Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Who Are You?
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Yuriel glanced around anxiously.
Frightened eyes, twitching ears.
Her senses had clearly picked up on something.
But I brushed it off nonchalantly.
'A ghost?'
I figured she might have mistaken it for a vengeful spirit.
In the game, countless resentful souls would appear like ghosts whenever a mid-boss was summoned.
Maybe they had been stealthily trailing us from the starting point without me noticing.
"Ignore it. Ghosts show up around here anyway."
"G-Ghosts? But..."
"If they come out, we kill 'em. Don't freak out—let's all hurry up and level."
I dismissed her concerns lightly and took the lead.
No detection stats meant sympathizing with her anxiety was just a waste of time.
But I had no idea back then.
No clue that an unwelcome intruder was stalking us from behind like a filthy rat.
"Grrrrk."
They burst up from the mud.
A horde of zombies slathered in rotten muck, along with crocodile-like monsters known as swamp predators.
It was a numbers game.
"Hyah!"
I swung my spear and sword like windmills.
Every time the blades connected, chunks of rotting flesh and mud splattered everywhere.
Thanks to my Unique-grade Power Up, their tough hides tore apart like paper.
But the real issue was efficiency.
'So damn many.'
No wide-area skill to wipe them out at once, so I had to brute-force it.
Park Yumin hurled fireballs from the rear while Yuriel loosed arrows nonstop, but it wasn't enough to stem the tide.
"Hey! Tank! Flank's wide open! Block it!"
"G-Got it! Ugh...!"
Lee Seo-ah staggered but managed to fend off a zombie's fangs with her shield.
We rolled around in the mud pit for dozens of minutes like that.
Then every party member's level shot up almost simultaneously.
I checked my options out of habit.
1. Speed Up (Normal)
2. Power Up (Magic)
3. Stamina Up (Normal)
'Magic grade.'
Not Unique, which sucked, but Magic was still solid.
Nearly double the stat boost of Normal.
I tapped 2 without hesitation.
The sensation of my muscles tightening even further swept through my body.
"Phew. Not bad."
I turned my head, satisfied.
Wonder what the others got.
Yuriel and Lee Seo-ah showed no reaction.
Their faces said it all—probably just Normals or total duds.
But then.
"Kyaa! Big Brother! I got one! I got it!"
Park Yumin suddenly started jumping up and down in place, yelling.
Her robe flapped open, her hefty bosom jiggling wildly.
"What'd you get?"
"Rare! [Magic Power Up (Rare)]! Jackpot, right?!"
"......"
My eyebrow twitched involuntarily.
Rare? I was thrilled with Magic, and this airhead pulls Rare?
'No way, that ditzy softie. She isn't sucking up all my luck too, is she?'
My gut twisted.
But I couldn't be petty about it.
Party spec-ups meant higher survival odds for me too, so better to think positive.
"Congrats. Now you'll actually earn your keep."
I tossed out some soulless praise.
"Hehe, you bet! I'll sweep 'em all now! Just leave it to me!"
Park Yumin swung her staff around gleefully, oblivious to my inner turmoil.
Then I caught sight of Yuriel.
She was pouting, glaring daggers at Park Yumin.
She glanced down at her own flat chest, then back at Park Yumin's ample figure, and hung her head.
'...What's her deal? She got a problem with the softie?'
Not remotely interested in her mood, I forcibly looked away.
Across from us, Lee Seo-ah stood silently.
But the leather glove gripping her shield's handle was twisted so tight it creaked.
Creak, creak. Loud enough to hear the leather straining.
'She's getting antsy.'
I got it.
She shelled out 300 million to get in, but all the Rare skills and stats were going to randos.
The anxiety of getting cut must be eating her alive.
But what could she do?
That was just the dungeon's brutal reality.
The swamp's edge.
The fog parted to reveal a wide clearing.
"Ugh... the smell."
Park Yumin pinched her nose.
Dozens of wrecked carriages lay scattered across the clearing.
These weren't ordinary wagons.
Caged cargo holds stuffed full of rotting skeletons and corpses.
Carriages that had set out from somewhere, bound for Stage 1-1's graveyard—ambushed and left to rot.
I planted my foot on a shattered wagon wheel and spoke up.
"Rest here for now. We'll summon the mid-boss soon."
I said it flatly, all business.
"Mid-boss?"
Lee Seo-ah's eyes went wide.
"Hidden boss. Fat rewards. We can choose, so we'll go for the strongest one possible. Get ready."
"I-It isn't necessary to go that far..."
Her face drained of color.
Yuriel looked terrified too, taking a step back.
"Big Brother... Isn't it dangerous enough already? We barely handled those zombies... Do we really need to summon something even worse?"
"Right, Han Yujin-ssi. Wouldn't it be better to play it safe? We're still..."
"Safe?"
I scanned them with a blank expression.
My icy stare shut Lee Seo-ah up like a clam.
'They're deluded.'
People don't get it.
Because this isn't a game—it's reality—the has to be even more game-like.
Stage difficulty skyrockets exponentially toward the endgame.
Take the safe road now to slack off? Later you'll be undergeared and die to trash mobs.
'Suffer early, coast later.'
The early snowball.
That's the only key to late-game survival.
I didn't bother explaining at length.
Instead, I pinned them down with a chilling glare.
"Want the bus ride? Follow my lead. Don't? Get off here."
"......"
A heavy silence fell.
As the three exchanged nervous glances under my pressure.
"Y-Yeah! As expected of Big Brother!"
Park Yumin shattered the quiet first.
She chimed in with exaggerated cheer, forcing brightness into her voice.
"We gotta take down the big ones for the good loot, right? And now my magic's stronger—I'm confident!"
She flashed a beaming smile and latched onto my arm.
Like she was pleading, "I'm not dead weight anymore. I'll pull my weight!"
"Hoo..."
She wasn't usually my favorite, but this time? Kinda likable.
Nah, actually admirable.
Of course, her real feelings were probably different.
Just playing along with my bus analogy, forcing it.
'Still, sharp instincts.'
With Park Yumin taking point, Lee Seo-ah and Yuriel nodded reluctantly, like they had no choice.
"Alright, then. Time to prep."
The gimmick's surprisingly simple.
Pure grind work.
"Bring more. Scrape up every last bone."
We gathered not just the skeletons from the carriages, but the coachmen's corpses jammed in the seats—even the zombie bodies from the swamp earlier. Everything we could get.
A small mountain of corpses piled up in the clearing's center.
Simple rule: more quantity equals stronger spawn.
"This oughta be every corpse nearby."
I pulled out the [Incense Burner of the Lost Soul] from my inventory.
The purple incense burner from the last stage.
Burn the corpse pile, light this, and the ritual kicks off.
"Plan's straightforward."
I gripped the burner and eyed the trio.
"Boss spawns, it'll flood the area with mobs around it. You three pull aggro and run."
"Not fight them?"
"You can fight if you want—just don't die stupidly. Circle around and stall as long as possible. I'll handle the boss's neck somehow."
I lit the corpse pile without waiting for replies.
Whoosh!
Black flames devoured the mound.
Acrid smoke blotted out the sky as the scattered bones and flesh began making grotesque noises.
Then the incense burner ignited.
Rumble!
The ground quaked.
Pale figures materialized from nowhere.
The owners of the burning corpses.
Crack, craaack—
Vengeful spirits wailed.
The burning corpse mountain fused with the black smoke into one.
A massive silhouette slowly took form.
'Wonder what'll pop out.'
Even in-game, I'd never gathered this many corpses and bones for a summon.
We always hit walls before reaching that quantity.
The mobs the boss summons were always the real headache.
Clear those, and I could solo the boss no problem.
[Hidden Boss: Wailing Carriage Master, ‘Dullahan Lord’ has appeared.]
What emerged was a headless knight.
But not some simple rider on horseback.
A horrific chimera: a horse fused from countless skeletons, with the knight's upper body sprouting seamlessly from it.
"......"
No words, of course.
No head for 'em.
Rooooar—
Scratch that—my mistake.
A massive maw embedded in its chest bellowed.
At the same time, dozens of elite skeleton soldiers clawed their way up from underground.
"Pull aggro and bolt! Stay the hell away from the boss!"
"Kyaaak!"
At my shout, Park Yumin, Lee Seo-ah, and Yuriel screamed and bolted.
The skeleton legion chased after them.
Only me and the Dullahan Lord remained in the clearing.
It hefted a house-sized rusty greatsword.
"Come on then, you headless freak."
I grinned and charged straight at it.
Boom! Crash!
Every time the greatsword slammed down, the ground cratered and carriages shattered.
But it never touched me.
The stacked [Speed Ups] were proving their worth.
Its attacks hit like trucks but were brain-dead simple.
Read the arc, dodge a half-beat early. Strike the opening.
"Too slow!"
Whoosh!
I slid right between the horse's legs and slashed its thigh joint.
"Kraaah!"
While it staggered, I climbed its back and jammed a dagger into its spine.
No skills needed. Pure physicals were plenty.
'No mobs? Easier than I thought.'
Mobs were always the bottleneck.
Soloing everything had clear limits.
'Anchovy and softie. Sugar mommy too... Didn't expect 'em to carry this hard.'
The back-and-forth dragged on for a solid ten minutes.
Its whole body was a shredded rag by now.
Fused bones splintered everywhere, movements visibly sluggish.
'It's over.'
The boss's final desperation swing with the greatsword.
I hopped lightly onto the blade, then launched into the air.
Core fully exposed.
Deep in that chest maw, a red-glowing core pulsed.
"Time to die."
I gripped the Wraithblade in reverse grip, riding gravity and my full weight down.
Perfect timing.
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y confirmed.
Shrieeeeeek—!
A hair-raising rupture echoed from the darkness at my back.
'......?'
Not an arrow.
Not a magic pulse.
Something I couldn't immediately parse was gunning for my life.
From the shadowed forest depths—where no one should have been.
Something hurtling straight at my back.
'This is...'
A flash of realization in that split second.
The creepy vibe Yuriel had sensed.
Boss finisher and my kill.
Someone lying in wait to snipe both.
The rat that had slunk in the shadows, biding its moment—finally baring its fangs.
Midair, no dodging.
The instant that life-threatening something made contact.
My one and only skill quietly activated.