Chapter 80 - Golden Dungeon and Contract (2) (1/2)

Sungwoo slowly slipped back and lifted the repeating crossbow and fired at the bare-chested orcs.

Pik! Pik! Pik! Pik!

-You have accumulated 2 points by hunting a Golden Orc. (Cumulative: 252)

-You have accumulated 2 points by hunting a Golden Orc. (Cumulative: 254)

A little later the stadium was calm and quiet.

-You have successfully cleared the second stage! (Rank: A+)

-You have accumulated 200 points. (Cumulative: 488)

Again, an arrow icon appeared on the floor. This time there appeared a slightly wider road that would allow a car to pass.

Two-story detached houses were lined up on both streets. When Sungwoo went along the road, an arrow was pointing to two places.

A red arrow was pointing to the right and a blue arrow to the left. It was literally a crossroads.

“Do I have to go to only one place?”

Sungwoo raised his head and looked at the end of the arrow. The red arrow was pointing to a small elementary school, and the blue arrow was pointing to a building that looked like an abandoned house.

-R: Very difficult

-L: Very easy

However, the difference in the level of difficulty was extreme.

After agonizing a bit, Sungwoo moved to the right.

‘Being difficult means a big reward.’

He could not skip the very rare opportunity called the ‘Hidden Stage.’ It was worth the challenge even at the risk of his life. He had to reach Level 15 as soon as possible, and the boss raid was just around the corner.

Of course, just because he wanted to protect himself right now, it didn’t mean his chances of survival would increase. Rather, it would only increase the likelihood of him not avoiding the death to come.

Sungwoo entered the two-story elementary school building, whose level of difficulty was very high. In the small lobby where the history of the school was displayed, he noticed the traces of the children hastily evacuating. Their slippers and school bags were strewn everywhere.

Kureuk― Kureuk―

On one side of the stairs was the body of a Golden Orc. And there was something familiar on top of it.

“Is it Slime?”

A lump of golden liquid. It was definitely golden Slime. Sungwoo burst into laughter before he knew it.

“Man, I think I’ve chosen the right way.”

Slime was a very easy game for Sungwoo and skeletons because Slime’s acidity couldn’t melt the bones of skeletons.

It seemed that Sungwoo would be recorded as the worst guest who had ever visited the Hidden Stage.

He went straight toward the end of the Hidden Stage.

***

In the meantime, after Sungwoo disappeared into the golden portal, Junghoon boarded the helicopter and looked only in that direction.

He was embarrassed at the moment because Sungwoo disappeared when he was not done talking. On the one hand, the place called ‘Hidden Stage’ bothered him.

‘What kind of place is that? Is it a place that offers a huge reward?’

Junghoon has never heard of any information about the Hidden Stage from anybody else. Such information was not even posted on the community bulletin.

Of course, not all of the information was released because the game just started.

“Commander!”

At that moment, a Crusader in gray armor approached Junghoon. He was a man in his thirties wearing glasses attached to his face with a skein of thread.

“Yes, lieutenant.”

His name was Minhum Jung. He was Junghoon’s aide-de-camp and the Crusader Team’s deputy commander. He had been with Junghoon from the beginning and had been playing a pivotal role in the guild with his experiences as a smart analyst.

“All of the injured members have been recovered. They couldn’t be cured with regular potions, so I used an antidote.”

“Got it. It looked like a curse series. What kind of item do you think it is?”

Minhum sighed at his question, which suggested it was something negative.

Minhum recorded and sorted all the items that he obtained from the store, but he had never seen the bomb emitting black smoke.

“I honestly don’t know. Breath of the abyss? It looks like a black wizard series, but I’ve never seen an item that spread such a powerful curse even at the best shop. I think it’s an item we might be able to obtain from a store that is much superior to the existing one or some other routes.”

Junghoon’s group, starting from south of the Han River, had become the largest among the entire Korean servers. This meant they had a large amount of intelligence about everything, but they didn’t know much about the southern part of Gyeonggi Province because they were not able to contact people like door-to-door vendors due to their movement restrictions.

“But that terrifying bomb didn’t work well against Sungwoo. Why?”

Junghoon still could not forget that scene. The moment his elite Crusader Team was momentarily disabled, Sungwoo moved forward proudly.

“Anyway, it was a great success for Sungwoo. In my opinion, there was a buff working on it. When he used that, his pupils got bigger and he smiled unwittingly. It’s a kind of arousal response. When I checked it, there was even an increase in stats.”

Minhum’s job was a 3-star “Scout,” so he could know the opponent’s level and job through his exclusive passive skills.

In addition, he was able to see the opponent’s detailed stats by consuming a lot of mana, but the moment Sungwoo emerged from the black smoke, his stats slightly increased.