Chapter 177: Shadow Dojo (2)

Greed and Yeon-woo both moved forward at the same time.

Boom!

Swords clashed together, but the sound of metal wasn’t heard. Instead, there was an explosion.

‘As I expected. Everything’s exactly like him. I shouldn’t let my guard down.’

Yeon-woo’s eyes shined, feeling the vibration along Carshina’s dagger.

‘And his weapons look pretty nice.’

The reason why he had the nickname of Greed was from none other than his obsession with treasure.

He was evil enough to backstab his friends to get what he wanted.

Every time Greed used a weapon, magic circles came up from the ground. It was clear how much he had invested in them.

But Yeon-woo knew that his own inventory didn’t fall behind.

He was wearing a masterpiece artifact like those that high rankers would wear. The Magic Armor made Yeon-woo’s movements smooth.

The same went for Carshina’s dagger.

[+3 Carshina’s Dagger]

Category: One handed weapon

Rank: A

…..

*Black Blade

It was specially crafted to be connected to the Despair of the Black King, and it increases attack power by 15-20%.

**It was adjusted to the skills of the current user.

A lot of the new Carshina’s dagger was changed by Yeon-woo.

What he did the most to it was placing jewels on it to make it stronger.

The purer a jewel, the more it could amplify effects. Because it was a basic ingredient of alchemy, there was even a study dedicated to it as well.

Fortunately, Henova knew how to take care of the jewels. Yeon-woo focused on what Henova taught him.

During the day, he helped Henova with his work, and in the night, he received lessons from Henova.

Of course, he used Time Difference in this process. He engraved the rune letters that Victoria had taught him, and he set them with jewel powder.

The jewels that he used were the best of the best, meaning they were 90% pure. Yeon-woo had enough to bathe in it, and Henova’s connections could get him however much he needed.

Yeon-woo was able to learn how to set jewels after spending a lot of money and receiving a lot of nagging from Henova.

There were two types of rune letters on the dagger.

-Make darker the dark.

-Make hotter the hot.

It was perfectly adjusted for Yeon-woo.

When Yeon-woo was learning, he focused with the mindset of absorbing everything that Henova taught him.

He was able to observe Henova with his Draconic Eyes and Extrasensory Perception.

And so, this was the first artifact that Yeon-woo had patched up, but he was confident.

Whatever Greed had wouldn’t be as outstanding as this.

As if to reflect Yeon-woo’s thoughts, Greed was pushed far away, not being able to stand Carshina’s dagger’s power.

It was only a shadow, but Yeon-woo felt like the shadow was surprised. He hit the ground again not to lose his winning edge.

The fellow threw about 5 small knives at him, but Yeon-woo lightly whipped them aside and arrived in front of him. In the blink of an eye, two swords banged against each other multiple times

Then, the shadow’s balance wobbled, and Yeon-woo input Aura into his dagger.

Above him, Holy Fire whirled around.

The fire crackled and heated up the room. Greed, who was trapped inside, looked like he was in severe danger.

***

“Just why did that person enter the 5th door…..?”

The players’ greatest interest today was about Yeon-woo.

The Hoarder had started to climb the Tower again.

But unlike what everyone predicted, the door he challenged wasn’t the 1st door, but the 5th.

Everyone thought it strange.

Even though the 1st place on the hall of fame on each floor was marked as ‘Unrevealed,’ everyone knew who it was.

So they all thought he would enter the 1st door to take 1st place again, but they were shocked he headed inside the 5th door.

The same went for the Trinity members.

Yeon-woo didn’t know who they were, but he had met them throughout the different floors. Well, to be exact, they had met him.

They twiddled their thumbs inside the cave of snakes when Yeon-woo was hoarding away all the hidden pieces to hatch his egg, and they served under him as the squadron leader temporarily in Red Dragon.

They only had bad memories of him, so they didn’t want to get involved with him. But horrid fate was fate, and they saw him on the 21st floor again.

Even though it was horridly fateful for them, they were still surprised to see him enter the 5th door.

“Just what is the Hoarder thinking?”

“Did he really just twiddle his thumbs on the 20th floor like in the rumors?”

Because Yeon-woo had stopped clearing the floors for a while, there were rumors about him.

It was that he fell into a slump after being hit with a hurdle he couldn’t jump for the first time and lost all his abilities.

If the rumors were true, it wasn’t strange that he chose the 5th floor.

“You experienced that horrid guy and still believe those false rumors?’

Heidi looked at Dylan and Jun like they were pathetic.

Dylan and Jun’s gazes turned to look behind them.

Heidi, who was an elf, had ‘Fairy Eyes,’ so she could faintly see the truth. It was what got them out of trouble a few times, so they were interested in what she was saying.

“Do you see something?”

“Do I have to?”

“What are you talking about? Say it so we can understand.”

“Can’t you see the Hoarder is aiming for, you fools.”

“Hm?”

“…..?’

Dylan and Jun tilted their heads, not understanding her, and Heidi sighed frustratedly.

“Obviously, he’s planning on clearing all the doors!”

It was then that their eyes changed.

It was understandable that Dylan didn’t understand since he was pretty dull anyway, but why was Jun being like this too?

Maybe their heads were empty now because they were stuck on the 21st floor for so long.

Or, they could have not chosen to think that far even though they could.

Each and every one of the shadows behind the doors were ‘monsters.’

The players who had all influenced the Tower were in there.

Especially those who were called the Nine Kings. They were the ‘real’ ones, and not even high rankers wanted to come face to face with them.

Actually, the Martial King had earned his fame when he won against the high ranker, Ice King, inside of there.

So even though Yeon-woo was incredible, it was hard to imagine he could consecutively fight the monsters beyond the door.

But Heidi lifted her head elegantly like she was definitely right.

Eventually, Dylan and Jun looked at the 5th door too. Considering that Heidi’s predictions were never wrong, it was completely logical.

“Just wait. You’ll probably see in a day.”

It didn’t even take that long for Heidi to be proved right.

Boom!

Boom!

“W, what’s that?”

The ground suddenly began to shake. Because of the instant dungeons, the stage of the 21st floor didn’t usually get shaken up.

The players quickly turned their heads to find where the sound had come from. They spread their senses, but they couldn’t discover the source.

The only thing that came up was the 5th door.

But logically, it was hard to imagine that that was the reason for the earthquake, so they thought they just made a mistake and started looking elsewhere.

However, Dylan and Jun’s faces were taken aback because of what Heidi had said earlier.

Then.

Boom!

The faint earthquake became violent.

Players who were looking for its origin and players who ignored it to continue their training all looked at the 5th door with shocked faces.

The long door heaved up and down. Until now, whatever happened inside hadn’t influenced the outside. But this ingrained fact changed just like that.

It felt like a giant was running at them.

The sounds of explosions became louder, and the shaking became faster. They had to cover their ears because the sound was like thunder crashing into their eardrums.

Dylan and Jun shut their mouths.

Heid narrowed her eyes. Her Fairy Eyes were amplified.

She continued to see wavelengths of magic power use flowing out from the 5th door.

‘6 minutes 31 seconds, 6 minutes 32 seconds…..’

Also, she had a stopwatch going on inside her head. Because she wondered how long it would take the new monster with those wavelengths to pass through that door.

And…..

Boom!

Like tens of bombs had been exploded at the same time, the last exit of the 5th floor was destroyed, and black smoke poured out.

Along with the numbing smell of something burning.

Yeon-woo came walking out as if nothing had happened.

The players all looked at Yeon-woo with their mouths dropped open.

Because it seemed like he had passed through the door without a single break.

And that time that it took was…..

‘…..9 minutes 51 seconds.’

It hadn’t even taken 10 minutes.