âItâs a pain, but what can I do?â I said to myself outside of Store 72.
The Time Attack quest was much more important than normal dungeon hunting, and I wanted to get first place by a mile. I quickly made my way to Cairoâs Store, but when I got there, I had no choice, but to leave right away. The only way to participate in the quest was to buy an entry pass to either a one-man or a sixteen-man dungeon.
I had to keep my promise to Anton and Marie to keep buying from Store 72. It was a bit of a pain, but they did help me out quite a bit. Besides, it took less than a minute to get from Cairo to Seoul now. I already had the cash to use.
I left Seoulâs Teleporter Zone and headed for Store 72âs general store.
â
âHey! Are you actually going to do it?â
âOf course I will! You saw the rewards; thereâs no way I can pass it up.â
âDudeâŚif all we needed was motivation, then everyone would do it. But look at the rewards yourself. Do you think itâll be that easy? Youâre going to get ripped apart by the monsters.â
âOi. Are you telling me to pass it up?â
âNo, do it. Knock yourself out. The entry passes are 1 golden ring each, anyway. Just donât expect anything. You should look in a mirror. You actually look like youâll get first place! Puhahaha!â
âTsk. YouâŚyou never know! I might not get first place, but I could at least rank high! I may not look it, but Iâm the ace of my team!â
âHaâŚsure, whatever. The rankings are going to come out after today so good luck with whatever youâre going to do.â
ââ
Everyone was talking about the Time Attack quest.
-Yeah, it always gets noisy when these types of quests appear.-
These quests were perfect for people to compare themselves and find out who was really stronger, even for average devas. In the past, I didnât have anyone to do that with, but now, at least I had a few people I could show off to.
I quickly headed up to the general store and bought 60 one-man entry passes and 60 sixteen-man entry passes. I knew I could only enter 60 dungeons in the next month, but I bought 120 passes just in case.
âEntry passes arenât resellable and will expire in thirty days.â
âOkay, got it.â
As I browsed through some other items, I heard a loud bang that sounded every time I came to this Store. I left the general store and looked up to see Anton.
âItâs you again, Lee Jiwon?â
I decided that it would be best to visit his office first next time. He was attracting way too much attention.
â
I found myself back in Antonâs office, sipping on tea and talking with Anton and Marie.
âHa⌠you always give me a fright every time you come to my Store.â
âI can see that. Iâll make sure to visit your office first. Itâs getting old.â
âI know, right? Please do that from now on,â Anton said, taking my joke seriously. âAnyway, what did you do this time? There arenât that many things that could give me these many points.â
It could only be Absolute Destruction. I doubted that Altered Equality could make Anton this excited.
âHehehe.â It was always nice being able to surprise someone like this.
âWhy are you laughing? Well, whatever the reason, itâs good for me too. If my best customerâs happy, then Iâm happy too.â Anton started laughing too.
âItâs nice to see youâve been doing well, Master Lee.â
âThanks, Marie.â
â
After a few more words, I left Antonâs office.
âHey, thatâs him, isnât it?â
âYeah, itâs Lee Jiwon.â
âIs he here for Time Attack?â
âI guess so. But wouldnât he be super helpful in a sixteen-man dungeon?â
âOf course he will. Even if half of his rumors are true, having him on your team would be one hell of an advantage. Someone of his caliber could easily make short work of the quest.â
âThen, since heâs not part of any guild or anything, thereâs going to be some fierce competition to get him on a team.â
âWho knows? Itâs only the first day, and thereâs still plenty of time left. All we can do is wait and see.â
âDamnâŚall those guys who had been saying that theyâre the top players must be freaking out. Everyoneâs going to see the results right away.â
âHah! Youâre right. Itâs going to be fun to watch.â
Again, people were staring at me and talking to themselves. I quickly wove through the crowd and left the Store.
âBlink 1. Blink 2.â I Blinked away to get as far away from the Storeâs vicinity as possible. âLooks like there arenât any records out yet.â
Next to both Cairoâs Store and Antonâs Store were two large thirty-meter tall display boards. One was for the one-man dungeons and the other was for the sixteen-man dungeons.
âThen again, the quest did just drop.â Only an hour had passed since I first heard about the quest in Alexandria.
âThe highest record back then wasâŚhuh, I donât know.â I racked my brain but it didnât come to me. I didnât really care about the quest back then, so it was obvious that I didnât know.
âOh, but I do remember that all of the deities monopolized the one-man dungeons.â The memory came to me as I looked back at the display boards from atop a building overlooking the Store.
The sixteen-man dungeons were mostly completed by parties, but the one-man dungeons required a player to tank and deal damage on his own. In other words, healers and supporters couldnât enter one-man dungeons on their own, it was impossible for them. Tanks were in similar situations, as well.
Only high-damage dealers and all-rounders stood a chance in one-man dungeons, but even mages, archers, or assassins were at risk, as they couldnât withstand high amounts of damage.
âThatâs right. People were going off that the one-man dungeons were made specifically for deities.â They really were the perfect dungeons for deities, who could attack and defend easily.
âBut nowâŚheh.â Things would be different now. I was going to get so far ahead of everyone else that people would start thinking that my ranking was a bug. Then again, if I did that, I could cause quite a stirâŚ
âWell⌠it doesnât matter now. I canât hide my strength anymore.â
I took out a one-man dungeon entry pass from my inventory. âEnter one-man dungeon.â
==[You have used a one-man dungeon entry pass.
You will now be moved to a one-man dungeon.
Dying in the dungeon will incur the same death penalty as always. However, you can always give up the dungeon and will be moved back outside.
Monsters in this dungeon do not drop items, golden rings or EXP.
You will be timed until you defeat the dungeonâs boss monster.]==
I was soon transferred from the rooftop to another place, inside a dungeon I had never seen before.
âMana Conversion â Fire.â
==[Mana Conversion â Fire Level 2 has been activated.]==
This was only my first attempt. I still had plenty more chances, and decided to use Mana Conversion to test the waters here.
âLetâs do this.â There was a wall behind me and the only way was forward. I stepped forth, filled with anticipation and excitement. Soon, I could see hordes of orcs blocking the way.
âNice. Itâs been awhile since Iâve seen you guys.â Monsters had to be orcs. However, these orcs werenât normal. They all looked as strong as the Legendary Orc Champion, the first dungeon boss monster Iâd ever faced. But still, they werenât boss monsters, and I had grown much, much stronger since then.
I charged in at the horde without hesitation, and pummeled them with my spear.
âGwek!â an orc cried out as my spear stabbed through his chest.
âSkree! Itâs a human!â
âKill him!â The orcs charged in at me as well, but it was exactly what I wanted them to do.
-One, two, three, fourâŚ.-
I swung my spear at the orcs without rest and counted each time I attacked. I wanted to see Absolute Destruction go off. There was only a 1% chance it would work. In other words, it should go off in about 100 attacks. But going off once every 100 attacks was basically worthless. It had to at least go off once every 50 attacks.
âKwek!â
-Thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nineâŚ-
I started to get nervous the closer I got to 50. I was lucky enough to have Shaman Ko give me 3 Stat points a day when that itself only had a 1% chance of working. Powerful Shock went off a few times, too; although it only did it just when I was about to forget about it.
-This isnât looking goodâŚ-
If Absolute Destruction activates as often as Powerful Shock, then it would really suck. It would have been better to get another effect.
âKwek!â
Of course, I didnât really need either of them to activate against these orcs that fell easily against my attacks. It would be better if they activated against the boss monster later on.
âBut if they donât go off here, how can I expect them to go off in the boss room?â
I struck down the final orc in front of me. In less than seven minutes, I had cleared the surrounding area of elite orcs.
âHaâŚthat was 317 attacks, and still no sign of Absolute Destruction.â Neither effect had activated against at least a hundred orcs.
âNoâŚitâs too early to give up!â I quickly headed forward. There were undead monsters for balance purposes and a few spike traps and rock traps here and there. There was also an iron door that required constant damage to break but none of these were enough to slow me down. I crushed anything in my way and sprinted ahead. I wasnât worried about any of that.
âShit. What isâŚgoing on here?â Absolute Destructionâs probability was very weird.
It did end up going off; on my 453rd attack.
A black bolt of lightning struck an undead monsterâs head.
==[Absolute Destruction has been activated.
Your opponent dies regardless of how much HP it has.]==
:
:
==[Absolute Destruction has been activated.
Your opponent dies regardless of how much HP it has.]==
It went off until my 463rd attack. It went off eleven times in a row!
âHuhâŚhow am I supposed to react to this?â I was glad that it went off consecutively like that, but it was completely random. There was nothing that could tell me it would go off soon.
âGeez. Itâs not like I canât alter it in any way, either.â
There wasnât much I could do, so I decided to leave it at that. At least it activated and I saw its power.
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I just had to hope it would go off against the boss monster. I just kept charging forward, cutting down the monsters in front of me.
==[Boss Room]==
âThat took about an hour and twenty minutes.â I did take my time going through the dungeon as I checked this and that. âIf I go as fast as I can, I could cut down my time by twenty to thirty minutes. That leaves me about an hour to clear the dungeon.â
In the end, it had to activate on the boss monster. If it did, then I could set the fastest record. Itâd even be better if it went off on the first attack!