Chapter 110 – Frozen Forest of Violence (1)
Translator: Seven
Editor: Ana_Banana
[You have entered the 2nd Floor.]
A cold wind swept past them as they heard the familiar notification sound.
‘That explains the t.i.tle.’
Just as the t.i.tle indicated, the second floor of the dungeon was an icy forest with trees as tall as an apartment complex.
Since it was expected, no one was surprised by the terrain.
However…
“It’s much colder than I thought.”
“s.h.i.+t…”
It was much colder than they expected.
(TL: this one was hard…T~T)
Despite them preparing countermeasure for the cold, the sound of chattering teeth could still be heard from the group.
Literally it was cold enough to make anyone s.h.i.+ver.
The cold was driving them crazy, but no one suggested that they make a fire.
‘We found few corpses on the first floor.’
‘It’s not easy to kill 6,666 monsters, but it shouldn’t be a problem for any of the players who entered here to clear the first floor.’
‘That means most of the players died here.’
By clearing the first floor of the dungeon, they realised that the second floor might be much more dangerous than they expected.
Lee Jin-ah also had this thought.
“It’s so cold even when I’m wearing this. How nice it would be to have an actual Firefox in this situation. Ehuh, if my partner was a Pokemon Master instead of a Necromancer, I’d probably have been able to get a Firefox.”
Even though he was wearing Firefox leather armor which generated its own heat, Lee Jin-ah was still struggling from the cold.
Even Kim Woo-jin felt the same.
Kim Woo-jin’s teeth clattered together and made a sound.
This was enough evidence.
‘There’s evidence of Fear.’
There were traces of none other than Fear.
Some monsters had the ability to terrorize their target and it seemed like the group of players were suffering from that effect now.
‘This will be even harder than I expected.’
It wasn’t good news.
If there was no proper defense for Fear, then the effect could be much more deadly that one would imagine.
If you were prepared, you could free yourself from the effect of Fear quickly, but in a life or death battle, that short moment could mean death.
‘The only monsters that could use Fear were monsters(freaks).’
The main problem was that monsters that could induce Fear were the monsters that were the true definition of the words ‘monster’.
‘…it shouldn’t be a Dragon.’
Monsters like Dragons for example.
It was then.
“Hey.”
Lee Jin-ah called out to Kim Woo-jin.
“Can you tell what a monster is by looking at it’s footprints?”
Kim Woo-jin turned his head to look at the spot where Lee Jin-ah was pointing.
Not too far away from them was a single huge footprint.
“It’s an ogre.”
Ogres.
It was a monster that didn’t need any introduction.
It was one of the few monsters in a dungeon that were extremely difficult to hand.
“It should be the one that’s violent.”
It was also the monster which fit the violent description more than any other monster.
For an Ogre, it was not satisfactory to just kill their target, they had cruel personalities and enjoyed tearing off limbs and smas.h.i.+ng the body to the ground.
‘Violent, but not smart.’
However Kim Woo-jin knew that in battle an Ogre’s instincts were better than most other monsters, despite its violent and foolish appearance.
‘It’s battle sense is much better than the Firefox or the Horned Fox.’
It’s level was completely different from predators like the Horned Fox or even the Firefox that Kim Woo-jin had fought previously.
Even players who were confident in their abilities would be hesitant to face off against an Ogre.
‘And of course, it has the experience of killing over 1,00 players. It’s a real player killer.’
Kim Woo-jin knew this better than anyone.
After all, it was Kim Woo-jin who had been willing to take on such an infamous beast that everyone was reluctant to face, he had even earned the nickname ‘Ogre Killer’.
‘But would it have such a powerful Fear?’
Kim Woo-jin knew that Ogre’s usually had a Fear effect, but it shouldn’t be as powerful as what he was feeling now.
‘This level of Fear is on a similar level as that of a Dragon.’
Even an Ogre at its peak would find it almost impossible to generate such Fear that was comparable to a Dragon.
Of course, that could only mean one thing.
‘It has an item that enhances the Fear effect.’
This was an A+ dungeon after all.
So since that was the case then there should be nothing strange about the Ogre.
As he reached that conclusion, Kim Woo-jin lifted his head.
A sound could be heard from the forest.
As he heard it, Lee Jin-ah smiled brightly.
“Those Hyena’s are making their move.”
Kim Woo-jin’s mouth became a flat line.
‘This won’t be easy.’
…
The thoughts of humans were usually the same.
When looking at a dungeon that had been failed 23 times, no one denied that it was h.e.l.l, but on the other hand there were many who dreamt about becoming the inheritor of the legacies left here by the over 1,000 players who died.
Those who were a part of the 24th challenge were the same.
“I’m sure there are items in here somewhere.”
“The people who came before us should have similar thoughts. Some of them should have collected a few items and then died with them.”
Some of the 74 survivors looked at this place as a land of treasure.
So of course, they moved quickly before the items were taken by someone else.
That didn’t mean they moved randomly.
“Let’s go search.”
“We should explore.”
“Let’s figure out our surroundings first.”
As many as 6 groups totalling up to 33 people left with that justification.
In an instant, the group had been reduced to half.
It wasn’t as though the rest didn’t know their intentions
“It’s not an ‘exploration’, they’re going on a treasure hunt.”
“Can they just leave just like that? Wouldn’t it be better to unite our powers together.”
However those who remained could do nothing.
Once they claimed to be a search party taking a huge risk, could they still complain?
Most of all, everyone there were experienced players, so they knew themselves well.
‘You can’t force anyone to help anyway.’
‘It’s better to exclude this type of people from the start.’
An awkward partners.h.i.+p was much more dangerous.
Above all, most of them were Hyenas who came to scavenge corpses anyway.
No one would want someone who would treat your dead body as a treasure as a companion.
The treasure hunt that began so unsurprisingly, achieved results much faster than anyone antic.i.p.ated.
“There!”
It happened to be a party of five players.
They had been searching for only a short while before they found something.
“It’s a body!”
It was a victim.
It was a player that had been frozen solid so his items were untouched.
Excited, the party ran over to the body and became removing all the items they could find.
As soon as they touched the corpse.
Puk!
As if it was a frozen meatball, the body crumbled and the items were removed.
“Oh! Unique!”
“How much do you think it’ll cost?”
“If we take it all off, we could buy a building.”
They were delighted to have found a unique item and so they began to remove items earnestly.
They broke the body to remove the armor, cut the ankles to remove the shoes, cut the fingers to get the rings.
It wasn’t long before the body was devastated.
It was a cruel and horrible sight.
That was why they were so absorbed in their work. The more corrupt it was, the more addictive it was.
“d.a.m.n it, why won’t this come off!”
“Hurry up!”
It was then.
Dul Dul Dul!
The five players began to s.h.i.+ver as they were overwhelmed by fear.
“Wh-, wh-, wh-, what is that?”
“Is it an earthquake?”
In such a situation, they had mistaken the tremors as an earthquake instead of one coming from their own bodies.
[An Unknown Fear has overwhelmed you.]
Then they heard a notification.
Kwaang!
Following a roar, something fell from the sky.
Kwajik!
The thing crashed into the head of one of the players who had been delighted by the items.
Like an aluminium can that was crushed, his head was crushed into his body and then his body was also crushed.
Puhuk!
At the same time, the fluids that filled the body shot out like an explosion.
Blood covered everything, including the players.
‘Huh?’
‘What?’
However the remaining four just kept trembling without understanding what was going on.
Puk!
In the meantime, another roar sounded and it was only after the second victim was crushed that the remaining three were able to move.
So the first thing they did was check the ident.i.ty of the shadow above their heads.
Orrrr!
Standing there, was an Ogre.