Chapter 169: The Temptress

“M…Minhyuk, your level...?” Javin reacted violently from the shock. This was because she was under the strong assumption that Minhyuk was around Level 370.

“Just like what you can see, it’s 305. Are there any problems?” Minhyuk asked, tilting his head in confusion.

As far as he knew, Ructo’s Tomb allowed the entrance and participation of players from Level 300. Minhyuk wondered if they reacted this fiercely because his level was much lower than they thought, and that he might interfere with their dungeon attempt.

However, Buckle shook his head and said, “No. It’s not a problem. It’s just… much lower than what I expected.”

Javin nodded and said, “I thought you’re at least at Level 370 because of your hit rate and damage.”

“Is that so? Hmm.”

“Yes. However,?your class is set to?private?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. By any chance, is it something like a legendary class?”

Minhyuk smiled slightly and refrained from answering their question. Buckle just nodded as if he understood what his smile meant. He thought,?‘If he has a legendary class as well as that epic bow, then his hit rate and damage can easily be explained.’

Legendary class players were all reluctant to reveal the name of their classes, so Buckle was convinced with his conjectures. He?nodded once more as he led them inside the dungeon. The first trial was well known to most players. Only after they cleared all of the ordinary mob monsters, and successfully hunted the boss monster, would they be able to proceed to the next trial.

Buckle stepped forward with his party and thought,?‘I think we should go down the controlled path.’

Buckle and his party, in other words, his guild members, had attempted Ructo’s Tomb dozens of times.?However, they have yet to cross the boundaries of the fifth trial. However, he was able to learn a lot of information about the tomb during all those tries.

Buckle knew that there were three paths towards the boss room. These three paths would lead to a dead end, the boss room and a controlled path. So, what was the controlled path?

‘Once we enter that path, our current equipped weapon will be restricted and we won’t be able to use it.’

In other words, archer players would not be able to use their bows, and warrior players would not be able to use the axes that they equipped. This meant that they had to switch to a weapon that was not an ax as soon as they entered the path. This was a difficult obstacle for players that were new to the tomb, since most players did not carry a lot of weapons in their inventory. On the contrary, the Bachran always made sure to carry two weapons with them.

These three paths always changed randomly, but there was a set pattern. Currently, the ‘middle path’ would be the controlled path. Even if Minhyuk was just a strong archer, they still needed to lure him to the controlled path to incur minimal damage on themselves. Not long after, Buckle sent a whisper to the rest of the party members and Javin.

[Buckle: We’re going to lure him to the controlled path. Equip your auxiliary weapons.]

If they did this, they would only be restricted and could not use their auxiliary weapons once they entered the path. Once they swapped back with their main weapon after they entered, they would be able to move freely.

‘Hmm...’

Minhyuk frowned at the scene in front of him, but he quickly masked his expression.

Buckle thought that since Minhyuk was using a bow as his weapon, then his auxiliary weapon was probably just a dagger or something similar. If that was the case, it would be a walk in the park.

“Keuwooooooo!”

The first monster to appear was a troll. Trolls were Level 350 monsters with strong regenerative abilities. The two-meter troll ran straight to where they were, with a large rusty ax ready and poised for an attack. Minhyuk quickly pulled the strings of his bow. The Abyss’ Bow had a skill Master Archer’s Archery attached to it. There were three chapters in the skill in total. The first chapter…

[Tornado Arrow.]

[The powerful spinning arrow will explode as soon as it strikes an enemy.]

Shwaaaaaaa!

Minhyuk’s arrow was aimed straight at the troll’s head.

Stab!

The moment the arrow got stuck in the head of the troll...

Spin, spin, spin!

…The arrow drilled and dug deeper inside, before bursting.

Baaang!

‘H…he one-shot the troll...!’

‘Crazy!’

Buckle, Javin and the rest of the group all widened their eyes in surprise.

“Th…that’s amazing,” Buckle said, confirming his conjecture about Minhyuk’s legendary archer class. If that was not the case, his hit rate and damage would not make sense at all.

“Wow. I think things would be pretty easy this time since we’re with Minhyuk, right?”

“Thanks,” Minhyuk thanked them with a nod, as he took out a choco pie from his inventory while saying, “You always have to recharge with sugar!”

“Haha. Well then, let’s go.”

The party began to move again.

***

Legendary Explorer Lark and Envoy of Incarnation Kaistra were both riding on top of Penrus as it dashed forward.

Shwaaaaaak!

“Shit... This is too fast...!” Lark shouted in shock. He met with Kaistra and talked about the disaster artifacts. Lark also told Kaistra that he had contacted the GM of the guild that took over the tomb and asked for the cooperation of his guild members, but the members were unable to be contacted through whispers.

After they had traveled for quite some time, Lark asked Kaistra, “Kaistra. Did you find him?”

“Not yet.”

“I hope you find him soon.”

Kaistra smiled slightly when he heard his encouraging words. Lark was actually ranked much lower than Kaistra. Lark knew that Kaistra was among the top rankers and was even ninth in the unofficial global rankings. However, Lark disregarded his rank and level, and cared for Kaistra as if he was his own brother. Kaistra also followed him well. Within the dark gamer alliance, Black Stone, the two of them were considered to be the best of friends.

Kaistra had heard about a rumor once. He did not know where the rumors came from, but someone had said that they had seen Chairman Kang?Minhoo’s?face in?Athenae. However, it was still yet to be verified. However, if he ever met him once, then he would like to tell him this...

‘I’m really grateful to you. Thank you very much. It was all thanks to you that our villagers are not hungry anymore.’

They continued to travel like that when Kaistra suddenly asked something out of the blue. He said, “But Lark, what if someone else gets the millstone first?”

Kaistra was a bit concerned about the guild members of that guild leader not answering their whispers. However, Lark just smiled at him and said, “I already found all the information about the millstone. And there isn’t much to worry about even if someone found it first.”

“How come?”

“Because they wouldn’t know that it’s Gorac’s Artifact.”

Kaistra was filled with doubts. How would they be unaware?

“Gorac was a mischievous demon. Of course there were times when the artifacts were named as ‘Gorac’s XXX’, but that wasn’t the case for most of his artifacts. In the case of the millstone, there are still special conditions that need to be met before it can be unsealed.”

“Conditions?” Kaistra asked in confusion.

“They need to turn the millstone for 48 hours within three days. That’s the biggest problem. They also need to have a different Gorac’s Artifact in their hands. Because the power of Gorac’s Artifacts will only be displayed if there is more than one artifact in one’s hands, otherwise it will not reveal anything at all.”

Kaistra nodded in understanding. Most players would want to go after powerful artifacts and excellent skill books. There were only a select few that would dare to turn the millstone for 48 hours within three days. He felt somewhat relieved and reassured after hearing this.

***

‘Wow. We should definitely go with a good archer next time. The mob hunting is incredibly fast,’?Buckle thought as their group approached the three-pronged path. Their journey was quite easy and relaxed, since Minhyuk’s arrows had crazy accuracy and insane damage that could easily cut down the trolls.

Once they arrived at the three-pronged path, Buckle pretended to agonize over the options.

“Hmm. Minhyuk. Have you heard about these three paths before?”

“Yes. One path for the boss, one path that’s dead, and one path that’s controlled. Right?”

“Yes. That’s right. Where should we go?”

Buckle pretended to think for a moment, before he pointed straight at the middle. He said, “A man should go straight, right?”

All of the party members nodded in agreement. Buckle made sure to take the lead to clear out some doubts. Usually, those that took the lead would be exposed to the biggest risk. Meanwhile, Minhyuk was stationed at the rear. Archers were usually positioned at the rear of the formation. They went inside like that.

Then, Buckle heard the notification.

[The Controlled Path.]

[The Artifact type that you’re currently equipped with will be prohibited from usage for an hour.]

The weapons that they were currently wearing were all unequipped and the same went for Minhyuk. The bow and the arrows that were hanging behind his back were sucked back into his inventory.

Buckle smiled bitterly and said, “This. It seems like we’re in trouble.”

He turned to look back at Minhyuk while he kept on sending his instructions via whisper.

[Buckle: Barlong, narrow the distance and stab him in the neck. Do it all at once. Make it neat.]

Barlong was a Level 379 assassin. He specialized in quick, strong strikes that could easily decapitate an enemy. He was also the player with the highest level in their group. Perhaps, once Barlong moves, he could easily incapacitate Minhyuk.

Buckle smiled bitterly and awkwardly as he secretly begged inside,?‘Please, let it drop. The bow!’

At that moment, Barlong moved.

[Stealth Attack.]

[Your movement speed will increase by 2.5x for a moment to attack your enemy’s vital points.]

Dash!

Barlong quickly aimed at Minhyuk’s neck. Minhyuk felt the wisp of wind behind him and said, “Step.”

Barlong’s dagger pierced the air the moment Minhyuk took a step back. Minhyuk frowned as he looked at both Barlong and Buckle. He asked, “What are you trying to do?”

He looked at the people around him sharply.

“...You avoided it?” Buckle asked in surprise.

Minhyuk stepped aside so quickly that they thought that he was damaged by the attack, when in fact, it only struck his afterimage. They did not expect him to have such skills. However, Buckle grinned wickedly. Aside from Minhyuk, the other four were also on his side. Almost all of them were at Level 370, except for Javin, who had the lowest level among them. However, it was still okay. They were quite confident in dealing with them since Minhyuk could not use his bow, which was an archer’s sole weapon. Even if he was able to use it, he would still not be able to deal with four people so easily.

“Oops. Oppa, sorry,” Javin covered her mouth as she giggled mockingly.

Minhyuk smiled coldly as he said, “You’re sorry, but I’m also sorry for you.”

“Huh?”

“...?”

Javin tilted her head in confusion. She was the one who approached Minhyuk first and offered to accompany him. Minhyuk had gladly accepted her offer because of the Moon’s Wheat drops, the gold, and artifacts that she yielded to him.

Minhyuk found it strange. If it was him, he would have taken 20% of the drops. At that point, he already knew that there was something strange. No matter how difficult the road was, was it necessary for her to give up that much? So, to test the waters, Minhyuk did not distribute any drops to her. Javin should have exploded in anger, but she did not. She still willingly gave up the drops, as if she felt bad about making him accompany her. However, the final nail in the coffin that made him sure about their bad intentions was when he saw Javin and Buckle swap their artifacts.

“Crazy bastard. You’ve been doing a lot of weird things since earlier. There’s definitely something wrong with your head...”

Just when she said that...

Crack, crack, crack~

…the space in front of Minhyuk slowly cracked apart as a gigantic greatsword appeared. Minhyuk stretched his hand out and grabbed the hilt of the sword. Minhyuk also always made sure to use Pandora’s Helmet’s ‘Artifact’s Form Transformation’ to turn his frying pan into a rapier, so he would always be able to guard against magical attacks.

“...!”

“...!”

“...W…what is this? A greatsword? Y…you’re an archer, how can you use a greatsword!”

There were requirements for equipping items. Among them, the greatsword was an artifact that could only be used and equipped by warrior class players. Besides, the greatsword in front of them was so large that most of the warrior class players would not be able to wield it since there were usually requirements attached to such artifacts, like ‘STR’ and ‘STM’. However, Minhyuk just held the greatsword in his hands like it was nothing at all.

Then, Minhyuk looked at them and smiled coldly. He said, “You provoked the wrong person.”