Brute-Force Clear
The massive golden door swung open, and Kim Jun stepped into the boss room.
A grand circular chamber spread out before him. The ceiling rose to impossible heights, and countless angelic statues lined the walls, all of them facing the golden altar at the center.
A small figure sat atop the altar.
Lavia. The Angel of Victory.
She looked like an innocent child.
Pale skin, blond curls, and pure white wings spread behind her.
In one hand she held a sword absurdly large for her body; in the other, a torch.
But Kim Jun wasn’t fooled by her appearance. He knew the power sleeping inside that tiny frame.
“Oh, a challenger already? How surprising.”
Her voice was clear and clean.
Yet in those eyes, unlike a child’s innocent gaze, something dark and deep was writhing.
It felt as though something dangerous was hidden beneath that pure surface.
“Still, how strange. Your body reeks of Hell.”
Lavia tilted her head and studied Kim Jun.
“Ah, could it be that you’re the one who opened Hell’s gate? Why are you still alive?”
Kim Jun drew the greatsword from his back.
The blade, carved with the pattern of a red dragon’s scales, flashed in the sacred light.
“Enough sightseeing. Let’s get started.”
“Heh, so impatient. Humans really are all the same.”
Lavia gave a faint laugh and rose from the altar.
Though her body was small, an overwhelming aura began pouring from her.
“But be careful, human. I’m on a completely different level from the creatures you’ve faced so far.”
In an instant, the atmosphere in the boss room changed. The light grew harsher, and the air itself turned heavy.
Lavia lifted her sword and torch.
“Now then. Shall we begin?”
Whoosh—
She appeared in front of Kim Jun as if she had teleported, and her small sword shot for his throat like lightning.
It was absurdly fast. A normal hunter wouldn’t even have had time to react.
But Kim Jun was different.
Bang!
His greatsword intercepted Lavia’s blade with perfect precision.
“Oh? You blocked that speed? Incredible!”
With a shocked expression, Lavia launched into a rapid series of attacks.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
The small sword moved smoothly, almost like flowing water, but every strike was lethal as it flew toward Kim Jun.
Clang!
Kim Jun blocked every single one perfectly.
Lavia leaped back and swung her torch.
“Holy Flame!”
Pure white fire burst from the torch. It was a scorching, brilliant blaze, as if it could burn the air itself.
Kim Jun immediately summoned pitch-black flames of his own.
Crackle—
The two flames collided. At first, they seemed evenly matched, but little by little the balance began to break.
Kim Jun’s black fire was steadily pushing Lavia’s holy flame back.
“W-what?”
Lavia’s eyes widened. She couldn’t believe her sacred flames were being driven back.
More shocking still, the embers of Kim Jun’s Black Flame were reaching toward her.
“My holy flame… is losing?”
Panicking, Lavia unleashed even more fire, but the result was the same.
Instead, the Black Flame burned fiercer still, swallowing the holy fire whole.
“How dare you… how dare you!”
Lavia’s face twisted. In all her thousands of years, not once had her holy flame been overpowered by another force.
“You insolent human!”
Furious, Lavia shot into the air and stretched both hands into the void.
“Holy Spears!”
Dozens of shining spears appeared in the air. Every tip was aimed at Kim Jun.
“Die!”
The spears rained down all at once. They came from every direction, carving luminous trails through the air as they fell toward him.
Kim Jun swept his greatsword and knocked them away one by one.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
The spears shattered on impact. But Lavia’s assault still wasn’t over.
Fresh magic circles began forming in the air, one after another.
Dozens of glowing circular sigils surrounded Kim Jun from every side.
From each circle, holy spears poured down without end like a driving rain.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
At the same time, Lavia herself started moving.
She zigzagged through the air, circling around Kim Jun at high speed.
Like a bird of prey hunting its target.
Just as the barrage began to thin out, Lavia slipped into his blind spot.
Then she raised her sword and charged straight for Kim Jun’s throat.
And in that very instant.
Their eyes met.
A cold glint flashed in Kim Jun’s gaze. It was a look so chillingly certain, as though the match had already ended.
“Huh?”
Lavia wavered for just a moment.
What was that look? Why did Kim Jun look so sure, as if he were the one who had already won? Had she missed something?
Clang!
Kim Jun’s greatsword deflected Lavia’s blade at the perfect angle.
He had been reading her attack trajectory, waiting for it.
“What?!”
Lavia lost her balance and staggered in midair. The force of the parry left her body momentarily stiff.
Kim Jun didn’t waste the opening.
“Dragon Claw Enhancement.”
Dragon Claw Enhancement
[Dragon Claw Unique Skill Activated]
[Dragon Claw Enhancement: 10% Defense Ignore Applied]
Black flames wrapped around Kim Jun’s greatsword.
Whiiish—
The blade cut through the wind and grazed Lavia’s side.
“Agh!”
Lavia cried out and staggered back.
“How dare you… hurt me!”
“That’s a word for the strong.”
Crack—
Fury flared in Lavia’s eyes. The calm expression she had worn until now vanished completely.
“Don’t get cocky!”
Lavia rose higher into the sky, and a fierce light began radiating from her entire body.
The surrounding space warped, and a giant magic circle was drawn across the floor.
Watching that scene, Kim Jun murmured to himself.
The gimmick’s starting.
Lavia was a boss who triggered a special gimmick once her HP fell below a certain threshold.
She would fly high into the air, envelop herself in a sacred barrier, absorb power for one minute, and then plunge a holy spear even larger than the entire boss room to instantly wipe out everything below.
A status window appeared in Kim Jun’s vision.
In barrier state, the 90% damage reduction meant his blows would effectively do nothing.
Normally, he would have to find the sacred shields hidden throughout the boss room to break through the barrier, or destroy the pillars in the correct order to cancel the gimmick.
But raids with complicated gimmicks had one loophole.
Pure DPS rush.
Kill the boss before the gimmick even activated.
Of course, that required enough firepower to make it possible.
“This ends now!”
Crack, crack, crack—!
Lavia shouted from the sky.
The magic circle grew more complex, and above the ceiling a terrifying concentration of light began to gather.
Kim Jun didn’t stand idle either.
“Deus Ex Machina.”
[Skill Activated: Deus Ex Machina]
[Contracted Transcendent Summoned: Asmodeus - Archdevil of Lust]
[Effect: All attacks for 1 minute apply fixed damage]
[Duration: 1 minute]
At once, a fierce aura of darkness erupted from Kim Jun’s body.
“What is that power?!”
Lavia cried out in shock. In a sacred heaven, it was unimaginable that such blatantly demonic power could be unleashed.
Kim Jun’s eyes briefly turned red. Asmodeus’s power was fusing with him for the moment.
And at the same time, all of Dragon Claw’s effects activated.
[Dragon Claw Additional Effects Activated]
[Attack Speed +40% (+10%)]
[Critical Hit Rate +25% (+5)]
[Claw Rend: Bleed Effect Applied]
The defense-ignore effect of Dragon Claw.
The fixed damage drawn through Deus Ex Machina and Asmodeus.
That 90% damage reduction meant nothing. No barrier could stand before fixed damage.
Now Kim Jun was certain. He could break through Lavia’s gimmick head-on.
“You dare try to pierce my holy barrier?!”
Lavia’s furious voice rang from the sky, but Kim Jun was already moving.
His brow furrowed as if he had made up his mind, and he stared up at Lavia.
Swish—
With both hands wrapped around Dragon Eater, he heated the blade until it glowed red.
The crimson aura deepened and deepened until, at last, it began to turn black.
“Ragna-”
Kim Jun drove the greatsword deep into the floor.
Thud.
The faint cracks that appeared in the boss room’s floor spread slowly, like hidden veins of the earth rising to the surface.
“W-what is that…?”
From the sky, Lavia, still preparing her gimmick, panicked. Her holy barrier began to tremble.
Crack.
The fissures widened like a volcano about to erupt, and the sound deepened into a heavy echo.
Crackle—
Red light seeped from the cracks, roiling like molten lava about to burst forth, while the marble floor writhed as though it were a living thing.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—
The entire boss room shook violently, and the compressed air made his ears ring.
Even the magic circle Lavia had been preparing began to quiver and destabilize.
T-this can’t be… I have to run—
Lavia tried to flee, but it was already too late.
“-Explosion.”
The moment Kim Jun finished the final syllable—
KWA-AAAAAAANG──!!
A colossal pillar of flame shot from the boss room floor all the way to the heavens.
Heat and light, so overwhelming it felt like a small sun had been born, swallowed the entire chamber from all sides.
Rooooar—!
The angel statues lining the walls melted in an instant, and stones rained down from the ceiling.
“H-how… already… this much power…”
The holy barrier surrounding Lavia tore apart like paper before that absolute firepower.
[Boss Defeated: Lavia, Angel of Victory]
[Experience Gained: 8,000]
[Coins Acquired: 3,000]
[Items Acquired: Angel Wings (Mount), Eternal Torch, Judgment Sword Victorius]
[Special Materials Acquired: Lunarium x50, Angel Feathers x20]
[First Clear of Floor 11!]
Kim Jun nodded with a satisfied expression.
Gimmick? He had no need to care about something like that.
As long as he ended it before it activated, that was all that mattered.
The materials are piling up nicely too.
He’d gathered a fair amount of Lunarium for equipment enhancement.
He’d picked up 47 from clearing the field monsters, then 50 more from the boss. About 100 in total.
That was enough to enhance Dragon Eater up to +2, or to upgrade several pieces of equipment by +1 each.
And then there was Judgment Sword Victorius, which had dropped from Lavia.
B Rank
Attack +25
Critical Damage +15%
Special Effect: Grants holy attribute damage, dealing +150% extra damage to demons and undead.
Unique Skills:
Holy Judgment: Summons powerful holy spears to attack.
Purifying Light: 10% chance to remove debuffs on attack.
It was a holy-attribute weapon of the B rank.
This would come in handy later when he was conquering Hell and had to deal with dark-attribute monsters.
Especially that +150% extra damage against demons. That was a serious advantage.
Should I head underground right away?
Kim Jun considered it for a moment, but there was no need to rush.
At his current strength, he could easily clear up to the 15th floor.
There was no harm in saving weapon enhancement or dark-attribute strengthening for later.
16
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