Chapter 44

The Boundless Necromancer

Chapter 44: Dungeon Incursion (3)

Initially, I planned to stay put until we reached the center area.

I was going to observe Lee Cheolwon and learn from his fighting style.

I thought that observing an experienced hunter would be a reward in itself.

‘But I had no idea that it would take this long.’

I was already running out of time. 

「 Time left – 68 hours 38 min 」 

A holographic message in the corner of my eye told me how much time I had left.

This may have seemed like more than enough time, but I had other plans after clearing the dungeon. 

‘I can’t waste all my time here.’

I could contact the guilds or the association or even collect more information about what was going on.

Calling Lee Hayeon to help me build my network was also an option.

No matter what I decided to do, I would need ample time. 

‘He gives me no choice.’

If he was struggling with something like this, we would take forever to complete the dungeon.

I stood in front of him and focused my gaze on the center of the cave.

“Let’s change our approach.”

“What do you mean…?”

“Until we find a wider area to fight in, I’ll take care of all the monsters.”

“Um, okay.” 

He hesitated for a bit before succumbing.

At least he wasn’t very hard to convince.

“I’ll take care of the looting as well.”

As soon as I finished speaking, I headed toward the lizardman corpse.

Unlike those in the tower, the monsters in the dungeon had cores.

Even though I never did this before, I knew what to do in theory.

Slit!

Its skin split in half, and a purple gemstone revealed itself near where the heart should have been.

I reached into the corpse to rip the stone out.

‘This was easier than I thought.’

I used the assassin’s cloak to wipe the blood off my hands.

Leaving blood on my hands could be a fatal mistake if it caused my sword to slip out of my hands.

I could always just clean off the cloak later.

This was why I bought the cleansing stone.

I cleaned off the core as well and stood back up.

「 Core 」 

「 Grade: D- 」 

「 A mana-filled core harvested from the heart of a lizardman. 」 

「 Could be very beneficial during alchemy or crafting. 」 

‘Ooh, this works.’

My eye of truth activated to show some details about the core.

I purposely tried to activate it without saying anything, and it worked better than I thought.

I didn’t think it would be usable in battle because I had to concentrate a decent amount.

Activating skills like this required a pretty high proficiency.

‘I’ll have to learn how to do this for instant acceleration as well.’

Being able to activate active skills at a moment’s notice had its merits.

‘I’ll save that for when I get back to the waiting room.’

At first, I was excited to see the details on the core since it didn’t have a normal description.

Unfortunately… 

‘Eh, nothing special.’

I lost interest pretty quickly.

I tossed the core into a bag I was carrying and turned to face the bewildered Lee Cheolwon.

“I’ll hold onto this for now. We can decide who gets to keep it later.”

“Ah, yeah… Is this your second time in a dungeon?”

“Hmm, not really…”

“I guess you just seem very experienced…”

I fought my ass off in the tower and spent countless years studying theories, but that wasn’t any of his business.

“I just saw it on Youtube.”

“…”

“Really.”

“Ah, okay…”

He looked at me inconspicuously but didn’t question it any further.

My records did say that I had no experience, and that wasn’t very important right now.

‘He can think whatever he wants as long as he doesn’t keep bothering me with questions.’

「 You have absorbed the soul of the lizardman. 」

「 Proficiency increased by 0.7% 」 

‘It’s getting harder to increase proficiency with D-rank monsters.’

My face scrunched up as I walked away from the corpse.

The only reason I came here was to prepare for the 8th trial, but I was barely making any progress.

I guess I could use my innate ability to raise my stats to a certain point, but it wouldn’t even come close to ranking up. 

Honestly, ranking up my innate ability was difficult even in the tower.

It made sense that fighting weaker monsters in this dungeon wasn’t much help.

However, quantity was more important than quality. 

If I could farm every monster in this dungeon, there would be a noticeable difference sooner or later.

“Let’s keep moving.”

I stared into the dark like a starving kid looking at a buffet.

It was time to start the hunt.

***

***

Pat! 

「 You have absorbed the soul of the lizardman. 」

「 Proficiency increased by 0.7% 」 

“Three.”

Snap! Sssp! Chaack!

“Six.”

Squawk! Crash! Taaang!

「 You have absorbed the soul of the lizardman. 」

「 Proficiency increased by 0.7% 」 

“Nine.”

Sssat-!

Han Sungyeun’s monotone counting echoed through the cave.

‘What the fuck?’

Lee Cheolwon pinched himself to see if he was dreaming.

‘His profile said that he was a beginner with no previous dungeon experience…’

‘What’s with this ridiculous strength?!’

His level of strength was almost concerning at this point.

A lizardman was dying every time he moved.

All Lee Cheolwon could do was stand still and watch.

Han Sangyeun wasn’t using psychological warfare or a fluid combination of skills, but they were all dropping like flies.

By the time his sword reached the end of its path, all of the lizardmen’s heads were rolling on the floor.

There were no words to describe it.

‘He’s… on a completely different level.’

This was not how any lower-tier hunters fought.

They were meticulous when dealing with monsters that had weapon skills.

Some skills could bring the monster’s power to another level.

But Han Sungyeun didn’t seem to pay much attention to that.

His movements were so fast and precise that he almost seemed bored.

“Wow…”

Lee Cheolwon never intended to clear the dungeon.

More accurately, he didn’t think it was possible to clear it completely.

He was still a low-tier hunter.

It would’ve been different if there were more people, but all he planned to do was to take a peek at the center.

He didn’t expect to get any special rewards.

That was why he offered to give all the special rewards to the other person. 

But looking at Han Sungyeun fight made him change his mind.

His monstrous battle sense could change everything.

If they killed the dungeon boss, they could end up claiming the gate. 

He would have to hand it over to Han Sungyeun in that case, but it didn’t matter.

The basic rewards were already worth a lot of money.

As excited as he was, Lee Cheolwon was also bewildered.

If this was how strong Han Sungyeun was as a beginner, how strong would he be in the future?

‘He could become the next big name hunter of Korea…’

He instinctively knew that this was the birth of a star.

***

“Phew…”

Plop, plop.

The blood of the scattered lizardmen corpses dripped onto the floor of the cave, forming tiny pools.

“…”

Looking back, I realized that I had killed more than I expected.

The only problem was that I wasn’t able to test my new ability.

‘The space is a little too tight for me to summon anything useful.’

Lee Cheolwon already couldn’t swing his spear. 

The forceful breakthrough skill wouldn’t work either. 

None of the opponents used any crowd control skills, but that might change soon. 

“The boss room gate!”

Lee Cheolwon admired the red portal from the back.

The boss room was where the core that formed and maintained the dungeon resided.

Suddenly, the reason that Lee Cheolwon couldn’t participate in any of the battles occurred to me. 

This dungeon was designed for a single person.

‘I can’t believe that the space never fully expanded.’

Thanks to that, I had to take care of all the enemies.

But I didn’t have any complaints since I could take all the souls for myself.

Lee Cheolwon seemed pleased but slightly wary of my mood.

“Ehem, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that the whole cave would be this narrow. I won’t object if you decide to take a larger percentage of the rewards.”

He laughed because he probably realized how ridiculous his suggestion sounded.

“It’s alright. We can split it 50/50.”

“I just feel bad that I-”

“On the condition that I can keep all the boss room rewards.”

Lee Cheolwon was the one who got the license to enter this dungeon.

Even if he didn’t participate in the battles, he still had a right to the rewards.

The dungeon was also beneficial to my growth, so I felt kind of bad about taking most of the rewards for myself.

Well, I might have taken all of them if he didn’t get the license.

“If that’s all you want, I would be happy to concede all of the boss room rewards.”

Lee Cheolwon replied carefully after considering my proposition.

“That’s all I need. Are you fine with going into the boss room now?”

“I mean, of course… I didn’t do anything. Don’t you need to take a break?”

“I don’t really feel the need to.”

“I-I see…”

He stared at me like I was an exotic animal in the zoo, but what was I supposed to say?

Since the monsters came one at a time, I couldn’t have gotten tired.

‘It would’ve been tougher if they came at me all at once like the orcs.’

Without coordinated attacks, I wasn’t even close to being out of breath.

Anyway, I couldn’t waste time resting.

I had to take full advantage of this dungeon and leave as soon as possible. 

“Alright. Let’s go in.”

Let’s get out of here.

——

MC: this tunnel is so tight 

Me: that’s what she said

——