Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Episode 2. Easter Egg (3)

What’s ‘not ripped’?
He was curious but didn’t have the courage to ask him. When he looked into the man’s eyes, he understood that he was no different from the monster who saw him as a delicious thing to eat.
Grrr!
The monster seemed to feel like it was being ignored and started to move slowly. The man pulled out his sword, which made Kim Yongwoo’s eyes widen with surprise.
There were heroes with blacksmith skills who could make swords using the Core. When they mixed the Core with steel, they could make an extremely strong sword. Those swords would have a dim scent of the Core. People called it the scent of magic; only a few heroes with strong skills could detect the scent.
Kim Yongwoo was one of those awakened heroes who could smell the scent of magic, and the sword that the man had pulled out reeked of it.
‘How much core do you need to use to get such a strong smell? Is there any blacksmith with enough skill to smelt that amount of Core?’ Kim Yongwoo wondered.
As far as Kim Yongwoo knew, there was no such hero. Maybe a Rare skill that he had never seen could make that happen…he’d heard that one awakened hero in China had a Rare skill, but that was a skill related to attacking abilities. No one had a Rare assistance skill like smelting. Kim Yongwoo was collecting information on awakened heroes, so if he didn’t know, that was probably because it didn’t exist. 1
Cling!
Then, the fight began. The monster stopped the sword with his bare hands. It had skin that was not even penetrable with such a sword! Even so, the attack was far from over.
Cling! Cling! Kling!
Kim Yongwoo didn’t dare run away, and he held his breath. The man moved at an unimaginable speed. It was impossible to see his movements with bare eyes, but the monster was strong enough to fight against him. It didn’t step back and kept attacking his head. It was clear that the monster was aiming for one shot to attack and kill him with a single blow.
‘Who is that guy?’
Intelligent monster? It didn’t seem like one. But if not a monster, it was impossible to explain his speed.
Kim Yongwoo was even more shocked than when he was awakened. He felt like a huge wave was taking him away. He’d always thought he was an elephant while other humans were like ants. Some ants who didn’t have much complained and blamed him for no reason, but he just laughed at them. He thought he had to pick a fight with someone his own size. An ant’s opinion didn’t really matter to an elephant.
But…he was sure that in this case, the monster was the elephant while Kim Yongwoo was the ant. If there was someone who was truly chosen, that must be the man who was standing in front of Kim Yongwoo. 1
Zip!
The next moment, the right arm of the monster flew away…the arm that had looked stronger than iron was cut off in one clean swipe.
Bam!
Soon, the monster fell down on its knees. The man had no mercy; he cut the monster’s head off with a single blow.
Roll…
The monster’s head rolled toward Kim Yongwoo.
“Ugh!”
Kim Yongwoo was looking at the scene, but when the monster’s head rolled toward him, he freaked out. Kim Yongwoo stepped back, but there was a wall behind him, so there was no way he could run.
The monster’s face looked like it was still ready to eat Kim Yongwoo alive. Kim Yongwoo was terrified and didn’t even realize that he had just peed his pants. The monster’s death magnified the fear of death. 1
Kim Yongwoo turned his head slightly to have a look at the man. He had a pale face, but he was still fierce. Now, Kim Yongwoo had to admit that the guy was the elephant while he was just an ant.
If the man decided to step on Kim Yongwoo, Kim Yongwoo had no choice but to be killed. An elephant wouldn’t feel guilty killing an ant. When Kim Yongwoo’s thoughts reached that point, he started to drop to his hands and knees to beg for his life. “Please don’t kill…”
The guy looked at Kim Yongwoo without any emotion. “If you run away now, you can escape the dungeon.”
Kim Yongwoo was still shivering, but he tried to look at the guy. “Are… are you really not killing me?”
“What am I going to get if I kill you?”
“If you need money…”
“I should just kill you now.”
Bam! Kim Yongwoo put his forehead on the ground again. “Don’t… don’t kill me!”
The guy looked at Kim Yongwoo and click his tongue.
“Run before I change my mind. You have three seconds. 3, 2…”
“Th… thank you!” Kim Yongwoo stood up and bowed, then ran for his life with everything he had.
The guy looked at Kim Yongwoo and smacked his lips. 2
***
[Unbelievable achievement! You have killed all the monsters for the beginner protection!]
[100,000pt is rewarded.]
It was the grande finale of my 15 days’ quest, and it was only a few minutes before the end of the beginner protection period.
‘That was close.’
When I checked the remaining time, I had to shake my head. There were only three minutes left. It was quite close, even for someone like me.
‘Too bad it wasn’t the first time,’ I thought.
I wiped sweat from my forehead. I was expecting it to be, but it seemed like it wasn’t, after all.
‘Well, 100,000pt is not a bad result anyways.’
If it was the first time, the reward would have been 150,000 to 200,000pt, but it was too late to regret. I’d forget about it soon enough.
100,000pt was not a tiny reward. If there was no achievement notification, maybe I wouldn’t get anything.
‘Usually it doesn’t show the achievement….’
There was a limited number of achievements. Most of them were available only once, or after five times, the achievements were no longer available. So it was common to share the achievement with only your own devil clan.
I was, as humans called me, a solo player, so I didn’t know much about achievements. I’d had to speculate when I’d decided to kill the random monsters during my beginner protection period. Even so, I knew the principles of achievements and the following rewards, so I was able to chase after them.
After three minutes, a message window appeared.
[The beginner protection period has ended!]
[Combining the result of 8 months.]
[You made 4 achievements. Total achievement score 1,250!!]
[Level 3 Easter Egg has opened.]
…Hmm?
I was confused by the sentence I’ve never seen before.
Is it supposed to show that the beginner protection period is over or something like that?
The last two lines were strange to me.
And what was an Easter Egg? I’d never even heard of such thing.
Then:
[‘Treasure warehouse of Shadow Emperor’ has opened. During the Magical Era when they were able to domesticate dragons with various magical powers, the Shadow Emperor was the worst, greediest tyrant of the Magical Era. He was a human from the middle earth, but was strong enough to make the gods admit his strength. In his treasure warehouse, there are countless fortunes that have been kept secret for a dozen thousand years.]
[Reward list is renewed. You can choose only one reward.]
[Sword of Atasha(Epic), Power Potion(Mid), Horn of Magic Dragon King, homunculus, Army of Malicious Commander…]
[Warning! The heart of Hell Lord that was sleeping in the treasure warehouse is displaced forcefully!]
[Warning! The soul of Hell Lord that was not eliminated is trying to invade!]
‘Hahaha! Stupid gods! This is what I was waiting for. I will come back to life. Give me your body…?! Wai.. wait, is this? This is a low-class devil’s body, why would you! Ughhhh!’
[The Soul of Hell Lord was destroyed by an unknown force.]
[The heart of Hell Lord is displaced.]
[You have chosen your reward.]
“Ugh!”
I vomited red blood and fell down on the ground, holding my heart. I started to shiver as if I had a severe fever. I looked like a dead person.
“Ugh.”
I coughed; the amount of blood coming out of mouth was accelerating. Then blood started to come out from everywhere…my nose, my eyes, and all my pores. It felt like I was losing all my blood!
I was starting to lose consciousness.
“Uhhh…”
If I combined all the pain I’d had when I was alive, that must be the same amount that I was feeling. I tried to move a bit and bite my tongue. I wasn’t letting go of my life at any cost.
Everything happened too fast; there was no time to prepare.
The pain became even stronger. The whites of my eyes showed, and I started to moan with pain.
Then, I lost consciousness.