Chapter 136 - Experience Dungeon (3)

She managed to attack the wolf successfully after the fifth try.

[Critical Hit! You've received 204 damage!]

The moment the wolf's claws hit Louise…

[Critical Hit! You've dealt 7183 damage!]

Louise punched the wolf.

Boom-! Louise breathed heavily, and the wolf became stuck in the wall.

「It isn't over yet! Finish it!」

「O-okay...!」

Pang-!

At that moment, a body of mana flew.

It was the blue wolf’s attack.

Hyun considered dodging that attack as an exception, but he was surprised.

Louise had moved before him.

Pang-! Pang!

Louise's body drew a V-shape. The attacks of the wolf brushed passed her clothes.

Louise bent her back and then smashed the front with the palm of her hand.

Crack-!

The wind destroyed both the wall and the wolf.

Louise's first hunt was unreasonably violent.

After the broken wall regenerated, she mumbled in a low voice tone.

「Did... It die...?」

「Yes.」

Hyun, unconsciously, began smiling.

「We still need to practice more.」

The 9th try.

"Are you a new recruit? T..."

While ignoring the NPC, each moved and got in charge of a different passageway.

Louise had already eliminated three wolfs and was about to face the 4th one.

As the mental blocks began disappearing, Louise began growing at an astonishing rate.

The wind was from the beginning, just like her hands and feet. 

Moving while using the principle of reaction was probably difficult for some people. But for Louise, those were the most familiar way to move.

Louise, who jumped to the ceiling... Stepped on it and landed again.

In two movements, she moved to the back of the blue wolf.

She had learned by herself that the back of the opponent was the safest place.

Hyun, who was Assimilating into her, slightly nodded.

'She's getting the grasp of it!'

She immediately used the palm of her hands to smash the wolf.

Before Louise's hands could touch the wolf, Hyun covered her body with magi.

Boom-! Dark energy got mixed with the wind.

As the wind swept away through the front, only the traces of destruction were left.

The body of the blue wolf had been completely torn apart.

"Ah...?"

Louise let out a small exclamation.

That's because she realized this was destruction created by her skill.

This technique that made magi blow away was called 'black wind.'

It was the real strength that level 200 Louise had.

[The core has been destroyed!]

[To the experience each has obtained, 15.1% will be added as a bonus!]

<Remaining Time: 11 minutes 01 seconds>

This time, the group returned to the magic circle because of a hole that appeared on another side.

In the middle of the dark hall, TarrTarr was scratching his head.

"I'm sorry... I lost them."

'Oh yeah, there was another guy I needed to take care of.'

Hyun sighed after seeing the gold in his inventory reduce.

He thought that for a while, he would keep losing quite a lot of money.

'I think that we should take a break.'

It had been 4 hours since they came to the experience dungeon. Louise was visibly tired.

It was obvious. Since Louise was an NPC, most sensory filters didn't apply to her.

She had probably used a hundred times more mental and physical capabilities.

"Let's continue tomorrow. Everyone has time, right?"

In Korea, it was dawn. So the other party members were also quite tired.

Before the party was disbanded, TarrTarr said with a worrying voice.

"Uhm, hyeong. Should I edit today's footage...?"

"Who will watch a video of people struggling to kill level 100 monsters?"

"Right?"

Color returned to TarrTarr's face. Then he logged out.

"Speaking frankly... I made a mistake and lost that because I was sleepy."

Ain complained.

It seemed like she was still thinking about the blue wolf she'd let attack.

"Well, you don't have multiple bodies after all... You could do a mistake like that while helping another person."

"No, but I wouldn't usually lose that!"

"O, okay... Anyway, let's try again tomorrow."

After Ain and Louise logged out, only Hyun and Louise were left behind.

Because Louise was stuck to him, he smirked.

He had to take her to the private room before logging out.

If he wanted her to be ready for the time they'd arranged to meet tomorrow, it would be better if she took a rest as soon as possible.

It was at that moment.

"Did you rent this place? For how long are you going to use it?"

Hyun heard someone's angry voice when he was about to leave with Louise.

'Huh? What?'

While Louise hid behind him, Hyun looked at the voice's owner.

A man holding a spear and wearing luxurious armor was complaining.

"You lack manners."

"What...?"

"If someone is waiting, the correct thing is to leave after once. Because you reactivated the magic circle, the four of us lost 15 minutes."

"Were you waiting for your turn?"

"It seems like you're finally catching on."

Hyun couldn't believe what he was hearing.

It was true that he had activated the magic circle consecutively. But he never thought that was a mistake.

In the first place, the NPC that administrated this place didn't restrict usage time. And there wasn't a rule that said that if there's a party waiting, you should move out.

Usually, the usage time of magic circles was decided by a discussion between party leaders.

Not only that, but there were 10 more magic circles next to this. So why was he trying to pick up a fight with him?

"Are you saying this because you just waited 15 minutes? I'm done, so use it as much as you want."

Hyun didn't like how the other person talked. So he spoke casually too.

Not only was he tired, but he also had to hear the complaints of a weird guy. So he didn't reply in a friendly manner.

He didn't want to get involved with him anymore, so he was about to leave the place when he heard the man with the spear snorting and talking.

"Just 15 minutes? It seems like you don't know that 15 minutes of our time can buy a month of your life."

Since he kept trying to pick up a fight, Hyun took a closer look at him. Then he realized who he was.

The man wielding the spear was Pias.

He was one of the Darkness Guild's executives. He was a player who had never fallen out of the top 20.

'What, was it this guy?'

Hyun remembered what he'd heard from Ain.

She had one day met Pias in the duel arena.

He'd offered her to join Darkness, but she refused and taught him a lesson after that.

'Just like she said, he's a weird guy.'

It was common sense that getting involved with people like this would just make things tiresome.

Hyun just replied, "okay," and left the hall without even looking back.

He ignored the voice coming from behind.

"T, that bastard...! Until the end...!"

"Hey, Pias. Stop it."

His partner Bear Shield, who has next to him, shook his head.

Bear Shield was looking carefully so he would be able to stop Pias as soon as he tried to cause trouble.

Thankfully, nothing happened.

"Your biggest issue is that big mouth...!"

The other members nodded at Bear Shield's words.

Pias's biggest weak point was that he didn't have a filter.

He couldn't especially let a comment that spoke in a negative sense about Darkness.

He just got angrier because the other person had looked down on them despite realizing they were members of Darkness.

"That guy has definitely recognized us. He frowned after looking at our Guild's logo...!"

The other members clicked their tongues at Pias's attitude.

Loving the Guild was good. But in the case of Pias, it was a bit too much.

"Don't get angry too much. It's obvious that not everyone is going to like us. You can't react like this every single time."

"Yes. Didn't you burn the bridge with Ain because of your character?"

Pias was about to say something, but after hearing someone's remark, he immediately calmed down.

Anger soon became guilt.

"I... Did... Right?"

"We also need to calm down. Things could get troublesome if we get into a fight with a ranker Guild."

"Now. Everyone, let's stop talking nonsense, and let's go hunt."

Tap tap-. Bear Shield hit the floor with his shield and tried to change the atmosphere.

The party that was one of the most elite, even among Darkness, could clear the dungeon even at level 180.

Today, they were thinking of challenging level 190 for the first time.

They were currently walking through a path no other user had been able to.

* * *

Level 190 experience dungeon.

The Darkness party had tried to do it many times, but they failed every single time by a narrow margin.

But although they'd failed, the atmosphere had improved after hunting.

They had returned to the private room after gaining quite a bit of experience.

The atmosphere in Darkness's Private room was serious.

It was because of a piece of information they'd obtained from a guess of Mayday, the best ranker in the Guild.

The six executives were gathered in a separate private place.

Mayday had told everyone something based on numerous videos and information as a basis.

But surprisingly, that guess was related to the existence of 'Hyun.'

"Really? You found Hyun...?"

Keiji, who was a ranker on the previous game, exclaimed in surprise.

Because he knew Hyun very well, his reaction was more serious than the others.

"And to say there's a chance, he was with Ain from the beginning... How could that..."

There were many videos where Ain appeared on the internet. And there were way more people talking about seeing her than that.

But in none of those had someone mentioned Hyun.

Then how?

How had Mayday realized that Hyun and Ain moved together?

"It's Assimilation!"

Mayday put on a certain video.

"I was once Assimilated into the body of a monster!"

An underground city filled with lava.

A video of Mayday being Assimilated into a monster called Betty appeared in front of everyone.

She still didn't understand why she'd received that quest but still couldn't forget the weird experience of using Assimilation.

"Just like I experienced Assimilation, I'm sure Hyun is using a skill similar to that!"

Mayday's explanation kept going on.

The difference between the strength of Ain was too much.

Most of the time, she was strong, like a top-ranker... But sometimes, Ain showed some specs similar to a named boss.

Even while fighting against Betty, the damage she did was just unbelievable.

For her to defeat a named boss with high defense in such an easy way, she should have three times the stats of the boss or have a very unique and special skill.

"Her ability to multitask can also be explained with Assimilation!"

During the Count's Quest.

Ain showed controls that were comparable to an AI. She dodged all the long-range attacks while engaging in close-range combat. 

But in the duel arena or while fighting against Lattice, although she was strong, she wasn't as overwhelmingly strong as that time.

Did she pretend to be weak sometimes? But sometimes she fought seriously?

Rather than concluding that, Hyun using Assimilation on her was a more reasonable answer.

"And this is the biggest evidence!"

The video Mayday showed was one taken during the beginning of Asrian. It was a video where two people hunted the named Leopard.

Because a snowstorm and ice covered the screen, only the face of Ain could be seen.

But it was definitely true that Ain had formed a party with another person.

Bear Shield asked while looking at the figure wearing a black robe.

"That was Hyun?"

"Yes. There's a huge chance that's him. I heard that they'd often moved together in the previous game. So if Hyun plays Asrian, he's definitely doing it with Ain."

"I understood your points."

Said XL, leader of Darkness, while nodding.

While she was talking, he more or less guessed what she would talk about.

It was as if his doubts and questions were being answered.

"I'm glad."

XL quickly thought of a plan because he'd investigated a lot about Hyun.

According to the information, unlike Ain, he was someone very cold and rational.

He thought that he was probably the most cold-minded person in Asrian.

"If he's just like what the information says, it will probably be impossible to make him join us... He isn't the type of person who would be under someone's command."

Rather than an ideal one, Darkness tried to achieve a realistic outcome.

"Rather than making him join us, building a positive relationship with him is more important. If that's not possible, we should at least be neutrals... But never turn into his opponent."

Hyun's existence could have an influence as big as Lattice... No, maybe an even bigger one than him.

Since Hyun hadn't shown himself, he didn't know what he was planning, which was why he was so afraid of him. 

____

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