Chapter 279: Party Hunting, And The Gateway – 1
The Southern Island Buju’s dungeons could be considered as very difficult ones.
And this wasn’t just because of the monsters level.
The biggest part that could be considered difficult was because of the monster, most of the monsters in the dungeon were humanoid monsters.
The humanoid monsters were generally much higher in the intelligence side, and their AI level was far superior to the usual monsters.
And the humanoid monsters that were near the level of 400 had a higher level of intelligence than any monster that Ian had ever encountered, including the AI level beings he had encountered.
‘Sh*t, the field was so comfortable… But the field monsters gave such little citizen value points…’
Unlike the other dungeons, the dungeons in the Southern Island Buju were all animal monsters.
And animal monsters showed a very simple attack pattern when compared to all the other monsters, so they were easy to hunt irrespective of their level.
And Ian’s party was clearing out dungeons one after the other by getting into tough battles with the scary humanoid monsters.
And the dungeon that Ian’s party had entered now was somewhat unusual for a dungeon.
The skies were very clear, the dungeon was in the shape of a canyon with huge cobblestones that were paved on either side.
Shak- shak-
The party began to walk into the wilderness on the way that was paved into the narrow canyon, and no one was leading the group from the front.
Most of the members in the party were veterans who had cleared a lot of dangerous dungeons, but even they have felt like something was wrong with the structure of the dungeon.
“This so contradicting. Once the dungeon clear rate exceeds 90%, it is time for the named monsters to come.”
Ian nodded and relied on the facts stated by Remir.
“On point. This is definitely weird. Move very carefully cause there might be traps.”
The dungeon that Ian’s party was clearing out could simply be called as a ‘mountain’s lair’.
It was ignorantly large for the structure, and this looked like the scene where the bandits pop out.
‘There will probably be traps in such terrains.’
Ian opened up his inventory and pulled out the stealth detector he had to scan the area.
Scroller was a very expensive consumable item, it was for a purpose like this that Ian had purchased it.
If there were any traps actually installed, then by using the Scroller the traps could be identified and the trap would be hit by a long ranged attack.
But during this time, Kaka who was right behind Ian had suddenly restrained Ian from doing so.
“Master, wait a minute.”
“Why, what is it now?”
“Don’t use it, just wait.”
“…?”
It wasn’t just Ian, all the members of the party were starring at Kaka with a bit of expectation and Kaka just flew from there by flapping its small wings.
Ian who didn’t understand what was happening shouted.
“Yah. There could be traps, how can you just go forward without caution?”
Kaka smiled and responded.
“I won’t get killed even by a million traps, master.”
“…?”
And a moment later, Kaka began to move along the corridor and the corridor began to vibrate with a loud tremble.
Puang- Puang- Puang-!
Just as predicted by Remir and Ian, there were numerous traps in this place.
And Kaka, just as he had promised, didn’t lose a single vitality point.
That was when Ian had recalled something that he had forgotten, a unique ability that Kaka possessed.
‘Ah that’s right, Kaka has that…invincible except for a light attribute attack…?’
Kaka’s first ability, which is his own ability ‘Descendant of the Darkness’.
The Descendant of the Darkness is a pa.s.sive ability that does not take any damage except for the attack that uses light, on top of that, it takes 50% more damage when hit by an attack of light.
And this was a tremendous move to remove the traps.
Mostly because there would be hardly any damage in the traps with no lighting,
And the light attribute was unique to the priest cla.s.s, and none of the skill set in the priest cla.s.s had anything related to the trap installation.
After removing all the traps, Kaka returned to the party with a cheerful look.
Ian fed Kaka night-honey and patted its head.
Kung-
“Ah, why are you hitting master?”
Ian pulled Kaka’s wings.
“Yah, what if there was a light trap in there?”
Kaka replied with a bright face.
“Light Trap? Since when did priests start to install traps?”
Ian just bent his head over and spoke.
“No, there couldn’t have been any but… I don’t know, a strange hidden cla.s.s.”
Kaka replied without hesitation.
“I haven’t seen a trap like that for three thousand years, master.”
“…”
And once he heard that there weren’t traps like that for three thousand years, Ian was just at a loss of words.
“Kue…”
And Ian quickly began to move into the direction where Kaka had removed the traps.
Inside, there were a total of five named monsters and a powerful boss monster waiting for the party.
* * *
Kung- Kung-
The last field that Ian’s party had arrived was of an unusual terrain.
“Ahh… I’m afraid of heights…”
Ramir’s face was pale and she tried to cover her eyes with her hands.
And it wasn’t just Remir who was not pleased.
In the front of the filed where the party needed to go, was a heavenly cliff spread out, and two lines of rope spread out towards the boss zone.
Herz who was fl.u.s.tered spoke to Ian as if he was whispering.
“Yah, That rope… if the leg slips then…?”
Ian was also angry with what he had witnessed and replied.
“Step on it, or hang on it.”
If felt like the time when he went to the amus.e.m.e.nt park with Harin, and the fear of heights was a really scary thing to confront.
But just one person.
There was s.h.i.+ne in the eyes on an unexpected user.
“What are you all doing? Move fast. If you get caught by the boss monster, we are dead for sure.”
The user looked like a gla.s.s that would break on touch but seemed way tougher than the appearance.
Levya jumped onto the rope and quickly crossed the cliff.
“She, She just…!”
Ian’s head was spinning around.
‘I can’t waste any time here, just like Levya said.’
Ian soon got onto the pack of Pin.
“First, Remir.”
In the end, Remir rushed over to Ian who looked like a knight in s.h.i.+ning armor.
And unknowingly she held onto Ian’s waist.
“The remaining four will come once I drop them off with Pin and Pin will come back. Well surely if you can cross like Levya, then just go on.”
“…”
However, there was no person who could go against Levya in that matter, so eventually, Ian had to move them all with the help of Pin.
But the moment the last two members began to climb onto Pin’s back, from the boss zone came huge tremors.
[Kwak- Who dare to enter into the place without my permission!]
It was a shadow that Ian’s party had seen was very big.
He was the boss monster of the dungeon ‘Camilope’.
Ian who quickly confirmed the situation made a quick judgment regarding the situation.
“d.a.m.n, Let’s just deal with our situation first! Let’s hold on until Herz and Hoonie come here.”
The last two people that were needed to come across were Herz and Hoonie, and it would take a minimum of 30 seconds until they reached the other side. So the other decided to keep still in their position, but the probability of getting isolated was very high.
Ian ran like a manic towards the boss monster with his Judgement of the Spirit King in his hand.
The boss monster Camilope was Ian’s goal.
But before he could approach it, Ian had to stop.
[This man! Don’t take another step towards the boss!]
[Intruders! You need to be taught a lesson!]
It seemed like five named monster appeared in front of Ian.
Ian was a bit frustrated with this.
‘What is this, we didn’t come across any named monster even after clearing out 90% of the dungeon… this surely is a very difficult ant weird dungeon.’
Although each dungeon had its difference, and in almost all dungeons there were three to ten named monsters, and only one boss monster.
Generally, they usually appear one after another each time a certain achievement has been done, but none of the mentioned conditions have been met, and all the named monster came out with a boss monsters.
This was a really tricky scenario.
‘Until Herz comes, Bbookbbook will have to be a tank.’
Ian reflexively moved back and took up a stance with Bbookbbook in the front.
“Levya, you will have to use a protective spell, okay?!”
“Kay!”
Levya didn’t have to be explained in much details.
She had a very great sense of the game and in fact, she could tackle all the attacks that Bbookbbook had.
In addition to that, along with Levya in the front, Ian had to manage Bbookbbook until Herz managed to get there.
And it was only the basic common sense to know the skills of the other members in the party, it was a basic category but not an easy one to follow.
Kung- Kung-
Dukdae put its big paws on the ground and invoked one of its unique abilities.
Kyaah-!
[Special ability of the familiar ‘Dukdae’, ‘Dragon’s roar’ has been triggered.]
[Movement of the monster ‘Camilope’ slowed by 15% (-25%).]
[Movement of the chieftain ‘Chiles’ slowed by 35% (-5%).]
:
:
Ian who had confirmed the attack messages immediately calculated the movements of the enemy.
‘The boss monsters resistance is quite strong. But if the movements are slowed by 15%, then one can’t attack much.’
The rest of the monsters also had resistance, but their level of resistance was less compared to that of the boss.
It was clearly evident as the movement of the enemies went slow.
Ian thought that he had to cut down the monsters that were isolated to the left and the right.
“Hoonie! Help me out here! The rest of you go and stop the boss!”
Once Ian was done giving out orders, all the party members began to move out.
Bbookbbook was able to stop the boss attack till the arrival of Herz and backed away slightly, and the previous position of Bbookbbook was now occupied by Herz, and the way of the boss towards Ian was completely blocked.
An isolated named monster was right in front of Ian.
And Ian planned on taking full advantage of the current situation.
“Hoonie, you know right? Go straight into attack from the beginning?”
“Kay!”
Ian wielded the spear and quickly approached the named monster.
Since the monster was distraught by the ‘Dragon’s roar’ of Dukdae, the speed of the monster was very low.
‘And it is another 20 seconds till the provocation is down.’
It was Ian’s plan to take down one monster as quickly as possible, but this wasn’t his full range attack.
Ian moved back to the position and opened his information widow, and Hoonie said a weird spell and a thin, filled light wrapped itself around the spear.
[‘Judgement of the Spirit King’ received a spell ‘Seal of darkness’ from the party member ‘Kanji Hoonie’. (Will last for 5 seconds).]
[While the Seal of Darkness is in use, the damage caused by the Judgement of the Spirit King will increase by 137%.]
[During the duration of the Seal of Darkness, all the attacks that touch the critical strike area are marked a ‘Mark of Darkness’.]
[If you cast a ‘Mark of Darkness’, you will have an additional 7 seconds of damage with an increase of 33%. (Mark of Darkness has been superimposed).]
Ian looked at the system message that came in front of his eyes, but he didn’t care as he had always witnessed these things in the party play.
And in that moment.
Puahk-!
Named monster, ‘Chiles’ failed to respond, Ian’s spear just went through him.
[You have done catastrophic damage to the boss ‘Chiles’!]
[The Mark of Darkness has been engraved on the monster ‘Chiles.’!]
The named monsters vitality just went all out with a single strike.
‘Chiles’ was a named monster which didn’t seem to exceed the level of 400, so Ian and Hoonie started to enjoy the team play.
“Hyung! Two more strikes!”
Hoonie cried over to Ian and Ian knew exactly what he meant.
‘If there are three marks, then will it cause an explosion?’
The duration from the Seal of Darkness that Hoonie put into effect was 5 seconds only.
Ian calmly pulled out the spear from the ‘Chiles’ monster’s body.
Puk- Peuk!
And if pushed in much deeper, it could cause much deadly damage, but Ian chooses not to.
As long as he had the pa.s.sive ability ‘Weakness capture’, there was no need for strong attacks, he only needed to attack the right spot for a critical hit!
And Ian’s attack didn’t deviate its path.
[You have done catastrophic damage to the boss ‘Chiles’.]
[The Seal of Darkness in engraved on the body of ‘Chiles’.]
Ian’s battle had lasted for exactly 5 seconds.
And the body of the monster began to wobble.
Ian glanced over at the vitality gauge of the monster.
‘The life is about 2/5th less. If the marked explosion comes in here…!’
The marked explosion was one of Hoonie’s most powerful single attack, and Ian was waiting for it to happen.
And Hooine’s skill didn’t upset Ian.