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In general, it was widely believed that the elite monsters—which usually appeared in rank six dungeons—could only be hunted by over three players of rank-B level fifty. However, Kim Do-Jin appeared to hunt the elite monsters rather leisurely, despite having only two and not even three psychic-type players to support him.
‘Yeah, Kim Do-Jin. He is different from just a typical prospect.’
‘We certainly underestimated him.’
Although they were surprised and some even changed their minds about him, the majority expected Do-jin to be this good since he was called a super rookie. He also had the support of an entire country.
Thus, the ten attackers reached the Boss Monster room easily. They wrestled against the Knight of Darkness and succeeded in driving their swords into its neck. In the meantime, Kim Do-Jin had done more than enough for one person. Naturally, all of those who had been filled with complaints changed the way they looked at him.
“Good job, Kim Do-Jin. You did better than I expected. I understand why the country counts on you.” The man in his thirties, who was the leader of the attack team and also a tanker, spoke to Kim Do-Jin for the first time.
“It’s coming. Everyone, prepare yourselves,” said Do-Jin with sharp eyes.
Even though they felt doubt, the majority of the attackers took on a defensive posture, as expected from veterans of B-rank or higher.
At that moment, the Knight of Darkness who they assumed was dead rose and emitted red sword energy all over the place. The inside of the boss room was filled with dust, along with an explosion and the confused attackers’ screams.
“What is this?!”
“It definitely was dead, wasn’t it?”
In fact, the Knight of Darkness had died and the attackers had received the corresponding experience points. However, the given points had been somewhat small for the first clear of a boss monster.
The confusion was only momentary. The dust clouds settled, revealing the attackers’ stiffened faces. There were initially ten of them, but…
‘Three are dead?’
Three attackers who had ignored and did not respond to Do-Jin’s words were now cold corpses rolling on the ground.
Right at the front, Do-Jin was fighting the resurrected Knight of Darkness alone.
While they observed the Knight of Darkness randomly scatter its sword energy, everyone was thinking the same thing.
‘That’s the power of the rank six boss monster?’
‘…Is there also such a thing as the elites of the boss monster?’
The resurrected Knight of Darkness emanated a much stronger momentum than before. It wasn’t as strong as the general rank seven, but it was still overwhelmingly strong among the rank six boss monsters the attackers had ever seen. The word ‘elite’ came to mind for a reason. Elite monsters were three times stronger than their counterparts.
For the first time in history, the attackers were faced with a different pattern from the investigation team’s initial investigation and prediction. It was a situation that could lead to annihilation if things went wrong, but the confusion did not last long.
‘Kim Do-Jin. He’s not falling behind even when fighting with that boss monster.’
With minor injuries from the continuous fierce battles, Kim Do-Jin was drenched in blood, but he was unbelievably calm as he continued to attack. It was an equal match.
‘That Knight of Darkness versus the hunter who just reached rank-C…’
They were fighting at an almost equal level. This clearly went beyond the realm of outstanding…and went to the point of making absolutely no sense. However, it was happening right in front of the attackers’ eyes.
‘Did that guy hide his skills the whole time before the boss match?’
After entering the dungeon, Kim Do-Jin had displayed quite a bit of skill, but it had not been as good as what the attackers were seeing right now. Kim Do-Jin was even smiling with a red glimmer in his eyes. It appeared like neither defeat nor death was on his mind. The surreal appearance sparked the word ‘hope’ in all of the attackers’ minds.
“Hey, healer, what are you doing?! Wake up! Give Kim Do-Jin a Heal!” A man in his forties—who had initially been the least pleased with Do-Jin joining—clenched his fist and shouted. There was a little admiration and awe in his eyes while he drew his main weapon— the bow—and pulled the bowstring.
“I’ll go to the front!” A man in his thirties, who was also the team leader, ran out shouting to play the role of a tanker.
The sword that was swerved toward Kim Do-Jin’s heart momentarily bent away from him and towards the tanker. The tanker felt a heavy shock from the raised shield and was pushed back.
‘Even a tanker like me is being pushed back by this much…’
Do-Jin was an attacker but he didn’t retreat even a step while facing the boss monster’s sword.
‘Isn’t he the real monster?’
Of course, this wasn’t a criticism and more of a compliment. Certainly, Do-Jin was fundamentally different. He was the future New Star that would lead the Republic of Korea, which was somewhat ignored among other developed countries.
‘I’ll protect you by any means.’
The man shouted again and ran forward determinedly.
Soon, the 30-minute battle ended. Kim Do-Jin’s sword pierced the Knight of Darkness’ neck. This was the first boss that created the word ‘Phase two’. The black blood poured down to the floor. A black glimmer had been emitting from inside the Knight of Darkness’ helmet. The monster’s knees were bent. The boss monster—which drove the entire attack squad to fear for their lives—was completely dead.
“Whoo…” Do-Jin let out a short sigh and withdrew Insight skill amid countless level-up notifications and messages from the gods.
Simultaneously, the surviving attackers around Do-Jin shouted along with cheers.
“Kim Do-Jin!”
“You’re the best. That was stunning!”
“Thanks to you, we survived. I’ll never forget what you have done.”
“How the hell did you know about the change in boss monster?! You’re amazing!”
It had simply been intuition since the airflow had felt different from the usual. Do-Jin had intuitively known that it would have been dangerous if he didn’t spare any strength.
All Kim Do-Jin did was believe in his skill—‘Sixth Sense’—but he did not bother to explain it. He wasn’t even listening to the surrounding cheers. Do-Jin was born to be a leader who knew how to lead and gain followers, so he didn’t reject those who crowded around him and rejoiced. However, his thoughts lay somewhere else as he smiled.
‘Choi Yu-Seong, soon I’ll make you like them.’
There was another person he had been coveting lately.
***
There was a rank two dungeon located in a mountain. Somewhere in the desert field, entering through a crypt with Baek Chul’s guidance, Choi Yu-Seong scratched his ear.
‘Ah, my ears are itchy. Is there someone swearing at me?’
Although he felt so itchy that his nerves were on edge, he soon started to grin at the level-up message window floating in front of him.
‘It feels like I’ve already received all the presents.’
Yu-Seong was surrounded by corpses of rank two monsters—Tusks Moul—but there was no other hunter except him in the area. It was a monopoly of the hunting ground! He was enjoying the privilege that any low-rank hunter—struggling to level up—wished for.
‘I should enjoy it now. It’ll be hard to monopolize dungeons by myself like this when I become a higher rank.’
As his rank went up, Choi Yu-Seong had to go to a higher-grade dungeon in order to get as many experience points as he wanted. The problem was that the dungeons’ difficulty rose sharply every time they crossed certain boundaries.
Therefore, the higher the rank, the number of people who hunted alone decreased dramatically. In fact, except for some of the world’s leading players, it was safe to say that it was necessary to organize parties or attack teams.
Anyway, the current situation was unexpectedly somewhat sweet for Choi Yu-Seong. Fortunately, there was a rank two dungeon in the mountain that matched his level. Thus, he came to try out the Wind Control Execution and level-up. However, he had gained more than he expected from monopolizing the hunting ground by himself.
‘Maybe they didn’t even register this dungeon to the association.’
It was originally illegal if a dungeon was found and not registered to the Association. However, for Choi Ji-Ho, if he informed the Association of the dungeon’s location, his hiding place could be revealed. Since it was just a rank two dungeon, it would not be as difficult to manage. Therefore, it was entirely possible that Ji-Ho could have concealed the dungeon’s existence.
Of course, it was a bit tricky to catch Tusks Moul crawling underground. Even so, it wasn’t that disappointing because Yu-Seong was quite satisfied with monopolizing the hunting ground.
‘I think I’m going to get drunk from the glee of dungeon monopoly.’
There was nothing more to say about this. It was easily proven by the results.
This novel is available on bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
『Name: Choi Yu-Seong
Age: 20
Series: All-Rounder
Rank: E
Level: 60
Retention History : 1
Special Skills: Star Factor Quality E, Fusion E
General Skills: Stylish F, Eye of Replication E, Spark E, Insight E, Vision-reinforcement F, Physical-reinforcement (overwrite) → Protective Shield E
Special Skill: Wind Stance (E)
Current Disabled Skill Space: No space left. If necessary, you can delete and overwrite normal skills except for the initial skills. 』
Choi Yu-Seong drank the Hunting experience boost potion without hesitation since he was monopolizing the dungeon. And as a result, he was able to level up more than 20 times in just three days.
Obviously, there was also a risk that no one could save Yu-Seong from danger since he was alone. So, Jin Yu-Ri entered the dungeon and watched Yu-Seong from a distance. It was not impossible for her to enter together with him since the dungeon was not exactly registered with the Association.
‘She looked a bit disappointed when I told her to stay so far away, but it can’t be helped.’
In fact, Yu-Seong had initially placed Yu-Ri nearby, but she kept trying to help whenever Yu-Seong seemed to be in even a little bit of danger, so he asked her to keep a further distance from him. There had been as many as twenty Tusks Mouls killed by Jin Yu-Ri at the beginning of the hunt.
‘Because while I was catching about twenty of them, Yu-Ri caught them at a similar rate.’
It was not that good for Yu-Seong’s growth in many ways. Therefore, Yu-Seong pretended not to notice Yu-Ri’s disappointment and made her stay a distance away. In addition, he sternly warned her not to step up until he gave a signal.
‘If it’s not to the point of really dying, it’s good to be in a situation where I can feel a certain degree of danger even for the sake of real-life experiences.’
Of course, Yu-Seong did not completely kick Yu-Ri out because he had already experienced a big incident once due to his mistake.
‘It would be difficult for criminals or other power influences to affect the dungeon that Ji-Ho hyung-nim is managing, but…’
No one knew what went on inside a dungeon. In this case, Jin Yu-Ri was a strong safety device that could replace the role of a trusted colleague made to watch Yu-Seong’s back, which was what Yu-Seong desired. Anyway, except for such large variables, a moderate threat to monster hunting was essential for maintaining and developing a sense of battle.
Of course, Yu-Seong did not like pain either. In addition, he didn’t want to feel the thrill of risking his life. However, he thought he had no choice but to carry the minimum risk considering the various threats ahead. ‘Although it would be nice to have a skill similar to Sixth Sense like Kim Do-Jin…’
Not long ago, Yu-Seong had obtained Wind Stance that was as good as Kim Do Jin’s protagonist grade skills. Although he clicked his tongue in regret, he decided not to be too greedy. In fact, it was already much easier to dodge attacks by Tusk Mouls that suddenly popped out of the ground than ordinary hunters thanks to Wind Control Execution.
After about twenty more minutes immersed in hunting, Yu-Seong rose another level and checked the watch that worked even in the dungeon. “Shall I call it a day?”
It was soon time for the sun to set. At that moment, Yu-Seong caught strange movements in the corners of his eyes when he was about to return from hunting at a similar time as usual.
‘Something just now…’
Some of the dungeon landscape that had been familiar after seeing it for a few days was distorted.