Flames of Vengeance (Part 1)
"H-hiiiieeek!"
"Th-the Dean has fallen!"
"This school is finished! Run for it! The creatures are coming!"
"Aaaaaaagh!"
The instant the Dean met his end, the skeletons that had been so single-mindedly tormenting my women scattered in every direction and fled.
And then, at the far end of the auditorium, a door simply popped into existence. Light spilled from it, as if to say that stepping through would mean escape.
"O-Oppa!"
"We did it. We really did it! Especially Seeun—ah, let me heal you. There's a cut on your cheek..."
"Orabeoni, you finished things properly after all, didn't you?"
Han Sora threw herself into my arms. Kim Seyeon, uncharacteristically worked up, fussed over me and cast a heal on my cheek. Yun Mina looked every bit as triumphant as ever...
Wait. Where was Seeun?
"Hoonie oppa... you did it."
Park Seeun appeared as well, her face drawn with exhaustion. She swayed on her feet, looking dangerously unsteady.
Kim Seyeon rushed over at once to support her. How hard had she pushed herself, Seeun?
"S-Seeun didn't just use Ground Smash—she, she used Berserk at the end, the Warrior skill that massively boosts your stats but tanks your stamina for a while afterward. She tore through the skeletons like a madwoman... i-it was incredible."
Han Sora chattered the explanation from where she was still nestled against my chest.
Yeah. Her face looked so drained and pale I'd already suspected as much... she'd really overdone it. But well done. Seeun. You did amazingly.
"You were magnificent, Seeun."
"Hah... thank you, Hoonie oppa."
I offered the praise simply as Seeun approached, leaning on Kim Seyeon's support. Somehow I had the feeling that, with her, a clean and concise word of encouragement would land far better than any flowery speech.
The result was a smile I had almost never seen from her before—shy, and full of quiet joy.
Alright. The final boss was down...
All that remained was for us—who had clawed our way through every hardship to clear this dungeon—to receive our rightful rewards.
You bastard of an Administrator, you watching? Hand it over already—the rewards! Give us our damn rewards!
To Jeong Hoon's party, who have successfully cleared the dungeon Old Sanctuary of Education — please remain inside the dungeon a moment longer and do not exit just yet!
As if it had read our minds, a notification suddenly bloomed before our eyes.
Don't leave—wait a moment? For the rewards, no doubt.
"Did everyone see the notification?"
"Yes, I saw it too."
"Waiting a bit is for the rewards, right?"
At Park Seeun's question, everyone simply nodded in silent agreement. We could guess, but none of us had a definitive answer. Still, we didn't just stand around idle while we waited.
After healing my cheek, Kim Seyeon threw herself into treating the rest of the party. Park Seeun found a decent chair nearby—one of the intact ones up on the dais—and sat down to catch her breath.
Han Sora and Yun Mina were busy chatting about the skeletons still fleeing in the distance, debating whether loosing a few arrows might keep them from coming back.
And me...
"Hmm. Just as I thought."
I searched the corpse. Something glittered, sure enough. I picked it up.
Ah—this was the staff that Dean bastard had been using. Though... it looked an awful lot like a hiking stick. Long enough that you could wield it like a mage's staff, at least.
And its actual performance was very much in the mage category.
Grade: Hero
A staff (hiking stick) steeped in the long years of a man who served as a professor for over thirty years.
◈ Intelligence +20%
◈ Magic Casting Speed +15%
◈ MP Cost of All Spells −30%
Whoa... classic final-boss drop, alright. In game terms, this was a graduation piece.
"Everyone, take a look at this."
"I-is that what the final boss dropped? W-woooow...!"
"Good heavens..."
"This is... incredible."
"Whoever equips this—well, only a magic-user could, but once you do, you'd be sweeping the field like Lü Bu. This thing is broken."
She wasn't wrong. For a Mage or Cleric, this was a top-tier item—and a weapon, no less.
In theory, the correct choice was to give it to Yun Mina, our ranged magic DPS... but that would mean she walked away with two dungeon items all to herself. Was that really alright?
I was still turning it over when a flood of text suddenly filled my vision. A new notification had appeared.
Dungeon clear settlement beginning! First, the base dungeon clear rewards will be calculated.
Base dungeon clear rewards? Was this what you got if you'd chosen the left-hand door back then?
◈ EXP Reward:35,000
◈ Gold Reward:25,000
"N-not bad."
"This is probably... what we would have gotten if we'd chosen the left door back then."
"It's a little middling, but—oh, something else is popping up!"
First Boss Defeated — Additional Reward: +10% EXP / Gold
"Huh? A full ten percent?"
"Hang on, ten percent means... that's +3,500 EXP and +2,500 gold, so—"
"K-Kim Seyeon unnie! Another notification!"
Second Boss Defeated — Additional Reward: +25% EXP / Gold
"Whoa, twenty-five... a whole twenty-five percent more?"
"W-wait... so does that mean the ten percent becomes twenty-five? Or do they stack to thirty-five...?"
"Unnie, more are still coming, so maybe save the math for later...?"
Hidden Boss Defeated — Additional Reward: +5% EXP / Gold
"Huh?"
"Five percent? If these are stacking rather than replacing each other... that's forty percent extra already...?"
"M-more coming!"
Last one had to be the final boss kill bonus. And sure enough...
Final Boss Defeated — Additional Reward:
After hardship comes—
—sweet reward!
"W-wooooow!"
"N-ninety percent! They're giving us a ninety percent bonus...!"
"H-hang on... s-so if we calculate that... calculating...!?"
"Total EXP comes to 66,500, and gold to 47,500. Sora-sunbae. Though I'm not sure yet whether this is what each of us receives individually or a pool we split."
If this was a per-person party reward... it went without saying—this was a jackpot.
The four of them would leap at least four or five levels each. The fact that I still couldn't level up properly remained legendary, of course.
Clear-time bonus rewards are now being included in the settlement.
Huh? Even that wasn't the end of it?
Administrator's Estimated Average Clear Time for Dungeon Old Sanctuary of Education:
12 Hours
Administrator bastard... of course he'd designed the dungeon so it wouldn't be cleared easily.
An average of twelve hours. Basically telling people to grind it out forever in here without even getting EXP or gold on schedule until they finally cleared it?
But how long had we taken? I glanced quickly at Kim Seyeon. Of all of us, she checked the time most often.
"Don't worry."
Jeong Hoon's Party: 3 Hours 15 Minutes 48 Seconds
"We cleared it astonishingly fast."
That little time, huh. We had pushed ourselves pretty hard, charging forward like a tidal wave. Short rests only, light meals, and then straight back to advancing.
New Clear-Time Record Achieved — Additional Reward: +10% EXP / Gold
Eh, the bonus is lower than I expected. Still... another ten percent means...?
Executing final settlement of dungeon clear rewards.
Seventy thousand EXP and fifty thousand gold!
And this reward—was it individual, or split among us!?
Please note: clear rewards are distributed to each party member individually. Once again, congratulations on clearing the dungeon!
"W-woooooooooow!"
"J-jackpot! Absolute jackpot!"
"Truly... what a relief."
"Good heavens... is it alright for them to hand out this much? Ah—well, we did go through quite a lot..."
The moment that notification hit our eyes, we threw our arms around each other and celebrated.
At last—at last—it felt like everything had borne fruit. Joy flooded my chest.
Outstanding gear, plus a mountain of gold and EXP!
"I-I'm already level 28! One more dungeon like this and... I might break thirty in no time...! Skills, skills... let's see...!"
"I hit 28 too. Mmm, a little disappointing. Guess Brave Saga Online's EXP requirements are just that steep... still, five levels in three hours isn't nothing, right? Ah, I'm picking this skill..."
"I'm at 27. This time... I'm planning to take a blessing skill so I can contribute more in combat. I considered upgrading Sacred Ground, but Sora advised me that having a variety of buff skills is better."
"I'm at 25. So close! Yes! Time to rank up Ice Fang!"
Everyone chattered excitedly about how much stronger they'd become. Even the usually composed Kim Seyeon got swept up and joined in. A refreshingly new side of her.
Oh, right... I shouldn't just stand here watching—I needed to check my own status window. When I'd run the EXP numbers earlier I'd figured I wouldn't level, but—
⚔ WarriorLV 11 — Next: 240,000 | Current EXP: 201,843
🔮 MageLV 10 — Next: 250,000 | Current EXP: 201,843
🗡 RogueLV 12 — Next: 210,000 | Current EXP: 201,843
*Brave Saga Stat Conversion
⚡ Strength:19(97 S+)
💨 Agility:18(90 S)
🧠 Intelligence:17(80 B+)
✨ Charm:15(60 C)
Satisfying. At last, all three of my classes had hit double digits.
And on top of that, my Mage class had reached level 10. Which meant—
Learn an additional 4th-Level Spell? Yes / No
⊳ Monster Summon
⊳ Remove Curse
⊳ Mass Invisibility
I could add one more 4th-level spell.
Heh heh heh... I'd already decided which one. I was going to pick that spell with pure, unfiltered joy!
My women and I, still riding the high of clearing the dungeon, finished preparing to leave with bright smiles on our faces.
None of us had the faintest idea that this was not the end.
Please wait a moment. You are advised not to leave the dungeon just yet!
"Huh?"
"Why is a notification... blocking us from leaving?"
"Wait—the surroundings..."
Before we could even finish complaining about the notification barring our path, we registered the change around us in an instant.
The world was shifting again... into that same gray that had swallowed everything after we'd beaten the second boss.
Hold on. Don't tell me... Administrator, is this you again? Last time you pulled the same stunt—barged in yelling about how you'd "stopped time!" before showing your face!
Why the hell are you popping out again and making a sce—
The Merchant "Storath" is visiting Jeong Hoon's party!
Arriving shortly!
Huh? What?
Someone... is visiting... us...?
"Kyaaak!"
"O-oh my god!"
"Who's there!"
The voice that rang out without warning—rough, and terrible in quality—had everyone on high alert in a heartbeat.
Han Sora screamed even as she leveled an arrow toward the sound. Park Seeun, who had been sitting and resting, was on her feet in an instant. Yun Mina said nothing, but she had already brought her hands together, ready to loose a spell at a moment's notice.
And I, standing squarely in front of them, opened my mouth.
"Who are you?"
Where the voice had come from stood a creature dressed in a black suit over a red undershirt. Roughly humanoid in shape, though its hat was absurdly tall.
More than anything, its face was drowned in noise... or more precisely, coated in the same unpleasant, uncanny mosaic that covered our territory's "Butler," making its true identity impossible to discern. Its voice, too, had been censored into something that defied recognition.
It sounded like someone who'd inhaled helium and then run their voice through a megaphone set to low.
"A Special... Shop?"
Yeah, you really didn't need to explain all that...
"Items we require, you say?"
Ah... there were games like that.
Ones where, after a dungeon ended, a merchant would pop up to handle equipment repairs and the buying and selling of all sorts of items.
Back when I played those, I'd get into the habit of repairing gear and dumping junk the second a dungeon finished... and the merchant standing in front of us now filled exactly that role.
No way we were skipping this. No matter how pressed for time we were.
"W-wow... so we really were the first ones to clear it..."
"Looks that way, unnie."
"Items and equipment we need... what exactly are you selling?"
Kim Seyeon carefully put the question to the being that called itself the Merchant "Storath."
"Uh, excuse me?"
"In other words, if we name something we need, you will provide that item?"
What a dry-as-dust merchant. Did he want to sell to us or not?
Anyway, translating this weird peddler's spiel... we had to figure out for ourselves what we wanted to buy. And if it wasn't in stock, no sale.
So even if we asked for something like a "nuclear missile," if he didn't have one, we couldn't buy it! Not that we needed a nuke right now, or had any way to use one!
...He wasn't actually selling those, right?
"Something we need... ah! I've got it!"
Park Seeun suddenly snapped her fingers with a cry of realization. Our gazes—still tangled up in the merchant's cryptic words—all swung toward her.
"Once we leave here... we have to face the vampires, right? No—we have to hunt them! Don't we need something that hits their weaknesses... you know, crosses, garlic, that kind of thing? Weapons, specifically! We need weapons that work well against vampires!"
Oh, that was a genuinely excellent idea, Seeun!
The whole reason we'd cleared this dungeon was to get strong enough before fighting the vampires. I turned my gaze on the merchant and put the question to him.
"Do you sell items or equipment suitable for facing vampires?"
For a brief moment the merchant was silent. Then, slowly, it answered.