CH 86

Evan D. Sherden. Levels Up (1)

Surprisingly, the scimitar dropped by the Goblin Fighter turned out to be an excellent artifact.

Considering that even the lowest-grade artifacts could be bought with a few gold coins in the least, their dungeon exploration could be considered as a hit from the start.

“This isn’t something that a Goblin Fighter would drop.”

“That’s because it wasn’t just a normal Goblin Fighter.”

Thanks to Evan’s experience of acquiring and using almost all armaments from playing the Yo-Ma Great War series in his previous life, alongside his learning of alchemy, he now had a considerable knowledge for judging the quality of different objects.

Judging by his flashing eyes, the scimitar dropped by the Goblin Fighter was an artifact of considerable grade. Artifacts can commonly be classified into general, advanced, rare, and unique grades.

“This artifact is hard, sharp, and heavy, but notably the wearer is not affected by its weight…  The amount of blood that it lost due to the wound inflicted by this is enormous. It’s a high-end weapon crafted for murderous intentions. I’m sure it’s one of the smaller versions of a rare-grade artifact that I know of. No matter how much you look at it, it seems unlikely that we could’ve found it on the first floor.”

“Young Master, you would want to see this….”

While Evan was observing the scimitar, Raihan came out of a side room with a pale complexion.

“There are a lot of goblin bodies in this room…  Moreover, the smell of their blood is awful.”

“What did you say, blood? Oh, looking at the Goblin Fighter, I already made a rough estimate, but it looks like it was some kind of a boss.”

It was rare for monsters in the dungeon, as they usually did not attack each other, but there were times when special circumstances or conditions led them to destroy each other.

The dungeon absorbed all the dead bodies inside the dungeon, but the whole process took some time. Therefore, the body of the monster was recoverable for some time before it melted away completely. The scene Raihan had come across probably happened sometime before.

“Wow….” Evan strode into the room.

He shook his head and covered his nose as he witnessed the horrific sight before him. There was an abundance of goblin corpses lying in the room, as Raihan had reported. The Goblin Fighter Evan just faced had killed all the remaining ten goblins.

“But wait, what is that?”

Evan couldn’t confirm the count by looking at the shredded bodies, so he started counting the number of distant heads, which were eleven in total. One of them was inferred to be of another Goblin Fighter.

“Is it possible that there might have been some kind of anomaly?”

“…I’m not sure.”

Evan shrugged at Shine’s words. Perhaps the massacre had occurred due to the birth of two buggy Goblin Fighters. They could only speculate.

Evan looked around the room and felt something strange. There was very little blood. If the bodies had been ovulated like this, there had to have formed something of a sea of blood by now, but it looked the blood has been collecting only in certain places.

‘If that’s the case then maybe, hmmm…’

Evan touched the scimitar with some of the droplets nearby.

The scimitar started glowing and shaking in his hands. Surprisingly, the weapon had started absorbing the goblin’s blood.

“Wow, I thought it was an artifact that I knew of, but it’s not, unfortunately. Still, it is exactly the same ability as Blood Moon.”

“What is the Blood Moon, Master?”

“It’s a high-grade artifact.”

The Blood Moon was a scimitar that grew by drinking blood. In addition to this ability, it had many other specialties. It was the favorite weapon of the warrior-class adventurers, but the true value of Blood Moon was in its material. Evan could make better weapons out of it.

Of course, the artifact he had acquired now didn’t add abilities like the Blood Moon that appeared in the game. However, it evolved by absorbing blood. It would be able to grow to a certain level and catch up with Blood Moon to some extent. That was enough for the time being.

“Here. Catch this Shine.”

“Are you giving it to me, Master?”

“Yes. From now on, you’ll use it to stab the corpses of all the monsters we encounter. I think it feeds on blood. In this way, it’ll mature into another weapon later.”

“Right now, start with that Goblin Fighter. You have to be quick too.”

“Alright, Master.”

Shine faithfully performed Evan’s command without complaining. If you listened carefully to Evan, you could easily make rice cake while sleeping!

Shine already knew the advantages of being with his master.

“Master, I don’t feel very good about this place. Moreover, doesn’t the odor of the rotting blood irritate you? I also want to get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Well, is that so?”

Meanwhile, Raihan seemed disgusted by this place. Evan spoke to him with a bitter smile, who was feeling the same.

Then they thought of walking on.

“It’s better to purify ourselves and regain our stamina before moving further.”

“As I haven’t been in the practice of priesthood for a while, I forgot this is essential too. I’ll do it right away.”

Raihan knelt on the spot and started preparing for a cleansing ceremony. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket, which he usually carried, poured salt on it, closed his eyes, and murmured some divine spells.

His whole body shone as if made out of gold, which looked pleasing to the eye. Then he took a deep breath and blew into the room.

“Oh, it really doesn’t smell like blood at all.”

“That’s because it’s cleansing magic. Of course, someday, another monster will be summoned to this place again, and the smell of blood and gore will drain into this room once again…. But right now, the aroma is comfortable and soothing enough.”

In fact, the purification magic wiped out almost all the traces of battle. This could prevent other monsters from tracking them due to the odors or other elements to some extent, and they could now use this place to rest.

It wasn’t unfair to say that a party always needed a priest as they went deeper into the dungeon. The spells of the Earth Church weren’t so useless after all.

With the rise in the Brotherhood Pharmacy’s fame, almost all of the priests had been replaced, but in the end, priests were an indispensable element during a dungeon attack.

“Young master.”

“Yes?”

Belois tugged on Evan’s sleeves. When she got his attention, she pointed to a corner of the room. Evan made a weird noise as he looked.

As Raihan had used the purification magic, the room had been cleaned, and a shabby wooden box had appeared in the center of the room. Evan knew what it was. He had already seen a lot like this in the game.

“That’s the achievement reward…”

“Do you mean it was an achievement for Raihan brother to clean up this room?”

“Yes, that’s right. That is exactly why the achievement reward appeared. I guess this room and everything in it was really cursed after all!?”

After the ritual of purification was completed, Raihan put his handkerchief back in his pocket and walked over to Evan. Evan looked at him, sporting a stunned expression.

In Yo-Ma Great War 4, Raihan appeared only as a powerful Ironwall knight, so Evan didn’t know what he could actually accomplish at all. But from the beginning, it seemed that he really had been a promising priest!

“You recognized the existence of the curse only by sensing the atmosphere…. I’ve really put together a dream team.”

“Wow, the air seems to be much better now. Let’s go to the next place, Master. Uh, what is this?”

“It’s a reward for your accomplishment. Now, I’ll open it.”

“Are there any traps?”

“There are no traps in boxes with achievement rewards.”

Evan opened the box without any hesitation. It contained dozens of silver coins, seven gold coins, and a small jewel.

“Well, what do we have here…”

Evan picked up the transparent jewel and checked it. He knew about this too.

“This is also an artifact.”

Up until now, they had acquired one artifact from a Goblin Fighter and one as an achievement reward. They had already procured two artifacts on the first floor of the dungeon. He emptied the rest of the box in his inventory pocket and handed the gem to Raihan.

“This is an advanced artifact. It’s not that strong, but you can use it because it has the ability to create a shield by providing divine power. I was anxious about what to use it for because I don’t have armor, but it would be better if you had it, brother.”

“I’ll definitely be able to move and react much faster with the help of the divine magic. Thank you, Master.”

The scimitar had almost the same abilities as that of the Blood Moon, and the advanced artifacts that they had just obtained weren’t really things that would normally appear on the first floor of the dungeon, but Evan decided to just go along with it.

“I’m glad it wasn’t a bad bug.”

“What’s a bad bug, Master?”

“I’ll let you know once we proceed down to the third floor.”

After collecting all the items, the party returned to the passage and started advancing again. On the way, they encountered some people who seemed to be rookie explorers just like them, but Evan walked past them without making any eye contact.

“Is it right to ignore them like this Master? I think it came off as a bit cold.”

“The most important thing to watch out for in the dungeon are the explorers, who can prove to be more treacherous than actual monsters or traps.”

The dungeon sucked in all corpses. They did not just take those of the monsters, but also human corpses.

It was like the dungeon always rejoiced whenever a murder occurred. In the process, all the evidence was destroyed too.

“There is no way someone would commit such a crime in here, Master.”

“There are a lot of naive new explorers who usually think so, Shine. But keep this in mind. The scariest things in the world are people. Monsters are obtrusively hostile, but humans feign affection.”

They had just discovered the first hidden elements of the dungeon and acquired two artifacts.

If Evan had been inside the dungeon with some poor explorers, they might have gone selfish for their personal reasons. Then, even the second son of the Marquis could not have survived in such a situation.

“A human would commit murder for such reasons….”

“In that sense… the people we saw before, are they not following us?”

“I think so.”

“Okay, so let’s get back to the task at hand. What do we have here?” Evan casually picked up one of the rocks placed in the hallway and tapped it lightly.

Of course, the fact stood that Evan possessed greater powers than that of a normal child, so the rock shattered.

“Wow, gold coins are pouring from the inside!”

“These types of specific rocks are actually made up of gold coins. Don’t start looking around and breaking random rocks, they are not everywhere. Let’s go.”

After that, Evan led the group and went back and forth through the dungeon’s first floor, breaking down the walls, which led to several undiscovered passages.

Along the way, they kept killing all the goblins they came across.

Standing on top of a pile of skulls in an empty room, Evan tapped the third brick on the left which opened up another room. Once again, an abundance of goblins waited for them inside.

The dream team killed these monsters both effortlessly and ruthlessly. They then took as much rest as they could in one of the shelters, took a sip of water, and started killing goblins again.

“You all performed exceptionally.”

Over seven hours had passed since they first entered the dungeon. Evan praised their efforts.

“We were able to clear the first floor of the dungeon successfully.”

“We did it!? It’s been less than eight hours, let alone a complete day, Master!”

“It was because of this map that I had drawn. It was impossible for us to get lost in the mazes as I was able to navigate between the correct paths to the second floor.”

“But then, why haven’t we seen the stairs yet, Master?”

“Because I avoided going there until now.”

Evan neatly ignored Shine’s betrayed gaze and checked the map of the first floor of the dungeon again.

They had left nothing out. All the secret elements in Yo-Ma Great War 2, 3, and 4 had been checked once.

He was a little surprised to find that the secret elements had been opened for the first time and had remained intact. What did Leo Arpeta take from this dungeon?

“I guess the explorers here aren’t capable of anything.”

“No, it’s weird. You can’t find these secrets unless you’re trying to destroy the whole dungeon and rebuild them,” Shine coldly pointed out this time.

Ignoring it, Evan finally guided the party to the second floor of the dungeon. Since he already knew all the directions, they were able to get there in just five minutes. Indeed, the stairs going down to the second floor materialized in front of their eyes.

“What is this feeling? Why do I feel so depressed all of a sudden?”

“…This has been the dream of my life.”

“Wait a minute… Isn’t it possible that some of our levels may not rise because the clear contribution is insufficient?”

While Shine and Belois were looking somewhat grim, Raihan spoke his worry out hesitantly. The two couldn’t deny his words.

However, they had nothing to worry about. Soon, they all heard a clear, mesmerizing voice.

[You have evolved to level 2.]