The High Alchemist's Laboratory
Thud!
Thud!
Yujun's body slammed hard into the ground. The fall had been from a fair height, and the impact was brutal.
"Ugh..."
Pain radiating through his back twisted his face into a grimace.
"Hm?"
A hologram window hung in the air before his eyes.
A hidden dungeon? And one whose name he'd never heard in his life. He'd seen plenty of dungeons built like a mage's study or laboratory, but a dungeon tied to an alchemist was a first.
So there was another hidden dungeon right beside the spot I found. Tracking one down was harder than finding a needle lost in the sand. Measured against that, this was a coincidence too perfect to be believed.
"Wait... now that I think about it."
On the way down he'd caught sight of the brush and branches blocking the entrance. They gave him the distinct impression that someone had set them there on purpose to hide the way in. As he understood it, a hidden dungeon's entrance was always secreted in some ingenious spot — not covered over like this. Reasoning from the circumstances, he could be sure of one thing.
Someone's already found this dungeon.
Even so, the entrance was still intact, which meant it hadn't been cleared. He took his hope from that.
Was it only just discovered? Or did they realize they weren't up to clearing it and mean to come back later?
Either way, Yujun had no thought of abandoning the delve. If he'd never found the hidden dungeon, that would be different. Having found it already, turning around and leaving would be far too great a waste.
He snatched up the sword lying on the ground and shoved himself to his feet.
I'd better hope there's no one else in here.
This was a real dungeon, the kind you cleared with your life in the balance. Meeting another player here would not end at a mere quarrel.
Yujun started down the only path there was.
Is the entrance the only opening to the outside?
The dungeon ran dark. Pale ore clung to the ceiling, though, so it never quite went black.
If this is an alchemist's laboratory... I doubt ordinary monsters are going to show up.
They called it a laboratory, but monsters would be here without question. It was a hidden dungeon in name and fact. A place with nothing but traps and mechanisms could never earn that title.
Yujun followed the single path for about ten minutes.
Squelch. Squelch.
Silence packed the place, and only his footsteps rang through the dark interior. Then, all at once—
"Kirrk."
"Kirrik."
A sound like phlegm caught in a throat came from ahead. Yujun narrowed his eyes. The nearer he drew, the sharper the once-faint shapes became, and as he studied them he put a name to the monsters making those grotesque noises.
Chimeras. Artificial life, forced together from the bodies of several monsters. Given that this was an alchemist's laboratory, the odds were high that the alchemist who had owned the place had made them.
Don't alchemists usually make potions and items? Of course, that might only have been his own prejudice.
Chimeras were monsters he'd faced often while playing War of the Gods. Their vitality ran high, and their attack and defense sat above those of ordinary monsters. Their shortcoming was low intelligence. The ones here looked like a jumble of orc, wolf, and some monster he couldn't identify.
About three? Not many... but not easy, either. A single chimera's raw power was exceptional. He was a little worried.
Even so, I can't run. There was nowhere to run to begin with. The only exit sat far too high to reach.
Yujun tightened his grip on the sword and waited for the chimeras charging in. The timing was exact. He had certainly never been taught the sword, and yet he swung at a moment of perfect precision.
Shhk!
The arm of the chimera reaching for his neck spun away through empty air. He drove the blade into the next one closing in.
Thuk! Thukk!
Wherever the sword met flesh, a chimera's body came apart.
So they're not over level 100. Good. They seemed to sit somewhere around level 50 to 70. They had no means of withstanding a level 130 Legendary sword.
There was one thing Yujun had overlooked. Not every chimera had only two arms. A four-armed one whipped a thick limb into his chest with savage force.
Boom!
Limb met armor, and the sound was like a bomb going off.
"Kgh!"
The tremendous impact launched Yujun backward. He crashed hard into the wall and tumbled across the floor, and the chimeras didn't waste the opening. They came on in a rush.
Yujun jerked his upper body up and thrust the sword straight out. The head of the chimera that had already reached him was run through, and he dragged the blade to the right, taking the neck of the one charging in from the side as well.
Shhk!
That finished two of them.
One remained. It drove a full-body charge into the gap he'd left.
Crash!
For an instant Yujun nearly blacked out. He'd protected his head, though, so he didn't lose consciousness. He hurled himself sideways, and the chimera's foot slammed down where he had been.
"Whew..."
His blood ran cold. If he hadn't dodged and had stayed right there? The chimera's foot would have pulped him dead. Breathing out in relief, Yujun snatched up his sword and set his stance.
A standoff held for a while. Left alone after its kin had died, the chimera couldn't bring itself to charge, and Yujun, knowing the strength it carried, didn't dare attack first either.
On stats alone, the chimera is far ahead of me. One mistake could cost him his life. He couldn't resurrect like a game character, so he had to move with care.
Yujun won the contest of patience. The chimera moved first, and as if he'd been waiting for exactly that, he thrust the sword forward. The blade planted itself dead center between its brows with a solid thunk. The light of life went out of the last chimera's eyes. An empty end.
His level had risen again, possible only because the chimera's level had been far higher than his own. Even so, it had been a perilous fight — a situation where he could easily have died. He'd won, and that was enough. A satisfied smile touched his face.
If I hadn't had the Equanimity trait, I would have died for sure this time.
He had fought with his life truly on the line, and this was only the beginning. He'd dealt with a mere three chimeras. What lay ahead might be more dangerous still.
What's my level right now? He opened his status window and found he was level 37. He had no armor he could equip.
I'll need at least level 50 before I can equip accessories as well and drag my build up. That only made him want to clear this dungeon more. Hidden dungeons paid out handsomely in item rewards and, just as much, in experience. Players didn't scour the world for them for nothing. Nowhere else would his experience climb like this.
Yujun decided to keep pushing the clear. There was only one path, so there was no need to worry about his back. After that, though, he strangely couldn't find another chimera. Eerily so. In an ordinary dungeon, monsters would appear without pause and throw themselves at a player.
Is it because this is a hidden dungeon? Unlike other dungeons, hidden ones often came with special conditions. This one seemed to be the sort where monsters didn't appear in great numbers.
That was when Yujun found a fork in the path.
"Hmm..."
This left him no choice but to hesitate. A dungeon's boss occupied a single room. Choose wrong here, and he'd waste time — and might land himself in danger besides.
Well, there's nothing I can tell right now. To the eye, the two paths were no different. There was no one to ask for help. It was, quite literally, a matter of luck.
I'll trust my gut. He only had to draw on the years he'd spent playing War of the Gods. Yujun hadn't become the rank-one player for nothing. The game was not so forgiving that spending heavily was enough to claim the number one seat.
A confident smile crossed his face. It was time to show the bearing of the game's absolute master. Without hesitation, he took the second path.
Gut feeling, my ass... To put it plainly, it was a bust. He'd chosen thoroughly wrong.
No arrows came flying, no traps of that sort — but chimeras appeared one after another without giving him a breath. At a standard fork, one path led to the boss room and the other seethed with monsters. That was the usual rule. Chimeras spread this thick meant he had picked the wrong road. Even if he kept going this way, the odds were high the boss room would never appear.
It's a hidden dungeon, so I can't just declare this a trap path... His feeling about it was bad all the same.
I chose wrong.
Yujun wore a needlessly awkward look.
Shhk! Ssk!
"Kirrk! Kik!"
He swung the sword again and again, cutting down the chimeras that closed in. He'd grown familiar enough to hunt them with some skill. Fighting for his life, of course, was the same as before.
Splurt! Shlk!
Every swing scattered dark crimson blood in every direction. He cut down so many that blood pooled on the floor. As his level rose, Yujun immediately invested the points in Constitution and Agility. Strength he didn't need for now. Relying on the sword's attack power, he only had to swing, and the chimeras dropped one after another.
Maybe coming this way was actually for the best? I can raise my level on these things as I go. Then the boss will be that much easier... Yujun changed his mind. I really didn't hit number one for nothing. Agility first.
For Yujun as he was now, the Agility stat mattered most.
Magic I can supplement later with items.
"Kirrk!"
"Kirrik!"
Just then a chimera's sharp claws grazed past his hair. Was it because he'd slammed every unallocated point into Agility? The chimeras' movements were starting to stand out clear as day.
The problem was that their bodies weren't uniform. Every one of them was different. Some had grotesquely long arms, and others used a bizarre ability that stretched their claws out long. Because of that, dangerous moments still played out now and then.
Boom!
Yujun took another hit. This time it was his abdomen — he'd collided with a chimera that had charged with everything it had. He pulled off his helmet, snatched a potion from his inventory, and drank it, then jammed the helmet back on at once. The pain scattered through his body vanished clean. It was only a lowest-grade potion, but its effect was considerable, because his Constitution was so low to begin with.
With his injuries recovered, Yujun sprang up and met the chimeras again. He swung without rest. He'd moved so much it felt as if his arms might tear free of his shoulders. But if he stopped here, his life would stop here too. Yujun clenched his teeth and fought. And then, at a certain moment—
The message he had so longed for, and waited on, appeared. He had reached level 50, the level at which he could equip accessories. A smile of deep satisfaction spread across Yujun's face.