A Crash with No Damage

Bang!

There was no damage.

A thick, soft pile of hay had been spread underneath.

Tae-hyun looked up. A huge hole gaped overhead like a trap. He had no idea what kind of bastard had made something like that.

"Wh-what happened?"

"Looks like that was the dungeon entrance. The difficulty here is seriously..."

Both of them were under Level 20.

Sure, there were dungeons you could clear at that level, but anything around Tyrum City didn't seem likely to be one of them.

Normally, dungeons didn't have entrances like this.

And if it was a low-level dungeon, even less so.

Usually, you'd hear about it from an NPC, follow the path they told you about, and eventually find a big, wide-open entrance that anyone could recognize as a dungeon. That way, beginners could mentally prepare, work out a strategy, gather a party, and... well, make every possible kind of preparation before going in.

Dropping in suddenly through some trap like this was the sort of thing that only happened in high-level dungeons, and only in dangerous zones.

Do these devs have some kind of personal grudge against Tyrum or what?

If he hadn't heard, before starting, something like Make sure every player who starts in Tyrum gets completely screwed!, there was no way this balance made any sense.

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"Huh?! Team Leader! Kim Tae-hyun entered a dungeon!"

"So? People enter dungeons. Why are you making such a fuss?"

"No, no, not a normal dungeon! It's the Tomb of the Tyrum Ranger!"

"What? He got in there already?! How?!"

Even if it was Kim Tae-hyun, it was hard to believe he'd gone from killing rabbits out front to entering that dungeon.

And the Tomb of the Tyrum Ranger was extremely hard to find through ordinary means.

Normally, you'd first have to get very close to the Tyrum Hunters, hear from them about a missing comrade, find that missing comrade's belongings, and...

Anyway, only after clearing several preliminary quests would you discover what was presumed to be the dungeon entrance.

It was a trap-type entrance, yes, but obviously, if some random person could just wander over the mountain, miss all the conditions, and fall in, that would make the whole thing pointless, so care had been taken. Unless a very slim probability triggered it, the floor wasn't supposed to collapse.

After all, anyone who actually knew the information would just break the ground open from above.

But the developers had never imagined someone like Tae-hyun, who had dumped all his stats into Luck, would be walking over it.

"Wait. That happened because of Luck? Ugh, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠seriously..."

Choi Myung-sung scratched his head hard and grumbled.

Unlike stats like Strength or Agility, Luck was one even they still didn't fully understand.

Since the AI created and ran the game systems on its own, that was unavoidable. The only thing they really knew was that it could influence events and probabilities to some degree.

"Isn't that a good thing, though?"

"What is?"

"This is the place where you can change class into a Tyrum Ranger, right? If Kim Tae-hyun becomes a Tyrum Ranger, then at least he won't keep standing around in front of Tyrum killing rabbits anymore, will he?"

"Hmm..."

Choi Myung-sung fell into thought. Would he?

At a glance, considering the dungeon's difficulty, it didn't look like those two had the stats to clear it. Originally, it was a quest dungeon meant for higher-level archer-type classes trying to obtain an upper-tier class.

But the opponent here was Kim Tae-hyun.

If it's Kim Tae-hyun, he might actually clear it.

And if he did?

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Would he switch to Tyrum Ranger?

"It's a normal strong class, so I don't like it..."

"This is not about your personal tastes right now, Team Leader! What if he keeps killing rabbits and his Luck stat really transcends everything?!"

"Then that'd be fun in its own way. Let's trust our AI a little. It'll handle things. That's how games work. One person gets too far ahead, then somebody else appears to challenge them. But is he really going to become a Tyrum Ranger? Opportunities to get a Heroic class this early aren't exactly common, so I guess he might..."

Choi Myung-sung clicked his tongue in disappointment.

He wanted Kim Tae-hyun to become something a little more perverse and play in a more perverse way.

Or else just go all the way and get some Legendary class like Avatar of Archisus.

"More importantly, he's moving in a party? And the one next to him is... a girl, right?"

"Yeah. Definitely a girl. Looks like she tweaked her face a little when she made the character."

"People who are handsome and pretty are so unfair. Even when they force their face around, it still comes out looking good. Right?"

"Don't ask me for agreement. I wouldn't know."

In Fantasy Online 2, you couldn't completely remake your appearance at the start, but you could make small enough changes that people wouldn't recognize you.

It looked like the player named Yu Ji-soo had done something like that.

Since she was so pretty to begin with, even editing herself to look like a guy had just turned her into a beautiful boy.

Plenty of players tweaked themselves to look more masculine or feminine, so that part wasn't particularly noteworthy.

The real issue was Kim Tae-hyun.

"What's gotten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into him? A guy who doesn't do party play suddenly doing party play?"

"Did he never party up at all?"

"He did sometimes, but basically he was a solo player. That's why I liked him more."

Other rankers all moved around with guilds and factions, but Kim Tae-hyun, aside from a few friends, ran around on his own.

That lone-wolf quality had been part of his appeal.

"Well... let's keep watching. No matter who he is, a dungeon's difficulty is still a difficulty. He might not be able to clear it."

"If it's a dungeon, that means monsters can suddenly pop out and stuff, right?"

"Probably."

Ji-soo was completely tense in this dungeon they'd entered for the first time.

And on top of that, they'd entered it without any real preparation.

"Look on the bright side. This could be an opportunity."

"...How is falling into a dungeon through a trap an opportunity?"

"Secret dungeons like this are usually hard to find. Normally you'd have to clear quests and grind a bit. But we got in right away. If you think about it, we're lucky."

"Is it really okay to come in with absolutely no preparation?"

"Honestly, that's the problem."

"..."

"Well, let's stay positive for now. Neither of us really has much of a death penalty anyway, right?"

"Isn't that a little too positive?!"

Scratching his chin, Tae-hyun walked forward.

Fortunately, torches were burning along the walls, so they could at least see ahead.

The fact that they were considerate enough to put in lighting somehow makes it scarier.

He was confident in his control.

But objectively speaking, Tae-hyun's current stats were far too extreme. Everything except Luck was a wreck, so one area attack and he was finished.

You could dodge normal monster attacks with control, sure. But the moment a spell or wide-area attack came out, there was no answer.

"Ugh, it'd be easier if we at least knew what kind of monsters were in here."

"Goblins."

"Huh? How do you know that?"

Ji-soo stared at him in surprise.

She already knew Tae-hyun had way more game experience than she did. Even so, guessing the monsters in a dungeon he'd never seen before, just like that?

"It says so right here."

The words were scrawled large across the wall in shaky lettering.

Ji-soo nodded with an awkward expression.

"Oh. Right... it does say that..."

"If it's goblins, there'll be traps. That's a pain."

"What?"

"We don't have a rogue. And neither of us has changed class yet."

Goblins had been infamous for traps ever since Fantasy Online 1.

High-level goblins used traps so irritating they made you want to curse out loud.

To detect and deal with those, you needed trap-related classes like rogues or blacksmiths.

Unfortunately, neither Tae-hyun nor Ji-soo was one.

"Wouldn't being careful in advance help?"

"We'll have to be careful, sure, but that has limits. We're low level, and neither of us has any trap detection level. If the difficulty's even a little high, it'll be hard to find them."

Even as he said that, Tae-hyun carefully scanned the ground.

Click.

"Huh?"

Ji-soo was making a tearful face.

Looking down, Tae-hyun saw something had sunk under her foot.

"Did you step on something?"

"Y-yes..."

Bang!

A panel in the wall opened, and flames blasted out from inside.

Tae-hyun was standing in exactly the spot that should have gotten hit by all of it.

"??"

Tae-hyun looked down at himself.

If he'd taken that trap in his current state, he should've died instantly—or at least been left right on the brink.

But he wasn't hurt at all.

"Hey! No matter what, that's weird, isn't it?! Sure, his Luck's high, but does it make sense for him to dodge all of that?!"

"Uh... well... once Luck gets close to 500, even we can't say exactly how strong the effect is..."

"God, seriously."

"And that probably got adjustment buffs too."

"What?"

"Yeah. I mean, you know how if you enter at the intended level, things stay as they are, but if your level's too low, your stats get a slight correction?"

"There are only a few dungeons where that applies."

"And this is one of them, Team Leader. It's a Heroic class change location... if somebody clears all those preliminary quests and then gets wiped here, that's kind of a problem, you know? There are a lot of pre-quests."

"Then use your eyes and look! Does that look like a slight correction? Come on! No matter what, does dodging everything there make sense? It looks like his Luck stat is double or triple what it should be right now!"

With a Luck stat already absurdly high for his level, and then adjustment buffs layered on top, the result was beyond anyone's imagination.

"I don't know what his adjusted Luck stat is right now, but this is a pretty serious problem. Is this what happens when Luck gets high enough?"

Since the AI handled all the fine details, even they couldn't say for sure.

"But still, his Strength is low, so his attack power is low. His Constitution is low, so his HP is low. His Agility is low, so his accuracy and evasion should be low too, right?"

"You just watched him dodge all those traps and you're still talking about evasion? With Luck that high, accuracy and evasion don't even matter."

"Still, he's only that strong because of the adjustment. If it really were double, it'd have to be close to 1000. Pouring that much into one stat just to dodge one trap like that would be way too wasteful."

"That's true."

If he'd put 1000 into Strength or Agility instead, the performance would have been monstrous.

Thinking about it that way, what they were seeing didn't feel quite as shocking.

Then a thought occurred to Choi Myung-sung.

It wasn't even at 500 yet, but what if, later on, he kept raising Luck and pushed it past 1000?

I kind of want to see that.

Just because the trap hadn't hurt them didn't mean there was any time to relax.

The goblins had heard the trap activate and were coming.

"Stay calm and deal with them."

"Wh-who, who, who do I shoot first?"

"I said stay calm..."

Tae-hyun let out a sigh.

He didn't even need to turn around to know Ji-soo was trembling behind him.

"Shoot the goblins with bows, staffs, or stones first. If you leave those alive, they'll get annoying."

Tae-hyun easily caught the slash of a goblin's blade.

"...!"

And then he got pushed back.

Seriously...? I know I didn't invest in Strength, but I'm losing a power contest to a goblin?!

Tae-hyun immediately realized the goblins' levels were higher than he'd expected.

If that was the case, redirecting or receiving their attacks was out of the question.

He had to dodge. No exceptions.

"What a pain in the ass..."

He slipped past the club swinging for his head, dodged the knife stabbing toward his side, then slammed his sword into the goblin's exposed skull.