Chapter 17

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Translator: 8uhl

Chapter: 17

Chapter Title: Hidden Boss Gate

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The rattling of bones and the disgusting sensation of skeleton teeth gnawing at her were starting to piss her off.

The reason she couldn't quickly sort out the situation was that her heals weren't landing on the skeletons.

Well, less that the heals weren't landing, and more that there was no opening to land them.

A skeleton's HP dropped to zero far too easily.

Even the weakest mana orb she'd lobbed without drawing her jade dagger from her bag had killed it.

But that didn't mean true death.

The moment the skeleton's bones shattered and its HP hit zero...

The fragmented bones snapped back together in an instant, and a new HP bar appeared simultaneously.

It was a horrific pattern—dying only to revive immediately.

The same situation repeating over and over. She couldn't think of a way through it.

Her arms and legs were bruised all over from the skeleton's teeth clamping down.

"Their attack power isn't that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠high, but the feeling of getting bitten is just too gross."

She drew her jade dagger again and, with no other choice, began swinging Extinction wildly.

The skeletons shattered easily, only to reform just as quickly, charging at her even more ferociously than before.

After quite a while of this repetitive combat...

Sacrificing some HP, she stopped moving to observe the skeletons' patterns.

It took roughly 0.3 seconds for a skeleton to shatter and then reform.

"Is there a way to boost my reaction speed?"

Ru-ri adjusted Extinction to a size smaller than a mana orb.

Then, the instant she caught the shattered bones of a skeleton twitching and rattling as they tried to reform after being hit by the tiny Extinction, she swiftly landed a heal.

As their favorability rose, the skeletons halted their attacks, their head bones twisting with a clacking sound as they stood there dumbly.

"A breather at last. But since they're D-rank like the ogres, I'll probably need to raise their favorability quite a bit—not as much as with the ogres, though. Their HP is trash, seriously."

The ogre had required a whopping 3,000 favorability? No, 30,000? Wait, the ogre was 30,000? Earlier it was 3만, which is 30,000.

Skeletons were D-rank too.

She pondered if there might be an easier way.

Then, steeling herself for a bite from their teeth, she punched the skeleton in front of her.

After landing a few hits and then healing, its favorability rose without killing it.

"Haa, what the hell am I doing? Fist-fighting a monster barehanded."

No matter how she thought about it, nailing the timing seemed far easier.

Every time the skeletons latched on and bit her all over, her HP dropped by 0.4 percent.

"Using a sword in this situation is pointless. Let's just focus on the timing."

Ru-ri began methodically filling the dumbly standing skeletons' favorability by twisting their head bones.

After two or three heals landed perfectly, there was always one miss.

No matter how hard she concentrated, her reaction speed felt like it was buffering slightly.

How much time had passed?

"Finally hit 10,000 and I get a skill? What gives? Let's check the skill info first."

She opened her skill window to view the details of the new skill.

"That's a ton of mana. But do I really need to chat with undead monsters in the future? Whatever, let's deal with these first and grab the loot... Oh right, they don't die. Haa, how do I even take them down?"

She leaned against the gate wall for a moment, staring blankly at the skeletons standing there idly.

"Come to think of it, they're corpses, right? Since it's for undead attributes, maybe I should test out the new skill."

Ru-ri approached the clustered skeletons closely and activated the new skill.

"Dead Man's Fang."

The moment she used the skill, the skeletons all snapped their twisting head bones toward her with a clack.

Goosebumps erupted across her entire body at the sight.

As she flinched for a second, the muffled sounds grew clearer.

The skeletons chattered away, each fixing their head bones toward Ru-ri.

She asked,

"Am I dead?"

"What nonsense is this?"

A distant skeleton shouted, and at the cry, the others panicked and bolted deep into the gate.

"Hey! I have to kill you guys! Wait up!"

She chased after the fleeing skeletons.

'They said they saw Keres's aura. Since undead monsters see me as dead, Rejection of Eternal Sleep must have really taken effect.'

Sorting through her swirling thoughts, she picked up speed to keep the skeletons in sight.

Boom!

'What was that?'

A massive explosion echoed from afar.

She accelerated toward the sound, finding the skeletons milling about in panic.

Ru-ri cautiously approached the huddled skeletons, scanning her surroundings.

Before she could take a few steps, the gate lighting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shifted abruptly, and the skeletons disintegrated into dust mid-air.

"Ugh!"

At the same time, Ru-ri was sucked into an endless abyss of darkness.

Flailing in the pitch-black void where nothing was visible, she desperately sought something to grab onto.

Then she remembered Stealth.

Boom!

But it was useless.

It only made a loud noise; she still felt like she was flailing in mid-air.

"Am I falling right now? No, there's no gravity. Then am I rising? No sense of speed, so maybe I'm just hovering? Hey! Is anyone there?"

No echo returned.

Thud!

The moment she paused her flailing, her body hit the ground with a loud smack.

The enveloping darkness reverted to the gate's normal lighting.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, torches aligned endlessly on both sides blazed to life.

"This place feels way too similar to when I met the wave-head ogre."

As she took a step forward, her status window auto-activated.

"I don't even know why I got dumped into a boss gate all of a sudden, but 'failure means death' is a bit much, isn't it? It's straightforward, at least, but I'm not ready for a boss with 'hidden' slapped on it yet..."

She plopped down right there, grumbling.

She'd planned to tackle low-rank gates with gradually increasing difficulty while simultaneously conquering training hidden gates.

Considering the time spent defeating the Ogre Queen, challenging boss gates after thorough prep made sense all around.

But now she'd skipped every stage and landed here.

And those horrifying two words affixed before "Boss Gate."

She'd nearly died to the Ogre Queen in a regular boss gate without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠"hidden."

Now a Hidden Boss Gate.

The system was kindly conveying failure meant death in a detached way.

"No exit door in sight either. Guess I can't bail. So it's either succeed and get rewards, or fail and die."

She hesitated to advance.

There had been a moment when she'd sensed this was death.

Back then, with no dreamed-of future, that first brush with death hadn't been so scary.

But this current unease was definitely fear.

"More questions piling up for Keres. Too early to die now. Let's do this."

Steel resolve, full determination.

She strode boldly along the path lit by the roaring torches that seemed to guide her.

Swish, whoosh.

"Ugh!"

Arrows flew straight at Ru-ri in an instant.

Instinctively dodging, she pressed herself against the wall.

A few initial shots as a warning.

When they harmlessly clattered to the floor without piercing her torso, arrows began raining down at insane speed and frequency.

Whish whish whoosh.

Swish swish, whish.

"Whoever's doing this has some classic style."

She attempted a leap. The arrows surged toward her in mid-air.

She dashed faster, seeking the arrows' origin.

Relentless, as if determined to skewer her.

In a split-second lapse, one arrow grazed her thigh.

Her HP plummeted sharply.

"Poison? That changes things."

She adjusted Extinction's size to incinerate every incoming arrow.

Thanks to her sword and cube, the poison-drained HP recovered swiftly.

Confirming the poison status lifted, she kept sprinting without slowing.

Yet the arrows seemed to be dwindling.

With Extinction even smaller, she aggressively swept the gate.

After a pause, no more arrows came.

"Over? They must've realized it's pointless."

She hopped down and resumed walking the path.

How far had she gone?

Shing—

A sharp metallic sound rang out suddenly.

"Where's that coming from?"

Focusing on the noise, a massive blade blade gleamed right in front of her face.

Startled by its shine and size, she recoiled, and a lock of her hair was sliced clean off in a flutter.

"Holy shit!"

Seeing her hair scatter on the floor sent chills down her spine.

Tense, she scanned around.

Shing—

Dodging the approaching metallic scrape, she dropped flat; the giant blade whistled overhead.

"Leaping would've split me in half."

To track the blade's path, she focused on the metallic sound heralding its approach.

Extinction shone dramatically against burnable targets.

But it couldn't melt steel.

Observing the periodically veering blades aimed at her, she recalled skills for smashing hard objects.

One flashed to mind.

"Never thought I'd use that one."

It was a skill from a hammer-wielding monster long ago.

Gauging the sound's distance, she thrust out her hand and shouted,

Right after her cry faded, a hammer the size of her body materialized.

The summoned hammer smashed violently into the passing blade.

Bang!

She endured the clang of hammer and blade clashing for quite some time.