Chapter 253 – Knight of Death (2)
Translator: Seven
Editor: Ana_Banana
500 people.
With such a large number, there would naturally be a long period of time between the first person to enter the dungeon and the last.
That’s why the first ones to enter the dungeon had to bear a certain amount of risk in many ways.
If there was some issue in the middle of them entering the dungeon and the ones on the outside were cut off, the people on the inside would have to face the worst case scenario.
Nevertheless, the Messiah Guild readily claimed the first position.
“We’ll enter first.”
Cho Sung-woo.
This level 233 player was the representative of the Messiah Guild’s players who were partic.i.p.ating in the Land of Dragons Dungeon this time.
“We came here to help the Saviour Guild, so we naturally have to help.”
The order after that was the Kunlun Guild, Frontier Guild, Great One Guild, and Victoria Guild.
Naturally, the Saviour Guild took up the rear.
Such positioning was carried out smoothly.
After the Messiah Guild entered, they maintained their vigilance as they observed the surroundings and waited for the Kunlun Guild to enter.
Nothing special happened in the process.
As soon as the Kunlun Guild’s representative entered the dungeon, he immediately made eye contact with Cho Sung-woo instead of paying attention to the swelteringly hot jungle.
Afterwards, as soon as the representative of the Frontier Guild entered, he nodded to Cho Sung-woo after their eyes met.
“Please take care of me.”
“Yes.”
Trinity, the Guild Master of The Great One Guild didn’t do anything special except for sharing a light handshake with Cho Sung-woo the moment she entered the dungeon.
Of course, that was enough.
‘With this, our four guilds have formed an alliance.’
They had created a secret alliance without the Saviour Guild’s knowledge.
In fact, this was natural in a way.
The top five guilds had long made their own agreements with each other, respecting each other’s territories and sometimes even helping each other.
Although the Messiah Guild was incredibly outstanding, they still had their own points of contact with the other four guilds, and would not go to the extremes when competing by killing them openly.
To put it bluntly, they had voluntarily lowered their heads to the Messiah Guild, and would avert their gaze from whatever the Messiah Guild was doing as long as it didn’t outrightly affect them.
In any case, they all had their own alliances.
‘The Saviour Guild’s weak point was the fact that they don’t have many allies.’
The Saviour Guild on the other hand stood on the opposite side of their alliance.
Except for the Messiah Guild, from the standpoint of the members of top five guilds, the Saviour Guild’s existence was quite troublesome.
Furthermore, the Saviour Guild’s value was not much different from the Messiah Guild’s.
The other four guilds didn’t necessarily like or dislike the Saviour Guild.
It was the Messiah Guild who brought up the suggestion.
To exclude the Saviour Guild and create their own alliance in the dungeon.
‘We’ll tolerate them for now.’
Of course, that didn’t mean they intended to do anything to the Saviour Guild with the alliance.
If there was a problem, the four guilds, including the Messiah Guild, would suffer fatal damage.
Instead, they intended to actively help the Saviour Guild as long as nothing special outside of the original purpose happened.
‘We don’t know how powerful they are.’
Therefore, the only reason that Cho Sung-woo, who was supposed to join Lee Se-jun in the attack on the French dungeon, was to confirm the Saviour Guild’s capabilities.
“It’s the Saviour Guild!”
Then the Saviour Guild began to enter after the Victoria Guild.
“That’s Park Yong-wan.”
Park Yong-wan, who was now a key figure in the Saviour Guild, was the first member to enter the dungeon.
Then, one after the other, the celebrities of the Saviour Guild began to appear.
Tension naturally appeared on the faces of those who were observing them.
On the other hand, the faces of the Saviour Guild members were quite relaxed, as though they had nothing to worry about.
‘They’re full of confidence.’
Only the firm confidence that they would successfully clear the dungeon could be seen on their faces.
The source of this confidence soon arrived.
“It’s Isaac Ivanov!”
Isaac Ivanov!
As soon as he appeared, the commotion in the group immediately calmed down as everyone’s eyes became focused on one person.
There was a moment of silence.
[Kill 100,000 Guardians to proceed to the next floor.]
And in this silence, they received the notification which informed them of the condition to clear the first floor of the dungeon.
The moment they received the notification, the faces of most of the members there hardened considerably.
‘100,000 Guardians?’
‘Isn’t this too much?’
After all, this quest wasn’t to kill 100,000 normal monsters, but Dragon Guardians.
It was on a completely different level.
‘We have to deal with a 100,000 monster army?’
This task was no different from dealing with an army composed of 100,000 monsters of different kinds.
This was a completely different task compared to hunting 100,000 Goblins.
‘This will be quite the headache. If the first floor is like this… then this A+ rank dungeon is really too much.’
Even Cho Sung-woo, who had experience with attacking 7 Floor dungeons couldn’t help but momentarily forget his mission of observing Isaac Ivanov when he saw this.
However, after seeing the notification, Isaac Ivanov simply turned to the Saviour Guild and spoke in a calm voice.
“We will go up to the second floor in three days.”
This remark caused question marks to appear above the heads of those who heard it.
Had they heard him correctly?
But after realising that everyone else had the same expression, their faces became pale from shock.
[The Book of the Dead has been opened.]
And in that shock, Kim Woo-jin opened the Book of the Dead.
Then he took out a page which contained a monster from the book.
[The Undead Wizard appears.]
The lich.
This monster, which could already be considered a nightmare in 7 Floor dungeons, made its appearance.
[The Goblin Lord’s Crown, which is being worn by the Lich, exerts the power of a king.]
[The King’s Army is activated.]
[The stats of all undead monsters increased by 20%.]
Together with the Goblin Lord’s Crown.
That was the moment when the battle against the Guardian Army had transformed in a ma.s.sacre.
…
Guardians, the soldiers created from various types of monsters that Dragons used to protect their territories.
These Guardians were considered to be quite tricky monsters to face by the players.
The reason was simple.
They were like machines that the Dragons had personally created.
Therefore it was possible for Ogres and Goblins, who normally had a predator-prey relations.h.i.+p, would be able to work together in battle, to the extent that the Ogres would even sacrifice themselves for the other.
In other words, the common sense and knowledge about monsters that had been engraved on the players minds and bodies by experience were completely against Guardians.
If it was a question in an exam, it would be one that was about a different subject.
Of course, that wasn’t a problem that the players who had entered the Land of Dragons Dungeon.
“Hunt only what you can to minimize power consumption as much as possible.”
“Divide the grades, let the tanks attract the attention of the medium grade and higher monsters, and hunt the low grades first.”
“Keep the retreat signal in mind at all times, and the moment you hear the signal, follow the order without hesitation.”
The players in this dungeon were all veterans who were at least level 158.
And just as the dungeon’s name was Land of Dragons, there were many players there who had experience hunting Dragons.
Moreover, apart from the players from the Messiah Guild and Saviour Guild, this was these players’ first time attacking a 7 Floor dungeon.
“Don’t let your guards down! Remember this is only the first floor of the 7 Floor dungeon!”
“Do your best.”
Although they were all filled with determination, there was no trace of carelessness.
Roar!
Kyaaa!
This fact was proved as they faced the Guardians of all kinds who charged towards the group of intruders after finding them.
Hihihi!
Unfortunately, the army of undead, which appeared following the cry of a banshee, did not tolerate such a battle.
Rattle!
Kyaha!
Hyaha!
The only thing they tolerated, was a ma.s.sacre.
And that’s exactly what happened.
At one point, this undead army, which numbered around four hundred and were led by the Lich and Dullahan, went beyond the level of overwhelming as they killed every Guardian around them.
[The effect of Ruler of Battlefield stacks.]
And they were still becoming stronger over time.
Even that wasn’t the end.
“The Poison King is making his move!”
“Everyone retreat!”
Then Kim Woo-jin, whose fame at that moment was no longer lacking when compared to Isaac Ivanov set the stage for this undead army.
[The Blood Fog begins to spread.]
He created a stage that didn’t tolerate any living being who breathed or were made of flesh and blood, as gaining wounds on such a stage would only end badly.
[Used Bloodsucking skill.]
[Your magic power has been restored.]
And in the process, the corpses that were created by this process became materials for an even greater slaughter.
[Used Corpse Poison skill.]
Cheap materials that could be used in their entirety.
‘He’s more terrifying than I thought.’
‘This is unbelievable.’
The players who weren’t a part of the Saviour Guild and had never witnessed this scene couldn’t help but watch on in shock, completely speechless.
What was even more shocking was that wasn’t even all they had to show.
“I wanted to make a bet on who would be able to hunt the most monsters like back then, but it wouldn’t even work from the start.”
Park Yong-wan, who was now carrying the name of the Saviour Guild as well, also revealed his presence in this scene.
“Now, let’s get the ones the skeletons missed.”
While the undead army were fighting on the stage where the living were not allowed, the players, led by Park Yong-wan, began cleaning up the monsters who had managed to evade the range of the poison.
In this dungeon, they were determined to not give the Guardians any s.p.a.ce.
“Follow me!”
And he would maintain that will.
Durandal!
With this sword in his hand, Park Yong-wan began cleaning up the monsters from the front.
‘Is Park Yong-wan really that strong?’
It was none other than Cho Sung-woo who was the most surprised by Park Yong-wan’s performance.
In truth, Cho Sung-woo always believed Park Yong-wan was weaker than him.
There was a good reason for that.
After all, wouldn’t it be strange if the Park Yong-wan, the Guild Master of the Phoenix Guild which was nothing when compared to the Messiah Guild, who was known to pursue his own selfish desires was considered to be comparable to a hero who risked their life for the world?
Cho Sung-woo always thought that since their resolutions and goals were different, their power would naturally be different.
‘He’s better than I expected.’
However, the performance that Park Yong-wan was now displaying on the battlefield was not lacking when compared to Cho Sung-woo.
‘Even his men.’
Furthermore, the sight of the men following behind him was just as shocking.
Of course, there was one that was the most shocking.
“Siba!”
The only man who dared to partic.i.p.ate in a battlefield where living beings were not allowed to be.
Holding a black s.h.i.+eld in his hand, Lee Jin-ah threw himself at the Guardians even more fiercely than the undead army.
“s.h.i.+ba!”
‘f.u.c.k! He really had to give the hardest job to me!’
Of course, the reason was to put a curse on the Guardians with the Cursed s.h.i.+eld.
As Lee Jin-ah said, he was given the hardest task out of everyone on the battlefield.
However, this scene was quite different in the eyes of others.
“He’s pulling all of the monsters’ aggro.”
“That’s the textbook example of a tank.”
“Are there any tanks in our guild who would throw themselves into a group of monsters like that?”
He was the perfect tank for Kim Woo-jin and Isaac Ivanov.
“s.h.i.+ba!”
Lee Jin-ah was the only one who dared to fight in the battlefield where other people wouldn’t dare to even breathe.
And the result was self evident.
The Skeleton Soldiers and Skeleton Wizards steadily grew stronger as the fight progressed.
[A Skeleton Knight uses the Riding skill.]
Then the monsters became corpses even faster as a Skeleton Knight managed to successfully acquire a Guardian as its mount. The Dullahan also used its own skill to also accomplish the same feat.
These corpses supplied Kim Woo-jin with blood and magic power which he then used to increase his power even further.
[Summoned a Blood Golem.]
This Blood Golem, which secretly appeared, became a powerful a.s.sa.s.sin who swept through the battlefield.
And in time, the words that were said became a reality.
[All the monsters have been hunted.]
Just as Isaac Ivanov had said, they cleared the first floor on the third day after they entered the dungeon.
[Survive for 10 days to proceed to the next floor.]
On the third day of the dungeon attack, they received the notification of the clearance requirement of the second floor.
“We have to preserve our power.”
“Avoid excessive fighting.”
The players wanted to conserve as much energy as they could over the course of ten days.
Naturally, the Saviour Guild was different.
To be exact, Isaac Ivanov was the one who had a different idea.
‘I will reach level 200 here.’