Deep Canyon Spring (2)
Sura Canyon.
After its discovery by the Red Bulls Guild, many people began to visit the Devil Goat-filled canyon. However, there were still many places unexplored by anyone.
Currently, there was no one that knew about the small spring located deep within the Sura Canyon. Even if there was, it was unlikely he would think too much about it. The fact that the spring was 30 meters deep, or that a cave could be found at that level, or that a secret area existed inside the 100-meter cave was something no one knew.
That is, until now.
“Puhu!”
Someone had discovered the secret.
After finishing up a long swim, Hyrkan inhaled a deep breath of air. Then, he crunched down on the candy in his mouth, crushing it into pieces. The 50 gold item that made one freely travel underwater disappeared just like that.
As a side note, the Undine Tear Candy tasted like a lemonade and made his breath carry the scent of lemon.
‘I’m finally here.’
After finishing up the candy completely, Hyrkan climbed out of the pool of water back to land.
When he stepped on the ground, he naturally closed his eyes and focused on hearing.
[You have entered a dungeon.]
[You have obtained the title, ‘One Who Discovered the Hidden Secret.’]
[You have obtained the title, ‘Dungeon Explorer.’]
The expected alerts popped out, and Hyrkan nodded with satisfaction.
‘I can never get used to hearing these alerts.’
Although the titles he received weren’t particularly good, but no Warlord players would refuse them.
The worth of a dungeon wasn’t just this either.
Unlike field-type hunting grounds, one could obtain additional experience points or rewards in dungeons. Discovering a secret area within the dungeon, realizing the identity of the dungeon, completely exploring the dungeon, etc. Rewards and EXP could be received based on one’s results, and the EXP received as such bonuses was proportional to one’s level. That is, the amount of EXP one could receive was limited, but there was a definite percentage gain.
It was also the reason why Hyrkan came after hitting level 69.
‘Alright, let’s get this over with.’
Hyrkan didn’t stop to dawdle and prepared himself for exploration immediately. First, he started up the Light app, making his watch light up the dark cave.
‘Let’s see…’
He could see a tunnel, one that seemed like a gigantic ant had made. Hyrkan looked around and nothing special entered his eyes.
‘It’s going to take a while to go through the entire dungeon.’
It didn’t seem like a dungeon he could completely explore in just one sitting. Time was gold, and Hyrkan wished to clear the dungeon as fast as possible. A tunnel style dungeon was an okay dungeon by Hyrkan’s standards.
‘I’ll give it a 70.’
Hyrkan was particularly good at fighting in a narrow space. His Golem could block the path and he could quickly get his Skeleton Warriors behind the enemy by throwing the Skeleton Fragments to its back. Considering the limited space for fights, he would be facing quality over quantity. Hyrkan’s Skeleton Warriors were especially good in this area.
Simulations of battles quickly flashed through Hyrkan’s mind, causing him to smile. It seemed that the result of the battle he imagined was satisfactory. With his smile still intact, Hyrkan threw a Skeleton Fragment on the ground. The fragment immediately turned into a Skeleton Warrior.
The Skeleton Warrior made from a Black Orc was carrying a scimitar-like sword, and its black bones easily blended into the darkness. Hyrkan drew a cross on its forehead, and two horns sprouted out from its skull.
Madness Helm.
In addition, Hyrkan casted Bone Armor on the Skeleton Warrior. White bones filled the Skeleton Warrior’s empty upper body, and its arms became covered by gauntlets. The D-Rank Bone Armor was now able to create both the breastplate and gloves.
Then, Hyrkan imbued curse magic onto the sword it was holding. Demon Curse, Slow Curse, Corrosive Ghost, and the recently learned Blind!
Once Hyrkan was done with his preparations, the Skeleton Warrior looked unlike a Skeleton Warrior. The black Skeleton Warrior wearing the white Bone Armor made it look like a knight. Its sword, imbued with several curses, also gave off a mysterious glow.
Watching his Skeleton Warrior, Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
‘There goes my magic power.’
As he wasn’t facing a boss monster, it was a waste of mana to use so much magic power. It was unlike Hyrkan who was trying to save as much magic power as possible. In other words, his situation had taken a complete turn, as compared to when he had begun.
To replenish the lost magic power, Hyrkan began to chew on a 30 gold magic power recovery gum.
‘It’s literally raising proficiency with money.’
In the past, he was frugal with his magic power due to having no money at all. Now, it was different. Although it wasn’t to the point he could change his car to a sports car, he had enough to buy any skillbooks or consumable items he wanted.
Thus, Hyrkan’s focus fell to raising his skills’ proficiencies. The only way to do so was to use the skills repeatedly. The magic power lost because of it would then have to be filled with magic power recovery items. It was truly buying skill proficiency with money.
As such, Hyrkan couldn’t help but laugh at himself.
‘You don’t even eat a 3,000 won per half a gram pork in real life, but you’re chewing on a 30,000 won gum in game. You are one crazy bastard.’
His laugh quickly turned into bitterness.
★★★
‘Oh?’
After entering the dungeon, Hyrkan began to explore it with his Skeleton Warrior in lead.
The tension on his face could be felt behind his hahoe mask, and it wasn’t until his first encounter with a monster that his expression changed.
‘A slime?’
The monster he encountered was a slime.
Slimes were common monsters in Warlord. Although they weren’t like pebbles on the side of the road, anyone could find one if they desired. However, slimes whose insides glowed was a different story.
The slime Hyrkan encountered was such a slime. Its translucent body glowed with a red light. When Hyrkan saw the slime, he knew what he was up against.
‘This is a spirit-form monster dungeon!’
Spirit-form monsters were one of the rarest monster types in Warlord. Appropriately, they were quite expensive for a rather simple reason. The items they dropped were used in creating attributed items.
Attributes were an important part of Warlord. Rich players didn’t just buy 1 item set, but rather multiple with different attributes.
Because of this, attributed items were always high in demand. A level 70 Rare item would easily go for 3,000 gold in the market. This would be the weakest item amongst them, and decent items would of course cost much more.
‘This doesn’t seem good.’
As such, Hyrkan felt an ominous foreboding before he felt happiness.
The dungeon map he luckily received had the rare spirit-form monsters?
He was incredibly lucky.
He had been lucky quite often in recent days. The view count on his Bear Warrior video was piercing through the heaven, and the crafting material he obtained sold for an enormous sum of 50,000 gold. He had expected them to go for 20 or maybe 30,000 gold, but he had ended up receiving double the amount he expected. The reason was clear. It was because the Bear Warrior was Hahoe Mask Hyrkan’s first monster. The value of items changed depending on the designer and person who obtained the material. It seemed like one of Hyrkan’s rich fans purchased the Bear Warrior crafting materials.
‘Aren’t I just too lucky?’
Now, he was facing another incredible fortune.
‘I’m the type that the luckier I am early on, the unluckier l become later.’
Hyrkan’s life had always been full of ups and downs. If he was lucky at one point, he was bound to be unlucky at another.
Hyrkan knew this better than anyone else.
As such, Hyrkan was scared how his string of incredible fortune would backfire.
Of course, his worries didn’t last long. His expression quickly loosened.
‘Well, I can’t say no to this.’
It wasn’t like he could refuse thinking he’s too lucky.
‘Even if some disaster strikes me, how bad could it be? I doubt a truck would come flying through my window.’
Hyrkan walked deeper into the dungeon with joy.
★★★
After his continuous string of encounters with slimes, Hyrkan arrived at a dead-end.
In this place, he encountered a spirit-form monster as he expected.
Salanmanda.
The Salamanda was a level 80 spirit-form monster. Its body changed length from as long as 4-meters to as short as 50 centimeters depending on the situation. Its body was made of fire, and thus it could only be damaged through continuous damage over time.
Considering the forces Hyrkan had available, it wasn’t a particularly good match.
Since the Skeleton Warriors had to close in to attack, it was ill-suited to fight against the Salamanda. Even if their evasive maneuvers were good, they couldn’t possibly dodge the Salamanda’s body heat. The Skeleton Warriors melted under the Salamanda’s intense heat, and the damage ate away at Hyrkan’s magic power.
Furthermore, ‘Salamanda’s Rage’ was activated whenever its HP fell below a certain level. Its heat then became high enough to melt even the Golem.
The Skeleton Magicians also did very little in the fight against the Salamanda. The D-rank Skeleton Magicians could only use fire-attribute magic, which obviously was ineffective against the Salamanda.
In a way, the Salamanda was a natural enemy of Hyrkan.
However, Hyrkan had one of his most peaceful battles in fighting the Salamanda.
“Good. Now cut his tail from behind! Well done!”
The battle itself was a close combat battle. Although the battle couldn’t be described bloody with the lack of blood, it was still a fierce battle.
Hyrkan did not participate in the battle. He simply watched on from the back while sucking on his candies.
He participated in just two cases. One was to imbue curse magic onto the Skeleton Warriors’ sword…
“Hey, don’t approach from the front, go from side. Also, stabs don’t work well, so go for slashes. Got it?”
While giving commands no one could possibly understand.
The other…
“Come on, Golem. The skellies are doing well, what’s wrong with you? Stop! I’ll do it myself.”
Was to furiously shadow box, controlling the Golem with Copy Mode.
That was it.
Of course, he used up most of his magic recovery items because of it, but Skeleton Fragment, Golem Summon, and Skeleton Magician skill proficiencies went up greatly as a result.
Just like that, Hyrkan killed the Salamanda without swinging his Orc Hero’s Sword even once. While tasting the Salamanda’s strawberry flavored ice-cream, Hyrkan couldn’t help but think…
‘Rich Lich… you must have had one hell of a time.’
It was the first time Hyrkan felt the joy of being a necromancer.