[Item: High Knight's Breastplate] has been discovered. Would you like to acquire it?
'Of course I want it.'
The knight that had stopped moving once it lost its head and fell to its knees—its breastplate slowly vanished and reappeared right in front of Jin-Woo's feet. Thud. The item's information window popped up.
[Item: High Knight's Breastplate] Acquisition Difficulty: B Type: Armor Physical Damage Reduction +7% (Movement speed is reduced if Strength is below 80.)
A seven percent increase in physical damage reduction! Combined with what he already had, he could now reduce incoming physical damage by a whopping 27 percent.
'So if I hit 100 percent, does that mean I'd be completely immune to physical damage?'
The thought crossed his mind briefly, but he quickly reconsidered when he recalled that a mere 7 percent was all a B-rank armor offered. Even A-rank gear probably wouldn't jump straight to 30 or 40 percent. So collecting a full 100 percent was likely impossible.
'Still, drop by drop adds up...'
If he kept stacking bonuses bit by bit, the efficiency would eventually become massive. He'd already witnessed the power of gear through Yoo Jin-Ho.
'Is this how I do it?'
Jin-Woo lifted the breastplate. Just as he expected, a prompt appeared asking whether he wanted to equip it.
[Item: High Knight's Breastplate] Would you like to equip it?
It was, by any measure, a rather cumbersome design to wear around.
If it hadn't been for the experience with the 'Watcher's Necklace,' he would have hesitated for a long time before reluctantly agreeing. But now things were different.
'Yes.'
Ding.
[You have equipped the Item: High Knight's Breastplate.]
The breastplate vanished without a trace. Jin-Woo brought up his status window and checked his stats.
[Physical Damage Reduction: 27%]
'Physical damage reduction went up.'
Jin-Woo felt around his chest. There was no sensation at all. He moved his body from side to side—same result. No foreign feeling whatsoever. It was exactly like when he'd equipped the Watcher's Necklace.
'Good.'
Next, Jin-Woo turned his attention to a knight crumpled in the corner. The battered, unsalvageable-looking thing was twinkling with an item signal.
[Item: Leather Pouch] has been discovered. Would you like to acquire it?
He'd done that to it himself, sure, but he still felt a twinge of guilt. It was hard to hold back when fighting barehanded.
'...'
Jin-Woo approached with a solemn expression and reached out to grab the item.
'Acquire.'
You opened [Item: Leather Pouch]. It contained [30,000 Gold]. You have acquired [30,000 Gold].
'Huh?'
Without even receiving anything physical, a gold acquisition message popped up out of nowhere. Was this item different from the others? As Jin-Woo marveled at it, he opened his inventory and confirmed that his funds had indeed increased by 30,000 gold.
[Gold on hand: 863,400 Gold]
'Thirty thousand gold at once?'
Was it because knights carried a lot on them? Come to think of it, he remembered getting disproportionately more items from humanoid monsters than from other enemy types back when he played games. After all, it wouldn't make sense to get less from looting humans than from looting beasts or bugs. Whether that was reflected here or not, he wasn't sure. Either way, it was good news. He'd been wanting to save up gold for a few items, and if money kept coming in like this, he could move up the timeline considerably.
'Is there anything else worth taking?'
They say human greed knows no bounds. Jin-Woo set aside his original purpose for entering the Dungeon and scanned his surroundings with a greedy look. The knights' armor was all mangled from the fight and worthless... but Jin-Woo's radar caught the swords the knights had been using.
'Those look usable.'
A longsword as clean as new. He wouldn't use it himself since it wasn't a dagger, but he could sell it at the shop, or if that didn't work, maybe hawk it to other Hunters. Jin-Woo picked up the sword. But the moment he lifted it, the blade began to rust at an alarming speed and soon crumbled into powder.
"Damn it..."
It happened in the blink of an eye.
'So it wasn't a sanctioned drop?'
A shame, but nothing he could do about it. Jin-Woo dusted off his hands and picked up the torch he'd set on the ground earlier. Rounding the corner where the knights had emerged, he could see yet another long corridor stretching into the distance.
"..."
There was still a long way to go.
***
He replayed the battle in his head. It was a funny thought, but it suddenly occurred to Jin-Woo that over the roughly two hours he'd been clearing the Dungeon, he'd encountered only four types of monsters: knights, mages, assassins, and archers.
"So stealth this time?"
The assassin had vanished from right in front of him. Jin-Woo stayed calm and immediately expanded his senses, quickly picking up on the faint presence creeping up from behind. Shhik! Jin-Woo deflected the assassin's dagger with 'Kasaka's Venom Fang' and, while sliding backward, launched a swift counterstrike through the gap in the target's open guard. The fang struck dead center in the chest. Thwack!
[You have slain the Assassin.] [Level Up!]
The fatally wounded assassin didn't even scream—it dissolved silently into black smoke and vanished. Thud. Only the leather outfit it had worn was left behind.
'Why is it always humanoid monsters, seriously.'
Each time he killed one, it was as if... Jin-Woo shook his head. The one saving grace was that he couldn't see their faces. The knights were hidden behind their helmets, the assassins and archers behind the hoods of their leather outfits, and the mages beneath the hats attached to their robes. Jin-Woo turned to continue on his way. But then! Flash—a blinding light erupted before his eyes. The mage, who had been quietly chanting a spell, had completed a flash magic attack. Boom! An ear-splitting explosion! But Jin-Woo had already relocated behind the mage.
"...!"
The mage, startled by the presence at its back, hurriedly began chanting another spell. But Jin-Woo didn't miss his chance and brought the dagger down in a diagonal slash. The mage too dissolved into smoke. Thud. Jin-Woo glanced down at the now-ownerless robe before storing the dagger in his inventory.
'Almost got hit by something similar once before when I let my guard down.'
The truth was, he'd already been prepared the moment he felt mana converging. Cho Gyu-Hwan's flash magic. Jin-Woo wasn't foolish enough to fall for the same attack twice. That was what he'd meant by feeling like he was reviewing his battles.
'It's not just that.'
Each monster type required a certain stat threshold to defeat effectively. Knights demanded Strength, assassins demanded Perception, archers demanded Agility, and mages demanded Vitality. If you didn't meet the required stat at a sufficient level, fighting them became extremely difficult. If your Strength was too low, you couldn't deal damage to the knight inside its armor; if your Perception was too low, catching the assassin was a real struggle.
'Having stats raised evenly pays off in moments like these.'
His Intelligence stat was a bit on the low side, but he could just be conservative with his mana.
You opened [Item: Leather Pouch]. It contained [20,000 Gold] and a [Water Canteen with Lukewarm Water]. You have acquired [20,000 Gold] and a [Water Canteen with Lukewarm Water].
Jin-Woo immediately pulled the canteen out of his inventory and gulped down its contents.
"Whew."
Fatigue was steadily accumulating.
'How much farther do I have to go?'
No—was there even an end at all? Jin-Woo set the empty canteen on the ground and placed his hands on his hips. It had now been three hours since he entered the Dungeon. Both his body and mind were wearing down.
'...Should I rest a bit?'
Jin-Woo slid down against the cave wall.
'Status window.'
Ding.
[Fatigue: 66]
His fatigue was already approaching dangerous levels. Above 70, direct negative effects on body and mind would start manifesting. He needed to close his eyes, even briefly, to bring the number down. Jin-Woo rested his head against the wall. Drowsiness washed over him almost immediately. He was so exhausted that he could have easily fallen asleep here with no effort at all. But then—Shhk! The sharp whistle of something cutting through the air! In the slowed-down stream of perception, Jin-Woo caught the incoming arrow with pinpoint precision. Snatch! And then his eyes snapped open. Some distance away, an archer was nocking its next shot.
'So it's still too early to sleep.'
Jin-Woo summoned 'Kasaka's Venom Fang' and rose to his feet.
***
Crunch! The knight whose breastplate had been grotesquely caved in by a single blow slid down between Jin-Woo's fist and the wall. The crumpled thing stopped moving entirely. Ding.
[You have slain the Knight.] [Level Up!]
It was a small consolation at best, but his levels kept rising steadily with each battle. Amid the mounting fatigue, it was something. Jin-Woo looked at his slightly scraped knuckles and clicked his tongue. A short rest would've been enough to recover. These damn monsters never gave him even a moment's peace. Still, he'd picked up a fair amount along the way.
[Equipped Items] Watcher's Necklace (A) High Knight's Breastplate (B) Mid-Tier Assassin's Shoes (B) Low-Tier Archer's Gloves (C) High Mage's Ring (B)
Beyond those, he'd stashed everything else usable in his inventory.
'It would've been nice to get a weapon.'
Unfortunately, the daggers that dropped from assassins had similar attack power to Kasaka's Venom Fang but lacked any additional effects, making them less efficient. What would this one drop? Jin-Woo reached out toward the glow emanating from the fallen knight. Ding.
[Item: High Knight's Gauntlet] Acquisition Difficulty: B Type: Armor Physical Damage Reduction +3% Additional Effect: Prevents hand injuries. (Movement speed is reduced if Strength is below 80.)
'Oh.'
Jin-Woo's face lit up as he acquired the [High Knight's Gauntlet]. And he equipped it immediately. Like the other items, the gauntlet had no physical impact whatsoever—he could move his fingers with complete freedom.
'Good.'
Jin-Woo wiggled his fingers and looked up. Far down the corridor, the torch-lit section was finally coming to an end. The end was blocked by a massive castle gate. It wasn't common for a boss room to have an actual door. He couldn't help but recall the underground temple he'd entered not long ago. Back then, none of them had been prepared, and everyone had suffered terrible injuries. But things were different now. Jin-Woo looked back over the path he'd traveled.
'It took almost six hours to get here...'
His level was now 45, and his equipment had grown substantially. He was ready. He would've liked to rest and restore his health, but every time he tried, monsters seemed to materialize out of thin air to interrupt him. He couldn't afford to waste HP by summoning more of them.
[HP: 4511 / 8300] [MP: 660 / 790] [Fatigue: 43]
'It's do or die.'
After a final check of his status, Jin-Woo gripped both handles of the castle gate. Grrrgrgrgrk—! The massive structure slid open with surprising ease, as though some mechanism was built in to assist it.