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Evan D. Sherden. Levels Up (4)
“Have they stopped coming out?”
Shine suddenly said at one point. Evan nodded.
“There are no more.”
“Let me see, hmm
”
Raihan tried to open and close the treasure box several times to see if something would happen, but the peculiar sound effect, likened to a mechanical sound of the trap, could not be heard anymore. It was probable that the trap’s life had been exhausted.
“But Master, I feel like I could have evolved my skills a little more.”
“No, brother. Your skills have already grown a lot.”
When they had started off, they had thought it would take longer for them to completely get rid of the goblins, but the work was over after only a few hours, and everyone couldn’t help but feel empty.
What was even more amazing was how their stamina and mana had held up so far. Evan turned to Belois, and she humbly bowed her head.
“The abilities we obtained on the first floor helped us a lot,” Evan admitted.
“In the end, the abilities we achieve from clearing the different floors of the dungeon serves as a bonus that makes it easier to progress to the next floor.”
“Abilities
 Bonus
” Belois seemed to be stuck in her thoughts.
When Evan thought about Belois, he felt a little sorry for her. Only if she had liked another boy other than him and would have wanted to dance with someone else at the party yesterday, then she could have lived normally as the other maids. Evan would have even helped her, and she wouldn’t have to come to the dungeon at all.
‘It’s just a little sad.’
In fact, it would have been even sadder if Belois had actually said that
. However, on further thought, it seemed that Evan would somehow dictate his own death if he pursued this topic with Belois, so Evan refrained himself.
“Alright, I can see that the Master is thinking of nonsense again.”
“Shine, you’re just thinking stupidly again
 Young Master, then, shall we check the inside of the treasure box?”
Each time a goblin was annihilated, it converted into a light particle and returned into the treasure box. Evan knew about this as he had opened such a treasure chest in Yo-Ma Great War 2.
However, the fact that it hadn’t been discovered and was left unattended until now meant, and Evan felt a little sad at the thought, that countless other explorers had died so far and had been absorbed into this treasure chest.
Their lives had ended due to this trap.
Evan and party had cut off countless goblins’ throats, and now they were expecting a reward.
“Oh, it was originally shiny golden from the inside, but now it’s just dark. Is there anything else in this?”
“Raihan, brother, listen. Can you lift the chest?”
“Yes, Master.”
Raihan lifted the treasure chest off the floor. Evan was holding the Battle Bead in one hand, in case anything unexpected happened, and then ordered him to flip it.
Raihan did so and wiped it off. Just then, something fluttered inside the chest. It was something red
 After a closer look, they came to know that it was a red feather.
Evan was speechless while he looked at it. It was something he had never really thought to have been possible.
‘Why is it in such a place? I couldn’t find it once in the game, and now
?’
“Master Evan, do you know what this feather is? I don’t feel any magical power emitting from it, and it doesn’t seem like an artifact.”
“
 It’s the feather of the Phoenix.”
“I’m sorry?”
Evan responded vaguely. On noticing Shine’s blank look, he explained in a little more detail.
“It’s a phoenix feather used to make the Elixir.”
“Elixir
 are you talking about that elixir Master? The same Elixir that everyone in the world knows about?”
“Yes. I’m talking about the potion of immortality.”
Evan nodded and received the phoenix feather from Shine. After scrutinizing it for a while, Evan nodded again.
“This is it. I’ve only seen its image in an ancient book once, but this is definitely the feather of a phoenix, which is considered to be one of the core materials of Elixir.”
The first gateway to the quest for making Elixir, which appeared only once unconditionally in Yo-Ma Great War 2, 3, and 4, was to acquire a phoenix’s feathers.
However, none of the gamers had ever succeeded in getting their hands upon this feather. The Phoenix did not exist in the Yo-Ma Great War series. There seemed to be a record of some phoenixes having survived in ancient times, but in the modern days, neither its appearance nor traces could be found.
The question was, how were they able to acquire a phoenix feather on the 2nd floor? This seemed unreal; how could they find such a great thing here? It was said that it appeared after you solved an unsolved mystery in Yo-Ma Great War 2? No, what was this?
“The resource material for the elixir capable of saving someone at the doors of death, only appeared after sacrificing countless lives.”
‘What on Earth is this strange feeling?‘ Evan kept staring at the phoenix feather with a complex and subtle expression.
Did it mean anything for Evan and his survival in this world to have found this? It was possible that it wouldn’t mean anything at all.
His encounter with Bernard, his education of alchemy in this world, and now his concurrence with the feathers of the Phoenix had been all coincidental.
“Young Master
?”
“I’m okay, Lua. I was just lost in deep thoughts.”
However, Belois still felt worried about Evan.
It wasn’t until she had grabbed Evan’s sleeves that Evan flashed a bitter smile and put the phoenix feather in his inventory pocket.
‘But Evan, don’t forget this.’
When he had first started learning alchemy, things Bernard had told him came rushing back to his mind.
‘A person who wants to make gold from just about anything and also wanted to gain eternal life. This was just a dream. Who would know that, and how will you learn from him?’
Evan recalled these words and nodded. Of course, he hadn’t forgotten. How could he?
Evan wasn’t sure if he was just overthinking at this point. But
 he couldn’t get rid of these thoughts, which kept spiraling in his mind.
“It makes me want to explore the dungeon even more
”
Alchemy was one of the skills Evan had learned for his survival. The desire to see the end, and the desire to succeed at the strange quest, to survive until the end of the game existed as a burning flame inside Evan.
“I have a new goal now. You wouldn’t like it, but I hope you would at least want to hear about it. Would that be okay?”
“Yes, Master.”
“You don’t need to worry about anything, Master Evan.”
“I will follow the Master anywhere.”
Evan had been expecting that they would say something like this. Still, when he heard their answers, he felt refreshed. Evan smiled and said.
“Alright then. I would like to fully explore this dungeon if possible. It may be arduous, but I hope you guys will tag along with me. And if possible, I would like to venture into other dungeons too. And after that, the whole wide world,” He paused for a moment before speaking again. “It’s going to be one great adventure for all of us.”
Of course, Evan would prepare as much as he could beforehand so that his life wouldn’t be at risk. Maybe if he told Bernard about it, he would also want to come with him. How could he abstain from searching for the greatest secret in alchemy?
“It’s been a long time since you have been so excited, Master.”
“Oh, did I ever make such an expression before?”
“Yeah. One time when I finally gave up on serving you, because I became so busy.”
Hearing such words also made him feel like it was no big deal
 just Raihan had a subtle expression. Evan began to declare bravely like he did not know what was in Raihan’s heart.
“Okay, then let’s go! We can think about the Elixir later as we still have to conquer this dungeon!”
After that, Evan, along with his group, smoothly passed through the second floor. As they had already killed countless goblins belonging to the 4th floor, the second-floor dungeon felt like an easy job.
Except for Raihan, who was responsible for shielding them, the rest of the three hunted, attacked, and killed monsters whenever they encountered a group of them, and Shine and Belois, whose stamina and mana had both improved, were running swiftly throughout the dungeon without getting tired at all.
“By the way, Master.”
After having killed yet another group of goblins, Shine thought to ask Evan, all while holding a bloody scimitar in his hands.
“When do monsters other than goblins appear in the dungeon?”
“Oh, from the 6th floor.”
The reason Evan hadn’t explained this to them in advance was because they had decided to only go up to the 5th floor.
“Goblins also appear on the 6th floor, but other monsters are also present there. Some of them include the huge deathly crabs, bloodthirsty mutant rabbits, vampire bats, and deadly labyrinth rats. These monsters appear in later parts of the dungeon, so I’ll tell you about them in detail later.”
“But aren’t they just animals, Master?”
“Maybe they were originally, but animals under the dungeon’s magical influence become mutated. They continue to breed in that state and adapt to the horrendous dungeon’s environment. Anyway, they are monsters now. And they are much scarier than the goblins.”
The dungeon only sent out monsters of appropriate strength at each level.
Even if goblins appeared on the 17th floor of the dungeon, and you thought about comparing them with the goblins appearing on the lower floors, you would be in for a surprise. There were differences in superiority and inferiority depending on the species, but nonetheless, there were strong and vicious monsters.
“Of course, I’m excluding those monsters which are even more vicious and are found on the lower floors of the dungeon. Do you have any questions?”
“To be honest, Master, I wasn’t expecting big animals as monsters. I had expected some little more terrifying creatures.”
“Like an Orc or Troll? Or even a Lizardman or Ogre?”
“Yes, Master! Something like that!”
Evan laughed bitterly at Shine’s words. No matter how grown up he looked, he was still as childish.
“Orcs appear on the 16th floor. Trolls first appeared as bosses on the 25th floor and then became normal monsters on the 31st floor. Lizardmen, you must go even further to see, Ogres are on the 50th
”
An ogre had first appeared as a boss on the 50th floor of the Sherden Dungeon. It was a terrible monster that saved face for the ogres who were treated as ignorant, brutish monsters of a low-intermediate level in other games.
Certainly, it was true that Ogres couldn’t handle mana. However, it was because all of the mana was consumed by the Ogre to strengthen its power.
The Ogre’s fist was powerful enough to break the strongest shield created by the Bishop. It had a large slender body and possessed a great variety of movement patterns. There was really no match for their versatility.
‘The key to successfully defeat the monster depended on the spiritual magic of the priest in the attacking party and how he used it, or how quickly a rogue was able to create a trap and entangle the beast in it.’
Of course, some of the players had even memorized the patterns of Ogre behavior.
You could easily avoid his attacks and kill him with a hidden knife, but that was possible because it had been a game, but in reality, it would, of course, be a little different.
“The ogres are still much further down the dungeon. We just have to focus on the goblins for the time being.”
“No! I had wanted to beat such a monster.” Shine replied to Evan’s words, scratching his face.
Shine really had an excellent attitude, in that he had gained a lot of confidence in his skills as he continuously battled with monsters, and his will to develop burned like a fire inside him.
Evan laughed gratifyingly and patted his shoulder.
“My money will definitely be on you in that battle. You’re going to be one of the strongest people to defeat many ogres at once if you keep working as hard as you do now.”
“It’s so embarrassing when you say it so openly, Master!”
Evan was surprised at Shine’s reaction, who had suddenly exclaimed while blushing and strode away.
“Hey, there’s a trap in front of you, Shine!”
“I already know that, Master!”
It took another 2 hours for them to completely clear the 2nd floor of the dungeon as they finally found the stairs, which led them down to the next floor.