The Ultimate Training Dummy
"What? You took it down by yourself? Talk about impatient."
"I was begging you to help me!" Cain shrieked, thumping his chest in frustration.
Right then, a series of system messages popped up in front of Tae-hyun.
"Wait... what?"
Tae-hyun stared, utterly dumbfounded by the sudden level-ups. Why now?
All I did was land a single hit on the guy Cain was fighting. How did that give me enough experience to level up?
He racked his brain for an explanation. Cain was over level 100, which meant his clone was likely over level 100 as well. Still, it made no sense. Tae-hyun had struggled tooth and nail without his level budging an inch. Even taking down boss monsters over level 200 barely gave him a sliver of experience. Besides, Cain had done almost all the work. Tae-hyun had only tapped it once.
"Ah!"
A sudden realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.
The experience penalty!
His class had a ridiculous penalty that scaled his required experience in proportion to his Luck stat. But that penalty was tied to a divine passive skill. And right now, in this dungeon, all divine skills were sealed.
Tae-hyun was currently in his 60s. Fighting an opponent over level 100 without that massive penalty meant even a single assist would grant him an absolute deluge of experience.
"Dammit...! I should've been the one to kill it!"
"...You know, if you had just helped me when I asked, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Cain muttered, rolling his eyes.
Tae-hyun smacked his lips and quickly pulled up his status window. Because his passive was sealed, he didn't get any extra stat bonuses, nor were the points automatically distributed at random.
Actually, it's better to hold onto these points for now.
He was perfectly happy with the boost to his max HP and MP from the level-ups—that was exactly what he needed most right now. As for the stat points, it was better to wait until they left the dungeon and his skills unsealed. Even if they were distributed randomly, he would still get the extra bonus stats from his passive.
"Hey, are you just going to leave that thing alone?"
Thwack! Thud! Whack!
Behind Tae-hyun, his own clone—the Avatar of Archisus—was relentlessly swinging a sword at his back. It was a bizarre, almost comical sight. Thanks to Tae-hyun's high evasion, the word 'Evaded' kept popping up, and he wasn't taking any actual damage, but they couldn't just leave it like this forever.
"Take this!" Cain yelled, lunging forward to slash at the Avatar of Archisus.
But his blade slid harmlessly off the clone.
"Ugh, this annoying bastard is exactly like the real Kim Tae-hyun..."
"I'm standing right next to you, you know."
"Haha, I meant it as a compliment! You know, because you're so strong."
Tae-hyun ignored him, staring intently at the Avatar of Archisus. How was he supposed to defeat this thing?
"Well, even if we can't kill it... we can still use it for something else."
"...?"
"Time to get in some practice I've been putting off. Dark Arrow!"
"..."
Cain stared at him as if he had lost his mind. They were barely scratching the clone with their strongest skills, and this guy was trying to use basic black magic? What kind of playstyle was this?
But Tae-hyun ignored him and kept firing spell after spell.
"Hey, hand over some MP potions."
Whenever his mana ran dry, Tae-hyun chugged a potion and immediately went back to spamming Dark Arrow.
Magic skill proficiency has increased.
Magic skill proficiency has increased.
Direct hit! Magic skill proficiency has increased significantly.
Black Magic skill proficiency has increased significantly.
"I knew it..." Tae-hyun nodded, a satisfied smirk spreading across his face.
If the opponent had the exact same stats and evasion as him, that meant... it was the ultimate training dummy! On the rare occasion a spell actually landed, the system rewarded him with a massive multiplier to his skill experience.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"What does it look like? I'm grinding skill experience. Get over here and start swinging your sword too."
"...This looks incredibly stupid."
"And that's exactly why you're Cain."
"What is that supposed to mean, you jerk?!"
Despite his grumbling, Cain drew his sword and took his place next to Tae-hyun.
"Wait, why aren't you using your sword?"
"My Swordsmanship is already at the late-stage of Intermediate. Swinging a sword at this guy won't give me enough of a boost to be worth the effort right now."
This absolute psychopath... Cain thought, shuddering inwardly.
Late-stage Intermediate Swordsmanship? On top of Engineering, Cooking, Speech, and Magic? No matter how he looked at it, Tae-hyun's class was definitely not a traditional warrior. Yet his Swordsmanship was already that high.
What the hell have I been doing with my life? Cain lamented.
"My Black Magic is already at Intermediate, so I'm planning to use this chance to push my general Magic skill to Intermediate as well."
Once his general Magic skill reached Advanced, he would finally be able to learn Marquis Marden's Blood Magic. If he had that skill right now, dealing with a clone like this would have been a walk in the park.
"You're trying to get Magic to Intermediate?! What, are you trying to become a Magic Knight or something?!"
"A Magic Knight doesn't sound half bad."
"Are you crazy? Hybrid classes are trash!"
A hybrid class—a jack-of-all-trades that dabbled in multiple archetypes. It sounded versatile on paper, but in Fantasy Online, hybrids were notoriously weak. Trying to balance multiple stats and skills was a nightmare. It was hard enough to master a single path, let alone several at once.
To Cain, Tae-hyun's chaotic build looked like the express lane to a ruined, unplayable character.
"They're only trash if you don't know how to play them. Stop whining and keep swinging."
"How is this even fun...?"
"You know Su-hyeok, right?"
"Yeah, of course." Cain knew Jeong Su-hyeok. He was the clumsy, somewhat dim-witted junior who always followed Tae-hyun around like a lost puppy. He definitely didn't look like a pro gamer.
"He got his Magic skill all the way to Advanced just by doing this."
"?!?!?!?!?!?!"
"So stop complaining and start swinging, you absolute Cain."
"Fine, I get it...!"
You have been moved to the Chamber of Midas.
"Wait, why me?!"
Despite her protests, Lee Da-bi was forcefully teleported to a different chamber. It was a trial associated with Midas, the Golden God.
Standing before her was her opponent: a portly merchant NPC.
The merchant grinned, hefting a massive sack of gold coins as he waddled toward her.
Clink-clink-clink!
"W-Wait, is that Exploding Gold?!"
Da-bi gasped as she saw the glittering gold coins scattered across the floor. It was a skill she possessed as well—a spell that detonated coins scattered on the ground. However, because she hated wasting money, she had never actually used it.
"No! Stop! What are you doing?!"
Da-bi scrambled frantically to scoop up the coins before they could detonate.
Pop! Bang! Boom!
"Ugh..."
Da-bi watched with teary eyes as the gold coins vanished into thin air. Do you have any idea how much real-world cash that was worth?!
Ignoring her distress, the merchant prepared his next skill. This time, he pulled out a handful of glittering gems.
"N-No! Please! Not the gems!"
—Gem Absorption!
A powerful buff skill that consumed precious gems to temporarily boost stats.
As his stats surged, the merchant began swinging his massive coin sack at her. Da-bi fled in tears, dodging his strikes.
"We could have just had a normal fight! Why are you wasting all the loot?! There won't be anything left by the time I beat you! Waaaaah!"
One hour passed, then two...
"Hey, how much longer are we going to do this?" Cain asked, letting out a massive yawn.
Tae-hyun showed no signs of tiring, relentlessly firing Dark Arrow at the Avatar of Archisus.
"We keep going until it dies."
"But it's not dying! Are you even doing any damage?"
"A shot lands every now and then, so yeah, it's taking damage."
Fortunately, the clone didn't seem to have any health regeneration. But at this rate, there was no telling when it would finally fall.
"Do you think the others are already done?"
"Who cares? Tell them to wait."
—Dark Arrow!
—Dark Arrow!
Dark Arrow has reached Level 10. It cannot be leveled up further.
You can now cast Dark Arrow faster.
You can now cast Dark Arrow while moving.
Though it was only an Intermediate-grade spell, very few players ever bothered to max out Dark Arrow like this. Most preferred to learn a wider variety of spells. But since Tae-hyun had a very limited magical repertoire, he had simply spammed his one reliable spell over and over.
Since I have to cast it during active combat anyway, it's much better to max it out so I can use it without any restrictions.
Reaching the maximum level of a spell unlocked various bonuses, such as reduced casting time. For Tae-hyun, who relied heavily on high-mobility combat, it was the perfect upgrade.
"Why is Kim Tae-hyun taking so long?"
"I have no idea..."
The guild members waited restlessly, boredom washing over them. Once the NPCs from the various orders had vanished, there was nothing left for them to do. They had tried exploring the dungeon, but strangely, there were no monsters to be found. They had spent the last two hours just wandering the empty corridors in circles.
"Do you think he ran into an incredibly powerful monster?"
"Honestly, based on what Kais said, the trials are insanely difficult."
Kais was a priest player from the Black Rock Guild. When everyone had been pulled into their respective chambers, Kais had been taken as well. However, he had already cleared his trial and returned.
He wasn't the only one; quite a few NPCs from the other religious orders had also made it back.
"If it's Kim Tae-hyun, he probably got matched against a monstrously strong opponent."
"Man, I can't even imagine how intense his battle must be..."
Meanwhile, in the chamber:
—Dark Arrow! Dark Arrow! Dark Arrow!
Splash!
The wall of water parted, and Cain and Tae-hyun finally emerged. They were the last ones to return.
Cain looked absolutely drained, his face pale with exhaustion.
Seeing his state, the onlookers nodded in understanding.
As expected, he must have faced the toughest monster.
Look how exhausted he is...
But Cain wasn't tired from fighting. He was mentally exhausted from watching Tae-hyun spam Dark Arrow for two straight hours.
I think I'm starting to hallucinate... That absolute lunatic...
Even now, in the silence, he could still hear the faint echo of "Dark Arrow" ringing in his ears.
Thanks to his relentless grinding, Tae-hyun had successfully pushed his general Magic skill to Intermediate. His sheer, terrifying tenacity had paid off.
Tae-hyun, on the other hand, looked completely refreshed. He looked around the cavern.
"What? Were we the last ones? You guys cleared yours fast. You should've been hunting monsters while you waited."
"There aren't any monsters around here," Gu Sung-wook replied with a sigh.
Tae-hyun's face fell. He had been hoping to take advantage of his sealed passive skill to rack up some easy levels.
It would be great if these guys suddenly went crazy and attacked me...
Tae-hyun thought dark thoughts as he eyed the NPCs from the other orders. His sheer shamelessness truly knew no bounds.
Watching him, Lee Da-bi shivered.
The way he's looking at them... it's like he's sizing up a business deal. No, surely I'm just imagining things...?
She wasn't imagining things. He was absolutely sizing them up.
Once everyone was assembled, Priest Haron of the Demer Order stepped forward.
"Thankfully, everyone has passed their trials and gathered here safely. Now, please present your keys."
"Keys?"
"They are the keys used by our respective orders to seal the monster long ago. We must gather them all to open the path to the inner sanctum."
"You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?"
"...My apologies..."
Dejected, Priest Haron sheepishly pulled out his key. The representatives from the other orders followed suit, presenting their keys.
The sacred keys of the orders have been gathered.
The inner passage of the Forgotten Monster's Sealed Undersea Dungeon is now open.
The door to the Forgotten Monster's sealing chamber has been unlocked.
With a brilliant flash of light, a path opened through the water.
The guild members nodded, their expressions tense. Between the dungeon's harsh penalties and the trials they had just faced, they knew the road ahead would be anything but easy.
Tae-hyun, however, only looked disappointed.
Man, I really should have milked that room for all it was worth...