Chapter 23
[1 minute until combat begins. Please hurry and prepare.]
Whoosh!
A massive creature, roughly three meters tall, emerged from the magical circle.
With its reddish glow and impressive black fur, the monster known as the Hell Beast appeared, emitting a low growl as it waited for the battle to commence.
Its large fangs glistened, dripping saliva, as if it already considered Karpe as its next meal.
“If it had three heads, it would be a complete Cerberus.”
-Actually, there is a Cerberus. Think of the Hell Beast as its heated-up cousin. A heavily heated-up cousin.
As a monster native to hell, the Hell Beast possessed fiery attributes to withstand the scorching heat of hell.
-On the flip side, it also means it has clear weaknesses. Now, get ready.
“Hya. Enchant my weapon with some magic. Make it ice-based.”
“Kyu!”
In response to Karpe’s request, Hanyoung chirped and circled through the air.
Soon, a cold aura began to emanate from Karpe’s sword.
[Family Member casts Spell of Eight.]
[Weapon is imbued with ice attribute. Duration: 5 minutes.]
Hanyoung’s skill, ‘Spell of Eight,’ was an 8-star skill, allowing mastery over eight magical attributes.
Its abilities were twofold:
Firstly, it enhanced magical damage for eight elemental attributes, allowing mastery of advanced spells without penalties.
Secondly, it could imbue one of the eight attributes onto a target weapon.
Karpe’s weapon was now under the effect of the second ability.
And this time, Karpe applied his own buff skill to the weapon.
“Striking.”
[Striking applied to Green Skin Slayer.]
[Physical damage of the weapon increased by 20%.]
[Striking Lv. 1 - 3 stars]
• A buff skill that increases physical damage of the target weapon.
• As the skill level increases, so does the damage boost and the number of targets it can affect.
Lv. 1: 20% increase in physical damage.
Lv. 3: 40% increase in physical damage. Can affect up to two targets.
Lv. 5: 60% increase in physical damage. Can affect up to three targets.
Lv. 10 (Master): 100% increase in physical damage. 30% increase in magical damage. Can affect up to eight targets.
It was the first time Karpe used a combat-oriented buff skill since advancing to a Warlock.
“Phew.”
Enchanting completed, and the preparation time for battle had elapsed entirely. A sense of exhilaration tightened Karpe’s body as the tension rose.
“The battle is about to commence. 5 seconds until, 4 seconds until…”
“Combat initiated!”
“Kraaaaaa!”
As the battle commenced, the Hell Beast ignited flames around its body and charged towards Karpe with full force.
Inferno Dash.
A skill that dyed countless users gray in the early stages of Lase Open, symbolizing the Hell Beast and its starting pattern.
While there were now many strategy videos available, it remained a challenge for some slower users to react due to its swift attack speed.
However, this did not apply to Karpe.
With an agility stat surpassing 40 due to various titles and item effects, Karpe effortlessly dodged the attack.
“Well, no need for any special advice.”
He hadn’t watched any strategy videos or received pattern explanations from Cheonma.
“Is this guy weak?”
It was simply that the Hell Beast was too weak compared to Karpe.
That was the whole story.
“Krrrr!”
Perhaps due to Karpe’s easy evasion, the Hell Beast’s frustration grew. It took a deep breath, preparing for its signature move, Inferno Breath.
“What’s this? It’s not like it’s advertising to be killed. Using such a big move right in front of me?”
As the Hell Beast took a breath, its head tilted slightly upward, exposing its throat. Seizing the opportunity, Karpe plunged into the creature’s embrace at full speed.
“?!”
Startled by Karpe’s much faster speed than expected, the Hell Beast was caught off guard. But it was already too late, as the breath had reached its throat.
There was no turning back.
Thunk!
Karpe’s sword struck the Hell Beast’s throat precisely.
“You’ve struck the vital point! Critical hit! The target’s defense and elemental resistance are greatly ignored.”
“The weapon has been imbued with ice attribute. It deals 50% additional damage to fire attribute enemies.”
With the critical hit ignoring defense and the additional elemental damage, the Hell Beast let out a horrifying scream.
“Kuaaaang!”
In addition to being pierced through the throat, it couldn’t spit out or swallow the fire breath!
Here, the additional damage effect occurred once again.
“Due to the skill ‘Elemental Mastery,’ elemental damage is increased by 10%.”
It was the effect of Elemental Mastery gained upon advancing to Warlock.
And finally,
“Due to the title ‘One Hit, One Kill,’ 10% damage is added to the first attack.”
“Kwaaaang?!”
The legendary gauntlets and a hero-grade sword, combined with buff skills and elemental damage, created an astonishing synergy that produced remarkable results.
Fwoosh!
As the breath of the Hell Beast surged backward, it ignited the interior.
Unfortunately, the creature, with its greatly diminished elemental resistance, couldn’t withstand the flames it had unleashed.
Ding!
“You have defeated the Hell Beast.”
The Hell Beast, a nightmare of the novice zone and known as the wall of wailing, collapsed without putting up proper resistance.
“Ah, this shouldn’t have ended so quickly.”
Karpe sighed with regret.
He had wanted to chew, tear, taste, and enjoy the rare boss monster after testing various strategies. But his body reacted faster than his mind, exposing him to a glaring vulnerability.
“…Are you some kind of wild beast? Showing your weaknesses and inviting attacks.”
“It was a mistake. Ugh. At least I wanted to test the Elemental Arrows by type.”
“Well, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future. Let’s focus on looting for now.”
“Agreed.”
Karpe nodded and turned towards the corpse of the Hell Beast.
It soon turned gray and disappeared, leaving behind two items:
[Hell Hound Leather]
[Category: Leather, Crafting Material]
[Grade: Rare]
[The leather of the Hell Beast, the lowest-tier monster of hell. It’s a rare material due to its rarity on the continent.]
[Essence of Hellfire]
[Category: Magical Material]
[Grade: Rare]
[A rare core found in the body of the Hell Beast. It can be used for various purposes.]
“That’s a shame. No equipment drops?”
“Well, Hell Beasts don’t normally drop equipment. In fact, the drop rate itself is so low that getting two items is considered incredibly lucky.”
“Is that so?”
It was a stroke of luck.
Come to think of it, he had heard something about selling essences like these for a high price outside the cave.
“It seems like crafting materials. We should keep them for now.”
Although the skill wasn’t properly researched yet, there might be opportunities to use it in conjunction with “Mado Engineering.”
“Is that it, then?”
At that moment, another notification appeared before Karpe.
[Congratulations. You have broken the previous record. Your achievement will be recorded on the monument.]
[Would you like to reveal your ID?]
[A warp will be created. You can return to the city of origin or the dungeon entrance through the warp.]
“Hmm. Let’s keep the ID private for now.”
[You have chosen to keep it private. Your record will be displayed as ??? on the monument.]
Mmm.
The air vibrated, and two warp portals appeared. Upon inspection, Karpe found that the portal on the left led back to the dungeon entrance, while the other one led to the village.
“No need to return to the entrance. Let’s go straight to the village…”
Just as Karpe was about to enter the portal on the right.
-Wait a minute.
“Yes?”
-You should gather everything before leaving.
“Huh?”
Karpe blinked in confusion at the cryptic remark.
But if the loot collection was already over…
-Remember where the Hell Beast was summoned? Over there, where the magic circle is.
Karpe reflexively turned his head to the indicated spot.
-Check it out.
“Wow… really?”
-Yes. Hidden rewards. It’s an Easter egg.
“I’ll go check it out right away!”
Karpe hurriedly ran towards the spot where the Hell Beast had appeared.
There were still faint traces of the magic circle on the ground.
“But how should I dig? Do I need to dig deep?”
-Not really. The ground is soft, so you can even dig with your hands.
“There’s no other choice.”
Although he thought about digging with his sword, its narrow blade would be less efficient than his hands.
As Karpe bent down…
“Kyu-kyu!”
Mukhyang came running and started digging the ground.
Karpe chuckled at the sight.
“Mukhyang, thanks for helping, but with those small feet, it’ll take all day…”
-…But you’re good at digging, right?
“Huh?”
Mukhyang continued to dig the ground at an astonishing speed.
Even an adult man with a shovel couldn’t keep up with half of that speed!
“Is digging a skill of yours?”
-There was no such thing.
“That’s right. It’s amazing. Is it a racial trait?”
-Anyway, it worked out well. I’ll be out soon.
As Cheonma predicted, about 3 minutes later, an old chest popped out of the ground.
“Wow, I didn’t know this existed. Is this a famous Easter egg?”
-Really? I found it myself.
“…Impressive. How did you even think to dig here?”
-It was a bit of a crazy time…
Since the chest wasn’t locked, it opened easily.
Inside, there was a decent amount of gold and quite a few potions.
[You have obtained 40 gold.]
[You have obtained 10 Beginner HP Recovery Potions, 5 Beginner MP Recovery Potions.]
[You have obtained Elixir of Strength for Beginners (Bound).]
“An elixir?!”
• Hehe. Isn’t this amazing? It’s a beginner zone-exclusive elixir that can only be consumed by level 10 or below.
“This is excellent. I should drink it right away.”
Without hesitation, Karpe opened the elixir and drank it.
It tasted like strawberry juice, and as soon as he finished drinking, a notification popped up.
[Strength stat permanently increased by 1.]
“Now that I’ve finished, let’s head back. There’s nothing left to do now.”
“Hmm. Hyung, just in case.”
-…There isn’t. Really, there isn’t.
“Have you dug up all the remaining ground here?”
-Not exactly…
“Then there might be one more. Let’s go, Hyang!”
“Kyu-kyu! Kyu-woo~!”
-These crazy ones…
Thirty minutes later.
Surprisingly, another chest was found, and Karpe was able to increase his agility once more.
The incredulous expression on Cheonma’s face, along with his questioning if “this is really happening?” was just an added bonus.
And at that moment, at the dungeon entrance.
“Ah, we’re really not finding party members easily. Should we just go in by ourselves?”
“Did you already forget getting chewed up like gum yesterday when the two of us went in? Quietly find party members.”
“You were just careless yesterday… Ah, I got it. I got it, so don’t give me that look.”
Lakan, the man being pressured by his party members, tasted bitterness.
“I should have convinced that clueless guy wearing rare armor earlier.”
He obviously looked like a beginner, yet he was playing solo.
He was lucky to pick up a piece of rare armor, but unfortunately, the Hell Beast wasn’t the type to be dealt with using just one rare armor.
He would surely not last long and would meet his demise.
“Ah, the more I think about it, the more regretful it becomes… What? Why is it so noisy?”
It was originally a noisy space, but it wasn’t this bad, was it?
Lakan looked around and soon found the source of the commotion.
Near the monument where the Time Attack Record was recorded, there was a disturbance.
“No, does this make any sense?”
“Are these idiots in Lase not doing their job properly? What, this is the second bug in the Hell Beast dungeon!”
“A bug?”
There was a bug in Lase?
Lakan cocked his head in confusion and approached the monument. What on earth happened for people to be so worked up?
But as soon as Lakan checked the monument, he couldn’t help but mutter the same words.
“No, this is ridiculous!”
Ranked 1 ??? - 9 seconds
Such a number was engraved on the record for solo play 1st place.
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