Rule of Thumb (4)
"Incredible... We're already right outside the top floor in no time at all... I respect you all so much!"
"This is the true power of an alpha male and his companions... haah...!"
Han Yeji's pure admiration and Kim Seonhye's decidedly suspicious brand of admiration drifted into my ears. Of course, my companions and I were too busy sweating and scanning our surroundings to spare any reaction. We were too stunned ourselves. Stunned by what, exactly?
By our own strength. We couldn't stop marveling at it.
"We've gotten ridiculously strong, huh. Like, for real."
"Seeun, the phrasing 'ridiculously' is a bit... well, you're not wrong."
"I-I think I killed about eighty of them! Ah, wait... eighty people? Eighty creatures? It's hard to tell when they're zombies..."
"...So this is why college students share answer keys and low-levels get power-leveled in games. Now that I've experienced it firsthand, I feel... complicated. I should be happy. That's the normal reaction."
"..."
Those were roughly the impressions we traded once we'd reached the floor just below the top of the old Ministry of National Defense building. None of us could quite believe how strong we'd become.
Han Sora, still dazed after loosing dozens — hundreds — of arrows. Park Seeun, roughly dusting off her hands as she spoke. Kim Seyeon, scolding Seeun without actually disagreeing. Yun Mina, voicing her bittersweet take on reality. And last of all, me — Jeong Hoon — saying nothing.
According to the stopwatch Kim Seyeon had running on her phone, the time it had taken us to reach this place, this moment, was a mere twenty-eight minutes and nineteen seconds. Time was still ticking, so it was fair to say we'd hit the threshold of the top floor the instant the twenty-eight-minute mark passed.
Pressing a hand to the black wall and stepping into an unknown world hadn't been much different from the previous dungeon, the Old Sanctuary of Education. The difference this time was that the place we'd entered was, quite literally, the interior of a massive building.
From the entrance onward: tightly packed zombie-type monsters, consistently narrow corridors and passages, and a structure that forced you to climb higher and higher.
"Uwaaaaargh... Intruders...!"
"Sacred... Sanctuary of National Defense... Intruders... Reactionaries...!"
"Kill them... Kill theeeem...!"
The moment we stepped into the dungeon, we ran headlong into a swarm of zombie-form monsters dressed in military uniforms or civilian clothes — though writing "monsters" felt odd, since they looked exactly like the civil servants and soldiers you'd expect at the Ministry of Defense. We beat them down without hesitation and pushed upward.
And then we just kept climbing... and before we knew it, we'd reached the floor right below the top. Faced with that shocking reality, everyone in the party — except the two who hadn't really participated in combat — couldn't help sharing more or less the same reaction.
My own inner monologue, specifically, went something like this:
We're fucking broken. Broken as hell.
I had no choice but to borrow a line straight out of some novel I'd read years ago.
But we really were... absurdly, Andromeda-level overpowered. If anyone who didn't already like us got a look, they'd foam at the mouth screaming "Balance broken!" "The admins are screwing around again!" "This isn't fair!" and dump a mountain of complaints on the system.
To be fair, the building's layout was perfect for holding off large numbers of monsters. No matter how spacious it looked, it was still the inside of a building, and the corridors and walls everywhere worked heavily in our favor.
I could have held the surging zombie monsters (dungeon variety) alone. Buffed by Kim Seyeon, I could go full unstoppable rampage at the front without the slightest problem.
While I locked down the front, everything pouring in from the rear became free food for Han Sora and Yun Mina. With Park Seeun covering them, the Sora–Mina combo didn't have to spare a thought for what was ahead — they just unloaded an absolute deluge of arrows and magic on the monsters flooding in from behind.
That said, it wasn't entirely a cakewalk. There had been two mid-bosses, and more importantly, this was the Ministry of Defense — plenty of the zombies had been soldiers, which meant they had equipment only soldiers would carry.
Firearms. A real variety of them.
Last time, in the Old Sanctuary of Education, the hidden boss — that ROTC officer — had only been packing a single pistol. The ones here had pistols and rifles. Strictly speaking, this place was far more dangerous than that one had been.
...And yet the conclusion still came out to "not particularly dangerous." Every zombie strutting around with a gun had its head cleanly removed by Han Sora's sniping, her level having skyrocketed.
Sora put arrows through the zombie soldiers' arms or chests and neutralized their ability to use their weapons. Any that still tried to move after taking the hit got hit by Yun Mina's fire-attribute magic and turned to ash.
Bottom line: no matter how tricky their gear, these zombie soldiers and civil servants had picked the wrong opponents and paid dearly for it. Well — they hadn't picked us. We'd come to them.
If this dungeon had been tackled by any ordinary party, the firearms alone would have earned them a failed-clear verdict and sent them out as corpses. A thoroughly miserable end.
"These rare items... are you sure it's all right for me to take them?"
"No problem, Seeun. They're all gear that suits a Warrior anyway."
Since we'd pulverized both mid-bosses on the way up, we'd naturally picked up two rare-grade items.
Rare
A military belt favored by a master sergeant who has put in every last year of his service. Only someone with at least twenty years in the military can wear it. Raises the wearer's primary class stat by 15% and secondary class stat by 10%. Additionally, the passive skill Eye Honed by Years of Service is permanently active (heightened intuition increases evasion rate).
Rare
Combat boots once worn by a soldier belonging to the Ministry of National Defense. Unlike the boots worn by fools who joined the ROTC without a second thought, these are steeped in the years of true career soldiers. Increases Agility by +20% and movement speed by 15%. Light and durable enough to move without trouble even over the roughest terrain.
They were excellent items, and anyone could see the stats were built for a close-combat class, so I gave them both to Seeun.
As for me, I was already wearing a similar but different pair of Officer's Boots (Rare), so dumping both on her was no issue. Last dungeon, everything that dropped had gone to the magic-focused classes; this time, it was only right that Park Seeun got the good gear.
Honestly, perfectly fair item distribution wasn't even essential. Back in the previous dungeon, we'd already cleaned out the merchant of countless silver items and silver ingots, spending every last coin to arm ourselves.
We were still carrying and using several of those silver items, and their performance made ordinary-grade gear look like complete trash.
Zombies were undead in the end, so the silver items' signature "Undead Bane" effect was working at full strength. In other words, the fact that this was an undead- and zombie-heavy dungeon had basically handed us the best possible clear environment.
With all those factors locking into place, of course we'd be staring at the top floor in under thirty minutes.
At any rate, my women and I now stood before the enormous double doors waiting at the top of the stairs. We briefly reined in the runaway-train momentum of our charge and conferred on a plan for the final boss.
"I think we should go with the same approach as last time. We'll draw the attention of the minions and the boss... and Jeong Hoon uses Stealth to get behind the boss and hit him with the magic he's been saving."
"Exactly! And this time you won't even have to worry about the trash mobs, Hoonie oppa! We'll smash every last one of them ourselves!"
"S-Seeun's right... hmph!"
"I've never been in a final boss fight this low-tension. Is this what it feels like when a high-level barges into a low-level dungeon without knowing a thing? Ah — I suppose even that observation is the luxury of someone who's already full, isn't it?"
"Even so, never forget that a final boss is on a completely different level from ordinary monsters. Do not let your guard down. Especially you two."
While I went over the plan with the party (Sora was deliberately sulking), I made sure to put Han Yeji and Kim Seonhye — our observers — on notice as well.
Until the dungeon was fully cleared, no gold or experience would come in at all. That meant those two, still only in the low level-tens, had a very real chance of dying in a single hit if they slipped up.
"Y-Yes, sir!"
"Yes, Jeong Hoon-nim...!"
"Don't just stand there gawking. Stay sharp and stick to Kim Seyeon's side at all times. Do not leave her. No matter what. Understood?"
"O-Of course! We'll follow without question!"
"Yes... I'll follow you for life... O alpha among alphas... heuut...!"
Something about Kim Seonhye's reaction felt off — distinctly suggestive, even — but I decided to let it slide.
"I've cast every blessing I have. You can go in whenever you're ready!"
"Then... I'll activate Stealth... Seeun, open it!"
I nodded at Kim Seyeon's words and carefully triggered my Rogue skill.
Bang!
The doors flew open.
"Hm? Who goes there!"
As it happened, there was only the final boss — alone.
Thwack!
"Guhk!?"
...Huh?
One hit. The final boss staggered with a strangled cry.
Factoring in that only a single enemy occupied the room, and that it was a fairly large private office not unlike my own (formerly the National Assembly Speaker's chambers), I'd simply charged straight in, circled behind the final boss without a second thought, and swung my silver longsword.
The result of that reckless move—
Incredible.
Over half his HP gone in an instant?
No, wait! What kind of durability is that, you bastard! You're the final boss! Show a little grit, damn it — grit! This feels ridiculously anticlimactic! And the worst part is, that feeling is absolutely correct!
"Th-This... this is impossible...!"
The final boss was babbling something, but we didn't let our guard down. Leave a monologuing enemy alone and you never know what special skill they might pull out.
"O Seed of Confusion...!"
I decided to exploit the moment he was reeling.
For the first time today, I began chanting the Level 5 spell I'd unlocked upon finally hitting Mage job level 11 — Confusion.
"Take root in the enemy before my eyes, and scramble his senses!"
A beam of crimson light shot from my hand. The target, of course, was this dungeon's "final boss," bearing the grandiose title of Defense Minister.
Confusion. A Level 5 spell from Dragon Gate RPG, and a spell any mage could call their bread and butter.
It landed more reliably than low-level spells like Fear, stripped the target of friend-or-foe recognition, and inflicted enough mental damage to leave them standing there staring at a wall, completely helpless.
"Wh-What is this! Aaaargh... my head, my heeeead huuuurts!"
The spell's greatest strength was that, unless you were dealing with a monster whose magic resistance had been maxed out, it almost always worked. It had even worked on the countless bosses that had blocked player characters' paths in Dragon Gate RPG. Everything except the final boss — meaning the game's very last boss, of course.
Even knowing it was a perfectly legitimate effect under the rules, it was hard to shake the feeling that it was a balance-breaking spell. The only reason it wasn't completely broken was that mages leveled slowly and you couldn't learn it until level 11...
If you could pick it up early on, every fight would just be "introduction, development, Confusion, done." Well, the late game flooded you with enemies plastered in magic resistance, so the balance was cunningly maintained in the end.
"Sora, Mina. Finish him!"
"...Multi-Shot!"
"On it! Lightning... Burst!"
Unfortunately for the final boss in front of us, he apparently possessed no such resistance.
Silver arrows and a bolt of devastating lightning crashed down on the final boss as he clutched his head in agony.
Thwip-thwip-thwip! KRAKOOM!
"Ugh, aaargh...!"
Under the combined barrage of arrows and magic from the two of them, the final boss was annihilated.
"Seyeon. Time?"
"...Thirty-one minutes and four seconds. Just passed it."
And just like that — far too anticlimactically — the clear of the Gangbuk Dungeon came to an end.
Dungeon Clear Reward — Final Settlement in Progress
◈ EXP Reward: 40000 + 4000 (10%) + 10000 (25%) + 20000 (50%) + 4000 (10%) = 78000
◈ Gold Reward: 30000 + 3000 (10%) + 7500 (25%) + 15000 (50%) + 3000 (10%) = 58500
Base dungeon-clear rewards of 40,000 EXP and 30,000 gold, plus various bonuses, totaling 78,000 EXP and 58,500 gold.
And that wasn't everything.
◈ A pistol issued to the Defense Minister during his days as an officer. Based on one of the real-world pistol models. Nothing particularly unusual — except that the magazine is infinite and it fires non-elemental magic rounds.
We'd even picked up a fairly useful item.
But a firearm... a pistol? It was almost as if—
Like it's being tossed at me and telling me to use it.
Aside from magic, I had zero ranged attack capability. Unfortunately, the Warrior class in Dragon Gate RPG had no ranged weapon proficiency beyond chucking rocks. In the game, ranged weapon proficiency belonged to Rangers and their specialized subclasses; Warriors only had melee-focused proficiency trees.
In that situation, a pistol like this was an essential weapon for me. Sure, it was a pistol, so I couldn't expect much range... but something was better than nothing. No — far better than nothing.
I'd actually meant to give it to Kim Seyeon for self-defense, but she refused. Something like this, she said, suited Jeong Hoon — the one who fought on the front lines, the commander and lord — and she insisted I keep it.
"Just look at that pistol. The body coloring is so... flashy and distinctive, isn't it? That sort of thing is meant for someone in power."
She was right. The pistol's body — the grip, specifically — had a rather unusual color. Or rather, as Seyeon said, it was ornate. Jewels and gold had clearly been set into it.
And yet it wasn't particularly heavy; if anything it felt light, and it still felt like a proper weapon. Fantasy, through and through.
"W-Wow... our levels... from twelve all the way to nineteen... a total power-level...!"
"...So this is Jeong Hoon-nim's grace. I'm so jealous of you officers... so jealous...!"
And the two who had watched our performance from up close — who had properly hitched a ride on the veterans' bus — were so overwhelmed by the enormous rewards that gratitude and shock tangled together and left them barely coherent.
Kim Seonhye, in particular, was no longer looking at me with that "suggestive" gaze. She was staring at me with something closer to worship, as if she were looking at a god.
Ugh... now I'm thinking of that damn Jang Seoju and her cult-leader act! She's been recruiting more followers lately, too...
I'm going to give her a hard time when we get back. Why? Because she popped into my head, that's why! It's her fault! How dare she make me think of her!?
"...Huh. He's not showing up this time?"
Among us, still savoring our victory with a faintly unsettled edge, someone spoke up with a note of confusion. It was Park Seeun. She tilted her head, still holding the mid-boss drops in both arms, and kept talking.
"You know. That... merchant who showed up in the dungeon we cleared in Gangnam last time! Yeah, the merchant. He's not appearing this time? What's going on?"
"...Now that you mention it, it is quiet."
Seeun had pointed out something important. From the moment we'd started clearing this dungeon floor by floor all the way through defeating the final boss, not a single anomalous phenomenon — time freezing or anything like what had happened in the previous dungeon — had occurred even once. Even the system Notification had only popped up now, at the settlement after the clear.
"There's not even an exit in si— ah, there it is. It just generated."
While we were still drawing question marks in our heads, Kim Seyeon scanned the area and pointed somewhere. There, just like last time, a bright, swirling portal of light had formed as an exit.
But to my eyes, that exit didn't feel particularly welcoming. Not that I thought it was a trap. It was just...
"For some reason, it feels like it's telling us that if we've looted the dungeon, we should get the hell out already..."
"I'm thinking the same thing, Orabeoni. The 'you've gotten what you came for, so please leave' vibe is... extremely strong. This is seriously suspicious."
"I-I think so too... no... hmph!"
Yun Mina agreed with the observation I'd let slip without thinking... and Sora was still sulking. It really was deeply suspicious. Why was everything so different? Sure, every dungeon had its own distinct personality... but still. Suspicious.
Leaving that lingering unease behind, we finished our clear of the Gangbuk Dungeon.
And it was only after we'd stepped back outside that I finally remembered: inside the dungeon, no announcement related to "Dungeon Ownership and Difficulty Adjustment" had ever appeared.