Chapter 48 – The Firing From The Readied Marksman Begins (3)
After I defeated all the ghouls in the dungeon, I headed towards the center to search for the exit.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of rubble raining down.
When I arrived, the ceiling was caving down.
Since I had met several hidden bosses before, I was excited.
If all the monsters were dead and there were noise from the center of the dungeon, it usually meant that a hidden boss was appearing.
My excitement was brief as I focused again. Through the ceiling, I saw him poking his head through.
The hidden boss of this dungeon: Lich King.
Glowing with a purple aura, he stared at me with his breath cold like ice, exhaling frost.
“His size isn’t a joke.”
A completely decayed skeleton, his head was adorned with a huge crown.
The hole in the ceiling was 2m in width…
But it wasn’t enough to even squeeze his head through.
The scent of rot filled the dungeon. I wanted to get a breath of fresh air as soon as possible.
It looked like it was going to take a while for the entire body to come out.
That means that I’ll have to smell this disgusting scent for a while.
While I remained patient, the ones that couldn’t wait were my summoned Devil Avatars.
After hunting, I had shrunk them and they were floating around me, each the size of a fist. Both had turned into 4m monsters and were pouring out skills on the Lich King.
The attack landed dead on.
But it looked like the Lich King was using some kind of shield.
He was called the ‘Grand Magician of the monsters’.
From what I could find out, he used most magic spells that the average Magician uses.
And the glow from his eyes.
He was a rare boss that had his health and attack ranking change depending on the color.
Like the color of the rainbow, it was split between red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
The closer the color of those eyes become to red, the stronger the boss is.
But this boss had the color of purple, being the lowest ranking boss.
Even so, he was hundreds of times stronger than a regular boss.
“KWUHHHHH!”
As if annoyed by the avatars’ attack, his Fear spell rang throughout the dungeon.
Looking at him, I could only treat him as another trash mob.
“Mannerless bastard. You have one hell of a yell.”
I had started casting Iceberg the moment he showed his face, and now smashed him with it.
The attack punctured straight through his shields and took out 1/3rd of his skull instantly.
Allowing the attack to go through, he let out another massive Fear.
Then he pulled back his head from the hole.
After a short while, he put his hand by the hole and I couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Well. Shit!”
A Meteor Call was heading towards me.
A Meteor.
I casted Mana Shield without hesitation.
Louver’s Shield or whatever, I didn’t know what was going to happen if I was hit by that attack.
An A+ ranking magic attack.
It was so big that I couldn’t even hope to avoid it.
The Mana Shield received the Lich King’s Meteor and began to vibrate violently.
The vibration lasted for 3 seconds, the intensity hindering my vision.
I knew that he used Magician skills, but I didn’t expect him to use a Meteor Call instantly.
The average Awakened avoided the level 23 dungeon for this reason.
The Lich King.
The lowest ranking boss with the purple glowing eyes demonstrates this level of destructive force.
Then how much would one that has a red glow show…
No matter how greedy one is, people run when they hear about the Lich King with their tail between their legs.
All those who obtain the Lich King’s Armor are all tanks.
After being perfectly raised, to obtain the equipment, they go back to the level 23 dungeon.
It was like the saying, ‘Avoiding poop because of fear.’
The horrible stench of decay and the incredibly strong Lich King.
It couldn’t be better said.
After finishing his first attack, he finally appeared in his full form outside the dungeon.
Compared to his size, the Devil Avatars looked small.
Well, just his head is over 2m. The body that supports him must be huge to compensate.
The armor on his body did not have a single point of weakness, as if light itself could not get through.
Equipment that anyone could guess it was impossible for human hands to make.
However I didn’t have time to admire his armor.
Magic was condensing at the tip of the staff.
There was no reason to avoid it.
No matter what type of attack he sent my way, I would be safe due to my Mana Shield.
However, I avoided the spell on reflex.
It was because a black orb flew towards me, the sound of sparks filling the air.
The two avatars had long been consumed by the black orb.
It was as if seeing a black hole.
“Guess he’s very angry because he got hit in the eyes once?”
A red and black hue filled the crevice of his broken skull, as if filling with new life.
‘A recovery ability on top of being a Magician?’
I really couldn’t say much since I used Heal myself, but I was quite surprised.
I couldn’t just let him continue attacking me like this.
I had to at least return the favor.
A Meteor far larger than his formed above me.
Finishing the cast, Meteor caused a torrent of winds as it came hurling down through the air.
“EAT THIS!”
The attack hit dead on his right leg.
The incredible destructive force of the attack took out his entire leg, blowing up his knees.
Now there’s an 8 minutes cool downs and casting durations for Iceberg and Meteor Call.
The 20% CDR (cooldown reduction) and casting speed increase (haste) was applied, but it still had a cool down and casting time of 4 minutes each.
I was left with no choice but to use other skills.
My immediately choice was Fire Shock.
Losing his leg, his body was flailing about on the ground.
The range of Fire Shock was exactly the size of his body.
That was the reason why I had aimed for his leg and brought him down.
I ran up to the collapsed king and let down the flames.
From his head to his disembodied leg, his body was dosed in flames, slowly losing life.
It looked like he didn’t even have the strength to cough up blood.
But even still he was casting a spell with his staff.
“Ku… Kuruk.”
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
From my hand on his head, unfathomable amounts of lightning coursed through him.
His health was nearly gone after all.
Even Lightning Spray was enough to finish him off.
[5,000,000 experience obtained]
I didn’t even pay attention to the narration for the experience gained.
It was because I was distracted by the loot that dropped off his corpse.
And the experience wasn’t much to begin with.
It was about taking down 50 monsters from the level 18 dungeon.
Taking the hand away from the skull, I headed toward his heart.
Within the armor dark as midnight, there were two skill books.
Although one of it looked strange.
Regular skill books have a symbol indication the class it belongs to, or at least some form of identification.
But what I was holding couldn’t be described as a book.
It was as if something in the shape of a book had liquid metal poured all over it, like scrap metal.
Not only did it lack shape, but I couldn’t even open the book.
“What is this. Is it just useless scrap?”
The ceiling continued to cave, so perhaps it was debris that fell on the Lich King’s body?
I put the skill book to my chest.
[You do not meet the requirements.]
“Huh?”
‘Why are you acting this way noona?’ is what I wanted to say.
I never heard this narration before.
All the skills so far I have obtained never had a required condition.
I was able to learn all class skills without limit before.
And that included spells that most would never have enough mana to use.
But this skill had a prerequisite.
Since I could not run the phone application inside the dungeon, I ran outside.
****
The other skill book that I had carried in my armpits was long forgotten.
My attention was on this item instead.
After scanning, the result showed.
[Error]
“You’d drive people nuts. First not meeting the requirements, now an error?”
Since it was already late into the night, I decided to end the hunting here.
My body was reeking of rot, so I couldn’t head back home immediately.
Near the level 23 dungeon had lots of saunas and bath houses.
Like how food stores would open up near dungeons, the everyday average people tried business as they saw fit.
They had to make a living somehow.
****
“Wew. I feel like I’m alive again.”
Entering the bath house filled with steam, I felt my fatigue melt away.
I could tell why the adults love these places so much.
I had obtained a one person entrance ticket to get in, and had finished cleaning all the rotting scent off me.
Even in the bath, I kept staring at the skill book.
What requirement was it that it was preventing me from learning it…
“Hyung. It’s me.”
“Uh.. Ugh…..”
Through the phone I heard Jong Ho’s sleepy voice, as if he just woke up.
“Guess you were sleeping. Sorry. I’ll just call tomorrow.”
“No no. It’s okay. I was on the verge of sleeping but you woke me up at the right moment. You rascal!”
“Pfft! There’s something I wanted to ask.”
“What is it? If it isn’t important I’ll smack you. You’ll have to let down your Mana Shield too. Okay?”
“I get it. Now, is there a requirement for obtaining skills?”
“Requirement? No. There shouldn’t be one? I never heard of such a thing.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
“Yeah. There’s also no such thing as a limit to how many skills you can learn.”
“That’s strange… Well okay. Sleep well, hyung.”
“What? Is that it? I’m going to destroy you tomor-”
“Love you!”
A requirement for a skill book that even Jong Ho doesn’t know about.
My high expectations for him became disappointment.
I scanned the other skill book.
‘Fire Orb’ attack skill F rank.
Pretty much friends with the Frost Orb.
“Is it because I got a one with purple eyes? Instead of armor or blood stones, all I get are trash like skill books?”
Since it was the first time Lich King appeared, I had very high expectations.
But maybe it was the ranking of the hidden boss?
The drops were disappointing to say the least.
After returning home, I threw the skill books at the corner of the room.
Perhaps it was a level or stat prerequisite issue, and with that I hope I decided to watch.
There was no need to worry about my Strength or Mana stats.
If it was one that needed Dexterity, it was going to take a long time.
“Please be a level issue.”
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