Infinite Competitive Dungeon Society

Chapter 88. S-ranker Yeon Hwawoo (5)

[You equipped the Dullahan Set. Your strength and const.i.tution increase by 17. When the Dullahan Set is equipped, you can use "Outburst" once per day.]

[Your brain is strengthened to its peak. Your intelligence and magic increase by 3. It seems consuming more of this item will have no further effect.]

"Hu, it"s over…"

I wondered why, but it felt like I had finished grinding in only a day. In reality, it had taken a little over a month to do so. Although I almost died a few times in the process, I managed to complete the grind without dying a single time. The sense of accomplishment made my confidence rise. More importantly, I got rid of my habit of trying to take out Floor Master skills whenever something happened.

My mental protection was much better as well. I still thought my intelligence update was slow, but I would not make the same shameful mistake again as I did at the MT.

"I"m glad the set equipment skill is Outburst. In the worst case scenario, it could have been Sudden Rise…"

[That"s creepy.]
[Scary!]

Peika and Ruyue shouted in disgust at my monologue. Someone on the floor getting beaten suddenly getting up. It was indeed something from a horror movie. I patted Peika and Ruyue while laughing, and saved Outburst in the 7 o"clock position. Even though I shouldn"t rely too much on Floor Master skills, they were undoubtedly part of my strength. With these incredibly strong skills in my a.r.s.enal, I couldn"t be unhappy.

There were now 7 skills stored in Collector"s Pocket Watch. Looking at the gems in the clock positions, I smiled. Tomorrow was the day I would go to Britain"s Windermere. It was great that I could finish grinding the 35th floor before then. Starting from now, it was time to get to the 40th floor before Hwaya came to pick me up on a plane!

Just when I was about to step on the staircase to the 36th floor, Ellos contacted me.

[Shin! We broke through the 30th floor yesterday.]

"You… That"s really fast! It hasn"t even been three months yet."

[You see, we got more party members. It would have been nice to stick to just the three of us, but we realized we shouldn"t be so adamant about it.]

"It"s still fast."

[I learned a lot from you that day. The party members we added were explorers who had stayed on the 25th floor for years without being able to advance. Even if they couldn"t break through the 25th floor, they had survived against the invaders during that time. Together, we challenged the Giant Ghoul, and though it"s a bit embarra.s.sing, we imitated you and managed to break through. We did get wiped out once on our way to the 30th floor, but we still managed to get here pretty fast. And… I"m still surprised, but we managed to beat the 30th floor"s Skeleton Knight without losing any party members. We were together with a pretty amazing explorer though.]

"Amazing explorer?"

[Yeah. It was a young man named Ren. We only had seven people including him, but he complained about something not dropping and didn"t want to wait for more. I almost thought he was you, with how calm he was.]

Ren! You finished grinding the 25th floor and were already on the 30th floor!?

[He was really amazing. He still couldn"t be compared to you, but his planning, movements, and claymore techniques were truly excellent. We were really shocked when he pushed the Skeleton Knight back in a one on one fight. Fighting against a Floor Master alone… I didn"t think there was another explorer who could do it other than you, Shin.]

"Ah, yeah…"

[Thanks to him, we cleared the 30th floor in one go, and for helping my continent"s explorers grow, his Highness allowed me to meet our continent"s Hero. He even taught me a little. It was all thanks to you, Shin.]

"No, it"s the result of your effort. I wouldn"t say it was because of me. I"m only taking care of myself, but you"re also leading five other comrades. Ellos, you should be proud."

[… Thanks, Shin. One day, I hope I can stand by your side again.]

"You will soon."

I couldn"t tell him that I had already finished grinding the 35th floor and was about to head to the 36th floor. However, the moment my conversation with Ellos ended, Palludia called me as well, almost as if they had planned it out together. Surprisingly, the content was the same as well.

[I broke through the 30th floor! Without even a single party member dying! Kang Shin, where are you now?]

"I broke through the 35th floor."

[Oh, I see… well, it doesn"t matter. I don"t care at all, I was just asking.]

Although she sounded extremely disappointed, I didn"t point it out and she didn"t yield.

[Anyways! Don"t forget, you said you"d come over this week with food from Earth!]

"Yeah, I know. I"ll bring lots. You said you broke through without losing a single party member? That"s great. Good work."

[Ah, mm. If you leave it to Palludia Gren Ehuir-nim, it"s a piece of cake! … Though a slightly annoying guy helped us.]

I suddenly felt a sense of uneasiness.

"Is that person"s name perhaps…"

[Ren. He said his name was Ren. He was really tall, very muscular, and had messy blonde hair. He couldn"t talk while facing me. He kept blushing, so it was annoying.]

Ren…! You couldn"t look at Ludia because she was too pretty!

[Apparently, he"s been helping explorers advance since the 25th floor. I hear people are calling him the Golden Lion of 30F.]

"That"s a very interesting nickname."

On the 25th floor and 30th floor, I beat the bosses solo, so I didn"t really meet any other explorers. Although the 25th and 30th floor has less explorers than the lower floors, there were still quite a lot of people stuck there. As a result of Ren carrying them through in my place, he had received an excellent nickname!

I made up my mind to call Ren "Golden Lion" the next time I saw him. Thanking Ludia inwardly for letting me know this good piece of info, I ended the conversation. Then I received another message. When I checked who it came from, it was unexpectedly Ye-Eun.

[Shin, I"m not getting this compressing elixir thing.]

"What?"

I tilted my head. Three weeks had pa.s.sed since Ye-Eun became an explorer. Considering her abilities, she was rather slow. I was wondering why she was only just now contacting me, but it seemed there was a problem.

"Did you defeat it solo?"

[Ah, yeah, I did the first time and got a Deific Manifestation Magic Book. It said it was going to call someone. I got scared so I haven"t tried it out yet.]

"Try it soon. Whoever gets summoned might be helpful. So, you didn"t clear it solo after that?"

[No. I cleared it in a 10-man party, but it didn"t come out. I tried again with 8 people just in case, but it didn"t drop anything again.]

"Really…?"

[Then I tried with 5 people, then 2, but it still didn"t drop.]

"Really? Why?"

[I didn"t think Shin would lie to me, so I kept trying for two weeks after that, constantly changing the number of people in the party, but the compressing elixir never came out. The Floor Shop owner said he didn"t know anything about it.]

Her trust in me was… heavy…!

[But I had fun! Orc Lord was an interesting guy! The people in my party weren"t scared of me either… hehe, I"m having fun lately!]

Fighting the Orc Lord was fun? She really had an innate talent for this. With a bitter smile that couldn"t reach her, I spoke.

"I"ll ask someone I know why the compressing elixirs won"t drop. Just wait a bit."

[Okay.]

I paused my conversation with her and thought for a while. Why didn"t the compressing elixirs drop? What was the problem? As I couldn"t think of any reason, I went and asked Lin. Lin was in the middle of inscribing something onto a gem radiating golden light. It seemed he was close to finishing the mental protection item I asked for. At this rate, wouldn"t I break through the 40th floor first? No, it was good to have more than one way to protect myself from mental attacks. If possible, I should try to get as many skills and items that helped…

"Am I distracting you?"

"My concentration won"t be shaken by just talking with you, so feel free."

"Alright… Lin, you see, I made a friend of mine from Earth into a dungeon explorer. She"s an A-rank Awakened from what I can tell."

"And?"

"Her contribution should have been high enough, but compressing elixirs never appear on her reward list for defeating the Orc Lord. Do you know why?"

"It"s probably not just the compressing elixir. She probably isn"t getting boss set items either."

Lin said casually. I instinctively understood.

"Is there a problem with her? Like having an ability?"

"Oh? So you already know."

"But what about me? I awakened my ability, but I could still obtain elixirs."

"You got your ability after you became a dungeon explorer. Not to mention, your ability is the type that grows along with your level and training. Of course your accomplishments would be acknowledged normally."

"You mean my friend"s accomplishments won"t be acknowledged normally?"

"You… Think about it. What do you think determines what comes up on reward lists from defeating bosses?"

Lin asked me as he put the powder he shaved off from the gem into a separate bowl. After thinking about it for a bit, I answered.

"Don"t better items come out if you defeat the boss in a more technical and overwhelming way?"

"You"re only partially right. You"re missing one important thing. It"s compared to your true ability."

"You mean, because my friend"s strength is above the standard, her accomplishments can"t be a.s.sessed properly even if she defeats the Orc Lord overwhelmingly?"

"Exactly. Looks like you"re starting to use your head."

"But… Compared to other explorers, my stats are also above the standard from compressing and strengthening elixirs."

"You"re within the dungeon"s scope, so you"re fine."

"I understand."

In other words, things I gained from the dungeon"s system didn"t act as a minus when calculating my accomplishments. On the other hand, Ye-Eun, who became a dungeon explorer after already having an A-rank strength, had strength that went above the dungeon"s standard. Since she defeated the Orc Lord with such strength, she could not get the appropriate reward from the Orc Lord. It was similar to how my superior strength lowered the reward of the B-rank Event Raid. It made sense.

"She says she got the Deific Manifestation Magic Book and the t.i.tle."

"Those are fixed rewards… Do I need to explain more?"

"Yes. What floor does she need to get to before she can get proper rewards from the dungeon?"

"I don"t know. I don"t really care how strong your world"s A-rank is. What rank are you?"

"S-rank."

"Mm, taking into account how strong she would get from level-up stat bonuses and t.i.tles, probably… 50th floor?"

Oh no, say goodbye to Skin Strengthening Elixirs, Ye-Eun. It was a good thing I didn"t tell her about them. With a bitter smile, I told Ye-Eun what I"d just heard. Ye-Eun seemed rather fine with it.

[That"s great! So I can just keep going up while defeating things alone, right?]

"Yeah, but don"t skimp out on opportunities to grow your ability. Stealth and… what was it?"

[Dagger technique! I got two wooden daggers when I entered the dungeon. I like it, since it"s a lot cleaner than fighting with my hands.]

"Ah, I see. Anyways, make sure you level those skills up. You"re going to regret it later otherwise."

[Thanks for worrying. See you later!]

"Deific Manifestation. Don"t forget to try it out."

[Okay! I"ll catch up to you soon, so don"t go too fast, okay?]

With that, Ye-Eun ended our call. Sorry, Ye-Eun, I can"t do that. There"s a bet on the line..

"By the way, Kang Shin."

"Yes?"

Lin was still digging at the gem as he spoke.

"That friend, she"s a girl, right?"1

"… Yes."

"Oh? A girl. Heh."

Lin made an evil smile.

"Of course, I felt it was weird that a Hero didn"t have a girl or two. Kuku, noonim might end up only staring at the roof again, kukuku."

"We"re just friends, so don"t misunderstand. And don"t talk like there"s something between Loretta and me. … Again?"

"Oh? You"re curious? You"re curious, eh? Maybe noonim has a chance this time. Ha."

"I, I"m not curious at all."

… Yep, I wasn"t curious. Nope, not in the slightest. I only asked just because. And since that was the case, I stepped on the 36th floor staircase with a totally fine expression.

"Ahuk!"

"That guy, he"s quite agitated…"

"I, I only missed my step, ahuk!"

"At this rate, your vitality will hit zero from hitting the steps before you even make it to the 36th floor."

I, I"m going to break through the 40th floor today! For sure!

Chapter 89. Crimson Roar (1)

[Kukuku, it"s him.]
[A new one has come.]

The moment I commenced exploration on the 36th floor, I calmed down from the whispers I heard. The pathway was much wider than usual, and the walls even had windows, letting me see outside the dungeon.

This was the first time windows had appeared in the dungeon. Furthermore, beyond the windows was a pitch-black night and a purple-colored moon. I touched the windows, curious as to what world was beyond the dungeon, but I instinctively realized I could not break the windows with my ability. Not that I would have anyways.

What was more important were the voices I heard. I looked around once again. I saw something pale reflected in the windows. I closed my eyes and tried to detect any presences in the surroundings. However, I could not sense anything. It was almost like the time I first climbed to the 6th floor. The only difference was that I could not see anything this time.

However, I had prepared for something like this happening.

"Peika."

[Thunder Wave!]

Peika waved her folding fan, and along its trajectory a radiant golden wave undulated out into all directions. As I was growing as an Elementalist, Peika"s ability was also growing. When Peika used her skill, the surroundings became loud.

[Kuk, an elemental!]
[It"s a stronger elemental than we thought!]

I opened my eyes and held my Silver Bone Crossbow. At Peika"s wide-scope attack, the monsters that were hiding made their appearance. They were human apparitions, pale white in color. I somewhat knew what they were. They were right above the apparitions that I had fought from the 6th to 10th floor, the wraiths. These guys were ghosts! They were also undead monsters.

"Ruyue, come into my crossbow."

[Okay!]

Without hesitation, Ruyue dematerialized and infused herself into the crossbow. Soon, the white Silver Bone Crossbow began to emit a blue freezing energy. I aimed the crossbow and started shooting. Although my Crossbow Marksmanship was only low-rank, with the addition of mid-rank Spirit Aura, the bolts carried formidable power.

[Kik! He"s shooting at us!]
[Attack, attack him!]
[Don"t let him shoot!]

The ghosts created pale white b.a.l.l.s in their hands and threw them at me. I a.s.sumed they were a stronger version of the 9th floor wraiths" ectoplasm arrows. In any case, Peika did not let them attack freely.

The folding fan in her hand shook, and a wave of lightning once again undulated, shooting out bolts of lightning as it expanded outward. Just from the stray bolts, the ghosts took damage and flinched. Without missing this opportunity, I shot out bolts consecutively and shot down the ghosts that had been affected by Peika"s lightning.

As I often felt, Peika and Ruyue"s attributes really complemented each other well. When I took turns using their attacks, the amount of damage I dealt increased exponentially. The ghosts frantically ran around trying to dodge my bolt attacks, but became paralyzed after being hit by the lightning wave Peika emitted periodically. Once they were paralyzed, my bolts infused with Ruyue"s power penetrated their foreheads.

One hit was enough to take care of most of them, and those that survived surely died by the second hit. When I killed them so easily (though I had a Mana Potion in my mouth), the wraiths seemed to have realized the gravity of the situation.

[If we run, that arrogant man will kill us.]
[Attack him together.]
[One who disrupts our rest, become the sacrifice for our amus.e.m.e.nt.]

Ghosts flocked at me from all directions. Even without having to use Provoke, they gathered in large numbers incredibly fast. I ordered Peika to increase the output of Thunder Wave and ran forward. Aiming my crossbow at the ghosts in front of me, I shouted.

"A ghost in here has 8th grade syndrome!"

Did you think I didn"t notice, you d.a.m.ned ghosts!?

"Oppa, why are you lying on the couch?"

As I was about take a nap on the couch, I woke up naturally from the voice of an angel. Yua was in her school uniform and had her bag. It seemed she had just come back from school. Today was December 23rd. Although my college went on winter break after the finals, Yua was still in high school and thus had to go to school until the end of the month.

"Mm, oppa was in the dungeon until just recently. Oppa is having a bit of trouble."

I had wanted to advance to the 40th floor, but even after 10 hours of shooting crossbow bolts and Peika"s lightning shower, I was only on the 37th floor. The sheer number of ghosts was one thing, but the difficulty also came from the fact that normal attacks could not hurt them. My Crossbow Marksmanship did level up a lot as a result, though…

Most importantly, compared to the past, the pathway was much longer, to the point that it made me grit my teeth. Using the Dash skill, I ran without rest while using elemental magic and my crossbow, but it had taken me over 10 hours to go through the 36th floor. If I was this slow, how would the other explorers fare? I could only grit my teeth.

"But oppa, if you"re going to sleep, you should do it in your bed. Otherwise, you"ll catch a cold."

At Yua"s question, I checked the time. It was 4 in the afternoon. It was about time to leave.

"Remember what oppa told father, mother, and Yua? That I"d be going outside of Korea for a few days to help a friend out. It was almost time to go, so I was just taking a nap."

"Ah, right… Is it really not dangerous?"

"Of course not. I can come back immediately if it gets dangerous, so don"t worry."

Though that"s unlikely to happen. Seeing Yua"s worried frown, I patted her head a few times and got up. After contracting Ruyue, I became immune to the winter weather. I put on a black suit and took out and put on Otus" Secret from my inventory. With that, I was done getting ready.

"Hm, hiding my ident.i.ty is going to be a pain."

This time, I was going to Britain, not as Yeon Hwawoo, but as Thunder Knight. As such, I made myself look different than Yeon Hwawoo using Otus" Secret. When I was Yeon Hwawoo, my hair had a hint of grey. This time, I made my hair platinum blonde. As I wanted to make sure I would not be compared with Yeon Hwawoo, I even made my body look a bit more like my real self. My eyes, which could be seen from beneath the mask, were made red. When I looked at myself in the mirror, a third person that wasn"t Kang Shin or Yeon Hwawoo was in the mirror wearing a suspicious mask.

Perfect.

… I would probably have to use this opportunity to tell Hwaya my real name. She thought of me as her true friend, and she would realize that I"d been lying to a certain extent once she saw my appearance. Since she"s smart, she would probably realize that the appearance I showed her the first time we met was false.

"What about Dad? Is he not going with you?"

"He said he quit being Dark Knight."

Not that he would be able to do so easily! Although I told him about Britain, he was currently rushing through the dungeon, saying he wanted to break through the 45th floor before the end of the year. I was 100% sure he wouldn"t be able to do it, but I only wished him good luck and gave up convincing him otherwise.

"I"m worried if it"s just oppa…"

"Oppa"s strong. I went on TV too, remember?"

"By the way, who"s your friend, oppa?"

"H-Hm?"

"… Oppa?"

Yua"s eyes became sharp ever so slightly. Was Yua planning on asking this from the start? I tried to smile as I answered.

"The friend is British. I"m also going to Britain."

"Wow, how did you meet a British friend?"

"H-Hm? Ah, you see, that person is half-Korean! We met in Korea, and that person turned out to be an ability user."

"Oppa… is that person a girl?"

How did she find out!? There shouldn"t have been any hints!

"Oppa, you don"t have to hide it or anything. The only difference is whether your friend is female or male."

"Haha, you"re right, she"s a girl."

"Hehe… I knew it."

Strange… I never felt cold since I contracted Ruyue, but my body was slightly shaking. Was there a cold-controlling monster nearby!? When I tensed and raised my guard up to the limit, Yua delivered an additional surprise attack.

"Oppa, is the place you"re going Britain"s Windermere Lake?"

She got me!

"H-How did you know?"

"Huhu, it"s all the talk in the news right now. The dungeon that appeared in the tourist attraction known for its natural beauty, and the SS-ranker Hwaya Mastiford who was summoned back to her country during her stay in Korea."

"A-Ah! I see!"

"She"s your friend, right?"

My sister might be much smarter than me, even with my now above 40 intelligence…!

"… When did you become so friendly? With someone so strong."

"Yua, oppa"s going to be late. I"ll explain later. Yua"s a good girl, so I trust you"ll stay at home without causing trouble."

"Ah, oppa."

"Okay, I"ll be sure to buy you a present on my way back. If something happens, remember to call me, okay?"

"Oppa, that"s not fair… I wanted to hear your answer."

"We met each other through work and became friends. I"ll explain properly later, so study hard and wait. Okay, yua?"

"Okay…"

Yua pouted as she reluctantly answered. It had been a while since my obedient sister openly showed discontent, and I couldn"t help but laugh. Now that I thought about it, she often showed such responses when I met with other girls, like that time with Ye-Eun. Was she jealous that another girl would steal her oppa away? No, I knew it was impossible, but that"s what I wanted to think!

I stroked her hair a few times and left the house, heading towards the place we promised to meet. Platinum hair, red eyes, and mask. When I arrived at the location with an appearance even I wanted to punch, there was a limousine waiting for me.

"Mastiford-ssi sent me here."

"Then excuse me."

Hwaya was an SS-ranker. If that was hard to understand, I could put it this way.

Hwaya was one of the seven most importantly regarded people on Earth.

Simply put, any nation would prepare anything she wished for, whether it was a limousine, private jet, or yacht. She could be said to hold omnipotent authority. Of course, the amount of responsibility she had to bear was equally big.

Furthermore, Britain especially tried to fulfill her requests in order to cut her ties with Korea as much as possible. No matter how suspicious or irrational her requests were, they would fulfill them without objection. It was also why I was going to Gimpo International Airport in a limousine. The driver didn"t say anything and neither did I. It was the same as I got on the private plane waiting for me at the airport. Only after I sat down in my seat did I finally let out a breath.

"This plane is going straight to Britain"s Heathrow Airport. We will take off at 5:10 PM, ten minutes after the Skunk Plane takes off."

After Two Moon, people were desperate to clear the monsters from land, ocean, and sky, securing routes for cars, ships, and planes to travel. As the ocean was filled with large number of huge, powerful monsters, a few harbors had to be given up, but humans reclaimed the skies rather easily. We had discovered a monster that emitted an odor detested by flying monsters. We had developed a technology that scattered this substance in the air and prevented it from dissipating for a fixed period of time. Skunk Planes were the planes tasked with scattering this substance in the air and securing a safe route for ordinary planes to travel.

Of course, this smell did not affect all flying monsters. The odor was useless against monsters like wyverns or manticores, but otherwise, the Skunk Planes did their jobs fantastically. It was a monumental victory, as human wisdom had defeated the monsters" rampage. It was also why I could go to Britain on a plane.

"We will arrive at the Heathrow Airport at 1:20 PM, London time. Afterwards, we will take the limousine waiting at the airport and arrive at the Windermere Lake District in 4 hours."

The flight that had taken 12 hours in the past only took 5 hours now. This great improvement could, of course, be credited to the source of energy found after Two Moon: the Bluestones. Monster remains were also being used as materials for core parts of planes, ships, trains, etc. All this had happened within a year of the Two Moon incident. Humans" ability to adapt was really… Every time the thought crossed my mind, I couldn"t help but think humans of other worlds. Although their civilizations might be different than ours, they were still humans.

What could have driven them to the brink of extinction? What had driven them to a corner? No matter how much I thought about it, I could not come up with an answer.

"We"ll be taking off soon."

Nodding my head at the flight attendant"s announcement, I leaned against the flight seat. Although I was generally not sleepy, because of fighting Dullahan without getting much sleep and focusing on clearing the 36th floor, fatigue had built up in my body.

Even sitting here and doing nothing made my body itch to do something, but I had no other choice. Since there was extra time, I had to make use of it to get some rest. Imagining finding myself in London when I woke up, I closed my eyes. A+-rank Field Dungeon… I was looking forward to it.