, it seemed like the dungeon had to be fully cleared for the door to open. Otherwise, they would need to find some mechanism to open the stone doors along the way.

If the fifth basement floor is the last floor, that\'s somewhat fortunate I guess, but...

The problem was the boss. Every dungeon had a boss monster and Black Bear wasn\'t confident that their current party could defeat Lynel.

Watching Black Bear, who couldn\'t make a decision, Kai let out a deep sigh.

"Ugh..."

Something really doesn’t feel right.

It seemed that this Lynel creature had no intention of letting his visitors leave peacefully.