Translator: Seven
Editor: Ana_Banana
The most dangerous day in a survival quest, was the second day. On the first day, there were few large scale battles as the players and monsters took time to examine their surroundings. When that was finished, was when the true fighting would start.
What was more frightening however was that even when fighting, the players had to be alert against other dangers. Take for example, when fighting with a horde of Goblins, during the fight, it was possible to then be attacked by a group of Kobolds or Orcs. A battle of such a scale would stimulate the nearby monsters and it was possible to trigger a frenzy or as it was more commonly called, a Monster Wave.
This was also one of the reasons why players opted to stay on the move rather than settle down in one location.
“Isn’t it too quiet?”
“Yeah…”
However the players in the dungeon couldn’t help but feel that they were facing a situation that was exactly the opposite of what they expected.
On the second day, the players had prepared to face a great struggle but instead were met with peace.
“It was quiet on the second day, but even the third?”
Even as the third day came and passed, there was no sign of a Monster Wave brewing. In fact, it was hard for the players to even encounter any monsters at all.
“Is this really a survival quest?”
“It…should be?”
No one could understand the situation.
“Are you sure we’re in an A+ rank Dungeon?””
The difficulty of quests in an A+ rank Dungeon was supposed to be much higher than the others and the battles that should’ve occurred were supposed to be very difficult. But there was no sign of any such battle.
“Obviously something must’ve happened. Otherwise it doesn’t make sense for there to be no monsters in the dungeon.”
“I don’t know. First we need to figure out what’s happening.”
And so some people started searching for clues.
“Oh my God…are these all corpses?”
“How many died here?”
“…I think…there are at least 100 dead bodies here.”
Those who had begun investigating came across a clearing in which the bodies of monsters were piled high like a mountain and it was not just one. Such clearings could be found all over the jungle.
“Who did this?”
This proved that someone was hunting the monsters and slaughtering them.
“I don’t know who did this, but it’s not normal.”
“Is this some kind of rare event?”
“This is no rare event, look there.”
“That…huh? Are those fences?”
It seemed that it wasn’t done purely with brute force.
“They made a labyrinth of fences and walls to confuse the monsters. Look at the ground, there are signs of digging all over.”
“It was a giant trap.”
“At this point, you couldn’t call it a trap. It was hell.”
The large mound of bodies were all achieved through the use of a sophisticated trap. All the investigating players shivered, and they weren’t alone.
‘Oh my God.’
Lee Jin-ah didn’t know what to say as he looked at the bodies of Orcs, Lizardmen and Goblins in front of him.
They were monsters that he had hunted, but they weren’t hunted like he usually would.
‘Is this how this guy hunts?’
It was Kim Woo-jin’s method.
‘How can you hunt like this you crazy bastard?’
From Lee Jin-ah’s perspective, this method was beyond common sense.
When Lee Jin-ah hunted monsters, it was like a lion hunting a wolf. He would make a plan and use items, but in the end it still came down to defeating it with his power.
However Kim Woo-jin was different.
Kim Woo-jin didn’t confront the monsters directly. Even though he could easily win with his strength, he still decided to set the stage.
After finding a suitable location, he first used walls, fences and natural obstacles to make a maze. Then using the Blood Weapon skill, he installed nails, swords and various other weapons and traps throughout the maze. When it was complete, Kim Woo-jin then used his Skeleton Soldiers to lure monsters into the maze.
The attracted monsters would be afflicted with Blood Poison, as well as suffer wounds from the blood weapons and bone weapons that were installed in the maze, before having to fight Lee Jin-ah and the Skeleton Soldiers.
The effect was as the players had seen before. The bodies piled up like a mountain, and the blood flowed like a river.
Using the bodies of the monsters, Kim Woo-jin created more Blood Weapons and Bone Weapons.
‘As the number of bodies increase, this guy becomes more and more of a monster.’
The more battles they fought, the more monsters they killed, the stronger Kim Woo-jin became.
Gulp!
As he came out of his thoughts, Lee Jin-ah turned to look at Kim Woo-jin who was standing in a tree with the Grim Reaper’s Mask covering his face.
Suddenly, to his surprise, Kim Woo-jin took the mask off and turned to him.
“What’s wrong?”
Kim Woo-jin answered as he jumped down beside Lee Jin-ah.
“The situation has changed.”
“What?”
Things changed?
‘What’s going on?’
If Kim Woo-jin who had dismissed their hunting of the monsters as a simple warm up could say such a thing, that meant that it wasn’t something simple like a monster horde or something like that.
Lee Jin-ah tensed up.
“Huh? Did a really strong monster appear? Or did the other players find our location and are coming to kill us?”
Instead of answering him, Kim Woo-jin approached the mountain of corpses and chanted a spell toward an Orc corpse in the middle.
“Summon Skeleton.”
As the spell activated, the skin and flesh of the Orc melted off leaving only the bones which began to rise. Then, a flame was lit in its eyes.
Lee Jin-ah, who saw this, was stupefied.
“Wha-, what the hell?”
‘Couldn’t he only summon nine of them?’
As far as Lee Jin-ah knew, Kim Woo-jin could only summon nine Skeleton Soldiers. But now Kim Woo-jin had summoned a tenth and that wasn’t all. Soon after, he summoned an eleventh, and then a twelfth.
“Cou-, couldn’t you only summon nine skeletons?”
This scene made Lee Jin-ah deeply afraid and so he couldn’t help but ask.
This time, Kim Woo-jin answered.
“I could’ve only summoned nine.”
As he said that, he summoned his thirteenth Skeleton Soldier.
“Until just a moment ago.”
Kim Woo-jin remembered what occurred just minutes ago.
[Everyone is afraid of you.]
[The Emissary of the Underworld admires your actions.]
[The Emissary of the Underworld gifts you a part of their power.]
[The Skill rank for Skeleton Warrior Mastery has increased by one rank.]
When he looked at the skill window after hearing the notification, Kim Woo-jin’s eyes widened.
[Skeleton Warrior Mastery.]
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- Rank: D
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- Description: Enhances the abilities of summoned Skeletons and increases the maximum number that can be summoned. The effects increase with the skills rank.
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- Effects:
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- Skeletons abilities increased by 15%
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- +8 Summonable Skeleton Soldiers
A smile stretched across Kim Woo-jin’s face.
‘Johann Georg would be jealous.’
The number of combatants were very important in a battle, and the difference between 9 and 13 changes the type of tactics that can be used drastically. Naturally Kim Woo-jin knew how to maximize the difference.
“You four will be the archers.”
The four new Skeleton soldiers were thus converted into archers and naturally the number of tactics available to Kim Woo-jin changed.
“Let’s go first.”
After consistently using the trap, Kim Woo-jin decided to go hunt the monsters instead of luring and trapping them. After all if you had an increase in firepower, it was best to use it.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Lee Jin-ah welcomed the change.
“Let’s have a real battle.”
Raw battles were the best, even if there was the possibility of being hurt.
“I’ll show you how I, Lee Jin-ah will slaughter the monster!”
Lee Jin-ah’s face was flushed with excitement, his eyes began burning brightly with fighting spirit.
“Huh?”
But the fire in his eyes dimmed a little not long after.
“Why are you still next to me?”
Seeing Lee Jin-ah’s expression, Kim Woo-jin walked past, to stand in front of him.
“Now, I’m leading the way.”
Kim Woo-jin, who had been controlling the battlefield from the back was now standing on the frontline.
Lee Jin-ah laughed loudly as he looked at him.
“You should do your best. I can handle anything else, but I can’t tolerate a poor guy floundering in front of me.”