Hidden Dungeon (3)
Violet stared at the approaching figure with a mix of suspicion and unease. Memories of desperately grinding her stats, pushing her abilities to the limit in a desperate bid to grow stronger, flashed through her mind. All of it left a bitter aftertaste.
The day she had approached that suspicious man holding a new sword, blurting out questions in a state of utter desperation. He had grinned and told her the secret to strength—if she showed up at the place he designated on the weekend.
She had been wary, but she had gone anyway. When she arrived, she realized not only herself but the student council president and vice-president were already there. Violet nearly jumped out of her skin.
Far off in the distance, Alice was slowly making her way toward the designated spot, and standing beside Jeong Jojun was the student council president, waving cheerfully at him. Watching that, Violet’s mind raced. Is this guy some kind of triple threat?
She stared at the approaching Jojun with narrowed eyes, doubts swirling. No matter how she looked at it, it wasn’t that. The place they had ended up following this oddly suspicious man was a mountain somewhere in Gangwon-do.
When Jojun suggested they climb the densely wooded slopes, Violet grumbled and tried to rebel, but somehow she found herself following his lead. She snapped at him repeatedly, but he only smiled and kept walking, as if daring her to keep it up.
Finally, they reached a cave hidden deep in the mountains. And that cave was the infamous ‘hidden dungeon’ that even veteran hunters might spend their entire lives without ever finding.
How had this man located it without a single moment of hesitation? The question had been burning in Violet’s mind, but right now, something far more pressing occupied her thoughts.
“Three!”
“Got it!”
Responding in a rush to Jojun’s shout, Violet hurled a bolt of telekinetic force at the spider that was flailing wildly with its legs severed, right in front of him. It exploded in a burst of gore.
Telekinesis skill level up! Mana +5
Even after seeing the same alert window countless times, the texture never got old. That dizzying, spine-tingling thrill that made her head spin was already the third time in a row.
She hadn’t done a single thing except answer loudly when Jojun called her number and fire off a telekinetic blast. Yet her mana had already climbed fifteen points.
This is cheating!
Violet’s conscience screamed inside her head. Raising stats this easily was too good to be true. But unlike her conscience, the moment it became her turn and Jojun called out “Three!”
“Got it!”
Violet answered with a bright, happy smile and hurled another mana ball. She had no idea, but it felt as if she had become Pavlov’s dog.
“Roll roll roll the spider webs~”
I hummed while gathering the spider webs that had fallen to the floor and rolling them into a ball.
“Stop singing that weird song, okay?”
Violet, who was picking up spider webs with me and shaping them into balls, shot back at me.
“Eh! Again with the attitude. You’re enjoying it, President?”
“Yeah~”
The president smiled broadly and gave his approval. As expected from the infinite-positivity president.
“Eek…”
Violet, who was infinitely weak in front of the president, shrank back.
“Jojun, but is this really okay?”
Alice, who had been jumping around energetically collecting spider webs, asked me.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“This is all giving us experience, right? What about you, Jojun?”
I grinned and answered her.
“It’s fine. I’m getting my share too, a little at a time.”
The experience system in Ero Genius Shooters gave everything to the one who landed the final blow, but even someone like me who had been seasoning it a bit still received some distribution. Honestly, my stats were already sufficient now. The subtle sunlight aura effect from my Levatein added a total of +160.
Once again, the fraudulent nature of this Levatein hit me. Haha!
“Thanks.”
Violet, who had been grumbling while picking up spider webs, suddenly thanked me out of nowhere.
“Huh?”
I tilted my head. Violet fidgeted nervously, clearly embarrassed.
“Thanks for bringing me here even though we don’t know each other.”
“What~ We’re in the same class. I had to look after you.”
“Eek! I beat that woman! Why same class?! I was originally the vice-president, you know?!”
Alice poked at Violet’s pride, making her explode in indignation, and cut in.
“Got it, so pick up the spider webs, vice-president.”
“You! Always starting fights?!”
I watched the two girls bickering and laughing together with a warm smile, then turned my gaze toward the dungeon ahead.
The cave was pitch black and silent. So far, everything had gone smoothly.
This hidden dungeon had only the spiders’ stats enhanced; nothing else had changed. Yeah, let’s keep the easy mode going.
I groaned, stood up, and rolled the ball of gathered spider webs forward. Surprisingly, the thread ball turned as if it had a mind of its own, changed direction, and began rolling to the left.
“Okay, everyone line up again. We’re entering from the left.”
To my words, the female members who had been following me now formed up with practiced ease.
Good. The coordination was finally clicking.
We slowly entered the left passage. The inner scenery gradually came into view.
A room filled with spider webs clinging to the walls like veins and white cocoons.
When this room appeared, the boss room was right around the corner.
“Everyone, stay alert. The boss room is coming up soon.”
I swung my Levatein with practiced ease, slicing through the webs blocking our path and advanced.
“But is the boss of this dungeon also a spider?”
From behind, the student council president’s puzzled mutter reached me, so I answered.
“Yeah. It’s a spider.”
If I kept advancing like this, we would eventually reach a large open area. In the center of that open area sat a massive egg, and surrounding it like a guardian was an enormous spider.
That giant spider was the boss of this dungeon—the Arachne Queen.
The boss’s pattern was quite difficult, but the way to defeat it was surprisingly simple. Break the egg in its arms and the Arachne Queen would stop all patterns to protect it, giving us the opening to unload everything.
So, we should be able to clear this hidden dungeon easily.
The path slowly widened and the light grew brighter.
“Boss room ahead! Everyone, stay sharp!”
I gave encouragement to the party members and strode toward the glowing passage.
Passing through the corridor, we entered a hollowed-out open area. The egg in the center…
Huh?
No egg.
Could it be…?
Kwoong!
As if to confirm my suspicion, something massive dropped from the ceiling.
What the hell is that?
It was a spider, but not a spider. What?
Half and half.
Half cow, half spider. The upper body was a minotaur with four arms wielding axes, and the lower body was the abdomen of a spider supporting itself on four spider legs.
A horrifying combination just to look at.
“Angel~!!!”
I called out loudly to my helper.
These bastards in the management team must have done something again!
**
“So, no problems?”
Operator 14.
Angel clapped the documents in her hands onto the desk and looked down at Operator 1101, who was kneeling before her.
“Yeah! That’s right! We’re just putting the previous dungeon boss in there—what’s the issue?”
Angel gave 1101 a look that said Look at this.
The thing 1101 had done to extract causality this time was actually quite clever. He had placed the Arachne’s Labyrinth hidden dungeon.
In that dungeon, the initial boss had not been the Arachne Queen. As the name suggested, this dungeon mixed the legends of Arachne and the Minotaur from Greek and Roman mythology. So the boss had been a hybrid with Arachne’s lower body and the Minotaur’s upper body.
But because this hidden dungeon was meant for early growth and the mixed-pattern boss was considered too difficult in the beginning, it had been changed to just the Arachne Queen.
Yet this mischievous 1101 had placed the previous prototype boss here instead.
“Honestly, no problem, right? Admit it?”
Without anything to say, the angel who had been drumming on the documents looked up at 1101 with a grin.
“Haa~”
Angel sighed and said to 1101.
“1101, according to what you said, does that mean I can just dump all the prototypes into hard mode?”
“No! Not at all! Since it’s hard mode, I thought some difficult ones might not enter, haha!”
The angel’s words, which somehow sounded like an honest admission, gave 1101 the chills. He hurriedly clapped his hands.
“No. This time your words are correct. What’s wrong with using the prototype?”
“Right?!”
1101’s eyes sparkled as he answered.
Yeah! Honestly, putting such a monster-like guy into hard mode—where’s the point? By raising the difficulty a little in this conscientious(?) way and extracting causality, it’s something that needs to be overlooked.
“Yeah, Angel, finally you’ve started to have a heart for this company.”
With tears glistening in his eyes, 1101 said to the angel.
“But, 1101.”
“Huh?”
“I have something to confess.”
The angel twisted her body, looking embarrassed.
Huh? Shit?
1101 felt something was wrong.
“No, actually, this is also kind of the same, so no problem?”
The angel glanced at herself, probing.
“What?! What did you do this time?!”
1101 jumped up from the floor and shouted.
That’s right.
Just like 1101 had placed a curse in the otherworld to extract causality, this angel had also extracted causality and placed the final skill tree for the elemental swordsman’s ultimate technique, Spirit Ground.
“No~ Actually, I just gave you a weapon that is still a prototype like you~”
“You… you… shit, 14, right?”
1101 rolled his eyes and stared at the angel.
“Just giving a prototype of Levatein or something?”
Instantly, 1101 felt dizzy and collapsed to the floor with a thud.
No, not yet.
1101 steadied himself.
“Has it not bloomed yet?”
Yeah, the blooming conditions for Levatein were quite strict. It definitely hadn’t bloomed.
Then, if I used other rewards and retrieved it…
“Done?”
“Ya, this crazy woman! Did you tell her that too?!”
“I didn’t tell you! Even I wouldn’t use causality like that!”
“Ahigo, Dua!”
Actually, I hadn’t told her. I had simply blocked it so it wouldn’t be destroyed.
“You, are you sane? Giving that to such a monster-like guy?!”
“What! Just like you did, I just gave a prototype, what?!”
“No!”
Instantly, anger surged. 1101 reached out, but seeing the angel’s eyes full of killing intent, he secretly lowered his hand.
“Even if so, giving the Levatein prototype was too much!”
Worst.
1101 thought.
If that monster-like guy had been awakened properly and obtained the Levatein, he wouldn’t have said a word. If that sword hadn’t been a ‘prototype’.
It wasn’t a problem, so it had been discarded—that’s why it was a prototype.
“No. Really, that one is not allowed.”
Barak, 1101 shouted at the angel.
“Yeah, it is~”
Annoyingly, the angel replied with a grin.
“Really, this one I will patch even if I have to tell the higher-ups.”
“Ya! That’s cheating—don’t we have a code of silence? We never complain to the higher-ups!”
“Shut up! This is too much!”
Paeaeak, 1101 shouted.
“If you knew why that guy was discarded because of [Regeneration]!”
The reason the initial Levatein had been discarded was the texture that allowed it to perfectly ‘regenerate’ anything within three seconds.
“Doesn’t it make sense to receive boss mob rewards twice?!”
That’s right.
The [Regeneration] of Levatein had included ‘boss’ as a target.
Therefore, having this initial Levatein allowed you to ‘eat the reward of the hidden dungeon boss twice’ once cleared.
“No! This is definitely a submarine patch!”
“Shut up! It is!”
The angel grabbed 1101’s hair and shook him.
“Kyaak! Let go!”
“If you promise not to complain, I’ll let you go!”
So, in the heavenly world, 1101’s screams echoed for a while.