Chapter 236: The Tutorial Floor (8)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 236: The Tutorial Floor (8)
As I was eating a late breakfast, Lee Serin approached me.
“...Hyun-woo, are you okay?”
I nodded, meeting her worried gaze.
It still throbbed a little, but I was fine now. A hairline fracture in the bone is nothing that circulating the Small Heavenly Cycle once can't fix.
The Formless Vajra Art is a repository of all the martial arts created by Vajra Divine Monk, but it is also a profound cultivation method in its own right, worthy of being called a divine art.
Minor external and internal injuries heal on their own while I circulate the Small Heavenly Cycle.
Of course, a completely broken bone would have taken longer, but Lucifer wasn't that reckless.
“What.”
Lucifer, who was sitting on a rock, shot me an icy glare. It seemed her anger from last night hadn't subsided yet.
Was going at it six times in a row a bit much for her first time?
I continued eating in silence, knowing that talking back might get my other arm broken. Serin sat beside me, pretending to sip her coffee while sneaking glances at me.
She looked like she had a lot of questions about what happened last night.
Like what on earth we were doing to come back just before sunrise, why we were both drenched in sweat, and why Lucifer smelled of chestnut flowers.
Well, even though she didn't say anything, she seemed to have a good idea of what had happened.
It would be stranger if she didn't.
Lucifer also kept glancing over, pretending not to be interested. Judging by her expression, she was displeased about something.
Sexually frustrated?
Anyway, I finished my meal under their intense gazes. I was used to it, so I didn't get indigestion.
Normally, I would have warmed up with some morning training, but I didn't have the luxury for that right now.
I looked at my wallet, which now held over 10,000 WP, and fell into thought.
I could probably aim for 2,000 WP a day.
What else was there to do? Today was another day of monster hunting.
Of course, it's more efficient to hunt at night when the monsters come out in hordes, but I couldn't just laze around during the day.
“How about we each hunt on our own until noon and then meet back here?”
Naturally, Serin would be coming with me.
Though it was less dangerous than at night, the forest was still risky during the day.
I planned to teach her about mana control through practical combat today. She was already pretty good, but a systematic approach was also important.
Well, with her talent, she'd pick it up in no time.
“We'll go east, so you take the west...”
“Wait.”
Thump.
Lucifer grabbed my arm.
Her lips parted and closed repeatedly, as if she had something to say.
“What's wrong?”
“...Me too.”
She mumbled with her head lowered. Her voice was so quiet I had to focus to hear it.
Only after taking a step closer could I hear the rest.
“...I want to go with you.”
“What?”
For the record, that was a question, not a refusal.
Just yesterday, you insisted we move separately for efficiency's sake, and now you want to stick together?
But it seemed she took my word as a rejection.
“Why? You don't want me to come with you?”
I felt a faint killing intent.
In that moment, her amethyst eyes darkened heavily. Something black seemed to flicker within them.
For a second, goosebumps rose on my skin as if I were staring into an abyss.
“I told you I'd kill you if you abandoned me.”
“What does that have to...”
It seemed her wings weren't the only thing that had turned black while she was trapped underground.
Still, I liked that she seemed obsessed with me. She was expressing it a bit roughly, but the truth was, she was just jealous of Serin.
If the me from yesterday saw this, he would have slapped his forehead and shouted, "What kind of crazy dream is this?”
Swallowing a laugh, I caressed her cheek.
Taking advantage of her momentary lapse, I crashed my lips onto hers.
“?!”
“H-Hyun-woo?!”
Not only Lucifer but also Serin, who was watching from the side, jumped in surprise.
Ignoring them, I pushed past her lips and teased her tongue. Her sweet saliva was a bonus.
Taking it a step further, I pulled her into a tight embrace and squeezed her ass, savoring the firm flesh that filled my hand.
After nearly five minutes of satisfying my selfish desires, I finally pulled back. With my fingertips, I wiped the saliva from Lucifer's lips.
“Still think I'm going to abandon you?”
“...”
Her face as red as a camellia blossom, Lucifer quietly shook her head.
I chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. She melted into my embrace as if all the strength had left her body.
“Serin, looks like we'll all have to move together today. Is that okay?”
“...Yeah.”
With her reluctant-sounding reply, we headed into the forest.
The sun was climbing toward its zenith, but a pitch-black darkness still settled over the forest.
The cries of monsters echoed from all around.
*
The second day passed without any particular incidents.
I spent the whole day hunting monsters, eating when it was mealtime, and teaching Serin various things during our breaks.
Things like the basics of combat, general knowledge about monsters, and magic theory.
As expected, she was smart. Watching her absorb knowledge like a sponge every time I taught her something made me feel proud for some reason.
Is this what it feels like to be a teacher...?
However, there wasn't much I could teach her about creating a magic circle.
I could never understand why it took others years at training centers to learn how to do it.
Isn't it something you can do just by concentrating a little?
Still, I knew the theory, so I explained it to her.
Leaving Serin to focus on her meditation, I planned our next moves with Lucifer.
At first, I'd set a goal of 10,000 WP per week, but that was just the minimum. And WP wasn't the only thing to be gained on the Tutorial Floor.
Dungeons exist in various places throughout the Tower.
A dungeon is a type of hidden piece, ranging from insignificant ruins to alternate dimensions connected to specific myths.
They are fraught with dangers like traps and monsters, but it's high risk, high return. They are places where one can obtain equally valuable rewards.
Of course, since these are dungeons on the Tutorial Floor, the rewards aren't that great. You can get traits, skills, and items in addition to WP, but we didn't need any of that.
It was more efficient to spend that time hunting monsters in the forest.
However, according to Lucifer, there was one proper dungeon on the Tutorial Floor.
It was the temple of some god, a hidden piece among hidden pieces that had never been discovered by the countless player candidates.
Well... this information hasn't been updated in a long time. Someone might have found it by now.
Still, just in case, I searched for it casually while hunting monsters.
The only clue was that it was in a place with sand, which made it difficult, but I was lucky enough to find it during our afternoon exploration.
After an early dinner, we passed through the undergrowth and arrived at a nearby riverbank.
There, a stretch of sand had formed that looked suspicious to anyone.
Sure enough, that was the entrance to the dungeon.
Looking at it now, it was strange that it hadn't been discovered before, but there was a prerequisite to opening the entrance.
“H-Hyun-woo...”
Just then, the smell of blood wafted past my nose.
I reached out and covered Serin's eyes.
Swoosh—
Along the dark red water, the corpses and entrails of monsters floated by. There must have been dozens of them.
Even for her, who had killed monsters with her own hands, it was not an easy sight to behold.
Before dinner, I had gone upstream, dealt with the monsters gathered there, and released their bodies into the river.
The reason was simple.
Rumble—
As the river turned completely red, the sandy area began to tremble faintly.
A strange wind scattered the sand, pulling it toward the center. A moment later, the sand sank inward, forming a pit.
Sssrr—
The sand flowed helplessly inward. Soon, the center was filled with a shadow of unknowable depth.
「You have discovered the special area, 'Forgotten Temple of the Falcon'.」
The door to the dungeon opened.
「'Dancing Destroyer' shows interest in the temple of a deity from a different lineage.」
「'Dweller of the Swamp' is ecstatic about the river stained with corpses, blood, and entrails.」
「'The Saintess of Uruk' applauds your discovery.」
We slid down into the pit, toward a darkness so thick we couldn't see an inch ahead.
“Ah, sand.”
We headed underground, skiing on the sand. It was actually kind of fun, aside from the sand constantly getting in my mouth.
Even then, Lucifer was glaring at Serin, who was nestled in my arms.
Her jealousy seems to be getting worse.
Is it because of the memory of being betrayed and trapped underground?
But Iris, who went through something similar, was generous when it came to my relationships with other women.
It must just be her personality.
Anyway, after about ten minutes, a small sliver of light began to appear beyond the darkness.
Fwoosh—
The moment we exited the sand pit, we began to fall as if on cue.
“Kyaaak!”
An entrance in the ceiling. What a malicious design.
Ting—
「You have entered the special area, 'Forgotten Temple of the Falcon'.」
「3,000 WP has been awarded.」
The floor looked to be at least several dozen meters below.
A normal person would have died instantly.
That didn't apply to us. I soothed Serin while scanning our surroundings.
The massive ruins, the murals carved everywhere, and the statues all looked related to Egypt at a glance.
She definitely said it was a temple of 'Horus', right?
Horus. The son of Osiris, the god of the dead and resurrection, and Isis, the goddess of motherhood. He is the patron god of Egypt and its pharaohs.
「The Constellation, 'Eye that Guards the Throne', is watching you.」
Speak of the devil, the owner of the house showed up.
Of course, this wasn't Horus's main temple. I'd heard that constellations of that lineage all made their homes in pyramid-like structures.
Well, this place might also look like a pyramid from the outside.
For reference, the procedure to open this temple's entrance was a reenactment of the myth where Horus's father, Osiris, was tricked by his brother Set, sealed in a coffin, and thrown into the Nile.
Thud—
I landed on the floor and set Serin down.
Startled by the parachute-less skydive, her legs were trembling pitifully. I took out a chair, and she immediately collapsed onto it.
“Th-thank you...”
“You should rest here and not push yourself. I'm going to take a quick look around.”
“Then I'll go with—”
“You stay with Serin. We don't know what might show up.”
Leaving a pouting Lucifer behind, I headed deeper inside alone.
I'd felt it since entering the temple, but a chilling air was blowing from deeper within. It was Death Energy, a sensation I had grown quite used to.
I suppose it's unavoidable in myths related to Egypt.
And before long, the expected happened.
“Krr, rrr...”
“Uwaaah...”
“Ka, kakakaaa...”
From the opposite corridor, mummies wrapped tightly in bandages appeared. There were about twenty of them.
Even for a hidden dungeon, this wasn't a number you'd expect to see on the Tutorial Floor.
And we'd only just entered the first section.
Of course, that didn't apply to me. In fact, I would have preferred it if fifty of them had shown up.
“Compared to the surface, this place is a gold mine.”
With the thought that I could hunt here during the day from now on, I charged toward the group of mummies.
At some point, a golden Sword Qi began to shimmer around my blade.
“Grrrr...!!”
“Kaka, aaaah...”
“Gaaaaal...!!”
「You have defeated a Mummy.」
「+3 WP」
「You have defeated a Mummy.」
「+3 WP」
「You have defeated a Mummy.」
「+3 WP」
˙
˙
˙
I've always felt this way, but there's something satisfying about cutting down the undead.
