Chapter 22 – 22. Underground Dungeon (3)
#22. Underground Dungeon (3)
Beastology. It’s a required subject throughout elementary, middle, and high school.
It’s not a subject with separate exams, but anyone with a proper grasp of concepts wouldn’t dare neglect it.
Even in modern society, where advancements in technology allow us to predict when Gates will appear, incidents of death by magical beasts are incessant.
It’s something that happens even in the capitals of developed countries.
No matter how many Hunters, Heroes, and Mages there are, no matter how many superhumans reside, misfortune is inevitable.
Like the Heimlich maneuver and some self-defense techniques, ordinary people who can’t fight against magical beasts need to always be aware of general knowledge about them in order to survive the misfortune that may come someday.
Grrr…
I remembered seeing the bipedal, muscular dog-like figure in textbooks.
“…Kobold Warrior.”
Kobolds, along with Goblins, are known as weak (?) magical beasts that ordinary people can somehow kill if armed.
But among those magical beasts, there were special individuals, called elite individuals, famous for showing far superior performance than other magical beasts of the same species.
The most famous and notorious among them was the Kobold Warrior, who freely wielded a greatsword.
If you ask if its D+ rank means it’s easy to deal with, the answer is I don’t know.
This was my first time facing a magical beast, and D+? Until recently, I was just an ordinary person.
“For something like that to come out right from the start is a bit much.”
Regardless of the lament that automatically flowed out, all the resources in my body were already assuming combat.
And so was the Kobold Warrior. The way it gripped its greatsword, ready to pounce on me at any moment, heightened the tension.
“Weakness Detection.”
Woong- As soon as I activated the skill, an intangible wave swept past it.
Unsurprisingly, the weaknesses I learned from the skill were only the obvious ones for any typical creature, like the brain, heart, and lungs.
“For an Epic grade, this is pathetic…!”
Kuaaaaah!!!
Seeing that I wasn’t taking any action, the Kobold Warrior seemed to think the probing was over, and immediately began charging towards me.
The distance between it and me was short, less than 30 meters.
Even if it was bipedal, a dog was still a dog, much faster than a human.
The Deerhound, a breed boasting the fastest short-distance speed, can reach 64 km/h.
Of course, that didn’t mean the Kobold Warrior was that fast. But it was close to that fast, and in the blink of an eye, its greatsword was being swung at my head.
Clang!!
The barrier and the accelerated greatsword collided, creating a loud noise and sparks.
The Kobold Warrior seemed to not have anticipated the barrier, and I could see bewilderment on its face from the moment its attack was blocked.
“Die.”
Before I knew it, the wooden wand was pointing at its head.
Immediately after, a magic circle emitting red light appeared at the tip of the wand.
“Fire Spear.”
A straight, compressed strike of flames accurately pierced the Kobold Warrior’s forehead, burning its head clean off.
With fatal damage, the Kobold Warrior collapsed to the ground, scattering its completely burned brain matter.
“Hoo…”
Anyone watching might say it was a bland battle that ended in the blink of an eye.
But at least for me, it was an intense moment of crossing between life and death.
What if I hadn’t deployed the barrier as soon as I saw the Kobold Warrior?
What if it knew how to sense magic power and knew that I had put up a barrier?
What if the first attack was a feint, and another attack was prepared afterward?
What if the magic power contained in the barrier wasn’t enough to stop its downward slash?
If even one thing had gone wrong, it would have been me lying on the floor right now.
Thinking about it, cold sweat poured down like rain.
“The magic power consumption is no joke…”
I had put too much magic power into the barrier, and the same went for the Fire Spear.
As a result, I now had less than half of my magic power left.
I had no choice but to pour the remaining magic power into the barrier, and then take time to meditate to recover magic power by accepting the mana of nature.
Even though I was receiving a buff related to magic power self-assimilation, high-speed recovery of magic power without meditation was difficult.
I had accepted a massive amount of mana when I reached the 2nd Circle, ready to die, but I couldn’t do that now.
I had to accept it little by little, as much as my body could handle.
The time it took to replenish magic power was about 30 minutes. The thought that I had used too much strength in just the first battle made me grind my teeth involuntarily.
Ding-
[You have defeated a Kobold Warrior]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
“…This is supposed to be a dating app, right?”
I felt like the app’s identity was becoming increasingly strange.
***
Dungeon exploration continued along with mapping.
Of course, along with battles with magical beasts.
Kieeeeek!!!
A Poison Spider that melts the limbs of its prey with acidic venom before devouring them alive.
Its rank was D+, just like the Kobold Warrior.
It approached with front legs that could cut steel, breaking the barrier twice in a row, which gave me trouble, but I caught the moment it spat out venom, rolled forward to avoid it, and then burrowed into its chest and fired a volley of fireballs.
Unable to overcome its weakness to fire, as befitting a bug, it burned to death with a terrible smell.
[You have defeated a Poison Spider]
[First Kill Reward: 100 Coins]
I consumed 30% of my magic power here.
It was encouraging. It meant there was improvement compared to the previous battle, where I had used up more than half of my magic power with one barrier and one attack spell.
After the battle, extreme fatigue washed over me.
I quenched my thirst with mineral water, replenished my sugar with chocolate, and set off again.
It was said to be the 1st floor, but as befitting a place that sealed and stored the relics of the World Tree, there were continuous forks in the road.
And so were the traps.
The first trap I encountered was a classic one where arrows shot out from the walls when you stepped on a pressure plate.
“That freaking hurts.”
The word “classic” also meant that it worked well.
I managed to avoid most of them, but an arrow was stuck in my shoulder.
Fortunately, there was no poison.
I took some emergency measures and continued walking. For reference, mages cannot use healing magic. Abilities related to healing are the exclusive domain of priests.
Before long, the road split again.
This time into three paths.
“This is driving me crazy.”
[Remaining Match Time: 09:12:41]
About 2 hours had passed since I entered the dungeon.
Considering that I had passed a total of three two-way forks to get here, it could be seen as a relatively smooth progress.
But that also meant the dungeon was vast.
I didn’t know how much time I would have to spend just to clear the 1st floor.
Of course, unlike other dungeons, there were no hidden treasure chests, so it would be enough if I just found the path to the 2nd floor, but the problem was that the path to the 2nd floor might be among the forks I had already passed.
“Does it make sense that you don’t know the structure of the dungeon you made?”
In fact, even though I said that, entering the dungeon was also for my growth, so it was right to wander around as much as possible.
“Let’s keep going for now.”
There was also the option of stopping here and going back to explore the other paths I had passed.
But that wasn’t a very good choice.
Just like there was a formula for escaping a maze by sticking to the wall, whether it was the left or right, exploring a dungeon probably wasn’t much different.
I decided to keep moving forward as far as I could.
“That’s…”
For reference, the torches lighting the dungeon’s passages were only lit around me.
In other words, the torches in places far away from me would automatically go out.
The interval was about 50 meters.
That meant my field of vision was limited to that extent, unless it was a fork in the road.
And now, something was revealing itself in the darkness 50 meters ahead of me.
“This… isn’t this a bit much?”
Kraraaraack!!
Kueooooh!!
What appeared from the end of the darkness in the passage were two Kobold Warriors.
No, to be exact, it was a little different.
One of the Kobold Warriors was holding a greatsword like the one I had seen before, but the other was holding a bow.
And my concern became a reality.
The ones who recognized me began to howl roughly. And only the Kobold Warrior with the greatsword charged towards me.
The one with the bow, of course, knelt on one knee in place and began preparing to shoot.
“They’re being so freaking dirty!”
With about 60% of my magic power remaining, what was the best thing to do here?
It was to deal with the greatsword while keeping the archer in check.
But that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
Clang!
“Kugh?!”
The barrier broke from blocking the greatsword’s downward attack.
It was so fast that the distance of 50m was meaningless.
Of course, blocking wasn’t difficult. The barrier broke because I had made it using only the necessary amount of magic power in order not to waste it.
But there was a problem.
Thwack-
“Shi,t…!!”
As the greatsword broke my barrier, an arrow flew in as if aiming for that gap, piercing my thigh.
If this was a 1-on-1 situation, I would have burned its head off by taking advantage of the gap when the barrier broke, like before.
But this was a 2-on-1.
The intense pain, far more intense than when I was hit by a trap and an arrow was lodged in my shoulder, traveled up my neck.
Even so, I had to move. The greatsword guy, who had readjusted his posture while I was staggering from being hit by the arrow, was charging towards me again.
‘Barrier…!’
Clang!!
The barrier was broken again by the greatsword that was slammed down once more.
The problem was that the hastily made barrier consumed more magic power than I thought.
Before I knew it, I had invested more magic power into the barrier than before, overwhelmed by its momentum.
There was no time to be flustered by the momentary mistake. This time, an arrow was flying towards my forehead.
The arrow had already reached a point where it would reach if I stretched out my hand.
How much time was left until that arrow pierced my forehead? 0.1 seconds? 0.01 seconds?
Thoughts accelerated in the face of extreme circumstances.
There wasn’t much time.
I gathered all the resources of my brain and focused on barrier magic.
The basics of transformation magic focus on simple changes in output. Firepower, range, speed, etc.
But what if I went one step further?
Ting!
“Fire Sword.”
The sword of fire that sprang up using the wand as a medium bisected the body of the guy with the greatsword.
And so, the floor was littered with his bisected corpse and the arrow that had bounced off the barrier.
“…Hey.”
Keureuk…?
By tampering with the magic circle of the barrier magic, I created a barrier that covered only my forehead instead of covering my entire body.
Thanks to that, the activation time and magic power consumption were drastically reduced.
“Was it fun just shooting arrows from behind?”
It didn’t take me even 3 minutes to deal with the remaining Kobold Warrior.
