Chapter 208. The Qualification of an Explorer (5)
The next day, Revival"s members returned to where they belonged. Leon returned to America, Sophie returned to Britain, and Michel returned to France. However, Sumire and Van said they would remain in Korea.
"I want to stay and help Unni more. Also, I want to more seriously learn martial arts from Shin-nim."
"But Sumire…"
"Take good care of me!"
Apparently, Sumire was living by herself as both her parents pa.s.sed away. As such, there was no problem deciding where she would stay. As people from her country practically worshipped her, it seemed she was somewhat reluctant to go back.
As for Ilayda Van, I was genuinely surprised that she wanted to remain in Korea. After all, Turkey was certain to have problems where her power could be of help. At our reaction, she spoke as she nodded her head.
"When I left Turkey, I already told them that I would not be coming back. Since I"ll have to focus on climbing the dungeon, I won"t have time to deal with other affairs."
"Mmm."
"Please accept me. I"ll serve you faithfully."
"No, you don"t need to serve me at all…"
It was then decided that she would be living in our guild house mansion. We would need someone to stay here after all. After we saw Ilayda Van enter the dungeon after contacting Laz Michel, we each went back to our work. I, of course, had to continue what I left off yesterday - choosing new explorers.
Then, when I was looking at the doc.u.ments Hwaya printed that included new applications since yesterday, someone sat down next to me. Thinking it was Elfa, I turned my head to the side. There, I saw Ludia.
"Ludia?"
"You know how you… picked a new healing ability user."
"Yeah, didn"t I tell you about it?"
"I was in the dungeon, so I didn"t hear you well. Um, you know Shin…"
A hint of uneasiness lingered on Ludia"s eyes. I looked at Hwaya. She shrugged, gesturing that she didn"t know what was going on.
"What"s up?"
"I"m doing my best. I"ll be Gold rank soon too. B-Because you said not to stick to you so much, I"m stopping myself from going in your room. Because you said not to fight, I"m not doing anything even with more girls joining in. So don"t throw me away, aak!"
After flicking her forehead once, I did it three more times. Ludia looked at me with teary eyes.
"You hit me!"
"I"ll hit you more if you keep saying stupid things. Throw you away? Do you think you"re trash? It"s better to have two healers than one. You at least know what 1 + 1 is right?"
"Then you won"t throw me awa… Ow!"
"What am I going to do with this girl."
I thought she had gotten better since she had stopped being reliant on me physically, but it seemed that wasn"t the case. As I sighed, Hwaya spoke instead of Ludia.
"Ludia"s just worried that she"s not being of help to you."
At Hwaya words, Ludia glared at her with malice.
"What do you know?"
"We like the same guy. Isn"t that enough to know each other?"
"I… I don"t like him! I just can"t live without Shin…"
"Yeah, yeah. If you want to say something, you can say it over a drink later. If you stay here, it"s going to hinder our work, so leave."
"Eeek, Hwaya Mastiford!"
Hwaya"s telekinetic magic slowly pushed Ludia out of the room. Ludia tried to use her power, but she soon suppressed it, seemingly afraid that she"d destroy the mansion. In the end, she was chased out as she screamed. Ye-Eun, Walker, Yua, Father, and others who were peeking in were also pushed out like bowling pins by Hwaya"s magic power. I didn"t know why they were watching us so curiously. To lighten up the awkward atmosphere, I purposely laughed aloud.
"Hahaha, it"s great that everyone"s so merry!"
"Go back to work, Guild Master."
"Yes, Ma"am."
That day, we chose four new explorers. They were all S+ ranks, and as we thought that they had potential, we made them all First Dungeon explorers.
Although we were slowly using up our appointments, with the four new explorers working hard, we would be able to recover them soon. It was also why we prioritized picking high ranked explorers.
Once we met them and had them sign the contracts, I finally found the time to enter the dungeon again. Beyond"s 14th floor. It was h.e.l.l where Giant Ghouls and Skeleton Knights appeared together.
[Human… Your delicious smell is tickling my nose!]
[Cut him to shreds! Kill all living be— Kuhuk!]
The moment I ran into them, I crazily shot my crossbow bolts. Peika and Ruyue were floating around me. Sharana was currently infused into my body.
"Stop the Skeleton Knight! Prevent them from opening their mouths!"
[That"s easy!]
[Leave it to me, Shin!]
Ruyue"s freezing energy filled the area, while Peika"s lightning quickly ravaged our enemies. At the same time, I charged through all the enemies and shot my bolts crazily. The target was the Skeleton Knights" skulls and the skeleton mounts" legs! It would be my victory as long as I could stop their screams and charge.
[Humaaaaaaan!]
"Elemental Blade!"
[N-No! I got on aga… Uuuk!]
[Whee~]
Countless number of elementals flooded toward me, and I swung the spear blade that had extended beyond 10 meters, instantly severing the legs of the skeleton mounts running toward me. Critical hits broke out, and with Skull Breaker"s effect, the damage extended to their entire bodies. I didn"t even need to describe what happened to the Skeleton Knights riding on them.
[Guoooooooooo!]
At that moment, a Giant Ghoul roared and swung its claws, as if to protect the Skeleton Knight squadron that had lost its formation. I boldly jumped into the fray and shouted.
"Ruyue!"
[Winter Curtain!]
The Giant Ghoul"s claws were slowed by the numerous ice crystals fluttering in the air. I smirked and jumped on top of its arm. I compressed the Elemental Blade and instantly re-expended it to penetrate the Giant Ghoul"s head. However, an undead monster wouldn"t die from just having its head pierced.
"If you want to win against me, you"ll need to come by the hundreds!"
In the next moment, I jumped off the arm and slashed down with my spear. After splitting its head into two, the Elemental Blade continued down to its body, causing an explosion. Before Diehard could even activate, I had crushed it.
The Giant Ghoul"s corpse disappeared, and I could once again see the Skeleton Knights that had readied themselves to charge forward once again. Giant Ghouls as defense, Skeleton Knights as offense. It made sense.
"Unfortunately, that"s not enough! Wind King"s Rage!"
Before they could charge toward me, I charged toward them first. Though they raised their heads to use Undead Roar, Peika and Ruyue didn"t let that happen. Both ice and lightning were specialized in stopping the enemies" movements. With the two of them working together, not even Skeleton Knights could anything about it.
"Haaaap!"
The first Skeleton Knight I ran into made a silent scream as it was sent flying. This was only the beginning. As they had been preparing to charge together, they were all grouped. Since I couldn"t use Wind King"s Rage for three hours once it was fully charged, I had to kill as many of them as I could.
"Come! I"ll crush you all!"
[You used Provoke! All enemies attack you uncontrollably!]
[Kuaaaaaaaa!]
[Kill him! Kill him!]
"Divine Speed!"
When they raised their weapons, I used Divine Speed. It went without saying that the faster I was, the more damage I dealt. One, two, three… Each time a Skeleton Knight was sent flying, the speed they flew and the distance they covered increased. All the skeleton mounts had already became dust.
This continued until not a single one of them remained with their feet on the ground. As I had been pushing them to a single spot, they were all piled on top of each other.
[Powerful… human…!]
[How? It"s only a single human…!]
"If I wasn"t strong, would I be here?"
There were over 40 Skeleton Knights clumped together. I could tell how many Skeleton Knights were filling up a single pa.s.sageway. The power of wind and lightning gathered by Wind King"s Rage was ready to go berserk. I charged into the mountain of bones made of Skeleton Knights and let it explode.
"Hasta la vista!"
[Critical Hit!]
They were thoroughly annihilated.
"Huu, huu…"
They turned to particles of light and scattered into the air, brightening up the slightly dark pa.s.sageway. I stabbed my spear into the ground to catch my breath. I had managed to finish them without being hit a single time.
"Huu… That was easier than I thought!"
[I did well, right?]
[Huhu, how was it, Master?]
"You guys are the best."
I smiled and complimented the two elementals that flew next to me. Without their help in stopping the Skeleton Knights from using Undead Roar, it would have been difficult for me to defeat them. However, I had an effective way of stopping them from using Undead Roar. With that, I had no problem getting through this area.
The key was preventing them from using Undead Roar and crushing the skeleton mounts" legs. Just with these, their strength would practically be halved. Although the Giant Ghouls acting as their shields were annoying, Beyond"s 14th floor was more or less a breeze. I was looking forward to who was waiting for me on the 15th floor.
"Ghoul plus skeleton. Isn"t that just a ghoul with bones?"
I laughed, imagining a monster that easily tripped on its own bones. Of course, when I thought about the Thunder Power Knight that appeared on the 10th floor, I knew that probably wouldn"t be the case.
"Hopefully, another skill of that type drops. It feels a bit lacking to use Skill Synthesis with just two skills…"
I thought about the skills I received from Beyond"s 10th floor boss and the First Dungeon"s 60th Floor Master and smirked. I was a bit worried that I had gotten too addicted to Skill Synthesis, but I couldn"t help looking forward to the outcome. I raised the spear back up as I felt full of strength once more.
"Let"s go, guys! We"re going to breeze through it!"
I successfully broke through Beyond 14th floor in just two days. Just by being full of fighting spirit, a person could do so much! When I left Beyond and returned to Earth, marveling at the infinite potential of humans, Hwaya gave me a report.
"Two explorers… died."
Humans really did have infinite potential.