Chapter 168

Chapter 168

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 168: Sharing the Bed with Enemies (3)

A furnace placed high above.

And on the opposite side of that furnace, two unidentified buttons.

In any case, in order to know exactly what they were, one had to reach the furnace.

‘Whatever it is, I have to light the furnace for now.’

Yeongwoo pulled out his bow experimentally and shot an arrow towards the monsters beyond the rectangular entrance.

Whoosh!

Instantly, as usual, the arrow emitted a fierce energy and exploded right in front of the entrance.

Boom!

‘They’ve really made it tough to just waltz in.’

Just as you couldn’t come over here from the other side, you couldn’t attack the area where the furnace was located within this passage.

That means...

‘I have to go in and wipe them out myself.’

Clank.

As Yeongwoo moved towards the entrance muttering ‘bastards’, the monsters gathered there blinked and yelled.

-Oh...

-What, all alone?

-Wow, bold.

-You came here alone?

Amidst this, some of them spat out lines as if they had encountered other challengers before.

Upon this, Yeongwoo did something that other challengers probably wouldn’t.

“Has anyone else besides me been here?”

He spoke to the monsters.

Then, one of them tapped a transparent barrier blocking the entrance with his finger.

Tap, tap.

-We had a very interesting rehearsal. You can’t pass here.

-We’ve already blocked the two first swords.

-You came here alone...? Impossible.

-This is your grave.

“...I see.”

Yeongwoo listened to the series of dialogues and realized.

This dungeon was designed with various difficulty tests in mind.

‘They deliberately rehearsed to increase the difficulty?’

Even if he didn’t know, the ‘two first swords’ they mentioned were probably replicas made based on the average power of expected challengers.

In a world where even great swords capable of injecting martial arts existed, that wasn’t anything special.

Therefore.

‘Maybe this side isn’t the problem, but the other groups might be in danger.’

Yeongwoo finally thought that the buttons numbered 1 and 3, placed far away, might actually help other groups.

Didn’t those monsters just say that?

They’ve already blocked the best two swords.

This meant that this dungeon was designed to be impossible to clear with a typical member composition.

So, it might be a dungeon structured so that one excellent group with combat power or cooperation drags other groups up.

‘I need to hurry. No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t seem like the other groups will come together to break through there.’

The remaining two groups are Taiwan and Korea, and Japan and China.

Taiwan and Korea are fine, but historically, Japan and China have been archenemies, so it’s uncertain what might happen between them.

‘I’m feeling uneasy.’

As soon as Yeongwoo sorted out his thoughts, he immediately rushed towards the monsters.

Swish!

To their surprise, the bold entry was even more daring than they had thought.

-Whoa?

-This kid!

-Hey, look at this?

“Defend as you practiced. Let’s see how you defend.”

As Yeongwoo leaped into the spacious entrance and drew his black sword from his waist, the thick black blade, which had expanded to five meters in an instant, left a massive trail.

Swish!

Then, dozens of monster bodies clashed together, creating space for Yeongwoo to advance.

Thud!

“Take this!”

With his pupils tinged with golden light, Yeongwoo began to push forward without hesitation, and the monsters began to look perplexed.

They realized that their opponent, whom they met on their first real battlefield, was by no means ordinary, the Strongest Sword.

-What... who is this kid?

-Wait, hold on.

From top to bottom.

They had left their posts.

-Aargh!

-P-Please spare me!

At first, there was just one person running away, but it soon spread to dozens or even hundreds of people running away.

Eventually, when Yeongwoo reached the thirteenth stone structure after completing his leaps, there was no one to stop him.

‘What... Is it possible to solve it like this?’

Now only seven stone structure fragments remained in front of Yeongwoo.

Yet, as he peered down, the Golden Trail was seen swaying its body upwards from below as if dancing.

Even though the monsters had already lost their senses and were fleeing, they were still being mercilessly cut down by the legendry sword technique, “Rohm’s Bottom”, probably programmed inside.

‘That crazy guy.’

Upon this realization, Yeongwoo thought about summoning the Golden Trail but changed his mind.

‘Wait. Most of the convicts serving as monsters here have been hit and destroyed, right?’

For example, Im Bonghee, who used to share the same room at the dormitory.

“......”

Having reached this point in his thoughts, Yeongwoo left the Golden Trail to rampage alone and raised his bow again.

Swish.

Then he shot arrows towards the ash-gray monsters on the other side who were wearing frightened expressions.

* * *

Whoosh!

Yeongwoo didn’t need to deal with every single monster.

Thanks to the legendary-grade dual sword fighting like prisoners, Yeongwoo neatly dealt with the ones he hadn’t taken care of.

As a result, Yeongwoo just needed to leap happily between the stone structures and occasionally shoot arrows imbued with special abilities.

‘Although I made surprisingly smooth progress, it’s because I far exceeded the average level of dungeon challengers expected by the system...’

Now, looking at the furnace that had come much closer, Yeongwoo thought of Kim Jeonggu, who was probably surrounded by hundreds of monsters by now.

In this place, based on the second furnace, challengers had to pass through twenty stone structures.

Moreover, some of the structures had quite a wide gap between them, and some were placed at heights where even a top-grade Strongest Sword would barely reach with a full jump.

In other words, even if there were no monsters to hinder them, there could be cases where they couldn’t pass due to insufficient physical ability.

‘So that’s why it’s recommended for two people to enter each passage. Because in the leap sections, the other person can assist as a foothold or go ahead and catch them.’

But one shouldn’t forget that the monsters’ interference was also quite threatening.

This dungeon was essentially designed to eliminate all but the average level Strongest Sword.

‘So is that why those buttons are there?’

Quack!

Finally, as Yeongwoo’s foot touched the stone structure where the furnace was installed, the ground briefly shimmered, highlighting the outline of the furnace and button mechanism across from it in turn.

It seemed to be an intention to indicate that there were two devices here.

‘It’s surprisingly kind once everyone has arrived.’

Yeongwoo approached the furnace first, as his purpose for coming here was mainly the furnace.

As seen before, the furnace was in a dormant state, but there was a pedestal underneath with a crimson flame burning.

‘Is this the end if I light a fire with this?’

Yeongwoo immediately picked up the pedestal and inserted it into the furnace.

Then.

Whoaaaack!

The furnace immediately blazed blue, and a blue laser shot out, pointing at the button mechanism on the opposite side.

The other mechanism could only be used after activating the furnace.

‘Now that’s my job done.’

As the Golden Trail returned, soaked in blood, Yeongwoo moved straight to the button mechanism.

Clack, clack.

A peculiar device with two buttons labeled 1 and 3 on the front of the stone slab, reminiscent of a tombstone.

This device was in an activated state with a hologram interface after receiving the laser from the furnace.

And the content of that interface was.

「By choosing one of the following three options, a portal to return to the arena will open.」

“Huh? Weren’t there only two options?”

It was a somewhat unexpected development.

As Yeongwoo read all the instructions, three options appeared in succession.

「Immediate return.」

It would be the cleanest and most desirable choice.

‘But showing such a normal option first...’

The remaining two were probably options to cause chaos.

And sure enough, an astounding option appeared one after another.

‘These guys... I guess that’s how it is.’

「1」: Transfer all enemies of furnace 1 to furnace 3.

「3」: Transfer all enemies of furnace 3 to furnace 1.

[Translator – Night]

[Proofreader – Gun]