Kang Oh had been so busy dealing with the Mayanes that he hadnât had time for his main job as a Dungeon Hunter! There were still so many dungeons yet to be explored in the Goddessâs Land and the Volcanic Region.
âI have to get there before anyone else does!â
Kang Oh and Sephiro arrived at the eastern grasslands located in the Goddessâs Land. Eder had some personal matters to deal with, so he wasnât able to join them.
They traversed the grasslands on horseback.
âWhere are we going?â Sephiro asked.
âWeâre going all the way to the edge.â
âYes. Apparently, thereâs a giant cave there that leads to a dungeon even more dangerous than the Saul Graveyard.â
âMm, will we really be ok without Mr. Eder?â
âThatâs precisely why weâre going. We have a continue button if we die. He doesnât.â
Of course, he had no intention of dying. He was confident that he wouldnât die, wherever he went.
âBut you never know. Please keep a close eye on Waryong, so that it doesnât get hurt.â
The grasslands were vast, so it took them 2 hours on horseback to reach their destination. The Goddessâs Land was an underworld, so it was surrounded by walls and assumed a dome shape.
Once they reached the very end, their progress was halted by a giant wall. Kang Oh saw a cave, but it was quite different than what heâd expected.
âCan you really call this a cave?â Sephiro asked.
âItâs more like a dark lake than a cave.â
Thatâs right. It wasnât a normal, horizontal cave, but a vertical one. Plus, it was large enough to be compared to a lake!
Moreover, it was completely dark, so they couldnât tell how deep it was.
âThat looks like the way down. Letâs be careful.â Kang Oh pointed at a dark, steep path.
Sephiro activated a Magic Lamp, which heâd bought from the Tower.
âGo!â Sephiro stood in front, while Kang Oh and Waryong followed from behind.
They hadnât gone down the steep path for long when all of a sudden⊠Several red eyes glowed from within the darkness. They also heard unusual flapping sounds.
Sephiro pointed his Magic Lamp towards the glowing eyes.
The light revealed a cliff with 3 meter large bats hanging on either side. There were at least several hundreds of them.
âEmperor Bats. Theyâre blood-sucking bats that are the largest and most powerful of their species,â Sephiro whispered, and weakened the Magic Lampâs intensity so that he didnât disturb them.
âWhat level are they?â Kang Oh asked.
âIt depends on the size. Theyâre between level 300 and 400. But with that many of them there, we should just quietly passâŠâ
Heedless of his warning, Kang Oh threw a Fire Bomb at the cliff. It all happened so suddenly that Sephiro wasnât able to stop him.
The fire spread, and the Emperor Bats simultaneously flew away. They then began to hover above Kang Oh and Sephiroâs heads.
âAh, why did you do that!?â Sephiro said hatefully.
âYou donât think we can beat them?â
âLook at how many of them there are. For just the two of us, itâsâŠâ
âToo easy?â Kang Oh grinned.
âToo hard, you idiot!â Sephiro said.
The Emperor Bats shrieked sharply, and flew towards them! Their shrieks were akin to an improperly blown whistle.
Sephiro set the Magic Lampâs light to maximum, quickly threw it away, and pulled out an arrow. He notched three arrows simultaneously and let them fly.
The arrows struck three of them, causing them to stagger in the air, but there were so many of them that it didnât even make a dent.
The red wyvern, Waryong, unleashed mighty flames towards the sky. The bats thatâd been aiming for Sephiro flew away, evading the flames.
In that time, Sephiro shot another three arrows. He barely even aimed, focusing entirely on speed over precision. There were so many bats in the air that just firing an arrow in their general vicinity would hit one of them.
With Blood in hand, Kang Oh transformed into the Red Demon.
Those unaffected by the Fresh Blood Wave swarmed him all at once.
Kang Oh walked through the viciously attacking bats, and swung his sword with both speed and precision. In an instant, heâd maxed out his stacks! He had accumulated 15 stars in no time at all.
âTasha!â Kang Oh said.
âTake me to the most heavily populated area.â
âItâll be dangerous.â
âDonât worry. Iâm a bomb.â
The Emperor Bats had to be worried about their safety, not him.
Kang Ohâs wings forcefully flapped, raising him into the air. He was like a flare being shot in the darkness.
There were bats in front of him. No, it would be more correct to say that they were everywhere. His ears stung from their noisy shrieks.
âShut up!â Before they could bite him, Kang Oh exploded with scarlet energy.
Dozens of Emperor Bats were caught in the explosion and fell to the floor. However, there were still so many bats left.
Kang Oh elegantly swung his sword wherever Tasha flew him to. He didnât forget to throw some Blood Spears too.
His Red Demon form only allowed him to fly for 2 minutes! Despite that, more than twenty Emperor Bats had taken significant damage and were shaking by the time he landed.
Kang Oh threw Fire Bombs everywhere too.
They unleashed fire more potent than Waryongâs, frightening the bats and forcing them to fly into the air.
Heâd used a Fire Bomb to round up the Emperor Bats. It seemed like he was haphazardly throwing them, but he was actually gathering them up in one single spot!
âYou gotta bunch them up!â
A powerful electric blast shot out of Demon Sword Blood.
The red lightning blast sliced through the black cloud of bats.
There were sparks everywhere, and several Emperor Bats fell into the unknown abyss below. However, that wasnât the end of it; Sephiro followed it up with a Buster Shot.
Arrows rained down on the bats, and the bats dropped like flies. Kang Oh and Sephiro had completely slaughtered them!
Though it seemed like theyâd killed a ton, there were still several of them left.
âSee? There are too many of them!â Sephiro said weakly.
âAttack!â Kang Oh yelled. The more monsters, the better.
The two had differing opinions on the matter. Nonetheless, they both crazily fought against the bats.
In the end, they managed to kill all of them.
[You have killed more than 400 Emperor Bats at once.]
[Fame has increased slightly.]
Indeed, the two had managed to kill more than 400 Emperor Bats.
âHoo.â Kang Oh examined the system messages that heâd been too busy to look at.
Killing more than 400 Emperor Bats has to be worth a level up!
âNow Iâm level 390.â
He wasnât far from level 400. Through First Hunter and the goddessâs quest, Kang Oh had faced off against powerful monsters, allowing him to level up quickly.
Moreover, Kang Oh wasnât the only one close to his goal.
[Demon Sword Blood has leveled up.]
[Demon Sword Blood is level 29.]
Heâd deliberately used Blood instead of Ubist, even though Ubistâs abilities were far superior. However, he was rewarded for his efforts.
âI wonder what its next ability will be.â
He was excited to see what Bloodâs new ability would be when it hit level 30.
âWell, I can be excited later. First comes hunting!â
Kang Oh and Sephiro went deeper into the abyss.
The vertical cave was extremely deep. In building terms, it was as if it had 20 underground floors. It wasnât a cave that could be fully explored in a single day.
Kang Oh, Sephiro, and Eder, who joined in later, took three days to fully explore the cave.
There were dangers incomparable to the Emperor Bats that lived near the entrance. They encountered four-armed mutant ogres, Minotaurs, and various other monsters.
They also encountered a group of Devil Dogs, which spewed sulfur and hydrochloric acid, giant monster bugs that seemed like a fusion between cockroaches and grasshoppers, centipedes with blades for legs, etc.
The centipedes were especially tough, as they were all named monsters and were almost level 600. They were definitely the strongest monsters here.
However, they werenât impossible to defeat, so Kang Ohâs party managed to reach the end of the cave.
âItâs a door,â Eder said. The Magic Lampâs light shined on the door.
âThis must be the dungeon thatâs at the end of the cave. Itâs supposedly more dangerous than the Saul Graveyard, which is teeming with powerful undead,â Kang Oh said, his eyes gleaming. The more dangerous the dungeon, the better. After all, a higher difficulty meant better rewards.
âIâm opening it!â Kang Oh forcefully opened the door.
The door âscreechedâ, as if it hadnât been opened in a long time, and the inside smelled like old dust.
[You are the first to discover ???.]
âQuestion marks?â Kang Oh saw the system message and tilted his head. This was the first time the game hadnât told him the dungeonâs name. Thus, it felt like this place was more special, and more dangerous than any normal dungeon.
Kang Ohâs heart pounded with excitement as he walked forward.
All they saw was darkness. However, yellow eyes glowed from within.
[You have seen an extremely potent Petrifying Gaze.]
[The petrification is quickly spreading, starting from your fingertips and toes.]
[Take action before you are fully petrified!]
âWhy did it have to be a Petrifying Gaze!?â
âDoctor Eder!â Kang Oh yelled.
âIâll give us some light first. Light Sphere!â A sphere of light surged from his skull staff.
Sephiro raised his Magic Lamp into the air. They could clearly see their enemy now.
It was a powerful monster that appeared in countless fantasy games!
At times, it was depicted as a lizard, and it was sometimes depicted as a snake too. One similarity, however, was that their eyes were usually dangerous. They would either kill you or turn you to stone.
These Basilisks were capable of turning them to stone. They were also more like snakes than lizards, as they possessed no legs, and their tongues darted in and out. They were so large that a fully grown anaconda looked small in comparison.
It was both hideous and intimidating enough to be a Basilisk. Honestly, it could be called a boss too. Based on the records, it was at least level 600!
âMedicine!â Kang Oh saw his hand turn to stone and yelled.
âEat this.â Eder quickly pulled out medicine balls for all of them. Once they took the drug, the petrification process stopped, but it didnât cure their already existing symptoms.
âItâll take a few minutes before it completely deals with the petrification,â Eder said.
âWill that guy leave us alone for that long?â Sephiro asked.
It was exactly as Kang Oh said.
It made an unpleasant noise as it approached.
Kang Oh, Sephiro, Eder, and Waryong couldnât move properly, as their fingertips and toes were turned to stone.
âStay alive until the drug works its magic,â Kang Oh yelled.
âDonât look at its eyes. If you do, then youâll get petrified again,â Eder yelled urgently.
âOkâŠâ Kang Oh was interrupted before he could finish. The Basilisk tried to gobble him up in a single bite.
Kang Oh threw himself out of the way.
The Basiliskâs mouth left a crater in the ground, as if a bomb had just gone off.
It aimed for Kang Oh again, its tongue darting in and out. The Basilisk moved with both speed and precision!
However, Kang Oh didnât just sit there. He pointed Blood at its open mouth.
The electric blast went down the Basiliskâs throat, which caused it to tingle. However, it only lasted a short time. Shortly after, it darted its tongue in and out like nothing had happened!
âLooks like its elemental resistance is really high.â
This was the first monster heâd seen that could get back on its feet so quickly after a Lightning Breath. However, there was an even bigger problem.
It wasnât just one Basilisk. There were six eyes that glowed in the darkness!
Kang Oh, Eder, and Sephiro had to fight three Basilisks, despite not being able to move properly