Chapter 33

As Theresa swung her hammer nonstop, her ears were ringing from the noise. At this point, however, she was more used to it.

“

Urgh... blegh

!”

Sang-Soo was vomiting beside her. Theresa barely glanced his way since someone in the party would clean it up with magic anyway. Regardless, she’d been distracted for a second too long and took a hit, though it barely made her flinch.

[Healing Light]

Without even asking, Soso would heal her instantly, and it was back to hammering just like that.

“We’re shifting positions.”

The moment Do-Jin gave the order, Theresa stepped back without hesitation and slung her hammer over her shoulder. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, like that of a fish left out in the sun. Right in front of her, flames slithered and curled as if they were alive.

It was Crawling Flames, a Tier 3 spell that was especially useful for blocking enemy movement. She had used it so many times now that the writhing flames almost felt comforting to her.

Theresa silently counted down from three before diving straight into the fire. Right on cue, Crawling Flames surged forward, swallowing up the golems ahead. She followed behind, scooping up loot like a seasoned clam digger as she ran.

[You have obtained a mana stone.]

[You have obtained a Mythril Steel Axe.]

Beside her, Sang-Soo moved just as efficiently, like a farmer planting rice in a flooded field. “All done!”

The faster they finished, the longer they got to rest. If they stayed sharp and kept up the pace, they’d get more breaks. But if they slacked off or screwed up? Their rest time would mysteriously shrink. That was something Theresa had learned after spending a few days with Do-Jin.

“I’m clearing the path. Stay close and don’t fall behind.”

She didn’t need any further instructions. She just had to run.

Crunch.

Earth Spear burst from the ground with a vicious, grinding noise, skewering the golems and forming a barricade that blocked their movement. Do-Jin was always absurdly fast at casting, but whenever he pulled out that golden book, his speed became outright ridiculous.

For Tier 1 spells, it barely even looked like he was casting at all. According to him, it was an activation effect from his dagger. But how much would a weapon like that even cost? If she could get her hands on one and sell it, she might be able to pay for a semester of tuition, maybe even a full year. She’d have to check the market prices on similar items later.

Theresa mulled over the thought as she ran. At some point, the background noise around her had faded. Before she even realized it, they had left the open clearing and entered a narrow tunnel.

“We’re taking a three-hour break.”

The moment Do-Jin finished speaking, Theresa, Sang-Soo, and Soso each pulled out the sleeping bags he had given them and lay down to rest. The three of them fell asleep the instant they hit the ground.

Do-Jin lay down a little later, but he didn’t sleep right away. Since The Grimoire of Truth was already active, he took the time to analyze the spells he had used during the hunt. Throughout the entire fight, he had repeatedly cast Curse of Softening, and its analysis rate had already reached 11%. The difficulty, time, and effort required for spell mastery were at least five times easier for him than for a typical mage.

Well, Curse of Softening is only a Tier 2 spell, so that’s part of it... but this will sort itself out with time.

None of his Tier 3 spells had passed the 10% threshold yet. Still, that wasn’t something to worry about. As he grew stronger as a mage and reached Tier 4, then Tier 5, understanding spells from lower tiers would naturally become easier.

Once we wake up... we’ll head deeper in.

Setting aside his thoughts on magic, Do-Jin finalized his plan and closed his eyes.

***

Rumble.

Their break wasn’t over yet, but Do-Jin’s eyes snapped open at the faint vibrations he felt through the ground. He blinked away the grogginess clinging to his vision and quickly sat up.

As he did, his thoughts began to race. The abandoned iron mine followed a repetitive dungeon layout: tunnel, clearing, tunnel, clearing. Monsters only spawned in the clearings, and there was no way those massive golems could squeeze themselves into the narrow tunnels meant for people to pass through. If he was feeling tremors all the way in the tunnel, there was only one possible explanation. Something even bigger than a regular golem had spawned, and the vibrations from its movements had traveled this far.

There must be an elite monster or a boss nearby.

Even in his past life, Do-Jin had never taken down this dungeon’s boss or elite monsters. They would collapse and disappear after a set amount of time. Apparently, the mana sustaining them was so unstable that their bodies couldn’t hold together for long, not that he cared about the details.

The only thing that matters is that if we don’t find and kill it fast, it’ll vanish.

Without wasting another second, Do-Jin shook his party members awake. Still half-asleep, they mumbled nonsense as they struggled to wake up.

“Ugh... just one more minute...”

“Urgh, I’ll just skip school today... I still have two absences left, so it’s fine...”

Soso, on the other hand, didn’t even twitch. She looked so still that she might as well have been a corpse. Seeing this sorry sight, Do-Jin gathered some cold energy in his palm and pressed his icy hand against Theresa’s face.

“

Eek

!”

The sudden, ice-cold chill made her scream. She rolled backward on instinct and smacked her head against the wall with a loud thud. Letting out a strangled groan, she clutched the back of her head, but Do-Jin didn’t even glance at her. He simply turned to Sang-Soo, ready to hit him with a blast of cold next.

“Hey! Kim Soso, wake up!

Haha

, we’re all awake now!”

Sang-Soo, quick on the uptake, had already started shaking Soso awake. The moment he heard Theresa’s scream, his survival instincts kicked in, and he knew better than to wait for Do-Jin’s wake-up call.

“Take your damn hand off my nose unless you wanna lose it.”

Soso, who had been motionless like a corpse just moments ago, opened her eyes as soon as Sang-Soo shook her. Her first words were downright murderous, but at least she was awake.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

But still, why was Do-Jin waking us up this early?

Three pairs of groggy eyes turned toward him. Theresa, in particular, stared at him with an expression full of injustice. Well, she tried to glare, but it was more of a pitiful stare than anything else.

“I think an elite monster spawned.”

“Huh? An elite monster?” Theresa practically jumped up at those words.

She was an aspiring pro gold farmer who had already abandoned the idea of getting a normal job, so she understood exactly what that meant.

“That’s huge!”

Elite monsters had different spawn conditions and frequencies depending on the field or dungeon. Even when they did appear, they were usually killed so fast that most people never even got to see one. But if one could take one down? The rewards were massive.

Rumble.

Another faint tremor shook the ground, then another. The intervals between them were strangely short. Not that they had time to sit around and analyze it.

“That thing’s moving. We need to move too.” Do-Jin took the lead, heading deeper into the tunnel and further into the dungeon.

As they advanced, the tremors became more frequent. They grew stronger, then started overlapping into one continuous quake. The closer they got to the source, the clearer it became that this wasn’t something an ordinary golem could cause.

When Do-Jin finally reached the end of the tunnel and looked into the clearing beyond, he almost doubted his own eyes.

What the hell...?