Chapter 278: How a Veteran Trains (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 278: How a Veteran Trains (1)
"Mwaaaa!"
"Maaaa!"
One-eyed dokkaebi swung clubs larger than their own bodies.
"Spirit Special Forces! Brace your cores and hips and hold on!"
At Jinhyuk's command, the spirits at the very front strained with all their might.
The sight of Undine, who had been at her happiest while sipping lemonade, was long gone.
In her place, only a spirit beast remained, its tiny, slender limbs trembling violently.
"M-Master!"
"These guys are way too aggressive! Besides, we're not meant for close combat in the first place!"
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"Everyone, shut up. My head hurts."
Judgment Day. Would sinners repenting to God look like this?
Hearing them cry out for their lives, Jinhyuk felt the frustration that had built up inside him begin to ease slightly.
Of course, only about 3% of it had subsided.
Meaning there was still a very long way to go.
Crunch. Munch. Chew.
Jinhyuk sat on the stairs, munching on snacks.
It tasted savory and salty; he could finally understand why everyone had been eating them so deliciously.
On top of that, he had a drink with ice cubes floating in it.
Ah. If this wasn't happiness, what was?
"C-Can't I stop now? And a rapier? I've never used one of these in my life!"
"Mogi, mogi."
Alice and Goguma were also sweating buckets.
Alice was currently under a restriction that sealed her mana during combat, forcing her to rely solely on a rapier.
Because of this, she couldn't even exert a hundredth of her original strength.
Goguma's attacks were also restricted to headbutts while wearing a single-horned helmet.
On the surface, it was because an Ancient Species' body slam possessed an 'Armor Penetration' effect.
But in reality, it was punishment for failing to manage his subordinates properly, compounded by the crime of insolence for giggling and slacking off with them.
"Quiet! Does it make any sense that the head of the Ataraxia Family can't even handle a rapier, the primary melee weapon of vampires?"
"W-Well, that's because I'm the Queen..."
"So you only need to give orders from the back?"
"Yes!"
"You will swing nothing but that rapier on the front lines until we leave this Thunder Prison. I'm going to test you myself later, so you'd better improve your swordsmanship."
His master had said they would meet tomorrow morning, but...
...this Thunder Prison was by no means a place that could be cleared in a single day.
It would take at least three days, and at most, over a week.
"By the way, I just finished all the snacks and drinks you guys brought."
"...All of them?"
"So you'd better work hard. The only lunch box I packed has pineapple pizza in it. Oh, wait. I also brought plenty of mint chocolate for dessert. Wow. This is going to be a very fun raid."
"...Pine...apple pizza? Mint... chocolate?"
"It's been trending lately, and it's actually quite to my taste. The sweet and crunchy texture is great. I even topped it with plenty of cilantro for health benefits, so you can look forward to lunchtime."
"...U-Uh..."
Alice froze in place, her mouth hanging open.
It almost looked as if a soul-like gas was escaping from her mouth.
"M-Mogi!"
Sensing danger, Goguma desperately tried to plead his innocence.
He gestured, asking him to take into account his achievements in retrieving treasures from the Kunlun Sect.
"Right, our Goguma did do some good things, didn't he?"
"Mogi-mogi! Mooogiii!"
Goguma nodded his head vigorously.
However, Chapter 1, Verse 1 of the Veteran's Bible states: Repay favors halfway or forget them entirely, but repay grudges a hundredfold.
"You're stuck doing this until you can defeat ten low-grade dokkaebi or one mid-grade dokkaebi with a single body slam. If you try to slack off, I'll pour mint chocolate over your magic stones and feed them to you, so think carefully."
"Mogi?"
Goguma also froze solid where he stood.
* * *
How many hours had passed?
Once everyone grew accustomed to their roles, the raid began in earnest.
The dokkaebi in the Heavenly Demon Cult's Thunder Prison were originally training partners meant to help cult members cultivate.
Specialized in defense rather than offense, they also utilized various spells, making them highly beneficial for skill improvement in many ways.
Boom!
Crash!
Though outnumbered, the spirit beasts maintained a solid formation, reliably holding down the front lines.
"Mogiiiiii!"
"Die! Die! Die!"
With Goguma throwing his entire body into his attacks and Alice wildly swinging her rapier, they now possessed quite a formidable breakthrough force.
They had reached a level where they could clear a pack of twenty dokkaebi within ten minutes.
We'll be able to clear this faster than I thought.
Jinhyuk wore a satisfied smile.
Was this what it felt like to read each other's breathing and thoughts?
Their teamwork was nothing short of perfect.
Indeed, this was why trusting and working together was so important.
Just like the heroes in old comic books or anime.
"I wonder if I'll ever have one of those heartwarming experiences where my comrades throw themselves in harm's way to save me when I'm in danger."
Alice, Goguma, or Cheon Yu-seong would probably deliver a eulogy in front of my grave, thanking me for saving them.
Considering the favors he had bestowed upon them, it was a highly plausible scenario.
I'm getting ahead of myself. I almost teared up.
Thinking about that distant, uncertain future made his nose tingle with emotion.
But right then.
"Master! Don't daze out! A big one is coming from your side!"
Rumble, rumble!
From where Jinhyuk was standing, the stone wall began to collapse.
One meter... two meters... four meters.
A massive crater, nearly five meters wide, opened up.
"Mwaaaaak!"
Emerging from it were two dokkaebi, easily three times larger than the ordinary ones.
Mid-grade dokkaebi, huh?
One was a combat-type.
Seeing the talismans the other held, it seemed to be a spellcaster type.
Judging by the stairs leading to the collapsed second floor visible behind them, these guys seemed to be the final gatekeepers of the first floor.
Hmm.
The corners of Jinhyuk's mouth curled upward.
Good. Perfect timing.
He had already been planning to organize his current skills and acquire new ones through fusion while visiting the Heavenly Demon Cult anyway.
And now, these oversized training dummies were lining up for him.
"I'll handle this one. You guys keep doing what you were doing."
Without waiting for a reply, Jinhyuk stepped toward the mid-grade dokkaebi.
Before anyone knew it, the greatsword 'Armor Breaker' was in his hand.
His arm had transformed into Tombgrave's Right Arm, the great hero of the Colossus Race.
"Mwak?"
The mid-grade dokkaebi tilted its head.
It was bound to be bewildered, as an enemy far smaller than itself suddenly seemed to tower over it.
[The 'Gap' stat is activated.]
[The target is intimidated due to the level difference.]
He hadn't really felt it before because he usually fought opponents stronger than himself.
But the Gap stat didn't just narrow the distance between him and the strong.
Due to the effect of 'Contempt for the Weak', it also possessed the ability to exert a corresponding amount of pressure on lower-level targets.
"M-Mwaaa?"
Under the ominous pressure radiating from Jinhyuk's body, the mid-grade dokkaebi took a step back without realizing it.
But it was only for a brief moment.
[The mid-grade dokkaebi activates its unique ability, 'Guardian of the Thunder Prison'!]
[Attack power and defense increase by 10%!]
[Status ailment resistance increases by 30%!]
"Mwaaaa!"
Its obsession with killing the intruder suppressed its fear.
Immediately, a massive spiked club lunged toward Jinhyuk's head.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, the ground split wide open.
It was unable to withstand the weight of the immense impact.
However...
Screeech!
The screech of metal grinding against metal rang out.
Jinhyuk blocked the strike with utter nonchalance.
"For a dokkaebi, your strength isn't bad."
Of course, compared to mid-to-large-scale monsters like the Giant King or Antrad, it was downright cute.
"But that's not how you crush someone with raw power."
Jinhyuk smiled faintly and tilted the angle of his sword by about three degrees.
As the balance broke, the dokkaebi's club slid off, missing Jinhyuk's head.
And the moment he finished speaking,
[The unique ability 'Domain of Wind' is activated!]
Jinhyuk's body vanished.
A gust of wind swept through.
He reappeared behind the dokkaebi.
Layers of wind amplified the sword pressure, churning even more violently.
On top of that...
[The unique ability 'High-Speed Sword' is activated!]
A sword of absolute swiftness, making him forget the weight of the greatsword, joined the fray.
The blade vanished.
Following it, the hilt and the arm holding it gradually blurred out of existence.
Though invisible to the naked eye, countless split swords were vibrating at high speeds.
"Mwaaaaak!"
Overwhelming despair.
The mid-grade dokkaebi couldn't even lift a finger against the oncoming storm.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
One Blade, A Thousand Cuts.
Countless sword strikes reduced the target to countless pieces.
Using close-combat combos like this doesn't seem bad.
Even though he had used three powerful unique abilities, his body didn't feel any strain.
It was all thanks to his staggering mana stat of 273.
Next...
Jinhyuk's gaze shifted to the other mid-grade dokkaebi, who was chanting a spell.
"Mumouuu."
Perhaps shocked by the sudden, futile loss of its companion, the mid-grade dokkaebi didn't test the waters and unleashed its full power from the start.
The three talismans in its hand burned up simultaneously, transforming into characters representing 'Flame'.
Whoosh!
A massive, searing flame erupted, threatening to swallow everything.
"A fire-type spell, huh..."
It was indeed a spell that exerted the greatest power in an enclosed space.
However, a flame was destined to be consumed by an even greater flame.
[Lv.1 'Hellfire' is activated!]
The color of the flames surrounding Jinhyuk's body deepened.
At the same time, the temperature of the Thunder Prison shifted drastically.
The skill level was only 1.
Yet, the Calamity Fire, hot enough to make his skin tingle, was on an entirely different level.
[The unique ability 'Black Tears' is activated!]
The skill copied from Maria merged with the skill obtained from the Wailing Witch.
The color of the flames shifted once more.
A deep purple Calamity Fire.
Its shape faintly conjured the silhouette of a dragon.
The form of an Ancient Species that had yet to reveal its true name.
"Mwaa..."
The dokkaebi stared at the flame as if entranced.
It didn't even dare to fight back.
In the end, its only remaining option was to flee.
The dokkaebi's body floated into the air before shooting toward the second basement floor like a bullet.
"Sorry, but you can't run."
The purple fireball caught up to the dokkaebi's back in an instant.
Crackle!
In a split second, the Calamity Fire swept through and consumed the dokkaebi's upper body.
* * *
"Whoa... M-Master? Is that really the Master I know?"
"He's so strong. We struggled even against the small dokkaebi."
"Mooogii."
The spirit beasts and Goguma widened their eyes, letting out gasps of admiration.
"W-Well... he's decent. But I can do that much too. Watch."
Alice clumsily swung her rapier.
In doing so, she poked a low-grade dokkaebi in the butt.
"Mwaaaa!"
"Heeek!"
The dokkaebi instantly latched onto Alice's head.
However, even as everyone else was leisurely wrapping up the raid, Jinhyuk's eyes remained fixed on the corpse of the dead mid-grade dokkaebi.
A small flame burning inside a blue crystal.
A byproduct commonly known as 'dokkaebi fire'.
Individually, they aren't much, but if you gather a large quantity and refine them, they exhibit a unique effect capable of bewitching people...
Yes. That was information he already knew.
The problem was...
...this wasn't a byproduct that should come from dokkaebi on the 20th floor.
These were things only seen in the upper floors of the tower, at least on the 30th floor...
This can't be a natural phenomenon.
Unless... someone had intentionally planted them here.