Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Level 2 Player

Ouroboros’s Ring

‘Buy it.’

After deliberating for a long time, Jin-su finally decided to purchase Ouroboros’s Ring.

‘The whole “cursed item” thing is just a rumor anyway.’

Setting everything else aside, the mere fact that he could keep the ring out of Gwangma’s hands was reason enough to buy it.

‘They said the damage from Ouroboros’s Ring during the Gwangma subjugation was enormous.’

Gwangma was a madman in the truest sense. He killed people for looking at him, for having a face he didn’t like, for standing in front of him, for walking past him, for simply annoying him.

Gwangma was a genuine lunatic who carried out endless slaughter for no reason at all. Even so, he was able to operate for a long time while building a terrible reputation simply because he was too strong.

‘The players who participated in the Gwangma subjugation were those on the good or neutral side.’

In this hellish Tower, countless people who had at least managed to hold onto the bare minimum of their humanity lost their lives. More than half of the casualties in the Gwangma subjugation force occurred during his final desperate struggle.

Even just to prevent that, buying it was the right choice.

[You have immediately purchased Ouroboros’s Ring – Level 1,251 for 100 million points.]

Jin-su bought Ouroboros’s Ring.

Hwaak!

Along with a bright cluster of light, a ring in the shape of a snake biting its own tail appeared before Jin-su’s eyes.

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever have a reason to use this.’

He had no intention of testing whether his Blessing or Ouroboros’s Greed would win out.

If Ouroboros’s Greed overpowered the Blessing, half of his stats would vanish.

‘Well, since I bought it, I’ll use it if the need arises.’

Thanks to the Blessing, Jin-su possessed high stats and skill levels, plus synthesis skills and two status windows. Whether he would ever find himself in a crisis was doubtful.

‘Someday a day might come when I have to use it.’

Before regression, Jin-su had been unable to surpass the wall of Floor 2,222 of the Tower. Of course, the current Jin-su was stronger than he had been before regression. But even he did not know where the Tower ended.

Floor 2,222 might be the end, or Floor 3,000 might be the end. Perhaps he would have to climb all the way to Floor 10,000 before it was over.

‘If I keep climbing, there will come a day when I need to use it.’

He could simply confirm then whether the Blessing or Ouroboros’s Greed held the advantage.

What actually worried him more was the possibility that the Blessing would completely suppress Ouroboros’s Greed.

‘Then the ring’s option of increasing all stats by 125% might not apply properly either.’

The best outcome would be if the Blessing maintained the 125% stat increase from the buff while ignoring only the penalty of permanently halving all remaining stats.

‘Of course, the absolute best would be never having any reason to use it at all.’

After purchasing Ouroboros’s Ring, Jin-su checked the auction house a little longer. But there were no other items worth buying.

‘Time to sleep.’

Jin-su lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

***

The next morning, Jin-su and Shin Su-a packed their inventory and treasure pouch full of necessities and left the starting city.

“Yaooong!”

Leo let out a pleased cry as he gathered monsters. Jin-su and Shin Su-a, together with their summons, steadily hunted monsters as they advanced.

When night fell, Jin-su chose a spot beside a stream.

“Let’s sleep here tonight. Once the summons go outside, cast the Sanctuary skill.”

“Okay, got it.”

The shadow summons and Stone Golem left the range of the Sanctuary skill.

“Sanctuary!”

When Shin Su-a cast the Sanctuary skill, a safe zone was created.

“Then let’s eat and get ready to sleep.”

Jin-su lit a campfire and took out chunks of meat from his inventory to grill for dinner.

“Nyaoong!”

Leo flapped excitedly, demanding his own share.

“Eat a lot.”

Jin-su smiled as he took out Leo’s portion of monster meat and tossed it over.

“Chomp! Chomp! Chomp!”

Leo happily bit into and tore apart a chunk of meat larger than his own body.

‘That guy has been eating meat nonstop since he woke up. He ate that much and he’s still hungry?’

If you added up all the meat he had eaten from this morning until now, it was easily more than ten times the size of Leo’s body.

‘Where does it all even go?’

It seemed the name “demon beast” was not attached for nothing.

‘Not a shadow demon beast, but a glutton demon beast.’

It didn’t matter much. Even if Leo’s appetite grew larger than it was now, he could always supply monster meat.

“Let’s eat too.”

Sizzle!

Jin-su grilled the meat over the fire. They had brought plenty of food, and if worse came to worst they could always buy more from the auction house, so they decided to eat dinner generously.

“Gulp!”

As the meat cooked and released a savory smell, Shin Su-a involuntarily swallowed. Jin-su was just as hungry. They had only roughly eaten lunch while hunting, so it was only natural.

‘We’re near water and grilling meat over a campfire, so a ton of monsters will gather.’

Normally, Sanctuary was set up in safe terrain where monsters were least likely to gather. Casting the Sanctuary skill near water, where monsters were easily attracted, was a kind of taboo.

‘Lighting a fire or grilling meat is the same.’

The bright red flames that illuminated the dark night naturally drew the monsters’ attention. Adding the smell of grilling meat, the scent spread in all directions.

Such actions were basically advertising to the monsters: I’m right here, so come eat me already.

‘It’ll be hard to sleep comfortably too.’

The monsters would keep attacking to break the Sanctuary. If the Sanctuary was destroyed by continuous attacks it was a problem, and even if it held it was still a problem.

‘If we’re not careful we could end up surrounded by a monster horde.’

In that situation, the moment the Sanctuary skill was canceled they would be subjected to a concentrated surround attack by an enormous number of monsters. Even a highly skilled party would be hanging by a thread.

‘It was a good thing we learned the shadow summon skills and the Dragon Tooth Soldier skill.’

But Jin-su and Shin Su-a’s situation was different. For a party that possessed powerful summons, monsters gathering was actually a very good phenomenon.

Even while they slept, the shadow summons and Stone Golem would continuously hunt monsters, raising experience and accumulating items.

‘It’ll be a bit noisy, but we can put up with that much.’

Jin-su and Shin Su-a grilled the meat and ate a late dinner.

“Krrrr!”

“Kyaaauu!”

The light illuminating the dark night and the savory smell of meat gathered the monsters.

Kwaang!

Slash!

Thud!

The shadow summons and Stone Golem quickly dealt with the monsters drawn by the light and meat smell.

“What level is the Stone Golem?”

Shin Su-a’s Stone Golem was inferior to Jin-su’s shadow summons or Dragon Tooth Soldier, but it used its body made of stone as a base to exert monstrous strength and hunt monsters.

“Level 229.”

“It’s gone up a lot.”

It had become quite usable, and its level was fairly high. The Stone Golem was a skill obtained by defeating the Floor 50 gatekeeper.

Level 229 was an unbelievably high level to have reached just by hunting from Floor 50 to Floor 100.

‘Well, it’s not impossible.’

But it was not an easy thing either.

Especially considering the time it took Jin-su and Shin Su-a to break through from Floor 50 to Floor 100, it was essentially an enormous amount of power leveling done in an extremely short period.

‘Well, when the level is low, skill levels themselves rise extremely fast.’

Since it had already passed level 200, the leveling speed would gradually slow from now on.

“I used it even while sleeping. Among the skills I have, Stone Golem Summon has the highest level.”

It was the result of hunting 24 hours a day together with the shadow summons and Dragon Tooth Soldier that Jin-su controlled.

“You’re doing well.”

Since Jin-su could provide summon-exclusive buff skills, it seemed fine to continue raising the Stone Golem’s level with shared skills and keep using it in a guard role.

‘The problem is that for that to work, the Blessing needs to produce a class level lock and a synthesis skill level lock.’

Whether that would come out, and if so when, even Jin-su did not know.

“Doing well? I’m a healer, is it really okay for me to be like this?”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. No need to worry.”

Jin-su answered Shin Su-a’s question with a smile.

Among healers, there were quite a few cases of learning neutral summon skills and using summons as guards.

‘Well, as time passes most of them give up on the summons.’

There were two reasons.

The first was that it was hard to obtain a neutral summon skill book of a usable level, and the second was that it was extremely difficult for players of other classes to raise the level of summon skills.

‘So the level gap with the summons gradually widens, and in the end most cases end up becoming obsolete.’

Of course, there were rare cases where that did not happen.

‘Shin Su-a and I would fall into that category.’

Jin-su chatted with Shin Su-a about this and that, finished dinner, and then fell asleep.

Crack!

Slash!

Even while Jin-su and Shin Su-a were asleep, the shadow summons and Stone Golem diligently hunted the monsters drawn by the light and meat smell.

***

“Janghong’s party has been missing for two days?”

The face of Jucheonguk, guild master of the Hwangryong Guild, twisted with anger.

“Yes, the guild members in the starting city reported it that way.”

“What bastards did this!”

Jucheonguk’s face twisted like an evil spirit. Janghong was Jucheonguk’s sworn brother. Moreover, Janghong’s party included Jucheonguk’s biological younger brother, Jucheonu.

“I’ll go myself. Gather all the guild elites.”

Jucheonguk vowed that if someone had harmed Janghong’s party, whether it was the Daehan Guild, the Phoenix Guild, or the American Alliance, he would never forgive them.

Jucheonguk, who had formed a team of the Hwangryong Guild’s elites and a professional tracking team, moved as soon as he arrived at the starting city to search for traces of Janghong’s party. And that evening he was able to discover the location where a fierce battle had taken place.

“A battle took place here. It appears Janghong-nim’s party was wiped out.”

At the words of the assassin player who had learned a tracking skill, Jucheonguk’s face flushed bright red.

“My sworn brother and my real brother are dead...”

Janghong was a sworn brother who had been like a real brother to Jucheonguk, accompanying him from Floor 1 of the Tower. Jucheonu was the only blood relative he had reunited with in the Tower after countless twists and turns.

“Track them. And catch them no matter what. If you fail, you die.”

At the words of Guild Master Jucheonguk, from whom killing intent flowed, the Hwangryong Guild members broke into cold sweats and mobilized every pursuit skill they had as they began moving while following the traces of those who had killed Janghong’s party.

***

Jin-su and Shin Su-a repeatedly camped outdoors while hunting monsters or clearing hidden dungeons as they moved. After six days had passed in this manner, they finally arrived at their destination.

‘We got here faster than expected.’

It was the result of moving without rest except for eating and sleeping.

“Let’s go in.”

“Okay.”

Jin-su and Shin Su-a entered the undead hidden dungeon.

[You have entered the Undead Dungeon.]

[You have received the mission – Destroy the Dark Magic Orb.]

[Challengers: 2.]

[Mission clear rewards cannot be calculated.]

[Rewards will be determined after the mission is cleared.]

[You cannot leave the dungeon until the mission is cleared.]

“Uuuuu!”

“Grrr!”

“Kwoaaak!”

The moment the mission appeared, zombies, skeletons, and ghouls revealed themselves.

‘Same as before.’

At first, undead monsters of low level and grade appear. Then as time passes, higher-level and higher-grade undead monsters such as giant zombies, skeleton warriors, and fanged ghouls appear.

‘The easiest way to clear it is to break through while low-level and low-grade undead monsters are appearing and destroy the Dark Magic Orb.’

But what Jin-su was aiming for was not something like the shortest clear time of the undead hidden dungeon.

‘Unless it’s a time-attack type hidden dungeon, clearing it quickly doesn’t give extra rewards anyway.’

To Jin-su, the undead hidden dungeon was nothing more than an infinite-refill hunting ground of undead monsters where he could raise his level a lot and pile up achievements.

‘Let’s hold out for as long as possible.’

He had been extremely disappointed that he could only stay for three days in the honey hunting ground that was the Asura Ant Nest. But the undead hidden dungeon had no restrictions even if he stayed not three days but three months. It was a true honey hunting ground. That was why Jin-su decided to hold out to the limit of what he could endure.

Hwareureuk!

Kwaaaang!

As Jin-su and the shadow mage launched magic attack skills, a fierce battle broke out.

“Guooo!”

“Grraaa!”

The main force of the undead monsters was zombies and skeletons, while ghouls were few in number.

Kwaaaang!

Slash!

Crack!

The shadow knight, shadow warrior, and Stone Golem in the front line solidly defended the front. In the middle line the shadow assassin, shadow archer, and shadow mage dealt damage, while in the rear the shadow healer and Shin Su-a focused on rear support while using blessing skills and protection skills.

Jin-su appropriately utilized magic attack skills and dual-wielding as he struck and withdrew.

‘The difficulty is too low.’

If he wanted to, it seemed he could destroy the Dark Magic Orb right now.

‘I’ve really become strong.’

Before regression it was a dungeon he had barely cleared after nearly dying from the struggle. But now it was far too easy. Jin-su leisurely adjusted his mana while beating the undead monsters.

[You have acquired the title Zombie Hunter.]

[You have acquired the title Skeleton Hunter.]

When achievements piled up and it was time to acquire titles, a change appeared.

Creak!

A giant zombie that had bulked up enormously appeared, a skeleton warrior appeared, and the proportion of ghouls increased.

‘The grade of the undead monsters is gradually rising now.’

Even so, the main force was still ordinary zombies and skeletons.

‘Don’t get impatient.’

Zombies and skeletons also give experience, items, and achievements. So there was no need to be disappointed just because the number of high-grade undead monsters was small.

Kwaang!

Slash!

Splat!

Crack!

Creak!

While Jin-su was leisurely hunting undead monsters.

New players arrived in front of the undead hidden dungeon.