Shin-con's One-Coin Clear: Orb Hunt (1)
Yoon Taeyang rested thoroughly at the inn for a day.
During that time, Hyeonhye handled matters in the real world as well.
The moment Yoon Taeyang stepped into the inn lobby, people swarmed around him.
"Hey, how about teaming up with us?"
"No! Join us instead! We've already recruited an archer and a healer. With you, our party would be perfect!"
"How'd you get a hundred gold?"
Yoon Taeyang had become the most famous figure in the first-floor shelter.
It was only natural.
He had taken the rare card right in front of everyone.
People who wanted to recruit him as a teammate, people hoping for scraps, and people silently circling nearby all clung to him.
Yoon Taeyang coldly shook his head at every single one.
"I'm good. All of you, get lost."
Yoon Taeyang had given up on finding reliable teammates at the first shelter.
The impact of buying that skill card had been too massive.
Everyone approached him indiscriminately, making it impossible to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Better to go alone than with untrustworthy allies.
"I'm going without a party. That fine?"
"Yeah."
Hyeonhye agreed with him.
She had been the one who taught him not to form a party if he couldn't be certain of trust.
Ignoring the other players' chatter, Yoon Taeyang headed straight for the next floor.
"We're crossing over now."
"Us too!"
"Move it!"
Several players from the shelter followed him through.
Some were solo, others in groups.
"Neither's welcome."
People aiming for him or people hoping to ride his coattails.
Yoon Taeyang had no intention of moving according to their wishes.
The most noticeable among those who followed was a bald man.
The bald man was massive, his body covered in muscle and scars.
Further up the tower, a tiny child could overpower a hulking adult with one finger, but in these lower floors where achievements hadn't piled up yet, appearance could serve as a rough measure of combat power.
"Yeah."
The bald man openly glared at Yoon Taeyang.
The players who seemed to be his companions also stole glances at him.
Anyone could tell they were eyeing prey.
Hah. If you're gonna stare, at least do it secretly.
Advertising it so blatantly like that.
Yoon Taeyang shook his head.
Crossing into the next stage alone wouldn't have cost him any mental energy, but the system was the problem.
When a player challenged a stage, other players could follow.
Of course, this system was designed so grudges between players wouldn't vanish meaninglessly.
'Well, it's not all bad. It's thanks to this system that the concept of parties and teams can even exist.'
After walking a bit further past the door, another door appeared.
Yoon Taeyang opened it without hesitation and stepped through.
The bald man and the other players poured in after him.
"Floor four's a forest terrain."
Yoon Taeyang took a deep breath.
He could smell the scent of phytoncides.
The air was humid, and the tall trees were so dense that even though it was daytime, the surroundings were dark.
The small clearing in the forest quickly filled with people.
Yoon Taeyang.
The players who had been in the same shelter as him.
Players from other shelters.
The once-quiet forest was now filled with the murmur of voices.
Yoon Taeyang didn't join the conversations and calmly recalled his memories from a corner.
"Yeah. The orb hunt stage, right?"
"Good."
While Yoon Taeyang and Hyeonhye reviewed the strategy for the fourth-floor stage, the forest air changed.
The murmuring died down in an instant.
Yoon Taeyang also stopped talking and looked toward one spot.
There stood a man.
A languid-looking man with a snake wrapped around his left arm.
"Andromalius."
Yoon Taeyang muttered quietly.
That man was Andromalius, the Demon King who ruled floors four through six of the Dimensional Labyrinth Dantalion.
Andromalius swept his languid gaze over the surroundings before opening his mouth.
"What you need to do in this forest is simple. Find the orbs."
[2-1 Orb Hunt: Collect 3 orbs.]
A hush fell over the clearing along with the system window.
"……Is that all the explanation?"
"What even are orbs?"
Thud.
Andromalius summoned a luxurious sofa.
Behind the seated Demon King, three doors shimmered into existence.
The doors of Enhancement, Recovery, and Gold.
"Bring me three orbs and you're done. The more you bring, the better."
"No, seriously, what are orbs?"
"You have to tell us or how are we supposed to bring them?!"
At that moment, the snake on Andromalius's arm shot out.
Chomp!
The snake swallowed a player whole.
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
"What just……"
The surrounding players stared at the snake in stunned silence.
They hadn't even properly registered the snake's movement.
The swallowed player's legs kicked violently before going limp.
Andromalius sat on the sofa with his legs crossed and spoke.
"Anyone else have complaints?"
Silence hung in the air.
"If not, get moving. Watching you bicker here is boring."
Yoon Taeyang turned his back on the scene without a second thought.
The NPC players were flustered from lack of information, but Yoon Taeyang already knew everything about the stage and mission.
The mission was to find orbs hidden throughout the forest and bring them to Andromalius in the center of the clearing.
Orbs could be held by forest creatures, hanging from trees, or buried in the ground.
The stronger the creature, the taller the tree, and the farther from the starting clearing, the higher the chance of obtaining an orb.
There weren't many orbs.
And as time passed, powerful forest creatures gradually tightened their grip on the players' throats.
It meant players would have less and less leeway to collect orbs.
By the late stages, players would stop searching for new orbs and focus solely on killing each other to steal collected orbs.
'Better to clear it quickly before it turns into that kind of mess.'
Yoon Taeyang quickened his pace.
Even without that, a group had already been following him since the shelter.
It was obvious a fight with them would waste time.
He had to move as fast as possible.
Orbs had another function besides clearing the stage.
The more you held, the more power they granted.
Each orb a player possessed counted as one achievement.
In other words, even if your skill was lacking, steadily collecting orbs could make you incredibly strong for this stage alone.
Yoon Taeyang thought as he pushed through the forest.
Three orbs meant mission complete.
But Andromalius had said bringing more would be good.
It meant there were additional rewards for collecting more orbs.
Three, five, seven.
Each granted one achievement.
So to fill achievements to the brim before moving on, each person needed to collect eighteen orbs.
"I'll decide based on the situation."
Nothing was more foolish than dying while trying to force eighteen orbs.
Dantalion was a game where you always had to keep an exit strategy in mind.
Yoon Taeyang glanced behind him.
Players scattering to search for orbs.
And players remaining in place.
"Tsk."
The thoughts of those staying behind were obvious.
They planned to steal orbs from players who had gone through the trouble of finding them instead of searching themselves.
While other players searched the forest for orbs, Yoon Taeyang headed straight into the depths without hesitation.
He didn't engage in any fights, didn't look around, and simply moved in a straight line.
After walking much farther, Yoon Taeyang stopped in front of a massive tree.
It was so thick that it would take a dozen adult men holding hands to encircle it.
"This is the biggest tree, right?"
A gigantic tree the size of a small building.
Yoon Taeyang poked at the ground around the tree.
"Taeyang, you heard that? That's what they said."
At Hyeonhye's words, Yoon Taeyang checked the chat window and nodded.
Yoon Taeyang circled the tree at three-meter intervals, poking at the ground.
He couldn't be one hundred percent certain of the viewer's words, but they didn't contradict the information Hyeonhye had given him either.
'No harm in trying.'
Thud.
There was a large hollow beneath Yoon Taeyang's outstretched foot.
Yoon Taeyang entered it.
The snake den.
Exactly as the name suggested, it was a den where snakes lived.
A massive tunnel wide enough for three people to walk side by side.
The height was also tall.
Yoon Taeyang looked around.
Despite the name, no snakes were visible in the snake den.
Because this snake den was the territory of a single snake.
The owner of the snake den, the giant snake Aksharon.
Aksharon was, in a sense, the strongest monster in the orb hunt stage.
A monster that required at least fifteen achievements before damage could even register, and defeating it would need a group of veteran players who had collected graduation-level orbs to attempt a hunt together.
But Yoon Taeyang wasn't worried about Aksharon.
Aksharon wasn't active during the day.
Moreover, the place Yoon Taeyang had entered was the edge of the snake den.
Unless he recklessly released mana, Aksharon wouldn't come charging at him.
"For now, there are supposed to be three orbs around here, right?"
"Yeah. There are more if you go deeper, but that's too dangerous. Three around the outer perimeter. The locations always change, so from here on you'll have to find them yourself."
"Okay, okay."
At that moment, a human figure dropped from the hole Yoon Taeyang had entered through.
Thud thud thud.
"What's this place?"
"Fancy finding a spot like this."
"Feels like there might be orbs or something here."
"Nice. We can get cards and find orbs too."
It was the bald man and his group.
Unlike the chat's reaction, Yoon Taeyang remained calm.
"Took you long enough. You're later than I expected."
These flies had been an expected outcome.
Since he couldn't stop people from watching when he bought the card from the bartender.
Yoon Taeyang scanned the bald man's group.
Seven people.
Their weapons…… swords, spears. And a hammer.
Fortunately, there were no players using bows.
This was much better than expected.
Yoon Taeyang cracked his neck.
"It won't be an easy fight, but I can win."
From the very beginning, entering the snake den had been to lure them in.
The snake den had narrow passages.
That meant it was convenient to fight one against many.
If it had been forest terrain, it would have been a straight 7 vs 1 disadvantage, but here it would be at most repeated 2 vs 1 fights.
For that level, Yoon Taeyang was confident enough.
The bald man spoke to Yoon Taeyang with an arrogant air.
"That rare card you bought. Hand it over and I'll spare your life."
Yoon Taeyang let out a short laugh.
What nonsense.
"Yeah, fuck off."