Undead Hidden Dungeon (2)

The blessing that had just taken shape was a level-lock on constitution. His Holy Constitution and Dark Constitution had both been sitting at level 2; with the blessing's growth, they now stood at 22.

Wonder if a new skill came with it this time.

Jin-soo looked the blessing over. Unfortunately, there was no blessing-exclusive skill.

The item level-lock grew.

Just as with the skill level-lock, he could now raise 322 items to level 422. On top of that, the constitution level-lock blessing he had obtained not long ago had grown as well, lifting Holy Constitution and Dark Constitution from level 22 to level 122.

Lock the item levels first.

The Shining Longsword, the Ring of Revival, and the Blood-Sucking Sword came before everything else.

The Blood-Sucking Sword hasn't been able to grow in a while, either.

A blade that advanced by drinking blood had found nothing to drink in the Undead Hidden Dungeon. Aside from the zombies and their rotten ichor, not a single monster here had blood at all.

Even so, the Shining Longsword comes first.

Expectation bright on his face, Jin-soo locked the Shining Longsword at level 422.

Light erupted. A brilliant flare poured from the blade, and its shape changed with it—the plain, cheap-looking longsword, featureless and utterly ordinary, becoming something else entirely. A pure-white edge. Ornate fittings. A form that announced itself, at a glance, as extravagantly fine.

The name was no longer Shining Longsword.

Baekcheonsingeom.

The strongest divine armament in his memory. The Divine Sword of Hundred Heavens.

To think the real thing is actually in my hands.

He had known the Shining Longsword would grow into Baekcheonsingeom. Holding the genuine article was another matter entirely. Jin-soo opened its options.

There it is.

One of the reasons Baekcheonsingeom had been called the strongest divine weapon.

Well, level does matter. Still.

Skill Nullification was a passive. The moment he swung Baekcheonsingeom, a mage's attack magic, a tank's guardian skill, a healer's protection—all of it could be snuffed out.

Raise Baekcheonsingeom's level further, and I'll be able to cut intangible skills too. Blessings. Curses.

That held only when the level gap wasn't wide. If the difference grew too great, Skill Nullification simply failed to trigger.

There's a reason they say level is king.

Baekcheonsingeom currently sat at 422.

At this level, I can chew through every skill on Floor 100's standard.

A bright smile tugged at Jin-soo's mouth.

Then let's raise the rest.

He locked the Ring of Revival, the Blood-Sucking Sword, and the rest of his items at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠422. Before, he had hoarded his level-locks just in case. There was no need for that anymore.

Nice.

The blessing's growth had unmistakably quickened the pace at which he grew stronger. Even so, a thread of disappointment remained, and the reason was simple. The blessing he actually wanted still hadn't appeared.

Class level and Skill Synthesis are still nowhere to be seen.

No new blessing-exclusive skill, either.

I never thought the constitution level-lock would grow twice in a row.

It wasn't the result he had expected, nor the reward he had been waiting on. He didn't feel bad about it, though.

A higher constitution level-lock isn't a loss.

It meant he had gotten stronger. And a constitution level-lock was a blessing that hadn't existed before at all.

Which means the class level-lock and the synthesis-skill level-lock—the ones that still haven't shown—can appear whenever they please.

His bet had landed cleanly. Grow the blessing, and every problem solves itself.

There's really not much left now.

This round of growth had pushed his stat growth rate to 82.2 percent.

Past 92.2 percent, something else will grow.

Just as the stat lock had stopped cold after level 922.

Next time, I hope the base stats come up a little.

A base stat of 922 was by no means low, even by Floor 100's measure. Add the percentage-boosted stats, attack, defense, and recovery, and he was overwhelmingly stronger than any player carrying the same raw numbers.

But human greed has no end.

Jin-soo had taken an overwhelming victory in the war against the Shabel Guild, and after that he had beaten a party from the Yellow Dragon Guild as well. It looked easy from the outside. From where he stood, both wins had been uncomfortably close.

Compared with everything below Floor 100, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the gap between me and the other players has narrowed a great deal.

Which meant the players themselves had risen. And with things as they were, the long stall in his base stats had started to grate.

If the base stats climb, the stats boosted by percentage will hit even harder.

The higher he climbed the Tower, the faster he grew—absurdly fast. Yet once the distance between him and the players on the same floor began to shrink, it started to feel as if his growth had slowed. Had any of those players glimpsed what he was actually thinking, they would have been horrified. A climber barely a year into the Tower was already overwhelming Floor 100's top rankers, men and women with more than ten years behind them, and still calling it not enough.

I'll raise the base stats while I have the chance.

The Undead Hidden Dungeon fed him endless monsters of the same kind. For growing a blessing in a hurry, it was a hunting ground worth its weight in treasure.

Two more weeks passed. The blessing grew, and grew again, until the stat rate finally struck 92.2 percent.

One stage left.

With that growth, the skill and item level-locks had reached a count of 422 and a level of 522. His constitution had climbed as well, to level 222.

No new blessing skill this time, either.

A little disappointing. Even so, what he had already gained was enormous. The risen skill level-lock had given him room to forge synthesis skills, and the item level-lock had jumped far enough that he could push his main gear to 522.

Item levels first.

Jin-soo brought his primary items up to level 522.

The synthesis skills can wait until I'm in a safe room.

Hunting came first.

"Guooooh!"

"Kraaaagh!"

The undead still seethed in a boiling mass, and Jin-soo watched them with a satisfied smile.

When are the higher undead going to show?

Not once had a dullahan, a death knight, or a banshee appeared.

Nothing but variants of zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.

Maybe this was simply the limit of the Undead Hidden Dungeon.

Thinking about it, it's only natural. The undead in here are a grade below the ones the Demilich commands—and the Demilich is Floor 100's gatekeeper.

Even before his regression, when he had cleared this place, Jin-soo had no memory of a dullahan, a death knight, or a banshee. He had hoped anyway. The hope, it seemed, had been too much.

Well. Nothing for it.

If the higher undead refused to come, he would simply wring every last drop out of zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.

"Huh?"

Something was wrong.

Why isn't the count going up?

No matter how ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠terrifying a pace he and Shin Sua had cut the undead down at, the dungeon had always replenished them. Not now. The refill had stopped.

"Jin-soo, the undead aren't increasing."

"Yeah. What's going on?"

They had been inside the Undead Hidden Dungeon for barely a month. A fat payout had done his nerves a world of good, and he had been planning to stay at least another half a year.

"Why is it doing this?"

In the end, every last undead was wiped out.

"Did it break?"

No new undead appeared.

Jin-soo and Shin Sua turned as one toward the heart of the dungeon—the Black Mana Orb.

That was when it happened.

A sharp crackle. Cracks, large and small, raced across the Black Mana Orb.

Then it split—and shattered into pieces.

"Damn it!"

Regret twisted Jin-soo's face. The blessing had grown steadily all the way up to Floor 100, and blessings, like levels, only grew harder to raise the higher they climbed. Its pace had slowed to a crawl.

In the middle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of that stall, the Undead Hidden Dungeon had been a jar of honey—a place where the blessing could explode upward. For a month he had been licking it clean. He had never dreamed the jar would run dry so soon.

"Why is that thing's durability so pathetic?"

He stared at the shattered Black Mana Orb, hollow.

I don't think that's it.

Shin Sua thought an orb that had vomited millions of undead and then died a glorious death had durability beyond belief. She kept the thought to herself.

"Haa. Nothing for it, I guess."

Jin-soo let out a long breath and picked up the mission reward: the Necromancer of Dominion class-change tome.

Looks good at a glance.

Both tomes—Necromancer of Dominion and Necromancer of Reign—were obviously high-tier advancements.

Necromancer is already a high-rank class. Dominion and Reign stacked on top of that...

He pulled up their information.

Unique grade.

Tomes of which only one existed. A reward that had no business appearing at Floor 100's level.

Necromancer of Dominion is holy-aligned. Necromancer of Reign is dark.

A dark necromancer he could understand. A holy-aligned class that was still a necromancer—that was staggeringly unique.

I don't know the exact power, but on the auction block these are tens of billions of points, minimum.

List them at hundreds of billions, and someone might still buy.

I'll think about it.

Jin-soo needed class-change tomes, and the higher the class, the better. A unique tome—one of a kind—climbed in value exponentially.

The problem is I have nowhere to use them.

Far too precious to burn as synthesis material.

No class level-lock blessing. That's the problem.

However fine a tome was, at level 2 it granted only the most basic class skills.

Burning a unique-grade tome just to synthesize a handful of basic skills would be a waste.

Worse than a waste. A staggering loss. The tomes he had used up and thrown away while forging synthesis skills were things he could buy again whenever he had the points.

These two aren't.

Too precious to use once and discard.

And neither of us can use them, either.

His classes were already set: mage and warrior. Shin Sua was a healer. A future waited for her as one of the Tower's greatest, renowned as the Holy Saintess. Handing a healer whose talent overflowed the unknown trade of necromancer was absurd. However good Dominion and Reign might be, they were not worth Jin-soo or Shin Sua abandoning the classes they had.

I'll think on it a little longer.

For now, he tucked both tomes into his inventory.

Even if a class level-lock appears, I won't be able to use it right away.

It would start, as these things did, at level 22.

Later—once the class level-lock has grown enormously—I'll use them as material for a synthesis skill. Or if a player worth recruiting shows up, I'll use them then.

In short, they would sit unused for the time being. Sell them at auction and the points would pour in, but he had no intention of selling. None at all.

"Shall we head out?"

"Yeah, let's. We're going straight to the city, right?"

"Obviously. I want to sleep in a nice fluffy bed."

"I want a hot shower first."

Trading plans for how they would repay themselves for the hardship, Jin-soo and Shin Sua left the Undead Hidden Dungeon where they had spent a month.

"Huh?"

"They came out?"

What met them outside was a band of players.

Who are they? Why were they waiting for us?

Puzzlement crossed Jin-soo's face.

"Well, guess we should just go, then."

"Yeah. Total waste."

The players muttered, disappointed, and left.

"Looks like they found the hidden dungeon we went into and waited."

Jin-soo nodded at Shin Sua's words. Two parties stumbling onto the same hidden dungeon at different times was rare. It was not unheard of.

Plenty of people camp the entrance hoping the party that went in first gets wiped, so they can take the next turn.

Even so, there were too many snags to write it off as chance.

If I hadn't stopped here, this dungeon would still be sitting uncleared.

Before his regression, his party had found the Undead Hidden Dungeon and cleared it years from now. Until then, no one had cleared it at all.

That party could have been wiped out. But...

Their level had looked quite high for that.

The way they moved. The gear they were wearing...

To his eye, they were anything but ordinary.

A party at that level ought to be able to clear the Undead Hidden Dungeon.

If players of that caliber would have died in there, then the party he had belonged to before his regression would never have cleared it either.

And waiting out front is strange on its own.

He and Shin Sua had been inside for more than a month. Unless that party had stumbled onto the dungeon a few hours ago and decided to rest while they were at it, there was no reason to plant themselves at the entrance and wait.

They could just check it on the way back from a hunt.

That was the efficient way. The simple way. What decided it was the language they had used.

They were speaking Chinese.

The last clash, before they had come to the Undead Hidden Dungeon, had been with the Yellow Dragon Guild. Every member of that guild was Chinese.

If those people belong to the Yellow Dragon Guild...

Why players of that level had found the dungeon, when they never had before his regression. Why they had camped the entrance instead of checking it on the way back from a hunt.

Every question answers itself.

You never knew. It was worth confirming.

Go.

Jin-soo sent the shadow assassin after the players who had been waiting outside the Undead Hidden Dungeon.