Kirin's Nest (2)
Kirin's Nest (2)
We headed to the mountain where the Thunderbird had been sighted. Soldiers and hunters were standing guard with weapons nearby. They were probably keeping watch to make sure no civilians wandered in.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!"
A soldier spoke to us. I took out the cadet ID I had prepared in advance and showed it to the soldier.
"Ah, you're Academy cadets. Are you here for a mission?"
"Yes. We're here for a mission, can we go in?"
"Could you wait a moment?"
The soldier checked the cadet ID for a moment and said something into the radio. After waiting a while, the soldier approached us.
"Permission has been granted from above. You may enter."
"Yes, thanks for your hard work~"
About 10 minutes after entering the mountain, I reminded Lee Ji-ah and Kim Harin, who were trailing behind me, of the things they needed to be careful about.
"The Thunderbird has lightning wrapped around its body. It can't control this, so if you hear thunder, it means the Thunderbird is nearby. Always stay tense when you hear thunder."
"Okay."
"And if, by chance, just by some very slim chance, we get separated and you have to fight the Thunderbird alone."
"You mean throw this? But will this actually work?"
Lee Ji-ah said, holding the box I had handed out in advance. I nodded.
"Yeah. It contains something the Thunderbird is crazy about. So if you throw that, the Thunderbird will run away."
"Re...ally?"
Kim Harin looked at me suspiciously. But she soon realized that she was the safest person here and stopped staring.
We went deep into the forest. Perhaps because the Thunderbird had caused such a ruckus, almost no monsters were visible. We had been walking for about 30 minutes.
A monster appeared before our eyes. A black horse with a mane formed of blue lightning.
"Wow, isn't that a Thunder Steed?"
Lee Ji-ah said in surprise. A Thunder Steed is a guy that usually makes the list for D-rank subjugation difficulty; you can think of it as a guy that Academy cadets usually catch. It's a popular monster because the Magic Crystal embedded in its head sells for quite a bit.
If a Thunder Steed is around here, it means the Qilin's Nest is somewhere nearby. The terrain in the game is different from the real terrain, so it looks like we'll have to wander around a bit.
"Siwoo, you were right, there really seems to be something here."
"Indeed. Thunder Steeds are famous for living in places with a lot of lightning energy, but..."
Lee Ji-ah said with sparkling eyes, and Kim Harin looked suspicious. I took out a 30cm straight rod from the bag I had prepared. When I poured mana into the rod, it made a chang! sound and turned into a short spear about 1m long.
"Siwoo..?"
"Wait a second.
Shh."
I put my index finger to my lips and put on the Spearman's Mask. Due to the mask's effect, all stats except mana increase by 1. There is one characteristic in Loque. Every time a stat becomes a multiple of 10, the effect jumps significantly.
For example, if your strength stat is 9 and you can lift a 300kg barbell without issue, if you have a stat of 10, you can lift 500kg without a problem.
The number changed by only 1, but the felt change was not just 1. I felt roughly double the strength compared to before wearing the mask.
"Hup!"
I breathed shortly and threw the short spear. The thrown spear pierced the brain along with the Magic Crystal. There aren't many magical beasts strong enough to survive being pierced through the brain. And the Thunder Steed is definitely not that kind of monster.
It's a waste of the Magic Crystal, but if I aim for a different spot by mistake and fail to kill it, it'll be annoying, so it can't be helped. Thunder Steeds wander alone, but if they are threatened, they cry mournfully. If that happens, other Thunder monsters that hear the cry will rush here in an instant.
"Wait a minute."
I left the group and approached the Thunder Steed. If you go straight to the right from the place where the Thunder Steed appeared, there is a rock, and the Qilin's Nest is near there.
I approached the Thunder Steed and took out the Magic Crystal that had been smashed into two pieces. When I let a small amount of mana flow into it, the lightning-attribute mana crackled and popped.
The peculiar point was that the direction the lightning was popping was to the right. It was proof that the lightning itself was being drawn to something.
I threw away the Magic Crystal. The smashed Magic Crystal could never be used again.
"There's something over there that lightning is drawn to, want to go?"
"......It's a dungeon, right?"
Lee Ji-ah said in a worried voice. I nodded. The boss there isn't very difficult.
Of course, this premise is based on Kim Harin being there. No matter how close to death it is, the place we are going is, after all, the Qilin's Nest. Since it's a place where the Qilin, a member of the Four Spirits, one of the top-tier bosses, used to stay, it will be harder than most dungeons.
If it flows according to the 'Main Story', it would only be possible for the protagonist to endure that blow alone in the latter half of the first year, but there is no problem because we have the cheat key that is Kim Harin.
"Let's just go see the entrance. If it's a lightning-attribute monster, we have Harin."
"And if not...?"
"If not, we'll just run away."
Lee Ji-ah had a complicated expression at my words.
We approached the side where the lightning mana was crackling.
As we went that way, a cave-like thing began to appear.
"It really is a dungeon."
Lee Ji-ah muttered as if groaning. We quietly went inside. After exploring the cave for about 5 minutes, a huge corpse appeared.
"Thunderbird...?"
It was the corpse of a Thunderbird. A tattered corpse, as if it had been shredded by something like a sword. That wasn't the end. The corpses of many Thunder monster groups, such as the Thunder Monkey, which has the form of a monkey, and the Thunder Fox, which has the form of a fox, were scattered here and there.
This was the reason I wanted to come to this Qilin's Nest. No matter how fraudulent Kim Harin's Mad Wings are, Kim Harin herself is not outstanding, so her limitations are clear.
Even if we assist, Kim Harin cannot clear this dungeon alone. But if we deal with the boss that is already barely breathing because most of the monsters are dead, the story changes a lot. It's rare to find a dungeon as sweet as this.
"It seems someone has already been here."
Kim Harin said, trailing off. Actually, I don't know who visited this place first either. Based on the traces left here and there in the dungeon, users speculated that it was either the 'Sword Mistress' known to be in this vicinity or one of the villain-side characters, the 'Sword Spirit'.
"Still, let's at least collect the Magic Crystals."
We continued to explore the dungeon. We didn't have to deal with monsters, but it took some time because of the work of checking the monsters' corpses in between and removing the Magic Crystals.
"It's truly amazing...... Just how strong do you have to be to create a scene like this."
Kim Harin said in an admiring voice. I and Lee Ji-ah also nodded at her words. The corpses of monsters that even the Heroes of the Middle Assault couldn't easily face alone were scattered here and there.
The most overwhelming thing was a white bear reaching 10m in size that had fallen. It was the corpse of the Thunder Monarch, a boss-level monster that even Heroes of High Rank couldn't face alone.
"There's no Magic Crystal."
Lee Ji-ah muttered as if disappointed. That was a bit too greedy.
Considering that the Magic Crystal of a monster like the Thunder Monarch is traded at an astronomical price, and the most recently traded Thunder Monarch Magic Crystal price was close to 7 billion, one could say it's shameless.
We walked inside. There, an empty altar was visible. Boxes in an opened state. It proved that someone who discovered this place first had swept it clean.
"They really took everything."
Lee Ji-ah said as if disappointed while scanning the boxes.
"Well, I suppose so. Since they caught a monster like the Thunder Monarch, there must have been at least an A-grade artifact or reward."
"I guess so. If it's an artifact of that level, it would be worth at least ten billion."
I scanned the surroundings. It should be somewhere around here. I took out the smallest Magic Crystal from the ones I had obtained by searching through the corpses earlier. When I let mana flow, lightning crackled and popped to the right. The right side was a wall section.
"Huh? Why, Siwoo?"
"......."
I put on the mask that mimics the Karma of Magic. As I put on the mask, the mana in my body started to flow backwards. I wove the formula. The formula I used was Lightning Bolt.
Pajijik!
A lightning-attribute magic, which belongs to low-level magic, unfolded in my hand. I shot that magic at the blocked wall. Then, surprisingly, the lightning bolt passed through the wall.
"Huh..?"
Kim Harin and Lee Ji-ah, who were watching me, were surprised.
'It's just like the game.'
I nodded and thought.
Discovering this was a coincidence. I thought I had discovered a tremendous dungeon, but there was nothing, so I shot a lightning-attribute attack out of frustration, and it passed right through, so I went in out of curiosity. However, to enter, you must have lightning wrapped around your body. Or use lightning-attribute power.
"It looks like a hidden stage."
"Hidden stage?"
Lee Ji-ah asked back at my words. A hidden stage is literally a hidden reward room. However, the boss and rewards generated here are all random.
This is because there are better rewards than the dungeon and a 'Guardian' protecting them.
The Guardian varies depending on the quality of the reward, and the hidden stage of a dungeon judged as low-grade sometimes has a boss with a status similar to the Thunder Monarch that became a corpse a moment ago.
"Then are there still rewards?"
Lee Ji-ah had a tempted expression at my words.
However, Kim Harin had a wary expression. Because saying there are rewards is synonymous with saying there is a Guardian protecting those rewards.
A monster stronger than the Thunder Monarch. I am confident that even if the 3 of us pull out our hidden strength and perfectly match our rhythm, we will be annihilated in less than 10 seconds. No, 10 seconds is too much.
However, this stage is a bit different.
This place is originally the Qilin's Nest. It is a room created by the Qilin, a member of the Four Spirits, when he was young to sneak away. If the Qilin had grown up and not left, he would have become the Guardian of this place and welcomed us, but he is not here now.
In other words, it's a dungeon you can eat for free.
'It's rare to have a chance to eat for free like this....'
However, there is a monster resting there, wounded by someone who rummaged through this dungeon. That monster is so weak that if you just block one blow, Lee Ji-ah can fight and win in close combat.
And the only one here with the ability to block that blow is Kim Harin.
"But the Guardian in a hidden stage is usually stronger than the dungeon's boss."
Kim Harin said urgently. Lee Ji-ah had a startled expression at Kim Harin's words.
"That's not it."
I denied Kim Harin's words once and fell into thought. How should I talk so she would take the lead and go?
"A hidden stage is usually stronger than the boss protecting the dungeon, but that depends on the amount of mana contained in the dungeon. And the amount of mana contained in this dungeon is almost comparable to the Thunder Monarch or the Thunder monster groups scattered so far."
"What are you talking about...?"
Kim Harin asked me.
'I don't know either.'
I didn't understand what I was saying either, so how could you understand?
However, I just blabbered whatever came to mind while looking at Knowledge Browsing for the past month. Usually, when you lie, you have to mix in appropriate truths.
"The mana existing within a dungeon is always constant."
"I know that."
"And monsters each have a mana value. You can't know it before entering, but once you enter, the story changes. If you add up all the mana values of the monsters and subtract the mana value of the dungeon, the boss in the hidden stage is probably at a level we can somehow win."
"You calculated all that?"
Kim Harin looked at me with an expression that said she couldn't believe it.
Mana values are usually different for each monster. If the Thunderbird has an average mana of 500, and the dungeon has a mana of 10,000, assuming only Thunderbirds appear, the result is that the dungeon has 20 Thunderbirds.
However, each monster has different mana contained within it, and the time is different. Just as humans have different personalities, talents, and appearances, all of humanity is different. Calculating this by just glancing at it is for a very small few.
Mana values are also not numbers that can be lumped together as simply as that.
How could one calculate all of that one by one?
But I can't be intimidated here.
Lee Ji-ah and I cannot clear this hidden stage by ourselves. We needed Kim Harin, who has the Mad Wings.
I tapped my head and said.
"I didn't get the 1st place in theory for nothing."
I'm sorry, but I got it for free thanks to my trait.