Chapter 39 (1/2)
Flick!
Clank, clank!
Pierce, pierce!
A relatively sharp Ice Spear flew over and exploded in front of him.
Su-hyeun brought his hand up and blocked his face from the debris. During that short time, all signs of the Lich had vanished.
It seemed that it had become aware of Su-hyeun and escaped.
Su-hyeun raised his head again.
‘He didn’t seem to be half as good as the previous one…’
It was a different Lich than the one that appeared as the dungeon’s boss in the level-fluctuating dungeon.
Different from the summoner Lich, who had imperfect vitality and power, the Lich here was the real deal.
‘A Lich on the 20th floor…’
The level of difficulty increased the further he ascended.
The existence of Lich could’ve brought about many variables.
The Lich was a monster that was very knowledgeable about magic. According to their level of magical knowledge, a Lich could do a variety of things.
The Lich could not be seen as a boss on the 20th-floor’s trial.
Instead, the 19th-floor’s ancient monster was a more demanding opponent.
If so…
‘A certain situation that the Lich is trying to make…’
That would be the primary key to the trial.
‘Good. End of thinking.’
Sweep!
Su-hyeun’s body disappeared from the spot as if he had sunk.
The mercenaries releasing magic attacks at Su-hyeun were caught by surprise and shouted, “He… he disappeared!”
“Find him!”
Though they searched the area, Su-hyeun was nowhere to be found.
[Shadow Assimilation.]
Sweep!
Su-hyeun reappeared under a bronze statue located in the distance.
At the back, the soldiers were still busy searching for Su-hyeun, unaware that he had already entered the castle.
‘It takes a while to manifest.’
‘Shadow Assimilation’ was a skill that was obtained in the case of infiltration. It was purchased on the 15th floor with a considerable amount of achievement points.
It was commonly used by awakeners of the assassin class, where it gave one the ability to move with a specific shadow in sight.
It was quite a useful transportation skill.
One needed to use a shadow larger than the user himself. Although the shadow needed to be within sight, a penalty like that was not much of a problem for a spatial skill.
The problem was its manifest period.
As it was a spatial skill, the difficulty level increased, leading to an extended manifest period.
‘Should I have increased my skill proficiency level?’
It would have been a pain to do that.
To a certain extent, the skill was only obtained for infiltrations like this, not a skill that could be used frequently.
It was better to increase the skill proficiency of other skills instead.
‘Anyway, I should have gone far enough…’
He hid behind the bronze statue and observed the soldiers searching for him.
Thankfully, they were not able to spot him. Before Su-hyeun got caught, it was better for him to go deeper.
[Shadow Assimilation.]
Su-hyeun soon spotted another shadow in sight.
From a distance, he used the shadow he saw to utilize the Shadow Assimilation skill.
With that, Su-hyeun succeeded in infiltrating the castle.
The castle was empty.
It seemed that most of the soldiers were sent out to prevent him from entering.
Although Su-hyeun had succeeded in infiltrating, the castle was dead silent as if the soldiers didn’t think that he had entered the castle.
‘There’s nothing special…’
Trudge.
‘Must I go in further?’
The scale of the castle was relatively massive.
It was hard to even look around the castle in a day. It was nearly impossible to just observe this place alone.
‘If so…’
Su-hyeun lowered his head and looked at the ground.
“Well, those with something up their sleeves usually liked the underground more.’
Slung!
Su-hyeun hung the tree branch held in his hand on his back and took out Gram.
And…
Burn!
The flame lit up, and Su-hyeun held on to Gram in the opposite direction. Holding the sword’s handle with both hands, he directed it towards the ground.
Poke!
Burn!
The fallen sword made the interior of the castle hot with the flame. Cracking sounds were heard as the castle walls and floors started to crack apart.
Crack, crack!
Rumble!
The corridor where Su-hyeun stood at started to crumble.
‘Regardless of whether the castle falls or not, what does it matter to me.’
There was a shortcut downwards; he didn’t need to find his way around.
Crumble!
The floor of the castle crumbled, rumbling loudly. Su-hyeun grabbed onto the walls and fell along slowly.
Looking down, he spotted nearly pitch-black energy.
No, he had felt it.
“Bingo.”
Thinking that it was not an ordinary castle, he believed that something was hidden in there.
He had been worried that it would be concealed in a complicated way, but it didn’t seem so after he managed to find it so easily.
‘Indeed, it was easier to act instead of thinking about it.’
In truth, it was better to have used both brains and body to execute, instead of just relying on either one.
Of course, that didn’t mean Su-hyeun wasn’t a clever thinker.
Slick!
Su-hyeun threw himself down. Since he was now sure there was something beneath, there was no need for hesitation.
Pierce, pierce!
Swoosh!
At that moment, black stems shot out towards Su-hyeun as he fell.
Su-hyeun leaped upwards reflexively. He then injected flame into his sword and sent it downwards.
Bang, bang!
Burn!
As the flame hit the stems, both had been wiped out. Su-hyeun climbed along the undamaged corridor and looked in the direction where the energy came from.
“I had thought some rat came along, but it was the kid from earlier.”
A husky voice rang out.
But it wasn’t like Lich’s, where it was fully split.
It was using voice modulation magic.
“What were you doing here?”
Su-hyeun wanted to obtain some hints from him.