Chapter 128
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: The Difficulty 4 Dungeon
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After hearing the jackpot info from Ha Dong-seok, I bolted out without looking back.
Difficulty 4 dungeon, huh.
I couldn't even imagine what kind of delicious reward the first clear would give.
The Difficulty 3 dungeon's first clear reward had been an item that let me add a trait.
Normally, you have to level up in increments of 10 to gain an extra trait, so this ignored that and added one outright. An insane item, basically.
I hadn't found a trait worth adding yet, so I wasn't using it, but being able to have one more trait than others without leveling up was a massive advantage.
And now there was a dungeon one difficulty higher than that, offering even better rewards?
It had to be way juicier.
I wanted to rush over and clear the Difficulty 4 dungeon right now, but first things first—I had some business to handle.
I could just pull some zombie aggro, farm coins, then head to the dungeon at a leisurely pace.
No other Awakener besides me had a snowball's chance in hell of clearing a Difficulty 4 dungeon anyway.
Even Difficulty 3 clears were super rare, so Difficulty 4 was probably untouchable.
No need to rush. No one else could clear it, so why hurry?
Maybe I should quickly hunt some zombies that others might snag first?
I teleported to the elementary school where I could pull zombies en masse, rang the bell right away, and gathered the horde from the surroundings.
The announcement said zombie numbers had increased, and sure enough, more were coming than usual.
Not as many as during a Zombie Wave, but still, a rough count put it over 500.
I reinforced my body with Demonic Energy and charged into the pack lunging at me, mowing them down in a frenzy.
Intermediate Black Magic could wipe them out in one go, but it consumes more Demonic Energy than I'd gain, so no point.
If it were urgent, I'd have used intermediate Black Magic, but no rush.
"Let's see... how much did I make?"
Traits: Technician, Outpost Manager
Skills: Plunder Lv. 10 / Equipment Crafting Lv. 11 / Equipment Repair Lv. 2 / Equipment Dismantling Lv. 1 / Recycling Search Lv. 1 / Outpost Designation / Outpost Management / Outpost Reinforcement Lv. 14 / Status Window Manipulation
Level: 22 | Additional Points: 17 | Current Coins: 24,759
Roughly 450 coins. Not bad.
"Sigh, if only my Luck were higher, I'd have made more..."
Zombies drop 1 coin each normally.
Not 100% due to Luck influence, of course.
Feels like 50-60% for me.
And today, max 3 per zombie.
Even accounting for that, it's a shame.
"Eh, what can you do? Can't control it with my power alone. Time to hit the dungeon."
Better to focus on what I can do than dwell on the impossible. So I headed to the Difficulty 4 dungeon spot Ha Dong-seok mentioned.
"Let's see... he said it was around here."
Run straight in that direction, and it'd pop right up, apparently.
Too obvious to miss, so I leaped across rooftops scanning around until an empty lot caught my eye.
"That the place? Ansan City Hall site, he said. Matches the surroundings."
Ha Dong-seok said buildings lined up with the city hall before, but yesterday they were gone, leaving a hole where the hall was.
The scenery matched perfectly. Had to be it.
"Which means a new mutant zombie around here too. Ah, that one?"
The mutant's features lined up spot-on with the one visible in the distance.
Humanoid base, but the difference was the spider legs sprouting from its back.
Human limbs, sure, but eight massive spider legs let it skitter around.
Stretched sideways, each was about 3 meters long.
Face looked insectoid too, compound eyes and all.
"A spider zombie? Really."
I've seen every monster under the sun in that other world, so I'm unfazed, but a normal person would freak.
Women especially—total nightmare fuel.
To me? Just a walking coin and item dispenser.
Should I take that guy out first?
I dropped from the high-rise to approach the spider mutant. It turned its head my way while patrolling the empty lot.
We were pretty far, but the moment I wondered if it spotted me, it charged on those spider legs at blinding speed.
"What the? How'd it know?"
Maybe the impact from my drop or ground vibrations tipped it off.
Tensing up not knowing its attacks, it raised its front two legs and stabbed at me fast.
Faster than expected—anyone else would've been skewered.
"Whoa, close one. Huh?"
I ducked the leg strike, and it opened its mouth—human-looking at first, but the jaw split sideways, revealing razor fangs.
It folded its legs to lunge and bite.
Every move was the quickest I'd seen from mutants. Aside from Takers, no Awakener could handle this thing.
"Kieeeek!"
Of course, not my match.
Before it could bite my neck, I slashed the two stabbing legs clean off with my sword. It screamed and recoiled.
I closed in to finish, but it gaped wide again.
Wary, something shot from its mouth—I swatted it away with my sword.
"What the hell? What'd it spit?"
Whatever it was, acidic—the blade started melting from the middle.
Meanwhile, it spat again. I reflexively blocked, and the sword snapped in half.
"Ah, damn. Served me well too. Ruined like that."
The blade from looting Smasher had been reliable. Didn't expect this.
Wouldn't have blocked if I'd known. Oh well, accidents happen. Time to ditch the melted sword.
While it fixated on the broken blade, it kept spitting acid. My barrier blocked it harmlessly.
"Tried saving Demonic Energy, but lost my sword instead. Time to end this."
I blocked its spits with the barrier, conjured a Darkness Arrow behind me, aimed at its head, and fired.
"Easy cleanup... Huh?"
Thought it'd pierce the head and end it, but one spider leg split at the tip, snatching the arrow midair.
Did it see my Black Magic?
Else, that timing was impossible.
Whether special or not, first time my Black Magic got blocked since arriving. Shocking... and kinda fresh.
Whatever. One arrow's nothing.
I conjured six more Darkness Arrows.
"Try blocking all these with your spider legs."
Aimed at the head again, unleashed them all. It planted its unused human legs, snagged every arrow with its remaining five spider legs.
It had eight originally; I severed two, leaving six.
I fired seven arrows.
Kindergarten math.
Doomed the moment it met me.
Blocked six, but the last pierced its head. It toppled slowly forward.
Frowning at the extra Black Magic use and lost sword, I approached the corpse—and an accessory appeared.
"What's this? Bracelet?"
Looked plain. Picked it up, and a system window popped up with its info.
[Lucky Bracelet]
- Increases wearer's Luck stat by 2.
Lucky Bracelet?
Boosts my Luck?