Chapter 87. Dragon Falls Gorge (2)
“Ugh…… I’m gonna die.”
Jeonghyeon barely suppressed the bile rising from his gut.
“Hahaha! Kid’s got a real man’s stomach for booze these days!”
“Y-Yeah…… sure.”
Crazy old bastard……
Mad alcoholics. And their boomer energy. That was why he’d avoided the Rock Dwarves.
They lorded their age over everyone, ordering people around like it was their birthright.
First they’d force you to drink till you dropped. Then they’d send you on endless errands. And eventually, they’d have you waiting on them hand and foot.
Of course, if you could hold your liquor, one drinking buddy was all it took.
The problem was, no human body could outdrink these Rock Dwarves and win.
“Hoo……”
Jeonghyeon let out a grotesque groan, sighing heavily as he blinked blearily at his surroundings.
“Back in my day!!”
Nus had somehow wedged himself between the Rock Dwarves, drunk off his ass and rambling nonsense.
“You greenhorn humans not even a century old, bossing me around. I’ve been handling everything for you! Right!? Ain’t that the truth!?”
“Damn straight!”
The dwarves chuckled and hooted, finding the tiny, sloshed Nus endlessly adorable.
“So, what brings ya here, lad?”
A dwarf plopped down beside him, smoothly sliding over a fresh barrel of booze. Before Jeonghyeon could even grab it, the dwarf chugged it himself with a hearty glug glug.
“Ah, y-yeah…… I’m.”
I have to drink this one.
Chug it within three seconds of the toast, or you’d become their next target.
Glug glug.
Forcing it down, Jeonghyeon wiped his mouth and finished his sentence.
“I…… hic! Just came for…… hic! a little sightseeing.”
The one phrase you absolutely never uttered, no matter what.
“I’ve come to protect you.”
These prideful bastards lived off their egos alone. Say that, and you’d unleash a tirade starting with “What does a young punk like you know……”—a full boomer explosion.
They weren’t just ten years older. At least five thousand.
And five millennia of boomer energy defied imagination.
The dwarf next to Jeonghyeon introduced himself as Amdoot Arak.
“Call me Arak for short. I’m the village chief here.”
Arak slapped a rock-thick hand on Jeonghyeon’s shoulder and thrust out yet another barrel from gods-know-where.
“Ah…… sure.”
Not even a polite “thanks” could squeeze past his lips.
When the hell does this hellish feast end?
As Jeonghyeon mustered his last shred of willpower, squeezing his eyes shut to choke down the booze—
“So! Back then, we came all the way here to help you lot at Uldran’s request!”
The thoroughly plastered Nus had just blurted out the one thing he shouldn’t have.
“Damn straight…… huh?”
The entire Dragon Falls Gorge fell into an eerie silence, like someone hit mute.
……We’re fucked.
The mood chilled in an instant. Jeonghyeon’s booze-fogged brain snapped clear.
“What…… did you just say?”
Village chief Arak turned slowly from Jeonghyeon toward Nus.
“……Huh? Did I say somethin’ wrong?”
No turning back now.
“You snot-nosed whelps…… helping us?”
The boomer sermon had begun.
***
“Doesn’t it…… feel like our strength’s draining a bit?”
Philip crushed the 29th-floor boss’s skull underfoot and glanced at Jeonghu, sensing the weakened mana link to Jeonghyeon.
“Yeah…… kinda.”
Jeonghu narrowed his eyes. His overflowing mana had vanished in a heartbeat, stirring unease.
“Just one more floor……”
“Think something happened to him?”
“Better not risk it. Let’s rush the final floor.”
“Right. Let’s go.”
Philip and Jeonghu quickened their pace.
Something was wrong with their dominator, Jeonghyeon. They didn’t know what, but they knew enough to act.
Those who endure the tower's trials at rapid speed……
“Shut it! Highest level! Next trial, now!”
What, do these bastards think the tower's some pushover……?
The tower’s voice now openly dripped with irritation at being treated like a mere guide.
But duty was duty. What could it do?
If they wanted the top, it had to deliver.
You goddamn brats.
“Uh…… we can hear you, y’know?”
Meant for you to. You wretched bastards.
Vrrr—
The tower’s voice echoed like a curse, and the door to the 30th floor swung open before Philip and Jeonghu.
“Let’s smash it quick and check on Jeonghyeon.”
Step.
One step in, and the infamous “Tomb of the Awakener”—the dreaded 30th floor—revealed itself.
“So this is the dreaded 30th……”
Philip gulped.
“Why’s it called dreaded?”
The surroundings were just blank walls closing in—no standout features. Like a big dungeon room, nothing special.
Some rubble underfoot, air a bit stuffy.
The 25th floor, choked with poison mist forcing a 10-minute potion-gulping time attack, seemed scarier.
“30th’s simple. Boss appears, guarded by trash mobs.”
“Those are tough, huh.”
“Tough doesn’t cover it. Each trash mob’s boss-tier. And worst of all……”
Philip swallowed hard.
Then, thick indigo liquid dripped from above—drip.
“!?”
“When did that—?!”
The liquid seeped between Philip and Jeonghu. They whipped around.
It hadn’t been hiding in shadows.
A massive monster had been looming over them from the start.
“You dare invade the sacred temple…… who are you?!”
Chiseled like a plaster statue—huge, rigid carapace.
Human torso, bovine legs.
Twin rhino heads, four arms.
Straight out of Hindu myth. Its name: Colossus.
The Colossus unwound the massive rosary from its neck, wrapping it around its four hands.
Stone hands clashed with beads, sparking red embers. Soon, the rosary glowed crimson.
Thud. Rumble.
Its rocky surface peeled away, revealing a colossal ebony rosary core.
“No way…… that whole thing’s ebony?”
“Haha. Looks like it.”
Dozens of times denser than compressed iron—the stuff used to forge hammers for refining Epic Weapons.
Ebony.
Hardness rivaling most Epic Weapons or mana stone arms.
“This’ll be brutal…… if that’s the boss……”
Jeonghu gripped his gauntlets tight.
Ebony or not, it was a rosary. Target the joints, maybe shatter it temporarily.
Momentarily judging via the split-second instincts honed with Jeonghyeon in the arena—
A word shattered his focus.
“That…… ain’t the boss.”
Philip pointed behind the Colossus.
From what seemed a wall, more Colossuses ground into view—grind grind.
“We guard…… the temple……!”
“We guard…… the temple……!”
Boss-tier monsters that’d demand a full guild raid—solo.
And not one, but five.
The “walls” had all been camouflaged Colossuses.
“Uh…… can we talk this out? We’re not really here to wreck the temple.”
Philip flashed an awkward grin, mimicking Jeonghyeon’s style.
Now I get why Jeonghyeon always gripes about this……
If he could avoid it—really avoid it—he’d rather not fight.
Such were a leader’s woes.
“Fine. We’ll settle it with words.”
“Really?!”
Maybe I’ve got a knack for this?!
“After you die, I’ll chat with your souls and corpses.”
Ah. Knew it.
Another pattern he’d seen a thousand times tagging along with Jeonghyeon.
Though Jeonghyeon dodged fights out of sheer laziness.
I’m…… really screwed here……
Philip sighed deeply.
“So, we gotta fight no matter what?”
Jeonghu couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief.
“I’ll tank as much aggro as I can first.”
Philip’s build was pure close-combat Warrior.
Draw heat, eat damage, keep fighting.
Jeonghu was 100% DPS, so each Colossus swing would be lethal.
“No way! I’ll join……”
“Nah. Learned one thing tagging with Jeonghyeon.”
“?”
“Small trash mobs mean big boss…… and these massive trash mobs? Boss is usually tiny.”
Time with Jeonghyeon hadn’t been wasted.
As Philip said, the Colossuses stood guard like sentinels.
High odds they protected the tower’s owner—the real boss.
“Find it. I’ll hold their eyes somehow.”
Philip arched his back, chest swelling as he drew a massive breath.
Siiiip……!
He slammed his mace down viciously.
“Double Strike!!!”
Power surged from his planted foot, up his thighs, spine—twisting through solid shoulders. His arm whipped like a colossal flail.
BOOM!!!
The mace cratered the ground, then BOOM!! again, shaking the earth.
“Now! Scatter!!”
Philip roared. Jeonghu bolted far away.
No walls now—needed distance for overview.
Rumble—!
The quaking drew every Colossus eye to Philip.
“Strong? Are you strong?”
“Don’t know ‘bout strong, but durable as fuck, you shits!!”
And a taunt to boot.
All Colossus attention locked on Philip.
“Kill. Crush.”
They swung ebony rosaries in unison.
Whoosh—!
Just the statues moving whipped up gales.
Kra-kra-kra—!
Deep gouges scarred the floor in their wake.
“Shit……!”
And five of them.
If Jeonghyeon’s mana held, he might’ve blocked. But now?
Philip dodged the merciless barrage from all sides.
“There…… another one……!”
As one Colossus turned toward Jeonghu—
“Hya!!”
Philip smashed its hand with his mace.
Crack!
“……!”
Thus he staked his life pulling aggro—
“Die!!”
Dodging a frontal rosary, twisting from a side swing—
Whoosh—!
An ebony rosary hurtled from behind.