Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Sanctuary of the Mimics (2)
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I walked over to Ha-young and the Golden Lion Guild party members, who were having their meal.
“The soup smells good.”
“You must be hungry too, brother. I'll get you a bowl right away.”
“Before that, just a moment… Mi-jeong, the crystal dropped.”
“A crystal?”
“Were you trying to get a specific item?”
It seemed no one had explained it properly, as they all looked confused.
“Really?”
Mi-jeong, who had been eating her soup, had her eyes widen like saucers.
“Yes. I told you I was lucky, didn't I?”
I grinned, holding up the crystal and giving it a little shake.
“So it was a real item after all.”
“You didn't believe me? I'm a little hurt by that.”
“No, it's just that you said you'd get it right away, Hyeon-ung. But then it didn't drop for hours…”
She had a point. For all my boasting, it had taken a while.
After a quick explanation, I filled my stomach and finished my preparations.
“Can all of us go?”
“Well, the item description says up to ten people…”
It was a bit ambiguous, since last time I used a crystal, it teleported me instantly.
But the maximum party size is five.
After some thought, Mi-jeong and I each took on the role of party leader and formed our own parties.
“Alright, I'm using it.”
As I spoke, I crushed the crystal in my hand.
[You have used the Passage Crystal to the Sanctuary of the Mimics.]
Unlike last time, my vision didn't change. Instead, a blue hole, large enough for one person to pass through, appeared in midair.
I was wondering how ten people would get in. So it creates a portal.
“Do we just go inside?”
“Looks like it. I'll go first…”
“No, I'll go first. It could be dangerous.”
There wasn't any such warning, but like she said, it was better to be careful…
“No, it's fine. It should be safe, so I'll go first.”
Mi-jeong was a ranker who had been active in the Golden Lion Guild's main force, but there was no telling what dangers lurked in a secret dungeon.
The Emperor Mimic I faced in the tomb last time wasn't 40th-floor level, but it was certainly stronger than a typical 9th-floor monster.
The moment I stepped inside, my vision changed with a flash of blue light.
It was a wide plaza, similar to the Tomb of the Mimics I'd visited before, but the environment was different.
The walls and floor were made entirely of gold and jewels.
Fortunately, it didn't seem like monsters would appear immediately.
[You have entered the secret dungeon, Sanctuary of the Mimics.
Time until dungeon collapse: 48:00:00 (The countdown begins when the passage portal disappears.)]
[You have achieved the feat of being the first to reach the Sanctuary of the Mimics. All stats +1.]
[Miter's Blessing has been activated.
You have visited a new location untouched by other summoners.
All stats +7. For one week, the drop rate of normal items will decrease significantly, while the drop rate of rare or higher items will increase significantly.]
Heh, this is it.
Of course, with the dungeon collapsing in 48 hours, I couldn't use the full week, and if the number of monsters was limited, it would be hard to see the full effect. Still, this was more than enough.
Truthfully, it would have been fine to let Mi-jeong go first, but I came in ahead of her on purpose to enjoy the effects of Miter's Blessing for a change.
Thankfully, the portal behind me hadn't vanished. One by one, people emerged from the blue light.
“Whoa! What is all this?”
“H-Hyeon-ung, is this all… gold and jewels?”
“Brother! It's so beautiful.”
Everyone seemed captivated by the resplendent dungeon.
“Don't let your guard down, and don't touch anything carelessly. This is a dungeon, so there will be plenty of traps, and the monsters are usually stronger than those outside.”
As I gave the warning and scanned our surroundings, another notification window appeared.
[3 minutes remaining until the passage portal disappears.]
Seeing the notification that the dungeon collapse countdown would begin after the portal disappeared, it seemed something would start once it vanished.
I had everyone get into formation, resummoned my companions, and asked them to prioritize the safety of the new guild members.
After three minutes, just as the notification described, the portal vanished, and the ground began to tremble violently.
“Why all of a sudden…”
“Brother, what… what is it?”
[The Sanctuary of the Mimics' system has detected intruders and activated its defense system.]
“I think monsters are about to appear.”
It would be nice if something I could reason with appeared, like the Emperor Mimic.
Then again, even if it couldn't talk, maybe a few punches would make it listen?
Whatever it was, I hoped there would be a lot of them.
For better or worse, the floor cracked open, and hundreds of colorful rocks shot up from below.
“Brother, are all of those…”
“Aren't they Mimics?”
They weren't ordinary Mimics; they were nearly the same size as the Mimic King I had just hunted.
Come to think of it, the crystal's description did say that only Mimic Kings go to the sanctuary. Does that mean every single one of those is a Mimic King?
[The Undead Mimic King legion has recognized the intruders.]
I didn't expect the 'Undead' part, but my guess was correct.
“They're Undead, but still Mimic Kings. I'll take the right side. The rest of you, follow Mi-jeong's lead.”
The right side seemed to have the most, so I shot forward like an arrow the moment I finished speaking.
I sliced through the nearest red Mimic King with my sword.
It looked quite sturdy, but my blade cut it smoothly in half with a single strike.
[You have defeated an Undead Mimic King (Red).]
[You cannot gain experience from monsters of a significantly lower level.]
As expected of a 9th-floor secret dungeon, no experience points.
When I cut it, it felt a little tougher than a regular Mimic King, but not enough to block my sword.
Besides, my stats were currently inflated thanks to Ha-young and the Defying Heaven trait.
I cleared out the roughly fifty Undead Mimic Kings on the right side.
Slicing through two or three with each swing instead of just one, it took less than five minutes to finish them all.
I glanced back to see how Ha-young and the new guild members were doing, and they were holding their own.
Of course, they weren't cutting them down before they could even transform like I was.
“Ha-min, is your spell ready?”
“Yes.”
“Yeong-cheol, fall back behind Min-seo. Aim for the jewel on its head. The Mimic King's weak point is the core on its head.”
A sharp-looking ice spear that had been floating in the air struck the Mimic King's head.
*Crash—*
Unfortunately, the jewel remained intact, but a follow-up arrow from Ha-young hit its mark, shattering the jewel and felling the Mimic King.
So that's how you're supposed to fight them.
The way she commanded the party while fighting two of them herself showed her experience as a veteran.
“Mister, can I fight too?”
“Mr. Hyeon-ung, I'm itching for a fight. One wave of my White Flames could wipe them all out.”
Both Rina and Timi looked incredibly bored.
Hanna, too, kept fiddling with her sword, looking eager to fight.
I had told them to watch and only step in if it got dangerous.
“If we do everything, it won't help those guys over there. Just help out by making sure they don't get swarmed by too many monsters.”
It would be over quickly if I helped, but I didn't think it was good to help too much.
“Okay.”
“Understood.”
I dealt with the Mimic Kings to keep them from overwhelming the new party.
Because there were so many and the others fought a bit passively, it took about thirty minutes to finish the battle.
[You have cleared the secret dungeon, Sanctuary of the Mimics.]
[Obtained Dungeon Escape Magic Stone x1.]
Huh? That's it?
“Brother, is it over? I got an Escape Magic Stone.”
“Me too.”
It seemed everyone who entered received one. I guess this really was the end.
To think this is all…
The number of monsters was high, but at this rate, the Tomb of the Mimics seemed better…
Well, it was only the 9th floor, after all.
“Mr. Hyeon-ung, did you kill all of those by yourself?”
“Wow, we barely managed to kill fifteen, but you… just how many did you kill on your own…?”
“And without any help from your companions, too. You're amazing.”
I was worried they might resent me for not helping, but thankfully, that wasn't the atmosphere at all.
Instead, they were full of praise as they looked at the endless corpses of the Mimic Kings scattered around.
“Haha, they weren't very strong monsters.”
“What? They were incredibly tough.”
Just a day ago, I'd been in a life-or-death battle with the Martial Alliance Lord. This was nothing.
“My brother is the best!”
“As expected from the number one ranker.”
Starting with Ha-young, everyone was showering me with compliments, and it was getting embarrassing.
“Ha-young and our new members fought well, too.”
“That's right, you all did well. And isn't everyone praising Hyeon-ung a little too much? So much for raising new recruits being useless.”
When Mi-jeong feigned a hurt expression and glared, Ha-young and the other party members all looked flustered.
“N-No, that's not it. You were amazing too, Party Leader.”
“That's right. It's all thanks to your great instructions, Party Leader.”
“Save the flattery. Now, everyone go collect the items.”
Everyone quickly dispersed to gather the loot.
On our side, Geum-yong had already been hard at work picking things up, but…
[Obtained 296 Gold.]
[Obtained Frost Earrings.]
[Golden Dragon Agnus has consumed the Frost Earrings.]
[Obtained Robe of Kartan.]
[Golden Dragon Agnus has consumed the Robe of Kartan.]
Was he picking them up or eating them?
He was devouring most items as soon as he picked them up.
I hadn't been able to feed him many items lately, so I'd let him be, and now he was running around excitedly like a fish in water.
“Alpen—no, Nix, can you go catch Geum-yong for me?”
Fortunately, judging by the notifications so far, he hadn't eaten anything that seemed too expensive, but it was time to stop him.
If he ate any more, there'd be nothing left.
At my command, Nix shot off like an arrow, snatched Geum-yong with his talons, and returned.
“Good work, Nix.”
“Ppoyo!”
“Kkyuing! Kkyuing!”
The little guy wailed sorrowfully, looking toward the corpses.
The way his eyes gleamed… judging by his gluttony alone, he was more like a pig than a dragon.
“You ate a lot today. I need to make a living, too.”
“Kkyuing!”
“I'll give you the things I don't need. Let's all start collecting.”
I asked my companions, excluding Alpen, to help with the collection.
I'd lost a lot of my own equipment anyway, so I needed to restock.
“Kkyuing! Kkyuing!”
The little guy kept crying; he seemed to be sulking for real.
I needed gear too, so I thought, *'Can't be helped,'* and started collecting items.
[Obtained Aleph's Breath.]
[Obtained Blessed Armor Enhancement Scroll x1.]
…
[Obtained Berta's Will.]
[Obtained Fire Spirit Ring.]
Geum-yong had eaten a lot, but there were still so many left that it took ten minutes just to collect everything.
Thanks to Miter's Blessing, the secret dungeon, and the fact that Mimic Kings themselves were famous for dropping good items and money, the gear I got was quite decent.
The gold haul was substantial, and there were no normal-grade items at all.
The lowest was Magic-grade, most were Rare, and I even got four Unique pieces of equipment.
Fortunately, there was one item that could replace a piece of my broken equipment, so I equipped it immediately.
[Berta's Will
The first knight order of the southern continent's Cardinal Empire. A special pair of gauntlets with a long history, passed down through generations of the Berta Knight Order's commanders.
Strength +30, Agility +30, Stamina +10%, Luck +25
Defense +20
Physical Damage Increase 20%
Special Skill: Berta's Will available for use
-Berta's Will
Removes curse-type status effects and increases Strength and Agility by 30 each. (Duration: 20 minutes, Cooldown: 1 day)]
The other three pieces were either worse than what I had or didn't have useful options for me, which was a bit of a shame, but I was glad to have gotten at least one.
“Whoa! Guys, the two items we just got are both Rares!”
“Really?”
“Awesome!”
“Oh, another Rare item.”
At Mi-jeong's high-pitched voice, the faces of all the new guild members, including Ha-young, lit up.
It seemed that without the effect of Miter's Blessing, the best Mi-jeong's group could get was Rare.
Of course, they seemed plenty happy with just Rares.
“Did you get a lot of good items, brother?”
Like Mi-jeong's party, ours was also set to 'Party Leader Priority' for item acquisition, so the items collected by Ha-young and Ha-min went straight into my inventory.
“Mostly Rares, and about four Uniques.”
“U-Uniques? No way!”
“Wow, Uniques! Congratulations.”
“We'll distribute them after we leave.”
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, 'huh'? We're in the same party.”
“But… you killed them all by yourself, brother.”
“That's right. You killed them all, Mr. Hyeon-ung. We can just take our share from Team Leader Mi-jeong's party.”
They were all so selfless.
They weren't wrong, honestly, but the whole reason I brought them here was to help out Ha-young and the other new recruits who had suffered because of her.
I had a lot of items I didn't need, and I was going to sell them to the Golden Lion Guild first anyway.
Once we get out, I'll lay out the items I don't use and let them choose.
“Alright then, shall we get going?”
“Wait a moment.”
Everyone was gathering to use their magic stones when Ha-min, who was in my party, raised his hand.
“Isn't it a waste to leave all this behind?”
Ha-min pointed to the floor and walls.
And here I thought they weren't greedy.
Then again, it was all gold and jewels.
“It is a waste.”
“Can we even break it off?”
The new guild members, and even Mi-jeong, tried hitting the floor, but they couldn't even make a small scratch.
“Doesn't seem like it.”
“You try it, brother.”
At Ha-young's cry, everyone turned to look at me with expectant expressions.
“Are you trying to break the floor? I wouldn't recommend that.”
Bio, who had been silent until now, approached and offered his advice.
Honestly, I had plenty of money and wondered if I really needed to take this stuff, but I couldn't resist a challenge when one was laid out for me.
“Still, I have to try.”
I struck the floor, channeling my intent into the blow. Unlike the others, I managed to make a slight scratch, but I couldn't break it.
How embarrassing.
“If even you can't do it, Mr. Hyeon-ung, I guess we're not meant to take it.”
Maybe I shouldn't have tried?
“Bio, can you break… what the?”
“Kyaa!”
“More monsters?”
My pride stung, I was about to ask Bio for help when the floor and walls began to shake violently and a notification window appeared.
[Enraged by the greedy intruders, the master of the sanctuary, the Chaos Emperor Mimic, descends.]