by Elan Wang
“Using my skill has got me a bit tired. Massage my shoulders a bit, why don’t you?”
What the hell is this old man saying.
“Manager Kim…that’s a bit…”
“SunbehOppa.”
When I tried to say something, Sooah shut me up. When I looked at her, she shook her head and smiled brightly as if to say it was fine.
“Manager Kim~ So your shoulders hurt a lot~ Then I’ll give you a special massage~”
Sooah walked to manager Kim with the biggest smile on her face.
“I’ll do it very softly~”
Crunch.
“Euk..?”
“Oh no. Does that hurt? But I did it softly. It seems manager Kim is more sensitive than I expected.”
“Wha, what! It doesn’t hurt at all! It feels refreshing! HAHAHAH!”
Crunch. Cruunch.
“Ahhhhh…”
“Isn’t it so very refreshing?”
“Yeh…yesssss.”
“Then should I apply just a little bit more pressure?”
“This is quite enough…”
CRUNCH!
When Sooah dug right into the his spine, manager Kim’s body shook as if he’d been struck by lightning.
Looks like he wasn’t screaming because he couldn’t…not because he was holding it in.
“Oh looks like you’re knotted up here too.”
“Kaaah!”
Cruunch, crunch. Crunch,
CRUNCH! CRUUUNCH!
Snap!
“Ha? Did something break?”
When Sooah let go, manager Kim passed out..foaming at the mouth.
“..you didn’t kill him, did you?”
“I have a sports massage certification. He’ll feel real good once he wakes up again.”
“You’re certified in all sorts of things aren’t you.”
“Should I do it for you too, SunbehOppa?”
“No.”
“I’ll do it softly.”
“Quit it. Don’t even think about it.”
When the monsters evaporated, two ores were dropped behind. Not bad. Not bad at all.
“What a good start. It would be nice if we got a dropped item today. Then don’t we get a bonus?”
Jung Sooah asked while picking up the ores.
“Yeah right. You really think that’ll happen?”
In all my 6 years as a porter, I’ve never seen an item drop in a level 1 dungeon. Even in a level 2 dungeon, I’d only seen an item drop two times…and they were both only level 1 items. That is how rare it was to get an item in a low level dungeon. Getting a skillbook from a level 4 monster in one go was like a one in a million event.
Manager Kim finally woke up.
“Umm..what happened?”
“Doesn’t it feel good? Should I do it for you again next time?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll do it for you every time you mess up on your skill.”
“No, no no worries. That’ll never happen.”
As Jung Sooah tried to put her hands on his shoulders, manager Kim violently shook his head to show her just how much he didn’t need it.
***
Everyone in the party quickly adapted to the dungeon. Cho Youngoo was now able to use his shield successfully and even begin to attack as well while Han Joonseok was able to now hit his mark 1 out of 3 tries with his arrow. I also made glasses girl slow down and concentrate on accuracy rather than speed.
Most surprisingly, even manager Kim improved. He was now able to put to sleep 3 monsters at a time every time. It seemed it wasn’t his ability that was at fault but his concentration.
As everyone steadily improved, our dungeon clearing pace picked up as well.
Now things had changed. Everyone agreed that our goal had become clearing the dungeon.
“Whew.”
When we had gone around the dungeon, Jung Sooah’s backpack was filled to the top with ores. If I were to estimate, it was probably over 150kg. A male porter could usually carry up to 200kg and a girl porter could carry 150kg. She was now carrying more than she was used to.
When she couldn’t store any more in her bag, we had no choice but to start filling mine.
“I’m sorry. Even though this is my job.”
“It would be a bigger problem if you overwork yourself. Just do what you can.”
“Ok.”
“And I won’t know until I finish the calculations, but I’ll make sure to pay you as much as you worked.”
“Really?”
“You worked this hard. I can’t pay you only $50 in good conscience.”
“Yes! SunbehOppa, you’re a great boss!”
“But didn’t we pretty much kill them all? Why isn’t it clearing?”
Manager Kim, who had been resting on the ground, asked.
Baekoonsa dungeon splits into two different courses. Both courses do not meet so you have to complete one trail, come back to the beginning, and complete the other trail. We had already completed both trails.
“No…it can’t be…”
Sooah opened her mouth. She didn’t finish what she was about to say, but everyone knew what she was thinking. A monster doesn’t always appear at the same spot. But there was a small chance that an irregular could appear.
“Let’s leave this spot first.”
We had pretty much killed enough monsters so there was no need for us to get greedy and try to clear the dungeon. We started heading quickly to the front of the dungeon.
“Stop.”
I raised my hand to have everyone behind me stop.
There was a cave wolf curled up on the floor in front. Well…I thought it was a cave wolf, but it was two times the normal size.
“It’s the dungeon boss.”
“How is it here…?”
Glasses girl asked with a tense face. Yep. You guessed it. The Baekoonsa dungeon does not have a dungeon boss. There was only one reason why this boss was here.
“It’s an irregular.”
At my words, everyone started to freak out.
***
We backed up and went back to the crossroads we came from. This was because if we stayed any longer and it saw us, we would have had to fight immediately. Cho Youngoo asked.
“Can’t we put a sleep spell on it and kill it then?”
“That kind of spell does not work on a dungeon boss.”
“How dare you flap your mouth when you’re only a beginner? You think I didn’t do anything if that were possible?”
Manager Kim yelled out at the same time I answered him. That old man’s mouth will get him into a lot of trouble someday.
“Aren’t you being too harsh? If you know so much, shouldn’t you suggest an idea to get rid of him then?”
“You think I’m being like this because I know…I’m just saying if you’re a rookie, you should just stay quiet.”
When Han Joonseok took Cho Youngoo’s side, manager Kim said his last sentence but stopped talking after that. At least they didn’t start going at it.
“There must be something we could do?”
Glasses girl asked. She remained a more calm attitude, different from the last raid. Seeing her improvement, I felt a little proud for having given her that small advice.
“I’m thinking.”
I had packed 3 cases of pepper bombs just in case we would cross paths with an irregular. This was to take away their sense of smell and sight. It wasn’t anything special – just homemade – but the difference between having it and not having it would prove to be huge.
Slap.
I lightly slapped my cheeks. Concentrate.
There is a big difference between a normal monster and a boss monster. If I were to put it into perspective, it would be like trying to fight 10 normal monsters all at one time. And on top of that, any knock out magic like sleep spells don’t work on it – we can only beat it by physical attacks. For this reason, whenever there is a boss, it is normal for everyone to prepare thoroughly ahead of tim
e before entering the dungeon.
But we were not ready to take on a boss. Nope.
I started talking aloud to myself.
“The goal is to get out safely. The problem is, that thing is blocking our only exit…”
I turned to face the party. They were all people who came here by trusting in me. Though our relationship was strictly business, that’s where trust starts. I felt like if I just got them through this successfully, these people would put their full confidence in me from here on out. That manager Kim could really be a good addition to my team too.
There is an opportunity in every crisis.
I slowly spoke.
“Can you give me a little time alone? I’ll be right back.”
***
How should I do this? I took inventory of what I had available to me.
One warrior and two archers. I also had a mage and a porter.
If I looked at it objectively, Han Joonseok and glasses girl just kind of sucked. I couldn’t rely on them to do any kind of real damage. It would be a relief if they hit their mark. The best thing that they could do was maybe create some sort of distraction.
The cave wolf was at least two times bigger than Cho Youngoo. If it bit on his shield and pulled, Cho Youngoo would most definitely be dragged around like a rag doll. He would either have to let go of the shield or hold onto it…and both would be disastrous.
What if the archers stand at a distance from each other and shoot. Then the wolf would probably go after the archer that hits it.
Then Cho Youngoo would be between them…waiting for the wolf to attack one – after which he would follow to aid the archer who would be under attack. If Cho Youngoo is slow to react or the wolf moves too fast, the archer would die no matter what. But if Cho Youngoo succeeds in reaching the archer first, then the other archer can keep shooting at the wolf. Then when the wolf starts heading toward the other archer, I would step in.
I shook my head.
This plan sucked balls. There’s no way the wolf would move the way I want it to. I can’t rely on chance and call it a plan.
“If we do this, we’ll all die.”
No matter how much I wracked my brain, all I could think of was running away. Luckily, there were two paths in this dungeon. If one person can lure the wolf into one path, then the rest who would be hiding in the other path could run away and live. We needed a mickey.
And the only person who can do this in our group was me. No one else would have the balls or skills to do it.
Hey. At least now I feel a little better since I know what to do. It’s not an impossible thing I guess. I mean, I do have some things up my sleeve.
Bloodysword. Pepper bombs. And my “effort”.
I closed my left eye to check my stats.
[0,3,2350]
2350 reward points.
What can I do with this?
First things first, I needed to figure out my end goal.
What was it that i wanted?
If I go unprepared, even if I might have thought I was prepared, I’ll die. What I needed was the ability to run away. Yeah.
That was easy.
I needed the speed to be able to outrun an animal that had four legs. No. I needed to have the kind of speed that would outrun a cave wolf boss and not get caught in a chase.
Tap. Tap.
I tied my shoelaces and tapped the ground with my feet. I’m not that fast of a runner to begin with. I could do about 100 meters in 13 seconds…ish? It was pretty fast for an average person, but I would be considered slow if compared to sprinters. I’d be cave wolf snack in seconds if I tried to run away like this. I need to be able to do under 10 seconds if I might have a prayer of outrunning that beast.
I did a light sprint back and forth in the left trail to get a feel for the terrain. I don’t know if it’s because of my up in endurance, but I wasn’t winded in the least.
Now it was time to sprint like hell. I went down and got in position…then kicked the ground to help me get a running start. I almost fell a few times since the ground wasn’t really level. After I did this about five times, I could feel my body get a bit lighter.
“Yes.”
Tap. Tap.
The sound was different. Every time I took a step, it almost felt as if the length of the ground was shrinking. But I couldn’t be happy with just this.
I needed to feel lighter. I needed to be faster.
Woosh!
I could hear the sound of wind whipping past my ear. I could taste the humid air filling my lungs. I could feel my heart pumping the oxygen throughout my body. I could hear he bu-bump of my heart and blood vessels pumping the blood. It now felt as if my body was floating through the air.
More. A little more. As fast as I can. No, more than that.
“Huk. Huk. Huk.”
After I snapped back to attention, I realized everyone was staring at me with wide eyes.
****
[0,5,850]
I saw that I upgraded twice. The first time, I used up 500 reward points..and the second time, I used up 1000. There was no way for me to find out exactly how much faster I was now but, seeing everyone’s reaction, it should be enough for me to outrun that thing.
“Uh…you…what the hell was that just now?”
Manager Kim stuttered as he tried to get the words out.
“What do you mean?”
“Whoa. SunbehOppa. Did you know you were just flying?”
“I flew?”
“Well, you weren’t exactly flying. But it almost looked like it.”
“We heard a loud noise behind us so we looked back, and we saw you kicking the ground running at us. You were taking a few meters every step. It looked like you almost like you were stepping on air.”
Glasses girl said.
“Wait wait?”
“That you were stepping on air…?”
“No, not that. You said that you heard a loud noise?”
“Yeah. At first it was just stomping noises, but later it sounded almost like an earthqua…”
“Damn! Everyone run into the right trail right now! Jung Sooah! You take this and if the wolf starts heading towards the left trail, throw it!”
I didn’t have the time to revel in my new upgrade. I handed one of my pepper bombs to her.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“The wolf is going to come! Hurry!”
There was no way the wolf wouldn’t have heard something that sounded like an earthquake.
“Over…over there.”
Cho Youngoo said with a stammer in his voice.
Grrrrrr.
The sound of growling rung throughout the dungeon.
Luckily it didn’t start running at us. It was staring at us…probably observing us at first.
“Manager Kim. Once I throw a pepper bomb, take everyone to the right trail.”
“Me? How? Everyone should look after themselves.”
“Please.”
“Shit. How about you?”
“I’ll distract him and lead him to the left trail. Once you make sure it follows me in, everyone run out of the dungeon and get help.”
“SunbehOppa! That’t too dangerous…!”
“Just do it!”
I wish I had more time to explain. But the wolf was now coming down the hill and running towards where we were. I raised my hand and threw the pepper bomb.
“Run!”
“SunbehOppa! If you die, I’ll kill you!”
Is she stupid? How does that make sense?
The pepper smoke spread out into the air. This type of weapon was more grievous to a wolf with its sensitive nose and eyes than to a human. There was no better way to make sure the wolf would attack in my direction than this.
“This way! You wolf bastarrrrd!”
I started yelling out while backing up. This pepper smoke should not only irritate the hell out of him, it should also take away its vision and sense of smell. The only thing it would have left to rely on would be s
ound – and my voice was ringing throughout the dungeon.
I ran into the left tunnel trail.
I could see its huge shadow chasing after me.
I yelled out while running.
“Come here, stupid!”
“Grrrr!”
It was growling with its fangs baring menacingly. If I were to gauge its level, it was probably between level 2 and level 3. But compared to a regular monster, a boss had a higher chance of dropping an item.
If I could kill it, there was a good chance I could make out with something super valuable.
I got into a position that would let me run away at any time and looked at the wolf. It kept shaking its head and sneezing. Hahaha the pepper. Maybe I could attack it right now.
But I didn’t do anything. It could be faking it.
Without any warning, it sped at me. I knew it!
Since I was in position, I quickly ran for it. The wolf’s speed seemed so slow to me. But because it was so much bigger, it would be able to cover more distance so I couldn’t drag it out. The more I dragged it out, it would catch up to me.
There was nothing to think about. I had to first lure it into this trail, run a lap and come out of the dungeon.
The wolf was really running now.
The race had begun.
***
Stomp! Stomp!
My body felt as light as a feather. Every step I took felt like I was being propelled forward. It was certainly not an exaggeration to say that I was indeed stepping on air. It felt like I could be doing 100 meters in about 6.5 seconds.
The wolf was sprinting as fast as it could. The wolf was indeed faster than me. But the cave’s terrain wasn’t straight, but curvy. Luckily I was used to it and it wasn’t.
“Ha. Ha.”
I could see the end of the tunnel now.
This is the first place I almost fell.
I could see the pothole.
It was probably due to the water dripping from the ceiling. If I don’t slow down, I would definitely slip and fall.
The wolf opened its mouth in preparation for swallowing my head whole. I crouched low and jumped over the hole while the wolf slipped as soon as it stepped into the water-filled hole.
The wolf tumbled and smashed into the tunnel wall. Powder from the ceiling drifted down to the wolf in puffs.
“Hmm?”
I looked back and smiled at my good fortune. A stalactite on the wall had pierced the wolf on one side. It was struggling to get up.