Ghosting Through Undead Academia's Gates
Undead Academia was a place they had to go anyway!
"Do you have to keep that stream on?"
"Of course, unnie! We don't know what kinda nonsense they're gonna spout about us!"
Yeah, and if we did, what then?
Im Harin had the stream playing just like last time, treating Gang Minseo's broadcast like background radio.
Anyway, way back in the original days, there were always idiots blocking the entrances to the 4 major induns and causing trouble.
Of course, streaming wasn't a thing back then, so no one was banding together on Discord to snipe like this...
"Like I said earlier, it's all pointless in the end. The 4 major induns are places you have to hit eventually. Sometimes for school uniforms, sometimes for pottery gear farming."
"The 4 major induns you mentioned include Moonlight Spire Lower and Undead Academia, right?"
"Yep."
"Whoa... so what's the other two?"
"I'll tell you later. No point going there right now anyway."
While they chatted, Gang Minseo and the other streamers came galloping up on mounts to their waiting spot.
Undead Academia was one of the dungeons dubbed one of the 4 major induns back in the original era.
They called 'em "induns" short for instance dungeons.
From my perspective, not knowing this place was absurd, but back then? Yeah, it felt like this.
Lost of Fantasy was so inconvenient and user-unfriendly—it gave zero hints if this was a dungeon entrance or just some massive background building.
"Knight says this is the entrance. Can't we just go in?"
"This one? The door's shut tight—can't get through."
"Oh... that's why thieves are OP. Looks like my skill can pick this lock too."
Sky, without me even telling him, approached the massive iron door embedded with a skull and started picking the lock.
But you can't open that, dude.
"Whoa! Sky! You can pick that?!"
"Uh... no? What the hell? 'Lockpicking level insufficient.' Ugh, seriously."
Lockpicking was a thief-only skill you leveled up.
And obviously, you had to start with crappy locks to build it up—otherwise, you couldn't open dungeon entrance or internal doors like this.
In my old world, it was modernized so max level opened everything, but original? Nope.
"Uh... guys. Breaking news from the wiki: gotta kill some mob somewhere for a key or you can't enter. Minseo! What now?!"
Ramjwi Thunder's shout, sounding like he'd checked a foreign wiki, made Gang Minseo sigh instantly.
"Knight doesn't seem like he'd have a key... We came on a whim, right?"
"Uh... unnie. This okay? If the snipers watch the stream, they'll figure out our spot quick."
Im Harin and Gang Minseo's worries weren't overblown.
To enter Undead Academia, you really did need a key.
To get it, you had to kill specific NPCs elsewhere, grab what they dropped, and bring it back.
"Argh! Everyone shut up! The knight brought us here 'cause he has a way—"
"Uh, unnie, no key, right?"
"Nope. Whatever. Harin, I'm leaving the party—pin a flag on me."
She said it and immediately left the party, opening her character window to unequip all her gear.
Don't wanna pay repair bills.
"Uh... what're you doing?"
Gang Minseo and the others looked pretty baffled, but this was an old trick I'd pulled tons of times.
Calling a thief or farming a key every time was a pain.
"Harin unnie! Don't strip outta nowhere! 'Pin a flag' means whisper, right?"
"No, like plant a flag... Click my character and hit the left button. Duel request pops up."
"Why's that a fla—oh."
The second Im Harin accepted the duel request, a flag popped up between us with a pop!.
We briefly turned hostile to each other.
"Whoa? You're red now, unnie?"
"Hit me."
"Me, hit you?"
"Yeah, quick—no time."
Im Harin let out a random groan, clicked me, and fired a mana bolt.
> 'BloodPissGutRipper' has lost the duel against 'FireProG'.
I didn't die from the duel loss—just dropped to 1 HP, a total ragdoll.
Then I rubbed up against the nearby campfire to suicide.
"Huh? Unnie, why'd you die?"
"Wha—huh? Knight! What're you doing? Why die?!"
"Looks intentional? What gives, knight?"
Why's everyone so shocked?
Anyway, as a ghost, I walked right back to the Undead Academia entrance.
By now, the alliance that'd sniped us earlier was swarming in from afar, right on cue.
Duh, anyone with eyes and ears could spot this from the stream.
"So how do we open the doo—"
Mid-sentence from Im Harin, I phased through the skull-embedded steel door to the other side.
"Huh? You can pass through like that?!"
"Ghost perks."
I rubbed my ghost against the walls and door till the rez zone appeared, hit confirm, and respawned.
From there, just click the door from the inside—click, opens right up.
"Whoa! Holy crap, it worked! It's open! Guys!! No key and it opened!!!"
"Insane! What even is this? Not on the wiki! How?!"
"C'mon, let's respect the meta. No lockpick needed and knight just opens it—thieves gotta eat too, y'know?"
"Whoa... unnie, how'd you know this?"
Im Harin poked my side curiously as they followed the streamers into the Undead Academia building.
"This? Last time I passed by, alliance dudes shanked me."
"They kill anything red?! Why?!"
"Saw the door, tried rubbing—didn't just rub, I passed through. Stuck in my head since."
Total bald-faced lie, but Im Harin bought it hook, line, and sinker, eyes wide with genuine awe.
"If... the knight hadn't come, we'd have wiped back there."
Gang Minseo, heart pounding as they entered Undead Academia, was already regretting it after not even 10 minutes.
"Whoa... this dungeon's a total shitshow."
Sky agreed outright—Undead Academia pissed people off from the first trash mobs, enough to make you hurl.
"Guys, for real? That mutant ghoul earlier? Zero damage going in."
"For real? Mine took hits fine."
"You mix it up with the resurrected skeleton soldiers? I poked 'em and got 'immune'."
They'd barely cleared one trash pack, and already the three streamers were griping differently.
"Hold up..."
The moment they entered, Jeong Hana had sharply instructed: only hit square-marked enemies, hide behind walls to gather mobs.
Gang Minseo soaked it up like a sponge—chuck axe once, hide. Party waited for mobs to clump nicely, then struck.
Looked like kindergarteners obeying the teacher to a T.
"Oh... guys, he says that? Game's got AD/AP split."
"What? Full physical immune? Ugh, how do thieves even survive? Devs got no thief empathy."
"Whoa, but... this place looks brutal."
Gang Minseo started fretting needlessly.
We came here totally unplanned.
Jeong Hana's tagalong civilian, Im Harin, weighed heavy on her mind.
Im Harin was level 55.
58 and 55 was just 3 levels, but in high-end play, everyone knew that gap was huge.
She got sniped and dragged here... glad no toxic chat, but still...
The other streamers too.
Sudden shift to this messy, tough dungeon could mess with schedules or stamina, right?
"Umm... Sky, Ramjwi Thunder. You guys cool looping here? Snipers probably gave up by now."
"What? We came this far to bail to the spire?"
"N-no! Not chickening! Check the map! Floors 1-2-3, all these rooms! Huge and maze-like!"
Gang Minseo's panic wasn't baseless.
"Plus! Hallways got 4 summoners each—clearing without aggro sounds like hell..."
"Eh, I got time to burn."
"When else we hitting this?"
The other streamers' warm responses eased her a bit.
But the big worries—Im Harin and Jeong Hana—remained.
Gang Minseo felt guilty for no reason.
"...What? Dagger drops? My weapon? For real? Minseo! Let's go!!"
Sky perked up at "weapon"—hadn't scored a decent one in days.
"Minseo, school uniform loot? Let's push."
"Y-yeah... good stuff here? Then we run it!"
Gang Minseo clapped, flipping the mood instantly.
Good loot? No reason to run.
Should beg Jeong Hana to stick around instead.
"Oh... dunno what that is, but no gear for him huh."
"Whoa, total angel. Straight-up saint."
Unlike the awestruck streamers, Jeong Hana knew better than anyone.
Undead Academia had zero healer gear for her to begin with.
"We doing her dirty? No loot but healing and dipping?"
"R-right? Then we'll give her all the Dark Runes!"
Jeong Hana had suddenly become a paragon of altruism.