Chapter 23: Underground Dungeon (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 23: Underground Dungeon (4)
“Urk…!”
Shunk. Biting down on a piece of my clothing, I pulled the arrow out of my thigh.
A searing pain followed, like I was being subjected to the infamous sizzling fire torture from the Joseon Dynasty.
If the arrow had simply lodged in my flesh, I could have just carefully pulled it out. But since the arrowhead had pierced all the way through, it was a different story.
I had to break the arrow in half, then pull the arrowhead through the other side.
Thanks to that, I felt my consciousness starting to fade.
“…Is it poison?”
The wound was starting to throb. At first, I thought this was just what it felt like to be pierced by an arrow, but something seemed off.
In any case, if I left the wound as it was, I might be forced to choose between poisoning, bleeding out, or tetanus.
I had no choice but to open the app and go to the shop.
I could only pray they were selling something useful.
[The shop’s items have been reset.]
[Lowest Grade Antidote: 200 Coins]
[Sweet Apple: 250 Coins]
[Imperial Army’s Magic Sword: 400 Coins]
[A Book of Etiquette for the Dazzling Lady: 540 Coins]
[High-Grade Random Scroll: 600 Coins]
·
·
·
Thankfully, the shop had reset and an antidote was available.
I didn’t know when it had reset, but it was a fucking godsend.
‘Wait, the lowest grade health and mana potions were 600 coins each, but this is only 200? Isn’t that too cheap?’
My confusion was short-lived. After reading the item description, I understood the pricing.
[Lowest Grade Antidote]
[Grade: Normal]
[Alleviates simple symptoms of poisoning.]
It didn’t even completely cure the poisoning, just alleviated the symptoms. It was a half-assed potion.
Looking at it this way, even 200 coins seemed expensive.
I sighed, but since I was the one in a pinch, I had no choice but to buy it.
[You have purchased the Lowest Grade Antidote.]
I chugged the antidote and checked my remaining balance.
I had 400 coins left.
I hadn’t expected to get a reward for the two Kobold Warriors I just dealt with since it wasn’t a first kill, but surprisingly, I got 50 coins for each of them.
‘Still, it’s not nearly enough.’
There was a limit to how many monsters I could hunt. A first kill on a D+ rank monster was 100 coins, and a repeat kill was 50.
Of course, if the day came when I could squash D+ rank monsters like ants, then the coin rewards would be a great deal.
But there was no guarantee that 50 or 100 coins now would hold the same value in the future.
“As I thought, the settlement I got after the match with Iris ended was the most generous.”
Excluding the starter pack, which was a special case, the match had given me a settlement of 300 coins in just over half a day.
I’d probably get even more coins when I returned after this match.
Thinking about it that way, the answer was simple.
Once this match was over, I needed to try a new one.
It wasn’t just about the coins. Just as I had become a mage in this world, I might be able to gain knowledge or items in other worlds that could help me grow.
“Decision made.”
While I sat there thinking, the poison seemed to have subsided quite a bit.
My body still felt heavy, but my mana had recovered to some extent. It was time to explore the dungeon again.
“Let’s aim for exactly 1,000 coins. No more, no less.”
I had eight hours left.
My goal was to collect 1,000 coins from a combination of first-kill and repeat-kill rewards within that time and then head back.
My plan for the time being was set: get that sweet settlement reward and then start a new match.
*
The dungeon was still vast, and there were more than enough monsters and traps to make me sick of them.
[You have defeated a Skeleton Warrior.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
[You have defeated a Skeleton Warrior.]
[Repeat Kill Reward: 50 Coins]
[You have defeated a Skeleton Archer.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
Sometimes, three skeletons would appear at once.
[You have defeated a Death Ghoul.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
I also fought a giant ghoul that was at least C-rank in terms of size.
[You have defeated a Tentaclipper.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
A grotesque creature with multiple tentacles, like something out of a hentai game, also appeared. Weakness Insight came in handy for that one.
I was struggling because it healed instantly no matter where I attacked it, but thanks to Weakness Insight, I was able to find the core in its solar plexus.
[You have defeated a Devil Snake.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
When a snake the size of a mid-sized sedan and over ten meters long appeared, all I could do was laugh.
[You have defeated a Blade Wolf.]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
To put it in one word, this son of a bitch was a fucking pain.
True to its nature as a wolf, it was faster than a Kobold Warrior, and its steel claws were even stronger than a Poison Spider’s forelegs. I must have used at least two and a half times more mana on my barrier fighting this thing than any other monster.
Fortunately, its weakness was its extremely low magic resistance. Pretending to make a mistake, I shot a Thunderbolt into its maw and turned it into an electric roast.
People usually make dog meat into soup, but this one was an electric roast.
If I sold it from a food truck, certain groups would probably foam at the mouth.
[You have defeated a Kobold Warrior.]
[Repeat Kill Reward: 50 Coins]
[You have defeated Poison Spider x2.]
[Repeat Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
[You have defeated a Skeleton Warrior.]
[Repeat Kill Reward: 50 Coins]
Monsters I had already killed often reappeared, aiming for my neck.
My barrier shattered dozens of times as I pushed forward, burning monsters with fire and blasting them with lightning.
It got to the point where I couldn’t tell if the blood caked all over my body was mine or the monsters’.
“Haa…”
I was gasping for air, my heart running on empty. I was on the verge of collapsing from mana exhaustion.
After drinking the antidote, I had fought in a way that minimized mana consumption at every moment to save as much time as possible.
In particular, I actively used the modified barrier I had developed while fighting the two Kobold Warriors to reduce its mana cost.
Thanks to this, I was able to cut down on meditation time and drastically reduce my mana consumption, but the mental fatigue continued to build. Creating a barrier of the minimum possible size precisely at the point of impact was an insane stunt no rear-line mage would even dream of.
If I had miscalculated the point of impact even slightly, a sword or arrow would have been stuck in my body. Thinking back, it wasn’t something I could have done in my right mind. Why did I even do that?
Still, as I kept doing it, I guess I got used to it? Eventually, I could block attacks with almost no error.
Even though my entire body was covered in lacerations and one of my ears was half-severed, it was a pretty good outcome. I could get injuries like this fixed later by making a donation at a church.
And since I even managed to learn Dual Casting, the ability to use two spells at once, these injuries were a small price to pay.
“Finally collected it all.”
[Remaining Coins: 1,250 Coins]
With this, I could now afford the most expensive item in the shop.
Of course, the current items for sale weren’t great, so I’d have to wait for the next reset, but it was still a good thing.
On top of that, I had collected the magic stones from the fifteen monsters I’d killed so far. Since they were from D+ rank monsters, they should sell for a decent price, right?
If only the process of harvesting them wasn’t so disgusting and shitty it made me want to puke.
[Remaining Match Time: 01:15:49]
There really wasn’t much time left. I was glad I managed to reach my goal before it ran out.
“Should I go back and say goodbye to Iris?”
It was a difficult decision to make.
But in the end, I leaned towards not saying goodbye.
From my current location, getting back to where Iris was in just over an hour would be tight.
There was no guarantee I wouldn’t run into monsters on the way back, either.
Besides, time in this world would stop once I returned to Earth, so there was no need to get hung up on a farewell.
“Should I spend the remaining time looking for the gate to the 2nd Layer?”
I could collect some coins along the way, too.
Even though I’d reached my goal, the more coins I had, the better.
Besides, if a fight got too tough, I could just end the match.
With my decision made, I first needed to deal with my depleted mana, so I entered a thirty-minute meditation. As soon as I allowed it, mana happily clung to me, which I absorbed, refined, and stored in my heart.
Feeling my mana gradually replenishing, I took out the last of my chicken breast salad and ate it.
‘I bought this for Iris, too, but I never got to give her anything but medicine.’
Pushing aside my regret, I decided to set off.
Considering the time I had left, I couldn't afford to dawdle.
The path ahead was a familiar-looking corridor that just kept going.
The only slight difference was that the forks in the road, which used to appear constantly, were now strangely absent.
It made mapping much easier, but the sudden change felt odd.
What’s more, no monsters or traps appeared.
Of course, only thirty minutes had passed, so the lack of monsters was understandable. The absence of traps… well, I could just chalk it up to good luck.
The sense of unease made me feel uncomfortable, but I only had fifteen minutes left.
There was no more time to think, no more time to explore.
Was it too greedy of me to try to find the gate to the 2nd Layer on my first exploration?
Just as I decided I had no choice but to end the match here…
Fwoosh!
“?!”
Far in the distance, something was flying towards me from beyond the darkness.
It was incomparably faster than the arrows from the Kobold Warriors I had faced before.
Realizing I wouldn’t have time to cast a full-body barrier, I calculated the point of impact and deployed a modified barrier in that spot.
KRAAANG!!!
“Keuk?!”
It was a barrier I had invested half of my remaining mana into, just in case.
Even so, the moment it blocked the attack, the barrier shattered into pieces.
Thankfully, the attack’s trajectory was deflected, so I wasn’t hurt, but the impact was so immense that my body was sent flying back several meters.
I barely managed to catch myself and stay on my feet.
Stuck in the ground in front of me was a spear.
“To have this much power with a spear thrown from over fifty meters away…”
I had a bad feeling about this.
The oppressive weight of the approaching mana made my survival instincts scream at me to end the match right now.
I remembered what the World Tree had told me before I entered this place.
[There is a guardian protecting the gate to the next layer, so be careful.]
“…Being careful is one thing, but that thing is…”
Emerging from the darkness was a lizardman, its entire body covered in scales, with a muscular physique that made the Kobold Warriors look like nothing.
And it wasn't just any lizardman. It was a Lizard Warrior, known as an elite specimen among the C-rank lizardmen.
This was an opponent on a completely different level from a Kobold Warrior.
Unlike the Kobold Warriors, who were mere frontline fodder, this creature was the strongest warrior of its tribe, acknowledged by all.
Its intelligence was also known to be far superior to that of a kobold.
‘So you threw one spear because you have two, huh?’
The creature exuded a terrifying pressure as it pulled the other spear from its back and took a stance. I couldn’t find a single opening.
Weakness Insight would sometimes reveal an opponent’s weak points, but right now, I saw nothing.
This wasn’t some dumb monster that relied solely on its physical strength; it was a true warrior.
Grrrr…
That thing was at least a C+.
I could somehow manage a C-, but this was on another level.
“Still, just finding out you’re the guardian makes this trip worthwhile.”
I flipped my middle finger at the creature as it let out a low growl, radiating endless hostility and killing intent towards me.
“I’ll be back soon, so you just wait.”
[End the match?]
[Y/N]
[Y]